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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 4087567" data-attributes="member: 143">Thank you all for the kind words. Regarding my next story: unfortunately, I let my Dungeon sub lapse shortly after the conclusion of The Shackled City AP. I had hoped that the other two APs would have been released in hardcover compilations like SCAP was, but it looks as though that is not to be, at least not in the near future. I had thought about doing a quick story set in a module or Dungeon adventure, but I don't think "quick" is in my writing vocabulary. Travels through the Wild West was supposed to be "quick". <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />In the long term, I intend to do something with 4th edition. Writing Travels was my way of familiarizing myself with 3.0e and the Forgotten Realms, and I've toyed with the idea of getting into a game with the new rules through my local D&D Meetup (apparently there's a fairly large gaming community here in Sacramento). But even if I never play a session, I know I'll enjoy writing the story. I don't know yet if I'll try the module series that will accompany 4E's release, or come up with something of my own. I have had... a few ideas.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> But as for the immediate future: I have a few more stories to tell in this universe I've created. I think today's post will give a few hints as to where I'm going to take it, at least in the near term. I have been working on some things in the overall post-RA timeline of Camar, and a fairly long list of "loose ends" that were left over from this story. I'm not sure I'll end up developing all of them, but I do have enough material to take me well through 4th edition's planned release dates this summer. I can say that all of the ideas I'm working with involve events ranging from a few years to a few centuries after the events in this story hour. I'm going to take a little time off as always after finishing a major story but I'll be back in a week or two with new material.  Thanks again to everyone who has posted in this story hour, and to those lurkers who have kept my view count high.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  I don't know where I'd rank this story compared to my other two, as each has its own unique features that I like, but I have enjoyed writing it and you guys have been a great audience. So here's the end of The "Doomed Bastards" and the Dungeon of Graves. I hope you all can forgive me if I end it on a cliffhanger.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> LB* * * * * Chapter 369THE SURVIVORRain pattered down on the stark hills surrounding Rappan Athuk.  The day was cold, but not excessively so, and the barren sides of the hills had begun to give way to tender shoots of new growth that might someday turn the brown into green.  It would take time for the region to recover; such was the way of things. In one of the shadowed dells that nestled between the rises, choked by layers of tangled brush, there was a stirring of movement.  The disturbance was unusual, as no animals had yet returned to the dead zone that extended for at least a league around Rappan Athuk.  But as the source of the noise crawled up from a black crevice in the ground into the stale light of the afternoon it became clear that it was no beast, but a man. Or at least, something that looked like a man.It was clad in the remnants of a garment that was no longer identifiable. Tattered strips of cloth clung to it, offering little in the way of modesty or protection.  What lay beneath was an ugly, mottled landscape of ruined flesh.  The sad creature’s hide was blackened to char in some places, bloated and dangling in strips from others.  Its entire right hand was a skeletal claw, two fingers dangling like curios by shreds of ligament.  Its face was a mask of utter horror, the pale white of bone visible where the flesh sagged down off its mooring under the eyes and jaw.  The thing was mostly bald, although scraps of hair hung here and there in a haphazard arrangement.  Rain pattered down on the unholy wretch’s face, and as it won clear of the clinging bushes, it turned its eyes up to the gray sky above.  A noise came from its throat, an incomprehensible sound of torment and fury.  There was nothing remotely human in that sound.  There was nothing remotely human left, in Zafir Navev.After an interval the creature reached under a fold in its ruined garments and drew out an object it had kept close against its body.  It was a small pouch, sealed with a metal clasp.  Moving awkwardly, it managed to get the thing open, and reached deep inside with its left hand.  The container was obviously magical; its arm penetrated inside halfway to its elbow.  Finally it found what it was looking for.  It drew out a cloth wrap, bulging with the bulk of something secreted inside.  The bundle came apart as the creature fumbled with it, and two objects fell to the ground at its feet.  Navev bent low over them.  The rain intensified, but the creature ignored it, focused on the two objects that lay in the dirt in front of it.  The two items were almost identical, mithral wedges, their long edges as sharp as knives.  Set into the base of each was a large gem, a bright ruby on one, a brilliant star sapphire on the other.  Navev looked at the mithral blades for a long time.  Then it drew them up, clumsily wrapping them back in the muddy cloth before slipping them back into the pouch.  Then, securing the pouch once more, it rose and began shambling away to the west, deeper into the maze of hills that extended for leagues across the blighted landscape.</blockquote>

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