Duck and Cover

Closer examination of the tracks reveals to you that one of the men is a huge and heavy person, he' s somewhat taller than the rest. The imprints he made are of leather boots, like the other ones are also wearing. The huge guy left presumably for the forest almost a day ago. The tracks leading into the hills are the freshest and are suposedly made some hours thereafter, somewhat between nightfall and early morning. They are more disorderly than the earlier tracks, so something or someone might have spooked them you can conclude. One set of these tracks is made by a man who drags along one of his legs. The tracks coming from the South-Southwest are older than a day and it appears the huge man also carried a heavy load, possibly the Antlerbearer.

By a streak of luck you stumble upon a set of tracks previously unnoticed. There is no mistake that these belong to a pack of wild dogs. They seem to come from out of the forest, mingle with the ones from the humans at the campside, take off into the hills, following the tracks of two of the humans, while they seem to return somewhat later on although with less animals in the pack than before, and then hurridly disapear into the hills again, this time North-Northwest. There' s no mistake that this last set of tracks was made by the panicking wild dogs you saw earlier.

So, where to do you go? The dark clouds are almost on top of you and it' s slightly getting darker.

Well, like I said, I'm all for following the wounded-looking ones leading into the forest.

Okay, regardless of where they're going, Mordecai wants to follow the wounded ones.

Well... going into the woods we have more chances to miss the tracks and pass the one that left them, if this one is hiding. Also there is only one man but a big one and presumably strong and if he has somme kind of a ranged weapon, he can be very dangerous because he can move quickly, taking care only of himself. On the other way, the other two are somehow in trouble, one of them is wounded and the other one must help him so they can't move very quickly. Also they can be stalked by that wild dogs pack so we can choose to help them if we fell that that's better. The problem is that if we go towards the hills we will be in open field so we can be spotted from greater distance. On the other hand, the frightened wild dogs are running towards the hills so the danger is in the opposite direction. mY sugestion is to follow the tracks of the wounded man and his companion, leading to the hills. We can find out about the third man later.... maybe...

Andrew takes a look at the footprints and says:
- I'd say it's better to follow the tracks to the hills...It's just a gut feeling but I'd go that way...

Talon nods.

Even though I dislike being in the open, I will follow along with you. We must also be aware that these men may be exiles.

I don't remember if Andrew told us about his brother, but I'm trying to hint that it could be Andrew's brother. It's been awhile since we read the posts from the village.

Andrew' s brother got exiled while Andrew himself was younger, some years ago.

You follow the trail leading into the hills. By coincidence this seems to follow pretty much the same direction as to where you were originally heading, the Cross. After half an hour or so you come across the corpse of a wild dog that has been skewered with a crossbow bolt. On your right in a lower dale lies an old and broken pathway made from dirty black stone. It is formed in a t-shape and yellow dotted lines run along the middle. One direction heads to the Northeast, another roughly to the Southeast and the last heads North by Northwest. A pole stands at the intersection but only the southeastern arrow is still attached; Nevis 30 miles. On the ground lie the other arrows but the texts seem to have faded away a long time ago. The only words still visible on one of them reads "Fort .......... Medi... ....arch Fa....ty". The last one is eroded beyond recognition. The tracks seem to head towards the path and then disapear when they reach it. Seems like whoever made that trail must have followed the pathway from this point on.

At that point you see small white flakes descending from the sky. It seems like a million tiny butterflies thwirl and spiral towards the ground, sticking to your hair, skin and the ground around you. You figure you have still an hour or two left before it becomes completely dark.

Talon removes the crossbow bolt from the dog's body, and examines it carefully. If it is okay, he stashes it in his bag, other wise, he will toss it

"Fort .......... Medi... ....arch Fa....ty", hmmm... That text can be read as "Fort (Sommething) Medi (cal) (Rese) arch Fa (cili) ty" and "Fort" can indicate that's a military facility, but ofcourse Andrew could not know that .... This may be interesting to explore. I think that we should go towards the road that goes North by Northwest. I think that is the road that the bearly readable indicator have pointed at before it has fall down.

Andrew looks at the pole and at the indicators fallen on the ground.

- I think that we better follow that strange road ... he says....
- Let's continue to head towards North-Northwest as we have previously do. What do you think? But first let's take a better look around...

He starts to look very atentif at everything that might offer him somme informations...

The bolt is ok, so you might as well carry it with you.

You search the place for a minute or two but can' t distinguish anything special. It might not be wise to spend the night here in the open so you decide to look for shelter a bit further along the road. Following the road over the next hill you come to a large metal bridge spanning two cliffs and a large stream that runs beneath it. You estimate the bridge to be 300 metres in length and about 8 meters in width. Heavy iron beams support the whole construct. Visibility is quickly fading now with the diminishing light and the snow, but you could swear that you just saw 2 small heaps on the bridge and something that remotely resembles a hut or shack on the other end of the bridge. Meanwhile the snow is falling more densely now and it seems like it might not stop for a couple of hours.

Talon readies his sling.

I'll go see whats up ahead. Why don't you follow with weapons ready to back me up if trouble starts.

With that Talon walks on the bridge, keeping an eye out for traps, towards the small heaps on the bridge.

Just give me a shout if you think I' m going to fast, ok?

Talon pays close attention to details while aproaching the bridge but you reach the first heap without troubles. Partially covered under a thin layer of snow lies another wild dog, again shot by a bolt. About 150 metres further lies the next heap, looking somewhat bigger than a dog, and a little further than that stands a small cabin at the other end of the bridge. Behind the cabin you can make out a high razorwire fence that seems to run all alongside the cliffs this side of the river.

Again Talon takes the bolt, if okay, and stashes it with the other.

Talon continues to approach the cabin, when he reaches it, he listens carefully to see if there are any sounds he can hear.

You pick up the bolt and continue towards the cabin. Meanwhile you pass the second heap, which apears to be a human corpse with bite and scratchmarks all over his face, chest and limbs. He wears torn, ragged brown clothing and misses a boot. One of his legs got bandages around his knee. A little bit further lies another boot and a slingbag, both with teethmarks in it.

There' s no sound coming from inside the cabin, it seems to be deserted for quite some time. A sole door seems to be the only entrance.

Talon picks up the sling bag and approaches the door. Standing outside the door, Talon puts his sling away and arms himself with the stone axe. He then opens the door and steps in.

Andrew stops and examine the fallen man. He check if he is stil alive but keeps an eye at his companions with his bow ready. If the man is dead he arm himself with the crowbar and puts his bow un his shoulder. After that he wil camme close to Talon to back him up...

The slingbag you picked up is nothing more than a ragged piece of cloth, torn and bitten by dogclaws and teeth. Most likely it held some food but that' s all gone now, probably eaten by the dogs.

The man is definitly dead, his throat is torn open and various scratch and bitemarks cover his exposed flesh. The wounds seem to have been made by hungry wild dogs. When examining the corpse you notice a bulging pocket in his coat which seems to contain a couple of trinkets made out of a shiny metal. Looks like it might be worth something.

The cabin is 5 by 7 metres with only one door and one small window built high into the wall. There' s a desk standing against the wall with various junk on it spread out and some file cabinets, opened, a duty roster and a couple of chairs covered in mildew. In one corner stands a metal cilinder with a pipe disapearing into the roof. There' s a small door in the lower part of the metal cilinder. Next to the cilinder stands another but smaller cabinet which appears to be locked. In another corner stands a metal locker which apears to be forced open and it' s contents gone.

Talon looks around.

What ever happened here is over for now. At least we have some shelter to pass the storm in.

Talon walks to the desk and examines what is on it, and also checks the drawers.

No firewood?