The guardsman looks puzzled at the Gnome. He pauses for a moment then answers back.

"No.. W- What? Marek, the baker. He went out into the woods just before you. Said he was looking for the cache cus his shop needed the money."

"Well we will see if our paths cross then". Darak relies to the guard, turning to his companions he adds "looks like we won't be short of company out in the woods!" 

Detective Krimple tries his best to make a convenient excuse to hide his embrassment.

"Oh, Marek is a person and not some local name of your forest. I thought I heard 'to Marek', not 'with Marek'. The distance from here to there messes up the words you previously said.

Just in case we meet him, what does he look like? We had a run-in with bandits inside a forest, don't want to stab some innocent baker because of misidentification."

"Aye, he's a good man. People never come back after they go lookin' for the treasure, so if you see him make sure he's safe, will ya?"

     Adjusting his armor, the guard yells back one last thing to the Gnome.

"He's a big man. A gentle giant, if you will. He was wearing plain clothes that had a big black stain on the back, shouldn't be hard to miss if you see 'em."

"Hmm, never come back you say, not what I was hoping to hear" Darak shrugs his shoulders, ready to continue regardless but adds "so before we go off into the firest of certain doom, any idea what stops the adventurous folk returning, scary beasties, a magical trap - there must be rumours?"

Upon hearing the baker's description, Detective Krimple talks to his group.

"I don't know if it's just sheer coincidence or not but yesterday I tried to splash a bottle of ink on the large man that was 'entered' by one of three figures I saw.

The only difference was that the guy was definitely not what you can call a gentle giant."

The gnome pauses for a bit.

"Now that I think about it, it's probably because I splashed ink on him.

Just stay alert if we ever meet him."

He then quickly returns to their path to the forest.

     A second guard on the ground floor near the gate turns his attention to Darak as he questions the dangers of the forest.

"At first it started out as a tall tale, but more and more people started to get the urge to go lookin' for it, despite it's reputation."

     After clearing his throat a bit, he continues on,

"It's either citizens searching for it in an act of desperation, or the adventuring type who have heard it's tale and have come searching for glory. I mean, I can't elaborate on how or why they don't come back as no one has ever gone out there and survived to tell the tale."

     You can see the guardsman move his hand around in prayer or some type of ritual.

"I wish you all the best of luck."

"My thanks, friend." Darak replies "Blessings of Moradin to you and your clan." With a smile he adds "When we return with the treasure and our lives you may need a new local legend. Fare well." 

"Well then, I suppose we'll have to come back to tell the tale, then." Tadriel's voice holds no hint of jest or determination. His words are simply fact.

"Ha! That's true, hopefully it'll be a tale of great courage and great bounty.  Foul monsters felled and heroic deeds accomplished."

Darak's eye's gleam as he imagines the glory to be won.

     After the conversation with the guards, you all travel about 15 minutes towards the treeline of the forest. There is a faint fog that hinders your vision deep inside the wooded area. Old oak trees stretch far in the sky and creak gently in the wind, twigs crack and bushes rustle as small wildlife skitter around and the fresh smell of nature fills your nostrils, releasing a sensation of beauty and comfort in your souls. The beginning of the first adventure.

     There is an apparent opening in the trees which is looks well-traveled compared to the rest of the area. It doesn't appear to be traveled often, but definitely more so than the rest.

"Well, here we are." The dwarf surveys the forest looking at the tall trees and listening to the animal noises "All this is very different to the stone halls of my people, I think some of you have more experience in woodland places and I am happy to follow your lead, tell me where you want me in our march, I know I'm not as quiet as some of you in all this armour, if you want me to guard the rear that's fine."

Tadriel has little experience with wilderness, but common sense isn't for nothing. He starts by cloning the nearest sizeable tree for a general overlay, then tries to stay near, though not completely on, the beaten path.

"My kind lives deep in the underdark most of the time so...."

Detective Krimpledimple slowly turns his head as he looks at his other two companions.

"Perhaps we should leave it to those two as they seem to know more about the forest than us, Darak. I don't mean to say that all elves live in seclusion inside forests but from what the general public knows is that they have what you call a certain affinity for nature. Forgive me if that sounded like stereotyping the elven kind."

An awkward silence envelopes the forest's entrance.

"It seems both of them were overwhelmed by what I said. Let's go inside the forest then."

The gnome casts Mage Armor to himself and starts walking.

"By the way, do we have any information like landmarks or treasure we're looking for?

I agreed to come here since you guys seems to know what it was."

"I think we should see if we can see any sign of this mysterious baker, if he isn't too far ahead of us we might be able to track him.  We might then learn something about the strange things you observed earlier as well.  Let me see if my god will show me a sign."

Darak bows his head momentarily in prayer asking for guidance from Moradin and then attempts to find signs of the baker's passing.

     Tadriel climbs his way to the tree tops to map out the immediate area. From the top, all is apparent. There appears to be a very subtle clearing of trees further inside. As he makes his way back down to relay the information, it's almost as if the terrain is playing tricks on him. He could see clearly the best direction for the group to make their way, but once boot touches ground, all is lost. Either these woods are really as haunted as people see them, or maybe you just keep getting turned around. You could of sworn you've seen this tree before as you make your way around and... back to the treeline again.

     This time, Darak takes lead. In the strangest turn of events, the Dwarven War Priest who's only lived in stone halls begins to navigate the group deeper into the woods. It works surprisingly well. You could just be hungry, but you manage to sniff out and follow the faintest smell of fresh baked bread into the trees. It's aroma calming as the dark and shadowed paths twist, turn and branch off in every direction, but you're sure you know which one to take. It doesn't take long before the trail of fresh bread comes to a halt and you find yourself standing in front of something strange.

     You've made your way deep into the forest into a very small clearing, in the middle of which is a stone obelisk. It hovers gently over a stone base, humming softly with magic energy. Three of it's four faces are left plain and blank. The last, however, has a few strange runic symbols emitting a faint green glow.

"A trail of bread leading to a stone pillar, this is quite an intriguing thing to find Darak. Perhaps, we have to thank that the breakfast you ate wasn't filling enough and made your sense of smell lead us to this fascinating discovery."

The gnome chuckles for a bit before he begins to circle around and observes the hovering stone obelisk, just far enough for him to see clearly all of its sides and the glowing runic symbols. He tries to recall his knowledge of the mystic arts that might have any significance to the thing he is currently observing.

Darak crowds close to the svirfneblin peering at the obelisk too "Careful" he says, "Who knows what this is and the baker seems to have disappeared again."

     Krimple paces around the sturdy obelisk floating in the air ever so slightly, the dim glow of the runes cascading over his figure. After a brief moment, there is a look of an epiphany on his face and it's easy to tell he has an idea of the magic behind it all.