Editing Fontainver (section)

==Dangerous Plains==

After catching our breath for a moment, we set the prisoner free, watching him run off to the south, and then walked along the road in the same direction. Silanna's dragon was, she told us, scouting ahead and above so we should get some warning if there was anything ahead of us. The journey was quite peaceful, and we kept going until it was dark and we had to rest for the night.

Tak didn't seem to need any sleep, and again offered to watch over us, and so it was he that awakened us in the night we he heard footsteps. It was a party of Drow, but they passed us by, as we had deliberately moved away from the road to rest. We settled down to rest again, though, anticipating that they would be back soon. We were right, and they were moving far more quickly - probably because they had discovered the dam was no longer there! After they had passed to the south, we followed behind, and I allowed Silanna to carry me so that we could match their pace to see where they were headed.

The forest began to thin after a while, and shortly afterwards the Drow fired a flaming arrow into the air. After a short pause, a trumpet blast answered the signal. A few massive wolves came bounding up to greet the Drow, which was concerning. After a while they started to move back up the road, and we knew that they would pick up our scent quickly and track us. We moved back to put some distance between us, but as we predicted the wolves (Wargs, according to Tak, because they were too big for wolves) easily outpaced us once they had the scent.

All we could do was to set an ambush, hoping that we could deal with the wargs quickly. We didn't have long to wait, and as soon as the first warg came into view, I sent a flechette into it. It yelped, and they bound forward quickly towards me, although Silanna felled the one I had struck with a well placed arrow. Tak managed to put an arrow into the next one, but then they were on us and it was just a mad melee of (for me anyway) snarling tooth-filled jaws. Somehow I managed to dodge their attacks, possibly because I was small and they were getting in each other's way, and landed a decent blow before Tak finished one off from its flank. Tak seemed quite excited by the kill, which was out of character... although perhaps we didn't know him as well as we thought. I finished the other one off, glad to have somehow escaped unscathed, and the Drow hadn't reached us yet, so our plan had worked so far.

The Drow had seen us finish off their pets, and had formed a line to pepper us with arrows. Tak was urging us back, but I was too exposed to make it to cover so I ran forward instead, firing a sleep capsule at the Drow. One dropped, but the rest returned fire; one arrow grazed my leg, and Tak was able to dodge and deflect one away from his body. I finished closing the distance to engage in melee, and the others joined me moments later. Tak struck first, although it was just a glancing blow and he was stabbed in return. I took some slight wounds from the Drow swords, but Tak struck again and I was able to follow up, gutting one foe. Meanwhile Silanna conjured a spray of coloured lights that caused two to collapse unconscious, which left us unopposed.

We knew that the three we had knocked out between us wouldn't stay that way for long, so we had to hurry. As we turned and began to move, though, one came to and shot me in the back! I used my mind to heal the wound, but the others started to stir as well, so we were once again committed to battle. Silanna was hit twice before she could find her mark, but when she did it was a killing blow. We were both wounded again, although not as badly, before she finished another one off - her strength and accuracy made for a lethal combination! The last one turned and ran and, despite my giving chase and shouting obscenities at him, he managed to get away. Tak was going on about how we should be the better people and let them go if they retreat, blah blah. Yeah, if I ever see the bastard that shot me in the back again I'm going to fuck him over whether he's facing the right way or not!

I healed some of Silanna's wounds, as she had been hurt badly, and we moved away from the road into the forest to the east. After half a mile or so we turned south and approached the edge of the treeline, where we paused while Cassandra flew ahead and took a look for us. For as far as could be seen from here there were just rolling plains to the south, but more sinister was a large stone tower to the west, near where the road would have taken us. We walked back west to get a better look, again relying on Cassandra to see any threat before we got too close. We were not at all surprised to find that there were Drow stationed at the tower, with guards on the top and by the doors at the base. What we weren't expecting, though, was the seriously tough looking black-clad figure that was walking up the road towards the forest. He sounded as hard as rock from the description Silanna relayed to us, so we classified him under "fuck no" and decided to head back east.

Once we were happy that we were a good distance from the tower, we rested so that we could wait until nightfall to start crossing the plain. Tak had heard stories of a great monastery in the mountains to the west, called Vorsaykorai, and he suggested that we headed there to see if we could find any more allies. Once it was dark we struck out south, aiming to turn west once we were far enough from the tower to feel safe. We hadn't reckoned on the terrain, though, as there were no tracks and the hard scrub slowed us down. By the time light came before dawn, we could still see the tower and we decided to find some low ground and try to rest so as not to be seen moving.

The weather had been deteriorating, and there was a drizzle of rain and a grey sky by now, so my spirits were a bit low. Tak seemed to love all things water, though, and this seemed to include the rain. Once again Tak was on watch, and sometime in the night he woke us to warns that there was something moving in the dark. We gathered our things and started to move, trying to be stealthy. I felt some odd vibrations, and when we got close enough to see the warmth of the things we could see them checking the ground as if listening for us. We tried throwing stones, and loosing an arrow, but there was a ring of them and they kept closing in until eventually one discovered Silanna and we were forced to fight.

