We will be doing an RP of your travel to the village that disappeared.

What will happen in this:

• You will need to meet Lysis' character outside of the gates of Fuhren as you leave
  
• You will need to discuss what your plan of action is in the bar
  
• You will need to make it from point A to point B
  

As far as encounters goes: You will not have any encounters until the next session. However, you can come up with whatever obstacles you want along the way. You can message me about NPCs and I will RP as them in this thread. The main purpose about this RP is less about what you're doing and more about character interaction and growing as a party in lieu of our second session.


You have until April 18th for this. Have fun.

The Drow stirred from her Trance and looked around the small, darkened room in which she was lodging. There was a window on the far wall, looking out onto the city street below. Flanking the window on either side was a pair of armchairs, with a small table between them. Sleeping in one of the chairs, dimly illuminated by the moonlight and lamplight streaming in through the window, slept the talking cat called Sparrow. The Drow, Aderyn Siannodel, had taken to calling the cat "Bird," for reasons beyond her comprehension. It just felt right, somehow. Propped up against the other chair was the medium-sized square painting that Bird had had Ryn buy for her last evening. She didn't comprehend that decision, either. She peered at the painting, also lightly illuminated. It depicted a housecat on a battlefield with a sword in its jaws. She supposed she could understand Bird's affection for it.

Getting up from the bed, Aderyn changed out of her night clothes and stepped into the hallway, then went down the stairs and exited the inn. She took a deep breath of the brisk autumn air and started walking aimlessly. It was still the middle of the night. She had several hours before the rest of her impromptu travelling companions were ready. How had she ended up with these people? Her mind started playing back the events of yesterday.

Ryn had entered a tavern (the name of which had something to do with eagles and fire) early yesterday evening after spending several days on the road. She sat down at a table with a group of strangers. There was an androgynous knight, a humanoid turtle, a housecat, and a Wood Elf who she assumed was the owner of the cat. They made their hellos but it was clear that none of them knew any of the others. It was long before the barkeep made his way to the table. The group tried to order alcohol, but were informed that the entire city was devoid of the stuff. All they had available was water, which the barkeep didn't seem keen on sharing with the group because "a kid 3000 years from now won't have water if I give you some now," or something along those lines. He then launched into a campaign to try to get the group to do a quest for him, which no one was keen to do. After several minutes of back-and-forth, the group finally succumbed, and were told that the teenager at the other table in the tavern was the one who needed help, especially since he had racked up a tab of several thousand gold.

The kid told the party his tale. He was from a village a few days' journey from the city. Two weeks ago, it had been set-upon by a large force of monsters before vanishing into thin air. The reward for helping him was that he would give the group the location of a treasure hoard. Ryn tried to scare the kid into just divulging that information now and saving everyone the trouble, but despite her efforts, he would not give in. After several more minutes of arguing, the group finally decided to accept the kid's quest, and also collectively decided, after some racist remarks from the barkeep, to head somewhere else. By now, they'd made their introductions: the knight was Gabrielle, the turtleman was Ukog, the elf was Heather, and the cat (which could talk) was Sparrow. Aderyn had been travelling the world for 40 years now. She'd seen a handful of Tortle in her time, though they mostly kept to their island, but she'd never once seen a talking housecat. And apparently, there was a whole commune of the them.

The party finally made it to another tavern/inn. After negotiating for rooms, they decided to head out into the city and enjoy the arts festival that they had all come out to see. Heather stayed behind, though, apparently not interested in the exercise. Ukog decided to go to the gambling area, and Gabrielle tagged along to observe. An odd fellow, that knight. Ryn and Bird elected to visit the museum instead. While there, the Drow explained some of the facets of the human world to the cat, including currency and the purpose of putting small sculptures on pedestals. "It keeps it at eye level," she had said. Eventually they happened upon that painting, which was being sold for just one gold. Despite herself, Aderyn let the cat talk her into buying it, and so she did. Meanwhile, the group was later told, Ukog was being swindled at a dice game, but swindled them right back, and walked out no richer or no poorer. Gabrielle thought it had been fun. Ukog did not. They finally met back up at the inn and, one-by-one, retired to their rooms. Ryn, feeling somehow responsible for Bird, let the cat sleep in her room.

Ryn looked up from her musings. She had absentmindedly wandered all the way over to the bazaar, and was surprised to see a few stalls open at this time of night. Having nothing better to do, she began perusing the merchandise. Soon, she set upon a tube, fairly narrow but about three feet long, with a strap, and a screw-on cap at one end. "What is this?" she asked the vendor.

"Ah, that's a good choice!" the vendor replied. "That there is a tube for storing sketches or transporting paintings. It's yours for 5 Copper."

"I'll give you 3."

