Bella thinks...
" Also it may not hurt to make friends out here. I mean immediately it might be good to have safe place to rest after coming down the mountain. But long term a lot of jobs might be out this way so have friends out here could be very helpful."
Keeyan remembers the pain of the lance that had sliced him open and at first just wants to stay away from anyone.... But, "You've got a good point. Some friends in the area could be good."
Edie considers...
"Y'know, Keeyan had a point earlier, too. Life is an adventure. Let's just not get bogged down with sidequests if we can help it, though."
Bella will send Starwing back out to scout a group that might be good to approach.
It takes a little longer this time, but eventually, the ravens lead the group to a likely-enough group. Their leader is a tall, strong half-orc with a greataxe in her lap; it's got strings from one end to the other, and she herself is absolutely ripped.
Her group is fairly mixed; a human with an old compound bow at his feet, a gnc af halfling whittling something away by the unlit fireplace, and two elemental ladies-- one firey, one icy-- who stop making out when the PCs approach. The firey one takes a step to get her girlfriend behind her.
"NEW FRIENDS!" bellows the half-orc. It almost seems like a question.
She begins to strum her lute-axe; it's horrendously out of tune, but when accompanied by her voice, it's not that bad... by comparison.
"NEWWWW FRIENDS, THEY'RE HEEEERE, THEY'RE HERE TO SHAAAARE, A SOOOOONG~"
Having recently partied with a tribe of orcs, maybe the singing didn't sound toooooo terrible! Keeyan moves forward smiling. "Yes, New Friends. And with safety of numbers perhaps we can relax and party just a little. I am Keeyan Rayahn, priest of Cayden Cailean. May we join your group for the evening?"
Having recently partied with a tribe of orcs, maybe the singing didn't sound toooooo terrible!
The GM appreciates your optimism!
But, alas...
Even her friends wince when she sings, but she doesn't seem to notice-- or care. As Keeyan approaches, she offers a hand, and nearly crushes his if he shakes it.
"The more, the MERRIER!" she yells, grinning wide.
The fire in the -and-ice combo offers a shy wave, while the ice lady pouts behind her, arms folded. The halfling, though, is quick to smile and wave, while the archer doesn't seem inclined to react much to anything.
Bella bows her head a little as submissive gesture.
"We thank you for sharing you camp, company and song" silently hoping it is only one song, "We are strangers in these lands so we seek friends.
Bella is eyeing the leader and two elemental ladies.
Bella realizes she probably spoke too fancy...
Keeyan accepts the (painful) handshake, obviously wincing when the half-orc nearly separates the fingers from the hand. He looks for a place to sit, massaging and trying to flex his hand again. "Ouch! You've got quite the energetic handshake there friend. I think I'll need a bit of a pain killer for that, if you don't mind...."
Once he gets settled he sits his holy symbol mug down and carefully casts Create Ale to fill it. He takes a long drink from it, then glances at his new friend. "Perhaps you'd like a bit? If you've got a mug, Cayden Cailean can provide a drink for a truly heroic singer such as yourself!"
Edie is more social than this, dangit!
The tiefling watches the group warily, tail twitching as she watches for ambushes and the like. Part of her mind wonders *why* she's nervous, another part squashes that wonder with the typical reaction that folks have to someone who looks like they've crawled out of one of the Outer Planes.
She doesn't rebuff handshakes, but will indicate the claws at the tips of her fingers as a caution, so no one gets cut open trying to be peaceful.
The half-orc bard(?) gives Keeyan a confused look. "But I was bein' real gentle! Look, this is what an energetic handshake is like!"
She offers her hand once more.
Regardless of whether anyone accepts her handshake, she grins at Klyto.
"We're adventurers, and adventurers like LUTE!"
She gestures toward a log bench for our heroes to sit at, and at the promise of ale, the halfling and the human both produce cups.
