this was my first idea for the Fallout/break chapter of Worm Turns, but i went with Fallout because of the smaller number of people who have tried a post-apocalyptic D&D setting.
* Rime *
We reappeared on the roof of a building, a skyscraper. About three hundred feet high. Considering there were several miles of one or two-story buildings until you got to the next batch of taller ones, it stood out pretty well.
Taylor yelped and moved away from the edge, apparently noting how much of a drop there was. Twenty-four floors worth until asphalt provided a landing spot.
"Where ARE we?" asked Taylor.
"The city of Phoenix in the state of Arizona in the nation of the United States," I answered. "I haven't been here in a whole lot of lifetimes but I recognize the mountains. People call it a valley, but I think it qualifies more as a broken plain myself."
"What the hell is THAT?" asked Taylor, pointing.
The lack of traffic below, a few spots where the column of smoke indicated a fire going, and the sound that wind makes as it whips through broken windows were all indications this wasn't a typical timeline version of Phoenix. Especially there was the one little detail Taylor was pointing at to indicate this was not a typical Worm or Harry Potter or similar world.
"That would be a dragon, specifically a Brass Dragon. She's flying a search pattern. Which means she senses another dragon in her territory," I told Taylor.
She considered that and glanced at me. "You?"
"Me," I confirmed.
"What kind of world has dragons staking out territory in freaking Arizona?" asked Taylor.
"I'm going to transform and meet her," I told Taylor. "We'll ask. The first rule of conversing with dragons by the way. Be polite. Remember that you are dealing with a multiton omnivore who could eat you in less than a minute."
"I thought dragons were carnivores," said Taylor.
"Common misconception," I told her. "I know a Red Dragon who is really fond of beef stew. And I've heard of a Blue Dragon who is absolutely a gourmet favoring cheese of all types."
"A cheese-loving dragon?" asked Taylor VERY skeptically.
"The multiverse is full of very odd things," I assured her and transformed into my real shape.
I lifted her in one forepaw and launched, flaring my wings and magic.
* Taylor *
I estimated Rime, if he stretched out from tail tip to snout, was nearly the size of the building we launched from.
The distant dragon instantly reoriented and began approaching. I could tell Rime did something, and both he and the other dragon oriented towards some common point. That common point was some large set of parking lots with an enclosed stadium and a bunch of buildings, some of which had been reduced to rubble.
There was one bad point, some bat-winged Thing with a human face and a lion's body and a scorpion tail rose up from the ruins to snarl at us. Rime shot a blast of ice and cold past it, and the Thing decided to just head back to its nest in that ruined building.
Then we were landing and Rime set me on the ground.
The 'Brass Dragon' rumbled something that sounded like a question in a language I didn't know and probably couldn't speak anyway.
"In English, please," rumbled back Rime. "My associate does not speak any of the forms of Draconic."
"You two are worldwalkers," responded the Brass. "Why do you come here?"
"In your territory specifically?" asked Rime. "We were thrown here by an Elder Being, whose name I shall not mention lest it draw attention."
"Elder Beings are a right pain," acknowledged the Brass.
"Indeed," said Rime. "We are in Phoenix? What is the designation of this universe?"
"DRKHW - 29715A," responded the Brass. "How long will you remain in this area?"
"Need to get our bearings," said Rime. "So this is a 'Dragon Highway' world. As I thought. My associate here needs other human interaction. Nearest human communities?"
"Away from my territory, Ancient," said the Brass, looking at me in a peculiar fashion. "Ah. She's a cruxpoint. I see. The nearest largest human communities are in the North, where the city of Flagstaff once stood is the forested Kingdom of Endor. Providing you discount the crystal worshippers of Sedona."
"I think she's had enough crazy for right now," said Rime. "Someone named their kingdom after a Star Wars moon?"
"Yes, I think that's understandable," agreed the Brass. "And the Endorians are an odd bunch but at least they are not as bad as what developed in Seattle. Go then, freely and without disturbing my territory - thank you very much."
"May I take a moment to compliment your own associate in his invisibility spell? Quite well done," said Rime.
"As expected of an Ancient," said the Brass, spreading wings and lifting off. A dragon roughly half the size of the Brass was abruptly there, inclining his head before taking wing himself.
"So what's a 'Dragon Highway'?" I asked as we watched the two fly off.
"Imagine a world like your own," Rime said in that rumbly deep voice that comes of having a chest cavity bigger than most garages. "Prior to the parahumans. Everything going along fine but a tension building. People not knowing why but getting more divisive and hostile to each other. Then one day everything changes."
"Like my Earth with the parahumans showing up?" I asked the dragon.
