The town gate swings shut behind the party as the south road opens into scrub and low golden fields. Packs settle against shoulders. Fresh brush marks blur the trail back toward town.
A wounded pilgrim suddenly hauls themself from a roadside ditch, one hand pressed to a bloodstained travel token. Their cloak is torn, but their eyes remain alert.
The Wounded Pilgrim
Travelers, please. I need to reach the next small town before nightfall. Raiders took my companions, and I barely escaped. Get me there alive, and this token is yours. The town reeve will honor it with silver and provisions.
Slaan studies the road behind the pilgrim, while Bren watches the hedgerows and Nhal’s purple form narrows into a wary silhouette. No pursuit appears, but the ditch conceals fresh footprints.
The Wounded Pilgrim
The raiders were not ordinary thieves. They wanted the token, not our packs. I cannot carry it farther, and I cannot safely enter the town alone. Help me, and you gain a reeve’s sealed reward as well as my gratitude.
The pilgrim extends the bloodstained token toward Kynes. Beyond them, the road bends toward distant chimneys, while the closing gate leaves the party committed to the southward journey.
“I point to the small town we just left ." There you go right that way. " Avoiding the token. While Nhal casts a simple heal spell on the Pilgrim”
Kynes
There you go, right that way.
Kynes points toward the town gate without taking the offered token. Nhal lays a violet hand over the pilgrim’s wound, and a gentle shadow-glow closes it enough for walking.
The Wounded Pilgrim
Thank you. I can make it now.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get clear of the raiders pursuing the pilgrim
“We head north east on the traders road”
The party turns northeast onto the traders’ road, leaving the gate and the wounded pilgrim behind. Dust settles over the old tracks as the road carries them onward beneath the open sky.
“We travel along the road until we find a rest spot”
SUCCESS (Legendary Health, rolled -2)
The road climbs through low scrub and sun-bleached grass. By late afternoon, Kynes finds a hollow beside a leaning waystone, sheltered from the road and broad enough for a small camp.
He tests the ground with his staff, checks the sightlines, and leads the party into the hollow. The place offers shade, firm earth, and no fresh tracks.
Bren
This will do. We can see anyone approaching before they reach us.
As the packs come down, one waterskin slips against the waystone. Its seam splits, spilling half its water into the dust before Bren catches the rest.
Bren
Half gone. Manageable, but we should not linger past morning.
The party has reached a defensible rest spot. Evening settles over the traders’ road, while the distant hills hide whatever drove the pilgrim from the path.
Bren
Do we make camp here, or keep moving while there is still light?
“" we continue on to the next rest spot" I say ,”
SUCCESS (Legendary Health, rolled +0)
Kynes
We continue to the next rest spot.
Bren nods, tightens the remaining waterskin, and breaks camp. The party leaves the hollow before dusk can deepen.
The road bends through scrub and climbs toward a low ridge. No pursuit appears behind them, but the pilgrim's warning travels with every careful glance.
Bren
There. A travelers' shelter, and a road marker beside it.
They reach the next rest spot, a roofed stone shelter beside the road. Its old notice board bears a fresh charcoal warning: RAIDERS SEEN EAST OF THE WASH.
Bren adds the pilgrim's direction beneath it, making the danger plain for those who follow. The road ahead remains open, while the eastern track disappears into gathering dusk.
Bren
We can shelter here, or inspect that eastern track before night. Which keeps our passage safest?
“" we can stay here" I cast an illusion that the shelter is a large boulder , I also add spells that will muffle us from passing travelers, and befuddle charms to detour travelers away from the boulder”
SUCCESS (Legendary Arcana, rolled +0)
Kynes
We can stay here.
Kynes plants his staff beside the shelter and casts. Stone-colored illusion folds over the roof and walls until the rest spot resembles one more hulking boulder on the roadside.
A second spell drinks the shelter's sounds. A third lays a gentle misdirection across the road, turning passing eyes toward the open track and away from the false stone.
Bren
Then we stay quiet, and let the road forget us.
Bren lowers the charcoal and draws the remaining waterskin beneath the boulder's shadow. The warning remains exposed on the notice board, while the shelter itself vanishes from ordinary notice.
Dusk closes over the traders' road. Footsteps pass beyond the illusion, veering without pause, and the eastern track disappears into darkness. The party's exposed passage is held, for now.
+ New Item Acquired
Remaining waterskin
“We take our normal watch rotation, of me on first watch, Bren, then the girls.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Perception, rolled +4)
Kynes takes first watch. He settles just inside the concealed shelter, staff across his knees, while the remaining waterskin rests within easy reach.
The road keeps its silence. Passing footsteps fade westward, and no one looks twice at the false boulder.
Kynes's sharp hearing catches a useful detail beneath the wind: the eastern trail bears no fresh pursuit. The raiders' movement has turned away from the shelter and the road.
Bren
You always listen as if the stones might confess. Wake me when your watch is done.
Bren settles into the dark. Later, she will take the second watch, with Slaan and Nhal following before dawn, the rotation intact.
For now, the hidden shelter holds its quiet. Kynes watches the road alone, and the night gives him nothing that demands action.