Jaren shudders a bit at the mention of clan Gorthax, and touches the mark on his neck. However when invited to help guide, he mutters, “I know the way. I expect they will be very on edge since my escape. I will show the way, however, I believe this brand curses my ability to fight the Gorthax. I may not be as much of a fighter as I was before, nevertheless, I will stand with you and fight, if it comes to that.”

Once Cetar left running, Balen jumped out the way and did a mock "woohoo!" at him with a fist pumped in the air. 'Guy sure has a lot of enthusiasm,' He thought a bit smugly, 'Something I sure don't have.' If that was a good or a bad thing yet, he wasn't so sure. Well whatever it meant, he knew that this guy would probably be the one running first into danger. Something the changeling did himself- if he thought he could take it. This guy... he wasn't so sure. A bit too squishy. He also didn't like that he said he had a boat to catch.'That's MY boat.' He though gruffly. He didn't like to share specifically his boat (other material things he didn't care) if not needed. Strangely enough though, he started dreading that the druid might get hurt. 

"Sounds good." His attention turned over to Jaren. "Yeah that sounds right. The likely will be on the defense if we storm on in there. We were thinkin' something maybe crafty or stealthy might be the best move..."

He eyed the wound mark solemnly before bringing his gaze back to the tiefling, "Yikes. Thank you though. We appreciate the help." He meant of him and Tldrash, the other two he wasn't so sure of yet.

"That's okay. I didn't think they could do curses, though I barely know of that sort of things." He motioned for him to follow as he began walking out the door, "Do you suppose they have any magical traps waiting? What were you able to see there?" 

Balen headed towards the boat in the direction that Cetar and Tildrash had gone off.

Tildrash looks back to the group of accomplaces and smiles. "I apologize for the outburst in the hospital, are quest is quite urgent and we need as much time as we can get. Hopefully we can put that whole issue aside and get ready for what's up next in this journey," Tildrash hops into the boat, the waves waddling around.

Did everyone make it to the boats? I believe Skewerly is the only one who hasn’t had the chance yet. Is everyone else there? Feel free to continue conversing but we’ll wait for Skewerly before advancing, unless they don’t respond.

Quote from DuskenShogun >>

Tildrash looks back to the group of accomplaces and smiles. "I apologize for the outburst in the hospital, are quest is quiet urgent and we need as much time as we can get. Hopefully we can put that whole issue aside and get ready for what's up next in this journey," Tildrash hops into the boat, the waves waddling around.

 I assume you meant quite and not quiet

((As for SKEWERLY I have no idea what happened to them. :/ I hope they come back but I guess we'll just have to see))

"No problem. You good," Balen replied, getting into the boat with him. This answered the question about why Tildrash was so jumpy, but he couldn't help but feel there was more to the story than what was being added. He thought back to the Wanted poster and was getting the ever more curious. 'Was Gel- Gelva... the chief like his dad or something. Plotting revenge for leaving?' He thought, trying to get a hold of the name of what was on the poster but his memory came back blank. 'Wait no. He already said his dad was the one who had left and survived.' This revelation only left him more confused more than ever, so he just made sure to keep an eye on Tildrash as they journeyed. Something didn't quite add up.

Squeezing his way in between a human, a dragonborn, and a tiefling was tight and sweaty, and made the canoe sway a bit in a way he didn't like. 'My boat,' his thoughts growled. It took him a lot of mental effort to hold his tongue, in fact he even had to bite it. To keep from outbursting, his mind had to switch the topic.

Balen turned around to face the tiefling, "Jaren, since you're the one who was last there. You want to take the lead?" His hands were shaking so he distracted himself by incessantly tapping the side of the boat, the pride of giving up the boat's lead to some stranger was getting to him, but he knew this would most likely be the best idea. He handed Jaren the oar of the canoe in a sign of good faith.

/_Well guys i apologize but I forgot about this post im so sorry
also the skeleton part is for flavor because I said why not and was just like: wow why not just put a skeleton since I’m gonna be a doctor soon if you do realize I am not replying to your post it’s most likely because I forgot.7

- Sincerely, Dr. Skewerly 

Jaren takes a deep breath, clutching the oar so tightly that his knuckles go white to disguise the fact that his hands are shaking. Despite his fear, he begins to resolutely paddle towards the shore where he knows the Gorthax clan lies. 

Tildrash taps Balen's back, "I've been wondering, how was your seafaring experience before this whole series of events. You must have some interesting stories to tell about the sea and its inhabitants... if it's a touchy subject I won't prod at it, but I was mostly just curious."

