The reports you were given say that the mysterious "new" hill should be about 5 hours' walk to the northwest. But hey, you're leaving just a little after dawn, so, no problem. Off we go...

The road is straight and even, occasionally veering very slightly to avoid some small mound of earth or large tree or small pond.

The first real thing you could call a landmark as such is a large, craggy rock jutting out of the earth at the side of the road, about ten feet high and perhaps fourteen feet across. On the side facing the road, niches carved into the stone each contain small piles of dried flowers-- each a little marker honoring Chirosa.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:22, Fri 23 Feb.

If it was on purpose or not but Fiereljep sort of started wandering around the group and eventually was the first to start towards their goal. Probably cause he saw a nice leaf. Or was it that fancy little walking stick she found. At least at this moment it was a stick walking with the group. Its when they come across the shrine to Chirosa filled with dead plants it seems to get excited and starts giving some semblance to the sacrificed flowers talking to them about how the brutes killed them.

Babe, demonstrating a passion she had not spoken about, knelt down and examined the grass.  She pronounced the name of the grass and felt the texture of the blades and of the soil in which they grew. Content of the blades' wellbeing she asked Robin, "Is he planning to unsacrifice those flowers?  If it looks like he is, please offer the Goddess music in their place ."

Finally glad to be moving along, Brakenjawz walks with a long easy gait, but make sure to also keep a pace that is comfortable for everyone in the group. When they come upon the marker to Chirosa, Brakenjaw stops simply because the others stop; he's not particularly interested in the marker itself. As the others converse about the marker itself, Brakenjaw once again rubs his chin.

"I assume that someone local left this as a small offering, to honor the Patroness," he rumbles thoughtfully. "I suggest we not disturb it. A gift of music would be better shared with Soriya."

It turns out that most of the flowers were lovingly curated and placed by pixies, though. The flowers (or-- their spirits? Whatever?) are honestly kind of honored.

Gwendolyn had been stepping along with the rest of the group, her toes lightly scraping the ground, but it appeared they were stopping for a moment. She didn't tend to pay Chirosa much mind (the main Patron and Patronness she made sure to pray to were Noric and Soriya, after all), but neither was she keen on messing with the Patroness of Beasts' stuff.



"I'll second that." Gwen nodded to Brakenjawz. He'd seemed like a rather reasonable guy so far. "Maybe we can take a bit of a break around here first, but we should be heading for the hill."

(I'll leave it up to y'all if you want to rest for a bit, but nothing else interesting nor unusual happens at the flower offering.

When you move on...)

Almost four hours later, cattails and sawgrass sway next to a cracked-mud delta where a stream empties... it's barely a trickle right now, though, small enough for even a halfling to step over without much trouble.

It must be rushing sometimes, though, because there's a surprisingly-large and very sturdy (probably dwarf-made?) bridge over the currently-mostly-dry creekbed.

Ruth walks along the bank and examined the bridge carefully.  Only when she's sure there are no trolls under it does she decide to cross the bridge rather than the dry creek bed. After all she'd hate to see nobody eating her famous leek and potato soup simply because there were burgers available. She imagined that the dwarves would be happier to see their bridge used.

There don't seem to be any trolls under the bridge.

There is something down there, though, under the far side. A roughly-human-sized light gray something. It's not moving...

Brakenjawz marches up to the bridge with the others; when Ruth stops to examine it, he pauses to allow her time for her inspection. Once she's done, however, he tromps on across, then waits for the others on the far side. Evidently, he did not see the -- whatever it was -- beneath the bridge.

Gwendolyn, for her part, stopped before crossing. "See anything under there, Babe? We safe to cross?" She glanced at the paladin. "Except Brakenjawz, I guess."

Quintavia took note of the offering, making notes in her notebook.   As an archer and mage, she hung back in the marching order, relying on her sharp senses to keep on eye on things, literally and metaphorically.  At the bridge, she moved forward a bit, casting a spell to detect and analyze magic, and looked carefully at it to try to see any details.

OOC:
16:38, Today: Quintavia Bergantal rolled 10 using 3d6. 2,3,5 Detect magic and elven senses. – 10

No magic... looks like something's webbed down there.

Certainly it's true that giant insects-- perhaps especially arachnids-- have long been a problem on Tethys. They seem to find their way up from the caverns of the Upper Reaches and just... keep growing. Usually not larger than a large dog. Or, well, a horse, maybe.

Quintavia just hopes it doesn't turn out to be a dead person in there...