Final Fantasy Hacktics

"Mr. Sparkle can-look-but-not-touch my beautiful ass!" Nathalie grumbled, walking with great determination towards the town.

"You all nearly jumped ass first into the den of mentally corroded cave dwellers without so much as payment or information and you only received such things because you had me," She explained, "I was the only skeptical person!"

"I bet that orb'd catch a fancier price than what Twinkles is paying us!" Nathalie scoffed, reinstating her anger against the smooth-tongued man, "He outwitted nearly all of you..and so easily!"

"I know a thing or two about schmoozing, and that Xavier is a bonafide expert," Nathalie adds, "I wouldn't trust him one bit. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if our share was somehow "reduced" by way of "unforeseen difficulties!" He's a villain of the worst kind--a smooth criminal!" Nathalie's slight anger over being out-schmoozed was beginning to show, and she is still bitter about the sparkling humanoid's job. Goblins are never to be trifled with.

Nathalie, after overhearing Hogarth explain the ways to kill a wizard, felt compelled to touch her lips to make sure they were still there. While Hogarth's method would no doubt prove useful, she found violence to only be a last resort option.

"Look, let's just talk to the guy.." Nathalie explained, taking a bite of Rhyhorn's emergency food, "Perhaps we can weasel our way into an agreement where we get paid more and information about what we just pulled out of the goblin cave?" Nathalie continued to eat the delicious food before her stomach gave a slight kick of uneasiness. The illness felt a little odd, as while the smell of burnt objects usually displeased her stomach, perhaps it was her delayed reaction to the death of a comrade.

"Thank you Rhyhorn, I feel much better now.. She says, giving him back the wetskin, "I suppose I could take a few rations too.. Accepting the gifts, Nathalie felt a little bit better now and walked with less of a zombie trot and more of a normal strut.

"Oh, I know how you feel about fire," She replied, "But seared flesh made me..do that."

"I would be delighted..will it take the sme..SMELL out of the air?" She asked, clutching her stomach with both hands. Seeing Rhyhorn offer her the glorious magic liquid known as water, Nathalie quickly grabbed it from him, upsetting the stomach more and granting a sort of "thank you" in some sickly way of communicating before taking a miraculous swig of that messiah liquid.

"I feel like I finally know how it feels when fires are put out.." She muses, feeling much more relaxed if still a bit queasy.

"I will be sure..to give that man a piece of my mind!" She says with much effort, still quietly wheezing from the stench of dead person. Nathalie covers her nose and mouth, before forgetting that she has no water to breathe safely out of, and instead decides to just truck on, perhaps puking along the road while following Rhyhorn.

"He will not! ...Not! be free from my wr..aath!" Nathalie threw up again.

Staggering while trying to get up off the ground, and patting Rhyhorn on the back before coming slightly to, Nathalie manages to hold remain resilient until she can get her point across, however overheated and disgusted she may be.

"I..agree..with H-Hogarth," She stammers, "This man sen--sends..us to a cave and didn't..tell us his pur..pose for do--doing so..." Shortly following her two cents, Nathalie proceeded to expel the other ninety-eight cents from her mouth onto the ground around her. After feeling most refreshed by the regurgitation of cancerous air, she stood there, embarrassed, and hoped nobody would exactly judge her for having a weak stomach.

Shocked, Nathalie stood absolutely still, her hand slightly covering her mouth as she muttered the words "absolutely crazy" under her breath and returned to being in awe of magic. She was hungry, but after the sight and stench of burning people and wood she decided for the best that she would rather like to keep her food in her stomach when she ate it, so returned back to the cart and lie under it, in the fetal position, trying to hold back the foreboding vomit.

"It smells like cancer.." She moaned, "Oh god the smell!"

"Just--" She started, "--keep it.." After the pixie hurriedly ran away to elsewhere, Nathalie yet again put the scroll back in the chest and sat down in the back of the cart, unaware of exactly what to do now. She could help burn the body, but she didn't want to look at the dead body again. Sitting in the cart, she started to worry if her fate would be to end up dead like Elia, and while thinking, the apparent alone-ness right now wouldn't quite help.

