You in Felarya III

Given that they both could see in the dark now, Doug shut off the flashlight and took off the sunglasses. He went over to the crate Brent was looking through, and took a look at the sword. After a moment, he began looking around in the crate himself “No, you keep it,” Doug said, “All I really know about swords is pointy end away from user. I’ve done a little archery though, and I’m a pretty good shot. Let me see here…Aha!” He proclaimed, pulling out a large, recurve bow and a quiver of arrows. “This should do for me.”

He went about looking through some of the other crates, but then stopped a moment. “Brent, I just had a disturbing thought,” Doug said, “This stuff has been here a long time, but I imagine it would be valuable. Particularly those scrolls. But why hasn’t this place been looted clean yet?”

Brent smiled as Doug said to keep the sword, and said, "Thanks!" as he put it in the scabbard, and attached the scabbard to his belt buckle.

As Doug asked him why he thought this place hadn't been looted, he replied. "That's a good question. Either nobody ever thought of looking through this place, which I find improbable, or...someone's guarding this place...and if that's the case...whoever guards this place knows we're in here."

“Yeah, our entrance was hardly subtle,” Doug said. “I’m going to go up and check on the suburban for a moment.” Slinging the bow and quiver over one shoulder, and putting his sunglasses back on, he climbed up the stairs back to the dining hall.

The light shining in through the door and windows was nearly blinding to him, even with the sunglasses. However, he endured it for a moment as he looked around. Initially, all was as it was, overturned and broken tables, pieces of clay flatware and cups scattered about, and the suburban waiting before the doorway.

At first he didn’t notice it because of the blinding light, but as his eyes adjusted, he saw the doorway was blocked off. Something had built a spiderweb over the entrance. Looking around, he saw that every window big enough to climb through was also webbed over. Shaken, Doug descended the stairway again.

“Bad news, Brent,” Doug said. “We’ve been trapped in this building. All the exits have this spider web over them. I think we drove into a dridder’s trap.”

"...Oh. I see." Dread began to settle on Brent, who shuffled his feet nervously, now realizing that they were probably going to become a dridder's meal. "So...now what do we do? Or more importantly, if we're in a dridder trap, where's the dridder?"

-------------------------

As she was waiting for a reply from Alris, Narin then smelt what seemed like a dridder and human scent. She got up as she said, "I'm sorry to end this conversation so abrutly, but I think your friends might be in danger." She then flew towards the ruins that Doug had drove into.

"Let's go help 'em!" Daniel yelled. Alris went to his human/dragon hybrid form and sped off towards the group. "BIOMECH ARMOR, ENGAGE!!" Daniel roared as he entered his heavily-armed specialty armor.

“I don’t know,” Doug said, visibly rattled. He began walking back and forth in the stockpile. “Well, the dridder could never fit in here,” Doug said at length. “She’s probably outside somewhere, waiting for us to try and escape through the web and get caught. There’s no food or water in here, so we have to get out sometime.”

“Where she is exactly, I don’t know. But the suburban could probably ram through one of the webs. It would get slowed down, though. I’d rather find a weak portion of the wall. She would be less likely to be waiting there,” Doug said, speaking rapidly as he paced back and forth. “Brent, I say we load up every spell that could be useful in escaping, find one to blast a hole in the wall, and make a run for it in the suburban. Once we escape the ruins, we make a beeline for Daniel and his friends.” Doug abruptly stopped pacing and gathered up a large armful of the magical scrolls. Climbing up the stairs, he put them into the back of the suburban. (Fortunately, his dark vision was starting to wear off, and the light was more bearable.)

(((Dan, could you let Brent and I escape from the ruins before saving us? I kinda want to have a car chase through the ruins first.)))

((Sure.))

Hearing Doug's plan, Brent nodded and began to look and see what kinds of spells they could use. He took the sword and scabbard along with as many spells as he could muster up, and headed towards the suburban to put them in the back. As he looked through a scroll called 'The Enchantment of Fulmination', Brent began to think to himself, "What the heck is fulmination?" when the voice from earlier addressed Brent, saying, "The enchantment of fulmination shall allow thee to create a violent explosion, which shall bring about thine liberation from this dridder's trap. However, this spell can only be used once, so use it wisely. Furthermore, the sword that thou hast chosen is harmonious to the spells that thou hast found, along with the archery of thine friend. Use these weapons well."

