Refleev looks to Lorien for a second and then nods his head "Aye, there be many a switch back and hallow within these hills and this riverbed is old, with other ways cut into it. I be close to the end of my ropes also, but iffin ye want I will try an make a trail that turns back iffin Master Lorien can scout ye out a camp..."
[occ]Assuming that you are in agreement, if not I can edit the following, and I will bum up the timeline a bit...
Lorien finds a good location for the group and their horses to hold up, away from the riverbed and safe from the elements (it is fairly cold already tonight). Setting up watches and eating a cold meal, Refleev turns a couple of hours later and falls instantly to spell...after telling whomever is on watch to wake him for his turn also.
While noises and sounds can be heard throughout the eve... night birds and lizards, maybe even a hunting cat, all watches are uneventful. Sleeping in a bit, and waking all a few hours after sunrise, the party again moves out. When they return to the riverbed, no other tracks but the party's and the raiders that you are following are visible. Refleev shakes his head and says "Iffin they know we be a coming, why do they not send anyone back to check? Lessin they don't leave tracks..."
Just after midday, the party slowly make it way up a hill and looks down into a deep valley spread below. In the center of the valley (about 4 miles from your present location) a large black stoned fortress or manor can been seen. All get the impression that it is some vast and noxious toad squatting there, atop a hill, surrounded on all sides by a wretched and diseased forest. Three towers rise up from the main fortess's body like horns or spikes from a creatures back. Deep and dark windows looks like hollowed out holes or mutant eyes upon it unwholesome body. The trail of the wagon tracks leads straight into the ill forest, and a sense of forborne and sickness seems to cling to the very air you all breath...
