Re: 8: The Secret of Old Owl Well
After leaving the village of Phandalin, Alecks had a surprisingly uneventful journey to the Old Owl Well. In spite of the roads not being used much in decades, they are still in pretty good condition... easily discernible, which makes following the map he got in the village very easy.
Even the trail that led off of the Tri-Boar Trail towards the Old Owl Well was easy to find, though as he turned onto it, it occurred to him that it showed signs of more recent use.
Turned out that Old Owl Well wasn't quite what he'd been expecting. Yes, there was an old well there, but there were also the crumbled ruins of an old keep. He couldn't be sure that it had been used recently, but scuff marks in the dirt seemed to indicate that.
It was definitely in the shadow of Wyvern Tor... a tall angular spire of a mountain amid the surrounding hills and other low mountains.
It was while he was standing there considering where to go next that he caught the scent of death. It didn't take too much effort to determine that it was coming from farther up the trail, which narrowed to a footpath that winds around the left side of the mountain.
Hoping it wasn't from the people he was looking for, Alecks cautiously proceeded up the footpath. Just around the bend, he found the source of the smell--several dozen dead Orcs scattered across the footpath and the wider edges. He doesn't see anyone that isn't an Orc.
Continuing up the path, he finds more dead Orcs, but still no sign of real people. Continuing on, he comes across what was some sort of campsite, presumably for all the dead Orcs there and here. And six caves that probably housed some Orcs as well.