Over the next few minutes Skulda summons enough mounts for the entire party, and you make use of the remaining daylight, galloping* for nearly an hour. The sun falls below the horizon, and the twilight of dusk seems to enhance the green glow of Skulda's left eye. About five minutes after the sun sinks below the southwestern horizon, you see a farm with several familiar wagons circled in the yard. The workers hobbling the horses for the night wear a look of surprise at seeing you arrive through the opening in the low turf wall separating the farm from the road, and one stops what he is doing and hurries over to the longhouse. Ospak emerges a few moments later, a broad smile lighting on his face, and his arms held up wide in happy amazement before he claps his hands together. "We had given you up for dead! I'm happy to see that we were wrong. When you did not return we feared the worst, and the few men I sent to check the next morning, well, they said they only found a cave filled with troll corpses..."
"We pushed ourselves hard each day, traveling as fast and far as we possibly could; losing you like that was a bad omen. Though it seems you've returned just in time to strengthen everyone else' spines. This farm is disturbing; it seems abandoned. We've not seen anyone since we arrived, and the hearth was cold. There are no farm animals around either," he says as he glances around the trees and fields that surround the house.
*hustling at 120 feet per round.