《Nightblaze》
Chapter 0 : Awakening
Author''s note : Welcome everyone! I''ve rewritten the chapters to make them longer, I hope you enjoy it better that way. Feel fry to point out any grammatical errors that I have missed. All comments are appreciated.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
¡° Damn... What happened ? Shackles ? I''m on a boat? What the hell?¡±
Aaahh... Damn it, what the hell is happening... Wait. Stop. Calm down. You are dreaming, you must have fallen asleep during the game session.. No, try again, these shackles really hurt... What the hell..
While I was coming back to my senses, I slowly started looking around me. I was definitely in a boat, it was really dark, I had iron shackles around my arms and legs, I was fucking cold and my ¡ robe, I guess, didn''t do much to heat me up. I could hear, and somewhat see, other people next to me, also chained to the wall like me. I heard tears, grunts of pain, muffled expressions of bewilderment coming from a stocky figure not far from me... And I also felt a throbbing pain on the back of my head. I tried to move a bit, but my movements were too restricted for me to check if I had anything special back there.
Somehow, it felt like a bad idea to start talking, so after a few minutes of trying, exhaustion overcame me and I fell into a deep slumber....
Morning came, but what woke me up wasn''t the sun, but the noise. Cries suddenly tore the silent hold, violently waking up all those inside.
¡°Wake up, lazy fuckers! We''re fin''lly here, so you better obey our orders and f''llow us quietly, or you might regret it a lot, uh? Now stand up and wait for your turn.¡±
Groggily, I slowly got up, before falling after the forgotten shackles that restricted my movements stopped me mid-way. After the pain woke me up for good, I sat down, unable to do anything else, while my thoughts started wandering...
My name''s Ahriman... wait no it isn''t, it''s Yan! I''m a university student in Switzerland, 22 years old,
not really too social a person, but I still have a few good friends I can count on and talk to. However, when I look around me, everything is wrong. I am definitely not in Switzerland, we hardly have enough lakes to hold ships, nonetheless wooden ships with shackle-bound people inside... And why did I think my name was Ahriman? It reminds me of something, but definitely isn''t my name... Oh god, am I completely crazy?
Yeah, I just saw an elf. Lithe body, pointed ears, long hair and a typical otherworldly look you would expect from elves of games and fantasy books. I definitely am crazy... and is that a dwarf? Seriously? Gaaaah, I have no idea what is happening to me...
While I was musing on my situation and more generally getting confused, the people around me slowly started getting up one after the other. They were nearly all bound only on the arms, and I could observe quite a variety of different people. The majority were human, of fair or slightly dark-skinned complexion. Most were wearing poor clothes, a lot of them what looked like woolen medieval clothes. But with the dim light that came from the deck, I could see that quite a few other prisoners were non human. A part from the stout dwarf, there were three redhead elves... no, one was actually a half-elf. But how did I know that? She did look a bit less skinny that the other two, maybe the ears were smaller? I couldn''t really say... Anyway, I was still a human, but my body had changed quite a lot. I apparently had white hair, I was a bit taller and more stocky than I could remember. Was this reincarnation? If so, it was really shittier than I expected...
From where I was, I could see that most other people had a glazed look on their faces, as if everything was completely over, and that they never would see the light of day again. Well, most people, but not the elves and the dwarf, who were spending more time looking around more or less discreetly.
Suddenly, a ladder descended from the deck, bringing blinding light and a foul-looking... oh god, is that a pirate? I mean, come on, he even has the stereotypical eye patch! Damn it, what god did he offend to arrive here... Three of them total came down, two of them rough, dirty and by the looks of things grunts, and one other one only slightly better, but he had what looked like some paper and a quill, and he examined all the prisoners one by one while writing mysterious scribbles on his sheets, before sending them up after changing the manacles with rope.
When it came to the elves turn, who where visibly terrified, one of the grunts, who had a really lecherous expression, started moving on her, but the writing guy immediately snapped at him, saying the ''captain'' had promised to cut the dick off whoever tried doing silly stuff to the merchandise...
