Once again, Rogram is almost mesmerized as Smoke weaves his tail of the halflings and dwarves. Though he did not grow up in a dwarven society, Rogram knows enough of his heritage to understand the dwarves' side of the story. He shows the proper amount of shock, anger and finally sorrow. He is about to comment on the plight when Smoke snaps him back to reality with his declaration over Thrax. The half-dwarf is actually surprised to see the tabaxi's and the lizardfolk's transformations as if he hadn't just been watching them from 10 feet away. Once again, Smoke's talents have amazed him.

"Perhaps you can use your magics again to disguise yourself. Perhaps they would distrust a non-human."

"Of course," Rogram stammers. He begins casting the spell his mother taught him so many years ago. Back then, Rogram had trouble completing the spell and usually ended up just making his head look like a short-snouted dragon's. He would chase after his mother, who would laugh and playfully scream as she led him through the house and his father's workshop, pretending to be afraid of him. These romps would usually end in a tickle fight. Tonight, Rogram weaves the spell to completion, changing his appearance to match the physique of one of his male human neighbors in Greenest, but with clothing that looks similar to what the raiders were wearing. He holds his hands out. "How's this?"

Thrax does his best to embody his new role as Thrax the Terrible. He changes his posture to seem more menacing, and wears a constant scowl upon his face. 

He speaks in a deep voice in draconian doing his best to mimic the raiders “We have returned from Greenest. We lost several in the fighting at the keep, and my man here was wounded and slowed us down. He knows to be more careful now” he glares at the Tabaxi for a long moment before breaking character “How was that?”

Smoke CHA (+Disguise Kit Proficiency): 15
Thrax Deception: 12

Twenty minutes pass before Smoke applies the finishing touches to Thrax and his own disguise, with Thia providing a helpful overview. The storytelling bard clearly has a modicum of experience with the kit; his tabaxi features are cleverly hidden, and Thrax could easily pass for a dragonborn from afar. Even Thrax's accent seems to be hidden beneath the clever concealment.

When Rogram takes on the appearance of a human, it may cross the mind of some that he could be any human in any given town or city. The raiders wore no distinctive garb, and had no markings on the typical traveling gear like that which adorns Rogram's magical disguise at the moment.

Thia makes certain to keep her upswept ears hidden from view.  "Are we ready to go and meet our cult 'companions'?" she asks the team.  I wonder if the raiders have any apples in their provisions.

"Ready," Rogram replies, unnecessarily lowering his voice a little.

Hmm good we might be able to use that. Smoke says to Thia in response to her speaking kobold (Smoke also speaks Draconic)

Thats wonderfull Rogram, very powerfull spell that is indeed. 

At Thrax's words Smoke hesitates a bit Well .. i.. im not sure if i slowed ... we could also .. we will see. But yes speak Draconic the humans will speak through me. 

Smoke adjusts his gloves a bit to make sure everything is right. Yes Thia we are ready. We were .. he looks at Thrax.. delayed because.. he thinks a moment. Another small raiding party messed up. Yes not me the other party did and got us in trouble. He smirks beneath the cloth covering his face and stands a bit prouder as he says it. I was injured but we dealt with it and are now making sure each group still knows what they are doing. We will make them tell us their orders he raises his fist up getting emerged into his new act and Thrax the Terrible has little patience for failure. 

He nods a bit to himself and to the others then turns around and starts to walk towards the raiders camp looking back after a few steps to see if the others are following. He will make sure he is the first in line to make the introductions. 

Rogram thinks he understands what's going on, but is happy nevertheless that they are moving again, and that he might get to gut some raiders.

"Yes!" says Thrax excitedly as he hears Smoke describe the plan, he enthusiastically . "Thrax the Terrible and his band of elite warriors had to rush in and save those poor saps who tried to raid the farm down the road! My men fought through a bloody mess to save their hides, the Tabaxi nearly lost his damn head... We can't have any more of this foolishness going on! You need to consult with the Dragonborn before you commit to any further troop movements.  Who's in charge here!?"

Yevele is stunned by this turn of events. She thought that she had suggested a clever plan of the party staying in the shadows while tricking the kobolds and humans into fighting one another. Instead, they were going to march straight into their midst and hope that no one recognized any of them, particularly herself and Thia. As the party starts moving forward, the tall monk moves to the back of the party, slouches her shoulders and pulls the hood of her cloak up over her head, hoping that no one will notice the tall female at the back of the party.

Smoke leads the party further down the trail, to the entryway of the low vale wherein the smoke of a cooking fire still rises lazily toward the sky.

When you arrive, four humans sit around the fire where the remains of a cooked dinner continue to smolder. Their weapons, scimitars, rest nearby against a boulder. Fifty yards away, where the low area turns into gradual hill, eight kobolds look to be tearing into dinner themselves. The trailing end of a conversation between the humans can be heard before one of them alerts the others to your arrival.

"--not any use, really. They can't follow directions, and they certainly aren't frightening," one man suggests. The woman next to him retorts, "Not by themselves, no, but I've seen a pack of twelve of them take down a pair of well armed soldiers easily enough. And I'm sure they can cook a hen better than that." She slaps the shoulder of the first man, nodding toward the entrance of the party.

A second man continues, "It takes six to one for them to win a fight? I think you just made his argument for him." Turning his attention to you, he calls out, "Dinner's over. Find your own food and find your own place to camp."

After Thrax's speech (before they went to the camp) Smokes eyes open wide and he quickly corrects Thrax No no. Don't say Tabaxi. Im a human raider now. 

