The old watchtower ladder is rotten and several rungs break as you climb. Pick a number from the Random Number Table.
You are feeling tired and hungry and you must stop to eat. After your Meal, you retrace your steps back to the citadel and begin to walk around the high, indomitable stone wall.
You discover another entrance on the eastern side, guarded as before by two armoured soldiers.
For half an hour or more you press on through the forest, through the rich vegetation and ferns. You happen upon a small clear stream where you stop for a few minutes to wash your face and drink of the cold, fresh water.
Feeling revitalized, you cross the stream and press on. You soon notice the smell of wood smoke which seems to be drifting towards you from the north.
After a few seconds, two small furry faces nervously appear over the top of the trunk. They say they are Kakarmi and tell you that the Kraan are everywhere. To the west lie the remains of their village but little is left of it now. They are trying to find the rest of their tribe who took to the forest when the Black-wings
attacked. They point behind them
You thank the Kakarmi, and bid them farewell.
Keeping a careful watch on the huts for any sign of the enemy, you make your way around the clearing under the cover of the trees and bracken. Rejoining the track, you hurry away from Fogwood.
Three rangers gallop past the river bank, closely followed by the Giaks on their snarling Doomwolves.
The bank is steep and you are spotted by the Giak leader who orders five of his troops to open fire at you with their bows. Their black arrows rain down on you.
You follow the track for nearly an hour when you come to a crossroads.
From behind the rock a huge black bear comes into view. It advances slowly towards you, its mouth open and its face lined in anger and pain.
You notice that it is badly wounded and is bleeding from its neck and back. You must fight it.
Without warning, the old track ends abruptly at the edge of a steep slope. The ground here is very loose and unstable. You lose your footing and fall headlong over the edge.
Pick a number from the Random Number Table.
These men are not what they seem. The tunic of the leader is genuine but it is heavily bloodstained around the collar, as if its true owner had been murdered. Their weapons are not army issue, but expensive and lavishly decorated like the weapons made by the armourers of Durenor.
The leader has a crossbow slung over his pack. An attempt to run would be suicide. You decide that you must fight them or you will surely be murdered as soon as you drop your weapon.
You have covered about two miles when the trees ahead thin out. You can see a small wooden shack on the edge of a lake. A cloaked man approaches you and offers to row you and your horse across the lake for a fee of 2 Gold Crowns.
Breathless and sweating, you claw your way towards the summit of the hill. Suddenly, a large winged shadow passes across the hillside. You look up to see a Kraan circling the peak above. Behind you the Giaks are gaining ground.
Your Sixth Sense warns you that these troops are not all they seem. You can detect an aura of evil about them. They are in the service of the Darklords.
As you begin to read the inscription, you notice a shadow moving towards you from behind the screen.
Pick a number from the Random Number Table.
The sound of fighting can be heard in the distance.
You climb the wooded bank of the river and see the log walls of the fieldworks disappearing into the distance.
A battle rages about two miles away and the log wall has collapsed in several places where the Darklords are attacking.
Most of the fieldworks ahead are unmanned, the soldiers having left to supply reinforcements for the raging battle.
Now that you are closer, you can make out that the voices are not human. The sound is more like a kind of grunting and squeaking.
A searing pain tears through your right leg as it is twisted and crushed by the weight of your body. Down and down you tumble, until you finally land in a ditch at the base of the hill with such force that the wind is knocked out of you and you lose consciousness.
You are awoken by the sharp pain of something stabbing your chest. It proves to be the tip of a Giak spear. You are greeted by the malicious sneer of its owner as he pins your left arm to the ground. Instinctively you reach for your weapon but it is no longer there.
Defenceless against the cruel Giaks, the last thing that you see before all light fades is the jagged point of a Giak lance hurtling down towards your throat.
It would seem that the heavens have not heard your prayers. A spear whistles past your head and embeds itself in the neck of your galloping horse. With a shriek of pain, the horse topples forward and you both roll in a tangled heap on the highway.
Dazed and pinned down by the weight of the dead body of your horse, the last thing you remember is the sharp penetrating spearheads of the Giak lances.
Just as the Giak makes his leap, you race forward and strike out with your weapon
You jump onto the struggling Giak and strike again. Due to the surprise of your attack, add 4 points to your
You hear the scream of a large winged beast above the trees. It is a Kraan, a deadly servant of the Darklords. Quickly you hide beneath the thick fronds of fern until the horrible shrieks have passed away.
The cabin has only one room. In it you see a wooden table and two benches, a large bed made of straw bales lashed together, several bottles of coloured liquids, and an embroidered rug in the centre of the floor.
Bracing yourself for the run, you head off down the ridge at a steady pace. To the west, the army of the Darklords looks like a giant pot of black ink that has been spilled between the mountains and is spreading into the land below.
You have been running for twenty minutes when you catch sight of a pack of Doomwolves lining a shallow ridge to your right.
Peering into the darkness, you notice that rough stairs have been cut into the earth and that the mouth of the cave is in fact the entrance to a tunnel.
Carefully descending the slippery stairway, you notice a small silver box on a shelf at the bottom of the staircase.
The last thing you remember before darkness engulfs you is the flash of a long curved steel knife. You have become yet another victim of the Sage and his robber son
At last you can reach the wooden fieldworks surrounding the outer city. As you race towards a sentry post, you can hear the excited shouts of the guards cheering you on. Thank the gods that they recognize you, for you must appear a ragged and suspicious figure. Your cloak is torn and hangs in tatters, your face is scratched and blood-smeared, and the dust of the Graveyard covers you from head to toe.
Splashing through a shallow stream, you stagger towards the gate. The full horror of the Graveyard encounter begins to catch up with you. The last thing you recall before exhaustion robs you of consciousness, is falling into the outstretched arms of two soldiers who have run from the fieldworks to help you.
The soldiers
lie dead at your feet. They were bandits who were stealing from the refugees of Toran, and from the abandoned houses and farms in the area.
Searching their bodies you find 28 Gold Crowns and two Backpacks containing enough food for 3 Meals. They had been armed with a crossbow and three Swords. The crossbow has been damaged in the fight, but the Swords are untouched and you may keep one if you wish.
You adjust your equipment, give a cautious glance towards the west, and continue your run towards the outer defences of the capital.
The wild old man is screaming at you. He blames you for the war and curses the Kai Lords as agents of the Darklords. He will not listen to reason and you must fight him.
You are awoken by the cries of a Kraan circling above the caravan. It is early morning and the sky is clear and bright. You can see a pack of Doomwolves less than a quarter of a mile away along the highway ahead. They are preparing to attack. You must act quickly.
Your senses scream at you that this place is very evil. Leave as quickly as you can.
Startled, you turn around to see a burly sergeant and two soldiers running towards you, their swords drawn as if to strike.
You prepare to defend yourself for it looks as if they are about to attack first and ask questions later; but suddenly the sergeant calls his men to a halt. He has recognized your cloak. They put away their weapons and apologize many times for their mistake. The sergeant orders one of the men to fetch the captain of the Guard as he leads you to the doors of the Great Hall.
You are greeted by a tall and handsome warrior who listens intently to your story. When you have finished the account of your perilous journey to the capital, you notice a tear in the brave man
You are about to meet the King.
Your Kai Discipline of Tracking reveals to you fresh paw prints leading off along the south path.
They are the prints of a black bear, an animal renowned for its ferocity. You decide the east path would be a much safer route.
After a short walk, you reach a junction where a path crosses your present route heading from west to east.
You are very near a friendly village.
You have reached a small bridge. A track follows the stream towards the east. A much narrower path disappears into thick forest towards the south.