Step 2

First crisis: Wilder warlord who claims Ariel bond. Her take on the situation is best summed up by her first words to Sir Christopher: "Better your whore than his queen". With the hunting part's men leaving, it's harvest time, Aluric tracks the group
Ariel plays head games on Sir Fredrick, play off his greed and envy to move the group to the Italian Alps.

Second crisis:After an increasingly harrowing chase they find sanctuary in a monastery. Things get tense when a monk realizes Ariel is a real deal pagan the sort the Pope wants for his Dark Army. The friction is growing between Christopher and Fredrick grows. even as they hunt,

Third crisis: Fredrick's Betrayal of Christopher. Fredrick leaves Christopher to die on a hunt and kidnaps Ariel to Rome when he expects wealth nd status. Surrounded on all sides by enemies he tracks his only ally in the world to put a blade between his ribs.

Resolution: The force all converge at an isolates Abby in the Italian Alps, a clearing house for the real pagans the Pope wants. The twist is that is where Ariel sister is. and she all these people here to spring her sister, and as many of the prisoners as she can.

I need to woork out a timeline for th encroaching Winter and some of the geography.