Moonglow Cave: discoveries and dialogue

For convenience, here are the clarifications I provided after the session over email.

• It does seem possible that stirges (or similar creatures) could have killed the druid. Though the cave bears no immediate signs of being occupied, you find droppings similar to those of birds fairly littering the floor. Stirges (as Rould explains it) tend to move from place to place as food supplies are exhausted. Upon closer examination, Damyca's dead skin looks patchy and discolored - perhaps residual stains from bloodletting? If she was attacked in such a way, she was likely taken completely by surprise.
• It stands to reason, too, that the claw marks on the walls could have been made by the same "cave bear" that attacked the party in the forest, perhaps having been previously driven out by stirges, other enemies, or even Damyca(?). The "cats on furniture" hypothesis seems to fit the nature of the scratch marks.
• No other tracks are apparent, to Rould or anyone else. The area around the cave mouth is rocky and dry, ill-suited for leaving footprints and the like.
• The runes aren't so many, and Zeb can certainly begin scrawling them onto parchment, if he's willing to take some time before the party leaves.

There also were questions posed to Tussugar about the origin of his ring, along with a request to search Damyca's corpse...

• The dwarf has a stubborn air about him when questioned about the ring, but this seems more rooted in his own pride than a result of magical influence. He remembers not (or declines to say) the name of the man he acquired it from; the piece was unique, dwarvish in make, and he suspected (but had no way of proving) that it harbored some form of protective enchantment. In fact, he hadn't donned it at all until the morning of the group's departure. The ring was supposedly recovered amid a lot of plundered treasure from an abandoned mine.
• The trader was traveling with a larger mercantile company from Mirabar, which was following a similar route along the River Mirar, around midsummer. He remembers the group, given that few travelers pass through the village even during the height of trade season, but knows (or admits) little else.
• Damyca's body seems barren of anything useful. A nomadic druid, she carried a staff, a few basic provisions, and lacked anything magical (unless such valuables have already been plundered).

Feel free to post comments to this thread with any additional questions.