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="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1317622" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 97The “secret” of their mission lasted the better part of an hour.  Mole, delighted to find someone who hadn’t heard all of the tales of their adventures, chattered non-stop, her magical boots allowing her to easily pace the trudging steps of their new companion.  At first Zenna thought that the dwarf might go into a berserk rage after a few hours of this, but Hodge seemed to mostly ignore the gnome, occasionally punctuating his steps with a grunt or a fat gob of spittle.  Furthermore, when Hodge mentioned something to Arun the paladin—naturally—responded with complete and stark honesty about their destination.  Zenna thought that news that they intended to travel into the Underdark would have cured their fellow traveler of any inclination to accompany them further, but if anything it seemed to strengthen his resolve to match his course to theirs. She sighed.  Well, he’d learn soon enough what sort of trouble the four of them always seemed to get into.  That night, in camp, Zenna caught Mole unloading a gob of spit into the fire, when she thought no one was looking.  The gnome didn’t pull it off very well, leaving most of the spittle on the front of her cloak, but Zenna had no doubt that her friend would quickly master all of Hodge’s bad habits.  The dwarf was... disgusting, yes, that was the one and only word for his behavior, Zenna thought.  What was worse, he seemed either oblivious or completely unconcerned as to the effects of his behavior upon his traveling companions.  He stank, he spat constantly, he swore at the faintest provocation, and he seemed to take a perverse delight at tweaking Arun in his fastidiousness and piety.  Zenna shook her head—to think of the gold dwarf in those terms!  By contrast to Hodge, however, Arun was like a virginal monk of Ilmater. This was all Dannel’s fault.  Zenna wasn’t quite able to work out the exact logic of that conclusion, but it was nonetheless quite fixed in her thoughts.  The elf furthermore seemed to treat the entire situation with amusement, probably taking pleasure in her discomfort with the whole situation.  Who had invited him, anyway?Two days after their battle with the displacer beasts and meeting with Hodge, they found themselves approaching their immediate destination.  Dannel, who had been carrying the map given to them by Celeste, led them up a trail that switchbacked up a ridge that gave onto a broad alpine plateau.  A cold wind blew constantly down out of the mountains, and while the plateau contained knots of evergreens and sere mountain grasses that had persisted despite the winter, the landscape as a whole was stark and bracing.  Boulders lay strewn about as though dropped by careless giants, and wide stretches of land were marked by nothing more than scattered stones and bare granite worn smooth by the unceasing wind.  Behind them they could see the sprawling expanse of the Almraiven Vale, stretching north from the coast between the rising mountain range and the implacable Forest of Mir.  Ahead lay the fog-shrouded peaks of the Alamirs, and beyond that, the Lake of Steam. “Quite a view,” Dannel said, standing at the summit of the trail, staring out over the vista as he waited for the others to join him at the top. “What’s that, now?” Arun said, huffing slightly as he cleared the crest and looked out over the plateau.  Despite his dwarven fortitude, he was still burdened with more weight than all of the others, what with his heavy armor, shield, and hammers.  He also insisted on carrying one of the two heavy wool tents that they bore with them, even though the bulging pack he bore gave him the almost outrageous appearance of a two-legged pack mule. “Our current destination, I would presume,” Dannel said. As the remainder of the party gathered at the summit, they could all clearly distinguish what the dwarf had spotted.  It was a crude dwelling, a wooden structure surrounded by a barrier of tanned hides stretched from wooden pilings that formed the appearance of a wall without the substance.  The place was clearly in poor repair, although a faint line of smoke rising from the building hinted at current occupancy.“Why’dja bring us ‘ere?” Hodge piped up, for once not venturing spittle in the unpredictably shifting winds to punctuate his statement. “Someone dwells here with information that we need,” Dannel started to explain, but Hodge interrupted him with a grunt. “Bah, yer wantin’ to chat with that loonie?  Waste o’ bleedin’ time, that feller’s crazier than a bunch o’ drunken elves at Midsummer.  No offense,” he added, with a desultory glance at Dannel. “None taken,” the elf said, rolling his eyes. “You can be on your way at any time,” Arun said to the other dwarf, adjusting his pack as he turned toward the crude structure where Crazy Jared dwelled.“Neh, this should be interestin’,” Hodge said, falling in with them as the adventurers started across the plateau.   The plateau wasn’t very far across, perhaps a half-mile, and the predominance of at least relatively flat terrain made for easy going.  Other than the wind, there was a strange quiet over the mountains, which tickled the caution of the five veterans.  Hodge paused to wind his massive crossbow, an action which drew querying looks but no question.  A few steps later Mole unlimbered her own crossbow and loaded it, followed quickly by Zenna.  They could all feel it, a sense of vague anticipation that belied the harmless appearance of the mountaintop dwelling. They were perhaps one hundred yards away from the structure when a loud crash from somewhere within stopped them in their tracks.  A disheveled figure clad in a chaotic mantle that swirled in the wind rushed out of the hut.  From their current distance they could only see that he was an older man, and that he clutched what appeared to be a silver rod in both hands as he ran.  He spotted them, and came running toward them, shouting something that was lost on the wind. “What the...” Dannel began.He didn’t get a chance to finish his thought, for at that moment a hulking form rose up into the air behind the hut.  It hung there for a moment, its wings outstretched, catching the air and the pale afternoon light... a dragon, its body not much larger than a horse, but dramatic nonetheless as it swept forward and landed on the roof of the building.  They could hear the sound of the impact across the field separating them from the beast, punctuated a moment later as the dragon lifted its head and unleashed a terrible roar that seemed to shake the very mountain beneath their feet.  Then it crouched and hurled itself into the air once more, its wings spreading to capture the wind even as its head came down, its jaws opening wide to disgorge a stream of liquid fire onto the hut.  The eager flames poured over it like a pitcher of water dumped upon a stone, and in seconds the place was engulfed in fire.  “By the gods,” Zenna breathed.  The others, unable to even speak, simply watched in stunned amazement.  Then, shaking them out of their reverie, the yells of the fleeing hermit—Jared, no doubt—came to them.  The dragon, still hanging there in the sky thirty feet above the burning shack, lifted its head and fixed them with a baleful stare.  Its powerful wings pumped, lifting the creature higher and toward them. “Run!” Zenna cried, even as the companions reached for their weapons.As the dragon swept toward them, the old man, a speck against the looming bulk of the monstrosity overhead, shouted at them again.  “Onward, my knights!  For Anduria!”  As he lifted the silver rod, there was a gleaming flash of light, and in that instant his tattered robe became a golden mantle trimmed in fur, a shimmering crown laid lightly upon his head, a trailing length of crimson fabric fluttering in the wind behind him. “Scatter!” Dannel cried in warning, the dragon’s intent clear as it lifted higher off of the ground, peaking with another powerful stroke of its wings before streaking down in a lunging glide toward them, its jaws already opening with the promise of death.</blockquote>

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