Not too far along we find a stone that’s raised up next to one that has sunk – forming a sort of pit and altar. The altar has many skulls and the pit is full of bones, with a couple of cadavers. Closer inspection reveals that the skulls are not human – brows too pronounced, forehead slopes back. Varys states it must be some sort of prehistoric man or neanderthal.
Nothing attacks us or happens, so we continue. The road enters a range of undulating hills. It continues arrow straight with some cuttings through the larger hills.
Later in the day we see a post with another skull, painted a dull red. Could it be a territory marker, or a warning??
Approaching the crest of a hill we hear noises. Rob and Amber creep forward to investigate. Amber is chased by a snake and runs back to Morgan like a big cissy. Rob returns and tells us that a troop of hairy men are fighting a huge lizardy dinosaur.
We crest the hill and watch from a safe distance. For an hour they harry the beast with spears. Their dodging skills are impressive and none of them are hurt in the time it takes them to kill it. As they begin to butcher it for meat we hear another bellowing roar from up the valley to the west. The hairy men hurry.
Eventually the roars get closer and they run off. We follow along the top of the ridge.. Behind us we see a huge bipedal lizard. It stops at the dead dinosaur and starts to eat.
In the gathering dusk we lose sight of the hairy men but we follow in their general direction and over the crest of the next valley we see caves in the hillside. We spot that one flickers slightly with firelight and debate long on what to do. Another roar helps us decide and we approach the cave.
It’s protected by some large spikes driven into the rocks but we can easily slip between them. They are designed for something on a bier scale.
Next we come to a ring of thorny bushes. As we ponder what to do the light of our torches has been spotted and about 5 hairy men emerge from the cave grunting and howling. They throw spears at us, but luckily miss. Varys casts Sleep and all is quiet…
By the time we cut our way through the bushes the cave entrance is clear. We enter cautiously, Amber and Bael at the front. Bael strums his lute, playing a soothing tune. Behind the fire, the hairy men are standing tensly, teeth bared, spears raised. They clearly fear us but daren’t strike.
We keep calm and slowly approach the fire. The mexican standoff continues for a while, but we make no threatening moves, and start to cook and share some of the lizard meat we still have.
Tensions reduce sufficiently that we can get rest and are not attacked.
Next morning it is clear they want us to leave. We do so, and 4 of them follow us at a discrete distance.
We return to the road and continue north. The hairy men trail us, but are always careful to never walk on the road…
For a while, the road follows a valley, eventually it turns off to the west, but the road continues straight into a cave in the hillside. And at the cave entrance is another post with a skull sitting atop.