Wait, merchandise? Are we to be slaves? Goddammit, this gets better by the second. Maybe I should quickly pray my Goddess to save me before I... wait, my Goddess? I''m atheist! Damn, these strange thoughts keep popping up in my head, I wonder where they come from...
As they moved on, they finally arrived before me. Before I can say anything, they looked at me and the quill guy said ¡°Shut up you, not a word. If you even try your magic again, imma cut yer tongue out. Even if you can''t do anything because of the chains, heh.¡±
He started separating the manacles from the wall and freed my legs, while I moved automatically while thinking, even more lost than before... Magic? I was a magician?
My thoughts started to be filled with visions of an academy, a magic academy? Harsh training sessions, familiar faces, even my... family? Oh hell, I''m getting so confused, is this the life of my body? Did I take over the that guy''s body? Can I use this body memories?
While I was getting these strange visions, I arrived on the deck. There, I silently joined the ranks of the other futures slaves, while looking around me for more information about where I was. Under the increasing heat of the rising sun, I discovered in front of me a very unfamiliar surrounding.. In was clearly in a harbor of a busy town, there were loads of other boats around... But everything was so... primitive? Was I really in a medieval fantasy world? What the heck? Slavers, elves, dwarves, magic... ¡°This is impossible!¡±, was what I thought, but just looking at the white mud and clay houses, crude fishing ships and filthy people moving everywhere, I couldn''t do anything else but accept that I had been sent to a sad mix between a fantasy novel, Pirates of the Caribbean and apparently Lawrence of Arabia, if I could judge by the sandy surroundings and white houses extending into the dunes.
When the last future slave came out from the hold, the Captain of the ship, I guess, came in in front of us and started talking to us. While he was doing the typical ¡°don''t resist or you''ll regret it, better get used to it, don''t disobey otherwise it will cost us money¡± head slaver speech, I started wondering if the fact that I understood the language while being sure it wasn''t french, german, english or any other language I had heard before came from the body''s original host. Must be it...
I noticed that the two elves where talking with each other discreetly in some nearly musical language I couldn''t understand, while the half-elf was definitely looking around for a way to escape. The dwarf had a perplexed expression on his face, and he was concentrating on the head honcho''s speech. Most other people where either listening or just keeping their eyes on the floor, as the slaver crew around us was watching us pretty tightly.
After the speech, the crew guided us through the streets to a big warehouse, where we were assigned a bed, told to follow all orders and not to cause trouble. The half-elf had somehow managed to free herself from the rope binding us to each other, but she had been caught by the guards and beaten before being sent back in line with the rest of us.
Once inside, we were freed from our bounds, but as there were guards everywhere, we didn''t even think about escaping, as they were clearly stronger and had proper equipment. My own chains had not been removed, only loosened a bit, apparently they were stopping my magic, so I had to make do until I was sold.
Completely exhausted and famished, I passively followed the orders they gave me, went to eat a tasteless soup of probably unknown origin, then went to my so-called bed (straw mattress without the straw, apparently) then slept like a log. I saw that my bed neighbours where the dwarf and another guy from the boat, but I couldn''t find the energy to try and talk to them.
The next day, we were ordered to do a battery of tests so they could evaluate our worth. I was lucky that time, because my failing to use any magic was taken as the side effect of having the magic manacles for too long, so I spent the whole day without them doing the physical tests and interrogations without them, of course with two extra guards watching me all the time. It was refreshing, but at the same time it stopped me from talking with anyone, as the guards hounded me whenever I wasn''t doing anything that they judged useful.
I scored apparently pretty well in the physical tests, which left me sort of happy, as I was pretty proud of my physical capacities, before...
Night time came, and, tired again, I went to bed. This time, as the guards had gone to the main surveillance point, I had a bit more liberty to talk... However, I was pretty scared of not being able to do anything at the magic test tomorrow, so instead of actual presentations, the moment I judged it was safe, I turned to the dwarf and whispered...
