Chapter 4: Journey to Red Cat Cave

The next few days passes without incidents and you are making good time. Eventually you leave the last of the river behind you and start heading closer to the mountains.

One day you come upon what looks like a lifelike statue of a rearing mammoth stands in the middle of a grassy flatland.

As you get cloer, you realize that beneath one of the stone mammoth’s feet are the crushed remains of a feathered animal. You cannot identify the creature. Though you are able to recognize that this was once a living mammoth that has since been petrified by magic.

There's no magical auras beyond latent magic from the petrification. Igbork recognizes the creature as a cockatrice.

You do not find any evidence of another creature, but through skill you are able to track it to its lair. You find the remains of a long dead body, and among its equipment among broken and rusted weapons you find a small silver collar. It is not magical, but you appraise to be worth 25 gold pieces.

Another few days pass, and you become more and more confident that the majority of the Burning Mammoths are far behind you. The days become boring repetition as nothing exciting is happening. Eventually you arrive at the Grandparents.

This wide, windswept valley marks the beginning of the Tusk Mountains and the point at which the Broken Tusks typically turn north for the summer. The expanse is several miles wide, but rolling hills and mountains rising high to the northwest and southeast make the area feel smaller than it is. The way the peaks loom over the plain gives an impression of enormous, stooped figures, hence their name: the Grandparents.

The following has always stopped in the valley between the Grandparents to engage in quiet rituals honoring departed ancestors. Even with the Burning Mammoths in pursuit; no one wants to skip taking some time to observe this tradition, especially now with Grandfather Eiwa among those to be remembered.

The place looks like a suitable place. And for the first time in a long while you seem to have time to relax. The following is talking about taking at least a couple of night's rest. But how many you take will be up to you. It will be an opportunity to craft some equipment or you could reconnoiter the hex to see if there's anything else.

Igbork is able to find some fresh tracks, suggesting you're not alone in the area. There's at least four set of foot prints.

You follow the tracks to a small steep trail that goes up the mountainside. The trail is partly hidden by shrub bushses.