Screeches fill the air, accompanied by the sound of thousands of wings crashing through leaves and branches, and the occasional *thud* of something hitting the ground from a great height. The people of Mercy are out in the square, slinging rocks into the trees to frighten away the mass of bats attacking the town. A swirling collection of shadows appears along the wall of the carriage house. As the people in the square cry out in surprise, the shadows collect themselves into distinct forms. A figure wearing a large cape flees from a small child who lurches forward with an unnatural gait...
The shadows aren’t real but the product of a Silent Image spell!
As bizarre as it seems, you can’t shake the feeling that whoever or whatever’s behind the strange shadows is using them in an attempt to communicate. Communicate what, exactly, you’re not sure.
One of the nearby market stalls is covered with a black tarp...except wait, tarps don’t move, right? And you’re positive that you just saw this one move a little bit!
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Vintner lights his Starfinder as he hurries outside.
Vintner quickly points out to the gang that those shadows arent real - theyre spells.
The real source has to be around here somewhere... the pathfinder whispers as he throws on his not-so-great coat.
But the creature is trying to communicate....something. Jay I believe tribal dance and peace pipe ceremonies are you area correct?
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Plum is eating dinner when the screams begin. She heads out the door at a run. "I wish they had let me keep my trident. This is going to go badly I can tell."
"Dude, butter?"
Sticky stand on his chair, reaches over and gets the butter. "I swear some people can't just relax and eat a nice a dinner."
Vintner lights his Starfinder as he hurries outside.
Vintner quickly points out to the gang that those shadows arent real - theyre spells.
The real source has to be around here somewhere... the pathfinder whispers as he throws on his not-so-great coat.
But the creature is trying to communicate....something. Jay I believe tribal dance and peace pipe ceremonies are you area correct?
"Huh?" Sticky sighs, and puts down his knife. Takes off his bib, jumps down from his chair and steps outside with his stave. "What, dude?"
As the shadows begin to dance along the stones of the market square most of the citizens shriek and flee with terror, bolting into nearby buildings. Although Vintner identifies the shadows as the work of magic, the originator of the spell remains unknown. Spotting a very suspicious-looking tarp, Plumeria calls it out to her companions as she makes a beeline towards the object.
Then, from out of the guest house, comes a small figure....that of a small doll, its neck broken. Nira. She pauses after a few toddering steps and calls out a single word:
"Murder."
A sound like a sheet whipping through gale wind fills the air in response, followed by a renewed screeching of bats as what you thought was simply a tarp draped across one of the market stalls suddenly takes flight into the sky!
The tarp-like creature is actually a cloaker, a mysterious and paranoid creature whose motives are often hidden and confusing, even to their own kind.
The bats are numerous enough to comprise an actual swarm!
Upon seeing the flying Not-a-Tarp and the swirling cloud of bats, Nira quickly ducks back into the guest house and pushes the door to but doesn't close it completely. She peeks through the crack, watching the unfolding scene...
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Round 1
Skarlit
Nira
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?????
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Uproot + Prickles
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Bats
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Sticky
Vintner
Seedy
Plumeria
Active Conditions: None
Skarlit is UP!
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Uproot trundles back to the guest house happy to see his cacti companion out, he runs up to the large oaf and gives him a hug completely ignoring and avoiding the worst of the spines. "I've missed you big fella, the people here are crazy! You see anything interesting? Fun? Moving dolls?"
Uproot breaks of the embrace and looks the catus all over almsot wondering if he'd hugged another actual cactus that just happened to have the same sign. Until the surly creature moves slightly revealing a small stash of dead rats.
"Awww, ain't you a love! Catching dinner for us! I'd almost wondered what I was going to do for food!"
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Prickles had a good day, apparently the rats in town were plentiful and he blended right into the desert scenery making the hunting easy. After savoring the first few, he started catching them for the fun of it, but mostly enjoying the sun and heat with out having to listen to Uproot blathering away at him. As the sun sets he gives an almost contented shake of his spines and digs just a bit further into the ground, at peace...
Until his master comes back and hugs him. The cactus tries to stay completely still hoping the small man might just mistake him for actual cactus and leave him alone. But the sign still tacked on his front side was a dead giveaway. The cactus slouches slightly before moving his roots back and revealing his stash'o'rats, hoping maybe giving the small man some food would get him to leave again?
