Molle hums along to the songs, off tune and a bit too loud, but she seems to be having fun. She pauses abruptly, no doubt to the relief of some, to chuckle at Ted's outburst. "We're stretching the 'pleasures' out longer, so we can keep our spirits up more consistently. Travel's not always the most pleasurable thing. If we stay up too late tonight, we'll just all be tired and miserable for the road. So sometimes, it's ok to hold but. But I agree, you shouldn't hold back all the time. Just think about all the things you'll be able to do tomorrow night."

Performance just for fun: 8

"Your mistaken Dreadbane. There's a time for revelry but no on the road as Molle so well put," Gen interjects.

"Maybe don't worry so much Gen until we have something to worry about," Zira retorts smirking as she rises from her seat and gets back her flask which of course was drained smirking at it before she tucks it away. "Come now those who need sleep take it and those who are watching watch," she adds. "Good night to all," she offers picking up Alistir and patting Gen's shoulder. "It's their first trip you do recall," she finishes. Zira then turns to the party. "Any questions or concerns besides Teddy's disappointment at the length and seriousness of this evenings entertainments," she asks smirking.

Trixi was already in the tent, waiting for the promised gossiping (and her shift), but she did not have any questions anyway. So far traveling seemed to be easy and expected - and warned against - troubles did not show itself. Not the she was welcoming them, of course, just a notion to herself. And they were not at the dig site yet. Tomorrow could change everything.

Erika joins Trixie in the tent next. She sheds her armor, laying the steel lamellar and leather hauberk in a pile, shield and axe resting on top. More comfortable, she sits cross-legged on her bedroll, closing her eyes a moment. Raising her left hand, she conjures up the image of the group around the campfire. About a foot across, the illusion holds everyone - Erika playing, Ted being rambunctious, Zira and Gen close, the others sharing in the meal of stew and laughing at a joke, the fire sending bright sparks to the nights sky. Not quite a direct moment in time, but a summation of the night's events.

She lets the image rotate in her hand, tweaking the small details as she looks at it, bits of blue and purple light framing the illusion.

She looks at Trixi. "These are the good moments. I hope there are more to come."

As everyone heads to their tent after the game, Garron nudges Dreadbane with his toe, "I guess neither of us won huh? Gen lightened both of our purses." He chuckles as he pulls out his Dragonchess Board and lays it on the ground in front of the campfire. He sets the pieces up and gestures at the board, "Play while we watch? No betting though. I'd prefer to hold onto my coin."

He keeps his eyes on the treeline while they play, if Dreadbane says yes, and looks out especially for the members of the other camp, on the off chance that they decide to come creeping over once their party is over. If Dreadbane declines the game, then Garron will play a game against himself playing for both sides and testing out different attack and defense strategies.

As they sit, he strikes up a conversation, "I've always prefered games of strategy to games of chance. But perhaps that's only because Lady Luck never seems to take my side. I know you and I haven't talked much, but do you mind if I called you Ted? Dreadbane is a little- " He pauses as he thinks for the right word, "superfluous."

"Ha! That's me! Wait, do my hair really look like this?" Trixi saw illusions before, of course, but still childishly enjoyed the trick. She tried to smooth her hair a bit but immediately gave up and stretched on her bedroll. The girl was not that tired (not physically anyway) but the road always takes it's toll, even if travel is comfortable. "Should learn that trick too. One day. It's nice to show things, much  better than just describing." She turned to watch the illusion for as long as Erika was willing to hold it. "It was a good start. Let's see what awaits tomorrow."  

Erika keeps the illusion going for a while. "It helps me remember, more so than trying to write down the day's events. Common... I get all mixed up when I try to write and read it. And my own tongue, well, the runes for that aren't very expressive. Hard to capture feelings with a script that is useful for "Karl Karlsson of Versburg caught seven fish" and not much more. It is why we pass down stories using voice and word."

She looks at Trixi. "I hadn't noticed Zira and Gen-ga's closeness until today. Suppose we have been too busy?"

Molle enters the tent shortly after Erika, with a yawn. Her weapons are taken off her belt, before she shucks off her robe and armor. It is all neatly folded and organized to rest at the foot of her bedroll, as she tries to make it take up as little space as possible. She tits crossed legged on said bedroll after that, her eyes training on the illusion. "It is pretty handy, isn't it? Your hair looks amazing, Trixi. One of a kind around here. Almost wish I got some colorful hair from my heritage." She holds a strand of raven black hair between two fingers close to her face.

