War of Dragons: The Commune

    New Tamura - A village built by adventurers in the north of the Ninetales Dominion. The adventurers remember their old world and old stories, and desire a simple but fulfilling life for themselves where they are not constantly faced with being intruders in a world not their own. The point was not to forget their past nor to fight either to return or to advance themselves. Instead they wanted to make do among like-minded individuals. While not closed off to the outside world, they deliberately isolated themselves to minimize the amount of influence the outside world would bring to bear. They do trade and exchange news, but by and large just want to be left to themselves.

    The powers that be keep an eye on the village of New Tamura, but are sensitive to the discomfort of some adventurers. So long as the commune has no great ambitions and pays its taxes to the merchant princes, they are content to let it be, to trade on its terms and possibly to produce goods or techniques unique and innovative as Adventurers sometimes do. But when the commune went silent not that long ago, people took notice. Just because they wanted to be left to themselves was no guarantee that they would be left to themselves, and fears are that the Palace Land armies are making moves somewhere along the coast preparing for invasion. The isolation of the commune and the timing of the silence is suspicious enough for the Ninetales Dominion to want something done, but the current uncertainty means it's impossible to send a large military force on what amounts to a scouting expedition. They have commissioned a group of Adventurers in turn to poke around and see what's happened to the commune. Should it turn out the Palace Landers are indeed responsible and present the army can be sent into the field to oppose them, but no one wants to march on an isolated commune only to discover later that the Palace Landers are attacking elsewhere.

    And so you find yourselves in the northern Ninetales region, a rugged and hilly region with only poorly-maintained and sparse roads leading to the more civilized lands.

    (OOC: What preparations will you make, both for the expedition and for the approach? How do you intend to approach and investigate the commune? What skills/concepts do you expect to be using? Please discuss amongst yourselves on S-Chatter to decide what the group itself will be doing, but direct questions to me through +OOC or page, as well as to ask me about any rolls you may wish to make as the scene progresses.)

Schneider had not heard about the village before, and he's surpised when he does, that anyone would just give up and live in this game. The real world calls him, he's desperate to get back. It pushes him. But we need to do a bunch of stuff to make that happen, and this is one of those things.

He pauses at some distance from the village to try and sense the metaphysical wrongness of Crowning, but he can't sense anything like that. It's not entirely reassuring, the skill isn't reliable enough, and he's not sure how far away he needs to be to get a feel for it. But he'll go with 'No news is good news' for now. He looks to the others for situational updates.

    Merek is with the party that's coming to investigate. He nods along to people and takes the time to get into position, "Alright, I will aid you all, I'm not good at sneaking. I will be backup, support, and your getaway." The man adjusts the gloves which he wears, then he begins to cast a magic spell, Aero, and bringing wind to the place to keep the sound from following them into the village. He will do that as needed until people are in place, recasting it.

It wasn't uncommon for the farming communities farther from the main regions to have limited communication. Typically when it was time for harvest or trade negotiations.

But for one to go dead silent without warning, one of Adventurers no less who should be able to Chimlink still, was weird and potentially wrong in so many ways it couldn't be left unlooked at. For all the know there's still loose bands of leaderless Undead lurking around. Or worse, with the ungoing crawl of War.

Shiruba keeps close enough to stay in sight with Erufu, but far enough they won't get in each others way. Now was time to get down to business and be professional about it.

As they near the location of the commune she's already on wary alert, keeping watch for any signs of who or what may of come to the village that looked out of place. They could possibly get a lead on what might of happened before even getting close to actual settlement, if anything unusual passed through...

Erufu had heard about the village at some point and respected the choices of the people who lived there. Whatever left of Nao there was in the elf? Understood their own desires it's just Nao had desired an escape from that world more than anything else. Still to think of them being messed with concerned her. They had chosen to not meddle in this world and pay the local lords their dues.

That wouldn't save them from the Zealoty of the Palace Land's rulers mind slave army, however. She's not moving in and is working with her friendly rather wolfy friend and Rival Shiruba on this as she sought to use her skills at tracking to look for signs of things out of the normal for the region, signs the Palace Lands may have been there. She wants to know if they are marching into trouble or something took the people who lived here. Her ears twitch a bit as her eyes dart about looking for visual tels.

"We should be wary if the Palace Landers have hit here? They may have left them to act as normal to trap others..."

The village.

