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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 4793964" data-attributes="member: 3285">Chaugnar Faugn: Part 4a – Toward DrakmarThe initial passage from the monastery was as difficult as the day before.  For three hours they were forced to scramble up the same steep scree-covered slope.  The world was monochrome: blacks, grays, and whites.At the end of the morning they crested the ridge.  The valley was steep-sided and as bone dry as a baked furrow in a midsummer field.  It climbed steeply to the east.  The wind hurtled ferociously, mindlessly down it. Sebastian landed.  “No way I can fly up this. The winds are strong enough to dash me against the rocks.”They spent the remaining five hours of daylight climbing the valley, traveling east away from the river and further into the mountains.  The walking was arduous in the thin air and the howling wind, and conversation was difficult. As it got dark they were forced to camp in the open.  Fortunately, they had picked up supplies from the monastery.  They were woefully unequipped for the cold weather after being boiled by the stifling heat of Nyambe. Vlad peeked his head out of their tent.  Kham was already up, staring out at the landscape.“It’s like we’re the only people left on Arcanis,” he said to Vlad without looking at him. There was no mark of man, although the eye could see for many, many miles from the top of the ridge.  There was frost on the rocks, ice in the crevasses.  As they struggle upward the valley became steeper, its sides rising up a hundred feet or more.  They walked on and on, monotonous hours in the shriek of the wind.  Snow stung their faces. Only Beldin showed no signs of discomfort.Then, at midday…something.It was an effect that dwarfed all they had seen before.  Up ahead, the entire north side of the valley was colored.  The dull, baked orange color stretched right to the high cliff tops, maybe two hundred feet, and ran for about half a mile.  Piercing the cliff were scores of cave openings and spread across the valley floor underneath the ruins were chortens, laying where they fell amidst vivid splashes of the same ochre color. “Can you hear that?” asked Kham.“Hear what?” asked Vlad.“It’s like…like dim thunder. It comes every minute for two and persist for a few seconds, like a heartbeat.”“I don’t hear anything.”Beldin pointed.  “You may want to take a look at this.”They discovered a fire-scorched area.  Close by was a broad, flat rock marked with a brown stain.Sebastian kneeled down for a closer look. “It’s blood.”</blockquote>

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