Well it seems that it's Monty for president day today
Though we did get a couple of... interesting posts o.o
12 – A crossing, a walk, and...
You decide to try your luck with crossing near the rocks upriver. You start to walk nonchalantly and close to the water, trying to hide the fact you have seen your follower and keeping your hand close to your sword's hilt. As you make your way closer to the rocks you see once again a shadow dart from one bush to another with the corner of your eye. Then you see another.... You steel your nerves and keep moving at the same pace. Closer... closer... closer
You reach the closest rock, and suddenly you dart across it and then into the shallow water to the next rock. You hear growls behind you, and more than one beast running. You wade quickly to the rock, and then you climb up. You turn around and draw your sword, the water should give you an advantage slowing down whatever is following you.
You see them on the rock behind you. Four very large wolves, growling at you. They are visibly thin, the terrible winter must have been hard on them. Usually wolves avoid humans, except when they're desperate. Last winter was the harshest the village elders remembered after all..
You consider your options in orders to stop them once they try to cross, but you immediately notice that something is wrong. The wolves are pacing the big rock back and forth, looking at you, growling at you. But they're making no move to cross. In fact, they're giving the water a wide berth. One of them gets a bit closer to it, sniffs it, then recoils suddenly. They seem to be afraid of it...
You decide to encourage them to leave. You start picking up rocks and throwing at them. Your aim is not very good, and they are quick enough to dodge, but they clearly do not like it. After about ten rocks, they retreat, look at you one last time, and then go back to the forest. You are very happy with the outcome, you are unarmored and not very good with weapons yet, a fight with four wolves at once would have not been pretty. Knowing how to use the bow would have been very useful here, maybe you should plan to learn it.
It seems that the wolves were somehow afraid of the river's water. You do not particularly like this information, usually animals are sharp. But at least you can be rather sure they're not going to follow you. After a quick pause to reorient yourself, you start journeying southwest, knowing you should reach the other ruin after 2-3 days.
You go back to an easy pace across the forest, traveling, procuring some food, and generally enjoying the journey and learning something more of the world around you. The weather is still nice, the temperature is starting to get a bit more comfortable, and the days a bit longer. For a couple of days you travel, always going southwest. You're not entirely sure you're following the right direction, after all you're still not very good at this. But at the end of the second day you find a small hill, and climb up to confirm where you are. You manage to see in the distance to the southwest what seems to be the ruins of a small watchtower. That should be the village ruins!
In the morning, you set your course to that watchtower, walking at a brisk pace. The forest is a bit sparser here, so traveling is easier. But as you get closer, you notice that the forest is going quiet. Very quiet in fact. You keep advancing, but hesitate a bit. The vegetation is a bit duller here, not as vibrant as before.
Finally you see a couple of walls in the distance under the trees. You have reached the borders of the village. The forest is completely quiet, and the vegetation appears to be somewhat... diseased. The deep greens from before have been replaced by a lighter, sicker green. The trees have some dead, rotting branches here and there... and, what is this smell of decay? It's horrible!
You are at the western smaller ruins, just a few days north of Qoor.
What are you going to do? (semi-open choice)
A) Enter the village and investigate.
B) Circle the village, but do not enter. Then head south towards Qoor.
C) Head south towards Qoor immediately.
D) Other. Make your proposal and put a letter on it.