Bella will kind of sit down with her head down and try to melt in the shadows. Hoping that she doesn't have to talk during the rest of this meeting...luckily people seem to be ignoring her failure of diplomacy.
There is a very audible, though admittedly dull, crunch as Klyto's spindly hand collapses in on itself.
The half-orc, for what it's worth, looks pleased.
"SANGA WINS AT FRIENDSHIP!"
Hearing the crunch as he is filling mugs, Keeyan moves over to check out Klyto's hand. "A Cure Light Wounds might help a little for pain, but I'm afraid I don't have the more powerful magic needed to adjust the bones and joints back. Might just have to splint it for now and carefully work it each day until it's better." He glances at Sanga, "Friend Sanga, I think the rest of us will likely pass on the hand shake. I need my hands for any spell casting!"
Edie thinks SOMEONE has to step up to the Killer Handshake...
"This is probably the strongest handshake I've ever encountered. Do you work out?" the tiefling offers as a compliment, though hoping that the pressure doesn't *increase* because she likes having intact hands.
"All kidding aside, we're city-folks-ish, so we're not used to whatch'y'all got cookin' out in these parts. Just startin' out, so, y'know, not quite up to the level of... y'know... 'experienced'?"
Keeyan smiles as Edie corrects his words with her actions.
Sanga is thrilled to find Edie's ability to stand up to her bone-crushing, and immediately scoops the tiefling into a bear hug that is, honestly, not really any more safe. Edie, for what it's worth, manages to avoid having her spine crushed, though her ribs do feel a little sore.
"I do!" she grins, bouncing a fist off of her eight-pack.
She offers a tusky grin at Keeyan's dismissal of a second handshake, but looks bewildered at Edie.
[b]"Cooking?" she asks, bewildered. "Well, we have leftovers!"
She looks to the archer, who silently rises and moves to one of the tents; it takes him a moment, but he returns with a slab of meat still hanging off of a bone.
It is, admittedly, hard to identify, but it does look thoroughly cooked.
Keeyan looks up at the slab of meat and rises. "You had a successful hunt? I'll take a little bit then. We haven't been hunting yet so we've just got rations. Not exactly gourmet quality if you know what I mean."
Looking at the bones as he pulls a small portion from the slab he tries to identify the animal. "Venison?" He moves back to where he had been sitting and takes a taste.
Bella winces at the crushing handshakes and feeling more out of place. She sinks deeper into herself.
Starwing on the other hand looks at her mistress and if ravens could rolls her eyes. Thinking...
I have to fix this...
She lands in front of the elemental ladies and start acting silling in what she hopes these ground dwellers will find entertaining hoping to get her mistress back here.
The halfling speaks up. "Rations? What kind ya got?" they ask. "I'd be happy to trade!"
-------
Starwing flaps over to the duo and begins to roll in the dirt.
Bella's melancholy is interrupted a moment later when the raven, cradled in the ice woman's hands, is presented to her.
"Is your bird okay?" she asks in a soft voice. "It looked like it was trying to take off and then it just kind of went sideways..."
Her girlfriend is crouched beside her with a hand on her shoulder; a very slow, gentle sizzle rises from where her fingers meet the frigid woman's body.
The icy woman is broad-shouldered, with an angular face and skin that shimmers like frost; the firey woman is well into the plus-sizes, and looking directly at her, one can see a heat in the air around her. Their hairstyles mark opposite sides of the spectrum as much as their elements do; Cold has a long, femme hairstyle, while Hot is rocking a short, hard futch undercut.
Starwing tilts her head juuuust a little bit so that only Bella can see, and winks. It's not exactly how she was intending to get attention, but she improvised.
Bella gives Starwing a look..and silently thinks at her.
Thanks
She takes Starwing from the woman and says,
"She is fine she just sometimes to just seems the attention of strangers. My name is Bella and this Starwing."
Concern melts from both of their faces.
"I'm Ruby," says the firey one, "and this is Thyste."