"An uneventful start is a good start in my book. Probably in other people's too. Are there any animals you're looking forward to seeing along the way? Or are you two only interested in what lies at the end of the road?" She pauses at Erika's question. "Maybe. Or maybe they're more comfortable showing it out here?"

Ted sits with Garron, his confident swagger slightly diminished in a more private setting. “Indeed, if it’s going towards our lodging though at least it’s not a complete loss. The secret with those games is that nobody plays fair, there’s more of a social manipulation involved that doesn’t really come across in a friendly game.” He moves a piece of the dragonchess set, going for a risky strategy tempting Garron to play an attacking game. “This game is fun, I used to play it with my dad, he’d always beat me though - said I was too impulsive. Yeah sure, call me Ted or whatever you want. The name Dreadbane strikes fear into my foes, it’s not for friend

Keeping an eye out for danger, Ted is also particularly focused on the other camp. Perception 23

Pulling out his flask, Ted looks dissapointed. “Looks like I’m out Garron, what say we see if the Dragonborn camp will share? Rules are made to be broken after all.”

Ah! The gossiping had begun! But Trixi was disciplined enough to not to rush for the sweets and keep them for desert. She smiled to the notion about color and nodded to the slow start being a good thing "True, can not argue with the reason, just ... think how would it sound "we had to battle out way through to the treasure!" May be we still will, though. And I think I am more excited about destination than the road - a lot to see, of course, but when you have a goal that grand, you want to get to it faster, don't you?"

And without even taking another breath returned to Erika's question: "Actually, I thought they are a couple. It's all confusing here - for me I mean - the relationships and who is with whom, but I thought it was clear in that case - always together, working or resting. This morning was very surprised when Gen-ga was not there. Thought they had a fight or something. Good to know he just went ahead to make a camp." Her thoughts jumped as they often do while she was talking: "Did you noticed those strange mercs? That preferred to stay away from us? I wonder why. Trainers did not look worried at all."

Ted's moves were often decent, and he quickly spotted very good attacking strategies, but he made slight inaccuracies on the defensive and once his attack had been thwarted, he just ran out of steam. That is exactly what Garron did. Recognizing this strategy, Garron entertained the very offensive risky style of Dragonchess for a bit, but after a few moves, it was clear that Ted's attack was going to be unable to overcome Garron's defenses and at that point, Garron launched a brutal counter-attack that ended the game in just four more moves. Garron smiled as he put the board away and said, "Your father may have had a point when he was talking about being rash. Your are quite good at seeing moves though, and your attack may have worked against a less experienced opponent."

When Ted mentions heading to the Dragonborn's camp, Garron almost agrees impulsively. He was curious about the camp and this was a perfect excuse to head over, but then he remembers the game that was just played and shook his head slowly, "There will be plenty of risks to take later on. I'm not sure that now is when we want to be causing any problems." Glancing up at Ted he adds, "Besides, my flask is still mostly full, and we can share. Not to mention, we still have to keep watch, so heading off to the other camp might get us more than just a scolding, and I'd rather not get kicked off of our first expedition just yet. All I'm saying is if we are going to break rules," he leans down and mutters to Ted quietly, "Let's do it over something that's actually worthwhile." He pulls out his flask which is still three-quarters full as Zira's flask was shared during the game and he didn't drink while he was driving the cart, only having drank a couple of sips to wash down the meal. As he takes a swig and passes the flask to Ted, he notices the hushed voices coming from the girl's tent and asks, "What do you think the girls are talking about?"

(OOC: For some reason, I accidentally co-opted Ted's color in my last post... I changed it back, I must've just forgotten my color XD.)

"There could be a variety of reasons as to why. People are usually wary on the road. As you've heard, bandits are pretty common on the road. Even for people like us, who can realistically easily deal with them, they do take time and possibly resources away from the travel. If they're from another region, they might not want to interact with natives, for one reason or another. Some people just have a rod stuck in their rear." Molle lists each reason off on a finger. "If they leave us alone, then we leave them alone. Usually how things go."

"All true," did not argued Trixi, "but if you travel with someone and supposedly protect them - should not you be a bit friendlier?" She realised they might have being talking about different people and explained. "Those across the road I could understand. (Actually, no, I could not but never mind) But that three in heavy armor in our camp that kept to themselves so ..." she searched for the word "demonstratively? Looks odd. But you might be right - a stick in rare can do that. Saw it before." For a while she went into the quiet unpleasant "revery" about all the snoots she ever met.

