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: 2104179" data-attributes="member: 5808">Part the One-Hundred Fifthor[size=+1]Twenty-One Days in the Ketkath[/size]Fade up Title Card: Day OneDissolve to:It’s a clear and sunny day in the Ketkath Mountains.  On a ridge above camp, Benedic stands, cloak blowing in the wind.  Silhouetted against the sky he cuts quite the dashing figure.At least, Lira thinks so.  Benedic reaches down and gives her a hand up, and the two of them take a moment to enjoy the view before returning to the others.Back at camp, Anvil is reapportioning pack-loads for their long journey across the mountains.  He catches Thatch staring at him as he takes Lira’s bedroll and puts it in the young fighter’s load.  “Kettenek’s Justice demands it,” he says, and goes off to make sure the fire has been thoroughly smothered.Thatch shoulders his pack, muttering about having to go all this way on foot.  They have horses, but no, better to just go on foot and return to Bob and the others later…Annika stifles a yawn and returns to her packing.Eva watches all of this impassively, hands tucked in her pockets, compulsively shuffling a deck of cards.  She notices Reyu returning from her morning prayers.  The elf takes in the business of camp with only a small sigh.Kiara is in swallow form, zipping around in a complex set of aerial maneuvers which culminate in a loop around Thatch’s head before turning into a girl once again.  She grabs Thatch by the arm, “Come on!  There are fish in the stream over here.  Do you think you can catch them?  Huh?”Before Thatch can try his arm at angling, Benedic and Lira return.  Benedic, obviously enjoying being back in guide mode, claps his hands and calls for the party’s attention.“Alright,” he begins, “I’ve got the lay of the land, and things are going to be a bit different from here on.  There’s no trail, and no settlements for miles around.  Of course, that doesn’t mean we’re alone.  All kinds of beasties live in these mountains.  Our best bet, keep to ourselves.  Don’t make too much noise.  We’ll keep a small fire at night, but we don’t want too much light either.  Most things ‘round here, we don’t bother them, hopefully, they won’t bother us.”The party nods their understanding.  Quickly, they finish breaking camp and head out into the wilderness.Day 2Anvil watches the ground ahead of him very carefully.  Kettenek’s Justice demands they take proper precautions in a strange land, and he has taken it upon himself to make sure that Thatch steps in the same places that Benedic did before him.Most of the time, Thatch is a little bit off.  Which causes him to nearly step on something that lies glinting on the ground.Anvil pauses to pick it up.  It’s a stone arrowhead.Benedic takes a look.  “Looks like something from the Old Ones, the natives that lived in the Ketkath before the Sovereigns came.  Not surprising, the Vale was a holy site for them too.  Probably a couple hundred years old.”Anvil pockets the object, and readjusts his pack straps.  He is still carrying the capstone the party found in Sheesak’s cave—dubbed by the rest of the party as “the big not-evil rock.”  After several weeks, the party still has no idea what to do with it, and Anvil has to admit that carrying around a fifty-pound stone does get a bit wearing, even if it is Kettenek’s element.“Look there!”  Reyu calls from the back of the marching order where she walks with Paws.Over the next ridge, an eagle soars across the sky.  Then, as the party watches, the bird suddenly dives down, targeting some unseen prey below.   But, as the bird dips below the horizon, the party members see that it was not beyond the next ridge, but beyond the next several ridges.  Thatch gapes.  “That bird must have been the size of a house!”Kirara, in swallow form, tucks into the side of Annika’s hood.Eva swallows, throat suddenly dry.“Well,” says Lira, “at least it’s far away.”The march resumes.</blockquote>

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