Scouting The East|Talen'sul

[Northen Light36]

The farther east one travels, the thicker the fog gets. "Talon," Acqua hisses, reaching out and grabing her brother's wrist. "If we keep walking through this, we're going to walk into an army before we see them. Let's see if we can't thin it out a bit.

[Kender Bard]

"If you think so," Talon agrees, holding out his hand to see if it would disappear from his sight. "It's.. very thick. I don't like this. But I can't think of any way for Storms to make fog, so I'm going to have to say Mathew got lucky on that score. all right, let's fan out. We need a way to give a signal to the others though. Something if we find them, and something if we're in distress."

[Northen Light36]

Acqua looks at Talon and says darkly, "I can think of a way. Fog is basically water and wind."

"This is worse then a sandstorm at home," Ann mutters.

"Least it doesn't sting your eyes," Acqua comments, rubbing her tingling water sign. "Ugh, I'd forgotten how cold fog gets. Be careful you two, fog this thick plays tricks on your eyes." Pausing, Acqua thinks for a minute, trying to consider what signals could be used. "Any ideas on the signal you two?"

"I can create a flame, but I'm not sure how far a light would be seen in this," Ann comments.

[Kender Bard]

Talon snaps his fingers. "I can just shout out if I'm in trouble. But if I spot them, I'll try to aim a whirlwind behind them and sneak away. Sound good?"

[Northen Light36]

"It'll work," Acqua agrees. "I'll send up sparks if I'm in trouble. Let's give it two hours then regroup even if we don't find anything." With a casual wave, Acqua slips off into the fog. Ann shudders slightly.

"Trust a water to like this weather," she mutters.

[Kender Bard]

"There's some good in it," Talon points out as he turns off into his direction. "We might not be able to see them, but I bet they can't see us either." Winking, he disappears into the fog.

[Northen Light36]

Ann grimaces, but starts making her way slowly and carefully through the fog, idly wishing she'd brought Ember with her. The dingo's nose would be helpful in this mission.

Mathew and the largest force of his army are here. While the other groups are two and three hundred men strong, this group holds almost seven hundred men, all well trained and equiped.

"My lord," a general says to Mathew. "There are reports that someone in Talen'sul is turning our lightning away and a messenger from the south group claim the Winds are chanting for the King and the Queen." Mathew snorts.

"Let them cling to their ghosts," he replies dismisively. "They'll see their king soon enough. And why is this fog thinning? Go give those slaves a kick to get back to their task." The general leaves and a few minutes later a young water girl, no older then fifteen, comes up to Mathew, shaking in terror.

"M-m-master, we're trying, b-b-but..."

"But what?" snarls Mathew, striking the girl.

"There's a-a-a-nother w-w-wa-water out t-t-t-there," the slave wimpers. "Someone's m-m-man-manipulating the water in the a-a-a-air." Mathew growls. "They can't do much!" the slave adds hastily, trying to keep from another beating.

"The Calder fools no doubt," he decides after a moment of consideration. "Or some other weakling the Whore Queen is shealthering."

[Kender Bard]

Talon ground his teeth slightly. It took willpower not to run out there and grab the poor girl. You can't save the world, Talon. Pick your battles.

Well at least he could turn Mathew's attention away. Moving to where he hoped was the left flank of the group, he whispered a chat and rubbed his sign, focusing on where he estimated the rear of the group would be. If he hit a few soldiers well... no big loss. He wasn't going for an attack, just a diversion. Unleashing his power, he manipulated the winds into a funnel, sucking up the fog around it and rising up as a beacon. It was short lived, though; Talon turned on his heel and started running back shortly after his release.

[Northen Light36]

Seeing the beacon, Acqua and Ann both start making their way back to regroup. When the three are together, Acqua grins at Talon. "You found them then," she comments, her expression more then a little smug. "Good. Come on, let's report back." With a note of pride in her tone she adds, "The fog shouldn't be as bad going back."

[Kender Bard]

"I noticed," he commented, trying not to grin. "But so did they." He reached out quickly to cuff her up the back of the head. "That wasn't smart, they knew that someone was on to them. We'd better run since that might be the catalyst for them to make their move." Rubbing his sign again, he grabbed the hands of both girls and buoyed them up; a second chant later, and he was pulling them along back to Talen'sul at the speed of wind.

[Northen Light36]

Acqua flushes slightly, she hadn't considered that someone might notice her trick with the fog. "You weren't exactly subtle either," she counters, just to soothe her pride.