Day 3

Another early start to the day. I need to make up some time and finally get ahead of the hunting party if I'm ever going to beat them to the Dragon Rook. Although, I don't know exactly how far ahead of me they are and I probably never will since I took a slightly different route to avoid them finding me in the first place. Still assuming their speed I have to figure that I should be able to get ahead of them or at least caught up by the end of today.

Today did not go as planned. Seems like exactly how all my days since heading out have been, but today was different. Along my travels today, I stumbled across a city, I was happy, perhaps I could stock up on food and water, but that's not what I found. The city was totally empty. No one to be found. As I explored there were all kinds gargoyle statues and iconography. It was unsettling because even though I had never seen a gargoyle, or known anyone who had, they still were not beasts to play with. From the stories they liked to play "tricks" on people and carry them up to the rafters never to be heard from again.

Eventually I found a strange device in the center of the city. While examining it, I was statled by a man in a hooded robe. He explained to me that he was a traveler as well who had found this city and was trying to figure out why it was abandoned, but otherwise unscathed. I had thought the same thing as I wandered around, which only fed my feelings of unease. He pointed out the machine and told me he thought it might have the answers if only it were working. I offerred to lend a hand, as I knew my way around a machine or two, and set to work getting it up and running. I knew I should be continuing on my journey to catch the Dragon Rook, but something about this place was just to intriguing.

After about an hour or so, I thought I had the machine working again. I pulled the big lever on the side and the gears started to spin, whirring and clunking together, clearly it had been a long time since this machine had ever run. Eventually, it started to play a song. A haunting little diddy, but somewhat mezmorizing. While I swayed a bit to the song I hopped back onto my mount to head on my way. Clearly, this was nothing more than a music box. Suddenly I felt my mount jerk into the air as I and my mount were whisked away high into the sky! All I could hear was the sound of the man cheering saying "you have been chosen by the gargoyles! What an honor!"

The next thing I knew I was being dropped into a large jungle. I have lived in the desert my entire life, so suddenly being surrounded by so many plants. The air was thick and humid, again nothing like what I was used to in the desert. It seems the stories about gargoyles were true, and now I was the latest person to be taken up into the rafters. I don't know how or if I'll ever get down, but I am intrigued by this land and what it might hold. There is also a chance that the Dragon Rook is up here somewhere, perhaps it made its home in the Rafters. I will continue to explore up here to see what I can find.

Next Day