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Uproot gladly collects the rats and pats the cactus, asking "You want to come inside with us and eat dinner? Or do you want to stay out here and watch the sunset?" When the larger plant immediately buries his roots back into the ground, Uproot smiles up at him. "Alright, just make sure you stay very still!"
HE then heads in to start dinner.
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Uproot reaches for the butter as the scream sounds out side, he tosses it over to Sticky before rushing to the door and then outside. He moves over to the mostly asleep Prickles asking, "Oi what the hecking heck happened out here? You okay?" As he does though the bats and Nira and things start going crazy.
He gives a whistle recognizing the flying tarp thing.
Faced with the strange flapping creature and the swarm of bats Skarlit hesitates, unsure of what to do!
The strange creature flies into the sky and over the square; it's a manta ray-like sort of monster, with a toothy maw, menacing red eyes, and a wicked-looking tail of segmented bone. As it flies overhead it utters an eerie, unnerving moan...
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Round 1
Skarlit
Nira
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?????
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Uproot + Prickles
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Bats
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Sticky
Vintner
Seedy
Plumeria
Active Conditions: None
Uproot + Prickles are UP!
Suddenly snapping out of her indecision, Skarlit fires off a wood blast at the flying monstrosity but the creature swoops out of the way and the blast flies off into the sky!
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Round 1
Nira
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?????
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Uproot + Prickles
Skarlit
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Bats
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Sticky
Vintner
Seedy
Plumeria
Active Conditions: None
Uproot + Prickles are UP!
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Uproot points out the giant flying thing. "Ohhh, A cloaker. Don't see one of those every day! He's looking properly mysterious and paranoid about this whole thing. It's said they're so good at doing those things that even other cloakers don't know why the do things! No let's kill the thing, I really don't like rats too much!"
He watches it fly over head, whistling. "Isn't he a beauty! I've never seen one outside of a picture.
He then reaches into his lower abdomen area and pulls out a branch with some strings tied to it and then a bag of small metal balls. he loads one and starts to take aim at the flying thing. He then taps Prickles on the back with his free hand. "Hey buddy feel like helping me? Ya can go hug the claoker later if it comes down to earth!"
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Prickles contentedly loses track of what's going on around him, happy to nt be cooped up with his master and the other nearly just as if not more chatty plant people. His happiness is shttered once again, this time not by Uproot but by the screaming. The cactus stirs to life but it takes him a few moments to figure out what's going on. It's not until Uproot taps him on his back that he finds some focus.
The cactus swings both arms back and forth sending his needles rattling in an almost musical way. After a few seconds of this, the lipstick kiss like mark on his right arm starts to glow slightly. The glow travels up his arm to the tip of the arm. He then reaches down and taps the glowing bit on Uproot, expending the magic.
Uproot manages to shrug off the strange unnerving aspect of the cloaker's moaning as he pulls out a sling and readies to start firing at the flapping pest. Prickles doesn't even find the moaning unnerving in the first place, largely ignoring it as he grants Uproot a small bit of help for when he takes his shot.
Meanwhile, the swirling, chaotic mass of bats flaps and squeaks its way towards Skarlit...
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Round 1
Nira
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Cloaker
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Uproot + Prickles
Skarlit
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Bats
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Sticky
Vintner
Seedy
Plumeria
Active Conditions: None
Sticky, Vintner, Seedy and Plumeria are UP!
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As the shadows begin to dance along the stones of the market square most of the citizens shriek and flee with terror, bolting into nearby buildings. Although Vintner identifies the shadows as the work of magic, the originator of the spell remains unknown. Spotting a very suspicious-looking tarp, Plumeria calls it out to her companions as she makes a beeline towards the object.
Then, from out of the guest house, comes a small figure....that of a small doll, its neck broken. Nira. She pauses after a few toddering steps and calls out a single word:
"Murder."
Sticky emerges into the chaos outside.
"Whoa! Freaky man! That's like red rum backwards. That is some seriously messed up noisy, black confetti, man."
