Old Tales, New Trails, Borrowed Veils, Blue Jails

Expedition

The Fractured Pack head back out onto the road for their next goal of finding the Tertalak and saving the slaves of Craven Cove.  The travel back down Thjoldmondr, stay in the Anvilguard outpost they had on the way up, and encounter the remains of both living and dead villages from Anna's Lung Rot notes.

5th of First Harvest
With the Fractured Pack's time in Dul Kag drawing to a close, only a few more errands separated them from continuing their journey. Supplies were purchase, basic armors were adjusted for Anna and Buck, and goodbyes were said to the newly acquired contacts of the city. Buck's Royalist contact Baritgrethra Hardmaster maintained pressure for Buck to be of service to the city while Doraddac Ashbrew of the Spirit's Temper was more codrial, going so far as to provide a parting gift of dwarven holywater. Broxon took his last day to finally get around to something he had been planning for a while. When he had returned from his spiritual pilgrimage as a man without committed life, he had seared away the bicep tattoo of Tempus' flaming sword. Buck's treatment of the burn with a restorative ointment left the location spotless. Now the dwarf sought out a tattoo artist. Taking advantage of his newly shaven head, upon one side he had calligraphied “Rosfield” and upon the other “Sim 301”. Where the Tempus mark had been now was placed the profile of a wolf bust howling, jaggedly split like broken glass.
  6th of First Harvest
The Fractured Pack's journey down the mountain was both easier and harder than their ascent. On one hand, they had done the journey once before, knew of the territorial drakes, and did not have to contend with the rain. On the other, they no longer had an Anvilguard for the less-than-marked portions and a decent is always more precarious with your direction of travel prone for rapid acceleration. It took the day but the Pack managed to not only get down but once more find the Anvilguard outpost within Thjoldmondr.
  7th of First Harvest
The next day's journey dropped them through the foothills and across towards the Jungle. Towards later afternoon, Anna's flight gave her view of the farmlands of goblins and evening brought proximity to the known village of Beggars Hole. The Fractured Pack approached to inquire for any information they had on Lung Rot. The chocolately skinned elder of the goblin village pointed the group off to a hilltop blooming with lilacs. Anna and Buck's investigations found the soil to still contain the remains of rotting timbers under the loam and moss that had grown up. Buck took some samples as Broxon played watchdog to the untrustworthy goblins. The party moved off a few miles to make their camp and the next day took them into the Ulgos.
  8th of First Harvest
Temperature and moisture ever increasing within the Ulgos, the journey continued to grow more tiresome. The goal was to head deep into the jungle to find the narrowest stretch of the Orods to cross over. While more difficult than the Runol Pass, it would divert the party around both the Risen Caste as well as the more territorial goblinoids and gnolls in the forests west of the valley now that they didn't have a guide. Journey should then be relatively shorter and easier crossing the Copper Hills to eventually find Fort Guillon upon the Everstorm and possible passage towards the pirates of Craven Cove.
  The day's halfway point was marked by the discovering of the abandoned ruins of Dry Gulch, the party's second deliberate checkpoint on their journey across the land. Here, they found the entire village burned down and retaken by the forest. A handful of walls and pillars stood though covered in moss and vines. Rubble was entangled in roots and shoots. The tallest pillar, just off-center in the village, was found to have an eroded word carved into it in the goblin tongue: “Abandon” conjugated in the imperative. Seeimg more pointed shoots growing from underneath the village, the desire to dig was sparked. Buck discovered the shoots throughout the village were all a single plant connected by rhizomes. Looking towards the edge of the village Buck identified the edge of the entity based on the breeding pods produced at the outer ring to spread seeds and help the plant procreate.