The Forgotten Wish

"Ponyman Khond, bet Rick that this isn't a trap! Oh wait, sorry Rick forgot Khond has no money to bet with."

Rick turns on the elf bird woman,

"Birdwoman, Rick wants to bet that is a trap, Birdwoman is interested? 5 silver?"

 While Rick reveals himself to be a master spy, figuring out Sylvera's name while never being told, a few others in the group decide to move ahead and figure out what's going on. They decide to do so stealthily. Or... That is the intent, at least. Breldo, not really seeing any proper place to hide in the mostly flat grassy plains, just tries to keep himself low and stay just a bit off the road, which... Doesn't really hide him.

At least it works as an distraction for Nuria, who moved a bit further to a slight incline that should cover her for a proper approach.

As the duo approaches, the duo that takes hold of the cart- One merchant, and an assistant, turn to look from facing ahead, just slightly out of the woods, back to Breldo. Hesitant, but mostly confused, the merchant is the one to call out, nervously rubbing his short trimmed beard.

"Hail there stranger- What seems to be the problem?"

((Oops, just took the most recent post name! Will fix...))

(Ugh, I actually wrote a post yesterday, but it looks like my wifi decided not to upload it 'sigh'. Oh well...)

Sylvera eyes the cart up ahead, letting out an irritated huff, "This better not slow us down."

She eyes the commoners as they scurry on ahead to investigate, raising an eyebrow at Rick when he says 'birdwoman'. It takes her a moment to realize that he is talking to her. Upon realizing this her brow furrows and she scowls, "How dare you mock my family name, insolent commoner. You will address me as Lady Lark. Not Birdwoman." She tosses her head, huffing as if deeply offended, "And no, I am not interested in your wager. Less so now that you haven't the decency to address me properly." 

She pointedly turns away from the greasy tabaxi and turns her gaze back to the cart up ahead. Though she hates to admit it, the cat might be right. This could be a trap... but what was the likelihood of that? She bites her lip as she thinks, staring intently ahead as she attempts to assess the situation. 

Insight (to determine if there is anything fishy going on...): 16

((Khond is absolutely going to wind up calling her Lady Luck at some point.))

"Oh, uh. Hail and well met!", Breldo halts and stands upright from his partial crouch. How did they spot him!?

"I'm running scout for a cart coming this way, and saw yours stopped ahead, figured I ought to come up ahead and see what's what, and if there's anything we can do to help get things moving along in a timely-like manner."

Rick turns to Pallen and gives a shrug.

"Boss Pallen want to bet? Lady birdwoman seemed busy, but said maybe next time."

Oren lets the scouters do their scouting and he sticks very close to Pallen.  

Rick also invites Oren in on the bet,

"Rick thinks dwarves like a good bet, dwarf Oren ready to make a bet?"

Rick looks down the road and squints,

"Rick thinks the betting window is closing fast though!"

Oren gives Slick a quick shake of the head in the negative.  "You might be right, but that means it's time to be on watch, not babbling about bets."  he says this with a bit of a grin though, not irritated but just making a point to the one who liked to talk so much.

"If it is the ambush you fear, get ready to use your quick legs to get you up there right away."  He waits to see how this goes over, as he is pretty sure that wasn't exactly how Rick usually would deal with a problem.

"Rick knows there is always time for a bet but Rick thinks Oren has a good eye, Rick is fast. Rick could easily get there fastest, but Rick thinks we should guard boss Pallen instead."

He nods to himself and grins at Oren.

As Breldo gets up, surprised how they could possibly have spotted him, he's soon explaining why he sneaked closer like this. As he explains to merely be scouting ahead, the duo of merchant and assistant take a good, proper look at him, then behind them. Where they do indeed see his group slowly continue to approach, cart dragged with no goods. They seem to share a glance, before turning back toward the halfling.

"Right, right," one of them quickly says, just a hint of nervousness coming across his face as he looks mostly at Breldo, but occasionally glances back.

"Well, as I'm sure you can tell, the road ahead seems blocked," he speaks, barely feeling like he even needs to explain that part, one hand just briefly gesturing at the fallen tree ahead. "Which seems a bit strange, so we're keeping our distance. You know there are regular patrols here, right?"

Back at the cart, for some the priority becomes making sure that proper bets are placed, Rick turning from miss Lark to Pallen and Oren. Oren already seeming to mostly deject him, though Pallen seems to shrug it off slightly.

