Draza seemed placated by this and nodded to the Widow and her farmhands. She remained near the firebird and the half-orc however, as she still felt a duty of making sure the patient was well, however that feeling was waning as she got more tired and hungry. She just wanted to get back to where ever for some food, make that a good bit of food. The sparkle of something caught her eye as the small woman held out an object, it sparkled like water under the high sun.

What is sparkly thing: The 20-sided dice lands on 8

Zebulon accepted the bag handed to him and bowed politely. "Many thanks, Madam. There will be no more stollen peaches, but I understand your concern. We will take our leave now." He bowed again for good measure and turned back to the group in time to catch a glimpse of the shiney object which the Firebird was offering to the widow. What was it?

Roll to identify shiny thing: The 20-sided dice lands on 13

Phaelan's hair fluttered about his shoulders in the gentle breeze. He did not notice what the Firebird handed to widow Harper... (He saw a butterfly behind her pack of farmhands...) he remained stoicly at her side in his stoney, derpy silence.

((Ethos that post made me giggle))

Alexis had been fairly quiet to this point. She'd felt she'd done enough damage and quite frankly she hardly cared anymore. She walked with the group silently, though not particularly willingly, and paused when they stopped to talk to the widow Harper. She was getting angry at the fact that the woman didn't seem to want to pay them, but the lizard woman seemed to have things under control. However as two things happened her interest peaked, first the firebird handed the woman something shiny and Alexis quickly looked to see if she could Identify it.

Roll to Identify Shiny Object: The 20-sided dice lands on 5

Second there was the money. The widow harper had finally relented into paying them half of what she owed them and Alexis wanted her part, but she wouldn't harp on that....not yet.

The gemstone in the Firebird's hand was exquisite, and drew the eye of anyone not distracted by butterflies. Its facets shot sparkles in all colors of the rainbow, making a casual glance almost blinding. No one could completely judge its value in the brief glimpse before the widow's hand closed over the bauble, but anyone who saw it was certain it was worth a great deal. Alexis suspected it was probably worth more than Widow Harper's entire farm.

The widow eyed the gem with a frown, and nodded. It was impossible to tell whether she was impressed with the gem-- a scowl seemed to be her only expression. "I reckon it might cover my losses... if it's real. I'll put it in a null magic box." She grudgingly looked to Zebulon. "Three days of no fruit stole, an' you'll get th' rest a yer money. An' you kin do whatever ya want with her ef she's th' thief. I ain't got time ta go ta no magistrate."

That said, the widow turned on her heel and stumped quickly toward the farmhouse, followed by the farmhands.

The Firebird breathed a small sigh of relief, and looked appealingly to Zebulon and Rave, who seemed to be the leaders of the group. "The gem will not disappear in her box, so I have paid for what I took... surely you do not have to take me to a cage..."

Feel free to continue to play in this section if you want, but I'm going to fast forward a little bit to get you guys back toward town!

---

The walk back toward town was a pleasant one, especially with the musical accompaniment of the jingling purse in Zebulon's hand. Just as the group crested the final hill before the city, a deerlike creature stepped out onto the road in front of them.

What does everyone do about the deerlike creature? And what does Zebulon do with that purse? And can the Firebird persuade the group to free her? These questions and more will be answered!

She had become quite frustrated at the widow, and despite her usual attitude of not confronting people head on in conflict, she would have gladly gave her a clout, if it had not been for the fact that they had a member of law enforcement in their midst.
Aneja could tell that Rave was no corrupt official, out for themselves or in it for the power, but she had always been wary around 'the law' and old habits died hard.

To rub salt into the wounds the widow was only paying them half up front, that was probably what made her sore the most, and her memory flicked to the promise she had made to Draza, and hoped she wouldn't want a steak too big... How much could a giant lizard woman eat? She started to despair slightly.

She watched coldly as Zebulon was handed the bag by the widow, and her fingers itched slightly, she guessed Zebulon looked the trusting type not to skim off anything while they weren't looking, but the best theirs she knew, never looked the type, but Aneja was confident she knew enough tricks of the trades to keep an eye on the pouch.

