Sithar walks over to stand behind Jeren, his class shifter claws extending. "Let's not fight again. Don't make it worse for yourself than you already have."
Sithar readies action to shove the warforged away from Jeren if it gets into melee with Jeren.
Sithar gathers up the stones he slung and puts them back into one of his pouches, then asks, "What do we do with our would-be assassin?"
"Question him and find out why he attacked us." Sithar looks towards the church to see if the church doors are open to see if the priest might have witnessed the warforged's unprovoked attack on the group.
On second round he will load and fire a stone from his sling at the warforged - not Doc.
[dice=Sling]1d20+5-4-1The minus 4 is for firing into melee. -1 for regular stone
modified attack roll is 10.
Sithar, now on the roof of the church, grabs a stone from one of his pouches and hurls it with his sling...and the stone bounces harmlessly off the warforged witch.
"Hey, Doc! Does the thing have a place on it that my stones might be more effective at hurting it?!"
<"Great, first chance to show how much of a scrapper I am and it's a metal man.">
Sithar activates his racial shifting ability (free action, +2 Dex, 20 foot climb speed) current duration is 5 rounds for racial shifting and climbs up the side of the church to the roof and draws his sling.
On second round he will load and fire a stone from his sling at the warforged - not Doc.
Sling:1d20 + 5 - 4 ⇒ (10) + 5 - 4 = 11The minus 4 is for firing into melee.
heads up: homefront situation is going to make posting as frequently as I have been a bit difficult for the at least the next two weeks. I will still try to make sure I am checking daily, but it might only be once per day instead of multiple times throughout the day until homefront stuff is more managaeable to return to checking multiple times throughout the day.
When the others exit the building, Sithar approaches them and holds up his left palm so Jeren can see the crest of the scarf he found, "I found this while you were inside."
Unexpected stuff on the homefront came up, that took up most of my free time today and will take up some of my free time for the next few days. Will still try to check and post daily.
Sithar picks up the scarf, wraps it around his left hand and forearm so that the crest is visible on the palm side of his hand. He then waits for the others to exit the church.
How far away is it? Where is it? Is it on the ground, in a tree, etc.? With the current distance it is from Sithar, does the red just look like the material the scarf is made from or does it look like it might be blood/bio matter?
As the group makes their way to the church, Sithar tells Jorntesh about his life, "No one special, if you mean romantically. There is someone very special to me. Hareen. I do not know if he is doing well, as he stayed behind in Cyre years ago when Jeren and his kin were bringing me home to mine. He was happy to be with fellow tigers there. That was before the destruction of Cyre. Did the wildlife of the northern plains there survive the devastion of Cyre?" Sithar gets a look of hope on his face, waiting for Jorntesh (or any of the rest) to answer his question.
The tiger-striped alley cat moves up against Sithar and purrs as it nudges Sithar's right lower leg with its head.
"Thoron's ranch for the weird tracks and missing cattle. I can check that out with some of you while others inquire at the Silver Flame church and get the delivery details from House Cannith."
Sithar takes his time to enjoy the one slice of pie with ice cream, "This is delicious. The rest of you can share the other slice I ordered if you want. If it is still on the table after I finish this slice, I will finish the second slice quick so we can head out."
Sithar orders another drink (same as first one) when his slices of pie arrive.
"Stealing from the poor is not right. Though the poor are not being killed while the animals might be. Would it not be better to investigate who is taking lives as opposed to coins first?"
"I did. Some cattle have gone missing, and some unknown tracks have been spotted in the vicinity. Jeren suggested we ask locals about the missing..." A brief facial expression of anger and fear appear on Sithar's face before he continues, "donations for the poor that were stolen. Then we can deliver some cargo to Fairhaven."
Sithar takes a slice of cake and tries it, "Not as good as pie. This is kind of", he coughs, "dry compared to pie."
At certain street corners in Passage, he would sometimes head in the direction his newfound ally cat tag-along headed in the direction of.
Sithar wonders if The Traveler guided his new feline friend to the cafe that turned out to be where one of his saviors was, who was there with an adventuring group.
Sithar's facial expression reveals he is not familiar with the apparent birthday tradition of a cake, with or without candles.
Sithar asks Jeren, "How many traveling companions of yours are in here?"
After the cake is placed on the table, Sithar stands up to address the newcomer and extends his arm to shake hands, "Hi, I am Sithar. Pleased to meet another friend of Jeren's."
"It was eight years ago when we arrived in Wolf's Paw and Lorgan became my guardian and started training me. I was there for a year before word of my return reached my parents, who came and brought me home to my tribe."
Sithar takes the cider from the server and thanks her.
"When I heard Cyre was devastated I wanted to travel back there to find Hareen to make sure he is okay. My parents wouldn't let me. A few weeks ago I helped defend the tribe from a gnoll raiding party from Droamm. I became blooded when I slayed a gnoll who got past our warriors' protective circle before he could harm any of the young ones."
"Nice to meet you too, Sprout," Sithar extends his arm to shake Sprout's hand.
In response to Theonius's question, Sithar extends his arm to shake his hand, "Are you a friend of Jeren's too?"
Anyone interested in backstory ties with Theo? I am fine with just being acquaintances if that fits better.
Jeren, the other halflings and young Sithar were traveling from the Talenta Plains to the Eldeen Reaches via Cyre (before it was devastated) and Breland during the years 990 and 991.
