Sarah shifts from one foot to the other, almost as if she's embarrassed.  Finally, she produces and drops a large, obviously full sack on the ground.  It makes a lot of noise as she deposits it.  Thus unburdened, she clambers up a tree to look around.

"Jorr," Eoni asked tentatively.  Though she couldn't see them through the dense forest, she looked in the ominous direction of the Wyrmsmoke Mountains.  "Are there any trails that lead in that direction?

"We need to see what's happening over there."

Jorr says he can lead the party to the Wyrmsmoke Mountains by way of either the Old Forest Road, just north of Vraath Keep, or further north along the trail that heads west from the crude giant effigy the adventurers had previously seen prior to traveling to Skull Gorge.

The Old Forest Road is the nearest option, should the party wish to exercise it. In any event, Jorr is prepared to lead the adventurers along either route.

 Marklin took a long looks at the smoke in the far distance. " Well, let's be about it then."

Nodding, Jorr leads the party along the footpath for a time, eventually linking up with the Dawn Way for a short period of time. He says the Old Forest Road is about a half mile or so distant and advises everyone to stay to the left side of the road.

As the party is marching northward, they see dust rising from the road ahead and quickly shuffle off to the side of the road, where they seek cover behind trees and bushes. Emerging from the dust cloud, they spot a black-haired woman astride a powerful charger, riding at a full gallop in their direction.

The rider is coming from the north and even at this distance, the party sees she wears a soldier's tunic of blue and white over a short of mail, with the stylized image of a golden lion over her heart. Marklin recognizes this as the livery of The Golden Lions, a knighthood of Brindol.

She is about 50 yards distant now and either hasn't noticed the party or doesn't care to be sneaky about her approach. She rides down the center of the road at a full clip.

OOC: Actions?

"That's no rabble from the sticks riding this way," Valthur whispers to Marklin. "What's her hurry?"

The dwarf readies his crossbow in the event something's chasing the rider, although he finds it hard to believe any creature could keep up with the speeding charger.

Sarah hides behind the others, and looks prepared to sprint away.

 Marklin saw the lone rider, and his eyes went wide, when he saw the symbol she wore" By the gods.  What be a Knight of Brindol doing in these parts? Don't loose upon her,she be a Knight of me home."

 Marklin had to force himself not to step out to the edge of the road,and shout and wave to get her attention. " If she be running from something, we feather it or them, then we can get her attention." The Warrior nocked an arrow to the Long bow.

Eoni had wanted to flag down the rider to exchange information but conceded to Marklin's plan by crouching low and peering anxiously at the dust trail in the rider's wake.  The Sister fingered the wooden symbol about her neck and readied a prayer for Avandra's favor.

It was heartening to believe Brindol might be aware of the mischief afoot here in the Witchwood.  Though if the rider were not pursued, they might not get the chance to attract her attention over the thundering hooves of her mount.

Sarah has a quizzical look on her face as she releases her large sack and readies her crossbow.

Taerix makes sure his weapons are close at hand, and waits for the others' decision whether to flag this knight down or not.

"Just get down," Eoni whispered, seeing a few of the others not taking cover.  "We'll let her pass and see if she's pursued.  Just be ready to strike.

"I'll ask for Avandra's blessing if she is.  Then open fire."

"And I'll see about making things easier for us, as well." Aldara, too, is low.

"Just see that she doesn't ride too far once she's past us," Valthur worries aloud while taking cover. "She may have the information we need and I don't like our chances chasing her on foot."

Taerix moves into cover.

Marklin ducked behind a tree.

The mounted knight urges her horse forward at great speed, her eyes locked on the road that lay ahead, as she bounds quickly toward the crouching adventurers at the side of the road. There is no let up in the horse's gait and soon both fly past the party in a cloud of dust. The mounted rider continues on her way and takes no obvious notice of the hiding party at the side of the road. In a flash of the eye, the Golden Lion of Brindol is well down the road, the adventurers watching the dust cloud behind the horse.

Seeing that the knight is continuing down the road, and that nothing is following her, Sarah aims her crossbow over the rider's head as if to fire it . . . but she lowers the weapon without discharging it.