¡°Hey, do you know how I should use magic?¡±
I felt quite stupid and embarrassed as the words left my lips, as it wasn''t exactly the best way of starting a conversation, and why the hell would he know anyway? Therefore, I was pretty surprised when he answered me:
¡°Well, if you are not a priest, you are supposed to feel somewhere inside you some kind of magic core where all your power is stored, and you should be able to use the energy from that core to fuel spells that you have memorized, if the books are correct.¡±
Now, I was surprised at the useful and complete answer, but apparently he was even more surprised at his own answer. His eyes went wide and he even mumbled something like ¡°What the fuck?¡±... Which led me to remember something... underneath the gruff tone and weird language, I could remember that voice! I stared at the dwarf, and after a little while, I murmured... ¡°Cl¨¦ment?¡±.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
He stared at me, his eyes even bigger than before, then as revelation came to him, he answered, incredulously... ¡°Yan?¡±.
As my hunch was confirmed, I was faced with even more questions. Cl¨¦ment, a friend of mine whom I saw regularly, was a tall skinny guy with a silly sense of humor and definitely no beard. Well, that was what he was supposed to be, but now he had been transformed into a dwarf?
Well, considering my own transformation, I shouldn''t be that surprised. Although, I was lucky that I had heard him use his favorite expression, I probably wouldn''t have recognized his voice otherwise, being a dwarf did affect it quite a lot.
Apparently he also had double memories, as he answered my question about magic so easily. I guess his body was a scholar... or maybe an undetected mage?
While I was thinking about what happened, I started making signs that we should sleep now and talk tomorrow, as my ''guardian angels'' were moving suspiciously towards us. He shook his head in approval, and we both shut our eyes and tried to sleep, our heads full of questions...
The next morning, we were lucky, as the guards assigned to me had stopped being as vigilant as before, meaning Cl¨¦ment could come and sit next to me when we went to eat our breakfast. While eating, we managed to chat a bit about what we could remember and what we should do. We didn''t really come to anything conclusive, except Cl¨¦ment was quite sure that before we arrived here, we were together, and there were more people, two or three girls, he thought. That of course led us to wonder if they also had been transported with us, and if so, in whose body they were hiding. My instinct was telling me that three elves with the same hair color together were too much to be a coincidence, but I had absolutely no proof.
We decided that we would try to talk to all other women that had been taken with us (those we could remember, of course) and otherwise just follow the orders that our captors would give us. About the memories of the previous inhabitants of our actual bodies, it seemed like Cl¨¦ment also had problems accessing them, and that they would also randomly supersede his own, like it had the previous night. His body''s name was Rokshar, a priest of some deity he hadn''t managed to identify yet.
We left after eating and I followed the guards into my magic test. Somehow, my stress level had gone down, maybe I had really been convinced by Cl¨¦ment''s words? I still didn''t know how to access the ''magic core'' inside me... I was brought in a small room, where two more guards and a mage were waiting for me. He definitely looked like a proper mage, I could see the magic runes on his clothes, which resembled greatly the typical robes and staff mages from the fantasy films. Heck, if his clothes were brown and he had a squirrel on his head, I might just have called him Radagast.
As I came in, the mage told me to stand at a three meter distance from the wall in front of him, and fire some spells. He added that any illusion or enchanting magic was prohibited to be casted, and I had to declare whichever spells I could do in these kinds of magic. He would be checking on my casting in real time, and any tentative of being ''smart'' would be quickly and painfully punished.
When they moved me in front of the wall, I desperately started searching my memories on what spells I should be able to do, and how to do it. Usually, mages in books or films could launch fireballs, maybe I could do that too? I closed my eyes, trying to imagine forming a fireball, and.... my body started acting on it''s own, forcing me concentrate and activate my magic. I suddenly felt some form of energy moving from my ¡ heart? to my arms, then leaving my body before coalescing into a small ball of fire right in front of me, which I then sent against the wall by the sole force of my will. It exploded with a small noise, then the energy dissipated. The words that came into my head as I felt the magical ball of fire was created were [Orb of Fire, Lesser].
