Ura is already on high alert; seeing Uthal limping the way he is, she's very suspicious of this statement of 'staying ahead of the herd.'   Looking around, she tries her best to look and listen for danger, hoping that it will help speed the process along again.  Part of her watches Anaeris conversing with the elf and wants to hiss at him to help out a little, but she figures, it's better he do the talking than anyone else at this point.

Perception: 15

Finished with his ‘limbering up’, the old elf points to a mark in the ground. Not in the hardened dirt that made up a majority of the path; it had gone through season after season of weathering and overgrowth which would have wiped away evidence of those who walked it. Instead he pointed to a rock face, barely judging out of the ground. It was about only a foot across, and in the center, embedded in the rock was a footprint. Or more specifically, a cloven hoof print.

“The trail was used a long time ago to move the herds across the continent. It was kept the herd away from the cities and more often used roads. For everyone’s safety. Eventually they were hunted for the pelts. Never really understood the appeal. Sure they had magic properties, but they looked like butchered hides, and smelled like rotten carcasses.”

While the old elf spoke, Ura was able to listen to him, but at the same time observed the surrounding area. Wind blew the trees around them, and the occasional bird fluttered or chirping animal in the distance. However, whatever threat the elf eluded to, was not upon them, at least not yet.

Anearis looked at the track left behind by the beast. The sheer size of it was impressive. It made the yound elf wonder how large was the beast that left it. He questioned the hermit as they continued their treck around the mountain side.

"What manner of beast made up this herd. I am not familiar with the fauna of this continent." he admitted.

It was midday now, as the party had been walking with Dah’Deey Yahn’Keey. There was no reason to believe the trail was anything other than what he had said, so the party had stepped off with him, along the shorter trail towards their destination.

“What manner of beast?” The old elf repeated Anearis with a surprised voice. “Why, the sheepsquatch, of course! You know, big burly things with enlisted faces and horns. Hind legs have hooves. Front have razor sharp claws. Quills running down the back. You know, sheepsquatch.” The old man was observing Anearis’s face as he tried to convince the younger elf that he knew exactly of what the older one spoke.

“You’ve been eating it during this journey,” he said holding up a piece of the dry aged meat. “Aged nearly a hundred years. Though a live one would be just as likely to eat you. I assumed that’s why we abandoned your horses.” The old man stopped, staring at Anearis, mouth gaped open. He stayed this way for nearly a minute before continuing, both speaking and walking.

It was as if the man’s entire life was frozen in time for that minute, as he picked up right where he was. “So any following us would get their fill on them instead of hunting us on the trail.” The old elf then cracked up laughing. “You got me. Of course you know what one is. You’re just pulling my leg.” Following his laughter dying down, the elf looked down at his leg, swatting as some supposed invisible thing that may have, at least in his mind, literally been pulling on his leg.

Anearis turned to Ura and the others while the old hermit was looking away. He gave them a slight shrug to indicate that he had no idea what a sheepsquatch was or what the elf was talking about generally.

When Dah'Deey froze, Anearis stopped as well. He waved his hand in front of the old elf's face to try and grab his attention. For a moment, he thought he might have had a stroke.

"Sheepsquatch?" Ura mouths silently back at him, both eyebrows going up.  While she wasn't confident that the old man really knew what he was talking about, she was absolutely certain this trail had once been and probably would again soon be traversed by something very dangerous with sharp pointy claws.  Paranoid, she fingered the strap of leather in her pocket and thought about calling out to the others for a break so she could don it again, and discomfort be damned.

But wait... the old man said to keep moving.  Damn it!  Feeling a bit nervous, Ura wiped some sweat away from her brow.  A jolt of energy passed through her skin from the touch, and her eyes narrowed.  "Ill dha llrarh air waec, dhal dha wairr nird fa r'sulr...*"  As she spoke, the spark of energy traveled from her fingertips to encompass her entire body, filling her with a brief feeling of power.  It faded just as quickly, and she wasn't quite sure what she had just done, but she certainly hoped it would pass for some sort of mage armor to take the place of her leathers.

"Not sure I'm comforted by these stories being told... let's keep moving," she says in common.

*Elvish: If the flesh is weak, then the will must be strong...

Dah’Deey Yahn’Keey continues leading the group along the trail. Overtime there's a noticable gradual incline, and the forest appears to drop away on one side of the path, as it begins winding along the hills. This continues for several hours, with but only one interruption.  Sometime around the fifteenth hour of the day, the old elf stopped at the sight of a pile of manure, on trail.

At this point, Dah'Deey explained more about the sheepsquatch, regarding their eating habits. "Anything they can't chew, they swallow whole. And then, if it doesn't digest, it'll come out in their droppings. So if a sheepsquatch were to devour an adventurer, their treasures could be found in such. Especially gold." The elf then began sifting through the pile, all the while muttering the word "gold" to himself. However, to no ones surprise, he eventually stood back up, empty handed.

