Enchee’s Camping Quest!

Iados strode confidently towards the edge of the city with his head held high and a cocky smirk on his face. He could feel passersby staring him down as he walked by, but he brazenly stared them down right back, glowing yellow eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, hand resting lightly on the hilt of his rapier. Inside, he was terrified. Normally he didn't let himself be noticed; cloaked and hooded with his head down, he was free to earn a coin purse or three as he navigated the crowded streets. Today, he was cloaked and hooded in a different sort; puffed out chest, purposeful, confident strut, playing the role of hired muscle. As he swaggered towards the city gates, the same thought kept repeating itself in his mind over and over: 'why didn't I use my disguise kit?' But it was too late to be helped; he had already taken his mentor's advice. 'Do it by the rules this time', Alulynn had said, 'and do it all grandiose like, like one of those big warrior-types!' The butterflies Iados felt in his stomach might as well have been direwolves tearing at his innards, he was so nervous. But Alulynn was right. After all, he had heard that it was a little girl who needed help, and from the description he had been given, the girl was just trying to get by, like them. Even if the reward wouldn't be too great, Iados would still be helping out one of their own, and that was all right with him. He just wished it wasn't so damned public. Iados sighed and swore under his breath, making a mental note to pilfer several of Alulynn's favourite jewels as payback once the job was over.

As the city gates came fully into view Iados headed towards a little goblin girl with a knot of flaming red hair, standing off to one side. Even from a distance he could see how nervous the goblin was, constantly looking back and forth, her hands clutching the straps of her pack like it were a shield. Kneeling beside her was the most heavily-muscled barbarian Iados had ever seen; clad in armor that had seen its share of action and jet-black hair over one part of her face. Iados winced slightly as the sun reflected briefly off the dangerous-looking glaive strapped to the barbarian's back. 'Well at least I know who I'm hiding behind when things get dicey,' he thought as he stepped up to the pair. Taking the barbarian's lead, Iados knelt down in front of the little goblin and softened his expression. He noticed the squirming critter in the goblin's pocket and smiled warmly. "Well met, little one. I'm Iados, and I'm going to help see you through your journey. I even have a little friend who can keep your pet company! Silk, come greet my new friend!" And with that, a small brown mouse scurried from an inner pocket in Iados' jerkin, running up his arm and onto his outstretched palm, standing up on his hind legs before looking up inquisitively. (518 words)

Enchee looked more attentively at Kara, the start of a smile reaching her face. Kara was a little bit scary, which meant that people, real scary fightery people, would be coming! Or at least, there was one. And the first one was a lady, which wasn’t a big deal, but Enchee felt like it was something of a good thing. It was also a little inspiring, it made her a smidge more confident. This lady would look after Enchee.

Speaking of this lady, she hadn’t introduced herself properly. Enchee waited for a moment, seeing if she’d prompt herself to do so... maybe she was waiting for a more whole group, so she only had to say anything once. Enchee knew it was annoying to repeat on and on. But, she offered something, a little whistle. Enchee took it, careful not to snatch. Looking it over, Enchee smiled a little more, for a moment.

“Thank you.” she whispered, aware of manners, even if she ignored them unless she wanted something. Enchee didn’t want much tangible from this lady, she wanted safety, Enchee maybe also wanted something else, she wasn’t sure. She felt like it would be a good thing to make a friend of the lady. She seemed like a... useful friend.

Enchee flinched, and then she realised Iados was not a thief or somebody trying to hurt her. She came back forwards, apologetically, and listened to him with a slight smile. On revealing Silk, Enchee perked up quite considerably, diving into her pocket to retrieve her own mouse. “My one is called Queso, he’s very silly. Oh! And I’m called Enchee. I also have a last name and that one is Laah’dah. It’s a very old family name but I’m probably the only one in Waterdeep. Not outside though. Enchee probably has loads of goblin cousins and aunts and uncles and such.” She nodded wisely, quite sure she was speaking a philosophical statement of absolute truth.

