"Move things?"
Phalgun *blinks* "What kinds of things?"
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"Oh, that's so kind of you to offer," Matrialda says gratefully. "These old bones get so tired after all this walking. I don't suppose you've got any tea for sale? Or some of the delightful silk this region is known for? I'd love to get my hands on something nice for my favorite grandchildren back home."
मला वाटत नाही की आपण त्यांच्यावर विश्वास ठेवला पाहिजे. त्यांना धोका असू शकतो असा इशारा देखील दिला नाही? हे आदरणीय वागणे नाही. आणि ते जमीरबरोबर असतील Zamir? तुम्ही आमची योजना शत्रूला शरण जाल!
Your replies initiate a lengthy stream of Vudrani between Phalgun and the others.
Others: I do not think we should trust them, Subedar.
Phalgun: Not even to warn them that they may be in danger? This is not hospitable behavior.
Others: And what if they are with Zamir? You would lay our plan bare to the enemy!
Phalgun: Clearly they are foreigners. One of them is an old woman! I do not think that is likely at all.
Others: Even if they are not, they may be part of a trick... a distraction.
Phalgun maintains his composure smiling at Matrialda, his back to his excitable comrades. “Nani, unfortunately we are wholesalers. Our consignment is promised to a long-term customer in Padiskar.”
“However, we would willingly invite friends for tea and supper.”
The merchant hesitates, expanding his view to the entire group. “Unfortunately, my companions are a suspicious lot. I suppose I pay them to be.”
“You see, it is unusual in Jalmeray for … teamsters(?) to not know what they are transporting. I mean, for all I know your caravan may be empty and you are looking to … garner stock … as you travel the main trade route of my country.”
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”Oh, that’s very kind of you, dear...” Matrialda begins, but her voices trails off into stunned silence as Phalgun continues. ”...garner stock!? As in pressing people into slavery!? Why, how dare you suggest that any of my precious grandchildren might be involved in something so disgusting! Why, the nerve...” she trails off into dark mutterings as she leans heavily on her walking stick and flares down her nose at the other travelers.
”I have half a mind to march straight back to the capital and tell the Thakur about hooligans in the jungle harassing travelers and insulting them to their faces! And here I thought you were such nice boys, offering a poor old woman a respite in this jungle,” she finally says.
“Zamir is a local warlord who preys on caravans travelling through this region.”
One of Phalgun’s companions stands to beg something of the merchant leader in rapid-fire Vudrani.
The man is silenced by a sharp word from Phalgun, along with a chopping motion of his hand.
The interjector drops his head, looking unhappy as Phalgun continues. “It is well that we have run into each other.”
"Normally I would propose an alliance for tonight wherein my men and I help guard you and your caravan.”
"Uh, we never said we didn't know what we were carrying."
“However, you arouse my men’s suspicion by continually failing to disclose what your caravan carries.”
The merchant’s lips tighten in determination. “So now I ask you plainly. What does a group of heavily armed foreigners transport through the jungle, knowing Zamir is active in the area?”
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Careful to keep his hands off his weapons, Korum approaches the Vudran leader. He talks quietly, man to man, his voice a mere murmur in the jungle. "Look friend, it's clear neither one of us is who we say we are. Suffice it to say, we are 'problem solvers'. We are actually planning to lay a little trap for our mutual friend." He hikes a thumb toward their guide. "That little runt is in league with Zamir, and his lackeys know we are going to be camping here tonight. I'm not sure who you are, but whoever stays her is getting attacked. We've marked an item, and can follow it after it is stolen all the way back to his base of operations. If you and your men are here, it's gonna screw up the whole operation. How about you guys have tea with us, and move along? I don't want to see any of your boys get hurt. I mean, they seem nice. Family men even. But I'm guessing we've seen more combat."
He gives it a moment to let all this sink in, "Let us put Zamir outta business, while you and all your men go home to their women with nothing more that mosquito bites. Well, what do you say? "
Phalgun listens patiently to Korum’s speech, before nodding like he’s made decision.
“I appreciate your candor, sahib. Seeing you have seen fit to trust me, it is only fair that I do the same.”
“My men and I are undercover soldiers in service to the Thakur. We have been ‘setting a similar trap’ for Zamir along this trail for days now without success. Your arrival gives me hope that our mission may progress this night.”
“How about you guys have tea with us, and move along? I don't want to see any of your boys get hurt.”
“I hope you can understand that duty demands that we remain in this spot to battle our prince’s enemies. We are soldiers after all.”
“However, I have no desire to disrupt your own plans. If any of Zamir’s forces flee from battle, I do not have sufficient men to safely pursue them into the jungle.”
“As such, as well as sharing tea and supper, my offer of an alliance stands.”
“If you accept, let us seal our deal with a friendly social activity.”
Phalgun waves to his men, who shuffle over to join you. One of them carries the stitched leather ball and willow bat.
“Are you familiar with the game of cricket?”
