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="the Jester" data-source="post: 2823922" data-attributes="member: 1210">“It’s a fence,” murmurs Colder softly.  He crouches and scans the ground, then frowns.  “Cow patties.”The group collectively thinks of the swamp death-cow they faced a few hours ago, shortly before they battled the dire snake.  The Dipper is the unfriendliest place any of our heroes have ever been.  Clouds of mosquitoes bring to mind the mosquito swarm they met long ago in the ruins of Castle Laagos.  Strange birds nest in ugly trees.  Green moss hangs everywhere.  Mud seems to grab at their feet when they walk, and all too often they have had to cross ankle-deep water.  The swamp death-cow almost killed Me, shooting him with a beam from its eyes.  They cannot help but wonder, here at the edge of what appears to be a small fenced-in pasture...“Does anyone want to scout it out?” Dahlia challenges.  “Kyle?”Kyle gulps.  He can never resist a dare, and this dances dangerously close to being a dare.  He takes a deep breath.  “Wait here,” he urges the others, and slides through the dimness towards the edge of the fence.  The fence is a simple wooden affair, made from the trunks of small trees and the branches of large ones.  Kyle nervously proceeds along the edge of the fence past a screen of trees- and freezes.  A swamp death-cow, chewing its cud, is less than 20’ from him.  It lifts its long neck and looks at him.  “Moo,” it says.  Its ugly warthog face is placid.Kyle swallows through a constricted throat and glances behind it.  His face goes white.  There is a herd of death-cows behind the one.  Dozens of them.  One of them trots towards him as he begins to slink away.  Kyle freezes again as it comes up to the edge of the fence.  “Moo,” it says.“Nice death-cow,” Kyle quivers.  He is terrified- these things can kill with a look! The thing looks at him, all right- and more of them are starting to trot over or look in his direction as well.  But no rays shoot out, stopping his heart or turning him to ash or- or whatever other terrible death they inflict.  Kyle reaches out and tremulously pats the closest death-cow on the head.  “Nice death-cow, easy there,” he murmurs, and slowly backs away.“Mooo,” the death-cow comments. Kyle escapes behind the screen of trees and returns to the others.“What did you see?” demands Goer.  “Was there a death-cow?”“You could say that,” Kyle replies, taking a deep breath.  He wipes his brow.  “There’s a whole herd of them back there!  There must be dozens of them!”“Did they see you?” asks Colder.  The lapidary nods.  “We might be able to sneak past them,” he comments.  “And I think I saw a cabin on the other side of the pasture.”“You mean someone lives there?”  Dahlia is intrigued.  If they think I’m a hermit, she thinks wryly, I’m sure this person will give them a whole new perspective!“Should be check it out?” wonders Colder.“It seems like a waste of time,” Goer states.  “And does it help us against the Tydonians?”“It might,” replies Otis.  “If we could rest here safely, we would have a formidable barrier against attack.”The party ponders this for only a few minutes and then decides that they ought to find out what they can about this place.  Moving quietly and speaking softly, they move around the fence.  The swamp death-cows watch them with dull interest, a few of them mooing out their observations.  When they reach the cabin, our heroes realize that it is very small in size- in fact, it is sized for a very small person.  And indeed, a small person turns out to dwell within: a swamp gnome.  ***Meanwhile, Sheriff Jorgen approaches Whitewater.  He is as grim as he has ever been, and it takes most of his self-control to maintain his hold on his anger. Only a few days ago, Jorgen and his companions had found his sister Reedia captive in the dungeon in which a succubus had held Cara.  His sister had been held by the succubus only for a few weeks, however, and she had run away five years before.  For almost that entire time, she had been secretly held prisoner and tormented in the home of one of Whitewater’s residents, a man named Dalgen.Dalgen, thinks Jorgen grimly.  Dalgen is a relative newcomer in town- in fact, he is one of Whitewater’s newest residents, having only lived there a decade.  He had always kept to himself, building a high fence and growing thick gardens to guard his privacy.  In truth, Jorgen doesn’t know much about him.  Well, I’ll find out soon enough, he vows. When he reaches Whitewater, he first sets out to find one of his deputies, Valkor Smith (one of Goer’s brothers).  He fought well when the Tydonian probe came, thinks the sheriff.  He’ll be helpful now, just in case Dalgen resists.Valkor collected, Jorgen walks through the village to Dalgen’s house.  He knocks and waits for an answer, his face frozen in an expressionless mask.  The door opens after a moment, and Dalgen stands there before the two of them.  “Sheriff Jorgen, what a pleasant surprise,” he says.  “What can I do for you?”“I’m placing you under arrest for holding my sister,” Jorgen begins.Dalgen’s hand is a blur, and Jorgen gasps as a dagger sticks in his throat, almost severing his artery.  He can feel the burn of poison in his neck.  Jorgen is shocked, but not too shocked to reply in kind.  He swings his sword, connecting, but Dalgen twists away from the worst of it.  Valkor draws out his own sword, but only cuts himself when he fumbles it nearly out of his grasp.  Dalgen drifts lithely away from the two of them, another dagger slipping into his hand, and he strikes a ready pose.  Jorgen draws forth a lasso and begins to twirl it.  Valkor darts forward, and Jorgen throws the lasso at the same moment.  Dalgen leaps through the loop of the rope and slashes at Valkor, but the deputy dodges to the side and stabs Dalgen in the shoulder!  It is a solid blow, knocking the villain to the ground.  He cries out in surprise, rolling to dodge the lasso again and tumbling away.  Almost instantly he regains his feet.Jorgen lets the lass drop into his left hand only and charges, hacking with his sword.  The anger he feels is plain on his face now.  His blow strikes Dalgen on the arm and disarms him as well.  Dalgen hisses in pain and tumbles away again, into his garden.  He whips out another dagger, but is forced to back away as Valkor engages him in a series of strikes.  He feints and then slices out, cutting Valkor’s throat.  With a bloody gurgle, Goer’s brother falls.  Jorgen gets another stab in at the rogue before him and glances at Valkor’s inert body.  Dalgen smiles threateningly.  He feints, taking Jorgen off-guard, and stabs him in the kidney.  The sheriff groans, barely standing.  Dalgen exudes confidence, but he is bleeding from several reasonably severe wounds.  Gritting his teeth, Sheriff Jorgen makes one last mighty effort and stabs at Dalgen.  The reprobate twists away, but not quickly enough!  The tip of Jorgen’s sword thrusts into his side, slicing between ribs and tearing through organs.  With a groan Dalgen collapses.Panting, Jorgen hurries to bind Valkor’s wounds.  The deputy is still alive, though barely.  Then he turns to Dalgen and checks him out.  “He’s still alive,” Jorgen gasps, catching his breath.  “I could let him die- he tormented my sister- but I have a responsibility.”  Grinding his teeth, Jorgen binds the miscreant’s wounds.  “I’m the sheriff,” he tells himself.  “I have to bring him to justice.”  His eyes are hard.  “And besides, I need to question him.”Next Time: Our heroes meet the keeper of the death-cows!  Plus: at last- the secret of the Tydonian advance!!</blockquote>

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