Rebekah goes to Blue's side and fishes a medkit out of the dino bag. From it she withdraws some bandages and ointments to treat their minor wounds. Fortunately, Blue's nearly as stubborn as Bekah herself, so neither took serious harm. Afterward, she goes to check on Hemon, and once she's sure he's okay, sets about setting up camp. Rebekah goes to the edge of the clearing and looks for a sturdy tree, or better yet a cluster of trees, where she can build a lean-to and cover it with fronds. It won't do much for the dinos, but they can take shelter under the foliage. It will help the humans.

Then she also sets to finding small stones, sticks, anything dry that she can make a fire with.

Coralian takes a moment to recover and does her best to tend to Ajax's condition.

OOC: I rolled a natural 1, so this could get messy, folks.

There's not a lot to make a fire with that isn't already quite wet, but Rebekah manages to find a few things that were under enough leaf-litter to at least give a little light and let people dry out a bit.

Coralian's attempt at fixing up Ajax's burns don't go quite so well; when she tries to apply the right mash of leaves to make a poultice, she grabs the wrong ones in her haste.  Ajax bellows loudly as the leaves sting his wounds and leave a bright orange luminescent streak that could be easily seen in the dim, rainy night.  After a little gentling and some treats Ajax eventually forgives Coralian, but it seems the strange streak is definitely going to stick around for a while...

--

The group can eat and get what rest they can, watching carefully for any more trouble.  The rain breaks shortly before dawn without anything else trying to attack them, at least.  Dr. Lewis gets her gear ready as Hemon and Roam try to figure out where the tracks came from...

OOC: Follow the tracks?  Forget them and go on your original plan?  Something else?

Roam lays against a tree and gets Tarla to settle beside him.  The Raptor gives a small call to him before laying down.  Eyes close but it is easy to tell neither is oblivious to what is happening around them.

“We can follow those tracks later, if the rain doesn’t wash them away.  Might be interesting to find out who modified these creatures.

Rebekah leans up against the base of a tree with her arms crossed and one boot over the other. She catches as much rest as she can while Blue sleeps crouched nearby, like a giant blue-pebbled wall. As usual, Rebekah's sleep is fitful, torn by dreams of a Beast that will not stop hunting her, pursuing her until her heart is the very pulse of the wild Cretaceous....

In the morning, she yawns and stretches, her back arching, stiff limbs popping. After checking to make sure everyone is okay, she goes about the slow process of waking Blue up.

Too bad they don't make dino coffee.

"Maybe we should follow the tracks," she suggests, though it seems most everyone had that on their mind already.

"I'm willing to follow, at least for a while.  If the path diverts too far from our necessary heading, we'll need to assess priorities and safety.  Of course, that may depend on what we encounter along the way."

Coralian packs up her gear with practiced efficiency, moving more gently around Ajax than usual as she ties up various items to dry on his shell.  His wounds seem much improved, but the odd day-glow mark is persisting despite the rain and he's favoring that leg a bit.  Her soft murmurs of encouragement are having (maybe?) some effect, but not as much as she'd like.

Hemon joins the others in the task of improving the camp for the rest of the night. When everything is done, he moves close to Rebekah and Blue (It has become an habit for him to not move to far away from them) and before going to sleep, he tries to heal Tap who was hit when one of the creature died.

By the moan that Tap is making, Hemon understand that he is doing more harm than good and stops, hoping it has not make things worse.

___________________________________________

With the Sun rising, Hemon wakes up. First thing first, he ensures the Nerezza is doing fine after the last night event and he checks Tap as well. When everyone is awake and they start shaping plan for the day, Hemon offers to help follow the tracks from the sky.

"Finding or following something from up there is a bit like second nature for me. As the weather looks better, I could fly and cover a greater area from the sky trying to follow these tracks. What do you think?"

Roam awoke early and got ready for the day.  He waited for the others quietly and did a little kicking around the tunnel entrance. He followed the direction a few hundred paces above ground, but circled back and waited.
Tarla disappeared into the brush to find a meal and eventually returned.

"I followed the tracks a little before you woke.  I didn't get too far, but definitely started in the right direction."

Roam is able to point out the way the ground is pushed up from the burrowing monsters for some distance.



OOC:  Difficulty 5 -2 for skill and effort.
12:07, Today: Roam Linden rolled 18 using 1d20.  tracking DT5 -2 for trained and effort.

The rain had done a number on the tracks, but while everyone else is sorting out healing themselves and their dinosaurs, Roam's skill and Hemon's aerial perspective let them find a place where disturbed or wilted vegetation shows the path of the diggers' passage.  They travel nearly an hour before finding waterlogged pits where the diggers must have started their travels underground. Beyond that, trailing west and north, are faint places where the creatures must have walked, plus boot prints from no less than four people.  Checking about the area, there is a place of flattened vegetation where something flat and heavy had rested (perhaps a shelter or large container), evidence of camping (treated latrine trench, area for a warmer or fire), and the broken-off tip of a lightning arrestor (for not getting struck by lightning when out in the open).

"I suggest we head north.  It's at least closer to the direction we need to head, right?  And we either find the people who did this or we get farther away from their reach."

She continues to assess the tracks.  "Still, it worries me that they were able to send those abominations after us from so far away in the middle of a storm."

Once he goes back on the ground, Hemon joins the others at the likely camp site. "I'm fine with this idea. If we don't find them, we might still come back later to check the other way."

He then stops a moment, listening to what Coralian has to add. "But yeah. Something tells me that if we don't find them, they will find us anyway. We should be careful."

