The Wilds - Once more into the Wilds

Time to continue the trek. The party was a bit divided on next steps, some wanting to head straight back to BPM via the spire, some wanting to explore further south, and some wanting to follow the road they found to the north. The northern vote won out, so... more hiking.


Start Date: September 9, dawn
Start Status: Up with the sun
Start Location: FOB1

The Turn

After a long, sometimes heated discussion about what to do next, the party settles on following the northern road, in hopes that it matches up with the old map the party had found so many weeks ago. Some party members believe they've found correspondences between their own map and the old one, and there were things marked on the map, little more than squiggles of dark ink really, but perhaps they indicated old construction.

This was no day-long hike either, this was all in. The party packed up everything, including most of their food reserve from the forward stores. They were moving early, pleased to have good weather for once. As usual, the reality of traveling with mules across broken ground slowed things, especially in the thick woods north of camp. The sun said it was past noon when they finally hit the old roadway they'd found on the previous exploring trip.

A path! A path!

After a break for food and rest, the party heads out again, north along the old roadway, which eased passage, though not much. It's mostly level, but trees and undergrowth have long since reclaimed the road bed, leaving little but a faint track, broken by occasional paving stones, behind. Two hours into the second leg of the day's hike, Rawon, on point, raises a warning hand. Maro and Mordikarr relay the warning back to the others, and then move cautiously forward to join the scout. Ahead, the roadway curves a bit west, around a low mound or hill, it's hard to say which with all the trees.

"Ahead, on the rise, I think that's a wall," whispers Rawon, pointing.

"I think you're right. Should we check it out?"

"Mordikarr and I will get a little closer. Maro, why don't you tell the others what we see? We won't go far." Maro nods and heads back to the main group. When he tells the others what the scouts are doing, the main party members prepare for trouble and slowly move forward along the trail, leaving Tesso, Jonquil, and Gorvil watching the mules. The scouts are back at the point of first contact when the main party reaches it. "What is it?" asks Raúguey.

"Looks like another old fort, a square structure, about 30 feet across, maybe two stories. Crenelated wall up top. There's something odd though, big smears of white and gray goo on the walls. There's also some big mats of twigs and branches sticking out around the top."

"Smell bad too," mutters Mordikarr.

"Did you see a door?" asks Durego.

Rawon nods and stoops, doing a quick sketch in the dirt. "Doorway, open, to the west, and a couple window openings too, pretty narrow. A couple more windows to the south. We didn't circle the north and east side."

"What does it smell like?" asks Ohwatoo.

"Stale and sour, maybe a bit like a privy too. I think something is using it as a den, I'm just not sure what."

End Date: September 9, afternoon
End Status: Tower of Smells
End Location: The Wilds

Photo by eagle: https://flic.kr/p/artqJG

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