I concur with Mike's assessment and idea.

Send a small team that can fly and look for the particular mountain range.  Then narrow the search to lakes and townships that fit the vision.

Sorry for delay, lots of flu in our house this week and we lost our dayhome to the flu for most of the week too.  Been a bit busy.

Ok, so you have like 6 people who can fly, 4 of which are leading the teams (which meant 3 were at camp before).

So who will be the small team?  I assume this will mean you will have different groups for tomorrow to assess and question the local villages?

Mika will be in the flying team since she's fairly fast and is the one most able to identify the mountains on sight. I would guess Jessica would also come since she's got the flight with the mystic power armor. I'll let Brett and Rob speak for themselves.

For the interview team it would be ideal if at least someone in that group had the Tongues spell just in case there's a language barrier.

Sophes would gladly come.  He can fly, I just don't know if he can fly as fast as Mika and Vrryl.  If not he does have the ability to understand all languages and can do that task if need be too.

Sorry to hear, Erik... hope everyone is on the mend!

Vrryl would support Sophes going... a good powerhouse team with the 3 of you. Vrryl's busy with some tasks, anyways.

Brett, is there anything specific/different that Vrryl planned on doing that day?  If so, I will edit it in if necessary.

Nothing outside of what I'd messaged you. He'd rather keep PPE expenditure to a minimum, and stockpile for coming conflicts... he's got a funny feeling things are going to get heavy.

Ok

If you are going to make any scrolls like you previously said, you may want to decide which. ;)

Otherwise, you have some new information.  Mike will be away until Monday I believe.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:49, Sun 21 Feb 2016.

I am just trying to make sure I understand Erik. From the days recce, we flew around the mountains in Northern Kenya.  We didn't find a village near a lake like we are looking for, correct?  We did see more mountains to the NE while scouting the mountains in Northern Kenya, right?  Plus, those interviewing the nearby villages about the lake and down we came up dry.  Is this all correct?

I'm back.

From what I read, that sounds about right Rob. Sounds like we need to head NE and into former Ethiopia for the mountains we seek. Best to continue a similar pattern with the flying recce team moving far out to update the path of the main group. We'll also need some small point teams around the main group to possibly detect any ambushes or identify potential hostiles enroute. The closer we get to the edge of the Phoenix Empire the more likely we are to run into resistance I imagine.

I agree Mike.  I think in this case perhaps we should leave one of us 'active' players with the point teams should anything arise.  I will gladly volunteer Sophes for that as I think Mika will be better served looking for what fits her vision she received.

If Brett and Mike think otherwise I am fine with going with Mika too.

As a minor clarification, the other villages also mentioned the mountains far to the northeast in Ethiopia.  They pretty much confirmed what else the recon teams saw.

Makes sense with Sophes, as his mobility is a little more limited. So having him tucked in closer, while those with greater flight stretch out... keeps us layered better.

Hey everyone, I'm trying very hard to get back on here for some real posts.  Life has just been crazy lately.

Ok, I'm caught up but I have some questions for you guys.  Before I dropped off, I was actually waiting for the recent conversation to finish ;)  though its totally my fault for not prodding.

So, to prod...  What will be the actual strategy at this point?

Will you be hanging around this area for a bit first to question locals about the Pheonix Empire or will the group be traveling right away?

You want to be discrete in your travels, not allow people out alone, and generally keep the group together.  Will the entire group be traveling in a specific direction?  Or will the group stay somewhere while scouting goes on.

Will there be multiple scouting groups like before?  Or since you wanted to have Mika/Jessica/Sophes together will there be one main scouting group?

Finally, for Brett, what specifically will Vrryl be doing while hanging back.  Scrolls?  Other scouting?  something else?

It's been so long I honestly don't remember. I'd have to go back and read up on what we were doing and such. I'll try to do that this evening.

So I think the plan was to move towards the Ethiopian Highlands with the main group travelling as one. Then there would be two or three point groups scouting just ahead of the main group, but still within relatively close proximity. The one far scouting group would consist of the PCs (minus Vrryl I guess).

Then we would possibly change that plan depending on what we found as we neared the highlands. Of prime interest for the advanced team would be to find the landmarks Mika saw in the vision, and they'll be keeping high and moving as fast as practicality permits. The main group will be in charge of questioning any locals they may come across for assistance in finding said place

I do think the conversation was mostly just moving in circles by this point.

I agree with what Mike said for the plan and look forward to it moving forward.

So you guys are starting to look through the Ethiopian highlands.  It is a really large area to look through.  From the map, How are you undertaking this search?  Are there specific strategies?  From that, I will modify my post.

Mike, does Mika have a spell she can implant a memory of hers into someone else?

Yes, the easiest method would be for her to cast Instill Knowledge (level 5 spell); with it she could implant a specific memory/vision/skill in a single target for 4.5 hours (at her level).

So yeah, we could broaden our search teams via this method.

If you cast it on Vrryl, and I'll have him paint a mosaic of the image you saw so people know what to look for. And can use it with locals. Art 90%... gotta make use of those domestic skills!!
This message was last edited by the player at 15:16, Sun 29 May 2016.

Good call; that should certainly help.

So Mika will cast Instill Knowledge on Vrryl with the intent of giving him the vision of the lake with the mountain(s) in the background.

During these recon missions Mika will also be looking for monsters/creatures to kill for PPE nourishment; nothing major since she's going out each day, unless the opportunity presents itself.

Don't forget, Mika can also project her memories into something like a holographic movie. ;)