Less than a day. Your falcon speeds off in the air along the dirt track, looking for anything unusual that might suggest Umberto and Maria have passed that way.
Hmmm, that bird of yours solves a problem of ours.
If you send it up the dirt track, we can speed along the main road in the meantime to try and set up our trap on that stone Poo bridge - we can look for their tracks and question a few Eyetalians along our way just in case. If we made the correct choice, then that’ll be that and it’ll be all over but for Ingrid’s lullaby. If your friend catches a glimpse of them on the other track we can cross the Poo and double back to maybe catch them on or slighty after the wood bridge.
I’d be wary of conjuring tricks and mirages however - I’ve heard tell of wizards who could turn invisible or appear different than they…err… appear. Still, there can’t be too many people on horses speeding to Milan besides us, right ?
I can make Survival checks once in a while to check for horse tracks, though obviously horse tracks on a) major b) stone roads… yes.
I think the main highway is the way to go. If I were these two, I’d be prioritizing speed over most other considerations right now. The sooner they get to Milan the safer they’ll be. Finding a boat to cross rather than using a bridge would just be more time - time that they don’t have.
OK. I need a marching order, and then we can begin.
If anyone has a ride skill, I’d suggest they take the lead. Giacomo has no special training in ride but his natural dexterity makes him fairly comfortable on a horse. He’ll be in the two or three spot, I think, keeping an eye peeled. He agrees with the plan so far, and that the road is our best bet. (Anyone heard from our alchemist?)
We are definitely a foot-based party, so I don’t think our riding order matters too terribly much. In the event of trouble we’ll have to dismount and form up anyhow.
In general terms, though, I’d suggest Harald up front, Aji in the rear, and Giacomo and Solsken riding flank with Joseph, Taye, and Zachary in the middle. In the event that we get assaulted from the front, The Brute is fast enough that he should be able to engage quickly, even from behind the main line of battle.
Zachary might stay right side up on a donkey if there were no hurry, but don’t expect great feats of chivalry from him. Are we able to take the cart? He’s happier with that.
The cart would probably slow us down, not to mention be conspicuous as all getout. Though I suppose it *could *come in handy to block the road…Hmm.
As for the riding skill, it only matters when you start trying to do flying circus shit - mounting, dismounting or just riding along doesn’t require a check. Thank the Gygax for that, cause Harald ? Not the horsiest horseman to ever horse, exactly 
Taye is fine riding in middle. I’ll keep my crossbow loaded and ready while we ride.
The first day of travel is uneventful. The countryside is very pretty at the height of summer, and fields of wheat wave on the flats while olive orchards and vineyards dot the hillsides. The heat is still intense, and mirages float on the horizons. The party makes excellent time along the old Roman highway.
The first night is uneventful. You set a watch, but nothing happens throughout the night other than a fox chewing through a saddlebag and eating into the bacon.
Early the next morning, Solsken’s falcon cuts in with a vision. Two peasants, a young man and woman, are moving quickly down a dirt track on the backs of a pair of donkeys, much more swiftly than you’d expect such low beasts to travel. What’s caught Stjärna’s attention is the way that their features seem to distort when in full sunlight, and reassemble into normality when they move back into the shade of trees. Solsken can see in Stjärna’s peripheral vision that the couple are just a few miles south of a broad river.
I relay this information to my compadres. My bird shall remain as far away as she needs to to avoid detection. [Weather report?]
Hot and dry, though noticeably more clouds than yesterday. It’s possible you’ll get rain later in the day.
[SIZE=2]Rassum frassum howsaman s’posed to begin his day prop’ly if there’s no bacon, thass what I wanna know…
L[/SIZE]ooks like we should saddle up and make haste, gentlemen - with any luck we can still intercept them before they reach the safety of Milan ! **YAH **! Hurry up you devilbwoaah not so fast you mangy son-of-a-so-and-so !
Yes, let’s ride as swiftly as we can.
Which sentry was so lax as to allow vermin to enter the camp? If that was Taye’s bacon there will be hell to pay! After mounting, Taye checks that the crossbow is still loaded and in working order.
“Friends, since we will be traveling together, perhaps we should know a bit about each other. I, for instance, am well traveled, but only speak Italian and Latin. Do any of you have other tongues? Portuguese as an example?”
"Oh, Sosken and I have walked many roads in Christendom as well. You pick up the odd word here and there, you know how it is. Curse words and such. He’s better at it than me, however, and when he can’t gab with the locals you’d swear he talks to their dogs !
Although I have to say, for some reason this Italian mumbo jumbo starts making sense to me. Maybe it’s the company of other people of the road. It’s much less pleasing to the ears than my native Norwegian o’course, but what can you do short of conquering all of Europe in the name of King Haakon and force everyone to speak a *proper *tongue, eh ?"
“Taye does not use curse words, being Gifted, when I tell someone to ‘go to hell’ there is a good chance of a demon appearing to help them along.”
“Conquering Europe sounds a fine idea to me, though in the name of King Taye would be better. The accursed, Osanna Penne, never bothered teaching me my native tongue. ‘Latin is the language of the mage, that is what you need to know’ he would say. Too bad I could only kill him once.”
What’s the plan? Are you making a bee-line for the bridge overland? Going back towards Genoa and trying to overtake from behind? Continuing toward Milan and trying to get ahead of them? You’re probably too far from the bridge to overtake the suspects before they reach it.
I say we triangulate : dash to our bridge and towards Milan, make a J-turn all hooves screeching and try to ambush them either on or slightly after theirs. Tuscany isn’t really canyon or forest country sadly, so I doubt we’ll be able to really lock 'em in if they cross (or if the fuckers can fly, too).
That being said, Harald ain’t exactly the brains of this outfit, so if someone has a better idea he’ll cheerfully follow.
Overtaking them wold be ideal, but I don’t know if we are fast enough. Let’s see if we can close the distance, with the bird keeping an eye on things. We may just have to ride them down.