Reaching a Turn Off and Camping in a Cave

The east road has been much easier than I expected.  We reached our turn-off by mid morning, and despite an objection from Daran, who considered this a risky route, we headed down the road to Saltley.  The day has passed with little incident, unlike the main trade route we hardly seen anyone along here.  The only people we've seen have been a small contingent of mounted knights that moved quickly past us back towards Gora.  They called a greeting to us as they went past, but said nothing more, and they certainly didn't stop.

Mullory thought them rude, and seemed more incensed than the others.  These were church knights, from a rival church to his.  It was Elenhugh that pointed out that they bore the symbols of the church of Anbartae.  This is the church that holds some of the sway at this time in Caldonacia.  The Hznaman King, despite being in a foreign land away to the west, is a follower of that church, and it gives them a degree of kudos and social rank that is denied to the priests and knights of other churches.

I'd never really considered the religion of the Hznaman before.  I'd assumed they were all followers of Danethrae, much like us in the delve.  It seems this is not so.  The churches do, for the most part, get along, but they do teach different philosophies.  Anbartae's position seems to be to promote establishment and order, which contrasts Danethrae's position which promotes honesty and mutual support for each other.  I asked Mullory how many churches there were in the Hznaman lands, he said he could name another four, but there were many others, and some that worshipped and practised evil.  He would not speak of these at all.

I suggested that they try and teach me a little about these kinds of social structures of the Hznaman people, so that I didn't upset anyone or cause problems for people when I arrived in the first town.  They said they would help, but that it didn't really matter.  It would be quite difficult for a Dzarraf to offend anyone in that way, they assured me.

We spent over an hour this evening looking for a suitable camping place.  Barr was quite insistent that we find somewhere both defensible and well hidden.  We eventually found a dry cave, but it was getting dark when we went inside.  He lit a lantern to illuminate our way, but didn't really need to.  The cave is quite small, and it's quite easy to see all around inside it, even in the gloom of dusk.  I think that if the lantern were off it would be just as easy to see in here.  We're having a cold camp tonight, they're worried that a fire might attract unwanted attention.