Taloc and Ewtain scouted ahead of the rest of the group while the others talked and enjoyed the trip back to the inn. Most of the discussion centered around what they would do when they got back to Ildul and claimed their reward. Vultressant and Vanya compared their stats and skill levels, and he described the strategy that he used to take out the two Redcaps on the previous night. He was proud of his achievement, and he wanted to share his experience with her, but he also wanted to see if she could improve on his technique.
Since it was difficult to keep the page steady enough to be read while walking, Vanya read her stats instead of displaying her character sheet. As she started listing her skills and their current levels, Maroftis suddenly gave a start.
“What the?” he exclaimed.
They were walking behind the Korak who had stopped walking, and they instinctively looked around for signs of danger. They saw nothing, but then Vultressant noticed Maroftis looking down. He angled to the right in order to see around the huge frame of the Berserker saw a small, greenish-colored reptile on the ground in front of Maroftis. The creature was about the size of a 15–20-pound dog, and it even resembled one as it stared up at Maroftis with its head cocked to the side. Well, it lacked ears, but otherwise the look was close. The rest of it looked more like an enormous gecko.
“It sort of looks like you, big guy,” Isla said teasingly. “Have you been diddling the wildlife?”
They all looked over at Isla, and the creature quickly took to the air using wings that materialized from its back. It landed on the metal of Maroftis’s right shoulder, and then it looked down at Isla and made a little growling noise. The sound was high-pitched and seemed to indicate mild displeasure as opposed to outright hostility.
Maroftis eyed the creature on his shoulder, and there was no longer any sign of the wings that it had used to fly to its perch. “Can you understand me?” Isla asked, addressing the creature. In response, it turned its head and snorted a little puff of green smoke into the air. The smoke quickly dissipated, and the creature curled up in a ball on the shoulder and looked as if it were about to take a nap.
“Looks like you made a little friend,” Vanya said. “With your green armor and your… resemblance, I can see why it chose you. What is it?”
“No idea,” Maroftis replied.
“Don’t you have a way to figure out what it is?” Vanya prompted.
“Oh yeah,” he said and looked at the small creature. “It’s a Dracon, but nothing else is known. Do you have a name, little one?” The Dracon simply stared back at him. “How about Wisp? Can I call you Wisp?” The creature tucked its snout under its abdomen and closed its eyes.
“Well, it didn’t object, so I guess ‘Wisp’ it is,” Vultressant said. “Dracon sounds a lot like dragon. Do you think that this is a baby dragon?”
“Maybe,” Vanya said. “Maroftis looks a bit like the Dracon, especially with the green armor on, so it might think that he’s its mother.”
“Don’t you mean father?” Maroftis asked.
“I don’t know how to determine the sex of the Dracon, and if I didn’t know you, I wouldn’t know yours either.”
“I can show you that I am male,” Maroftis offered.
Vanya put up a hand towards the Korak. “Hard pass,” she said.
Maroftis looked at Vultressant. “Does she not like to see yours either?”
“Don’t bring me into this,” Vultressant said. “We should probably keep moving,” he said, trying to change the subject. “I can’t see our scouts anymore.”
“Fat lot of good they are,” Isla said, and then pointed at the Dracon contentedly slumbering. “They totally missed that thing.”
“In their defense,” Vanya said, “it’s small and it can fly, so it might have flown in behind them.”
When they started walking, Jaro approached and asked, “Are you planning on just letting that thing stay with us?”
“Do you know anything about the Dracon?” Vultressant asked.
“They are very dangerous,” he replied warily.
“All the more reason to not anger it,” Maroftis said, “and what’s this ‘us’ stuff? It’s not like you plan on fighting with us.” The man looked like he was about to respond, but he walked away instead. He stayed well behind them as they continued their trek back to the dock town.
As they walked, Wisp continued to sleep. When Maroftis pulled out a piece of meat to munch on, the little Dracon uncurled and came to its feet and focused its attention on the food. Maroftis chewed loudly, and Wisp continued to watch as he brought out another piece of meat. This time, he handed off the meat to his rider.
