And so, I hop into Jim Darkmagic’s little balloon basket, and away we go, buffeted by the wind immediately. The land grew small, and we traveled to lava-land, the land where a misstep could cook a foot through a boot. Apparently those deep-crow eggs were nestled deep in those black-mountain crags.
“I’m going to levitate you down,” he finally said. We were stationary above the black crags and orange rivers of heat.
“You sure you know how,” I say, quite alarmed.
“Trust me, toots.” He grins, wriggling his fingers in a comical manner.
I nod, take a deep breath, and prepare.
“Ok, jump,” he said, almost pushing me off the balloon.
I have no flight magic, but I had a feeling I would be alright, so I jump. I plummet, and bad words are about to hurl from my mouth when suddenly I began to float. The craggy map below zoomed in quickly, and before I knew it, I was on my feet.
Looking about, I deduced that any giant bird like the deep-crow is going to build its nest up high, high away from the critters that run amok. So, I take a high trail, and struggle up, hand over hand, knob after black knob to a plateau. Of course, there are critters waiting for me. Guards. Guards made of elemental fire. Elementals. What else?
I look for a chance to spring on them. My plan is to overwhelm with every spell I have prepped. That tactic has always worked. Why not now? Yes, I was as of yet eggless, but I had a feeling about this path.
Executing a shoulder roll, I spring up, palms out, casting. Fireball, magic missile, and even a powerful streak of electricity to boot. The fire elementals turn even as they are quite doomed by my spells. Boom. It’ over with that fast. I’m good when I’m good. What can I say?
You don’t get bodies to loot when you go elemental. Nothing but essence minerals and traces of rubies. Worthless. You’d have to collect those ruby shards all day long in order to make a single ruby, and then kill more elementals that blunder into your field of view. I don’t have that kind of time.
I marched along for what seemed hours, but then paydirt. To the left awaited one last trail winding up, but at the head of that trail, a nest, a nest and a bundle of black feathers. The deep-crow mother.
I don’t know the invisible magics. Never had the patience to hunt down those scrolls. Maybe now I would have the need to go seek them out, but only if I survived this little crow chase.
Patient? Me? Only when I have to be, and only if gold is involved. So, I wait, and I wait. The mother seemed happy to brood over her eggs–if and only if those eggs were under her. What if she had yet to lay them? Oh, that’s not something I was willing to imagine.
An angry bellow broke the silence. “Thief,” the voice bellowed! And then there’s a streaking meteor incoming. It arcs over me, aimed at the nest. It misses, hits yards away, but it really pisses the mother off. She shrieks, flaps, and then she takes to the sky, and I hunker down. A big shadow passes over me, and I know this is my chance.
I hustle up the trail, luck the only force keeping me from falling on the black sea of jagged rocks under my feet. I glance back at the mother, but she’s on the ground below, wings akimbo, facing off with a giant fire elemental. They scream at each other, daring each other to strike first. Perfect!
The trail narrowed to a catwalk, so I walked it. Yes, there were eggs in the nest. A major relief. I nab one. It was about the size of a nice melon. Yep, the mother is down below waging war with the fire elemental. Again, luck loves me.
Waltzing down from the sky, Jim is timely. I jump in the basket, and away we go.
“Difficult mission?” Jim asked, all smiles.
“Nay,” I say, “piece of cake.” I hand over the egg, thankful that I yet drew breath. I gripped the edge of the basket, swearing never to fly in one of these devices again. As for learning invisible magic, I realize I have no leads at all. Where does one start to discover who has done the research? Who actually knows?
Just another day in Neverwinter.