8 – On the road at last (Well, on the cart path...)
After your talk with the chief, you begin to prepare the final details for your journey. You are however distracted at by two different issues.
The first one is your discussion with Jay. You think hard about what to do, even considering for a moment the possibility of shutting him up, either through threats or violence. But soon you decide to do nothing, it seems he will not talk anyway. And, you do not think he really deserves it, he seems more frightened than anything else.
The second is more... distracting. That rather young girl keeps flirting with you, and you find yourself... interested. After all, you never had the chance to have many girls around you. You even kiss her once, and you like it a lot. Really, a LOT. But, as you are about to go further, you manage to restrain yourself. She's really too young, and you have decided to leave this place behind. And also, you have a good idea of what the villagers would do to you if you had sex with a girl of that age. But, the thoughts of women are still in your head...
(You have gained personality trait: Interested in women.)
After finally clearing your head of these distractions, you decide to follow the cart path until you're straight north of the nearest ruins. Then cut through the forest to there, hoping to find some supplies or valuables. From there, head straight to the ruins to the southwest, cross the river to Qoor and then take the cart path from there to Bitak.
You leave the next morning at a very early hour. You already said your goodbyes last evening, no point in losing more time. You take the cart path and start walking south. You do not have enough food for the entire journey, but you won't need it. You are comfortable in the woodlands, and can easily find small game and edible plants with just a couple of hours every day. You plan to keep your rations for emergencies, and bringing more without a beast of burden would have slowed you down. Water will likewise be not a problem, the are many small brooks and torrents in the woods ahead. It's a very fertile land, if untamed.
For about three days nothing much happens. You travel at a steady pace, in a beautiful forest. You enjoy being on the road, and have no trouble keeping your food and water provisions intact. But, around mid-afternoon of the fourth day you encounter something that stops you dead in you track.
On the cart path you find the bodies of eight people, and the remnants of some carts. The bodies are almost completely decomposed, only bones remain. They seem to have been killed by weapons. One body is missing its head, another is cut vertically almost in two. A third body has the skull crushed by some heavy weapon, maybe a mace. The carts appear to have been looted. This was clearly done by a few people at least.
You remember the villagers talking of the worries of the caravan last year. Apparently they were right, you think this is
that caravan. Most likely ambushed on its way back to Bitak. The road was indeed not safe at all...
You consider your options. You have traveled south for about four days.
You are on the cart path, about halfway between Tulik and the ruins south of it. Refer to the map if needed
What are you going to do? (semi-open choice)
1) Take a day or so to inspect carefully this ambushed caravan. You may find some information or something useful
2) Go back to Tulik, warn the village of what you saw.
3) Keep following the plan, travel south on the path another day or two, then go to the small ruin
4) Immediately cut west through the forest, then go to the ruins and follow the original plan. Avoid this cart path for now
5) Other. As it's a semi-open choice, make a proposal and put a number on it.
Sorry for not updating the setting info, was busy, will do it now.