"Yes," agreed the dragon. "Except in this case it is like water building up behind a dam. First there's a crack. The time varies but in all Dragon Highway worlds I've heard of - the first crack was in the nation of Turkey. A blast that scoured the land around it, but unlike most explosions - this one didn't stop. Most assumed it was some kind of volcano. Except this was cold. Ice and snow blasting out and quickly bringing the temperature around Kayseri to well below the freezing point of water. By the third day, the area was well on its way to becoming a glacier."
"I take it that it doesn't stop there," I said drily.
"No, that was just the first crack in the dam's wall," said Rime. "The next one was on the East Coast of the United States. A place called Chesapeake. A stationary tornado. Then it began happening faster and faster in more places until the Event."
"That sounds ominous," I admitted.
"In the Dragon Highway worlds, magic is a type of energy not defined as heat or light or gravitational waves or other such. It is pure Potential. Taking the dam metaphor further - the cracks in the walls of the world joined up and chaos happened. People's inner natures became their outer reality."
"What does that mean?" I prompted. It still didn't sound like something that would involve all these empty streets and missing people.
"The manticore that flew up to challenge us?" asked Rime. "That was human once. Probably someone very territorial, with a cruel streak and temper. During the Event they changed to that form. Did you see the patrol of mannequins on the street?"
"What? No," I answered.
"Those were once normal store mannequins and normal people who merged with them. Vain, appearance-oriented, probably very much into fashion. Now they patrol areas - looking for living humans to grab and bolster their numbers by transforming them into mannequins like themselves."
"Oh dear," I said.
"A lot of humans vanished. A lot transformed like that," said Rime. "Those who held onto their humanity for the week of the Event were few. Some still bear marks of their ordeal. The two dragons we just met? One likely rode the magic to get here and came from another world. The copper was likely human who transformed during the course of the Event." Rime made an off-hand gesture. "Any other questions before we go flying? It will take me some hours to reach Flagstaff from here."
"Is there a bathroom nearby?" I asked. Hey, a girl has to have priorities!
* Rime *
I checked out the building in human form and found it mostly intact, leaving Taylor to do her business though I had to remind her there was no power and the water was not running. I cast a Light spell on the fixtures, confirming that my magic worked here besides the purely draconic stuff, and then stood guard nearby.
There were scavengers of course. Seeing two dragons arrive and three dragons leave, even the not-very-smart creatures would conclude that there might be the leavings of some meal there.
The manticore discouraged some, of course. Judging from the human features and lack of a mane - likely a female. A nesting female so lesser predators would be staying clear.
A cactus treant ambled by in the street, apparently just curious. I nodded at it. It nodded back but didn't tarry.
Some small slender dinosaur pack came running through, and that they were particularly avoiding certain buildings had me curious but I didn't stick my snout into it. Some things in this world even an ancient dragon didn't disturb without really good reason.
I was familiar with the setting. Dragon Highway, so named because the dragons used the old highway system as territory markers, was a post-apocalypse world. Signs around me indicated that this particular one had its Event around 2011 or so and that it was likely five years roughly in this world's past. Things had stabilized since the original "flood" and some rebuilding was pretty likely.
Phoenix was one of those areas where only "modern" human technology made things livable. With no power or running water, everyone capable of leaving had done so. There might still be pockets of people here and there, but mostly the survivors would have moved towards more livable areas.
Those who had transformed could adapt. The cactus treant would likely survive another five hundred to a thousand years if he or she was careful, adapted fully to this environment. The manticore maybe another twenty as they could survive on little water. Both bronze and copper dragon were quite capable of foraging very far away and surviving the worst heat this little stretch of desert could throw at them.
A figure darted out from behind a building and the little pack of dinosaurs swarmed toward it.
"Aren't you going to help?" asked Taylor as she exited the building.
"The zombie in a McDonald's uniform or the compsognathus?" I asked.
"Zombies?!" yelped Taylor.
"One," I pointed out. "Zombies don't tend to last long with this many scavengers around."
The swarm immediately started shredding the zombie.
"They're not coming after us next are they?" asked Taylor.
"No. If I'm right about the species, they're opportunistic scavengers who prefer their meals a bit more aged," I told her. They had the teeth for fresh prey, but they'd go for things that couldn't fight back especially with a pack of less than twenty members.
"And if you're wrong?" asked Taylor.
I shrugged. "Dragon."
She considered my human form for a moment before acknowledging the point with a nod.
"Couple of places to hit before we head North," I told her.
"Huh, why?" asked Taylor.
"Trade goods. We can fill up an abandoned car with items to trade with the local communities. Don't know what they need so the most likely ones will be a pharmacy, maybe one of the big warehouses that supply Wal-Mart or a grocery chain with merchandise. Sporting goods stores will likely be cleaned out, but we'll try one of those and a gun store just in case."