Tildrash looks to Jaren, "By the way, I want to thank you for joining us, sir. I understand what you're sacrificing to come back here. Coming back after you just managed to escape from them is a brave thing to do. Hopefully your bravery will help us in battle."

He gestures to Jaren's mark, "Does your wound still burn? I could try to soothe it for you, but if I don't want to risk any more injuries." 

Just a heads up, I’m not going to be free this weekend but continue without me!

((@Skewerly. What's up, doc? and that's all good. we vibing here. join whenever you can.))

((Aw okay! Thanks for letting us know, @Shiverquill! Have a good weekend! I don't think we'll face anything big yet))

He nodded as Jaren took the oar, going back to tapping on the side of the boat as they went off. Balen was caught off guard by Tildrash's tap. However, he was more surprised by Jaren's speed at paddling, which was honestly pretty good. He couldn't help but feel a bit jealous. 

"My seafaring days..." He turned over at Tildrash with a look of wistfulness that soon tainted a bit with disdain and restlessness. He didn't expect to be asked this subject as immediately his mind went blank on the topic. 'Good one,' he commented at his own mental capacity. Nonchalantly, he ran his hand through spot of where the scar from the canonball that hit him would be, which he always covered up by simple shifting. "Alas..." He said this to be funny, though he didn't really know what that word meant. A word he picked up randomly to sound smarter, "I was born upon a pirate ship. The Spectacle. Headed to where? I know not." He gestured with his hands a bit to be more theatrical. 

At the reminder of 'where,' he grimaced, thinking about the where his mother had been sold. A question he still did not know the answer to this day. "My mother as a captive of the ship. A spy from another time and place. Was found out too fast and too quick. I was borneth in the hull on the most thunder-iest of stormiest of days. Waves yae high and with lightning just as scary..." His story trailed off a bit as he struggled to find the momentum. 

"... I was the captain's pet." He spat that out with gritted teeth, "His and everybody's." He cursed out the pirates there, "Bottom feeders. I wish I could have seen them burn." He realized he was getting too angry and probably wasn't making any sense. "They liked my shapeshifting abilities. I was the only changeling on board other than my mother. They did the worse to her. As for me, I could be anything or anyone they ever wanted." He diverted his eyes from the trio and looked out into the sea, sticking his hand into the water to be one with its flow. 

"I probably should have told you a fun one. I once saw a funny looking bird that looked almost like a fish mixed with a dragon. Scared the hell outta of the captain. 'Thought was an omen." 

He leaned his head and hand on the side of the boat, "All I want to do is just to live out on the shore somewhere, on my boat. No worries. No nothing." 

He looked over to them, "How 'bout you guys? What's your story? What's your dream?" He didn't actually mean it, but it was better than moping about.

Jaren continues to row angrily, the ship moving faster as he channels it.

"I was born completely normal, only three minutes after my sister. My life was paradise for six years. Noble family, important enough to be pampered but not important enough to be crowded at every turn or unable to walk through the city without being swarmed. The perfect life for a child. Then, only a month after my sixth birthday, my parents decided it wasn't enough. We needed more riches. We needed more power." He spits out of the boat in anger, "So they made a deal. A deal with the powers of balance themselves. They were unwilling to sacrifice their humanity but willing to sacrifice their children's. The powers granted them the wealth, power, and recognition they deserved," He spat the word, "And I became what I am now. A tiefling. However, this was granted by the powers of balance, so to balance it, my sister became an Aasimar. AN AASIMAR! She was showered with love and praise, displayed to the world as a blessing from the gods. And what was I? The sad, disgusting side effect of that blessing. I stood it as long as I could. Finally, when I turned twelve, my father gave me a sword. The first birthday gift I had received in six years. I trained with that sword among my family for a year. Then I ran off. My whole life I have sought to show my family that you don't have to sacrifice others, to elevate yourself. That's what I've been doing for 22 years, yet I've always wanted to be able to work with others. However, my appearance has a way of... driving people away." He stared into space for a few moments, before shaking himself and continuing to row. He accepts the druid's offer to try to soothe the pain.

OOC: Jaren is at full hit points so he doesn't need any real healing. 

(OOC: Ye I'm mostly just doing it for rp, I'm an ice dragon so I was going to try and cool the branding. Also I'm a fighter XD, but I can see how you might've thought I was a healer.)

