The wise cleric had a point - both their original destination and the likely destination of the tracks was the tree on the hill. If anything, the tracks only served to aid them, as the party discovered, since whoever or whatever made them was obviously familiar with the lay of the land and took the quickest, least tiring route through the winding valleys between the hills. As they approached the tree, the soil was more damp than elsewhere in the Kamelands and filled with a variety of insects that scurried away at their approach, centipedes (normal sized), pillbugs, termites, and more.<br/><br/>Approaching within a mile of their destination, they could determine that the tree was a great, old sycamore, with a massive trunk that soon split into several secondary trunks that went sideways as much as they did up. The spreading branches at the top of the tree made for an irregular, open head and were still bare, leaving nothing to cover its mottled and flaky bark, whose colouration varied from green to white to brown. Tracks were scattered everywhere, some old and some new. Some were the prints of giant centipedes, but there was also a large number of small footprints that Grolo, of all people, recognized - for these belonged to one of the ancient and hated enemies of the gnomes: mites, large-headed ugly blue little things, among the most pitiful and craven dwellers of the dark that even goblins would mock for their homeliness. The only creatures that could stand them were insect vermin as disgusting as the mites themselves.<br/><br/>It was time for the explorers to decide how they would approach and climb the hill to get to the sycamore tree.