Kotono had heard bits and pieces about it, and while she wasn't entirely privy over what was going on with it, she wanted to check it out.

Now you see her.

Now you don't.

And now you see Kotono again. The swift ninja Spriggan makes her way into the area with swift speed just like the ninja she's meant to be like. Upon hearing the mention of Palace Landers, Kotono shakes her head. "More Landers... not good."

    may not understand why someone would want to just... live here instead of having a life of adventure, but... a heroine fights to protect those not up to fighting, why should it matter whether they're Landers or Adventurers? Oh, maybe that explains it, perhaps they aren't heroes. Given how many of them are trapped in here, it makes sense that there could well be a small town's worth of casuals or people who were just trying out the game with a friend, right? Yeah. That makes sense. That's probably the deal with this town.

    After seeing the state of the three prisoners rescued from Mac Anu, Mizuki... can't let another town of adventurers fall into those evil, evil Palace Lander hands! Since she's a ninja and all, she scouts ahead of the group, keeping sharp feline eyes, ears, and nose out for any sign of ambush.

    Ninetails isn't Miyako's usual haunt, but she spends enough time there that she's heard of Tamura Village once or twice, at least. She's never been there before, however. "Might be best to have someone sneaky go in and look before we get within sight of the place," she mutters to Kotono as they approach. "Keep a sharp eye out." She herself does exactly that, her head on a swivel as she looks about.

    "Shadows of the night, guide my eyes," she murmurs, one finger scribing a single rune as she looks about, taking advantage of her familiarity with illusions to search for tricks and traps.

    The lands around New Tamura seem fairly peaceful and quiet, though there are monsters and beasts in virtually all lands. Those around here are weak compared to the strength of the adventuring party however, and pose no challenge worth mentioning. There are signs that the commune takes some efforts to patrol the local countryside to keep monsters in check, and the threat levels don't seem to show any change in this pattern. The surroundings are still apparently patrolled and Shiruba makes note of very recent passage of booted feet, so it seems the village is not abandoned.

    It might not, however, be signs of ordinary villagers that Shiruba's taking note of. Erufu, traveling and scouting as Erufus do, comes across signs of military presence. Wagon tracks and the passage of many booted feet, not just the patrols that one might expect from a small village. These signs are older though, not something from the past few days.

    Whatever is going on here though, it doesn't seem to be anything that violates the Law of Yamato, at least not to the attuned senses of Schneider. There may be wrongs, but nothing that rises to the level of violation of Law, not at this range.

    Merek manipulates the winds, aiding Mizuki's stealthy approach by muffling sounds and redirecting scents - probably an excellent idea given that this land is strongly dominated by werefangs and cait sith. This allows the stealthy ones to get close to the outlying fields and farms to see what's what. What that is... well, she'll have to share. As will Miyako, whose arcane senses give her some insight into some of the magic in the region.

    There's an urgency in Miyako's voice as she hits the local Chim-link, calling out to Mizuki with as little chance as she can arrange of being overheard. "Mizuki-chi. Stop /right where you are/. Do not move. There's an alarm line in front of you." If she's close enough, she reaches out to grab hold of the aforementioned party, if not, she warns the rest to prepare for trouble.

It does seem quiet enough, but to Kotono, that's not a good thing. More than likely if it's peaceful and quiet in a situation like this, it's TOO quiet...

Unfortunately, the Spriggan fails to pick up anything, leading her to seem a little annoyed when she replies to Miyako with, "Well, I'm doing my best, but I can't make promises." She sighs slightly. "Gotta keep-" She stops when she hears Miyako call out to Mizuki, and Kotono grabs her blades and gets into a ready stance. Hopefully Miyako can grab her in time, and if not...

Good thing Kotono never leaves home without her blades.

    Merek doesn't do anything besides working to keep the wind away from the people that are being stealthy along with that alarm. He does shift it a little bit, recasting to keep the wind away from the triggering. He watches the party and nods a little bit as well.

    Mizuki stops, and carefully takes a few steps back, responding on the chimlink. <"I see farmers... farming, I guess. There's someone with weapons watching them. They don't look like they like their overseer... but they at least don't look to be in ill health.">

Erufu grows concerned at she finds traces of movements military movement, it's not recent though. Could the commune have been taken over some time ago and only now they went dark? She does not know but knows where the Palace Lands go evil follows in its wake. She narrows her eyes and points out a few things to Shiruba.

"We best be cautious as we near the village."

