"I've been fortunate in many ways Jirel, got to ride a lot when I grew up, but I believe you are the natural. And don't stay too far back, I'd prefer you close." Tylaerys responds with a wink and a playful smile before riding out.

The young half-elf laughs warmly at Finn's comment. "I think we will find plains and not woods south of Greenest but I suppose neither would be your arena of preference dear Finn. It would be useful to have the help of your owl to spot any threats on our way though."

[Everyone - Great roleplay while I've been getting my notes prepared the last few days.  Please, everyone take inspiration, unless you already have some.]

Jararaka, the young halfling guard listens to your proselytizing.  He asks a few follow up questions. You get the impression this soft skin is looking for something greater to follow or dedicate himself to than the simple farming gods of his homeland.  He departs with a final thanks for your aid last night, and as he walks away - still in his underclothes after giving Cheddar his armor - you wonder if you just earned your first convert for Ny-Rath.

Jirel:

Tracking the raiders proves an easy task.  As the force moved away south, they left a wide, trampled path.  The trail is littered with empty or smashed bottles of liquor.  You also pass the corpse of a kobold, who apparently took a wound in Greenest and bled out before reaching their camp.  Several unfortunate homesteads also flank the path, looted and burned by the cultists.  Of the raiders tracks, they only confirm what you already know: there were a lot of them, and they were a mix of humans, kobolds, and trained reptiles.  A half dozen wagons and carts made the return trip only, suggesting they may have been seized during the raid.

Greenest sits in the center of a shallow 'bowl' several miles across, filled with farm fields and surrounded by a low, gentle rise.  As you follow the trail up the rise to the south, the farms and homesteads become less frequent.  Soon you are passing through thin hardwoods, punctuated by rolling meadows filled with stones and small boulders.

The trail leads south about twelve miles, to a more rugged region where steep-sided, rocky plateaus replace the gently rolling hills and rises. The land between the plateaus is largely flat, broken only by outcroppings and wandering streams in steep-sided gullies. The plateaus jut fifty to one hundred feet above their surroundings and look like they would be difficult to climb except where rock falls and subsidence created natural ramps. The crumbling sides of the plateaus are dotted with caves and tumbled boulder fields.

It is mid-afternoon and you are still following the trail, when Finn's familiar flies in and lands on a nearby boulder.

Finn:

     "I can bring back Owl anytime," Finn explains to Tylaerys "But I can't just put her back where she is so I'd effectively be cutting off any further...  Oh!  Seems she is coming back on her own..."  Finn tilts her head to one side as if listening while she telepathically communicates with Owl.  She listens attentively and tries to absorb as much information as possible before relaying it all to the others.  Finn does ask Owl if she has any sense of how many are in the straggler group, how many in the rearguard...  

((Not sure if you want to give the fey spirit that is the familiar the ability to count or not, yes or no are both totally reasonable so *shrug*  But if they can't count then at least as many of us or more than us?  A lot more than us?))

     After sharing all that she can, Finn will have the little Owl poof into nothingness after telling it Thanks and telling it to rest a while...

     "Even if we devise a golden strategy I'm not sure we should attack either of the rear groups," Finn advises.  "All they need do is get a message off - a runner or something magical - and the main group will be far more cautious and wary.  Our mission, as it is, is to locate so larger groups can come and eradicate...  Taking on these back groups is much more their task than ours and likely just makes any chance of us somehow freeing prisoners harder.  No?"

Finn, you receive confirmation that the gathering of hungover revelers has 'many more' than your group, while the rearguard group has 'some more' than your group.

"If I'm not mistaken neither the stragglers nor that rear guard would have the ability to outrun us while we are on horseback and I doubt these groups have magic like that. If knowing is half the battle we should have a clear advantage knowing their positions as we approach them. We would still have to defeat them which could be easier said than done. I suppose we could consider trying to find a way around the two groups but then we would still risk running into them on our way back to Greenest and then we will hopefully have townsfolk with us." Tylaerys says after listening attentively to Finn's briefing of the situation ahead. "I would prefer it if we find a way to take them out, hopefully having surprise as our adantage. If we can take a prisoner we might find out more about this secret camp. Perhaps we can find a hidden approach to the stragglers and the rear guard?" She suggests after a moment of pondering their possibilites.

