Sid starts helping Xune unload the boat back into the wagons.
Davin aids with the packing as well. And while he does so, he ponders the fate of the half-orc mercenary. He's not against taking her with them. But he could see how she could be uncomfortable with the idea. There was no guarantee they could keep her alive after all.
In the end, he decides to trust Xune to figure it out. She hadn't steered him wrong before.
He stops a moment and notices Xune's attempts to hide how much pain she was in.
"I'll need to check your wounds before we bed down," he tells her. He then continues moving the supplies.
Alyna lends her considerable strength in the unpacking. She has no current wish to oppose any of the party's ideas at the moment. If asked about her opinion in elvish, she replies:
"I'm here to learn the outcome of decisions. It would be unwise for me to steer towards known strategies. My teachers have tought me how to make self sufficient camps that can strike out from forests, but those strategies rely on the skills of my people. In the new world, now that the gods have come and gone, we'll need to learn how to direct the efforts of smokey dwarves, smelly humans and, it seems, even fouler beasts (indicating the half-orc with her eyes). I'll just follow lead for awhile."
After the packing, Alyna unceremoniously strips naked and starts bathing and washing her clothes in the river.
Already smoking again, Beau assist in whatever was the best way to help out, talking with the half-orc, in a general manner, as both had experience fighting for causes other than their own.
The crew gathers everything together and gets back onto the road. Mara keeps quiet and simply does the same job she has been doing. Loading cargo and keeping watch around the wagons for bandits or other trouble.
Trouble comes not far down the road. A little before dinner the group finds themselves near the spot where they had liberated Xenotime a few days before.
A hooting sound breaks the peaceful trip. Two massive creatures charge out of the woods. Eight feel tall if they were standing on their hind legs, the pair come loping out with a screech. They are generally bear shaped, but with a heavy coat of feathers. A sharp beak on their otherwise ursine face promises to snap bones into twigs.
Davin draws his mace and braces himself for an attack.
Sid steps up next to Davin and readies himself for the onslaught, holding his blade in a defensive posture.
Beau shouts out in Dwarven
The owlbears stop short a moment confused. They screech and turn around, heading back for the cover of the brush and ready to wait for smaller, quieter prey.
Beau harramphs and tries to get his pipe going good again, grumbling under his breath about just how hard it is to get a good embering while moving. After a few attempts though he gets it, and puffs merrily on his pipe as they continue to travel
From overhead Xeno comes down from a hefty branch on a tree.
"Humpf. Silly beasts," he says chidingly of the owlbears.
After a long pause, Davin says, "It appears Master Beauregarde is part druid. Who would have guessed."
Sid chuckles and shakes his head as he sheathes his sword. "You'll have to teach me how to say that, Beau. They could've been nasty." He nods at the wagons. "Now let's get out of their territory before they decide they're hungry enough to brave the dwarf's wrath."
Gruffly he replies " Ye would be mad to if yer smoke keeps getting cut off. Ever got between a mountaineer and his ale? KNow how he be able ta take yer head? Same thing. Us proper hill dwarves like our smoke." He isn't really sure how to teach someone dwarven as Sid asks him. He rubs his beard as they keep moving before saying " Ye just call their bluff. Ifin that not work, ye smash kneecaps to brains. Simple ye?"
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"Well done, Beauregarde, I'll relieve that you made us to be not the killer of those unknowing owlbears"
Alyna's common is less haltingly spoken, but she's clearly not reached humour, yet.
The rest of the day and that night pass without incident, beyond hearing Mara grumble about how her favorite axe was broken.
The next morning starts clear, but low dark clouds begin accumulating in the sky and a humid breeze blows across the rolling hills.
Late in the day a storm breaks against the mountains to the east. The road quickly turns to mud and threatens to mire the wagons.
The company pulls off the road and under the shelter of a rocky overhang surrounded by trees to wait out the rain and wind, which continues late into the evening.
"We are about an hour or two from Daggerfalls. It might not be best for me to be seen there, aye? Lizard, too. Might be I would be rec'nized, aye? The big hills are our best bet to be close but not too close. We gotta be careful though. Beastmen."
As everyone gets closer and the day dries things out, the tall hills, which would grant a clear view of the valley below them. The peak is tall and rocky. Mara nods with her head, "Locals call it, 'Eagle's Eyrie'"
The pug-nosed woman grins, "If I knew that, I'd be drinking and pissing away the reward, aye? Naw, he stays on the move, hits the Zhents where they're weak and runs off to a new hidey-hole. Chippin' away at 'em. The bosses talk about... what's the word they like? Parsnips? Naw...well, folks loyal to the old government, aye? The rank and file though, well, let's just say no one wanted to volunteer to do extended patrols through the heart of the dale."
