Previously on Reclaiming Orathos

The sewer's behind us — now we turn for the wall. One last morning in Gwyndinas: Magra gets her five arena gems identified, Silithane fences a hoard of firecrackers and scores a free mimicking crow, and we sit down to butterscotch ice cream with old Sir Eldrich himself. The Shard deal is sealed, he offers to hunt down our missing mothers — and drops a bombshell: he's leaving the city, leading a caravan beyond the Palisade. Then the gut-punch: the dead man at the lab was a Varian, which means Varia knows about our doctor. Eldrich bolts to extract him.

We say goodbye to Draak, gear up, and haul our own land boat out the gate — past New Neaton, past the great mill — into Keraford's adventurer chaos. Lash buys and tames a smuggled river salamander, Squishy, to pull the cart. We link up with the caravan and cross into scorched Laewendas country... and on a stone bridge, crossbows snap up. Bandit lord Mindel Cromelon steps out: "Drop everything, or we'll skin you alive."

We're pinned. What do we do?

SUMMARY: Wrote a 197-word present-tense Session 21 recap (Gwyndinas errands → Eldrich's ice-cream lunch and Varian alarm → the road out and Squishy → the bridge ambush cliffhanger) to Recaps\Session 21 recap.md.