"'M not too interested in spending too much time on the stragglers, but I think it'd be useful to take out the raiders at that chokepoint. We might be able to lure them out with something interesting but not too alarming. Always useful to get a look of the view before getting into the action." Jararaka says, posture hunched, focused on balancing on the horse. She cranes her neck to address Finn, "can your bird send a message? Let the folks back at the keep set up at that chokepoint and take care of stragglers, and whatever they need to do, then we move forward with the scouting."

     “I suppose,” Finn says, unsure but thinking about it. “If we wrote out a small note and tied it to Owl’s leg they could probably get someone’s attention and indicate it to them… But Owl never really met the governor so I can’t promise she’d find him specifically. She might just signal any soldier and it may not get to the right eyes…”

     Turning to Tylaerys Finn nods and says “You’re the strategist for this type of thing.  I’ll defer to what you think best…”

"Me? Oh? Thanks for the confidence in me Finn, I admit I'm quick to speak about what I think, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm a good strategist. Still, in the kingdom of the blind and all that." The blonde half-elf finishes with a wink and a smile before turning serious again. "I think there's clearly some merit to Jararaka's idea, but we wouldn't be sure the stragglers had been taken care of then as far as I can see and we would be much too vulnerable to face them on our way home with the freed townsfolk. It's simply too risky, maybe even like going back with a seven and a deuce." Tylaerys continues, winking again at Finn as she finishes. "If either of these groups prove too much we can always fall back and recover, so I would go with taking care of them both as swiftly and efficiently as possible now, but we could simply put this to a vote if needed." She finishes, looking around at Finn, Jararaka, Cheddar and Jirel.

Cheddar seems a bit uneasy around Finn's familiar but says little. He listens to the exchanges and plans. 
He thinks back to any ideas from history that would give him some insight into dealing with the situation at hand.

History: 21

Cheddar sits and scratches his ear with his hind leg. 

Perched proudly atop Widowmaker, Jirel keeps her head on a swivel while the group marches on to their destination. When they’d pause to discuss their next steps, she dismounts herself and takes the time to check in on the horses. One by one she’d check their hooves, pet them and talk to them. Maybe they’ve seen or senses something they might not have. A part of her was curious if they’d have any way of knowing or finding out where some of those riders went immediately after riding.

Another reason for Jirel’s pause was to sift through some thoughts as she kept her hands busy with the horses, even speaking as if she’s including them in the conversation if they wished to participate. “Remember our goals: 

1. ‘Follow them and map out exactly where the camp is sited.’” Jirel starts. “Finn, your owl reported that to you.
2. ’Report how many raiders there are - was this the full strength of them, or were more held back in reserve?’  So what are we seeing here?” Jirel asks. “A reserve of fighters, and some who rode off immediately after? Are they messengers going somewhere else? Or to the camp?” She looks around to the others for confirmation and thoughts before adding the rest of the list.
“3. Who are their leaders?
4. What’s motivating these attacks?
5. Where do they plan to strike next?
6. If the chance presents itself, we liberate our prisoners...” Jirel finishes the full list of tasks they were charged with. “My initial instincts tell me that if we can’t extract some of this information via a ruse, talking to their horses, or safe securing of either of these groups, we opt to avoid them entirely by taking the longer route west to go straight for the camp and asses our options there.” She throws in her two cents. “Perhaps we ‘get lucky’ an’ run into the riding party that didn’t stick around an’ extract information from them instead. There might be fewer of them.” In comparison to the groups they’re looking at right now.

Tylaerys smiles as Jirel comes over and talks to her horse, then listening as the blonde giantess runs through their objectives. "I believe we need to infiltrate that camp to find out most of what we need to know." The young half-elf says, glancing over at Finn. "And unless we take care of the stragglers and the rear guard now we risk face them later on our way home, hopefully with freed townsfolk which would make us very vulnerable." She says, looking back at Jirel. "That said, I suppose Finn's owl could find some way around the stragglers and the rear guard for us, avoiding them completely, hopefully even on our way back."

