Oh you boys are good... real good.
The noise: when turning to the right, with nearly my whole freekin' head inside the wheel well, the creeking noise is more of a series of deep clicks -- the slower the rig moves, the slower the clicks come. They are somewhat deep sounding -- it must be related to a rotating part of somekind.
T-case seems to be working fine; the sound does not change whether I'm in 4-lo, high, etc.
I did not notice any rubbing on the back of the brake rotor either.
Thanks for the guidance... I'll see if I can't replicate the sound, record and post. Gnomes... it must be those GD garden gnomes!