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To Phalgun, "I think that'll work." The paladin identifies which of the boxes has the rod the raiders have to escape with. "Otherwise the whole thing falls apart. My boss didn't really provide a backup plan."
Korum looks around the campsite, "A little small for a pitch don't you think? A match here would take weeks." It seems the half-orc has picked up a thing or two in his journeys.
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“Well, sahiba. It is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams on a field at the centre of which is a 22-yard pitch with a wicket at each end.”
Phalgun takes up the willow bat and demonstrates the correct stance for defending the wicket.
“There is enough room for a pitch, sahib. But you are right that the field is constrained by all the trees. However, we can make do with a shortened four-per-side match in the space that we have.”
Another of the Jalmerayse soldiers shows how one must keep their arm straight when ‘bowling’ the stitched-leather ball overarm to the batsperson.
“You have two teams of eleven, one out in the field and one in. Each person that's in the side that's in goes out, and when she's out she comes in and the next person goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get people still in and not out.”
“When a person goes out to go in, the people who are out try to get her out, and when she is out she goes in and the next person in goes out and goes in. There are two people called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the people who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the people have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the people have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.”
“Do you get the gist?”
Phalgun pulls a gold rupee from his pocket. “Shall we toss a gp to see who bats first?”
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Matrialda is slightly mollified by Phalgun’s offer of tea. ”This sounds like a game for young folks with too much energy,” she replies. ”But I’m sure we need someone to ensure the game is played fairly, yes? I believe you called them umpires?” She reaches into her pouch, pulls out her knitting needles and a length of red yarn, and starts getting to work on a penalty flag.
“Seeing you are novices and my men and I have some experience of the game, I think it fair that we four play your team of five, comprising Sahibas Palo, Psamtic, Sinaryn, and Sahibs Angritt and Korum.”
Phalgun introduces a man named Samarjit, who had been the most vocal dissenter during the parley. He smiles shyly as he places a chair in the center from where Matrialda can adjudicate proceedings. He then presents the Umpire with a cup of steaming oolong tea.
“One normally takes formal breaks for ‘drinks’ and ‘tea’ during a cricket match.” Phalgun explains.
“But in deference to Nani Matrialda’s great experience, we shall modify the rules of play for this day.”
"We have won the toss and elect to bat."
Also to give their opponents a sporting chance … “Cricket must be played in the correct spirit.”, if not bowled ‘out’ by a Pathfinder, a Jalmerayse batsman must retire his innings after scoring a maximum of 25 runs.
Phalgun shakes his head at his team’s performance. “All out for 54. And I did not exactly make a captain's knock! But now let us see how you Troubleshooters fare against our bowling attack.”
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"Well, let's get this sideshow over and done with," Palo mutters to herself as she elects to be first up to bat for the Pathfinder team.
"Okay, so...you just take a great big swing like this, yeah?"
"Huh! That...wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be," she remarks after her turn is done and she moves to pass the bat off to the next person. She couldn't help but feel slightly cheered by the fact that at least she'd managed to do a little better than either Phalgun or the first opener for the other team.
And that was actually kind of fun. Even in the heat. Who knew?
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Once she gets the hang of the oddly shaped bat Palomia has great fun driving the off-spin bowler named Muttiah through the covers, leg-glancing him past backward square leg and nudging him through slips down to third man.
She comes unstuck mistiming an unorthodox cross-bat slog over Muttiah's head, instead skying the ball allowing Muttiah to take an easy catch off his own bowling.
Matrialda puts down her second cup of tea and raises her index finger. "Out."
Psamtic seems content to push the ball around the onside infield for singles and twos, before *nicking* a ball outside the off-stump which carries through to the wicket-keeper, Samarjit.
Korum attempts some 'gardening' on the pitch, attempting to *thump* down some of the more questionable bumps with the bottom of his bat. Finally he signals his readiness with a grumble and takes a conservative middle-stump guard.
The paladin takes a liking to the medium-pace of the fourth Jalmerayse cricketer -- a man named Sanath -- hooking and pulling him past mid-wicket and deep backward square leg for four 4's in a row!
His opponents applaud the half-orc's batting prowess politely, but celebrate exuberantly with CHEERS and High-5s when on the next ball, Korum takes his eyes of the ball as he swings and is yorked -- sending his leg-stump flying out of the ground!
Matrialda doesn't bother looking up from her knitting as she sends the Pathfinders' top scorer back to the pavilion.
"Our worthy opponents are 3 wickets down for 37 runs, chaps."
Captain Phalgun addresses his men with hands-on-hips. "We still have much work to do to win."
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Sinaryn knew better than to play diplomacy in this situation to waited back at least until the mention of a game.
"Count me in! I need some excitement." she whoops and offers others a drink.
Wathcing the others she attempts her swing knowing she may lack the strength of the others but is at least fast.
Sinaryn takes over from where Korum left off, punishing Sanath’s medium pace with well-timed cut-shots to the boundary through point and gully.
