The Outlands War

Military action

The remaining Bonner Boys must power forward, traveling to the Outlands where Danger's Orc Tribe are going to battle against the society of eladrin and werebears that recently appeared in the Gloaming Crag.

The Bonner Boys all ride on Cerulean’s back toward the Gloaming Crag, formerly the dinosaur cave, up in the Outlands. Braes keeps time with them easily, but things still feel different. They are, after all, a man down. As they start flying over the crag they see a civilization where there wasn’t one before. A city built around the temple that used to contain the tree. All the death the eclipse caused has been wiped clean and the area is bursting with life. Then, in the distance, they see a dragon flying. Ivory, The Ancient White Dragon. Even closer, an Orcish signal flare shoots into the sky. Braes offers to fly after Ivory and keep his distance. The party approves and moves for the flare themselves.   Then Daryl feels a pull in the back of his mind. He finds himself standing with Cerulean in her lair. She tells him this is her security system. Somebody’s broken in. Indeed several explorers rappel down, beside them stands the Bronze Dragonborn. Above them, The Ancient Bronze Dragon touches down around the opening in the ceiling.   “Birinj! In my lair!?” Cerulean yells out as she and Daryl return. She unceremoniously dumps the party and flies south. They drop into a river, finding Orcs fighting against some hidden opponents. The party teams up to fight off a Were-Bear and several odd Elves speaking in a language none of them understand. They capture the elves and, once the Orcs find out Danger is Rank Grassyash’s son, agree to take them back to Raider’s Pass.   On the way, Daryl is pulled away again. He and Cerulean watch as The Red Dragon also descends into Cerulean’s lair. That dragon drops their own Dragonborn into the cavern, one who wears the memorable gauntlets of Koster Mayhew. As the dragons and dragonborn move to fight, Daryl returns.   Raider’s Pass is not a nice place, with blood and violence around every corner. But to Danger it’s home. One of the Elves speaks common, an especially angry Cleric, they tie the rest up in the center of town and lead him to meet with Rank. Danger instead decides to kill all the other elves. Indigo is so incensed by this he leaves town.   Rank and Danger meet up and both try to question the elf. The elf threatens them with the might of his Bear King, so Rank and Danger kill him and dump his body outside town. However, Indigo finds the body and notices that he’s only mostly dead. He brings back the elf, introducing himself as Chip Sage. He’s hostile toward Indigo, and that only increases as they realize they are both survivors of Morko. Still, Chip takes Indigo back to the gloaming crag.   There Indigo meets up with Mesikammen, an old friend of his who has become a Fey Lord in his own right. He is The Bear King, and he is a joy to be around, openly admonishing Chip for his hostile nature and welcoming Indigo. He explains that Sapphire Sage opened a way to the Feywild during the fire all those years ago. While it has only been a few years here, in there it was 60. All the elves that grew up in the Feywild evolved into something new there; Eladrin who speak Sylvan as well as Elvish. Some are chosen to be Were-Bears, but none against their will. Mesikammen has become a conqueror king and wishes to establish the kingdom of Bjeornheim in the Outlands. Despite his best efforts, Indigo can’t convince him otherwise.   Meanwhile, in Raider’s pass, Danger fights and kills another Orc and is welcomed into the tribe as a full orc. A scouting party returns to Rank and tells him they’ve found what he’s been looking for. A weapon capable of killing the Bear King. The Berserker Axe. Danger and Daryl realize they had just left it lying there ever since Berserker, and they tag along to stop rank now. When Mesikammen hears the Orcs are moving into his territory, he heads out with his own war party to fight them. Indigo and Chip go along, still severely disliking each other.   Both sides arrive at the clearing around the same time, in the center the Berserker axe is embedded in the ground. But they hear something else; a woman’s cry. Hiding in a tree nearby, Snow Hide is about to give birth. And no sooner do they find her than Ivory drops down in the center of all this.   Braes flies in to fight Ivory. Danger helps Snow Hide give birth. Indigo orders all sides to stay out of the dragon’s fight. But Rank and several Orcs don’t listen. They run in to take the Berserker Axe, but it does not budge. Ivory breathes cold onto the Orcs, killing Rank.   Danger’s son is born, and Snow Hide begs him to bring her to the white dragon. Braes helps the party put two and two together. Her nickname changed when her skin started turning pure white, and skin changes colors when a person is a Dragon Bond. She’s connected to the White Dragon. Danger brings her closer to Ivory and she tries to calm her, but she can’t quite connect. The dragon is too animalistic. So Snowhide takes the Berserker Axe, and easily lifts it from the ground. Ivory stops, and she takes hold of her leg. With a last forlorn look back at Danger, they leave.   Indigo and Danger convince both the Orcs and Eladrin to find peace and leave Danger’s son Earlang “Wang” Grassyash, more Goliath than Orc, with the Bear King. Cerulean contacts Daryl from her lair. Sanguine, the Red Dragon, took all of her treasure. She demands he help her get it back. The party receives several letters. One from Leonis Justus informs them he’s found the Pure Heart necessary for the Canticle of Quell, and it’s Demi Berry. Another letter warns them of an imminent attack on Citadel Keep, but Daryl agrees with Cerulean, and the party flies for Ardoth Nogaak.