The Exploits of Misfit Company

"I'd go with the fort. More space."

"Fort it is!" Alys would take out the cube and trot out to a safe space. She'd plop the cube on the ground, back pedal a little bit and then speak the command word.

"Oh." Kasha said, deflating. "It's not made out of pillows.." she whined softly, like a disappointed child.

"Huh. A pocket fort. Wish I had that back in the day." Courage commented, looking mildly impressed. Then, he looks to Kasha and with a smile in his voice added, "Don't lose hope just yet. Perhaps there's a bunchy of pillows inside! Race you inside!" Despite making an exaggerated readying to dash on inside, the wind-up only leads to him immediately and calmly entering regardless at just above an old man's pace.

"B always had the niftiest things." Alys would respond with a slight smile to Courage.

Alys would gently lean in to Kasha, "If there are no pillows, I can still summon Alys' Accommodating Abode within it." She'd smile a more playful smirk. "We could even build a pillow fort." The elf would try to entice her. "A fort within a fort!"

Kasha gasped so loud, she nearly passed out.

Insert imaginary montage of Kasha playing with pillows, building a massive overexaggerated fort of multi colored cushions and pillows, having pillow fights and "pretending" to fire pillow cannons at "enemies". Zoom in on her face, cackling diabolically.

The montage ends with Kasha cackling maniacally in real life. 

Then she realizes she's not daydreaming anymore and she stops, clearing her throat.

Unfortunately, there are no pillows inside the fortress. As you all take shelter, you hear the howling once again, but closer this time

Alys would head into the fortress first. She'd find the roomiest corner she could 'set up shop' for waiting out the storm. They could still relax in some comfort. It could at least put them at ease for better rest. The elf would spend time on performing a ritual to summon her version of the tiny hut inside. It would include plenty of comfy pillows for Kasha to busy herself with to make a fort, play in, hopefully tire out her busy body enough for some rest. It would also include a quieter area for studying, reading and napping. The wizard would of course welcome any Misfit who desired to come and go from the space. They were free to make themselves at home.

As always, Yvan had entered the fortress last, ensuring everyone had safely gone inside prior to closing the door behind him. While the howling did concern the goliath, the fortress seemed strong enough to protect them from whatever it was, and also from the brewing blizzard itself. Inside, he would silently wander around and check the place out, eventually climbing up the ladder to the second floor, then to the roof to see if he could possibly spot or figure out what was causing the howling.

Perceppy: 19
Nature: 8

Yvan: As you peer out of the fortress, you can see maybe more than 30 feet in front of you before you see a blizzard that is impossible to see through. You feel like if you had chosen to press on, you would have almost certainly gotten hopelessly lost in the storm. Also, you can barely hear the sound of your friends inside the tower over the winds, which gives you the impression that whatever is howling isn't a common wolf or a Yeti. You hope that it got caught in the storm and is lost.

While curious of the howls, Courage too trusted the walls to hold against the storm and anything of or within it. That wouldn't stop him from lighting any scones or fireplace to make sure the innards were nice and warm. And though he would smile in appreciation of Alys' fort within a fort, the tiefling knew he would need a bit of space to prepare the night's dinner. So, once efforts to warm up the place either succeed spectacular or failed miserably, Courage set about setting up a mini soup kitchen section, whistling a little tune himself throughout it all.

Kasha was too busy making the biggest pillow fort she could, completely elated that Alys would do something like that just to humor her. Naturally, she would drag Alys inside once it was done, and childish giggling and snickering could be heard inside.

Alys would definitely appreciate the ambiance and warmth Courage's lighting of the fireplaces would bring.

While in the safety of the hut, with a few gentle movements of her hands, Alys would use her telekinetic magic to float pillows around the room and assist Kasha with building the fort. For giggles she'd even try surprising the druid by levitating her up and gently tossing her into a pile of pillows. At one point she'd even try to catch Obsidian in the air when he would try to jump on a table or counter.