Elated, I was so happy I had actually managed to use magic that I nearly forgot where I was. The mage wasn''t very impressed, however, and he asked me to use two more of the strongest spells I could manage. At that time, I must admit that I was slightly exhilarated by the whole idea of being able to practice magic, and I wondered if I had anything equivalent to the Hadoken I could use... And my, well, by body''s memory answered with [Burning Hands]. Suddenly, a cone of fire left my hands and roasted the wall in front of me as I used a combination of movement and words while taking energy out of my ''core''.
As my memory started to synchronize with my host''s, I finally started to understand how my magic powers worked. As a [Warmage], I had learned how to cast a certain number of spells by heart, and I was able to easily choose between any of them at any time, as long as I had enough energy to cast them. The spells I knew were divided between [Cantrips], the lowest level of spells, and [1st level spells], which used a lot more energy. Incidentally, I could also feel that my reserve of energy for [1st level spells] was half depleted, which made me wonder how much use magic really had if it became exhausted so quickly. Not that I dismissed magic, I clearly sensed that both those spells could have been able to kill, or at least seriously injure someone. But... yeah, it was only a small orb of fire, I was expecting a huge fireball.. Maybe that came with higher spell levels? I would have to try to understand that later. Also, why did the orb simply shoot out without any movements or words?
I finished my required spells with a [Magic Missile], then turned to the mage for my next orders. I was surprised he didn''t ask for another [1st level spell], but I figured out that I shouldn''t volunteer too much information, so I kept quiet. I managed to peek at what he was writing, and I read [1st level sorcerer] on his notes. I noticed that his hadn''t guess my actual class, so I could definitely try to trick others if needed. However, [Warmage] was a word that rang a bell in my own fuzzy memory... I would have to talk with Roskhar.. erm Cl¨¦ment, about it.
I was expecting more tests, but the mage simply motioned the guards to send me back to the beds and left. I came back to the wharehouse and went to lay on my bed, thinking about what was happening. Somehow, I felt like I was less terrified and confused that I should be. There was this whole feeling of familiarity about the whole idea of being transported to another world, of magic and fantasy... Somehow it also felt ''right'', as if I had decided that myself, altough I had absolutely no memory of that. Maybe it was because of the slow fusion between my memories and my body''s? I didn''t know, and that part was the scariest. How much would I remain myself? How much would I become Ahriman? Furthermore, how would my family and friends react to my disappearance? Would I ever be able to go back?
All those questions were interrupted by a sudden whisper from under my bed.
¡°Yan?¡±
I nearly jumped at the quiet, feminine voice that called me out. I tried to act as nothing happened so that the guards didn''t notice, then whispered back:
¡°Yes? Who are you? How do you know me?¡±
¡°I am Morgane, I was in the boat with you before and Cl¨¦ment managed to talk to us earlier today. I sneaked in to tell you that we all there. I will be going back now, but you had to know that we are all here.¡±
¡°Morgane? You''re here too? Wait, who is ''we''? And how will I recognize you?¡±
¡°Coline and Lauriane are here too, we are the elves.¡±
I heard a soft rustle, then a small red flash near the entrance of the room. I slumped back onto my mattress, while all the new information rushing through my mind left and right. Morgane, Coline and Lauriane, all friends of mine that I also saw periodically.
As the pieces slowly came together, I started widening my eyes at the sudden and mind-boggling conclusion that started to impose itself on the situation.
