The next morning finds you all on joining Kerith and Ted on the first of the count's tours of the county. It's late afternoon and you’ve been off the road for hours, Theodore leading through the byways of the Last Ride for the better part of the morning. You are accompanied by 6 horsemen, including two of Drusilia’s men. She, for her part, is elegant as always, even having traded her flowing skirts pleasingly tight breeches and a coat split for riding. The green shades of her costume even seem chosen specifically to match the grey coat of her palfrey. Kerith has also covered his white surcoat with a drab hunting coat and rides his black destrier at the head of the party with Ted. It’s been several hours since you’ve seen any sign of civilization but Ted never fails to find the landmark or deertrack he says they would cross in twenty minutes, twenty minutes ago.<br/><br/>Nor does his familiarity stop soon as he calls a stop and points out something to Kerith as the lord’s hand moves to his sword. The men notice their lord and come to the alert. Ted dismounts and one of the horsemen takes his horse's reins as he stalks forward to inspect something.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Ted</div><div class="spoiler_body">There is a track crossing your path 40 feet ahead. An indeterminate number of lightly laden men crossed stealthily from your right to left. The tracks are not an hour cold and there are no settlements for fifteen miles in any direction. Smugglers! Or bandits on the hunt, more likely, due to being lightly laden. Moving closer, you take a couple of minutes to search the track, Brock sniffing around with you and providing some additional cues, you find it was made by a party of 14, 13 men and a half-orc, and they were chasing an elf and a woman, also lightly laden. The elf’s injured and likely couldn’t have run more than another mile. The woman was slowing her flight, presumably for the elf’s sake.</div></div><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Ted, Dora, and Victoriana</div><div class="spoiler_body">Dora and Victoriana see Ted that Ted is inspecting something, probably tracks of something. The track leads toward brush that can get too thick for the horses in about a mile.</div></div><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">ultakptah</div><div class="spoiler_body">Or cancel this, if you don't want to share</div></div>After a couple of minutes down the trail, Ted flashes back a series of hand signs. "Many men, moving away from the trail to your left. Bandits!"