After eating an early midday meal the heroes left the logging camp to began their trek into the forest. The edges of the forest were mostly "new growth" from the last ten or fifteen years, and so the underbrush was thick and chocking in places. This made penetrating the interior difficult and the heroes had to chop their way through at many locations. By the time they had to turn back before sunset, they figured they had only made five or six miles of progress.
That night they were sore and aching from the hard work and were ready for rest and a hot meal. Setting the same watches as before they bedded down for much needed sleep. The night again past uneventfully, although most were awakened at least once by the strange calls and growls of the forest animals.
In the morning they found one of their carts pushed over. There was no real damage, just something knocked it over, probably looking for food. The ground near the camp was hard packed dirt and as such there were few indications of any tracks of what might have entered the camp. But doing a careful search the heroes spotted some huge claw markings in a tree about thirty feet from the camp. They were at least thirteen maybe fifteen feet off the ground, so whatever had made them was large.
Heading into the woods again the day past much like the last but towards the end of their work, the heroes came upon an almost unnatural clearing. The plants of the area seem to lean away from the clearing as if attempting to avoid it. The grass and other shrubs within the clearing itself look sickly and half dead. Even the constant animal noises and bird calls and buzzing of insects that had been heard throughout the woods had gone silent...