We'll stop by on the way back for sure! Hope Carp can keep out of trouble in the meantime!

Oh, and Daran, if you run in to Sildar while we're away, can you pass on to him the information on orcs and undead? He accompanied us here, and is also thinking about why all this trouble is happening now. Maybe if the two of you put your heads together you can come up with something. Goblins, orcs, undead, a dragon, a black spider... something is ill in the land here. I'll keep my eyes and ears open as well.

"Daran, was it? Maxi...ahem. Arvel. Pleased to meet you. Could we have a quick private word?"

Qelline says “yes, they use the old manor on the hill as some sort of hideout, it seems.”  (You would definitely have noticed the crumbling manor on the hill as briefly eluded to a few times such as at the start of the recent Redbrand conversation, post 1206.)

Regarding the request to pass along info to Sildar, Daran says “sure I suppose I can let your friend know without getting myself into trouble.”  When Arvel asks him to speak he looks at him curiously but says “sure son, what is it?” and takes a few steps away from the others.

 Daran steps aside with Arvel and replies with a small chuckle at first "son, I'm retired for a reason."  "Don't quite have the gusto in these old bones that I used to."  He looks at Arvel and the rest of the group for another second before feeling a bit guilty and say "alright, alright, if you all plan to stand up to those Redbrands for all to see and send a message, I'll see what I can do and will stop by the Lionshield."

Qelline and Daran wish the party luck on their rescue effort and head on into town.  The party continues up the road back towards the Triboar trail, the effort of their movement and the sunlight breaking through a previously cloudy morning sky quickly overcoming the chill of the brisk air.  They are able to travel much faster than they were on the way to Phandalin as even at a brisk walk they can easily outpace oxen pulling wagons laden with goods and passengers.

Ok gang, heading back to the hideout and following the map from there?  I'll assume you are walking with purpose, but let me know if you decide to travel more quickly in one fashion or another, or more slowly and cautiously.  No check is required to cover ground you have already seen, but I'll need a Survival check from anyone taking the responsibility of navigating the wood and following the map.

"There are many ways to fight. What I'm looking for is a...seasoned veteran with ample time to...surreptitiously spread the word to those who are being trodden upon by the Redbrands and help them prepare to stand as one with us when we return. But the plan requires the utmost discretion."

Ethan follows the group, happy to leave it to others more experienced in navigation, to lead the group along their intended path.

Zeke is happy to defer to someone with more experience navigating.

He will, however, keep his eyes peeled for trouble and look to stay out of sight as they move.

Fae is willing to offer help with the navigation down the trail, but she definitely wouldn't be confident to lead the way. She'd guiltily look to Tarja, their local druid to lead the way.

Once the group was separated from the locals, the wizard would finally bring forth her information. "The Redbrands referred to us as their 'victims' when we approached. And they're not working by themselves." Fae would look to Arvel, giving him a nod of affirmation that he scored them useful information. She will quote the Redbrand's thought "'It will give us more time to talk to the Glasstaff and be ready when they don't pay up.'"

"If you lot really think you can stand up to them, sure I can talk to a few people.  It would be good for everyone to see what can be achieved when good people do the right thing.  Until now I didn't think there were many in town who would be useful in such a thing."

Tarja would try and follow the path into the forest, following the map. Though she couldn't make much of the goblins' poor map-drawing skills and would hope for some help from others in understanding what they're trying to convey, she felt confident in the forest and would have no problem leading the way and looking for terrain features from the map or any potential threats.

(Tarja would be trying to move at a normal pace - not a run, but not a super-slow cautious walk either. Brisk walk. She wouldn't slow down when going into the forest, probably trying to move at about the same walking pace as on a road, unless others got her to slow down or unless they got to a forest dense enough that they have to hack through.  Note that Tarja's actually got the slowest walking speed of the team (25 ft, short dwarf legs...) so I expect that on a road she's the one slowing the group down a bit, but once they get off the road the limiting factor is probably navigation and managing the forest rather than just straight walking speed, so she's on a more even footing there. )

Survival: 17

Perception: 6

(Well, looks like I'm probably leading y'all the right way, but I'm too focused on the directions to notice anything else!)

Ethan contemplates getting out his new wood carvers tools and starting to whittle some wood, but as the group enters the forest, it becomes apparent that he is going to need his hands free, to navigate the vegetation and stop himself from falling from tree roots and the like.

While giving some thought to his future designs and navigating their path, Ethan tries to keep an eye out for anything strange along the way.

Perception check: 23

Elra watches everything go by while they leave town, looking back and forth and trying to get a good judge of where they were going and what was around them. "Why is everyone scared of the Redbrands?"

OOC: I love that the rolls followed the roles - Tarja has her eyes on the map and Zeke has his eyes on the shadows!

OOC: and Elra's just looking at everything

Tarja leads the party back up to the Triboar trail, the now dry but rutty road proving far less nauseating when not riding a wagon that lurches with ever contour and tug of the oxen.  The good weather holds and the party makes good time reaching the site of the previous day's goblin ambush and the hiding spot they had used for the wagons where they had met Rizen.  Breaking off from the road up the previously discovered goblin trail the party spies the scattered saplings they had hacked down to allow their rescued cargo through.  Finally reaching the cave where they defeated Klarg, Tarja leads everyone around the rocky opening and deeper into the wood.  No signs of any specific trail are easily spotted here but the map shows a clear Northwest direction.

Continuing on for another two hours over rolling terrain of roots and the occasional soft bed of pine needles, Tarja trusts her knowledge of the wood and watches the clouds, the sun and any other signs she knows to stay on course.  At one point while she is looking up to the sky and taking measure of the situation the group crosses over a small, rocky ridge Zeke spies a large rattlesnake sunning itself.  He is able to stop Tarja from proceeding before the snake is agitated enough to send up its own warning and possibly strike.  Giving the snake a wide birth, the party continues on and soon crosses two medium sized streams in succession which seem to match the crude goblin drawing.  Another thirty minutes later a third stream that appears to match the map is crossed, further confirming their route.  The dwarven druid surmises it could be another three hours to the river if the map's distances reflect any measure of accuracy, a distance the group should be able to cover before the sun goes down as it is currently late afternoon.

OOC Want to pause here to see if anyone wants to do anything, role play anything, finish anything in Arvel's conversation with Daran, etc.  Happy to amend the above post if people would do anything differently, I just don't have any major hurdles for you thus far on this journey.  No rolls are required at this time.

As the group travels through the forest, Ethan has the time to really take in all the sights, sounds and smells.

"Tarja, I can see why you became a druid, this is really beautiful."

"I've never really had reason to travel deep into a forest before. Not that there is much forest on Lantan, but the city has always had what I needed for my interests."

"It has a really relaxing atmosphere."

Ethan takes a deep breath, letting it out with a satisfied sigh.

"Oh, before we were moved to the House of Knowledge Loremaster Altervast and I lived in a tiny town with a temple to Oghma that was large enough to house him and the two sisters and brother that lived there with them. Having me made things cramped according to them, but once I was big enough they were more concerned about keeping me from wandering to far into the woods rather than how much room I took up," Elra says, skipping to a stop. "I hope he gets my letter soon."

**Eye in the sky, Krikket.**

"I've never cared much for wilderness locales. I'm unaccustomed to places where I cannot talk my way out of trouble."

"I don't know much about anything. But that's alright, Oghma promises to grant knowledge to those who seek it out. Maybe he'll bless you with the knowledge you need to not always talk yourself out of situations," Elra replies, bouncing on her heels and swinging her sledgehammer onto her shoulder.