It was early evening when Dah'Deey Yahn'Keey stopped once again; this time for a somewhat more reasonable excuse. "Your Dungeon of Doom!" The old man pointed out across the forest. Far off and below, but now within sight, a half-crumbling dome and several stone towers peeked up, just above the treetops. "Not long now, maybe even get there by lunch tomorrow."

"We'll make camp up ahead." Leading the group once more, the trail twisted around a bend to reveal a less ideal part of the path.  The slope the party had had to climb to reach the trail was but ten or so feet. At this point, the forest floor now rested closer to 100 feet below. And the wide dirt road, while staying consistent for the most part, ended abruptly ahead, and continued on the other side of a chasm.

Kel spent the hours traveling keeping mostly to himself, eating from the ration he had opened and drinking sparingly from his waterskin. Now and again he would hum a bit from an old working tune his father taught him. Each time the group came to a stop Kel patiently waited without a word, adjusting the weight of his gearbag to spare his shoulders a moment. He himself wasn't too concerned with the monsters in the woods, if the chanced upon them then they could deal with it then. The scat in the road drew his attention for a moment as the old man sifted, but aside from making a note to try and avoid being touched by the fellow he ignored it soon after.

The view of the castle was almost exactly how Kel imagined it, a crumbling ruin in the middle of nowhere. More impressive was the incline having moved them gradually up 100 feet off the floor. He had hardly noticed. What he did was the chasm before them, the road on the other side, and what tomfoolery the old elf was going to wizard out of the land for a bridge.

„... How are we supposed to get across to the other side?“ Ura asks bluntly.  „And where are we making camp? Surely not on the Manure Deathtrail, right?“

“Well those of us who can fly will surely do that, but as for the rest of us, we just walk along the side.” The old man pointed to the cliff side still rising towards the mountain tops. 

While the left of the road dropped off,  the right side continued its rise. In the same manner the 10 foot slope, became 100 or so to the forest below, the forest rose above leaving a wall of stone. The trail dropped off completely at the chasm, nearly straight down vertically, but the wall of stone continued, with large boulders and craggy rocks jutting from the wall. 

Dah’Deey Yahn’Keey toed the edge of the chasm, and with a spritely pep in his step, kept from the edge to a small ledge. Where the road ended, the way forward that the elf wanted to continue along, was barely a goat path; a broken, series of narrow ledges along the sheer rock wall. 

“Come along, there’s a clearing not far from the other side.” The old man, made it look as easier than it should have been, even for a creature like a mountain goat, who was created for and accustomed to such terrain.

Ura looks down the rocky path, and then back at the others, remembering the trial of the 10-foot slope.  "... I still have my rope and pitons," she says to Uthal.

Uthal just nods, done from a whole day of walking on no sleep.

"Ropes." Kel stated flatly. He shifted his gearbag and began to unbind his from its resting place. "At the very least we can tie ourselves together should anyone miss a step." he paused, eyeing the others. "Should any or all agree of course. That misstep could also drop everyone connected to the rope depending on the anchor and I can't fly." Kel had already begun to tie a loop around himself and once again for good measure. He held the coil of hempen rope awkwardly for a moment as he stowed his pike and righted his weapons vertically. The tiefling shrugged into the weight of his gearbag again and approached the edge, eyeing the old man. Kel prayed quietly as he waited.

"...Azzeal wmafdv oiddulq attfr zicy py ulza hafr oury zmiz ph wafd pih ky rykarl..." as an afterthought he added "...idwa tfrwy zmy daz ao zmyp..."

Uthal nods. "I believe I should go in the back to provide the anchor point. If I fall then it will likely take all of you to pull me back up." He then turns to Ura and whispers. "If I fall cut the rope. You all have no chance of holding me up. The Arbitrator needs help, not five corpses."

Anearis nods at Kel's plan. Hopefully, they would have an easier time with this climbing exercise. Anearis preferred not to think of the alternative.

"There must be a way to make the climb across a little easier," Ura says, giving Uthal a slight nod as she eyes the distance to the other side of the path.

Kel sighs, resigned. "Ura hand me your pitons, I will take the first attempt, try and make an easier route for everyone." Kel looked toward uthal and handed him the rope Kel had tied about him. "If I fall would you mind reeling me back in until I manage to make a fair amount of headway? When we run out of rope just let it go and I will attempt the rest as best I can."

11

“You coming or what?” Dah’Deey Yahn’Keey had was halfway across the gap, standing on one foot, as that was all there was room for, on the particular piece of rock he used for support. One of his hands rested on a mossy spot on the rock wall, and he casually stood there, waiting on the rest of the group.

"Kel. What if you and Uthal held both side of the rope to work  as a railing or a 'bridge'? Anearis proposed. We could use our own ropes to secure ourselves should we slip and fall. Then once everyone has crossed, we can all help Uthal across."

Uthal sits down while the others talk. "Someone just do something. Hand me a rope when you're ready."