Atalanta figured she might make herself useful and work alongside the ground crews. To her mild surprise, she'd been made leader of a small group, their hunt beginning in the thick of the forest. Trudging around in a forest in a suit of armor was...difficult. The trees would not protect her from threadfall, but the metal would. This all reminded her of time spent helping the holdless back in Igen, running the injured to and from the hold. Faranth, she wished she had Artax still- but they'd had a runner nearby to alert the ground crew, should they have need to report larger burrows. It gave her some peace of mind, that Ransha was nearby, should they have need of her, as well.
Atalanta hoped these knew what they'd be getting into when they impressed. This would be a wake-up call, if not. A worthy test for would-be dragonriders.
Whatever the wings didn't catch, was their quarry.
"Alright!" She shouted, to be heard above the wind. Her hands tightened around the singular agenothree flamethrower bestowed upon her. "We're in for the smaller burrows. Anything larger than a few feet will be noted and left for the ground crew proper."
She beckoned them into the forest, the trees looming like spires overhead. The thick foliage underneath would make their search difficult, perhaps. To say little of what else lurked in forests. She'd brought her dagger along, too- just in case. "Stay close, shout out any small burrows if you see them before I do, and I'll set them alight."
Ground Crew Support
Following the trailing edge, ground crews armed with agenothree tanks and flamethrowers seek out burrows of thread that may have made it past the wings above.
,
, and
have been assigned to help find burrows in a nearby forested area. The Knight
has been assigned to their group as their Team Lead and agenothree tank operator. The group has been given explicit instructions to not fight any burrows with a surface presence larger than 2ft by 2ft and to instead send a runner to alert the larger Ground Crew.
Team Members and Tasks
Present Major Objective: Seek out minor thread burrows!
Next Major Plot Post: December 4th, late evening EST; December 5th at the latest. If need be, I can push this forward.
Quest Instructions
- There is no formal posting order or length required. Please post as you feel inspired! You may post any number of times between plot posts.
- Major plot posts will come from or and will be marked as such at the top of the post. The rough time of the next plot post will be announced every round.
- When you post, note at the bottom any relevant skills you think you character has to the situation at hand. This may affect the randomized rolls!
- Rolls will be made for if the group finds smaller thread burrows or fails to do so.
it would always surprise Olopendra, to be asked to carry out duties of any kind, to be put into a team of sorts.
but he'd do them without complaint. he liked to be useful after all. so he prepared himself, pushed any of his near irrational doubts to the bottom of his belly, where they would likely stay, reminding him that he could just feel that something bad was gonna happen, it was a fight with his own mind really, a sense that something somehow is gonna go so incredibly wrong somehow, and then in the effort to keep himself grounded telling himself he will be fine. this is fine
part of him understood, why he or the other two candidates he was assigned to search the woods with weren't given flamethrowers, probably for the better in his case, with his fears wreaking havoc in his mind probably best to not let him handle the flames... though he wondered if the other two candidates he was with felt the same, he glanced at the two.. he knew of them, loosely, both were a bit more outgoing then he, not that it gave him any annoyance, no, he wouldn't dislike someone for being a bit more extroverted then he was.
he'd work with them just like he would anyone else.
he then glanced to Atalanta, the lead on this mission of theirs.
... threadfall sure was an interesting beast, seemingly dead for so long, what brought it back, what manor of beast did humanity piss of to bring its enemy back? they shook that thought process away it didnt matter not here.
he had his orders, search for small burrows in the woods, he can do that, he had pretty good eyes he thinks. and thus he nodded to the knight, a small hum to let her know he did hear her clearly, and followed into the woods. the forest itself didnt really scare him, looming trees were just that, trees, it was what could be in here with them that was an issue... he hummed, shaking it off again, looking instead for his target, so far, theres nothing he could see yet...
Fiadh wanted a flamethrower.
