Rhadamanthus eyes Laetitia cooly, then lumbers on to his four legs. "So be it. But if that beggar turns out to be a faerie who leads everyone into a cave where all their wishes come true, I get to say "I told you so" for the rest of our natural lives. And we magical bears are VERY long lived." Showing his rotund backside to his maga as he trudges along, he notes, "And may I point out that your absence offers Carmen many days of opportunity to poison the heart of the handsome Esteban against you...."
Laetitia snorts. "If my behaviour does not match that of a jealous woman, perhaps you should consider the possibility that your assessment of jealousy is in error. The only danger lies in dallying about like tourists when we have work to be doing. Now are we going to be on our way, or do the two of you have any more foolishness you'd like to indulge?"
"If that wastrel turns out to be a wish-granting faerie, I'll eat my hat. As for Esteban-- it's not his heart I'm interested in." She colours when she realises the unintended implications of her words.
Laetitia snorts. "If my behaviour does not match that of a jealous woman, perhaps you should consider the possibility that your assessment of jealousy is in error. The only danger lies in dallying about like tourists when we have work to be doing. Now are we going to be on our way, or do the two of you have any more foolishness you'd like to indulge?"
Siana shrugs,"Oh, I suspect I'll have to indulge foolishness either way," then turns into a bird and circles into the air.
So Laetitia, Rhadamanthus, and Siana are trudging down the road.
trudge trudge trudge....
Eventually they will have to stop to rest and have lunch. Siana gets a small fire going quickly enough, and begins roasting some salted fish she had packed in her provisons (do note that the *bulk) of the provisions are being carried by the horses and mules of the main group; you may begin resenting your rash-minded maga friend now )
ut in any case, the main party is going to quickly catch up with you. You guys are casual travellers, moving at the pace of your slowest member (the bear). They are professional soldiers on the march. They took a ten minute rest and ate a cold lunch.
Carmen: [color=red]Well, well, if it isn't our old friend, the ill-tempered quaesitor
Actually, we've packed our own provisions (it's on Siana's character sheet, and I've made several mentions of it in this thread) and we should be travelling faster than men on foot. A brown bear runs at 35 mph at full speed; 15mph would be an easy pace, and much faster than what a large party of men would make on foot. If for whatever reason you're going to make a DM caveat that they move faster than we do, I'm sure our airborne scout would be shrewd enough to point that out and we'd lag behind and allow them to travel ahead. In any case they certainly wouldn't be sneaking up on us.
I'm not interested in the pissing match you've set up, and Laetitia wouldn't stick around for it.
Alternately if you want to rule that for the purposes of Rego Corpus magics, Rhadamanthus as a mink is small enough to be transported along, then that would be keen. We could leave the mules and Siana's provisions behind and probably make it there by nightfall.
Except the bear character announced he was trudging, implying slow movement.
And the players of the other characters have indicated to me that they want to keep the group together..
As for a pissing match, I thought that was the nature of the relationship you were looking for to role play. I apologize.
However, you now notice that the beggar is wearing a t-shirt that reads "I am a Story-Hook"
Since you are male, you are excused for not being able to see the difference between "cat fight" and "pissing match"
I guess I should assume Siana simply doesn't tell us they're gaining on us because she disapproves.
"Ah, Donna Flambonis," Laetitia replies coolly. "I am as ill-tempered as I am your friend. Should your lack of self-esteem allow you to behave appropriately by adult standards, you'll find that the latter may change; if it does not, then you will have ample opportunity to learn what an ill-tempered Guernicus is."
I don't doubt the beggar is intended to be a story hook, but a fish won't bite if the bait smells like urine and wine-stained hobo clothes
Sometimes the story needs a little cameoflage
However, you were the first one to notice that he is not bothered by the gift. He obviously doesn't have a might score or magic resistance, since you affected him with a forceless-casting spell. And Might doesn't dampen the effects of the gift anyway. There are those few who are not affected by the gift, but this would require a supernatural virtue, which then implies that there is more to this man than meets the eye (and perhaps more than he himself is aware of).
I figgure that oughtta set of something in the curious mind of a Quaesitor
The beggar giggles watching you wave your hands and chanting gibberish.
Your first spell failed, but your second one succeeds and reveals no conflicting or ulterior motives.
Curiosity is not for things that reek of cat piss and body odour! Regardless, Laetitia invites the others to partake in our coney stew with wild carrots (gotta keep the bear happy-- speaking of which, since the main party overtook the smaller one, folks now notice the mink is gone but the Guernicus is now accompanied by a plump brown bear). Over lunch, she muses to Esteban in Latin, "It is remarkable that the scamp is unaffected by Carmen's Gift. He has no Might, for forceless casting affected him, yet he interacts with Carmen as if she were a mundane or a Jerbiton."
If the beggar is still tagging along, Esteban will go talk to him. Starting with some small talk: nice weather we're having, what news from the road, then getting into "where do you come from?" and "what's your hard-luck story?"
[color=blue]I am from Barcelona
He points in the totally wrong direction.
when you ask about his "hard luck", he looks confused and doesn't seem to have an answer.
)
