The beds in the house feel like they're filled with thousands and thousands of small feathers...

In a dark room, with a super comfortable bed, with no changes in temperature or noise levels . . .


Raga does not wake up of her own accord.

Sarah managed to find her way home safely and now finds herself back to the warm embrace of the Farwing household. When she entered the doorway, her grandma immediately gave her a bear hug and a big smooch on the cheek, she then served a bunch of meals like always. Her grandpa was seating next to the table and was always the gruff and quiet sort, however he'd sometimes boast about his glory days and some exaggerated but heroic tales. Once dinner was over she went to her fortress (which was just her bedroom which was filled with toys, a few are fantastical beasts made of wood but mostof them were giant size stuff animals that she likes to call her servants and squires). She didn't have time for play time now, so she went to bed early right before she says good night to a portrait of her parents,"I'll see you guys tomorrow and be braver than ever." she whispers to them with confidence and falls asleep.

Once a new day arises, Sarah asks her grandma for a basket of cookies for her friends. As soon as she received a bounty's worth, she heads off for a new day on another adventure.

Dinkar couldn't move. Why couldn't he move? He thought back to the last thing he remembered. He'd stolen that pie, and returned to the tiny house. He'd left the pie uneaten, and gone to bed. He was in that bed now. So why couldn't he move?

Oh, right, he realized. He didn't want to move. He was too damned comfortable.

Reluctantly, he forced his body back into motion, and climbed out of the incredibly comfortable bed. He found his clothes precisely where he'd left them, and quickly dressed for the morning.

Stepping out into the main area of the house, he began to look around for the others.

Yawning, Jaffa remained on the bed (her bed!), Curled up roughly in the middle of the sheets. Still tasting beets on her tongue, she softly murmured and giggled, likely having a dream about pastry.

As the light pored through her window and shone on her face, Jaffa rolled towards the other side of the bed, now sprawling out over the mattress. After a few more minutes of restful slumber, she slowly blinked her eyes open before yawning and promptly rolling herself off of the bed. Landing with a soft and painless thud, she rubbed the oh-so-soft side of her (her!) mattress for a moment before pulling herself up to her feet.

Today was going to be a good day, Jaffa reckoned, as she slid out into the hall and down the stairs to the kitchen. Passing by Dinkar, she called out, "Good morning, Din! Would you mind if I sampled some of that liver pie you were offering last night? I can't say I have any idea what a 'liver' is, but it sounds tasty!"

"You help yourself to as much as you'd like," Dinkar replied. It was unusual of him to share, much less share 'as much as' someone would want, but he really hated liver. If someone else wanted it, she could have it. Still he felt obligated to warn Jaffa that it wasn't the sort of pie she was used to. "It's probably not what you're expecting, though."

"Not what I'm expecting? Ooh, does that mean it'll taste better than my wildest imaginations?" She cheered with a grin. Settling into the kitchen, she gave the boy a big "Thank you for the pie, Din!" and began to dig into the presumedly tasty treat.

Chewing the liver pie, Jaffa was somewhat confused by the almost meaty taste, but not put off enough to keep from eating half of it. After all, it only made sense to savor the savory pie, right? "It's not bad!"

Not bad? Apparently Jaffa had a much broader palate than Dinkar. And Dinkar could eat almost anything. Idly, he wondered if this was a Kobold thing, or if it was a Jaffa thing. She was always so positive about everything, maybe she couldn't be disgusted by any type of food, no matter how off-putting it might be to others.

Either way, he was glad she was enjoying it.

He looked around to see if anyone else had brought in anything else to eat. His stomach was rumbling enough that he was starting to consider the liver pie. Jaffa was slowing down around the halfway mark, so there was plenty left, even for a halfling. It was just... ew.

Staring a little bit at the boy as he looked around the kitchen, Jaffa stopped eating the pie. Was he hungry still? He hadn't said anything about finding food other than the pie last night, so this might've been the only thing he'd been able to find.

"Oh, uh, would you like any of your pie, Din? It tastes kinda like dead rat, but without the hair or the indie-jestshun, and in a pie, an' I think there might be onions, an' it's not as tough, and it's not bleeding onto my teeth!" On that last point, Jaffa brushed off some bits of what she assumed was the liver and popped them back into her mouth.

But even if the boy didn't want any, Jaffa thought she should hold off for now. Raga probably hadn't had any breakfast yet either and it wasn't nice to eat all the food.

It was at that moment you heard a knock on the door,"Hey guys, this is Sarah Farwing, strongest warrior in the streets and coming to you with a basket full of cookies. Grandma also gave me a mystery muffin for dessert, thought Jaffa would like to eat it, so I brought it with me." she says, holding a yellow colored muffin on top of the cookies.

"Oh, hold that thought, Din! I'll get the door!"

Setting the rest of the pie back down onto the table, Jaffa rushed over to the door and swung it open.

"Good morning, Sarah! Come on in! Thank you very much for the mystery muffin too! I wonder what it tastes like? Probably secrecy? I don't know!"

Sarah gave Jaffa the muffin and place a small basket filled with cookies on the table where Did is,"Beats me Jaffa, that muffin either has custard filling inside or left over meatloaf. Hope you like eating meat inside your pastries, I know some kids don't." she comments and then looks around the kitchen,"Hey, where's Raga, did she left to scout out another adventure or is she locating the fabled sword that I were to wield."

Moving back over to the kitchen table after relocking the door, Jaffa cradled the yellow mystery muffin like a sacred treasure.

"I haven't seen her yet today, so maybe she's still asleep? I don't think I'm gonna go wake her up soon though. I know I enjoyed sleeping in and I don't wanna take that from her. Now onto the muffin! Thank you for the treats, Sarah!"

With that, she took a good chomp of the muffin.

"I thing she'sh shtill shleebing," Dinkar said around a mouthful of cookie. He swallowed, and immediately picked up another one. "Her room is still closed, anyway."

Anthielle arrived late, having gotten a good nights rest... and set up a reasonable excuse to be away from home.  She didn't have any food gifts for the others, unfortunately.

KNOCK KNOCK

"Hello?  Open the door... please."

Munching on the muffin, Jaffa tasted the soft crumbs melding with bits of meat and a tangy, almost sweet sauce. It was an interesting flavor and one that she was deciding that she liked. Was this the...meatloaf? It was chopped into bits inside of a muffin, so it was hardly a loaf right now, but maybe that was just what it was called? Popping the rest of the meaty treat between her teeth, she made sure to properly chew and swallow. With a small burp, she rushed to the front of the house, shouting out behind her, "That was a good mystery muffin, Sarah! Thank you again! I'm gonna go get the door!"

Reaching the door, she unlatched the bolt and swung the whole thing open. "Hello, Anthielle! Good morning!"

Raga wakes up and panics, having momentarily forgotten where she was.  Cautiously, she pulls the curtain slightly away from the window and is momentarily blinded by the intense light streaming into the darkened room.

She opens it a bit more to let more light in.  She then hears the faint sounds of people downstairs.

Raga exits her room and goes downstairs.  She doesn't look fully awake as she trudges to the kitchen, making a beeline for the extra meat pie she'd procured the night before.

Sarah gives a wave to the appearance of Raga,"Hey, Raga, great to see you in the land of the waking world. Want a cookie?" she says as Raga grabs a pie.

Raga nods.  "Yeah, of course."

Taking a bite, her eyes grow wide.  Raga's had cookies before, but none that were freshly baked (and few that were whole).

"Thish ish good!"

Anthielle strode in and looked around for Din.

"And how is Prince Charming and the rest of his Lovely Ladies?  Did you know I barely got anything in the way of dinner?  Hmph.  What are our plans for today?"

She found somewhere to sit and adopted a look of smug superiority... ie the usual from her.  If offered a cookie she made a half-hearted attempt to decline... before wolfing it down.

Closing (and latching! She was going to make sure that thing stayed locked whenever it was closed as long as she could help it! Safety second, right after pastry!) the door behind her, Jaffa made her way back into the kitchen to rejoin her friends.

"Oh, good morning, Raga! How did you sleep?"

Upon Anthielle's mention of 'lovely ladies,' she couldn't help but reveal a wide, toothy grin. She knew Anthielle was just doing that whole 'polite flattery' thing, but it was nice to hear, gosh darn it! She took good care of her scales and sometimes her hair too!

"He was just eating a bunch of my grandma's cookies til he vanished when you arrived. Or maybe his still their, his height of his can be hard to see sometimes, but you didn't hear that from me." Sarah whispers that last sentence to Anthielle just in case Din's still in the room, then grabs a cookie,"Want a cookie." she says to Anthielle, who denies it half-heartedly, Sarah counters,"Come on, I insist, theirs plenty to go on in this basket." she says but it seems her insistentce was unnecessary as she sees her already wolfing down the cookie,"Hehe, you guys really like my grandma's cooking. You know, I don't particularly mind if you guys want taste more of my grandma's dishes. Just ask and I'm sure to deliver, grandma is always happy to cook to anyone that appreciates her dish." she says with a prideful smile.

"I'm right here," Din snapped, standing no more than five feet away. He waved his hands in the air, each of which held a cookie. "See the incredibly handsome young halfling?"

Snatching a cookie and taking her time to eat it slowly and savor each bite, Jaffa ran her eyes over her halfling friend. "I think you might be right, Din. You do seem to be right there! I do see a young halfling! And you're certainly the most handsome Master Assassin I've ever met, so I guess it must be you."

"Fine.  And thank you, Sarah."

Nibbling at a cookie, Anthielle smirked at the floating cookies and then leaned around to spy Din holding them.

"Oh there he is.  Weren't we supposed to be doing a weapon heist... or con, today?  If anyone doesn't feel up to it... I have an alternative suggestion.  This war is getting long and there is no news whatsoever.  Maybe we could find out more."

"Weaponth firtht," Din said around another mouthful of cookie. He swallowed, and added, "Easier to beat the news about the war out of someone if we have weapons to do it."

Raga follows the conversation but offers nothing to it.  She isn't used to having a set (much less safe) place to sleep, nor is she used to having breakfast first thing in the morning.  With her typical morning concern -- breakfast -- addressed, she isn't quite sure what to do and just listens to the others.

"Orrrrrrr we could get weapons to protect ourselves if people try to take our house away! I'm sure we won't need to beat anything out of anyone. As for war info, I suppose we could just wait a few years? I might be an adult by the time it's over!" At that, she stuffed her face with another cookie, seeming very much like the picture of maturity.

"Hah, all I need to find is just one weapon. One sword is enough for this gal, and if theirs a war I'll stop it with one swing of my blade." Sarah says boastfully of her prowess with the blade,"First things though is that I need to keep on practicing my blade work. I might be enlisted in the war efforts at any moment after all."

"You know... I might know a guy." Living most of his time on the streets, Dinkar had made a fair number of connections. A few of those might know where a group of intrepid adolescents could arm themselves. And some subset of that might be crazy enough to help that group do that.

Connected - Roll Insightful.
Dinkar rolled 2,1 using d6,d6 ((2,1)).

"Hmm... nope."

(Dinkar, you will take -1 forward the next time you use the Travel Elsewhere move.)

