The Dead Man's Rest

Ben and Ever scout out the Dead Man's Rest. By all appearances it is a busy tavern on two stories balanced on stilts on top of a rocky outcrop. Rope bridges run off in five directions across both floors and the open rooftop and a wide scaffold, serving as a road, surrounds it. While you're watching a man arrives with a wheelbarrow full of crabs which he trades with a red faced man in an apron who takes the food back inside. A number of people are sitting at open windows, eating, drinking and smoking pipes. There is a steady stream of people coming and going, more than seems likely for people just eating and drinking.

There doesn't seem to be any danger here even though a tall halfling with a broken nose walks around the "road" and up and down the staircases between levels. He's carrying a quarterstaff and dressed in studded leather. While you watch he stops briefly to chat to the man in the apron you saw earlier and then resumes his patrol.

A delicious smell wafts over to you from the tavern, a combination of roasted hops and buttered crab that makes your mouth water. Seeing nothing untoward you or your companions walk across one of the swaying bridges and enter the main bar area.

There are a number of round tables in the place, most are taken already and at one end of the bar are two large rectangular desks. Seated at them are two clerks with piles of paper, pots of ink and large wooden stamps, each one flanked by two guards in the same studded leather as the man patrolling the perimeter. There are two queues in front of each desk. They are merchants and tradesmen for the most part. You see the mate from the Ogre's Kiss at the front of the queue with his writing desk box. Some kind of merchant or shipping transaction seems to be taking place with the clerks acting as notaries.

Bridge

Devka wanders around Bridge, making his way round the market and keeping an ear out. Most of the talk is about the Ogre's Kiss and the giant on his giant horse and you hear slightly distorted versions of the events in Old Alk repeated back to you. Other news stems from the attacks on the Six Sisters and beyond by the giants and rumour has it that Shark's Luck is overrun with the monsters.

One rumour about Bridge does reach you and that is news of Old Claws. Apparently this fearsome creature has been the terror of the island for years, attacking pig farmers, foresters and their homes inland. Nobody really knows where Old Claws lives or even if it is one of a kind. Patrols never seem to find it and it rarely attacks the same place twice.

The Island

Graorin and Athedru are followed by a curious crowd as far as the edge of Bridge. Getting around with a horse is difficult but not impossible as several sturdy bridge ways have been made for donkeys and carts. The town itself ends rather abruptly rather than thins out at the edges as you'd expect. It seems that the town has definite limits inland marked by an old wooden palisade.

You rouse a sleepy gate keeper to let you out and in the middle of complaining he warns you, "Watch out for Old Claws if you plan on crossing the island. Biggest crab you ever did see, bigger'n you." He also tells you to avoid the darker pools in the shallows as they indicate deep holes obscured by water.

Once outside you ride through the shallow water. It's a few inches deep between the low sandy hills and rocky outcrops. Sure enough you spot a few dark pools between these hills that could have been easy to fall into. Within half an hour you reach slightly higher ground and stop to dry off your horse's legs and rest.

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Can you both make a spot check please.