Heating Up - RPLOG
Participants
Date
7/11/477
Log
The Airship came in low to the Expedition grounds, the 'fort' now sporting walls almost as tall and thick as a castles, though made of the strong wood of the local trees it appears. In the center of the camp, sit two groups of twenty mercenaries each, including Three Cannons and smaller heavy weapons. Infront of the two groups, stands Varlin Blackback, his spectacles down upon the edge of his nose, and sword at his side.
"We have been quiet these past few days, I will -not- accept this as coincidence men. You will man the walls as if this were our first night here, watching for any sound of movement lest you and the man next to you die. Once I have the Freeswords ready, I shall begin an investigation, while I am out Lieutenant Miller is in charge. You will treat his orders as my own lest I throw you outside of the gate to fend for yourselves. We've come to far to fail our country now."
Cassidy smooths down her black skirt as she makes her way off the airship once it has landed, a little bounce in her step and her grimoire in her arms. "Hello! I hear things have been odd over here, lately!" She calls out, adjusting her tophat as she approaches Varlin, casting a glance over her shoulder to make sure she hadn't left others behind.
"Sounds like a nice guy." Rainer remarks of their host-slash-employer, loitering on the deck near the gangplank and leaving Cassidy and Natska to take the lead while he tries to smooth out his wind-whipped coat. "I suddenly have a new appreciation for just how easy going Cass and Angus are as leaders, heh."
"Lord Varlin," Natska greets, giving the skunk a small curtsey; the jaguar in a blue-and-black dress, with her own bronze-bound tome in her hand. "We are here."
Varlin glances over to the freeswords as he gives a nod, motioning to a rather adorable clever folk squirrel whom hops into the Skunk's place and begins to issue his orders to the men. The skunk himself turning and moving to look over the three with a gentle sigh.
"Three only? Hmmm... Perhaps it is for the best, easier to get through the thicker woods. But yes, I do thank you for coming. It appears whatever we had managed in that tunnel last time, has scared off the beasts perhaps... I've not seen a single movement, even from the smaller vermin out there, and none have even tried to challange our wall again. As you can imagine, given that when we landed -everything- was trying to kill us, this is rather... worrisome. That's where you will come in."
The skunk giving a nod as he motions the group to follow while walking to the gates. "We'll leave out, and check a local disturbance one of the air ships reported farther in the forests. The canopy is too thick for them to see, and we've not the tools at our disposal to just have them rope down people to the site. I trust there is an understanding of this all?"
Cassidy nods slowly and hums. "I think so, yes. Though it's entirely possible they've been scared off by the commotion in the cave. Or have taken the hint that you won't be budged so easily, and are here to stay. Either way, I will help!"
Rainer hustles down the gangway to catch up when the group begins moving towards the gate, ears cupped towards the Blackback and a quizzical expression growing on his face. "What, you don't really think all the local beasties are amassing into a single army to take your little fort down, or something, do you?" He chuffs and tosses grins to Cassidy and Natska, evidently just assuming that they'll have a similar mindset of 'dis guy be craycray yo.' "Critters don't work that way."
Natska gives Rainer a nod of her head, then looks back to Varlin. "It never hurts to scout and see what is going on, though. I am certainly ready to go. Maybe we have impressed the wild creatures with our strength and ferocity and they will leave us alone now, or maybe distrubing the spider nest has caused them to move and even now they are regrouping."
"I don't know -what- it is. But I do not enjoy taking gambles, and so if it is just vermin scurrying away than so be it. But if it is anything more severe I wish to know... Because I'll be damned, if from the instance we touched unto the ground, this land didn't try to purge us out." Varlin says slowly as he gives a low knock on the door, leeting the large wooden gates part before them as he steps out into the hastily made field between them and the forest. "Come then, it shouldn't be a long treck, and I will answer what I can."
Cassidy falls into step at Natska's side as she sets off after Varlin, nodding. "Well. We will find out, yes. And there are odd things out here, Rainer. Very odd things indeed. And spirits, too, so it's hard to say just what is going on."
Rainer puts up his hands in a shrug. "Hey, round trip on an airship and an afternoon just wandering aimlessly in the woods instead of running drills in the courtyard, I'm not going to complain."
Natska quietly snickers. "I know, right, Rainer? And it pays, too," she adds. She gives Cassidy a happy smile, walking next to the fennec as they follow Varlin, and a chilly wind springs up to tamely swirl around the small group. "We may only be three, sir, but we are no slouches."
Varlin givs a slight nod to Natska as he leads the way for the group, taking them into the winding woods with movements almost a second nature to him as he dashes between and amidst the trees. The group itself ends up making good time, approaching a slightly more heated part of the forest, where the smell of smoke fills the air and not a sound can be heard. The heavy foilage blocking most of the view to what is up ahead, but from that they can see is that they're close to the side of one of the mountains steeper cliffs.
Cassidy nods at natska's words. "Right. We can handle ourselves!" She sniffs at the air and makes a little face behind her mask at the stench of smoke, though, ears twitching. "Hrm... Fire? Is... A settlement? A crash? Or something else?"
"I thought we were scouting, not racing!" Rainer blurts out, dismayed when the skunk bolts into the undergrowth. Matching pace best he can, the normally agile and graceful mutt still ends up catching his face on low-hanging branches on more than one occasion, and he's still bringing up the rear when they stop, promptly hunching over and planting his hands on his knees as a brace, huffing and panting ... and spits out a couple coloured leaves. "Can't be... we'd have seen the smoke on the fly in, right?... 'Less it just started..."
Natska nods her head. "I am sure if there was already a settlement up here, Varlin would not had needed to make his own. And a crash would have distrubed the canopy... it must be something else." She frowns, and her breeze stills as she creeps closer.