Tildrash scoops some water from the sea and blows on it, forming a clump of ice. "Now are you sure about this, I don't know how much this might hurt you."

Balen had begun sketching in his notebook as the tiefling started talking, drawing out the scene as if it were a third-person point of view with the waves cascading around them. 'Normal,' He thought. A powerful word with many meanings. He wondered what that had meant to Jaren as he absentmindedly continued sketching, slightly annoyed at how the intensity of rowing made his quill move off the paper. 'More riches... more power?' He perked up a bit, casting his gaze away from the paper to see the tiefling spit into the water. 'So he wasn't always like this?'  This got him a bit more curious as he stood up straight. Normal must have meant human. 'Yikes,' What a trade. A duo of one cursed and one blessed. He sympathized with the one getting the short end of the stick.

The changeling studied the looks of the tiefling and wondered how he might have looked like as human. Honestly, to him everybody looked the same (in part due to his partial amnesia everyone's face sort of always merged and meshed together that he had trouble picking people apart), but he didn't see anything inherently wrong with the way that the guy looked. Sure, tiefling got scary horns and hooves. So what? Everybody was weird here. He looked over at Tildrash, half-expecting a sort of explanation or some sort of backstory to come out of the guy too, but none came. This only raised more suspicions in Balen's mind.

"Do you miss your old self? Do- do you remember what you looked like?" He asked Jaren in genuine curiosity as Tildrash was applying the ice. "How's this?" He shifted into what he thought Jaren would look like on impulse- basically how he looked now minus the horns and the hooves. He gave a sort of jazz hands type "ta-da" moment with a smug look on his face. 

Jaren grins slightly at the changeling. "I don't really remember, I was six years old. However, I do believe it would have been something like that."

Cetar had zoned out, mesmerised by the rocking of the boat and had fallen silent listening to everyone’s tales. They had all seemed to have faced some sort of hardship yet were so open about it. ‘My life is fairly simple, well for an adventurer I guess. I was enrolled in Flumehaven’s Wizarding Academy but I was eventually expelled for…’ he averts his gaze from everyone and thinks over his next words carefully, ‘…being a bit too interested in the nature of the place. So afterwards my family got me a Druid tutor instead and that’s how I got to here!’ He strokes Zumu, still in his satchel, and feeds him a radish.

"Sweet," Balen commented as he pretended to tip a hat that wasn't there. He turned back around and shifted back into his usual appearance. He was about to back to sketching when Cetar had spoken up. He didn't think the guy had some sort of tragic backstory that he was withholding by his oh-so-eagerness from before. To which he almost zoned out when the druid said that it was fairly simple. "Expelled, huh? Didn't take ya much for the mischievous type." He grinned, playing on an accent he didn't really know where it was from before switching back to his regular one.

"Nothing wrong with a bit of investigating. Ever find what was wrong with the place?" He put his hand on his chin in an playfully inquisitive manner.

Cetar sighs and says ‘Well, on the outskirts of the school they have this great big forest, like an enchanted woods of sorts, where they’d teach the kids about different wand woods and Fey spells and the like, but I’ve always been really into flora and fauna, so this forest was like my favourite place in all of school, so much so that I would end up skipping lessons just to explore and investigate it more. I didn’t have any friends so my dorm mates would play pranks on me, which led to me eventually ending up pretty much sleeping in the woods full time as well, which is where I met Zumu one night. Eventually the professors caught on and threatened to expel me and take Zumu away, but I’d had such a miserable time in that school that I might as well have left of my own accord. My parents weren’t too pleased that I’d wasted the expensive tuition they payed, but they were still eager to have me learn magic, so that’s where Elickbran, my mentor came in. He’s an archdruid and pretty much just an awesome guy to be around, always being really caring and catering to my needs. He taught me the basics of druidcraft but there’s only so much I can learn from him, so he sent me off to learn the rest of my skills in the field. And that’s how I ended up here I guess!’ 

Quote from DuskenShogun >>

(OOC: Ye I'm mostly just doing it for rp, I'm an ice dragon so I was going to try and cool the branding. Also I'm a fighter XD, but I can see how you might've thought I was a healer.)

 I mistook you for Cetar sorry, PbP can cause these problems lol

Tildrash removes the ice clump from Jaren’s branding and pulls out an orange. “This has been really fun to listen to your stories,  but I think it’d be a good time for you all to get some rest. We can take shifts on boat duty.” He splits it half, handing them to Jaren and Cetar. “In case you all are hungry.”