interest. "Anyone need better armor?" he asks, intrigued but not desiring better armor in case anyone else needs it.

He absentmindedly passes the healing potion to Octavia before joining Malkala in the search around the camp. "Some scouting mission," he comments, not in mockery or in agitation but instead as an analysis. "Is this how a lot of your past adventures go?"

Malkala shrugs as she heads for the closest watchtower, "I have not gone on too many adventures, but their results varied. Unfortunately, no matter what you plan, it will almost always fall apart. Doesn't mean you shouldn't be prepared, but also be prepared for sudden alterations." She tilts her head back, "That definitely could have gone better though. It's the reason I want to look around before we retreat. If we don't look around, we essentially return to square one."

At that point, the pair arrive at the watchtower. It is a simple structure of four wooden posts, held together with rope and reinforced with diagonal supports crisscrossing between each post. At the very top is a platform made with cut lumber and two stakes that hold a rope ladder. Under the platform, on the ground, is a pile of mundane supplies, such as tents, food, firewood, and more. However, Zrak sees the corner of a box poking out from some cloth. Malkala notices it a moment later, and the pair start pulling aside the supplies. They find five crates, all but one of them pried open multiple times.

One crate held small items and a pouch. The pouch held mostly silver coins with some gold mixed in. The small items include a pair of silver earrings and a wooden music box. The other opened crates include furs and pelts, clearly recent hunting spoils. The unopened crate clinks multiple times in quick succession as Malkala moves it out of the way. On the top of the crate is a crest cut into it crudely: a stag's skull.

"Well that confirms who these belonged to," Zrak notes, feeling the messily-cut crest with his bone-thin fingers. "I can't imagine how much of the Greenbelt this 'lord' has under watch." A brief thought came to Zrak's mind before turning to the crates. He smuggles the silver and gold coins, shoveling them in a small bag without separating the two coin types.

Then, to perhaps Malkala's surprise and without a word, Zrak also pockets the wooden musical box.

He gives a look over at the unopened crate, running one finger across the edge where it could be pried opened. "Do we have anything to get this open?" he asks, noting his ratty curiosity. "Lemme look for a crowbar." The ratfolk leaves Malkala to her own search as he leaps and swings up the wooden watchtower, hearing the small creaks of wood supporting his weight.

And while he is here, he takes a moment to climb to the top of the tower and look out in the distance. Maybe there's something in the distance he can see?

There is not much on top of the watchtower. Only some waterskins, trail rations, and bolts for an extended stakeout. However, as Zrak looks around, he finds some locations to possibly explore. To the north-east is the clearing they found the kobalds in. To the west is what looks like a ruined structure. To the south-east is a bridge that runs across a gulch. To the east-south-east is a massive old tree that despite it being over twelve miles away can be seen easily.

From below the watchtower, Malkala calls up, trying not to extend her voice too far, "I found a crowbar!"

Zrak scurries through the trail rations and makes sure they are edible before shouting back down. "Be right there!" The ysoki takes stock of his position, opens the map, and jolts down archaic-yet-effective symbols and paths to the clearing, the ruined structure, the gulch, and the old tree. While there is no way they have the time to examine every location, there might be something appealing in a future exhibition.

He climbs down afterward to meet back with Malkala, who had acquired a rather helpful crowbar for the stag crate. "There's some sort of ruins, a gulch, and a big tree some ways from here," he notes. "Think we're gonna have time to check one place out?"

As Zrak passes the map to her, he takes her crowbar as if in exchange. "What are we waiting for then?" he asks in genuine confusion, hopping up on the crate and plying the crowbar at the top edge. "Let's get this thing open!"

As Zrak cracks open the crate, he hears more glass clinking as objects tap into each other. Looking in, he finds eight glass bottles. The glass is tinted with a translucent dark green color, each bottle corked with a wine cork. Pulling one out, he sees a label with a herb leaf circling around a blob of golden liquid.