Of course she was probably intrigued more than the rest by the gem, she had handled a fair bit of jewellery in her time, not owned it, but at least handled it, in her line of work. She gazed at it, not seeing everyone else doing the same. To see it be handed over to that battle axe was almost the last straw, and she promptly spun around and stormed off with an annoyed humpf, but not before making sure she had committed to memory all the little nooks and crannies she could make out of the farm, and any loose looking windows. As she stormed off she growled quietly to Alexis "oh she's gonna get it luv,"

As the group made their way along the road from which they came, Aneja still being rather heavy footed, and not her usual observant self, determined to kick at every loose rock on the way, as if each one was the widow harpers head. She would let out comments to herself loud enough for the group to hear however. Comments about how if the widow didn't care about the firebird, why bother to take her in, and how she had surely paid her debt off, and so on and so on.
She wasn't sure if she was thinking out of sympathy, or whether she hoped the firebird may well have another gem lying around her person.

Just as she was thinking about the poor bird actually being put in a cell with some of the worst scum of the city, she almost dropped one of her daggers that she hadn't even realised she had been whittling away at one of the peach stones with letters W.H in front of them appeared some kind of four legged creature.


Roll to recognise anything about the gem The 20-sided dice lands on 14
Roll to guess a possible worth of the gem The 20-sided dice lands on 20 Aneja is usually good at flogging gems on...
Roll to recognise deer like creature, is another sentient being before Alexis shoots that too!! The 20-sided dice lands on 5

"Yes" Alexis looked at the anger flushed in the rogue woman's eyes and yet for once agreed with her. The woman Harper was not being entirely reasonable. But she did not argue, frankly at this point she wanted to be back in town with her part of the pay and a nice warm meal, but she turned to the rogue, "She is not a reasonable woman, that gem the fire bird gave her will more then pay for those peaches and many more"

Later, when the deer like creature crossed their path, Alexis raised her bow, but hesitated briefly remembering the firebird. In the end however she decided it wasn't worth her time to ponder this anymore, and shoots at the deerlike creature.

Roll to recognize deer like creature The 20-sided dice lands on 6
Roll to shoot Deer Like creature The 20-sided dice lands on 13

It took a moment before Phaelan realized that the party was starting to leave Widow Harper and her lacky audience, and he followed all the same behind the crowd. It had been a long night and a longer morning which only promised a exhaustively long walk back to the town. Weren't we supposed to be paid? He thought idly as the marched behind the clearly irate rogue-girl and the fair-feathered Harpy. Surely it would work out in the end. Besides, few people dared to swindle towering walls of rippling muscles.

Bleary-eyed, his exhaustion got to him. Phaelan followed his companions with his eyes slowly closing and his chin tucking to his chest. His long-strided march was guided by the sounds of walking made by the people in front of him. This was not the wisest thing to have been doing when they stopped upon seeing the deer-woman before them and the deadly aim of Alexis.


ROLLS:
1) Roll to continue forward without waking The 20-sided dice lands on 19. (high = wake; low = walk into the fray)
2) (if 1 passes, otherwise disregard) Roll to walk into the deer-woman The 20-sided dice lands on 14
3) (if 1 fails, otherwise disregard) Roll to bump into Alexis as she shoots her arrow The 20-sided dice lands on 20
4) (if 1 passes, otherwise disregard) Roll to luckily avoid being shot by Alexis The 20-sided dice lands on 1

(
He came in like a wrecking ball;
He never meant to hit this fawn.
All he wanted was to play his harp;
all he ever did was... be green."
)

---------- Post added 04-13-2014 at 08:26 PM ----------

Phaelan bumped into Alexis before she had a chance to loose her arrow. This also happened to wake him from his walking slumber.

Being bumped into by a few hundred pounds of verdant beefcake understandably ruined Alexis's aim. The arrow shot almost straight up, and a moment later a plump duck fell to the ground halfway between the party and the deerlike creature, skewered by the errant arrow.

