38. September 17, 2017

We are fatigued; we haven't slept yet, it's night, but we have no choice but to press on through the endless swamp. The prisoner refuses to speak when he wakes, he silently assesses everyone, until Jessa re-gags and hoods him. We sleep fitfully in the cold, slimy, knee-deep muck [hooray for Endure Elements] until daylight. In the morning, the sun doesn't rise, it simply becomes less dark. It is still unnaturally misty. We continue walking north (we hope we are going north). We are reaching the end of our strength when one of the militiamen exclaims “what is that beautiful sight?” and begins running forward. We chase him down, but Odette runs forward instead. Then the mist parts in a golden light, and Odette reappears on the back of a majestic unicorn! And just beyond him is a low, dry hill, with warm clothes and food on it! We clamber onto the hummock, eat our fill, and are quickly asleep. In the morning, Timothy is cured of his poison. The unicorn gestures majestically and a tunnel appears through the mist, with a river in the distance. The benevolent unicorn winks out of existence, taking the prisoner with him. The tunnel starts to close, so we race through the tunnel to the other side.

We are out of the swamp, out of the mist (which we can see just south of us), on a sunny plain next to a river. West across the river is Ærden's big woods; east is the plains. The river is too wide and deep to cross, but we prefer taking our chances on the plains even though we're exposed because we'll be able to move faster.

After half a day of travel, 10 archers leap up from the grass and let fly at us. We win and Jessa interrogates the survivor. Their patrols and quick response teams tend to stay 2 days off the border to accost invaders. They have aerial surveillance by trained birds to direct them. Druids also patrol and cover each area, and direct the surveillance. The swamps are the safest place to travel, it's perpetually misty from the latent magic, and the druids cannot see what's happening in there. Rapid response units (like the 10 archers we just fought) make up about 20% of the Ærden fighters, and they can usually reach a location in 4 – 6 hours (day or night). The druids solely patrol the woods—their are horrible animals (living plants, insects the size of horses), and the Ærden fighters stay out of there, it's not safe for them. Additionally, they are facing increased threats on the Kirenweld border (and dwarven border). Jessa asks the survivor if he could find a druid to parlay with us. He will, if we let him live. He also reveals the main garrison will be on the move to intercept us.