Playing in the Sandbox

"Whenever you're ready," said Tordek, picking up his axe and grinning.

"Oh, you have a family?" Skaimos considered this. Perhaps Thag might be open to learning the truth now. After all, he had saved Thag's life and there was little to be done about the bounty now. Maybe if he phrased it as a hypothetical situation ("What if one of your kids was kidnapped"), and took time to show Thag the moral complexity of the...

Skaimos stopped. "Moral complexity" might be a bit beyond Thag. And it wouldn't change the fact that Thag would not have gone on this trip and nearly gotten killed if he had been able to turn Skaimos in for his bounty.

Elkas Morden had saved Thag's life. Elkas Morden was now Thag's friend. For now, that was enough.

"Well, I'm sure they'll be very glad to see you again." Skaimos stood up. "I'm going to make sure that everyone else is alright for the moment. Try to get some rest. We'll be at Hanko soon enough." Skaimos gave Thag a nod, then walked away.

---

...Aaaaaand scene.

Later that night when everyone had gone to sleep, aside from Tethe who being one of the few people not exhausted was on watch duty, Cyrta had a strange dream. She dreamed of fire in all shapes and colors, many she had never seen before. She felt the heat from all of these ranging from colder than the darkest night to so hot she thought she must have long ago burned to ash. Then she saw the elemental she had made a pact with. After this her recollection of the dream, if that's what it was, is fuzzy. She recalls conversing with both her and it asking questions of the other and of some kind of deal they struck. With a start, she awoke to find herself staring at a cube of fire sitting there on the ground right in front of her, turning the sand beneath it to glass.

Meanwhile, Tethe had observed the little pixie flutter lightly out of one of the wagons and at first Tethe just thought she was off to relive herself. Then she watched, not once thinking to take action, as Cyrta flew low to the ground, dragging her feet in the sand, and in this way slowly made strange symbols whose meaning were entirely lost on the Dragonborn. Eventually Cyrta stopped moving and dropped to her hands and knees down on the sand. The next moment the symbols burst into flames and thrust the sand out away from them, removing any proof they had ever been there at all. Then Tethe spotted a cube of fire form in front of the pixie.

Before either of them could react, the cube floating a bit up into the air and faded away. However, Cyrta could still see it, though she could also see through it as it just hovered there before her. Moving her hand up to touch it, she felt nothing but the air, not even heat, to prove its existence. She couldn't explain how but, she knew she could make it manifest itself for short periods of time if she wished to.

"Hello..." Cyrta said to the new Companion Cube she could see unaware anyone was nearby to hear her at this point. "I think... Your a gift from... My elemental friend?"

Tethe sat cross-legged a little away from where the others slept so as not to wake anyone, sitting against the side of one of the lizards who pulled the wagon. An unusual instrument in her lap propped up against her shoulder, resembling a guitar but having only three strings, a very long neck, and a small, box-like body with no opening. "I see I'm not the only one who summons unusual things without knowing it." She said out loud, plucking at one of the strings with the broad pick in her hand before muttering slightly and adjusting the peg some more.

The Companion Cube doesn't really respond in any way. In a non-responsive friendly way? You couldn't say for sure.

"Pitty... You don't seem to speak..." Cyrta mutters to herself then smiles to the cube that only she can see. "It's ok, I'm sure you are a gift and ally for me." Next she hears Tethe's comments and blushed turning around. "OH... You saw that? I take..."

The dragonborn chuckled a little, playing a few notes quietly to test the sound. "From start to finish. Any idea what that was supposed to be?" She adjusted the pegs some more before plucking a few more notes and nodding to herself, seemingly finally pleased with the sound.

"I think... It's a gift..." The pixie replied then looked around as something finally dawned on her. "Wait... How'd I get outside?"

"Any idea what it does?" She asked, scratching her chin lightly trying to figure out what a fire cube would do. "Oh! You flew out here, started drawing little lines in the sand by dragging your feet around and summoned it." She responds with a shrug.

"Ok... That's weird... Never did that before... Explains the dream a little I guess..." The Pixie said with mixed feeling about learning that. "And the cube of fire I think is ment to help keep me a bit safe while I fight."

Other than that bit of strangeness, the week passes by rather calmly. Sure there are a few wild beasts and minor natural issues to circumvent or deal with but, nothing that required any serious effort.

A day into your fourth week of travel Tordek spots something glinting from behind them. Looking closer he can tell it is a group of men on raptorback. As they get closer he recognizes one of them. It's everyone's second favorite dragonborn, Thornhill! Tordek also notes that Thornhill is wearing different armor and it looks like a different sword as well.

---

I made passive Perception rolls for people. Everyone but Tordek failed, aside from Alma who just auto-failed due to being ahead of the group.

Tordek quickly reports to the rest of the group.

"Looks like someone's eager to see us, and we aren't eager to see him," said Tordek. "It's the dragonborn guard from Kabikyo."

This involves all the NPCs aside from Mykaila raising their eyebrows curiously and Mykaila looks around nervously.

Tethe blinks, looking behind them. "You know each other?" She asks with a tilt of her head, trying to see if she recognizes anything about him.

streetwise roll:

"And I was so hopeful we had gotten away..." The Pixie mutters quietly to herself.

Tethe blinks squinting her eyes a little before nodding to herself. "Looks like a ronin to me..."

