The Swordsman of Faerûn

Chapter 402 Standing Stone Plains - The Graveyard of Civilization ([-])

The timing of entering the Standing Stone Plain is particular. William and others and the guide Will first camped overnight at the edge of the Standing Stone Plain.Then the next morning, the William family and the half-elves entered the legendary Plain of Standing Stones
The Standing Stone Plain is located in the central area of ​​the Ennook Great Desert. This is the real middle position. The north-south direction is in the middle, and the east-west direction is still in the middle. It can be said that the geographical location is not very favorable.

Standing Stone Plain is said to be a plain, but it is actually more like a maze. There are many almost identical stone pillars standing on its surface. These tall stone pillars or stone piers will not only block the vision of passers-by entering it, but also disturb their sense of direction. It will also create some invisible force field obstacles, turning the seemingly unimpeded path into a dead end.

What's more deadly is that whenever night comes, strange portals will open on some stone pillars, and then countless strange creatures and constructs will come out of them. Any uninvited guests appearing within the alert range.These guys seem to be endless. Even if one group is eliminated, another group (including the number and type) of the same existence will continue to appear soon. It is simply impossible to kill. The key is that these strange existences are also very powerful.However, whenever the sun rises, these patrolling constructs and monsters will retract back into the stone pillar, and then wait until night to come out to continue patrolling.

Due to the unique behavioral patterns of these monsters and constructs, they are commonly referred to as the Night's Watch of the Standing Stone Fields.

For any forces that are interested in connecting or even controlling the eastern and western regions of the Great Sand Sea, the Standing Stone Plain is simply an iron nail stuck in the throat.It’s not that no one is thinking of bypassing the Lishi Plain, but the northern part of the plain is a truly barren land, a forbidden zone of death, where there is no water source, no oasis, thousands of miles of yellow sand buried bones, desolate and bald mountains with many evil beasts, deep in the desert of death The mountain peak belongs to the territory of gold-eating ants, even if a giant dragon breaks in rashly, it may turn into a pile of ant feces, eh!The kind that doesn't even leave a bone.

The south of the Standing Stone Plain is part of the extension of the Scimitar Peak Mountain Range. There are also a large number of ferocious monsters living here, such as sand lizards, sand worms, sand crocodiles, ground sharks, etc. It can be said that there are many crises. It's safe to walk on the Standing Stone Plain.

If anyone in William's family has the deepest and most complicated feelings about the landscape of the Standing Stone Plain, it must be William himself. Like the mother and daughter of the frost giant and Misha, they are probably just curious.To be precise, only someone like William, who has experienced the era of large machines and large-scale industrial production in his previous life, can deeply understand the extraordinary here.

Why do you say that?The reason is simple. All the protrusions on the surface of the Standing Stone Plain are basically man-made objects, and they are the crystallization of labor production in a civilized society.William approached one of the stone pillars, which was a diamond-shaped stone pillar several feet high and the size of a basketball court. No matter in terms of appearance or texture, this stone pillar could not be formed naturally.

Its texture is a material that looks similar to dark white ceramics, and its hardness is extremely high. It is said that all the protrusions above the ground on the Standing Stone Plain are made of this same material.William tried to scratch it with the autumn water knife, but he didn't expect that the fine gold sword, which cuts steel like rotten wood, could only leave a shallow scratch on it.This was certainly because William did not use too much strength, but it is undeniable that the material that makes up the stone pillar is definitely not comparable to ordinary steel in terms of strength.

William really wanted to study the stone pillars nearby for a while, but they needed to race against time in the Standing Stone Plain, and they needed to reach the shelter before the night fell.

The so-called shelters are some large low stone piers that seem to be distributed irregularly on the standing stone plain, but they are the blind spots for those night watchmen. Even if they find outsiders standing on the stone piers, they will turn a blind eye .One thing that is quite pitiful is that these shelters are not always effective, they will function periodically, maybe they have a shelter effect for a few days, and after a few days the shelter effect will disappear, and then the guys who don't know the details will be pitted into the underworld A ray of ghosts in it.It is said that in order to find out the changing rules of the shelters, the Zhentalin has used the indiscriminate screening method many times (that is, to place people in all known shelter positions, and then wait for the next day to see who can survive), and other The lost manpower is enough to conquer a country.

Ok!Spraying flowers in silence for the poor and cruel Zhentarim, and later heard that even the boss of the Zhentarim, Manson, could not bear this huge human consumption, and had to stop the screening plan.

However, there are also legends that the Zhentarim have completely mastered the changing rules of the shelter, as long as the Zhentarim want to, they can even cross the Standing Stone Plain at any time without injury.Just to cover up the fact that they have mastered the lifeline of transportation between the east and west continents, and avoid being besieged by all the forces on the mainland, the Zhentarim will deliberately refuse to tell the truth, and sometimes even deliberately send some cannon fodder to the Standing Stone Plain to die.

