When the Boughs Break

[The Dungeon Master]

Eshket's heavy brows crimped together as she focused her eyes on the scrap of parchment. She squinted, tilted her head, then sniffed prodigiously. Only that last action brought any recognition, and a baring of fangs - her first show of any kind of aggression since entering the lodge.

"This was carried by an elf," she said. "An elf in green clothing was found sneaking about our camp four nights ago. I tracked its scent into the pass. This scent." She nodded at the scrap. "Our warriors killed it."

She glanced at the scrap again. "I have not seen this thing, nor the thing marked upon it."

[Serril Indaiyu]

Elves were the most common outlanders in the Moonwood. Some weren't even outlanders at all - there were a few bands of Moon Elves to the south who were good neighbors and fellow stewards of the Wilds. Silverymoon was close enough to the south that the Elves of the Silvery March would occasionally visit.

Windra frowned. The Gnoll didn't seem to be deceptive or misleading so far, but it seemed like she understood her questions only in a literal manner.

"This elf in your camp, did you see what they were doing before they were found out? Did they get close to this Tanar'ri?"

Crazy-Mountain had by now eased into a chair, which she sat hunched over in, propping herself with her club.

"What did you find on the body of this elf when the warriors killed them?"

[The Dungeon Master]

Eshket swallowed hard again as her eyes darted from one firbolg to another. "I do not know what it was doing. As soon as it was discovered, it ran. We found..." She sucked her teeth as she racked her panicking brain. "Leather armor. Dagger. Pouch with coin. Necklace shaped like green stag. We would have taken the body, but I heard movement in the woods. So we fled with what we had taken."

Her stomach growled. She had not eaten since the previous night, and she doubted she would be allowed to eat anytime soon. She licked her chops dolefully.

[Serril Indaiyu]

At that, Kam's breath caught. She looked to Sibi, who averted her eyes. The momentary shock was brought under control, and she turned her attention to Eshket again.

"You're a scout. Are you able to read a map? If we drew a map of the Moonwood, would you be able to show us the location of Tanar'ri's camp on it?"

Movement could be heard from the other side of the lodge. Kam's ears pricked at the sound, noticing Mr. Ounay grabbing a roll of paper and a lump of charcoal.

[The Dungeon Master]

Eshket watched hungrily as Kam began sketching out a map using a charcoal stump. At first she was lost in the shapes and lines, until she realized the dark, winding snake in the middle was the river Surbrin spilling down from the World's Spine and carving his path through the Moonwood, and those lumpy shapes represented the Frost Hills to the West, where the great dwarven stronghold of Mithral Hall delved deep into the roots of the earth. Between those hills and the edge of the Moonwood ran the Mithral Pass, choked by glacial ice and snow during the winter. Eshket's eyes devoured the map as she compared it to the one she carried in her own head.

She shuffled forward toward the paper on the floor, and held out one of her paws, still bound at the wrist to its partner. Once Kam had pressed the charcoal stub into her paw, she moved it to the map and began adding broad strokes. A narrow valley nestled within the Frost Hills, tucked away from the paths that ran between Mithral Hall and Settlestone. She added squiggly lines for streams fed by snowmelt which tumbled down steep crags to provide fresh running water. From such a valley, one could easily climb the cliffs and watch the whole length of the pass with impunity, or trek out through any number of canyon passageways into the pass and across into the Moonwood itself. Once she had sketched this valley, she placed a heavy, dark mark in the center of it and laid the charcoal down.