IC: Fort Bones

You have definitely crossed over into the Talenta Plains.

The halflings in front of you seem to accept your words. One of them, riding a larger creature than the others, kicks his beast forward. As he approaches, you can see in the dim light that his body is more muscled and grizzled than the others. He wears a mask that must be twice as large as his actual head. The wood of it is carved in a fearsome scream, rivulets of blood carved from the eyes and teeth.

In a surprisingly deep voice, the figure says, "You hunt the diggers? They trespass on our land, past your border. They have refused our requests to leave and have slain one of our kin who delivered our ultimatum. If you wish for them to survive, you must take them back to your lands before the sun sets again."

Tugging on the reins, he coaxes his mount to take a couple hesitant steps toward you. You can smell the sickly sweet smell of a carnivore as it approaches. The halfling leans towards you from his seat and continues ominously, "Should you fail, we will descend upon their camp and slay anyone there, carrying their bodies away for our beasts to eat."

The halfling stares at you blankly for several seconds before nodding choppily and pulling on his mount's reins. In his own language, he barks several commands and the others fade into the dark around you. He looks back at you and says, "Come."

The way through the tall grass is slow and tense, at first. Then, as time passes, it gets to be monotonous. Several times, you glance over and catch Vencerin mid yawn as he plods through the grass, following your guide.

Later, as you get close to the crest of a hill, your guide stops and turns back. "They are just over this hill. You know what you must do and how fast." Without another word, he gives a low whistle and his beast darts off into the grass in another direction.

The grass on the top of the hill glows with reflected dim yellow light.

The pair of you creep up to the hill's crest and peer down into the low valley created by the high hills. You see a makeshift camp with a dig site into the side of one of the hills. The camp is lit all around with a few torches throwing dim light around. You see soldiers standing around... something. An officer and another figure in robes stand in the center of the circle and you can hear low voices on the wind.

Vencerin nods slowly and whispers back, "More that you and I can take if things turn ugly."

As the pair scurries down the hill, one of the group turns toward them, hearing the rustling of the grass over the chanting by the rest of the group. The figure leans forward a little bit, as if having difficulty seeing the source of the noise outside the torchlight illuminating the group. Turning back to face the center of the circle, the figure shouts, "Now!" and the others raise their voices, crying out in the language of magic. Tendrils of dark light begin to reach up toward the dark sky from the center of their circle, dancing in a non-existent breeze.

With a crack, the dark light flashes, leaving odd purple after images on Rocha's eyes. As soon as Rocha's eyes clear, they can see that the members of the circle are all either on their backs, kneeling on the ground or staggering away. In the center, rises a large collection of bones, moving of its own accord. A long neck lengthens and arches back as a jagged jaw opens up in a silent scream. Bony wings stretch out from its back and a long bony tail thrashes around.

Vencerin gasps, and says, too loud, "Is that what I think it is?"

Everything from her reading, children's stories and random factoids picked up throughout her life scream at Rocha that this is indeed a dragon. Fleshless, yes, but still a dragon.

One of the members of the circle picks themselves up from the ground and plants their feet firmly on the ground and shouts at the skeletal dragon, "We brought you up, you will obey us!" The dragon seems momentarily taken aback, then its head shoots forward on its long neck and the jagged jaws close on the figure, ripping the top half of the body from the bottom half.

The rest of the circle cry out in fear and surprise and scatter, scrabbling their way away from the skeleton dragon as quickly as they can.

Everyone forgets about the noise one of their number heard.

Chaos reigns for a time as the skeletal dragon stomps around, ripping up tents, equipment and people with abandon. Then, without warning, it spreads its bony wings and levitates into the air in a widening spiral and disappears into the darkness.

The remaining few people are shocked by your sudden appearance and all appear cowed, except for one. He stands in defiance of your orders and looks over towards you...... and when he sees you and Vencerin walking towards the group, the color drains from his face. "What... what are you doing here?" he calls out, his voice cracking from his nerves.

Malkov stops as Rocha finishes speaking and his shoulders fall slightly. He slowly shakes his head, not so much in denial but in disbelief. "I gave so much for my country, I did so much, bled so much. And this is how I'm repaid?" His voice is soft, barely above a whisper, but seems to carry through the entire clearing.

Slowly, he turns to look at Rocha, a fire lit behind his eyes. Fanatacism. It's not the first time you've seen it ignite stupid actions in an individual. "You are outnumbered. You cannot bring me in."