Bandit? No, just Murder!

Little sunbeam stream down through the forest canopy, with the breeze bring the smell of damp earth and mud.

The Goblin's camp is comfortable, with a central fire burning brightly. A pot set next to the fire bubbles merrily, some sort of soup or stew cooking away, the wind carrying the scent of beef along. Murder is reclined against a log, one knee crossed over the other. Between her lips is a somewhat poorly rolled cigarette, a recently picked up habit.

Taking the advice- and sometimes warnings- of her friends (and friends mum) to heart, Culix has ventured beyond the confines of the city. Not something she does, generally, unless she's getting paid to do so. But today, she is doing it entirely of her own volition. She's walking through the woods, her travelling cloak drawn up, looking for a suitibly shady spot to set down. When she smells, her nose twitching, smoke and stew on the breeze.

Murder continues as she has, smoking, and coughing, until the pot boils over a little. The sizzling, splashing sound draws her attention, and she rolls over to pull the pot off the fire with a stick. The cigarette is spat into the fire, before she spoons out some of the stew into a bowl. Shuffling back, she seats herself down, the stew shoveled into her mouth. The Gobbo peers out into the forest, her eyes wandering aimlessly as she inhales her dinner.

GAME: Culix rolls stealth+2+1: (8)+16+2+1: 27

GAME: Murder rolls perception: (13)+16: 29

Culix follows the scent towards its source, creeping near silently through the bushes as she inches along, until she draws near to the edge of the clearing that Murder is in, peeking out to see just who it is is out here- after all, the Wilds are known to have bandits and poachers and other unfriendly sorts.

Murder wolfs down the stew relatively quickly, hardly chewing at all. She scrapes the bowl for every last little bit, before stepping to the pot to spoon out a second bowlful. Standing, the Gobbo turns her back to the fire, and glances out into the forest once more. There's a slight tension in her posture for a moment, before she brings the spoon to her mouth once more.

GAME: Culix rolls sense motive: (19)+0: 19

Culix cracks a brief smirk as the recognizes who it is she's looking at, but then huffs when she realizes she's been made, and gives up on the game, emerging fully into the clearing. "What you doing out here?" she wonders of Murder. "Didn't take you for the nature loving type."

Murder gestures to the pot with a spoon, and then towards a small spot where a pan, bowls, mugs and wooden utensils are set. "Help yourself to some stew. I do camp out here from time to time. I catch stuff, eat what I want, use the skins and furs for clothes and stuff. I usually repair my furs and leathers too." She grins broadly, "Could ask you the same question. Were you checking to see if it was someone you could knock over?"

"Thought you was a bandit or somethin'" Culix responds then and shakes her head, moving on over to take a seat near the fire. "Never was one for rural banditry, even before I went to prison. Town folk are usually richer and gems are easier to fence than grain."

Murder joins her after a few moments, setting the bowl aside. "Hmm, but wouldn't a bandit out here make things easier? They steal stuff, and then you take it from them?" She shrugs, "I assume you have had your share of people tryin' ta steal from ya, right?" She fishes through a pouch on her belt, and pulls out a small, poorly rolled cigarette, shuffling forward to the fire.

"So how're tricks then, been a while, ya?"

"Well, yeah, but that's bounty hunting not theiving, then." Culix responds, "An' half the time the guild make you give what they robbed back to who they robbed it from, if they're still kicking." she shrugs her shoulder, "Up and down. Was at the encampment in the fellwood when it got hit a while back." she tells Murder. "I was actually coming out here to do a bit of training. Sort I can't really get done in the city proper."

"They make ya give it back? What? Pfff. Seems like a waste. It's not like the guild is fantastic pay..." She puffs out a small cloud of smoke, which floats upwards.

Murder gives a nod then, "Ah yeah, I do a little bit of that too." She gestures with a thumb, pointing down to a small clearing where several tree stumps and fallen logs have been damaged with some sort of slashing or stabbing blade.

"Yer welcome to kill the dead trees even deader."

Culix peers, and then shakes her head a bit, "Not... that kinda training. I can stab scarecrows all I like closer to the city." she muses. "Nah, I've got this... thing going on. Something in my blood, or something. And I needed to get outside the wards a while to look into it some."

