In a land of magic and mayhem that knows only war, heroes are forged in the heat of battle, wizards and warriors clash over fire and ice, blood and steel, swords and sorcery!
This is a works of fiction based on the 1980's board game Advanced Heroque...
The miry, winding roads of the Eastern Marshes are unpropitious for the lone traveller. Equally uninviting are the wild, desolate expanse of swamps and quicksands that extend from the banks of the river Aver and stretch southward of The Riding, for many miles thereupon.
The Fay Marshes, as they are called, are both an unpopular and unpleasant destination, and are typically shunned by wayfarers. Though locals speak of terrible creatures that dwell within the heart of the swamps, those foolhardy enough to ignore their warnings are free to take a cliff path from where it joins the Old South Road, shortly before the town of Mayby.
On such a trail, there was I, journeying to the highest point of the South Cliffs, to the old Watchtower. Once used as an early warning station owing to its excellent view of the whole area, it had fallen out of use, stood in abeyance for years, that is until an hermit claimed it as his own.
So mysterious was the recluse that I failed to find a single soul that could attest of seeing the man with their own eyes. Scared peasants spoke of a Wizard, a story I had also heard through my travels, which had led me from the city streets of Altdorf to the backwater roads of the empire.
Painfully, I dawdled through the muck, probing the grounds ahead with my yew walking stick. Though the cliff path itself was relatively firm under foot, the occasional patch of glop threatened to suck me in. I persisted towards the object of my quest, whose's belfry I could see from afar.
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Though the journey itself I anticipated would be uneventful, I raced against time for I did not fancy the thought of travelling these marshes past nightfall. The air was thick with decay, and swarms of vermin buzzed around me. Here, the Winds were warped and corrupted, far from their normal hue, as if a great disturbance tilted the normal ebb of their flow. Seeing this, I had no doubts a Wizard occupied this land, and a powerful one at that.
The Winds converged and swirled about their epicentre, the Watch Tower itself standing still amid the disturbance, placid, like the eye of a hurricane. I could sense an unnatural stillness to the stone structure, one that sent shivers down my spine. Truly, I concluded, this was a place of high magic though I could not tell what kind.
So close to my destination, I pressed onward, determined. No sooner had I reached the landing of the narrow, winding stone steps leading to to the tower's only door that a booming voice halted my stride.
"Go away" a male voice bellowed from above.
I raised my eyes at the lancet window high above. From where I stood I could see a figure, undeniably that of an old man, peering down back at me.
"I seek the master of this tower!" I answered in kind.
"Go away" the voice bellowed once more.
I stood my ground. "Are you the Wizard who lives in this Watch Tower?" I asked.
"Clearly, this is a watch tower, and clearly I am within it!" the old man grumbled.
"Then you are the Wizard I heard about?" I asked.
"What is it to you if I were?" the old man asked.
"Fate has brought me to you, Master Wizard. I have heard tales of a great Wizard who resides in a Watch Tower, I seek apprenticeship with such a practitioner of the arts."
"Then you should head back the cliff path that joins the Old South Road, and from there head towards more civilized lands." The old man chuckled deeply. Altdorf is where you will find the Colleges of Magic."
"I have come from Altdorf, Master Wizard" I said, irked. "You should know the Patriarchs take exception to accepting women in their schools... that is unless you've never learned from a Magister yourself!" I said, throwing a jab.
"Dare call me a Hedge Wizard, do you?" hollered the elderly man. "You mustn't value your own life greatly to so casually risk incurring the wrath of a Magister..."
"So you are a Wizard! I shot back, triumphant.
"You are too clever for your own good. Best that you find yourself a husband and stay away from the adventurer's life.
"I am eager to learn, Master. I have the Windsight, like my mother before me.
"Then your mother was a witch!"
"No more a witch than you a warlock!" I answered, tit for tat.
A beat.
"I do not take apprentices." he dropped.
"Then perhaps you could shelter me for the night and I will be on my way in the morning? As irascible as you may be, I doubt you would be the kind of man that would send a lone woman wander the swamps by moonlight..."
I was determined to make an impression and had no qualms playing damsel in distress if it brought me closer to my goal. If time is what I needed to coax an apprenticeship out of him, I was determined to make the most of my situation.
"Very well, you may stay" the Wizard conceded. "But I want nothing more to do with you. At dawn you will leave."
I nodded. "As you wish, Master, as you wish".
"And do not call me 'Master' you are no apprentice of mine." he yelled once more.
I smiled. "As you wish, Master." I muttered once more under my breath as I quickly raced up the stony staircase and entered the old Watch Tower.
