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="spyscribe" data-source="post: 1811861" data-attributes="member: 5808">Part the SixtiethIn which: the adventurers get a taste of the wonders, and dangers, to come.Thatch and Dennis are on third watch, just after midnight>click.  click-click<“You hear that?”>c-click<Thatch nods.  He raises a torch in the direction of the sound, revealing three large, bluish lizards, clustered around the base of a tree where the party has strung up their food for the night.  As he watches, blue sparks shoot between two of the lizards, crackling, and leaving glowing streaks across Thatch’s night-vision.“What are they?” he asks.“I don’t know.  Keep an eye on them, I’ll wake the others.”Once awake, Benedic quickly identifies the creatures: “Shocker lizards.  They’ll give you a right jolt if you get close enough.”“How close is that?” Eva asks.“I’ve never really wanted to find out.”“Perhaps we can… convince them to leave.” Reyu suggests.“You want to talk to them?” Dennis is incredulous.“I am sure it would be fascinating, but in this case it might be more prudent to simply scare them off,” she replies.“How?”“We could throw rocks at them,” Thatch suggests.  “Works for squirrels.”“You can throw rocks at them.”Benedic hefts a hand-sized stone.  “Not at them.  Into the tree.  That’ll probably spook ‘em without making them mad enough to attack.”“Probably?”“This is the Ketkath.  ‘Probably’ is as good as you’re going to get.”  He hands stones to Thatch and Dennis.  Reyu picks up one as well.  “Okay everyone, aim high.  On three.  One…  Two…  Three!”Stones clatter off the naked branches of the tree or thud harmlessly into the snow, but the party manages to avoid actually hitting any of the lizards.  They stand for a moment on hind legs, alert and scanning, but another volley sends them skittering away from the camp.“Well everyone, welcome to the Ketkath.”###Although these lands may be claimed by the Sovereignty, there is—initially—little evidence of human habitation.  By Anvil’s calculations, it is less than a week until Kettenek Rising: the official beginning of Winter and the second-holiest day of the Kettenite calendar.  He is a little sorry that he will not be able to observe the holy day with his brothers in Dar Pykos.  However, he is aware that the Sovereignty is not called the Sovereignty of Kettenek for no reason.One night, as the party finishes dinner around their campfire he asks Benedic what he knows of the Sovereigns.Benedic scratches his beard thoughtfully and stretches his feet out towards the fire.  “Well, I have to admit, generally when I’m in Sovereign lands, I try to have as little to do with the Sovereigns as possible.”“Why is that?” Anvil demands.“You’ve all seen their missionaries, right?”Heads nod all around, except for Reyu.“Ever try to talk to one of them?”Thatch ducks his head.  “Umm… I did once.  He cornered me in the market in Dar Pykos.  He was… kind of a fanatic.”Reyu frowns.  “I do not understand.”Benedic shifts slightly to find a more comfortable position on the hard ground.  “Well, here’s what I can tell you…”A sober silence greets Benedic’s conclusion, punctuated only by the crackling fire as Thatch banks it with a couple of large logs to keep the embers going through the night.Reyu shakes her head, but says nothing.  She does not understand how people can hold beliefs that are so obviously untrue.Finally, Lira breaks the silence.  “Great,” she says, taking the holy symbol of Ehkt she wears around her neck and dropping it down her blouse.  “People with two reasons to burn me at the stake.”</blockquote>

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