The fourth day is a stark contrast to the previous three, making the relative hardships seem like pleasant memories. The incline is steep, and the extra exertion is burning through supplies at a faster rate than previously. Keranos has little success in tending to the spiritual needs of the men, but is successful in keeping them well supplied in water. It's appreciated, but one does not ascend a mountain on water alone.
Thosar and Galen attempt to garner some sort of intelligence that will allow the march a greater margin for error, but are stymied. Thosar is able to recall a surprising amount of detail about traffic across the mountain range, but it has historically been limited to parties of no more than 50, attempted mostly during summer, and usually undertaken with the benefit of wheeled conveyance. To say the march does not meet these parameter is an understatement. Undertaking the power of flight from Thosar's magic, Galen soars into the air in search of easier traversal through the path, but is stymied. Unless Thosar has the ability to cast mass polymorph to turn them all into mountain goats, the way forward is singular and unvarying, a tributary of humanity winding through the mountains.
Speaking of mountain goats, Sagishi gets enough of a whiff of their passing to know that they are long, long gone from the area, having moved on to… wherever the hell mountain goats go. How should he know? He's not some sort of… animal… stuff… knowing guy. His nose is fine, shut up!
Fhiess has a bit more success, and finds a bland mushroom that lives in shaded underhangs and crags of rocks, and soon the walls and rocks of the narrow pass are scoured clean of the stuff, but the fight to keep everyone fed is a one of attrition. Ludwig, meanwhile, seems to keep spirits up by stoking the fires of rage against the machine. Surely nothing ill can come of people being educated on their fundamental, inalienable rights. Right?
The hardship is, obviously, not a comfortable state to be in, but it seems sustainable. The fact that there is a finite end to the exodus helps things immensely. They just might make it.
This optimism is wiped away early the following morning, before the sun has even had a chance to clear the mountains on either side of them, leaving them in frosty shadows. A rockslide tumbles down the wall in a deafening cannonade, drowning out the screams of the men trapped beneath the stones. No fewer than 50 are lost, and scores more are injured.
((If you want to take the time to clear the rockslide, it will take the day unless you have some magical means of doing away with it in a relatively short period of time. Also, point of clarification, is Keranos creating water or purifying it?))
((Day 5
Supplies: 7
Morale: 6
Population: 1700))