A rather annoyed Colonel Tanya is sitting on a rock not far from a narrow path on Kolvir. There are many such rocks, but this is hers. She is annoyed mostly because she is out of the city, but probably also because she is failing to find water. Beyond what she has brought with her, in a flask issued by a military unit that does not exist in this universe, she has none. Her black clothes make her into a rather grumpy raven, over-sized.

Danielle sighs and scans the area still not wholly convinced that manticore was alone because that would be a happy coincidence which doesn't often happen to this particular group. only if her senses indicate no signs of trouble will she focus on finding water again. not becoming a meal always takes precedence

manticore? What manticore? None appear! (Yet.)

Tanya gives Danielle a long look. "Right. Let's look for the sort of changes we get down-town again?" She looks tired, sweaty, and irritated, but is doing her best not to snap.

Dirk is there trying to do his best to stay out of the way. "Ma'am is there anything you want me to do?"

Danielle hms "So you don't think the water source is up here? " she asks the colonel. her own senses being off are more than a possibilility. none the less since the area seems manticore free she tries to pick up the trail again

"A half hour of-" Tanya stops talking as she looks at Danielle and back to Dirk. "Maybe not now. Quarter the area, look for evidence of green growth or unusual surface. Get high to do it. If you spot a place, let us know."

Danielle rolls with advantage 1 at difficulty 15, using occult, pattern meditation.
The result is a success.

Dirk rolls with advantage -1 at difficulty 15, using no talents or gifts.
The result is a success.

Dirk searches high and low but mostly high.

Filinia flips a coin. The result is: Heads

Grumpy Raven Cosplay Tanya stays where she is, apparently doing nothing, although her eyes are softly closed as if she is meditating. Only a brief appreciative glance of the back view as Dirk leaves breaks her mood, and that not for long.

Danielle closes her eyes as dirk is taking care of searching with his physical senses so that she can wholly focus in these first moments on her sense of the pattern taking slow measured strides so as not run into anything. opening her eyes once more oncr she gets a bead on something

Dirk starts to sing a Minosian song about pirates and officers of a royal navy...

It takes hours. Dirk spots a pattern of grey-black rocks that are in an odd position, and turn out to have moss on them. Danielle sees multiple tiny rivulet beds that have dried long ago. Dirk gets mobbed by 10,000 miniature crickets which don't want to eat him, but panic and leave their nest all at once. Danielle finds that here, the strange feeling of the Pattern's existence is muted, calm, peaceful. Dirk finds a perfect scree slope to surf down. Danielle sees patterns in the clouds that turn out to be coincidence... But eventually there is an area that Dirk can point to that has a greener swathe running through it, and to Danielle it seems like the muted, calm effect is lessened. Along that greenway, things are a little more excited. It does not so much scream underground river as murmur it, but the murmur is there.

Tanya scowls over having to walk that far on unpaved roads.

It is a wooded area, of course it is. Perfect for manticores.

Dirk bounces around like a hyper kid. "we founded it!"

That gets past Tanya's defences. She bursts into laughter, stopping where she is to help her breathe.

Danielle sighs. After hours of doing this, she is not certain that she has not imagined it like the cloud business and so she will check and recheck that the power flow is indeed different her before agree "we're much closer now at any rate. we should look for an access point

Tanya looks around the forest. "Or make one." She seems amused, ebullient, happy - just in the space of a moment.

Dirk looks at Tanya and smiles. "Happier?"

The pirate-boy-toy gets a grin. "Remembered why I haven't booted you yet."

Dirk says "Because I am the sexiest pirate turned Arden ranger you can get your hands on?" He starts to look more closely.

Danielle hms " Anyone bought a shovel?" she asks

"If I could trade up, I would," Tanya says lightly. "Alright. I... have little to no idea how forests work, but I can probably blast through the rock, only then I'll be high for days and you might need to restrain me."

Dirk laughs "That could be fun."

Danielle laughs "i think we should first determine if there's an actual need to blast a hole in kolvir and it hasn't already got one"

"You are entirely too sensible for my magic addiction. But you're also right. Let's look for pools or ponds? Or where they might come out? Cliffs then flat bits?" Tanya looks up-hill. "We were after the source, to find out if it was anything special, weren't we?"