Wisp snatched the meat greedily when it was close enough for it to grab. Once it had the meat, it scrambled up onto Maroftis’ head and began devouring it, all the while looking around as if someone was about to take it away. When it had finished, Wisp climbed back down to the shoulder and looked up at Maroftis expectantly. Maroftis ate another piece, and Wisp made a displeased little growl in protest. In response, Maroftis gave it another piece, and it climbed back up onto his head to eat.
“What the hell is that?” Ewtain exclaimed as he and Taloc approached the rest of the party.
“What?” Maroftis asked between chews, acting as if there was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Uh, the little dragon sitting on your head.”
“That’s Wisp, and he’s a Dracon, not a dragon,” Maroftis countered.
“I’m pretty sure that Dracon means dragon, but where did it come from?”
They explained the encounter with the Dracon, and Maroftis said, “Nice scouting job, Ewt.”
Ewtain looked over at Taloc. “I guess you weren’t scouting with me,” he said to the Ranger.
“You did say that it’s able to fly,” Taloc offered, “so it might have flown in between us.”
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“Without any of us seeing it?” Maroftis asked.
“You were in the lead, and it’s pretty difficult seeing around you given your size, big guy,” Vultressant said. “I also know how you like to look at the interface while we walk, so you might have been too distracted to see it.”
“That’s fair,” Maroftis said with a grunt and turned to the scouts. “I guess that you’re off the hook for now, but I’m watching you two.”
“Is it safe to keep that thing with us?” Taloc asked.
“It seems pretty harmless, and it’s so cute,” Isla said.
“Agreed, but what if mommy is around somewhere?” Taloc looked for information on the Dracon, but he was unable to find anything. “Nothing comes up in any search that I do for this thing, and—”
“Wisp,” Maroftis corrected, cutting him off, and as if in response, Wisp turned its head away and blew out a small puff of green smoke, which dissipated quickly.
“What?” Taloc asked. “Oh, uh, okay. I can’t find anything on Wisp in the info area, but he seems like he might know more given that he looks like he wants nothing to do with the Dracon.” He pointed a finger at Jaro, who stood well away from the rest of the group. “Hey!” he called to the man. “Can you ask Hufalon about the Dracon and see if he knows anything? If not, see if he can find out anything.”
Jaro nodded and turned away from the group. He touched his ear to activate the device. Ewtain turned to Isla. “You could have let me know about the Dracon at any time,” he said accusingly.
Isla put a hand on her chest and struck a dramatic pose. “And spoil the big surprise? Heavens no.” Ewtain shook his head, but there was clearly a smile on his hood-obscured face.
“Taloc may be right,” Vanya said. “Wisp is rather small, so if there is a mother around somewhere, we could be in trouble.”
Taloc nodded. “And what happens when Wisp gets bigger? We could be on the menu then.”
“That might be the adult size for them,” Vultressant said, “and if not, it should be a very long time before it grows up enough to be a danger.”
“We don’t know that,” Taloc countered. “This is a magic world, so we could finish a quest that makes the Dracon turn into the size of a plane.”
Vultressant was skeptical of that, but he saw the point. “I get it, but look at it,” he said, holding an open hand up towards Wisp, who was watching with some interest. “It looks like a little Pokémon character.”
“Pikachu, I choose you!” Isla exclaimed.
They all laughed, and Taloc held up his hands in submission. “It looks more like a green Charizard, but I concede the point.” He looked over at Jaro, who was walking back towards them. “What’s the word?” he asked.
Jaro cleared his throat. “It seems that no Dracons have been seen on this continent for hundreds of years, and the council will make a substantial offer to buy, um Wisp, when you arrive back in Ildul.”
“Wisp is not for sale,” Maroftis growled menacingly at the man.
“How substantial?” Ewtain enquired.
Maroftis eyed the Night Stalker. “Not for sale!” he said more loudly.
“Mmm, okay,” Ewtain said and shrugged, “but you are awfully attached to something you found less than an hour ago.”
“I’m with Maroftis on this one,” Vultressant said. “I just wish it had fixated on me as opposed to the big guy, but it clearly thinks that they’re related.” He started walking, and the rest began to follow. “So now that we’re done here, does anyone want to see if we can find another font?”
“They move around,” Isla said. “How do you plan on finding one?”
“There’s a static one on the west side of the river that Oeister told me about. It’s been there for some time. It will only leave once it is used. He uses a divination spell to keep track of it, and it was still there when we left Ildul to come here.”
