Taking a moment to smooth out her dress, Anthielle looked out upon the spooky quarter.  The simple antics of the others elicited an eye roll from the half elven ‘princess’.

Any thoughts on where we should go, oh great Shadow… she inwardly mused, hoping that her Patron was listening in.

Ooc: 00:47, Today: Anthielle rolled 10 using 3d6 with rolls of 3,4,3.  Coaxing information from her Patron.

Probably a bust…

The shadows up the street toward the northeast grow darker...

Sarah decides to search around the place, looking for a weapon to match her might. She finds nothing,"Man, what a rip-off, I was expecting to find a sword stuck on a stone or something. But theirs nothing but smoke and dead plants." she sighs in disappointment. However she still keeps an eye out for something interesting.

23:01, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 2 using 1d6.  Finding A Sword.

An old crone turns the southeast corner and spots the children. "Say, what're you children doing poking around over there?! Don't you know not to trespass on other people's property?!?" She starts quickly hobbling over to you, an action slowed by the way she keeps lifting up her black walking cane and pointing it at you while she shouts, or raising it higher as if to threaten you//punctuate what she's saying. "Get away from there! That's someone's yard! Shoo! Shoo! No, on second thought, stay right there! I'll teach you a lesson you won't soon forget!"

Turning towards the woman, Din sighed as she hobbled her way towards them.

"Lady, we don't have that kind of time," he sneered. He practically danced back out of her way. The woman was twice his size, but moved at half his speed. "Now why don't you just head on home before you embarrass yourself?"

Insult:
Dinkar rolled 4,2 using d6,d6 ((4,2)).

As she is not cornered (and believes herself to be faster than the crone) Raga simply backs away.

“Oh. I see.” Grog said , his bushy brow furrowing in thought as Anthielle and Sarah laid out their arguments. “But why specifically a sword? Why not a hammer or an axe? Protection is good, but most weapons have more than one purpose. Hammers and axes can be used to build. Knives cam be used for carving, sculpting and hunting. Only swords were made with a single purpose. Killing people. They are only superior tools in the hands of killers.” He turned a curious and guileless look on the others “Are we gonna be killers?”

Having said his piece, the goblin seemingly lost interest in the topic, digging through his rags and pulling out a rat’s tail. Where the rest of the rat had gone was anybody’s guess. He then started happily chewing on the tail, before throwing another glance toward Anthielle. “N’ my grub’s edible. Don’t make my Tummy  hurt or
Nuthin’.”

---

As the group arrived in the Strange quarter, Grog followed the others silently, only clapping with a toothy grin as the others congratulated Din for getting them there safely. He briefly considered offering Din a snack, but then remembered he’d eaten his last rat tail om the way there. So instead his eyes flicked around hungrily, looking for anything small and edible.
Thus he got startled when the Old lady started yelling at them, and her loud promise of “lessons” made him hunch down close to the ground, teeth bared in a snarl.

Taking the darkening shadows as a sign, Anthielle moved in that direction with a smug smile… pausing only when the crone assailed them.  While she might have tried to claim an excuse (like getting lost), the hag’s rudeness just seemed to irk her.

“Waving a stick around could get someone hurt.  Din, Sarah… why don’t you help the lady.”

Focusing her own force of personality, Anthielle tried to use the surrounding shadows to hinder the crone.  Odds were good that her vision wasn’t great.  It would be a shame if she slipped…. Otherwise her efforts would hamper the crone’s caning attempts.

Ooc:  01:40, Today: Anthielle rolled 6 using 3d6 with rolls of 1,3,2.  Shadow powers on the crone.

Seeing the Master Assassin just stop for a moment, Jaffa decided to go for it, transitioning from the big, back-squeezing hug she'd planned on into a more comforting pat-on-the-back sort of hug. And then right back into the back-squeezing! Possibly pressing her arms into the boy a little too hard, even. But that didn't matter. She was very glad to have friends, so she was going to make the most of them.

So when the crone came by to punish them, she felt quite upset that the moment of friendship had been ruined! Releasing Dinkar from her vice-like grip, Jaffa moved between her friends and the crone. "Please leave us be, miss crone!" she cried with what seemed like sincerity, "We were just trying to, uh, find a good bit of nature for a decent burial for this piece of bread! We'll move right on! You'll see!"

Jaffa Redspot rolled 11 using 3d6, unique dice with rolls of 2,3,6.  Okay, record each die. Frick, why am I messing up using the roller?

11:36, Today: Jaffa Redspot rolled 6 using 3d6.  Distracting/convincing the crone of the truth! Charming.

If you want to treat this as a failure or a partial success since the first roll could not have had any results higher than a 4, please feel free.

"What?! How dare you, you useless, homeless, good-for-nothing little pipsqueak?!"

(Dinkar and the crone each take 1 non-physical Hurt.)




The area darkens noticably... but it doesn't seem to hamper the crone any more than it hampers the rest of you.

(Anthielle cannot use her shady powers again until she has made her patron happy once more...)





(I have set the die roller to a default of 1d6, and have also set it as default to Record Each Die.

I shall treat your recent move as a partial success.)

Jaffa's pleas do slow the crone down a bit and partially mollify her. "...Hmph! I'll do and say what I please! But at least you have some manners! --Why can't the rest of you be as polite as this tiny little kobold!?"

Quite ruffled, Jaffa shakes her head. "I do appreciate you recognizing my politeness, miss crone, but don't call him useless and good for nothing! He's a very good nav-ee-gator! And a Master Assassin!"

Seeing Anthielle’s magicky stuff do nothing and Din’s insults do even less to avoid a fight, Grog decided that Jaffa’s idea was the best. avoiding a fight the first way he’s learned from the smarter animals: acting cute and pitiful.

