Day 74: Starday the 1st, Kuthona, 4707
I awoke to what I would swear was the smell of a very lean pork loin cooking on a campfire with lemon, honey, and paprika. I could never imagine a meal like this when I was camping out back home. Apparently, Jonathan had whipped this up from some of the cougar meat that we had bagged last night. What a way to start a new month! Although, I really have to say that it sucked to start the day knowing that I was starting it away from Savah, but I honestly knew that this side trip would have cut into her operating her business and she was also getting the school built while I was away. I'm certain that she could get it done nearly as much hassle as me.
Thus, it came as a great surprise when Jonathan told me that Savah reported to Shayliss that she had made it back fine and sent her love to me. Apparently Jonathan and Shayliss were in possession of a pair of magical items that they can use once a day each to send messages back and forth. Apparently Savah had gotten back to Sandpoint and updated everyone as to where we were all going and what we were doing. She also got in contact with the people to start work on the school apparently. I asked Jonathan how they had gotten this message across and he told me of their shorthand, that Savah's portion of the message was ten of the twenty-five words available for the Shayliss' message to Jonathan.
I thanked Jonathan and he asked me if I had any words back to Savah. I thought about it for a minute and told him to just pass along that I missed her and hoped to be back soon. Jonathan snickered and said he would pass it along. I went to go talk to Faunra and Shalelu and they were packing up and getting ready for another day of travel. They noted that Dame Rebekah had claimed to have something prepared that would make the trip quicker. Shalelu said that she had something special planned as well. I looked to Faunra and she just smiled. We quickly packed up and got mounted up on our various equipment.
I did a quick check on the bikes and repaired any issues that I found. Mostly, I just needed to ensure that there were not any leaks. We were not running at full speed the entire day, and I had used materials that were actually stronger than most modern vehicles, so they were actually very few issues overall. Once everything was ready and we were all packed up, we discussed the options ahead. Based on some maps of the area that I had reviewed when I was talking with Chask a few weeks ago, I remembered that the road that we had been taking was called the Dry Run, and that it would take us another three days if we followed the road. Shalelu said that she could lead us through the Sanos Forest, and that we could make a direct line towards Turtleback Ferry if we thought that this was a good solution. I asked her if she had an estimate of how much time that might save us, and she shrugged, saying that it should save us at least a day.
Everyone wanted to get this situation dealt with as quickly as possible, so Shalelu's option was the obvious one. Shalelu cast a spell and said that she would take the lead. Dame Rebekah started chanting under here breath and we all took off. The miles seemed to stream by as we hit the limit of Faunra and Shalelu's bikes easily. Dame Rebekah's steed and my Bike could easily go faster, but we didn't want them to not be able to keep up. After a few hours, we had crossed the Ember-flow, a small creek that emptied out of Lake Ember. We had luckily found a wide natural bridge on our direct path.
For another four hours, we rode hard and fast, without any dangers effecting us or any rode problems. After we had travelled for a full eight hours, we stopped to discuss our situation. We had went gotten a good hundred and ten miles down by then and decided to figure out our next steps. We could reasonably camp and still make it to Turtleback Ferry within the next day's travel, but to get there early enough would take hard travel, and the use of more of our resources. Shalelu noted that we could make it to Sipplerose, a small gnome community in the Sanos Forest, but it might take another two to three hours, but that she didn't know how long since her spell had worn off.
Dame Rebekah noted that if we go any further, her mount would start to take some severe damage. I noted that it would be good to get a good look over the bikes. We set up camp and decided that we might visit Sipplerose tomorrow on the way to Turtleback Ferry. We got a good, defensible location that we triple checked for any sign that we were in the path of rampaging prides of cougars, not wanting a repeat of the previous event. As we started up camp, Jonathan broke out with some cougar burgers. We had a LOT of meat from the events of the previous night, and we would not be able to eat all of it unless Dame Rebekah kept up with her orisons. Jonathan made a very good stew with some of the tougher meat and some woodland herbs and vegetables that Shalelu had recovered from the area around our campsite. It was a good meal and we used the same watch rotation as the previous night. Luckily, we didn't have any issues with anyone showing up or any monsters attacking us, so we all got to go to bed when our shifts were available.
All in all, it's kind of a big change that what I used to do every day is such a big deal that it is due to a literal pair of miracles that we invoked to get this far. I don't know that this ever change here, but maybe I can at least get my own vehicle's speed up to somewhere above school zone speeds. And my friend's vehicles anyway. Maybe Faunra can enchant the tires of the bikes to work like Bucepherous' horseshoes.