Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 7339046" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 122“A map?” Glori asked. “Of what?”“The valley,” Rodan said.  “The Silverpeak.”They all looked at the ranger, whose expression had gone from confusion to sudden realization.  “I couldn’t see it before, not until you pointed it out,” he said.  “But now… these lines, they align to the terrain features of the valley and the surrounding mountains.”“Lines of power,” Quellan said.“I remember my mentor saying something about those,” Glori said.  “Ley lines or something like that.”“Yes,” Quellan said.  “Magic is not a universal constant in the world.  It gathers and concentrates in alignment to natural rules that even the most advanced scholars do not fully understand.”“Then how do you know they are rules?” Rodan asked.“A debate for another time, perhaps,” Glori said.  “And maybe someplace a bit less public.”  She cast a meaningful look about the inn, though there was nobody sitting within ten paces of their table.Bredan had been studying the map, and while the others talked his finger traveled along the network of lines before settling on a spot along the edge of the sheet of parchment.  He turned the sheet so that the point was facing him.  “Here,” he said.  “This is where we’ll find it.”Glori studied the map.  Many of the lines came together at the point that Bredan had indicated, but it wasn’t the only such place of intersection indicated.  “Find what?” she asked.“Answers.  Why we’re here.  Why we’re all here.”“We’re here because we were sent here,” Glori said.  “Because of the war.”“That’s not the only reason,” Bredan said.“How do you know that this point in particular is significant?” Glori asked.“I just know,” Bredan said stubbornly.“Ah…” Rodan said.  “Bredan, I mean no offense, but you’re starting to sound a bit like the man who wrote in that book.”“That’s not fair,” Quellan said.  “What’s happening to Bredan is real.  We all saw it.  If the phenomenon that granted him magical powers is also giving him insight into this design, then this could make all sense, just in a way that we can’t see from our current perspective.”“Yeah, or you could be going nuts,” Glori said, clasping a hand on Bredan’s shoulder.“Something’s happening to me,” Bredan said.  “Maybe I am going crazy.  But I need to know what it is.”“If this drawing is a representation of the valley,” Rodan said, “Than this point is at the far end of the valley, near its southernmost point.  That’s far from any settlements.  Dangerous ground.”“We’ll manage,” Quellan said.  “We’ve faced danger in unfriendly lands before.”“I saw what you can do,” Rodan said.  “But you don’t know the Silverpeak like I do.  I can show you.  I’ve never been to this specific spot, but I know the valley better than anyone.”“You won’t be showing anyone anything,” a voice from the front of the inn declaimed loudly.They all turned to watch as Kosk strode boldly into the common room.  The dwarf’s face was a brewing storm.  His dramatic entrance drew the attention of everyone in the inn, but on seeing his expression most of them turned back to their drinks.Rodan retreated a step before that look of accusation.  Kosk came to a stop just shy of the step that led up into the nook, perhaps not coincidentally placing him in a good position to block any attempt by the ranger to escape in that direction.Glori stepped back from the table as well, her eyes flicking back and forth between them.  “Why not?” she asked.“Because he’s been lying to us,” Kosk said.  “He’s an assassin.”Quellan looked at Rodan.  “Is that true?”The ranger retreated another step, but he shook his head.  “I’m no saint,” he said.  “But I’m not a killer.”Bredan rose from the table, his bench scraping back loudly.  “He fought with us,” he said.  “He risked his life to save others.  I hope you’ve got some proof, Kosk.”“Did you hear something from one of the locals?” Glori asked.  “How do you know Rodan’s an assassin?”In the heat of the confrontation none of them noticed when the side door opened and a slender figure stepped into the inn.  But when she closed the door behind her she shot the bolt loudly, causing those at the table to start in surprise.“I know because I was there,” Xeeta said.  She reached up and drew back her cowl, revealing the deep red tint of her skin and the curved horns of her tiefling ancestry.  “I know, because I was one of them.”They all looked to Rodan, who looked as though he’d been stabbed in the gut.  “Xeeta,” he said.  “You’re alive.”“Yes,” she said.  “No thanks to you, cousin.”The ranger had taken another step back, until the rack of barrels was behind him.  He looked almost like a cornered animal, and as his eyes flicked between Kosk and Xeeta, gauging his chances for escape, Bredan stepped forward.  “Don’t,” he said.  “I don’t know what all this is about, but we can work it out, Rodan.”“Show them,” Xeeta said.  “Show them, or I will do it myself.”With one last look, this time across the common room to the townsfolk who were watching the confrontation with wide eyes, Rodan nodded and lifted his hand to the amulet he wore.  With a subtle twitch of his fingers the chain came apart.  As the amulet fell clear his features wavered and shifted, until they were replaced by something else.The basic outline of his face hadn’t changed; he was still recognizable as the man they’d known.  But the ranger’s skin was now a dusky red, the color of pomegranate seeds.  His eyes were solid orbs of shimmering silver, and his hairline retreated a bit to make room for two ridged horns that jutted up from his temples like spikes.  He looked at them with a grim expression as Quellan and Bredan’s hands reached reflexively for the hilts of their weapons.“He’s a tiefling,” Glori said.</blockquote>

Verification