Tender turns her attention to the man, climbing up to sit next to him so that she can better look him over. "I'm sorry for the loss of you caravan," she offers quietly, glancing down at the dead plant-thing. "Are you alright? It didn't hurt you, did it?" Though, the sight of something like that eating his friends was likely enough to get him feeling faint, she supposes. "I'm glad we came across you when we did," she adds, though she's quite conscious of the fact she was of little help. 

She grins over in Fletcher's direction, though. "At least someone got in some good hits" she teases, "even if we did get covered in goo."

Fletcher winks back "I think 'lucky' is the word you were looking for"

"No, I'm fine. It didn't get me. Contrary to what I look like, I can handle myself." The man says. He sits up straight in the seat. "Jullar's the name. Travelling bard, teller of tales, and spreader of joy. Until now, at least." He says. He grabs a long stringed instrument form his back, showing you that it is broken in half. "I played this when I told tales and sung songs. It channeled magic, but not anymore." He sighs, looking at his instrument. Tears start to form in his eyes, but he quickly wipes them away. "Well I've come a long way from being an urchin, anyways. Sorry to get you all down."

"It's quite alright. I'm sorry to hear that. Is there anything we can do to assist you?" Kallista internally wonders where this new, helpful attitude has come from. Before, she would have walked away from him without a second thought. Now, she was feeling a twinge of genuine concern for this stranger's well-being. Perhaps the others were rubbing off on her a bit.

Orimdal finishes his investigation of the creature and returns to the others. "I'm sorry ta hear 'bout the state o' yer caravan. Is everythin' lost though? 'Haps we can take some o' yer goods along with us?"

"No I'm quite alright. Thank you for your concern." Jullar says to Kallista. "Our caravan was damaged, so the more valuable items may be useless, but food and arms may be salvageable." He replies to Ormidal. "We were attacked just around that bend." He points ahead on the path, where you can see a gradual turn in the road. "The plant was more interested in us as food than the items we had, so it should all still be there."

The the party seemingly reorganized and the horses and carriage seemingly restored to normal Evi begins to walk towards the bend in the road where Jullar had mentioned his carriage had previously been located.  Still on-edge, suspicious and not wanting to be caught unawares in the carriage again, Evi decided to walk alongside it, keeping an eye out for any sounds or movements remotely suspicious.

Perception: 19

Seeing that Kallista and Orimdal have Jullar well in hand, Tender jumps down from the carriage, doing her best to wipe the goo off. "Lucky, right," she laughs at Fletcher. "Well, I'm glad we didn't end up plant food anyway." It did not sound like a good experience. She takes a moment to stretch, having been cooped up in the carriage until they'd been attacked. Maybe that was why she hadn't been able to hit the thing. She looks up to see Evi walking walking away and raises a hand to wave at her.

"Hey Evi, wait up!" she calls, jogging after her towards the bend in the road. "Better to keep to the buddy system with murderous plants and strange creatures about, yeah?" she explains when she catches up, 

Possibly a little too much on edge - she really wasn't very suited for the jungle - Evi couldn't help but jump slightly as Tender approached.  Slightly embarrassed at her involuntary scare, she hoped no one had noticed and as casually as she could muster replied, "S-sure sounds like a good idea."  

Fletcher sees the interaction and feels a bit bad for Evi. He calls her over "Oi! Evi! come learn to driver the cart! The propability of death seems to be increasing, and if i go down, i would like to know that someone can drive you folks around. Even as amusing as it is to imagine Tender trying to drive the cart" he winks at Tender when he says the last bit, making sure she knows that it is a joke.

"I'll walk with you, Tender," Kallista offers, hopping down from the carriage and walking towards the pair. As she approaches, she uses her sleeve to wipe as much of the goo from her sword as possible, then sheathes it. As they walk, she'll watch the jungle for any signs of another creature approaching.

Perception: 21

Tender snorts at the joke and laughs, sticking her tongue out at Fletcher in a very juvenile way her teachers would have disapproved of. "He's not wrong, though," Tender grins at Evi, looking slightly apologetic for startling her. "I would drive us into a tree, it'd be very bad," she says, sending one fist careening into the other one to illustrate her point, though it is clearly heavily exaggerated. 

She looks up as Kallista joins them, her grin brightening again. "Thank you, Kallista!" As they walk, she also keeps an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. 

Perception: 23

(forgot perception)

23

He smiles at Kallista as she joins them. "Good to have you around in case something scary comes for me. I dont know what i would do without you girls protecting me" He says Dryly. He looks at Tender "Hey! Speak for yourself. Being on the inside of a plant would have been an interesting experience. May never get the chance again" He sighs with mock longing...

"Maybe next time.  I think I've had enough traumatic experiences for one day!"  Evi jokes back to Fletcher.  Turning to Tender she follows up with "And you think I'd do any better?  Did you see me riding a horse earlier today?  I wouldn't call that cart driver material!" continuing to joke along with the others.  Though still on alert for any threats, Evi was coming to enjoy the company of the group she'd somehow become a part of and appreciated how they were able to put at (slightly) more at ease.

"You did quite well for a beginner. Certainly better than me. I was about to fall off the entire time," Kallista chuckles, recalling her unpleasant experience with the horses earlier. "It's probably best if we leave the cart driving to Fletcher for now. We can protect him if anything else scary jumps out of the woods." She grins, raising her voice at the last part to ensure he can hear her.

Fletcher grins right back. "You can cook dinner while your at it"

"I can cook, if it's dinner you want. I make some mean stews. Carrot stew, beef stew, any kind of stew you want." Jullar says. "I even have the tools to do it, just not the food. But not to worry, the food should be back at my caravan." Jullar says. He seem to have calmed down from his scare with the plant, and is excited to possibly cook for some people.

Edit: Also with all of your insanely high Perception rolls, you can tell that nothing dangerous is near, but you can hear small animals in the underbrush and birds in the canopy and the sky, singing elaborate songs as they dart about in serene simplicity. Also, Tender, Ormidal and Kallista see the strange creature from before, the red and white flying beast. It flies in circles above you for a time, then turns and heads north.

Fletcher is about to explain that it was a joke, but when he sees the mans face, he couldn't bear to let him down. He smiles "Some food would be lovely"

Tender gets distracted from the conversation by the sight of the familiar beast again, staring up at the sky. "Kallista," she says, pointing. "It's the creature from before. Do you think it's trying to tell us something? Or following us?" 

Kallista looks where she's pointing and immediately sees it - the brightly colored beast circling through the clouds is hard to miss. "I'm not sure. Hey, Evi, can you see it this time? It's right above us." Kallista points to it as well.

(Which direction are we traveling?)