"Ride on and tell Drellin's Ferry what you've seen," Eoni encouraged the knight.  "And tell Brindol what we've told you.  This isn't any ordinary rabble.  They're well organized and have a plan to overrun all of Elsir Vale."

Teyani waves off any effort to get her to investigate smoke rising from the Wyrmsmoke Mountains and seems more intent on quickly riding to Drellin's Ferry. From there, she explains, she intends to get a fresh horse and ride hard toward Brindol. She thanks the adventurers for their report

"Farewell to you. Go with the benevolent hand of Bahamut as your guide," she offers in farewell. Moments later, Teyani Sura, the Lion of Brindol, urges her charger forward and races off in a cloud of dust.

"Let's keep going," Eoni urged, starting to walk north on the Dawn Way.  "We should really have a name for ourselves.  I think it would help when we spoke to people if they'd heard of us.  They'd be more likely to heed what we're saying.

"But not anything too aggressive like the Hobgoblin Slayer's", she mused.  "Something more general that would inspire confidence but not define a role.  So we shouldn't be the Cavern Searchers or something like that.  We'd only be seen as useful in caverns."

Following their roadside encounter with the Lion of Brindol, the adventurers continue scouting the road for the remainder of the day, stopping occasionally to get a better view of the smoke rising from the western horizon. Eventually, nightfall approaches and the party sets up an ambush along the side of the road and settles in for the evening.

It is an uneventful and warm night.

Morning comes hot and hazy yet again and the adventurers continue with their plans of trying to ambush a goblin patrol to learn more about their adversaries. Hour after sweltering hour passes as the party lurks in what Jorr suggests is a prime ambush spot along the east side of the Dawn Way.

Sometime toward middle afternoon, the monotony is broken by a distant rumbling sound.

The party hears them before they see them--a dull, constant rumble of thousands of booted feet and the creaking of heavy wagons somewhere ahead, beyond the bend of the trade road, swallowed in the greenery of the Witchwood. War drums boom in the distance, and then the first legions appear up ahead, around the bend, marching along the Dawn Way. Goblin worg riders ahead of the main body, hulking giants stride alongside the hobgoblin ranks like living siege towers, and winged monsters, manticores, wyverns, even a red dragon--circle over the advancing army like harbingers of doom. Ahead of this throng, a processional honor guard holds a war standard aloft. This, bearing the sign of an upraised crimson hand over a circle of yellow, each of the hand's five fingers ending in a curved talon.

Ever forward this phalanx marches, drawing steadily nearer the adventurers' ambush location, but this army is focused not a sole ambush, but on wholesale conquest. Their first stop--Drellin's Ferry!

 Marklin was waiting in ambush with the others, doing little more then sweating,and swatting bugs. The monotony was suddenly broken by the sounds of an army on the march. The Warrior knew those sounds all to well, for he had marched with the army of Brindol, not so long ago. When the lead elements came into view, the Warrior felt his stomach flip, " Gods above en Demons below.... That be a proper army.. Now we know what that bridge be afore"

Eoni turned urgently to Jorr and gripped his shoulder.

"You have to get back to Drellin's Ferry and tell them what's coming," she said quickly.  "They won't stand with what they have.  They have to fall back.  I know you want to fight, but there are lives to save.

"Go now and don't look back.  We'll do as best we can and head for Brindol."

She turned the woodsman away and then faced the others, hoping he wouldn't argue.

"We have to go!"

"No arguments from me!" Taerix is ready to move out as fast as his little legs will carry him.

Sarah melts into the brush and stays until the others begin to leave.

Jorr sets his chin resolute and offers in an even tone, "I aint goin' to Brindol. You folks are free to go as you please. But my home is right here. In these woods. If stayin' means I die, well, so be it. Leastwise I'll be dyin' in a place of my own choosin'"

The grizzled woodsman looks off into the distance with a thousand yard stare. "You are good folk. I'll see you to the Rhest Trail. You can find your way from there. And don't go an try to talk me into comin'. No way. No how. My mind is set on that point!"

Jorr says he can get you to as far as the village of Witchcross. From there, it's a hard day's walk southeast to Brindol.

"Someone has to warn Drellin's Ferry of what's coming," Eoni replied earnestly to the woodsman.
"You're faster than we are and they need as much of a lead as we can give them to evacuate the town.
"But let's argue while we get out of here."  The Sister urged the others to move out and began to make her way through the woods.

"We're headed to Brindol because they have the only army with enough strength to challenge this invasion.  They have to be told as well."

 Marklin could give not a copper's worth of damn about Drellin's Ferry, but Brindol was another matter. " Aye, we need ta beat feet outta here."

Jorr looks at Eoni with a confused look on his face. "How in the world do you reckon I am goin' to outrun that knight on her damn horse?!" he says in bewilderment. "She already said that's where she was goin' to go. Why in the world would I chase her down to tell them folk the same thing?!"

Jorr stares up at the damnable sun, shielding his eyes. "The heat must be gettin' to everyone's head," he reckons.

In any event, Jorr suggests it is is foolish for him to follow the knight to Drellin's Ferry and flat-out refuses to do so. "If she can't make it before that army does, there's no hope for it."

That issue settled, at least for Jorr, he echoes Marklin's sentiments and plies the adventurers for where they want to go...and how to go about doing it.

