Beyond the mortal realm, a tale of Dungeons and Dragons

Seven days in the golden kingdom

Chapter 11, Lord Drake's captives

Lord Drake, the ruler of the golden paladin knights, sat high and mighty on his throne in the throne room which stood around fifty feet tall. Behind the throne was a stain glass window from the roof to the floor.

The lord leaned forward in his chair as we entered, intrigued by his new audience. The four of us entered the room with our escort either side of us. We were still in chains, our weapons stripped from us. As we stood infront of Lord Drake, he began to smirk, clearly noticing that We were all looking like we thought we still had control. Well... when I say all, I'm excusing me from that generalisation. I may have slain a monarch, but this was too much to tackle. there was less guards, which didn't add up. Besides, they were paladins. And we were unarmed.

Lord Drake was the first to speak:

'Leave us.' he addressed to most of the paladins in the room, except for the ones either side of us. 'So, these are the tresspassers. I'm not amused by this. What is the purpose of this. Do you seek my kingdom?'

'We seek passage to Egivere. We were told to meet a carriage that would provide transport, only when we arrived we were ambushed by a green dragon.' I replied swiftly

'Yeh, and it was a hard fought battle, near killed Arno here!' Gimley piped up

'Hard fought? You couldn't hit the damn thing dwarf.' Sven chuckled

'Enough!' Lord Drake interrupted. 'You tresspassed my land, normally I would kill you, but as chance has it, my men have reported a dark one within the chasms below this city and in the underground dwelling of the Draug's village. You kill this, and I will provide transport to Egivere.'

As the words "dark one" were spoken, Duratier entered my mind and confirmed my fears, it was one of the escaped dead. Time to send him back.

'And if we don't?' asked Paralysis.

Lord Drake grinned and began to transform in to an Ancient Dragon. That explains why the ceiling was so high I thought to mysef before terror overcame my body and ran through my bones.

'This will happen!' he boomed from within our heads, speaking telepathically.

That's how this meeting went. We accepted terrified of our capturer and had one week of free roam before fighting one of the escaped dark ones, one that escaped the world of the dead, one I was tasked with tracking.

The first day, Sven found a forge and began to build what he called a "Shotgun". It took him the week! We also ventured out for some plant sap to make some sticky explosives. It was some gunpowder wrapped in cloth with a fuse poking through. The cloth was covered in sap which would allow it to stick to objects. Well, that's what Sven said at least.

The second day, I spoke to the dwarf who owned the forge and gave him some design's I had drawn up. It would take the blades from my daggers and fit them to a bracer on my wrist. When I flicked my wrist and flexed my finger, the blade would extend. If i flicked a switch beforehand, I could eject the blade like a crossbow bolt. This took two days to create, so in the meantime I was meditating and chatting with the paladins and my own party.

The blades were ready and it was time to train on the course the paladins set out for me. I challenged another paladin, who believed he was the most agile. Time I proved him wrong.

We both ran the course. Throw a dagger from ten feet, then run past and slash the next. Finally, climb up some crates to jump and land on one last dummy. I saw how he moved, so clumsily. When it came to me, I ejected my blade at the dummy, then sideflipped over it to retrieve the blade and re-attach to my mechanism. When I landed, I spun round and slashed the dummy. Time for the crates. I climbed, bouncing off the wall and propelling myself into the air, where I grabbed the ledge of the crate and pulling myself up. I stepped off the crate and plunged my blade into its neck and my knee into its spine (If it had either of course).