Kal doesn't overexert himself as he travels, keeping a steady pace, but not pushing hard enough to risk trouble due to being too tired.

Vice moves the pipes away from his lips as he hears the rackety mess of the notes and scowls. Well, suppose not everyone’s cut out for it. It makes more sense now why his band fell apart. He wipes pipes clean and tucks them back into his pocket. Hopefully Apep will have more musical talent than he does.

He looks towards the direction of partying and music from outside of the gates. “Sounds like someone knows how to have fun.” He smirks, but he’d like to have his own fun too.

“Hey,” Vice calls out to the group of people shooting targets. “How do I join?”

@Star(EMIW)

Hans shakes his head, "Not yet. We're getting closer, though. As for the fire, I don't know where that is coming from."

Star peers ahead, but the boat is still too far from the fire to make out much detail.

However, movement in the Misty Forest on the south side of the river catches his eye. And Star cannot help but shake the feeling that they are being watched. However, the long dark shadows of the trees make it difficult to peer into the forest. If the sun was still shinning brightly, he might have been able to get a better look.

"Best to ignore them," Hans says.

@Juniper(DandDSince1973) and @Emma(FireCat5) 

When Emma excuses herself from the dancing, Juniper finds that a Vistana man is approaching her. He has a darker complexion, with short dark hair that is neatly trimmed. He is cleanly shaven. He comes and bows before Juniper before offering a hand.

Damia approaches Emma carrying her child. The glow of the fire casts half of her face into light whilst the other side is left in the shadows.

"Everything alright with you, deary? You don't seem to be in a festive mood."

@Kal(VanderLegion)

As Kal heads down Trade Way, a mist begins to fill the air. At first, the mist only slightly obscures the road in front of him. However, as he travels, the light mist grows thicker and heavier. Before too long, the mist has developed into a dense fog surrounding him. He can no longer see anything apart from a grey blanket of fog.

@Vice(WhiteByakko)

The on-looker turns to Vice and smiles, "If you want to join the competition, it will cost you ten gold pieces. Then you go and see that guard over there. He will lend you a bow, and you can await your turn."

The man gestures over at a guard that is slumped against a wooden rack. The long shadows of the nearby wall cast him in the darkness making it difficult to see him. 

"Them?" Star questions? "What do you mean?" Growing up in the jungle you got used to being aware of eyes on you - the Tabaxi weren't the only predators, and some of the other ones were bigger. You learned to be observant.

"I feel eyes on us. What is it?"

“Ten gold pieces?” Vice repeats, making sure he hasn’t misheard. “That’s like my two weeks pay.” He pats his pockets in turn as if expecting more money would appear in them. “Wow. Gotta be really good prize, huh? Maybe it’d be cheaper if I got my own bow. You know what, thanks. I’ll just go talk to the guy.”

He goes over to the guard. “Nice game you’ve got here.” He starts, “I heard it’s ten gold pieces for entry?”

Kal grumbles as the mist settles in around him, but there's not much he can do about it.  He can either keep walking, or settle in off the side of the road and wait for the fog to hopefully pass.

(Can I see enough to be able to know if I'm staying on the road if I keep walking?  And roughly what time of day is it at this point?)

To he who offered the unexpected invitation, Juniper bows back in mock formality, and she then dances one song with the clean-shaven reveler, chirping happily, no more or less glad to be asked versus dancing by herself. At the end of the song she is breathless, smiles thank you to the Vistani man, and excuses herself to join the conversation with Emma. 

"I'm fine, thank you," Emma answers whilst her eyes lay on the baby. "I'm just... There is nothing for me to celebrate, at the moment. Quite the opposite, actually. I feel like it's wrong of me to celebrate anything."

As these words come out quite melancholic, Emma tries to force on a smile, but now that she reminded herself of that, there's hardly and change to her expression, and that is obviously fake, too. "You shouldn't let me spoil your mood, though. You do have a reason to celebrate, whatever it is you're celebrating. You'd be better off ignoring my presence for tonight."