"Deal." Aderyn handed over the money and slung the tube over her shoulder. She looked around a while longer but soon enough started back for the inn. On her way back, dawn began to break, and she slipped on her sunglasses. They were a gift from her Uncle Erdan, of his own design. A pang of grief shot through her as she remembered him. She'd seen his village, or rather, the smoldering remains of his village. She believed he was dead, if only because to try to live on hope would eventually destroy her from the inside out. The sunglasses were still somewhat difficult to see through, but she got along well enough, and at least she wasn't blind in the day. She smiled and nodded friendlily at the passersby, few of which had the courage to look the Drow in the face. It was a response she was used to. She hadn't met many who were openly hostile towards her, but she hadn't met many who were openly friendly, either.

She entered the inn and made her way back to her room, whereupon she removed the painting from its frame, rolled it up, and stowed it in the tube. Much better. If she was going to carry the damn thing, she ought to at least be able to do it easily. She strapped the tube behind her bedroll on the top of her pack, then went downstairs. Breakfast was simple, but complementary, which was never something to complain about. It wasn't long before the whole party was together again. They made some small talk and then decided to head out around nine in the morning.

Outside the gates of the city was a humanoid cat man claiming to be a wilderness guide. Aderyn didn't feel that they needed one, but the party wanted to stop and ask for his assistance, so she remained quiet. Someone said, "Hello," to the cat-man.

-------

OOC: @Napstablook, that should get you caught up with the last session and also sets you up to join the RP.

Another morning. Heather got out of her bed and looked out the window. Weather seemed pleasant enough for a journey, but it was still dark out. Typically she'd get going at this time but since she was traveling with a group again she'd have to wait for them to be ready. While she was waiting.... some practice, perhaps.
She picked up her bow from its resting place next to her bed, and strung it. Then she took aim at the wall, pulled the string, and released it. She repeated this a few times. Then she unstrung the bow, and restrung it.
At some point, she heard footsteps outside her room, but assumed it was.... what was her name again? Heather couldn't remember it at the moment, but she figured she'd leave her to her own business. So she just kept training....

Call of Morning Sparrow was not pleased with the prospect of removing her painting from its frame. "This will only damage it," she claimed. "Why must you destroy that which so gloriously depicts one of my people?" After repeated explanations of the unwieldiness of her newest curiosity, she came to accept that forcing one of her party mates to be encumbered by a large piece of artwork while traveling through the wilderness would be less than optimal and would more than likely result in more damage. Even after the conversation had ended, she’d occasionally glance over at Ryn’s possessions as if to check on it. Once the party began to move towards the inn’s doors she took to following closely behind her, her gaze transfixed upwards on the carrier containing her painting.
The majority of her concentration was spent on the painting, with the conversations of her party mates falling to white noise. She hadn't even noticed when the party had stopped at the city gates, stumbling into the back of Ryn's legs and back into reality. Sparrow peered around, wondering to herself why they had stopped before noticing the bipedal feline in front of them. Having never seen a Tabaxi before, she was in awe. How could one of her own stand as tall as the others around her? She padded up to the man and spoke in the Yata's native tongue.

"Meow."

(Greetings, brother. I am Call of Morning Sparrow, daughter of Star in Clouded Sky. I have traveled far from our mountainous home, though my reasons for this are my own. Never have our elders spoke of a Yata who has grown to your stature. Tell me, by what manner did you find yourself in your current form?)



"...Mrow?"

(Have you lost knowledge of our language?)

After spending a day enjoying the arts festival, Cook was ready to get back on the road. He didn't enjoy spending much time in civilization—the wilderness was his home and he was satisfied with what little taste of the city he'd had so far. So he found a nice spot on the side of the road near the gates and sat down, cross-legged, with his ashiko in his lap. He began to play out a beat on the drum, to attract attention his way, and started his usual promotional speech.

"It's dangerous out there, folks! Death and doom await! Don't leave the safety of these walls without an experienced wilderness guide, or you put your lives in grave peril! You can trust your lives to me, Cook the Guide! I know all the safe routes, the hidden camping sites, the monster lairs to avoid! I know where good food and water can be found, I will get you from here to there! I've faced off against beasts the like you've never seen before, and survived!"

As he continued his spiel, it began to veer off into increasingly unbelievable exploits of his adventures. Most people ignored him but, to be fair, most of them weren't setting off on dangerous expeditions into the wilderness. Eventually, though, one group did approach. Cook examined each individual as they walked nearer.

There was a capable-looking human knight, some kind of turtle-shaped person, a pair of elves, and a cat. Not a cat-person, like himself, just a cat. A very ragtag group, definitely the sort of party that needs a guide. Someone in the group said hello, and then the cat plodded over to where Cook was sitting on the ground and mewed a couple of times.

