Welcome to the Felnach Highlands, where the mist is nigh ever-present and the rain a regular traveling companion. These beautiful but chilly hills hide plenty of secrets, but none at the moment more relevant to our story than the Sratha-din as they flee pursuers from Deltrada and patrols from the nearby canid capital of Arklow.

If you check out the map, you can intuit the path Hardin and company took out of Deltrada, escaping east across Lake Felnach and landing deep within the mountains on its opposite shores. Too far north and you’re slowed by the hazardous terrain, and too far south you risk being caught by canid patrols–so a middle ground is essential, but not altogether a guarantee of safety either.

The terrain here was (perhaps unsurprisingly) drawn from the gorgeous misty mountain greenery of Scotland. Specific references came from the area around Clachaig Gully, which eagle-eyed readers might recognize as a backdrop across multiple films.

You can almost SEE Bevan and Kenosh hiding amongst the rocks and the mist, keeping a careful eye out for any pursuing canid patrols!

Speaking of Bevan, who makes a reappearance this week along with Kenosh for the first time in quite a while, I wanted to share this really fun piece of 3D artwork that series collaborator Jerome Jacinto made:

OHMYGOSH it’s a cute lil’ 3D Bevan! His proportions and the low-poly look are evocative of late PlayStation 1-era games like Final Fantasy 9, which I absolutely adore. To be clear, by the way, this isn’t for a specific Western Deep-themed project or anything, Jerome just made this model and rig in his spare time as a means to teach himself how to use the Blender suite of 3D modeling and animation tools. The results are VERY cool.

Oh, and if you haven’t yet, make sure to give us a follow on Twitter at https://twitter.com/thewesterndeep for all the latest and greatest Western Deep-related announcements! Now you don’t have to wait for the weekly page updates to get the news–you can follow us in real time! :)

See you all next week!