Alexis looked angry at being toppled into by the green beast and let out a squawk in anger as she watched her precious arrow go up in the air, hits the duck and the duck which landed on the ground in front of the group. She was glad that her face was covered with feathers because at the moment she was quite sure her cheeks would have had a rosy tint to them at her miss. She never missed.

She ran over to the duck picked it up and slung it over her shoulder. She concocted a story to hide her miss hap, well as much as her rather dimwitted brain would allow. "My duck you hear! I meant to shoot that duck, and no arguing" another loud annoying squawk.

Roll for believability: The 20-sided dice lands on 2
Roll to stop being distracted and remember deer like creature. The 20-sided dice lands on 14

If that passes:
Roll to recognize deer like creature The 20-sided dice lands on 9

Zebulon could feel that there was a significant amount of gold on the bag that the Widow had handed him. If this was only half their pay, they would all be earning a good share from just one night of adventure. "It will be best to count this out in town, I think, rather than on the road," he said to the group. He carried the bag in hand when they set off back to the city, rather than stowing it in his pack, to prevent anyone accusing him of skimming off the top later.

---

Later, when a deerlike creature stepped into the read near town, Zebulon did not at first think much of it, except that it was unusual for deer to get near travelers since they were usually timid creatures. He became alarmed, however, when several things began to happen at once: Alexis shot at the deer, Phaelan stumbled into her, and then a duck fell out of the sky. "What on earth?" He halted well back from the fray, not wanting to end up entangled with the others.

Draza lumbered down the path with the others, staying close to the firebird. Her tail swishing back and forth covering her foot prints but still leaving a tell tale mark in the dirt road. For her this was a wasted mission, she was no closer to finding a new swamp. The money meant little to her other than as food and new bottles for her salves. And as for the fire bird, she found herself watching the small one and felt the need to maintain her safety for the short period needed.

Finding herself nodding along to the sneaky one's words, she didn't see the point in caging a criminal when the victim didn't care the outcome. "Shiny-one. If Tree Farmer took gem as payment, is Little-one not thief but buyer? In swamp thief gets hand bit off, buyer get three fish temple get one. Why cage buyer, when Farmer take payment?" Her mind was thick like swamp water, thoughts slowly swimming in circles, words slowly escaping.

Things suddenly started happening. The orc bumped into the harpy who shot off an arrow into the sky. A duck plummeted to earth, the harpy laying claim to it. Draza completely missed the deer-creature as all her attention rested on that duck. Her hunger made itself known three fold looking at that plump, fat, juicy duck. Her eyes narrowed on it, and drool pooled in her mouth. Locking her gaze with the harpy she grinned wide, her pearly sharp teeth exposed, saliva oozing out between them dripping down her chin. "...Feather-kin..."


Roll to "persuade" for possession of duck: The 20-sided dice lands on 19

Aneja had just noticed that this creature was no normal deer, at first she thought of tales of centaurs, part human and part creature, rather than some of her companions, who were amazing humanoid creatures, but definitely not human.
She spun around and just as she was about to speak out to the rest of the group, she saw Alexis have her bow at the ready. Aneja was almost about to shake her head in dismay, instead she opened her mouth, and was about to place her hand up and shout, but instead she shut her eyes tight, and heard the twang of the bow, and shortly after a thud. Aneja cringed as she opened her eyes to realise that somehow the arrow had gone astray seemingly on purpose according to Alexis, and some duck had managed to be impaled by the arrow.

Phaelan, still tired and now rubbing his left eye mumbled "Sorry feather lady..." in apology.
It was then that his eyes fell upon the deer-woman.

Roll to recognize her species The 20-sided dice lands on 2.
Roll to recall song lore about her species. The 20-sided dice lands on 4.

Those who succeed in recognizing the deerlike creature will see that she is obviously part-humanoid, and therefore probably intelligent. Centaurs and similar creatures are not unheard of, although they're definitely a minority-- granted, anyone who isn't pure human is a minority.

