Elra watches them sadly, "Should we tell them?"

'Aye, I think we must' with that, Zeke steps to the front of the caravan, stands in the middle of the road and shakes his blade out to its full length, but holds it in one hand, with the other held out in front of him, palm forward.

'Ho there riders we have news and grim tidings'

Tarja would stay behind Zeke and not say anything yet,  waiting for the riders to approach.

As the riders crest the hill and draw closer it is revealed that it is four riders carrying familiar yellow banners followed by two with plain royal blue tabards, then three mostly empty horse drawn wagons, then four more riders in blue.  All appear to be soldiers in some regard sans the driver of the first wagon and a young man beside him, both dressed in common clothes with no weapons or armor.

One of the lead riders, a middle aged man with dark hair and a salt and pepper beard, stops twenty feet shy of Zeke and replies "hail traveler, we bring much the same."  "We look for no trouble.  Bound for Leilon?"  The rest seem to either be sizing up Zeke and the others, but mostly Zeke and his formidable presence, or surveying the grasslands around them for trouble.

"Umm..." Elra doesn't know how to put it at first. "No, we're going to Phandalin. But... was there another group of you heading the same way, but left earlier?"

As the riders crested the hill, Arvel changed into Maxie.

"Pardon, monsieur. But your livery bears a striking resemblance to a wagon we passed earlier. Are you looking for zem?"

The first man looks at Elra and says "no, well, not today."  He then looks from Elra to Zeke and back.   "You all must mean our brethren, left two days past.  This one reported the tragic news."  He nods towards the man in plain clothing driving the first cart.  "We go to recover the rest of our friends."

Tarja bows her head respectfully.

Fair travels to you, then. Lets hope the beast that did that stays away from the roads for your journey and ours.

She looks to the survivor.

What should we warn people about? Did you see any way to avoid the creature, or any hint as to why it's appeared now to terrorize us?

'I'm sorry to say that we left your comrades where we found them - but exactly as we found them.  It appears that someone arranged them after their death.  You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?  Of why the one wagon was so well protected?'

As Zeke says this he slides his shield back up on to his shoulder and sheathes his blade as the shaft shrinks into a simple hilt, stepping out of the road and making way for the riders to pass. 

"We think a dragon killed them," Elra speak up.

Ethan nods at Elra's statement about it possibly being a dragon, but letting his friends do the talking.

The man who is apparently in charge looks back to the commoner on the wagon who replies "yes sirs, my sons and I found them."  "We brought the young lord and his bride back to Leilon along with their belongings so they can be properly put to rest.  Did the same with the swords of each fallen soldier, thinking it was the least we could do for their families, if we couldn't do more.  We're headed back for the others now."

The first man inquires "beast?"  "Do you know what happened?"  "They could only describe a very strange, and tragic, scene."  When Elra speaks there is quite a reaction from all members of the caravan, as they gasp and look at one another with surprise and a bit of horror.  "DRAGON?!"  Even the leader's eyes go wide and he takes a moment to look down and collect himself.  "It does make sense, based on what we were told."  He looks to the skies, as do several of the men and doesn't seem to know what to say, looking to to man on his left and then ahead along the road.  "Look, I don't know you but on the whole you look like a mostly harmless band of travelers, certainly less so that a dragon.  We intend to see this through, and it's too late in the day to make it back anyhow."  He hesitates at that and looks at his men again.  "We were going to camp soon, and that stand of trees ahead looks as good as any.   Can I convince you to do the same?"  He looks back at the commoner and his son to see if they object.  He wouldn't blame them if they wanted to unburden horses and gallop straight home.

Ethan looks to Zeke, and then the others, to see if stopping here, is what they want to do.

To Elra next him, Ethan remarks quietly,

"Camping together, might be a good idea, if the dragon does come back."

"I'm not opposed to it." Fae would look to her party members.

Tarja nods as well. 

I hope the dragon doesn’t bother us at night, and with what we saw, having more of us might not help. But there’s other dangers around as well. I’ve smelled goblins and worgs, and strength in numbers would be good with them around.

Zeke nods his head at Ethan's suggestion that camping together might help dissuade the dragon.  'I agree, pooling our resources for the night would be wise'

Turning to Arvel/Maxie Zeke drops his voice and says, 'You keep an eye on this crowd, I'm going to check our backtrails to make sure no one is coming in to sneak up on us - Tarja, would you be willing to join me? I could use your keen senses'  

 Maxie moves through the joined camping party, trying to raise spirits as best as possible. He tries to make a few suggestions about bed placements and a cooking fire, but he's mostly ignored.

Fae would putter around the campsite trying to help in any way she could. Eventually as the sun would set, she’d pick up some pebbles again to go around offering light to those who’d like some.

Elra sends out Vincent one last time to get a general overground view of the area before once again sitting down on the ground and begins to write again about everything that's happened and everything she's discovered.

The two groups merge, far more worried about the other confirmed threats around than strangers on the road who seem to have no ill intent.  The leader of the group inquires with the party "any chance you saw one man who made it out?"  "Not a soldier like the rest.  This man and his sons did what they could as quickly as they could, but their report left someone missing."

The other man who had ridden at the front of the group inquires "did you say Phandalin?"  "We don't see many wagons headin' there anymore."

The soldiers are quiet and the man who apparently discovered the caravan attack looks even more concerned, probably for the safety of his son first and foremost.  They discuss things like cover and watch rotation and otherwise watch the grass beyond the trees and even more attentively the skies.  A few do start talking about the men they are going to recover and the mood lightens up a bit as humorous stories are told in their honor, but a 'shhhhh' followed by a finger towards the sky often quickly reminds them of the situation.  They are polite to the party and smile and nod at Maxie but his suggestions are indeed otherwise ignored.

Zeke finds little in his patrols and the moonlit night is very quiet.  Vincent is only slightly more successful, noting a few more thin game trails in the area, especially east of the main road and north of the nearby Triboar Trail.