The group carefully tracks away to the north, finding larger tracks from a large sauropod.  For a while you weren't certain if you were just following a dino on a grazing route, but along the way you spy a carved bone button, a tent stake, and a ripped piece of spidersilk, as if torn from a garment hem.  All signs of humans, which makes it likely either their footprints were washed away in the storm, or they were all riding the sauropod.

It takes another couple of hours, but eventually they carefully track the sauropod prints to a place where the height of the trees becomes truly enormous.  Hearing the heavy thuds and vibration of enormous footsteps, the group can hide themselves behind some of the soaringly high trees and peek out at a distance.  They can see a herd of perhaps six sauropods, brachiosauruses specifically, all with what looks like metal and leather harnesses around their necks and riding platforms on their backs.  The six bear the riding tack without seeming to notice them, more interested in feeding on the lush vegetation than anything else.  A couple of the sauropods have patches of white skin, instead of the ruddy brown with its attendant fluffy coat.

Beyond the sauropod herd, there are a couple of the large trees with gaps in their lower trunks easily large enough to admit a human.  There are also mounds of loosened earth near those gaps.

Coralian points out the trees and piles.  "Maybe shafts leading to a construction under ground?  Could be fake trees, or tunnels fitted into existing vegetation.  Might be worth investigating those more closely if we can approach unnoticed."

Coralian also does some mental navigation, trying to figure out if this location might be anything they saw on the maps back at the lab.

Hemon looks at the point designated by Coralian and try to focus on this zone. "Hmmm... I guess we could get closer if we keep our larger dinos at good distance. What do you think?"

"We should have them fairly close at a fall-back position, though.  If we need to fight, I want Ajax where he can pummel things."

Coralian, this seems to be in the general direction of Xanadu, from what you recall, though if this is the place it's well-hidden.  With both you and Hemon casting around for a place to hide, there are some of the forest giants that look like they've been grazed about recently, meaning that the braciosaurs won't be coming around looking for something to eat.  Checking carefully, it offers some concealment from the suspected entrance, and neither of you notice any tech around the area.  Or if there is any, it's extraordinarily well-concealed.  There are a few piskis about, however, flitting about in the treetops.

Dr. Lewis is staying put, but she's watching the brachiosaurs with avid interest, muttering quietly to herself as she consults some notes from her pack and writes some observations down.  "Fascinating!  There's almost a pattern here...  I wonder if it's just following certain dermotomes or if someone has actually tried to activate the lack of chromatophores deliberately..."

Bek kneels down next to Dr. Lewis, also avidly watching the brachiosaurs, equal parts fascination and admiration shining in her brown eyes. "Beautiful, aren't they? Even without us here to alter them. There's something...pure about them." Rebekah smiles. Her gaze looks up to the piskis. "Those are the same creatures they were using in the drones. I don't know if that's a coincidence, but I would not bet any coin on it."

Looking at her solar chronometer, Rebekah stands up and goes to Blue's side. "You may have to stay here for a minute, girl. Protect Dr. Lewis. Us smaller types might have to go in."

As Coralian picks a cautious, twisting path around the clearing to get a better angle of approach, she urges Ajax to follow her.  To Hemon, she says, "This area may correspond with what was labeled 'Xanadu' on the maps in the lab.  What do you recall of that site, from your learning in the lab or elsewhere?"  Coralian searches her own memory, as well, for anything that might be of use.

Hemon gestures at Tap to ask him to stay put while he joins Coralian closer to the scene. When she asks him a question, he takes a few moment to scan his memory. "Let me try to remember what we saw back there."

The young man looks all around the brachiosaurs and tries to identify anything that could remind him what they saw in the lab. At last resort, he could send Tap in the sky for a better global view if nothing reminds him of Xanadu here.

Unfortunately, other than the area where SATI-X (Xanadu) was supposed to be, Dr. Cole hadn't explained much more about its purpose, though you do know that one Dr. Kane Yates is supposed to be in residence, and seems to be the one in charge of the implant project and is the one who brings supplies and gets updates from Dr. Cole, taking back any results of his research.  The next project Dr. Cole had been going to work on was dakotaraptors, at Dr. Kane's behest, which is certainly an... exciting prospect, if true.

As the group hides and watches, Roam spies something going on in the trees, and can quickly call people's attention to what he has spied.  There are some people up in the huge trees, using grappling lines, soar suits, and other climbing gear to move between the forest giants while staying above the brachiosaurs' eating range.  One of the figures has a set of tinted goggles on over their eyes, likely some enhanced visual gear, and is looking down at the ground.

Coralian will take close heed of Roam's alert and try to notice more of the activity of the tree people, especially the one with the enhanced visual device. Do they seem to be searching for something in particular that they think is already there, or are they are lookouts wary of intruders like herself?  She nocks an arrow, just in case.

At Roams' alert, Hemon retreats with Coralian to join the rest of the group and starts looking up in the trees. Just like Coralian, he also have his bow at the ready and an arrow ready to fly if needed.

The tree-folk pause in their descent as the one with the goggles scans the ground, then points near the churned-up earth.  Carefully the climbers and the ones in the soar suits begin a spiraling descent away from the sauropods, opposite you, landing or stopping a good ten feet off the ground, clinging to the trunks of the huge trees like lizards.  One of them reaches into a pouch on their belt and removes something round and about the size of a fist.  They fling it at the ground with no small force, and suddenly one of the mechanical insect creatures erupts from the coil to snap at it before returning underground!  The sauropods snort in alarm and begin to move away from the area, grunting and huffing in consternation...

"Seems we aren't the only ones who have trouble with those nasty burrowers."

Hemon watches the scene unfolding in front of them and, still focus on what's happening answers to Coralian.

"What if this is the other way around and they used this device to lure the creature instead? That could be a way for them to attract these monstrosities where they want."

Thinking about this possibility a shiver goes down his spine.