"I agree with the giantess." Cheddar says. "It's been my experience that if you want information and want to be clandestine, you don't engage. You shadow, observe and wait but don't go out of your way to fight anyone. We find a spot where we can watch their camp, observe, take notes and wait. If we have to go into the camp, Finn is the best choice due to her"nature". We can kidnap a guard, she take his/her form and stroll in and does what is needed but, she gets out quick. Things like that usually have a tendency to go wrong so it has to be quick." 
Cheddar pauses for a moment.
"Anyone have any idea what the next town or village is in the area and did those that left go in that direction?" he asks.  

     "Thanks to Owl we know the location of the main camp, true enough," Finn says a bit defensively.  "Owl isn't so good at the counting though so reporting the full numbers, specially of the main camp, though.  I think that would take some of our own eyes spying things out."

     "In theory we could try to take down the stragglers and/or the rearguard and maybe learn a lot about their numbers and their leaders and their plans...  Maybe.  I can be persuasive, but that's usually about getting someone to buy me a drink or let me in someplace I'm not suppose to be, not giving up information about their dragon queen they have a weird fetish for.  And I do still worry about attacking these two groups...  Stragglers have been in and out of the main camp, some on horseback.  They've come and gone.  So they may have reported and are headed back to the two groups between us and the main camp.  We're on horseback too but it only takes one fleeing cultist to go uncaptured to sound the alarm on the main camp..."

     "If we went west and took the long route to avoid the stragglers and rearguard..."  Finn looks at Tylaerys and emphasizes "IF...  We could be pretty sure of at least their being no extra alarm of our coming.  I don't think all my charms will work if they know to look for us.  And if we DID happen to free prisoners, Owl could still scout ahead of our escape route and ensure it was clear for us..."

     All in all, Finn is unsure and hesitant in her comments.  She's got it in her head that Tylaerys is the leader but she finds herself agreeing more with Jirel and Cheddar...

"I believe the closest settlements of note would be Beregost to the west and Iriabor to the east, but there is nothing as far as I know between here and the Cloud Peaks to the south. Greenest would likely be the closest town to the secret camp though I think." Tylaerys answers Cheddar.

"Let's take the long way to the west then, around the stragglers and the rear guard, and hope we won't have to fight them on our way back." Tylaerys says with a firm nod as Finn finishes, ready to head on. "I should tell you, there might be a prisoner in that camp that I need to contact, but I am able to turn myself, or someone else, invisible if need be." She adds after a moment.

Jararaka hums as Jirel recounts their goal, "that's true, we aren't being payed to be vanguards. Sneaking around is what I'm more used to anyway. We still got some of their cloaks to hide ourselves or whoever we can get out."

"I don't expect we can free all the prisoners but if we just snag a few when we leave, they shouldn't make any fights that come our way too difficult, 's not like they've had time to starve the townsfolk yet. But I obviously prefer if the fighting can be kept to a min. Once we get closer to that main camp, I might be able to ask some divine favours and find out where that half-dragon- or well, more like something he wore- if finding the high ranking ones are of interest."

     "Depending how things off, a hoard of pissed of prisoners with tree branches may be just what we need to fight our way out of a situation," Finn chirps in.  

The young blonde half-elf nods and smiles at Jararaka. "You are all quite resourceful people, I'm sure this will go well." She says, looking around at the rescue team members. "Finn, you better take point and show us this western route." She continues, ready to ride on towards the secret camp.

Perception: 5

     “We really should have grabbed maps of the area,” Finn says as she looks around the area and starts trying to decide the best route.  “Owl followed the invaders, not alternate routes…  but I can have her scout ahead and hopefully keep us on course.”  And with that, Owl takes flight and starts scouting out west for a good path…

Cheddar narrows his eyes for a moment then turns but says nothing.