The location of the gold deposit is mapped, and you make camp outside it for the night.

12 Gozran, 4708

A frosty morning greets you, with winter's chill still lingering over the Greenbelt today, despite a clear, pale blue sky. The grassy plains continue for miles. The contours of the ancient land are low rises and gently sloping hills. You spot a few dugouts cut into the hills, simple timber structures with tanned pelts hanging on racks outside.

Ilya
Spoiler
Show
These are the sorts of hunters' dwellings common to much of Brevoy and beyond. They are used to winter-over. With the spring hunting season, they are empty.


Tireas
Spoiler
Show
Travelling is an excellent time to read your letter. Opening it, you find a nondescript piece of parchment with a brief message written upon it.

My son,

I do not write this to ask something of you. I instead desired to wish you good fortune in your travels, and remind you of the importance of your mission. The Stolen Lands is vital territory that cannot be allowed to remain untaken. It will tip the balance.

All the best to you. Make us proud.

Your father.


Moving on, a small rise in the grasslands attracts your attention. It has a single tree atop it. It looks to be long dead, with sun-bleached, knotted branches and a gnarled trunk. Recognizing it as the tree on your recently-found map, you approach it. At the tree's base, between old roots, a segment of the earthy ground is out of place, its dirt disturbed and upturned into a mound.

Quick inspection reveals that the dirt is covering something, and a few minutes of digging unearths a rough brown satchel. Inside is a thin reedy wand with a silver bauble on one end, a thick silver ring, and a small book.

Zinovia
Spoiler
Show
You identify the wand as a wand of magic missile (CL2, 4 charges remaining). The ring does not detect as magic, and is likely simply valuable jewellery. The spellbook has been mostly destroyed by groundwater, but you make out five spells that are intact: identify, mage armour, reduce person, silent image, and unseen servant.


Spoiler
Show
I hope it isn't presumptuous of me to push on. This scene is basically just free loot for finding the map, but if anyone wants to respond to it, go right ahead in your next post.


13 Gozran, 4708

Once more, you come to the boundaries of your Charter. Here, rocky highlands rise in the distance into the Nomen Heights. A mist rolls down from the mountains, heavy and thick, obscuring your vision as you explore amongst the rocks.

The mist does not dissipate as the day moves on, turning ground, which is strewn with massive boulders and rocky outcroppings, into a veritable maze. It is slow moving.

Suddenly, from nearby, you hear sounds of shouting rise from the mists, then a crushing noise, a scream, and a bellowing roar from something with very big lungs.