The Great Cockatrice Battle has come to a close. In the end, they decided to let three sleeping cockatrices lie. Marco the caravan master was not entirely happy with leaving any alive, but their nests were off the road. He will have to be satisfied with warning his fellow traders.
The shepherds didn't want to abandon the petrified dog and sheep, especially since Su'uvarax told them the condition would wear off. I decided the dog was a border collie, which is fairly small, so they could lift the statue and put it on a wagon. Silaqui knew Tenser's Floating Disk, which can be cast as a ritual and lasts an hour. That was enough to move the shepherds and flock away from the cockatrices, where they could wait for the effects to wear off. Since this is a game full of engineers, some of us spent most of the dessert/put-the-child-to-bed break googling and calculating the weight of the sheep statue. If a petrified creature has the same density as concrete, then a sheep statue should come in under 500 pounds, which is the limit of Tenser's Floating Disk.
The caravan arrived at Red Larch after dark. Another caravan from Secomber had arrived, bringing news of the lost delegation from Mirabar which failed to arrive at Goldenfields. Since most of this caravan was heading south for Waterdeep, and the territory south of Red Larch is more settled, Marco was able to let a lot of guards go, and the characters cashed out.
Red Larch has a ton of detail, but most of it doesn't come into play. I described some of the main businesses as the players came down the Long Road, until they hit the inn. There was a travelling priest of Lathander staying at the inn, so Truth found a comrade. Most of the others headed across to the tavern for gossip. Su'uvarax was still interested in books, and was directed to Valivoe's Sundries. The party went out the next morning to explore and Su'uvarax was shown the dwarven book. Since they brought Liliandra along, she was able to identify it as belonging to the dwarven sage from the missing Mirabar delegation. Su'uvarax got the info that it had come from Womford.
While at the tavern, the characters heard about the Haunted Keeps again; that got the attention of Su'uvarax, so it looks like they'll be headed there next. No need for shepherds to point out graves in illogical locations.
So now I'm wondering if I should bother with the Tomb of Moving Stones, since it will only redirect their focus toward the town rather than the keeps and I don't want to disrupt their momentum. It might be more effective after they've discovered the existence of a cult or two, to illustrate how the cults are at work throughout the region.
In that case, the next thing on the agenda is the Feathergale Keep. The main question there is whether they sneak around for a stealthy military approach or go the diplomatic route of talking to people. I need to study the maps. The tower is built in a canyon and rises above its walls; there's a bridge from the top of the canyon to the front door. So it matters if the party goes through the canyon to the base, or stays along the edge of the canyon and finds the front door. I'm not sure yet if I want to direct them one way or the other.