"Gah, that was so disappointing, Din." Sarah says after getting her hopes up, she then looks toward the others,"Anybody else got any better ideas, if not, I guess we can just wander around and find some mooks with a sword and do the whole spiel of beating them down and taking their weapons."

"Maybe we could try the garbage? There's lots of things people throw away!" Jaffa wasn't terribly interested in fighting much more, so she hoped this blatant attempt to steer them towards more of a scavenging mindset would pay off. "You would not believe how many sticks I've seen. And some of them were as tall as me!" As the 3-year-old kobold was not very large, this would not have been impressive to an adult, but maybe the other kids would think it was cool?

"Sifting through garbage?  Jaffa, by now you should have learned..."

Anthielle paused her words as a thought came to her.  A mischievous smile crept onto her face.

"...that we love you anyway.  Let us visit all the blacksmiths and see if we can find some discarded works.  There are other schemes we can attempt, but its easier to find things.  Even broken bits might serve a purpose."

Raga seems to like Anthielle's suggestion.  At least, she nods in agreement when the older girl presents the idea, and wipes her hands clean of cookie crumbs to indicate that she's ready to go.

Quashing her curiosity as to what Anthielle was going to say before coming to the "blacksmiths have garbage" conclusion, Jaffa also nodded to show her approval of the plan. She'd normally say something, but she was now satisfied enough to use more polite table manners and that meant she shouldn't speak when her mouth was full. Particularly when she was presently filling her mouth with a plethora of cookies.

Sarah claps her hands, already liking this idea already,"Yeah, it just so happens that I know of a blacksmith that forges the world's greatest weaponry, I'm sure the blacksmith's dumpster got full of weapons . I'll lead the way, all I need to do is get lost and ask for directions. Easy-peasy!" she says confidently as if she's done this before. She heads off to lead the group to Nice Quarter, not taking no for an answer otherwise she'll be completely lost.

06:38, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 2 using 1d6 with rolls of 2.  Insight.
09:28, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 3 using 1d6 with rolls of 3.  Insight.

This message was last edited by the player at 01:29, Fri 19 Nov 2021.

Dinkar shrugged and followed. She'd brought the cookies; the least he could do was make sure she didn't get lost and into trouble.

Rather, he could make sure she didn't get into trouble without him. Din liked trouble.

Refreshed and fed with decent food (a first in Raga's memory), the little girl is ready to see what adventures troubles Sarah will lead the group into.

Ready for another day of moving about the city, Jaffa began running along behind Sarah before immediately turning about-face and waiting for everyone to leave the house. She'd almost forgotten! If they were all going to go, they would need to bring the house along too! So she would simply shrink the house back down and plop it in her pocket before they left.

As the group left for today’s adventure (and she going with them), Anthielle hummed to herself to pass the time.  The poor district wasn’t much to look at.

Jaffa shrinks the house... It works! Jaffa hides the house away safely upon her person.

Led by Sarah for once, the group marches proudly through the streets...

Oops.

Until, just as they're about to leave the Poor Quarter... they run into the Mots.

The Mots are one of Vierna's many youth gangs-- this one comprised of kids who are all (the equivalent of) your own ages... But unlike all the other gangs (that you're aware of at this time, anyway), this one is all "monsters" --no humans, no elves, no dwarves, no halflings.

The last any of you checked, the Mots were comprised of 4 goblins (including the leader), a kenku, 3 kobolds, a tabaxi, and a thri-kreen.

Today's encounter is not the full gang-- it's two goblin kids (including the leader), the kenku (raven-person), the tabaxi (cat-person), and the thri-kreen (mantis-person). (One wonders what nefarious mission the kobolds might have been sent on today...)

"Still wasting your time with these pink-skins, Jaffa?" asks Graen, the leader goblin kid. "My offer to join the Mots is still open..."

(Graen has previously invited Jaffa to join the Mots, but she has always declined, choosing to remain with the friends she's already made...)

"Sorry, Graeny! I've told you before and I'll tell you again:", Jaffa shouted, pressing a wagging finger forward to chastise the Mots' leader. She liked to think of the goblin as a friend of sorts, but it was annoying to hear such slander (or was that libel?) against her friends. "I don't want to have to pick between friends! I'm not gonna leave my buddies just because you say weird things about their skin. And my counter-offer is still very much open as well! Peace and friendship between the Magnificent Mots and the...uh..." She turned to face the rest of her friend group, looking them over appraisingly for an uncomfortably long time. Spinning back around, she continued, "The...Liver Pie Lackeys? I dunno, we're still workshopping names right now. It's hard to come up with something that matches that sorta pure simplicity with 'the Mots.' It's a good name!"

Graen rolls his eyes, presumably specifically at the group's lack of choosing a good gang name yet.

The kenku, though, has her eye on something else, something other than Jaffa's allegiance. "Nice cane," she says to Dinkar. "Nice and black. Black like feathers. Maybe you give over to let us let you pass, yes...? Nice black cane be nice to use in old age... Never too soon to plan ahead..."

Sarah gives out a sigh seeing as they're still working on a name for themselves,"Seriously guys, why can't we just go with a singular word here. Why don't we can ourselves the, Uhm, champs. No, maybe the Brave, yeah, no." she says, now very conflicted on a name. Then looks toward the raven kid,"Hey, no way, the staffs out of bargain. As weapon master of the group, you'll have to pry it from Din's cold dead hands to get it."

As words evolve into threats, Raga moves closer to Jaffa, as if . . . to protect her?

That doesn't seem to be in Raga's character; but there it is.

"Strangely, the little blonde maniac said exactly what I was thinking," Dinkar said, brandishing his battle staff. He worked hard to get it. Well, he worked to... no, but he got it and it was his, dammit. "Test me and see what happens."

The kenku shrugs. "All right."

They attack!

--Graen (he/him) moves to attack Sarah
--The kenku (she/her) moves to attack Dinkar
--The thri-kreen (xi/xir) moves to attack Raga
--The tabaxi (she/her) moves to attack Anthielle (who does not have access to her shadow magic right now, remember)
--The other goblin (he/him) moves toward Raga and Jaffa

The Mots are not exactly armed-- it's mostly time for fists and kicking-- EXCEPT that the thri-kreen and the tabaxi have claws (or whatever you call a thri-kreen's natural pointy-bits weaponry) and the kenku has talons on her feet, so watch out for those...

Dinkar doesn't wait to be attacked. Even as they spread out to attack him and his friends ("I have friends?") he rushes the kenku and strikes with his staff.

"Come and get me," he taunts, even as he lashes out. "Or are you chicken?"

Attack kenku:
Dinkar rolled 2,2,4 using d6,d6,d6 ((2,2,4)).

Dinkar smacks the kenku with his battlestaff, but the kenku pecks him hard, owww. (Did I forget to mention the pointy beak, too? Sorry about that. It was right in front of my nose...)

(Dinkar and the kenku each take 1 point of physical damage.)

https://ih1.redbubble.net/imag...,750x1000,f8f8f8.jpg

Din’s challenge came a few seconds before Anthielle intended to say something snarky (that would have caused a confrontation).

When the tabaxi rushed her, Anthielle recoiled… but only to enhance the impact of her REALLY hurtful retort

“Ugh, it’s got fleas and smells awful… I think it’s been licking its own (naughty word).  Bad kitty!”

Ooc:  aiming for mental anguish, hehe.
02:46, Today: Anthielle rolled 10 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,5,1.  Snarky social attack!

Raga ignores the thri-keen; she seems more interested in dealing with the goblin of indeterminate intent.

She rushes ahead of Jaffa to intercept the goblin, lowers her head, and headbutts him in the stomach.


11:20, Today: Raga rolled 11 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,5,2.  headbutt goblin.

"Mrrrowwwrr!" snarls the tabaxi as she slashes at Anthielle. "This tabaxi has claws-- do you have coin?"

(The tabaxi takes 1 non-physical Hurt. Anthielle takes 1 physical Hurt.)

Raga headbutts the goblin just as his fists are coming down, and they both end up hurt.

(Raga and the goblin each take 1 physical Hurt.)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand they were fighting again. The Mots didn't seem all that bad and Jaffa did really want to count them among her friends, but it seemed like everyone in this city had fighting on the mind.



"Hey, that's not cool, Anthielle! She's a person just like us! Don't call her 'it'! Apologize right now, or I won't heal you later!" Craning her neck around the fisticuffs/headbutting between Raga and the other goblin, she spoke to the tabaxi whose name seemed to be escaping her at the moment, "I'm really sorry about Anthielle! She shouldn't talk to you like that just because we're fighting. I think you smell great!"

Returning her focus back to the fight in front of her, she winced as Raga and the goblin connected. Everyone around her seemed to be getting hurt...and she didn't want to add to that. But at the same time, Dinkar had thieved the stick fair and square and she didn't want the Mots to take it... But wait, wasn't the thri-kreen moving to attack Raga? And Raga was just protecting her...

Quickly, she moved forward between xir and Raga, holding her arms out wide in an attempt to ward xir off. "Please stop! I don't want to fight! I don't want you to hurt my other friends either, so, I dunno, maybe we can just talk it out?"

Jaffa Redspot rolled 12 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,6.  General Charming roll for peace-begging with that there -1 from before.

Uh... oh yeah, Sharrmm, that was her name...




The thri-kreen pauses, glancing at Graen and the various pink-skins, to see if they would heed what sounded like a compelling call for cessation of hostilities...

Sarah was preparing the precipice of a new sword technique she read about, this goblin would be the perfect target dummy. She then pulls out her slippers and wield them like weapons, she starts approaching the leader of the mots,"Prepare to be beaten senseless by my ultimate technique." she says, then charges, about to make a thousand strikes. However she was stopped when Jaffa started begging for peace,"Ehh, and just when I was about off show these chumps why I'm the strongest in the block. Hmm, fine, you get to live this day." she sighs, then unsheathes her slippers by putting them to their rightful place.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:35, Mon 22 Nov 2021.

Raga watches as the goblin holds its stomach, the air having temporarily left his lungs -- courtesy of Raga's headbutt to his stomach.

Having thus thwarted the goblin's ability to get to Jaffa, Raga watches the others -- including the thri-kreen -- warily, in case they get any bright ideas.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:42, Mon 22 Nov 2021.

Anthielle couldn't believe that Jaffa's 'ploy' worked.

She really didn't want to apologize to the 'animal' that just scratched her.  But maybe she could do so with some weasel words?

"Fine, I got carried away.  But she scratched me!  Nevermind that they are trying to rob us.  I'm willing to forgive this misunderstanding... if they are too."

"I'm not sure I'm ready to forgive and forget," Dinkar snarled. "It's my battle staff Feathers wanted, and I've already been pecked once...!"

Jaffa sighed internally at Anthielle's "apology". It might be the best that Sharrmm was going to get from her, but Jaffa couldn't help but be disappointed. But at least her friends seemed willing to talk, for the most part. Or at least argue before getting back into fighting, in Din's case.

"And you smacked her just as hard, Din! And I'm not asking you all to forgive each other, just to not hurt each other! We get hurt enough running from the adults or older kids and I don't want us making that worse over a battle staff. Espeshially not when we're trying to find more weapons!"

(Ooh make a new Charming roll, please, Jaffa...)

Jaffa Redspot rolled 5 using 3d6 with rolls of 2,2,1.  Charming after letting out some sensitive information.

