Nate was anticipating Nub saying exactly what he said, and so with that, any intention of stealing some or all of the jewels from the bag dissipated from Nate's mind. He also did genuinely feel guilty knowing that these were most likely the belongings of Greenest folk, of which he became quite fond of before they left that town. Stealing definitely crossed his mind though, even more so when Nub went to the kitchen and perhaps Nate did have a chance to take something. He didn't, though.
When Soar, Jalt and Jamna arrive in the room, Nate rolls his eyes when he sees Jamna, but listens to Soar's introductions and then nods at her in approval of Jamna joining us. she better not cross us He thinks to himself.
Nate listens to the back and forth planning, and then says "Ahem... er, there's something else. When Nub and I were, skulking, as you say, we came across a cultist room that we decided to enter. Don't worry, we were careful... kind of. Someone came in and caught us when we were looking around. It was a half-elf, and at first we thought he was a cultist, and I almost ran him through right then and there... but then he fessed up and admitted he was a thief and had stolen this from the cultists." Nate throws the pouch of jewels on one of the desks. "It's from Greenest no doubt."
"And there's more. He wants to meet back up tonight, at midnight, so we can return his 'goods'. Nub made a good point in that he may or may not be a thief, but either way, I'm guessing you guys aren't going to be happy with this person."Looking at Jalt and Soar.
Nate then looks at Nub, and winks at him after he comes clean with what happened.
Then to Jamna "Hey... you're his kind, you know, shady and the like... what do you know about these types of people?" then grins at her, keeps looking at her for more than a moment, then returns attention to Jalt and Soar to hear what they think.
Soar smiles as the rest of the group opens up to Jamna, and Jamna seems to work with them. She still doesn't trust her at all, but she could be of some help.
After Jamna talks about following the cultists, Soar asks: "Jamna, did they seem to have packs with them when they left up the road, or were they kitted out for a day trip? I'm wondering if they're leaving for good, or for some shorter errands."
"As for the loot being there, Nate, when you were in the strongroom, did it seem like all of the stuff that went in is still in there? It's possible the loot's leaving and headed to their final destination via the trap door passage."
When Nate admits to the interaction with the thief, Soar's eyes widen. "Wow! Nate, this could be helpful, and see, when you don't run someone through, they might be able to help you later on. So he's either another thief, or he's a cultist who was lying. If the latter, we should be on guard for the whole place to move against us. But if not, then, well, what do you want to do? Give him back his stuff? He's your contact. Whatever we decide, I think we have to make our move tonight. I wonder if we could use this midnight meeting as a way to get into the trap door unnoticed somehow. I'm not good at coming up with plans, but it seems like there should be an option."
She thinks a bit. "How often do the cultists leave? And do they ever leave around this time of day? I'm wondering if we could try splitting up. Jamna follows the cultists on the road, assuming they're headed for the same area. Nate goes into the strong room unnoticed, opens the door, and goes down. I have a way of tracking people and he can follow the passageway assuming there is one, and we can follow him outside the roadhouse. This might mean we're headed into the mere, running a bit blind. But wherever it leads, Nate should be able to get there, and we'll be there on the other side. Jamna follows the cultists there too, and we all meet up and find out what's happening at the other side."
(She's assemnbling jigsaw puzzle pieces but not putting them together for a better plan, hoping that others could take the idea and run with it.)
They had packs, all their gear I would say, Jamna replies. I don't think they're planning on coming back.
There's a rumble of disapproval from Jalt when Soar mentions the possibility of returning the presumed thief's loot to him, but he says nothing.
Nate, you can make a straight INT check to see if you recall whether goods were missing from the strong room, with disadvantage as you didn't really pay attention to counting how many items were stored in there when you first arrived.
To Soar's final thoughts, Jamna replies: There's no pattern to when they leave, other than I think they're trying not to attract attention. I can't predict whether or when any more will go. But I can follow them, that's for certain.
"I suppose if the thief doesn't get his loot back, the cultists will be just as aware of our departure as they would be without the half-elf's distress. He won't be happy, but it's not his. So? What do you all want to do?"
To Soar: "I mean... it looked like all of the stuff was still there, but it was hard to tell for sure being so small."
