The group gathers and heads north. They have the two light horses they took from the assassins. The journey lasts several days. All wounds heal. Eusebius takes a little time in Beth Hannon, the next large town, to investigate Arkenthrasher. He hears only what he's heard before. The paladin was well respected. If he had any faults, it was that he was uncompromisingly brave and unswervingly moral.
While in Beth Hannon, staying at a little hostel near the road, Boog has a strange dream. He is beset by various dark figures. He fights well, using his psionics to good effect. But he eventually runs out of power and the dark figures keep coming. Overwhelmed, he is struck down. An evil face leans over his prone form. It is a woman, both beautiful and horrible, human yet inhuman. She raises a wicked curved, serrated knife. She plunges it down...Boog awakes writhing in his cot.
At this point, please take a moment to consider how you would travel. Who is riding what? What do you keep in your hands as you go?
The trip goes well. No more encounters disturb their march. They have put in a long day now, here, the last day of Novemeber. They left early in hopes of reaching Braeholl by nightfall. It is now getting dark. What remains of the sunlight is just reaching over the canopy of leaves overhead. On the other side of the road, to the east, you see that the forest begins to thin out and give way to a large hill that captures the light of the setting sun; to the west, the richness of the Forest carries on and on. With out warning, several husky looking shapes emerge from the western tree line and scurry across the road and back through the trees. Being several hundred feet away, it appears that you avoided detection. Yet it does not matter, for you can now hear a horse galloping through the forest behind you. You turn in time to see a large war-horse stopping on the road. Its rider has spotted you; even though he wears a priest's robes, he is obviously not a priest. Seconds later, four more figures, heavily armed and also wearing robes, break the tree line.
Even in the dimming light, the figures are unmistakable. They are orcs.
The five orcs are about 40 feet behind the part at this point. Initiative: Eusebius, Beamer, Banion, Orcs, Juliana, Boog.