NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sparky" data-source="post: 3985152" data-attributes="member: 13681">Oliver spends the six days getting to better know the Crownsmen and his travelling mates. Discussing points of history of the Tourne with Nurthk and the Tourneans. Religious discussions with Fendric and Hirtius, which invariably turned to spirited debates about topics ranging from fate and free will to the strange customs of a small sect of grubby humans who'd forsaken the gods of men to worship underground the gods of earth. Language lessons in both directions with Xiao and duets over the cooking fires. He played Kingsmen with Tatlock. And once saved Puck from Winkle's talons, growling at Cray, though he'd chiefly been angry that he hadn't noticed the attention Winkle had been paying to the ferret. Hunted with Raven - should the law of the land allow, that hadn't been in the book. He discusses points Arcane with Cylantro, the symbol on the relentless metal man they'd encountered, and wonders if the lads ever succeeded in laying the automaton to rest or if it still flailed mechanically as they juggled its limbs.   He wondered at the strange feeling in his bones. Like dawn breaking. A density and depth to the senses that he'd felt slipping away over the past decades. Hells. Over the past three decades. A power. A power that had shuddered through him and flowed into Cray. That he didn't fully understand, but that resonated within him.   In his mind it was linked to the travels. To his companions, to their Quest. It is a Quest, isn't it? It had been one since the beginning, though he hadn't admitted it. The Knight  Thedoric (now-dead) posing as the Knight Exantrius (long-dead)... ...Mysterious letters... ...sinister rings... ...fantastic creatures... ...constructs... what was it if not an Adventure? A Quest?  A trial. ...blazing fire, a dying girl... a dog charging a rabid bear, thrown aside, broken... ...a ransacked city... ...lightning flashing... ...wyrms with faces like men, only different, twisted... ...death......water silvered with raspberry...  He wondered if a fine house would serve as well as a fine inn were he to make the request of his hosts. Oliver stared hard at the glass before him. A brandy. Beautiful and clear in the lamplight. Sweet, brown fire. No water for him. Not tonight. He looked up and smiled at Nurthk's oration. He guffawed more lustily than he felt. And cheered more readily than was in his heart. It was hard growing old. To remember so much. Remember it, because it was gone. To feel the stealthy brush of the Gloomking's fingers on his neck.Oliver choked on an ill-swallowed sip of spirits. His eyes watered. Best to be done with this business. He coughed. And then what? Get back to...? Oh, right. To nothing. Wiping his mouth with the back of his wrist he waved off concerned looks. No. Not exactly nothing. Once again Oliver found himself choked with a well of affection for his... his friends.It wasn't so terrible to grow old with friends. The tears he wiped away weren't all from the coughing.</blockquote>

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