To everyone "It seemed like he knew more information... the thief that is. I asked him a bunch of stuff but he really couldn't answer me because if any of us would've stayed there much longer, we would've been made. Right Nub? Didn't you get that feeling too? I do believe this guy is just a thief and not part of the cult. I think Nub and I should go meet him tonight. Don't worry Jalt, I have no intention of giving anything back to the thief. I'll question him, get any info he has, then tell him to leave now, or die. Lesson learned for him."
"Here Jalt, you keep this."and then Nate tosses the bag of jewels at Jalt. "You know what's best for it I am sure."
To Jamna, "Funny you should mention burning the stables for a distraction, because that's exactly where the thief wants to meet us. At midnight. Would you look at the similarities again Jamna eh? Thief mentioned stables, and so do you." Nate is just trying to get under her skin... trying to break her seemingly unwavering confidence. He doesn't like her.
"Well... anyone up for a fire tonight? Maybe after we deal with the thief. You guys (Jalt and Soar) could be watching in the shadows in case this thief tries anything that Nub and I can't handle. Then, we burn up the stable. Yep. Burn it right down. Hopefully causing a huge alarm and have everyone running around including the guards. Then, maybe we could all get in the warehouse, and then the strong room, and then the trap door. I could cast pass without trace so we would all have help with sneaking into the strong room while the commotion is happening."
"Of course, if the thief gives us any useful information, we won't have to burn anything down. But the thief is still not getting anything back and I'll kill him if he tries to attack me. Just watch."
Nate then looks to the others, mostly Soar though, for her thoughts and/or approval of this plan.
Also, before anything happens tonight, Nate would take a short rest in bed, using Natural Recovery to recover a Level 2 spell slot.
"Nate and Nub, you were in a cultist's room, and the thief came in and caught you? Was it his room? And he gave you the pouch? If it was his room, is he pretending to be a cultist among the cultists? If it wasn't his room, he just walked right in, and gave you a pouch he was carrying... or was his pouch in the room?"
Soar (plus her player) is a bit confused.
She looks to Jamna. "Bog Luck has to be in on all this, right? He doesn't seem like an idiot."
When Nate rounds on Jamna, Soar grins. "Wow, you guys are getting along great. Stable friends!"She doesn't pick up on the venom in Nate's voice. "Happy to wait as backup in the shadows. But I think we hold arson in our far-back pocket though, last resort sort of thing. I think you were right that if there's a fire, they'd definitely try to secure the strong room. Might be better to try to knock out the guard and then sneak in past midnight. Jamna can handle locks, or Nate can just go under the doors and open from inside. With that slight caveat, I think Nate's plan is as good as any. Jalt?"
Jalt scowls. A fire is not a good idea. There are good folk working here, folk we met in the convoy from Waterdeep. I won't take risks with their lives. I trust Nate and Jamna to get us in quietly, though I don't think I can help much. He shifts slightly, his armour clanking as he does so.
(Recap - Nate and Nub entered an empty room belonging to the cultists. They found the pouch of jewels, and Nate picked it up. A half-elf entered, who appeared to be a cultists but claimed to be a thief instead. The thief wanted Nate to return the pouch, but Nate refused.)
Nate was 100% suggesting they burn down the stables. Perhaps Jamna was joking about it, but Nate took it as a serious plan. And liked it. Although with the responses given after it was suggested, especially Jalt's, Nate puts it on the back burner. Also, he forgot what Nub said earlier about the guards trying to lock down the trap door if a fire was started, which made sense.
To Soar, who Nate now thinks is over-questioning him about the pouch, even if she isn't: "Ok look - here's exactly what went down. We went into the cultists room. I saw nothing in particular of interest until I spotted a pouch with a ton of jewels inside. At that moment, the half elf walked in. I grabbed the bag, and assumed he was a cultist. He wanted the bag back, and was offering to let us go there and then. Then... I threatened him... did it real good. I know you probably don't believe me, but he was scared. I asked him questions about the cult. He broke down and told me he was a thief who had been following them for a good while now. Even mentioned something about their ***** dragon queen and that they are all nuts. Nothing we didn't know."
Nate is totally happy with the plan to try and KO a guard in the night and try to get in. In that case, Nate would say to Soar "So you'll cover Nub and I when we meet the thief? He likely won't be happy when he finds out he's not getting his stolen jewels back. Then we can go and see how many guards are by the doors. Or... perhaps a different distraction?"
