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!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Beale Knight" data-source="post: 2232235" data-attributes="member: 7033">7-03 The tunnel, the reading, and the desert battleThe three humans and two elves stepped out of the cave and back onto the mountain trail. “So what now then?” Kane asked.Bessie spoke up. “We’ve been over the bridge that gave way to valley fair, or valley of fair, whichever it was. But it had the green and tall pines and sodden wet air,” she said, paraphrasing the dwarven poem. “We’ve gone from there to the steppes that rise this way and that, and are going toward the top. So at some point we’ll come to a way to follow the bats.” “We’re taking travel directions from dwarves,” Kane said with a sneer. Dumb Bear looked at the other elf quizzically and Kane repeated his comment in elven. The bigger elf just shrugged.“It’s worked very well for us so far,” Aneirin said. “Accurate if flowery.” “I think this is it,” Ren said. He pointed to a cluster of bats hanging on an outcropping near what he’d thought was the back of the cave. “The cave turns here, but keeps going. And if I remember it right, the trail led right here and doesn’t carry on past the cave.”Kane double checked the trail and confirmed Ren’s suspicion. With that settled, the party brought their torches out to where they’d be handy, lit two, and began making their way down the cave. “All that dickering about it last week and here we are traveling underground anyway,” Bessie muttered.Aneirin nodded and smiled. “It seems to be straightforward enough though. And we’re too high in the mountains to get lost beneath them.”Ren had one of two torches in hand as he scouted a little ways ahead of the others. The tunnel was mostly flat and only featured moderate twists. There were no inhabitants but for scores and scores of bats that, at most, gave the party passing glances that said – put out that light! After most of an hour he stopped and took a closer look at a glint of light. “There,” he said as the other caught up to him.“A side passage,” Kane said. “With just a hint of sunlight at the far end.”“It’s big enough for us and horses, but only for single file,” Bessie said. “I think we’re better off carrying on the straightaway.”The others nodded and the party carried on forward. It was almost another full hour later when Ren stepped in something sticky. He inwardly groaned and made to pull up his foot. He couldn’t. It was stuck fast to the floor. “What could this….” he muttered.His question was cut off by a screech. From above a blur jumped down at Ren. He swung his torch wildly and ducked, then had a heartbeat’s time to take in the sight before him. It was a horror just about man-sized, with a bloated mid-section on spindly legs and long, gangly arms that ended in claws. Its jutted spider face hissed at Ren as it took another swipe at him. The hunter yelled for the others and thrust the torch at the monster, driving it back a step. In the torchlight, he now saw that the floor, from his trapped foot forward several yards, was covered in some kind of sticky, web-like substance.By then Bessie was there. Through druid magic Ren’d never seen her use before, fire shot from her fists into the monster. Then Ren felt a powerful arm wrap around him and tug. A moment later his trapped foot was free and Dumb Bear was setting him down on the cavern floor. Aneirin was then right there, his sword shining in the torchlight at he cut the monster open.That was when the second monster stuck its foul head out from a shelf up on the wall. Web shot from its mouth, striking Aneirin and sticking him fast in place. Dumb Bear jumped beside the warrior and the druid and pounded the closer monster with his flail. The spiked ball smashed into its head and barely slowed down as blood, bone, and brain flew from the other side. The monster stood for a half beat more, then fell dead onto its own webs. Ren launched his spear at the second web monster. The weapon flew true and impaled the thing. It didn’t die, but retreated back into the cave it’d come out from. Bessie worked to help Aneirin get free from the webbing as Dumb Bear scaled the wall to chase down the wounded monster. It only took him a moment to get to it, dodge another spat web, and smash the thing to death as he had the other. By the time Ren managed to work his way around the webs and up the cave wall, it was all over. Dumb Bear stood in the low cave over the bloodied monster corpse with a grin as broad as any Ren’d ever seen. The hunter smiled back and retrieved his spear, then began to nose around. The high alcove these two monsters had used as a lair was shallow and after only a minute Ren found twenty gold coins and three rubies hidden amid the bones and leaves. He jumped down to find Dumb Bear had freed Aneirin. Kane was coming up with the horses he had gathered and guarded through the fight. Ren handed one of the rubies to the big elf. To Kane he said, “let him know it’s for a job really well done.” Kane translated and Dumb Bear smiled his big smile again. Ren announced what else he’d found and gave the loot over to Bessie, who had the most room for it. After that, the party put fire to the webs and moved on.It wasn’t long afterward that they emerged to daylight. Before them was a grand vista. A wide valley stretching as for scores of miles and filled with herds of wild horses. The rough, spiked rock wasteland bookended the valley, and far ahead of them they could see the coloration change from green to yellow. The descent from the cave tunnel to the valley floor was a difficult challenge. The switchback trail was narrow and steeper than the trail they’d taken up from the elven valley. With due care they finally touched bottom to realize they were much lower than they’d been on the other side. Exhausted, they decided to make camp then and there, though the sun was still well above the horizon. “What can we expect tomorrow,” Kane asked, “according to the dwarves?”