The five of us were supposed to meet at a common friend''s place, some time... ago? Yesterday? I couldn''t be sure. We were planning to get together for our first session of Dungeons and Dragons. Could it be... that we had been sent into a D&D world?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spoiler :
Yan
NAME
Ahriman
Race
Human
Class
Warmage
Cl¨¦ment
NAME
Rokshar
Race
Dwarf
Class
Cleric
Morgane
NAME
Unknown
Race
Half-elf
Class
Unknown
Coline
NAME
Unknown
Race
Elf
Class
Unknown
Lauriane
NAME
Unkown
Race
Elf
Class
Unknown
Chapter I : Slave
Author''s note : Hello everyone! It has been a while, but somehow finding time to write more than 3000 words is harder than I expected. This is more of a world-building chapter, I will add a map eventually, but meanwhile, I hope you like how the story is going. Feel free to comment or send me a message. Thanks for reading me!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My mind still reeling after the shock that revelation caused, I started thinking¡ Could it be true? It had to be, no matter how impossible that was supposed to be, we were all supposed to meet together to play a new game of D&D. If my memories were correct, most of us had played before, although only me, Cl¨¦ment and Coline had played more than once. That might explain the fact that we were in different bodies than our original ones¡ I tried thinking about the character I was supposed to incarnate, Ahriman the Warmage, but hardly anything else about his abilities or background came back to me. However, as we were starting a new game, I could imagine that we were only at the first level, and that sounded perfectly right as I could only cast low-level spells¡ maybe I could check? Or maybe I wasn¡¯t supposed to know, because that was meta-gaming? Maybe the Game Master knew?
I had started wondering about what happened with our Game Master when I was interrupted by the guards who told me to go and have lunch. I walked to the cantina as the other days, and I noticed there seemed to be more guards around us. I wondered if anything had happened, then joined the file before going to sit with Cl¨¦ment, who was eating alone at the end of the table. I tried to check discreetly whether the elves were sitting together too, but apparently the women had already left.
As we eat, we shared as much information as we could, trying to understand better our situation. Apparently Morgane had managed to transmit quite a few messages between Cl¨¦ment and the girls during the day. Thanks to her, we managed to make a better image of our situation. I was a [Warmage] human named Ahriman, Cl¨¦ment a dwarf [Cleric] of [Boccob] (the god of Magic) named Rokshar, Morgane was Agora, a half-elf [Rogue], Coline was a [Fighter] elf whose name was Luinil, and finally Lauriane was a [Warlock] elf, named Elenna.
Nobody had any idea of what we should do in this situation, and the biggest fear the group shared was that we would be separated at the slave auction, that Lauriane has managed to discover what being held tomorrow. We knew that we were apparently in a D&D world, and everything was corresponding to what we knew of it, be it our class or the characters whose body we were possessing. However, the fact that pain was apparently real (nobody had tested being stabbed yet, but we could still feel strong discomfort from our situation), and that meant that we could die¡ Without any guarantee of coming back. We knew reincarnation was possible in this world, but only if we managed to get to higher levels.
As we finished eating, we told each other to try to do whatever we could to stay together at the slave auction. If we couldn¡¯t¡ well, we would try to find ourselves whenever.
The afternoon was another battery of tests, some the same as the other day, others on more¡ physical aspects. I can¡¯t say I was very pleased, but two armed guards in the room are a pretty sure way to keep people obedient. I had a silent prayer for the girls, and hoped nothing happened. In the evening, we were allowed rest, so we would all be fresh for the auction.
Sadly, the rest was under a strict surveillance, so I didn¡¯t manage to talk to Rokshar any further, nor did I see Morgane. She had probably hadn¡¯t managed to sneak out under such heavy watch. The evening came and went, so did the night. We slowly got up in the morning, only to be greeted by a hanged corpse attached to a pillar right in front of the warehouse. The head guard let us all know that he had tried to escape yesterday, and that we better obey their orders and the ones of our new masters, as such was the fate of slaves who were caught while escaping.
This came for me as a reality check, I was in a strange world without any known possibility of escape or of resurrection. I had to go through this until I felt safe enough to try to do anything. I could only hope we wouldn¡¯t be separated too much¡
We left the complex, bound by rows of four, walking in the hot and sand-covered dried mud roads until we reached the central plaza. I was able to see more of the city while walking this time, being in a better shape than last time. The whole city was in white or light brown colors, typical of places near a desert, I guess, while the infrastructure reminded me strangely of Japanese buildings. Most people I saw around us were dressed in simple, commoners clothes, with only the occasional guard, mercenary, merchant or priests. As we walked to the center of the city, the wealth level seemed to increase a little, with the passage from simple warehouses or one-storied, mud and brick houses to multiples stories, stone and wood buildings. I could see a small citadel not too far away, however the central plaza was surrounded by more civilian buildings, like jewelry shops, magic shops or even an apothecary. I could see what seemed to be churches just a bit further, however (and obviously) none had the typical cross, or whatever other symbols I could recognize.