Why did this so called knight get one when the candidates didn't? She had metal armor on for fuck sakes, they had their clothes, did the weyr want to risk losing their precious dragon fodder? Thread could fall at any moment! Right on the trees! That'll be a whole damn mess if there was one, she'd watched thread eat an old blue alive once before he fell into the sea and a tree was a whole lot bigger than that.
Come to think of it, why the hell are there this many trees!
She clicked her tongue in annoyance when the knight gave out orders, her own way of letting the other woman know she heard her, her eyes up and looking at the tree foliage, scanning for the tell tale signs that thread ate it's way through before hitting the ground.
Nothing, so far at least. "Boys up top'r doin' a good job looks like" she mused as they went, walking further from the group so they're more spread out, her gold wrapped around her shoulders and chattering away, clinging to her bonded despite the instincts to rise and fight thread herself.
Sorsha, meanwhile, kept her eyes on the ground, scanning for signs of burrowing. A small pout that could have been mistaken for determination played across her lips; she wanted a flamethrower too. What was she supposed to do if she did find a burrow, shout ahead to the knight person to run back and torch it? That wasted valuable seconds during which the Thread could burrow deeper and spread and destroy more things! It just didn't make any sense.
Glancing over at Fiadh, she could tell the pirate was frustrated by this too. She went back to scanning the ground with a sigh. This was an important part of fighting Thread, working the ground crews -- Thread was sneaky and could slip past the dragonriders flaming it to char up in the skies. But it seemed like they were doing their job beautifully, because she hadn't seen one burrow since she started looking for them.
Oh, how Sorsha longed to be up there with the dragonriders, protecting the land below from the scourge of Pern! Her imagination wandered off into what that must be like, soaring through the skies on her bondmate, chasing clumps of Thread and torching it before it hit the ground, coordinating with other riders in a dance of dragons high up in the air. Sure, there were risks, like getting scored by falling Thread, but it was the cost of keeping the world safe! Hopefully someday she would Impress a dragonet and be able to live her dream.
Shaking her head, she brought herself back down to earth and the task at hand. "See anything yet?" she called over to Fiadh, poking at a suspect spot on the ground with the stick she'd picked up. Olopendra was a bit further ahead, and Atalanta was somewhere in the rear. She sighed again. Hopefully they wouldn't find anything....
Standard threadfall so far, it felt like. The cover of the forest offered them protection they wouldn't have in the clearings. And for unarmored candidates and weyrfolk, Atalanta preferred it that way. She had little desire to put their lives at more risk than they already were.
It was quiet. Almost too quiet. All they could do was trudge deeper into the glade, keep their eyes peeled for burrows. Her grip tightened on her flamethrower, but she couldn't see a damn thing through all the foliage. None of the others had, either- at least, they hadn't called anything out. "No." She called back to Sorsha, a little bitterly. There could be burrows they were missing, though, somewhere in the dark of the forest.
But threadfall wasn't over yet. And she just had this...sinking feeling. It was hard to tell whether the wind was shifting, howling- or if there was truly something else in the distance. But nothing had made itself known- yet.
It did give her pause. She scanned the canopy above, only to find the light filtering through rustling leaves, strange shadows dancing quickly between trees. Many shapeless forms she couldn't quite make out. Her brows knit together. They couldn't lose precious time investigating something potentially foolish. But their path bid them deeper into the forest nevertheless.
"Be careful as we head through. I've not seen anything yet, but forests aren't generally devoid of wildlife. Keep clear of anything you cannot handle." She glanced between her entourage. “If you’ve well-trained firelizards, they can be sent ahead to scout. Have them return if they note anything worrisome.”
----
No burrows have been found just yet. The forest is thicker than it appears. Lose potentially precious time investigating the cacophony of noises in the forest, or keep looking for burrows? On the one hand- you're all here for one job: Find small burrows. On the other- there are sounds of...something. Many somethings. Or it could be nothing.
Roll to see if you/firelizards spot any burrows, and an additional roll if your candidate hears/sees something.
