The Witcher: Black and White
The Blue Mountains
The lone raven soared high over the forest at the base of the Blue Mountains. Even with his astute vision, he had yet to spot any Elven fortress. He did spot several cave mouths that were lit by torch and guarded by Redanian men at arms. This was cause for suspicion, even if no fort could be seen, the caves and the soldiers were proof enough.
Dendri decided to call it a night and turned west back to Novigrad to inform Lady Yennefer of his findings. Suddenly, a bolt from a crossbow struck him in the chest, he plummeted to the ground and landed in the thick of the forest, his fall only a little cushioned by the canopy of trees.
Dendri was forced to return to his humanoid form. The pain seared through his chest as he hunted for broken limbs which he found plenty of and the bolt itself.
He heard voices in the distance. "Great shot, Gunther!" someone said to the crossbowman.
Dendri acted fast, he plucked a remaining feather from his arm and whispered a cantation then threw it into the air. The single feather became a full raven and flew off to tell Lady Yennefer of his findings, and his unfortunate luck. Soon, the crossbowman and his friend came upon the wounded sorcerer.
"Well, well. It weren't no ordinary crow ye shot, Gunther. It were a shape shifter."
Dendri had no choice but to surrender to them. They took him into the cave system and into their mighty Elven fortress. All he had was the confirmation that the place actually existed.
/
Yen, Triss, and Ciri entered the Rosemary and Thyme to find it in shambles. Dandelion stood in the center of the main parlor with all the tables cleared away, he held a mop that was soaked in blood and four armored bodies were stacked in one corner. In another corner sat Marvo and Zoltan playing a round of gwent, Zoltan was clearly winning and Marvo was asking questions about how the game was actually played.
"What. The. Hell did you idiots do!?" Yen shouted.
Marvo looked up from his cards. "Why is everything our fault?" To this Zoltan merely shrugged.
"We left you alone for a few hours, and there are four dead men in the parlor! Who are they, what happened?"
Dandelion stopped mopping. "They're Knights of Roshytta. They came in claiming I was harboring nonhuman; which I am by the way, and Marvo and Zoltan came to my aid. Only, one got away."
Yen threw up her hands. "Great, one got away!" she yelled. "You've compromised us here! We'll need to find somewhere else to make our base of operations thanks to you!"
While Yen was yelling, a raven crashed through the window and landed on the bloodstained floor. Yen saw what it was and ran to it. Kneeling beside the wounded animal, she picked it up.
"Lady Yennefer," it wheezed. "Dendri has been captured by the Knights."
"Where?" Triss asked.
"Blue… Mount…" the raven said before disintegrating.
Yen stood up, horrified. "It was a projection. Dendri really was captured."
Zoltan walked by the pile of dust with a couple kegs of alcohol under his arms. Ciri looked down at the dwarf's strange behavior.
"Zoltan? What are you doing?" Ciri asked.
Zoltan placed the kegs by the front door and turned to retrieve more. "The way I see it, the Reds are gonna be knockin' down our door with warrants to see us hang. So, we'd best burn everything we can."
Dandelion gasped dramatically. "Burn the Rosemary and Thyme? I cannot."
Zoltan rolled his eyes. "Open another damn Rosemary and Thyme somewhere else! If we stay here, our heads'll end up atop the city gates an' Triss an' Yen'll be burned alive!"
Dandelion glanced around nervously at everything he built and sighed, then nodded to his partner. "Burn it all."
A few minutes later, the crew stood outside the Rosemary and Thyme as it burned to the ground. Some locals tried to put the fire out but the accelerant that had been used made it almost impossible. The crew stuck around until the fire was out, then solemnly walked away.