Like Cinder, I'm also in the "Follow the trail on foot" camp. It seems a bit much and overly complicated having Lia ferry people back and forth and dealing with familiars, rotations, 3-axis movements, and the air speed velocity of swallows. There's too high of a chance of losing the trail and it's kind of against the spirit of Dungeons & Dragons in general to go so far out of the way to avoid adventure.
Furthermore, there's no guarantee that these people we're after haven't already reached their destination given the one week headstart they had. They don't necessarily have to be out in the open either. In fact, I'd say it's much more likely that they're in a cave or, you know, dungeon, which would be difficult to see from the sky.
I thought that Cinder posted about taking the airborne option earlier. That is why I posted as I did. This is one of those moments where the leader's decision should be final on the matter. People have shared their opinions and it is up to Velon to make the call. Lia will support him in whatever his decision is. I'm just ready to begin the next phase of our campaign. A month of downtime is enough.
Right, he went with the idea begrudgingly, hoping to move forward with the story. Re-read his posts. He initially made a decision and wanted to grab supplies quickly so that we could follow the trail on foot. After that decision, folks started pushing the familiar/Skycastle plan which brought up 1) ferrying people back to the castle, 2) whether or not familiars could even do that, and other things which bogged things down. I totally understand why he's frustrated.
It was a idea and I understand that the castle moves faster. Now that we have found the trail again lets see if we can figure out where they went. Are we landing and disembarking or looking for possible places where this Dwarf and company may be laying in wait as he knows what to look for when it comes to the skycastle?