Murder settles back upon the log, puffing on the cigarette. "Ah, neat! I getcha. Their wards and stuff mess magic up a little, huh?

The Gobbo is quiet for a little bit, her expression growing thoughtful. "Can I watch?", she wonders, with a grin.

Culix shrugs her shoulders, "I mean, I guess, but I don't know if anything is even going to happen." she tells Murder then. "Like I say, kinda... figuring this stuff out as I go." she adds a moment later, and then looks around a bit. "Bit too bright here for it, though."

She stands up, and heads on over towards the edge of the clearing, looking around for a few moments, and then heading towards where the foliage overhead is the densest and the shadows on the ground the deepest.

Murder slowly stands up again, and follows at a leisurely pace behind the other Goblin. "No worries. If you can, cool, if nothing happens... try again?" The smoke from her cigarette trails along behind her. "I dunno what people get out of this stuff, honestly. Tastes terrible."

GAME: Culix rolls stealth+1+2: (7)+16+1+2: 26

Culix peers over towards Murder and her cigarette. "Little buzz, the first few times, then scratching the itch from then on." she answers the rhetorical question. "You ever tried the veyshan stuff? They mix it up with boiled apples, tastes pretty good." she adds, extending a hand towards the shadows for a moment- and the shadows seem to swell, grow nearer to her, before she steps into them.

GAME: Murder rolls perception: (12)+16: 28

"Oh? That does sound a bit better... and yeah, there was a buzz." She drops the cigarette into a small puddle of mud, and mashes it down with a bare foot. She looks back and blinks. "Hey... that's pretty decent!" Murder glances about, looking down low on the ground, and after a few moments, nearly bowls Culix over. "Oh! Hah. That's pretty cool, it's like ya just.. melted into the shadows."

Culix only took a couple of steps into the shade, and so it doesn't take long for Murder to find her. "Maybe..." she says then, "But- when I was talking to Aryia's mom, she mentioned being able to physically enter the shadows. Hell, she put her hand in one to the wrist like it was a pool of water." she adds after a moment. Her own hand waves backj and forth in the shade, but nothing spectacular happens. "I can... feel that it's there, somehow. But I can't seem to pass through.

"Aryia's mom? How did that go?" Murder eyes Culix' hand waving in the shadow. "So ya think you can do the same thing? Maybe you need it to be even darker? Could wait til sunset, where the paths can be lit up, but the forest on either side is shadow? Would that work better?"

"She's pretty scary. Which, I mean, she's a Mul noble so no surprise there." Culix replies to Murder then. "But, I think she's onto something, at least. Or hope she is. Cause the alternative is something's trying to suck me into the shadow plane or worse, the abyss. And I don't wanna think much about that." she adds.

She looks about at the next suggestion, "I don't know, don't think it'd make all that much difference. Shadow is shadow. But it might be worth a shot." she adds then. "What to do in the mean time, though? Bring a deck of cards?"

Murder nods slowly. "Then she's powerful and knowledgeable. And if she's willing to help you, then ya should absorb as much as she can teach." Her expression grows wry. "Have ya heard of a game called poker? Someone showed me it, years back. I wonder where he got to, haven't seen them in ages."

Culix nods her head a bit, "Yeah, I don't doubt she's that, too." she says, "And I guess it didn't go too badly. Even if I get the feeling she's thinking of me like some kind of exotic pet." she adds then and shakes her head.

"Most important thing I took from it was not to fear what's going on with me. What's going on with me, good or bad, feeds on fear. So if I want to control it,. then I can't fear it." she says this as though reciting from memory.

"Yeah, I can understand that feeling, they do have a.. history, even though, from the sounds of it, they were not exactly in control of it." Murder shivers and rubs at the back of her neck. She nods to the other Gobbo. "Good advice for most things, I think. So yer gonna keep practicing and trying til it pops, yeah?"

"Yup, or until one of them shadow monsters she showed me eats me or drags me off to hell. Oh, did I mention she has shadow monsters?" Culix says to Murder then. "Because she does. And I nearly pissed my britches when she showed me." she adds then. "So, Poker? I mostly play blackjack. How do you play?"