Larathiel nervously held the dueling glaive she had purchased, lowered and in a Non threating posture. Although she knew enough to defend herself, she was not a warrior at heart, and she wished that the glaive was the naginata she knew best. Still, she was glad that they were talking and not fighting. "Well met" she said, friendly, although she left the specific answer to Aladin.

"We have come to find some missing individuals. Who do you worship here in the lost city? The wolf queen?"

Instead of answering Aladin's question, the man wanted to know something. "First let me know who you worship."

Gurth stood with his axe at the ready and a menacing look on his face that probably looked scarier on the torch light. While many have seen attack dogs straining at their leashes, Aladin had an ogre ready to go.

Holding up his holy symbol of Paye, he pronounced his name with reverence.

Keira lowered the hand holding a dagger, but just a bit. "What kind of worshipers come at people in the middle of the night, with weapons drawn?"

The speaker spat out a word in Sand before continuing in Imperium. "Don't come back." And then they walked back towards the entrance, ignoring Keira's question. As they left, they talked amongst themselves in Sand, though most of what they said was difficult to hear.

And even though they now were further away from the beacon than they had been when it appeared on their internal map, it was still there. Beckoning to them, "here I am."

"They worship Bahal, who is probably a demon, and consider us traitors. Looks like we will have to fight them. Or bury them. In the dark without lights we can fight them easiest."

Walking about the sand, can we detect where we should go to? Perhaps digging another entrance may work...

[The chamber you were in was too deep to make digging a viable short-term solution.]

Keira interrupted the man before they could leave. "No. We are here to find someone who has gone missing, and we will not be driven off by some bandit scum in the middle of night. Once more, who are you and what are you doing here?"

08:47, Today: Keira rolled 16 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,5,6.  Intimidation.
Well, talking was never Keira's strong side anyway.

08:48, Today: Keira rolled 11 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,4,3.  Body Language
A roll to see if they are going to attack. If yes, Keira will attack first by throwing the dagger and then switching to staff, as per her previous post.

If they just ignore Keira and try to walk away, she'll follow after them. Unless someone has a different plan?

Edit: Ugh, why didn't rpol give me a warning that posts have been made while I was writing this? GM, Aladin, do you want my post to stay as it is or should I edit or remove it?
Edit 2: Fixed my post since they are out of range for a throw.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:42, Tue 02 May 2023.

[OOC: I did a bit of clean up, deleting a couple of posts.

And as I was looking to adjudicate Keira's attack, I noticed that she cannot throw her knife far enough to reach them, as the worshippers/bandits were still some distance away. Sorry about that.]

OOC: Ah, I assumed they were now close enough to attack. Alright, I guess if they try to leave we now go after them? I can't think of a way to avoid this lot, so unless we are giving up on our task, we should take this opportunity to whittle down their numbers.

The worshippers/bandits continued to ignore Keira and started back the way they had come. And Keira followed them.

[OOC: I thought I had made a response to Keira's post. Perhaps I accidentally deleted it. Or perhaps I changed it to my previous post and forgot that I hadn't adjudicated hers.]

In reply to Dragondog (msg # 892):

Aladin will stow his club and pull out his sling, which he then loaded and readied.

Gurth let out an annoyed growl and started running to catch up to Keira, axe still in hand.

"You had better have a plan other than antagonizing them into a fight.", he warned.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:34, Wed 03 May 2023.

Gurth hurried after Keira with Axe in hand while Aladin prepared his sling.

[How quickly are you pursuing them? Running = full move or jogging = half move? They are walking = quarter move.]

"None whatsoever. But if we don't wish to abandon our task, I see no other way."

OOC: If the rest of the party doesn't wish to attack, that's fine and Keira will back down as well. I just don't have any other ideas other than at least taking out these guys. I am open to suggestions though, since I know that's not a particularly good plan either.

If we are doing this, then running I guess? At least until we get within 10 yards or so?

In reply to Keira (msg # 896):

"I suggest we do what we came to do, and worry about fighting if we have to. But they will not be living here..."

Keira and Gurth hurried to catch up with the worshippers/bandits and soon they were 10 yards away from them.

[What do you do?]

On Aladin's suggestion, they decided to take it slow and they let the worshippers/bandits go.

[What do you do?]

In reply to Dragondog (msg # 899):

"Should we wait for them to leave, or try to go down and go past them? Without lights, I think we would have a distinct advantage."

"I could try to distract them with my illusions if that would help with sneaking around them" Larathiel offered.

Keira shrugged, at a loss as to what to do next. "We don't know why they are here, so we don't when or if they will leave. And we also don't know their numbers beyond that there's too many of them for us to fight."

"Who is this Bahal anyway?" Keira asked Aladin.

OOC: With the other groups there's just way too many for us to take on in a straight up fight. And talking doesn't seem like it will work. So, it's trying to be sneaky, or leaving (and possibly finding some help, if that's an option). I was also thinking of pretending to be cultists, but with the exception of Aladin, we would stick out like a sore thumb among them.

I think we should at least first sneak closer to the entrance to see what is happening there. Maybe we can think of something else then?

[In regards to infiltrating them, it might be possible as they, like Aladin, are wearing clothing that could be used to cover their faces. So all that would be seen would be your eyes. And in the darkness, they might not notice.]

In reply to Dragondog (msg # 903):

"Maybe, but since they are all covering their faces in the darkness, I am guessing they use some other form of ID. Perhaps we can ambush a small group and find out more, including about this god they have..."