Doctors Vaanhak, Ulaar, Rezam and Hyuzi all give a quizzical look at Vanyra upon her retelling of the vision. Dr. Ulaar is the first to ask, "Ahh, you say there was a road and a facility underground, how do you know this?.. I mean, it makes sense logically, but we've uncovered no details on the layout of the facility in our records."

Zelpuz takes a good look at the map trying to memorize the details, esp. around the plateau.

"Mmm, no, no, I didn't see a road," Vanyra replies contemplatively, "but I think the plateau was used as a landing pad.  I didn't see much of it, but I want to try to see more later."

The doctors contemplate that for a moment, recheck the map and nod in agreement. "Certainly a logical place to put a landing area assuming there were not major geological events around here in the last few hundred years. I think we should focus on this ridge first and ascertain if this road did exist and where it lead to," Dr. Vaanhaak concludes.

"Indeed, with such a focused area the teams can cover considerably more ground. We could use the second team to ready the ways into the valley floors in the meantime," Dr. Ulaar agrees.

After studying the map for a few more moments Dr. Rezam suggests they deploy half the drone scanners along the ridge line in the morning, some on each side. The rest should still be able to provide a decent map of the local area out to 10km by day's end.

With a plan for the next day formulated the group breaks for dinner.

After dinner, Yuu asks Zelpuz to join him near the ridge. It's obvious the young mage is eager about something.

In the meantime Vanyra finds a secluded area of the meadow and casts her senses beyond her body, a first taking a leisurely flight above the base camp. After some time she dives down to the nearby river, going under the surface to see the myriad of fish and arthropods that live there. The sensation is slightly bizarre as all sense direction is lost save for the continual pull of her corporeal self, like an anchoring beacon. Vanyra moves through the water, occasionally surfacing to get her bearings, until she reaches the limits of her concentration. The beacon of her body is dim and she dare not get lose site of it. She turns back and time seems to freeze for a moment, like a hiccup of the senses, before rapidly accelerating. The river flows at a tremendous though calm pace while all the land around it remains frozen. Without warning the river begins to rise at a steady pace until it breaches the shallows banks and spills south and eventually flooding a few tests on the eastern edge of camp before flowing over the ridge beyond. Try as she might Vanyra cannot seem to move any faster than the land around her, watching part of the camp become inundated with water. In the next blink of an eye she is back in her body, reflexes firing her up into a ready stance only to see the water all gone and the camp dry and safe as when she left it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:27, Fri 07 Aug 2020.

After finishing their dinner, Zelpuz follows Yuu to ridge, curious what the young mage has on his mind.

Yuu hops from one foot to the other, excited.

"So, I spent the day tinkering with new design I'd been working on. Could you just pass me your rifle a sec."

Zelpuz looks at the mage trying to gauge what he has up his sleeve, he is clearly excited, but as usual, that could be anything.
"Sure, just don't aim at the camp." He hands his rifle to Yuu.

Yuu takes the rifle, removes the cartridge and checks it's cleared, then sits down, laying the rifle across his knees. He pulls a tool bag from his backpack, and starts rummaging around inside. He finds an oddly shaped wrench-like device, a kind-of screw driver, and a doohickey with a some sort of spring mechanism, and lays them out to his side.

The young mage then begins to use these tools to dismantle the scope. He first removes the front lense mount, then carefully eases the top bracket, exposing the sophisticated array of glass, wires, processors, microchips, and the host of other parts that give the scope it's advanced functions. For the next 10 mins or so, he sets to work, fusing different wires, adding a new wiring harness he pulled from his pocket, and adds what looks to be a micro antenna, before swapping out a nether battery for a larger one. It's delicate work, but Yuu flows through it with dedicated focus.

Appearing satisfied with his work, he metaphorically sews his patient back and looks over his handywork... everything seems to be in check. Yuu stands, packs up and hands the rifle back to Zelpuz.

"So, I built a new toy from a design of mine. I call it a... 'drone'."

Zelpuz is unsure if he should feel awe or worried, but since Yuu seems to be pleased with the results whatever he did must have worked.
"Thank you, but what does it do?"
Zelpuz takes the rifle and looks through the scope.

"Oh, it doesn't do anything yet. Here, check this out."

From his belt pouch, Yuu pulls out a small, spherical ball, about the size of his palm. He presses on the top, and tosses the ball lightly. Instead of falling, the ball slows at its apex into a stationary hover.

"Alright, now look through your scope."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:23, Sun 16 Aug 2020.

Zelpuz takes the rifle and aims at a distant tree.

Zelpuz sees as normal, through the scope towards his aim point.

"Now, now click to C-setting on the scope functions wheel."

Zelpuz does as he was told. He presses "C" and looks astonished up at the orb.
"That's a neat trick! How do you control the orb?"

Yuu beams with excitement and seeing the expression on his friend's face doubles his smile.