Yvan's eyes narrowed once he made the deduction that whatever had been the cause of the howling certainly wasn't a wolf or a yeti. Then what else could it have been? Eventually he gives up trying to find out, concluding that, whatever it was, would just get lost in the storm and be of no threat to them while they were in the fortress itself. 

He takes in a breath of icy cold air into his lungs, remembering the last time he was on a mountain, he believed it would be his final resting place.

With that final memory, Yvan leaves the rooftop to rejoin the others on the main floor, sticking around the fire Courage had made to rid himself of the chill from the outside. 

As Yvan would make his way back inside by the fire, soft hoots, almost like chirps of relief could be heard from his furs where Hoodini hides himself. Alys would gently float out the biggest, fluffiest pillow she had and send it their gentle giants way. Even if he couldn’t find sleep, she hoped he could find comfort and at least some rest. 

When the soft hoots reached his ears, Yvan froze for a moment. He had completely forgotten about the owl familiar who had grown a fondness in hiding in his furs. While Yvan did mind the cold of the blizzard, poor Hoodini probably didn't like sitting there for a time as the barbarian reminisced. His furs could only keep him so warm. He would reach over to try and find the owl familiar among his furs, giving him a small scratch on the cheek when successful in finding him. "Sorry for subjecting you to that, Hoodini..."

Now he had even more of incentive to move over to the fire, wanting to now mainly work on warming up Hoodini. During doing so, he doesn't notice the giant pillow floating his way until he boops his side and has him turn to look at it. He gives a low chuckle and gives a small thank you to Alys. With the pillow, he sets himself against a wall with the pillow at his back, and watches Courage work on making a meal. When there is a break in the tieflings tune, Yvan decides to ask, "Courage, where do you hail from?"

Despite Yvan's care Courage is yet freezes up at the question. But after a moment, a sad smile spreads across his face as he looked from goliath back to the meal currently in prep. "It was a very small settlement still getting to its feet... or it was last I'd been there." He chuckled, though the mirth behind it is muted. "People were still workshopping the name too. Though, Eluzian's Rise was the most popular -- and don't strain head trying to see if you know of such a place. Not sure how much the one who pointed me in your direction has said, but.. I'm not exactly from this particular material plane." 

Yvan catches the hesitation, and notes the sadness behind the tieflings smile. His own lips thin, wondering if he had overstepped his boundaries already, though at Courage's answer he listens. "I see..." He nods, remembering the note Bixby had left behind regarding possible candidates. "Bixby did mention that... Had wrote that you'd been searching for... twenty years? For a way back to your home plane... Are you still hoping to return home?" Truthfully, he hadn't meant to let the question escape from his lips, and once he catches it, he quickly adds in. "I... apologize if I stumbled upon a subject you'd rather not speak of. You don't... You don't need to answer that if you don't want to, I just want to learn more about you, since you're going to be with us for a time... Maybe figure out if we could help in some way."

Courage all but nodded absently to the first question, at least confirming the time frame. But to the second, he furrowed his brow and looked away rubbing his chin. At least for the brief moment he had prior to Yvan's quick follow-up. To which, he put on a more nonchalant smile and shook his head. "I don't mind, my boy. Frankly figured this was coming one sooner or later given the rather abruptness of the hiring." The smile turns closer to a smirk for a brief moment.

"To answer your question, it's sometimes hard to say. There are certainly days I find myself hopeful about it... But, you need to understand that time isn't always quite as relative on the primes as it is out there. A day on some planes can be months or even a year in a prime. And those twenty years don't include the one off ventures in which time kind of had... let's say a different meaning all together. So, for all I know, it could hundreds of years since I've been home, and I wouldn't know it. Plenty enough time for my last arcane or druidic inclined family to have...." He trails off there, pausing mid-motion of dicing some tomatoes. Then after a few moments makes some noncommittal gesture with his head and gets back to cutting. "Suffice it to say, you only have so many limbs to give up towards a dream before realizing it might be time to shelve it for a while."