This is the story of how
Aurvandale and
Brun met and their adventures together.
The item
In the early spring of 979,
Aurvandale was wandering the wilderness as an adventurer. Casting magic to entertain people and going on missions to kill monsters that threatened the occasional village was all his life consisted off for a while.
One evening he entered a roadside tavern somewhere in the barony of
Mointrea looking for a meal and a bed.
When he entered, the smell of sweat, alcohol and pea soup hit him in the face like a rock fired from a catapult.
The tavern was filled with all sorts of strange people such as miners, adventurers, farmers and merchants.
He found an empty seat and slumped down in it, exhausted from walking all day.
The barmaid came over and took his order of ale and soup which
Aurvandale consumed like he hadn't seen food or drink in days.
Shortly after finishing his food and ale, he overheard some adventurers by the names of Durian, Cipher and Kirgo talking about a
magic ring that supposedly was able to teleport a person to any location they had visited before.
Magic items being as rare as they are,
Aurvandale was intrigued but too tired to approach the adventurers. Partially dismissing it as just random adventurer gossip he went and paid for his room and slept for the night.
In the morning as he left the tavern he saw the very same adventurers that were talking about the ring the night before, walking into the forested area nearby. Not having anything better to do, his curiosity got the better of him.
The cave
Aurvandale quietly followed the group for a while, after some time had passed the adventurers rested near a small pond and waterfall.
Aurvandale was watching them from behind some trees and bushes.
The adventurers finally got up and followed a small path that led behind the waterfall into a cave.
Aurvandale went the same path behind the waterfall but lost the adventurers. The cave was like a maze, many tunnels twisting, turning and interconnecting.
Using his magic as his light source he decided to go deeper, keeping to the right hand wall of the cave to hopefully navigate the cave without getting too badly lost.
After walking for a while he heard the sounds of combat echo through the tunnels, possibly the adventurers fighting some monsters that made this place their home.
Aurvandale decided to stop following the right hand walls of the cave and to head towards the sound of the fighting.
He kept walking and walking, the sounds of fighting getting louder and quieter seemingly at random whenever he passed the next intersection of tunnels. Some time later of fruitlessly trying to find the source of these sounds the fighting could no longer be heard and
Aurvandale was incredibly lost.
He wandered from tunnel to tunnel not being able to find the exit.
Aurvandale wandered around for hours before giving up and sitting down on the cold cave floor. As he sat there trying to think of a way to get out of here, he saw something sparkling on the floor a few feet from him.
It was some kind of ring, "could it be, no it can't be" he thought to himself.
Reaching over he picked up the
strange dust covered ring. He quickly brushed it off on his robes and inspected it, it was made of gold and had a yellow gem set in its centre.
Not being a fool, he used a spell to sense the magic of the ring. Neutral magic.
That didn't really tell him much, neutral magic can easily carry curses just like dark magic can however he was in a desperate situation and decided to try his luck and use the ring.
He put it on his finger, when nothing bad happened
Aurvandale closed his eyes, concentrated on the ring and thought of the pond area outside the cave.
Suddenly he smelled fresh air, heard the splashing of a waterfall and felt soft grass underneath him.
He opened his eyes and to his surprise he was outside of the cave, in front of the pond that sits at the foot of the waterfall.
Aurvandale laughed out of surprise and happiness, he was finally out of the maze of a cavern and found an incredibly useful magic ring.
After the excitement of finding such an item wore off, he thought to himself: "Where would I go with this ring? All I do is travel to places I haven't been to before, perhaps it will prove useful to save myself from situations like the one I found myself in just before."
The halfling
A year later
Aurvandale had reached the
Halfling town of
Warrickpen.
As is usual for
Halflings, they view magic with suspicion and kept their distance from the wizard
Aurvandale. Only few of them would interact with
Aurvandale beyond simple greetings.
One
Halfling with dark blue eyes and light brown curly hair by the name of
Brun Fleetwood however saw
Aurvandale and was intrigued by his magic abilities.
Not being scared of magic he approached the wizard as he was reading a map and simply asked him how his day is.
Surprised by
Brun,
Aurvandale dropped his map and staff which
Brun quickly picked up and handed back to him.
"Umm, it is going alright I suppose. Just looking for work you know." said
Aurvandale.
"Work is it? What kind of work are you looking for? You don't look like the type of guy to be weeding garden beds or help with making a vegetable stew." replied
Brun as he was looking at the wizards robes and pointy hat.
Aurvandale laughed and said: "No I suppose I don't. I'm an adventurer you see, I look for jobs like killing monsters and helping people with dangerous tasks."
"Oh, that sounds exciting but you won't find work like that around these parts." replied
Brun with a smile. "
Warrickpen is pretty peaceful." He continued.
With a sigh
Aurvandale said: "Is that so? I guess I should go somewhere that has more problems then. Thank you." and turned to go walk away from
Brun.
"Hey, wait!" the
Halfling yelled and ran up to the wizard.
"Do you think I can come with you?" he asked the wizard.
Aurvandale just continued walking and replied: "I'm sorry but I work alone."
The
Halfling just lowered his head disappointed.
The wizard continued walking.
Brun went home and started packing as fast he could.
He grabbed a small backpack, filled it with some bread, cheese, rope and attached a bedroll to it.
Knowing the ins and outs of this town,
Brun knew where the wizard would be right now and ran to meet up with him.
Finally catching up with
Aurvandale,
Brun while out of breath said: "I'm coming with you, I need some adventure in my life!, I'm not going to rot away in this quiet town."
"I said I work alone." replied
Aurvandale.
"Well, I guess I'm just simply going the same way you are then." answered the
Halfling.
The wizard just sighed and kept walking.
The first adventure together
After walking for several hours which
Brun used to fill the wizards head with songs, short stories about himself and information about
Warrickpen as well as asking countless questions about the wizard himself.
The two reached a human village that had definitely seen better days.
The people were thin, the houses were in a state of disrepair and there were little to no guards on the streets.
"Wow, this place looks sad." said the
Halfling.
Aurvandale answered: "Yes, this is the sort of villages I'm looking for. They are guaranteed to have work for someone like me."
As the two were walking on the streets in the village, a man with dirty but slightly better off looking clothing than the other villagers comes running up to the two. "You are a wizard or at least an adventurer right? I have seen your kind before." He said desperately as he looked the wizard up and down.
Aurvandale replied: "Well, yes I'm both actually. Do you have work for me?"
The man said: "Wonderful! Yes, yes I do. I'm the mayor of this town, please help us. For a year now, some kind of ghost or spirit has been haunting our village, not allowing anyone to leave, demanding we sacrifice food to it and pray to it several hours a night. You have to help us!"
Aurvandale answered: "I will gladly help you."
Brun gasped excitedly and said: "Oh my, my first adventure, this is going to be so exciting."
Continued in part 2 (yet to be published)
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