Silent-passage

So it is with slight trepidation that the heroes descend from the mountain pass, and into the Darguun foothills. With the aim to keep a low-profile and treat any encounters on a case-by-case basis, they try their best to remain alert.

They follow the river down through the foothills and along a ravine. After a day of travel they are off the mountain and the land has dropped away vastly. It is almost level in places, if you ignore the natural undulations.

Close to nightfall, they start to keep an eye out for a place to camp the night. Just as they are about to stop for the night, they find the decayed bodies of two goblins laid near some rocks. After a closer inspection of the area they surmise that it looks like the goblins had been attacked by someone with a bladed-weapon, the bodies had been left where they fell, although relieved of all belongings. They corpses had been chewed on by natural predators, but they had been dead for around six months and were unlikely to pose any kind of threat.

They camp the night at the side of the ravine, where the river splits into two, a few hundred yards upstream from the goblin bodies.

The next morning they follow the river southeast and find a very rough trail. With the trail going in the direction they require, they follow it whilst keeping in mind that a trail might mean humanoids nearby.

By midday they have closed to within a mile of the lake that they could see from the mountains. The river still follows a ravine and there is more evidence of humanoid activity nearby.

Eventually they spot some land up ahead that has been worked and is in the process of growing crops. Scouting a little further they manage to see some Kobolds working in the fields, tending the crops and watering them from the river.

A quick discussion occurs and the heroes decide to pass the kobold farmers by without speaking to them. They decide to remain in sight of the kobolds though as a gesture of trust and to show that they have nothing to hide or ill-intent.

The kobolds stop work briefly when they notice the group pass, but they don't attempt to establish contact, and soon return to their daily routine. With a small sigh of relief, the group leave the kobolds behind and converge on the lakeside.

With evening drawing close, the group manage to find a small cave, six-foot square and bed down for the night. Again the night passes peacefully, but upon waking Hawk makes a worrying discovery.

"Who's been eatin’ extra food rations?" he asks. Blank faces and shrugs are all he gets in reply. "There was more left last night when we went to sleep, someone has etted more in the night."

With everyone denying all charges, and everyone able to have at least one other person provide them with an alibi, they conclude that a third party must be stealing the food from the mule's side-bags during the night.

"It'll be some cursed Quickling or fairy" suggests Vaelas with a sneer of contempt. "Wait till I get my hands on it."

Hawk heads out to hunt for some extra food to replace the lost trail rations, and is lucky enough to catch a cat-sized game bird with enough meat on it to feed everyone for a meal.

The group agree to keep a more careful watch the next night and during the days travel, and set off following the lakes' shoreline south-eastwards. They circumvent the lake without encountering another living sole, although before long they soon encounter more remains of some.

"It looks like the remains of multiple wild animals." Hawk states examining the various bones littering the sides of the river. "Could be a mountain lion nearby, we should press on and put some distance between us and this place before nightfall."

The day progresses and before long they find themselves following the same river they were following before, only exiting the lake instead of entering it. Janin raises the concern that they aren't certain that this is the exact river they have depicted on the map.

They soon encounter a fairly significant looking double bend in the river though that seems an uncanny representation of the next symbol on the map they are following. They take that as proof enough that they are on the right track.

With their third night in Darguun closing in they start to look for a place to camp and decide that near the river bend is as good a place as any to bed down. They set a watch, re-suggest that a close eye is kept on the pack mule, and settle down for the night.

Before going to sleep Hawk spends a few moments sprinkling some water in the soil around the pack mule, in the hope that softer soil will help to leave a clue if someone is stealing their food during the night.

Night passes quietly and first thing Vaelas does in the morning is to check the saddlebags.

"There's more gone! Anyone see anything during the night?" he asks. Again shrugs and shakes of the head are the only response.

"Let me check for any evidence of magical tom-foolery!" Dua suggests, and proceeds to explore the area with a detection spell running. "No, no sign of anything magical at all."

Hawk goes to check for footprints around the pack mule, but unfortunately it seems that Vaelas and Dua may have trodden on any evidence that the food-thief might have left behind. Grumbling to himself Hawk heads out to try and catch some more food. His efforts are soon rewarded as he catches two medium-sized Cyrean Carp for breakfast.

