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July 7, 2016 at 2:02 pm #1876

You travel the rest of that day, in companionable silence. The road clear, the sun bright and the breeze cool. Stopping to make camp that night not off the road in the woods as you had on your way here but directly in the middle of the road. Cassiel simply stops the wagon, throws the brake and with gentle thanks dismisses Stone Solid for the night.
Cassiel starts whistling as he sets camp for you all, pulling off the wagon all sorts of comforts. You pass the night uneventfully, the old Priest telling tales of his younger days. Each of you beginning to get slightly nervous as nothing has tried to kill you in days. Sometime after midnight that night you are all awoken by a strange “Chattering” sound, like someone loudly clenching their teeth together over and over, the sounds swells and surround you filling the dark pines for the better part of an hour before just as abruptly stopping. The majority of you have trouble sleeping after that, some just lying awake as the night passes.
The next day you are up before the sun, packing up the wagon in the pale predawn light. Cassiel summons his rhino again and hitches it to the wagon and before you know it you are all back on the road making good time. Impromptu races and shows of horseman ship abound this day as you rotate around the wagon throughout the day. Jokes and pranks abound, tawdry songs echoing out across the land around you, as you all enjoy your time on the road. It really is not until the bulk of the day had gone by that you realized you had passed through the area where the Sword Wraiths attacked you, and through the choke point on the road where you had met the sprite pestered Black Smith.
Again Cassiel stops the wagon in the road and you all fall into what is fast becoming a nightly routine of getting the camp ready for the night, assigning watches, etc;
That night turns out to be a quiet night, introspective, less chatter and more relaxation by the fire. Some even turning in early as the lazy night drifts by, maybe still tired from the night before. Though admittedly some of you will be on edge, that’s just how you have trained yourselves. Tonight it is a good thing though. An hour or so after you have all finished dinner, Grognak notices movement in the woods around you. Fleeting man sized shadows, appearing and disappearing within the dark woods to either side of the road surrounding you, occasionally darting across the road in the distance.
You are ready for anything at this point, your defensive formation perfect, camp routine flawless. Nothing will get the drop on you. This last for less than an hour before the woods go deathly still, no movement, and no strange sounds. Only the normal sounds of the night time forest. Even then you do not relax for the better part of an hour, before sending Stern and Lone Bear to investigate. They return empty handed, without a single clue as to the mysterious nature of the shadowy troupe that had been circling you all.
You pass the rest of the slow night in tense silence, straining your eyes and ears, double watches for the remainder of the long night.
Already packed up from the night before, the next morning you break camp early, still vigilant as the sun rises. You travel maybe one hundred yards down the road, to just about where the trees give way to the gently rolling hills sweeping down towards The Blue Bayou. There in the road, where the shadows of the tress give way to light of the moors is a single emerald fletched arrow. Stuck point first into the ground. You guys being you guys immediately go into high alert as you approach…..and then gently pass the arrow by.
Putting the woods behind you, you soon pass the place where you encountered Noburu of the New Moon. A sense of eagerness begins to grow with you all as the Ancient Bridge that marks the eastern boundary of the Blue Bayou comes into view in the distance. Thoughts of your time there making you all smile and your spirits soar, like the circling hawks above you. You mood even infects Cassiel who has spent the trip so far caught somewhere between nervous apprehension and unabashed wonder as the world around him unfolds.
As the sun sets, the lights of the Bayou go up, a glittering expanse of fire fly like luminosity, and though you are not quite there yet you can hear the boisterous music radiating from the mystical little town.