After talking with Elisa and Ferdinand he walked over to a shady tree, Gunther will go take a nap until they are ready to depart.

@Colapse @BloodySoulStealer @GrimFritz
Ludvig nodded in satisfaction to both, Cyntheria and Noburo.
"Your aid and servitude is most welcome. I would ask you to guard Lady Gwyneth with your lives, if necessary. A healer is most welcome especially in these times, when most know nothing else but violence. You can send greetings back to your Lord, the flowers he gave me when we last met are growing nicely and look beautiful in my garden. Go with Elusine's favor, both of you."
With that said, he leaned back heavily on his throne, seemingly tired. When Ori's snoring echoed in the room, Ludvig closed his eyes in annoyance and sighed heavily.
"At least his predecessor were more polite..."
He muttered and fell back to a sleep like state.

Shaila jerked Gwyneth's mind back to this moment when she spoke. He put on an awkward smile and hesitated a little before speaking.
"Your concern is most heartwarming." She looked at the icon in her hands. "I am praying Elusine for strength, this trip is having me worried. I've..." She leaned in closer to Shaila and whispered. "I've never been outside the city gates. I hear of terrible things happening and there are...dreams I'm having to endure..."
She held herself in silence for a moment before continuing.
"...but you needn't worry about me, noble knight, I have considerable faith in Ulrich's leadership and prowess."

The books contained knowledge of ruins she already had been to or knew of to be worthless. The history books were also limited in said information, mostly detailing expeditions to ruins already explored and plundered. Ostyakan rulers and important people of their history was the most common information. She did find a vague entry in one poem about a tower that seemingly made people fall down dead in it's vicinity. Looking at another geographic book and interpreting the old clunky writing long enough to make her head hurt, she deduced that the tower was in the same direction where their quest was.

What she did find was an entry about Yuurl. Apparently in some point in Ostyakan history, a mighty rogue knight had raised a considerable rebellious army against Ostyaka. This terrifying figure was surprisingly successful in his war, pushing back loyalist forces and gathering impressive amount of support from the common people. His grand war was brought to an end when he grew too cocky, allowing Knights Elusine to exploit an opening in his army to devastating effect. Yuurl was slain near the eastern coast of Ostyaka.

The priest was translating a tome of northern origin, mostly folk tales, poems about their history and religious figures. Nothing in particular stood out to Elisa in said writing, but a passing mention of runes inscribed on armor and weapons, describing it poorly.

After finding and noting information on both the 'Tower of Death' as Elisa had so named the tower of the poem, and the rouge knight by the name of Yuurl. Naturally, she hoped Yuurl's End was so named cause it was where he became deceased, and that that the information she found about Yuurl might help her illuminate the nature of why Ludvig needed an artefact from there, and what the artefact likely did.

However, before she departed to get herself a horse from the stables there was the small matter of the priest doing a poor job of the translation. So the Mage therefore nabbed a blank piece of paper and jotted down a better translation of the poorly written part. She then cleared her throat as she placed her version of the translation by the priest, before she put her books back and left for the stables to get a horse.

Ori rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked at the two, Easterners...them and their fucking honor he thought with venom. He didn't believe in honor, he thought it was just a stupid idea to make boys become warriors, and girls who'll spread their legs for them. You don't have to be honorable to keep an oath, you don't have to be honorable to protect the innocents, you don't have to be honorable to fight well. He knew some 'honorable' people, they mostly winded up dead, or hypocrites. He believed that honor was often than not the death of thinking. He glared at them. He grunted at what the king said, although not audible enough for the king to hear.

Shaila smiled with a nod. "I'm sure Ulrich will do a fine job. If worse comes to worse you've also got us. You can always stay close to me if you ever so desire." She thought for a moment at the mention of dreams. "Dreams, if I may, are you seeing things in your sleep? Things one normally wouldn't see?"

@Maleth
The priest looked at the note handed to her, a bit confused. Then she looked at Elisa and back at the note, then she looked at her work.
"Oh."
She said and nodded thanks, trying to better her skills at the same time while continuing to work on the translate.

@Shadhunter
"I do not really know. I've always had strange dreams, although lately they have become extremely violent." She paused a little, grimacing at the memories. "Just a lot of...death." Gwyneth was lost in her thoughts for a few seconds, worried look on her face.
"I thank you for your concern, lady Shaila, but I must prepare for the journey. Excuse me."
Gwyneth stood up, curtsied and left for her quarters to prepare.

