Keep walking through the night through the trees
From Create Your Own Story
You are young and strong, and there will be plenty of nights later in your journey where you can catch up on sleep in a real bed. A quest such as yours requires endurance. You will suffer for it physically, of course. The stars come out one by one above you, writing out the names of the Spirits, including your own. As you walk, you think of the Codpiece. It calls you onwards already, even though you have never seen it. It is as if it knows your name and is waiting for you, deep in the Fortress of Ganbang.
The second day of your journey begins in the morning cool. You feel the presence of your Spirit close nearby. Its form has changed since you left Analland, just as you have changed, but it is still beside you. You can feel yourself getting accustomed to the fetid air of these hills. You have now ascended several hundred feet and can expect to make excellent progress before the end of the day.
As you crest the brow of a hill, you see something that makes you stop in your tracks. To your left is a clearing and in the clearing are several poles, planted firmly in the ground. And atop each pole is a head.
The heads are of all kinds and ages. Some are recently fixed while others have decayed and some are nothing but skulls and hair. There are human heads, Goblin heads, and one or two heads of creatures you do not recognise. All have sewn-up eyes and mouths.
A large X painted on a rock nearby is obviously intended as a warning not to venture any further. But ahead the road forks, left and right, and you cannot be sure which path you are warned not to take! The right-hand path continues to climb, and the left-hand path winds down the side of the hill.
Do you:
