The Wandering Archipelago (D&D 5e)

[WearsHats]

(In the meantime, you can study a flying mouse.

Kal will take a middle watch, as usual.

Sorry I'm not really up to RPing.)

[Dlover]

Oh right, watches. Mehr will take the earliest watch that hasn't been called.

Per: 1d20+1=20+1=21 Crit!

[Rodgeir]

Varsk will take the early morning watch (before it gets light). Being more familiar with the environment allows him to be more effective than his first night.

Perception: 1d20+3= 21

[spiderwrangler]

((I'd said I can do first, but if Syli wants that, I'll do last. My normal eyes aren't much use in the dead of night.

Perception: 1D20+2 = [15]+2 = 17))

[thinkslogically]

With the watches organised, you settle down to rest for the night. The bats fly out just before sunset, covering most of you with a fine dusting of poop and a couple of small centipedes, but nothing worse than that. Thanks to Gwen's foraging efforts you are able to make a decent meal of an unfortunate tortoise and some sticky mangoes and settle down to take watch, opting mostly to sit tight and listen rather than risk exposing yourselves. Moonlight filters down through the crack in the ceiling.

Sometime after midnight, Mehriv hears a scuffling outside and a hushed voice speaking in rasping draconic...

"The signal came from here at sunset, Issmet says it's the six outsiders who crossed the bridge..."
"Well they're not here now!"
"We brought half our raiders out to capture them! If they're not here... We should go back! If they're making for our camp, it isn't protected!"
"Quiet! The camp is safe enough as long as Zhelm is there, and you know we've sabotaged the ground paths. Well find them long before they reach home. Now stop panicking and hold your tongue. They can't have gone far..."

You hear the sound of many sets of footsteps and cracking twigs, but soon the sounds move away, leaving you undiscovered.

The rest of the night passes quietly, and the bats return just before dawn. One lands near Merric and starts squeaking very seriously at him.

[Rodgeir]

Mildly surprised they weren't discovered during the night Varsk will whisper,

"What's the plan for today?"

[spiderwrangler]

"Try not to die?"

[Dlover]

"The lizards mentioned a camp when they were passing by. They said they brought out half their raiders to capture us, but that the camp should be safe so long as 'Zhelm' was there. We're likely going to have to find this camp to locate the kidnapped persons, but if they expected half their raiders to be enough to capture us it would be dangerous to take on the full camp."

[spiderwrangler]

"LIZARDS?! What lizards?"

[Dlover]

"They passed by during my watch."

[Arch Lich Burns]

"We should probably sneak to the camp then to try to find the kidnapped people. Too bad I didn't see them or I could disguise myself as one of them, but it's probably for the best, I don't know draconic."

[spiderwrangler]

((Are we assuming that Mehr has briefed us on the content of their overheard conversation?))

[Dlover]

((Well, that was the intention of my posting the content of the overheard conversation, yes. If there are details you think are important you can act as though he shared them.))

[spiderwrangler]

((HA! My reading was a bit too close to Korrik's listening... I stopped paying attention to what you'd written after "lizards" in the haste to exclaim in surprise...))

[Nioca]

"Well, that just means our jobs became that much easier! All we have to do is track them back to... wait, capture?" Syli interrupts herself, suddenly puzzled. "You sure they said capture? It seems weird they'd want to try capturing us instead of simply killing us... Bodes well for the Morleys, though."

[Dlover]

"It does. Though they may want captives for ritualistic sacrifice to their barbaric religion. You can never know with creatures so base as those lesser reptilians."

[Nioca]

"Wow. No love lost amongst lizards. Anyway, yeah, if we can pick up on some of their tracks, it should be easy to tail them back to their camp."

[Rodgeir]

Varsk looks at Mehr contemplating a moment.

"They said they'd trapped the ground routes? Meanin' they either took the air or the water,
right? If they took the water they probably ain't got much skin left and if I remember correctly they ain't got wings."

He glances at Merric and his bats.

"So we best start lookin' for the tree they went up, right?"

In an aside to Mehr when they can get some space away from the rest of the group.

"Since it seems like we are about to take a detour from headin' to the headwaters and my party I like to discuss my input to this group and how I'll be fairly compensated.

[Dlover]

"Since it seems like we are about to take a detour from headin' to the headwaters and my party I like to discuss my input to this group and how I'll be fairly compensated.
"Would you consider "Insurance against being consumed by wildlife and lizardmen" adequate? We can strike that from your benefits, if not."

[Rodgeir]

Varsk will chuckle lightly.

"That is a fine benefit indeed 'cept seems your group is about to do the exact opposite of insurin' we don't get eaten by lizardmen. To this point we have both kept to our agreement. I travel with you to the Morley holdin's and I to the best of my ability in keepin' everyone else in the group alive."

Varsk will gesture around with a shrug,

"And maybe we have gotten to the Morley's, maybe not. What you can't say is that I haven't kept to my end of agreement durin' this...eventful couple days. I ain't sayin' I'm opposed to continuin' and tryin' to get to this camp but what I am sayin' is that if you plan on puttin' my life on the line so you can make money I expect to get paid for that."

[Dlover]

Mehr raises one eye-ridge, "I am demanding nothing of you. You are free to continue from here alone, if you are not comfortable with our destination. Well, though I could say as much and leave you no options but to follow us with no compensation or to continue alone in these dangerous areas, I am not so heartless. When the bounties are collected, you may consider yourself entitled to a share of those bounties. If you carry your weight, it will match the share each of us receives, less if not. Mind that a portion of the funds will go to maintaining my business and employees, and this will be removed from the bounty before we split shares. That much is non-negotiable, and you have my word that I will not be using that to widen my own share of the bounty. Prove useful enough, able to bring in more value than your cut of the gains, and I will offer you a permanent position in the party, far more stable than mercenary work.
Any evaluation of your importance to our proceedings will be evaluated by the group as a whole, not just one person, to make the matter as unbiased as possible. This is as much as I will offer."

[Rodgeir]

Varsk listens to Mehr and lets him finish.

"Continuin' alone was my original plan, though in hindsight it was a bad one. Hmmm. I would've been suspicious had you not been skimming from the top. I'll take the offer of the cut."

He makes no comment on joining permanently and figures Mehr will still try to rip him off. But that will be an issue for later.

((Do we roll against each other for RPing purposes?))

[Nioca]

While Mehriv and Vrask are talking shop, Syli gets to work on trying to pick up a trail. Although seeing as she isn't quite sure where the trail starts, she has some difficulty with it...

--Survival (+3): 9

[thinkslogically]

((you can roll against each other if you want to, but I'm going to leave it mainly to you guys to sort out what it means (basically set your own DCs). The only big rule is that pvp rolls can't be used to force someone else's PC to do something their player isn't ok with.))

[Rodgeir]

((I mostly just want to underline Varsk's belief Mehr would try to take advantage of the situation and rip him off. Even if it came back that Mehr was on the up and up.))

Varsk nods to Mehr before wandering out to see if he can spot any obvious signs of giant two legged lizards. Being a city boy hasn't given him much a sense for finding trails here but he can maybe still spot a footprint or track?

Survival: 1d20+2 = 10