Thankfully they weren't that tough in the end; Tak killed two, trying to get Silanna away before more arrived. They were quick once they had a prey, though, and they had no chance of evading them. Silanna killed two more with a couple of well placed shots, and the few left decided to run. We felt a bit guilty that we were forced to kill them, but they hadn't left us much choice. As we were already up we continued our journey south, and the rain thankfully abated slightly. As it got light again, we could see that the ground was sloping down ahead of us, and there were no mountains in sight anywhere, so we turned west.

At the end of the day we rested again, collecting water using my bivvie sheet to refill some of our skins. The next day the rain eased off and we came across a road crossing our path. It didn't look ancient, but it was well made and had signs of use, probably linking back with the tower to the north. As we continued west, the terrain started to change from heavy peatland to grassy plains, which made for easier going. That day passed without incident, although when we rested for the night Tak saw some lights at what he assessed to be quite far off to the south and east. He also heard something moving to our north, but as we were not disturbed directly he let them go and we awoke fairly well rested for once.

We continued in the morning until we reached an area where the land started to fall away, revealing a vast plain with a river far below us, and finally we could see mountains in the distance. We continued towards the valley, noticing that there was a road not far from the river that had a number of black blobs moving along it, which made us wary. As we were taking this in, a number of flying creatures rose over the edge where the land fell away, swooping towards us. Before we could really react they had lifted us up with their talons, which dug painfully into our shoulders. I managed to fire a flechette into the one that lifted me, so I knew it was hurt, but even then my first stab at it wasn't enough to make it drop me. Silanna asked Cassandra to help her, and the little dragon fished out a potion for her, which she imbibed and disappeared! She wasn't invisible, though, as the creature seemed agitated and its talons couldn't find anything to get a purchase on.

My second stab up at the beast above me finally killed it, and I used my mind to slow my fall so that I could land safely below, it's crumpled body impacting a short distance away. I saw Tak a short distance away, held fast, but it looked like he had passed out. With no sign of Silanna that meant I was the only target! Sure enough, I was grabbed and lifted again and although I dub my weapon into it deeply, it wouldn't let go. My vision blurred with the pain and I passed out. Meanwhile Cassandra was rooting around in Tak's backpack, and found the ring I had given him for safe keeping. Not knowing what else to do, she put it on Tak's finger, which revived him instantly!

Tak grabbed a wing of the beast, forcing it to descend until it slowly collided with ground and he was able to get free. He was immediately set upon, though, and one claw of another creature dug into his shoulder. Cassandra came to the rescue again, though, stinging Tak's attacker with her tail and causing it to collapse instantly. Tak ran and leapt into the air, aiming to bring down the creature that was trying to gain height with me suspended below it. It dropped me, surprised and in pain as Tak dug his blades into it for purchase, but then Cassandra stung it and it fell heavily to the floor, taking Tak with it.

The other flying creatures fled, so we were safe for the moment. Tak was able to revive me with one of his blessings, sprinkling quite a bit of saltwater over me in the process, but there was still no sign of Silanna. Cassandra seems to be somersaulting in mid-air, trying to get our attention, though, so we followed her to a spot not far away, but didn't find anything there. Cassandra seemed to settle down there, though, content to wait it seemed, so we decided that we would do the same. After nearly an hour we were discussing perhaps having to leave without Silanna, when suddenly she appeared out of nowhere! It was quite miraculous, but apparently the potion had turned her into a gaseous form and she had been forced to float around until the effect had worn off. She did offer us some healing ointment to tend to our wounds, though, which was very welcome.

We looked again at the ridge we were approaching, seeing that there were more of the flying things along it in places. We could also see that the area around the river below was quite brown, which put us in mind of the mud monsters we had encountered a few days ago. We decided to stay well away from the valley and the edge where the flying things could be found, and instead give it a wide berth whilst skirting north, aiming to move around to the mountains on the far side. Cassandra did occasionally look over the ridge to see what was there, in case any threat approached from within. A few hours later, though, Silanna told us that Cassandra had got very excited about something on the ground up ahead.

She had, apparently, found a short person and something about them had made her very happy. As we got closer, it turned out that Cassandra had got so excited because the creature had some shiny gems on him, and she liked to eat them! The creature was very short, even for me, and went by the name "Calinn". There were many of his kind that lived here, and he seemed friendly enough once Silanna had got Cassandra a little under control. Tak asked about Vorsaykorai, and we were all shocked to hear that the huge basin beside us where the land fell away is where the monastery used to be - the whole mountain had been destroyed in the great upheaval, and we were about a hundred years too late to find it! He did offer a ray of hope, though... apparently there were still monks and gnomes to be found in the mountains. He did speak my people's language, although a little roughly, but I was most surprised to find that Silanna spoke it too! The creature was suspicious of my heritage, though, although I think I managed to placate him by telling him I had escaped from Yarlug and the stink of the creatures there must have come with me.

We were able to barter for food and water, which we were running low on again, although it meant that Silanna had to give up all of her remaining gems. We continued in better spirits, stopping to rest for the night just as we began to make out the line of a forest to the north of us and as we were starting to turn west. In the morning we continued, and were soon turning back towards the mountains. The dawn light was bathing them in a red light, which was slightly ominous. Were those there stuck in the past, as Tak said they might be? Did they need to be brought into a new life in the light to the east?