"I'll go myself, then," Eoni said resolutely.  She kept marching and slid off her pack.  She handed extra supplies to the others.  "You'll be needing these more than I.  Go to Brindol and tell them what's coming.

"I'm going to Drellin's Ferry and have them evacuate.  Teyani never saw this army.  They won't leave if all she tells them is that she's seen a hobgoblin warband.

"After that, If I can, I'll follow the Dawn Way to Brindol."

" Piss on that. We either go together or not at all. Splitting up at this point is folly. What if you run into an enemy patrol?"

Sarah remains out of view.

"We didn't run into any patrols on the way here," Eoni replied to Marklin as she swung her lighter pack back on.  "Avandra will watch over me.

"And with that armor, you and Valthur will just be slowing me down.  You have a better chance of warning Brindol as soon as possible if you go straight there.

"And be careful.  With what Teyani said, you may run into trouble."

"We didn't run into any patrols before, cause the army was not here. Now it be here, and they will have recon patrols to the front and flanks, if they be worthy of their salt. We stay together Eoni, that be t he end o' it."

Valthur watches the argument unfold between Eoni and Marklin, but takes no sides. He agrees that splitting up is risky, but on the other hand concedes that both Drellin's Ferry and Brindol both need warning.

"Try to keep up," she replied to the armsman as she settled her pack and increased her speed.

 Marklin would attempt to grab Eoni's arm before she took more then a few steps. "NAY! You have been acting as the Captain O' this group since it formed. You almost had me convinced you might be one after all. But now you want to run off and abandon your command. Again, I say Nay. The Knight will warn Drellin's Ferry. Your place is here, as both Captain and Healer. If you leave us in the face o' the enemy, I will never heed you again,and do my best to convince the others to do the same. "

Eoni spun back on the man but couldn't break his grip.

"She'll tell them what?" the Sister asked coldly.  "Teyani hasn't seen what we've seen.  She'll tell them nothing more than what we already have.  That she saw no more than a hobgoblin warband.  No dragon, no giants, no unstoppable army coming right at them.

"This!" she gestured back through the woods toward the approaching army.  "This will make them leave!  But someone has to tell them before it's already upon them.

"They need time to retreat.  To get far enough ahead that riders and fliers can't pick them off as they fall back.

"Someone has to give them that time!"

"Fine...fine...FINE!" Jorr interjects. "I'll do it. Anyway, you're more like than not to get yerself kilt trampin' through the woods," he comments to Eoni. "No offense priestess, but you don't have the woodsense in you."

"Well, you folks best be on your way..." Jorr tells the adventurers to follow the Old Forest Road northeast until it links with the Rhest Trail, and indicates they will know this road as it runs northwest through southeast and will be outside The Witchwood. "That'll get you all the way to Brindol."

"Thank you, Jorr," Eoni said to the woodsman before turning back to face Marklin.  She looked pointedly at his hand where he still held her by the arm.

"Is that acceptable to you?"

 The hand that held Eoni's arm opened, as Marklin said but one word to the Priestess. "Aye"

Jorr takes his leave of the adventurers, raising his hand in farewell when he draws some distance away, before finally disappearing off the side of the trail into the woods.

Based on the woodman's estimate, it would take two days of hard travel to reach the Rhest Trail, assuming they stuck to the Old Forest Road...which Jorr strongly recommended as it would be quite difficult to become lost if they strayed any distance from the well marked trail. So, the adventurers begin their trek through the Witchwood, bound east toward more civilized lands and the city of Brindol.

At some point during their first day of travel, the party spots a wyvern gliding across the sky, streaking from north to south. Presumably, the adventurers take cover beneath trees and watch from behind cover. The wyvern is some distance away and doesn't take notice of the party, eventually disappearing out of sight.

Eventually, the sun begins to set and the party finds a suitable spot to make camp for the night. Having established watch rotations already, the party settles into their camp routine. The night passes uneventfully.

The party sets out early the next morning, road weary and dirty from travel. This time of year is merciless in these parts and this is perhaps one of the warmest, muggiest summers in recent memory. In short, it is all the party can do to keep from becoming overheated. Fortunately, numerous creaks and streams run through the woods, so there is little risk of dehydration, but it is miserable nonetheless.

The second day of travel is relatively uneventful, save for a dark column of smoke rising up from the distant southwest. Previously, the smoke had been spotted in the west-northwest. To the southwest lies Drellin's Ferry...

There is nothing the adventurers can do about it now, so they trudge forward along the Old Forest Road, make camp in the evening, and wake the next day to begin travel anew.

Early on the third day, the adventurers break out of the forest into scrubby rolling hills. Soon, they come to an intersection with another trail, this one still having cobblestones here or there, though the road is in poor shape. This must be the Rhest Trail.

Leaving the Old Forest Road behind, the party sets out on the Rhest Trail and arrives, tired and weary, at the large village of Witchcross as the sun is setting. Similar to other villages in the vale, Witchcross is little more than a cluster of buildings around a central market with little defensive fortifications to speak of.

It is early evening when the adventurers arrive at Witchcross and the few people they see out and about do not appear to be in any heightened state of alert. Perhaps they are unaware of the impending peril that is to come their way.