“'Past them is sunlight and downward again. To desertland, walking north three days in',” Bessie answered. “So I’m going to make sure I’ve prepared spells to create water and keep our directions straight. I suggest the rest of you break out anything that can be used as a water skin and fill it up now.” The waterskins were filled and camp was then set. The night passed without incident and then, true to her word, Miriam and her squire flew down from the sky the following morning.  “Thank you ever so for your tip of the dragonne,” were the first words from her lips. “We had a fine hunt and now a new trophy.”“Glad to help,” Ren muttered. Bessie stepped forward and nodded. “Well and good,” she said. “Now then – about what you….”Miriam waved her off. “Yes, yes. I’ve prepared the magic. Gather here and we’ll get started.” She sat on the grass and directed the three humans to do the same. The Maissen leader then began her spell. Sparkles of light danced around her finger tips as she chanted and then touched her forehead. Miriam pressed a fingertip then to Bessie’s forehead, and the druid felt as if she were watching a dream of the past twenty days. After a few moments Miriam withdrew her finger and frowned. Wordlessly she pressed her fingertip to Ren’s forehead. As the next moments passed her frown turned into a scowl. She moved her fingertip to Aneirin next, and held it there for far longer than she had with Bessie or Ren. Her face alternated between wide-eyed fascination and slit-eyed fury over those long moments. When at last she withdrew her finger, Miriam quickly stood. “You have been truthful,” she said. “And I must tell the council what you have experienced.” Miriam made to mount her horse and Ren stopped her. He’d been hastily scribbling as the Loremaster had been reading Aneirin.“I wonder if you would carry this back to Maissen,” he said. “Just a letter to my family, letting them know that I’m still out here alive and mostly whole.”Miriam took the note and nodded. “I promise. And you keep to your quest.” With that, she spurred her mount into the air and in a few moments she and her squire had vanished on the other side of the mountains. “Well that should stir things up a bit,” Bessie said. The party was soon on their way as well. They cleared the valley before noon and soon after the grassy land turned to scrub. By afternoon that had become sand and they were soon in a full fledged desert. Before the hot and boring day of travel was over, there was nothing but sand as far as the eye could see. With their number bolstered to five, the group indulged in doubled-up watches. The elves took the longer one at the front of the night, and Ren and Aneirin the shorter second watch. It was while they were awake and the stars the brightest that they heard a sickening CRACK from where they’d cobbled the horses. Ren and Aneirin turned to the sound to see one of the horses flailing about and neighing in pain. Its back had been broken, smashed at the middle. The two looked up from the crippled horse to see a gigantic arm of sand reaching out from a nearby dune. It rose from the body of the horse and vanished into the dune. Shouting, Ren went to loose the other horses, better they flee into the night to be recaptured later than die like the broken one would. Aneirin likewise went around prodding the others awake, sword in hand as he sought a sign of the sand arm. It reappeared just then to strike at another horse, but Aneirin’s swipes disrupted it, driving it back into the sands. Awake now, the entire group made ready for another attack. One didn’t immediately come, so Bessie and Kane double checked the condition of the other horses and healed the one the second attack had grazed. They continued to wait for most of an hour before deciding the attack was over. Bessie and the elves settled back down to rest. Just as they did, the sand monster reappeared. Still wide awake and ready, Aneirin and Ren attacked it. As their weapons tore through the sandy form it suddenly fell apart, becoming just a long pile of sand, slightly discolored from the natural sands of the desert. Ren gathered a bit of it into a vial that had held a healing potion as Bessie took a closer look at what was left of the monster. “Earth elemental,” the druid said after a moment. “That’s what I thought it sounded like.”“We sure enough then picked a dungpile of a place to camp then,” Ren said.“I don’t think so,” Kane said. “There’s no lore of these things in this desert; my folk have traveled through this area enough to be sure of that. This was a deliberate attack on us.”Aneirin’s hand fell to his sword hilt. “So there’s someone nearby directing it then. We need to find them before they make another attack.”Kane shook his head. “I don’t believe the culprit is anywhere near here,” he said. “I believe we’re being scryed.”Next: Seaside Fight, Coming to Lastell.    POST 114Soon: “We’ve been expecting you.”</blockquote>

Verification