Found;
A minor setback.
Well, it's not so minor. It has the potential to be deadly in quite a major fashion if I'm not careful, but needs must!
I've not yet seen Toddir. I did look for him, but it seems he's busy with other matters for the moment and I thought it best not to disturb him yet. A good choice as it turns out, for the healer called to me on my way through the town. If he is to do as I wish, he intimated, then he has a need for a certain commodity that he has no immediate access to. Given my propensities and experience, I'm far better suited to retrieving it than any other here, thus I turned on my heel and left again. It is better this way. It would have been cruel to see Toddir, pass along the message that Rhaug wishes him to keep an eye on me, and then leave again.
What is not better is that which is happening beyond the Trestlespan.
I'd not gone far when Taala and Eroforth came galloping after me. It seems that they had recently received some manner of signal from Rowan that his plans had come to fruition and the southern orc camps would now be on the move to the very place that I must go. They wanted me to turn back. They wanted me to wait.
I can't do that.
That which I seek is not available for much longer, if it is even still there. That which I seek is integral to my plans. If I wait a week, as they suggested, then I would need to wait another year. I can't. I can't go on like this. I need to hope that this can end, and soon!
Still, the sudden heavy movement of the orcs is an issue. I'm not good at orcs. Even were they not in such numbers, I'd have little hope against them and past tricks would be unlikely to serve me well here and now. I'll simply have to avoid them as best I can. They are most likely to stick to the road if, as designed, their target is the camp within the Norbury gates. They've no need to stray into the mists proper, which is exactly where I must tread. Still, best not to tempt fate further by resting whilst I am there. In and out. Get what I need and go, no matter how weary I am.
Oh, Rowan, why couldn't you have waited another few days? Why did you have to make my path all the more perilous? But of course, you didn't know that I would need to return to Fornost so soon. Neither did I.
One more time, I told you. Just one. This is that time. For good or ill, success or failure, I must go now.
