PM

OOC: Gwythe is happy to scout, everything else suggested looks fine to me - a rag tag bunch like this people aren't going to march in order, so mix it up a bit if anything happens.

"You need a little help out the front?" Haldan chuckled at his own joke.

"We seem to be short of help" Iviana said sharing Haldan's amusement, and joining in the the puns. It was nice not to be too stressed. The weird noises, smells and general unpleasantness of the temple was behind them. They still had to make it back to Homlet, but it was nicer outside "That sounds like it would help, although I wouldn't want you to think it was beneath you"

Several hours pass by as the near score of people trudge through the forest retracing Gwythe and Iviana's steps of a few days earlier. It seemed a lifetime ago when they'd snuck eastwards past Nulb to the temple. At the current slow pace it wasn't looking like they'd get there any time sooner than midnight...

"Should just execute the prisoners now an' get it over with!" mumbled Rolf staring angrily at the stretchers.
"There's nasty things in the woods an' I don' wanna meet them in the dark!"

"Is the big bad warrior afraid of a few trees? Don't worry, there's plenty of elves here to protect you from splinters."

The group reaches the crossing over Imeryds Run (small but wild river) to find sometime in the last few days, the narrow wooden bridge has been destroyed! It looks like heavy rain upstream has caused the river to flood and wash the bridge away.

"Well, that's a problem. The only other crossing points are in Nulb, or a ford six leagues south."

"Do we need to cross the river if we were walking to Homlet" she asked, "and if so would that detour to the ford cause up problems?"

Iviana had nothing else to contribute to this. She didn't really know where the places were, didn't have any magics that would help, and wasn't a heavy outdoors person.

She hoped the others would have some sensible ideas. If not... well it was time to start walking for the ford.

Gwythe inspects the remnants of the bridge. "Going through Nulb will not turn out well for us, based on the last time we were there. We should make for the ford."

"Yes, the river must be crossed if we're to get back to Hommlet. The best place to cross is Nulb as the other ford is well out of the way to the east," she pointed almost directly away from the direction of Hommlet. That crossing would add at least a day to their journey.
"Nulb can't be more than a mile or two downstream can it? It's not the nicest place, but I don't know why you don't want to go there?"

Gwythe's inspection of the bridge remnants proves interesting.

Essa looked scared.
"There's evil monsters that way! Please don't make me go there!" she pleaded, falling to her knees.

Gwythe ignores Elda and Essa and motions for Iviana to come over to the remnants of the bridge. "Look." he points to the axe blows. "We can't go to Nulb, someone is trying to make us pass through there again."

"And you automatically assume it's all about you!"
"Wow, how pretentious!"

"We have wounded." Iviana observed. "I shall consult the gods, and see if that helps the matter. I would ask you all to take a moment's silence. Any prayers that might care to say would be appreciated: Lydia is a kind goddess, and it is nice to thank her for her help"

She took a moment to prepare herself and then opened her mind to the world. At the front of her mind she was wondering 'Should we go towards Nulb or towards the ford'

"What did Arek say to you about Otis, Iviana?"

Iviana cast the bones and concentrated. It takes her a few minutes to make sense of what they seem to be telling her.

"Sounds bad" Iviana said thoughtfully. A couple of rabbits had just come out to play and then fallen asleep at her feet "We should definitely avoid Nulb". Like many prophecies it was obscure and Lydia required intellect and thought on interpreting them. In many ways Iviana often thought her goddess delighted in teasing her. But this was clearer than many. They had many wounded with them, and in Iviana's experience the only way that prophecy would come true for them was if they were dead or drugged. Especially if they were to set guards and watches. No: Nulb was now in the list of places to explore on full health, preferably with a healthy army

"Sad but there we are.Can we make it to the cave, or do we have to detour? If we detour we should perhaps just head for Homlet"

"What exactly did you see in the bones Iviana?"

"Homlet is on the other side of this river. We have to cross it no matter where we want to go."

OOC: the ford is so far upstream that it's location is right off the eastern side of the map (about half a hex).

Haldan joined Gwythe in inspecting the damaged bridge timbers.
"Hmm," he said, deep in thought as he poked one of the cuts with a finger.
"Hmm," he said again, scuffing the ground with his bare foot.
"Two days ago I make this. All cuts to the underside where they wouldn't be seen at a casual glance. This bridge was coming down just by walking on it. Good thing it rained upstream when it did, or we'd probably be swimming right now."
"Of course that assumes we were the next ones to try crossing it."
He scouted around along the bank looking for more clues.
"Looks like hobgoblins or bugbears or something like that were here. I count at least three sets of tracks."
"They came from upstream, looks like they went back that way too."

"That sounds like it was done maybe half a day after we came across from the west. The saboteurs came from and left to the south east, so it doesn't look like the destruction directly relates to us."
"Rolf might have a point."

An idea came to Iviana

"Why don't we go towards Homlet on this side of the river. I can send a message to Otis who can come and meet us. Arik asked me to do that anyway..." she smiled in an amused way "There are things called boats, and it may be that he can come by boat, and they can carry us swiftly back. If not... well I am sure he will be able to arrange either a boat or a raft with a rope to cross the river. In fact if we have an axe, and a good swimmer we can probably sort that sort of thing out ourselves.. "

How wide is the river?