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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wicht" data-source="post: 1207943" data-attributes="member: 221">Black Waters – Part 3The next morning found the six companions standing on a small hill looking down upon a large body of black water.  Their guide, a young lad of about fifteen winters excused himself and hurried away to the north, back to Darkonirr.  The wind blew around them but it was warmer than it had been, the weather seemed to have turned, one last gasp at warmness.  Overhead the sky was grey.  There was little sign of life across the plains as they surveyed the region.  Below them the wind moved the water a little if any and its flat surface easily mirrored the grey sky.  The only feature of any interest that they could see was the small island about a mile away, situated in the middle of the lake.  The lake appeared to be about two miles across.  Following their meeting with the elders the previous afternoon, they had spent the rest of the day in relative futility and were therefore eager come the dawn to be out and about being useful.  Hulmar, Bo, and Zurmak had looked into the subject of horses but had found the cost prohibitive for their purposes.  Leesarel had asked around about the Bendargi horsemen but had found out nothing she had not already been told – namely the Darkonirr villagers felt the Bendargi were killing some of their sheep and oxen and the Bendargi kept accussing the people of Darkonirr of killing horses.  All told they had gone to bed nervous and frustrated.  Perhaps it was the unknown factor of the dragon that was making them somewhat highstrung.“If there is a dragon,” grumbled Durunak with his deep voice as they surveyed the water.“I never heard of a dragon living in a lake,” said Hulmar, though their guide had told them that the witness claimed to have seen the monster flying in and out of the still surface of the lake.  “It could be something that just looks like a dragon,” agreed Leesarel, “What we need is a plan.”Durunak plopped himself on the ground and looked at the water.  “Well, lets first make a camp,” suggested Hulmar.“Why would we do that,” groused Durunak shaking his shaggy head at the elf.  “The towns only a three hour walk, we can always just head back there.” They stood and stared a while longer at the calm, dark waters of the lake.  “I am not sure I believe there are any dragons here,” said Leesarel, “I wonder what he did see?”“If it is or if it isn’t a dragon we need to draw it out of the water,” said Hulmar, “How are we going to do that.”“Throw rocks in the lake,” said Durunak.“Throw rocks?”“Do you got a better idea?” growled the dwarf.“No…”“Then I am going to throw rocks in the lake.”With a smile Bo chipped in, “I want to throw rocks in the lake too.”Zurmak added, “I have always wanted to learn to skip rocks,” and then smiling he moved to follow Bo and Durunak who were already heading down to the lake.  Leesarel frowned.  It didn’t exactly seem like what she had wanted when she had said that they needed a plan.  She pulled out her bow and moved to follow the two dwarfs and the halfling.  Minlion and Hulmar stood uncertainly for a moment and then moved to follow the others down the hill to the lake shore.  Durunak stopped about thirty feet from the Lake.  "I think this is close enough," he said and he picked up a rock and threw it in the water.  It landed with a loud plop and little ripples flowed out from the impact.  “Ah, lets get closer,” said Zurmak walking past Durunak.“You needed a bigger rock,” said Bo also moving past Durunak.“No I didn’t,” huffed Durunak to the halfling.Bo found a suitable rock about the size of his head and hefting it up, the small halfling staggered over to the lake edge and heaved it in.  SHLOP! Water shot up into the air and cascaded back into the lake creating many more small ripples.  The water was black and dirty and filled with vegetation.  Even at the edge of the lake it was hard to see to the bottom.“I can do better than that,” laughed Zurmak and walking down to the water with his dwarven war ax firmly in one hand he began to use it to splash the water.“Uuhh,” said Leesarel coming up behind Durunak, who was watching his cousin and laughing “I am not sure…”But what elf was unsure of remained unsaid for at that moment a small black wing shape launched itself out of the water and flew straight at Zurmak.  It was clearly a dragon, albeit only about four feet long from head to tail.  What Zurmak saw was the teeth though as the small mouth filled with razor sharp teeth and two over sized fangs clambed down hard on his arm.  The companions froze for a fraction of a second, all except Hulmar who, being some distance back with Minlion, immediately began to run towards the lake, drawing an arrow as he ran.  Durunak reacted with panic, swinging his ax like a club into the scaly black body that was writhing around his arm, teeth clamped down.  The whip like tail and the large wings flew everywhere and the water splashed violently.  The dragon released its hold as the ax struck it but only out of anger.  It opened its mouth and a stream of greenish liquid flew out from between its jaws.  Zurmak threw himself sideways into the water trying to avoid the spray, but he was too slow and the greenish stream of liquid struck his armor.  Immediately the armor began to sizzle and the leather curled.  The dragon at the same instance it spit out the acid used Zurmak’s body as a launching pad and flung itself back and into the water.  It broke the surface with a neat splash and promptly disappeared into the lake.  “Back!” shouted Durunak, “Back from the Water!”</blockquote>

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