"As long as we're not betting on people getting hurt. But what'd your bet be exactly? Because if you want to bet something fishy is going on, I'm not going to be taking that one," he says, clearly agreeing. Sylvera too, thinking about it, comes to the conclusion that it's not IMPOSSIBLE that a tree could just happen to be blocking the road, maybe if it was diseased or something... But it is rather suspect. She is however quite certain that the cart right ahead of them probably doesn't have anything to do with it. They stopped outside of the forest, in clear view. They probably noticed the obstruction a bit late, and decided to stop outside of the forest where they could keep a proper eye on things while figuring out what to do.

Nuria remains silent, following slightly behind Breldo. She's not sure why her instincts are telling her to stay hidden, but her years on the streets have taught her that it is best to heed her gut feelings. Listening to the merchant, she glances towards the fallen tree. If there really were regular patrols on this road, then that tree should not be there....Is it possible that someone placed it there on purpose? There are always thieves in cities who use dirty tricks like that, surly the roads are no different... She bites her lip nervously, she had been hoping to avoid this sort of conflict. She's supposed to be escorting Pallen, and yet she barely knows how to fight. ...But things are different now, Breldo and Oren are here. They know how to deal with this sort of thing...right? Perhaps she can get away with simply being the scout.... She glances back at Pallen's cart, then turns her attention back to the fallen tree and starts visually scanning the area around it, searching for any sign of movement, or perhaps a glint of steel.

Perception: 6 (with disadvantage.)

"Rick was betting on bandits helping the tree fall, but Boss Pallen is right, Rick will clearly win that bet which isn't fair to Boss Pallen. Rick will bet... that there will be more bandits than there are of us."

"And such regular patrols ought to have cleared a fallen tree... unless it happened recently."

Breldo will give them a narrowed look, wondering if they are bandits and this is part of their ploy.

Insight:  22

Nuria remains a safe distance away, presumably not spotted from her vantage point. It sadly makes it a bit hard to get a proper look at the situation around her, too- And glancing at the tree, at least, she doesn't note anything else she hadn't noticed before. The approaching cart meanwhile, remains mostly embroiled in the betting, before it's too late. Pallen looking around the cart for a moment as Slick puts his wager down, and responds after just a moment.

"...I hope not! Sure, I'll take that bet, but I'm just hoping we're wrong in the first place," he notes, hesitant, eyes glued back to the front, both to the cart and the tree, the former of which Breldo makes his own assumptions. As he states that it should probably have happened quite recently then, does the merchant nod.

"Right, exactly, and I expect they'll be here soon! Safer to wait for them to clear it up, right? You seem out of town, so maybe you didn't know that, yet," he nods quickly, as Breldo tries to squint. The man looks nervous certainly, and he notices the assistant has his hand gripped on a hand crossbow while occasionally glancing back toward the approaching cart - But he can't quite tell why they are being nervous like this in the first place.

"This is taking too long," Sylvera huffs before moving up ahead of the cart. "This very well could be a trap but this cart up ahead clearly isn't suspect." She glances back at those still with their own cart, "Lets get up here and get that blasted log out of the way so we can get moving. Just keep an eye out for anything beyond the tree-line. If we are lucky the bandits will see two carts--one with armed and... competent... guards." She eyes the group again as she says competent, as if she were questioning whether or not bandits would think twice about attacking them based on appearance. Eventually she just says, "Lets go then, someone's got to move that tree out of the way." 

Rick hängs back with Pallen and Khond,

"Boss Pallen bets cleverly, ponyman Khond? Rick wants Khond to keep count too, so it's fair!"

Rick gives Lady Lark a double thumbs up when she eyes the group and calls them competent.

Rick will wait for her to get a bit away before leaning in and whispering for Pallen, Khond and Oren,

"Birdlady is going to get the bandits out for us, Rick is impressed Birdlady's bravery. Rick thinks, though, it best Rick, Oren and ponyman stay a ways back so Boss Pallen is safe."

He will pull out his shortbow to show how competent he is though.

Nuria, unable to see anything in the bushes, turns back to the merchants.

Insight: 1 (critical fail!)

"I can try to keep count, but no guarantee I'll count well.  The lady may be right about bandits being more wary if there are more people present, but being that I'm pulling the cart, I'll have to defer to you, Pallen."