"Good morning Zeke? How are you doing?!"

Zeke finds no signs of intruders in the night or anything else unusual.

Fresh from the night's rest, Tarja focuses and prepares her spells for the day, changing Fog Cloud for Flaming Sphere. 

She looks around to see if she can see the castle from here. Is it nearby? Perception 15.

Wonder if that dragon'll take a bite at the castle. If there's gold in there somewhere, he might.

Well, better get to it then. At least I'm all filled up on spells for the day ahead. Let's get Gundren out of there.

Fae would lift her head off her knees when Arvel would snap. She’d look around a little startled and start patting around on the ground around her, trying to get her bearings. A groan would leave her lips as she stretches out onto the ground. She’d stare up at the sky and blink a few times before rubbing her eyes. Did I fall asleep? Did no one wake me? Fae would sit up abruptly and look around at the others in the group already getting mobile and ready to leave. She’d start to panic that she’s held everyone up and start fumbling around for her spellbook to do her morning review.

”Sorry. So sorry. I’ll be ready in a minute...” The wizard will start to pat herself down looking for her supplies, she also realized she left her light stone behind last night. She’d sigh. Finally with spellbook in hand, Fae would quickly thumb through it just enough to prepare her divine visions, and not waste any more time by reviewing her spells for the day.

Portent: 6 | 6

"So the dragon roosts near here, eh? Given how it's stirred up trouble for the local lord's forces, whoever ends up ruling this castle better do something about the beast before an army comes snooping around. They'd probably seize the castle just to have a base of operations to hunt the beast."

The night before, after setting up his bedroll, Ethan takes out various tools and materials and works quietly on one of his many projects.

A few hours later Ethan, puts away everything, and turns in for the night.

The next morning, Ethan awakens with the others and has a bit to eat from his travel rations and check over his equipment, before standing up and having a good look at the distant castle.

"How far would you estimate we will have to travel today to reach the castle?"

Ethan stand beside Tarja, and does his own estimate on the distance.

Elra shrugs, "Maybe they should just leave the dragon alone. I mean, it's not like he's hurting anyone."

Based on where the dragon disappeared to behind the next hill briefly the night before, Ethan and Tarja think that location can't be much more than a mile away.  When asked Yeemik confirms it's just over the next hill, and thus the trip will be relatively short.

‘Let’s move then while we’re all fresh.’ Glaring at the two goblins, the tiefling drops his voice into a growl ‘you want us fresh when you get to the castle don’t you ?’

Fae will snap her book close and trip over herself to try and get up in haste when she hears Zeke say 'let's move'. She'd scurry over to be ready in line.

Elra looks to Fae. "Do you think that he's had enough time to write his letter and send it back with Vincent? Cause I don't know if I've given him enough time and I dont want to... oh just take a risk Elra!" She says to herself and snaps her fingers once, twice, and Vincent reappears.

Fae would go to open her mouth to respond to Elra, but as she does, Elra pep talks herself and snaps her fingers. It'd be the first time Fae smiled in a while.

Yeemik is still pouting but replies to Arvel with a bit of attitude and a shrug "dunno, he just started showing up one day."  "What am I gonna do about it, boss?  We just feed him and he leaves us alone.  He's always asking about the Spider though.  They haven't met.  Not sure what that's all about.  Got any more questions, boss?  What about you?  Who in the nine hells are you guys and why do you care about the old guy with the tasty fingers and that dwarf, anyway?"

To Zeke Yeemik replies "yeah, yeah, alright scary guy."  "I'm goin', I'm goin.  It's not far now."

When Elra decides to take the risk and summon Vincent he does indeed appear, and with a note attached to him as well.

"Vincent!" Elra looks close to bursting into tears again, but takes a deep breath and hugs the bird gently before taking the note from his leg. She stares at it, then opens it and starts reading.

"We're the people who are going to take care of your Spider problem for you. As long as that dwarf is still alive when we get there, of course. We're the people who are going to take care of the problems in Phandelin too. And, if that dragon becomes a problem, we're probably going to be the ones who take care of that too. So when you're lord of the manor, you should think carefully about whether or not you want us coming back to deal with that particular problem. We're the type of people who you want to be on the good side of, get it?"

Ethan give his equipment one last check, before looking at the others.

"Well, we should get moving then. Sitting here isn't going to change anything."

Ethan smiles,

"We have adventuring to do."

Ethan looks between Tarja, Zeke, Arvel and Yeemik.

"So which way do we head, to get down from up here?"

Yeemik looks sadly down at the symbol in his hand again and says "got it, boss."

The goblin then heads back around the bend to the edge of the stone ledge and says "this way" before hopping down onto a lower slab of rock and starting to work his way down the steep rocky hill back into the forest.  Large spider webs are still common in the woods, but the spiders leave you alone other than some occasional movement to get a better look at you before they disappear again.  The goblins lead the party down further and further as they return to a more gently sloped and forested area and soon through a wide but shallow stream, the water gently rolling through a stoney creek bed but offering no greater danger than getting ones boots and pant cuffs wet.  Immediately after the stream the group starts heading back uphill, the terrain getting steep again after only five more minutes or so.  A few minutes later the spider web strewn trees start to open up and flat rocky slabs lead to the top of the next hill over from the cliffs the party spent the previous evening on.  It's a bit of a dreary day but a crumbling castle can be seen in the fog of the next valley below.  A small lake is in your path, but you can see the right side and Yeemik confirms it's not a long trip counter-clockwise to the castle.

(You are seeing this view from a much higher angle atop the hill you have now reached.  Your travel this morning has only taken 20-30 minutes thus far and the castle is likely less than an hour away despite the water obstruction.)

Zeke snorts as the castle comes into view 'Well, then, these two fiends were as good as their word, weren't they.'  casting a hard look at the goblins, the tiefling continues 'now let's just hope they haven't been lying about our friend being in one piece...'

"It doesn't belong to them though," Elra says, tucking the letter into her journal. "It belongs to the Greywinds of Yartar. They own Lionshield..." Elra trails off when she sees the views, "That's so awesome!"