She put the whistle into her pocket, quite tempted to leave her hand there, but she left it to hang around the pocket awkwardly instead. Then she looked up, between her new friends, and took a deep breath instead of being scared of yet another stranger. Enchee reminded herself that everybody is a stranger at first, but it seemed much more scary now. If she ran away, and any one of these people wanted her dead, she wasn’t sure what she could do. If anything. Which was good, of course, because they were all going to want Enchee alive, but it was good to remember what faced you. Probably.

“Um, I don’t know if this is everyone..? But I think this is a good amount. We should go before I change my mind and I can’t do it- outside is scary, um.”

Enchee, with increasingly tiny steps, shuffled her way, right to the gate. She stood off to the side, aware she was blocking the path otherwise, and took several tries to actually leave the city. She made sure everybody was close, or watching. Once she did, she was very proud, and very scared. Enchee looked quite pale for a second, very wary of all the strangers going either way. They were mostly just normal people, but that didn’t stop her from feeling distrust and fear.

When her group followed, Enchee grabbed onto Kara and Iados by their clothes. She was shaking much harder. “I think I know where we’re supposed to... to go. But we have to stay away from anybody else because Enchee doesn’t want to be confused for a mean goblin and killed by a scary stranger who hates them. Enchee is a good girl, very good and not bad.” Very tentatively releasing her grip of Kara, Enchee held up a crumpled piece of paper, a map, copied by her own hand from a much more colourful and detailed map. But it was pretty clear. Just get to the edge of the forest, no real beasties would attack in the area. It would be safe to take, say, thirty or forty young goblins to camp there with peace of mind. Enchee had burned it into her brain, she didn’t need to look at the paper to remember.

The outside was sure enough, the outside. Travellers and their carts rolling up the path, decent amounts of grass, some insects. Nothing surprising.
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If everyone could make a perception check, that would be great, thank you! 

xrFzC1lt1d20+21d20+2

The way Enchee was shaking, something about venturing into the wilds past the gates truly frightened her. As the little goblin brought, no, half-dragged Iados and Kara to the gates, Iados quietly slipped the whistle out of Enchee's pocket and rather carefully placed it around her neck. Introductions had been useful; as far as he could tell, Enchee was not just your typical goblin (typical as in a goblin who wasn't trying to disembowel Iados almost instantly), and that she was a goblin of some renown. Typical (there was that word again) goblin determination was quite limited, but the effort she was putting into reaching past the gates suggested that she wasn't just trying to achieve this stepping-stone for her own ambitions. Just what is waiting for us out there, then? Iados wondered. When Enchee took out the map (surprisingly letting go of the warrior instead of him), he quickly committed it to memory. One of the first things Alulynn taught Iados was the importance of a good exit strategy, and whatever Enchee was expecting was beginning to leave knots in Iados' stomach. They were also being noticed by passersby as they entered or left the gates; the majority passed without so much as a glance, but every so often Iados felt more lingering stares. They were an eclectic group, each from a different race yet still standing out in their own way, together leaving the city. Led by a goblin.

As Kara's armored hand rested lightly on Enchee's shoulder, Iados' eyes narrowed; he took a moment to survey their surroundings, meeting the eyes of everyone who looked their way just a bit too long. Looking farther, he searched the shadows, feeling uneasy about what was almost certainly waiting for them. Iados thought he had happily bonded with a new friend as he (and Silk) nodded emphatically with Enchee while she was introducing herself. But of all the names in Waterdeep, the last he been expecting to hear again was the Laah’dah family name.

(338 words)




Perception: _U3eAhXA1d20+4
1d20+4

Nothing seemed out of place, even Zelphar’s keen elven eyes simply met what he could assume to be perfectly normal travellers. Kara had hold of Enchee, who had no intention of skipping off into the world, which was just as scary as it had been a few minutes ago.

To those more attentive, they could gather more of an impression of who funnelled into Waterdeep. Merchants, or adventurers, mostly. Sometimes in groups, one protecting the other for a paycheck. Enchee seemed more nervous when she saw the weapons, how tall some people were, how muscular and scary, but otherwise she seemed alright to continue.

