Reconnaissance mission: dissident camps [Tags: Tasha, Lance, X'ilor!]

Tashamoretta had almost discounted it originally as a dried up mountain runoff bed.  In all likelihood, that's what it had been to begin with, but as they continued along, it was clear someone had taken advantage of the naturally barren (at the moment) path and added some strategic rocks and logs to make it more easily passable when water was flowing.

Of course, the landscape could have been created by moving water, but when a second large log had clearly been chopped off at the ends, with little sign of organic rot or roots having been torn out of the ground, the greenrider knew someone had been through the area.  It was easy to spot the stones that fell into place along the path after that.  And she wondered just how far trail went.

Away from the main roads the trader trains would use, and not near enough to any cotholds to be useful, there wouldn't be many people who would travel a path like the one she was seeing.  Rebels, Holdless, bandits… any of them could be the likely culprits.  But without going closer, or discovering further evidence, they'd not know which was the case.

Still, it was something she should report.

Nicath, there is a path below us, slightly to the east.  Rocks and logs in an empty stream bed.  Do you see it?

((moving Lance's group forward, if Suri comes on later she can post Saolth's response if she wants. Just going to move forward under the assumption they move closer first))

Curiosity had in fact been a major fault of Lancelle's since she had been small. Her curiosity and desire to be treated equally with her brothers had brought about little change to her family but she had learned a great deal about herself and what she was capable of. So in this scenario, she figured moving in closer would only teach them something. It might not be what they were hoping to learn.

Lance answered the Captain shortly, "Their vision is different but not necessarily better. However, their hearing is better and they can sense people who are empathetic enough for Searching, so I would like to think if there are people down there, Raidenth might sense one of them, though she isn't particularly empathetic for a green. She may hear something as well."

Without a second thought, Raidenth was maneuvered in closer to the tree line so they could all try to make out the terrain below. They were so close to the tree tops, Raidenth nearly touched them as she swooshed by. "Keep your eyes peeled Captain." She said softly. The green was bringing them closer to the smoke. If they didn't see anything at first, she would have the green make circles around the area until the origin of the smoke was found.

Toshiro


The Guardsman nodded, nod sure if she saw his acknowledgement of her words but still peering over her shoulder into the distance. He hadn't thought that dragons could sense people from this far away. Truly astounding, really. Perhaps even frightening; but good to know. Toshiro was always thinking strategically, and the better one knew the strengths of his enemies or friends... well, it all helped out in the long run.

"As we get closer, can you see if your dragon can sense any number of people? We could add that to our report on our finds." The only thing they should need to land to investigate was whether or not a site was actually inhabited, or if it had been completely abandoned. If there was a way to sense people, that was enough.





S'dric


Right. 

As soon as the message was relayed, the wingsecond was following her gaze where the empty stream bed appeared to have been obstructed -and not by natural obstructions, either. That could lead to some speculation about bandit or rebel groups trying to cover the pathways leading to their camps, but this particular spot was still a distance from where their first target 'camp' location was supposed to be at. Though he supposed they could be operating this far out, or it could be an unmapped camp.

Nicath. Let Tasha know that we should continue on to the designated spot that's on our map. We'll see if maybe the stream bed leads that direction. Continue looking for any other signs of habitation along the way.

Tashamoretta continued to follow the empty stream bed with her gaze, though some of it was obscured by the trees.  She would have preferred to swing lower to get a better look, but it seemed S'dric wasn't of a like mind.  So for now, they'd continue on and see what they found where the map led them.  If there was nothing to be had, they could always come back and follow the stream bed to its origin.  Surely there would be some clues as to who had last used it, if nothing else.

Holdless would likely be more careless in what they left behind than any bandits or the rebels they were supposed to be tracking, but that didn't mean they could discount any of the groups without closer inspection.  The rocks and logs were too obvious, though, so either the people who had laid them hadn't thought of draconic involvement, or the path was deliberately set to lead them off track.  It would certainly be a waste of time and energy to do so, though, so she was doubting anyone would be quite so cunning.

X'ilor and Saolth watched warily as the group handled the scrape and bandaged the injuries. It was certainly not his place to chime in. He was there to work and be Lance's partner in the skies. Soon enough S'dric was giving them orders to mount and take off. He and his dragon were to look for signs of habitation and alert Nicath. It wasn't long before they were airborne and scanning below them.

