200

The trees are alive with bandit patrols, but your quick wits and Kai skills prevent you from being seen by them. Eventually you reach the edge of the copse. You find yourself staring out across an expanse of open plain towards Ruanon. The sight that lies before you is very disquieting.

Much of the mining town has been burnt to the ground. The blackened ruins of what were once shops, cottages, and taverns are now little more than smouldering mounds of charcoal. You are beginning to fear the worst, that Ruanon has been totally destroyed, when a gentle breeze clears the haze of wood smoke hanging like a grey curtain over the ruins. Inside the perimeter of ruined buildings, a barricade has been thrown up around a tower of stone. Above the tower, a tattered flag still flies bringing renewed hope; it is the sun-flag of Sommerlund edged with a band of white braid—the cavalry standard of the King’s Guard Regiment.

The sudden crack of a twig makes you freeze. You glance behind to see three bandits creeping through the trees towards you. The wide steel tips of their spears glint. They seem to be coated with a clear, sticky fluid.

If you possess the Kai Discipline of Hunting or if you have ever visited Gorn Cove, turn to 45.

If you wish to fight the bandits, turn to 133.

If you wish to evade them, you must run across the open plain towards Ruanon—eight hundred yards away. Turn to 307.