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.Most of the people in the region who survived the initial onslaught fled as best they could.Many died in their exodus, and the rest found themselves unwanted refugees in far kingdoms that had their own disasters to deal with.According to Cynosure, only the hardiest explorers dared the great frontier these days.Hideous, plaguechanged monsters haunted dark ravines.Ruins of cities devastated and deserted lay broken along old trade roads, near drained lake and river basins, and scattered in broken bits and pieces along the sides of newly birthed landforms.The sentient golem noted that Ormpetarr had arguably weathered the transition better than any other in the region.Raidon stood north of Ormpetarr’s battered, leaning gates, taking in the view from a rise in the rutted, weedy path once called the Golden Road.A moment earlier, he had been west of Nathlan, but the sentient golem of Stardeep “transferred” Raidon through a starry medium in the space of a heartbeat.His ears rang—the trip had been much rougher than the previous time the golem transported him.Many of Ormpetarr’s ancient brass spires, famed for their ability to reflect the setting sun like flame, now lay broken and strewn down the rocky side of a steep precipice.The precipice separated the surviving neighborhoods of the city from a permanent, eye-watering cloud of color that churned south away from the city like the old Nagawater used to.This was the Plague-wrought Land, a pocket where active spellplague still cavorted and contorted land, law, magic, and the flesh of any creature that entered.“You are certain people remain in this ruin?” Raidon inquired of the air, his gaze caught by the nausea-inducing area beyond the city.No reply.“Cynosure?”The effigy had warned the monk that moving him so far across Faerûn would exhaust its energies for a time.Apparently, the golem was so drained it could no longer maintain simple communication.“I pray you did not overextend yourself,” Raidon murmured, on the chance Cynosure could still hear him.The construct had provided some background on the area, but he was on his own to learn what mattered most.Raidon walked south, down the road to the gates.A one-armed dwarf appeared in the gap between the two leaning gateposts.The dwarf wore chain mail half gone to rust.He cradled a stout crossbow on one shoulder with his single limb, sighting down its length at Raidon.Apparently the dwarf was well practiced making do with one hand.The dwarf called out, “Beg your pardon, traveler! Sorry to bother ye this fine spring day, but please stand still a moment, eh?”Raidon paused.He stood some twenty feet from the gate.The dwarf grinned through a beard whose tangles competed in size and intricacy with its braids.He said, “That’s a good fellow, eh? We don’t get many visitors, and those we do get are not always polite, if ye know what I mean.”Raidon replied, “I am no outlaw ruffian.Will you let me pass? I have business in Ormpetarr.”“What remains of Ormpetarr, you mean,” chuckled the dwarf.“I can see ye are no ravening beast, and better still, ye can speak, which argues all the more for what ye claim.Well then, I suppose I should ask after what brings ye here, and charge the customary fee?”Raidon silently hoped the dwarf wasn’t courteously trying to rob him.He said, “An old companion of mine came here not long after the Spellplague.I seek to find what trace I can of her.”“Mmmm, hmmm,” grunted the gate warden, his curly eyebrows raised to a skeptical height.“Why’d she come here?”“I hope to discover that.”“Scar pilgrimage, as sure as water runs downhill.”Raidon asked, “What do you mean?”The dwarf dropped the point of the crossbow and used the entire weapon to motion Raidon forward.“Ye’ll find out within.And, since I’m feeling friendly today, a single gold crown will see ye through Ormpetarr’s gates, such as they are.” The dwarf nodded toward a great wooden chest chained to a granite slab.Raidon guessed the wide slit in the top served as a coin slot.Raidon walked through the gates, dropped a coin in the opening, and continued into the city [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]