The sun hung low in the sky, longing to take a rest once more. It's bright yellow light dimmed into a soft orange and later, a dying red. Stepping out from the portal, Storm stood on the very grassy and almost treeless field. The grass was dry and tan. The trees were slightly varied. Some short and scraggly with clumps of leaves whilst others were tall with a large platform of leaves on top.
   
Where the portal was situated, all around it was a massive field of dry grass, a fire hazard waiting to burn. The trees were scattered about in small clusters with a lot of distance between each cluster. Then came the heat wave. While not a nasty wet heat like the jungle was, the dry heat of this new region did make armor uncomfortable. The large gnoll was looking around seemingly relaxed. A small, in comparison, dark elf ran past him giggling and laughing her head off.
   
An equally tall wood elf walked up to a tree and sat down. "Gelmen likes this place." he called out to the group.
   
The two high elves chuckled. "Alright, we have one day to find a town to settle down in. We'll set up basecamp and wait for the tank to catch up." Storm took group lead again.
   
"Where exactly is here?" Tilamo scanned the area in curiosity. "It looks like africa."
   
Up ahead, Mirvelle was rolling around in the dry grass creating a large flat spot. "I'm in heaven!"
   
"Mir! Stop rolling around in the grass." Storm sighed and walked past them. "There really is nothing out here is there?"
   
"I'd assume there wouldn't be. Grasslands aren't very defensible. If there are any towns out here, they're probably just beyond the render distance."
   
"We should get moving before it gets dark."
   
Mirvelle was happily laying in the flat spot of the grass, "Must we? The grass is so soft."
   
"We don't know what this zone is like"
   
"Can't we just relax?"
   
"We can relax once we get to town."
   
"Somebody say town?" the voice was hyper and belonged to something in the tree above Gelmen.
   
Storm quickly drew her sword. "Halt!"
   
"Oi, girlee. No need for them pointy bits and I'm not talking about that sword either." the voice joked.
   
Storm growled, "Show yourself."
   
"Alright alright," a moderately sized Tasaki jumped down from a buried tree branch and stood up with a joker's smile. "Ya see me?" The fox held his arms out showing himself to be visibly unarmed. His fur was orange with a large white stripe down his front from chin to beltline. He didn't wear pants or a shirt, just a thick leather belt. "Elves, right? Pointy ears an' all dat?"
   
Mirvelle leapt up from her spot and tackled the fox. "Who knew Tasaki could be so cute! Can we keep him?"
   
"Mir!" Storm was caught off guard by Mirvelle's unprecedented affection towards the human sized animal. "We are not keeping him. We don't even know who he is or why he's out here."

"Ah! I am Michi! Pathfinder at your service." the fox yelped when Mirvelle accidentally stepped on his tail.
"Then you know the way to the nearest town?" Storm inquired.

"Roughly, yeah. Flatlands like this are harder to navigate in the day, almost no landmarks. We travel at night, I can find it faster."
   
"We were hoping to get to town before nightfall."

"Ah, well." the fox stood up and looked around for a long minute. "I see trees and these trees tell me that the way to town is... that-a-way!"

"You're just guessing aren't you?"

"No! Well, maybe. I'm not lost!"

"Why am I not surprised, a pathfinder who really doesn't know how to find paths."

"Give the little guy a chance Storm," Mir pleaded.

"Yes! Give this one a chance!"
"Lead on then."

The Tasaki bounded off towards a small cluster of scrawny trees, sniffed them and then ran further northbound. The group followed him as best they could but they inevitably lost sight of him an hour later.
"I was not expecting Tasaki to move that fast," Mirvelle groaned and slumped to the ground.

Tilamo patted Mirvelle's head. "You need to get into shape."

"Hey! Don't call me fat."

"I didn't. You need to build your stamina."

"Oh..."

Gelmen was ranting off a few healing spells but it wasn't helping his deficit of stamina.

"Don't waste your mana, Gelmen. There's no healing spell that helps stamina," Storm told him.

They waited patiently in that spot for a while and it was just quiet minus some wind. That is, until the ground shook. It was a weak vibration in the ground that was easily overlooked and the grumble that was mistaken as someone's stomach. When it happened a second time, it was heavier, more noticeable. "Is it just me or is the ground groaning?" Mirvelle asked.

"I'm feeling it too," Tilamo said.

"Localized earthquakes?"

"I doubt it but Richer has come up with a thousand ideas for this world." Storm knelt down and put her hand to the soil. The land was quiet again. No rumbling or groaning. "Whatever it was it's gone now."

"Don't say that. Never say that," Tilamo reminded her. "Lines like that always bring bad shit."

"I never saw you as one for superstition."
"It's not a superstition, it's a regularly occurring scientific fact."

