We headed back to the stone troll for a closer look. He was wearing wizards robes and appeared very weather worn. His odd pose made it looks like he was tied and bound, and then petrified. Krisanna tried to wake up the troll by knocking politely, then shouting at it, then running round in circles to no avail.
Aodhan sensed magical energy but had no means of dispelling magic. He vaguely remembered a story about a magician troll who became mad with a lust for power until he was somehow dealt with by other trolls. Both Swifty the dog and Bastonn left a little scent marker on the troll, out of shared canine habit.
The dog soon picked up a scent trail again, and Bastonn confirmed it but wasn't convinced it was the missing father. By late afternoon, it had started to rain and we reached a point where the path was split by a large ravine. This appeared to be the end of the scent trail too, unless we could find a way across the chasm.
Aodhan scouted around for a campsite but failed miserably and it looked like we were in for a damp night when suddenly the ground gave way and Aodhan, Krisanna and Makander slipped down onto a ledge suffering cuts and bruises.
By morning we were all soaked, exhausted and Aodhan was shivering with the cold. We decided to follow the edge of the ravine to the north-west in the pouring rain, and Krisanna started with the sniffles. Orla found a dry spot and we built a fire so we could at least warm up and dry out a bit.
The rain has subsided to a drizzle and the trees appeared to be thinning out a little as Bastonn picked up a scent of the sea - we were at the northern extent of the forest. We followed the edge of the forest back to the village and delivered the lad Mulder back to his mum. We repaired to the pub to rest and recuperate, and boast of our exploits in fighting the white wyrm. The next day we went shopping for wet weather gear, having learnt our lesson, buying waterproof ponchos and a tent.
From somewhere to the north, we heard the blast of a horn and saw a man standing by the village well. He looked like the hunter we had been searching for but his eyes were white and he didn't recognise his wife, roughly shoving her aside.
"Queen Dandelion proclaims that the time has come to pay tribute for disturbing the peace of the forest. Five youths will be chosen to enter the Queens service, or else the village will be raised to the ground"
He walked back into the forest, and we chased after him, all failing to tackle him, and Aodhan tried to topple him with his staff, to no avail. He vanished into the trees.
A town meeting was called to decide how to respond to this ultimatum. Some people had already packed up and were leaving and there was much arguing amongst the villagers. Bastonn howled "Enough! No children are to be sent. We will find this Queen and end her threat!"
His words inspired the villagers and they all cheered his speech. Ditches were dug and wagons tipped over to make impromptu barricades.
The party set off into the forest and Swifty soon picked up the scent from the trail of footprints, leading us back towards the White Wyrm's cave before heading north east into the trees where there seemed to be orc footprints. We eventually came upon the ruins of a castle in the forest with collapsed blocks of stone, statues and the remains of a tower and a well. It looked like a huge explosion had levelled the tower a hundred years before.
Krisanna searched the orc tracks, which lead to an arch amongst the collapsed blocks where a staircase lead down into the earth!
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