"Time to burn a body."

"Well if you insist," She replied, seeing as nobody wanted to go out for a morning jog, and retrieved the scroll from her chest and gave it to the pixie, "Good luck with your identification there.."

Nathalie whipped her head up, no longer being able to stand the patter-patter of Yvonne's relentless singing and theatrics. She rubbed her forehead roughly and sat in a daze and swayed all around, finishing waking up so that she'll be able to stand the rest of the day. Nathalie ran one hand through her hair, teased it a little, and tossed it aside in a way that she'd always done every morning. Usually, she'd finish her morning routine with a calm, relaxing bath but as since it were not the case here, she rubbed her arms and legs as if to wipe off the "morning dirty" and stretch her body out. At this point ignoring the fiery pixie, she decided she would take the rest of the time to wake up with a short, brisk jog.

"Anyone else to come along on a morning run?" She asked, "It really helps to wake a person up!"

Nathalie stirred slightly from the barbarian's yell, and after getting up to massage her sore parts, took a bedroll and blanket from the chest and laid it on the ground by the cart and fell asleep soundly inside of it. She dreamed of little sugarplums plated with gold and a nutcracker prince that she could break in half and reveal the deed to a house full of wonderful, expensive items. She buried herself inside the linens and dreamed more of this lovely, magical place.

Nathalie catches the returned scroll and enters somberly into the back of the cart, halfheartedly stashing the pilfered scroll into her chest and grabbing out of it a better pair of clothes to suit the weather. She sits in the back of he cart, curious as to the rest of the spoils and plans next time to master the art of sly fingers. A little uncomfortable, and away from the fire, she sets her head back carefully on the chest and starts to sleep, uncomfortably.

Nathalie sighs and skulks back to the cart, reaching wistfully into her chest and pulling out a piece of arcane parchment and twirling in her hands as she walks back to the peeved pixie.

"Fine. I was just going to practice with it anyhow," She muttered through gritted teeth and annoyed timbre, "Identify it. It probably isn't anything special anyhow."

Nathalie then glances at the lifeless body in the cart. Hearing the awful suggestion to eat her did not and would not sit well with her stomach, but she was sure to want to give a proper burial.

"Let's just send her off..wholly," Nathalie asked, "But we keep the stuff."

Nathalie inspected the cart, investigating the rummaged cart and looking somberly over the dead priestess' body. She wonders how any creature could mercilessly toss aside the limp body and proceed to defile a cart and its possessions, only to steal nothing. She looks at the footprints, hoping to get something out of them.

"None of this seems right.." She says to herself, tapping an index finger to her chin as she circles the perimeter of the cart, hoping to have her eureka moment. Pausing her investigation, she turned to the mantis-like creature now traveling with them, taking note to stash all of her belongings in her chest in the cart before moving away.

"Hello! N'zla..was it? I'm Nathalie, it's nice to meet you," She communicated, "Your native language, what is it? I find it fascinating."

what a stallion

top right muthafuckaaaaaa

Nathalie fearfully tiptoes back into the hallway after hearing what has got to be the most frightening array of noises she's heard in quite some time, before realizing her companions are safe and relatively unscathed, and the little pixie stating that something has entered the cave. For all of the things Nathalie could have reacted most dramatically about, it was this which caused her to react with such enthusiasm that she wildly flailed to the party, making hurried attempts at saying "die!" and "we're!" and "going to!" After a few minutes of panic, Nathalie calmed down slightly before pointing out the ever obvious..

"...Our cart is at the entrance of the cave," She paused, brought her hand to her mouth to muffle a gasp, "We have to save ALL THE THINGS!"

Her horror continued with a tenfold increase of mania.

Action 1) Follow Hogarth to the entrance, carefully.
Action 2-4) Ready crossbow and fire at any hostile targets.