booms of thunder that roll and reverberate along the gorge. For a while you sit up and watch the wild and terrible beauty of this ferocious storm, but the fatigue of your long day’s march cannot be suppressed for too long and you find yourself drifting off into fits of restless sleep.
It is an hour after dawn when you finally decide to leave the dry hollow and press on with your long trek north. The worst of the storm has passed but the rains persist to hamper swift progress. During the morning of the third day you catch sight of a trail that bisects the forest, running north to south. The heavy rain has transformed this dirt trail into a quagmire and several Eldenoran army wagons, laden with weapons and supplies, have become bogged down in the gluey mud. The troops attached to these wagons have sought shelter among the trees and, to avoid running into them, you make a short detour to the east before continuing northwards once more.
During the afternoon of the fourth day you stumble upon a clearing close to the northern perimeter of the forest. The ground is studded with sawn stumps and the soft soil is freshly turned, indicating that this area has only recently been cleared of trees. As you look across the clearing you feel a prickling sensation at the nape of your neck. It is your Kai Sixth Sense and it is warning you that this place harbours a sinister secret.
(I use KA)
You intone the words of the Brotherhood Spell Sense Evil and at once your mind is flooded with terrible images. Beneath the soil of this clearing lie the bodies of a thousand Slovian prisoners of war. Captured when Tekaro fell, they were brought here by Eldenoran guards and murdered by the merciless Vorka. This clearing is the site of their mass grave and you can detect a strong psychic presence. Mostly it comprises a lingering residue formed by the souls of the innocent men who were murdered here, but there is also something else—something invisible yet wholly evil. Your heart pounds when you suddenly realize that an evil entity has come here to feed upon the psychic remains of the slain Slovian prisoners. You sense it poses a grave and immediate threat to your life, and hurriedly you turn and run through the trees in your haste to escape its clutches.
You run headlong through the pines, desperate to put distance between yourself and the nameless horror that feasts upon the souls of the slain. Yet your swift escape is greatly hampered by thorny undergrowth and muddy ground, and by the exposed roots of trees that are wound round with claw-toothed briar. You are forcing your way through a tangle of dense foliage when you catch your foot on an exposed root. Suddenly the ground seems to disappear beneath your feet, and you lurch forwards to tumble head-over-heels to the bottom of a steep gully.
Pick a number from the Random Number Table. If you possess Grand Pathsmanship, add 3 to the number you have picked. If you possess Grand Huntmastery, add 2. If you possess Grand Nexus, add 1.
( I toss a 3 net a 8)
Your tumbling descent comes to an abrupt end when you splash feet-first into a muddy, rock-filled pool which runs along the base of this wooded gully (lose 3 ENDURANCE points).
You stagger to your feet and use the sleeve of your tunic to wipe away the mud from your stinging eyes. Then, cursing your misfortune, you claw your way out of this gully and escape into the timberlands beyond.
You are nearing the northern perimeter of the forest when you stop for a few minutes to catch your breath. You look back towards the clearing, now more than a mile distant, and for a few fleeting moments your head is filled with screams of pain and the plaintive cries of innocent men begging for their lives to be spared. These terrible sounds drive cold spikes of despair deep into your heart, but your Kai senses swiftly override these feelings of hopelessness and suddenly you realize that the sounds are not real. They are a cruel illusion, an aural hallucination planted in your mind by the evil shadow-creature.
Fearful of its sinister powers, you hurry away through the trees. Soon you emerge from the Grochod Forest upon a grassy ridge and see before you a patchwork of ploughed and fallow fields stretching to the far horizon. You recognize this land to be the Demera Quilt, the cultivated farmlands and vineries south of Duadon. The cloudy sky is darkening as night approaches yet, when you magnify your vision, you are still able to catch a glimpse of Duadon itself. This grim city lies 30 miles away, towards the northwest.
As night draws closer, a cold wind arises and the heavy rains of the past few days return once more. Chilled by the weather and by your encounter at the clearing, you scan the landscape in search of somewhere dry to spend this night. You note two places within a mile of the ridge which offer the possibility of shelter. They are a farmhouse and the overgrown ruins of an ancient castle.
(I choose the farmhouse)
You leave the ridge and trek across a ploughed field to get to a large barn, the closest of three outbuildings surrounding the remote farmhouse. You enter this barn through a rear door and discover that it shelters twelve milk cows, housed in stalls, and a few dozen chickens which are penned into a corner. You climb a ladder to a hay-loft where you discover a small store of milk, cheese, and eggs (enough for 2 Meals). You feel tired after your earlier ordeal in the Grochod Forest, and so you make a comfortable nest in the hay and settle yourself down for some much needed sleep.
You are awoken shortly before dawn by the sound of whistling. It is the farmer’s eldest son and he has risen early to milk the cows. Carefully you crawl to the ladder and look down to see the young man standing directly below. He is holding a pitchfork in his right hand and he is about to climb up the ladder. You pull away to avoid being seen and hurriedly you look around for another way out. The only other exit is a small loading door through which bales of hay are hoisted by line and pulley into the loft.
(Loading Door)
You crawl to the open door and look down to see a wide, stone-paved pathway which leads from the main farmhouse to the barn. There is no ladder, and a rope pulley that is fixed to a wooden gantry above the door is missing its rope. You hear the farmer’s son climbing the ladder to the loft and you steel yourself in readiness to jump through the doorway to the ground, some 30 feet below.
(I use KA)
You whisper the words of the Brotherhood Spell Levitation and feel yourself rising from the ledge of the loft door. As soon as you are clear of the doorway, you negate the effects of the spell to bring about a smooth descent to the ground. The instant your feet touch down on the pathway, you take off at a run towards the farm’s main gate.