Re: ALL THE THINGS (ATT: A D&D RPG) - Let's get ready to rumble!

[Kalas]

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."

[Ryqoshay]

   The fire lirai flits happily down the cave's corridors, oblivious of any of her friends following her. Her excitement concerning the magical mysteries has overridden all other prior fears and concerns. "Well ain' that odd..." She mutters, noticing the scroll's absence. She looks over at the desiccated body of the goblin. "No, tha' un's defini'ly dead." Her forearm ignites as she prepares for a possible ambush, but quickly extinguishes it. Her alarm had not sounded. This could only mean one thing. "One a' the others musta taken it." She makes a mental note to inquire about it as she makes her way back to the group.

[Randomname]

N'zla merely stares and nods at the introductions given by Hogarth, while glancing over to the dead humanoid by the strange painted cart.  He then turns to Nathalie.  "First I must thank you all greatly for saving me from that dark place.  Was running out of mushrooms to eat.  But to answer question, I speak the language of Ak's children.  Speak Ek'r, words of the Ek.  Is actually very similar to the popular Tongues.  Grammar simpler, more confusing to not-Eks.  Maybe seen written Ek'r before and not even know?"  N'zla pauses and returns gaze to the fallen female humanoid.  "This one not a Deep-Dweller.  This one is human, yes?  Was with you?"

[EmmaNigma]

Without glancing beside her, Hogarth answers the Ek. "Yes, was with us. She was friend, then became deep-friend. She fell down a hole and died after a goblin ambush." Hogarth gestures down the cave. "We passed the hole on the way here. Hogarth leave it to friends to honor her body. We keep her gold, though."

[Ryqoshay]

   Yvonne waits as ALL THE NEW THINGS are added to ALL THE THINGS, all the while thinking. Finally,"Rhyhorn, Nathalie, you were the only two in contact with the treasure after me, besides Hogarth, but I am ruling her out. There was a scroll among the assorted items, I wish to see it, please."

[Randomname]

N'zla goes and touches the corpse of the woman before returning to Hogarth and Nathalie.  "Too cold to bring back the warmth.  Perhaps not much, but I am a priest.  If you like, N'zla could maybe give final rites and funeral?  Flying friend has fire, could cremate.  Of course, would not like to impose if that one's religion would prefer other.  The Way of Ak is not Way of All, this one understands.  In native Ro'K, our dead are burned til only their shell remains.  That shell is passed down to the survivors, and the ashes spread on the fertile grounds to make the food strong."

[RavenOfRazgriz]

The stone Rhino turns to Nathalie with a knowing eye upon Yvonne's return and declaration of a missing scroll.  From the rhino's unnaturally sharp recollection, a scroll was indeed missing when he aided the others in returning the items to the cart, as well as a dagger and some jewelry.  Rhyhorn sets the glowing gem he's been guarding with his life down under his face and pulls out his chalkboard and chalk for the first time in a while, writing "Rhyhorn know you have. Will just take value out of treasure later."  He then proceeds to his cart of ALL THE THINGS, his piece said over the missing items, and begins vomitting out the gold and silver he'd eaten into the cart - again looking shiny and clean as new.  He then begins sorting out the things in the cart, getting them back to the nice order his Rhino-OCD demands while Yvonne handles her scroll business with the lady thief-whore-person.

[EmmaNigma]

Ignoring the talk of coward magic scrolls, Hogarth continues blathering. "She was a follower of Odin. We could take any valuables off her and dump her down the hole she died in. This is the way of Honored Clan Leader from Hogarth's home. We need to camp, we could always feed her to the fire, and save rations by doing so." Hogarth's eyes shift side to side, seeing if her not-at-all-selfish suggestion is good with the rest of the group.

[RavenOfRazgriz]

Rhyhorn, a rhino of good integrity, collects his orb back into his mouth and moves toward where Elia's body rests upon hearing the Barbarian's suggestion, setting his orb down again and guarding the body as he continues to sort out his ALL THE THINGS.

[Randomname]

"No feed to fire.  Better to entomb in wood.  Make burn stronger, and is more honored to the hollow body.  N'zla feel bad if that was friend of you."  The Ek shifted uncomfortably, glancing at the dead woman a few times and awaiting the opinion of the others.

[EmmaNigma]

Hogarth grits her eyes, narrows her teeth, and says "So it will be. Burn her. Stench bad in morning anyway. Keep spear, may be useful." Hogarth then grabs her pack and some tenting/camping supplies to set up camp on the hill.

