sleepydogboy

Horarth stares blankly at Taunus. "I can be discreet," he argues in a low whisper, hunching in an awkward cat burglar's pose. "I'm ready to take off after them here and now. They departed on horseback, so I suspect our chances of catching up are low..." his protruding lower lip quivers in contemplation, "...but surely they'll have to rest eventually... that could be our chance to strike." He approaches the prince's entourage. "Pardon me—Horarth of the Augustfield estate by the way, pleased to make your acquaintance—have you any funds for a couple of freelance do-gooders like ourselves?" He gestures grandly to the party. "We stand to rescue this prince, or at the very least find where he's been taken, if you could promise it worth our while." He leans in towards the braver fellow that was speaking to Makial, "At least a little something-something upfront, and we could negotiate a more proper sum with the king?"

"I've got my faith in the Ancient Ones to protect me. You think I'm scared of some baby bugs?"

Bamzaw Bamzaw walks up to the pile of writhing larvae and, feeling quite invincible, lets his caveman thoughts get the better of him. He sticks his finger in a larvae's mouth. Ve "Bamzaw, leave them alone. They're babies, haven't done anything wrong to anybody." Cinders "Nope, not touchin' that." Cinders turns on a dime and marches right back out of the room. She sees Mim following her; "not too close pal." Mim the Triad "I'm just glad somebody else has some good sense. I'm not going to be caught poking around the larvae when an armada of angry ants shows up."

Horarth's nostrils flare subtly on the word "heir", but by the end of Alfrid's sentence his expression is a puffed-up grin. "An educated man!" You all have heard Horarth namedrop his noble family at least a dozen times since the caravan first departed, and whatever schemes he had been pitching take a backseat as he stands practically sick with pride at having his status affirmed by someone who isn't him. "And this gentleman is Alfrid, of the Dannen family of noble warriors," he throws an arm around Alfrid in an overly familiar fashion. "You'd do well to remember that name, his tournament record is nothing to scoff at."

Same, my only agile character is Bamzaw and all that man understands is charging in headfirst Let me know if any rolls are needed to explore the mist room.

Ve "No!" Ve reaches her hand out uselessly as Zyx sinks into the lava. She feels Cinders slap a hand on her shoulder. Cinders "Shit happens, kid. We take our licks and press on." Ve and Cinders linger for a moment and catch up with the group. "Good lord this is thick, can't see nothin' but my own nose. You hug the left wall Ve, I'll hug the right." Bamzaw Bamzaw adjusts his leather sack and hunches headstrong into the mist. Mim the Triad "Bamzaw! Ve! Cinders!" Mim gives a whispered shout as his compatriots vanish into the haze. He turns to the party. "Lunatics, all of them. Anyone got anything to plug that hole?" he says, pointing to the dome.

Ve Ve hangs back, making sure everyone makes it off the bridge before she proceeds. Cinders "Right, before we get much deeper into this cave I'm gonna need a weapon." Bamzaw reaches into his leather sack and hands her a flint dagger. "That oughta do." Bamzaw After giving Cinders his dagger, Bamzaw wanders confidently into the southern room closest to the bridge. Mim the Triad Mim gets up and dusts himself off, reluctantly following Bamzaw and poking his head into the room.

Sorry to hear about your friend, hoping for the best for them <3

Horarth starts to raise a hand to protest but thinks better of it. "Half-pint has a point. But even if this prince is down on his luck, his title holds weight. Helping out a prince opens doors—influence," he leans in towards the pixie, his lips curling smugly around his tusks, "connections. Plus for all we know that guy's loaded, just didn't think he needed a full security detail. Might as well ask. Speaking of which..." he stares off in the direction of the riders, "Aurelian knights... something smells fishy about this whole affair." "...But you're right, let's not get ahead of ourselves. It may be best we continue on to Yuvia, ask around to see what people know of this Aldenar fellow. And if it's that tooled-up cavalry you're worried about, Yuvia's the place to find backup," he mutters, eyes darting toward the horizon. "Or poison..."

For sure! Makes sense to me :) plus I think Horarth would vastly prefer Alfrid's inexperience to the stifled perfectionist lifestyle of a lot of the other nobles. For some backstory reasons, Alfrid might have noticed Horarth only attended tournaments as a "fan", without the accompaniment of his family. He was frequently present at closed-doors noble schmoozer events though, dinner parties and the like, mostly pestering any noble name he could manage to rub elbows with. In the last year or so he's stopped showing up to all of these, so this caravan is probably the first time they've seen each other in about that long.

Horarth steps away from the prince's group and closer to Alfrid and Taunus. "Fellows, fellows," he says as he approaches, "let's count our blessings here. I don't know about you all, but all my limbs are still comfortably attached to my body thanks to his royal highness's noble sacrifice." He puts some extra stink on those last two words and side-eyes the prince's group, clearly holding a grudge that the rest of the caravan (especially himself) was put in danger. "This could be a golden opportunity is all. Those men didn't look like a bunch of woods-dwelling berry-eaters—" he turns to the goblin, "no offense," his tone is not very sincere, "—my point being they're bound to be headed for a city, possibly even Yuvia. I say we let the prince's entourage get nice and hysterical, swoop in offering heroism at an exorbitant rate, and before you know it we're bona fide social climbers of high society. Pretty boy gets to be a hero, the green one gets to run a circus, it's a win-win for all of us." He stands up extra straight, looking pleased with himself. "Your thoughts?"

