Dearest Grun,

Well, we were heading back down the mountain trail when Trap, scouting ahead, once again waved us up (We haven’t gotten around to discussing communication, he wanted us to stop again. Oops). He could see someone coming up the path - at least it turned out to be someone we knew!

It’s an elf named Four Feather - she’s a ranger from town, or as much as “from town” as you can call it when they all live in the woods nearby. She also likes to wear a mask - must ask Drusilia if that’s an elf thing. Drusilia, by the way, is now learning some dwarven while we travel. She does make an interesting elf..

I was afraid someting had happened at home, but it turned out that Four Feather’s uncle (who also hangs out in the local woods) has gone missing, and she’s trying to find him. She decided to travel with us for now. It’s as good an idea as any - I don’t think she really knows which way he would have wandered off to..

We continued into the mountains, taking a path I’ve traveled before to visit you. We camped under a rock outcropping, and the new elf decided to sleep in a tree across from us. Lucky she did, as she gave us advance warning of a giant spider attack that came just before sunup. May want to mention to Uncle that the area is infested, again..

Of course, the first one went for Valon! Four Feather hollered about two more spiders (she was doing more than that, they came over the edge with arrows sticking out of them), which went for Trap and the poor mule. We killed all of them, and Drusilia healed the mule while Trap went looking for the dagger he’d thrown into the darkness. He found the dagger and another spider..

We were getting ready to dispatch this one, too, when Drusilia charged right though me - or tried to. We went down in a heap! I still managed to kill the spider, however, and wandered back to camp to pray until sunup. We spent the day travelling, and camped well above the treeline but near a stream.

The stream had some nice pools, so I decided to take a quick bath. As I left camp, Fafnir was replaying and critiquing Drusilia’s combat techniques - well, at least she gets the element of surprise on her side! Four Feather had decided to go fishing upstrean from me, which was fine, but then a baby bear showed up.

Now, I respect bears, and I also understand that mama is usually not far away when you see baby, so I finished my bath quickly and got out of the stream since baby wanted to play in it. The elf, however, began to pitch pebbles at it, explaining that she didn’t want the bear to “fall in and drown”! I got the heck out of there, went back to camp and explained exactly why I now think Four Feather is nuts. MUST ask Drusilia about her!

At this point Four Feather ran into camp - no mama bear behind her, at least - and announced that she’d found giants’ footprints in the area. I knew there wasn’t much to do about it but keep careful watch and a small fire, so we were as quiet as possible that night and went on safely in the morning. The next day we spent travelling up the gorge, and camped to the howling of wolves, which also left us alone. We turned off of the path to visit you, and headed up to a pass in the mountains.

There was a border marker at the crest - almost a totem pole, with ugly faces carved into it. The elves recognized a very evil god of the orcs, and got terribly upset - almost as disgusted as we dwarves feel about orcs! We passed it, and looked down into a valley, with a village in it. I checked the map to be sure this was really our destination - we’re really taking a terrible chance to come in here - and as far as I can tell, it’s the right path.

I’m writing this before we move on - and praying for protection and luck. I hope this adventure is worth the risk!

With love -
Ghelt