"Well, if the Freedom Riders are heavy in the heart of the dale, we could set up here a base on Eagle's Eyrie and range in from here. That would keep us away from Daggerfalls and hopefully give us and the Riders a fallback location as we poke the Zhents."
He looks up at the rocky peak. "That will make a fine and defensible redoubt, but getting up there is going to be a pain."
"I suppose I shall have to stay below the treeline," says Xenotime. "All it takes is one shepherd spreading stories of seeing a dragon on the wing and suddenly it's knights and wizards up to your knickers. But I can probably get up to the Eagle's Eyrie easily enough, assuming there aren't any perytons or griffons or the like up there already."
The rough hills turn out to be more navigable than first assumed. Xenotime is able to do a few cautious passes, low to the ground at first, then becoming more confident, he is able to get a solid look at the hills and rock formation.
Near the base of where exposed granite peaks through the scrub and trees the dragon spies the ruins of a tower and a faded foot trail that switchbacks multiple times over the rough terrain.
"That tower is a good sign. It sounds like a watchpost to me. Let's see what's up that trail. Even the ruins of a fort would be a big step up from trying to build a base from nothing."
Beau frowns slightly, and while mentioning none of his suspicions to the group, keeps a very close eye on the rest of the surroundings, for if someone else built it, that someone may still be there
"It strikes me as exactly the kind of place where some ne'er-do-well humans might stake their home-on-the-road in between bouts of banditry," says Xenotime to Alyna.
The group scouts the region and notices several things.
Xenotime spots two eagles, but few other aerial creatures. What is odd is that there are places far better for eagles to nest than the spot near the ruins, yet that is where they are.
Davin notices obvious tracks in the path. Human sized, but bare feet. An experienced tracker or outdoor specialist might be able to tell more from the tracks.
Beau scans the rocky outcroppings and sees what are very well-concealed slits in the cliff side. The method of concealment is highly reminiscent of dwarven fortifications.
Beau tries to recall if he knows of any dwarven clans in the area, for this seemed like an odd place to have one. It served to him as a better outpost for a military or a staging ground.
Xune creeps up the trail, trying to stay quiet and staying low. Up close the tower is little more than foundation and a few feet of circular stones. The stones show signs of deliberate damage and rocky debris at the bottom of the cliff answers the question of where the rest of the tower can be found.
It does look as if someone has been living in the ruins. Branches form a rough tent where the tower's walls are highest. Scat and urine are everywhere, as are the bones of small animals. A few crude tools like stone knives sit filthy on the ground.
Despite signs of habitation, no one seems to be home right now. Even the eagles are on the wing.
"Clearing out the area before we start trying to fortify it makes sense." Sid nods at the cliff. "Could you see if you can find a way in there, Xeno? Slits imply this tower is a decoy of its own, or at least not the only place we need to check out."
"I'll check. If the roof has collapsed I might be able to land inside. But I don't think I can squeeze through those slits," says the dragon dubiously. He takes wing and circles over the tower at close range, looking to see if there are any places where he might be able to gain illicit entry.
As the group engages in a more thorough exploration of the cliff area, a cave is discovered. It is partially concealed by brush, but Xeno can see it more clearly doing a low pass.
Within is the rotting corpse of a large brown bear. The cave continues into the darkness, turning before it becomes too dark.
Alyna had stayed silent for a good long while, to which no-one seemed to object. She'd been in a reflective mood, and had only replied with the shortest replies, while going about her tasks. In the evenings, she had refurbished her new banded mail. She had carefully folded and put away her native armor.
Now, faced with their 'new home', which had apparently been overrun by something foul, she makes an annoyed grunt and moved forward.
"Let's get it, then" she says, drawing her longsword and stepping towards and past the rotting carcass of the bear.
"We need to clear out before we can clean up"
Sid draws his sword as he continues into the cave, elven eyes gleaming red in the dark.
Moving deeper into the cave Alyna notices immediately that the floor is completely covered in layers of guano but that there are only a few bats sleeping overhead. The tunnel ends at a rough cave wall. Beau and the elves feel air flowing and whistling through two square holes about three feet high.
Beau finds a rusted metal catch cleverly concealed within a crevice in the cave wall.
Beau grunts when he finds the catch. This seemed a very dwarven device to his mind, but something about everything seemed off. He was still not aware of any clans in this area recently, and this camp spoke of recent activity. He voiced to the others " We may encounter something we do no want. I hear tells of dark elven kin, and of stranger beast. Look, see this catch? This speaks to a dwarf made, but I no membering one from this area." He has put his pipe out so the glow did not affect his eyesight, but he checked the device for traps, before asking Xune to check, as she seemed the most likely to understand.