Next plot post: TBD
he glanced back at Atalanta with her small warning, he hummed, a small sound just to let her know he heard the warning, he didn't have a firelizard, but now the idea of getting one was placed into his mind., maybe later... a small companion might be nice too... he shook his head, he was letting himself get distracted.
honestly he wasn't sure if he liked how quiet it was out here, on one hand, meant the riders were doing a good job up in the skies, and there wasn't much for them to report, on the other, he couldn't be all too certain as too what might be hiding out here, and Olopendra wasn't exactly in the mood to be attacked by some wild beasts.
the further into the woods they got, the more on edge Olo became, scanning the area, his time being on his own was paying off in a way, observant.
that was when he spotted it, "hey!" he waved down "burrow over this way!" at least he's pretty sure that's a thread burrow hes looking at over here sure did look like how they were described to him.
he waiting a bit for the knight to get over here to burn it, looking to the other two candidates before taking a moment to continue scanning his surroundings, ... he couldn't see anything else through the trees.
----
Olo is on edge!
rolls:
-19 (found a thread burrow!)
-7 (failed to see anything else)
It was unsettling, how quiet the forest became during threadfall. Almost serene, in a way, were one to ignore the death raining from the very skies. And the thicket hid many things besides. While she thought she could glean movement in the distance- something fast - she could not hear it. Scimitar, perched upon her shoulder now, dug his claws into her pauldron anxiously. Something had him on edge, but she would not chase the unknown alone, especially not when they had a pressing task at hand.
For better or for worse, they had yet to find many burrows. At least until one of the candidates had called for her. With a nod she sprinted over, motioned him away to keep him from the brief sweeping flame she unleashed upon the small burrow he'd indicated- it had indeed been small enough. The smolder of the flames glinted off her armor, before the light was snuffed out as she smothered what she could. Best be careful and not let it spread in such an untamed place.
"Good eye." Quick praise was uttered before she set herself to searching to forest floor once more. All she'd found were those too large to burn, which she'd sent Scimitar and the runner to notify the rest of the ground crew of its position. Lest they'd be left with naught more than barren wastes.
"Keep looking, but don't stray too far." With a cant of her head she indicated further afield. At the end of the day, she was the one in armor and armed with a flamethrower. She'd rather face any threat first than risk their lives. "I suspect there might be something ahead of us- but I can't tell in this light what it rightly is. I don't want any of you risking yourselves more than you already have by coming here."
And something had her firelizard on edge. And worryingly silent.
(Next plot post is still Sunday 3/29, this is just a reply.)
As they marched on through the forest, thread burning far above them, the source of the rustling in the trees that Atalanta had sworn she'd heard became clear. At first, a firelizard whisked past just in front of her face, then another. As she drew her sight toward the canopy, and the gnarled roots and rocks below, it was immediately clear they were being watched. A small handful of firelizards clung to the trees, their piercing yellow-and-red eyes glaring down at the group beneath them. Yet countless more of them - at least a dozen, if not more - seemed to descend from the trees, or well above them, rushing past the group and deeper into the dark of the forest. The silence turned instead to defiant firelizard song.
Something glinted in their claws as the firelizards fled beyond.
Firestone. Mined, precious chunks of it. With the quantity they now had in their possession-- it had to be from the Weyr's supply teams. Her simple task couldn't stay simple, now there were potentially irate firelizards absconding with their goods.
"If we don't catch them, we're losing firestone meant for the Weyr." She whistled, and Scimitar flung himself from her shoulders in pursuit. If he couldn't catch them, he could at least serve as a distraction. "After them- Quickly!" And she'd have to keep her eyes peeled, still, for burrows on the way. Of course they had to choose the middle of threadfall to steal firestone.
Goals:
Chase down the firelizards and the stolen firestone! Get those thieves!
I will roll for you! Characters with a firelizard can optionally send them ahead as well. Be aware that the firelizards may become aggressive if directly engaged.
Next plot post: Ideally Sunday 4/12, potentially sooner depending on replies.