We sleep through the night, though everyone is now on higher alert now that we’re aware of the music. However, Celestiah’s dome keeps us safe.

We wake up and there is a chill in the air. The stagecoach driver remembers hearing the music but not that it affected them.

As we set off, we notice on the map that the forest is much closer than it is supposed to be — miles. We see that the others who are with us don’t notice this at all. There’s nothing we can really do, so we continue on.

While traveling, we make very good time. We notice contradicting wind patterns, and other strange things like birds flying back and forth between trees, and squirrels. However later, the road goes back into cobblestone. After not too long, there is a fork in the road that should not be there! We decide to go to the left, and the NPCs go to the right. Things get even more weird; deer are walking in perfect circles.

Soon we see a pillar made of marble with veins of gold in it. Celestiah believes that this might be the emotion stone of joy. We come nearer to it and it says “the first laugh of the first child” on it. There are scenes of celebration. Some of us uncontrollably smiling for several minutes due to the effects of the stone. Any fear that we were holding onto disappears. Celestiah looks through her telescope and sees that it is glowing.

Later we come upon another one that is blue and black obsidian. Another emotion stone, and this one is “sorrow”. Celestiah realizes that she doens’t know how long she has been walking. This is possibly 3 miles away from the last one. We decide to head back and meet up with the others.

They are back where we originally split up and are pretty upset — the path to the right follows the edge of the forest but never goes into it. We discuss and eventually take a vote. We decide to go left as a group.

After a long while we haven’t passed any pillars. Continuing on, we finally reach a path that goes into the forest. It is strange in here, with no animals or birds anywhere to be seen.

As we keep on walking it seems to be perpetual twilight. The sounds around us are muted and it gets colder. The trees seem to lean toward the path; it’s thicker where we are but brighter elsewhere. Some of us get very disoriented. Mist starts spiraling up from the ground in little wisps, and we hear children singing again, but this time we hear it from above. Three wolves appear, their bodies like shadow and mist rather than corporeal. They make no sound and the grass is withering as they go near it.

We prepare to fight. The other adventurers take shots at the wolves with their crossbows. One guard hits the lead sorrow wolf. There is a meaty *thunk* but the bolt passes through. The creature stumbles slightly and we can see its eyes that they are flaring with pain. It lets out a blood curdling howl.