After the voice had finished, he went over to Doug, saying, "Hey, Doug, after looking over these spells, I just found out that these weapons are compatible with these spells. Here, watch." He then took out an ice spell, and as the voice read the scroll, an aura began to form around the sword. After the voice finished reading the scroll, the sword then glowed with a blue aura. "Anyway, I also found this scroll called the enchantment of fulmination, which is supposed to make an explosion. With that being said, I've got an idea. I'd be at the back of the suburban with the back hatch open. You could use this scroll on your bow and arrow, and then fire said arrow at the wall, which would then give us a way to escape. As the dridder's is chasing us, I'll use a scroll to enchant my sword, and then use the spell to help us keep a distance between us and the dridder. What do you think?"

“Right, sound’s like out best shot,” Doug said taking the scroll. “Just hold on once I get going.” Taking a moment to glance at all the windows, Doug could see no sign of the dridders. Shrugging, he got into the suburban, and turned on the engine. Keeping an eye on the windows, Doug turned the suburban around to point at one of the walls far from the main entrance. He put it in park, got out, and readied his bow.

“Are you ready Brent?” Doug asked, putting a glove on one hand. He notched an arrow, then opened the scroll. Again the voice spoke, reading the mysterious words. However, this time, the words faded away after the voice uttered them. A malevolent glow began to build on the arrowhead of the notched arrow.

“Here goes nothing,” Doug said to himself. Aiming at the wall, he drew the enchanted arrow. Out of the corner of his eye, Doug saw a massive, spider leg quickly cross over one of the windows. Doug fired, and the arrow sped forward. There was a flash of light and a deafening peal like thunder. Outside of the building, there was a loud shriek.

Even before the dust had settled, Doug jumped back into the driver’s seat, threw it into drive, and floored the gas. The suburban shot forward, jolting as it drove over the ruins of the wall. Shooting out into open, Doug noticed that they drove into shade. Looking up, he saw the massive form of the dridder’s body above them. The dridder jumped startled at the vehicle driving under it, and turned to face them, clearly annoyed. Doug, however, didn’t wait, but sped down one of the narrow streets between rows of abandoned buildings. The dridder pursued them, reaching a hand down for the fleeing suburban.

"Yeah, I'm ready when you are!" he said as he saw Doug put the enchanted arrow in the bow. As the enchanted arrow hit the wall, making that section of the wall explode, Brent held on tight as Doug shot the car through the hole in the wall. He looked up to see the dridder giving chase as Doug drove as fast as he could.

Not wanting to be rude, Brent smiled and waved to the dridder who was attempting to grab them, and then took his sword that had been enchanted with the ice spell from earlier, and dragged it's blade on the ground, leaving a field of ice in it's wake. Seeing the blue aura vanish, Brent then looked through the box in the car seat behind him which contained all the scrolls they found, and pulled out a random scroll, and opened it, revealing it to be the 'Enchantment of Electrocution.' The voice then read off the scroll, the words glowing, as Brent's sword began to glow with a yellow aura and cackle with electricity.

As she reached for the fleeing vehicle, one of the dridder’s huge spider legs stepped on the sheet of ice that Brent had created. The leg slipped out and gouged into a building. Imbalanced, the dridder fell to the ground, crushing another building with her great bulk and sending up a plume of dust. While she was down, Doug sped ahead, trying to put as much distance in between them and the dridder.

The dridder rose from the destroyed building, her face distorted into an angry scowl. She flexed with all eight of her legs and leaped into the air, her shadow passing overhead. The dridder landed with a crash in front of the vehicle, her legs spearing through several more of the buildings. With a hungry smile, she reached down for the suburban again.

Doug slammed on the brakes and turned as hard as he could, but the car shuddered as the dridder grabbed hold of the back end of the suburban. She lifted the back end of the vehicle slightly off the ground, causing the rear wheels to spin uselessly in midair.

