Quelten

"Mithras!" Quelten cries, continuing his assault mercilessly. Action: Attack the gnoll blocking path. Move Action: Move as far forward as possible without triggering attacks of opportunities. If gnoll is down, this may let me catch up to the spellcasters -- or may not.

The nonsensical phrase "Concentrate all fire on that super star-destroyer!" suddenly pops into Quelten, complete with the image of a talking fish, but he shrugs off the psionic attack with ease. {{ OOC: I just had to throw it in! Ignore this line. }} With Abram moving to engage the enemy cleric, Quelten moves forward to engage the other spellcaster. {{ Move Action: Move as close to the enemy spellcaster as possible }} {{ Action: Either attack the enemy spellcaster in melee, or if out of range throw out a sacred flame cantrip }}

Prepared Actions: 1) Move to within melee range of the big target 2) Attack with mace

Quelten took a deep, cleansing breath, then checked his shield. Ready and able. Then he checked his weapon, and had a momentary surprise when his hand found the mace instead of his hammer. Drawing it, he held himself ready. "Reld and I can keep the big one busy while you guys clean out the trash," he says softly. "But might I suggest we re-position ourselves before attacking? I'd much rather have the high ground advantage if we can manage it."

"Zem, the idea is that each of us will be using one of those poles to check ahead for traps. If you can't lift your own weight, you're more than welcome to wait outside for us, or even head back to town until we're done in the mines," Quelten suggested, tone a little too even and pleasant to be natural.

"Then I guess our next move needs to be on the mines, directly," Quelten nods. "Hit them before they have a chance to recover."

Quelten had to resist the urge to smile at his orders, mind already racing. He remembered a few of his early training patrols. He'd managed to avoid embarrassing himself, but... "If I call out and invoke the name of Mithras', it's real," he tells them. "If I yell about something else... it's an act." He turned and started walking a large, outward spiral around the group. His shield ready to hand, he pulls his bow instead and knocks an arrow. Yes, foolish me -- walking out towards the edge of the group, with a bow in hand instead of his mace. "I'm just a foolish idiot," he mutters to himself, voice so low no one could hear it. "I clearly don't know what I'm doing, and as soon as I hear anything, I'm going to waste my shot anyway. I'm an easy mark, come, kill me..."

Quelten sighs and buries his face in his hands. Yet again they wind up going in twenty directions at once. It was partly his fault, true, but... how the hell to get the group to start pulling together? And how in the name of all the gods to get them to start thinking in the habit of moving as a group instead of splitting up and going twenty directions at once?

Quelten sighs. "Time for plan B. Brute force always works, right?" "Everyone arm yourselves and get ready for battle!" he orders. "If they don't care to offer us battle on their own, we'll have to advance against them."

Quelten resisted the urge to growl. If he wanted to feel like he'd kicked a puppy, he'd buy one and then kick it! Zem's transparent attempts to hide his feelings were starting to get annoying. "Hey, buck up," Quelten tried sweet reason. "It's a good plan, you just started falling in love with it a bit too much."

"Zem, you've fallen in love with your plan," Quelten sighs. "And while it's a good plan, falling in love is blinding you." "Rule one of battle, the plan never survives contact with the enemy," Quelten recites. "Corollary, if the enemy is doing exactly what you want them to do, look for a trap." "You're trying to build up your plan to be more and more effective, which is good, but the plan you're building up starts requiring the enemy to do as you want. It starts requiring everything to go right." Quelten shakes his head. "A stupid enemy is a gift from the gods, and we have no evidence, yet, that the gods are in a giving mood. In fact, if you think about it, the fact that we're here certainly suggests at least some of the gods aren't in a forgiving mood." "So lets focus on maximizing the possible benefits of our little counter-ambush, and try to minimize the risks. And to do the first, we really should get a move on. We do not want to get to the pass when it's dark out!"

{{ OOC: Since we're jumping to the next day, my text actually starts the previous afternoon, when we were still shopping. I'm still pending the results of my market search, however! Was there anything in the market that might be recognized as coming from home, or goods he knows are from a given direction from home, etc etc etc. Maps would be a plus, too -- either one showing home, or even just one covering the local area. }} After finishing his shopping, Quelten debates trying to find someone to spar with. He really should, but it's been a long day, so he instead goes to sleep. The next morning, he prepares for battle, carefully going over all his gear to check for anything that needs attention, then studying a new selection of spells. As the wagons prepare to go, he takes his place and settles in for the journey. Spell List: Healing Word, Cure Wounds, Bless, Sanctuary, Detect Poison and Disease (+ domain shield of faith & divine favor)

{{ OOC: You're lucky. Weak persuasion isn't that big a deal in this scenario, with verifiable data at hand. And Quelten wants to believe, so it's a lower bar anyway. And that dice roller is cool, but I like the random.org random number generator too much... }} Quelten checks his purse. "Why on earth would you try to sneak money into my purse?" He laughs. "A more traditional approach to giving a gift would be something like this." Quelten reaches into his pack and pulls out the clothes he'd just purchased. "Here. Just thought you'd enjoy having these." Quelten shakes his head and laughs. "And buck up a little. Flowers wilt. Grown boys shouldn't." His grin hopefully takes some of the sting out of his words. "We all make mistakes. Try to face them instead of using a cringe to run." {{ Action: Present Zem with the clothes. }} {{ Action: Persuade Zem to feel a little better. Rolled a 4... not that great }}

Quelten pulls Zem off to the side. "You know, if you needed money you could have just asked," he says severely. "There was no need to try and pick my pockets. I would have helped." "Now, what is it that you wanted to buy so badly you were going to steal from me to get it?"

At five copper a piece, the signal whistle was a no brainer, as was a stick of chalk. So much of a no brainer Quelten picks up a signal whistle and chalk for each party member and distributes them. He also grabs an additional healing kit for distribution to another party member, to ensure that each of the two groups they were splitting into would have two kits. If they had to split up, he wanted to avoid any single points of failure he could. And Zem's request makes sense, so he spends on a scroll case to protect the groups scrolls. Hearing the question on poisons, he smiles. "I have no moral objection to the use of poison as a weapon of war, to enhance the deadliness of a weapon. My moral objections would extend to it's use as an instrument of assassination, and I have a practical objection to it's use by our company in that it costs too much. It's useful, but I don't think it's the appropriate tool for what we're doing. Just too expensive." Quelten fingers a set of fine clothes and sighs. Changing the coin from his homeland was going to hurt, but it was the only way he could afford it. And damn it, he wanted at least one nice thing to wear. Just in case. Looking over at Zem, he smiles and makes the decision to buy two sets instead. {{ Action: purchase signal whistles and chalk, seven each -- distribute one to each party member except Zem (who already has them) but including Reld. }} {{ Action: Purchase an additional healing kit and place it in the communal reserve, with the intention of ensuring it's distributed so as to ensure each group has two such kits. Purchase the scroll case Zem has requested. }} {{ Action: Purchase two sets of fine clothes, one to fit him and the other as a gift for Zem. Because he's out of local coin, Quelten will have to exchange his home coin for local. He'll exchange a single gold coin to local silver, and if that doesn't make up the difference between his pockets and the necessary funds (don't remember exchange rates, sorry) he'll exchange as much silver as needed. }} {{ Still-Pending action: Search marketplace for any clues towards home. Maps, trade goods of identifiable origin, even coinage, etc etc }} {{ Still-Pending action: Search for a map of the local area. If one is found, purchase a case for it. }}