As the hours drew short on their free time, everyone gathered at the courtyard. Those who wished to have a horse were given one for traveling. A carriage was prepared for lady Gwyneth to travel in. The cook was manning the reins for the carriage, he was a heavy set man with a lighthearted look on his face. Another Elusine knight, named Victor, was talking with Ulrich on horseback, both of their squires waiting nearby also mounted. There was also a blacksmith, packing things in the carriage and preparing his horse to join them on the road.

@Vlayden
Eventually Lady Gwyneth arrived. Ulrich's squire scrambled quickly to open the door for her and helped her step inside the carriage. As all eyes were looking somewhere else or at Gwyneth, Benjamin scuttled unnoticed under the carriage through the short foliage of the courtyard. Successfully avoiding detection, he stashed himself inside the back of the carriage as the blacksmiths back was turned. It was a cozy enough place in the midst of rations, blacksmith's tools and cooking supplies.
Finally all was set and done. Ulrich took point and so the group left.

Along the road they gathered plenty of stares. Some even ran alongside the carriage to catch Gwyneth's attention, but were quickly shooed away by Ulrich or Victor.
After a while civilization was left behind and they were alone on the road. The cook began singing travel songs, in fact he had been doing that most of the time. On occasion he spoke to the two horses pulling the carriage and even gave them new names. The young squires were busy talking with each other, mostly about their duties or which one would gain full knight status after this quest and would a dragon be able to beat a giant sea serpent.

For a moment Ulrich stopped the group by raising his hand. Cook continued singing anyway but was quickly shushed by the other knight. They were currently going through a thick forest and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, nevertheless both of the knights scanned their environment and listened, something seemed off. Flock of birds sprang to flight from a nearby tree and a fox quickly scrambled across the road and disappeared into the woods. Victor relaxed and spoke.
"Highway robbery is not unheard of in these roads. Let's hope we seem too heavily armed to be a proper target."
Victor eased Ulrich by placing a hand on his shoulder, who was still gripping the hilt of his greatsword. They exchanged stares and eventually Ulrich signaled to move again.
All in all, the forest felt wrong as they moved through it, like something was there, just on the edge of sight or hearing.

@GrimFritz @Colapse @Valonox @OgrynLord @BloodySoulStealer @TuskatheDaemonKilla

Ori looked at his retinue "Magos, Asad, Ulri to the right" he orders his retinue and then three men on horseback position themselves to the right flank. Ori looks at the others and gives them orders as well "Haigar, Junri, Moro to the left, Dyanu stick to that carriage I don't care what the knights say, her protection is paramount", three men stick to the left, and a lone one stays near the carriage, as near as it could get with the knights. A bad feeling swells up in his gut, he was confident that his retinue could handle themselves pretty well, and if they were flanked his retinue could hold them off until they form a defensive position. Ori would place himself at the head of the cavalcade, his spear on his shoulders, his face in a serious look as he looked out for trouble.

This is what he'd call paradise; sure, Benjamin the ferret knew that he certainly didn't have all the pampering and relaxation he'd have had in the castle, and certainly was small enough that practically anything out here would see him as food.
But best of all, he could have adventure and fun! Something-Something, Heroes; he'd heard in his times sneaking away on how hero adventurers usually had some sort of trusty companion, whether a man, woman, dog or even bird. Well dammit, he's going to make stories of the talking ferret happen!
And---

"Highway robbery is not unheard of in these roads. Let's hope we seem too heavily armed to be a proper target."

...Huh. Maybe this may not be the super magnificent story he'd thought after all, nibbling on what fruity rations there may be (and if not, he always stuck to the bread; it was delicious!) and... Waited.
He listened.

After everyone began to relax Urghak sniffed the air and kept pace with the group, but came alongside Ferdinand and let out a low throaty growl of disapproval. He had no need to be civilized to feel unease in such a situation. It also made him somewhat cranky that he didn't have time to cook that fox.
He kept his eyes on the trees and bushes after the interruption and made sure his club hadn't strayed too far from his hands.

Ferdinand rode near the back of the group keeping his eyes on the tree line with one hand on the reigns of his horse(which was considerably larger than the rest) and the other on the head of his mace. Banditry wasn't unheard of in the north so he knew to be on guard constantly though admittedly his helmet didn't provide the best vision. While the small slits made it difficult for someone to harm his eyes they didn't provide much in the way perepheral vision. But he wasn't one to complain about the helmet given to him by the Grandmaster as a part of the ceremony to grant him his status as a priest. He simply stayed silent and kept vigilant staying ready to repel bandits at a moment's notice.