Brent smiled as he watched the dridder slip and fall on the ice. 'Well, that should keep some distance between us.' he thought to himself. However, the victory was short-lived as the dridder hopped over them and dropped in front of them. "Oh, you've got to KIDDING me!!!" he yelled as the dridder grabbed the back of the suburban. He then plunged the sword into the dridder's hand, sending a million jolts of electricity into the dridder's body.

The dridder screamed and let go. The moment the wheels hit the ground again, Doug floored it, and with a squealing of tires the suburban shot off again. Behind them the dridder cursed and held her burnt hand. She looked up at the suburban again, all thoughts of making a meal of them forgotten. The look on her face made it plain she would settle for simply killing them.

During her few moments of hesitation, the suburban had gotten far ahead. She ran quickly to try to catch up, but Doug turned onto a large road relatively free of debris, and sped the suburban up to it’s full speed. Glaring daggers at the suburban, the dridder stopped and stooped a moment. She grasped a building in her hands and tore it from the ground.

“Dear God…” Doug said, paling as he looked in the rear view mirror. He saw the dridder lifting the building above her head. The suburban finally came to the edge of the ruins, and Doug saw that the black feathered harpy and Alris (not to mention a robot from who knows where) coming there way. He veered in their direction and honked his horn, hoping to get their attention.

"YES!!!!" Brent yelled as the dridder let go of the suburban. "Score one for the good guys!!" As they sped away from the dridder, Brent breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that they were safe from the dridder. Then she picked up the building. "Aw, crap." He then noticed the harpy from earlier, Alris, and...a robot coming up. 'Thank goodness! The calvary's here!!' he thought as they came up.

------------------------------

Narin scanned the ground, looking to see where the humans were. She heard the horn honking and saw the suburban, and the dridder picking up the building to kill them. Her eyes narrowed at the dridder, and she then charged the dridder, and knocked out one of the dridder's arms, causing the building the dridder was holding to collapse on top of it.

Energy began gathering at the gem in the center of Daniel's armor's chest. He was charging to use an attack. In the meanwhile, he was letting loose with his twin arm guns and the shoulder-mounted missile racks.

Narin quickly moved out of the way so that the missiles would hit the dridder and not her.

As Brent watched the fight, he looked at Doug, and asked, "Um...should we stop? I think we're safe now."

Gradually, Doug stopped the suburban and put in park. He leaned back into the drivers seat and breathed a sigh of relief, wiping a hand across his brow. He glanced back at the dridder, but between the harpy's attack and the missiles, she had no more fight left in her. As he watched, the dridder turned tail and began running as fast as her eight legs could carry her. “I’m ready to leave now,” Doug said to no one in particular as he rested.

Seeing the dridder turn tail, Narin flew over to the two humans in the suburban. "Are you okay? You two look like that dridder chased you for quite a ways. You're fortunate to be alive."

"I know. We're fine, thanks to your help. I'm Brent, pleasure to meet you!" Brent said, looking up at the harpy.

"I'm Narin. Pleasure to meet you as well." She then looked at Doug and asked, "And you are?"

Doug heard someone asking if they were okay, and Brent responding, but he didn’t see who it was asking them. He was busy just catching his breath. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Just give me some time to get my heart rate back-Holy heck!!” Doug shouted surprised as the harpy suddenly leaned down to look at him through the windshield. He practically jumped out of the drivers seat and banged his head hard on the roof of the suburban.

Holding his head in both hands, he stumbled out of the suburban and sat down on the grass. “Ouch. Don’t ever do that to me again please,” He groaned. “Sorry. I’m Doug,” He said after a moment, then felt his head again. “Yup, just my luck, I’m getting a goose egg.”

Daniel looked at everyone through the lens over his eye. "It seems that no one is injured."

Narin tensed as Doug jumped from seeing her. "Sorry about that. Won't happen again." She looked back at Daniel and said, "Yeah, everyone's fine. Luckily so."

As Brent looked up to the sky for a bit, he asked, "So...what do we do now?"