As they flew, X'ilor focused on the land below them and spotted the smoke just as Saolth was getting the image from Raidenth. When the other pair turned toward it, Saolth mirrored them and the pair were both focused on the same spot. The bronzerider sent Lance a message through her dragon, noting what he had spotted in the east as well. My rider would like to know if you spotted the smoke you imaged to me, and also the larger one to the east? The bronze, at his rider's request, stilled the movements of his wings and simply glided. The sounds of wingsails moving with the air could potentially alert the people in the camps they had spotted. Even as the thought crossed his mind, he sensed his dragon once again bespeaking the green dragon and asking her what his rider had unconciously sent. X'ilor wants to know if you think we should alert Nicanth and his rider.

Lance wasn't really going to count on her green or their Bronze companion to be empathetic enough to pick up on anyone who wasn't a strong presence. It was difficult to explain to someone who wasn't bonded to a dragon just how these people were sensed. Looking eastward, she noted more smoke as Saolth responded to Raidenth.

Yes, we should inform Nicath. I will contact him about the smoke and receive orders. The green replied.

She wasn't about to have either herself or X'ilor not follow proper protocol just because S'dric was searching elsewhere.

Nicath. We see a lot of smoke to the east of our current position. What should we do from here?

Lance, not wanting to keep Toshiro out of the loop. "X'ilor and Saolth spotted more smoke east of here. We are waiting to see what S'dric would like us to do moving forward." In the meantime, Raidenth was still flying at a good speed, looking for anything out of place.

Toshiro offered no response to the woman's words, but waited for them to get close enough they could see what types of structures had been built, or how many people were on the ground down there. Having seen smoke could in theory be enough to know there were people and thus warrant a sending of the Guard to investigate the camp, but if there was any way to know more without landing, the information would be welcome.



S'ric says that you and X'ilor should do a fly-over where the smoke is. If there is smoke, there are surely people. If you can fly low enough, see what they wear and what is around them. The guardsman may be able to tell if they are Holdless or Rebels from here.


They could simply mark this location on their map and head to the next point on their map after that. It wasn't until they came to a camp that they weren't sure whether or not it was occupied that they needed to land to discover the truth. If they did find such a camp though, that may or may not have been abandoned, Toshiro hoped that they did find rebels. The longer he spent away from home with Ariadne, the greater his hatred for them. They had caused he and her both enough torment. He was ready to have his way with them.

There are larger stones below.

Tasha hadn't seen anything that was larger than the rocks in the riverbed, so she wasn't sure what Sionnath had spotted.  Larger stones?

There.  To the right of the stream, a larger stone is sticking up through the trees.

Still not able to find it, the greenrider slowly scanned the leafy tops for some spot of gray or brown, or black, or whatever it was, until her world tilted with Sionnath's banking to the right.

Ah, there it was.  And not just one, there were two or three.  Those aren't stones.  Well, not just stones.  Those are... buildings?  Do you see people around?

Tasha didn't, though with the path through the stream bed... could those be the dwellings of whoever had used it?  Were they simply a waypoint for travelers going this way?  But why wouldn't they be closer to the road?

See if Nicath sees them.

It wasn't long before the group were called together to re-form over another point on their map. The camp appeared to have been recently inhabited, but at present there were no signs of life to be seen. It would not have been so suspicious were it not going to be winter soon, and if any Holdless had been here, they would have likely been preparing to hole themselves up for the cold season. Telgar's winters were generally far from mild, even in these parts. That said, there had been one other detail that had drawn the group's suspicion, which was that there seemed to be a building larger than the rest that appeared as though it could have been a warehouse.

With that suspicion in mind, the four dragon pairs and their riders landed to search the vicinity after having circled the nearby area a couple of times to ensure that it would be safe. Once there, the group spent at least a candle mark exploring each building and anything left behind quite thoroughly. There had been things left behind, but only a few of them leading to possible clues as to what had happened there, who the previous residents had been, whether they left in a hurry, or whether or not they may have been expecting to come back. The Guardsman Toshiro took all the evidence he found most pertinent to their search and made sure it went back to the Hold with him later.

Later that afternoon, the group had finished marking off locations on their maps, having found little else of real interest, though it did seem as some of the spots were inhabited by actual holdless. So, once they'd completed their tasks, they returned to the weyr to make their reports to both the Weyrleaders and Lord Holder Rihan.



[Closed. If there are other things you'd like to work out between characters, please do so in PM or cbox or whatever. For the sake of moving the plotline forward, this thread needs to be completed so that we can begin other major Rebel storyline threads. Thank you for your understanding.]