Well I can't say I'm not disappointed!

"Huh. Getting weapons is easy," says Graen with a sly grin. "Just go talk to Captain Smash."

"Or Old Vincent," purrs Sharrmm with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Or th' mouse king," suggests the other goblin.

"Or th' boofer lady," sneers the kenku.

"Or ask at dock 15," nods the thri-kreen.

"C'mon, guys, let's go," says Graen. "I didn't realize these guys were on a real quest. We shouldn't interfere with something as important as that."

The Mots slink away into the nearest alley, and are gone...

"Oh! Uh..." They were leaving? She didn't think that was actually going to work! Maybe she was better at diploma-sea than she thought. "Thank you for the tips! Have a good day!" Jaffa shouted after the Mots. She had no idea who the people were that they had mentioned, but she supposed it couldn't hurt to look around after they checked the blacksmith's trash.

Turning to face her friends, she muttered in rapid-fire, "I'm sorry about the Mots, everyone. I think they're wrong about you all and your skin. You've got nice skin! And I'm sorry you got hurt. Well, not Sarah, but that's because you didn't get hurt, Sarah. I would be sorry that you got hurt if you had gotten hurt, but it looks like you didn't, so I'm not gonna be sorry about that. I guess I am sorry that you might have gotten hurt? But that's not super relevant and I know you don't usually get hurt. And I'd thought you'd gotten hurt too, Raga, but now that I'm looking at you again, you seem fine. Are you fine or am I just bad at looking? So, what I mean to say is, I'm sorry that Din and Anthielle and possibly Raga got hurt."

"Nah, I'm fine," Raga mutters.

She kinda wanted to headbutt the goblin again, but . . . well, it didn't seem necessary anymore.

"That's great, Raga! I know I like helping you all feel better, but it's nicer when you can avoid getting hurt. I think I might've said that before? Whatever, it's worth it to say it again, I guess, maybe!"

"What the what?" They offered tips and left. They offered tips and then they left. Not that Din really needed the battle — he was more a get-you-from-behind than a fair-fight kind of guy — but he'd certainly been ready to fight. How exactly had Jaffa done that? "I don't understand what just happened."

"The Mots can be a bit mean to people with skin like yours's, but they're good people! I was honestly going to try and offer to let them come along with us to find some weapons, but I guess if they already know where to get some, they don't need us. Though I guess Graeny sounded a little sly and sarcastic... It might be a trick! But it also might not be! I think maybe we should prosibbly check those things out after we go garbage hunting!"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:09, Mon 22 Nov 2021.

"If they know where to get weapons, why don't they 'ave any?"

"Weapons are rarely free," Dinkar suggested. "Could be they're not willing to pay the prices involved... money or otherwise."

"Ooh! Or maybe they lost their weapons! Or they were keeping them somewhere for safe keeping and they weren't planning on finding a fight!"

It was like a puzzle!

"I think they were funnin' us, tryin' to get us in trouble."

She gazes off in the direction the Mots went, sighs, then says: "Should we get movin', to the blacksmith?"

“Aren’t you forgetting something, Jaffa?  I can’t believe you made me apologise…”

Grumbling at the indignity of the situation, Anthielle presented her wound to the kobold.  It wasn’t critical but looked a bit painful.

“Those names they dropped sound suspicious…. But if the blacksmith plan doesn’t work, we can consider finding people on that list.  Raga, have you heard about any of those people… or dock 15?  I’m glad that today you feel…. Braver.  It suits you well.”

Somewhat frugal with her praises, it was an honest compliment this time around.

As for whoever took the lead in getting them to the blacksmith, Anthielle was ready to follow.

"It's alright Anthielle, I'll help you. Thanks for trying to apologize to Sharrmm. I know it's hard for you to do that sort of thing."

Leaning over the wound, Jaffa closed her eyes and clasped her hands before reaching out and tending to her friend.

Jaffa Redspot rolled 12 using 3d6 with rolls of 3,3,6.  Consoling Anthielle. Charming.

--On 6: Remove 1 Hurt from a friend.

Raga sticks near Jaffa as she considers whether any of the names or places are familiar to her.

She knows of the docks, but isn't sure that there is anything special about Dock 15.

OOC: Do any sound familiar?

"Geez, those Mots sounded like they were mocking our quest." Sarah grumbles, but then looks at the apologetic Jaffa,"Hey, you did pretty good out their Jaf, can't believe you beat all those guys up with words."

"Okay... onward to the blacksmith!" Dinkar felt like they were getting a little bogged down. "Let's go!"

On the way to the blacksmith, Anthielle mulled over ways to regain favour with her Patron.  Sometimes it was just so… fickle.  Occasionally  she wondered if following in her father’s wizardry footsteps was the more profitable future.  Luckily she had an idea.

Anthielle picked up an old discarded container along the way… and tried to fill it with some water (from a fountain or street puddle).  All she needed now was a light source to sabotage.

Moving past one of the district’s night torches, Anthielle ‘accidentally’ spilt her cup of water on it… enough that it would be difficult to ignite later on.

“It feels warm today, oops… spilled my drink.”

She continued to have other similar accidents near any public torches or lamps that the Scraps passed by.

Sarah merely whispers to the others of a group name she came up with, their was mixed responses for the first name however, so they had to shorten it to just one word,"Alright, it's settled. We're now called The Scraps, so let's march to the blacksmiths for weapons and glory." she says boldly, but started feeling on edge once Anthielle started to, quote on quote, accidentally snuff out the torches,"Hey, hey, Anthielle, maybe I should hold on to your cup for now. Don't want you to keep spilling all the torches now do we." she says a bit agitated and somewhat peeved.

"What does it matter?" Dinkar asked with a shrug. It was mid-morning, and bright out. "Let her put out all the torches she wants. Honestly, I'm surprised they're still lit from last night."

"Now, now, Din, think about the sake of the others here." Sarah says in defense,"Some of our younger members, not making any names here, can be deathly afraid of many things. Those torches are a calming presence, they might even ward off g-g-g-ghost." she stutters that last part strangely, as if the word was hard for her to say,"Anyways, that shop should be close anytime now." she says, trying to change subject.

“Afraid of the dark, are we Sarah?”

Her comment was only marginally snide.  She could be far meaner when she wanted to be.

Anthielle hoped that her patron might be pleased at more darkness… and maybe even get a chuckle out of people trying to light contaminated torches and lamps.

"Wait, torches ward off g-g-ghosts? I thought th-they didn't mind light all that much... The no-door-dwarf-g-ghost removed his door and didn't seem too scared of the daylight... Though h-his house looked kinda dark, I guess... I normally like the dark, cuz it's harder for people to see me and it's not as warm, but if g-ghosts like it too..."

Jaffa was facing an unprecedented dilemma. Did this mean that ghosts weren't that bad, since they liked a thing that she liked? Maybe, but that still made them scary... Or maybe she should stop liking the dark because ghosts liked it too? But then she wouldn't be able to look at the moon as often. Were there ghosts on the moon?! That would pretty spooky! Like if there was some kind of large ghost mouse tromping and galomping around the moon, looking for pieces of cheese...

Jaffa shivered at the thought of such a ghost. She needed to stop thinking about this again.

Sarah felt a bit embarrassed but tries rebounding,"Afraid of the dark, me, the strongest kid of the group here. Sorry to disappoint Anthielle, but the word afraid isn't in my grandpa's word of day calender. So no way I'm afraid." she says but turns pale as Jaffa mentions the dwarf ghost they met,"Th-that dwarf wasn't a ghost Jaffa, it was an illusion is all. A really complicated illusion, he probably hired a fortune teller and an Illusionist to make that possible. Ghost aren't real, even if they are, they don't scare me. At least, I hope I never get to find out." she says, mumbling that last part in a scared tone but holds her composure well enough.

"There're worse things than ghosts," Raga says, in a perverse effort to make everyone feel better.

"Do you mean...like...two ghosts?!" Jaffa was shocked at the realization. Two ghosts was much scarier! She could scarcely believe it.

She rolled her eyes.

“Please don’t tell me the lot of you will flee at the first sign of a fluttering sheet.  Pffft, ghosts.”

At the very least she felt her shadow powers return.

"I ain't afraid of no ghost," Dinkar snapped. "And it's still bright daylight out!"

As the talk of ghosts continues, Raga just sighs.

"Ugh, let's stop talking about ghost for a minute, just follow me alright. The blacksmiths must be close." Sarah says and runs off, however it seems she's heading somewhere completely opposite to where the groups heading.

06:50, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 2 using 2d6 with rolls of 1,1.  Insight.

Ooh, ah, That was bad roll.

You walk some more, led by Sarah, and turn the corner, and uh

Oop

It's Mr. Hot, the (treant) truant officer. "...SAY," he booms. "WHY... ARE YOU CHILDREN... NOT IN SCHOOL..." He starts to grab, which his two huge big hands, for Sarah (because she was in front) and (GM rolls dice) Anthielle...

Quickly reaching for Sarah and Anthielle in an effort to tug them back and out of Mr. Hot's reach, Jaffa scrambled for an explanation. "That would be, um, you see, sssir, Mr. Hot, scary person, we're on a work-study to learn about blacksmithing? We're on our way right now and we're gonna learn...so much about...metalwork?"

Raga instinctively reaches out to grab . . . Jaffa.  Not to pull her back, but to at least maintain contact with her.

Sarah was suddenly surprised of the presence of a giant tree that suddenly hug her. It was Mr Hot the truant officer,"Gah, Uhm, my friend is so right. If you can kindly let us go and give us the directions to the blacksmith, that would be nice. Sides, our teacher, um, gave us permission and everything so it should be fine." she explains though she's not much of a public schooler, mostly cause she went to a lot of detentions. She sure prefers homeschooling then regular schooling that's for sure.

05:06, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 6 using 2d6 with rolls of 2,4.  Charm.

"MISTER... COLD... ...? I DO NOT... THINK THAT HE... WOULD... GIVE SUCH PERMISSION..."

Well, he's not convinced, but he's also not letting you go yet. But he's also not, like, carrying you off to school. Or, y'know... squeezing.

Dinkar kept his mouth shut. He wasn't particularly charming, and his lies were usually paper thin. He quietly moved towards the back of the pack, the better to make a break for it....

Anthielle took a calculated risk... climbing up to sit on Mr Hot's shoulder.

"Why don't you and I ask him, Mr Hot?  The rest of my friends can continue the group assignment.  I for one would love to ride a moving tree.  And I'm sure that Mr Cold was just joking about that Tree curse.  There is probably a perfectly good explanation as to why he was talking to a witch in the weird quarter.  Did you know that she needs a new walking cane?  And not just any old stick... it has to be strong and fresh."

She absently rubbed part of the treant while talking about the replacement cane.  And on the chance that the Treant called her bluff and took her to school, Antheille would have a fine alibi for any trouble at the blacksmith.

OOC:  Will take the 3.
01:34, Today: Anthielle rolled 6 using 3d6 with rolls of 3,1,2.  Charming the treant.

With Anthielle providing a distraction, Raga uses her other hand (the one not holding Jaffa's arm) Raga tries to reach for Sarah.

"...I CAN ONLY... CARRY TWO OF YOU. I WILL... FIND YOUR FRIENDS... LATER..."