Nub indicates "I agree with Nate in that I think it is worthwhile meeting up with the half elf, with possibly all three of you waiting in the shadows, if you are happy to help us Jamna. I also think we should prepare and thoroughly check the stable beforehand. Again, he is either betraying the cultists and he was being honest about stealing from them or he is setting up an ambush. Either one may help us is we prepare for it properly."
When Jalt takes the pouch, Nub says "If the half-elf is a thief, he may be able to give us information that saves our lives later. I think we should at least consider returning the pouch to him."
Nub agrees with Jalt "I already voted "no" to the fire when Jamna raised it. A more subtle distraction sure, but anything like a fire or even a fist fight will likely be too obvious. A large animal coming into the courtyard could work? Or a monster coming to the gate which the four of us could take care of - with the cultists seeing us doing so - could give Jamna a chance to slip in, though we would need to make sure that we were not risking other people's lives. I also think that knocking out a guard and sneaking in will cause the cultists to move forward their plan."
(Recap - Nate and Nub entered an empty room belonging to the cultists. They found the pouch of jewels, and Nate picked it up. A half-elf entered, who appeared to be a cultists but claimed to be a thief instead. The thief wanted Nate to return the pouch, but Nate refused.)
So if he's really not a cultist, then he was also looking to steal the same pouch, or had already stolen the same pouch, which was not in his room? Or it was his room, and he's staying in a cultist room?
Soar gets a bit overwhelmed by the chaos and talk of burning and distraction and ambush. She raises her hands up. "Why don't we try this before the midnight meeting. Nate sneaks in now, goes through the trap door, and I can track him and we find out where the passage leads to. The thief doesn't have a chance to ambush us or try to force Nate and Nub to give him the pouch. We reunite at the end, and we can either see where it leads and then return, no one the wiser, or move along down whatever path presents itself. We can always plan to come back if it's a dead end or we want to hear what the thief says. Honestly we should have tried this originally, but second time's a charm."
(OOC: I want to clarify as best I can without giving anything away that would be a spoiler, obviously. I would say that the version of the story that he seems to be presenting, and that Nate would have understood from what he said, is as follows: He's a thief. He met the cultists on the road and joined them, or pretended to join them, in order to steal from them. He's staying with them in that room, because they consider him to be one of their members. It was his own pouch, full of the things he had stolen from the cultists. He was looking to recover it, after Nate picked it up. I'm not confirming if all this is actually true or not, though. :) Let me know by DM if it's still a bit unclear.)
Got it, thank you! I was missing that he had joined them on the road (out-of-character because I missed the post, and in-character because what Soar heard was not that he had joined). Sorry for the back and forth.
So the plan now is to sneak into the strong room and investigate the trapdoor, I think?
The main outstanding questions are:
Do it now (afternoon, before sunset) or after dark? Do it before or after meeting the alleged thief? What's the distraction that allows the sneakier folk to get into the strong room? Who's going into the strong room? Jamna? Nate? Others?
Soar just advocated Nate trying to follow it now, tracked by Soar. She’d give him an item she knows before he went in just in case he couldn’t find the flute.
But her proposal is different from Nate’s and Nub’s, though not at all mutually exclusive, and not sure how we handle Jalt’s input now :)
[Do it now (afternoon, before sunset) or after dark? Nub's vote is just after sunset, but well before midnight. Do it before or after meeting the alleged thief? Nub's vote is before meeting the purported thief, leaving at least a few hours to prepare for the possible ambush they will face/to set up their own possible ambush. What's the distraction that allows the sneakier folk to get into the strong room? Nub was hinting that Soar's steed or another animal entering the courtyard would potentially seem less like someone was trying to set up a distraction, but that might not be enough of a distraction. Who's going into the strong room? Jamna? Nate? Others? I was assuming just Nate and Jamna, but it depends on how good the distraction is.]
Nub expresses his opinions on the above in his usual somewhat awkward way.
Seems Nate as a spider could easily get under the outer and inner doors, shift into human form, get into the trap door, Soar casts locate object on the item Nate has, and then the whole party walks outside and then Soar tracks a hopefully slow-moving Nate through whatever passage he finds. The party follows along, and meets Nate at the end.
No need for distraction at all, though Soar would be okay with having her elk steed serve as a far-off distraction.
