Soon the morning sun is starting to rise, which brings with it some hope for escape. "There!" shouts Gunner, always eagle eyed, as he points at a the remains of a ancient bathhouse. The roof and three of the walls are long since gone, but the water that fills the baths still has managed to remain. Rain, generally toxic in this area, keeps it refilled, and the sealed stone baths still remain watertight never letting the water out.
With some hesitation Ellsbeth agrees to brave the waters, it should be just the edge you need to throw off pursuit, which has been ever growing closer and closer and only by the skill of Vren have you avoided a second fight up till now. The kids dive into the water, and everyone splashes across the green covered water. It stings your open wounds, and burns open sores and the like, but you exit the long pool on the other side, and pray it will be just what you need.
Dawn is now bright red, the sun is rising higher and higher directly to the east when you once again hear the howls of your foes. A deep resonating howl breaks the still dawn air. The howl is not that of a Pit Hound, but of something far more sinister. Jak gulps, "Deamon!" He's right of course, its the sound of one of the Pit Spawn, a deamon, a beast from Agares, an agent of Hell. You can't see it, thankfully, but you know now that it rules the lands south and west of your location. The bellow comes a second time. "Run!" , screens Nessa as she and the kids take off at a bolt in utter terror. With a second wind Vren and Ellsbeth look to one another and chase after the kids knowing full well that whatever is out there is a foe to strong for the two of you.
*** Sometime Later That Day ***
Slumped among an ancient road marker, Vren looks over the sleeping kids at Ellsbeth. The Paladin herself stands at vigil over the kids, eyes ever westwards, mind racing. There will be no going to Peptine, not now, not with that Deamon prowling the boarderlands between here and there.
You sit where a small patch of grass grows, it is the furtherest to the east Vren or Ellsbeth has been. You are right on that fine line where the ruins meets the plains outside of Braduk. To the east lies a long rolling grasslands, to the west, the ruins of Braduk and the Burning Pit.
Finally Ellsbeth speaks. "We make for Falcon's Hollow." The statement is both strong and commanding. "It was once a holding of Braduk, to the northeast. I have never been there myself, but the surviving Merchant Guilds still trade now and then with the Lumber Consoritum there. It is a perhaps a weeks travel from here if we give The Pit a wide berth. The kids will need food soon, and its growing cold out and none of you are dressed for that weather." She is in fact correct, since arriving here Vren has noticed that the weather is cool, certainly cooler than she's ever used to.