As we prepared for venturing out of Erta, Verdant brought a newcomer to us: an armored folk, called Eclaire.
Then we prepped ourselves. I scrounged through my items, finding some cords from Serena's family that they had gifted me on my pilgrimage, and one of my father's fangs that I kept for good luck. Wrapped specially in a small box, dad had secreted me a small reliquary of Lestra, the smallest of the suns, with a delicate white feather floating inside.
I cried a little, then affixed each to my armor. As my dad taught me, I prepared some holy water just in case; and when we met with Bryce he provided us with some potions of health.
Then we moved to the dwarves. Hedge met us, the most talkative of the bunch, and we grilled him about the hole in the middle of Fort Bearly. "Big ole crawdads, bigger n' you or me, ate away the wooden door we had there. We fought 'em back, and boarded it up."
We sighed, nodded, and descended.