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: 814555" data-attributes="member: 143">I don't think I'm going to change Lok at this point; in any case he's only half urdunnir, and his plane-touched background seems dominant in terms of defining his physical traits.  I believe I have enough material for a proper Friday cliffhanger, but first, I need to set it up with a Thursday post:* * * * * Book VIII, Part 15It did not begin very well. Cal and Fariq materialized at the place that the gnome wizard had envisioned, in the open space within the old hobgoblin camp.  They’d chosen this place to give themselves some distance from the underground shrine where the portal was located, both because they’d spent less time there, and because Cal feared that the potent magical currents that still lingered there might interfere with the teleportation.  The camp looked somewhat different than they remembered, with the intervening months continuing the natural process of decay upon the old logs of the stockade and they crude huts that had once housed the hobgoblin shamans.  The mud from before was now packed dirt, and mites swarmed in the air, cool from the altitude even though the rising sun was already well up into the eastern sky.  Even as Fariq drew out the portable hole and spread it out, Cal looked around for signs of Dana and Lok.  There was no sign of them, although the remnants of the stockade blocked all but a narrow slice of the surrounding valley.  Above them to all sides rose the steep slopes and surrounding peaks of the Sunset Mountains.Benzan all but leapt out of the hole, even as it settled to the ground and took on depth.  “You forgot to mention the lack of air,” he said dryly, but then looked around in alarm.  “Where’s Dana and Lok?”“They might have teleported off some distance...” Cal began, but Benzan had already cupped his hands to his mouth.“Dana!”  The cry echoed off of the surrounding peaks, hanging in the air. “I wouldn’t do that,” Fariq said from where he was helping the elven scouts from the artificial hole in the packed earth of the camp.  “There’s an ill feeling about this place.”“Given how far we traveled, they might be ten, fifteen miles off,” Cal reminded him.  He did not mention the other possibility, always there as a unlikely but real danger, that they might have been shunted off to the other side of the world, or suffered a more serious mishap.  Teleportation always bore risks, particularly when the destination was not intimately familiar to the caster. “Well, with her spell of flying, they should be able to find us soon enough,” Benzan said, although it sounded like he was trying to reassure himself as he looked about, one hand holding his bow tightly while the other lingered close to his quiver.  The elven brothers strung their own bows as Fariq took up the magical hole once again, and soon they were moving out of the ruined stockade toward the nearby outcropping that overlooked the valley.  They had not covered even half that short distance when suddenly they drew up short as a group.  Cal actually clutched at his head, but they all heard it, an angry buzzing like a hundred bees trapped within their skulls, almost painful despite being only just on the edges of their hearing.  “Gah, what in the hells...” Benzan said, shaking his head as if that could hear the sound. “Look!” one of the elven brothers cried, and as one they followed his outstretched arm toward the far end of the vale, toward the narrow cleft that was the only convenient way out to the mountains beyond.  They all saw it instantly, could not miss the huge greenish form, the sweeping wings that balanced the creature as it clambered up higher upon a jutting ridge of piled boulders that rose up off the valley floor like a spear.  “A dragon...” Benzan breathed. “No, look closer!” Fariq said, shielding his brow from the sunlight as stared at the thing.  And they could see that while the beast certainly had the look of a dragon, huge and reptilian, its head was strangely shaped, a jutting protrusion emerging from its forehead like a horn, and it appeared to lack the muscular, clawed forelimbs of the dragons they’d faced before.  Despite those variations, though, it still looked extremely dangerous. There was no further time to speculate on the nature of the thing, however, as the buzzing noise ceased, and the creature lurched to the top of the short ridge, spreading its wings wide with obvious intent.  “Make for the tunnel!” Cal shouted, and they all started quickly for the winding path that led down from the hobgoblin camp to the dark opening in the rear cliff of the valley.  Behind them, the dragon-thing leapt into the air, beating its wings furiously as it slowly lifted its massive bulk into the air.  It was coming right for them, picking up speed as its powerful wings increased its clearance from the uneven valley floor.  And then Benzan shouted another warning, drawing their attention ahead of them.  They turned just in time to see another pair of the creatures clear the uneven cliffs high above, and dive straight down toward them.</blockquote>

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