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Spot nervously peered over the edge of his perch, and Ferrah's snapping jaws leaped at him. His heart was racing as he back-pedaled to the center of his rock. This was horrible. The only thing worse than death was to have to wait for death. The air was thick with that menacing feeling of impending doom yet again. For good measure, Spot filled his lungs with the thick air from his cigar as he fiddled with the dice in his pocket. Nervous habit.

And then, like every evil villain who has the hero on the ropes has to do, the large wolf began to taunt him. Although, Spot really wasn't paying attention to what she was saying; he was reliving the moments of his life in his mind. The badger had had a lot of good times out on the road, but most of what he remembered in this, his final moments, was mostly bad. Until now, Spot had never realized how lonely he had been by himself. If he made it out of here alive, he'd change that. He'd find a place. He'd settle down. He'd have a friend just like how Russ and Sal had each other.

Spot felt ill when he thought of them. It was his fault they were gone, and in a moment, it wasn't going to matter because he was about to die also. He finally learned a life lesson about the importance of friendship, and of course, it was at the end of his life. It was the story of Spot though, a day late and a dollar short.

While he was wallowing in self-pity, Spot's ears perked up at the sound of rustling trees and of nuts hitting something hard. Squirrels! They weren't all dead! They came back to save him!

This was amazing! It was as if he'd been given a second chance. Spot stood up and began to dance because he was so happy. He wasn't very good at it though, so mostly he was just flailing his arms and wobbling his bottom back and forth.

And now, he owed the squirrels the same courage they had just showed him. He owed them the courage he couldn't show earlier.

Spot went down onto all four paws, and sprinted to the edge of his rock. His long claws dug into the stone as he projected himself off into the air, and dove at Ferrah.

It should be noted that badgers are not built for flying. Spot did not look graceful doing this by any stretch of the imagination. If he survived, he would tell this story to everyone who would listen, but he would tell them that he flew as if he was a bird, not that he screamed like a baby mouse as he fell like a rock. It was his war-cry. Definitely his war-cry and not panic at the ground rushing up at him.

His claws were out and ready by the time his fall stopped though. Spot landed on Ferrah, and dug into her flesh. She let out a long howl and bucked to try to get him off. While his front claws held on for dear life, his back legs kicked wildly and tore her pelt to shreds. Ferrah turned her head to bite him, but when she faced him, he had a surprise for her. Spot took the cigar out of his mouth, and put the hot end of it into her left eye.

Ferrah's scream turned purely feral as she bucked even more wildly from the pain. Spot held on tight though, and kept the cigar firmly in her eye socket. Smoke rose out, and there were several disgusting sounding popping noises as her eyeball burned up. The smell was worse than anything Spot had smelled before.

Suddenly, he felt his back end drop down, and then he was facing a wall of rock. It seemed as if Ferrah had backed herself off the cliff in her panic, and he got taken along for the ride. There was only a moment to think. Less than a moment even, there was only a fraction of a second between life and death. Spot let go of the wolf, and frantically grabbed at the edge. His paws were tired from all the work he'd been making them do, and he could feel his grip quickly sliding away. He hung onto the rock with every bit of strength he had left, and hoped it was enough. The last thing he wanted was to tumble down to his demise like Ferrah just had.

As he was beginning to lose hope, Spot felt several sets of little paws grab him. The squirrels were pulling him up! It was a struggle to get his lumpy bod back over the edge and onto solid ground. They did it though; somehow those scruffy critters were deceptively strong.

They cheered wildly. All Spot wanted to do right now was lay here and rest, but the squirrels quickly rose him up to his feet and began to hug him. He hugged back, but he was weak with fatigue.

"I knew ya' were trouble from the moment I saw ya'!" a familiar voice said from out of the mob. Spot couldn't believe his ears. "Are ya' gon jus stare at me, or are ya' gon thank me for saving ya' hide?"

"Trying to take all the credit as usual," a second voice said. "Let him rest a moment."

"Russ? Sal?" Spot asked more to himself than to them. "Russ! Sal! You guys are alive," he said has he threw his arms around them. "I can't believe you guys are alive!"

Sal quickly squirmed out of the badger's hug. He was clearly uncomfortable with the affection. Russ clung tightly though, and his words were almost muffled in Spot's fur, "We figured we owed you one for getting us to see who Ferrah really was."

Letting go of him, Spot smiled a wide and toothy smile. "It wasn't really showing you who Ferrah really was, but more showing you who you really were. It was something I had to learn myself also."

Sal made gaging noises at how sappy it was getting.

Spot grinned at him. It was as close to acknowledgment that he was going to get out of him, but it was more than enough. "Now let's all go back and break into Ferrah's food supply and celebrate!"

[In both of my posts, I thought that we were supposed to choose what our attacker was. Whoops!]

TERRIBLE prepared for the end. This was it. He’d go to meet his Maker. His spirit would merge with that of the Great Tree. This stupid scrawny wolf was going to have him for dinner. He tried not to think about the terrible stench of her mouth or those wicked sharp white teeth. Instead, he focused on the nice things in life, like what the bards would say about him after he was gone.