“It’s quite alright. I just didn’t expect you, that’s all,” Doug said, holding the bump on his head. He patted one of the toes of the harpy, noting that it was as large as his waist. “I’ve only gotten here this morning, and my life has already been threatened. You can understand why I’d be a little bit jumpy.”

“As for what to do, does anyone recognize those ruins. That is why we came here originally,” Doug said, leaning back on the harpy’s toe and still holding the bump on his head. “And does anyone have any ice?”

"Ah, I see. I understand completely." Narin said, smiling at Doug as he sat back on her toe. "As for these ruins, I wasn't aware that these were of importance. I just pass by here every so often to look for food."

"I'm afraid I don't know if these are exactly important either, Doug." Brent replied. "I don't think these are Ur-Sagol ruins, because I think the buildings would tower over us. I think this is just a ghost town...nothing more. As for ice..." Brent then noticed a stream beside them, and got an idea.

He rummaged through the box containing the spells, looking for the ice spell from earlier. "Where'd I put that scroll...ah! Here it is!!" After opening it up, the voice read off the scroll again, the words glowing, and the sword forming a blue aura again. As the spell finished, Brent placed his sword in the stream, freezing the water around it. He then took the sword out, and plunged it into the ice, causing it to crack. Brent repeated this process until he broke away some of the ice. Grabbing a considerably large chunk of ice, he walked over to Doug and gave him the piece of ice. "Here you go, Doug." He then sat in between the groove of Narin's toes, and placed one arm on her toe like an armrest, while he used his other arm to idly stroke the feathers on Narin's leg.

“Thanks a million, Brent,” Doug said. He got up and got a small cloth from the suburban, wrapped the ice in it, and put it against the bump on his head.

“As for the ruins, they’re only important as a landmark. I was just hoping to find out where we were exactly,” Doug said, sitting back down. He rubbed his eyes with his free hand. “You know, you’re awfully tolerant of us. I mean, we just met and here I am leaning against the foot of a giant harpy, a species that normally considers us a delicacy. No offense, I’m just curious, that’s all.

“And I never did thank you for saving our lives. We’ve been incredibly lucky so far, to have met first Alris and Arrayya, then you.” Doug paused and rubbed his eye again. “And I’m rambling…I don’t know about you Brent, but I’m dog tired. I think I’m going on twenty four hours so far without sleep. Adrenaline can only go so far. It was night when I was brought here. But heck, it’s only mid afternoon now.”

“And I’m rambling again. Brent, if we’re going anywhere else today, you’re driving. I feel like I could fall asleep right here.”

"No problem." said Brent, now looking at Narin, who was smiling down at them, and he wondered if she was at least the slightest bit annoyed by their settling down on her foot. She didn't seem to mind though, as she wasn't moving her talon out from underneath them or anything of the sort.

"Oh, it's nothing. You guys were in trouble. I just wanted to help you out. As for the whole tolerance thing, I'm used to being around beings smaller than myself. Besides, I don't eat humans. I eat dead things." A light bulb then flashed in Brent's head. 'Wow, I am stupid. Her feathers, her name, her eating habits...why didn't I figure this out earlier?! She's the harpy I created for the RP sessions on the Felarya forums!! Man, this is weird. I never thought I'd be resting in between the toes of a harpy I thought was completly fictitious...' His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Narin say, "Hey, are you okay?" He answered with, "Oh, I'm fine. I was just thinking about something."

He turned his head towards Daniel, Alris, and Arrayya, saying, "Thanks for y'all's help, too. I don't think we would've survived without it." Hearing what Doug said, he thought about whether they should go somewhere else or not. "Eh, I don't think we should go anywhere for now. I mean, if we don't exactly know WHERE we are, it'd be kind of pointless to just galavant around. On another note, I really don't feel like going anywhere right now." he said as he leaned back against the harpy's foot, looking up to the sky, and folding his hands behind his neck.

Seeing Brent's behavior, Narin thought it'd be nice to do the same. She carefully sat down and lied on her back, spreading her black wings out on the ground. She kept one knee folded so that the foot that Doug and Brent were leaning on wouldn't change position, while she spread her other leg out.