As the group gather their belongings and move along, they almost immediately find a pile of three gigantic boulders stacked in a rough pyramid formation.

"Intriguing, most intriguing!" states Dua. "Those three boulders are clearly ten times the size of any other boulder in the area, and the way that the third is placed almost perfectly symmetrically on the top of the other two seems more than mere co-incidence."

The other members of the group spare quick glances at him but say nothing. "You see, I propose that these boulders have been placed here by either magic or a creature far greater in size, stature and strength than anything any of us have ever seen."

"Each boulder alone must weigh at least twenty tonnes, and the strength needed to carry one of..."

"Race you to the top!" exclaims Hawk to everyone, rudely interrupting Dua's monologue.

Hawk soon reaches the top and spends a few moments scanning the countryside for miles around to try and spot where to head to next. He examines the map, turning it round as he follows it. Eventually he makes a suggestion.

"Look, the mountains we saw that are the first symbols on the map, and the boulders I’m stood on now, they are all drawn on the map so that their bases are pointing to the middle of the map. If the same is true of this next symbol, then I think it is meant to represent a stone pillar and not a bridge or ladder as we suggested it might do."

Confident in his assessment he tosses the map back down for the others to examine and scans the countryside for any sign of structure or civilisation in the surrounding area. While the others are considering his insightful suggestion, he spots something in the distance to the north.

"There! He exclaims pointing northwards. I don't know what it is I can see, it must be several miles away, but there is rock or stone that is not a natural part of the landscape."

With no other lead to follow and no reason to doubt the logic, they head off northwards. Dua does raise a minor concern that after heading south-east for four days it seems to be back-tracking a little to head north. They continue regardless though.

They spend the rest of the day making their way northwards and after a few hours they all agree that some kind of stone structures can be seen in the distance. Closing the distance over the next hour or two they soon realise that they are looking at the ruins of a town. Dirk breaks his two-day silence and offers his thoughts on the place.

"Based on the design of the buildings, it looks to me like the ruins of a Cyrean town. Probably ransacked fifty years ago during the height of the war, when Darguun declared independence and claimed part of Cyre as its own."

With the extra knowledge at their disposal, the group decide to spend the night a mile from the towns borders, and bed down. The now-standard routine occurs the next morning, grumbles about missing food, hawk tries to find some to make up for it and the others pray, meditate and concentrate.

They eventually pack up camp and head into the ruins of the Cyrean town. Solid stone buildings line the street, most of which are ruined in some manner. Some have their floors missing and open straight into cellars, some have ceilings missing and some walls missing.

Plants and foliage seem to hold sway in town, even having destroyed most of the cobbled road that runs through the town. The group travel cautiously through the deserted streets and are soon convinced that they are not alone.

"Guys," whispers Janin quietly. "I don't know what it was but I just saw something move out of the corner of my eye. By the time I turned it was gone, but we are not alone."

"I agree." Remarks Vaelas, “I heard something moving about in some of the buildings a couple of times. Different directions too, so we're dealing with more than one something."

The group close ranks a little and proceed cautiously. All of them eventually hear something that implies movement nearby. No-one manages to catch more than a fleeting glimpse of movement though.

As they arrive in the centre of the deserted town, they spot a building that looks like a temple and ascend the couple of steps to enter its doors. Vaelas and Hawk are about to step through the doors when suddenly a strange humanoid creature springs out in front of them.

The creature is five foot tall, has red eyes, a red tongue and blue-grey skin that seems to have armour-fragments growing out of it. It wields a savage looking sword and lets out a shriek at them before some how spraying fragments of metal from its skin towards Janin and Hawk.

Both adventurers manage to avoid the worst of the shrapnel by stepping to the side, they each take a few wounds though, something Hawk is not pleased about. His animalistic nature taking control of him, he uses his innate ability to shift and grow savage claws.

A quick step forward, two slashes later and the blue-grey humanoid lies in a pool of its own blood. Hawk roars and throws his head back.

"Er, guys?" Janin enquires. "Just so you know, there are four more of those creatures across the street, and they don't look too please about what you just did to their friend."