Hilmir Enters The Wood

Fenrit places the flask on a display shelf behind them, and hands Hilmir the binoculars which come in an elegant protective casing. "These are called Darksight Binoculars. They allow you to see even in the dark, but it's a bit disorienting to look at anything up close."Korban looks over the items and exchanges a few whispers with Fenrit. After a nod, Korban pockets something from the table beside them and retires for the evening so that they can all leave early in the morning. Fenrit has an extra room for each of you, and participates in some polite conversation (but doesn't pry) before heading to bed as well.

In the morning, Korban greets Dreli and Hilmir with some breakfast they can have on the way. It is similar to a fish burrito, but wrapped in a large leaf.

You have the same options for heading back. Go through the dense wood (slower with no patrols), the moderate wood (some patrols, a bit faster), or the valley (fastest but wide open, easily spotted from far away). Additionally let me know if you have any specific plans, or generally just plan to get back to Dani and Elara as fast as possible. At the moment there are three days left to the deadline.

Korban uses a stick to draw a few paths in the dirt, and seems to be strongly suggesting travel through the deepest part of the wood. They puff out their chest a bit, as if to say that they'll lead you through with great efficiency.

In the first few hours you don't encounter anything too notable, although Korban stops for a few minutes to point out an edible plant that is abundant in this area.

About half way through your journey, you all enter a clearing with a circle of stones in the middle. Korban stiffens suddenly, and starts to look around in concern.

Dreli and Hilmir realize that the path they were walking on has vanished, and the trees around them have moved closer together. The five stones in the middle of the clearing hum with a soft white glow, before returning to their normal gray color. The trees around you feel terrible and foreboding.

Korban grabs a stick, and draws a key into the dirt. Then they point to the stones in the middle and shrug.

About halfway through Dreli's sentence, one of the stones glows for just a moment. Upon closer inspection there some are symbols upon them that neither of you are familiar with.

Korban points to the trees, makes an exaggerated mischievous face, uses their hands to mimic the movements of a small creature, and mimes the act of being trapped in a box. Then points to the stones, and acts out opening a door and walking through it.

The stones look quite heavy, and don't appear to have moved from their places in a very long time. Other than the initial glow on all of them, and the quick flash on one while Dreli was speaking, they don't seem to react to you getting closer and looking them over.

After an initial hestitation Korban tries touching one of them, but nothing happens. Frustrated they take a few steps outside of the stones and begin angrily muttering in the frogman language while pacing around. As they gesture towards the trees mid-rant, the same stone that glowed for a moment when Dreli spoke quickly glows again before returning to normal.

The stones each have a unique symbol: ⩣ ⍭ ⍙ ⩯ ⊥ The one with the ⩣ marking (Stone 1), is the one which has glowed twice. Dreli touches the stone and nothing happens, but it is smoother than she expected.