Walking towards the appropriate patch of woodland, anybody with a decent knowledge of the area would know that the place was pretty safe. It was fenced off, with a simple latched wooden gate. It was clearly designated as a camping ground, with a small painted sign in the trees stating such. Enchee finally let go of Kara and Iados, to undo the padlock with a key she’d temporarily ‘borrowed’. She pushed the gate open, silently, but more confident.

“Nobody stopped us or Enchee, which is good. Nobody did any nasty fighting also which is very good, actually.” She held it open, climbing up on the horizontal wood at the base of the fence. Enchee counted everybody in subconsciously, pleased to see that nobody had been at all abducted.

The trip had been uneventful, but took long enough for the sun to just start setting. There was a good amount of time to start a campfire, and to get some tents put up around the flat and relatively clear ground. Enchee already knew all about this, and under the supervision of her hired help and the flimsy wooden fence, she went around collecting sticks and bits of dry wood to stack neatly and set ablaze.

Enchee seemed not to have much to say, after asking politely and usually remembering to say please or thank you, and quietly got camp ready. Then she turned to the three, pulling her coat from her shoulders and spreading it on the ground.

“Would anybody like me to read their fortune?” Enchee asked, as she put a small deck of yellowed and well-worn cards on the coat, kneeling beside it and the fire.

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Though Iados was unsure of what Zelphar noticed while the four of them made their way to the camp, he felt more relaxed the deeper they went into the woods. It was a peace he had not felt in quite some time. Once, when he was still a boy, he had gone on a camping excursion with the arch mage Naeceran, his foster caretaker, the one who had taken him from his home. Naeceran was most proficient among the Red Wizards of Thay with coaxing out the gift within their pupils. Deep in the forests of the high-elves where Iados was taken, he was tested to ascertain whether he was telepathic, or shared any of his father's gifts. Despite the ridiculous nature of the excursion (Iados was sure there was no gift to manifest), the forest had given him a moment of solace from the pressures of his life among the magic-users. There were no eyes to judge him here. There were no pretensions to keep up. It was as if the forest knew he needed a place to untangle himself, gathering him up and hiding him among the endless beauty. It wasn't until they arrived at the camping site that Iados snapped out of his reverie and returned to the task at hand.

Having been accustomed to city life, he was at a loss of how to help Enchee, as she went to and fro gathering sticks for a fire and setting up camp. He did his best not to be a bother, and was puzzled when Enchee set her coat on the ground. Iados perked up at the sight of the cards Enchee pulled out. "How about I go first? I've always wanted to know what my future is going to look like." Not really a fan of magic, Iados was nevertheless curious, about what the cards might say, and about what Enchee would say. (319 words)

The young goblin smiled, happy to have somebody interested in the cards. She carefully shuffled them, the deck slightly oversized for her hands. Despite this, she seemed to know what she was doing. Looking at the deck, they weren’t traditional fortune telling cards, nor oracle cards, instead they were simply carefully decorated with foreign and unusual runes, perhaps even unique to the cards themselves.

She placed half the deck on the floor, then fanned it out. Offering it to Iados until he’d selected six, which she spread out on her coat, turning over to see in a carefully planned out, methodical manner.

“This one,” Enchee pointed, smiling, “means happiness and vitality, or it will mean that, if you don’t... feel that way.” Narrowing her eyes, she looked more deeply at the next card, comparing it with the one before, then nodding. “So that’s really good because you need to be in a good mood to get what you want. Which you can get soon. But... but be careful because you might make the wrong decisions, maybe you’re not in charge of yourself right now. That’s okay, because you’ll be okay. Even if the solution isn’t what you expected, it’ll be okay, because, I guess..”

She picked up the last card, turning it over in her hand for a moment. “You’ll win in the end. Definitely.” As she began to shuffle the cards back together, ready to go again for anybody else interested, Enchee’s ears twitched, and she stared back at the slight wilderness around them, looking for the source of some noise that her and Zelphar both certainly heard.

Rustling, some larger creature, maybe multiple, even. Zelphar could easily see four curious but hungry wolves at the edge of the thicker trees and foliage with an eye on the small creature making all the noise.

Please roll me initiative

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