“Here she be, crowned pearl of the sea.” The shuttle merchant waved a leathery hand, his voice rougher than the barnacles fused to the skiff. They’d passed sturdier vessels on the way in—retired pirate ships, grumbling tugboats, even a nimble catamaran. An ocean of choices, yet the humbling
Huldrin’s pickaxe struck stone one final time, and a tendril of verdant light surged through the tunnel. The glow clung to the cavern’s rough-cut gems and veins of ore, catching in the dwarves’ wide eyes
“A… singing starfish?” the man choked out, grasping at the impossible. “Incorrect,” the sphinx intoned, final as a closing tomb. The man scrambled backward, but the dead tangled his feet, dragging him down. Agony rang out, swallowed by stone, as the sphinx finished its task. Another stain.
A Fallen Wizard. Cherries, earth, and charcoal thickened the air of an unfamiliar forest as the wizard was dragged through its remains. His consciousness flickered—visions of a fuchsia portal torn into the sky, a crater wreathed...