NOVEMBER MID-MONTH EVENT.

[lasteden]

THE JAWS OF FIRE. WHO. Everyone. WHERE. The Badlands WHEN. November 16th. WHAT. Tracking and exploration. WARNINGS. None for now. A SEARCH. Urgent news has been delivered: a cart carrying valuable crystals has gone missing in the Badlands. If it is not an accident, it would be something targeted not only at the Light faction but also Spring, the destination of this particular load. As always, foreigners are called upon to assist in the investigation. You are our only hope. For more reasons than one. ADMIN. This is the log for the November mid-month event! A short write-up on what the characters will find can be read here. Participation in this log will earn your character bonuses during activity check. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them below.

NAVIGATION.
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QUESTIONS?

[lasteden]

ON THE WAY.

[lasteden]

[scarsolderthanyou]

Stone lands at the site of the attack, setting down whichever passengers wound up getting the luck (good or bad) to be carried by him before shifting back down into groundling form. He can't carry everyone-- Bramble and one other person, at best-- so someone will have had to borrow a dragon.

"It definitely looks like an attack," he says, looking around at the charred remains of the caravan. What it looks like, really, is something large and hot hit here, or exploded from here. It's a literal crater full of debris. His lips draw back from his teeth with a growl, frustration and regret and annoyance at idiocy. "I told those idiots to leave the carrying of the crystals to us."

[ordinarycitizen]

"Considering how few of us there are," at least if she understands this correctly, there is only the four of them who are here, and also Lottie, which... means not very many people at all, "I can understand why they would wish to have more people than just us go.

...And it's not like our ability to withstand the miasma would have helped with this." As callous as that sounds - better them than her. Who'd look after Lottie?

[scarsolderthanyou]

"All right, to be more specific, I told them to leave it to me," Stone growls. "Because I doubt they would have attacked me, carrying these things, and even if they did, I could have fought back. Bramble, is there a trail?"

[whatsina_name]

"How did they even manage out here anyway?" Phillip asks, walking alongside the adults. It feels weird to be the youngest in a group again. He understands why the baby didn't come, but.

[lasteden]

[ Mod reply that I forgot to put this tidbit in the writeup, it's my bad - they had dragon escorts. ]

[ordinarycitizen]

No. Babies. Not if she can help it (she can't, often enough).

"They had dragon escorts. And probably some form of protective gear.

...And as much as you think you can do it by yourself, you have to take into consideration what others think," she admonishes Stone in her dentist voice, the one that says 'you need to start brushing your teeth at least once a day for at least three minutes, really', "and they'll both not want to put everything squarely on your back and also doubt that you'll be fast enough alone, even if they don't say it. Cooperate. It keeps others from going off by themselves." Hard learned lessons, though partially learned by seeing others fail for it.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I cooperate. I'm here with you people, aren't I?" Stone protests irritably. It's just safer if he takes on the dangerous things himself, that's all. "So what happened to the dragons when this all happened, I wonder. Did they see it? Did they get taken, too?"

[whatsina_name]

"I guess we'll find out when we find the rest of 'em." Phillip would assume that if the dragons had found there way back, they would have been told about it. So... probably nothing good for the dragons.

[ordinarycitizen]

"I never said that you aren't cooperating, ever. But apparently you didn't then, and it caused... this." She gives the hole one last look, and then turns her head to look around and see if she can spot a trail the attackers left.

"If they really took the dragons with them, that should have left quite a trail, but I can't see anything."

[scarsolderthanyou]

Stone would very much like to argue about Louise's definition of "cooperating" and how what he was doing obviously still counted, but he has a feeling it would go nowhere, and he'd wind up sounding petulant. Instead, he gives the side of her head an annoyed shove-- not enough to rock her on her feet, but enough to be felt. "I can smell something heading this way."

[ordinarycitizen]

She gives him an annoyed look at the contact and reaches up to adjust her hair, but doesn't comment - she's pretty sure this one went to her.

