The Road Not Taken

Rya and Safad came to in the smoky cave-shrine, Whudry shaking them gently awake. It smelled of roasted quail and frying mushrooms. Qaan, the merchant, was stirring the pan over the fire's embers. 

Whudry spoke, "Morning, sir, madame half-elf -- dawn has broken over the Moor and with it better light. Smitty and Pileson searched high and low for Dirk and your friends, but no sign of them. There were some tracks and sign of struggle, but then nothing. Must be that dragon got them."

Fools, Safad thought. A convincing illusion to be sure, plaudits to Ms. Rezna, but they should have figured by now it just does not make sense. Rook concurred. Rya smiled at the power of her sorcery. 

"It's a shame," Whudry continued, "Dirk was a good man and a fine Ranger. Pileson has left an offering to his goddess Mielekki and prayed to Torm for his soul's safe passage. He prayed for your curious friends as well. We were trying to make it to the Mootscarp by Tenday Market, so we're going to be on our way. You say you are coming from that way, can you point us on the right trail? We've lost our guide, see." 

And we've lost three of our companions, it seems, Rook's voice echoed in Rya and Safad's minds. 

What should we do? 

The sorcerers provided helpful tips for the Mootscarp-goers and Whudry gave them a letter of introduction to his father, the Earl of Farthington, in Dragonspear. They went their separate ways, with Rya and Safad deciding better to wait for their companions at their destination than in some hidden cave on the Moor. They set off. 

The first three days travel were uneventful after the storm, with the duo planning out their research, salivating over the prospect of the knowledge to be had at Melarn's Door. The fourth day was stranger. 

They came upon a pregnant human teenage girl, strung up in a tree, with some Hark goblins eating nearby. Rya lightning bolt'd em. Safad fireballed em. Dead. The girl screamed. They let her down from the tree. She kept screaming. They heard the thunderous sound of many booted feet approaching. She kept screaming. Safad tried to tackle her to stop. She said, "fools, let me reach my exultation! I have been trained for this!" 

A swarm of Hark goblins burst through the thicket and Safad blasted a fireball before misty stepping away, while Rya thunder stepped away. Large swaths of Hark were slain. They kept running with many Hark in pursuit. They sent an illusory version of themselves in a different direction. Still, at least twenty Hark gave chase. Eventually they reached a boiling lake and saw a strange island near the shore. They blasted another fireball, killing all the goblins in pursuit, and hopped on the island.

But it was not an island. 

It was Dartajon, the Dragon Turtle, who introduced himself as the guardian of the Boiling Lake. He would ferry them across the lake so long as they provided a gemstone for his collection. Otherwise it would take much longer to circumnavigate. With Hark goblins still out there, they quickly produced Malar's catseye black diamond, and Dartajon obliged. 

The ferry ride was pleasant. They conversed with Dartajon in Draconic and learned he dreamt of flying and asked them to describe the birds that lived on the trees growing out of his back. They did so. They also told him they were headed to Melarn's Door and he told them his old friend was Melarn, who hadn't been round in many years. The three of them got on well. It was a nice ride. He delivered them safely across the lake. 

From there, they traveled another few miles before encountering a beautiful campus. Stones quarried from the coast built up in soaring cathedral-like buildings: a great hall with two adjacent dormitories; a large inn; a squat, serious building; a number of small cottages outlying; and at the center of it all the most impressive building, a flying-buttressed, many leveled edifice, that could only be the library. 

As they approached the manicured lawn and pebble-lined walkways, they heard a bell ringing and many varied-looking peoples swarming the great hall. A rough-looking dwarf approached them, and said politely, "Are yeh staying at Becky's then?"