Cat Herding [actual play]

So in the regular game the party is on the road trying to distance themselves from recent exploits. The party currently ranges from 2nd to 7th level (1-2nd,1-3rd, 2-6th and a 7th who is the only original character for the campaign to survive from the 1st session) they are down to less then 2 grand in gold between themselves and for magic items they have a few healing potions, a scroll they forgot about, a manual of grim magic, a ring of vanishing, a talisman from a witch and a fireball wand (they've been doing a great job of avoiding treasure).

In a small roadside town they notice the barmaid talking with a curious small cloaked figure with odd feet, they note the critter and pay the serving girl for a little information, she offered little and disappeared after that.
That night an unknown assassin plops a greyooze into one of the rooms they are renting in the inn. They destroyed the ooze and followed the tracks outside briefly and went back to bed. In the morning they decided to not follow up on the attack.
On the way out of town they follow the road and come to an oddly narrow portion with a steep hill to one side and a pond the other where they are ambushed by kobolds who pelt them with darts but flee the counter assault. The PCs move down the curious road coming to a washed out bridge realizing they were led astray by an illusion they find their way back to the royal highway.
(They had no desire to pursue the kobolds into their tunnels or figure out who whipped up the illusion)

The next large town they hire some boats to move them downriver faster then they can go on foot before moving down the road again at the next good sized town. They discover a patch of wall built from old stones from a ruin that has an inscription upon it...they found a functional magic gate to Fomorgard and they used it .... so much for weeks of travel to the capital.
(Fomorgard is the not the capital it's a fortress occupied by giant high up on a mountain as far as they know)