32 Erathisway 4520 - A Long Forgotten Road

Arkomir Phinan writes...

Next morning, we have a quick breakfast. Before we head on our way, we make a quick sojourn to the spot where we met Lukas and the Bahamut statue. We find our way back to that spot again pretty quickly and looking at the statue Dharra Boulderfoot tries to discern its age. It is clearly 100s of years old, maybe 1000s, but definitely The Cleansing Waveold. It is quite worn, but there are signs of repair on it and there is something about the shape of it that reminds us of statuary we have seen on Verdant Isle and Oxenhalt. We find a stylised E on it as well. I cast Divine sense and the ground feels slightly hallowed to me. Whilst we are here, we check out Lukas' cottage.

The door is not locked and we head inside. Inside, it is a very old cabin that has been repaired over time. There is a double bed in an adjoining room that has been made recently but not used and there are covers over some of the other furniture to save it from getting dusty. There is not a lot of adornment but there are some weapons by way of decoration. On a mantle under some of the covers, we find a framed piece of glass that shows a view from the front of this cabin looking up the great valley of the Dunkelgrun Region. In the picture are Lok and Bella. Bella appears older than we have seen her pictured previously. We cast sending to Lukas whilst we are in this place to see if we can get a message through. Dharra gets the sense that it doesn't connect and the message just trails into darkness.

We say goodbye to the Esward Moulton delegation letting them know of our plans, telling them we may see them on the road to Dunkelgrun East or in the town. We head toward the boat to travel back to Glade's Folly and arrive at the docks of Glade's Folly just after lunchtime. We bid goodbye to the boat and set off to find the road, heading out of town and toward the Bowshot Bridge. Before that we head into the Flashing Salmon to ask if anyone has stories of this old road. The foundations of the tavern look quite old, but not ancient. The road we are looking for is ancient. Dharra asks around in the tavern for information, but no one has any real information so we decide to head up to the top of the hill to see if height will give us some perspective. We combine our senses to try and give ourselves the best chance to find what we are looking for.

I reach out to Corellon and channel my mind to look for the ancient road. We get a sense of something ahead and mark a tree that should set us on our way. We head back down the hill, gather our horses and head toward the tree. It is way past the eastern gate of the town, past some farmland but we get their without trouble. Thinking back on the vision, where we are standing would be a junction spot. It was marked by white stones, which Dharra goes looking for. She finds one of these marker stones, which is a lump of white quartz. It is smooth of two sides with some faint markings. The markings on one face say: 2 Upward whilst the other face say: 3 Downward Curve. We also found a half of another of these markers. On the piece that we have found it says: 25 Down Water, and thinking on that, this may be pointing toward the Hall of Shrines we found outside of Darin's Fall.

We decide to follow the direction marking to 2 Upward. We follow this direction for about 90 minutes until we emerge on a ridge line and I get a sense that what we are looking for is here, in this place. We see a low stone wall and Dharra investigates it using her stone cunning. It is deep stone, and she gets the sense that it would be a good place to start delving perhaps. We cannot see an entrance into this space. We think we have found the space we are looking for, but it has been purposefully disguised. Dharra tries Thunderstep and we get a sense that there is space behind but it is deep. Dharra casts fly on the horses and we head up to investigate around where we are but we don't see anything of note whilst up here however. Given all that we have found today, we decide to camp on the ridge line tonight and will investigate the area further tomorrow. Dharra casts Tiny Hut for us to sleep in tonight as we make camp.

Whilst we are camped, I ask Dharra to help me send a message to my father, Eroan Phinan. We tell him of what we have found; ancient settlements, bridge construction, star tower armour etc. He replies saying that what we have found is quite significant. He asks for Dharra's name and says that he will investigate once he has finished his current expedition. Dharra sends a second message to him, telling about my allegiance to Corellon. He replies asking where we are as he can dispatch someone to look into it. We reply that we will keep investigating and when we meet we can show him. He replies that he welcomes our reports and seeing the wonders we have seen.

I ask to send a message to Vesstan Jhaeril, my best friend from Mol Gentra. He replies saying he is well, as is my mother. They are on the furthest isle of Tears and they are heading home in about a month but it is hard to say. We will try to check in again in about a week. After all that, Dharra spends some time playing her Oud whilst I look after our weapons and we get a long rest.