After a few days rest, all are recovered.

Aged, yet virile, Clavados debriefs us – he is the Lord High Bailiff of Itea. He also introduces us to a chap called Rupert, black armour, well armed. He recognises us – he is the chap we encountered in the marsh. He is disdainful of us and our poor judgement. They then ask us for a sketch map of the temple.

During our rest time we feel our skills improving, and Nailen speaks to the armourer about what the dashing rogue about town is wearing this season. He finds a particularly sexy ring mail jerkin. The chicks will dig it! Mahan is a big smelly copycat and takes one too.

During one of our chats with Clavados a trumpet fanfare sounds, and we all exit to the courtyard. Turns out it is Lord Uther. The situation has changed – Doc Halvenstrom has to leave to meet his brother, so Uther traveled here with him and brought Rosalind. He goes to freshen up and we will explain the adventures over dinner.

While waiting, Doc Halvenstrom asks what happened at Ashwell. He is concerned by our story.

We enter the dining hall…and explain again what we saw and found. Another character, Calunas, the head librarian exclaims that he has read of the skeletons of Shandar. They are a standard temple guardian – class 1.

Uther says he will return to Dragonsfall and question Athangild further. Meanwhile, he asks that we accompany Doc Halvenstrom to Harrowstone – the road can be dangerous, and the town itself is definitely dangerous.

The next morning, we prepare to depart. We are lent some horses and some pack horses to carry food. We leave the marsh behind and eventually rise up into the hills. Towards evening we make it to the market village that was our goal. We get rooms in the Wonky Donkey inn. The night passes without incident. The innkeeper has warned that the days journey will be more dangerous – in the morning we will pass through the Plains of Low Risk, in the afternoon we will enter the Forest of Certain Danger, preceded by the Glade of Mild Peril. We will have to reach the far side before dark.

We reach a stream and a bridge – an encounter is expected. Mahan wonders if a white stag will appear. It doesn’t and we ford the stream. The forest is even darker on the other side, and colder…

We catch a glimpse of something off to the left. Possibly it was a barrow. However, we elect to continue. Night falls so we prepare a camp for the night. Watch order is Rufus, Olsen, Mahan, Nailen.

Olsen noticed during his watch that a light had appeared off to the left. During Mahan’s watch, he kept the fire going and claims he can hear music. At watch switch over, Nailen confirms that he can hear it too. It starts snowing again during my watch and it is starting to settle. We cook breakfast and then ride on. After a few hours we notice that the snow lessens and it isn’t so cold. A few miles further and the snow is all gone. Sometime later we reach another stream. After fording it, we find it feels as warm as before we forded the previous stream. Mahan now starts muttering about a White Witch… We reach the far side of the forest. There is a sense that we dodged a bullet back there – possibly the gods were trying to tempt us from our path. For better or worse? We’ll probably never know.