Mr. Hot starts walking in the direction of the school house.



"HMM HMM HMMMMMMMM..." rumbles Mr. Hot. He seems merely bemused by this talk, if anything. "...I NOTICE THAT... YOUR HALFLING FRIEND... BEARS A WALKING CANE..." Mr. Hot observes. "......RATHER BIG... FOR HIM..."




(Meaning, to attempt to pull her from his grasp? That would be a Forceful roll... but with a -1 die penalty...)

Raga clutches both Jaffa's and Sarah's arms . . .


10:04, Today: Raga rolled 10 using 4d6 with rolls of 2,1,1,6.  Forceful (at -1) -- holding Sarah.

So my best is a 5.

(Um... no... a -1 die penalty. So, one less die than you'd normally roll.

So... how did you come to roll 4?)

OOC: And after all that is sorted out . . . we're right back to . . .


10:36, Today: Raga rolled 9 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,3,1.  Forceful -- holding Sarah.

Raga hops up and grabs Sarah's arm...

Sarah starts to come free... but not quickly.

Mr. Hot stops walking, noticing what's going on.

(GM rolls dice... Wow, Mr. Hot gets lucky.)

Mr. Hot decides to let go of Sarah... so he can grab Raga instead. Surprisingly, even though the odds were against it because Mr. Hot is not the most agile person in town... this works. All while not letting go of Anthielle.

Mr. Hot (now holding Anthielle and Raga, in case you missed that) resumes his slow-but-with-long-strides walk to the schoolhouse...

"Battle staff," Dinkar replied. Why did people continue to think this was some sort of cane? Context was everything! "Now why don't you just let us get back to what we were sent to do, hey?"

Raga is not the sort to back down or be peaceful.  She kicks and bites at Mr. Hot's hand, ribs . . . anything that's in range, screaming "LEMME GO!"

This is back in Mr. Hot's wheelhouse. This, he's used to. He just keeps walking.

Raga keeps trying.

Because I forgot to put in the die rolls.  As if it will matter.


11:03, Today: Raga rolled 13 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,3,6.  Struggling to Get Away.

Wow, Raga actually struggles loose!

Mr. Hot reaches for her again... but he's slllloooooooooowwwwww...

Raga, already significantly shorter than Mr. Hot, crouches lower and scrambles away.  Once she deems herself out of his rather long reach, she straightens up and accelerates away back to the others.

"Let's get outta here!" she breathes as she gets close to them.

Still holding Anthielle, Mr. Hot stomps slowly forward, hoping to get another child...

Raga veers toward Jaffa, grabbing her and, with the benefit of her momentum from her running start, trying to urge her to hurry away from Mr. Hot.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:48, Sun 28 Nov 2021.

Mr. Hot heads toward Dinkar and Sarah...

"But-" What about Anthielle? Mr. Hot still had her! Though...she'd climbed into his grasp, right? Was she hoping they'd manage to take her back or was she giving them room to escape?

Screwing herself into action, Jaffa accepted Raga's grasp and started running along with her. "Okay! Sorry, Anthielle, we'll see you later! C'mon, Din! Sarah!" If she stalled any longer, they'd all be trapped.

Raga adds verbal encouragement to her physical urging.  "She must 'ave a plan.  'Sides, she's a rich kid; she won't get in serious trouble."

"I know, but..." Jaffa trailed off as she continued to run attached to Raga. "But I still feel bad."

Raga, mindful of Mr. Hot, zig-zags with Jaffa in tow, taking advantage of the officer's lack of nimbleness.

Meanwhile Anthielle enjoyed the ride.

"Weee!  Umm the school is 'that' way Mr Hot... although at this rate, the day will be over by the time we arrive, hehe.  By the way, are you a Blackwood or an Oak?  Normally I 'woodn't' ask, but if I 'leave' it alone... it'll just 'stick' in my mind."

Her babbling was on par with the word sort of back seat carriage drivers.

"Look out people, coming through."

Never one to let a foe win simply because of his size (or else he might as well quit forever), Dinkar crammed his battle staff between Mr. Hot's ankles, trying to trip him on his next step.

The point wasn't to hurt him, but to make him fall down.


(Gonna assume I need to roll an attack on this one.)
Dinkar rolled 13 using 3d6 ((5,3,5)).

"I don't envy Anthielle's fate, it was an honor to know you. May you find peace my friend." Sarah says her farewells to Anthielle and makes a run for it with the others while shouting to her friend,"Bye Anthielle, hope to see you sooner rather than later."

Mr. Hot stumbles... and in trying to catch his balance while keeping Anthielle safe (mostly not falling on her), his other arm rushes forward and he manages to only drop to one knee.

In the process, that arm clips Dinkar. OW.

Anthielle is free, though... for the moment...

(Dinkar takes one physical Hurt.)

"Din!" Jaffa called out as the boy got clipped by the truant officer's arm. He'd already gotten hurt once, and here he was getting hurt again... At least it seemed like he was successful in freeing Anthielle. Returning her focus to running arm-in-arm with Raga, she shouted behind her, "Run, you two!"

Deciding that the Tree Man was likely to squash her if things went on, Anthielle bailed out. Running up to some bystanders, she ‘turned on the waterworks’… sucking in air while tears flowed down her face.

“Help, it’s gone crazy.  It said it was going to EAT me!  Please drive it off, please!”

Ooc: heh!
12:46, Today: Anthielle rolled 12 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,2,6.  Charm - Enlisting aid.

The bystanders give Anthielle a What, are you crazy? That's the (treant) truant officer. There's only one in the city, and everybody knows who he is. You're just some naive little (rich) girl who's trying to get out of going to school look.

Mr. Hot, though, is horrified by the idea that they might believe her (and blind to the fact that they don't).

"NO... SHE... THEY... I... BUT..."

(Mr. Hot takes 1 non-physical Hurt.)

The crowd will probably set him straight in just a bit and assure him that they don't believe her, but who knows what'll happen next? (Not me!)

The worry on Jaffa's face melted away into annoyance as Anthielle hurt Mr. Hot. The lies she was saying weren't terribly believable, but Mr. Hot seemed very concerned anyways. She felt bad about the lie she'd even said earlier. Was it okay to lie to the treant's face like that, even though she was just trying to help her friends get away from this school thing? At least then, she thought, she hadn't been hurting the guy's feelings. And what. was with. her calling. people. 'it?'

"You know, Raga? I think I take that back. I don't feel bad."

Detaching herself from Raga, the kobold stalked over to where Anthielle was shouting to the people. Raising a hand as if to slap her friend, she soon thought better of it and settled for clapping in the girl's face. Anthielle was likely ages older than her, even though she only looked eight months her elder. Different aging processes were weird. But she wasn't going to let the older girl off on seniority. "We are going to talk later about this, Anthielle. Mr. Hot is just mistakenly trying to get us to go to his stupid school and it is not. nice. to say those things about him! Go with the others." Shouting to her friends as a group, Jaffa continued, "Run ahead! I'll catch up later!"

Turning to the treant truant officer, careful not to get too close for fear of being grabbed, Jaffa apologized, "I'm sorry, she had no right to say that! I don't personally have much use for school, I think, but you're hardly crazy! This is like, your job or something. And I don't know anything about your diet, but I assume it doesn't include half-elf children. I, uh, would really like to stick around and talk and stuff, but I need to run away too, sorry."

"Geez, Anthielle, that was kinda uncalled for. I'm gonna side with Jaffa on this one here, Mr. Hot is way too nice to eat children, next time you should meet him, you should apologize." Sarah scolds the half-elf that's equivalent to the same age as her. Though it's only a light scolding since she considers her the de-facto leader of the Scraps,"It's my job as the strongest to take the reins when things go too far. Remember, we're doing this for fun, not to be a bully." she simply says as she continues to make a run for it.

Raga doesn't run as Jaffa directs.  Instead, she re-grabs Jaffa's hand after administering her tongue-lashing to Anthielle.

She doesn't pull Jaffa away from her effort to apologize to Mr. Hot, but she is prepared to do so at the slightest sign the effort seems to be going badly.

"Ow!" Dinkar shouted as the treant's limb smacked him one. "Child abuse!"

He snatched his battle staff back from between the stupid shrubbery's ankles and retreated, still pretending to be much more severely hurt than he really was. He fell in with Jaffa and Raga.

"Pick on someone your own size!"

Jaffa told 'her' off?  Ordinarily, there would be a conversation about this... but sticking around (pun) would only get her caught again by the Treant.  Anthielle chose to scamper away instead.

"Jaffa, be a Ko-bolt... and flee."

As far as she was concerned, Mr Hot had gotten off lightly.  Anthielle could have done far worse to the walking weed if she tried.

Pointedly ignoring the tortured pun from Anthielle, Jaffa gesticulated wildly with her free hand at Din and attempted to do the same at Raga. Only, hand-in-hand as they were, it looked more like she was flailing while trying to stretch. "Please! Go run with the others! You're hurt, Din! And he almost had you, Raga! I'll catch up once I'm sure he's okay!"

"He's fine," Dinkar replied, less harshly than he usually sounded. It was hard to be mad at Jaffa for caring about others, even if Dinkar generally didn't. He tried to take her free hand and pull her away from the mobile maple, but she was waving it around too much. "I'm the one who got hit.

"Now, come on before he grabs you. I don't think I could knock him down twice."

"I-! It's just-!" Jaffa started in a frustrated tone, somehow waving her hand around even more frantically. Whether it was an active effort to avoid Dinkar's grasp or a result of her growing worry, even she didn't know. She knew that the big tree man was perfectly alright in a physical sense and that it was Din that probably needed some of her help, but even so... "I don' like it when people get treated like that..."

Sniffling, Jaffa clenched Raga's hand for comfort. The small kobold's far-more-active hand began to lose its intensity. Allowing her hand to be taken by the boy, she muttered, "But you're a master assassin, Din... You could knock him over at least two more times."

Dinkar takes the lead, heading back to the rooftops to (hopefully) avoid the walking tree. He heads for where he expects to find the blacksmith....

Dinkar rolled 11 using 3d6 ((3,6,2)).
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:30, Mon 29 Nov 2021.

Dinkar leads the team to scrambling up to the rooftops, where Mr. Hot can't follow... or probably shouldn't if he knows what's good for the rooftops of Vierna.

Finally, Dinkar leads the team in scrambling and hopping down to the Shop Quarter... Blacksmith's shop, dead ahead! (Whether you're in front of it or behind it, either way, it's still dead ahead.)

"Well, it's about freaking time," Dinkar said, heading towards the back of the shop. Hopefully among the scraps, the Scraps might find something useful.

(Each of you except Dinkar and Jaffa, roll Insightful for me, please...)

"Hold on there just one moment!" Jaffa called out, still holding onto Dinkar's hand. "You're still hurt, Din. Let me take a look at that, and then we can find stuff. I don't want you cutting yourself on a broken sword and passing out."

"Okay, okay...." Dinkar made as though he preferred to protest, but he secretly liked it when someone made a fuss over him.

Huffing under her breath, Jaffa released Dinkar's hand and began looking over where he'd gotten thwacked by the truant officer. Closing her eyes and making a silent wish, she began rubbing the area he'd gotten hurt in a manner not unlike a soothing massage.

