Swamped

Wouldn't hurt to fill Harbottle in on the swamp-desert transposition weirdness, since they're out of the loop.

But then we should go say hi to Rudolph, that guy's great. Also, can he see the junkyard from up here?

"I think that's about all. But there's something you should be aware of."

"What's that, Director?"

"There's been a strange phenomenon going on recently where creatures and objects have been transported from the desert to the swamp, and vice versa. We'll cover it in more detail at the next staff meeting; I'm in a hurry right now, unfortunately."

"Transported? How?" Harbottle asks. Their eyes light up.

"We've got no idea how it works. Theo's got most of our data, I can have him send it to you, but I doubt it'll be illuminating. It's probably magical, though we haven't tried actually checking for ether readings."

"Please, I'd love to read it. Instant transportation over such a long distance... If we could understand how it works, imagine what we could learn about the stars!"

You get the sense Harbottle has thought about this sort of thing fairly often.

"I can't promise it will help with that, but I'll talk to Theo."

"Thank you, Director. It's always a pleasure to have visitors."

As you step out, you decide to give Rudolph more than a passing wave. If only to avoid facing Dominique right away.

"Hello, Rudolph," you say. "Any unusual sights?"

"Aside from you popping out of a wagon with six humans?" Rudolph smirks. "Not really. That must be quite the story."

"Haven't got time for it now, I'm afraid." Even if it would be a good stall. "For one thing, I'm trying to find Simone. I sent Gascoign to look for her at the junkyard, because that's the only lead I've got. Did you spot her, by any chance?"

Rudolph shakes his head.

"Didn't see any of the vehicles heading there, other than Gascoign's old wagon a few minutes ago. Though at that distance, it's hard for me to spot someone on foot."

"Our human guests have a set of long goggles for seeing faraway distances," you say. "I'll see if we can take a look at them and make a pair for you."

"I'd appreciate it. My eyes are good, but not that good. Seems strange that Simone would go on foot, though - that's a long walk."

It is, at that. You're starting to get worried again.

"Can you see the actual junkyard?"

"Yeah, but not in any real detail. Maybe not even with those fancy goggles, depending on how well they work. I mean, if you think there's something that might be big enough for me to notice from here, I can take a look, but I doubt there's anything that conspicuous."

You give the matter some thought.

Harbottle is real protective of that big looking tube they have. Maybe that can help scout out the area.

Of course by the time you climb back up and argue you could have already oh HEY it's that grumpy gus you sent earlier

Harbottle is real protective of that big looking tube they have. Maybe that can help scout out the area.

Of course by the time you climb back up and argue you could have already oh HEY it's that grumpy gus you sent earlier

I had something but this suggestion is better

It suddenly strikes you that you're at an observatory.

"Could we get Harbottle's star-scope pointing at it?" you ask. At the very least, you know who to assign to the task of making your own long goggles later.

"I've asked 'em about it before. They really don't like that; it's possible but it takes a long time to adjust."

"This could well be an emergency, though. What if Simone's in trouble?"

"You're welcome to try, but I don't think it'll go well..."

You're just about to head back in when you hear a familiar gruff voice.

"Hey! Little help here?"

You look down and see Gascoign, climbing up the tower. They seem to be having trouble getting up.

"I'll get the emergency rope," Rudolph sighs. He runs off, and returns with a rope soon after. Gascoign climbs on, and you help Rudolph pull it up.

"What's going on?" you ask. "Did you find Simone?"

No, and on closer inspection, they don't look very good

"No," Gascoign says. It sounds like they might be about to elaborate, but then they collapse.

It's at this point you notice a large gash on the front of their suit. It's deep enough to leave an unpleasant-looking mark on their chest.

You're amazed they made the climb at all.

Rudolph spots it too, and picks Gascoign up. You help him climb down, both of you supporting Gascoign on the way. It's faster than using the rope. You rush to the medical tent, and hand the patient off to Robert.

Dominique isn't far from here... but you're even more worried about Simone now. But with no idea of what attacked Gascoigne, how can you adequately prepare anyone to go look for her?

You could release the beacon bugs. These little guys are bottled up together, but as soon as the bottle is broken or cracked, all of them fly outwards in different directions to lay their eggs, leaving an easy to follow trail behind them. They're great for making a rallying point but...everyone can see them, even things you might not want to, and it's not like you have a bunch on hand. They're typically reserved for gathering folks together for shelter during sandstorms...you think this might be how Rider first found the Greblings. Maybe if Simone saw the beacon bugs she'd come back from wherever she was...

But that's a little drastic...but maybe that's what you need...oh but...geeze you wish that bird would stop making all that noise!!!

Oh. That's not a bird.

This is looking like an emergency.

"Rudolph. We might need to use the beacon bugs, in case Simone's lost out there."

Rudolph looks doubtful.

"It's your call, but judging by what happened to Gascoign, I'm not sure 'lost' is what we should be worried about. For all we know, she could be hiding out in the junkyard until the danger passes."

Time's of the essence, but Rudolph has a point and you need to think about it for a moment. It would be a good deal easier if you had any idea what exactly Gascoign ran into - you've never seen wounds like that from a beast.

Unfortunately, your train of thought is interrupted by a loud noise outside. Dammit, is that the sandy-mockers Jebediah was complaining about? You can't concentrate like this, so you head out to investigate.

That's when you see Rider fighting two cloaked raiders in the middle of the camp. One of them has a large, sharp bladed disc, which gives you some idea of what happened to Gascoign.

What should you do?

Bird. Calls.

Oh dang, I bet it's the guys who were after Pubert's lodestone!

