(IC) Lost In Dreams [Peter]

[ericthered]

The monkey thing is indeed circling the camp. There are perhaps 50 people in the camp, about half white, half some sort of dark asian, with a sprinkling of other ethnicities.

What do you want to know?

[the_matrix_walker]

Peter is interested in things like the composition of the group (Families vs workers or soldiers, are there other kids, etc) and their general tone and morale, evidence of rank or status, and whatever else jumps out at him.

[ericthered]

Good questions.

There is certainly some hierarchy, and race seems to be part of it, though its not a hard line: some white folks are subservient to some aisans, but that seems to be an exception. He doesn't see anyone who looks like they are at the top of the hierarchy -- but that one nice tent might have such people in it.

He sees only one kid his age, and no one younger. He hasn't seen any women at all. If the men are soldiers, they don't act like any soldier's he's met -- they might be workers, but heavily armed ones. Maybe some of them are guards.

The general attitude is ... diverse. Some people are tense. Some are quite relaxed. Morale is generally pretty good.

[the_matrix_walker]

Peter does his best to lay low and observe the functions of the people around him, especially the one boy his own age. (He is also listening, if they speak...)

Clearly this group is not too tight knit or they would have immediately recognized the stranger and his giant pet in their midst.

[ericthered]

Peter hasn't been instantly recognized, nor his dog. This is in part because he's staying mostly hidden. The group appears to be composed of several smaller groups all hanging together. Some appear to be guides or scouts. Some appear to be animal tenders. Others appear to be guards. Some are just in charge of things, and some are grunt labor without much of a task at the moment.

The kid seems to have no role at all, or at least none beyond staying out of trouble. The others kind of avoid him, or speak to him tersely.

There are multiple languages floating around. The most common is some asian language he doesn't think he's ever heard before. The europeans speak english though. Most of them are commenting (complaining, ordering, reporting ect.) about their work, or gossiping about others in the camp.

[the_matrix_walker]

Peter looks for something to eat, and for something for Goliath, and just blends in and learns as much about these people as he can.

(He also keeps an eye out for their technology, as well as keeping his weird sense peeled for magical strangeness)

[ericthered]

Does he try to get food by standing in line and getting it, by raiding their food storage, or by finding something in the jungle?

[the_matrix_walker]

He's going to go through the fool line and see if he gets away with it.

[ericthered]

Its not time for a meal quite yet, so Peter looks into their technology and habits. Transportation is by foot, horse, and mule. And a single elephant. The guns look like fairly typical muzzle-loading firearms. The cloth is certainly mass produced. Metal is common.

His magic sense goes off, telling him of someone using magic just on the other side of a tent. He walks over, but the magic is gone. There is just a group of Asian men standing around a fire -- but one is holding something -- a small animal perhaps? The creatures is receiving a lot of attention, and the men are appraising it, and making complimentary or dismissive remarks.

A second man reaches over the fire and starts dumping magic from himself into air over the flames. No-- into the smoke. The smoke curls and twists, and within a very short time forms into a creature. Peter notices a man holding up fingers, counting down to something. with only two fingers of the eight started with left, the creature drops into the mage's hands. The red creature is squat, like a toad, but with thick plates on its back and sharp claws. The men appraise this animal, and talk things over as they approach a circle drawn in the dirt.

Both animals are put down in the circle. The first one looks more like a rat or mongoose. -- taller and presumably more nimble, and with a long tail and the same color of blue he saw on the monkey-creature. The man who had held up his fingers counted down on his fingers, and the creatures attacked each other.

neither seemed to know what they were doing. The armoured toad slowly turned around as the rat thing danced around it, lunging and missing frequently. The rat got in several bites, but most of them landed squarely on armored plates. Peter watched the magic. It was dissipating, but very slowly. He really had to pay attention to notice it. Then finally, the toad hit the rat things tail with a claw. The mongoose creature was jerked off of its feet, and then the magic flew apart and the creature disintegrated into smoke.

About half of the group cheered, while others groaned, and money started changing hands.

[the_matrix_walker]

Peter does his best to contain his excitement at the magic... he doesn't want to draw attention. He finds a good vantage point and watches the group to see if there are more creations or conjuring to watch.

He realizes that they are probably not really "alive", but still thinks it's a shame they were forced to fight.