Thyste offers a quick smile, while Ruby's lasts longer. "I wouldn't mind giving her more attention," admits Thyste, "but my touch is a little cool and I don't know if creatures-I-thought-were-injured like that."
"I... have a similar problem," adds Ruby, raising her fingers.
Keeyan glances to the halfling, surprised at the words. "Trade rations? Mine are really nothing special. Trail rations that could probably survive half the life span of an elf and not lose a bit of flavor. Nuts, dried fruit, something that resembles meat I think. Basically a cheap knock off of the military MRE's. Why would you want to trade? Bought two a few weeks ago and have avoided eating them so far!"
Klyto does his best impression of an RPG character customization's weapon selection screen as Keeyan discusses a foreign concept.
The halfling grins wide. "I'm a connoisseur," she explains. "I'm still hoping to get my hands on some chili from the old 60's Cold War stuff, but the real fun is foreign ones."
She reaches into a bulging pack behind her seat on the log, and rummages around a minute. "Any requests? I'm not holding onto anything I haven't eaten at least once before, at this point."
Bella says, "Well we can ask her."
Bella says in Elven...
Keeyan digs one of his rations out and nods to the halfling. I did some reading online after I bought these and wish I'd found some of the French ones. You know they put wine and bon-bons in theirs? I wonder how well it lasts though. Can you imagine opening the wine only to find it turned to vinegar 'cause it wasn't stored right!?!"
"Requests? Anything actually edible? I'm thinking that I want to pick up some canned fruit in actual juice at our next stop. Peaches maybe. Haven't had any in.... Well, must have been too long since I can't even remember!"
He casts his orison again to top off cups and settles back down. "If you don't mind my asking, what's your name and what brings your group out here? I do gotta say that you all are at least as interesting of a mix as we are!"
Edie is curious, yet wary.
The human archer, nondescript and surly, gets Edie's attention as Klyto and Keeyan step into more of a prominent role with the others.
She'll use the movements of the party to sort of get closer to the archer, but also respect the hell out of personal space as she does so (within the confines of the camp, that is.).
"I'm Edie, who might you be?"
Starwing ruffles her feathers and caws up at Belladonna.
Starwing winks up at her master.
---
"There's some dried fruit in this one," offers the halfling, "and this one is supposed to taste like a hearty jalapeno-potato-bacon stew." They hold up two packs; the fruit-bearing one seems tinned, while the "soup" comes in a sealed pouch. "If you want the soup, I'd toss it against the logs for a few minutes and fish it out with this!"
They lean their head toward a pair of campfire tongs resting against the log they're sitting on.
---
Sanga clears her throat.
"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH--"
The lyrics are bad and the singing is worse. Thankfully, the strings on her axe aren't loud enough to sound bad.
But hey, she puts her heart into it, and that's something, right? Even if her party members wince whenever she goes for high notes.
---
"Hunter," says the archer.
He glances over, then sniffs the air.
"Should you be adventuring in your current state?"
Keeyan leans back and chugs more of the ale as Sanga starts singing. He's tempted to create a jug of the Fireball Whiskey, but knows that the hangover the next day might be worse than tonight's singing!
When her singing comes to a pause he quickly fills a mug and passes it. "Just a little to wet your throat. Wouldn't want such a singing voice to get parched!"
Bella smiles at the ladies and says, "She says she was fine with the touches. So you girls live out here?"
Edie is rolling with it...
"Actually? Yeah. Retail work environment these days is a lot more toxic and dangerous than good clean country living and getting out in the fresh air." the tiefling offers politely to the stand-offish fellow who just asked an on-point yet also kind of rude question.
"I mean, I could just quit my job and sit on my tail at home and collect unemployment but that's not in my character -- I was taught honest hard work was nearly its own reward, and I'd probably go nuts after a week or two."
"How about you? You ever have to deal with all those idiots back in what they call 'civilization' on a daily basis and wish you could just, y'know, start loading 'em up with arrows?"