<div class="floatright">(http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag94/Autocad-E/fort_by_tituslunter-d66333c_zpsae035598.jpg)</div><br/>"Hm? The ones logged out... no, Felicia was kicked off too. She was the one who chained me down to test out her new barbed strapon, 'for cats' so she said, and as you can imagine I was relieved at first when she vanished... I hope that's not too much information?" Sabrith giggled. "My real name's Sabrina... you can use that if you like."<br/><br/>When the two girls arrived at Melangwi Outpost, they found it completely fixed up by now, as though the Kech attack had never taken place. Not that the NPCs seemed to notice at all, going about their everyday schedule autonomously without a care in the world. Sabrith/Sabrina stuck even closer to Rayne than normal. "Ugh, I don't like NPCs... and I hate being alone with them. They seem like mannequins, robots... but I just can't shake the feeling that they're just waiting for you to be alone and let down your guard, and then they'll jump you like a horror movie... well, I like real people better. Or even monsters, at least they're up front about what they want to do to you."<br/><br/>Having resupplied, they began their long flight towards north towards Port Lannis. The Melangwi Jungle was an expense of verdant green below them, broken by the blue snake of the Melangwi River that wound its way out of the trees. Far to their left was the shimmering ocean, and in the distant right was the impenetrable mountain range that marked the end of the jungle. (It was truly impenetrable- natural hazards and monsters conspired to defeat any party trying to make it over the mountains, and the few stubborn players who had made it all the way to the peak a couple of months ago had posted about running up against an invisible wall that prevented them from going any further.) As they flew north, the trees gradually became sparser until the canopy was finally broken and the terrain gave way to the flat plains of a grassy savanna.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Port Lannis</span><br/><br/>The Melangwi River meandered through the savanna until it finally reached the sea. Port Lannis was situated on a river delta at the mouth of the river where it emptied into the sea, reachable only from the sea or across one of the bridges spanning the river. In lore, the first colonists found the ancient ruins of a fort complete with a stone pier jutting out over the water. The warm sunny climate, made comfortable by a cool breeze coming in from the ocean and the shade of the palm trees that grew all over the delta, made the place a natural choice to be restored to a port city.<br/><br/>The landmark of the city was Fort Lannis, the seat of government of the city, its high walls overlooking the sea on one side and the rest of the city on the other. A signal flare shot up into the air from the fort's walls as its inhabitants noticed the fliers' arrival. As Rayne and Sabrith approached, they saw that the city was in poor shape. Most of the districts were damaged and abandoned as though a hurricane or a war or a riot had just passed through them, with no people - neither PCs or NPCs - visible in the debris-strewn streets, only the occasional monster - a monster within city limits! - sniffing through the wreckage. The outer walls were abandoned with holes punched through them in places.<br/><br/>Only the walls of the fort, further reinforced with crude but effective makeshift barricades, were occupied. Archers patrolled the parapets, and there was even a ballista that had been moved from its original position overlooking the sea to now cover the main approach to the fort's gate. Someone on the wall was waving and jumping, trying to catch Rayne's attention - as they landed, she saw that it was none other than Starstrike/Teagan!<br/><br/>"Rae-lynne! You made it!" Starstrike gave Rayne a crushing hug. "What happened to you? I'm just glad you're safe... well, you should be fine here for the time being. There was some sort of event right after the Change, a monster attack that turned the entire Port Lannis into a PVP zone and caught everyone off guard. It was pure chaos and panic, killings and rapings everywhere, even a few players seemed to be on the mobs' side... a lot of the lower-level players got captured and dragged off, and several kind samaritans got martyred trying to protect them as well. We haven't heard anything from them since. Even the NPCs weren't spared, most of them were ganked during the first few hours. With you two... Sabrith, right? That brings us up to a full two dozen players, and we've got about a score of surviving NPCs as well. Most of them you can see here, patrolling the walls as our early warning system. We've managed to secure this fort and the system recognizes it somehow, since it's a non-combat zone inside, but once you step onto these walls or head outside, it's free-for-all."<br/><br/>"Rayne!" The interruption came from Moonshadow, who had just shown up along with Ledude and Grogza. The monk leapt into Rayne's arms, sobbing with relief.