A Tale of Two Worlds

[Darryl Hamlin]

Part I: Home

The two adventurers burst into the throne room. I was casting my first spell when the chieftain stood up and had his lackeys attack us. A single Ice Dagger took out one, while my warrior friend took a mighty swing and sliced the other "guardian" in place. As the chieftain advanced on us, my friend ran in front of him, taking an attack that grazed his mail, then returning the favor with a mighty blow from his own axe. As I finished casting my Daze spell, I noticed something opening behind the Ogre's throne. The spell went off, but the Orc shrugged it off. I quickly proceeded to cast Magic Missile, and sent three missiles of magical force careening into the Ogre, which caused it to reel, as it was then hit again by my warrior friend, causing the cheiftain to drop.

"Well, that wasn't so hard, was it Bance?"

"Well, not for you, maybe, since I took all the beatings."

"Hey, I was born with this power, so of course I'm going to put it to use."

"Yeah, but I'd think you wouldn't be so frail that you were nearly killed by that blow that would have just scratched me."

"Well, you may want to quit complaining about my 'frailty' if you want to get that nasty wound patched up, since you couldn't put a bandage on right to save your life."

"I thought I asked you not to bring that up again."

"Doesn't mean I won't. How do you injure yourself applying bandages, anyway?"

"All right, all right, patch me up already."

As I patched him up, I took another glimpse behind the throne, and noticed that whatever-it-was was still there. After the bandaging was done, I walked around to the rear of the throne to get a better look at it. I new something had been fishy.

"Hey, Bance, check it out, it's a portal. But what's it doing in an ogre cave?"

I drew closer to try to examine it, and noticed the corners of my cloak fluttering towards the swirling hole.

"It seems to be exerting a pu...."

And with that I was gone from the world I knew.

Part II: Arrival

I awoke with a groggy head. I said a short prayer to my goddess, thanking her for my safe arrival, but as I said her name, it felt different somehow. Empty. I heard voices, arguing, and I heard a new voice in my mind. The voice of the Platinum Dragon, Bahamut. He explained what had happened, and offered me his guidance. I devoted myself to him then, perhaps because he spoke personally to a human, a mere mortal such as myself. The voices became clearer as my own head cleared from the journey, which had stripped many of my powers. I let out a mighty bellow, surprising the arguers, and finally prompting an explanation. I had landed in a plane at war, due to the exact phenomenon that had brought me here. My first instinct was to head to the ambassador for the Mystral Ascendancy, but they did not see me as fit for them. I then said a short prayer to my new god, and found myself facing the lizardfolk ambassador. After a short talk with the ambassador, I agree to join the Ancient Ones, in order to serve Bahamut.

As I follow the ambassador, I find myself getting lost along the way. I wander for a short time, and find another lizardfolk. I run over to ask for help finding "Sleeth", but instead he puts me in manacles and calls me a slave. I endure this treatment as we do get to Sleeth, but I end up being processed to be a slave.

"This isn't what I signed up for. Where's Faedrash?"

"Quiet, slave!"

While the slaves tried to keep me quiet, and spare me the wrath of the slaver, I kept my protest up, until Faedrash showed up.

"Look, I'm not a slave, Slovak. I was brought here by Faedrash."

The ambassador spoke in my defense, and finally berated Slovak for his sloppiness in mixing up the slaves and the followers.





more coming soon