Nate was anticipating Nub saying exactly what he said, and so with that, any intention of stealing some or all of the jewels from the bag dissipated from Nate's mind. He also did genuinely feel guilty knowing that these were most likely the belongings of Greenest folk, of which he became quite fond of before they left that town. Stealing definitely crossed his mind though, even more so when Nub went to the kitchen and perhaps Nate did have a chance to take something. He didn't, though.
When Soar, Jalt and Jamna arrive in the room, Nate rolls his eyes when he sees Jamna, but listens to Soar's introductions and then nods at her in approval of Jamna joining us. she better not cross us He thinks to himself.
Nate listens to the back and forth planning, and then says "Ahem... er, there's something else. When Nub and I were, skulking, as you say, we came across a cultist room that we decided to enter. Don't worry, we were careful... kind of. Someone came in and caught us when we were looking around. It was a half-elf, and at first we thought he was a cultist, and I almost ran him through right then and there... but then he fessed up and admitted he was a thief and had stolen this from the cultists." Nate throws the pouch of jewels on one of the desks. "It's from Greenest no doubt."
"And there's more. He wants to meet back up tonight, at midnight, so we can return his 'goods'. Nub made a good point in that he may or may not be a thief, but either way, I'm guessing you guys aren't going to be happy with this person." Looking at Jalt and Soar.
Nate then looks at Nub, and winks at him after he comes clean with what happened.
Then to Jamna "Hey... you're his kind, you know, shady and the like... what do you know about these types of people?" then grins at her, keeps looking at her for more than a moment, then returns attention to Jalt and Soar to hear what they think.
Nub looks extremely happy when Nate shares the information about the pouch and enthusiastically winks back.
Soar smiles as the rest of the group opens up to Jamna, and Jamna seems to work with them. She still doesn't trust her at all, but she could be of some help.
After Jamna talks about following the cultists, Soar asks: "Jamna, did they seem to have packs with them when they left up the road, or were they kitted out for a day trip? I'm wondering if they're leaving for good, or for some shorter errands."
"As for the loot being there, Nate, when you were in the strongroom, did it seem like all of the stuff that went in is still in there? It's possible the loot's leaving and headed to their final destination via the trap door passage."
When Nate admits to the interaction with the thief, Soar's eyes widen. "Wow! Nate, this could be helpful, and see, when you don't run someone through, they might be able to help you later on. So he's either another thief, or he's a cultist who was lying. If the latter, we should be on guard for the whole place to move against us. But if not, then, well, what do you want to do? Give him back his stuff? He's your contact. Whatever we decide, I think we have to make our move tonight. I wonder if we could use this midnight meeting as a way to get into the trap door unnoticed somehow. I'm not good at coming up with plans, but it seems like there should be an option."
She thinks a bit. "How often do the cultists leave? And do they ever leave around this time of day? I'm wondering if we could try splitting up. Jamna follows the cultists on the road, assuming they're headed for the same area. Nate goes into the strong room unnoticed, opens the door, and goes down. I have a way of tracking people and he can follow the passageway assuming there is one, and we can follow him outside the roadhouse. This might mean we're headed into the mere, running a bit blind. But wherever it leads, Nate should be able to get there, and we'll be there on the other side. Jamna follows the cultists there too, and we all meet up and find out what's happening at the other side."
(She's assemnbling jigsaw puzzle pieces but not putting them together for a better plan, hoping that others could take the idea and run with it.)
They had packs, all their gear I would say, Jamna replies. I don't think they're planning on coming back.
There's a rumble of disapproval from Jalt when Soar mentions the possibility of returning the presumed thief's loot to him, but he says nothing.
Nate, you can make a straight INT check to see if you recall whether goods were missing from the strong room, with disadvantage as you didn't really pay attention to counting how many items were stored in there when you first arrived.
To Soar's final thoughts, Jamna replies: There's no pattern to when they leave, other than I think they're trying not to attract attention. I can't predict whether or when any more will go. But I can follow them, that's for certain.
"I suppose if the thief doesn't get his loot back, the cultists will be just as aware of our departure as they would be without the half-elf's distress. He won't be happy, but it's not his. So? What do you all want to do?"
Here's the INT check - will respond properly later today when I can!
1
Nate, it looked to you as though all the cultists' stuff was there, but it's hard to say for sure.
To Soar: "I mean... it looked like all of the stuff was still there, but it was hard to tell for sure being so small."