In the grass up ahead, a very fluffy orange tail was sticking up. "There he is!" Mirvelle pointed out. "Michy!"

Michy's head popped up above the grass stalks and suddenly, a large smile was plastered to his face. "There you are! I was worried when you guys vanished."

"We've been here for a little while now."

"Oh, well town is just another mile that way." Michy pointed to the direction where he'd returned from. "I'll slow down if I start losing you guys again."

Storm spoke up, "What's with the mini earthquake?"

"Oh the ground hunger? That happens sometimes. It's nothing new."

"Uh-huh." Storm was very doubtful of it but for the time being, she just had to accept his perception of it.

Michy lead the group and this time he stayed in earshot of them. Over some small mounds and around another patch of trees, they reached the Tasaki town.
The sun was still in the sky but in its latter half of its cycle. The town was beginning to ready itself for the night shift. Streetlights, consisting of a collection of candles on a dead tree, were being lit by the younger more adventurous type of Tasaki. Many of the other Tasaki were hiking to their elevated homes seemingly tired after a long day's work.

The houses in the town were on stilts having a wall-less first floor and a normal second floor. The houses were decorated with intricate woodwork patterns and gilded trims. A couple of the lantern lighters recognized Michy and greeted him. "Michy, where've you been all day?"

"Kaz! I've found us visitors."

"Oh no, you've brought a Gnoll..."

"This one is different. It don't bite like the others, actually it doesn't even say anything."

Kaz jumped down from the latter and approached the group of travellers. "Elves and a Gnoll. I thought I saw everything by now. Where'd the lot of you come from? There haven't been any other races here in years."

"Aldail portal is up and running again." Storm said.

"Their portals work again? I'll let the preacher know."

The ground shook again. "What's with those?"

"The ground rumbles from time to time, nothing to fret over. I think the brunt of the commotion comes from one of Boudal's territories to the east beyond the walls."

"Is there a place we can camp at?" Storm asked.

Kaz nodded. "If you go this way and make a left at the T, there's a house on the ground that's run by an old Dwarven couple. They usually rent out rooms to travellers."

"Thanks," Storm said and started making her way down the road followed by TIlamo and Gelmen.

Kaz stopped Falcher though. "They don't like Gnolls."

Falcher nodded. "Why's that?"

"Let's just say that your kind wasn't very good to them. I'm sure you're different and whatnot, but I'm just giving ya forewarning."

"Ok, nice to meet you, Kaz."

"And you..."

"Falcher."

Kaz turned around and climbed back up the ladder, resuming his daily duty of lighting the streetlights. Falcher headed off down the road towards the dwarven residence.

Mirvelle was still fascinated by Michy. "What do you do here?"

"Other than as a pathfinder? I uh... I don't really know. Oh! I can play the human lute really good!"

"But do you know the violin?"

"Violin? Don't think I've heard of one."

Mirvelle looked around and smiled when she didn't see the others. "I've been lugging this instrument around for ages. It's like a lute but smaller and you run a grass reed across the chords rather than your fingers."

"Sounds easier."

"It's not. It's a pain but it's a fun pain. You got a quiet place?"

"I got a treehouse just on the other side of town."

The Dwarven house was a ground level wooden house with a dozen well lit windows. It was large for a single floor house and appropriately decorated with brass and bronze. Storm walked up to the door and grabbed the weathered knocker and beat it.

"SURPRISE!"

Storm freaked from the sudden noise, lost her footing and hit the stone walkway. Standing off to the side of the doorway was a mechanical object that was rooted to the ground and looked like a head on a pole. Its head was just a sphere with a single circular red eye and a voice box. The voice sounded like a young female who was hopped up on too much coffee. "Oh dear! Did I frighten you?"

Storm recollected herself and stood up. "Yes, you did." she gave a angry scowl to the machine.

The machine's pole body folded over and moved with its simulated emotions. "Most of the Tasaki don't have your kind of reaction but I've also never seen you before. No tail so you aren't Fummau or Tasaki.. OH! You're another dwarf?"

"No, I'm an Aldail." Storm replied. "I've come here looking for a place to rest for a while, is there room available?"

"Aldail?! I've never seen an elf before. You're kinda pretty for one too. To answer your inquiry though, yes, there is room. Merchant caravan left for the Fummau city two days ago."

"How many rooms? I brought a few friends."

"More elves? This is awesome!"

The door creaked open and a short stout human woman stepped outside, "Brina, damn it. How many times have I told you to not scare the guests?" her voice was heavy and powered and she smelled nothing short of a craft brewery.

The sentient machine was apparently named and known as Brina. "But Jodi-"

"No buts, you're a door greeter, not a scary creature. Imagine what one of them adventurers would do to you if you scared them."

