As a suggestion for the future, it would likely speed things up if the GM rolled initiative for us. Right now, we’re waiting for everybody to make a dice roll, but we can’t actually make substantial posts because we don’t know what order we’re in.
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Gorkle nods agreeably enough to Kettlehead. "You be stupid!" he declares loudly. "Not sure why you want us to tell you that, though, since you already know." Sometimes malicious compliance is fun.
Sorry, for my part, I was gone and had more limited internet access than normal. Back now and will resume posting.
Gorkle peers at what's in his hands. Eyeshifting a bit, he seems to consider whether or not it's something he can use to lure the toad to him, or failing that, whether or not it's edible, at least, as he decides how to play off what just happened. "Uh, Gorkle meant that this was the mushroom he was going to use to lure the toad in with! Yeah, that it!" It's not the most convincing of bluffs, granted, but maybe they'll buy it. He even goes through the motions of trying to lure one of the toads to him with the mushroom, though when he actually makes his attempt, it mainly involves crouching in place for a bit and then leaping for it.
Might be quicker/more effective to just make an IC post and see who responds quickly. Try and get some momentum built back up after the site being down for so long.
Well, his own efforts haven't been very successful thusfar, so might as well follow the example of those who _are_ having better luck, right? Picking a toad to sneak up on it is, and then he'll make his move. Gorkle may not be a ninja, but he is pretty decent at moving quietly when he needs to, after all. And the sneaking goes well enough, all things considered. When he dives for the toad, on the other hand... "Gorkle gots it! HA HA HA HA HA! Silly toad think it could escape from him, but Gorkle too smart and fast!" If the rest of them look closely, they'll see that what Gorkle is actually clinging to in victory is nothing more than a slick, mud-covered mushroom, quite incapable of dodging when leaped at. The toad, meanwhile, sits on the ground about a foot away, slightly nonplussed about the large (relative to it) thing nearby, but otherwise untouched.
And it looks like we're back!
Upon reaching the swamp, Gorkle begins searching for likely spots that they might find some of the toads they seek, or for the toads themselves if they're nearby.
Gorkle mutters something under his breath about setting things, or maybe people, on fire, it's rather hard to tell. Aiming a glare at the lot of them, he trudges off in the direction they head. Being rather mercurial of temperament, however, he's singing along with the rest of them soon enough. "Toads, toads, let us go get many toads!
Hmm...could there be ways to make them explode? That could be really fun. Or maybe just make _other_ things explode, so the toads were scared and ran to them? That might be better.
Gorkle asks, "Us all need to catch one toad? Or one toad for each?" Potentially very different strategies involved, depending on the answer. One toad for all of them makes them a team. One for each of them could mean teamwork, or could mean competition.
Gorkle puffs up as the badge gets the proper respect that (in his mind, at least) is only its due. "Me show!" he agrees magnanimously, taking it out so she can see. After she's had a few moments to see, he considers, then asks, "You want to work with Gorkle? We all go hunt toads. You stand in front of any bad things. Show that you strong! Then maybe get medal, too!" Assuming she's agreeable to such an arrangement, he'll even be willing to sweeten the deal with the makeshift shield he found.
"Gorkle catch spider! He get medal! And make fire!" the goblin with oversized ears boasts, the latter every bit as important as the former, to judge by his tone.
Gorkle chomps loudly as he eats, well pleased with himself for sealing his bargain with Mogmurch. His ears twitch as he overhears the exchange between the other two, though for the moment he doesn't add anything to it save for a rather loud belch.
That brings us back up to five, which is pretty good group size, though a tank would definitely be nice to have.
So, as early as we are in this game, are we going to re-recruit? Because with the two we lost in the beginning, and now Strong Jaw having to drop, I would certainly be in favor of it.
Gorkle points to Purg. "In back." Then to Kavak, and says the same. Then to himself. Then to Mogmurch, "In shadows." He lets that sink in for a minute, and adds, "If nobody in front, _everybody_ in front!" If no one else wants to take the shield, though, he'll keep it in the hopes of trading it off to someone else later. The big-eared goblin bobs his head at Mogmurch. "Shadows good. Food good, too," and offers some of the darts to seal the bargain.
Gorkle gathers up the darts and puts the makeshift shield on his arm. "Ha! Gorkle have something better than pot, now!" Yes, no teapot is going to compete with this! Except that man, it's really heavy. And it sure does make it hard to move his arm. Even when he's just heading over to the table to shove more food in his mouth. Wow! Who really wants to carry this thing around when it even makes it hard to eat? Mogmurch is all jumpy, so he probably wouldn't. And Kavak...who knows with Kavak? Not Gorkle, at least not yet. Hmmm. What to do? And then he makes his decision. "Psst! Psst! Hey, Purg!" he calls out. Not that he's actually very quiet about it, so it's really not that secretive. "You strong. You watch Gorkle's back, help protect? You do, he give _this_. Way better than dumb pot." Yep, he's offering the makeshift shield.
Gorkle makes a beeline for the table and its bounty, grabbing a handful of whatever food is closest and shoving it in his mouth as he goes to check out what might be in the box! Assuming the other two don't follow him on their own, he will gesture toward the food to point it out to them. Gorkle, finder of munchings and crunchings! And a box!
Gorkle looks around for things that might be useful in tracking down food...or just for food itself, if it's available. He points over at the tree. "Gorkle make fire! Food better after fire. Can try hunting, too, if rest of tribe no feed."
Gorkle stands near his fire, wearing it proudly and letting the light of the flames glint off of it. Eventually, though, hunger wins out over watching the tree burn. "Hey Purg, hey Mogmurch. Me hungry! You hungry, too?" Really, though, is there ever a time when goblins _aren't_ hungry? "Us should get food."