Jaffa Redspot rolled 12 using 3d6 with rolls of 3,6,3.  Consoling time for Dinkar. Charming.

--On 6: Remove 1 Hurt from a friend.

Dinkar leaned in against Jaffa's massaging hands. If he were a cat, he'd have been purring. Then, also like a cat, he startled when he realized that others could see this behavior, and adopted his usual tough-guy exterior again.

"Uh... thanks."

Now that the Scraps had gotten away (relatively clean), Anthielle decided to have a chat with the rest of them.

“Look, we cannot jeopardise our lives and activities over people who are trying to fight us… or we’ll never get anywhere.  And in the heat of the moment, I’m not concerned with manners or feelings.  ‘It’ is a perfectly fine descriptor… better than others I could name.  Jaffa, Sarah… I value and accept you for who you are… how about extending the same courtesy to me, hmm?”

She glanced around.

Ooc:  04:21, Today: Anthielle rolled 4 using 1d6 with rolls of 4.  Insight roll.

Jaffa shot a glare at Anthielle as she began looking through the blacksmith's trash. "I can accept making fun of the people we fight, especially when they deserve it. I'd prefer if we only hurt their feelings with true statements and not outright baseless lies that anyone can see through. But if we can't find anything to fault them for, then I guess it's probably sometimes okay. I can extend that courtesy." Jaffa was possibly a master at hedging, in some sense of the word. "But 'it' is not a 'perfectly fine descriptor!' We're talking about people here, for goodness' sake! I hear enough 'it's from the adults. If we treat them like anything less, then we are the monsters."

Sarah looks at Anthielle and doesn't really look toward the blacksmith shop or any of her surroundings for that matter,"And I value and accept you too boss, but Jaffa's still got the point their. Sides, Mr. Hot does have the word Mister in his name, so it might be more appropriate to call Mr. Hot "him" instead of "it" don't you think." she declares her defending statement.

07:21, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 2 using 1d6 with rolls of 2.  Insight.

“It was an act.  ‘Help, the kind mister hot is trying to do his duty… can you bystanders foil his efforts’… how well would that have worked?  Fine, I will try to avoid using IT from now on.  I hope you like the terms freak, animal, and bad man… because those are the alternative descriptors.”

Anthielle gave her icy reply and then turned her attention to ‘business’.

Raga does not join in the conversation, but focuses on the excavation work.

OOC: Sorry, missed that directive.

07:41, Today: Raga rolled 2 using 1d6 with rolls of 2.  Insightful (-1).

Raga and Sarah find absolutely nothing of any usefulness.

Anthielle finds a thick stick of white chalk.

Chalk! Unbroken, even!

This is a minor treasure among kids, like an adult finding a really good piece of turquoise or several silver coins in a pocket of clothing they haven't worn for a while. Chalk!

No weapons, though.

Dinkar finds a feather.

It catches his eye because it's not a pigeon feather, or any other sort of feather he's ever seen before... it's black and orange and totally cool-looking.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic...t2Oi_Ww&usqp=CAU

He found it back in the alley behind the magic shop on the same block as the blacksmith's.

Emboldened by his pretty find, Jaffa searches behind every shop in the alley.

She finds a loose cobblestone, and looks under it... Hey, a lamp!

Looks like brass. Kinda tarnished, though.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals...e6b48a3c314a7560.jpg

"Hey, cool lamp," Dinkar says, tucking the feather into one of the many pockets hidden in his tunic. It was pretty interesting to look at, but probably worthless. Still, to a kid, an interesting feather was still a treasure. The lamp, though, might actually be worth money. "I wonder why it was hidden here in the alley, though."

He'd had no opinion on calling Mr. Hot an 'it'. It was an insult, sure... but if you couldn't insult the truant officer, who could you insult?

"No weapons. A pity, but not really a surprise." Blacksmiths rarely threw any of their failures away, since they could just melt them back down and try again. "Now what?"

“Maybe we should rub the lamp and wish for a pair of swords?  Hehe”

Carefully stowing away the chalk, Anthielle considered what to do now.

“Din, Raga… do either of you recall any sword decorations, maybe on tavern walls or as part of a shop sign?  What about theatres?  They might have weapon ‘props’.  Failing that, we could go to dock 15 and trade the lamp for a weapon.  Maybe Captain Smash is down there too.”

(Remembering useful things your character might be able to remember having seen or heard about "off-panel//off-camera" is Insightful.)

Raga looks at Anthielle with an expressionless face and says nothing.

For a moment, Jaffa attempted to stow away the loose cobblestone as well, but the rock was too heavy to comfortably carry around. With an air of sadness, she replaced the stone.

Moving back onto the lamp, Jaffa held it up to the sun and looked it over. Grinning at the praise her find was getting, she noted several spots that were less than clean. She was filled with an urge to return the lamp to whatever shine it used to have, but she still felt the object was rather pretty. Part of her really wanted to keep the thing, if only to have something nice to look at in her new room. It had other uses, to be sure, whether that be for smacking people over the head with or netting a nice sale for it, but it felt bad somehow to let the lamp see any more wear and tear.

Deciding that she should probably try to clean it off a little bit with her tattered clothing, Jaffa mused as to the lamp's origins. "Weird that it was beneath that stone. Do you think someone was trying to hide it?" As she spoke, Jaffa rubbed the lamp's dirtiest spots.

“Wait a moment… I’ve seen something swordy before.”

Anthielle tried to recall where it had been.  The answer was on the tip of her tongue… which incidentally was a weapon as well.

Ooc:  03:26, Today: Anthielle rolled 6 using 1d6 with rolls of 6.  Insightful - recalling things.

Smoke or mist or steam or something comes out of the lamp... It forms into the head and upper body of a man. He's holding a quill and a book... but now he looks up from it.

"Oh, hello..." he says amiably, "...children! Well, well. Been a long time since I've seen anyone, but a very long time since I've seen any children. I like children, you know, generally speaking..."

He focuses on Jaffa. "And you, little kobold... It was you who rubbed that lamp just now, wasn't it...?"

At the genie's interest in Jaffa, Raga takes a step toward her -- but no more.

"Oh!" Startled, Jaffa fumbled with the lamp for a moment, nearly dropping the thing. Righting herself after a moment, she regained her balance. Looking up at the...genie? She'd heard about them before, but had never seen one. Either way, looking up at the genie, Jaffa gingerly raised her hand.

"Yes, uh, that was me. Sorry to keep you from your book! I was just trying to clean the lamp, cuz it looked kinda dirty. Not that it wasn't pretty! Your lamp is very pretty! But...also a little dirty? And I wanted to see if I could, like, polish it a little? I can leave it as is if you want!"

"No apology necessary... I've done this crossword puzzle before, but I like to do them again every few hundred years or so, when it's a challenge to remember all the answers.

So... I hope you're not hoping for wishes, because I can't do that anymore since I was freed. I could certainly understand if you were expecting it, so I hope this isn't too awkward."

"I, uh, wasn't really expecting anything, to be honest, sir. I mean, I guess having wishes would be nice? Though I'd probably just waste them all on pastry," Jaffa whispered guiltily. Most of her probably wouldn't even regret it either, but part of her might. Still, wishing for a nice big muffin would be great! If it were big enough, she could even share it with her friends.

"But you're working on a puzzle? Cool! I've never gotten to see a puzzle up close before! Or at least, not a solvable one. Most of the ones I find in the trash are already completed. How does this one work? Why's it called a 'crossword' puzzle? Oh, and, uh, I almost forgot!" Jaffa stuck out her hand. "I'm Jaffa. And these are my friends! We're the Scraps! I think! It's nice to meet you. What's your name? Sorry for not asking before. It's just that I've never met someone after rubbing a lamp in a blacksmith's garbage before!"

The genie shows Jaffa his book and explains crossword puzzles to her.

"I am Omar. I have seen many a gang of street urchins--" he glances at Anthielle-- "--and other children-- in my time. Several street urchins have been my master over the many centuries-- the last of them freed me. And so it is that I am especially fond of children... generally speaking." Omar smiles at Jaffa's outstretched hand. "I am willing to shake hands, Jaffa, for it is a pleasure to meet you, but I am not exactly... solid. Let us imagine that we have shaken in greeting."

Sarah was surprised that Jaffa's rare find was not only a pretty, but in actuality it was a genie's lamp,"Woah, a genie.... But with no wishes, bummer. And I was gonna wish something to find my parents." she says, mumbling that last part with a sad expression. She then snaps her fingers,"Ah right, we're here to find weapons. Mister Omar, do you know where we can find weapons." she asks a question to the Genie.

"I'm glad those last kids freed you, Mister Omar! You seem really nice! And your puzzle is pretty cool! And I'm sorry that you can't shake hands for real. I'll pretend you gave me a nice and firm handshake though!" With that, Jaffa shut her eyes tight, humming as her mind's eye went to work crafting the handshake. After a few moments, she had it! It was underwhelming! But still a handshake!

Omar considers the question. "Weapons...? Against whom, or what, do you need weapons...?"

"Hmm, hmm, hmm, why against the denizen's of villainy. This war is getting worse by the day, so I'll need a weapon of power to protect the weak." Sarah says in a boastful tone,"Sides, I mostly want to get a sword cause it fits this whole image I got myself. I can't keep using random assortments of items to hit people with, I need something to strike fear to the hearts of evil."

"A time of war again, is it? Who is the enemy this time?"

"Hmm, no clue, the adults aren't telling details to kids like us." Sarah simple says, feeling a bit down now.

"They're probably tall," Dinkar grumbled.

Omar frowns. "...Oh? That seems... unusual..."

Upon the Genie's emergence, Anthielle was excited... and then less so, when there were no wishes to be had.  Still, it was a magic lamp and she suspected the Genie could still do 'something' useful for them.

"If you have been freed, why are you still in the lamp Mr Genie?  Can you do any magic?  Maybe we can help each other..."

Anthielle was super sweet and polite... having stowed her mean girl attitude away (for now).

"No, no more miracles. All I can give to others these days is advice... and friendship.

I am still in the lamp because I wished to be. I do not age, nor get sick... so it is simply an eternity of peace and quiet, reading and thinking and scholarly contemplation. It makes up for the terrible things I have seen over the millennia. I am glad to talk to new people, though. I hope that you will keep my lamp with you, Jaffa, and talk to me sometimes. ...Although... you should not let anyone else know that I am in here. They might not believe that I grant wishes no longer, and they might want to steal me from you. It would avail them naught, but I would not want you nor your friends to get hurt in the process... so, best to avoid the temptation to others..."

"So why did someone bury you under the cobblestone?" Dinkar asked. He didn't trust anyone he found buried under the street. (One might be amazed at how often that actually happened.) "Seems like a strange place to stash someone who wants to be a friend."

"I do not know. Perhaps for safe keeping, but something came up and they were never able to retrieve me... It's too bad... I was looking forward to watching she who freed me grow up..."

A Genie who couldn't touch anything or do any magic... that was enough to wither Anthielle's interest.  Jaffa could keep the trinket as far as she was concerned.

"I doubt we would know her, but tell us her name Omar."

Looking to Sarah, she gave an apologetic shrug.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get you a sword.  I've tried everything but unless we get ourselves jumped by someone with a sword... I don't see it happening."

