After some deliberation upon the ridge top, the company determine their best course would be scale down the escarpment to therein locate a commodious campsite on the forested valley floor. However the descent is virtually vertical to a rope length, then difficult--at best--below that. Leudigar the Tracker judges the crater rim to offer better rock climbing opportunities nearer the gate and so trots off east along the rim in search of any goat track or navigable course with the company marching more cautiously after him...
...by mid afternoon Leudigar is beginning to feel exposed as he moves along the ridge top, even crouched low as he goes with his cloak flung broadly over him. Still, he has found no clear trail that would carry even a boy down the rock face. He is about to turn back, disappointed, when he makes a discovery. As he turns to look behind him he chances to glimpse a vertical line of sunlight apparently splitting a broad stone near the precipice. Moving to investigate, he swiftly discovers it is an narrow defile purposefully carved through the rock that an arrow or dart might be shot through from a hidden cupola--a secret watch room large enough for perhaps four Men. On inspection it appears not long disused and, mercifully, it is built over an ancient stone stair, so narrow and perilously steep that it is almost wholly hidden from view in a crevice that runs halfway down the escarpment before reaching an equally perilous goat track that hardly marks the rock face. Farther below, Leudigar discerns another portion of old, crenelated wall--its battlements facing into the valley...
Wilderness Exploration Turn 4 (2nd move)
* The referee dices to determine whether Leudigar will search to the east (odds: toward the gate), or south-west (evens: away from the gate): d6 → 1 so toward the gate.
* The ref dices to determine whether Leudigar finds a suitable route: d6 → 4, so the ranger does (where any but a ranger would not).
* The ref dices for Hezmog's scouts: d6 → ?
[f=32]
Golgildir the Elf Medium (MV 12", AC 9, HD 1, hp 1/1, AL N) great cloak,
lantern; spells: color spray; scrolls: sleep, sleep, charm person
Hirelings: Georges;
torch[/f]