Roughly half way along the road back to the keep you see the smoke of a fire a top a hill to the south of the road.  A top the hill is a small wooden palisade.

I have marked on the game map a brown x to show where the palisade is.

Zenphar points to the smoke, "That warrants a look don't you think?"

Turning to Nthanda he asks, "Could Abbil could fly high above and report to you on what she sees?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:26, Mon 19 Sept 2022.

"I will ask her, yes," Nthanda says sending a mental note to her little dragon to fly ahead.

"There are also flying creatures of some kind circling over the river, too far to see what though," she adds shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand.

THromm was just clearing hsi throat to add about the flying creatures, but shrugged and left it when nthanda spoke up. insted, he growled his concern, "An if tis summut bad? Our resources are stretched mighty thin right now." He eyed the palisade and grunted sourly. Still, his hand rested atop the bit of his axe. The dwarf was ready to go if this was the place Hanseath had selected for his doom.

Nthanda focused on what Abbil could see and starts speaking.  "There are five of them on the hill top; three humans, a woman among them.  She stands guard while the men tend their wounds.  An elfin man with a bow stands with her and another elfin man sits meditating, perhaps recovering his magicks," she says.  Returning her focus to the group, "they may not be hostile to our cause, but they are wary and are unlikely to be friendly to my kind."

"My thanks to you and Abbil, Nthanda," Tegan said. "That is very useful information."

"Can you see them well enough to glean whether they appear to be bandits, or something else? I wonder who would have built a hill-fort in this area?"

Zenphar looks a bit sheepish, "I thought the fire was worse than it is!

We might be better off to return to the Keep, dispose of the treasures we have picked up, and check to see if Gaulmod knows of this camp?

It would be embarrassing, to say the least, to hurl accusations of banditry at allies of the Keep!

As Tegan said, Nthanda and Abbil have provided us with useful information if we decide to investigate."