The sky is clear and the road mostly straight, passing through large swaths of open land and the occasional stand of trees.  Occasionally the forests to the east approach but soon retreat again.  Any small cover provided by rolling hills seems to be the greatest threat to the party, but all is quiet, with the exception of the halflings of course, until after the sun has passed it zenith in the sky.  Elra and Vincent report lifeless bodies and overturned wagons over the next hill.

Elra shrugs, "I mean, you seem nice enough. Why would you need some special voice to make people cooperate? And I guess it depends what you mean by siblings."

"Need? No. But it does make it a bit easier. Plus you should hear me sing!"

"You know, family? Blood relations?"

"Oh, I don't have any of those," Elra closes her journal and drums her fingers on the cover. "Loremaster Atlavast said they found me abandoned at their door one night. No one knows who my parents are."

"Fellow orphan! Join the club. We're having crests made."

"Oh, you don't know who your family is either? Who took you in?"

"The Sisterhood of Tyr Orphanage in Waterdeep. Nuns of the god of justice. Real 'spare the rod and spoil the child' types. Got out as soon as I could."

"Oh, that doesn't sound very fun. When Loremaster Atlavast used to be just a brother at the temple we lived at he and the other brothers and sisters apparently spent just as much time chasing me around as the did documenting the various works they needed to do. When I learned to read they were glade they could normally find where I was 99% of the time. I don't remember them ever beating me though."

"Well, Oghma isn't known as a 'punish the wrong-doer' type. Next topic, please."

"What other spells can you do? You don't have to show me, you can tell me. If you don't know names I can probably tell if you can describe them." Elra opens her book again and looks down at it, writing something.

"Most of what I do involves...nudging the behavior of others. I don't follow many rules, but 'never use charm magic on your friends' is one of them.

But I can do this."

He stands and looks out along the side of the road. Spotting a dead log, he raises his walking stick to his shoulder and sights down it like a rifle.

<Keihäs!>

A bolt of force erupts from the rod, hitting the log and sending splinters flying. As Arvel sits back down, tapping his stick on the floor of the wagon. Spectral dust falls from the symbols carved into the stick, glowing as gold as Arvel's eyes.

As the wagons get moving again, Ethan sets himself up in the second wagon again, getting his things out and tinkering away.

Ethan overhears Arvel and Elra talking about being orphans,

"Oh I'm an orphan too, how strange."

Ethan look at Fae and then over at Zeke travelling behind,

"Are you two orphans too? Are we all orphans?"

Elra looks at Arvel's walking stick. "That's amazing! I've never seen a spell that can do something like that before. A blast of pure force energy..." Elra taps his walking stick, "I suppose that's your spellcasting focus, isn't it?"

"Technically not needed for that spell, but it helps with my aim and the dust is a rather pretty effect."

"Ya, it is really pretty," Elra smiles, "alright, your turn. What do you want to know?"

At Arvel's display, Ethan smiles broadly,

"Wow that's nice! Was that force magic? My one is fire based, as discussed before."

Ethan pulls out his fire caster, and takes aim, much as Arvel did.

With a sizzle of magic, the orange stone on the back of the device flares and then a bolt of fire shoots out the front, hitting the ground.

After firing, the barrel of the device continues to sizzle with errant magic, small wisps of magic curling away into the air.

Ethan shakes the device out a bit, to clear the magic away, and holsters the device.

"I would very much like to get to test my devices in real world conditions. I've only really tested it on target dummies and trying to hunt rodents in the basement of the university."

Ethan turns back to Arvel,

"Force magic is nice too, not having to worry if your shot is going to start an uncontrolled fire...oh, um..."

Ethan stands back up looking back to make sure no fire has started from his shot.

"Nope! It's Etan's turn. Etan, a question for either me or Elra and then we get to ask you one. Go!"

"Umm...uh, have either of you been in a real fight. Like with something dangerous, not like a small animal or rats or anything, but like goblins or wolves, or something?"

"Buddy, I grew up on the streets of Waterdeep. I've been scrapping since I can remember."

"Not really, my knowledge comes from books. I lack practical experience in droves. That's why I want to go out and explore the world."