* Taylor *
Actually, the first thing I went for was the car. MUCH better than being carried in a claw or trying to hold onto a horn.
Those white panel trucks were everywhere and once the long-past-the-expiration-date sodas were cleared out of the chosen one, it was quickly made flight worthy by lengths of chain and some locking mechanism from a mostly-picked-over Home Depot.
Seriously though, I looked at the empty areas where leaf and snow blowers had been and I had to wonder about what kind of idiots would loot stuff like that while leaving perfectly useful barbeque grills behind.
No electricity, but Rime found a huge prybar that he did that light spell thing on and that worked fine. And it gave me a weapon, so bonus!
From Home Depot, we got: a couple of grills, six bags of charcoal, and then I was told to get in the truck while he moved some heavy stuff.
It was when he was moving what looked like half the gardening department into the back that I realized he'd done some tricky space-bending thing because there was no way all that was fitting in there.
Canned goods were at a Kroger distribution center, and pallets were moved.
The only bad time was when I was reading some of the gardening magazines I'd snagged and I heard this big snort.
I realized it had been human at one point. It was huge though. Looked dumb enough that it'd fail the entry exam for the E88 and big enough that it could probably pick the truck cab off.
I later learned it was called an ogre and might have been one of the customers here before the Event. It left without doing anything, but it was still a reminder I wasn't in Brockton Bay.
Which made me wonder what had happened to Brockton Bay in this world.
It was getting pretty hot when Rime emerged, changed back into a dragon, then began lifting the truck and flying off with it.
It was not a relaxing flight. I found myself jumping at every sound of stressed metal. I knew that these chains were fairly thick and that the dragon was more than capable of flying with the truck. It didn't make it easier to look out the windshield or the driver's window and see that you were way way up there in a vehicle that was not designed for flying.
* Rime *
I could spot several small communities. Ramshackle buildings and tents around a central home or subdivision. Private farms.
We'd gone from Phoenix past Sedona and Montezuma's Castle. The latter of which had a large Emerald Dragon taking up residence. He sent up a warbling query to which I replied Worldwalker-Passing-Through.
There were a few other dragons whose territories I passed through. I was tempted to investigate a wizard tower that had been built near Mund's Park, but it would have been too difficult with the truck and Taylor. Maybe later.
One major encounter, some harpies, had been neatly bypassed by speed and altitude and THAT had been just outside of Phoenix.
Flagstaff was a college town, mostly. It looked mostly abandoned, at least partly because some kind of fight had broken out that involved large craters.
Someone had built some kind of fort on one end of the city though, so I banked and glided to a landing where I could set the truck down then beat wings to lift and land away from it.
Which was when a scent I honestly had not expected reached me.
* Taylor *
Someone really had to work on his landings.
Still, the sort of Western-style fort you see in old movies indicated someone was home.
The wooden fence had telephone poles tied into it, but there was also some concrete binding things together. What the heck made those slashes near the top there?
"Ahoy the fort! We have items of use for you in exchange for food and shelter for my companion," said the dragon.
"What does a freaking ANCIENT dragon want here?" came a voice from the fort.
"I just told you," pointed out Rime.
"What's HER deal then?" asked the suspicious voice.
"Just starting out on her Hero's Journey," answered Rime.
"Sucks to be her then," muttered someone else in the fort.
"How do we know she's not a dragon herself?" asked a third voice.
"She doesn't smell like a dragon," said a fourth voice. "Honestly, Jebidiah. You'd think you'd know by now."
There was a great deal of grumbling by the one apparently named Jebidiah with some arguing by the others.
"What kind of supplies?" asked the second voice.
Rime started pulling things out of the truck, apparently so that they could see it wasn't a bluff. I wondered if they really thought that wall would stop a dragon the size of Rime from getting in if he really wanted to.
Finally the door opened and a bear came walking out. Except he was wearing some clothes and had a shotgun.
"I'm Jebidiah T. Manygoats," said the bear. "We can't offer a lot in trade."
"Just take my associate here in and show her the ropes, I can hunt and forage for myself," said Rime, looking down on the bear.
"If you're gonna be in the area, there IS a problem I think you could manage to iron out," said Jebidiah.
* Rime *
That kind of line usually meant there was a quest of some kind.
Naturally, I said I'd see what I could do.
When I heard what it was, I was a bit more interested.
The thing with the bear was that he had a mental image of himself as a very bear-like image prior to the Event. Others picked up on that, reinforced it, and so during the Event he actually became a very bear-like humanoid. Hands and the limbs were shaped more human-like, but essentially a bear in appearance. He was tougher than he looked, and he actually looked pretty tough. I was pretty sure that Jebidiah was at least a Brute 4 by the standards of Taylor's world.