@Star(EMIW)

Hans offers no response to Star's questions. However, he continues to sail the boat down the Delimbiyr River. The vessel moves away from the Misty Woods, making it increasingly difficult to tell if there is something amongst the trees watching.

"Up ahead, the river meets with the Lizard Marsh, a large swamp. It's full of dangerous critters. We won't need to enter the swamp, but keep an eye out all the same."

@Vice(WhiteByakko)

"Aye, ten gold pieces," the guard replies. "But then, that shouldn't be too steep of a fee if you are wanting to enter this competition. Only the best of the best have entered, and that level of training takes money."

@Kal(VanderLegion)

(It is early evening.)

Kal sits down on what he believes should be the road, but instead, he finds that he is sitting on wet grass.

@Juniper(DandDSince1973) and Emma(FireCat5)

When Juniper excuses herself, the Vistana man bows once more. He then spins on his right foot to make his exit. Before long, he has set his eyes on someone else to approach.

"Well, why not celebrate life? The fact that we're all here?"

Hans' refusal to answer Star's question was unnerving, but as they were moving away from the forest it seemed there was no sense in pushing, save curiosity. Though Star was intensely curious, he was sure he would be able to find someone in Dagger Ford more willing to tell him of the watchers in the Misty Woods.

"Lizard Marsh indeed sounds a dangerous place, I am glad we will not go there. I will keep a close watch for 'critters'." 

Star had never seen a Critter before, and wondered if he would recognise one if he saw it. Perhaps it was a type of lizard - that would make sense if they came from Lizard Marsh. 

After a few minutes without spotting anything that looked like a Critter, Star turns his attention back to the distant fire, slowly growing less distant. 

Kal frowns as he sits down and realizes he's no longer on the road.  With this fog, he had no idea what direction he would even need to go to get back to the road, much less how far off of it he might be now.  After thinking over his options, he decides he really has no choice but to wait for the fog to pass.  On the other hand, there's no reason he can't get out of the cold and wet for a time while he waits. 

Removing a ring from his finger, Kal reaches down and nestles it down amidst the grass and does his best to cover it with dirt or leaves, or otherwise make it hard to spot.  Then suddenly, to anyone who might be watching, the githyanki vanishes.

Reappearing inside his vessel, Kal looks around in satisfaction.  It's been a while since he's had cause to come here, but everything is, of course, exactly as he left it.  He makes his one to a couch and settles in to wait.

(Use Genie's Vessel: Bottled Respite to enter my vessel.  I can remain there up to 4 hours unless I leave early as a bonus action, I die, or the vessel is destroyed.  And I can hear what's happening around my vessel as if I was in that space.

“So, like a winner-takes-all thing?”

Vice asks, interested, though he doesn’t have that kind of money to spare. He stands around to watch for a while, to see if someone’s particularly a good shot. Cheers with the crowd when someone hits a target.

“Oh!,” says Juniper, hearing Damia’s reply, “why didn’t you say that earlier?” Although, she must make herself remember, sometimes humans were not interested in speaking about life with elves. How could one destined to live for centuries understand the meaning of carpe diem? But being young for an Eladrin, Juniper still considers herself able to at least participate in the conversation.

When the music next ends, she stands atop one of the wagons, and offers a song one of her parents’ older human friends sang at a wedding. Her spirited and full-voiced but slightly tone-deaf rendering, each verse a quarter tone sharper than the last, has this chorus (OOC: …mostly by Jerry Bock): 

To us and our good fortune,

Be happy, be healthy, long life!

And if good fortune never comes,

Lift your glass, whatever comes,

Drink, my friends, to life!

@Hans(EMIW)

The fire has indeed grown closer to the boat, and Star can now see it is made by hand. However, it is more of the fact that the boat has moved further down the river. It is, after all, a matter of perspective.

Now that sky has started to turn darker, a sparkle of fireflies dance just above the river's surface. They look like stars that have fallen out of the heavens above.

"Not much longer," Hans says.