“Why doesn’t Oeister go do it himself?” Isla asked.
“He said that the fountains that sit in place until activated are either difficult to get to or guarded,” Vultressant answered, “so it might be dangerous.”
“How dangerous?” Taloc asked.
Vultressant shrugged, indicating he had no idea.
“Well, we can check it out and have Maroftis use his assess other ability. If things look bad, we can always run,” Taloc suggested.
“We could hit a scenario where we’re not able to run,” Vanya said. “Say we run into 30 or so of those Hound Stalkers; they were faster than all of us, and if we needed to flee, they would get some of us.”
“That’s fair,” Taloc said. “We can always call it off if it looks too tough.”
They debated as they walked, with the two scouts alternating duties as they traveled. Everyone agreed with the idea, but only Ewtain and Maroftis were unconcerned about using extreme caution when approaching the area where the font was located.
They stayed one night at the inn to rest up before setting out for the font, and Jaro provided them with a rowboat before he boarded a ship heading north towards Ildul. They crossed the river and traveled west and a little south in the direction of the beacon point that was on Vultressant’s map. The map updated the terrain and landmarks as they discovered them, and by the time they reached the area where Oeister said the font would be located, Vultressant’s cartography skill had increased to 11.
“Well, it should be right here,” Vultressant said as they stood in a rocky grass field.
“Your thing is broke,” Maroftis said as he offered a scrap of meat to Wisp, who snatched it greedily.
“It doesn’t make sense that it would be just out in the open,” Taloc mused. “If it has been in the same place for a long time, then it must be hidden or strongly defended. It looks like it may just be hidden.”
“Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive,” Vultressant said, “but we should scout the area for any sign of a cave or entrance to the area below us.” He pointed at the ground.
They searched the area for hours until Taloc stumbled upon a depression in the ground that, when excavated, revealed a steep shaft leading underground. The fit was tight for Maroftis, but the rest of them descended without any difficulties. Ewtain inserted one of the Wizard’s glowing orbs into his bullseye lantern and took the lead. There was a latch that shuttered the lens and prevented any light from escaping, so it functioned much like a flashlight would. He mostly pointed it at the ground so that he could watch where he was stepping, but periodically he would shine the light all around to make sure that there was nothing lurking above that was ready to pounce.
There were a few side passages, but Vultressant kept them heading toward where the fountain was supposed to be. Vultressant’s map, enhanced by his cartography skill, was impressive, showing the tunnels they had explored complete with their depth beneath the surface. In contrast, Ewtain’s map function displayed only what he could currently see and a bit of the area he had very recently passed. The map degraded quickly, forcing him to rely on his memory to navigate, much like in the real world. He had a regional map with key locations like Ildul, the Dwarven hold, and the dock city of Anchorage, but it was just a regular map.
Ewtain had tried to have Vultressant teach him the cartography skill but was unsuccessful. In fact, the Wizard was the only one of them who had learned any skills that weren’t a direct result of attaining a character level. Ewtain reflected on that and corrected himself. Skinning, butchering, and extract essence had all been learned as a direct result of attempting them when looting, and there was also the spell stuff that Vanya got from the fountain.
There might be other instances, but none that he could recall, or perhaps people had kept quiet about new skills they had learned. As far as he could see, most of the learning had been done by the Wizard. He had a theory that since Vultressant had gone heavy on Intellect, he might be able to have a higher rate of learning new skills, but there was of course no proof for this. He had asked around about learning new skills and was told that most required special training or a book of knowledge to learn.
They came to a T-intersection, but the floor of the new passage was filled with water. Ewtain noticed a narrow ledge running along the walls on both sides of the water. They would have to put their backs against the tunnel wall and walk sideways along it if they wanted to keep out of the water. There was no way that Maroftis could use the ledges, and it would be slow going if the rest of them decided to try that method, so they tested water depth with a couple of spears that Taloc had in his inventory. They found that the water was only about knee deep for the Humans; the Korak barely noticed the water, and the Gnome and Elf were wet to almost the waist. Ewtain and Taloc poked the bottom of the passage as they walked to make sure that there were no pits or changes in depth, and they were able to travel nearly as fast as they had on dry ground. On its surface, the water looked placid, but Ewtain sensed that they were traveling against a very slow current.