Once again, scheduling has proven tricky and we're only playing once in June, and not until the end of the month. This has given me time to work on the story progression. Reading through the Red Larch section of Chapter 2 and the early investigations in Chapter 3, it looks like the shepherd's discovery of graves outside Red Larch is the most useful, since they point to the air cult and Feathergale Spire is visible. However, since the published errata have moved the earth cult's headquarters farther north (and closer to the ambush site), it's even harder to see how the air cultists could have skirmished with them as they returned from their ambush of the delegation. Possibilities: this was the result of a skirmish between the cults entirely unrelated to the ambush, or the air cult did a lightning raid on the earth cult before they reached their monastery and the earth cult gave chase. If there aren't any Mirabar corpses in the graves, that leaves the situation somewhat ambiguous; the party might make a polite approach rather than assail the spire, which would be entertaining.
So, at Feathergale Spire they should determine (thanks to the halfling spire merchant in the kitchen) that the air cult has raided caravans, but there are no indications that they interfered with the Mirabar delegation. That should send the party to Beliard, the delegation's last known location. They can discover the remains from the attack. If they proceed to Summit Hall, they'll get the location of the monastery. Otherwise, tracking might lead them to the river, and we'll have to see how they proceed from there.
In preparation for the caravan's arrival in Red Larch, I used a highlighter to mark significant buildings on a printout of the town map. That will help me identify points of interest as the characters move through the town.
The owner of one of the wagon works has seen the fire cult symbol and has directions to their base. The party saw the fire cult symbol on the arsonists at the inn. If the characters don't pick up this clue while investigating the town, I'll have Rosemary make the connection and tell them on their return. And I can always have Liliandra point them to the shepherd and his graves to get things going in the direction, if need be.
