As you make your way through the sword mountains following the directions that Toblin provided you eventually come to a body of water that is being restrained by some sort of Dam. This is the abandoned fortress you were told about. It is called Skull crossing.

"Oh, dam," says Gwen.

[OoC]: Had to get that one in before my flight takes off. I'll post later tonight.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 22:58, Tue 09 Aug 2022.

Shaking off the fog of the wineskin, Bandalor squints at the odd dam and tries to discern anything of use from the eclectic design.

Imbert pulls up and settles the horses of the sleeping riders.  "Maybe a flight-over might be in order."  Imbert remarks in Gwen's general direction.

"Odd taste."  The cleric clenches his reins and surveys the area.

Gwen sends out her owl to fly over the dam. A short time later it return and lands on Gwens Forearm. It squawks a bit and looks at Gwen.

As Ripley spirals down out of the sky, Gwen exits the trance that allows her to see through the owl's sharp eyes. She rewards her feathered friend with a mouse she produces from a pouch under her coat.

"There's some big green somethings on top of the dam proper, and some sort of cave or tunnel downstream from the dam that might offer another way in. Of course, tunnels that open below dams have hazards beyond any angry beasts."

As Gwen, comes out of her trance, Jaskier trembles for a moment before saying to no one in particular "This kind of magic sets me on edge...still, valuable information to be gained from using it.". He reaches into his many pockets until he finds a scrap of bread to toss to Ripley.  "So skull crossing eh, we always visit the most luxurious locales.  For once I wish the mcguffin was located in a distillery or brothel..."

"Better yet, a distillery in a brothel..."

"My inclination is to avoid the big green things if we can.  Let's scout the cave at least and see what it might hold."  Imbert replies, ignoring Jaskier and Bandalor.

Zanben wakes from his drunken slumber to the squaking of Ripley. "Damn bird, couldn't you see I was . . ."  Just then he noticed the large dam, "Well that looks like some fun."  He than hops down from his horse and listens to Gwen's description of the area.

"Tunnels with more dangers than just beasts, sounds like fun to me."

"I'm wary of the caves lest they serve as the dam's spillway. Beasts I can handle,  but getting punched in the face by a fast moving lake is something I've tried to avoid."


"Of course, the straightforward approach has some liabilities of its own, depending on what exactly occupies this fortress."