The rock actually shudders as it comes to a rest on the cobblestone road and then turns.  It uncoils and the rock itself splits in half.  Two little yellow eyes peer out of the cracked minerals and a tiny yellow fist appears.  It gibbers something completely unintelligible and then shakes this fist at Shavaris before skittering off into the debris next to one of the Goblin cottages.  

On the wall above them, a Goblin with a bandolier of explosives skitters by with a bomb in either hand.  It almost looks at them...but doesn't.  

Somewhere in the distance comes the report of three firebombs exploding...

There will be no need for you singing Kerwyn, I might have an idea. I’m gonna send Echo to scout the area, maybe then we will have an idea on the layout. With that Johnathan sits down on the ground and pulls Echo from his pocket. Johnathan then orders the bat to fly up and get an overall layout of the area nearby while Johnathan channels his senses through him. 

As they reach the path that they have already travelled, Travin looks up to the looming castle.

"Could the way be marked somehow, hmmm? Odd that the fountains only flow from one direction yeh yeh?" It is obvious that Travin lacks the brain power to figure out puzzles, but he looks for clues regardless.

Shavaris almost laughs when the little yellow fist comes out and shakes at her, but then she sees the goblin on the wall, and holds it in.  With Kerwyn's song and assistance, she attempts to navigate the maze again.  Holding onto Johnathan's arm so he can walk with them while he has Echo searching above, Shavaris is able to get them back to where they were before she got them turned around. 

"Well... at least we haven't lost ground anymore."  Shavaris sits on the edge of one of the fountains and looks at it wondering if Travin had something with the direction of the fountain flow?  She wasn't sure.  But for now, she was going to let others try to navigate this maze, she didn't want to go backwards again.

"At least we see our destination.  You think I can fly up and direct you all?  I guess that doesn't help much since we are trying to sneak in.  Hmm... we need a secret way in but lost the way.  I think you could get us there if we get back on track.  What do you remember of the way there?  Any specific features you passed or buildings that were marked?"  The tiny fairy lays back in the chair Travin has, seemingly deep in thought.  They kind of kick their feet up and seem at ease and unworried about the situation as if its totally expected to be lost in a maze.  When Travin mentions the fountain though Delph looks at it and tries to follow where it comes from and where it is all going.  As they do so they ask "Hey, do you think we can follow the water to Shavaris' secret path?"

Echo returns to Johnathan and he opens his eyes. He looks around, still feeling weird after spending some time with bat senses. He takes a moment before he stands up and turns to the group.  Well you aren’t gonna like this. From what I can see the shortest path would be to go back east where we started. Then we go north, then west and then north. Unfortunately I couldn’t see past that point, it was out of range and there seemed to be some smoke. I don’t know how reliable this info is,  especially if there is magic playing tricks on us, but that’s what I saw. Johnathan stops to see the others looking at the fountain. What is it, is this important somehow? Did I miss something?

"yeh yeh! Johnathan missed something!" Chirps Travin as he finishes his slow process of coming up with an idea, "Travin has an idea! YEH YEH!! Come on! Fireflight follow yes? Hmmm?" He calls above if the fairy had already taken his overhead recon, he also waits momentarily for the group to follow before giving them no choice, if they don't want to be left behind. with that he takes a final look at the fountain, pissing westward and follows it's direction, when he comes to the next fountain, a copy of the first he continues westward... 

Again...

And again...

And again...

Until he reaches something other than the same copy, of the same fountain, on the same city streets.

Delphinium was sitting on travin's chair as they seemed to puzzle things out.  Then they flutter off the chair and seem to look at thr fountain.  They shake their head and say "No.  Water is a trick Travin.  Dont follow."  They seem to look around a bit until the seem to spot something and flies a bit north towards the castle.  Not getting high in the air and just flying a foot or two off the ground while they are looking at the ground.  They touch down and seem to look even closer as they walk a bit and look forward at a winding path that zigzags east and west as it makes its way north.  

They nod and fly back up into the air as they point down the path, "This way works for sure.  We might run into some goblins but I think most if not all of the fighters are distracted right now.  Probably only goblins thst dont want to fight left behind.  That's the whole point of our army right?  So let's go."  The are pointing at a zig-zagging path that seems to wind east and west but heads north through the middle of the city.  