 Walking into the camp Smoke walks calmly and makes it clear to look around turning his head left and right while he moves the center of the camp before directing his attention to the humans speaking up to them. What did you just.. How dare you worm! Do you not know who this is? he points towards Thrax without taking his eyes of the humans. Then lowers his voice a bit as he quickly makes some steps towards the humans. 

This is Thrax the Terrible! You should be more carefull or he will have all of you gutted. He takes a quick glance to Thrax then back to the humans. He is NOT in a good mood after what we have just been through and to be honest, neither am i. He touches the cloth on his face as he says this. We have had our fill of insubordination.. he starts to mumble a bit to himself .. How hard is it to follow simple orders.. a damned farm even... we havent come all this wa... he snaps himself out of it and continues We have been delayed .. and my master now wants to know if all the seperate groups know their orders and are not trying to sabotage our mission. 

He turns his back on the humans looks back towards our own group. You there (pointing to Thia and Rogram) go see if the kobolds have been given the correct information. moving his hand in the air to point at the kobolds eating their meal. 

Looking back to Thrax he speaks up in draconic making sure the kobolds can still hear him. 

He turns to the humans again expecting Thrax and Yevele to move towards himself and the humans. Before they arrive he is quick to add in a hushed voice. Do not get to close to my master. The tall female is under order to strike down any that come close. 

As Thrax and Yevele arrive Smoke makes sure to move aside and bows his head in respect as he moves making room for them and eyeing the humans to heed his words as well. My master wants to verify you still know your orders, you are the second group we found trailing behind the main host. Before our arrival our scout heard arguments between you and the kobolds. Is this why you are trailing behind?

He looks around at the other humans and to the kobolds. 

Can you not control this rabble or have you lost your leader and simply do not know your orders? 

Rogram looks at Thia, then moves toward the kobolds, not really sure what to do, but trying to keep up appearances. He straightens his back and marches toward the low area where the creatures are supping. Stopping about 10 feet away and trying not to become repulsed by whatever the mess is that they're feasting on, Rogram plants his hands on his hips. "Thrax the Terrible wants to make sure you know your orders."

Yevele will move into area where the humans are and try to position herself between the humans and their weapons.

Thia will stand tall over the kobolds.  "What are you waiting for!?!" she screams in Draconic.  "He asked you a question!  Answer it now!   Do you know your orders?   Do not tarry.  If Thrax the Terrible comes over here to find out the delay, some of you will be feeding his terrible temper this day.  Now!  Out with it!   Tell us your orders so that we might confirm you have not forgotten them!"

Thia is skilled in both Deception and Intimidation and will use a combination of both.

Smoke Intimidation: 18

Group Deception:

"Okay, okay, relax, we only took a break because the kobolds wouldn't shut up until they ate," one of the men says in an attempt to calm the situation.

The woman speaks more formally, "We know that we are not the official rearguard, sir, but we thought this site appropriate to keep a watch for the night. We know our orders. None of us looted for ourselves. All of the gold, gems, and valuables were given to Langdedrosa Cyanwrath for the great hoard to honor the Dragon Queen."

Fifty yards away, the kobolds look frantically between one another before howling back at Rogram and Thia a completely indecipherable mess of responses. Bits of common words like "dragon", "loot" and "hoard" make an appearance in more than one reply, but it seems that each of the eight kobolds have a different idea of what their orders are.

Smoke nods Hmm, very well. 

He turns slightly away from the humans looking at the kobolds making noise. So it is their bellies that controlled your actions. 

Turning back to the humans. Do any of you speak Draconic? They seem to have some trouble with the common tongue. Perhaps that is why they do not respect your commands.

Smoke will also look around to see their weapons behind Yevele. 

He thinks for a moment

Did you kill any of those farmers? Or did you wait for others to clear them out? 

Rogram makes a motion toward the kobolds and says to Yevele, "See if you can make any sense of this. I'll be right back." He walks the 50 yards to where the others are gathered and stands close enough to one of the raiders to say in a voice that shouldn't carry to the kobolds, "They sure don't think much of you. When we asked what was going on, they blamed it all on you lot. If I were you, I'd sleep with my sword under my pillow tonight. That whatever it was might not fill their bellies, and they might come looking for seconds in your bedrolls." The bard then jerks his head back toward the kobolds as if something caught his attention. Without saying anything further, he strides back over to rejoin Yevele.

Thrax does not say a word as the scene unfolds, he stands menacingly over Smokes shoulder, glaring occasionally at the raiders. He does not speak for feat of his clumsy accent giving him away, he lets his capable companions do the talking and does his best to look the part. He does make a point to study the face of the woman who spoke formally to them, studying her face to detect a lie. 

Insight 18

Yevele will remain standing between the humans and their weapons, but, will face toward Thrax rather than toward the humans.

Thia will shout at the kobolds in Draconic.  "Shut up!   All of you!"  She will then pick one and ask it to speak slowly and clearly and answer the question.  "What are your orders?   Or are you simply supposed to be doing what those humans over there tell you to do?"   She will then give the kobold time to answer.

Then, thinking back to Yevele's plan she will try something.   Once the kobold has answered she will beckon them all closer to her and kneel down to their level.  She will then whisper to them all, again in Draconic, trying to deceive them.  "Beware.  Those humans you have travelled with are spies.  At the first opportunity, they will slit your throats.   Wait until we are gone and then ambush them.  Success will bring you great rewards with Cyanwrath.  You must keep this order a secret from the humans or they will kill you."