The afternoon sun beats down on you; the air is hot and still. The sparsely settled lands of Elsir Vale are starting to grow monotonous, with a seemingly endless line of dusty flyspecks of towns. One such town, Drellin's Ferry, lies a few miles ahead of you. It's a settlement hard on the borders of the Witchwood, and the best place from which to begin exploring the nearby forest. Your current destination - Vraath Keep, as directed to you by a map and a promise of treasure. When you inquired about Vraath back at Brindol it seemed to be long-abandoned, a relic of some noble's attempt to tame the forest that fell short of its goal, but the Witchwood denizens keep most from straying near or trying to repeat the noble's goal. Still, nobles mean treasure, and abandoned means it shouldn't have gone anywhere. If the map is correct, it could be enough to retire on for life, but getting your hopes up has backfired before.

Drellin's Ferry may be small but it does have the notability of being the first town on the Elsir Vale that travelers from the west pass through (even if that's not as common as the merchants in Brindol would like), and so may be a bit more bustling than the ones you passed through to get here. Hopefully you won't have died of heatstroke by the time you get there. Even the trees that flank your path offer little comfort or protection from the endless sun.