Scene 6
Tracking the
base is definitely Dart’s portfolio but while I don’t want to make it too easy
for them and just let them find it unhindered, I am also pretty certain they
need to find it so failure is off the table.
Lets make it
a challenge with 3 elements
Nature to
Find the encampment
Stealth to
get close without being seen
Notice to
make sense of what they find
Success is
necessary on each roll, but might come at a cost…
First Dart
rolls Nature (for -1+1=0, tagging hidden ways and paths are my speciality for a
fate point=2, and success at a minor cost)
Second Dart
rolls Stealth (for 0+3=3, and success, getting them close and quiet)
Third Dart
rolls Notice (for 2+3=5, and success with style)
Finding the
encampment is not easy and after a day of following trails, possible trails,
tangents, and dead ends, Kayla is feeling hopelessly lost. Dart on the other
hand is convinced they are on the right track, and only hesitates slightly when
Kayla asks him if he can find his way back to the skysled.
“Of course.
We just need to follow our tracks back the way we came.”
Kayla looks
behind them, recalling the tortuous maze of a route they have taken to get
here, and sighs in resignation.
They find the
encampment just as the light begins to fade, and smoke from numerous watchfires
can be seen through the trees. Dart motions her to be silent and remain where
she is while he checks the way ahead, and Kayla happily sinks against a tree.
Dart makes
his way stealthily forwards. (How big is the encampment? 1 – squad, 2 –
Platoon, 3 – Battalion, 4, Regiment. 4. There is a whole warforged regiment
making camp!!!) As he gets close enough to make out the fires properly, he freezes
in shock. A huge swathe of forest has been cleared and a defensive ditch has
been dug around what seems to be a whole city of tents and makeshift lodges.
Around the perimeter hundreds of fires have been set to keep watch, but Dart
takes note of the lack of cooking fires amongst the tents. These soldiers have
no need to eat then. Warforged most likely. A whole warforged army. His head
swims. Such a thing has not been seen since the end of the last war and even
then warforged were usually used to supplement flesh and blood troops.
Banners rise
above the encampment, and in the center he can see what appears to be a
regimental standard fluttering in the breeze. A whole bloody warforged
regiment! The light is too dim to make out the heraldry, but he can see the
soldiers on watch more clearly in the reflection of their fires. Their
equipment and markings seem haphazard at first – the sort of eclectic mix
expected of barely trained militia. It is at odds with the precise layout of
the encampment and the well drilled professionalism of the soldiers he can see.
Curious, he
edges closer. Their equipment is not cheap or incomplete – if anything these
soldiers are better equipped than average. Then it dawns on him. These soldiers
are not representative of a single nation. Warforged from across Khorvaire have
gathered under a single banner, and theany are camping a stones throw from his
fort. This needs to be reported. It looks like an invasion, and having stepped
down to recover from the Last War, Breland is not ready.
He makes his
way back to Kayla and relays what he has seen.
“There will
be patrols. Actually, we are lucky not to have run into one so far.”
“Then we need
to go. The Fort needs to know about this.”
“Agreed.
Follow quietly, we don’t want to run into any patrols.”
“A diversion
should help with that. Are you sure you can find our way back now its dark?”
“Yes, why?”
“Because once
they get this under control we are going to need to be gone already.”
The
temptation to do something heroic is too much. Kayla takes a fate point as a
compel on ‘better a life like a falling star’, crawls within range of the
campfires, and summons fire elementals from their depths (spending a fate point
to create an advantage using magic as [nature?] for 2+3=5, -2 for scale=3, creating
the advantage ‘Fires raging out of control’). One by one the watchfires erupt
in flames, setting light to anything nearby, driving the soldiers back away
from them and raging towards the camp. Alarms break the nights silence as the
camp springs into action.
For a moment
Kayla is illuminated by her handiwork, but the warforged are too busy fighting
the blaze to notice and she slips away with Dart into the forest, Darting
through flickering shadows.
“Well that
let them know we are here.” Dart says
“Yes but
hopefully they are too preoccupied to do anything about it, and at least it
should have caught the attention of any patrols.”
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