Into the Sackwald .... Day 3: At the ruins......

After they set off in the morning, they met a large man with a club (you could say he was a small giant); he was reasonably friendly if somewhat gruff. They asked him if there was anything of interest to see in the vicinity; he said there were some ruins further down the pathway and gave them a curt goodbye and disappeared into the forest...

 a bit later as they could see something above the tree tops...

as they carefully traversed a marshy area, they could see the ruins ...

they were soon there and arrived in a small square, surrounded by a few still standing columns and some extant walls....

While they decided on where to camp, Scharfe spotted a large white hart on the edge of a thicket; after a moment it turned and went into the forest...

Soon the camp was setup .....

they were on their guard after the incident with the snake yesterday... a good job too ! As they prepared for something to eat, a huge lizard approached .... 

The lizard moved forward and hesitated

then it started to move on and looked like it was going to walk through the ruins along the roadway

As the others edged backwards, Limburger moved into the square area to get a better look at the lizard; the lizard seeing his movement turned and attacked him.....

Limburger tries to fend it off, Eleanor fires her pistol at its head, others at the body

The lizard tosses the helpless Limburger away...they fall back to re-load...

The lizard then went after for the pack ponies....

The woodsman managed to save of the pack ponies; while the lizard started to eat the other one

having eaten it turns round and moves slowly into where the expedition had setup camp...

everyone fired at  the lizard, some hit it; the lizard wounded sloped off into the forest ...

Scharfe checked on Limburger - he was dead; the other pack pony was dead and mostly torn apart. After a quick consultation, they decided to end the expedition and head back out of the forest as quickly as they could. Before leaving they buried Limburger in the floor of one of the smaller ruins.

---oXo---

The journey back out of the forest was uneventful; although they had the feeling they were being watched. They rested for a day at Eisern and then returned to the capital to report to the King.