Skaimos' eyes widened. "You mean the one that Lex-Iya-san..." He then looked around at the "uninformed" members of the caravan. He had hoped that when they had left Kabikyo without incident, that that would have been the end of it. But it seems the consequences of their actions had followed them.

He decided that there was no other recourse but to tell the truth. They would hear it from Thornhill anyway once he caught up, and if he wanted any chance of convincing them to help (or at least not to immediately turn on them), it would be better to hear the truth from him first. If they gave him and his comrades up afterwards...well, that was that.

"I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but it seems there's no avoiding it now. The one pursuing us is a dragonborne called Thornhill, who serves under Daimyo Togaru. I suspect he's come this way because..." Skaimos gave a big sigh. "...because I am Skaimos Terai, son of Kairos Terai."

"It was the day of the festival. Lex-Iya-san and I had met, exchanged pleasantries, and were watching the tournament. We and a few others heard a thri-kreen calling for help, saying his daughter was missing. When we offered our assistance, he said his name was Nale Mefas, and that his daughter, Mykaila, had been kidnapped by a noble called Tammet Iykta. If he did not do as Iykta-dono asked, his daughter would be killed. He said that she would be guarded at the cherry blossom party up on the hill. As we did not doubt his words and were eager to help the needy, we agreed.

We went to the party, where we found Mykaila, surrounded by four guards. Thornhill was one of them. Through trickery, misdirection, but mostly sheer luck, we managed to get Mykaila and escape....but not cleanly. My real name had been used, some of our faces had been seen, and Lex-Iya-san....she...she doesn't like to be touched now...

It was only afterwards we had realized the true nature of events. Mykaila was in fact the daughter of Daimyo Sa'Hak-cho, and we had kidnapped her from the custody of none other than Daimyo Togaru. Nale Mefas was a literal False Name, and had abandoned us to our fate. We decided that our best chance was to try and bring Mykaila home to her father. We snuck into the shop of a caravaneer that Lex-Iya-san had heard of, and...you know the rest.

...So here we are. Thornhill may offer you more gold than I can, or threaten your lives or livelihoods. My comrades and I can only ask for your mercy. If that means letting us face Thornhill without interference for or against, I would understand. If you fight with us, it would be appreciated. We..." Tears started to come to his eyes. "...We were just trying to do the right thing."

---

Persuasion:

Tordek, realizing his mistake, hung his head in shame. He should have known better than to speak out loud, where anyone could hear - perhaps he could have simply taken Skaimos, Cyrta, and Alma aside, and told them... but what if the others asked why? He couldn't have kept silent, he couldn't have let Thornhill take them by surprise... And now the caravan knows of their mistake, thanks to Tordek speaking without thinking. All he could do now was hope and pray that Skaimos' words appealed to his fellow travellers' sense of mercy...

---

Magic Point boost to Skaimos' roll.

Uhiya and John exchange "knew it was something like that" looks and John's men look at him and shrug, clearly not caring if he didn't. Thag went silent for a bit and Uhiya looks at that and wanders off with a comment about informing Lex-Iya.

After a few moments Thag laughs and says, "Hoo! You shure got me! Well at least all them udders won't be collecting da bounty eeder. 'Sides you saved my life and wudn' be fair of me to ignore that. An' besides, I'd never side with some Kabikyo thug over da wittle princess. Thought she luk familiar."

When Uhiya catches up to Alma, she just informs her that they have trouble and that she'll be needed back with the caravan.

Tethe blinked, scratching her chin for a moment as she leaned on her spear. Letting out a soft growl as she puzzled what was just revealed. ".....hmm....for what it's worth....I believe you. These past four weeks you've seemed like honest folk. ...err...not counting the whole...false name thing I guess." She responds with a shrug.

Upon hearing Tethe's and Thag's responses, Skaimos started to smile as he dried his eyes. "I.....Thank you. Thank you all." Skaimos bowed deeply, then tried to compose himself. "So, how should we handle these guys? Thornhill seems to be wearing different armor from before, so there is a chance that he may be pretending not to be in Togaru's employ (or maybe we only saw him in "dress armor" at that party). We could try hiding in the wagons and see if he'll pass on, but he knows most of our faces, so if he looks in them at all, he'll probably find at least one of us. I'm afraid that violence seems to be the only real way of dealing with him...unless anyone else has suggestions?"

"Thorn... what?" Alma, who had just walked up, froze solid at the name. Her voice catches in her throat as she tries to speak. "H-he followed us?! No, he can't... he can't be here!" It doesn't take long before she breaks into hysterics. "We got away, we were safe! I can't... wouldn't see him again... I thought we were safe..." She can't bear to stand at the thought of seeing Thornhill again. Dropping to her knees, she breaks down as all the terrible memories, thoughts and feelings from that day flooded her once again. Tears streamed down her face as she sat limply in the sand, babbling. "I was safe... just a bad dream... couldn't hurt me again... not again... no, please..."

Tethe snorts, reaching out with her spear and giving Alma a gentle bop on the head with the haft. "Now now, this is no time for that. This is not the revival of some dread demon, but instead a chance! No lords laws extend out so far into the wasteland! You've helped put down a great beast and bested the storm itself! And now you may finally bury the nightmare that stalks you in the sand and leave it behind for once and all!! I can't ask you to just forget it as if it were nothing, but marshal your strength and stand against it for the moment."

"Yeah... Time is for the spark of combat to be lit!" Cyrtanthus declares supporting Tethe's comment. "Use that horror and fear to fuel your rage Alma-sama!"