Sarah has no choice but trust in her gut. She heads right, straight to that animal smell.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:00, Fri 10 Feb 2023.

Twiddling her thumbs on the shore, Jaffa looked inland. "Just, like, the exact middle? Alright, I guess. Hopefully she'll be friendly?" She stepped towards their destination.

Soon she hears voices. "I don't think we should be here."

"Would you shut up about-- that's the Nth time you've said that! We get it! You're scared! You think this was a mistake! But we don't-- look, we've come too far to turn back now!"

"That's the Oth time you've said that."

"The what? Oth?"

"I figured it came after Nth."

"Well, it doesn't!"

The voices are coming from right around the corner...

---

Dinkar, Jaffa, Raga, and Anthielle head into the trees. Sometimes, it seems like there's a path leading ahead. Sometimes, it almost peters out... but then seems to pick up a few feet later. Sometimes, there are other paths. The kids keep trying to pick the one that comes closest to leading in a straight line forward.

...They feel like they're being watched... but so far they don't see anything watching them...

(Pausing for one or more reaction posts...)

"Spooky..." Jaffa muttered, shivering a little bit as they made their way through the trees. She looked this way and that way, but there was no one else around. Maybe... Maybe she needed to focus on something else? Cheer things up a little, like a good kid? "D'you think we're walking in circles right now? I don' wanna get lost..." No, wait, that wasn't cheery at all!

Sarah looked completely shock to find strangers. But her curiosity was piqued. She turned to the corner to see what's going on.

"Don' worry.  I don' think the captain'll leave us here.  Not because he cares about us; because he won't wanna risk leaving somethin' magical behind."

The little girl looks around.  The place is spooky; she's used to rats and such peering at her in the alleyways, but this whole experience is different.

Dinkar was pretty sure they were travelling in a straight(ish) line. But Jaffa was getting scared, and he felt bad for her. Dinkar took her hand and patted it.

"We'll be fine," he said.

Around the corner are some animals: a bat, a hedgehog, a squirrel, and a gopher. "Well I just-- hey, look, a mouse!"

"Yeah, and she's got a shield! She must be an adventurer, like us!"

"A mouse would be perfect! We could've gotten that gold coin back near the skeleton if we'd had a mouse small enough to fit through that narrow gap!"

"Um, miss mouse, you're clearly an adventurer like ourselves-- we hope that you might join our adventuring party?"

OH NO! It's Sarah's worst nightmare: somebody ELSE that wants her to go on ANOTHER not-Peromi-related quest!!!

---

Just then, from around a bend in the island's forested path comes... a thing.

It looks like it's made of wire... with bits of glass here and there... It walks on two legs... And has a head with a dark glass eye... and it has two arms with hand and wire fingers... but... what the heck is it?!

More importantly: it's coming this way!!!

Jaffa nodded at Dinkar and Raga, sniffing a little bit. What Raga said made sense and she trusted her smart friend to know these sorts of things: even if they did get lost, that Smash man was probably a good navigator (you had to be to make cappin, right?) and he wouldn't want to leave this magic item behind, so he'd find them for sure! Still, she couldn't discount Din's hand. It wasn't an impressive argument, by any means. 'Here's a hand! It's a little soft and it can grab things, like your hand!' But still, something about holding onto one of her friends made this better... At least this way, they couldn't accidentally get split up, right?



"Eep!" Jaffa squeaked, "U-um, hi there? Are you friendly?" She waved with her free hand, though the one around Dinkar's tightened a little. She couldn't help it! Mystery wire people coming around a bend in a forest were a little scary! She didn't make the rules!

"No, how could this be!" Sarah said, defeated, but then an idea pops up,"Ah, but if I help you out with your coin quest, do you mind helping me out with my friend Peromi, she's looking for a magic staff to save her village and people. I'm trying to not be side tracked by too many quests so I hope with an adventuring party, it'll lessen my workload considerably."

(Roll Charming, Sarah... (Say, you're only 20 posts away from leveling up!))

---

(Roll Charming, Jaffa!)

Jaffa Redspot rolled 6 using 2d6 with rolls of 4,2.  Hey there, wire person! Charming (+2-1).

Yay! -1 gone now!

(...Me saying "a -1 penalty" doesn't really make much sense the way dice rolls work around here. I shouldn't have done that-- it's a holdover from how rolls work in my other games... darn.)

The wire thing moves toward Jaffa and raises its arm to attack...

Puts it down again...

Raises it... puts it down again...

Tilts its head. Looks at each of you curiously. It seems to have no idea what to make of you...

(Ah, shoot, sorry. Then that was supposed to be a -1 on the result, not on the # of dice? I can bring that 4 down to a 3!)