"Let's try that direction, then?"

[carried_away]

Bramble had been looking on her own and had nearly missed Stone's remark. "Stone's right. There was some travel that way. Not much, but..."

In this wasteland, it didn't take much.

CAVE EXPLORATION.

[lasteden]

[scarsolderthanyou]

At the end of the trail is a cave, wide enough for several wagons to pass through side by side, and tall enough that Stone could enter without needing to duck even shifted. He peers inside suspiciously with his good eye, still in groundling form for the moment, in case they need to discuss strategy before barging into an enclosed space that could easily be the site of an ambush or other sort of trap.

"It doesn't look very deep," he says, sounding skeptical.

[ordinarycitizen]

"That might be deceptive," Louise says while preparing bow and arrows with the sure hand of many years of practice. And she's even had combat experience with those by now... And a few additional abilities up her sleeve, should they absolutely be needed. At least the cave looks like there's quite a lot of shadows to be had in there, that'll make things easier.

[whatsina_name]

Phillip, who probably hasn't had the chance to show just how reckless he is with his own safety on the way here and notably lacking any form of weapon, immediately walks into the cave. However, shortly into it he stops.

"...Huh," he says. He's not even sure he can immediately pin down what's wrong. He looks out, back at the group. "Something's not quite right over here."

[ordinarycitizen]

"That's why we didn't just walk in there," Louise comment dryly, skipping doublechecking if everything is secured properly to grab an arrow and get ready to pull if needed.

Teenagers. Why does she keep going places with them? Ah, right. Necessity.

She throws a quick glance in Stone's direction. Follow?

[scarsolderthanyou]

Stone makes an abortive gesture to stopping Phillip, but the boy is out of reach before he can, probably by design. He growls under his breath. Idiot children. He stalks in after him, tongue flicking out to taste the air for the scent of any potential threats and ready to shift if one appears. "You really ought to look before you go charging ahead into things," he warns.

[whatsina_name]

Phillip just shrugs in response to Stone- no, he really doesn't need to- before moving back to Louise's comment. "No, I don't mean like that. There's something..."

He pauses, visibly annoyed by his own inability to name what's going on. Which means he thinks he has an idea of what the problem is. "Do you feel that?" he asks, gesturing towards a side of the cave. They might not. It is entirely possible that he just does because of his, well, everything.

[ordinarycitizen]

Louise follows after the others, bow and arrow poised to shoot within a second's notice, and looks around before following the teenager's direction.

"...A pathway." She frowns. "There is a way through to... somewhere. I think.

But it isn't open." It is open enough to be, but not open enough to be open. Which means... "I assume someone hid it. Or something like that."

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I don't know how you're getting that, but I don't see or scent a thing," Stone grumbles. "Except... do you smell something burning?"

There's a whoosh, and a pair of fiery canines, about the size of large dogs, appear in a burst of flame on either side of the invisible pathway. Stone snarls and immediately shifts up to his winged form, but there's plenty of time for other people to shoot or blast with magic, as one does, before he actually attacks.

[whatsina_name]

Phillip had already started walking towards where he felt the path when the dogs appeared out of (apparently) nowhere. "Well then," he mutters more to himself than anyone, and just holds his head up, as if allowing them to sniff it first. "...Good dogs?"

This undoubtedly looks incredibly stupid, but Phillip's pretty confident that they can't hurt him. It turns out to be at least initially true, but not for the reason he thinks. One of the dogs opens its mighty mouth and attempts to engulf him in flames, but the fire seems to go through and around him without even harming his clothes.

[ordinarycitizen]

Louise shouts a warning and fires and arrow, which... well. Fares about as well as you'd think in the middle of flames. Which means that it catches on fire, but still continues going and, redirected by the currents of the fire, doesn't find a true aim, but still hits the hound's shoulder, still burning as it sticks there.