The remainder of the evening passes uneventfully. The area around you remains quiet, as if the animal life is hesitant to come back. Midian's ape seems restless as well. When the morning arrives so too does the sounds of returning birds and primates. You break your fast on rations and pack up your camp.After checking your bearings once more you continue making your way towards where Dorel saw the smoke.
The day passes slowly as you make your way across the interior. Most of your day is spent crossing two large ridges whose steep faces present a challenge to your climbing skills. Between the ridges is a densely forested region hung heavily with spider webs. You move quickly and quietly through the area before its denizens notice your presence.
The day is waning when you top the second ridge. Your eyes widen as you take in the view before you. Hidden in the folds of land is a large valley teaming with activity. You crouch lower and move under the trees so your profile is not seen highlighted against the sky. The valley before you has been ravaged. Dead trees and brush extend for hundreds of feet, radiating out from a central encampment. You can see several dozen tents set up in ordered lines around the site. Earthen banks and a palisade of sharpened tree trunks ring the edges. It appears as if a massive excavation is underway. Part of the opposite ridge has been scoured and huge chunks of stone have been quarried away. Large sections of the cliff face have been covered in tarps, either to protect it from weather or spying eyes. Whatever it is, it is colossal in size. Humanoids move about the camp, some in armor, some in robes, and a few in rags and chains.
Midian
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For several hundred feet in all directions from the camp the forest has died off. Dead trunks and skeletal branches lie closest to the camp while the trees farther out still have leaves just beginning to brown and curl away. It seems to have a definitive edge to the corruption, which leads you to believe that the blight is not natural or the result of a poisoned water supply.
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Dorel
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Raising your spyglass you look over the encampment with an expert eye. You can immediately tell that whoever laid out the encampment had some military experience. The tents are in ordered rows and spaced out to prevent a fire in one from spreading to another, yet close enough that an alarm raised from one would rouse the others. The earthen banks, ditches, and palisade are likewise carefully formed to create a formidable defense. You get a closer look at the figures moving about and see that they are mostly human, though here and there you catch sight of dwarven faces. The ones in rags and chains all seem to be human, and likely some of them are the missing ones from Kraken's tribe. You watch them trek up to one of the covered sites and duck underneath. They don't reemerge indicating that there may be further sections underground that you cannot see. Perhaps the most significant sight however, is seeing one of the slaves carrying several long grey bones on a cart towards one of the larger tents.
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OOC - I'll put up a map later when I have more time