Sticky turns to Seedy and Uproot and says "This whole situation reminds me of this one time I went this really big beach, but I couldn't find the water, but there was this well in this village and me and Skarlit were there and she was like 'Dude, let's check it out!' and I was like 'Totally!' and so yelled 'Hello.' down the well but like really really loud and then there were these two little bandaged kids and-"
"Hold on a sec, man. There's too much noise." Irritated by all the noise, Sticky moves forward and twirling his buck-and-a-quarter stave over his head as he casts a spell--color spray .* Scintillating sparks and streamers of light fly out from his staff at the annoying black confetti.
Meanwhile, the swirling, chaotic mass of bats flaps and squeaks its way towards Skarlit...
"Oh hey, Skarlit. I was talking about you. Do you remember that time we went to that really big beach--the one with the well?"
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"Oh, why do you think the bats decided to fly towards us and not away from us? I thought bats were generally pretty skittish...oh well!" Seedy casts a nervous glance over towards the bats, hoping they were the blood-sucking type not those that liked to feed on seeds and that sort of thing.
Putting that out of his mind for the moment, he reaches back and grabs his vial of mutagen, quickly downing it. As he steps forward ready to take on the monsters, the strands of his vines perceptibly thicken as if they were simultaneously becoming more barklike and as if he was flixing his muscles.
With the bats all flapping around close to the ground, Sticky has no problem in delivering a blast of psychedelic colors right into the midst of the swarm...
...to surprising effect! Although not blinded, the sudden explosion of color and light is still enough to seriously jack up the echolocation of the individual bats that make up the swarm and render them temporarily stunned as they try to regain their bearings!
In an admirable tag-teaming effort, Vintner then comes around at the stunned mass of bats from the side and applies flame, quite liberally!
And though the bats somehow manage to evade part of the blast of fire, those that he does catch squeal and screech in a most satisfying manner as they light up like little scraps of paper! Meanwhile, Seedy quickly downs his mutagen and becomes tougher and more nimble while Plumeria casts about for a club or some other weapon - and conveniently spots a number of bats leaning against the stall next to her. She's able to grab one up as 'a' weapon is better than no weapon.
As the battle rages on, Nira continues to peep out from the door of the guesthouse and it even looks like she might be trying to do some sort of little encouraging fist pumps as she does. Up in the sky, the cloaker continues to flap about and moan in a manner that is slowly growing more irritating than frightening...
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Round 2
Nira
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Cloaker
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Uproot + Prickles
Skarlit
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Bats
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Sticky
Vintner
Seedy
Plumeria
Active Conditions: None
Uproot + Prickles and Skarlit are UP!
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Uproot takes aim at the large flying tarp like thing and then lets loose a small bullet. "Come down here dang thing, we only want to eat you for dinner!"
He reloads the weapon and nudges Prickles with is elbow. "Hey, you've got nothing else to punch, mind helping me?".
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Prickles twists around as if purveying the battle field and realizes nothing he can punch is anywhere near him, giving a grumble the thing starts to dance again. Seeing the thing a second time, it almost looks like he's waving little pom-poms around. He settles the glowing limb on Uproot's head again.
Uproot lets fly with a sling bullet at the annoying, flying, not-a-tarp cloaker but the beast easily swoops out of the way! Undaunted, Uproot nudges Prickles for another dose of Cactaid and having nothing better to do (or punch) the cactus obliges.
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Round 2
Nira
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Cloaker
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Uproot (Guidance) + Prickles
Skarlit (Unnerved; -2 attack and damage)
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Bats (-6, Stunned 3rds)
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Sticky (Unnerved; -2 attack and damage)
Vintner
Seedy (Mutagen; +2 Natural Armor, +4 Dex, -2 Wisdom)
Plumeria (Unnerved; -2 attack and damage)
Active Conditions: None
Skarlit, Sticky, Vintner, Seedy and Plumeria are UP!
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With the bats all flapping around close to the ground, Sticky has no problem in delivering a blast of psychedelic colors right into the midst of the swarm...
...to surprising effect! Although not blinded, the sudden explosion of color and light is still enough to seriously jack up the echolocation of the individual bats that make up the swarm and render them temporarily stunned as they try to regain their bearings!
A swarm is immune to any spell or effect that targets a specific number of creatures (including single-target spells such as disintegrate), with the exception of mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms) if the swarm has an Intelligence score and a hive mind. A swarm takes half again as much damage (+50%) from spells or effects that affect an area, such as splash weapons and many evocation spells.
