At noontime, you come to an intersection. This road continues west, while another, paved, road runs roughly north-south. There is a signpost here -
The Elven Coast Road: North: To Kolumbus Bridge, Demon's Neck and Portsmouth.
South: To Frisco, The Fordidden Coast and the Elven Lands.
East: To Inner Sanctum, and - added in crude, faded letters - To the Halls of the Great Worm.
West: To the Sea, Koltolla.
Valdar turns north onto the Great Road.
"We will make faster time if we take the Coast Road, instead of heading directly down to the sea," he explains.
And that you do. The road curves steadily more to the northeast, but the terrain remains mostly flat and heavily forested.
It is midafternoon, when Robert suddenly exclaims -
"What are they???"
He is pointing at a group of strange, lobster-like creatures with bat-wings. However, they are each about 8' long...bigger than even a Maine lobster. And, you notice with growing unease, they have noticed you and are cruising your way.
Op Code readies himself, prepared to draw his sword if necessary.
"Oh, great Thoth, please aid me and allow me to detect if these flying creatures are evil," Salaam intones and casts Detect Evil towards the flying lobsters.
"Oh, great lightning bolt," intones Pharian. "Please help me blast these sorry monsters from the sky."
But he waits for Salaam's diagnosis to fire.
"He does have a sense of humor after all," says Jesse, and holds her own lightning bolt in check till Salaam indicates the goood/evil of the critters.
Darian draws his frostbrand and waits.
Gonzo fades into the shadows and awaits an opportunity to deal death and mayhem on the creatures if they turn out to be evil or just intent on having you for breakfast.
BrightAxe steps to one side and prepares to attack if their intent is indeed hostile.
"Pharian, do the honors. It seems tis your lucky day," Salaam comments after a moment as he says a word of magic and fires magic missiles from his fingertips at the closest lobster creature.
His spell blasts into one of the creatures but does not shoot it down.
Darian moves up in front of the party and lets the mages do their thing. If any of the creatures close on the party, he will attack sword-to-carcapace.
Angst fires a magic missile at one of the creatures. He scorches a carapace.
Occa syas, "Anyone care for lobster?"
He fireballs them.
When the flames clear, only two survive...badly hurt but very angry.
They drop from above on Luann and Tracy. Luann crunches one with her morning star but it survives and cuts into her with a pincer for 2 hit points. Tracy fans with her staff, and then is caught for 3 hit points.
Calvin is right beside Luann, but he misses with his broadsword. Brenda tries to help out Tracy, but also fans. Finally, Herman the ranger nails the creature attacking Luann, and smashes it to the ground, dead; while Robert charges over and does in the last one.
You go over and inspect the bodies.
You have never seen the likes of them before on this world.
"I think they're called Mi-go," says Vardui, touching one of them with his boot. "I've never seen one before, but I've heard descriptions of them...on a world where I spent some years."
You mount up and continue on your way.
The rest of the day's trek is uneventful.