 Marklin saw the Knight pass them,and all but slip from sight, in  the blink of an eye. What did he know about horses, he was Infantry. The Warrior ran out into the road and waved his arms." UP BRINDOL! UP BRINDOL!!" giving the battle cry of his home city, trying to get the Knight to stop.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 19:56, Sat 20 Jan 2018.

At Marklin's call, the knight jerks her head sideways to look over her shoulder, and pulls back on the reins to draw her horse to a slower gait. Some distance down the road, she wheels her horse around to take in her surroundings before committing to any course of action. She keeps at stand-off distance while assessing the risk, then, she calls out. "LO! BRINDOL. RISE!" in the correct response to the rally cry.

Her horse paws at the ground impatiently, but the knight calms the impressive charger with a few soothing words and trotsurges her steed forward a few paces.

"Lo there!" she calls again, now at closer distance to Marklin. The knight wears banded mail beneath her battle tabard and wears a sword and mace at her side, while a small lance is also within easy reach.

Presumbaly, the adventurers make no outward shows of enmity and the woman draws near enough to converse with the party. Doing so she introduces herself as Teyani Sura, a Lion of Brindol. Marklin, and perhaps others, will recognize her station as that of an elite soldier in Brindol's Lion Guard.

"I ride in the service of the Lord of Brindol. I was part of a patrol sweeping up the Old Rhest Trail. Five days ago, we ran into a roadblock--hobgoblins and ogres, waylaying any travelers heading into or out of the vale from the north. They were too strong for us, and we had to retreat. My captain sent several of us off to warn folks across the vale to avoid the old Rhest Trail. I travel now to Drellin's Ferry and will sweep eastward up the Dawn Way, to Brindol."

Her tale complete, Teyani seeks any news the adventurers might share of their recent sightings in the region.

"We've seen the same here," Eoni explained.  "They seem well organized with patrols of various creatures that would not normally band together.

"We came up from Drellin's Ferry yesterday afternoon and seen no sign of a patrol, but be wary.

"We cleared a number of them from Vrath keep and ambushed a hobgoblin patrol.  They've secured the bridge at Skull gorge with a green dragon hobgoblins, and some massive, unnatural hounds.

"We found imprints from their plans in Vraath keep.  It hinted at a massive surge to take every town in the Vale, including Brindol.  It also mentioned someone called Turgarum.  A bugbear wizard flew off with the actual map before we could capture it.

"Drellin's Ferry is making ready for an attack, but we have yet to see a force larger than a patrol.  We thought they had secured Skull Gorge for their army but did not see any sign of one.

"Our plan was to ambush another patrol to see what we could find out.  That's why we didn't flag you down as you passed.  We were going to attack any pursuers.

"However, this smoke from the west has drawn our attention."  She waved in the direction they had seen the smoke.  "It seems to be spread across a great swath along the foothills of the Wyrmsmoke."

She looked to the others to see if they had anything to add or questions of the knight.

"She heard me, by the gods she heard me!" Marklin seemed almost giddy, whgen he said those words, a broad lop sided grin was plastered over his mouth. " A Gods honest Knight o' th Golden Lions. Best we av, they be."

 But as soon as the Knight came close, a sudden frown replaced the joy, and he turned his back and  found sudden interest in checking his bow, and seemed more then willing to let the others talk to the Knight.

Taerix waits in cover, watching for any monsters that might interrupt this pleasant conversation.

Valthur crawls out of his cover and approaches the rider. "Where did you cross the river? Did you see the dragon that we did?"
Maybe is was just an illusion, he hopes to himself.

Teyani says she saw no dragon on her way back from Rhest. She traveled by way of the Rhest Trail to the Old Forest Road, turning at the Old Forest Road when she encountered a large hobgoblin warband at that crossing. The hobgoblin warband prevented her from continuing southeast toward Brnindol.

The Rhest Trail runs from the ruins of the old capital of Rhestilor to Brindol. The Old Forest Trail cuts across Witchwood, eventually linking up with the Dawn Way. Teyani had hoped to use the Old Forest Road to reach Drellin's Ferry, where she would spread news of the hobgoblins up north, get a fresh horse, then continue eastward along the Dawn Way warning villages as she went.

"There is a ford across the Old Forest Road. There, I crossed The Rhestwash." The Rhestwash is a smaller tributary that feeds into the Elsir River.