Captured! Revelations of the Mysterious Tomb..

[Ebiris]

Fuu smiles reassuringly. "I will," she says, making a quick check on all her gear before pulling the hood up on her cloak and starting on a brisk pace ahead of her group in the direction the scouts went in.

After getting about 300 metres, she slows down slightly and starts making an effort to conceal herself from detection as she advances, not wanting to be seen before she sees whatever befell the advance scouts.

OOC: Just out of curiousity, would I know about any dangerous wildlife/monsters that may live in this area? It just occured to me that the scouts might not have been attacked by the Matsu...

[Carthrat]

Fuu sees.. horsemen, in the distance. They're moving about and not making an effort to conceal themselves.

OOC: Given that they burnt the forest down, I don't think there would be many left. Wolves spring to mind, however, of both the regular and dire persuasions. There's probably a couple of magical beasts wandering around, too, though exactly what they are you wouldn't know.

[Ebiris]

Fuu continues her stealthy approach, trying to get a better idea of the disposition of the enemy, and hopefully see any sign of whether the scouts were killed or captured.

[Carthrat]

Fuu can't really get close enough, because the horsemen chose this moment to bugger off, galloping to the west..

She can't find any elven corpses, however.

[Ebiris]

Taking note of the direction the horsemen are heading in, Fuu turns and backtracks the way she came to rendevouz with her group.

[Carthrat]

They were heading in a western direction.

Fuu arrives back at the elven party to some concerned looks.. "We havn't moved yet. Do you know what happened?" comes the question from one of the bushi..

[Ebiris]

OOC: You told me in IRC that I'd been gone for 45 minutes and travelled 6km (2 miles)

Fuu gives the bushi who spoke a hard look. "Didn't I order you to continue the advance after half an hour?" she frowns. "Never mind. I could find no sign of our scouts, whether they were captured or killed, I could not say. I did encounter horsemen about six kilometres ahead. They were headed West.

"Since we are now lacking in our advance scouts, I will take over that role. We will continue advancing as before, and I will return to report in every hour or if I should encounter anything of note. Give me ten minutes to get a lead, and then commence marching."

With that, Fuu turns and heads back the way she just came at a decent clip, slowing down and proceeding in a more careful, stealthy manner after 15 minutes.

[Carthrat]

Meanwhile...

Over dinner, Ukyo starts to speak.

"I wonder what the Fey'Ri told the Matsu to bring them here?" asks Ukyo, aloud. "After the last beating you gave them, I didn't think they would be so eager to return. Don't you agree, Hikaru?"

Okina is seated at the table, along with a few other minor elven nobles.

<->

After a few more hours of travelling, Fuu spots a part of Doji monks travelling across the wasteland.. they's twelve of them, none of them have a ponytail ala Shigen, and they're rushing in such a direction that they're not going to pass any of the scout troops. They're headed towards the capital, however. None of them seem to spot her, and she's a few hundred metres away from them.

[Halbarad]

"I don't know, but I suspect that the original idea for Master Toshi and myself wouldn't have worked. They were taken back from me before I got a chance to look at them, but there were two books in the Matsu champion's tent that I had taken with me. One of them about demihuman races, and the other about the ancient province of Kaisho, which one of the infiltrators mentioned. I just wish I'd had a chance to get a closer look at them before I was captured."

[Ebiris]

Moving behind a decent sized tree stump, Fuu notches an arrow and fires it at the nearest monk. Immediately after loosing the arrow, she ducks down under the stump, and then begins crawling on her belly towards another one a bit further in the direction the monks were headed. After reaching the next stump, she carefully peeks over to see what reaction she has garnered.

[Carthrat]

The arrow speeds towards it's target and slams into him. He stumbles, but doesn't fall.

Nonetheless, the group presses on instead of looking around for the culprit.

[Ebiris]

Fuu stealthily approaches to within 150 feet, then repeats her earlier shoot and move, trying to hit the same monk as before.

[Carthrat]

Rushing after the monks is difficult, because they're now heading away from her, but Fuu nonetheless manages to close distance and get off another shot, which drops the monk she attacked before.

They seem very furtive, now, and then they spot Fuu, waving their arms in a plea to stop the violence and surrender instead of returning fire or the like.

[Ebiris]

Frowning, Fuu rises from her position and approaches the monks, her bow notched and ready, but currently pointed at the ground.

"You wish to surrender?" she asks, disbelief plain in her voice.

A part of her worries that they might just be luring her closer so they can attack, and she tries to mentally calculate how long it will take for her group to catch up with her.

[Carthrat]

"We're *real* Doji monks," the leader yells back, after giving his comrades instructions to tend to his wounded companion.