The Unusual Heroes Reborn

Young Dragon, Old Adventurer

Prynne leapt gracefully over the stepping stones of sediment that jutted out of the water, and tumbled effortlessly next to the young black dragon. Venus was not far behind her, bellowing an angry battle cry on the way across. Meanwhile, Dent knocked an arrow and took aim, while Nuttin recited the spidery words of a spell. The battle was beginning, but the rest of their party was no where to be seen.

In the hallway leading away from the dragon’s lair, Belasco, Lox, Elmond and their hairy friend struggled and wailed to be free of the portcullis that blocked their path.

“Out of the way, stupid halfling!”

“Lemmie go! I don’t wanna be eaten by the dragon!”

“Both of you keep moving! It must be right behind us! Run!”

“Ullgh! Wwlllrrghhh! Wwwuuullllhhhh!”

In the scuffle to get free, Elmond managed to grab at Belasco’s mask, nearly tearing it off of his face. Belasco, frightened of the dragon and in a panic, shoved Elmond back against the wall with the brute force of fear and adrenaline and knocked him unconscious. The mask dangled slightly from Belasco’s ear, and Lox thought he managed to see dark skin beneath the mask. But how could a halfling be sure when he was terrified of becoming dragon food?

In the dragon’s damp lair the battle had begun. Venus struck the black scales with his Scimitar of Flying, while Prynne attacked with her Vampiric Shortsword and Namarra, her Keen Longsword. From the other island, Dent fired arrows mercilessly into the dragon, while Nuttin cast Magic Missile. The dragon tired quickly of this unruly group, and decided it was time she rid herself of them. She attempted to chomp down on Venus with her deadly bite, but was unsuccessful. She turned angrily on Prynne and clawed at her with both limbs. Prynne managed to tumble out of reach, and nearly landed herself into the rapidly moving water.

Nuttin stood at Dent’s side, rubbing his chin and mumbling.
“Got to be something stronger than a Magic Missile…let’s see…oh yes! Here we go!”

From his pack, Nuttin pulled out The Book of Blood, his treasured tome that he pulled from the magic chest back in the room that rained acid. His eyes darted from page to page looking for just the right thing. Holding the book in his left hand, and touching the page with his right hand, he summoned forth a yeth hound! The evil hound appeared, red eyes aglow. Without hesitation, Nuttin leapt onto the yeth hound’s dull black back and shouted in excitement and fear as it soared towards the dragon.

Dent nearly misfired when he saw the creature materialize, and gaped at Nuttin in awe. He could not believe the old halfling was attempting such an outrageous feat!

Prynne tumbled back towards the dragon, and looked up to see her ally riding on the back of the fearsome creature. Venus saw the yeth hound coming, and used the distraction to get closer to the dragon. Now that he and Prynne were flanking the young black, perhaps they could do some real damage.

Dent just shook his head and smirked.
“Halflings never cease to surprise me,” he said to himself while knocking another arrow.

Nuttin was hanging on so tightly that his old knuckles burned. He felt as though he was going to be sick as the yeth hound soared back and forth, biting at the dragon. The young black was infuriated now, and began focusing it’s ire towards the halfling and it’s hound. On the ground, Prynne slashed into the dragon’s scales with Venus, while Dent fired arrow after arrow at their foe.

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Nuttin was getting thoroughly jostled, and was beginning to lose his grip on his yeth hound. The hound began barking and howling again, and the sudden cacophony startled Nuttin, who lost his hold altogether and went spiraling down into the water. Just as the old halfling went under, the dragon reared back and blasted the yeth hound with it’s acidic breath. The fearsome yeth hound disappeared, and the dragon began focusing on the pesky humanoids again.

At the other side of the watery room, Dent watched as Nuttin plunged into the fast moving waters. He quickly ran over and jumped onto one of the stacks of debris and clasped onto Nuttin’s flailing hand. He dragged the halfling onto the small chunk of sediment and gave him a pat on the back.

“That was amazing, Nuttin. I expected such spontaneity from Lox,” laughed Dent, “but never from you!”

“Shut yer mouth, Ranger. We still have a dragon to defeat,” said Nuttin turning red with embarrassment.

But it seemed that the dragon had had enough. As the ranger and wizard turned to look, they saw Venus score the killing blow. The underbelly of the dragon spewed outward as the steel of the Scimitar of Flying collided with the dragon’s scales. With a piercing shriek, the dragon took it’s last breath and crumpled into a messy heap. Venus and Prynne took care to move away from the dragon’s falling form and ranted loudly in victory.

