Dungeons and Dragons - The Island of Havas Questing To Silvermere Part One

So, I've decided to document our quest from beginning to when ever we decide we are too old for all this! Our adventure will be coming from the eyes of a true neutral half orc barbarian named Thud! As played by myself. Whilst in many ways he has similar traits to Conan The Barbarian, as only played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, he is a lot bigger, thanks to a tough human mother falling in love (or what ever that translates to in fantasy interspecies language) with an orc commander.

Our story begins in a small tavern in the local town of adventurers called Arahim. A couple of human messengers came rushing in from who knows where in search of a well known bard named Benedict The Fine, a poet and musician known across the entire Island Of Havas. The two messengers were baring the gold and purple griffen from the human city of Silvermere, Thud The Tough was quietly enjoying a local brew at a near by table, and overheard the conversation between the humans, they were in desperate need to get a sealed letter to the King of Silvermere. Benedict then called forth for any adventures who wished to help deliver a simple letter over the dangerous lands and give it to the King of Silvermere. Almost instantly Thud noticed a couple of strange drunken orcs come forth and a couple of elves. Whilst talking the quest through with the humans, one of the drunk orcs swung their weapons at the quick elves. With the blood in Thuds veins starting to pump harder and harder, he got up and knocked down one of the drunken orcs, but thanks to his size and the fact that things were starting to get out of hand, the humans broke up the fight and insisted that we get all the provisions we need and deliver this letter as soon as possible, as a reward for such a task would be nothing short of great!

After gathering provisions the party consisting of Benedict The Fine a well known human bard, a quiet Elven Druid named Gershom, a Half Elven fighter by the name of Kasius, and myself Thud! We set out to the east, to the foggy Haunted Plains a place we have heard that a great deal of evil has now set in over. Sometimes in the distance we are able to see glowing red eyes, which fade in and out randomly. Not too long into our journey and one of these red eyes start charging towards our party, with a quick reaction, Thud pulls out one of his throwing axes and sends it gliding straight to the middle of the glowing red eyes, yet even with an axe obviously lodged in this creatures head, it still comes charging, faster and faster, our party prepares for its first battle. The eyes, which have now entered our sights appear to be attached to my axe, and the better half of a Minotaur, which is made quick work of by the fast reactions of the Elves. Whilst searching his body to find out just why this creature was so hostile, we noticed an amulet around his neck with a strange looking bird, somewhat similar to a raven. Our druid was the first to jump on it, unknowing that it was going to frost burn his hand, dropping it shortly after with some worse for wear hands. As it fell to the ground it then started to dissolve into nothingness. The party was quite befuddled by this strange amulet, and were determined to find out just what it was.

As our party progressed through the swamp, we all started feeling faint, and after further investigating and looking to each other, we'd noticed that we were in fact going faint, and disappearing. Slowly we are pulled into the muddy marsh below us until we can no longer see any light around us.

Slowly we find ourselves regaining conciousness in a completely different place, with dry solid ground and a one way path, we logically stuck to the path and moved fast along it. In the fast approaching distance, we could see a big stature of a knight with a huge antique sword. Upon approaching this old statue, we felt like it was moving small amounts, but then it became evident its movement was because this statue was alive, and with a really low voice, it asked us what our business here was. The small Bard stepped forward and said that we were not here by choice, that we were magically bought here and our looking for our way out. To the surprise of the party, the huge Knight hopped down on one knee, and said to the weeny Bard, "my King, my apologies, it was not my choice to slay you" befuddled by this, the party played along. The party was soon after given the sword by the Knight, which was told to contain high value to someone that we would see soon. He encouraged us to keep following the path, but not to trust anyone along our current journey. The party was then pushed off and told to hurry, before this world took them for its own.

Down the path we came acorss what appeared to be a tomb, with stairs that led down and went very deep. Our party travelled down these steps with Thud leading the way with his dark vision. After about 300 yards, we came acorss to an opening, where we were unable to see the other end of this dungeon like room. The fighter Elf light an arrow online and shot it to the other end of the room, luckily enough accidently landing into a big spiders head. We were now able to see a good deal of the room, below the spider was a strange human in front of a large sarcophagus. The strange man called out across the huge room, "I am the King of these lands, what are you doing in my chambers?" To which Benedict replied "You are no King of these lands, the King was killed, and is now in front of you" A few seconds of uncomfortable and edgy silence pass, to which the strange man lets loose a somewhat evil laugh "Hah hah hah, very good. What is it that you want from me?"

Whilst conversation is going on, the fighter and the barbarian are quietly travelling towards the strange man along opposite sides of the dungeon walls. Benedict asks the strange man, "tell us about the sarcophagus". Now a longer silence passes, giving the fighter and barbarian time to take a close enough position. The strange man informs the party that they will be trapped in this place for ever, and refuses to talk about the sarcophagus behind him. Thud with his short temper shouts, "Thats enough!" and hurtles a bottle of flammable oil towards the huge spiders head, bursting and causing a great deal of damage towards the spider. With the entire party joining in taking this spider down, he soon slain, sitting there in a pile of scorching flames. Much to the surprise of the strange man, he pulls a scared expression on his face and tries to flee, unfortunately for him, half orcs are much better sprinters then seasoned men, and is tackled to the ground and wrapped in chains. Even still he refuses to talk about the sarcophagus, and shows fear every time we mutter those words. Picking up on this the orc decides, its time this ended, picking him up and taking him towards the now open sarcophagus, each step closer making the ground tremble, and strange lights come from inside the sarcophagus, the strange old man, yelling frantically to keep him away from the inside of that endless box, things started to blur, getting louder and brighter every step, finally he is thrown into the sarcophagus, and things become so bright everything turns white.

Next thing we know we are waking up to hear trickling at the edge of a clear stream, we can small the fresh winds of the near by Lake Aelure, a thriving wetland, home to many adventurers. Looking around, there are no footsteps to where we awoke, its as if all the area surrounding us was completely untouched for many moons. We can see that we still have the ancient sword, but no other sign that we'd just come from a different place in time and space.

Whilst our adventure will end here for the day, there will be plenty more slaying and storey to come. Follow me to see what happens in part two of our storey!