Chapter 8: The Road to Skull Gorge
The party makes camp a short distance from the giant effigy, beneath a sprawling oak tree that must easily be several hundred years old. The adventurers set watch and settle in for the night. Save for the occasional unknown screech or howl in the distance, the night passes uneventfully.
Morning comes and once again, early indications are for another warm, humid day. Summer in these parts is dreadfully unbearable, moreso in the woods where even the stiffest of winds has little chance of providing even the slightest of respite from the oppressive swelter. In any event, the adventurers are soon up and moving, heading northward along the Dawn Way toward Skull Gorge Bridge.
The road rises steadily upward as the adventurers walk toward higher ground. This continues for several miles, and finally the forest itself peters out. Ahead is a stretch of barren ground, about sixty feet wide, ending in a gorge. The party scatters to either side of the road, huddling behind dry, sun-baked shrubs that are more pokey and sharp than anything else. Peering from behind the hostile foliage, the adventurers scan the gorge.
Roughly a hundred feet wide at its narrowest point, the gorge drops away precipitously to a fast-rushing stream far below. The ancient Dawn Way crosses the cleft on a bridge of stone. Anchored at both ends to large stone towers with pentagonal roofs, the bridge seems sturdy despite its obvious age. It is, clearly, the only easy way to cross, since the gorge continues as far as the eye can see to the east and west. The four stone towers that anchor the bridge are each forty feet high. A narrow wooden stairway winds around each, leading up to an open-air watchpost at the top.
A small encampment of a half-dozen tents clusters near the northern side of the bridge. Curls of smoke from campfires attest to some sort of activity. A single humanoid figure stands at the watchpost on the top of each of the four watchtowers, longbow in hand. A powerfully built hound with glowing red eyes and short ruddy fur sits watchful near either end of the bridge. Yet the most impressive creature present is certainly the sleek and menacing green dragon that perches on the roof of the northwestern watchtower on the far side of the gorge. The dragon is basking in the sun, but its bright yellow eyes are fixed on the bridge.