Deshi waves their hands in alarm from the back of the line. There may be some hopping involved. "NO! There will be no breaking of this most excellent machinery, and no harm will come to this hardworking municipal employee." (Deshi is referencing the pigeon, of course)

The tortle finally extends their neck to gain line of sight of the engineers. "Apologies, of course, for my new friends' mistreatment of you. They are experienced adventurers, but D-... but D-..." Deshi gropes for the language to refer to themselves in the first person singular to avoid revealing their name, "Buut I-I-I am beginning to suspect that their motives are not always entirely gentile. If you agreed to remove an inexpensive yet vital piece of the machinery, and remove the tools the graphing pigeon requires to communicate... Surely we could make our departure without any harm falling upon you or this fine fellow." (Again, referencing the bird)

Penny pipes up from where she is watching the men work/dither. “Oh, I was definitely bringing the pigeon with us. Might come in handy. Does it have a name?” she asks the engineers. 

The engineers’ eyes dart from you guys to each other, “Not that I can think of,” one pipes up, “Why don’t you do the honors! Then you guys should be all set to leave... right?”

"A pseudonym, huh? How about "Lightning Rhino", huh, HUH? Really rolls off the tongue." A solid 10 seconds is spent starting at the pigeon. "Good thing you're not an eagle, or I'd bite your head off." He tosses the pigeon out of the train. 

(The train is stopped at this point, no?)

Penny makes a half-hearted grab for the bird as Hippo tosses it. She watches it go, and marks where it lands. "I guess we get off here. You guys remember to break the train." With that, Penny hops out of the engine down to the ground (with all of her stuff), and goes to retrieve the pigeon.

OOC > I took "Life of Birds" in college, and studied pigeons. Your average pigeon does not like to fly very far.

If you are all indeed disembarking (we’ll say that enough time has passed), then I will continue onward shortly.

As Penny disembarks, Ormond deems it a fine enough idea to simply wrench the brake level out of place. That should be a good enough distraction to buy them enough time while at the same time avoiding wounding the turtle’s sensibilities. Meanwhile, Penny has collected the poor pigeon, it coos and sniffles once more. However, it seems to be very uneasy without its preferred nest, which would be the pad of paper.

As for the trip, you all are still on a very mountainous locale. Despite being only an hour out, who knows what might delay you. (Speaking of which, for winning against the militia, you all get 138xp, but I’m going to round that to 200xp for a clever plan.) It is currently, by your judgement, a bit past noon, likely around 1pm.  Below you, the mountain is covered by thick shrubland, so you’ll need to be careful on your descent. Besides, these are still wild lands, so who knows what animals might be nearby.

"Do you have a cold, little Rhino?" Penny coos back at the pigeon. "Hey, guys, someone grab the bird's nest pad. And, are there any instructions?"

Ormond grabs the nest from the engine car of the train, as he does, he asks the engineers, "How about a quick rundown on how that pigeon does its work?"  He pushes the rations closer to engineers.

----

Once outside, he states, "It seems that we have a bit of a walk ahead of us.  I suggest those of us at home with the outdoors lead the way.  I always had scouts in our battalions that did that sort of work, so I never picked up on any survival, however, I do have a keen eye and took many a watch on our travels."

Roland looks disgusted. "THAT BIRD.. IS NOT.. COOL ENOUGH.. TO BEAR THE NAME OF A PACHYDERM." He eyes the sniffling featherball with clear disdain. To rid himself of the frustration he whacks the train controls with his glaive. Only once. Deshi wanted it to stay intact, but anger is anger. 

Attack: 24 Damage:5 

With a strike like that, you sink the blade about an inch or so in. You have decided to show mercy to the weak controls. They aren’t worth your time.

As for the bird, it’s simple. You press down the bird’s head to project a message. If a message travels to the pigeon, then it will automatically begin writing.

Penny will take the pad of paper and keep the pigeon. "It's okay, he's not a Rhino anyway, he's more of a... Tippy Tap. Tippy and I are ready to begin walking." Penny will let Ormond lead, while also making sureptitious Survival checks along the way (+4) to make sure we're not getting lost/walking off a cliff.

Here are a few... 11, 21, 17, 7, 5

Ormond reluctantly takes the point position, regularly checking in with those more comfortable with the outdoors regarding what path to take, and which direction to head in.

He does his best to keep a keen eye out for any possible trouble. 

// Perception 18 

As the group makes the first trek forward, Penny points out some safe paths of travel throughout the shrubland. However, while no one is falling off the edge, you just aren’t moving as fast as you could be. Yet, it is Ormond who stops the group in their tracks. He saw something. He very clearly saw something. It was big, shaggy, and twice the size of an average man. A massive boar was crossing through a clearing up ahead. It’s tusks could easily gore any one of you in one swift motion and long-healed gashes scar the flank of the beast. You’re still about 120 feet out from it, and it doesn’t seem to have noticed you.

Deshi gives up their attempts at protesting Roland's actions and instead focuses all of their attention on... anything else. As they walk, Osskill wheels into the air to see what they can see. 

When Ormond gives notice of the boar, the wizard stops short and says in a loud whisper. "Oh! Astonishing- Deshi has had little contact with wild species. Deshi's friends plan to murder this creature and consume it, yes?"

"You're not a stupid turtle, turtle." Roland produces his crossbow, loads it and takes aim. "Anyone with some range get ready. We fire on BOOM. 3.." 

“What?! No! We don’t bring trouble!” Penny whispers, swatting Roland on the arm. “How are you still alive? We hunker down quiet-like and let it go.”

Roland reluctantly lowers his crossbow. "I always bring trouble. Cause I am trouble incarnate and I bring myself everywhere." It almost sounds as if the line has been rehearsed. "Plus, I'd like a new pelt to hand on the wall in my wagon back at the coliseum." 

"Not today, big man," Penny whispers, then she hunkers down to wait out the boar.

"Man, you guys are boring." Roland pockets the crossbow bolt again.