“Well done, lad,” called Nuttin.

“You had interesting tricks up your sleeve as well, old man,” said Venus with a smile.

Prynne came up alongside the old halfling and patted him on the shoulder.
“Lucky you didn’t get yourself killed,” she said with a smirk.

“Luck had nothin’ to do with it, missy,” said Nuttin.

“Luck has everything to do with it,” said Prynne. “Tymora was with you, whether you admit it or not, old one.”

“If it makes you happy to think so,” mumbled Nuttin. “Say where is Lox and the rest of the bunch?”

As they peered down the corridor, they saw Elmond rubbing his head groggily, while Belasco and Lox tried feverishly to squeeze through the gaps in the portcullis. The hair creature turned to them and mumbled his usual incoherent blathering.

“Worry not, friends,” bellowed Venus. “The dragon is dead. We have defeated the beast! We may now plunder it’s treasures and take it’s booty as our own!”

“Treasure? Dragon treasure! How exciting,” exclaimed Lox.

Belasco folded his arms across his chest and exhaled with relief and disgust. Then he thought he better start checking his pouches and bag since he’d spent the last few moments struggling next to a halfling.

As Belasco made sure he had all of his belongings, Lox ran from the corridor to haul off the dragon’s hoard.

“Slow down, Lumley! You ran away like a youngling,” said Nuttin, “and you still expect to keep some of the loot?”

“I believe the agreement is that we split everything fairly,” said Belasco entering the dragon’s den. “Or at least, that’s the agreement now.”

“Bah!” spat Nuttin.

“Wow, what’s that over there?” said Lox, pointing toward an alcove. “Looks like it’s glowing.”

The eager halfling ran headlong towards the alcove and stopped only when he saw all the funny yellow fuzz on the walls. The cavern Lox stood in contained weird yellow puffballs and patches of fuzzy mold in varying colors. As the curious halfling looked about, he shrieked in surprise when he noticed the Dwarven skeleton within the funny mold. The dwarf held in it’s bony hand a shiny bastard sword with a gleaming gem in it’s hilt.

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“Lookee here, everyone,” called Lox. “It’s a skeleton, and it’s holding a shiny sword!”
As the rest of the group made their way towards the cavern, Lox reached out for the bastard sword. The mold and puffballs within the cavern made a puffing noise and Lox was enveloped within a spore cloud, and dropped to his knees.

“Aw…I don’t feel so good…”

“Lox!” called Dent.

“Dammit Lumley,” bellowed Nuttin shaking his fist.

As Dent approached the cavern, Lox crawled out on his hands and knees, coughing and gagging.

“You see? That’s why you should always send the halflings first,” said Belasco.

Dent ignored the remark, but Nuttin turned to glare in Belasco’s direction.
“That foolish halfling has more bravado and courage than ten of your kind…whatever your kind is, you shady slug!”

“You know nothing of my kind, halfling,” hissed Belasco. With that he turned and headed toward the small island the dragon corpse rested on.

Prynne turned and followed their masked ally while Dent and Nuttin cared for Lox. Venus and Elmond decided to work on finding a way to maneuver the portcullis, but the hairy creature began poking at Venus playfully.

”Make way, silly monster,” said Venus soberly, “before I make you take a swim.”

“Ullgh! Wwlllrrghhh…wwuuullllhhhh..”

The hair creature, known as a spleckle to those who are familiar with them, became interested in the notion of swimming. It moved on it’s hidden amphibian-like feet into the dragon’s lair and looked out upon the moving water.

“Ullgh! Wwlllrrghhh! Wwwuuullllhhhh,” it sang excitedly.

Then, without warning, the spleckle bent it’s hairy body over and touched the tip of it’s head to the running water. After absorbing nearly three gallons of liquid, it happily stood up and said cheerfully, “Ullgh…wwlllrrghhh…wwuuullllhhhh!”

“He’s so…funny,” wheezed Lox.

“How do you feel?” asked Dent.

“Weak,” said Lox. “I feel so much weaker…”

“Take it easy, Lox. Prynne and Belasco are grabbing what we can of the treasure,” said Dent.

“But, my Belt of Many Pouches…it can hold more than they can carry,” protested Lox.

“Then we’ll make a few trips,” said Nuttin. “Just settle down, Lumley.”

A short while later, the group had collected the valuables they found amongst the dragon’s den and were ready to carry on. Venus suggested combining their strength to lift the portcullis, which turned out to be successful.

