“Move that one a little more to the left,” Lisa yelled, “No my left. These formation flags have to be precise.”

Ashley obliged, digging with her claws to shift the dirt around.

“Alright, that's good.”

The poles were made with a modular design to minimize packing space. Each segment was half a meter long but with a progressively smaller radius so that they could collapse in on themselves. A short wooden pin was perpendicularly inserted to adjust the height of the next pole. Three poles formed a triangle around two central poles for a total of five.

At various heights, carefully braided wires of copper, bronze, and tin were strung between the poles and from the wires hung cloth talismans embroidered with drider silk thread.

The process of assembling the formation took hours, but Lisa spent at least as much time ensuring everything was placed correctly.

“This thing looks more like a witch's clothesline than a magical formation,” Ashley mumbled.

“Alright, I’m activating it now.”

There was no buzzing in the air. No gust of wind forming a cyclone of power. No hint of any change at all. Just cloth blowing in the wind… like a clothesline.

“Is it broken?” Ashley asked doubtfully.

“If it was broken, you would have noticed.”

“But... I don’t see any magic happening?”

“You won’t. It takes hours to work, slowly forming a link in space between itself and the corresponding formation in my sect. Trans-materializing the carcass instantaneously is possible in theory, but more likely to… have unintended side effects. Especially if there is an error... or sudden gust of wind… or a bug crawling around.”

Camp was set up early with expectations for the formation to work well into the night.

“We should return to town tomorrow,” said Sara.

“What? But we just left,” Ashley pouted.

“It’d be hard to protect the animals if we kept going,” said Lisa, “Not to mention feeding them.”

“I’m afraid we won’t be able to return just yet,” said Avery.

“Oh, come on,” Sara snapped, “You two can take a trip out any time. We–”

“That isn’t the issue,” Avery said, holding up the master navigation orb. Within the orb, the needle which was supposed to show the direction to Convail constantly shifted from pointing up, down, then up once more.

“What’s that mean?”

“The link between this orb and the one in Convail was broken. Either we traveled much farther than should have been possible, or–”

“Someone fucked us over,” Lisa sighed.

“Yes,” Avery agreed, “Most likely, someone shattered the paired waystone.”

Silence spread throughout the camp as they each considered the situation.

“How bad is it exactly?” Ashley asked. ”I knew the orb was what was supposed to lead us home, but I didn’t know any of the specifics beyond that. Like, is it ‘never able to go home’ bad...or.”

“It’s complicated,” said Lisa, “it means–”.

“Don’t worry too much,” Sara consoled, “people can track down our orb and send a rescue party. We just have to wait until we are found and brought back.”

“It’s more than that,” Lisa continued, “If the waystone is broken, someone must have broken it. Yes people can track us to send a rescue party, but so can whoever destroyed the waystone in the first place.”

“Right, so in a few days we need to be careful. But eventually we will be saved,” said Sara.

“If I was planning to attack someone like this, I would send trackers before I broke the waystone,” Lisa muttered.

“In other words, we could be set upon at any time,” said Hellen, “Which means we either run, and hope the rescue team finds us before we are whittled down, or defend, and hope the attacking force is carefully balanced to give us a fighting chance.”

“The tracking will have a degree of inaccuracy,” said Avery, “Our pursuers will be forced to search an area of one, maybe two, kilometers in diameter. (~1 mile)

“That should force them to split their forces at least,” said Sara.

“True, but it’ll encourage them to send more people as well. We should make preparations. Lead them by the nose into traps while keeping an eye out for our rescue team.”

“If I were doing the attacking, I would disguise my troops as the rescue team.” said Hellen.

“Right, so we can’t trust anyone that comes looking for us,” Lisa agreed.

“Well, we can’t just attack everyone we see! We might kill our rescuers,” said Sara.

“In summary, we have incoming friends and foes. In addition to being unable to distinguish between the groups, we must also consider the possibility of foes hiding among our allies. Adding to the confusion, the groups will be split up into smaller search parties.” said Avery, “Comments?”

“We also have the cubs to protect,” Sara said, “I don’t want them getting mixed up in any skirmish.”

“We should make this spot a decoy camp.” Lisa suggested, “Leave the formation running to give it credibility while we hide elsewhere.”

“Can’t we use the master orb for a trap?” Ashley suggested

“We could, but if they do get a hold of it then they can use it to track our sub-orbs,” said Hellen.

“Or destroy it, or throw it in a monster’s lair,” Lisa added, “That would leave us stranded, with no way for the rescue team to find us.”

“Our rescuers could also find it first and trigger the trap.” Sara added, causing Ashley to pout from her idea being shot down.

“Right, so we need two things.” Avery concluded. “First, a way to capture or incapacitate numerous incoming small groups without allowing them to regroup after finding a lead. Second, a method of interrogation to determine if they are friend or foe once captured. Preferably without torture.”

“I’ll just lightly bop them on the back of the head,” Ashley said, waving her mace.

“I have some paralytic powders,” Hellen offered, “They will be a bit less likely to cause brain and spine injuries.”

“I can make some talismans that produce a short burst of air. Pack it with the powder into a lightly sealed bamboo shoot and it’ll make an effective distribution device.”

“As far as detection goes, surely our rescue party would send a few people we trust along.” said Sara, “I can use a bit of water magic to form a lens. Hopefully we can identify them at a distance and not attack and interrogate them”

“Can’t you tell if they’re lying with those whiskers of yours?” Ashley asked.

“I can’t tell the truth from a lie, but I can tell if their emotions are out of the ordinary. It might be able to help a little but it can be fooled.”

“Alright, for now we will split into groups.” Avery said, “Hellen, Ashley, and Sara search the area for a good place for an ambush, preferably a cave or somewhere confined so the poison can’t easily dissipate. Lisa, work on the talismans while your guard keeps lookout. I’ll take my guards to cover our tracks and the signs of battle with the owlbear.“