Is there a Lore thread I've missed? Because none of these names are ringing any bells for me, so I've just rolled with Taunus home town being an isolated forest village that got on by itself.

Taunus, Goblin Ranger Taunus watches the supposed prince give himself up without judgement, though speaks up when the loudmouth pretty boy cries out in defence, "Never met the Emperor, so don't know who's side he's on, or who's side you think I should be on. Doesn't matter what face the throne has, sole of the boot always looks the same. Besides, that guy was a knight, not a bandit according to your prince. Though I've never hear of this Aurellia neither. They've also never been out defending the village."

Seeing how they were outnumbered, and how there was no imminent threat anymore to the caravan members, Makial made no fuss when the Prince surrendered himself to the armed cavalry. He had no attachment nor knowledge about him, and no special feelings either way. One thing he knew for sure though, was that the Prince certainly wasn't traveling alone. He tried to look at the area the lone man had come from, and walked over there to find someone from his retinue who may be able to shed some light on what had just happened.

The young man looks left and right, then straight ahead at all the swords. Seeing too few people willing to join him against too many knights, he wilts and stows his sword back in its scabbard. OOC

The group points their swords at Alfrid, "Don't be a fool, young man. This doesn't have to come to blows" The rider tying up the prince keeps tying him up and continues. Anybody who plans on attacking can roll initiative, if you need a reminder it's 1d10 + your cunning skill.

Emerging from the back door of the wagon, Horarth moves to rejoin the crowd as though he hadn't powdered at the first sign of danger. His gaze lands on the prince's group, and he sidles up to the injured party. "Maybe that'll knock some sense into you," he says. "I've never met a man worth risking a brain injury for. What makes him so special?" He looks to his side to see what all the shouting's about and sees Alfrid draw his blade. Horarth's hand slowly moves to his backpack as he waits to see the riders' reactions.

Ellie Fae Ellie shakes her head at Alfrid’s abrupt turn from helpful fool to angry man trying to attack a group of knights. Then, she flies back up to take a nap on a wagon roof. OOC What do you mean, ‘we?’

"Wait - is that really him?" Alfrid looks on, stupefied that a royal family member is giving himself up, and within miles of the capital. Disgusted with himself for watching the kidnapping unfold, he starts shouting at them. "Stop! How dare you! The Emperor will have your heads for this!" Finally he draws his sword to back up the tough talk. "I won't let you do this!" OOC (We might be entering Initiative.)

They don't really have a look of mercenaries, they almost look like knights, or some kind of armed forces.

The men have made no move to start searching the camp, they effectively have their weapons at low ready, they don't exactly look like they want a fight with anybody here, though they are armed and seemingly willing to fight if they need. The leader looks at the goblin, "that is the way we would have it as well." A figure that looks to be not noteworthy at all comes forward, "I will not have you hurt this caravan or any who travel with it. I will willingly come with you, knight of Aurellia to avoid any kind of bloodshed of these people." The leader of the group looks him over good, and then gives a nod to one of his riders who binds the guy up and lays him across a saddle securing him then they ride off unless you somehow try to stop them. As they are leaving one of the people traveling with the man lunge at the riders who then knock him in the head.

Taunus, Goblin Ranger Taunus initially shrugs at the demands of the midnight man. He doesn't know who this Prince is, who this man represents, or why he should acre about either of them. Nobles never cared much to venture into the forest and to be entirely honest that suited him just fine. They left him alone, he ignored them. His eyes harden at the implicit threat to the rest of them though, even addressed to this Prince as it was. Laying the voice at this Aldenar's feet did not mean it was any less of the midnight man's doing. If a prince was even here. "Thrashdak," he cursed in goblin, spitting over the side of the wagon towards the bandit. "I would not take orders or threats from you, midnight man. Let your business with this prince remain between the two of you." Hand still on taut bowstring, he makes no effort to move from his perch above the wagon, his body as tense as his weapon. Mentally he begins to pick targets, stretching his senses.

