The Hullabaloo at Maroo [Past]

[Arl Lotreab]

Arl grabed her spear and immediately entered a half-crouching defensive position.

"Whuzahapennig! I .. oh." The woman laughed to herself before addressing the frame. "Coming out. Thanks again for the ride, I hope everything went fine overnight?"

Arl gets ready to leave the wagon, but doesn't do so quite yet.

[Riesig]

Riesig woke up and stretched with a yawn as he got out of the wagon. His self preservation instincts were practically non existent outside of combat. He looked around as he got out to see what was going on.

[DarkAbyssKeeper]

The driver nodded in response to Arl's question. "A pack of wolves drew close to the wagon at one point when the horses needed a rest... but they didn't seem to want to get close enough. Momma says some animals can smell aspects, maybe they didn't like their odds?" he said, his nervous stutter from early much less pronounced.

As he looked around, Riesig got a clearer picture of their surroundings. It wasn't long after dawn and the birds in the trees around them were chirping happily. The wagon was stopped at the edge of a path not far off from a clearing, the clearing itself was a rocky affair through which a stream seemed to be filtering. Rushing water butted up against a number of large rocks and split off around a number of rocky channels which provided easy access to the water and deterred plant life.

Over at the wagon there was a thud and a groan, apparently Rand did not wake gracefully.

[Arl Lotreab]

"I'm surprised they'd come near people at all, really...maybe its been a bad season for hunting..." Arl looked towards the stream, suddenly reminded of her own trip through Casawek. Granted, the local wolves surely would know the area better than her!

Wait, the stream?

"I'm surprised we stopped so close... thank you for your help, (???)*

*Arl would definitely have gone through the whole 'My name is' business sometime over the trip. If he didn't share.. um.. she calls him sir?

[Riesig]

"So, what's our plan?" Riesig asked as he walked over to the stream and put his feet in the water. He felt at home with the water.

[Arl Lotreab]

After thanking (???), Arl walked over to the river area and gave it a good, long look.

"Hiding shouldn't be too hard with plant manipulation... how about this: We create something odd enough to draw the attention of the bandits. Something big, but not SO odd they will head back to base first. Then we hide several yards away to the side and in front of it." The woman punctuates her point with a quick spell, weaving a tiny fake battleground behind a rock. "Basically, we want to control where they are initially looking and maybe get them to walk towards a spot we've prepared for battle."

[Riesig]

Riesig just smiled as he kept his eyes closed and listened. "Sure. I'm not so good at tactics, so whatever you two feel comfortable with."

[Rand M. Guardman]

"These lot are opportunistic... what if they stumbled upon a body by the stream?" Randall wondered aloud as he rejoined the group, a little groggy. He pulled off his golden jacket and glanced about the clearing.

[Arl Lotreab]

Arl gave Randal a confused look "Where would we get a body, though? Too risky for one of us to fake de.. what if we fake a sleeping person? Plant sheets and rocks, making it look rushed and crappy would be in our favor, even."

[Rand M. Guardman]

"That's a pretty good plan. Any got any plans for laying the ambush? I do a good turn at looking pathetic, pretty convincing sleeper, too."

As he spoke, Randall found a particularly dense looking bush and jammed his jacket into it, obscuring it from view.