"Wait." Bellamie catches Gaerred's shoulder, pulling the line to a momentary halt. Elamien turns to glare at him, but sees his face turned towards the skies. Looking up, the party sees what he has seen - a cloud bank creeping towards the bright moon. Bellamie looks back to the others, murmuring "The darkness here may hold dangers, but at least it will help us move unseen. If we are quick."
As the clouds slowly cover the moon, the valley darkens... but not as it should. The light does not fade - instead, the shadows seem to grow and deepen, until every stone, hill, and tree casts waves of impenetrable blackness across a still-dimly-lit landscape, turning a quiet rolling valley into a nightmare of half-imagined shapes and pits. The air becomes heavy and thick, difficult to breath, and even the sounds of the river and the heroes' passage seem muted and swallowed.
Finally, Elamien takes a deep breath and nods, stepping forward with great care. The heroes begin to slowly pick their way through the now-unfriendly landscape, carefully watching the ground to avoid missteps... and perhaps to avoid gazing around them into the beckoning darkness.
