No, you sleep through the night.

You wake up the next morning to the sounds of Brighid donning her armor again. It may be surprisingly quiet while being worn, but getting it on sounds rather like a bunch of tin cans rolling down a staircase. A long, long staircase. At first you cover your head with your arms, trying to drown out the noise, but as it continues and you awaken further you realize that if you don't get up on your own Brighid will probably kick you until you do. You roll over with a groan, stretch, and begin putting on your own armor. You have to admit, while it clearly doesn't offer the same protection as the centaur's equipment, you really appreciate being able to get in and out of it in just a couple of minutes.

Once you are both up and re-armored, Brighid cancels her two spells on the cave and leads you back onto the trail. Your legs and back are still a little sore from the long hike the day before, but you know better than to complain. You're certain that Brighid would have no sympathy for you, and you know that you'll need to get in shape in this world without planes, cars, or even elevators; might as well start now.

The rest of the day follows a similar routine as the latter half of the previous day. Brighid leads you on a path towards the north-northeast, following the low valleys between hills and sticking with the mist as much as possible. On the way, she begins to explain to you exactly what it is you have been directed to do.

The ruins of Brannagh Macht lie just past the edge of Starchaser territory. Once, long in the past, Brannagh Macht was a centaur city, the cultural nexus of the region, and a neutral ground where all of the nearby peoples could meet in safety to trade, talk, and mingle. To hear Brighid tell it, it was a great place to live and a wonderful time to live in. However, something happened, no one is sure exactly what, and Brannagh Macht was destroyed; the tribes outside the city lost contact and, when they went to investigate, found nothing but aged-looking ruins with no sign of the former inhabitants. Since then, it has been regarded as a cursed place, everyone too scared of what might be to investigate what had actually happened. For centuries the city lay abandoned. Recently, though, within the last decade or two, evil monsters have been spotted and fought on the north end of the Starchaser territory, and eventually their source was traced back to Brannagh Macht.

The first party of centaurs sent into the city to investigate did not vanish, as the tropes would have you expect; they came back out as zombies and attacked the main village. Since then, the Council have refused to send any more troops inside the city and instead Ailis and the other village mages set up a huge series of wards around the city, which they maintain to this day. Knowing as little as you do about magic, that seems like a monumental task which must be a massive detriment to their ability to provide magic for the village, and Brighid confirms when you ask her. Ailis has been unable to bless the village's crops since the wards went up, and the Starchasers have to rely more and more on hunting, which is depleting the local wildlife. They actually already moved their main village once, two years ago.

Brighid hands you a small silver talisman on a leather cord, which she says will let you pass through the wards without breaking them; she has another for herself. She doesn't know exactly what you will face inside the city, but she is certain that there is at least one necromancer; there must have been, to raise the soldiers as zombies. Her speculation given the kind of monsters which attacked before the wards went up is that a group of what she calls 'twisted fae' entered the city and found something powerful within. Apparently while most fae are normally either benevolent or at least did not care about things outside of their own lands, occasionally something would happen to corrupt them and make them into cruel mockeries of their former selves. Such twisted fae often use their natural magic in perverse ways, such as causing thorny vines to grow over, into, and through the bodies of their victims and controlling them like twisted marionettes by moving the vines; some of the monsters had been similar 'briar zombies'. Others had been corrupted versions of normally benign or virtuous beasts, like black unicorns with hooves wreathed in flames which absorbed light. None of the monsters had been immensely powerful, as the corruption leeched much of their strength, but Brighid tells you that she worries what may be in the city after being left alone for so long. Thankfully, most of the creatures she describes to you she also tells you are weak to fire -- plants and desiccated corpses both taking at least double damage from the element.

Halfway through the second day of travel, you are greeted with a welcome prompt.

Congratulations! You have reached level 1 in Light Armor. You are now Unskilled in Light Armor.

You immediately stop and adjust the fit of your armor then breathe a sigh of relief. While not very heavy, the stiff plates of leather had been rubbing you raw in a number of places even through your padded clothes, and just level 1 in the Skill seems to have let you fix that entirely. Thinking about your new Skill makes you realize with a start that you haven't spent your Skill bonus from your level. After quickly checking how much time remains -- a little over 30 hours, so you must have leveled upon reaching Starchaser Village and thus level 2 required between 201 and 500 experience -- you ask Brighid whether she would be willing to stop your travels a little early today and tech you how to use your spear.