The more she thought about it the rulers of the Palace Land were very Goblin Like.

Erufu also adds "There's signs of military movment but it's not fresh it's more than thre days ago...this is too big for them to simpley be dealing with monsters or hunting for materials."

Shiruba pauses and crouches down to inspect some boot prints. They're not extremely fresh, but not extremely old either. Hmmm. If there's regular patrols then its unlikely a monster issue that's driven people into silence. Although, unfortunately, she'd almost have rather it been monsters. Then it wouldn't be... other things. "There's been patrols. These are adventurers after all. Got to ward off monsters fro--" Her ears perk up when someone mentions an alarm wire. That.. in itself doesn't mean anything, it could simply be another monster precaution. It's the chimlink about an armed guard and Erufu pointing out things that might be more than retired Adventurers making a peaceful living that gets her concerned. She mmms thoughtully, then gives her feet and gives a brief call to her falcon as she holds out her arm for the bird to come perch on. "Let's see what we can see without getting too close yet." She nods and sends the falcon to fly over the villiage.

Then retrieves her relic that lets her see through her animal companion's senses, using the literal bird's eye view as the falcon cirles over the commune to look for people or details that might be out of place.

Schneider is about to prepare his own stealth plan and creep forward when the alert goes up by chim. Well, crap. "So, new plan?" he asks. "Are there Palace Landers here or did the village get the word and go on lockdown without telling anyone. Anyone wearing crowns?" he asks quietly over chim. He's got his sort-of-invisibility spell ready, but he'll hold off for now.

Birds can see so much with their high point of view and exceptional eyesight... but would make no real meaning of much of it without a humanoid mind behind it to recognize such things. Which is what made this Relic's power so useful even if Shiruba could only use it for a certain amount of time. It let her scout ahead like this, and people tended not to pay much attention to a bird flying overhead as long as it's movements remained somewhat natural.

"It's got fortifications," she murmurs over the chim, "but they're geared more towards monster defense... looks like there's been plenty of wagon travel.. there's another caravan being put together in a wagon yard..." A pause, and then she shakes her head. "I can't get a good look for that," she answers Schneider. ".. If it wasn't for the whole dropping of communications, considering it looks like they're prepared caravans for moving goods or materials, I'd almost say it was normal."

Erufu looks to Shiruba as she gives her report and grimaces "SO if they took over a while back and crowned most of the population? Them going quiet likely means they are getting ready to do something. We need to find out out more information so shall we get to it Shiruba?"

    Miyako steps up next to Mizuki, carefully staying back from the ward-line, and sinks to one knee. "Give me a minute," she hisses, and sets to work.

    She starts off by drawing several runes in the ground, near but not quite on the line, and watching as they cycle through several colors as they iridesce under the magic of the nearby ward. It's apparent to anyone watching that she doesn't particularly like what she sees.

    Shaking her head, she adds a second, smaller set of runes, that show similar behavior before fading out. As before, she shakes her head disappointedly and backs off as she gets to her feet.

    "We're not getting past that here without setting off the alarm," she whispers, "It's right up against the fields, so for all I know it might well have been set by the locals, not a trap from our 'friends'."

Watching as Miyako takes care of things, Kotono keeps her blades ready and her eyes peeled, just in case anyone or anything might be trying to get the drop on them. "You do what you have to, Miyako, I'll keep an eye out." The Spriggan speaks with a slight hint of uncertainty.

"Let's not jump to conclusions Erufu," Not that she can say she's possibly wrong. "... but it is strange that there's clearly been travel even though they've not contacted their usual trade partners." The flicker leaves Shiruba's eyes as the Relic's power fades, and she puts it back in her inventory, while waiting to see what Miyako can tell them. Sounds like the wards are mainly on the fields. "We need to get a closer look. Maybe find out where those wagons are going or coming from. Be on your guard, there may be other wards."

Schneider also reports, "Ah, that's an interesting way to do an intrusion alarm. It'll trip for anything the size of an adult person. Anyone got monster summoning? A /really small/ person -might- get by, if they could scrunch down to child size and sneak."

Erufu pauses "Or they have made a deal with them too. We'll just have to find out what's going on."

With that she'll fall in along side Shiruba as the paiur head out once they get the full rundown from Miyako.

You can always go in normally, but why risk it?

