"Do we tell the ssheriff or go vissit thiss persson oursselvess?" Ssej asks.

Auraani thinks over everything she has heard recently and shakes her head, "I'm not sure, but everything seems to be pointing towards this South End though. I think it's time we made out way over there."

You head to South End.

Folks down there are familiar with Torg’s but they’re saying you’ve just missed them. The traveling merchant store packed up its merchandise and left the town earlier today on their dog sleds, headed for Easthaven.

Matthias looks to the rest of the group. "So, do we want to pursue this person, or focus on finding those elemental creatures for our patron?"

"One would assssume if the merchant and hiss group have left the city they will not be back for ssometime. We could chasse them down but what'ss the point. We sshould jusst tell the Ssherrif here what we have found out and let him deal with it. He can warn the other town if he sso choossess. We sshould head out to finissh up what our patron is paying uss to do." Ssej says.

"That's a reasonable compromise," Karl agrees, though not satisfied with the idea of leaving such a loose end untied.  "If we see them out there, we can bring them in.  Meanwhile, yes, let's try and find some unspoiled, trackless wilds to go hunting in."

"We're basing this on the assumption that he hasn't left someone here in town," Variety says. "We should keep an eye on Percival."

Matthias considers what the others are saying. "At the very least," he says, "we have some time before the next lottery. Let's hope we can keep an eye on Percival and the goings on here even as we pursue our other mission. Perhaps we spend the rest of today asking around about where to find some chingwas and then go looking for some in the morning?"

((I think it is around midday or early afternoon so, right?))

Midday.

Reminder that you're unlikely to find chwingas here in this large town.

It would approx 8 hours to walk to Easthaven, so you'd arrive near the end of the day. It would take the same amount of time to instead go to Good Mead, and may take nearly as long to get to Termalaine, whether you stick to roads or go cross country, refer to map linked on the first post. Using the lamp you got as you travel might help in locating a chwinga.

Auraani ponders for a moment, "We can kill two birds with one stone if we travel to Easthaven to look for this fellow and use the lamp along the way to search for chwingas."

"Good plan, we ready to leave now?" Ssej asks.

“All right then,” Matthias agrees. “This sounds like a plan. I have all my belongings with me and am ready to go.”

Ok, incoming post about traveling to Easthaven.

You quickly gather your belongings and head out on the Eastway road which connects to the Eastern set of Ten-Towns, intending to get there before too late at night. 

The sky is overcast, the light is dark despite it being midday to afternoon. This gives a gloomy feeling as you trudge along on the packed snow. There are few travelers at this time. Once a fellow goes zipping by on a dogsled pulled by a team of large dogs, and later in the other direction you’re passed by someone riding a domesticated axe beak (a large flightless fowl with a fearsome beak).

About halfway along, you come across a strange sight. It appears that, ahead of you on the path, is a decent-size fir tree, and it seems to be trembling and shaking despite their being no wind. As you get closer you realize that the tree is walking, straight down the road, same direction as you towards Easthaven. You are easily catching up to it.

Ssej would move on off the path and flank it on the left side waiting for the rest of the group to approach the creature.

"Now that is a strange sight to see," Matthias says. "Though I suppose it could be hollowed out and there are twenty or thirty kobolds on each other's shoulders within."

As the group appears to be catching up to the mobile tree, Matthias suggests the group speak to it briefly as they continue on. "I do not know much about walking trees, but it is possible they might talk as well. And I'd wager a tree of the north country knows more than we do about where to find chwingas. Should we see if it is up for a brief conversation?"

"Well, I'm not much of a tree-speaker," Karl comments to Matthias. First the deserts of Calimshan, then the taiga of the north. . . He wasn't keenly knowledgeable about trees, but he suspected they didn't normally go for a stroll like this.

Something acting up in a tree though? On a hunch, Karl activates the magic lantern, seeking to perhaps shed some light on the situation.

The lantern’s flame is a typical orange, not magical green. The tree is still steadily making its way down the path.

"Perhaps we just let it keep going?" Variety suggests. "It's not hurting anyone."

From about 60' off to the left of the group Ssek continues to stalk the tree creature and then looks back to the group to see if any of them are approaching. When he sees no one approach he shrugs his shoulders and moves toward the tree creature himself. When he gets to within 10' of the creature he raises his hand and in common says "Hello."