The Man They Call Shan

[Kwokinator]

OOC: Not really ^_^

The grave is filled in, and now Zhu Lin finds himself staring at a large bump rising from the ground, the telling sign of an unmarked grave.

[Edward]

Zhu Lin sighs.  "I don't suppose there's any point in leaving a marker, since she never gave her name."

After a moment, he turns and looks for where he left the bandits.

OOC: Not that he's expecting to find them there.

[Kwokinator]

When Zhu Lin arrives the bandits have clearly left and no longer where he left them.

Although, a trail of blood can be see leading away from the site.

[Edward]

Zhu Lin cautiously follows the trail of blood.  While the two bandits would be in no shape to fight him, they may be heading towards allies and he has no wish to be ambushed.

[Kwokinator]

The trail of blood begins to thin, the bloodstains becoming less frequent and soon disappears as Zhu Lin follows the trail.

[Edward]

Zhu Lin studies the ground closely, looking for signs of footprints along the blood trail.  He also looks ahead, along the direction of the trail, trying to determine if they were heading for a specific landmark.

[Kwokinator]

Apparently it hasn't rained recently, because although there is not a lot of people passing by all the time, there are many trails of footprints along the ground, althugh they all seem to head in the same direction, at least initially.

[Edward]

Zhu Lin tries to follow the footprints then.  If prints separate from the main group, he'll try to examine them more closely.

OOC:  What sort of terrain are they passing across and heading towards?

[Kwokinator]

OOC:  Basically bush, bush and more bush.  There're "roads" on the ground that're made from people walking all the time so grass doesn't grow, but on either side are bushes.

The footprints start diverging at an angle, and soon clearly seperates when Zhu Lin arrives at a fork of three roads.  At this point, it is not clear where the paths lead to yet, since there is no landmark in sight.  There is a mountain in the distance that seems reachable from the rightmost path, but nothing other than that.

[Edward]

Zhu Lin examines the prints closely, looking for a pair of people who are walking funny.  If he can't determine which way they went, he'll stand his staff up, see which way it falls, and go that way.

[Kwokinator]

Zhu Lin is unable to find any tracks that "look funny", so lets the staff fall.

The staff falls to the leftmost path, which seems to lead to a path along endless bushes as far as the eye could see over the horizon, much like what he has been travelling on.

[Edward]

He follows that path, still staying alert for ambush.

[Kwokinator]

Zhu Lin's path soon begins to curve, and he is soon once again faced with a fork on the path.

Judging from the well-worn path on the left, it seems that it would lead into a town, while the path on the right seem to curve into the side of the mountain that he saw before.

[Edward]

Zhu Lin considers for a moment.  If the bandits-turned eunuchs had gone into town, they news probably would have been all over the place.   He takes the route towards the mountain, continuing to stay alert.

[Kwokinator]

As Zhu Lin proceeds along the path, he notices a number of caves further along the path.  Experience tells him that bandit organizations often have their bases in caves, but there are often different gangs in adjacent or nearby caves.