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Post by Taun-Lok on Jan 17, 2017 23:10:21 GMT
Hetan, Ancient of the Sea, ordered his Riverscales to scout the lake country and map as much as possible. Ever river, every pond, every stream, every lake he had said needed to be accounted for by the Riverscales. Which ones were frequented by the Undead, which held fishing villages, and which places were defended.
The scouting party traveling up the river consisted only of middle aged Riverscales, all able to breathe underwater by this age, and all capable rangers. Their agile bodies cut through the bottom of the river heading eastward. Riverscales had a natural affinity with water, always seemingly able to navigate through forks and streams with relative ease and were excellent navigators. A company never left the City of the Lost without a Riverscale for such a purpose. Trying to find the underwater temple otherwise took a long time, even for those that had been there before, as the Crokodons were not familiar with the landscape or territory.
The scouting party came to a fork in the river and the leader, Grox, made a note of the river's fork on the map he was making in carved wood. When they returned to the City of the Lost, other scouts would investigate it, but they had much more important duties to see to before the Priest-King's Holy War took place.
(Vaundsburg Scouting)
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Post by Taun-Lok on Jan 18, 2017 1:55:18 GMT
Grox lead the water eastward, feeling that the northward arm of the river would only lead back into the lake country, where the other riverscales were spending their days compiling a comprehensive map of the lakes and rivers. It was necessary work, but it was not Grox's work. His duty was to locate the kingdoms on the river within striking distance of the City of the Lost. The Crokodon scouts picked up the pace, swimming deep beneath the waters, as close to the bottom as the growth of vegetation would allow. Fishing boats became more and more frequent, villages on the river's edge. But these were human villages, militant as far as the Lizardfolk could tell from their distant observations. The Priest-King had brought back little information on these and they would require further investigation from the more civilized tribes. Grox made a note to himself to advise the Ancient of the Sea in the Lost City to make arrangements to meet with them. With that note made the lizards continued until they came to a fork in the river where the human kingdom was strongest, holding command over both rivers. Instincts told them that to the north they would arc around back into the lake country while eastward was a much longer journey. The joining of the two main rivers leading out of lake country would have to be as far as they went for now. Madog Hier Éléonore Rousseau
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Post by Éléonore Rousseau on Jan 18, 2017 4:24:44 GMT
Normally travelers from a far made little concern for the Empress of the night but save of those who were on the boats. In this case Lizards. Giant lizards? She had an idea whom might be scouting. As she twirled a goblet in her hand some she looked to one of her officers. “Send patrols to find them when they cross further up they must slow due to traffic in the northern area. If they went south it’d matter little the river that way was fats and they would not be around long. It’d be a full day however to do this so she had to gamble on these reptilian’s doing what she thought they would. In the end what she didint tell her men was she suspected some near by tribes had killed a large set of reptiles made it part of armor and were scaring the locals. Oh she'd heard rumors some 800 years or so ago about mythical creatures but well if she had an ounce of gold for every time she heard one of those she could fund her Empire for another thousand years. So it was river watchmen began patrolling further on the northern end of the river. They were normal human soldiers of the Empire with a few skeleton warriors to row and be more resilient oarsmen. With luck they might catch these lizards and figure out what they were doing so far from the old cities. @taun-Lok Madog Hier
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Post by Taun-Lok on Jan 18, 2017 13:28:20 GMT
The last time the Lizards were out and about was LONG before the Empress had even been a mortal, so her knowing about the Old City was, hilarious misinformed, especially since she thought there was more than one. The Fog kept out the bulk of undead presence from the Golden City and had since the dawn of the Third Age of the Golden City millennia ago. Taun-Lok's escapade in Pakellan was the first time in many generations that the Lizards ever ventured out, and that was just the one lizard. The scouts around the Empire of Arlek did their level best to avoid detection and confrontation, remaining in the water and trying to hide on the bottom of the river when anything came too close. The Riverscales were excellent swimmers in that regard, able to breath underwater to try their best to hide from detection. It wasn't their duty to worry about fighting, only getting accurate maps of the river and the basest knowledge of the local kingdoms, like population, rough percentage of military, and what kind. Having been in isolation for so long, they had no real knowledge of Ardell outside what the very rare traveler to the Golden City had provided them. Once they had that information on Arlek, the Lizards began swimming along the northern river towards Vaunderburg. Grox lead the Riverscales further north, slipping through the river bends back towards the northern Lake country. Éléonore RousseauMadog Hier
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Post by Taun-Lok on Jan 18, 2017 20:29:34 GMT
The scouting party staying in the water as they intended, watching from afar in small numbers. Just eyes peeking over the surface of the water to observe when they could, watching, waiting. When anyone came close they would disappear under the water and swim along the riverbed, hiding as best as they could from sight. It would not due them well to have rumors springing up with great validity in their initial excursion from the City of Gold. Especially not the very first small scouting party tipping off the kingdoms in the twin rivers of not only their presence but interest in Central Ardell. When they came to whatever crossing guards had been posting waiting for them, they simply didn't surface, their ability to swim quietly and breathe underwater allowing them to hug the riverbed and slip underneath the rowboats just as they had done around Arlek. Gorx made heavy notes of the open undead usage he saw throughout the kingdom of Vaundsburg, though he had no name for the kingdom. Only that they were warmbloods who made very blatant use of the Crokodon's most hated enemy. It would not be long until they found themselves embroiled with the kingdom in some fashion. The information they gathered was simple at best, the location on the maps they were compiling, the roughly estimated population from what they could see from the river. Based on its ports they could guess at its true size, but those would be guesses. Grox knew that strategies would have to be but in place to deal with these, Undead making use of human slaves was new to them. It meant they would need to kill the warmbloods here twice unless they could thin the herd before battle. Éléonore Rousseau
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Post by Taun-Lok on Jan 19, 2017 18:48:00 GMT
Grox and his scouts made what mental and written notes they could of the ports and fishing villages on the river of the kingdom of Vaundsburg. Since they didn't need to cross the river, they could evade waiting rowboats easily enough. Just swim low on the river bed when they came to such patrols, but they did take notice of the frequency and far stretch of such patrols.
Taun-Lok would need to know as much as possible about Vaundsburg, so this wouldn't be the last time they scouted it. But for the first scouting mission into the wilder world, being able to see about how large it was, how close it hugged the northern arm of the river valley and a guess at how many people lived in the area would have to be enough.
Perhaps some allies could offer them more information on the empire of undeath before too long that would help the Priest-King with the preparations and mustering. Grox slithered quickly through the water with his riverscales, turning further north towards the lake country once again. Ghanzrabah might even enjoy knowing there was a kingdom on the river he could reach with only minimal effort.
The Crokodons kept to their strategy of mapping and doing their best to avoid detection and confrontation. It was not quite time for such an act of aggression.
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