Reaching out to scratch the cat on the head, Cook spoke. "You have come to the right man, adventurers! You can trust that I, Cook the Guide, will get (the majority of) your party safely to where ever it is you are trying to get! Which, might I ask, is where?"

The group had broken their fasts together that morning and began the walk toward the city's gates. Gabrielle had come to this city for a respite, but she had quickly realized that sitting around doing nothing was not her sense of enjoyment. The chance to wander the countryside and slay mysterious fanged beasts was much more to her liking. Obviously,Gabrielle was not quite thinking this through.

At the gate, theywere met by Cook, who in flowerly language spoke of all his good points.Gabrielle smiled, "A guide! What a lucky break!"

Whatever over-elaborations Cook used was lost on the knight, who thought more with her sword hand than her head. One might even call her a birdbrain…if that wasn't insulting to the large yellow bipedal Chocobo whose reins she held. In what might have sounded like dumbfounded exasperation, the bird ruffled its feather and squawked, "Kweh!"

"Well my friend," Gabrielle spoke before anyone else had the chance, in a voice that got more dramatic as she went on, "We are seeking a decimated village to the north. A young boy's home was destroyed, and we mean to visit justice upon the fiend and-or fiends that instigated its ruinous internecion."

Sparrow recoiled away from the approaching hand, glaring at Cook and growling "paws off" under her breath. The cat man’s lack of a proper response to her questioning indicated he had no knowledge of the feline language, to her confusion and burgeoning disappointment. Her awe of finding a fellow felid had washed away and was replaced by curiosity.

Though some of his features match my own, it would seem his capacity for speech goes unquestioned by the others. I suppose this speaks to our difference in outward appearance as opposed to what is similar.

As Sparrow pondered, the human knight Gabrielle, seemingly with little forward thought, immediately divulged the group’s plans to an effective stranger. Though, she supposed, there is little difference between a stranger met today and one met the day before. Still keeping her distance to thwart more attempts at contact, she spoke to Cook in a tongue most likely to be understood.

“What the knight says is true. You claim to be able to offer us safe passage through the wilderness, yes? There is safety in numbers, even more so with one who knows where to go. As a wanderer and fellow feline, I feel your inclusion in our quest would be a net positive. I request, however, that your decision is made swiftly while the sun still climbs upward, as our journey will be long and chatter only burns daylight.”

"The cat speaks!" Cook said, turning his attention to the adorable furry feline. "What you say is true, I can get you safely to your destination. The only question is what can you offer to me in exchange?"

"Yes, cat man." Sparrow responded flatly, the surprise of those around her upon discovery of her ability to speak quickly growing banal. "I surmise this 'exchange' you seek is that of what you call... gold. If this is what you seek, the youth promised to reveal the location of a treasure trove in return for our assistance. I cannot speak for the others, but I see no reason not to extend this reward to you as compensation for your services."

She looked to the group of adventurers. "Is that what one calls a 'fair deal'?" Sparrow knew little of the value of the exchange she was making. The Yata have little reason to deal in coin, their monastery holding a high degree of self-sufficiency.

"Gold?" Cook thought it over for a moment, and then chuckled. "Oh, you mean coin." He pulled out a small purse and sifted his hand through it, letting the coin jingle. "I already have some of those. I am not particularly interested in obtaining more. I don't suppose you have anything more interesting?"

Gabrielle was used to people asking for gold or at least being motivated by it - rich and poor alike seemed drawn to it, but for her she lived a martial life which never having to have gone "without" like some of the more impoverished of her own city. So, for this Cook to not be looking for that intrigued her greatly.

"How about adventure?" She clenched her fist in the thrill of the hunt before them, continuing in her self-indulgent monologue "The Challenge! The chance to go toe to toe with the enemies of all sentient peoples?!"

Gods above, Aderyn thought. She wondered again why she was travelling with this group anyway. She thought back to the boy who had lost his home, and remembered the oath she had sworn to herself: I will help those who cannot help themselves. Gods damn her nature, but she couldn't turn her back on this now. Just one little travelling session and then I can be rid of these folks once more.

She watched as Bird yelled at the Tabaxi named Cook for trying to pet her. She watched as the knight delivered some nigh-incomprehensible speech about their mission, and then later gave a speech about adventure. Ryn rolled her eyes. She had started absentmindedly stroking the feathers of the knight's bipedal bird.

"We cannot promise adventure," Ryn said. "For all we know this entire journey will amount to nothing. What's more," she gave a scathing look to the cat-man, "we don't need a wilderness guide. We know more or less where the village is supposed to be, and I know how to scrounge more than enough food and water for the lot of us. Also, we can all fight well enough on our own. I say we just keep going."