Sound the general alarm and then run down there to see if you can distract the brutes. (Such as by making uncannily accurate bird noises.)

"Sound the alarm!" you shout at Rudolph.

"Yes ma'am!" He rushes off to do that, leaving you to figure out what to do about the battle unfolding before your eyes.

Rider seems to be holding up well, but you can't bring yourself to just sit back and watch. You need to help, somehow.

And more and more lately, you've been falling back on bird calls when you aren't sure what to do. But you doubt crow calls will do much here.

Sandy-mocker calls, on the other hand, might be quite useful. When they're not mimicking grebling language, they give a distinctive shriek, which you let out promptly once you're closer to the fight.

The sandy-mocker flock descends, shrieking incessantly and flying through the battle site. Rider is unperturbed, and soon disarms the one with the bladed disc. However, that isn't the end of the fight, as the raider seems more than a little adept at unarmed combat.

But, you notice, the other raider is slipping away in the confusion. If this is the same group that attacked the wagon yesterday, they'll likely be after the lodestone, or perhaps even your compass.

So what should you do now?

Run and jump on her back to take her out.

Which would have worked great, if someone else didn't beat you to it.

You do a few quick mental calculations about momentum and velocity, and reason you can probably launch yourself with enough force to knock down the intruder. You opt to go for it, without really thinking about what you'll do afterwards.

But you wind up overshooting, because someone else has the same idea. You wind up leaping over your quarry and landing face-first in the sand. Of course, your suit's more than up to the task of protecting you from that.

You pick yourself up, and turn around to see what's going on.

Wait. Starling tackled the raider? She's sick! And certainly in no shape for the struggle afterwards once the raider gets up.

You help out by lunging at the raider's legs, but they kick you away.

"Damn greblings," the raider snarls in a female voice. "They never learn their place until you lock 'em up for a good week."

The fact that she's speaking Common suggests these aren't the Dune Wanderers after all. More worryingly, she's talking like a slaver. You're angry, but also confused. The slavers haven't attacked the camp since your crew drove them off three years ago. Why would they be striking now?

And... why does her voice sound so familiar?

You recognize this voice! It sounds just like someone who is about to get a big 'ole grebling claw mark across the face.

Wow. Starling is looking really proud of herself for someone who is also vomiting.

Oh right we still don't know who this is.

It's Pubert, he has a Sandy Mocker stuck in his robes. Probably for food. Not a good sign that the mocker overheard that phrase though, they can live up to 10 years but this one is young.

Wait, these might be Pubert's accomplices/employers trying to recoup their wagon and whatever they thought they were getting from the Dune Wanderers, if anything.

Is it time to try using civilized words with the rude intruder, as long as they're (sort of) in talking mood, or is it claws-to-the-face o'clock?

The slavers might well be involved with Pubert's dirty business, which means they'd be trying to get back the wagon. That's your best guess at the moment.

Not that you need to know much about what's going on. All you know is, this woman talks like a slaver and she's sneaking into your home. You leap at her, claws drawn, aiming for her cloaked face.

But she grabs you in mid-lunge and tosses you to the ground. Seems she's pretty good when she hasn't been caught by surprise... although Starling's sudden tackle afterwards certainly qualifies as a surprise, it seems.

"Even against amateurs, two against one's no good," the slaver mutters, pushing Starling off her. You make another lunge, and manage to scratch her arm, but she kicks you back. "Especially with that alarm blaring. This really isn't looking good."

At that moment, you hear a loud noise, and then spot the other slaver flying backwards, landing just a few feet away.

"And it's just gotten worse," she mutters, reaching into her cloak. "I suppose this qualifies as an emergency, then."

You've just gotten your footing. Starling hasn't moved in a while, which is worrying. However, Rider should be here soon, so you probably won't need to do anything more than stall her.

At the same time, she's looking right at you, and you have little doubt she's ready to counter you if you strike. But you don't think you want to give her the space to do whatever she's preparing.

What's your next move?

Yelp out some anti magic gibberish in case she's a wizard.

Throw that sand!

You know she's preparing for you to lunge again, so instead, you use what you have at hand. Namely, the sand.

You fling it at her hand as she pulls a small vial out of her cloak. You hit her hard enough that she drops the vial, and it falls towards the ground.

It lands softly in the sand, unharmed. The woman seems annoyed.

"Why couldn't the ground be harder?" she mutters, as she rushes towards the vial. But you're already making a grab for it. You pull it away just a moment before her foot steps on the spot where it was.

And a moment later, you hear a lot of shrieking, amidst a number of grebling words. Above all that, you hear a loud shout in Common.

"Stand down!"

The woman freezes for a moment, her hands already preparing to strike you. In a panic, she flees into a nearby tent. She might be looking for a hostage, or simply opting to escape without her partner.

Before you have time to process this, however, Rider returns, with the flock accompanying him.

"Where did the other one go? I couldn't get a good look."

You point to the tent, but you really should tell him what's in there.

There! In the outhouse!

There! In the outhouse!

"She jumped into the outhouse," you say as you point to it. "Are you going to need backup..."

He's already gone in before you finish asking. You're about to head in after him when a few of your crew members turn up. You quickly direct their attention to the unconscious humans, and you hand the vial off to Max to study. Might as well figure out what she was trying to do.

After that, you head in to investigate the outhouse, bringing two of your crew with you. Rider is standing near the hole, his gaze pointing at the ground.

"She's hiding under her cloak," he says. "It blends in with the sand if it's close enough to the ground. Don't let her slip away."

Well, he says that, but how exactly are you supposed to find her now?

Something else finds her for you... And that's not necessarily good news