Phaelan has no idea what she is, but he does remember a whole lot of lore about Sarthen often taking the form of a deer. And, heck, that was such a good roll, he also remembers that some Northmen supposedly use deer for pack animals, although he's never seen a deer that could carry much of a load and that seems like a weird rumor.

Phaena: If you have time to post, this might be a good time to introduce your character!

Alexis took one look at Draza, and didn't need any more convincing. She could always buy food when they returned to town, but Draza was clearly hungry now. Alexis timidly walked over to the drooling and quite frightening Draza and held out the duck. "I can see you need this more then me, but I get the feathers you hear" she was trying to be demanding, but it was faltering. Draza scared her.

She turned her attention back to the deer like creature and noticed it was half human. What did that mean for them. Should she shoot it? Or maybe she should talk to it?

Phaelan looks puzzled and weary of the girl. He waits to see whether or not she is in the middle of transforming into something else. Perhaps into a Human? Perhaps into a Deer? We are walking with a Firebird, so it's not completely out of the question.

(Thanks for the ping! I do have time right now.)

The duck Tryphaena had failed to shoot once already was nearby. She made a move towards it as silent as she could, hoping she wouldn't end up missing it again when suddenly, an arrow appeared. It wasn't hers either. Turning, she realized there was a group nearby. A harpy began yelling at her. Her words made Phaena think that she meant to shoot her. Surely not, but it wouldn't have been the first time. The group looked confused, curious but she wasn't sure if she should talk to them or not. It would be much easier to let the harpy have the duck and leave but she hadn't eaten at all yet.

Roll to argue with the harpy about the duck. The 20-sided dice lands on 4
Roll to speak with the group as a whole. The 20-sided dice lands on 10


---------- Post added 04-17-2014 at 12:18 AM ----------

Lowering her bow, Phaena took a step forward. The large green fellow seemed confused, as did a few others. She tried to stay clear of the harpy as to not cause any conflicts and watched as she gave the duck to a lizardwoman. If she played nice, maybe they would share the duck with her. Everyone seemed to tower over her and though they frightened her, she gathered the courage to speak. "Hello... have you all been travelling for very long?"

Aneja was rather hypnotised by the appearance of this creature, her mouth slightly gawped open, she turned away from the skewered duck, and from Draza and Alexis dividing up their spoils. And peered back to the new arrival. Only when it spoke, did she realise she was staring with her mouth open.
"Oh...oh no...we er, just came from the farm" she said slowly, almost seeming surreal, she had never seen anything like it but had hear of centaurs, and creatures that dwelt deep within forests that were similar, part deer, part bull or this or that. But she had always thought of them as stories. But then again she thought to herself,... well she was in a group of adventurers that included a huge peaceful singing Orc, a magical wizard, a trigger happy dead shot Harpy, an intimidating Lizard woman, a straight laced female guard, and a firebird. So what was she really surprised about?
"Sorry but, what, I mean, who are you?"

The arrangement Madame Harper had outlined for the payment of their deeds seemed fair enough to Rave. Of course it wasn't in the arrangements she had made with the woman- Rave would be paid her wage regardless of the outcome- but it was obvious in the brief glimpse the crowd received of the gemstone Firebird paid Harper back for the peaches that she was more than reconciled for the original losses. She had made a mental note of it to add to the report she would file in town.

- - - - - -

Rave was about to breathe a sigh of relief at the sight of the city's skyline so near when all of a sudden the group appeared to go haywire. The harpy readied her arrow and let it fly when the green bard collided with her which caused the end of a duck that became a quick bite to eat for Draza while of a half-deer woman appeared out of the woods. The constable squeezed her eyes closed a moment as if to revive them from some up-until-now unknown after effect of the enchantment the firebird had put her under but naturally there was no simple eye squeezing cure for the actual appearance of cervitaurs.

She nodded when the thief told the newcomer about the farm and gave Phaena a thoughtful glance when she asked who she was. "There's no need to be timid. The worst you'll probably get from us is a nick name from the Crocodile." She was certain it would get some manner of reply from Draza but that didn't matter much to her at this point. She would be famished had it not been for the sickening sounds of the duck being used as a snack behind her. "We need to continue on into town." Rave added curtly after a particularly loud crunch.