Looks like Theonius had his fateful life-changing night in 991 and was doing his training for the next 2 years.
So Sithar and Theonis have probably not crossed paths before.
Sithar's face tenses at the mention of the fey. "Yes, it was. Spriggans that caged Hareen and me and tortured us for years for their sick enjoyment." Sithar's breathing becomes slightly faster, the fingers of his left hand start to twitch. He focuses on Jeren and his breathing slows and his fingers stop twitching, "What have you been doing since the last time we saw each other?"
Sithar takes a step back from Jeren so Jeren can more easily take a better look at him, as he calls out to the server at the bar, "Miss, can I get an apple cider with cinnamon. Heated would be preferred, but cold is fine too."
Sithar, still hugging Jeren when the warforged stands up and warns there are enemies, releases Jeren, "Sounds like it will be now when you see I am a warrior now too, my friend." Sithar spins around, his hands morphing into his (class) shifter claws to face the threat...and seeing no enemies...
He spins back around, his hands shifting back to his normal hands as he extends one of his arms to shake the warforged's hand, "Please to meet you. I am Sithar. Are you a friend of Jeren's too?"
The front door of the cafe opens, the customers that see the newcomer via their periphal vision assume its just another human. "Jeren, is that you?" Sithar asks, which causes the customers to look towards the door and see from the man's hands that he is a shifter and not a human. The most peculiar visual thing about the dark-haired shifter are the tiger stripe tattoos that can be seen on his face. As he walks towards the halfling he just asked the question to, the ones that are closer to him see that it is not a tattoo but rather a natural part of his flesh.
"It is you!" Without thinking or knowing the particular etiquette that is called for, Sithar bends forward to hug Jeren and stands back up while continuing to hug one of his halfling saviors. "I am heading east to where we left Sithar in Cyre. It would be great if we could travel again. I am much more capable now than the last time you saw me."
How does Jeren let Sithar know that he should stop hugging him and set him back down? Sithar was a (nine-year old) kid the last time you saw him.
It seems that some of us know each other and some do not. What brings us all to this cafe in Passage at the same time?
Happenstance for Sithar.
As for who, between Jeren and Sithar, recognizes the other one first, Jeren would not recognized Sithar based on his size (as he is no longer a small child) but his distinctive tiger stripes birthmark pattern that are not covered by his attire, would probably instantly bring memories back and quickly deduce Sithar as the child he helped rescue and escort to Wolf's Paw.
@Jeren: Would you prefer to notice Sithar when he walks into the cafe, before he notices you, Sithar notices Jeren first, or to notice each other at the same time?
Spriggans work. They get their muted satisfaction making the shifter children and animal cubs they kidnap suffer as they raise them in cages, and more so when they have accomplished their goal of turning them into full-grown dark champions to inflict suffering onto the kin they stole them from.
@Jeren: Aside the original fight with the spriggans to free Sithar and Hareen, would you like to add some encounter with spriggans who were trying to recapture Sithar, while the group was travelling through Breland?
An additional option for encounter(s) while travelling through Breland (south of Thrane, where the Silver Flame's base of Flamekeep is) could be some Puritans of the Silver Flame heard rumours of a group of House Jorasco halflings escorting a shifter or lycanthropic child and decided to seek out and slay the child. The Puritans of the Silver Flame were ones who helped initiate the inquisition against the lycanthropes, and still remain a vocal group within the church of the Silver Flame.
@ GM: In the orignal recruitment the PCs were in Passage. For the reopening you stated the new PCs are in Arcanix. Are both correct, or are the new PCs starting in Passage as well?
@GM: Have you decided on which unseelie kidnapped and kept Sithar and his tiger friend caged for the six years?
@Jeren: Have you decided on how Jeren was involved in the rescue of Sithar and the tiger from the dark fey? Was Jeren only part of the initial (larger) group of Jorasco halflings that saved the shifter child and tiger or was Jeren part of the small group of Jorasco halflings that escorted the shifter boy to the Eldeen Reaches? If yes to the latter, did you want to add any specific significant encounters while the group was traveling through Breland? Vathirond-Starilaskur-Hateril-Xandrar-lake passage on Smooth Sailing -Cree-Wolf's Paw (halflings then make their way back - possibly Wolf's Paw-Varna-Passage- to whereever Jeren was trained in Aundair).
I have updated his profile to include the updated conditions while he was caged by the dark fey (and the drawback and extra trait gained as part of it).
Is Sithar's timeline good for what he was doing the Last War?
I left the specific type of fey creature(s) that took him and the tiger cub open so you could choose which type of fey creature(s) took them. Let me know if you want me to come up with the specifics of the fey creatures instead.
How the dark fey punished him when he did not do what they told him to:
In addition to whipping both the boy and tiger when they did not do as they were told, the dark fey would sometimes lather one of the boy's limbs in honey, then release a jar of bullet ants onto the honey-lathered limb. The dark fey did not gather the ants back up until they had consumed the honey of the boy's limb or the boy had passed out from the pain.
The dark fey theatened that the tiger would have honey poured on it if the boy attempted to swipe the honey or ants from himself. The child, not wanting his tiger friend to experience the agonizing pain, always endured the pain for as long as he could before passing out from the pain.