Crouching down low, Kotono looks to Miyako and Schneider and says, "Leave the sneaky stuff to me." Then she heads off, keeping a low profile as she moves swiftly to avoid being seen. Apparently being an acrobat helps one with ninja-style tactics.

Shiruba tilts her head to Schneider. "So they're more worried about a large counter movement I guess." She holds out her arm as Windburn finally returns to her and perches, and gets a bit of jerky as a reward for doing good with the scouting pass. "Too bad I can't reactivate the sensory attunement again." Good thing they do have a couple of Spriggans with them.

    Kotono, covered somewhat by Merek's spell and the combined insight of Schneider and Miyako, finds an appropriate spot to approach as unseen as possible. Making herself small, she eases across the ward. She sees a faint glow but nothing more, the light not spreading to anywhere or doing anything, and there seems to be no negative effects. The light brightens a little bit as more of her crosses, but it still remains faint. Perhaps if she were larger or not so good at sneaking, the light would become bright enough to be a signal!

Schneider nods to Shiruba. "It's probably to let them know if there are bears or anything. Or if there's a merchant wagon, they'll want everyone to know. It's reasonable, given the current situation, that they'd have an alarm, so the Palace Landers couldn't sneak up on them, too. But ... the question is, is it too late for that. And that is what we need to find out."

"Alternately. We could find a bear in the woods. Then just control it and send it in and see who scrambles or what happens. The thing is, I don't know if there's a way to see if someone's mind controlled." He considers. "And I also wonder... the Guild said that villages hadn't heard from them in a while. But they'd have sent someone, wouldn't they? If someone goes missing, you check their house yourself first, you don't call the cops unless you see something weird. So what did they see weird that they called adventurers?"

    "It could well be," Miyako agrees, musing quietly. "It's tight to the field boundaries as far as I can tell. Hell, for all I know it could've been meant to tell them if any livestock strayed -out-, and warning of stuff coming in is just a side benefit." She shrugs and starts along the line, looking carefully and pausing frequently to make sure she stays outside the ward-line, while she looks for a possible control node.

Taking a look at the light, Kotono squints a little. "That... doesn't look..." She frowns. "I'm not sure what it is." She would get closer but doesn't think it's wise to do so. She looks for an object to take cover behind before attempting to peek out and get a better look at it.

    Kotono passes the ward and continues her sneaking, getting in position to spy on the farmers. There, she quickly learns that none of them are crowned... except the well-armed overseer. That one is very definitely crowned. Also it's a pooka, which is definitely not a common sort of race for this region.

    And one more thing... Kotono is (temporarily) leaving very faintly glowing footprints. Not enough to give her away, but enough to track her.

Making notes of what she sees, Kotono believes she's seen enough, especially with her footprints being left behind. She attempts to dash away without being seen in hopes of passing along what she found. "Enough here, I'm not risking my wings for any more than necessary!"

Shiruba reachs over to grab Erufu's sleeve and give a tug. "We should back off and figure out an actual plan before pressing this matter farther. If they're only making the locals work for them, we could make matters worse if we charge in without a proper strategy to follow."

    Merek looks to the light prints that Kotono leaves on the ground, and nods a bit when he hears that Shiruba wants them to back off. He begins working his magic and weaving his gloves to disenchant that light. It is covered by ground while he then nods a bit to the party. He doesn't talk, he's not all that wonderful with keeping his voice low.

Schneider hrms at the word that the overseer, at least, is crowned. "That confirms the worst, that they're here. We ought to go back and plan, now that we know. In case anyone wants to come back with different stuff prepped. But we ought to sneak away now."

Erufu nods in agreement to Shiruba. "Aye we should go." It does not take much to get her to leave a sshe knows they have some idea of what to deal with now. It's time to get out of here with the intel they have and come back later.

    It is with a heavy heart that the group withdraws from the farm. The signs seem clear enough. The farmers are working, but they're not working for their own gains. Instead of the food going to their trading partners in exchange for goods and coin, it's being claimed by an invading army. There's no sign of the sort of violent vicious activity the Palace Lands have shown in other areas, but the operation seems well-organized. At least one farm is surrounded by a Light-based enchantment that seems designed to alert at anything crossing the line and make such a person easily trackable, and the Palace Landers have apparently disarmed the Commune members.

    Depending on how many forces are in the area, this may take a military force to dislodge... or there might be something a well-motivated group of adventurers can do. After all it may be some time before an army can arrive, and who knows what could happen in the meantime!