The quiet pine trees and their needle-beds deaden sound from the city.

Dirk rolls with advantage 1 at difficulty 10, using animal Ken, catform and spending will.
The result is a success.

Danielle nods and begins scouting about with actual senses this time for signs of water. She is not as good at climbing as dirk by any means and she works to contain her own growing excitement with deliberate steps and handholds "from what i've been told of grandfather, i do an excellent job of controlling natural instincts

Tanya sighs. "I have a lot of base instincts, and I like them, but you're never going to feel the rush of magic like I do. Your family doesn't. Swings and roundabouts."

Dirk runs to Tanya and purrs "I am a cat?"

Tanya looks down at the big black panther that pads to her, and just about stops herself from bringing her staff down on its head. "YOU WHAT?" She is definitely staring down at it. it's huge for a cat, scarred on the right foreleg in a way that looks painful, and just about lets it walk and run.

Dirk purrs "It's me Dirk."

Tanya looks around for Danielle, looks back at Dirkitten, looks around for Danielle again.

Danielle blinks as dirk changes form, smiling with empathy at the joy of having a previously suppressed magical ability return to one "maybe it's because we're closer to the pattern

"I'm... well, glad you're the one talking about it. That thing's always spooked the hell out of me, since I found out about it. But I think it's the bloodline that could use the Pattern, so you're all strange." Tanya gently bonks the big cat on its head. "This one is particularly strange."

Dirk nods"I love being a cat."

Tanya looks down at Dirk. "Let's get up to the top of this green, and then we've at least got a downhill ahead of us if we were wrong."

Danielle climbs up with care following tanya's step not expecting tosuddenly change i a manner that makes her climb easier and taking her time to crest the top

Dirk jumps up the mountain.

Tanya climbs, occasionally throwing rocks for Dirk to fetch or chase. An hour drags on and the sun slips downwards before they find themselves coming to the end of the long, long smear of green. For some time it has been obvious that they are heading up the mountain to a particular place; there is no visible water here, but the underground river is pointing straight at the three steps carved into the rock of Kolvir that lead up to Tir Na Nog'th, when it is in the sky.

On seeing those steps, Tanya goes paler than her ordinary red-headed complexion. That is, very pale indeed.

Dirk sniffs the stairs and purrs. "We need moonlight."

"If ghosts ever come down that way, what do we do?" Tanya goes straight to potential problems.

Danielle blinks as she sees the stairs. She knows the stories of tir, the dramland in the stars from her version of amber but she has never so much has seen it much less been there and is far more curious than afraid and mounts the stairs following where her nods leads her " The pattern is stronger near the water because it likes it. it . it interacts with it altering it somehow. it would make sense if its source is tir which probly has it's on magic and power

Dirk climbs up the steps as far as he can.

Tanya watches Dirk and Danielle with trepidation. "Nothing but trouble ever came from there. Trouble and silver." She stays far enough away from the stairs that she has to speak loudly to be heard.

Danielle hms "it's part of the balance though from what I understand so it's probably a good thing if it still exists and there's some sort of connection between the realms...probably

There is a disbelieving look from Tanya, and a shudder. "Sure. But there's no full moon and no bastards coming down the stairs to try to eat us, so let's not worry about that?" She backs away a few steps.

Danielle hms "i think the patterns influence on the watter growa as it reaches the city , despite the sstronger sense of it here. it's fairly clear we're not finding the source as such for the time being

"Count me out of any trip to the land of silver and stabbing, but I'll stay here and destroy the stairs if you bring home an invasion." Tanya shudders again. "Then... let's hike back down. Is hike the right word for all this walking around?"

Dirk nods and is jumping around bouncing like a kitten. "Happy happy joy joy!" He is twisting around.

Tanya turns a baleful look on Dirk, converts it into an eye-roll, says nothing to kill his joy.

Danielle hms "tis the life of those who explore and experiment, the answer to one question leads to 10 more. let's go home and get some wine for now

"I love you more than I can say," Tanya tells Danielle, and turns to walk with her.

Dirk rubs against Tanya's leg purring.