To everyone "It seemed like he knew more information... the thief that is. I asked him a bunch of stuff but he really couldn't answer me because if any of us would've stayed there much longer, we would've been made. Right Nub? Didn't you get that feeling too? I do believe this guy is just a thief and not part of the cult. I think Nub and I should go meet him tonight. Don't worry Jalt, I have no intention of giving anything back to the thief. I'll question him, get any info he has, then tell him to leave now, or die. Lesson learned for him."
"Here Jalt, you keep this." and then Nate tosses the bag of jewels at Jalt. "You know what's best for it I am sure."
To Jamna, "Funny you should mention burning the stables for a distraction, because that's exactly where the thief wants to meet us. At midnight. Would you look at the similarities again Jamna eh? Thief mentioned stables, and so do you." Nate is just trying to get under her skin... trying to break her seemingly unwavering confidence. He doesn't like her.
"Well... anyone up for a fire tonight? Maybe after we deal with the thief. You guys (Jalt and Soar) could be watching in the shadows in case this thief tries anything that Nub and I can't handle. Then, we burn up the stable. Yep. Burn it right down. Hopefully causing a huge alarm and have everyone running around including the guards. Then, maybe we could all get in the warehouse, and then the strong room, and then the trap door. I could cast pass without trace so we would all have help with sneaking into the strong room while the commotion is happening."
"Of course, if the thief gives us any useful information, we won't have to burn anything down. But the thief is still not getting anything back and I'll kill him if he tries to attack me. Just watch."
Nate then looks to the others, mostly Soar though, for her thoughts and/or approval of this plan.
Also, before anything happens tonight, Nate would take a short rest in bed, using Natural Recovery to recover a Level 2 spell slot.
Is Nate genuinely suggesting burning the stables down, or is he joking or attempting to goad Jamna into a response?
Jalt pockets the pouch of riches quietly.
"Nate and Nub, you were in a cultist's room, and the thief came in and caught you? Was it his room? And he gave you the pouch? If it was his room, is he pretending to be a cultist among the cultists? If it wasn't his room, he just walked right in, and gave you a pouch he was carrying... or was his pouch in the room?"
Soar (plus her player) is a bit confused.
She looks to Jamna. "Bog Luck has to be in on all this, right? He doesn't seem like an idiot."
When Nate rounds on Jamna, Soar grins. "Wow, you guys are getting along great. Stable friends!" She doesn't pick up on the venom in Nate's voice. "Happy to wait as backup in the shadows. But I think we hold arson in our far-back pocket though, last resort sort of thing. I think you were right that if there's a fire, they'd definitely try to secure the strong room. Might be better to try to knock out the guard and then sneak in past midnight. Jamna can handle locks, or Nate can just go under the doors and open from inside. With that slight caveat, I think Nate's plan is as good as any. Jalt?"
Jalt scowls. A fire is not a good idea. There are good folk working here, folk we met in the convoy from Waterdeep. I won't take risks with their lives. I trust Nate and Jamna to get us in quietly, though I don't think I can help much. He shifts slightly, his armour clanking as he does so.
(Recap - Nate and Nub entered an empty room belonging to the cultists. They found the pouch of jewels, and Nate picked it up. A half-elf entered, who appeared to be a cultists but claimed to be a thief instead. The thief wanted Nate to return the pouch, but Nate refused.)
Nate was 100% suggesting they burn down the stables. Perhaps Jamna was joking about it, but Nate took it as a serious plan. And liked it. Although with the responses given after it was suggested, especially Jalt's, Nate puts it on the back burner. Also, he forgot what Nub said earlier about the guards trying to lock down the trap door if a fire was started, which made sense.
To Soar, who Nate now thinks is over-questioning him about the pouch, even if she isn't: "Ok look - here's exactly what went down. We went into the cultists room. I saw nothing in particular of interest until I spotted a pouch with a ton of jewels inside. At that moment, the half elf walked in. I grabbed the bag, and assumed he was a cultist. He wanted the bag back, and was offering to let us go there and then. Then... I threatened him... did it real good. I know you probably don't believe me, but he was scared. I asked him questions about the cult. He broke down and told me he was a thief who had been following them for a good while now. Even mentioned something about their ***** dragon queen and that they are all nuts. Nothing we didn't know."
