Jirmushi Wastelands, Mage Student Expedition

A sense of null. A feeling or vertigo. The soundless, colorless abyss consumes all notions of time as each member of the group teleported experiences the brief period of teleportation.

And as quickly as they were thrown into the abyss, they return to the material world. A collapsed mountain face, destroyed by some world-class spell, its rubble hiding glimpses of what may have transpired here. However, something seems off about the entire scene, then something clicks for all of them at about the same time.

There's no trace of flux.

A few dozen members from the Order of Astra are already on site. One such man walks up to the group. "Ah, Professor Ingram! Perhaps you can take your students to check the rockfall? We're trying to move the rockfall but we simply lack the manpower."

The Professor looks to his students. "Well, my students, we could try to track down the one who has done this... or start with the rockfall. Any suggestions?"

Marie looks around in confusion at the lack of flux in the air. She thinks about what the professor says. "Perhaps we could do both? To track whatever did this to the mountainside, it might take a while to get a fix on the mana output of the user. Wouldn't it make sense to put a student or two on tracing the mana while the rest investigate the rockfall?"

"We could probably gleam more info about our perpetrator from the rockfall. I highly doubt that whoever did this do so on a whim." she grabbed onto her cloak tightly, looking at the mountainside... or what's left of it, anyway. "If we do plan on splitting up, then I suggest the professor be with those tracking the ones responsible and sending in more people. We know not their identity but we do see the measure of what they're capable of, so the group would need all the help they can get if something were to happen. At the rockfall, the Order of Astra is around, so there's not much to worry about to those investigating."

"Regardless, I think we can all agree that we should have some form of communication among ourselves. Unfortunately, I have neither the ability nor the tools to do so." Elis said apolegetically. With this, she inquired to everyone. "Do you all happen to have something that can help with that?"

Melissa says
"Well, I agree with her.. Though could one person do this on their own?? Is it possible to distinguish between one person and many for a spell?"
She only asked this out of concern that they could be dealing with multiple perpetrators instead of one..

"I have something that should be able to help with that," Callath says, "although it will take me a couple of minutes to set it up." He then responds to Melissa with, "certainly yes, one person, creature, or thing could have done this so long as it had sufficient magical power. And it should be possible for us to discern if it were one power or many. Frankly, I'd feel safer in the event of it being the many."

Professor Ingram nods. "Very well, I shall accompany the ones following the trail. Then, should we finalize who is to do what, before we split up?"

"I'll be willing to stay behind, if only because I think my talent would be of better use here, investigating the damage site," Elis spoke, thinking of applying what she learned to good use to discover the full story behind the mountain ruins.

"I can start the mana trace to see where they went." She's already getting out a few supplies to start tracing runes.