"I use this."

He pulls from his pocket a thin, red band made up of some kind of rubberized material. There are two soft, black pads. Yuu slides the band over his head and he adjusts the the pads to sit comfortably above his temples.

"It's a neural scanner designed for measuring brain waves, but I retrofitted it to work in reverse, as an input controller. In this case, the drone."

The hovering orb begins to move around slowly, and the view of the scope follows the view of the drone.

"There's a few bugs and limitations to work through, but I'm happy with the prototype so far."
This message was last edited by the player at 09:42, Mon 17 Aug 2020.

Zelpuz stares at the ball and the mage and back at the ball.
"And you just finagled that together over the last day or so? Impressive! How far can it go? How fast is it? Does it have a chameleon function? And how long can it fly around?"
He obviously has more questions but ends with.
"And can I try it out? I'll have to practice aiming from a new angle, that'll be a fun challenge. How do you switch between the views? I don't want to accidentally hit something or someone in the way just because I didn't see the path."

"Chameleon would be awesome!!! Unfortunately, the controller has a nether chip that was mapped to my brain waves using a machine back at the university lab, I had the chip hanging around for an interesting project. Unless we made a map of your brain waves, the controller wouldn't understand the input it was receiving." Yuu sounds apologetic, but is still too excited to let the news dampen his enthusiasm.

"But I can use the goggle," the young mage pull out his nether goggles, "to see through the drone, just like your gun scope. If you switch to D-setting, the view will show up in thermal." Yuu makes a thumb-turning motion in the air for emphasis.

"Using it to aim would be really unique, that's for sure. It goes pretty fast, and pretty far, about 25 kms... and as long as it's in range, our signal should be clear. I'm going to fiddle with the machinery over time, and see how I can improve it. Like adding a stealth-chameleon effect. I'd also like to change the viewing system so instead of looking straight through the camera, we can look in 360 and see a bubble whereever we turn. Maybe if I can figure out a way to cast through it, even! Lots of fun times!!"
This message was last edited by the player at 09:52, Thu 20 Aug 2020.

"Sounds great. But so only you can move it, right?" Zelpuz looks around. "Try flying to that tree over there and look down, let's see if I can hit the stone below that."

Over the next few hours Zelpuz and Yuu practice using the drone to the point where neither are nauseated through the view-within-a-view perspective, and also to the point where Zelpuz has a firm grasp on his ricochet shot using the drone's view. After that they retire for the evening to get a good night's rest before the following day's venture.

The camp wakes at the usual time the following morning, but unlike the previous days there is a distinctive energy about everyone's actions. The slow and arduous climb of anticipation to this point is finally paying off, and with the results of Vanyra's and Zelpuz's recon yesterday, there are high hopes for first recon mission. The first group out will consist of 8 members, Vashilli the guide, Vanyra and Zelpuz, Dr. Rezam (Spacer), Dr. Vaanhaak, Praxam Jyural (grad student), Mahs Xyun (undergrad) and Grena Wills (electrical tech). Grena is bringing a pair of comm-relay balloons in the hopes they can find good anchor points on the ridge to expand direct comms. Back at camp Dr. Ulaar and Dr. Hyuzi will be directing their drones to scan the top of the ridge from each side, paralleling the away team.

The first team sets off after breakfast and a quick gear check, with Vashilli and Vanyra taking the lead, with Zelpuz mixing his time between aerial reconnaissance and moving with the science team. The scanner drones fan out in flanking positions on either side of the ridge and dart about in a seemingly erratic pattern for some time.

Progress at the start is slow as the team stops to take samples and readings numerous times to get a baseline; the initial results are interesting but require further analysis according to the researchers. A couple hours before aftereve the Grena Wills decides to launch the first comms buoy, with assistance from Vanyra and Zelpuz it is secured at both the base and top of a sturdy tree on the north side of the ridge. She remarks it should provide a solid data relay out to about 10km, maybe out to 15km down in the valleys below.

As the team moves further south along the ridge Zelpuz spots some erratic movement further down, approximately 1.5km from the group. Zelpuz and Yuu, via the drone, fly over quickly to investigate after alerting Vanyra to their actions.

From the safety of the air a scan of the area reveals a large creature pulling down a smaller tree. The large quadruped creature, probably in the 300~400kg range, is covered with long, rough bristled fur and equipped with powerful forearms and claws. Why the creature is trying to rip down the tree is not immediately apparent.

We probably want to avoid them.  It's probably easiest to see if we can drive it away from where we want to be with loud noise.  Though it should be someone away from the group, in case it is attracted to the noise.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:57, Thu 27 Aug 2020.

Zelpuz tells Vanyra about the creature and decides to shadow it for a while from far above to see what it is doing and where it is going.

"I'll fly ahead with the drone, see if I can see where it may be heading." Yuu reports over the comms.