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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 73531" data-attributes="member: 143">Yay!  New posters...Thanks for your feedback, Djordje and Salthorae, glad to have you on board (thanks for the link in your sig, Djordje, I appreciate it!).  Talindra: looks like several other readers agree with you!  I have to say, while I try not to play favorites when I'm writing, I really enjoy writing Benzan.  I have more "Benzan days" around the office than I probably should (especially Mondays-- brings out the cynic/smart-alec in me!).  Horacio: yes, a number of my earliest readers noted that they liked Cal... maybe it was his upbeat personality, eternal optimism, and quiet leadership of the group.  He's had to come to grips with a real trauma lately what with coming back from the dead, but I think the support of his friends is going to help him rediscover his old zest for life.  His leadership will be needed in facing what's to come!Any other posters/lurkers, feel free to chime in (and don't forget to vote in the poll), but now it's time for Book III!* * * * * Book III, Part 1The hot sun blazed down on the endless sea.  The damaged Raindancer limped along on the faint hints of breeze that drifted across the waters.  On the main deck, a few crewmembers moved about their duties in a lackluster fashion, conserving their energies in the same way that the crew was conserving their food and water supplies.  A full ten-day had passed since they had escaped from the strange storm, and each additional hour seemed to add a small measure to the growing uneasiness that pervaded the vessel.  Their course bore southward and slightly to the east.  Their initial destination had lay on a southwesterly gradient, but after the storm Horath had shifted it slightly, reasoning that with the storm blowing them off course they might miss the peninsula entirely, and drift out into the Trackless Sea.  Better to sail deeper into the Shining Sea, he said, than risk that danger.  All of the sailors on board could see that the decision was increasingly meaningless, however, as the realization set in that they were far, far away from where they had been before the storm.  It was not only the sudden change in the weather, or the strange stars that hung in the sky above them each night.  Word of the clerics’ discoveries about the sudden distance between them and their gods spread quickly, but even beyond that, there was a strange something in the very world itself, a sense of wrongness that none of them could quite place.  Without any alternative, however, there was little that the crew could do but grumble, although Horath did find himself breaking up a few brawls born of frustration and uncertainty.  Without even the distraction of work aboard the vessel, its passengers had even more time on their hands to ponder what twist of fate had catapulted them here… wherever “here” might be.  They practiced their skills, passed hours playing cards or throwing dice, or listening to Cal as he spent time practicing with his new lute.  Delem retrieved the pieces of the gemstone that they had sundered, but there was nothing to be learned from them, now just shards of clear stone that radiated only a faint afterimage of magic.So it was with relief early one morning that the companions hurried back abovedecks to the sound of the lookout’s call.  The crew was already gathering on the port rail, where they could just make out the faint line on the horizon that signaled land ahead.  “Finally, a chance to get off this ship!” Benzan said with a grin to his companions as they made their way up to the aft deck.  “Not to mention get a bath,” Dana snapped at him.  “You aren’t exactly fresh yourself, princess,” the tiefling shot back with a smile.  Cal disarmed the brewing clash by addressing Captain Horath, who was looking at the distant land through his spyglass.  “So, captain, what faraway shores have we at last stumbled upon?”“We’ll find out soon enough,” the captain replied, giving an order for the helmsman to alter the ship’s course to the east, more directly toward the faint line on the horizon.  “Where’s Cleric Talasca?” Cal asked, noticing that the halfling woman wasn’t present.  “She was down in our quarters, last I looked,” Dana said.  Cal sensed that there was something more there, a current of disquiet between the two women, but didn’t press the matter.As if to reinforce the encouragement bred by the sighting, a faint breeze picked up, speeding the Raindancer toward the unidentified landmass.  As it drew nearer they could see that what looked like a line of cliffs rising up out of the sea before them, with a dense row of jagged peaks behind them.  It looked like a forbidding shore, but they had few other options to pursue at the moment, so they came inexorably onward.  Horath posted lookouts ahead and ordered soundings, careful precautions lest a hidden reef or sandbar catch them unawares and damage the ship.  As they got closer they could see several islands separate from the main landmass to the south, and since they could detect no easy place to land ahead, they turned in that direction, following the wind.Ruath Talasca finally came up from her cabin, dark circles clearly obvious under her eyes as she took in their surroundings and headed directly to the captain.  Their conversation was brief and hushed, and when it was over she retreated to the rail alone, clearly subdued.  The day passed slowly, with the intermittent breeze offering the only relief from the blazing sun.  As night approached they drew nearer to one of the larger islands, a rocky mound of barren hills several miles across and at least a dozen miles in length.  Horath decided to drop anchor near the island, and send a shore party out in the morning to seek food and water.  The night passed uneventfully, and with the coming of the dawn Lok, Cal, Delem, Benzan, Dana, and a pair of crewmen crowded into one of the Raindancer’s small boats and started for the island.  They reached the rocky shores without incident, and after securing the boat along with the empty water casks started inland to begin their search.  The island’s surface seemed particularly rugged, with the predominant type of plant being a dry, thorny bush that choked the uneven dells that lay in the gaps between the hills.  Delem spotted a creature, a small furry beast that resembled a giant rat, but it vanished so quickly into a hole that he could not be certain of what he’d seen at all.  “Doesn’t look like we’ll have much luck here,” Benzan said, as they made their way up to the summit of a steep hill.  Behind them, they could see the ship sitting at anchor, just a few miles distant.  “Let’s look in the lows a little more,” Cal suggested.  “Maybe we’ll find a spring, or some edible plants.”Even as they started out again, however, a harsh screech echoed through the hills around them, followed almost immediately by another.“There!” Delem cried, pointing toward the summit of an adjacent hill. There was little chance that any of them would miss them.  Five creatures launched themselves into the air from nests hidden amidst the boulders around the hilltop, continuing their angry screeches as they winged toward the intruders.  The creatures were strange and wondrous, with the heads and upper bodies of eagles combined with the torso and hind legs of a large horse.  Powerful wings carried them quickly into the air, rapidly closing the distance to their position.  “Take cover!” Cal cried out, and they scurried to find sheltered positions amidst the stones.  They were still dangerously exposed, however, as the five creatures arrived overhead, and with a final combined cry dove at them.  “Here we go again,” Benzan said, as he reached for an arrow.</blockquote>

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