My body¡¯s memory made me recognize a temple for Pelor, the god of the Sun, and another for St Cuthbert, god of Vengeance.
We were all placed in a corral, and after enough interested people arrived (curse them), the head slaver made a sign to his auctioneer to go do his job. The sale began, and the other slaves began being sent up one by one. There were quite a few people around the stage, now, and not all of them merchants or aristocrats. Different people with different tastes, as some bought the pretty women, some the strong men, others whatever they could get their hands on. I saw a certain merchant, not as fat as the others, and not as pretentiously dressed as the nobles, who was collecting himself quite a few slaves. He looked like he favored all those that had anything special.
Strangely enough, whenever he started bidding, he never had to bid too much, as most other bidders seemed to recognize him and leave him get who he wanted. Even the nobles, surprisingly, I wondered if he was some kind of shady businessman with blackmail on everyone¡
He seemed like he had seen me looking at me, and he turned his gaze to me, which made me shudder. There was something really cold in his eyes¡ But then he smiled, and it was as nothing had happened. Slightly confused, I snapped out of it as I saw Rokshar getting brought up. There was a little bit of excitement, as he was the first non-human to be brought up, but only to be shaken down straight away as many in the audience turned to the strange merchant, who indeed bid on him and bought him. As I was wondering how I would try to get bought by the same person, he sent an aide to the announcer, who jumped in surprise before going back to the head slaver, which caused quite a lot of noise in the audience, which only doubled when the announcer headed straight to him with all three elves and the lizardman that was also on sale.
It was then that I started panicking. I was only a human, would I be the only one left behind? Flustered, I barely registered when the announcer told the audience they were now going to start the category of pleasure slaves¡
As the announcer called most of the pretty women that had been kept for later, I slowly realized that most of the slaves that were left only had one thing in common: rather good looks. By the time it dawned on me, I was being brought up to the stage, while a huge embarrassment came up. I heard quite a few whistles, and saw a few ladies checking me out rather aggressively, which just about made me die from shame. The bidding started, but then there was a small silence, as the same merchant as before bid on me. I was startled, and apparently most of the public was too. They were a few jeers, then I was brought before him, and I started to have all sorts of horrible visions going in my head while I was attached to the other slaves and started following the merchant... no, my new master, home.
What did I ever do to anyone to deserve this...
A few hours later¡
I guess that even the direst circumstances can bring their amount of laughter... if the one I received is from the group is anything to judge buy. Apparently the master (Master Donaia) has absolutely no interest in men. He just took me in because the others mentioned that we were comrades. Apparently, he also has a certain sense of humor, as he forbid the group or the guards to tell me before the next morning. I hardly slept¡
But yes, before that, as we followed him and his guards to his house¡ I mean, his manor, we discovered that not only he was rich, but he was filthy rich. He had quite the palace around, with a small rampart around his private property on the edge of the town which covered quite a big space. As we were brought in, we were sent to put on the slave collar, an enchanted metal ring that went around the ankle. We were told that as long as we had it, we were considered property and could be legally hunted if found without authorization by their master. Furthermore, they had a localization enchantment, so unless we found a really powerful magician that agreed to help us, we could forget any silly ideas of escaping for a while.
However, the guards added that we were lucky, as Master Donaia was one of the most merciful slave masters of the city, and he would give a chance to all slaves to prove their worth, even eventually freeing them if he had considered they had done enough services for him. Although, a lot of those he sent on missions died, so we had to be careful if we considered trying that. But of course, whatever we did, we had to obey his orders straight away and correctly, otherwise punishment would be severe.
