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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1603452" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 156The remaining hours before the dawn passed all too quickly.  Mole felt as though she’d just laid her head back down when she awoke to the sound of activity within the confines of the cave.  Dannel had built the fire back up again from the remains of last night, and the smell of roasted sloth kebobs—and more importantly, hot coffee—drew her back up fully into the realm of wakefulness to face the day.  Hodge, who’d taken the last watch, had retreated back into the mouth of the cave, splitting his attention between the slope outside and the meal that Arun was turning over the flames.  As she stretched and pulled on her boots and armor, she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye.  The back of the cave was littered with bones, white shards shattered into segments ranging from a few inches to over a foot in length, but among them was something incongruous, something that had drawn her special sense for detecting that which was out of the ordinary.  She walked over in that direction, careful not to step on any of the sharp pieces of bone that jutted upward.  The thing that had drawn her eye looked similar to the bone fragments, but it was a wand, a smooth device of polished ivory.  She drew it up and examined it. “What have you found?” Zenna asked. Mole took the wand over to her friend.  She handed it to her in a way that made the symbol carved into its base clearly visible.  The others had turned their attention to the scene now, curious.  Zenna held the wand in her slender fingers.  She spoke the words of a minor cantrip, focusing a thread of magical energy into the device.  “It is depleted,” she said.  “It was a healing wand, I believe.  And by this carving—a gauntlet that I believe we are all familiar with—I can infer that its former owner was the man we seek.”Morgan asked for the wand, and Zenna handed it over to him.  “Well, we already suspected he’d been here, because of the silver plate,” Dannel said.  “At least it’s another clue that we are on the right track,” Zenna said.  For a moment the two actually looked at each other, before Zenna turned away and busied herself rolling her bedroll and packing the rest of her gear into her light traveling pack.  Dannel sighed and moved toward the cave entrance.  “I’m going to take a quick look around, make sure the trail’s clear,” he said. “Don’t go far, and watch yourself,” Arun said without looking up from his efforts at the fire. “Save me a kebob,” the elf said as he left. “No promises, elf,” Hodge replied. Mole was equally eager as she grabbed a loose piece of rag and used it to lift the small iron coffeepot from the fire.  “Ah,” she said, sniffing the thick aroma coming from the spout of the pot.  “So, what do you think we’ll find...”She was interrupted as Dannel suddenly darted back into the cave.  The others, seeing the look on the elf’s face, were quick to grab their weapons. “What is it?” Hodge asked. “There’s a good number of gnolls out there in the forest, waiting in ambush,” Dannel replied. “Did they see you?” Morgan asked. The elf nodded. Frowning, Mole put the coffeepot back down.  “So much for breakfast,” she grumbled.</blockquote>

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