"Michelina... her friends called her Mickle."

"Mickle? Like rhymes-with-pickle?" Dinkar couldn't help but smirk a little at this. He wasn't the only one who had a bad nickname hanging over his head. "Nope. Never heard of her. But this street is really old. You could have been under there a long, long time."

Sniffling at the sad story, Jaffa cried, "That really stinks, Omar! If you want, we could maybe try to look for Michelina, or, I guess, what might be left of her? But even if we can't find anything, I'd be happy to take care of your lamp and talk to you! And also probably not tell people about it! I mean, except my friends right here, because they're also here and they're already talking to you. But beyond them, I'll keep it a secret! May I ask in return that you be my friend too, Mister Omar?" To sweeten the deal, Jaffa put her hand out once again for a shake. Soon enough, she thought better of it and bashfully lowered her hand to wipe on her knee.

"I am aware of very few things while in my lamp, but one of the few things I am aware of is the passage of time. It has been 100 years. ...Or, well, it will have been after the next few weeks have gone by."



"Mickle, as she preferred to be called, was human, so it seems unlikely that she would still be alive today... although I suppose I could be wrong. But yes, certainly Jaffa, I would like for us to be friends."

"Ah! My apologies! I'd thought that was a name only her friends could call her! I'll be sure to apologize if we see her, even if it's unlikely that she's alive! Or maybe unalive? She could be a g-ghost. I'm kinda scared of g-g-ghosts, to be honest, but I'm sure Mickle'd be a nice ghost." Pushing the thoughts of ghosts from her mind, Jaffa moved on, grinning in excitement. "And thank you for being my friend, then! Maybe we can work on one of your crosswords sometime!"

"Mickle being a ghost or other undead now had not occurred to me. I hope, for her sake, that she is not. Undead beings almost always strike me as being unhappy..."

"Eh, finding a sword can wait. Omar hear needs our help and we'll do just that." Sarah says to Anthielle as she apologizes that they couldn't find a sword. She felt pretty energetic to find this Mickle person, that all went down the drain when Jaffa mentions that she might be a ghost again,"Wah, gh-gh-ghost, don't joke around Jaffa, I'm sure she's alive and well." she says, trying to sound confident but her fears are all over her face,"Let's just ask around, I'm sure someone knows this person." she says, then walks away from the group to ask some passerbys in the Shop Quarter. Her scared face mostly help in grabbing a lot of people's attention and sympathy.

07:04, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 8 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,2.  To gleam some info about Mickle

"Was this Mickle even from around here?"

"She buried the lamp under this street," Dinkar replied. It seemed reasonable to assume that Mickle spent some amount of time in this neighborhood. "That's as 'around here' as it gets."

"Somebody buried it here," Raga points out.

The only people around to ask are adults. They have no idea what Sarah is talking about.

(Sarah gets a +1 die bonus the next time she tries this, as long as the next time she tries it she doesn't just try asking random adults on the street.)

"Mickle was a member of a gang of children known as The Roamers," Omar tells the children (as long as they stay in the alley where no one can see him). "Their leader was a girl named Abigail... also human, I'm afraid..."

"'The Roamers'... That's a pretty good name too! Still, with a name like that, maybe there's still some of them...roaming around? Do you remember any of the others' names, Omar?"

"It's been a hundred years," Dinkar said, trying to remind everyone (or at this point, anyone) that Omar's friends were probably long dead... and thus a waste of their time. "I know some races can live that long. Halflings do it all the time. But trying to find someone who knew someone else that lived a century ago... it's just... I mean... aigh! Why?!"

Anthielle just yawned… and then nodded in agreement with Dinkar.

“I’ll ask my housekeeper later… can we go and do something fun?  I’m beginning to think getting taken by Mr Hot was the better…”

She paused.

“Old tree, young girl… sounds pretty coincidental.”

Sarah came back a bit disappointed with her search, til she hear Anthielle's idea,"Ooh, I see what your thinking. If we hurry, I think Mr. Hot is still at the same spot we left him. Alright, first mission of the officially named Scraps is underway." she shouts confidently, and runs ahead of the others to the direction they came from.

05:50, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 6 using 2d6 with rolls of 1,5.  Traveling to Were we left the Truant Officer
This message was last edited by the player at 21:51, Thu 02 Dec 2021.

"No," Dinkar said, crossing his arms across his chest. "I'm not going back to where we left the giant walking tree to ask him about some girl from a century ago. I'm not fighting him again just so we can answer a question that nobody asked."

Omar hadn't actually requested any information on this Mickle, and certainly didn't need it so badly that the kids had to risk their freedom for it.

"There's no profit in going. It's all risk and no reward."

Raga nods her agreement with Dinkar's sentiments.

Anthielle smiled in a shrew manner.

“I’m not saying we have to do it now.  I don’t want to talk to Mr Hot after calling him a child eater.  Maybe some of us can go to school and find out… tomorrow.”

Her tummy gave a little grow.  They’d all been so busy fighting, running, and scavenging.

"Yeah... Sarah thinks we're going now." Dinkar pointed to where she was disappearing into the distance.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:16, Fri 03 Dec 2021.

“I’m not chasing Sarah.  Maybe we can find some lunch instead?”

Ooc:  sorry for missing Sarah’s leaving>> early morning post.  Just going to roll with it :)

"I never say No to food," Dinkar replied. Halflings were notoriously voracious people, easily eating twice what a full-sized human could... if it was available to them. "Got any ideas?"

"I wouldn't mind getting something to eat either. But I feel bad about Sarah still... Should we at least leave some sort of note for her here? In case she comes back after we leave? 'Gone to Second Breakfast' sounds nice to me."

"Ah... Wallace? Or was it... Whitney...? Sorry, I'm just not sure. It has been 100 years for me..." says Omar...

---

Sarah heads back to where she last saw Mr. Hot... but she's still in the Shop Quarter when suddenly she spots him... down the street... talking to (or being talked to by?) The Crone.

The Crone is standing near a shopfront where, in a barrel, are a selection of walking sticks. Doesn't look like she's purchased one yet, though.

Neither of them have spotted Sarah yet, though...
This message was last edited by the player at 15:47, Sat 04 Dec 2021.

Sarah gasps quietly when she found not only the truant officer but the crone, so she hides in a nearby market stall,"Drat, I wasn't expecting to meet up with the old crone again. We better hide guys." she says to the others but sees that her friends are far away and starting to look like walking to the opposite direction,"No, nevermind, the strongest kid can handle it all by herself. Thanks for the support everyone." she says sadly, holding back tears and so continues to solemnly observe the old hag and treant.

"Well, so . . . what're we gonna do?"

"That's alright, Omar! We can figure it out! It'll just take some time is all."



"Hmm, it's probably still too early to look for food in the garbage. People would see." Jaffa thought out loud. "It might not be all that fun, but maybe we could ask that pirate captain person, uh, Smash? We could offer to help load or unload some cargo in exchange for food! I've never had pirate food before!"

Raga shrugs.  She doesn't typically have well-planned schedules.  Food, shelter, avoiding harm -- those are her primary objectives.  Free time is not something she's had in abundance, but now the top two items on her daily routine are not an issue.

"Maybe he'll have something interesting to steal," Dinkar added. Working for food was fine in the short term, but he didn't want to be doing that for his entire life. He wanted treasure, damn it. "You know, for after breakfast."

"That could be a good idea, Din, but if we're going to steal from him, we should be careful!" Jaffa dramatically raised her hand, index finger pointed to the sky. "Remember, pirates are like turtles, see! They can follow us on land and sea. They hide behind diplomatic immunity!" she spoke in a singsong tone, reciting the curious rhyme. She wasn't quite sure if pirates had diplomatic immunity, or what diplomatic immunity really was for that matter, but that was what she'd heard and she wanted to be sure they were safe.

“Pirates it is.  I’ll just leave a note for Sarah…”

Using the chalk (sparingly) that she’d recently acquired, Anthielle wrote in a few places on the blacksmith wall, the loose cobblestone, etc.  that way Sarah could catch them up.

Sarah: we have gone to the pirate, seek us there.

"To the docks!" Dinkar proclaimed enthusiastically.

Dinkar rolled 8 using 3d6 ((3,2,3)).

Apparently, Dinkar didn't know where the docks were....

Dinkar leads the gang to the docks via the rooftops... but then a tall kid steps out from behind a chimney, right in front of Dinkar.

Then two more kids step up behind you.

Then, finally, over the edge of the roof nearby climbs Big Julie. Big Julie is a human teen of 16-and-a-half years, and big for his age. He's bruised, broken-nosed, and missing teeth. Besides his imposing physique, though, the main eye-catching feature of Big Julie is the bloody bandages wrapped around his hands... Big Julie punches people in other gangs a lot. Other teen gangs... sometimes he punches adults. Sometimes he punches inanimate objects. Big Julie's stance on life is very pro-punching. He likes punching. He even kind of likes getting punched, they say.

"You are small, and that means I would have to bend down to punch you," Big Julie announces to you. "This bothers me. But I have thought of a way you could be useful anyway. Would you like to hear about this plan in the easy way, or the hard way?"

"I-Is the plan that we punch you? Cuz I don't really like punching people. I might be able to help with those hands though... Do they hurt?"

Jaffa didn't like this one bit, but she at least appreciated that Big Julie was at least willing to talk, even if it ended up as little more than a prelude to a beating.

"That's not the plan, y'little--" the teen on Big Julie's left starts to say, but another one interrupts him--

"--Big Julie asked youse a question," says one of the teens behind you. "Easy way or hard way?"

Raga is confused; it seems that if "Punchy" Julie wants to tell them a plan, there's only one way to do it.  Not easy, not hard -- just tell it.

"What's the difference between the hard way 'n the easy way?" she asks.

The teen who got interrupted grins. "Th' hard way's harder..."

"It's also what you get if you take too long t'answer," says the fourth teen, who'd been quiet until now.

You label the teens in your minds, since you don't have names for them:
--Big Julie, human (I guess??), 16-and-a-half, male
--Grinner (the one who got interrupted), human, 15, fidgety, male
--Smarty (one who interrupted), human, 16, male
--Quiet (the one who took the longest to speak), human, 15, wears all-black clothes (although some of them are gray from wear and age), male

Dinkar wanted the hard way. He really wanted the hard way. But they were down a fighter since Sarah had wandered off, and these kids were so much bigger than they were. It would be a slaughter.

"Let's start with the easy way," he suggested, sounding flippant, "and we can always upgrade to the hard way if the easy way is as stupid as these guys look."

Insult (Insightful)
Dinkar rolled 2, 1 using 2d6 ((2,1)).

(Y'know, with Insult, a Fail appears to be better than a partial success.)
This message was last edited by the player at 19:35, Tue 07 Dec 2021.

Anthielle held back on any sass… these youths were older and tougher, so a fight was not a good idea.  She directed her words to the spokesman of Julie.

“Can you ask Big Julie to unveil his plan?  I’m sure it’s sneaky and clever…”

"Shut up, flea," says Grinner, "before someone doesn't look down and accidentally steps on you."

(Dinkar takes 1 non-physical Hurt.

Also: How does it seem better?)




"That is the easy way," says Smarty.