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Vinter rushes across to the other side of Sticky and decides to playbit safe with some dangerous flames conjures from the snake priest and dead Pathfinder Sekhmet
"HEY DUDE! Bats pollinate things you know!" Sticky attempts to stamp out the bats.
Still perturbed he unconsciously launches a jet of citrus juice from himself at the angry tarp.
He manages to get it in his own eye.
Thank you for the correction; guess that's what happens when I post from work where I sometimes have to stop and start several times in the middle of composing a post - easy to misread things.
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Skarlit lets fly a blast of wooden thorns at the Cloaker in the air above them.
"Ouch!" cries Jay. After just blinking away the last of the him-juice in his eye he is hit by a sudden summer shower of wooden hatpins. "Whoa. It is dry out here."
He goes to squirt again when-
Plum moves up to Jay holding her brand new club in her hand, and casts Guidance on him. "Hit it with acid please."
He turns to look at Plumeria. Sticky blinks one eye furiously and says "Uh, sure."
He turns back to the flapping horror and restarts his spell.
Sticky flails around a bit, trying to simultaneously put out the bats by stomping on them and squirting acid at the flying not-a-tarp thing. Neither move is particularly successful, though at least he knows that his acidic self-defense mechanisms are working!
Vintner attempts to help his fellow leshy by calling on a blessing for them while Seedy and Skarlit both attempt to blast the cloaker out of the sky to little effect...though Seedy's seedpod comes extremely close to connecting! And Plumeria readies her club, offering a bit of guidance to Sticky and the encouragement to continue doing squirting acid.
From behind you comes the clatter of wooden doll feet as Nira darts back out of the guesthouse and around Plumeria. Her attention on the bats, she suddenly emits a conical burst of splinters and brambles from her body!
What remains of the bat swarm tumbles to the ground, twitching for a moment before growing still. As if taking this as a cue to make itself scarce, the cloaker utters one final, mournful wail before ascending higher into the sky and then fleeing away to the south!
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Sticky flails around a bit, trying to simultaneously put out the bats by stomping on them and squirting acid at the flying not-a-tarp thing. Neither move is particularly successful, though at least he knows that his acidic self-defense mechanisms are working!
Vintner attempts to help his fellow leshy by calling on a blessing for them while Seedy and Skarlit both attempt to blast the cloaker out of the sky to little effect...though Seedy's seedpod comes extremely close to connecting! And Plumeria readies her club, offering a bit of guidance to Sticky and the encouragement to continue
doingsquirting acid.From behind you comes the clatter of wooden doll feet as Nira darts back out of the guesthouse and around Plumeria. Her attention on the bats, she suddenly emits a conical burst of splinters and brambles from her body!
"Whoa, it's like the miracle of life, man."
What remains of the bat swarm tumbles to the ground, twitching for a moment before growing still.
"I'm sure they're just resting." Sticky says trying to reassure everyone.
As you all take a moment to catch your breath, several of Mercy's citizens finally begin to come out of hiding. While your earlier efforts in getting to know some of the townsfolk were somewhat successful and mostly pleasant, your display against the cloaker and the bats seem to have firmly cemented you as friends of Mercy. Several of them approach to shake your hands and pat your backs, a few even offering to help patch any wounds you might've suffered.
In the midst of all this newfound attention and praise, you see Sheriff Molume weaving his way through the crowd. "Now now folks, I know you all mean well but you should give them a little space too," he announces, gesturing with his arms for them to move back a few paces. "Our visitors have done a great thing in driving whatever that was off and we'll make sure they get a proper reward for it - tomorrow. As it is, it's getting late so you'd all best be turning in for the night, alright?"
The crowd slowly begins to disperse, but as they do, the Sheriff quietly says, "Let me get everyone calmed down and settled at home. I’ll come by the guesthouse in half an hour and talk to you in private."
The sheriff shakes his head. "I don't rightly know. What I can tell you is that I've seen it flying with the bats quite a few times over the last couple of years. Truth be told, this is the first time it's done anything like this - every other times it's minded its own business so I didn't see any reason to worry anyone else by talking about it."
You're certain that the sheriff is telling the truth on this one!
