19 Corn 3355 - Daybreak
Vicinity
The players made their way to an abandoned farmhouse for shelter (abandoned because of Crystal Forest encroachment.) They will be woken by whoever is taking the dawn watch, presumably, who will see a pony, Motif Index, approaching. Lord Index and his Vampire-Breezie Companion, Fairy Tail. If the party doesn't hail him as he flies over the trail, he will probably take the initiative.
Motif will introduce himself as a professor, and may if it comes up volunteer his backstory (not including the part about making a deal with Risen Bones - he will claim the breezie is resurrected, rather than undead, even though such magic is vanishingly rare.) It's two days roughly from the crash site to Fort Junechase, after which there are safe and well-maintained roads, although no transportation. He has heard that the Mound area is unsafe to pass at night from another traveler, a mendicant monk (a disguise, not a real monk) and that they should stay at a certain inn in the suburban ruins (it's the ruins of a mall). Actually, this is a den of thieves and bandits preying on Hackmore Parish and the "monk" was one of them, headed to Crystal Cliffs (to convert those horrible pirates) was one of their number.
Motif's magnum opus: A Legendarium of the Isle of Yore in the Early Postcatastrophic Era.
LAUGHTER LEGEND Related to a pony who used an empty cauldron to perform stage magic in a time of famine. Note that the legend does not call the cauldron a cauldron by name.
Professor Index clears his throat and begins to tell a story: Long, long ago, there was a terrible drought. The crops failed, and ponies went hungry. One mare was so frustrated with her inability to get any food to put in the big cooking pot hanging over the fireplace that she threw the pot out the door. The flying pot almost hit a wandering minstrel, who was down on her luck since she had traded her instrument for a meal the week before.
MI: "Why'd you throw that pot at me?!" she shouted.
MI (as householder) Because what use is it having a big pot like that these days!
MI (as minstrel): Well, then, do you mind if I take it? MI: Now, of course, the clever bard already had an idea --
Fairy Tail: Ooh! I remember this one! It's the one where they eat the minstrels, aye?
MI: Wha -- no, that's not even an ancient legend.