"I'd probably be decapitated..." Brina sounded like a repentant child when she said that.

Jodi took a deep breath and with a grateful smile, greeted Storm like a loving grandmother. "Welcome, I'm sorry about Brina, still working on her."

"It's fine. She got me good."

"Come in, come in, I got rooms for you if you're looking to stay the night."

"Me and few friends."
   
"Friends? Even better."

Tilamo and Gelmen walked up to the door and even Gelmen was looking down at the dwarf, naturally seeing no small amount of cleavage. Storm gestured to them, "The tall one is Tilamo and the short one staring is Gelmen."

"Not staring!" Gelmen protested.

"Don't worry about, you're not the first. I've had more brutish men stare and I've put all but one on their ass. I'm used to it dears. Another others coming as well?"
Storm looked at the road beyond them and saw Falcher dragging behind. "Two but I only see one of them up there."
The response from the machine was the most surprising thing. "ALERT GNOLL PRESENCE! ALERT!"

Jodi, somehow, pulled a large hammer from some unknown pocket. It was the size of her if not slightly bigger. "Gnoll..."

Storm's eyes widened. "No don't! He's a good guy!"

"There is no good gnoll."

"Trust me, this one is too soft."

Falcher walked up to them casually and being nearly three times the height of the dwarf was not remotely intimidated by her holding a hammer. "I'm guessing this is the inn?"

Before the dwarf could speak, Storm made her own voice dominant. "Yes, yes it is. This nice dwarf was going to show us to our rooms."

The Dwarven female gave an evil eye to Storm. "How dare you bring a gnoll to my doorstep."

"Look lady," Storm grabbed the dwarf by her shirt and lifted her up into the air. "We aren't here to cause problems, already had enough issues with Enderia and Judas and the other psychos. All we want is a place to rest and get some grub."

She was hesitant at first but after coming to realization that she was outnumbered and in no imminent danger, she agreed to house them all. Mentioning an inbound Emporian may have helped with that.

Falcher had to get on his knees to fit through the doorway which for them, was hilarious to watch. Fortunately, the interior was much more roomy than the doorway. Most of the people there were other Tasaki or Fummau residents with a couple of what looked like half-breeds. These half-breeds here mostly human but had ears or a tail or both while others were crossbreeds of Fummau and Tasaki. They all socialized almost perfectly taking little notice of the newcomers until Falcher took a seat at the bar. Adjacent patrons looked up at him in confusion but simply acknowledged him as a drunk hallucination.

When the bartender saw him, everyone saw him. The bartender was the second dwarf and presumed wife of the first. She was more muscular than her counterpart considering she was able to hold twelve overflowing mugs in her hands and arms. Upon setting them down on the counter, she saw Falcher take a seat on the bar stool and rest on his arms. Subtly, she placed her hand on the hilt of her dagger. "What are you doing here?"

Falcher sighed, the words of the passerby still sat in his head. "I only want a drink."
Unlike her counterpart, she tested him. "Let me get the list for you." She went around the corner to where the beer kegs were and came back with a stubby piece of parchment that was crinkled and stained with a dozen different beers. "We're out of the Hogsmeade."

Falcher nodded and glossed over the list. "Oil Leak sounds good."

She went back and poured him a mug. Around the corner, he couldn't see her. She slipped into his drink a truth serum. She wanted to know everything. She handed it to him, maintaining her poker face. After he took a sip, she passed a simple question. "Where are you from?"
Falcher saw the serum's effects appear in his status bar alongside all of his other buffs. "Not here, that's for sure."

"So what brings you here then?"

"Passing through with a few friends. Waiting on the sixth to catch up."

"Sixth friend? Are you with the elves over there?"

"I am, how'd you guess?"

"Between my wife and I, we know all the elves in this region."

"I see, so with me as a stranger, you're highly suspect of me."

"I wouldn't say that."

"I would, I know you put the truth serum in here."

The dwarf was shocked. She took a step back from him.

"I ain't gonna do anything to you. Like I said, I'm here for a drink. If I was gonna kill you, I wouldn't do it here anyways." Falcher took a heavy swig from the mug, nearly emptying it. "Too many witness..." he complained.

Despite her muscular structure, the gnoll still outmatched her and that thought terrified her. She gulped, swallowing the phlegm stuck in her throat. The patrons to his left and his right questioned him as well but all in all got the same type of response.

Across the tavern, Gelmen took a seat at one of the booths with Storm and Tilamo. It was an odd modern luxury but it was a much welcomed one. Menus materialized on the tables for them and upon reading, contained a small selection of snacks and an unusually large alcohol collection. Tilamo nudged Storm, comically pointing to one of the drink items, "Feminine fluids, a thick double chocolate stout with a orange citrus twist. You taste like chocolate?"