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Uproot watches Nira spray the bats with a multitude of splinters with an 'o' of surprise on his face. After a second he moves closer and gives her a slap on the back, and a high five. "That was amazing! Wood power!"
He gets surpsrised by everyone rushing in, but Uproot happily takes all of the attention he can get, shaking hands and smiling non-stop while silently cursing himself for leaving his hardened leather sign denouncing veganism back in the building. With everyone he starts trying to open a dialogue.
"Do you know the evils of vegani..."
"How do you feel about eating mea..."
"Have you ever though about how a plant feels as you pull..."
But everytime he gets cut off in the rush. As the sheriff herds them away from them he gives a weak wave goodbye.
"Dangit, I wish I had my tallow-soap box! At least I could be near eye-level then! I'll just have to convince them another time."
He double checks that Prickles is okay and that the claoker is truly gone before getting the cactus to follow him. The leshy moves over to the bats sighing slightly that the claoker got away. he picks a few of the choicest bats and tosses them onto Prickles spikes. "food for a few days! YES! Prickles you can have the rest."
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Prickles, despit having no eyes, does an extremely good job of seeming to glare at the cloaker as it flies off, annoyed he didn't get a chance to punch something. Radiating an aura of pure unhappy malice he tries to keep any of the villagers from getting too close, clearly ticked he didn't get anything from this.
He sullenly lets the leshy-that-he-follows-for-some-reason-he'd-forgotten check him over even though he'd gotten nowhere near combat before angrily stalking over to the bats. He takes a good ten or so bats in his arms before getting told he could have the rest.
In an instant his mood improves, the cactus immediate starting to dig a hole to bury all of the extra bats into so he could suck them dry at a later time. He merrily goes about his work making a good hole in the ground before rolling a few bats in at a time and then after clearing all the corpses away, closing up the hole.
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As Skarlit asks the sheriff about the flying thing, Uproot jumps into the conversation with an "Oh! oh! I know! It's a cloaker!"
He settles down for a second, before continuing, "Though I don't know why it was here. I doubt anyone but the cloaker itself knows why it was here. They crazy! I once had one attack the nursery where I was raising plants! We killed it, and made lovely grilled cloaker steaks with gravy and lard biscuits! ...Dang I wish we could have caught it, they're good eating!"
Upon seeing everyone's reluctance and/or disinterest in returning to the guesthouse to wait for him, Sheriff Molume sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Alright then, stay here and give me maybe ten minutes," he says again before setting about clearing out the square as quickly as he can, in some cases having to resort to more forceful language than you've seen thus far to get a few of the more stubborn ones to go home.
Once the square is finally clear of citizens, the Sheriff hurries back over to you. "Okay. I'll try to say what I've got to say and be quick about it. The world out there is full of evil and terrible things — undead horrors that live for thousands of years, dragons the size of cities, and forces from beyond our world that try to ruin everything they touch. I’m grateful for whatever it is that shields Mercy from storms, keeps us healthy, makes our crops grow, and protects us from monsters like that thing - cloaker, you said? Heck of a critter...but anyway, it makes me wonder if Robori or someone else is watching over us after all."
Molume shrugs. "Honestly, I don't know about that either but I’m not as willing as most people around here to leave matters in the hands of faith alone. We need your help. I’m asking you to deal with that monster. If it can make bats attack like that, it’s a danger to our town, and I can’t risk going off into the Wastes and leaving folk here undefended. And after what you did out there in the square, you’re the best choice we’ve got on taking that thing down."
"I know it’s a lot to ask...you folks don’t owe Mercy a thing, but, well...would you do it? Would you help us out?" the sheriff asks, looking a bit desperate for the first time since you’ve met him. "And don't worry, I won't ask you to go in unprepared. If you agree, I'll return your weapons to you and pass along a few other things I've got stored away for situations like this. Hells, you can even eat the damned critter when you're done killing it if you want!"
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Uproot's eyes light up as the sheriff mentions the option of getting their weapons back. And then positively start to glow at the option of getting the cloaked all to themselves. "Really? We can have the thing all to ourselves? YES! Grilled cloaked is to DYE for! I swear I'd go pink for it! Maybe not as far as purple, though... You're missing out sheriff! Though I could probably save you a slice if you change your mind!"