Zoom 2022-11-22 21:00

In the aftermath of the attack by the Lizardmen, the party heals up and 'deals' with the remaining bodies. Only those Lizardmen that were beheaded produced Shadows - but the others are slowly regenerating. We deal with by them by washing with Holy Water to remove the tattoos, and then beheading them. (We feel that burning the bodies would be just as effective). There were 8 standard 'infantry' Lizardmen, two mage-like Lizardmen that got away, and their main Cleric who is now a pile of ash (with nothing 'interesting' left behind, according to Caradoc.)
While we are casting spells, we notice the sound of 'tromping' coming from the south towards us - as if an army were approaching. As soon as we can, we get going again on the road Northwards, hoping to outpace the army. Hamish volunteers to (invisibly) run back to check on what kind of army is approaching, and then get back to us using super-speed if necessary. After half an hour, Hamish reports back that he saw an advance line of Lizardmen scouts armed with javelins, and behind them a screen of Lizardmen mounted on wolves (the wolves are similar to ones we saw the Orcs using - ie natural animals.) This was enough to convince Hamish that the army wasn't going to be friends with us.
Although we appear to be outpacing the army, we reckon that they can probably march for longer than we can (ie using rotas of speed-boosters etc), so we feel it is time to leave the road, and take the next track heading East. However, after a while we notice that there are Lizardmen footprints on this track, so we leave the track and head NorthEast. Caradoc notices a smell of blood wafting from the main road - and goes off to investigate, reporting on his return of a large stack of bodies (mainly travellers/refugees from the road, including some Elves). Could be ritual sacrifice, a source of zombies, or more probably just food for the troops.
We are passing through the farmlands around Yorkglum and after a while approach a farmstead. We investigate, and find it to be empty of farmers and livestock - but left in a neat and tidy manner with valuable items removed. We therefore assume there has been an orderly evacuation of the farm. We carry on, and finding the next farmhouse in a similar condition, we decide this is as good a place to camp down as any other (it is quite dark by this time.) We ensure there are no lights or fires, and try to make the outside of the farmhouse look undisturbed. (Note: Party must decide what it should do with its very nice horse!)
We organise watches more-or-less as usual, except that Quercius has suddenly developed the ability (indeed, the urge) to shape-change into natural animals, and so finds out what it is like to be an owl. During second watch, Tooit wakes up Twoo to report 3 humanoids (with tails) are approaching the first farmhouse that we visited. They burst through the front door, and emerge a short while later, and start moving roughly towards us. The rest of the party is woken up (only enough sleep to regain 1st level spells) and we prepare to ambush the 3 Lizardmen if they come to us - as their modus operandi is to kick down the front door, we reckon it would be a nice surprise if Umar were to kick the door outwards into their faces first. However, the Lizardmen actually go off to another farmhouse, giving us a little more time to prepare.