[Lmao, I love it. Honestly, this is going to be a hilarious odd couple, stoic and chaos. With a dash of cute kitty!]

In your dreams, you see the woman in blood. She gazes at you with dark, deep eyes which seem to glean with something more. Amusement? Appreciation? It is hard to tell. You hear her whispering in your ear...

Revenge will be yours <BLANK>. But take care that you do not take on too much at once. Even with my powers... you are still a solitary man. You have a new ally... and yet you may need more arms to help you in the coming trial...

/--8 AM, Second of Kythorn, 1491 DR, Neverwinter Woods--/

When you awaken, you find Lys is already awake, in the same spot you left her, more or less. She has the two shortswords she used in front of her on the ground. She stares at them pensively. Midnight apparently had curled up on you last night. Perhaps she preferred your familiarity over the knight. She is still asleep, but quickly wakes up whenever you sit up. She stretches and yawns, somehow more cute than ever.

[Long rest achieved, yay!]

Alakazam stretches out his arms and legs before sitting himself up.  He places an arm under Midnight to prevent her from falling off of him while he rises.  The magician takes a moment to reflect on his dream, Well, a fantastic act typically requires more assistants.  And better props tend to lead to better results.

Alakazam calls out to Lys, whom he can't figure if she even slept at all, "Mornin', sleep well?"

"Yes." Lys responds very quickly. Midnight stretches on your arm and suddenly takes off like a scared bat towards Lys, landing on her head. Cats can be a bit weird. Tressym even moreso.

Alakazam, however, can't be too distracted by the cat. Its plain in the way she answered - Lys is telling a bold faced lie. She must be an awful liar, he figures.

Lys continues, "Care for breakfast? On our way to town, I could wrestle a boar for us to enjoy."

Behind his white mask, Alakazam's eyes focus in on Lys' expressions.  He was not going to berate her for her deception, but he couldn't risk having an exhausted ally.  Especially when the party's goal was to eliminate a bandit group.  The magician does his best to gauge Lys' level of tiredness; trying to decipher if it'd affect her ability to function both in and out of a fight.

Assuming this is an Insight Check: 6 
sobs

Lys seems exactly as she was last night. In truth, Lys is the sort of person who would make a good elf -- in that she seems ever unchanging, unfazed, and perhaps even time does not stand a chance to change her stoic nature.

"You are staring, Mister Alakazam. I understand that I am a great beauty, but it is unbecoming of our budding friendship for you to examine me so closely." She misunderstood his intentions, but somehow she didn't seem annoyed... or pleased. She spoke as if it was a minor correction. Of course, she cannot really see Alakazam's face... yet she apparently sensed his vision upon her. She stands up, donning her armor once again. "Hmm, perhaps you merely thirst... for the blood of those men. Let us depart for our target destination. After we conquer whatever sad hold they have, we can have breakfast after." She is talking very casually about storming a hideout like it wasn't a big deal.

Alakazam realized he had unconsciously hunched forward, making it obvious he was observing Lys.  The magician reels himself back, with a hand rubbing the back of his head as he apologized, "Ah sorry Lys.  It seems I was lost in thought and chose your face to blankly stare at.  Though, now that you say so, you are indeed a beauty.  Unfortunately for you, my heart has already been claimed by another.  A true beauty, unmatched by all the stars in the sky and all the gold in the world."

Alakazam stands up and ensures that he has all of his things.  He then responds to Lys' second statement, "Now now, Lys.  You say that as if I'm some crazed beast.  While I will ensure that these men pay for their actions with their lives, let's do things with a level of tact and..."  Alakazam takes a moment to think up the right word, a pensive finger on his chin, "...pizzazz!"

(Unless Lys or Midnight have anything to add, Alakazam is ready to travel).

"Pizzazz... very well, as you say." Lys nods her approval. Its clear as long as the men fall, she will be whatever her version of happy is. 

The three of you set off! Lys largely leads the way, given she apparently has a general map of this part of the region. She points out roughly where you are on the map and leads you down to the road towards Phandalin.

[PS, in my imagination the Neverwinter Woods are a lot larger than depicted. I am not an artist, so I apologize for the break in verisimilitude in this map.]

/--9 AM, Second of Kythorn, 1491 DR, Triboar Trail--/

The three of you travel in relative silence for about an hour, enjoying the sounds of nature. As you come around a bend, you spot two dead horses sprawled about fifty feet ahead of you, blocking the path. Each has several black-feathered arrows sticking out of it. The woods press close to the trail here, with a steep embankment and dense thickets on either side.

[I can't remember if you played LMOP before, but if you did, feel free to metagame as much as you please. I mean it!]

Alakazam extends an arm out to halt Lys from moving forward, "I don't like the looks of that.  Best we proceed with caution aye?"

Before proceeding any further, Alakazam takes a look at his surrounding in search of any other survivors or attackers.

Perception: 19

(I've played up to the goblin cave, but nothing afterwards).

[Thank you for baring with me! So sorry about this huge delay!]

Alakazam, you open up your senses to the world. The distinct rustling of trees, the lack of other wild sounds, and fatally for the enemy, an errant ear -- goblins. At least four. For this before we break into combat, I will allow you a single full turn  before combat. Only you can act right now, but you get to set up the board so to speak. If you want to crowd all the goblins together, go for it! Be sure to roll initiative for you and your companions in your post.

(No worries, I had to take care of some family business and school over these past few days so all is good!  If I'm reading your post correctly, then I'm assuming I get to set up where the 4 goblins are.  If that is the case, then I'll place the goblins on the opposite side of the dead horses.  At the moment, they are busy scavenging the corpses to notice Alakazam and his crew.)