According to Willalmore's observations in the past 20 years, he believes that the latter statement is a more reliable explanation, because in recent years, the Zhentarim has never lost a relatively important adventure team or merchant in the Standing Stone Plains. Team, but some guys who were excluded were sent to die here.

William and his party rode sand camel beasts, along a channel similar to a river bed, and ran wildly on the flat and solid sand. All kinds of undulating stone pillars around them watched them quietly, just like they have watched other intruders for countless years the same.William and the others were running non-stop. They had no time to rest or cook. When they were hungry or thirsty, they ate dry food and drank cold water directly on the back of their mounts. They only stopped for a while to solve personal hygiene problems.If it wasn't for William's insistence, the half-elf wouldn't even give it this little time. The usual passers-by would basically solve the problem of eating, drinking and lazing on the back of their mounts. After all, life is more important than temporary comfort.

In the middle of the afternoon, they arrived at the location of the first shelter. After going around the half-person-high stone pier, which was the size of a basketball court, Willalmo finally breathed a sigh of relief. He happily told William Waiting for humanity: "Our luck is really good, this is a shelter that is functioning, let's camp here tonight."

William was very curious about the ability of the half-elves to judge the safety of this place just by turning around, so after they entered the campsite, William asked without shame. After all, this is something related to their wealth and life. It is more appropriate to find out.

Willalmo didn't hide his secrets, he said it directly and openly: "When the shelter works, a circle of micro-protective force fields will be formed around it, which can block the invasion of wind and sand, and the blocked The wind and sand will form a circle of accumulated sand marks on the edge of the micro-protective force field. If the sand marks are relatively shallow and relatively new (meaning that the inner edge of the sand marks is neat and straight), it means that the shelter has been working in recent days , it will not fail in the next three or two days.”

"If the sand marks are thick, or if there are no sand marks, then be careful. The thick sand marks indicate that the shelter has been working for a long time and is about to enter the expiration period, maybe that night.

The absence of sand marks means that the shelter has been in a state of failure. It is difficult for sand marks to last for a long time. Standing Stone Plain has a lot of wind, and it only takes two or three days to scrape off the sand marks accumulated during the effective period of the shelter.

Of course, there is a very small chance that you will find that the shelter works when you land on a shelter without sand marks at night. This means that you are extremely lucky to meet the first night of the shelter's effective period. .The fellows of the Zhentarim call that situation the First Night of Sanctuary, and it's a great honor to the old travelers and guides across the Plains of Standing Stones.But no one would foolishly gamble on this kind of glory. It would be a dangerous behavior that would kill nine out of ten bets and scare the remaining one to death. "

After listening to William, he couldn't help admiring: "Mr. Will, you have been lurking in this desert for 20 years, and you really didn't give it for nothing! Except for you experienced veterans, if outsiders don't know in advance, I'm afraid they just want to No brain can figure out the mystery."

The half-elf smiled embarrassedly and said: "Mr. William, do you think I summed it up by myself? Let me tell you the truth, this valuable experience actually comes from the Zhentarim Society. I used some tricks to deceive people. , and a great deal of mead, from the guests of my Zhentarim friend Baldur."

Speaking of this, Willalmo suddenly said mysteriously: "Mr. William, do you know why that big stupid Googol is so afraid of going back to the Standing Stone Plain?"

William pretended to be curious and asked, "Why?"

The half-elf whispered: "Because the leader of their adventure team, that is, the priest Benn who was killed by you, in order to test the God of Dispute's favor for him, regardless of the objections of his teammates, he deliberately led the team to gamble on the Standing Stone Plain. In the end, they won the bet three times! Can you believe it? Mr. William, they actually won three times in a row!"

There was indescribable envy in Willalmore's tone. Of course, it was not the so-called glory, but Bane's infinite love for the pastor.

He said with a little regret: "It's just that the pastor's teammates were completely frightened by their leader's crazy behavior. Those poor guys have been recuperating in the small town for more than half a month before their mood improved. But, On the night of their celebration, you killed that pastor."

The eagle eyes of the half-elf stared at William, and said solemnly: "Mr. William, your act of killing Pastor Bane will inevitably incur the wrath of the god of strife and death. Be careful, people from Bane Temple are likely to send People are chasing you."

William laughed loudly with irrelevant rhetoric: "I don't know how many gods I have offended, and it's not bad for this troublesome God of Dispute!"

　Today, I don’t have enough time to edit the character card, so I only publish this chapter.It's a small long chapter of [-] words, please don't blame the book friends.

　　I'll see if I can add some oil tomorrow and make up more.

　　By the way, students who have tickets, please give some charity! ^_^
　　
　
(End of this chapter)