I didn¡¯t have much time to talk with the others that night, as I was shown around and permitted to finally shower properly. And sleep on something resembling a proper mattress, too. Well, not really, but at least in was better than the straw we had at the slave house. I think just that made me appreciate all the more the comfort I was in before I came here¡
After we had all slept and eaten properly, we were given chores, menial work mostly, while getting used to the way around the house and our new condition. We luckily did have time to talk a little bit between ourselves, and try to decide what we would do. Morgane was really letting herself be inspired by her [Rogue] upbringing, as she was quite adamant that we should escape as soon as possible. However, Coline and Cl¨¦ment managed to convince her that it was better to keep doing whatever we could, as we could not take risks without knowing if the results would be permanent or not. I was also quite firmly opposed to taking risks, but the joke that had been played at my expense at the slave auction had firmly reminded me that in this form, we had no rights, so we should strive to get free as quickly as possible.
Stolen novel; please report.
We tried finding out more details about this world of ours, but only little could we remember about the rules of D&D, and the world itself was a creation of our Game Master, so the only things we knew were what our hosts knew. Luckily, we came from quite diverse backgrounds, so we could gather quite a few things on the world we were living in. We told each other some things about or bodies past, but we all felt that we were not telling each other everything.. Maybe the host still had some influence on what we could do? I kept for myself the fact that just before my capture by the pirates, I had lost control of my magic and killed quite a few comrades, which I could feel my host regretted strongly. I wonder what the others kept for themselves¡
As for what we learned, well, first of all, we were living in the world of Jel¡¯Ebar, which was apparently an old elvish way of saying ¡°Our home¡±, as the Elves were the first inhabitants of the continent. The continent (of the same name) was divided in two halves (Lulandil the northern half and Lashima the southern), joined in the middle by a huge chain of dragon-inhabited mountains, where lay underneath them the Thousand Jewels Kingdom of dwarves, where Rokshar hailed from. The South was mostly covered by the Eight Blades Empire and its dependencies, all human, but also had a strong Centaur (a half-human half-horse specie) Kingdom and a lot of land covered by savage races of bloodthirsty beasts, such as Hobgoblins or Gnolls. The Far Western part of the south semi-continent was the home of the Lizardfolk, who were isolated by an ancient forest and a monster filled plain. The North semi-continent had lot of human kingdoms (apparently also an evil Magocracy and even a democratic Republic?) and even an Empire straight north from the mountains in the middle, but also Elven Kingdoms, Gnome and Halfling lands, huge prairies filled by giant Saaurs (who had taken control of over half the Kingdom of Estenfold, where my body was born), desolate moors populated by aggressive giants ant-like invaders from another plane (which are apparently the equivalent of planets, from what I understood), deadly swamps full of undead, and in the frozen North, the Red Land was filled with Goblins, Orcs, Minotaurs and other monsters we knew from our fantasy-filled background. I somehow recognized in the description of that world the touch of our Game Master, who loved complex backgrounds with the potential for an infinity of geopolitical excuses for quests and leads.
A few islands were scattered around the northern half of the continent, one containing the second dwarven kingdom and the other being called the Endless War Island for the near-thousand year old fight between descendants of the now lost throne to the whole island. We knew of the existence of at least three water-based species, the aggressive and murderous Sahuagins who populated the near-entirety of the surroundings of the continent, the peaceful aquatic elves of the far north-east, and the neutral Locathahs, who extort money from any ship that comes through their territory. We knew nothing of other continents, and not much about other worlds. Cl¨¦ment knew through his clerical education that they were thousands of Prime Planes like ours, all linked together by the Astral Plane (space, I guess?), while being surrounded by the Six Elemental Planes (Light, Darkness, Fire, Earth, Air and Water) and the Great Ring of the Outer Planes, who were all separated by different degrees of their closeness to Good versus Evil, and Chaos versus Law. Those planes were the birthplace of demons and angels, and were generally completely separated from ours, although it was possible to summon some of their inhabitants through magic.