Watching as the wiry person raised and lowered its arm, Jaffa slowly shifted her waving arm to match, wondering if perhaps this was how they waved at people? It was honestly kinda fun, despite how scared she was. Waving her whole arm up and down was almost like she was doing some sort of wiggly dance, though it felt a little awkward to still be holding on tightly to Din's hand and not move that arm...

"Uhhh, my name's Jaffa," she started slowly, "What's your name?"

(OH, is that what happened? Then yeah, okay, it's all fine, never mind!

Sorry, but I've got games where you're trying to get a 4, games where you're trying to get a 6, games where you're trying to get a 12, games where you're trying to get a 1, and sometimes my brain short-circuits. Everything's fine now.)



The wire thing points to itself... Tilts its head... Shakes its head... then goes back up the trail the way it came again.

Just before it's out of sight, it stops, looks back... waves you forward. It wants you to follow.

(Roger roger! Sorry for the confusion!)



"Well... Uh... Sure?" Tentatively, Jaffa walked forward towards the wire being, hand still attached to Dinkar's. It seemed she'd made a new friend! A friend that didn't seem to have a name? Unless... was the act of shaking their head itself their name? Would she shake her own head if she wanted to address them? It was a ponderous thought, but she only had one free hand to make thinky gestures with and that one would probably be better used to gesture to the rest of her friends to follow anyways... Maybe she could scratch at her chin in deep thought later to make up for it? She'd have to make a mental note to do that!

Oh! And gesturing to her friends! It wouldn't make sense to not do thoughtful gestures if she didn't do the thing that made more sense. Pleased at figuring out what to do in this odd situation, Jaffa widened her lips into a beaming grin as she moved on to waving the rest of her friends to follow Probably-the-Act-of-Head-Shaking.

08:35, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 14 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,3,6.  Charm.

Dem rolls with me today

Anthielle had kept quiet for a while now.  She was weighing up the risk of getting her precious treasure (cursed chisel) looked at… so more power could be unlocked.  It had already slain a dirt elemental.  But would the witch try and take it?  Over her dead body!

When Jaffa and Din held hands, Anthi made a kissing noise and giggled

… until the chicken wire golem thing crossed their path.  While it was scary (due to being big), Anthielle was also fascinated.  Could she make things like this when she was older?  Jaffa seemed to have calmed the thing down and taking the kobold’s cue… Anthi did a curtsy.

“We seek the wise woman.  Can you lead the way, magnificent creature?”

At the odd kissing noise, Jaffa tilted her head to look quizzically at her half-elf friend. What could Anthi mean by that? Was she saying someone wanted a kiss? Again? Or that someone should be kissed? Really, Anthielle seemed very obsessed with kisses lately! Though admittedly, she didn't seem too keen on kissing people herself? Though maybe that was just because no one around her had any... what had she said? Peppermint leaves? Yeah, maybe it was just because no one has any leaves to chew on! Had she been waiting that long for someone with minty breath to come along and kiss her? A knight in leafy armor?! That was so sad! And there was little other reason for her to keep bringing it up, so that must be it!

Jaffa nodded her head, sure of her well-reasoned conclusions and pleased with her deductive mind. "Sorry, Anthi, but I still don't have any peppermint leaves to chew on... I can try to look around for some once we've spoken to the nice lady here though? Then you can have all the minty kisses you want!"

"Um, no, the gold coin wasn't our quest, we just wanted it too," says the bat.

"Our quest is to retrieve a root that is sacred to holy Chirosa, the nature goddess," says the gopher.

"Yeah, but gold coins are awesome," says the bat. "I say we get our new friend here to help us get the coin-- hi, new mouse friend, I'm Tassa, what's your name? --and then we help her with her quest. Maybe then she'll be free to come with us for the rest of ours. --is your quest very far? Our gold coin isn't far-- it's right back there," says Tassa, pointing behind her.

---

Suddenly, a new, four-legged... thing... rushes out of the bushes. It's like a big dog... but made of random pieces of wood, wrapped in-- and held together by-- wires. It shakes itself, and jangles noisily at the children. It doesn't really have a head, but between the shoulders there is a dark piece of smoked glass that seems to serve as an eye.

When it jangles angrily, the wire thing that was leading you through the woods rushes back and gets between the children and the lumber-dog, arms outspread. The message is clear: No, don't hurt them.

The lumberdog does not care. It non-head-butts the wire creature so that it falls down, and then it jangles at the children...

Dinkar drops Jaffa's hand and whips the gnomish eighth-staff out of his belt, taking a defensive posture. He takes a step towards the lumber-dog, moving ahead of Jaffa.

"I think I'll call you Scraps," he said. "But if you take one more step, I'm gonna beat you like a rented mule."

(Charming roll, Dinkar...)

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

The lumberdog attacks Dinkar!

Lack-of-a-head-butt!

Ow! (Dinkar takes 1 physical hurt!)