[center][h2]Royal Road to Walverrest[/h2][/center]

The good news was that Neffy had found where the patrol along this stretch of road had gotten to by rushing off into the treeline. The bad news was that Neffy had found where the patrol was. Going through the bushes and into the treeline, the woodland opened up a little, and the signs of recent passage were obvious. Amongst the trees there were the signs of what was probably a temporary camp: cooking gear was set up, there were some tents, armour and weapons, soldiers...

But the cooking gear was [i]still[/i] set up, with a few bits of leftovers. The armour and weapons were just piled--obviously broken, discarded junk of no particular use any more. The tents were equally broken. As for the soldiers, what was left could either be described as "stripped to the bone" or part of the leftovers.