Dent lead the group from the watery lair, while Nuttin followed behind the slow moving Lox, telling him all about his exciting adventure with the dragon.

“You shoulda seen me, Lumley,” he smiled proudly. “Me, an old adventuring wizard flying out to fight a young black dragon…”


The Adventure Continues…
 
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As Nemm as already said, tomorrow I go on vacation for four weeks, so maybe this is my last bump for a while.

Your story is superb. A true dungeoncrawl, very funny to read, with colourful characters. I really love it.

Please, go on writting, when I come back I will love to find lots of updates to read ;)
 



Dartan said:
More Ziona More.........Stop reading the new Dragonlance and post!!! Or Lox will have to "borrow" the book...hehehe

Hey, now, Lumely better keep his hands off my Dragonlance if he wishes to be blessed by the healing power of Eilistraee! ;)

But worry not, I'll be updating the story soon...
 


Sorry about the delay...been very busy, but I promise I'll update by tomorrow. (And no, Lox, I haven't had time to continue reading the new Dragonlance either...snarf snarf...) :p
 


Only three more books to go and i'll be caught up to Ziona and Dent.......can't wait....yeah we play tomorrow night......i wonder what interesting things Lox is going to get into??
 

Gideon Xol grew up in the center of Faerun's wizard culture, Halruaa. The young sandy haired boy was an orphan took in by a powerful war wizard by the name of Zamok. For years the wizard kept the boy as a servant. In this time Gideon grew strong and quick both in body and mind. He would sneak into Zamok's lectures to his apprentices. At night he would quietly move to the dungeons to study "borrowed" spell books and mimic the wizards gestures in peace. It was on such a night that Gideon met a most unexpected ally.

Gideon sat against the wall of his favorite empty dungeon cell with his spell book flopped open on his lap. He finally mastered the first three cantrips: Dancing lights, Daze, and his favorite Magehand. Suddenly, the hairs on his neck started to raise and Gideon had the suspicion he was being watched. "I've always enjoyed watching you youngling." The words appeared in his mind but in a voice not his own. Gideon was terrified but his curiosity got the best of him and his fear melted away. "Who are you?", he whispered out loud.

Images came to him. Slowly at first then faster and with sound. It seemed he was in another place with another body at another time. He was one of the Githzerai and he knew what that was but he didn't know why he knew. Gideon's identity slipped away. His name became Phantasmek and he is in Halruaa searching for a mind flayer. The people here don't trust him. They believe that the way of magic is the only path to walk and they attack him for his practice of psionics. After a long battle the wizards defeat Phantasmek. Zamok orders the Githzerai's legs broken and has him imprisoned in the dungeons beneath his stronghold. Years passed like seconds until a young sandy haired boy entered his cell with an oversized spell book. Then all things that were melted and there was darkness.

Gideon opened his eyes to the sight of the crippled Githzerai who had watched him study all these years. He felt sorry for the creature and a sudden dislike for Zamok. He soon got assigned the duty of feeding the prisoners and was able to smuggle good healthy food into the psionic warrior.

Gideon wanted nothing to do with Halruaa any longer. The day he met Phantasmek was the last time the boy ever touched a spell book but Gideon continued to sneak into the dungeon to visit his new friend and soon-to-be mentor. Over the next few years Phantasmek taught Gideon about life in Faerun as well as how to defend himself, physically and mentally. Gideon constantly tried to talk his mentor into trying to escape from the stronghold but Phantasmek wasn't much of a warrior anymore and the time he spent teaching his young apprentice brought him happiness.

On his eighteenth birthday Gideon managed to manifest a tangible blade of pure psionic force much to the surprise of his Githzerai mentor. Phantasmek knew he could teach the young man no longer and that his own time on this plane was short. He pulled a small chest out of thin air and presented it to his pupil.

"Whats this?", Gideon asked.
"It's your graduation present, youngling.", replied the master.

Gideon opened the box to reveal a beautiful silver ring. He looked up to thank his master but Phantasmek was gone. The young psionic warrior gathered his belongings and left the castle just as his mentor would have wished.

Three years later he had become one of the most feared bounty hunters in the land. Dubbed 'the Sandman' by those he hunted, Gideon's record spoke for itself. There seemed no place he couldn't get into and no opponent he could not capture. He often took jobs to bring down wizards who abused their power rendering his services without charge.

It was one such wizard who managed to get a jump on the seasoned adventurer but that is a story for another time.


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