Zrak has no idea what the drink inside could be, but out of the corner of his eye, he sees Malkala's eyes narrow in thought. They then widen in recognition, "Honeyleaf Liquor!"

At Zrak's questioning glance, she clarifies, "It is a rather expensive liquor from Restov that is made from honey and the leaves of whiteglow flowers. While no one has been able to prove it, rumors are that it is able to treat the symptoms of various physical and mental disabilities. That fuels its popularity and price. However, it is also addictive, whether from the rumors or from the whiteglow flowers I do not know." She rolls the bottle back and forth in her hand, "It could be the Stag Lord has become addicted himself. We can use that."

She shakes her head and sets the bottle back in the crate. Then, she looks at the map, her eyes flitting back and forth between the different locations, "I think we have time for one more location before we should head back to the Post. I say we either head back north, stopping by the ruined structure along the way, or go east toward the large tree. I am curious to see it up close."

Malkala's curiosity meets a cross-armed Zrak as he frowns at the tree comment. "That's gotta be a good twenty-something miles from here," he warns, pointing to his crudely-drawn markings on the map. "I'd rather we head north, to the ruins. Getting to the tree may be an adventure in itself and I'd rather prepare for that." He hops off the open crate, attempting to sniff the Honeyleaf Liquor bottle through the cork in case it leaked. Nope, sealed shut. He almost considers opening one bottle, restraining over Malkala's warning about the addiction.

The last thing he needs is another thing to rely on.

"We'll take the bottles and find some use for 'em. I can't imagine how we'd lure the Stag Lord out with it." The ratty warrior carefully pockets away the bottles while speaking, "But maybe we'll find an opportunity." A moment passes as he confirms all the gold and silver picked up in the area and then readies himself. "I'm ready to find Octavia and the half-orc now. We'll go north and check that ruined structure."

Malkala nods, "It gives us an opportunity. Something we didn't have before. It's always good to have options."

She calls the two ex-slaves over to the wagons and explains the plan to them.

"Good." Octavia sighs, "It will be good to finally sleep in a bed. And wash! Oh Calistria, I need one."

Regongar gives her a look with a mix of emotions, but Zrak can see annoyance and lust as the foremost two. He says nothing else, letting his jumping into the wagon speak of his opinion. Once everyone is ready, Zrak and Malkala lead the party back north, veering west once they return to the trail.

It takes them the rest of the day and most of the next day to arrive near the structure. The trip is quiet and uneventful, only stopping to camp and hunt. And, when they arrive at the structure an hour from sunset, they find that the structure is just as quiet.

A thick tangle of brambles give way to a large clearing in the woods, its border partially defined by ruined stone pillars. The western face of the clearing, the front left of the party's position, is dominated by a looming mass of rock, nearly three-hundred feet across and rising to a moss-topped height of one-hundred feet at the center. The side of the towering escarpment facing the clearing has been carved in the likeness of an immense elk, its antlers drooping down from its weathered face to frame a fifty-foot-wide cave entrance. A flight of stone steps leads up to the entrance from the forest clearing-the steps and the elk face both seem quite old and are thickly encrusted with moss. A fifty-foot-long oval pool in the middle of the clearing contains water thick with algae.

Malkala looks around and says as if in thought, "It's abandoned. Maybe a shelter?"

Lightly leaning forward on his steed, Zrak squints his ratty eyes outward at the encampment, finding some appeal in the elk-style carving and the pool of water; though the algae presented an unideal place to clean off. The place had this odd feel to it, as if its use had come and gone, and its nature-covered appearance warned people to stay away instead of come in.

"If this was a shelter, I doubt it supports much now," he responds to Malkala, looking deep from a distance into the gaping entrance. "We ought to expect monsters that made their nest inside. But maybe we can rest if it's not too bad." Sleeping in the Greenbelt has been a calmer experience compared to Numeria, as he idly mentions to Octavia and Regongar, "Sure ain't like in Numeria where you'd pray for a cave to sleep in." He can't quite say he missed the flurry of sand storms rattling and tearing tents at night.