“I knew there was a rebellious streak in you Garron, something.... wild. To be honest I don’t mind losing, taking risks made the game more fun.” He takes a swig from Garrons flask, at first trying to hide his recoiling from it’s strength, but then relaxing. “To be honest, I need to acquire a taste for the strong stuff. I’ve just always liked sweeter things, but my reputation.... well that wouldn’t go so well of it were discovered.” He whispers.

”Allright, we’ll hold off for now, I don’t mind being in trouble, in fact I quite like it. But, I wouldn’t want to mess it up for you. Although, my curiosity is definitely piqued by that camp. I didn’t imagine we’d have competition, the institute is pretty famous, I thought we had rights or something...” 

When Garron brings up the chatter, Ted listens out for the gossip coming from the tent. “I imagine they’ll be discussing Zira and Gen-ga, it definitely caught my attention. Normally I’d say settling down is like locking your own manacles, but I think for Gen it might actually loosen them up. Zira’s pretty special, and I think she’s a lot more like you and I than Gen is. I tell you, Gen needs to take that chance of happiness before Zira stops trying.”

Garron gives Ted a wink when he mentions the rebellious streak and nods when the half-elf makes his point about risks. "I suppose when you're playing just for fun, taking risks can be exciting. Although sometimes risks can get addicting, and you don't want to get caught taking those kinds of chances when your life's on the line." Garron chuckles when Ted mentions that he prefers the sweeter poisons to the stronger stuff and replies, "It's alright, I won't tell anyone."

"I'm also a bit surprised to hear that there are other groups of individuals that are headed to the ruins," Garron says, "I mean, people that are out there searching for rare magical artifacts are usually looking for power, and those kinds of people tend not to get along well with others. As far as exclusive rights go," he pauses as he thinks about it, "I'd imagine it would cost more money than all of Zozobra to buy exclusive rights to the ruins."

"It's hard to believe we never saw the relationship between them before," Garron observes, "it seems so obvious now that we are out of the Institute. I agree that Zira is more like us, but I don't think that she is going to stop trying with Gen anytime soon. I don't know, about you, but the way she looks at them makes me think that she'll be willing to wait. But what do I know about love." He says the last sentence with a bit of loose sarcasm.

OOC: two things it's they/them for Gen-ga's pronouns and it's spelt Gen-GA not Gen-GAR.

Garron and Ted need to give me a perception check at disadvantage. Garron is human and has limited sight beyond the fire as well as you're both playing a game which is a distraction from just "talking" on watch. Also give me a CON save DC 10 against the drunkness. Are you guys light weights?

Zira enters the tent and the girls can see Gen-ga lingering outside their tent.

"I'm exhausted," Zira says taking off ger boots and daggers before wriggling out of her patchwork padded leather armor. Standing in her rumpled green tunic the girls can clearly see the octopus tattoo on her neck disappearing into the neckline of her cotton tunic. "Ugh," she then says before laying face down on her belly. Moments later she mutters through her arms. "Everyone alright then? Good night," she finishes before turning over on her back to look at the ceiling of the canvas tent as rain falls slightly harder than before and closes her eyes moving the septum piercing in her nose before letting out yet another sigh.

(OOC: Garron is not a lightweight by any means... He can keep down his alcohol pretty well usually)

Perception: 5
Constitution Save: 16

Garron manages to keep his alcohol down, but the game and conversation is enough of a distraction that he isn't fully paying attention as they watch.

(OOC: They only played one game, and it likely would not have lasted more than 10 minutes given the way that Ted was playing. Is the disadvantage on the check applicable for the whole shift? Or just during the game? If it is just during the game, do you need me to make a new check without disadvantage for after the game? Or can you use the first roll in that sequence?)

(Ooc - Sorry, I added the R for sure, please let me know if I mis-gender them, would hate to get it wrong. Also, yeah, probably a lightweight.)

Con Save - 17

Perception - 2nd roll for disadvantage (rolled one above) 15

“What do you know of love Garron? I’ve never experienced it myself, just a series of experiences. There are so many beautiful individuals in this world, so many experiences to be had. I don’t see what strange force could chain someone to just one for the rest of their life.” 

Just before Zira returns to the tent, Erika makes an image of Molle, but with the vibrant mane of Trixi's hair. "Hmm. Perhaps there are dyes! Or a strange bit of wild magic could do the trick."

Regarding the mercs, she agrees. "For some people, coin is more important than company. Perhaps we are their business, but they have their own friendships within their group that they prefer."

"Or perhaps they are," she pauses a moment, searching for the word. "Donkey butts? No, that does not sounds right."

As Zira lies down, Erika closes her hand, snuffing out the lights of the illusion spell. She too lies down, settling in to sleep to the sound of rainfall on canvas.