“Three days ago would have been the night of the attack,” said Darius. Kayla spoke up too. “Remember, the morning after the attack I was supposedly contacted by Elion. He said he was in these woods. He wanted us to come out here. I think we may have been lured into a trap.” She pulled out and petted the real Elion now in rat form. “We should be careful,” said Ben. “Perhaps it would be wise to head back to the keep?” Darius turned and looked at the white rat. He asked it about his missing brother and if he had seen him the night of his transformation. The little creature seemed to shrug as its only response. The three scouts lead the team back to the bear carcass. It smelled of death and decay. Igor arrived late as he was trailing behind to wipe clean the group’s tracks. He had noticed the Druidess left no tracks at all. Igor was slightly perturbed about the disadvantage that put him in if ever events came to a bad end. “And they always do,” he thought.
The others confirmed the bear was the dryad’s defender. Ogre-sized tracks led from the death scene toward the southeast; the direction of the Chaos Caves. Stuffing their ears in case they ran into a very angry dryad, they followed the footprints. When they arrived at the dryad’s grove they saw her fallen tree had been hacked up. Saw blades, hatchets, and even fire had killed the tree. No woman was to be found. Holly felt hollowness all around her. To Father Ben, she looked as if she would cry. Igor examined the tree and the cuts. Discretely he filled an entire vial full of sap from the wounds. The large footprints met in the grove with several booted tracks, which they believed belonged to another group of orcs like the ones they had originally fended off. The team unplugged their ears and cautiously moved closer.
Drawing weapons, they moved in formation for battle. Fearing another ambush Dram scouted ahead, but only a few yards in front of the main group. The tracks had formed a simple path through the underbrush leading back to the horseshoe hill. Ironically, Dram recognized it as the trail they had originally blazed. Ahead the kobold and goblin sentry post was spotted. Igor, Dram and Dalin snuck up on it. As they approached they saw a human skeleton with arrows sticking through its ribcage had been hung over the blind. No other creatures were in sight as they cautiously searched the area. Dalin noticed an old metal shield propped against a nearby oak. It had Common lettering on it, but none of the three scouts were literate enough to read the words. Going back they brought forward the rest of the party. Ben read the shield: “It says ’STAY OUT’. I think they don’t want us here. We should go around and approach from a different side, preferably the far side so they don’t see or suspect us coming.”
Igor reached out and pulled the skeleton to cut it down. WHOOSH! He flew through the air as a rope pulled tight around his legs and hefted the chef high into the air. At the same time, stones flew from the tree that had bent down and into the metal shield leaning nearby. Klak-lak-lak-lak-lak. The clattering stones completed a makeshift alarm system. Some took off running back they down the trail, while others cut Igor down (making sure not to set off another trap). Back at the downed tree only half the party was collected. They headed north to the Quesquaton cave, their usual rendezvous point. Once every member was accounted for they decided to enter the cave and think of another plan. “Remember the pit!” Dram called out as they approached the old cave’s mouth. Dram scouted the entrance again marking the edges of the pit as Igor was relegated to covering tracks again. Sitting inside, they chewed down cold food, while contemplating how they were going to attack the caves.
Darius pulled out his map and the others gathered around. They decided to approach from the south, which was the far side from the one they normally approached and from their current position in the black hill. More lookouts would likely be posted, so the scouts would be on point again and cautious not to engage anything. Finished planning, the team looped around to the east and down the riverside until they were south of they chaos cave hill. Then they cut west until they could see inside the hill’s ravine on it west side. The scouts spied into the interior, hoping to see anything walking or out of the ordinary. Daylight lit the whole area and nothing moved within. The goblin cave to their left was now boarded up with logs. None of the caves had smoke coming from them. Dropping back they consulted the map again and tried to point to the smoking cave from the previous trip, which Darius believed belonged to the orcs. Kayla advised fighting the orcs as they may have the answers to their questions about Zelligar. She believed the orcs were remnants of his old cult.
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