The ysoki finds a small spot to keep his horse still before approaching the cave. "Let's go take a look then," he suggests before walking in.

As the group starts approaching the large rock, they hear a scream from the top of the ruined stairs. With a glance at Zrak, Malkala charges forward, blade in hand. Her talons rip into the stone as she takes the stairs two at a time, eventually reaching near the top and stopping before her head completely becomes visible to anything that might be at the top. Moments later, the rest of the group approach and kneel with the dragonborne, looking to the scene ahead.

A massive form stalks toward the right edge of the thirty-by-forty foot area outside the cave. It looks like a bear in silhouette alone. Vines, roots, and other natural material wrap in, out, around, and through a half-rotted carcass of a bear. Some of the wood is dark around the parts immediately touching the body, possibly old blood, and the leaves are splattered with blood that seems to be ever new. It lets out a large roar that shakes the stone of the stairs and platform like an earthquake. As it does, Zrak thinks he sees the very faint ghostly form of a man swirling around the bear's body before sinking back into the stalking corpse.

The beast's target is a young man scrambling back as far as he can go. He is completely clothed in white robes with light blue robes underneath, including a white hood with golden trim. A green cloak covers a bunch of bags and books around his waist, and his brown leather boots seem more polished than they should for walking around the Stolen Lands. In his right hand is a idol of a woman with arms out in a t-pose. Around her are wings and behind her head is a blazing sun. The idol as a whole shines brightly, illuminating the immediate area like a torch, and flashing light upon the scimitar in his other hand.

He holds the idol outstretched, "I know of the pain you suffer! Let me shed your curse at let you be free!"

In answer, the bear growls so low that Zrak can feel it vibrate from thirty feet away.

Zrak observes the bear and poor figure in the distance, shaking his ratty head at the scene. Wasn't that idol of Sarenare? He heard the name before as some sort of goddess of redemption, even if it means little to him; one will not find redemption in Numeria.

"Ugh. We're not getting any sleep with that thing around," the ysoki mutters, shaking his head at the bear. The man barely seems to catch Zrak's notice. "Malkala, you got a strategy for killing that thing quickly?"

The bear is wonderfully distracted, leaving a chance to remove it before it could lift a paw. The group just needs some coordination.

Malkala looks to the beast for a moment, then her eyes dart all over the platform, clearly running calculations fast.

"That thing is massive and powerful. Even with the four of us, and him," her head nods to the young man, "if he would join us, it could be too much for us. We have to fight defensively and strategically. Hit and run tactics will be our friend here."

She looks back to Octavia, "It may not be weak to fire necessarily, but it may have a fear of it. Stay back and focus on throwing your fire orbs at it. The rest of us will keep its attention off of you." Her eyes move to Regongar, "You have a lot of power that you can put into your strikes if you can get them prepared. You're our powerhouse. Take the first few seconds of the fight getting everything you can ready for one fatal attack." The dragon head finally finishes on Zrak, "Meanwhile, you and I are on distraction and defensive duty. We can get our strikes in as we move around, but our goal is mainly to keep its attention and survive."

With that, Malkala starts pulling out vials of alchemical liquid. She hands one to Zrak, which looks like a clear liquid, except it has veins of light red running through it. As he looks at it, he gets the feeling that the veins in the liquid are pulsing, as if something is pumping through them.

"Take that now." She says as she takes another of the same kind and chugs it, "That is a Soothing Tonic. It will allow you to gradually heal in combat. Not a lot, but it could save your life."

She then hands him two of her Elixirs of Life. She keeps two for herself, and finally passes two each to Octavia and Regongar, "Healing elixirs."

Malkala waits for Octavia to bring up her magical armor, and Regongar to cast his electrical spell on his blade before nodding to Zrak, "Start off the fight. I'll be right behind you."

"Then you better make sure I don't die," he comments back to Malkala, laying low on his bone-thin