I'll roll for History in my next post, but whether or not the Prince is a good guy or a meanie, Alfrid has no intentions of giving him up. He assumes that the forest people are bandits.

Containing his frustration, Alfrid continues to stall. "Certainly. Will you give me your word that your men won't get close while we try to find him? The chaos would make our task more difficult." OOC Provided that I succeed and the leader has no problem keeping his men away from the caravan, Alfrid will actively look. Notice, Cunning and Persuasion

a reduction in the difficulty is as follows. So currently difficulty is an 8 or higher, so only 8 or above is a success, a reduction in difficulty means that you succeed on that die if it is a 7 or more As far as the prince, the name might be familiar, but you would have never seen him or know what he looks like. You don't know much about the prince, so... These guys don't look like bandits. You can roll a knowledge + history or a different skill if you have good justification. To tell if you know where their clothes come from, since there are insignias and things on their clothing.

Aside from whether or not we know if this prince (or any prince) is on the caravan, do we recognise the name at all or have any background on them? Looking for some kind of in game rationale as to why we wouldn't just shrug and let them search (beyond the fact that the bandits seem like the bad guys. But how knows, maybe the prince is an evil selfish noble and these are the glorious revolutionaries fighting for the common man) Edit: Oh does dropping the difficulty change the number rather than just reducing the number of required successes. That makes sense otherwise it would just be the same as an extra dice.

I am assuming the offer to roll Cunning + Perception extends to all of us ? Also, I am assuming a standard difficulty of 8, so actually 7 for Makial thanks to the Awareness Perk. Please correct me if any of this is wrong, of course.

Sorry about the multiple posts this time, i will try and make one post with different sections in it for each in the future

You aren't very stealthy, but you aren't exactly noisy either, just kind of normal, which does cause one of the horsemen to ride around and check, quickly noticing that you are not the prince they are looking for they ride back to their group.

The roll botched so no help with the roll. The man looks at you, I have never heard of a Lord Eric Dannen, "Find me the prince and the remainder of the caravan can go free." He then looks over you, "Prince Aldenar, show yourself so that none of these innocents get hurt." Give me a Cunning + Perception roll to notice some things. In my game you can use other stats if you can justify the reasoning for using them. If you want to use different Scores or skills give me a reasonable explanation on how that would work.

The man waves the pix away as if she was a bug that was annoying him.

Berating himself for not noticing this troop of mercenaries, Makial slowly walked to the right of the knight, facing their opponents as close as he could without triggering them. He knew not what would happen - the small Pixie's distraction being too unlikely - but he knew that he could not let them kill the caravan for no reason. If he had wanted training, now he seemed about to get it.

Ah thanks I hadn't realized you could move the pictures

Makial got both the Awareness Perk, and Danger Sense Perk. I don't mind being taken by surprise for the sake of the story, but I thought I would mention it anyway in case it becomes relevant at some point.

Taunus, Goblin Ranger Taunus grunts in answer to the monk, clearly unsatisfied with the reply. Whether this is because he doubts the answer, the skill of the answerer, or is just unhappy is unclear. He continues to glare through the undergrowth along their route, as if willing something to appear. By the time the caravan eventually calls a halt the world is painted in monochrome. Little problem for his ruby-red eyes to still pick through the shadows, though the lack of colour is dull. He was about to give up his watch for the night - for even he needed to sleep occasionally - when his ride lurched to a halt, almost throwing him clear. He berated himself for not spotting the bandits in the trees before as the torches revealed the speaker. Taunus remained quiet, arrow still knocked against his bow. He watches their reaction as first the slightly pixie flew down with a story, and then the loudmouthed pretty boy spoke up in denial. Carefully, slowly, he pulls the last of the slack from his bowstring, ready to react if need be. He would defend the caravan without hesitation if blade was drawn, just like he'd stared done with the direwolves around his village.

Horarth does his best to quietly slink into the wagon he was seated on, unnoticed (Agility and Stealth). Best case scenario, maybe they won't find him, and in the worst case... well, this is where he stored his Greek Fire.