This forces a bowling change, with Phalgun bringing Muttiah back into the attack. The spinner’s first deceptively slow delivery catches the Myrmidarch completely by surprise.
Instead of breaking outside the off-stump as expected, the ‘off-break’ cuts back sharply striking her on the legs directly in front of middle stump.
In no doubt the ball would have hit the stumps, Matrialda gives Sinaryn out 'leg-before-wicket' after an enthusiastic appeal from both bowler and keeper.
“Four for 53. A real nail-biter.”
Phalgun crosses his arms. “Let us see whether Sahib Angritt, the Troubleshooter’s tail-ender is a bunny.”
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"Perhaps there is nobody to teach folks how to play," Matrialda replies idly, eyes on the game even as she scratches Relas behind the ear. "You could be the one to do so, Trellis - and if so, be sure to invite me to come watch, especially if the weather's warm and everyone feels the need to take their shirts off like this." She nods approvingly at the players on the makeshift pitch.
Phalgun declares it is, “Stumps, Drinks and time for supper, my friends.”
“I must say, you picked up the game very quickly for foreigners.”
The evening is spent in enjoyable camaraderie, with plenty of tall tales told.
However, neither group ever relaxes completely. You all watch the darkening jungle with suspicious eyes as the gloom deepens and darkness creeps upon you. The sounds of nocturnal creatures rise around you like a wild chorus, ♪ chirping ♪ and ♬ crooning ♬ the music of the night.
"We must settle in for the night, my foreign trouble-shooters. One of my soldiers will be keeping watch at all times. If we do have trouble before the dawn, you will hear us raise the alarm."
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When it comes time to set camp and potentially set watches, Palomia considers which time would work out the best for her. "Okay, so you've seen that Relas vanishes at night when I'm asleep. It'd probably be easiest to either stick us on first watch or last watch, so he can either stay with me until it's my turn to get some sleep or I can go ahead and call him when I start my watch and that way he'll already be with us when it's time to start waking the rest of you up," she explains.
Not that I expect we'll get to the morning without trouble but gotta make sure Waman doesn't know that we know he's a dirty rotten traitor.
"It also makes sense to do it that way too because my vision at night is crap, even if Relas can see in the dark just fine. But if someone's got a better idea, I'm all ears," Palo adds with a shrug.
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As Psamtic most certainly wants her heavy armor on if something goes down. Somebody else should keep an eye on the scepter. Psamtic doesn't have the best perception, but she'll take a middle watch. Unless, of course, we want to not watch and just let stuff happen. Just have to keep the scepter safe, right? Put it near those with the best perception? Anybody got an alarm spell or something?
The noises of the jungle ebb and flow around you, the sounds of nature lulling you to uneasy sleep and restless dreams. The midnight hour comes and goes and the camp remains quiet save the rhythmic breathing of your sleeping comrades.
At the end of her watch, Psamtic nods good night to Sinaryn and creeps slowly towards Matrialda to wake her up for her turn as look-out.
Samarjit has also been on watch-duty and from his behavior during the celebration of Angritt’s winning runs, seems to have developed a crush on Matrialda. He constantly looks your way, occasionally waving at Psamtic or Sinaryn, which is frankly making him a very poor guard indeed.
Psamtic has just begun to try and rouse Matrialda when the soft crunch of a stick-under-heel draws attention to their ears.
The paladin freezes like a statue to be double sure that she wasn't the one who made the sound as Matrialda’s eyes pop open. Someone is moving around the camp!
A beat more and they hear the soft rustling of nimble hands sorting through an array of items.
West Bandits – begin searching cargo
East Bandits
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Sinaryn (fatigued)
Psamtic
Matrialda (prone on bedroll)
Sinaryn, Psamtic, Matrialda move or standard action in the Surprise round.
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"Oh Besmara. I feel like I have a hangover...I just wanted a bit of sleep! I am going to blow a hole in at least one of these fools." Sinaryn says shaking her head.
She holds her pistol up and fires making sure the others aren't caught unaware by any more violent thugs.
If the quiet wasn't already broken by Matrialda's harpy queen mother shriek, it was blown to pieces by Sinaryn's pistol shot, alerting Pathfinders, soldiers and bandits that something is amiss.
Samarjit shoots his short bow at the eastern bandit group, scoring a hit in one of the opposition's knees. The wounded brigand calls out in Vudrani, possibly suggesting his injury will prevent him from adventuring further, though it could also be an order to move in, as yet more bandits pour into the camp from the surrounding darkness. Several draw battleaxes and begin attacking the pathfinders' allies, but a few seem more focused on rooting through the cargo containers and resume their search.
Round #1:
Angritt + Rath (awake, prone)
Samarjit
Sinaryn (fatigued)
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East Bandits
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Psamtic
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West Bandits
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Korum (awake, prone)
Matrialda
Palomia (awake, prone)
, do something awesome!