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.

Don't count me out just yet, my intrusive thoughts could win at any moment 😅

Mim the Triad Mim reaches the other side of the bridge and sits against a wall, picking garbage out of his hair. Bamzaw "Ah, thank you my friend." Bamzaw takes Grog's hand and attempts to pull himself free once more. Ve Ve attempts to pull Zyx loose. "No one left behind!" Cinders Cinders offers Jaxi a hand. "Watch the claws."

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.

Horarth sits on the back of a wagon, turning over a ring in his hands. Though his thin hair hangs over his face, the shiner he'd been given during one of those drunken scuffles is still plenty visible. The wagon hits a small bump and he fumbles with the ring, nearly dropping it. "HEY!" he shouts to the driver, "WATCH IT! I've got delicate cargo in this wagon." He slips the ring into his pocket and sits up straight, suddenly conscious of his improper posture. As the wagons continue along the road, his eyes wander aimlessly to the passing roadside foliage, scanning for any potentially useful alchemical ingredients or particularly interesting bushes. Yuvia is Horarth's shot at a fresh start, maybe the only one he'll be afforded. He can picture it now: the streets so clean you can eat off them, the buildings a mile tall, the civilized citizenry that will show him the proper respect and courtesy he deserves. He's certain it will be exactly as nice as he imagines it—maybe even better.

Will characters rolling to get unstuck also get the +2 to their STR check?

Ve "Don't worry Bamzaw, I'll help!" Ve attempts to jump across the garbage to Bamzaw. Bamzaw "Another of the Ancient Ones' tests. No matter." Mim the Triad Mim sighs and follows Ve's path across the bridge. "Bunch of ingrates..." Cinders Cinders takes a gander at the gooed horseflies, feeling a little better about getting captured now that she's seen something that big meet the same fate. She walks out of the room and sees the party trying to cross the bridge. "Fuckin' A, y'all have a small army here." She attempts to help the first stuck person she sees, which happens to be Myycky.

Whoops! Got mixed up with locations, will edit 👍

Cinders As Ygg pulls away the layers of goo, the face of a human woman with a shaved head emerges, and she falls forward unsteadily. "Shit..." she says, bracing against Ygg, "...I owe you one." She pulls her shield and remaining gear from the goo. "Really, I mean it. I don't forget a favor." She looks around the room. "Now how the hell do I get out of this ant hill..." Bamzaw Bamzaw bows his head and murmurs, "Ancient Ones, deliver me to the other side safely." He takes a confident step onto the bridge, and immediately gets stuck. Mim the triad Mim stands in front of the bridge, hovering his foot over the mucus before pulling it back. "Say... whosoever carries me to the other side, you'll earn a seat in my cabinet when I become the king of the mutants." He gives an accomplished look, confident that will be sufficiently convincing. Ve Ve doubles back to the trash room, grabbing handfuls of whatever she can find, with the plan to toss the stuff on the bridge as improvised garbage stepping stones.

Mim the Triad Mim pops his head out of the garbage and quietly joins the party. Bamzaw Bamzaw cradles the artifact sack in his arms, murmuring sweet nothings to it under his breath. Ve Ve retrieves her spear and wipes the ant blood onto her pants. "Sure, bridge."

Ve Ve feels a rush of dopamine as her spear slays its target, dulled soon after by the realization that she is now bare-handed. She thinks to herself, this might be my calling, I've just really got to work on my grip... She clenches her fist and rears back to throw a punch at the nearest ant. Mim the Triad Mim continues wading through the garbage, his nose held tightly shut. In an effort to move away from anything wet or smelly—perhaps a Sisyphean task—he pushes through the debris feeling for anything not entirely unpleasant, a different sort of "wandering the wastes" than he was prepared for when he embarked. Bamzaw "Yes... YES!!!" Bamzaw pulls from the refuse a leather sack, deformed by some large object inside. He hoists the unwieldy sack over his shoulder—that explains the hunch, anyway—and tears begin visibly streaming down his face. "We're saved, you hear me? Saved!" His foot bumps against a small cylinder, which he picks up and deposits in his sack. "And already, the Ancient Ones smile upon me. I am INVINCIBLE!" He charges+2 to hit, -2 to AC until next turn forward and attacks with his rake.

Ve "Man, and I really liked that trumpet too..." Ve sees in her peripheral more trash get heaped next to her. "That's hardly helping—", she turns and notices that it was deposited by an ant, "—GAH!" She makes a frantic jab with her spear. Mim the Triad As the ants turn and draw their weapons, Mim realizes he is still under-geared, and tactically decides that the time for pride must wait. He places his three-fingered hand over his nose and dives beneath the refuse, hopefully to be forgotten amidst the chaos. Bamzaw Bamzaw's eyes snap between the ants, the pile, the ants, the pile, and he mutters to himself, "I can take them all out, I just have to find it. It has to be here." He continues searching for his gear. "By the Ancient Ones, I pray they didn't steal it..."

Should I go ahead and make all my rolls for Bamzaw's search now? Figured that might save time but I've been doing it a little slower to give everyone the chance to abandon him in case he sprang a random encounter on the party in the mad pursuit of his "artifact" lol