A Collection of Strangers on Walkabout

If I remember correctly, it was kind of that the wagon track the caravan was using was relatively new, or perhaps ill-used until recently, so it piqued his interest that a group of folks were travelling down it. So basically yes, Adventure is out there!

As far as the choice in front of us, I think Khaguran's preference is to keep following the caravan, since it's been his objective this whole time; however, should the other members of the party want to take the older road north, he wouldn't part ways. I think he sees enough value in traveling with his new companions that it's worth going where they go. In any case, as long as he ends up in Paphos he can still track ththe wagons down, maybe.

Hm, might we be able to affix something to a length of rope and fire it across the river with the crossbow? I'm not sure if its properties would allow us to do that, but my thinking is we might be able to basically grappling-hook something on the far shore, then have a rope line to hold onto as we try to ford. I have a length of 50ft, so we could either tie another length onto it, or try the same approach where the river is narrower at the rocky rapids.

I'm cool with using the rope at the upper stream area where it is narrower.

On the other hand, can I use my Spell-Touched to command the far end of the rope to untie? Or use it like "mage hand" so to speak?

On a related subject, if we cut a rope in half, can Rikia or Skeeve use their magic to knit it back together ("mending" the cut)?

If we do the above plan, I will ask Khaguran to carry my writing kit. Everything else should be able to get soaked and dry out nicely. That would be ruined by the soaking.

Hmm. How about this: Same plan for Khaguran and Rikia. They use their own ropes to cross. Assuming we don't need the full 100 feet of rope for the crossing, Skeeve cuts one his ropes for his own harness, uses the shorter rope to tie to the near tree, and the full length rope to hit the other tree. He uses his rope segment for his own harness and crosses the river like the others. Once at the far end, he uses Spell-Touched to untie the knot holding the two ropes together. In the end, he loses most of the newly acquired rope, but still has the harness rope and a full rope. The others still have their full ropes, too.

If we only need about 70 feet, we could try the "slip knot". In that the rope on the starting side would be doubled-up so that the knot binding the two ropes together also includes the release. Once we're across Skeeve can "mage hand" the release, and the can pull the rope over.

If he needs the full length of both ropes (i.e. the full 100 feet), then he takes one of the other ropes and cuts it into two. The two of them use a piece for the harnesses. (The third uses their uncut rope.) We still lose the found rope, and in this case will have a cut up rope that Skeeve can eventually mend. (Even if it takes multiple tries he can retry until it works.)

Oh! If we need the full length of both ropes, I guess he could "force bolt" the rope on the other side of the river. We'd lose like 5 feet on the far rope, but at least we'd keep most of it and we don't have to play "knot games" to make it work. (If it isn't too far away for the force bolt.)

Still, worse case, we just count the one rope segment as a loss and we each still have our full 50 feet of rope left.

Sadly, I'm not even sure which plan we're doing ...

I was trying to offer different ideas. No offense intended.

@daryen I thought your plan was good. Rikia on the other hand is skeptical.
And ah okay, I'm new to this asynchronous PbP stuff.
I assume no advantages for Rikia but I do assume focus.