Cook waved his furry hand. "I'll be facing adventure and fighting monsters no matter which group I end up with, and I will end up with one group or another. The question is, what can you offer me that I will find more interesting than what another group might offer? What makes you different, unique?"

Aderyn stared at the Tabaxi for a long moment before answering. "A group without dynamic, a party of strangers with no real compunction to complete this quest except as something to do, who I think would all rather be drinking except for some unholy reason the town has not only run out of the stuff, but outlawed it entirely!" Ryn adjusted her sunglasses and took a deliberate breath. "That is what we can offer you. An uncongealed mess of conflicting personality."

"Uncongealed messes are my favorite types of meals!" Gabrielle exclaimed. "As for what you'll find differently...well," she gestured around, to her giant bird mount, to the talking cat, to the hitherto quiet elderly turtle cleric, and back to herself, as if she was somehow special along with this group, "us."

There definitely was a lot of uniqueness in this gathering storm of a party. Gabrielle didn't care so much of one or the other didn't get along, because conflict was a way of life for them all. There was so much angry, and despair, and death, that she felt it part of her noble birth's duty to try and bring some sunshine into the lives of those she ran across. And she could see there was a spark of the interesting in each of them.

"I, for one, would enjoy your company!" she continued to Cook, "To hear the stories of your travels in this wilds, the places you've been that I haven't yet, the tales of your narrow getaways. And I surely can't be the only one."

Gabrielle slapped the big turtleman on his broad shell, inviting him to agree with her. So far the two had gotten along in their brief adventures, and Gabrielle had always been taught to "listen to the wisdom of her elders." Surely there was wisdom in growing numbers!

Cook purred when the young knight mentioned that he—she?—that they would enjoy his company, and like to listen to his stories. Looking at the group, he couldn't help but notice it's very unique composition. The talking house cat, the old turtle man, the dark-skinned elf. These were not common sights, let alone all in one group. They would without doubt have experiences that Cook would find interesting, and tales of lands that Cook has not yet been to. And the knight, well, assuming they were a fellow, was certainly something to look at.

Cook stood up and put a hand out to the knight. "You have convinced me. As you have heard, my name is Cook. May I ask yours?"

The tortle known as Ukog hadn't been paying the heaviest attention to the conversation, he was too busy quietly counting all the negatives of this gods-forsakened town. "No alcohol in sight, idiotic men complaining in the inns, gamblers who try to cheat you out of the gold you fairly earned.." He muttered these complaints under his breath, extending a finger to count each one. It wasn't until he felt the slap on his shell that his mind was brought to the situation at hand. "Gah!" exclaimed Ukog as the surprise contact made him stumble forward a few steps. The tortle blinked his wrinkled eyes and looked around, trying to make sense of what was happening. Where were they exactly? Who is this cat-man? Did the human say something?


Acting off the assumption that the human asked him a question, Ukog begun to straighten up his hat and shell before clearing his throat to address the knight. "*cough* Er, yes? Yes! Yes is what I say to that, hah..." Hoping that was the answer they were looking for, the turtle-man addressed his attention to the cat-man who just introduced themself as Cook. "Well, erm, Cook was it? You seem to be a wanderer, would you so happen to have any kind of ale? This place is like a desert when it comes to alcohol and I'm about to die of thirst if you catch my drift, hehe." Ukog let out a few wheezey laughs as he finished questioning the tabaxi.

Gabrielle smiled, raising herself up with the courteous mannerisms she was raised in.

"My name is Gabrielle Xavalien, Master Cook," she took the extended hand, bowing slightly forward in sign of respect.

"You've met Ms. Aderyn," she indicated the drow, who was probably furrowing her brow at Gabrielle with death in her eyes.

"And 'Call of Morning Sparrow', whom we know by the bird's name." she said of the cat, doing...cat things.

"Over there is Ms. Heather..." she started, and paused, continuing quietly, "...I don't know much about Heather either--"

Ukog, a few seconds behind the conversation, chose that time to react to Cook. As Gabrielle stepped aside to allow him to speak, she introduced him, "And Master Ukog, a man of many talents."

Gabrielle, the knight's name was. So then, it was only the older gentleman in this group. Oh well. "Heather, did you say?" Cook examined the wood elf. "Oh, I know her. Good to see a familiar face. Old man," Cook said, turning toward the turtle. "I'm afraid I have no ale. Although for you," he hoisted a wineskin in Ukog's direction, "you may have my last swig of wine. I was planning on refilling it in town, but it seems they're dry. So, to working together!"

When Gabrielle mentioned her name, Heather nodded towards Cook, with an expression of "yes, we have met before, you're not imagining it" painted on her face, but remaining quiet.