Chapter 22: Night Watches!

The Fourth of Solentide, D.Y. 500

-----With maybe three or four hours before the sun sets, Whisper jogs down the hill on its southern side, barely disturbing the blades of grass as he goes. At the bottom of the hill, he sees the continuation of a trail road that winds down the eastern side of the mound and leads off toward the south across a flat grassy plain. The mile wide plain looks to be centered between two different swamplands thick with trees. From where he stands on the hill, it looks like the trail road heads south and then veers off to the southeast. It is in that direction that Jeilin had mentioned that the Town of Black Bog is located.
-----Whisper breathed in deeply. He ran his cold blue eyes over the landscape, thinking about his possible route.
-----He rolled his shoulders, stretching in that cat-like way that he had, and his ears clearly picked out the rustling of all the gear he had encumbered himself with.
-----No matter. He would redistribute some of the load during his night's rest, and he had some preparations to make with the rope and oil.
-----With those thoughts settled, he began loping off towards the Southern-most wooded swampland. He missed a proper forest, and this was as close as he would get for now.
-----Whisper lightly follows the trail road just about a hundred yards before veering off to the left. Leaving the road, he makes for the swampland that borders a flat plain on its eastern edge.
-----Here the ground turns soft and moist giving way to standing water left behind from the past night’s weather gathered in dark pools. Still, Whisper can find trails of mounded land to transverse by. Tall dark tree trunks stand silently and where they are thick, little hope is provided for a quick passage. Overhead their leafy foliage stirs slightly in the light breeze and the shadows of the evening deepen.
-----After a bit, Whisper determines that this woodland covers an area of about a mile. Off toward the east as he peers through the trees, he sees nothing but flat plains. There, a road also runs toward the southeast. From the trees on the southern edge, he can see the trail road that he followed down the hill winding in an easterly direction. Without a doubt the two roads that he spied must join together to lead toward the Town of Black Bog.
-----He could camp here or move out across the plains.
-----Whisper looked around. Moving across the plain during any kind of light would merely serve to make him a nimble target for anyone with a bow whom might be covering the retreat.
-----No. He would rest here for a few hours. It seemed early evening yet, and he wanted a little time to prepare the equipment he had brought along.
-----Whisper moves back toward the center of the wooded marshland and found a place where the ground was raised up from the standing water and less muddy and damp. Still it was surrounded by trees and their canopy provided cover although there seemed to be nothing overhead save clouds. This would be a perfect place for a small campsite.

-----Within a few moments, the riders move across the stone river bridge. Following the trail on the other side, they begin the ascent up the bank toward the village. As they near the line of scrubs, Dilton stands up and waves to them.
-----“I suppose we ought to help with the watch tonight?” Raven says aloud.
-----As the group continues to ride back towards the village, Sol nods at Raven's question, "Yes we should, and we will. Somewhere in between scrapping together whatever rest we can."
-----As the adventurers ride into town, they can tell that much organizing has gone on, or at least attempted in their short absence. Many of the former prisoners and especially those who still seem hearty regardless of their imprisonment now carry makeshift weapons and have scraped together what light armor they can fashion. Small squads of two or three humans patrol up and down the road between the buildings, though less in a hostile manner than the humanoids did only a night ago.
-----Torches burning from makeshift poles illuminate the trails and paths leading into the settlement with the beginning of twilight. Soft candle light is detected in many of the homes and buildings including the inn. Many of the women and children tend to walk and sit in various places around the village square and at first it seems as though this could be a village enjoying a pleasant summer evening.
-----The hobgoblin camp looks mostly stripped away of its tents though the southern half of the square where the army encamped appears muddy and forlorn. Ashes are all that remain of the humanoid campfires and possessions.

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