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The Battle for Tarithnesti (Part 2)

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07 Deepkolt 349 AC EN ROUTE TO TARITHNESTI Kysek triggers his wand of lightning. The bolt leaps from the enchanted baton and streaks through the air toward the rider atop the second dragon. The blast strikes an invisible field surrounding the rider and dissipates harmlessly. Dusk beats her wings rapidly, picking up speed as she heads straight toward the other dragon's rider. As she draws closer, the aura of terror that surrounds the wyrm's washes over her. Kysek the sense of impending doom that comes with facing such powerful creatures. The elf calls up the discipline developed over more than a century to steel his nerves. His griffon has no such tools to work with. Her eyes go wide with terror. She panics, breaking and diving toward the cover of the trees. The dragons bank, turning after their much smaller target. The first dragon exhales a poisonous cloud of gas. Dusk plunges straight into the caustic fumes. Kysek manages to cover his face and hands with his cloak, avoidi...

A Midsummer Night's Teddy Bear Picnic Where the Wild Things Are

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For your consideration... The Teddy Bear Picnic is the "domesticated" version of the Wild Rumpus. Once a year, on Midsummer's night, teddy bears and other stuffed toys come to life. Fur and claws, stitched smiles and button eyes, all come together in a fireside dance beneath the trees. An enormous moon shines down from above, bathing the world in silvery light. Drums and horns echo through the night - the rhythm becoming more frenzied, more feral with each passing hour. The Teddy Bears become larger and wilder, growing until they tower over their young wards, having become the Wild Things. Children who stumble upon the celebration are rarely harmed but are never the same afterward. They return to their homes, older, wiser, perhaps a bit more wild. They share stories that nobody believes. Those stories have some of the more fantastical elements edited out and are set to music, a nursery rhyme that becomes a song. The child, or children, are drawn into the Feywild. They be...

The Battle for Tarithnesti

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07 Deepkolt 349 AC EN ROUTE TO TARITHNESTI “Damnit! We’ve been tricked! A damn illusion!” Kysek shouts. “They know we’re coming! This was meant as a distraction and to give away our position! No matter! We’ve got this!” the elf adds. He brings Dusk back to the tree tops and turns an 45-degree angled path to the right of what his original trajectory was. He sticks to the trees and shadows of the forest intent on changing his arrival approach after being  duped into giving away his position. The two now fly for the city. No stopping; only watching for something that can actually attack. The forest rushes past in a blur of frost-covered trees. Needles and leaves are dragged along in Dusk's wake as the mighty griffon races along. Branches whip by, dangerously close as she weaves between bough and limb at a reckless pace. Kysek’s eyes dart to and fro, searching for enemies ahead. Bubo clings to his shoulder, the owl watches the sky and their back trail. For several tense minutes, the...

Road Trip to the Dragon Isles - Deep Shale Hold (Part 1)

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  03 Newkolt 349 AC Granite leads the group through the second half of the Cactus Forest. At times, progress is slow with the group having to dismount and lead Nightrend and the camels through spots where the path narrows dramatically. But the land changes once the group emerges from the narrow trails that wind through the towering succulents. Ahead, the land becomes less sand dunes and brush to exposed stone and jagged outcroppings as the group leaves Khur behind. Granite's focus seems to change. His eyes linger on formations of stone, his fingers trace exposed rock as if he is reading by touch. The open desert gives way to fallen rock, wide cracks, sinkholes leading down into the dark earth. The road snakes back and forth around all of these, in places, stone bridges - obviously built by dwarves and worn down over time - span the larger gaps. Phineas breaks the silence first, peering over the edge of one of the nearer drops. “So this is the Delving,” he says quietly. “Feels li...