The team investigates the location where the marines had fought with the cyborg but find nothing of interest. Then, with Cal in the lead scouting ahead, the team moves out, heading north along the beach.
The beach peters out after a mile, becoming a rocky shoreline with 15 to 20 meter cliffs overlooking the sea. The group pauses, unsure as to whether to follow the rocky shoreline, or climb to the top of the cliffs and follow that. They compromise by spliting into two group with one following the shoreline and the other on the top of the cliffs. Peter, Rosin, Erict and Marco remain at the shoreline while Shooter, Cal and Rock follow the cliffs.
As the group progresses north, they stop often to investigate fissures, clumps of trees and or anything else that might conceal the destination of the cyborg. Erict, Rock and Marco use their penetrating senses to assist in the search but the going is slow nevertheless. As darkness falls, Peter orders everyone up to the cliff top, now a good 30 meters above the sea, and sets up camp.
The night passes uneventfully and the search resumes the following morning. A couple of times during the day, the rocky shoreline again turns into a beach, though still at the bottom of some rocky cliffs. There is also a long stretch where there is no rocky shoreline at all and the sea comes right up against the cliffs. Here the group reassembles at the top of the cliff and travels together.
GM: I'll pause here in case anyone has anything to add.
PETER (OOC1): As much as it may slow the search down, we probably shouldn't split up. Given how capable the cyborg supposedly was, we could be in real trouble if only half the group had to fight one (or worse, more than one).
GM: Sounds good. It will be much slower, but safer and more thorough. Fortunately with Erict there, you can easily teleport back and forth from the rocky shoreline to the top of the cliffs so as to search both areas with the whole team fairly easily. I'll send the next turn with the assumption that the group will be together and will be moving back and forth.
ROSIN (OOC): Also Rosin can pop back and forth for a quick look. This would work best popping down from the top of the cliff (with people watching from above), and with all defenses on. Even if she pops into an ambush, she'll hopefully survive long enough to pop back up again. Might not be needed, but it gives the group some more options.
PETER (OOC2): I'm also of two minds about using Cal and Peter to do some forward scouting invisibly. To be perfectly honest, the invisibility has really been only marginally useful against powerful enemies. It's been great against normal people or slightly-better-than-normal people. But almost all of the powerful enemies we've fought could see through both (Maginites, buggems, I'm thinking some others). I really don't think that we can say with any reasonable confidence that the cyborgs won't be able to see through both Cal and Peter's invisibility. Thoughts?
PETER (OOC3): FWIW, we'll probably have Rock make some kind of defensible shelter for us each evening and disassemble it each morning.
PETER (OOC4): Also, we'll continue to monitor the radio frequencies that the cyborgs are suspected to use.
PETER: {Good job, everyone. I know this is slow going, but we need to be thorough. It's entirely possible that the cyborgs are operating out of another Zho outpost. If that's so, then we want to find it. It could be the clue we're looking for to the location of the main base.}
The next two days pass uneventfully as the group makes its way north. The going is slow. The team does a very methodical search as they progress northwards. The shoreline is almost entirely cliffs dropping directly into the sea but, on occasion, a rocky shoreline manifests and, depending on the size, either Rosin, or the entire group will teleport down and do a more thorough search.
Early on the third day, the team passes through a forest that comes right up to the cliff. They get through the forest late in the day after a fruitless search at the top of the cliff and occasional searches at the bottom of the cliff in those places where there was rocky shoreline or beach to search.
Just as the group is considering pausing for the day, Cal reports signs of civilization ahead. Shooter moves to a vantage point - a large rock that he climbs to the top of - where he can get a better look. He sees a small cluster of ruins right at the edge of the cliff. In fact, it looks like one of the buildings has partially collapsed over the cliff. It seems clear that these are ancient ruins. He sees no sign of any inhabitants. He estimates that there are only about half a dozen buildings.
GM: Let me know how you want to reconnoiter the ruins. The terrain is mostly plains here. The forest that you were traveling through is about two kilometers behind you. |