The Dragon of Silver Lake?

Despite the image above, the name for the “Dragon of Silver Lake” didn’t come from that! It actually came from a game. The above photo was near Mammoth (and taken many years after I’d finished Neverending Nights… the first time!), and I got a chuckle out of it being the “Launching Facility” – see why in a moment…

If you’ve checked out the Easter Egg page, you will see the series makes a ton of references to various things – from Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Dragonlance, Red vs Blue, Legend of the Red Dragon (L.O.R.D.), various song and movie titles – one of those references that kept popping up was the mysterious “Dragon of Silver Lake.”

Throughout the series, the various people Peter and Grayson run into talk about the “Dragon of Silver Lake” – some had heard the dragon was alive, some had heard it was dead, some heard it was alive, using the rumor it was dead to lure foolish adventurers, and some even got cut off before being able to finish their sentence.

As the Easter Egg page reveals, the name Silver Lake came from a game called Burnout. What specifically started it was Burnout 2. In 2004, Adam picked up Burnout 2 in a bargain bin (because Burnout 3: Take Down had just come out). We discovered the Crash Mode in Burnout 2 – and it was over. I can’t even begin the fathom how many hours Adam, Paul, and myself spent playing Burnout 2. I ended up going out and getting a copy for myself and picked up Burnout 3 which had a take down mode (where you race, but you try to take down other racers by forcing them to crash). One of the first maps in Burnout 3 is one called Silver Lake – and it has an achievement – if you crash someone into a railing that sends them into the lake, you get a photo-op called Gone Fishing.