Shavaris listens to her friends as they try and figure out which way to go to get to the castle.  "Delph, it sound like what you have found matches with what Echo found as well.  And yes, we can handle the few goblins left behind if they want to fight, but lets go."  She turns to Travin before heading out, "We'll make our way to your brother, we'll get there.  But you must trust us as well, we're your friends.  Come on, let's go this way."

"I'll scout out a bit in front, but not too far.. we need to stick together on this one."

Travin groans and sighs, resigning himself to being outvoted "if this doesn't works, Travin's plan is fools proofs! Yeh yeh!" He trudges along with the group, keeping an eye on the fairy over head. 

Johnathan gives Travin a dirty look when he claims he missed something. Echo is the best scout, what’s that little trash walker thinking of now? Johnathan listens to Shavaris’s and Delphinium and gives a nod. I agree, let’s try this way. If we find goblins let’s try and deal with them quickly, we don’t want them to warn the others.

Kerwyn goes up into the air for a bit with his boots, following the line of sight that has been pointed out.  After seeing the direction, he comes back down and gets on top of Ole Ironsides, saying “Let’s head out.  This seems like the right path to me.  I’m ready …”. He seems uncharacteristically quiet and serious as he prepares himself for what is to come.

As Shavaris scouts ahead on the path set in front of her by her friends, she finds the way completely clear of goblins.  Unsure if they are just that lucky or if they are waiting to ambush, she isn't sure.  But it really doesn't matter as they need to get to the castle.

As they come together by the next fountain (green X), Shavaris will continue to the NE to the next section, creeping along trying not to be spotted as she goes.  If it is clear, she'll wave the rest to follow her.

The clearing is empty; no Goblins are stirring.  In the distance they hear the roars of two opposing armies.  Nearby, the clucking of huge chickens...

“Anyone else hear - - chickens?  Eggs anyone?”  Kerwyn muses, then rubs Ironsides shell, “Are you hungry for some chicken?  Mmmm?”

"eggs is the shinies of foodses! Hmmm!" Travin responds to Kerwyn with greedy eyes, "but the dawn guard must make it to the castle quickly, yeh yeh, liveses are on the line!" He drinks from a flask as he continues following the group and their general direction, not noticing anything odd around them at the moment as he surveys the city streets through his special goggles.

As Ward hears and sees the many large chickens he slowly thinks through a plan. Sighing he shakes his head “if this ******* works.” Ward mumbles before looking towards the group. ”I think I’ve got a way to distract the goblins here, and possibly get us going a bit faster. Stay here.” Ward says, casting enhance ability on himself for Charisma, before using his wild shape and turning into a chicken, with a few blue colored feathers for the group to tell him apart. Ward will then go from chicken to chicken, attempting to convince them that he is a messenger for the great chicken in the sky and that if they follow with him they will have endless food in the great coop of the sky. If they need convincing Ward will bring them to some crushed rations he put away from the group to show them the food. Ward will continue trying to convince all that chickens of this and that the goblins are preventing them from reaching the great coop in the sky by keeping them trapped here. 

As the chaos erupts and the chickens charge the gateways Ward flutters down to the group and transforms back. “We’ll then, let’s hope that gives us some cover, as well as as giving them a hand. It seems to have broken their lines a while for a while as well. Let’s get moving.” Ward says shaking some blue feathers off himself

What the f***. Johnathan looks as a metal man becomes a chicken man, plays with the chickens a bit and then all out slaughter erupts. At this point Johnathan’s forehead is slightly red from all the times he has slapped it today. He shakes his head as he looks to Ward. So much for the quiet approach. Let’s move before someone sees us. Johnathan continues on, not really wanting to deal with chickens anymore.

The battle beyond their vantage sounds hectic as the chickens collide with the Goblin army.  One of the enormous Dreadnaughts, now clearly activated according to the sounds that it makes, issues forth a loud warhorn blast, and then there are the sounds of hundreds of chickens being ground to paste and screaming out as one from the direction of the gates..

Nearby, somewhere to the south east, the Dawn Guard can hear the clanking of armor.  It's casual, like a patrol is that direction.