239

You stagger to your feet and use the sleeve of your tunic to wipe away the mud from your stinging eyes. Then, cursing your misfortune, you claw your way out of this gully and escape into the timberlands beyond.

You are nearing the northern perimeter of the forest when you stop for a few minutes to catch your breath. You look back towards the clearing, now more than a mile distant, and for a few fleeting moments your head is filled with screams of pain and the plaintive cries of innocent men begging for their lives to be spared. These terrible sounds drive cold spikes of despair deep into your heart, but your Kai senses swiftly override these feelings of hopelessness and suddenly you realize that the sounds are not real. They are a cruel illusion, an aural hallucination planted in your mind by the evil shadow-creature.

Fearful of its sinister powers, you hurry away through the trees. Soon you emerge from the Grochod Forest upon a grassy ridge and see before you a patchwork of ploughed and fallow fields stretching to the far horizon. You recognize this land to be the Demera Quilt, the cultivated farmlands and vineries south of Duadon. The cloudy sky is darkening as night approaches yet, when you magnify your vision, you are still able to catch a glimpse of Duadon itself. This grim city lies 30 miles away, towards the northwest.

As night draws closer, a cold wind arises and the heavy rains of the past few days return once more. Chilled by the weather and by your encounter at the clearing, you scan the landscape in search of somewhere dry to spend this night. You note two places within a mile of the ridge which offer the possibility of shelter. They are a farmhouse and the overgrown ruins of an ancient castle.

If you wish to seek shelter at the farmhouse, turn to 326.

If you choose to seek shelter at the castle ruins, turn to 72.