Choice Results at the bottom of the page. Goodluck!

Rage burning brighter still, he searched the clearing for more signs of Lytan's monsters, found trees with the same odd claw marks, and took off down a path into a shallow valley. The trees more sparsely populated below had dozens of wild deer that looked up at him with big brown eyes before they pranced away. The knee-high grass he stepped on, itched his skin as he moved forward, his eyes still on the scratches that adorned each of the trees when the trail sputtered off in a hundred different directions.

Certain that he was near the lair now, he drew his sword from its sheath and inched his way forward, head on a constant swivel as he tried to watch the trees when he spotted an entrance dug into the ground like a burrow, only for something much larger. The huge gaping hole that had been dug into a hillside, overtopped by a single gargantuan tree with thick roots that spread out across the top. Its pale yellow leaves buffeted in the breeze, strangely beautiful as Gregor gazed up trying to see how far it went. The remembered stories of the Hearth trees in Tarstone, hard to compare to this great monolith.

Choice 2. Search for another opening?

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Footsteps slowed as he neared the entrance, Gregor turned away at the last second, a part of him unsure if it would be wise to simply walk into a monster den. The evidence that he had seen behind him, enough for him to decide to circle the hilltop instead, and search for another way inside.

Shaded by the great tree's overarching branches, he made a quick deviation, and scoured the area, the thick layer of white frost, revealing nothing but moldy old bones.

With no other way that he could see below, he climbed up towards the tree itself and felt his skin tingle as he neared the base of the tree trunk. The shallow opening in its side, small, and not wide enough to fit him as he tried to look inside, and thought he heard voices as well as wolves. Only no wolves that he knew of could make sounds like that, a mix of whimpers, and cries of ecstasy.

With nothing else to learn here, he went back down and scratched his chin as he wondered what it could be. (Go back and select a different option.)

+1 Morale.

Choice 1. Smoke out whatever's inside?

Choice 3. Try and sneak in?