We also talked about the idea of strength, or leveling up, as it was supposed to happen in D&D, however no insight came to us on these first weeks or slavery. We had guessed we were level one, but had no details on our actual power and abilities. We tried asking subtly to the other slaves and guards, but what we could gather was only that all guards were simply trained in the art of combat, while the head guards had been soldiers or mercenaries before, and where definitely stronger. There were also rumors of elite groups under the command of the Master, but we couldn¡¯t find anything definite without taking any risks.
So life continued, with our slow repetitive work in the manor, be it helping to clean or cook, or move heavy loads (I essentially exchanged my spot as a worker with Coline, whose incarnation was apparently really strong, and went to help with the cooking, where my (well, by body¡¯s) natural charisma made it actually a not so unenjoyable experience, considering my unsociability in the normal world.
However, after a couple weeks, we were told to be ready to meet the Master at any time the next day, as he had something important to ask us. Of course, that made us speculate quite wildly, as we were wondering why he had especially bought us for quite some time, and with the rumors of people dying in his missions, there was an understandable amount of concern coming from us. The next day, we were woken up at dawn by other slaves, who brought us to the main building.
From there, accompanied by 4 guards, we were brought to the Master¡¯s office, which was in an aisle of the manor we had never been granted access to before. It was even more richly decorated than the rest of the house, and I guess that we could find the typical guest¡¯s rooms and VIP dining rooms that I had failed to find before. Agora¡¯s eyes glittered as we passed through the hallways, as her instincts started kicking again. I remember her bragging she had already been taking stuff away secretly, but come on, why would you risk punishment for soap and spice? I didn¡¯t even want to know where she hid it, either¡
As we arrived to his office, I felt Coline tugging at my sleeve. I paused, turning towards her with an interrogating stare. She hesitated, then whispered into my ear:
¡°Whatever happens, we stay together, right?¡±
I hardly hesitated before answering with a short nod. Somehow, I was absolutely sure that us not being together would only lead to disaster. Something about a cardinal rule came into my mind, but I dismissed it, not being able to make any sense about it.
We entered the office, and Master Donaia turned his black leather-clad chair while saying:
¡°Greetings. I was expecting you.¡±
As we all waited for whatever would follow this, he chuckled, then said:
¡°Quite careful, I see. That¡¯s a good point. In that case, I will cut through the
pleasantries, not that there would be much for people in your situation, to tell you
exactly why I¡¯ve bought you.
I am a man of many talents, you see, and one of them is knowing how to find
talent, even in the most unexpected places. Therefore, I often go to slave auctions,
as I know that I can find sometimes unexpected discoveries. When I saw you lot,
my instincts told me that I would be probably happy with you in my employ, and
it is now time for you to prove me I was right.
I shall be brief. I own quite a few farms in the countryside, who provide me with
fresh food of the highest quality whenever I need to. However, one of the farms
in question has recently had problems in its quality and security. Therefore, your
first task will be to go there, find out what is wrong, help the farmers however you
may, and then report. I will provide a minimal equipment and a letter of passage,
and I trust you will not be stupid enough to force me to send slave hunters on your
trail. You will be leaving in an hour. If you work well, I will provide an appropriate
reward. Now go, and I hope I shall see you soon bearing good news.¡±
Before we could answer anything, we were sent out and on our way to the equipment reserve, where we were fitted with decent second hand equipment the Master owned. While me, Elenna and Agora were clad in light leather armor and given spears and daggers, Rokshar and Luinil received heavier scale mail, assorted with wooden shields and even iron morningstars to complete the set. Somehow, it looked like he knew what kinds of weapons and armors we could use better than the slavers themselves, which made us wonder if he had used some kind of magic to analyze us while we weren¡¯t aware¡
Within an hour, we were fitted, provided with directions and food, and sent on our way. While we were still a little under shock from the precipitated events, we could always count on Cl¨¦ment to lighten the mood. We had hardly left the outskirts of the town that he stopped, gave us a naughty grin, then started running, heavy armor and all, while shouting :
¡°I¡¯m going on an adventure!¡±
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spoiler :