War Camp, Glacia, Autumn,

[glacial_witch]

Between what Dinah and Momoko had found and the fact that winter was very, very close now, it was time to take serious action. There had been skirmishes up and down Glacia ever since they had fled the capitol, but nothing definitive. Karla still held the north, Hobart the south. And with winter practically breathing down their necks, things were

Comments

The Debriefing

[glacial_witch]

"Okay," Karla said, once everyone had arrived and taken a seat around the table. "Dinah and Momoko are going to go over what happened. I know we've all probably heard most of it already, but getting it all at once from their mouths directly can only help. Raven, feel free to chime in at any point, okay?"

She sat back down and nodded to Dinah to go ahead.

Re: The Debriefing

[blondecanary]

"Soo, you guys probably heard some of this, but... anyway. People were disappearing into the woods from two villages on either side of this forest." Dinah pointed to the spot on the map. "For the last several weeks. Some would come back out, traumatized and certain they were attacked by Arcerian cats. Even without the right kind of wounds. Momoko and I went to the village on the west here, and confirmed the stories, and the number missing from that town, and then headed into the forest, following the most-used path, until we saw areas where the grass and forest had been cut."

[heromaniac]

Momoko nodded. "The cuts appeared to be sword-made and not, like, useful cuts? We followed them further into the woods, encountering a trap that had me seeing a pack of feral, blood soaked cats ready to attack us."

A shrug, as she admitted, "If it had been any one of the villagers running into that trap, I'm sure that their lack of familiarity with the Arcerians and just the general image would have sent them running home."

[blondecanary]

"If they could find home." Dinah made a face. "There was a getting-lost spell in the area too, and if we hadn't been marking the trail as we went, it would've been impossible to get out when we wanted to. We think the spell was on a spider-web Momo walked into. I pulled Momoko out of it, because I wasn't seeing the same thing, and then we decided to do some aerial reconnaissance."

Ahem. Aaaand no that meant they hadn't come immediately back to camp when they encountered Craft, lalala, shush.

[glacial_witch]

Which was earning them a look yes.

"In the future, you're bringing at least one Blood with you," Karla informed them wearily. "To make sure pertinent information gets back to camp."

Because if they'd been lost to the Black Widows, the army still probably wouldn't know.

"That's an order, by the way."

Maybe they didn't have a contract, but Karla's turf, Karla's rules.

[heromaniac]

Momoko was totally wanting to scream NOT FAIR, but she didn't.

"Yes, Lady."

Stupid being a QUEEN Karla instead of Karla-Karla.

"We found an odd spacing in the forest and when we touched down, there was a clearing with a smaller group of trees in the center, hidden by a kind of misty fog. When we touched these trees, they were the missing villagers. While Dinah tried to see what was happening and I called Raven for back-up."

SEE? They'd done SOMEthing right!

"We were attacked by three men, Blood. We managed to bring them in; Julian has them."

[blondecanary]

"And one witch. Who is also back in custody." Dinah rubbed her head. "Name's Genoveva, and she had the them stuck in a repeating loop of their worst fears. Drowning for one guy, a fiery room for one of the women... well, you get the idea."

[trigons_child]

"We were able to bring them out of it, but it took some effort," Raven said. "Their fears threatened to pull us down with them."

[blondecanary]

"Quite a bit of effort." Dinah blew out a breath. "So, yeah. We'll need Blood back-up next time, because among other things, the guys who jumped Momoko were communicating with her, and we're not sure we got everyone who was in on the scheme, so... They were working on trying to make people scared of you, Karla. Arcerian allies, and some images in there of scary Karla, come to kill them all."

[glacial_witch]

Oh, how this would come to feel familiar in a few years.

"So, they're using Black Widows to turn our own supportive territories against us. Which, as I'm sure I don't have to tell you, is bad news." Karla rubbed her temples. "Anything else?"

[heromaniac]

"Just questions." Momoko was frowning. "I totally don't think that Genoveva could do all of this on her own. I mean, I was in on her initial interview that she gave, and... is she that good? And WHY did they pick there to do this? Were they protecting something or was it just familiar or just easy...?"

...

"But maybe Julian will have those answers."

[blondecanary]

"I'm guessing the 'where' was 'it's convenient' and in between two villages to terrorize at once. The rest of it..." But yeah, Dinah wasn't sure either. "We dropped the villagers off back at their homes, got their families to look after them. Made sure they knew who we worked for, and they were pretty happy to have them back. Beyond that, I'm wondering if people are going missing somewhere else in Glacia, with this same set-up."

[heromaniac]

Momoko disagreed with the 'convenience' theory, but she wasn't going to bring that up again; it had been in her report.

"Also, the discontent" Momoko flipped through her notes... "How widespread is it, and what can we do to contain it. Especially from getting to our troops and suppliers."

"Anyone have any questions?"

[glacial_witch]

Sorry, Momoko. You weren't getting off that easily. "Momo, didn't your report say that you thought it was more than just convenience and randomness that were influenced this location?" Karla asked, steepling her fingers in front of her face.

[heromaniac]

Momoko gave Dinah an apologetic look before answering her Queen.

"Spreading discontent deep in your territories is a good idea, but like Dinah said at the time, there's no mass communication here. Anything that was stirred up in Kovel would have to travel with the loggers or the people following the herds. Trade is done with the neighboring town. They don't get much traffic otherwise, even off the Winds. They told us that when we were trying to figure out where the villagers had gone."

"So why there? I mean, sure there's a ready-made location for doing the villainy, but random strikes don't make sense if Hobart's trying to break your fandom

[glacial_witch]

Well, if Momoko wanted Karla to go paler than even normal, she'd succeeded. Darting a glance over to Jono, she asked, "Do you agree?"