"The plan is this," says Big Julie. "I want to punch people. People do not want me to punch them. I do not like to chase people. I like to punch them. But you... you can make people chase you. People must like to chase you, because you will not hurt them if they catch you. My plan is that you will lead people to me. Then I will punch them, and that will make me happy."

"Big Julie most wants that you should lead some Talons to him," Smarty adds. "But we might let you go if you bring him a good fight with someone else."

Everyone knows that The Talons are a teen gang led by Ral, a teen half-elf who actually knows a spell or two.

"If you don't bring us anyone at all," says Quiet, "Then you get away... for now. But we'll find you."

"And then we'll step on you," says Grinner, in case you forgot about that.

The Talons? Jaffa wasn't entirely sure that was wise, but the basic plan didn't seem too bad. People did like to chase them. But maybe...they didn't need to do that? There had to be someone as fight-happy as Big Julie with the pirates! Maybe they could just ask and then pretend to get chased. She was also concerned about this whole 'stepping on them' thing. She thought they liked punching! But she wasn't gonna say anything about it, since the last time she'd had such a concern, they'd just been rude to her.

Instead, she would just slowly and reluctantly nod her head in affirmation, while also trying to repeatedly wink at one of her friends, as if to say "I've got a plan!"

(GM snorts in restrained lol)



Smarty notes Jaffa's head-nodding. "So, do you accept your roles in Big Julie's plan...?"

Jaffa seemed to have some sort of idea, but most of her ideas usually centered around some form of baked good. Dinkar wasn't sure how much trust he could put into that. But if there was one being in the whole darn city that he trusted, wasn't that Jaffa?

"So, you don't want to punch us," he said, repeating the concept back to make sure he'd gotten Julie's stupidity straight. "You'd rather punch someone bigger... and want us to bring that someone to you.

"I can't find anything wrong with that plan. Hell, I kinda like it. I'm more of a 'treasure' guy than a 'violence' guy, but I appreciate your focus on what's important to you.

"We'll go and get you a pack of Punchables."

"We'll expect you in the alley below," says Smarty, pointing to one side of the building you're on the roof of, "in... less than three hours." He glances at Big Julie, who nods assent. "We expect that you will be running, and that someone that Big Julie will enjoy punching will be right behind you. When that time comes, just run past us, so that you aren't underfoot for us to trip over when the punching starts, and we'll do the rest. Displease Big Julie, and we'll find you later... and you won't like it."

Anthielle also seemed in favour of the plan.  She didn’t like the Talons and seeing them get beat up would be funny.

(To go looking for some Talons, somebody just roll Insightful/Move Elsewhere...)

Dinkar rolled 4,3,5 using 3d6 ((4,3,5)).

Big Julie and his gang allow you to leave the rooftop you're on.

Dinkar leads the team in scouring the city for one or more members of the Talons.

It takes over an hour, but finally they find Ral and three of his bravos-- just as Dinkar and his friends (minus Sarah) are in the middle of crossing the street, since the rooftop they wanted to go to was too far to jump from the rooftop they were on.

One of the Talons spots the team, gestures, and they all start sauntering over.

They aren't giving chase yet, since (so far) the Talons have nothing in particular against you... So the odds are high that it's

1. going to be a shakedown to see if any of you have any coin on you, or

2. it's just to be some light recreational bullying, or

3. the obviously hurried manner in which you're moving has garnered mild interest regarding what you're up to...

Waving the gang over was unnecessary, but Jaffa whipped her arm back and forth to greet the Talons anyways. They weren't the pirates she'd been hoping to find, but that was her fault for not taking charge. Well, she would now! "Um, hello! Talons! We are here on official teenager-gang-related business! There's some other kids that want us to trick you into fighting them! Do you wanna fight them?!"

That was the plan? Oh, Jaffa, that was a terrible plan.

Dinkar gave the Talons his toughest look.

Raga had been kinda looking down at the ground, trying to look nondescript (which isn't hard for her).

At Jaffa's revelation of her plan, Raga slowly raises her head so she can stare at Jaffa's back.

The other Talons (after muttering things like you gotta be kidding me) turn to their leader.

Ral raises one arched eyebrow. "...What other kids, exactly...?"

Cheerfully ignoring the Talons' muttering, Jaffa took a big step forward. This was the best plan, so clearly, they were just caught off-guard! At Ral's request, Jaffa happily explained, "It was that one Big one! With the punchy punchy and the bloody fingers! I asked if he wanted some help with the fingers, but he said no. He just seemed really bummed that we were all too short for him to punch comfortably, so he asked us to get taller people to chase us! He had, like, three friends with him, so you and your friends would probably be a good match!"

"...Big Julie..." one of the Talons mutters, and they all nod their heads in recognition.

"Hmm..." says Ral, thinking. "He... asked you to do this little favor for him...?"

"Not asked so much as ordered." They were committed now, so Dinkar should clearly get himself involved. "They wanted you guys in particular, because they think they can take you, too."

This produces annoyed mutterings from the Talons for a moment.

"And so you thought you'd just throw a net over Big Julie's plan," says Ral. "Hm. Tell me more about how Big Julie thinks the next part of the plan is supposed to go. Where are they...?"

"Who's Annette?"



Sorry. Couldn't resist.

One of the Talons looks slightly alarmed. "Annette's the leader of The Painters. Are they mixed up in this too...?!"

"I didn't say they were. Ral did."

Ral gets annoyed. "Forget that part. Tell me more about how Big Julie thinks the next part of the plan is supposed to go, and where he and his guys are right now."

"They're back towards the docks. We're supposed to lead you into their trap, so we should just show you where.

"The idea is: you chase us. We go 'aahhhhhh, we're being chased'. They jump out and go punchy-punchy-punch-punch. It is not, as plans go, a complex interplay of precision and finesse."

"Oh! They might want to step on you too! I mean, Big Julie seemed to only like punching, but the others kept talking about stepping on us!" Jaffa was happy to add more information. This was going great! She gave Dinkar a big thumbs up as thanks for going along with the plan.

"Show me where, please," Ral says to you.

Ral turns to his gang. "Keep an eye out for the rest of our guys. If you see any more of us on the way, get them to follow-- immediately-- and without any shouting or other loud noises."

---

Sarah watches The Crone. Near the end of talking to Mr. Hot, the shopkeep comes out, and The Crone buys a new walking stick. Then she says goodbye to Mr. Hot, and she walks off toward the left, and is soon out of sight.

Mr. Hot starts walking in the direction of where Sarah is hidden...

Sarah felt a bit sleepy as the Crone kept talking on and on about something, she kind of tuned her out. But when Mr. Hot started approaching her hiding spot, she kind of panicked,"Uh, umm..." she thinks on what to do and then steps out of her hiding spot,"Hey Mr. Hot, how are you doing in this fine day. On behalf of my friends, I came by to say sorry for being so rude to you." she says, trying to get on his good graces and hope his not too mad.

09:05, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 10 using 2d6 with rolls of 4,6.  Charm.

"...WHY... SHOULD I... NOT TAKE YOU TO SCHOOL... RIGHT NOW...?"

This isn't a request for a bribe-- Mr. Hot is just confused, and trying to understand why this child has dared to come back in front of him, surely knowing that he will, at any moment, pick her up and carry her off to the schoolhouse...

"Oh, well that's because.... I can't go to school cause of... family matters." Sarah says, pausing a bit of to think of an explanation,"You see, I have to be absent for this week cause of family issues, so I can't really go to school yet til it's tommorow. You understand?" she says and also adds,"Ah, but don't think I'm slacking in my studies Mr. Hot, I've been doing a lot of homework. But I'm currently struggling in some history. Say, you've lived a long life, surely you could help me answer some of my questions."

"THAT... IS NOT... FOR ME TO DO..."

Mr. Hot seems to be at a loss... He wants to pick this little girl up and take her to school, but even his wooden heart feels a little sympathy for once... And that other little girl's terrible accusations still echo in his mind...

"Aww, but I know that you'll help me out. Cause your a nice person Mr. Hot, in fact, I know a lot of kids that said that your the best Mister in the whole school. Leagues better than Mr. Cold." she says, then pulls out from her backpack a muffin she's been saving in case she needed to bribe Jaffa for something important,"I'm been saving this one for a friend, but I think I want to you to have it. Consider this as a sign of friendship, would you like to be my friend Mr. Hot."

Raga adds: "And they said you were jerks."

"I... DO NOT EAT... MUFFINS..."

Mr. Hot reaches for Sarah... (If he was reaching for the muffin, he probably wouldn't have his whole giant hand open like that...)

The team (led by Jaffa) quickly leads the Talons back to where they're supposed to meet Big Julie.

However, on the way, the four Talons they're leading spot another of their number, and hurriedly gesture to their comrades to join them silently. Soon the 4 Talons become 5... then 6... then 8... then 9...

Soon Jaffa stops when she gets to a corner, and she points-- it's that alley there. Right? She confers with her friends-- they all agree-- it's that one.

"All right," says Ral. Ral confers with his associates quietly for a minute. Five Talons casually walk ahead to the next block-- not yet heading for the alley.

Ral turns back to you. "All right... You all run into the alley... and then run out the back of the alley, like you're supposed to. We'll do the rest."

(I presume you all (except Sarah of course) do this...?)

"Ahhhh! They're chasing us!" Dinkar shouted, heading for the alley at high speed. "Duck into this convenient alley and hope they don't follow!"

Raga will run -- but only once Jaffa starts.  And she tries to stick close to Jaffa.

Giving Real one last thumbs-up, Jaffa began sprinting towards the alley behind Dinkar, unintelligibly blubbering something about directions.

“This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into!”

That was Anthielle’s contribution to the act.  Truthfully she was wondering how things had gone so quickly.  Jaffa had just blurted out the plan and instead of a disaster… it could very well be a victory.

You all run to the alley.

Just before you get there, you see Smarty peeking out, seeing you, and he ducks his head back in.

You all run into the alley... and run past Big Julie and his three associates, who are all ready to punch whoever comes after you... And you can, indeed, hear some of the Talons right behind you...

(Shall I presume that you all run past Big Julie and company and out the back of the alley, like you were supposed to...?)

Big Julie and company let all of you by, and you run out of the alley on the other side of the block...

...Where you pass the other five Talons, who are just about to go in and give a rather large surprise.

One of them nods at you as you go by... another winks.

(Do you keep running, so as to get well away from the imminent scene of teen violence and terrible brutality that's about to happen...? Or is anyone tempted to stick around and spectate? (No roll required to resist the temptation... if you feel it, resist it or give into it as you wish.)

If none of you decide to spectate, someone feel free to do a new Move Elsewhere (Jaffa's last roll doesn't count... but I'll give whoever does Move Elsewhere 1 EXTRA die bonus to roll just because Jaffa led you back here so well and everything turned out so successfully so far...)

Dinkar climbs to the nearest roof to watch in relative safety. If the others wish to leave, he has no complaints.

Jaffa followed Din up to the roof. She honestly would've rather left so that they could get on to the docks, but she didn't want to keep her friends from watching if they wanted to.

Raga followed Jaffa.

She grumbles to everyone: "Even though whoever wins should be happy with us, I'm not sure we should be sticking around."

"'We probably shouldn't...' could be our slogan, though," Dinkar countered, sitting down on the roof's edge to get a good look. "If we were only going to do things that are smart, we'd probably go to school."