‘M sorry. We’s no good at politing, cus we’s small.” He said to the Old lady, clasping his hands on his back and acting small, before hitting her with the best trick a dog had ever taught him. The puppy eyes!

OOC: Grog tries to gain the Old lady’s sympathy, and to get her to ease up on them.
18:21, Today: Grog rolled 6 using 3d6 with rolls of 1,2,3.  Charming check: puppy eyes for sympathy!

Raga deems the crisis averted -- or at least slowed -- or at least not focused on her.  And that last point is most significant, as Raga is ever-concerned about her personal well-being.

So with so many others between her and the crone, Raga stops backing up and quietly watches.

Now worried that this crone might be a witch (how else could she have resisted Anthielle’s powers?), a retreat was looking more appealing…

She did however cringe when Jaffa mentioned Din’s profession.  Why did she have to fix everything?!

“Haha, Jaffa… assassins are bad people and they aren’t as young as we are.  ‘Madam’ can we go now?  Otherwise this lot will want to come back here tomorrow… and the next day… and the next.”

Anthielle then turned on her heal and marched off to the north east with as much dignity as she could muster.

Ooc:  02:37, Today: Anthielle rolled 6 using 3d6 with rolls of 1,2,3.  Charming her way out.

"I guess I'm a bad person, then," Din said blandly. It wasn't the first time someone had called him that, and it wouldn't be the last. It might've hurt more this time, coming from someone who could be considered something of a friend, but not really. Dinkar was a Master Assassin (in training) and if that made him a bad person, then so be it. "I'm bad! You know it!"

To emphasize this declaration, he would do something truly, unmistakably bad.

The woman had brandished her cane like a weapon. Weapons were loot.

Loot was fair game.

Dinkar darted forward, intent on taking the cane.

Dinkar rolled 3,4,6 using d6,d6,d6 ((3,4,6)).

"Master Assassin?! Ye gods! What's this world coming to?!"




"Hush, you disgusting little twerp! You'll get no sympathy from me! Children should be seen and not heard!"

(Grog takes 1 non-physical Hurt.)




"What?! How dare you even contemplate such a thing?! And you look like you're from Parkside Quarter-- do your parents know what you're up to?! What kind of heartless and irresponsible little girl are you, running around doing whatever you please with whomever you please?!"


(Anthielle takes 1 non-physical Hurt.)





Dinkar steals the crone's black cane right out of her hand without her noticing, but she will as soon as she starts trying to walk somewhere again (or if she notices him holding it after this moment)...

Dinkar, being much shorter than the crone, was about the same height as the cane. Thus in his hands it became an awesome battle staff that he twirled around over his head in triumph, even as he danced away from the crone.

"Yeah! Let's go, gang!"

When he speaks (and twirls), naturally, the crone turns toward Dinkar. "What-- what-- my cane! Get back here with that immediately!"

(I think I'll wait and see what the rest of Dear Old Gang does next)

Taken aback, Jaffa lets loose a gasp. Why, this lady wasn't a concerned citizen at all! She was just a big jerk! Looking around and quickly balling up a handful of dirt in her hand, she shouted, "Stop it! Grog's not disgusting and Anthielle's not heartless! She's just a bit reckless! So stop insulting my friends, you big jerk!" On 'jerk,' Jaffa tossed the ball of dirt squarely at the big jerk's big face. Hopefully, that would give them some time to get away as well.

Jaffa Redspot rolled 4 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,1.  Throwing some dirt at the jerk. Agile.

The ball of dirt misses, and gets in Dinkar's eyes instead.

(Dinkar can't see, and must either stand still and rub his eyes for a round, or else must run blindly and risk running into something painful (or, indeed, into the crone.))

"Aagh!" Dinkar shouts. He tucks his battle staff under one arm and begins to wipe dirt out of his eyes. "Jaffa!"

Raga doesn't feel threatened; Raga doesn't see any food; Raga doesn't think her friends are in any great danger from the de-caned crone.

Raga stays where she is, but she looks around for a place to spend the night (in case it becomes necessary for her to do so).

"Ah! Sorry, Din!" Disappointed in herself as losing her cool and throwing things, Jaffa decided to stay behind and protect Dinkar for now. It was her fault he was hurting like this. She wanted to console the boy, but was worried about making things worse before they even had a chance to get away!

When his pity trick failed, Grog flinched at the woman’s harsh words. She wasn’t very appetizing herself, but He didn’t go around yelling it…

Seeing Din take her cane, however, and what’s more seeing Jaffa actually get mad at her put the crone firmly in the enemy category. Which meant discouraging her from attacking them the hard way.
His mind made up, Grog snapped into feral once more, growling and hissing as He jumped at the crone’s leg, sharp teeth first. A good bite usually convinced people to leave him alone.

OOC:
Grog jumps the crone, intent on biting her ankle.
22:33, Today: Grog rolled 1 using 1d6 with rolls of 1.  Forceful check to bite crone

Welp, Grog is striking out with all the feral child staples today.

Well this was a mess.  Still smarting from the crone’s dressing down, Anthielle gave a mocking laugh and unleashed the full power of her Mean Girl aspect.

“Look out, she’s trying to eat us!  I knew she was a mugger… with that fake hair.  Back to the dark with you, slavering banshee.”

Anthielle tugged at the crone’s hair and then shoved her into the shadows… Hoping her Patron would enjoy the gift.

Ooc:
07:04, Today: Anthielle rolled 7 using 3d6 with rolls of 3,3,1.  Mean Girl Fu… vs crone.

Does the dice roller even have 5 or 6s on it. :$