Before the party could continue on from Sun Rock Retreat, a few more preparations had to be made. They spent their time well seeing them, through; crafting holy water for Zachariah Hallowhold, tending to personal errands, and conversing with Tsunaman now that the water elemental had been spending time there in town without the worry of Twilight cultists chasing hot on its heels.
One revelation that had come to Tsunaman was that it was not just one source of power it sensed off to the far west. No, there were actually two of them; one high above ground as he had sensed it before, but also another close by it and deep down underground, as if concealed away from the world. It went to reason why it had not been able to sense this before.
The party laid plans for their journey, and Orida Darkcloud decided to come along with them. They knew it would take them some days off to the west, where their maps told them there would be a grand valley they could traverse. When they reached this valley, what they found was a massive stretch of woodland that had been burned to the ground; Gan Jedi could find many hoofprints and wagon tracks going through the place, while Yuma Stonehoof was certain that the place had been set ablaze no more than a month earlier.
They set up camp along the way there, deeming the place fairly safe from untimely encounters in the night, before they carried on into the westermost hills. There they found a long-stretching river running down the way, and in the distance they could see a tower rise up high from between the trees. They quickly assumed this could be their destination, and so they chose to leave their mounts there in a safe spot and continue onward from foot.
They followed the river for the most part, sometimes cutting through open field if the banks twisted and turned too far. Along the way they encountered a small group of quilboar, in the company of a lumbering thunder lizard! And try as they might have, the party was not able to avoid detection. A fight broke out, one in which the quilboars seemed uncannily in control of the beast, though Gan managed to calm it down and turn it against its masters, at least for a while.
Jung-Won Oxhide leapt into the fray, while Orida took position with her crossbow. The party quickly learned that the quilboars had reinforcements fairly close by, seemingly scattered out in case of an ambush -- or in hopes that they could trick brash travellers into one. Blades clashed and lightning crackled through the air, and eventually the great thunder lizard was slain and the quilboars scattered.
On the bodies of the dead quilboars, the party found an unwelcome sight, though one that at this point was not too surprising. Several of them were carrying crude trinkets that resembled the symbol of the Twilight's Hammer, though it was hard to tell whether the symbols had been freely given to the quilboars or if they had been stolen in a previous ambush.
As the night slowly drew closer, the party found themselves a place to perch a stop atop a mesa that spanned over the river. The place looked easily defensible, and better yet gave the party quite the admirable view of the surrounding landscape, including the tower that now seemed to beckon them from the distance.