The trip east is, thankfully, as easy as it is long. Sure, Valen spends the better part of two weeks out on the road, and he ends each night sweaty and tired from riding; but there is some comfort to be found in the fact that he's able to lay his head down and rest without fearing for his safety as he had in Sunwell. Though the gods only know if the relative peace will last...<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Twelve days after departing Koko's chapter house, the elven mage finally sees the Andoran walls rising high ahead of him... but that will have to wait. Because on the road ahead of him, Valen sees what looks like an old, dilapidated farm-house, and a dead farm stretching out behind it. At first, it's pretty unremarkable; but it doesn't take long for the mage to realize that there's something a bit off about the building. For one, the smoke he's seeing doesn't look like it's coming from the chimney, but from the back porch; and he's seeing some very strange shadows moving inside of the house itself. Normal people don't generally flail and wail like that...<br/><br/>Especially not loud enough to be heard from several yards away, like he is now...