Storm promptly punched him in the head and knocked him out of the booth. "Don't even try it."

Tilamo groaned but as he tried to reseat himself, Storm hogged his old spot claiming that she needed leg room. Regrettably, he took a seat beside Gelmen. "What are you getting?"

"Too many options," Gelmen replied.
"There's 4 snack items..."

"47 beers."

"You drink?"

"Si, since childhood."

The innkeeper finally made her way around to their booth. "Elven friends, what will we be having today?"

"Gelmen wants Forge-mother's Lagern"

Tilamo pointed to his choice but didn't actually show it to her. "I'll have the feminine-" His words though were abruptly cut short thanks to a steel toed shoe to his crotch. He folded over in pain.
Storm spoke in his place, "He'll have Courier's IPA and I'll have the Fermented Amber Tree and if you don't mind, I'd like to also get a plate of scarab carcasses"

Jodi nodded and called out towards her mate behind the bar, "Kath! Plate of Dread, Forge, horseman and tree!"

Kathanac was the name of the other dwarven female. She waved to Jodi in acknowledgement and then peered around the corner and forwarded the news to someone else. She then grabbed three mugs filling them with their respective drinks and a Fummau came out from the same back area with a plate of oddly colored and fire roasted dead beatles. Falcher looked at the plate almost in disgust. "Beatles?"

Kathanac nodded, "They're actually not as bad as you'd think. Used to be a common festive treat for the old Dwemer territory."

Jodi walked on over, grabbing the order and whispered something to Kathanac who subsequently whispered something back. Jodi walked off with the order. "Used to be? What happened?"

Kathanac was surprised he didn't know. "You don't know?"

"I'm not from around here, I don't know much of the history."

"The old Dwemer territory became the foundation of the Dwarven Kingdom which regularly rivaled the Gnollish province."

"When was this?"

"The fourth Eon if I remember. Some thousand years ago."

"Why do you hate gnolls then?"

"Gnolls won the war and enslaved us dwarves. Jodi and I are two in a hundred who've successfully escaped their prison camps. There were about a thousand of us running away."

"Oh."

"Yeah..." down the bar, someone was trying to flag her down. "I'll be right back."

The drinks went around the booth and bar and the night came without any of them realizing it. They drank, laughed and drank some more. Everything was finally settling down and while Gelmen was fully wasted after his second mug, Storm retained some level of awareness even after her sixth. Tilamo was face first in the table, sleeping off the buzz. By her ninth mug though, Storm was off the hook.

Falcher was watching them fool around as he slowed to merely sipping on his second drink. Even Kathanac was starting to take notice of his concerned state. "You've barely touched it, something on your mind?"

"Huh?" Falcher turned to face Kathanac. "Oh, no. Just staying sober to make sure they don't do something stupid."

"I have a question for you."

"Go ahead."

"How did you manage to group yourself with those elves?"

"I know the female Aldail. A friend of a friend. The other two, she brought with her."

"How'd you two get here?"

"Jodi? We were friends since birth. Got married shortly after we escaped, back when everything was still Emporian territory."

"When did the walls go up?"

"About a century ago. Me and Jodi were 30 when we escaped. Roughly hundred and forty years ago?" she sounded unsure of the actual date they escaped.

"Hundred and forty? That puts the two of you around one-seventy."

"So...?"

"Not used to knowing people to live that long, much less be happy about it."

"I'm guessing you've spent most of your life around the Emporians and Norsemen?"

"In a manner of speaking."

"Dwarves live the longest out of all the human species."

"Hopefully this lot will too." he looked over his shoulder at Storm and Gelmen who were now drunk singing together in a very horrible and out of tune manner.

"You seem very concerned about them."

"I'm concerned about a lot of things. Fatherly instincts, I guess."

"You're a father?"

"Was."

"Was?" An sorrowful look washed over her.

"Don't mind me but I think I'm gonna go for a walk, how much do I owe you?"

"You paying for them as well or just yourself?"

"Just me for now, they'll be drinking more no doubt."

"Forty."

Falcher opened up his inventory, grabbed fifty gold and tossed it onto the counter in a small pouch. "Thanks," he said, standing up and walking out.

A minute later, Jodi walked up to the bar. "So, how was our gnoll?"

"Different, acts more human than gnoll," Kathanac replied. "Did you know he was a father?"

"Nope but I've been listening in the new elves over there and apparently the female Aldail is a guild leader."

"Guild leader? What guild?"

"I don't know, some foreign tongue I've never heard before."

"You think there'll be more?"

"It would not surprise me. Let's pray to Amulius that they're all good folk."