He was also full-blood Navajo. He just didn't look it because of the whole bear-thing.
"So our problem is about halfway to Tuba City," said Jebidiah, making a gesture with the beer bottle he held in one hairy hand. "Necromancer. Trying to form an army of the dead. Nasty summabitz."
* Taylor *
Dad had referred to this kind of thing as the "ten cent tour" but apparently the phrase was even older than he was.
The fort (which they just called The Fort or the Flagstaff Compound depending on context) was developed after the refugees had started coming mainly from the South. They'd done the best they could but there had just been too many and hardly anyone had any supplies or equipment to contribute to group survival. Most weren't even armed. Which was bad because there had been attackers. Harpies, goblins, ghostly warriors from battles well over a century prior, zombies, skeletons, snake-people of some kind, wild animals that were most definitely NOT native to the area, carnivorous dinosaurs, wooly mammoths and other refugees from an earlier Era, giant bat-things, carnivorous rabbit-things, and other things you definitely wanted to keep away from your loved ones. The worst had been during the Event itself and the survivors had run a retreat during the events.
Apparently the whole "forest kingdom of Endor" thing had been a joke told at the start of the community. Unfortunately for the people involved - it had been taken seriously and spread by travelers since then.
They had survived because some of the survivors were packing magic. There was one old Navajo who'd worked at the hospital who apparently had the blood of an ancient Medicine Man in him, whose powders and prayers suddenly worked. Pastor Nakamura was able to turn undead away and get spells through prayer. So was Rabbi Goldstein. The three of them typically engaged in good-spirited competition and arguments about the nature of their gifts. Everyone else was just thankful that this Light seemed to be a common source for them. Then there was Tyrone Amadeus Buskirk, the most powerful sorcerer in this part of the world. Jebediah Manygoats who didn't have magic but when you were an eight-foot-tall bear who could put a woodchopping axe to good use - that was pretty darn useful against most of the opponents they'd faced too.
I marveled at some of it. The dryad, Kimberly, had apparently been a herbal-remedies type before the Event. Now she was just impressive as a really tall green girl. Taller than me by nearly a foot and apparently okay with it.
There was a goblin who apparently held onto most of his identity. He was with one of the scavenger teams and wore a cowboy hat that was nearly as tall as he was.
This was all pretty cool, though I wondered what Rime had meant about skills I was supposed to learn here.
Against them were the various wandering monsters and some groups that sought to either eat them or raid their resources. The snake-people, human Raiders, the orc tribe based out of Las Vegas, and some group of hyena-people Raiders that occasionally joined forces with the human ones.
* Rime *
I cursed the named Jebediah Manygoats. The reason for this is that incomplete intel is something that can get you killed. I came out looking for a necromancer, so naturally I took to a great height and used the excellent vision of a mountain-based dragon to check things below me. Without Taylor or that truck I was free to use spells to increase my speed.
Passing between Sunset Crater and Hundred Dollar Hill there had been some dinosaurs munching on a fern forest that absolutely had not been there prior to the Event but was apparently still doing well all these years later. None of the herbivores had been ones I recognized, and the largest was the size of a domestic cow - so nothing there to indicate trouble.
I could see signs of a community operating around the Gray Mountain area. If there was a necromancer nearby that little Blue Dragon I spotted would have been a prime target.
The Little Colorado River had more water than I expected. Possibly indicative of the changed weather patterns since the Event.
None of that was why I had cursed Jebediah and the lack of information he had provided. I had come here looking for the typical signs of a fledgling necromancer: dead area where plants couldn't grow (which was most of this part of Arizona actually) and scores of undead minions.
What I was observing was about one hundred and fifty feet tall and was mostly pale-white tentacles. I had thought it a weird cloud formation when I first spotted it. Then I felt very much in over my fool head.
I was bigger, heavier, had teeth and claws and could breathe frost. I had a fair amount of magical capabilities, mainly in support magic.
Facing some sort of cthulhoid entity which was moving in a straight line towards Tuba City, leaving a trail of what looked like fungus behind it? Yeah, I felt just a wee bit intimidated.
Of course, because it couldn't be that simple, I quickly spotted two kids on horseback riding as if the devil was right behind them. Couldn't blame them for that now, could I?
If I had known that THIS was up here, there would have been other spells I could have prepped. Alliances could have been called in as this is something that could threaten other dragons' territories.
Instead I changed angles and screamed defiance at the Entity to distract it from its prey.
It must be a Monday. I never had cared for Mondays.
This was as far as I had planned out for that chapter before deciding to go with Fallout 4's setup.
Dragon Highway was a D&D setting I came up with back in the late '80s, trying to come up with something entirely different from the usual pseudo-medieval setting.