Within a Caravan heading to West Lake, a group of capable fighters scouts ahead in search of possible threats. This was requested by the Caravan leader, Amadu Dunai, a well-traveled human man, well humored and covered in tattoos.
The group is made up of Bai-Tel, a construct with missing memories; Fzz, a yellow goblin holding a topaz close to his heart; Rover Dangerfield, a Canid Nephili with hidden motivations; Sameera Maeda, an experienced fisherwoman; and Ssor Kai, a Yatszerkai police type I don't remember how its called rn.
They fight a group of lizard hiding under a bridge, alongside the veteran Rangi Adiboyun. After the fight, the Caravan continues on. During this, Bai-Tel casts detect magic on Fzz's topaz, under the condition that the construct doesn't touch it. In response, the stone glows brightly, past Bai-Tel's internal spell, it's glow visible to others as well.
Afterwards, the Caravan continues on, stopping when finding a dispute between a Yatszerkai and a human. The human accused the other man of aggression, and in response the Yatszerkai insisted that the human was using the bias against lizard-folk to incriminate him, stealing a family heirloom. Rover and Fizz try to search through the human's many layers, recieving aggression in response. Ssor Kai, who works to secure the roads between cities, cuffs him, with intent to search him once they reach Tarpool.
They approach the town, and find that the farms surrounding it have been trampled, no workers present in the distance. Bai-Tel, Fzz and Ssor Kai all notice bug legs on the ground, a distant buzzing becoming obvious once they search for it in the distance. The bugs that fill the Quarry seem to have moved west, clearing out Tarpool, no visible townsfolk as the Caravan reaches it's buildings. Amadou asks Bai-Tel about their memories of The Quarry, and they explain how despite the number of bugs present, they weren't aggressive, one of them speaking to the construct. reminder to self switch the last two paragraphs around ugh