(Hmmmm... each of you four roll Insightful, please...)

"You might be right, Raga... I think the Talons are probably gonna win? But I don't think they're gonna specifically reward us or anything. I hope whoever wins doesn't get mad at us for some reason." Jaffa stood closer to the back of the roof, ready to skedaddle out of there if need be.

At Dinkar's words, she protested, "I know we're not exactly the brightest around, but I don't know if school would really help all that much. Especially me! I hear it's designed to teach things over the course of 12 years! I'd be an adult twice over in that time..."

13:24, Today: Jaffa Redspot rolled 12 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,6.  Something's afoot on the roof, maybe? Insightful.

Dinkar rolled 3, 4 using 2d6 ((3,4)).

"I'm not saying we're stupid," Dinkar said, trying to soothe Jaffa's wounded pride. "I'm saying we do stupid stuff. Because it's fun."

"I know, I just, I want to do the smart things, you know? The fun things are fun too, but smart things make me feel good in other ways and stuff. And it's just, I keep hearing, school is supposed to be the smart thing, and it even sounds fun sometimes, but I don't think, I mean, I'm really frustrated because it just doesn't seem like it was...designed with me in mind. Is all. And there's just no time to do all the things, so I need to prioritize what's important to me while I'm still a kid. And that's you all. You're my priorities.

Raga is focused on making sure the group is not threatened . . .


15:19, Today: Raga rolled 4 using 1d6 with rolls of 4.  Insightful (-1).

Yay!  First application of the new fail rule; that becomes a 3.

"I know you can't eat it silly, I just want you to keep it as a memento of me." Sarah says, staying stalwart, not flinching as Mr. Hot's giant hand approaches,"So what do you say? Wanna be my friend and maybe answer this silly little question I have."

Anthielle would have ran onward if the others did the same.  However it looked the Scraps were going to spectate, something she was glad for.  Anthielle liked stirring up trouble and fights were the ultimate entertainment payoff.  She joined them up on the roof.

"A pity we can't cheer... not that I'm favoring one side over the other." as she murmured quietly to the group.

Whatever else was going on, Anthielle remained oblivious to it.  The fight was starting to get good!

OOC:  that a nup :)
23:28, Today: Anthielle rolled 1 using 1d6 with rolls of 1.  Insightful roll.

Something pushes Anthielle and Raga off the roof! They fall...

It pushes Dinkar, too, but not all the way. He's got a chance to save himself...

Only Jaffa senses the danger and turns and then moves entirely in time to save herself...

There's a creature there, roughly the same size as herself (which is to say, pretty small). It floats in the air lazily... but since it just attempted to push three kids off the roof (two definitely successfully), it obviously is capable of some solidity, even though it doesn't look like it should have any.

The creature looks made of smoke, and indeed a dirty industrial haze-bank has crept up behind the children on the roof (well, it crept up behind most of them, anyway). The creature has a head, two arms, two legs, and two large bat-like wings coming out of its back, Jaffa observes. It grins at her wickedly (or just mischeviously?)...

(--Jaffa: you may roll FORCEFUL or AGILE to attempt to save Dinkar from falling (it's too late for the others)... but he may not need it.

--Dinkar: You may attempt to roll AGILE to grab the roof... or INSIGHTFUL to attempt to luck into discovering a more feathery solution...

--Anthielle: You may attempt to use your new level-up Shadow power to save yourself-- to attempt to make a ledge right under you (and perhaps under Raga too?) or maybe a slide (although that would slide you right into the fray underneath you... Alternatively, you can attempt to roll AGILE to try to land on a gang member to break your fall...

--Raga: You may attempt to roll AGILE to try to land on a gang member to break your fall... or you can wait, and hope that Anthielle manages to save both of you...)

---

(Sarah: Seriously, Mr. Hot is about to grab you and pick you up. It's time to roll Charming to delay that, or Agile to just dodge out of the way...)

"Ack! Raga! Anthi! Din!" Jaffa shouted, quite terrified as she spun around to dodge the strange being. For a terror-stricken moment, it was all she could do to look at the figure and its wings, but before she could get a good idea as to what or who this was, she noticed that Din was still technically on the roof. Momentarily forgetting the new threat, she dashed over to Din in an attempt to help him up. He'd probably be upset if he didn't get a chance to help himself now, but an upset Din was better than a...she didn't want to think about what this other Din could be.

Jaffa Redspot rolled 6 using 2d6 with rolls of 4,2.  Trying very hard to grab Dinkar. Agile.

Jaffa manages to grab Dinkar's hand. His weight almost pulls her over the side with him-- but not quite. Not yet, anyway.

(--Jaffa: roll Forceful to try to get Dinkar back up on the roof.

OR:

--Dinkar: You may attempt to roll Forceful to try and pull yourself back onto the roof... or Insightful to attempt to luck into discovering a more feathery solution...)

Dinkar rolled 5 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,2.  Insightful.

Dinkar tried to think of something brilliant that would save him.

He didn't.

He slips from Jaffa's hand, and he's falling...

(--Jaffa: For some weird reason he seems to be falling slow. You can attempt Agile to try to grab him again.

OR:

--Dinkar: You can try Insightful again to try to figure out why you're falling slow, or you can just fall to the ground... but you'll take no damage.

...Of course, there IS a gang battle going on down there...

Alternatively, you can try Agile to try to land on a gang member (if you succeed fully, you get to choose which gang).

...Alternatively, I have just remembered you're holding a grown-up human's cane. You may also try Agile AGAIN to try to hook the edge of the roof...)

Dinkar rolled 7 using 2d6 ((4,3)).

Something weird was going on....

Sarah stands firm in her belief he doesn't harm her.

07:00, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 8 using 3d6 with rolls of 1,5,2.  Charm.

Woo leveled up, now I get to increase my charm for just this situation.

That was my plan all along, yeah, not really but yeah.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:10, Sat 11 Dec 2021.

Raga doesn't know why she's falling; all she knows is that she is.  And it doesn't occur to her that anyone can do anything about it.  All she can hope for is to cushion her landing by grabbing onto combatant on the ground before she ends up eating part of the street.

Stretching out wildly with all of her limbs (much like a cat), she manages to land on a kid.



17:24, Today: Raga rolled 9 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,3.  Landing on Gang Member.

--Dinkar has no idea what's going on... but now he's falling even slower, like 3 inches per second. Yeah. Not feet-- inches. He doesn't know why yet, though. What the heck?

--Raga falls on a gang member, knocking him to the ground. She, herself, is unhurt.

She rolls off and sees that she fell on the one she thought of as Smarty. Not so smart now...

---

Mr. Hot picks Sarah up.

...But he doesn't start walking yet. "...WHAT... IS YOUR QUESTION...?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:40, Sat 11 Dec 2021.

"Sorry to interrupt; carry on," Raga says to anyone who might notice her sudden appearance.

She then scrambles up and sprints in the direction The Scraps originally ran through the alley when they were springing the trap.

Sarah smiles and calmly puts the muffin back in her bag,"Hmm-hmm, alright then Mr. Hot, here's my question. Do you know of a human girl named Michelina or otherwise known by other kids as Mickle, which rhymes with nickel if you think about it. If you know this girl, would you happen to know where she lives right now."

(Ohhhhhhh no you don't-- you're gonna have to roll Agile (again) for THAT.)



(Oh yeah, I forgot that was the point of this. Roll Charming again, please.)

LOL!

____________________________________

She fell like a cat, and with the alacrity of a cat Raga successfully scrambled to her feet and raced away as fast as her short legs would carry her.


18:41, Today: Raga rolled 11 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,5.  RUN AWAY FAST!

Who could hate this face, you would have to have a cold heart to deny a child like Sarah.

08:49, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 11 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,2,4.  Charm Again.

Dodge foot--
Dodge punch (meant for someone else)--
Vault over crates in the alley--
Jump over a punch (meant for someone else)--
Duck under someone trying to grab your hair--
Turn it into a roll along the ground amongst various teens' feet--
Dodge left--
Dodge right--
Shove someone already off-balance out of your way--
Run straight--
Lean left--
Bounce off the alley wall--
Dodge right, then left--
Run straight--
Made it! You're out of the fray!

---

"I... REMEMBER... A GIRL NAMED THAT... LONG TIME... MANY YEARS... NOT LONG FOR ME... VERY LONG FOR HER... DON'T KNOW WHERE SHE LIVES NOW... HARDLY EVER MANAGED... TO TAKE HER TO SCHOOL..."

"Really, oh that's too bad, but thanks for the answer anyways Mr. Hot." Sarah says, then looks down at the ground,"Hey, Mr. Hot, mind putting me down for a few seconds, I think I dropped something while you grabbed me. You wouldn't mind if you put me down for a bit to grab it would you?"

09:24, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 11 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,1,5.  Charm to escape Mr. Hot's Hand.

"HURR HURR HURR... I WAS NOT SPROUTED YESTERDAY... YOU WILL HAVE TO DO... BETTER THAN THAT..."

But Mr. Hot hasn't started walking yet... Perhaps he is enjoying this little encounter...?

Was Dinkar falling...more slowly? Jaffa worried that this might have something to do with the strange new figure...

Jaffa Redspot rolled 8 using 2d6 with rolls of 5,3.  Trying once more to grab the Master Assassin. Agile.

But Jaffa wasn't going to look the gift muffin in the mouth (wrapper?) this time.

"Aww, thought I had you their for a moment. Alright then, I'll concede this time, guess I'll be heading to school for now. You'll you mind letting me ride on your shoulder, I promise I won't run away, not sure how I would since that would be a dangerous plan." Sarah says honestly.

knocked from the roof, Anthielle prayed for something to hold onto... and the force of her belief actually conjured something.  She found herself sprawled upon a ledge, but it wasn't ordinary stone.  This ledge was one of shadow, cool to the touch and jet black.

Sadly her 'magic' was too late to save Raga.  Maybe it might help the others, if they fell again... or decided to vacate the roof.

"Hey, there's a way out here guys."

OOC  00:29, Today: Anthielle rolled 15 using 3d6 with rolls of 6,3,6.  Shadowcrafting a ledge.

This was weird, but kind of fun. Dinkar was practically floating, albeit with a slight downward trend. He wondered if he could still reach the edge of the roof and pull himself up.

Reaching out, he stretched as far as he could...

(Am I supposed to be rolling Agile or Insightful on this?)
This message was last edited by the player at 15:26, Sun 12 Dec 2021.

Raga helps Dinkar back onto the roof, which is made easier by the fact that Anthielle has made a ledge to stop her fall out of pure Shadow (but will it still be there after the sun comes out from behind those clouds? Maybe, with the industrial haze that's coming in from the Smoke Quarter)...

---

(Roll Charming again, please...)

Once again, Sarah is quite the charmer.

06:40, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 9 using 3d6 with rolls of 1,5,3.  Charming.

"All right, who did that?" Dinkar demanded as he made it back onto the roof (with Raga's help). "Who needs a good thwacking?"

Then he spotted the creature.

"You are so thwacked," he growled. Swinging his battle staff, he dove at the creature...!

Dinkar rolled 1,3,1 using d6,d6,d6 ((1,3,1)).

Well, that sucked.