Adventure Abroad

The feet are thick and you are no claw marks. Their size is easily triple the goblins own tiny feet. By you best guess they are likely for someone around 8 to 10 feet tall. There are some smaller prints but nice smaller than a humans and all are barefooted.

Peering through the gates you see the town is much as expected save there appears to be an abundance of plants growing all over the place.

Looks a it overgrown, but nowt in sight that looks too worryin'. Let's have a closer look, eh? Gutelos asks the others, and if they assent, will warily enter the ruined city and head for the nearest not-too-ruined building.

Moving in with a mixture of curiosity, caution, and in Gan's case distracted musing, you glance in some of the buildings as you pass. It is odd. None of the homes or shops look to be lived in but definitely show signs of bring visited though why you are uncertain. As you move deeper into the town you have a growing grilling if being watched but from where you are uncertain.

You make your way out of the town, still getting th feeling of being watcched or followed . Heading towards the gate that will take you towards your destination and again find the gate unlocked but easily opened Taking carful note of the citys location as you make you way along the road.

Now with a well built road to follow and traveling through a much more lush and hospitable countryside you are albe to speed up while still maintaining a watch for any potential dangers. The remaindr of the day is restful and uneventful and before nightfall you reach the river. Making camp a ways back up on a hil, within a thicket, you make plans to head down river planning to reach your destination tomorrow or the day after.

As you left the town behind the feeling of being watched fades. A mystery for next time . . .

Setting up watch it is clear that everyone is glad to have the end of the journey in sight. The night passes uneventfully and you continue downstream after breakfast of fish and trail rations. The river provides a pleasent backdrop and you are all slightly surprised as how deft Gan proves at fishing, the addition to the rather bland diet you have been stuck with a welcome addition.

As you travel along the river you notice the area growing lusher. Looking at the map you can tell that at some point you will need to cross this river as your destination. Unfortunately, though the river is smooth and calm looking you can tell the current in the middle is strong and llikely quite deep. The river is dozens of yards wide, easily large enough to be home to some of the lager water predators. No one feels confident enough in their swimmig, espcially in armor and with packs on, to be able to swim across much less possibly fight while doing so.

Keeping this in mind you look for any shallow fords in the river as you follow it to the SW downriver but are doubtful of your chances and begin to get worried about passing your destination as you are uncertain how visible it might be across the river. Both sides of the river are dotted with trees, with the occasional thickly wooded sections. The area begins to flatten out as the low rolling hills on both sides of the river diminish in height and frequency.

You will need to cross the river at some point. You can try now, continue on and hoping for a lucky break, or spend time/effort searching for other options or clues to reach your destination.

The others quickly agree and you get to work after a quick survey for materials and a workspace. Though no stranger to wokking with your hands Gutelos picks up a few surface tricks from Trevow and Gan as the raft is crafted with braded strips of bark stripped off of trees and a few decent nots designd for working with wet materials.

Adding a set of long strait polls you end up with a servicable raft reado to work your way across the river. You move the log craft to th rivre for a test and learn that while your ride will support you it will nott be a dry trip. Pushing off you enter the rivers current and paddle yourselves further into the current. Wishing you could just laze on the raft as ti bobs down the river you sign and dig in with your crude paddles.

The work is hard but you are making progress, both across the river and down stream when you see a change in the river ahead. It looks like the river is joined by anoterh up ahead and just past it you spot what looks to be structures on the river. Could that be your Paphos? Getting excited to reach your destination you continue strugling to padle your craft to the western side of the river.

Give me a couple tests for 1. Raft crafting quality and 2. padlding skill

You are more than 3/4 of the way across the river when Gan calls out We have a problem Pointing to the front of the raft where it is cleat the logs on the raft are beginning to work themselves loose. The elderly lady begins to mutter a spell and the ropes tighten themselves and you sigh in relief till you look at the old lady and see the strain on her face.

Quickly you work to reweave the cords and try and tighten the raft only to be alerted as Daniel, who is still using an oar to steer the ship cries out in alarm. Ahead! the river, its sinking. Turning to look you are shocked to see the river twisting around itself as a hole opens up with a strange sucking sound.

Now greatly alarmed you try to paddle the raft but the strong current renders your efforts nearly useless. In addition the rapid currents begin tossing the boat about and the raft lashing weaken and the logs once again become loose.

As you work to tighten the lashings holding the logs together the raft is pulled into the expanding whirlpools spin.



Around you is a whiling darkness that begins closing in on the boat, spinning you faster and faster but you barely register this as you are pulled roughly down into the dark depths of the river. You are about to give up hope when suddenly you realize that the suction is no longer down but instead it is pulling you sideways. As you realize this there is a fierce collapse of the vortex tunnel and the raft utterly fails. You are slammed about into the logs of the raft and the rocky walls that now surround you. The force of the collapsed vortex pushes you along and up and with a splash you find yourselves in a dark caverns with an air pocket.