[Ryqoshay]

   The tiny fey reads the stone rhino's chalkboard before turning her gaze upon the human woman. "I care not about any mundane items, only ones of magical essence." She explains matter-of-factly. "We should have them identified and decide upon their usefulness to our group. However, I may be able to identify the spells on the scroll now, thus I wish to see it. If there is a fireball spell in it, or any fire spell for that matter, I wish to claim it. I am the only arcane caster here, so I do not see this as an unreasonable request. If, however, the scroll contains spells of a divine origin, you may keep it. Wipe your crevasse with it or burn it for all I care. But first, I must insist that I see it." She holds out a hand, palm turned upwards.

[Kalas]

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."

[EmmaNigma]

Having built the tents and the fire, Hogarth sits on a log and munches on some rations. "I take first watch. Friends sleep, decide on second watch. We set off after we've had our rest." She idly stabs Elia's spear in the ground, testing its weight and sharpness.

[Ryqoshay]

   "Thank ye." Yvonne says, grinning as she accepts the rolled parchment. She floats around idly as the others set up camp. Over the next few moments, however, her smile slowly fades, her brow furrows and she eventually scratches her head. "Feh." She snorts, rolling the scroll back up and tossing it haphazardly back at . "Whatever..." she grunts. "AAAAAUUUUUUUOOWWWHHnomnomnom..." a yawn escapes the mage's throat. "Hungry..." she murmurs after. She reaches back and retrieves a tiny mess kit from her pack. Finding a sufficiently flat stone, she settles, cross-legged upon it. She shimmies off her pack, letting her collection of wands scatter before shoving them into a rough semblance of a pile. Just as she raises the first bit of summoned food to her lips, a single snowflake floats down, past her cheek and up her nose. "HAKUSHON!" She manages to get her forearm up in time, but the flame that spews forth from her mouth rushes past her attempted barrier, leaving scorch marks on the rock and the edge of her bowl. Her skirt, amazingly, fares fine. "Whoa..." the flame lirai exclaims, eyes wide. "Hiran mus' be talkin' 'bout me..." She wonders aloud before sniffling a bit, then shivering. "Stupid win'ery weather..." she grumbles and goes back to eating.

[RavenOfRazgriz]

Rhyhorn, finally satisfied with how his cart is arranged, turns to Elia's form still on the ground.  He scoops her into his cart, then picks up his Orb of Glowy Things and walks out of the cave, pulling the cart behind him.  At the mouth of the cave, still a small distance from camp, Rhyhorn pulls the cart to the side and unlatches, beginning to dig a hole, just like a Rock/Ground-Type Pokemon should.  One paw, two paw, three paw, four paw rock.  Five paw, six paw, seven paw, eight paw rock.  Nine paw, ten paw, eleven paw, twelve paw rock.  Rock 'round, the paw tonight...

[Ryqoshay]

   Another flake almost alights upon the flame pixie's cheek, but melts just before touching her skin. Nonetheless, another shiver runs up her spine, causing an Aquan curse to be released from her mouth. She quickly shoves the last handful of bland imitation granola down her throat before grabbing her bag and hopping down off the rock. Moving behind it, relative to the others, she retrieves a set of thicker clothes. The outfit is nowhere near as pretty as her preferred ensemble, but function has a bad habit of trumping form from time to time. "Better." She sighs contently, securing the closures and straitening the sleeves. A smaller, squeakier yawn sneaks out as she shoves her gossamer guise carelessly into her pack. Pulling her blanket out, she begins to look for a decent place to bed down for the night.

[NinjaWeazel]

Xun spends a few moments building up the campfire for better heat before reaching into his backpack and producing a metal tripod.  This goes over the fire, then his metal cookpot gets suspended from it.  Humming faintly under his breath in the odd harmonies of his homeland, he then pulls out tightly sealed and wrapped ingredients, cutting them up as needed and adding them to the pot.  Before long, the smell of a thick, savory stew is rising from the pot.  He moves the tripod away from the fire so it wont scorch and takes a bowl for himself, sitting cross-legged on a flat stone.  "Hard work in cave.  All eat stew.  Very good for restoring energy."

He also pulls a small calligraphy set from his pack, using the ink to touch up the markings on his blade.

[Kalas]

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.

[EmmaNigma]

Hogarth graciously accepts a bowl of stew from Xun, denying use of utensils and gulping it down out of the bowl. "Many thanks, friend Xun. Need energy for night watch. You sleep, maybe get up for 2nd watch in 4 hours or convince Ek." With that, Hogarth stoically stands guard at the edge of camp, keeping an eye on Rhyhorn, Nathalie, and ALL THE THINGS from there. She feels in her bones that tonight's watch may be the most important. With the disturbing of the cart's things, she has no doubt the perpetrator will try to ransack the camp. And when they do, she'll be ready. Oh yes, she laughs and runs a finger smoothly against the edge of her axe.... she'll be ready.