It is 9 o'clock after Noon, on the Day of Freedom,
the 11th Day of the Month of the Long Shadows, Year 320.
IcingDeath's Request
It had been a bad day, it was raining everywhere except for hell and I was in a miserable mood. It was too long ago, since I had last gained any valuable experience or equipment, and when I wanted to spend some time in the famous Art Gallery in Hauge, it was closed! Nothing else but bad luck, all day.
When I finally had come inside the Art Gallery and had looked at some of the paintings, I went to the Painting of the Year, truly a masterpiece. Suddenly, I was sucked into the painting, and I was surrounded by huge yetis. Relying solely on my magical powers I crushed them in a glorious battle of might versus power. But I seemed to trapped in the glacier. After some time of searching, I finally found a crack in the glacier, through which I could crawl. From one bad situation into another, I landed in a freezing cold river, like if that wouldn't be enough, I was floating towards a waterfall, a quite big one even! Though I had some bad luck, I managed to grab onto a huge icicle just before the waterfall, and I swung down from the icicle and landed on the riverbank. But, it was a bad place to land, I could only get away through some kind of tunnel. I entered the tunnel, and suddenly, a great dragon stood before me! I realized, it had to be the great Icingdeath, the king of the Icedragons.
Well, I had had a bad day, and I was real mad, so I decided to kill the dragon, even though I knew I wouldn't have a chance! Neither I had, moments later I found myself in the arms of a beautiful Valkyrie who took me to the realms of Valhalla.
After a short chit-chat with Odin (Hail!), I was set back into the realms of Valheru, where I went back to Icingdeath to give him a proper whopping! Or at least to retreive the remains of my own corpse, so I could be buried in a proper way. The dragon didn't seem to be angry at me at all, it rather seemed to be impressed by my nihilistic way of challenging it. All in all, it resulted in this, The dragon asked me for help, and I agreed (seeing an easy way to get out of it). Seconds later, I had the first real positive experience of the day, the most beautiful female knight I have ever seen appeared before me, she had heard of my story and was about to take revenge for me, but alas she too agreed to help the dragon instead. Her name? Oh forgive me, she is the great Aphrodite the Blessed Knight of Sanguine. What a warrior! And so graceful!
The Dragon asked us to seek out his brother in the city of undead. To enter the city, we would have to get a key from an owl outside the city. Using our magic we soon found the owl, which demanded from us a lucky stone. The owl obviously wasn't to smart, it was as eccentric as the dragon said he would be, for it gave us the key in trade for a normal stone. Without fear, and knowing Aphrodite would back me up, I made my way through the forest around the city. It was a very unpleasant forest, I had a feeling of being watched all the time, but noone else other than Aphrodite was at my side. After some time of walking we came to a citywall. Just before reaching the gates of the city, I stumbled upon a scroll with some strange runes on it, maybe this would
prove to be useful.
We had no problem entering the city with the key from the owl, though I'm sure I could have done that too with a small spell of mine. The city was filled with souls of dead persons. It was rather small, the only big house was a mansion in the south end, where Lord Tomas once had lived. We actually found his soul inside the mansion. While we watched Sir Tomas and his Lady Kirrina dancing in the ballroom, we suddenly heard a call from a haunted spirit. We soon found him, and he begged us to find him some things to retain his brothers soul. The items were hard to be found, and only with my magic and Lady Aphrodite's ability to read runes we finally found all items for him. The spirit was
then free and could save his brothers souls. As a thank, he gave us each a Sword of Spirits.
Not long after, Icingdeaths brothers roaring voice made it clear for us, that he didn't think much of us. But he made a mistake, he told us, he was hidden under the earth. By intuition Lady Aphrodite almost instantly found a way to open the doors to his lair, and we went down the stairs. The basement was filled with the smell of dragon and it wasn't far to his lair! The dragon was angry, we had found him, but calmed as soon as we told him his brother had sent us. Happy to hear from his brother, the dragon gave us his blessing and sent us back to Icingdeath.
From that point, the journey was easy. Aphrodite and I soon stood before Icingdeath, now with the bonds of friendship and the blessing of Icingdeaths brother. The dragon gave us a reward, an amulet for each of us and told us the main purpose of his request: "To create a band between high and low, and to open up our eyes for the unsolved mysteries of the realm." We had done a good job, and he had saved himself from being slaughtered by Aphrodite.
In this moment, not many hours after our great adventure, I think of those hours with pleasure. And I am honored to have done this quest together with Aphrodite and to have the right to call her my friend!
Note: Nihilistic - Nihilism; The doctrine that nothing can be known; scepticism as to all knowledge and all reality.