Roll Perception on road for more travelers: The 20-sided dice lands on 5
Roll for knowledge of Sarthen/deer lore: The 20-sided dice lands on 17 -- Being an active part of the community she might have heard something about it.

Phaelan blinks out of his reverie, and turns to Rave with a scandalized expression. I am an orc, madame. Having said that, he flipped his long golden tresses and strode a few paces away from the group with his arms crossed.

How many times must I explain my hue to HUEmans? He thought to himself once his back was turned to the party. They come in all sorts of colors themselves... why is GREEN so different?! Gah!

Wait. His mind stopped reliving the frustrations of years past and onto more... current matters... Was that a puppy in the grass there? I like puppies... I hope it's a puppy!!

(He is easily upset when sleepy.)

Rave furrowed her brows at Phaelan and gestured toward Draza but it did little good as he had already turned away. She finally gave in and placed her palm over her face for an extended moment. Certainly Silkears would get a good laugh out of all of this... this chaos.

After all their introductions to the newcomer, some of the party had plenty of questions after all. Aneja arrived at the city limits of Arlith. The entire time she had simply stared at Phaena, listening but not taking in the other members conversations and questions, occasionally being aware of her open mouth every time she was snapped out of her daze by the sound of crunching as though someone was stepping on wet sticks, or admiring the big green Adonis of Phaelan, trying badly, but trying nonetheless not to make it obvious, but what she gathered from the Orc so far, was that he wasn't exactly the most observant of the group. Surprising nor was Rave so much, their authoritative stern official, their stern tight leather and armour clad official. Aneja never liked the law too much, or more to the truth the law never liked Aneja, but she couldn't help but admire her as she strode in her chain linked maile that hung to her hips.

Ahead of them the patchwork of buildings, clamoured together, as though some giant child had thrown its multitude of toy sets on top of each other, almost as though several different cities from different ages rose together, clambering and strangling each other like vines racing for the sun. Leaving a labyrinth and catacomb of alleys, passageways and hides holes, fantastic to be attacked robbed or worse, that's if the smells and food didn't get you first. 'Ah home' thought Aneja just as her belly rumbled hard a pain digging deep.
"Well food first... And drink! Plenty o drink B'fore our next gold making expedition! I'm going t' inn, who's with me?" She chirped with a sound of relief, now being back in comfortable surroundings.
"rWell Zebulon, I believe we have some shiny ol 'bits of metal to dish out?"

The sound of Draza having a meal of the duck behind her made her stomach flip and she tried to ignore the sounds. Instead Alexis eyed the newcomer with a certain trepidation, she still wasn't sure she shouldn't raise her bow and shoot at it a second time, for the moment however it didn't appear to want to do them any harm so she avoided doing so. She knew one thing for sure though, that newcomer best not be thinking she deserved some of their hard earned gold. She already had to share with the rest of the lot, but at least they had a part in the capture.

When they reached the city Alexis sighed in relief. There was a certain mention of splitting up, but she was going where ever that coin purse went.

Shoving fistfuls of feathers into the net slung near her waist, the naked duck disappeared behind pearly teeth. Sickening crunches and the vacuum sucking noise of teeth popping out of raw flesh echoed in her cavernous maw. Her eyes closed happily as she marched behind the others, snack being savored. She could feel the warmth of the firebird near her so didn't feel too worried about not keeping one open eye on her.

Draza was certainly still concerned that her ward would end up behind bars, her swamp thoughts had settled on the fact that she had paid the tree lady so she couldn't have been a thief. Not paying much attention the sounds of city assulted her ears, sslowly opening her eyes she kept them narrow to keep out the strong sun. "Shiny-one, I go with little fire. Not much care for tree farmers pay, just need new jars. Feather-kin, duck was good, feathers be good too, take." the whole net went to the harpy, feathers stuck in it. "You give net back to Draza, yes?"