@Kal(VanderLeigion)

Disappearing into his vessel, Kal finds a much more welcoming environment than the cold, bitter wind and the damp fog outside. However, not long after entering the ring, animal howls are heard from outside the ring.

@Vice(White Byakko)

The guard grunts, "Something like that, but not quite. The duchess takes a small fee from any prize money won in Daggeford. But there are a couple of other costs too.

Anyway, are you planning on joining, or are you just idly passing the time? I don't mean to be rude, but isn't there somewhere you'd rather be? Or someone else you'd rather talk to?"

@Juniper(DandDSince1973)

Damia raises an eyebrow at Juniper's question, and then a look of realisation spreads across her face. "Oh, I see what you mean. No, that's not what we're celebrating. Well, not really. I was suggesting to Emma here a cause for her to celebrate."

When Juniper climbs up onto the wagon, she grabs everyone's attention. They all turn to watch her perform. They all give a round of cheer at the final words of her song.

Kal remains in the vessel for now, figuring he’s probably safer there than outside if there’s wild animals, or, of course, werewolves, around. He keeps an ear out though in case he hears anything or anyone besides the howls. 

Rather than cheer her up, Damia only makes Emma gloomier. She can't really think of an answer that wouldn't spoil everyone's mood, so she keeps silent.

Fortunately, Juniper takes the attention away. But on the contrary, Juniper's song, its words at least, only make Emma feel worse. She stares down, at nothing in particular, and tries to imagine herself sitting so still everyone would forget she's even there. She doesn't want to spoil their mood, that would only make her feel even worse.

“You are very glum.” Vice says, instead of leaving, he leans back on the rack and makes himself comfortable. He folds his arms across his chest, still watching to competition. “Let me guess, you do all the work, but the duchess takes all the money. I thought you’d enjoy some company.” He grins at the guard, which is met by a scowl.

“Alright, fine. Let me know how it goes. I have money on that guy in shorts.” Vice says when it becomes obvious the guard has nothing more to say to him. He takes off, follows the music to find the celebration outside the gates.

@Kal(VanderLeigon)

The sounds of the animal howls grow closer before they grow distant. Then all is quiet. The ring seems to have gone undisturbed, and Kal is safe in his vessel.

@Emma(FireCat5) and @Juniper(DandDSince1973)

After Juniper's performance, the Vistani resume playing their instruments and continue to dance. The dancing Vistani have linked their hands together, forming a circle to the side of the bonfire in which to dance. 

Damia takes this opportunity to move away from Emma to go and talk to Stanimir. However, they are too far away for either Emma or Juniper to hear, especially over the sounds of the music.

@Vice(WhiteByakko)

The guard grunts at Vice's remarks, "No, I need to keep an eye on the crowds. I am a guard on duty to protect the people of Daggerford. Talking to you is a little distracting."

Then Vice makes his way away from the guard and those competing against each other. He makes his way through the people gathered in Daggerford and then the gates. As with Emma, Nicolai, and Apep before him, Vice turns south outside the gates and makes his way towards the fire and music.

A fire large enough to see from this distance... In the jungle that was unheard of. There fires must be closely guarded and kept small, or they ran the risk of spreading uncontrolled. Of course the jungle was quite wet, but given enough time a fire will dry anything, which then becomes fuel. 

At first Star thought that sparks from the fire had drifted all the way upriver, before realising they were fireflies. "Beautiful," he murmurs. He strums a little tune on his lute, attempting to create a ditty about the little bugs. 

"You would not believe your eyes

If ten thousand... No, ten million fireflies

Lit up the river... no, bigger. The world? The world as I fell asleep..."

He continues to idle away the time as they drift downriver. 

When Juniper returns to Emma again and finds her downcast, the elf, happy to leave the center of attention — although she smiles modestly after sharing her song — is empathetic. 

“Hey,” she asks, giving her full attention to Emma once more. “The view of the town from up on that rock over there,” a two-minute walk, “is probably nice after dark. Want to keep me company? I think this is going to carry on for a while.”