Gorkle's ears droop when he learns that the answer is no, and he glares at the handaxe that's dropped on his foot, although he doesn't mutter, "Me keep axe. Ha!" until she's well out of earshot. If the first swing is a bit sullen, well, by the third he's starting to cheer back up a bit, even starting to singsong, "Blade on axe go chop chop chop! Chop chop chop! Chop chop chop! Blade on axe go chop chop chop! All through Bork!" Chopping isn't so bad, really. Not nearly as good as burning, of course, but not so bad.
Gorkle skitters -- carefully and warily -- toward Loptop. Not at all hostile; rather the opposite: making sure she's content to stop with the two she's already bested. If she still seems aggressive, he'll back off very quickly. Gesturing to the fallen form of Bork Bork, he asks, hopeful, "Us burn?" They _do_ have to dispose of the body, after all, right?
"Smart gobbos get to watch the ruckus! Fun to watch someone get smashed!" Gorkle adds, not really all that worried about who it is so long as it isn't him.
Gorkle, having not set himself on fire doing that and thus uninjured, does make another try at the goals of the competition. Still, he _did_ get to set a tree on fire, so that was a lot of fun! Instead of trying to climb the flaming tree, though, he opts to return to something more akin to his earlier suggestion -- he opts to jump for one of the lower branches and swing from it, sending himself through the flames and then rolling around on the ground on the other side pretending to be badly burned.
Gorkle thinks a moment, and then one can almost see the candle flicker to life over his head as he comes up with an idea. He holds the torch out behind him, bends over, pulls his loincloth out of the way, and lets rip with a truly massive, foul-smelling fart, using the torch to set it alight. Surely that's going to go _extremely_ well, right?
For his part, Gorkle seems to like Bork's addition to his idea -- he'll more than willingly go first for something like that. Before he can voice his agreement, however, Loptop's shout cuts him off, and his ears droop as he begins to suspect it won't come to pass after all.
Gorkle looks between Purg and Bork. "Gorkle make big fire, see who jumps through it best!" comes the suggestion from him. After all, that means he gets to build another fire, and if one of them doesn't do a good enough job and burns, well...seeing someone set on fire doesn't sound so bad, either. Win win!
Gorkle looks smug as Bork gets his scolding. Had Loptop not intervened before his torch was stolen, Bork would have earned an enemy for life. As it is, while he might not have liked getting pummeled and having his ear chewed on, that's just part of daily life. Any lingering irritation that he may have felt evaporates as he sees what happens to Kavak, though. Someone (else) getting bitten _there_? Comedy gold.
Gorkle is interrupted in his victory dance -- which, one might note, involves a good deal of flailing around with his homemade torch -- by suddenly being puked on by Strongjaw. Naturally, his response has nothing whatsoever to do with recoiling. No, he reaches down and scrapes as large a handful of the puke off his chest then draws back to throw it. While he made no effort to keep hold of the spider after his task was complete, thanks to the mist, there's a good chance that Bork would have no way of knowing that, and Gorkle doesn't see Bork coming at all. The torch-bearing Goblin goes down in a heap, shouting a surprised curse, though he does get one small measure of revenge as he's pummeled -- Bork will get a faceful of the puke that Gorkle had originally intended to fling at Strongjaw as Gorkle tries (mostly ineffectually) to push the stronger goblin off of him.
Gorkle completely ignores the other goblins until his fire is burning brightly. While it may start out as nothing more than twigs and straw, he manages to find a fallen branch and gets it alight, waving around his makeshift torch and laughing with glee. "GORKLE MAKE FIRE!!!" Now that the first of the young Goblin's dreams have been achieved, he's much more willing to go along with less important things, like, oh, everything else. "Fire better than string!" Gorkle tells Loptop (not that that stops him from _taking_ the string, mind you.) He swings his torch at the spider, leaving himself wide open if it were the sort of creature that charged into flames. Unlike Goblins, though, it seems to have something of a sense of self-preservation, and moves away from the flame, which gives Gorkle the opportunity to pounce.
Wait. The door is...open? Gorkle has been waiting for this day for so very, very long. Not even the emptiness in his belly can win out over the one thing he’s longed to do. The scuffle? Barely registers, even though normally it would be the sort of thing he’d be eager to watch and cheer (or jeer) on. He scampers about, gathering up loose straw and twigs, as well as a stray bit of flint he’d seen dropped days ago. He’d seen the miracle workers bang larger pieces of flint against stone or metal, and now it was finally HIS turn. Hunkering protectively over hi pile of twigs and outright quivering with excitement, he begins scraping away. Clack...clack...CLACK! Gorkle begins to giggle as the first sparks are created. Whether it’ll be enough to catch the straw and twigs alight remains to be seen, but it certainly won’t be for lack of effort or enthusiasm if he fails.
As a player, I'd be very cool with building a massive goblin kingdom. Does at least one of us have a high Charisma and the right skills to be a better leader type, though? Gorkle has some intimidate, so he can boss people around, but he's Charisma 8 and won't have anything like Diplomacy or Sense Motive that are rather important for kingdom building.
Gorkle's sheet should be finalized in his profile, now. I also decided to swap out Perform for Profession as a class skill, though again, no ranks in it yet. Just figured a fire dancing pyrokineticist would be fun.
Commenting over here, too, for good measure. I'm getting my sheet moved over to Gorkle's profile and correcting the errors I made with it in the draft; I also swapped out Disable Device for Handle Animal as a class skill (no ranks in either yet, but since the Burn! Burn! Burn! feat has disable device as a prereq, figured I might as well make it a class skill, too.)
Gorkle, ever obedient, creates a giant dot of smoke. Pity about that house he burned down to make it. |