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**WYSPR**

Plum was gone, Nightmare was hungry and I was sad. Ah well, no sense in crying over slain dragon's I guess. I had another Great dragon stabled and picked him up. He was a deep red hued dragon so I named him Flaym. Flaym was a young dragon but well trained. He thought the idea of returning to Shame to finish off a quest or two was a grand idea! As we went to the bank to access a book of dungeons runes, a Praetorian Scout leaped out of hiding and attacked us. Flaym fried him and we found no notes, passports or IDs of any kind. I shrugged and cast a portal to Shame. We ventured there and showed all the rats, trolls, elementals, djinns and whatnot that their butts were ours! We were careful too. I kept Flaym on a tighter leash than I had with Plum. It was late now and I was tired. It had been a long day and although I was already feeling a lot of affection towards Flaym, I missed Plum still.

We returned to Trinsic and I turned in the bloody heads I had collected for a few lousy tickets. Oh joy, over two days at it and I was up to 147 tickets! At this rate it would take months to get Bayn's repair kit. Perhaps I should focus on the quests and not take all the side trips? I collected Flaym outside the guild headquarters and we strolled towards the provisioner's and the bank to cash in for the evening. I yawned mightily, my eyes almost closing when Flaym grunted in surprise. Spread out in front of us was a contingent of Praetorian heavy calvary! There were two generals, a couple of Knights, a Captain and some Sergeants as well as a few Scouts. Flaym leapt into battle before I finished my yawn and was busily chomping as I got my wits back.

The combined forces were fairly severe and Flaym was losing ground rapidly. One General staggered away, almost dead as Flaym shifted his attention to a Knight. I shrugged and sizzled the ailing Genereal with a bolt of lightning. Then, noticing Flaym getting his red butt kicked, I called to him and we galloped off to a safe distance, losing the Praetorian's. I built a quick campfire and healed Flaym and back again we went. I wondered if this was a major invasion. I heard some death cries as Flaym spread his wings and roared with battle rage at the puny human Praetorian's. I msg'd Covenant Atei and asked how he was doing, lots of people dying, how was he doing, how was the wife and kids, the brothers....and I heard Covenant's death cry. Hmmm, something serious was going on. The Atei's are a hardy and experienced breed and it took a lot to put one of them down. I msg'd Thane Stormrider and mentioned the Praetorian's here in Trinsic by the east bank and he mentioned that the town crier's were yelling about invasions in Minoc and Moonglow. He said Moonglow was empty so the most action must be in Minoc but he'd come to Trinsic to help.

He and his ferocious dragon, Eric the Red, arrived and we sniffed out the remaining few pockets of Praetorian's. Death cries had started to ring out with frequency so we agreed to check out Minoc and I made a gate. We grabbed a couple wands of life from our respective bankboxes and headed up to the mines. As we got to the bridge, a scene of unparalleled carnage met our eyes! Bodies were strewn everywhere as well as dead mounts and the filthy bodies of mutated rats. I really hate these new rats. Almost as much as Ophidian's and certainly more than Titans which I detest. There were Ancient rats glowing with a putrid green glow, Ethereal rats black as the bottom of a grave, stinking deadly sewer rats that dripped with unmentionable deadly slime, burning Fire rats, Giant rats, Vampire rats and more rats than you could shake a halberd at! If I am not totally confused, there were lots of slimes, djinni's and other antagonists as well joining in the fray. The scene was chaotic and I saw many valiant and weary warriors and mages battling fiercely. Belle Remings, Adroit, Bart Grumm, Tristan Gryphon, Kello, Coventant Atei, Thane and Eric the Red, Aislin Darknwald (a new Master at her craft!), Zareena Stydoran, the mighty Tristan Gryphon and Soltak ( I think Soltak is Tristan's Great), the wondrously nice and efficiently deadly Ciara, Lagger Stee, the valorious Bronwyn, Maskim Xul, Skrael Strylar, Jasper all were stomping rats like there was no tomorrow! I hope I didn't miss any names but it was sheer madness at the Minoc mining bridge.

But, death cries continued to ring out with alarming frequency. Taxes were going to be high the next day. I ressed a couple people and a mount, then Flaym and I galloped across the bridge. It was a maelstrom of fury, death and glory. I can't begin to recount what happened. There were so many people, so many rats, so much happening that everything appeared to move like a badly repaired film projectory, in fits and starts. One moment I was in the middle of the bridge, a pause, then I found myself at the end of the bridge. Flaym chowed down on rats but took a lot of damage. Eric the Red vanquished an Ancient but gave his life in that pursuit. Flaym nearly duplicated the feat a few moments later with another Ancient but supporting fire killed the Ancient before Flaym slumped. It was so confusing with so many opponents and adventurers and dragons, that people made mistakes. Skrael accidentally attacked Tristan and Soltak took great displeasure in that fact and bit his head off. Ciara *sighed* at the scene and Soltak blushed. At some point in the battle, I think Tristan asked me for garlic and mandrake but I didn't hear him. I just now noticed it as I went over my mental notes of the battle so if that was the case, sorry Tristan, I wasn't ignoring you. I was just looking too many places at once.

When I remembered, I looted rat corpses until both my loot bag was full. I switched over to another but then it was too chaotic to do anything but try to direct Flaym in battle. After Shame, one of them was nearly full anyway so it didnt' take much. I have never seen Lagger Stee before but he was valiant to the utmost. He seemed to die for it frequently as did a few others, but he courageously led attacks into the inner reaches of the mines, laughing at the thought of death. My heart throbbed with admiration for those who courageously leapt into the fray. I wished that Bayn could have been here but still, through healing, curing others and letting Flaym have his way, I suppose we contributed a little. I was surprised how many "gray" people I healed. Must have been a lot of mis-attacks to cause that sort of coloring.

I shoved something invisible out of my way and waded through the corpses of both evil and good, Flaym flamed and chomped, people died, rats went spinning into vermin hell, people cured, healed and buffed one another and in the end....the invasion was vanquished. I wearily went down to a shop and cashed in all my loot. I found Ciara still at the bridge and handed the few thousand gold coins my sales had provided. I asked her to give it to the splitter when everyone gathered back at the Britain bank and headed home. Flaym was more than eager to snuggle in a warm, safe, rat-less stable and I stumbled into my Yew home, said howdy to the chickens, stepped on a few eggs and fell into bed, asleep almost instantly.

Thank you Bayn for telling this wonderful story of our valiant warriors. Sorry I missed it!