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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 572459" data-attributes="member: 143">Pshaw, that was just a warm-up for next week's main event, when the companions reach the center of the Wood.Maldur: Benzan's a bright fellow, but like Cal is sometimes lacking in wisdom.  As for the "big picture," the companions will soon find themselves drawn into a locus of events that involves the Cult of the Dragon, the Zhentarim, the demon-worshipping humanoids that Guthan is involved with (and who just sacked Asbravn), the cabal of Cyricists, and ultimately, a rather worse-for-wear sorcerer...Stay tuned!  Book VII is my most ambitious in terms of a sprawling plot, and I hope it all comes together the way I'm picturing it.  Happy weekend to all.* * * * *Book VII, Part 24“Damn, those things were tough,” Benzan lamented, gritting his teeth as Cal applied his healing wand to another of the several wounds that he’d suffered in the battle.  “Just that one alone took enough punishment to fell an ogre.  Two ogres, and not those weak ones that live down here; those barbarian ones we fought in the Ice Mountains.”“Well, perhaps if you used your spells and magical abilities first, instead of rushing blindly off into battle, you wouldn’t take such a beating,” Cal said, checking to make sure that the wound had fully closed.  A short distance away, Dana was doing the same to Garnak and Lok, while Lariel kept a careful watch, an arrow fitted to the string of his bow.  Benzan shot the gnome a hard glance.  “Lok needed help,” he said.  “After a few moments sparring with that guy and his weird two-fer axe, I wouldn’t have wished him on anyone.”  He pointedly avoided looking at the pile of corpses near the two warriors; between them they’d slain five of the dragonkin, plus the two giant lizards.  “Well, you couldn’t have known he’d still be so quick, even after you’d blinded him,” Cal said dryly.  Benzan’s eyes narrowed, as if weighing the comment to see if he was being mocked, but Cal only chuckled and turned away.  Only one of the dragonkin had escaped; the one that Dana’s elemental had driven furthest out into the Mire had survived the conjured being’s assault and flown away deeper into the marsh once the summoning spell had expired.  They were all still tired, whatever rest they’d managed to grab lost in the violent clash against the dragonkin warriors, and they knew that they would have to move swiftly.  As if summoned by that thought, Zev came striding down the slope toward them.  The two giant badgers trailed behind him, still looking battered despite the druid’s healing.  Benzan stepped forward to meet him, ignoring Cal’s tug of warning on his elbow.  “And where were you, druid, when those things appeared?  I thought you were keeping watch?”  Zev fixed him with a hard stare, but the tiefling did not back down. “Give over, Benzan,” Lariel said.  “I was on watch, and long before I would have even sensed them coming, I heard a bluefinch’s warble—a variety not found within three hundred miles of here—coming from the direction that the lizards were coming.  That’s how I was able to get all of you up in time before they reached us.  He did warn us.”Benzan’s expression shifted, but he did not quite yield.  “And what if another of us had been on watch, someone who can’t tell a blue-whatever from a giant roc?”“We don’t have time for this,” Dana interjected.  “They’ll know we’re here, shortly, if they don’t already.”“The woman is right.  The Evil is already stirring,” Zev said.  “We can delay no longer.  We must either go forward, without stopping, or turn and flee with all haste.  The time for half-choices is past.”“Forward, then,” Cal said, wishing he could better keep the exhaustion he felt out of his voice.  Worse, he knew that his stoneskin spell would soon fade, and there was no way to recover it again without a full night’s rest and study of his spellbook.  Well, if it came down to it, he still had a few tricks left. “Let’s to it then,” Lok said, simply, heading back to where he’d left his armor. Zev paused to speak to the badgers, communicating with them using some druidic lore.  The two animals grunted and started back toward the Mire.  “They’re not coming with us?” Dana asked, as the badgers departed.  “I cannot ask them to come farther,” the gnoll explained.  “Already, they have come closer than most animals.  This place is corrupted, and the taint deepens.”The companions looked around, but none of them could see what the druid meant.  The place was dark, dreary with the cold and the dampness that seemed to hang in the air, but otherwise seemed like any other forest.  But Gorath nodded, as if seeing something for the first time, and Dana shuddered as she glanced at one of the hacked dragonkin bodies that littered the area.  “I suggest you dim that light,” the druid said, indicating the brilliant glow that still shone from the end of Dana’s spear.  While Dana wrapped the spear in a strip of cloth torn from one of the dragonkin’s cloaks, the gnoll turned back up toward the slope.  “Remain close, and do not wander.  Great danger lies ahead.”Cal glanced at Benzan, but the tiefling seemed distracted, and no wry comment was forthcoming.  Silently, the seven of them continued deeper into the Wood.</blockquote>

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