Fae would smile to Ethan’s suggestion. “Edgar’s in Phandalin with Sildar for emergency contact.”

When Quinn would burst from the bushes, the wizard would twitch in surprise, but would immediately relax when she’d realize it was their artificer’s familiar. 

Fae would pace around in the sun to dry, reviewing and jotting down notes of the groups discussions on their next steps. Which ever direction that was ultimately suggested, the wizard would keep her detect magic up for the duration of the spell. Violet eyes would scan down the river, sending a shiver of goosebumps across her body from the thought of plunging in again. It was cold, but a little refreshing if she were to admit though.

(Ok, I'm going to give you something due to the two excellent Perception checks, even though only two Investigation checks were made in the statue directly and neither was particularly amazing...  ;)

Yes the statue faces downstream directly West.  The two smaller rivers/streams come in from the mountains to the NE and SE, forming a Y.)

Ethan, Tarja and the rest survey the area and find nothing for clues.  The party seems to be at a dead end despite the intuition that the statue must have some meaning.  Just then both the artificer and the druid turn to glance at the statue one last time and notice that the gauntlet on the right hand has four knuckles, ignoring thumbs that would be hidden towards the body anyhow, but only three fingers gripping the stone weapon.  Despite the well weathered state of the statue a closer look at the right hand reveals that the index finger is extended, hidden below the left hand gauntlet.  It would certainly be odd for one to be gripping something yet have their index finger extended, unless one was intentionally pointing at something, which in this case would be due south, or to the small river flowing in from the SE.

Ethan looks at Tarja, seeing recognition in her eyes that matches his own discovery.

"Do you think that might be it?"

Ethan looks along the river coming from the south east.

Zeke nervously paces back and forth, patrolling the rivers edge like the apex predator he is, anxious to keep moving and find those who hold and threaten their friend and comrade.

Fae would look between Tarja and Ethan, and the direction they were looking. While Ethan and Tarja worked to confirm their investigation, Fae would carefully pad down towards the rivers edge. Softened violet eyes would watch their protector pace, patrolling the area. She could sense anxiousness in his silence, as well as Elra's. "Perhaps I was going the right way all along..." Her cheeks would darken as she'd make a light joke at her own expense for getting swept up in the river. It was an attempt to lift the atmosphere, even if it was just a smidge, and to encourage conversation about how to safely proceed in that direction should it be the case.

I've always known that my anscestors would show me the way, somehow! I didn't expect it to be a pointing statue! Look, I think it's directing us that way.

Tarja points the same way the statue does, and peers south.

Well, we've got three rivers we could follow, and this stone dwarf is telling us to pick this one.

Elra seems relieved when they figure it out. "Well... at least we know where to look if we find another one!"

Ethan nods,

"Seems the best option we have. Shell we?"

Ethan starts to head upstream along the south east river fork.

As the party discusses their next move, suddenly Edgar swoops down from the sky looking for Fae.  He begins to mimic "Gundren awake, druid in town, Gundren awake, druid in town..." repeatedly.

Fae would reach her arm out to allow Edgar to land. Her eyes would widen and she'd look back to the others. The wizard wanted to continue down the path of prioritizing Arvel... But Edgar wouldn't come if it wasn't an emergency... Dare they consider splitting the group? She'd try her best to gauge everyone's expressions.

Zeke looks up from his position on the water's edge as Edgar comes in, squawking out his tidings as he comes down.   'We're half a day of hard travel out from the town, if we turn back now we could make it back by nightfall, but that's another day Arvel's llfe hangs in peril'

"I do not wish for us to turn back from Arvel." Fae would make her preference known in support of Zeke's last words. "Though, I do wonder if they carry important information that may be of great importance?" She'd throw the thought out there. "Do we see value in one of us returning to investigate?" Her ask was genuine. If so, Fae would offer to fly, and even rush her way back to cut some of the time in half, perhaps being able to return in time to catch up with the group, or even bring back up if it was required. Communication perhaps could continue through Elra? But if the cons of separating even one person from the group proves to be undesirable, she'd choose to press forward to Arvel.

Elra seems to be thinking very hard. "I think... we should go back..." she says quietly. "Right now... all we know is that the Spider has Arvel, and he's got someone else locked up besides him. But if we go back we might be able to find more information. So we're not running in practically blind."

Ethan nods agreement with Elra,

"Yeah, more information is always a good thing. All we know for sure is that Arvel has been captured and is being held captive. If they wanted to kill him, you think they would have done it already, instead of bringing him all the way out here."

Ethan waves his arm around to indicate their currently remote location, before looking around the group.

"So should we go back then?"

But we're so close, aren't we? They must be around here somewhere. I'd worry about leaving Arvel with them an extra day... 

Fae, can Edgar tell you anything else about what is going on in town? Did he have a chance to talk to the druid?

“Edgar’s abilities are limited. He can only mimic a few words at most.” Fae would admit solemnly. “I can offer to be a messenger as the group presses forward. You can leave ‘breadcrumbs‘ for my return?” She’d propose. 

Zeke doesn't like the idea of Fae venturing off alone, but even at his full sprint speed he couldn't keep up with her flying.  He stands and waits for the smarter members of the party to come to a decision, ready to go where he was pointed and smash anyone who got in their way.

"Do we know that they are close? Tarja, this marker, does it mean the entrance is close or just that we should head in that direction?"

Ethan points along the south-east river.

"Unless markers like this are traditionally placed close to the entrance, couldn't we possibly still have, maybe up to a days travel into the mountains ahead of us?"

Ethan looks to Tarja to see if she knows more about the marker and any dwarven tradition with regard their placement.

Can't say I know! But it wouldn't point in that direction if there were far to go, would it?

If we have more than a day of travel to go, we probably couldn't follow a pointed direction like this. It wouldn't guide us through anything complicated. Unless there were more dwarf statues.

"I could go with Fae," Elra offers. "Keep communications open that way. Im just worried if we keep going we might just be marching into something worse."