At least it would be a valiant death. He’d be eaten by something fierce and dangerous, something terrible. He tried to fight the monster- ok, he’d tried to run away, but still- and failed. A tragic hero, whose death would be mourned by all who saw it. At least these squirrels were around to witness it, and-

Wait.

There was an army of squirrels here. What they’d come to do, TERRIBLE didn’t know, but at this point, he didn’t care. He had one trick left- one of the oldest, lamest tricks in the book, but staying alive was very important to him.

“Hey!” he shouted, trying not to breathe in. “What’s that? Behind you! The squirrels!”

The wolf, in the manner of all confused dogs, raised a paw and tilted her head to the side. Before she realized what she’d done, TERRIBLE was out from beneath her and flying away. Fighting through the underbrush to the open sky, the bird soared off, to run away fight another day.

I DECIDED TO STAY UP UNTIL THE TASK WAS DONE and I had read and made notes on everything. And BOY was this one a doozy! You guys sure didn't make it easy on me, there were a lot of really strong entries and really fun concepts, and I must confess, I just couldn't pick 3! Though not all of you won a custom from me today, I'm making sure you don't go empty handed.

Now, before further delay...



THE WINNERS
Now, like I said, I couldn't exactly just choose... three... so for better or worse, here's who I'll be creating, in alphabetical order.


Aurrific's Jukka
Aurrific- will also be receiving a potion from her roll.

Kamileunaire's Skarkiss Shrillskive
Kamileunaire will also receive a potion from her roll, and the round 3 freed creature*.

Malhyanth's Mal
Mal will also be receiving a potion from her roll and the round 3 freed creature*.

Mooful's Nolan
Mooful's will also be receiving a rando-beast* from her roll and the round 3 freed creature*.

musicaloner7's Khrest O' Carroll
Musicaloner will also be receiving a freebie beast*

Taerar Licorne's Haswar
Taerar will also be receiving an ability from her roll and the round 3 freed creature*.


I really do wish I could pick more, but I don't want to take on too much at one time. I can't stress enough that you all did a fantastic job and I hope to see some of these characters pop up again, and I can specifically think of a few of you too whom I'd jump at the chance to do!

I also specifically chose not to do a few whom I favored because there will be an event coming up soon involving those Plagued items and I thought your characters would better fit that storyline. Now that I know your character it will work in your favor too, as I will be looking for them in future custom events :3 That goes for all of you!

Now, the door prizes!

Teigra
A random ability and the round 3 freed creature. The poor little b*****d

Khryssie
A random ability!

WolfSpectre13
A rando-beast!

Nikiana
An ability and the round 3 freed creature!

Maeko-Hana
A rando-beast!!

Ladyumbra
An ability!

ShadowFox-Sama
An ability!

Indubitably
An ability!

Ellanoire
An item!

StarieMiche
A potion!

Scaramouche Fandango
A potion!

In case you were wondering, if you rolled multiple dice or did one for each pet- I took your first roll :3 I can't go handing out the whole stock now!

I'll be harvesting the details for the customs soon and starting tomorrow hopefully! Thank you everyone for doing such a lovely job writing all of this up. It was a heck of a task to try and keep up with you all during my final's week, but well worth it. Reading your entries was a pleasure.

I hope to see you at any future events I get to run biggrin

- Torren

*- If you have multiple pets, I'm going to GET DOWN ON MY KNEES AND MAKE BIG SOPPY DOG EYES at you to give them away to friends who have 1 or less Stonecrestian beasts. I won't make you though, just in case you had someone in mind.

The tree ran gnarled and dark, even from the inside its form was deceptive and heeded neither to logic nor attempt to map its interior. Wandering downward would deliver its new residents to its highest branches, while wandering upward... would take them down into its thick, festering roots. Their sides glistened with a dark sap as they sunk into the mud and thrust out unnatural angles along the wound path, down, down into the bowls of the root ball.

There would be a great expanse, lit from orange, luminescent fungus and glowing espers that spanned the ceiling like cobweb. It only just lit up the myriad of beasts that had been gathered there, feathered or furred but all surely confused as they gazed up at fat, rotten old branch that lay before them.

It was half half-buried in the ground, thorns thrust from its black carapace to resemble a sort of pyre as a thin, cloaked rat crept up the side of it deliberately. Surmounting the sappy log he would pause as the many voices of the room slowly hushed, and without warning his cup suddenly thrust high up into the air, sloshing a thick viscus liquid down the side and over his clawed fingers. "Scholars, warriors, leaders of beast and bird, I have brought you to my abode to witness the birth of a new magic."

"A magic to rival the great tree itself. A magic stolen from her breast and forced to greater enterprise. I bring you here so that you might speak of it, revere it, and know by what power you have been damned when your village has burned to the ground and you are left with but ash." The room would remain eerily silent as he spoke spare a few brave protests, who would die down amongst flares of violet tinted flame.

"Two kinds of beasts have joined me on this day. One who will leave this place an agent of power ... and another who will not live to see the next frost. I wonder... which will you be?"