Chan Hoa reaches the western trail in light armor, climbing claws and tools secured. He crouches beneath broad bushes beside a middle-aged Blue Feather sentry, a lean man with weathered bronze skin, cropped gray hair, and a dark green watch-cloak.
Other hidden watchers lie among cedar roots and stone, their indigo wraps blending with shadow. Below, red-armored riders pound along the narrow mountain paths, spears raised as hooves churn thick clouds of dust.
The Western Sentry
They search for someone to kill, so their fallen lord's honor will not seem unanswered.
The riders surge past, turn sharply, and thunder back through the defile. Every clan member has withdrawn from the roads, leaving shuttered routes, empty crossings, and only the echo of frantic hooves.
The Western Sentry
No Blue Feather soul remains below us. Let them exhaust themselves against silence.
Their repeated passes expose a pattern. The eastern house is testing the lower western approach first, probing the bends where the trail narrows between two mountain shoulders.
The Western Sentry
Chan Hoa, do you see what their riders keep missing?
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the western approach
“"If they scout our base they will lead a concentrated effort. We have to stop or divert them"”
SUCCESS (Great Reasoning, rolled +2)
Chan Hoa
If they scout our base, they will lead a concentrated effort. We must stop these riders here or divert them away from our approaches.
Chan Hoa points toward the repeated turns below, tracing the riders' pattern through dust and hoofbeats. The narrow defile offers no need for a battle; a false trail can draw their search elsewhere.
The Western Sentry
You read the pattern correctly. They return to the same bends because they believe our watchers fled uphill.
The sentry studies the cedar slopes, then signals two hidden watchers. One, a young adult human man with a lean build, brown skin, short black hair, and a dark indigo wrap over fitted trousers, slips toward a ravine while the other, a young adult human woman with a wiry build, tawny skin, braided dark hair, and a charcoal cloak over practical trail clothes, gathers loose branches and old red cloth from a concealed cache.
The Western Sentry
We will leave signs toward the dead ravine and show movement beyond it. Their scouts will chase an empty route before they find our true trail.
Below, the riders wheel again. From the bushes, Blue Feather hands place misleading tracks across the ravine path, while the true western approach remains untouched and silent.
The Western Sentry
The diversion is set. If they follow it, their concentrated force leaves our base untouched. If they stop, we signal every watcher before they advance.
“I wait to see”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled -2)
Chan Hoa waits beneath the broad bushes, watching dust, hooves, and the red cloth signs without shifting his crouch. The riders wheel once more below.
The foremost pair slow at the ravine mouth. One rider points toward the false tracks, and the troop turns after them, abandoning the repeated bends.
The Western Sentry
They took it. Their captain believes the signs came from a retreating patrol.
The red-armored riders enter the dead ravine in a tightening line, following branches, cloth, and hoof marks away from Blue Feather's true approach.
Chan keeps watching until the last rider disappears. The diversion succeeds, but the dust hides whether a second scouting group remains beyond the far shoulder.
Chan Hoa
The main force is diverted. The far shoulder still needs checking.
The Western Sentry
We gained the road, but not the whole mountain. I will send a signal, then have the high watcher confirm what the dust conceals.