Nate is totally happy with the plan to try and KO a guard in the night and try to get in. In that case, Nate would say to Soar "So you'll cover Nub and I when we meet the thief? He likely won't be happy when he finds out he's not getting his stolen jewels back. Then we can go and see how many guards are by the doors. Or... perhaps a different distraction?"
Nub indicates "I agree with Nate in that I think it is worthwhile meeting up with the half elf, with possibly all three of you waiting in the shadows, if you are happy to help us Jamna. I also think we should prepare and thoroughly check the stable beforehand. Again, he is either betraying the cultists and he was being honest about stealing from them or he is setting up an ambush. Either one may help us is we prepare for it properly."
When Jalt takes the pouch, Nub says "If the half-elf is a thief, he may be able to give us information that saves our lives later. I think we should at least consider returning the pouch to him."
Nub agrees with Jalt "I already voted "no" to the fire when Jamna raised it. A more subtle distraction sure, but anything like a fire or even a fist fight will likely be too obvious. A large animal coming into the courtyard could work? Or a monster coming to the gate which the four of us could take care of - with the cultists seeing us doing so - could give Jamna a chance to slip in, though we would need to make sure that we were not risking other people's lives. I also think that knocking out a guard and sneaking in will cause the cultists to move forward their plan."
So if he's really not a cultist, then he was also looking to steal the same pouch, or had already stolen the same pouch, which was not in his room? Or it was his room, and he's staying in a cultist room?
Soar gets a bit overwhelmed by the chaos and talk of burning and distraction and ambush. She raises her hands up. "Why don't we try this before the midnight meeting. Nate sneaks in now, goes through the trap door, and I can track him and we find out where the passage leads to. The thief doesn't have a chance to ambush us or try to force Nate and Nub to give him the pouch. We reunite at the end, and we can either see where it leads and then return, no one the wiser, or move along down whatever path presents itself. We can always plan to come back if it's a dead end or we want to hear what the thief says. Honestly we should have tried this originally, but second time's a charm."
(OOC: I want to clarify as best I can without giving anything away that would be a spoiler, obviously. I would say that the version of the story that he seems to be presenting, and that Nate would have understood from what he said, is as follows: He's a thief. He met the cultists on the road and joined them, or pretended to join them, in order to steal from them. He's staying with them in that room, because they consider him to be one of their members. It was his own pouch, full of the things he had stolen from the cultists. He was looking to recover it, after Nate picked it up. I'm not confirming if all this is actually true or not, though. :) Let me know by DM if it's still a bit unclear.)
Got it, thank you! I was missing that he had joined them on the road (out-of-character because I missed the post, and in-character because what Soar heard was not that he had joined). Sorry for the back and forth.
So the plan now is to sneak into the strong room and investigate the trapdoor, I think?
The main outstanding questions are:
Do it now (afternoon, before sunset) or after dark?
Do it before or after meeting the alleged thief?
What's the distraction that allows the sneakier folk to get into the strong room?
Who's going into the strong room? Jamna? Nate? Others?
Soar just advocated Nate trying to follow it now, tracked by Soar. She’d give him an item she knows before he went in just in case he couldn’t find the flute.
But her proposal is different from Nate’s and Nub’s, though not at all mutually exclusive, and not sure how we handle Jalt’s input now :)
[Do it now (afternoon, before sunset) or after dark? Nub's vote is just after sunset, but well before midnight.
Do it before or after meeting the alleged thief? Nub's vote is before meeting the purported thief, leaving at least a few hours to prepare for the possible ambush they will face/to set up their own possible ambush.
What's the distraction that allows the sneakier folk to get into the strong room? Nub was hinting that Soar's steed or another animal entering the courtyard would potentially seem less like someone was trying to set up a distraction, but that might not be enough of a distraction.
Who's going into the strong room? Jamna? Nate? Others? I was assuming just Nate and Jamna, but it depends on how good the distraction is.]
Nub expresses his opinions on the above in his usual somewhat awkward way.
Seems Nate as a spider could easily get under the outer and inner doors, shift into human form, get into the trap door, Soar casts locate object on the item Nate has, and then the whole party walks outside and then Soar tracks a hopefully slow-moving Nate through whatever passage he finds. The party follows along, and meets Nate at the end.
No need for distraction at all, though Soar would be okay with having her elk steed serve as a far-off distraction.