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: 2623797" data-attributes="member: 5808">Part the One-Hundred Sixty-FirstIn which: our heroes go from fire to water.After very lengthy prayers at noon, Manaal descends along with Lira and opens a gap in the wall of the tower so that the rest of the party can check on their horses and camels.Manaal also informs the party that she will aid them on their journey, transporting them to the Old Sea Road, a few days travel outside the port city of Nyarii, from which point the party can book passage to whatever locale they choose.  She also informs them, “Ehkt has spoken to me, and in accordance with His wishes, I will go to Dar Pykos and present myself to serve as Chancellor of your Academy.”There is a brief pause.  Most members of the party are pretty sure that they made it clear there were other candidates for the job.  No one decides to push the issue.“Umm…” Thatch begins, “will you be able to transport Bob too?”“Bob?”“My horse.”It’s funny.  Previous to that moment, Eva would not have thought it possible for Manaal to appear nonplussed, but Thatch’s question has clearly caught her off-guard.  On reflection, she supposes that Thatch often gets a that reaction to that particular question.After a brief pause, Manaal replies.  “I believe it would be possible.  However,” she adds preemptively, “if you wish to continue with your camels, you will have to travel on your own.”The party quickly agrees that the camels need not come with them.Instead, Reyu removes the camels’ harnesses and unloads the party’s gear that they had been carrying.  She then casts speak with animals.Head for water she tells them.  The camels look at her oddly, and choose not to dignify such obvious advice with a response.  Apparently, these camels are not a talkative bunch.Meanwhile, Anvil and Annika both cast detect magic and go through the remains of the Ebisite battalion.Annika is fascinated by one soldier’s body.  Although he was clearly immolated at high heat, his sword and armor are intact, and both radiate magic.“What kind of magic?” Thatch asks.Annika just shakes her head.  “I don’t know.  It’s just… magic.  Kind of like the magic weapon spell, I think, but that wouldn’t still be active after this long.”  Mindful of the Ebisite prohibitions against robbing the dead, Annika decides it is worth the risk to take the armor and sword and hide them away among the party’s equipment for further study later.Nearby, Anvil examines a horribly burned and maimed soldier who clutches the charred remains of what looks like a spellbook some kind of scepter topped with a large piece of onyx.  Anvil nearly overlooks the scepter because it has no magical aura.  However, remembering Manaal’s description of the Ebisite ambush, he looks again and notices that the scepter seems, on the contrary, to be almost aggressively non-magical.He finds another one on another body, and packs both away to be brought to the Temple of Justice upon his return.Manaal does not emerge again that day, and the party members—except for Lira who has remained inside—camp beneath the stars, for once not bothered by the warm nights in this part of the desert interior.  ###The next morning after dawn prayers, Lira gathers the last of her things and follows Manaal out of the tower to meet up with the rest of her friends.She never thought that stepping out into the desert in mid-morning would feel cool, but in comparison with the tower, it almost pleasant.  Not only is the outside air perceptively cooler, and unlike the still air inside, here there is a breeze.“Are you ready?” Manaal asks the party.  They indicate that they are and divide into two groups of roughly equal weight for the teleport.Thatch is with Kiara, Annika and Bob in the second group.  They cluster around Manaal, she raises her hands, and then…… the world is suddenly cooler.Thatch finds himself standing on a bit of dry-packed earth in the shade of an olive tree.  Just twenty feet behind him, is the Halmae.  Manaal indicates a rise just to the north.“The Old Sea Road is there,” she tells them, “it will lead you to Nyarii.”Anvil makes his farewells on behalf of the group.  “May Kettenek’s Justice be upon you,” he tells Manaal.“And thank you,” Lira adds.Manaal accepts both.  “I will see you in Dar Pykos,” she tells them.  “May the radiance of the Lord light your ways, consume your fears, and warm your souls.”  And she disappears in a flash of white.  There is a moment of silence as the party members watch the spot she vanished from.Then, nearly as one, they drop their things and bolt for the water, splashing and whooping as they go.</blockquote>

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