Alakazam turns to Lyn, "It appears we have some goblin friends up ahead.  I've something I'd like to try, if you are willing to play along?"

The magician explains his plan to disguise himself as a bugbear to attempt communications with the goblins.  Meanwhile, Midnight and Lys would hide in the nearby shrubbery.  Should things go south, Alakazam will signal for the two of them with a loud howl.

If Lys agrees to this plan, Alakazam uses Disguise Self to take on the appearance of a bugbear.  He waits for his two allies to conceal themselves in the nearby bushes before approaching the goblins.  Alakazam assumes a low, grizzly voice and says to the goblins in common, "Grrrrrr, seems you all have had a good hunt.  Anything to spare for a cousin in need?"

[This is something I have never seen anyone try, lol!]

"Eh?" One of the gobbos looks up wearily. They seem to look you over. "And which tribe might you be from, mate?"

Another gobbo looks up, they seem focused on poking the dead horse. "Yeah, mate, yeah. Where youse from? I not seen you around here."

[History Check result 2: You try to remember something, anything, about goblin society or even a clan name you heard of once, but nothing concrete forms in your mind. Still, if you wanted to throw a name out there, I won't stop you. At least if that's the path you take.] 

Alakazam stretches his hand out wide to show that he meant no harm to the goblins, "The name's Gret.  And I ain't part of no tribe.  Was abandoned as a youngin'; apparently in my tribe there were too many mouths and too little food.  Came from the Neverwinter Woods and have been makin' my way south."

Deception (adv. due to actor feat): 12 

"Is that so, is it? Could be we could use more hands, specially the big ones, but we'd need to check with tha' boss." The first gobbo says, not questioning your story in the least. "Gret, is it? My name's Grubbo. This is Tubbo, Lubbo, and Jan." The other goblins wave, slightly awkwardly. "We don't just feed anyone for free, you see, you need ta' work. Ilmater's tears don't fill a belly, you hear?"

"Ha, I ain't afraid of no work.  These arms aren't just for show.  Speaking of labor, this your handiwork," Alakazam says as he motions towards the dead horses.  Now that he was closer to the scene, Alakazam also took a moment to look over the dead horses for anything of interest.

Perception Check: 12

Alakazam sees a leather map case that appears empty. There appears to be some sort of embroidery of initials, but from this distance and how curvy the letters are, he can't quite make it out.

"Yea, was. Knuckleheads walking out here two at a time, easy as taking a porkchop from a baby." Grubbo says smoothly. "Never saw us comin', that's for sure."

"Yeah, its good cause the boss was gettin' antsy. Hopefully he lays off of us and let's us get back to the basics - raiding!" Jan adds. This is the first she's spoken, but she sounds like a chain smoker who has worked at a trucker dinner for her entire life. "I think one of them was even a knight fella..."

The bushes nearby shake suddenly.. You know, the one where Lys is currently hiding with Midnight.

Lys' attempt to stay hidden: 2

Goblin's perceptions: 2,  2,  10,  14

[Whatever the numbers above are, I will give you a post to sort it out in your own way. You ARE allowed to metagame the numbers above, aka,  you know Lys wasn't spotted or you know she was.]

In an attempt to keep Lys and Midnight's position hidden, Alakazam acts quickly to make a diversion.  He quietly drops eight gold coins to the floor away from the other goblins and the map case.  "Ah it seems you've missed some good loot here.  Since this was your kill, I reckon it's all yours."

Alakazam hopes this would draw the goblin's attention away from Lys and the map case.  Alakazam the bugbear then moves away from the gold coins and casually towards the map case to get a better look at it.

(Not quite sure if I need to roll anything here, but if so just lemme know!)

[AHH I AM SORRY! I promise you, my toddler has been keeping me prisoner!! Basically he refuses to go to bed and I fall asleep before he does... T_T]

The sharpest goblin there, Jan, almost spots Lys, but Alakazam's movements make her cautious and return her gaze to him. "Oi! You can't just go touchin' other people's stuff.. that's our job!"

Now that you are closer, you see the map case is of quite fine make. It's the sort of expensive gift you would expect for one's nameday. The initials become clear: G.R. You aren't sure whose name that could be, but none of your own troupe match those initials -- as far as you know anyway. The map case seems empty too - like the goblins may have already looted the map inside. [Insight check rolled 21: You infer from this that the map must have been much more valuable than this map case. This map case could fetch tens of gold, but the goblins discarded it quite easily. In fact, from what you know about goblins... its unlikely they would be worried about maps period. This must have been a directive from someone... perhaps this 'boss' they mentioned previously.]

[No worries!  I've been busy with school myself so my own posting schedule isn't quite where I expect myself to be anyways.  As always, life first play second :)]

With the goblins preoccupied with the gold, Alakazam uses the distraction to take a few steps back and casts sleep on the four goblins.  As soon as the spell goes off, Alakazam calls out to Lys and Midnight, "Attack any that are still awake!"

Movement: 30 feet away from the goblins

Action: cast Sleep on all the goblins
HP roll for sleep: 29

[Phewww, hopefully that means a slower posting schedule is okay for a little longer! I am somehow STILL sick... lmao]

All the goblins fall asleep!

Lys and Midnight run out, swords and claws bared.

(They are all asleep, and also you think it wouldn't take that much effort to down them. WINKWINK)

(With the gobbos asleep, do you still want initiative rolled or would Alakazam and his team be able to simply take out the gobbos one by one without the need of a combat encounter?  Also, Alakazam will probably tie one up and keep for questioning.)