Prologue King Roderick Aberdeen Haverstone the Second,
sovereign ruler of the Fairlands, free kingdom of the western reaches of the
world, sat down to supper in the lesser hall of his castle on a cool, early
summer evening, utterly unaware of the imminent doom about to fall upon his
lands. The local nobles currently quartered in town had turned out to join him
for an informal meal, along with a few elders and landed gentry, as well as his
general, Old Mundy. There was no particular reason to gather beyond good company
on a fair night, and the feeling of the room was one of pleasant gaiety.
"I say," Old Mundy proclaimed in his
aged voice, "This barley soup is quite good! You must send my cook the
recipe, your majesty."
King Haverstone smiled and nodded, enjoying
the simple soup himself, and made polite mention that he had already ordered
the recipe delivered after their last supper of the same fare.
"Oh really?" General Mundy looked
surprised, sucking a bit of the good soup out of his prodigious mustache.
"Then my cook must be truly abysmal! I thought the soup he served last was
some sort of fish."
The king was about to speak in defense of the
cook when a sudden explosive booming thunder shook the room and drew startled
gasps and exclamations from all present. Past the end of the long dining table
a gaseous cloud of purple-black fumes was roiling about in a dark clot,
obscuring the far hall door and utterly terrifying a serving boy that was
frozen mid-step with a wine pitcher in hand not two paces away from the murky
blot. Before anything effectual could be said or done, a figure materialized
either out of, or from, the smoke. Either were possible and no one present
could say for certain.
The man, for a man it was, was old and a bit
bent over with age. He was dressed all in blues and purples and blacks, his
voluminous robes obscuring much of his shape. His head was covered by something
like a long black nightcap, hiding any sign of hair, but his beard was iron
gray and the end of it was cut off horizontally, giving the impression of a
wicker broom hanging off his chin. His crooked nose was twice broken and a pair
of scholar’s spectacles rested on the bent bridge, their lenses black as night
and utterly obscuring his eyes.
With a clicking tongue the old man whipped the
glasses off and brusquely wiped them clean on his robes, revealing blue eyes
wrinkled from long hours of squinting. He replaced the lenses, which were now
suitably clear, and casually reached over to the serving boy and seized the
pitcher from his hands and took a small drink.
"Ah, thank you," He said to the
shaking boy, handing the pitcher back with a dismissive gesture. His voice
creaked with age and disuse and he cleared his throat before turning to the
stunned assembly of Fairlands' nobility.
"My name is Zatheral, the Dark Wizard. I
see I have interrupted your supper, and I apologize for the interruption and
promise not to hold you overly long. I myself am on a tight schedule and now
was the only opportune time. Am I correct in assuming I address King Stonehaver
of the Fairlands?"
"King Haverstone," The king
corrected, standing up and meeting the wizard's eyes with a polite but confused
expression. "What can this lord do for you, Dark Wizard Zatheral? I don't
recall having any business with any wizards, dark or otherwise. Nor can I
recall any of my fore fathers dealing with any dark powers at all. I dare say
you are the first of that sort to ever enter into these halls."
"I know." The wizard said shortly
and pulled a small scroll out of one of his billowing sleeves. He mumbled under
his breath as he unfurled the scroll. "Not one dark wizard or evil
sorceress or devil or demon or even a common hag." He shook the scroll into shape and looked at it
sharply. "There hasn't been one evil inspired misfortune cast in or upon
the Fairlands in nigh on three centuries. Which," Zatheral furled the
scroll purposefully, "Suits my purposes quite well."
The King looked on concerned, as did his
nobles and gentry, but it was Old Mundy that voiced the question on all their
tongues. "What purpose is that?"
Dark Wizard Zatheral put one hand to his chest
and let out a sigh of exasperation. "I am a rather busy man, you see. My
work is of the highest magics, requiring great delicacy and concentration of
exceedingly long periods and there are times when I simply forget my necessary
obligations."
"Obligations?" King Haverstone
echoed.
"Yes, you see, being a Dark Wizard, I
have a duty to spread the dark and evil misfortune that my order of wizards is
known for. We have a reputation to uphold. And while I personally don't care a
wit about my reputation, my order certainly does and I'd rather not have to
face a formal hearing over something silly like 'failure to be sufficiently
evil' or what have you. As such, I am very pleased to find your kingdom."
By now, the assembled lords were all standing,
looks of consternation abounding. "What do you mean? What are you going on
about?" Were the general cries of protestation. King Haverstone held his
hands up for silence, and getting something close to it he called out to
Zatheral, "I ask you, what do you want of my kingdom?"
The wizard sank his knobby hands into his
sleeves, arms crossed, seemingly quite pleased with himself. "I'm quite a
few decades behind on my sowing of discord, and I mean to make it all up in one
go. I will hereby curse your Fairlands. Now, don't look cross with me. Really,
you've brought it all on yourselves. You've had it too good for far too long.
Something evil should have happened to the lot of you long ago. We are
just making up for lost time, really."
"Is there nothing we can do?" The
king asked, keeping his voice dignified though somehow invoking abject despair
at the same time.
Zatheral blinked, slightly bemused, and
exclaimed, "Of course there is. Send some heroic types to set it all to
rights. It's the only way, really. A hero or two, good ones, mind you, will
usually do the trick for taking care of Dark Wizards."
"Oh," The king softly replied.
"Thank you."
"You are welcome," Zatheral said,
shuffling his robes in a business-like fashion and looking about his person, as
though he were searching for something. "It's only fair, after all. Curses
aren't meant to last forever, and you have every right to send some heroes out to
try and break it- ah!" The Dark Wizard threw up a hand in exultation.
"There we are. Now, I'm off to work. Again, forgive the intrusion, the
soup looks lovely. I'll have to get the recipe from you another time. Ta
ta!"
With a billowing clap of his hands, Zatheral
said some words that had entirely too much noise to them, so that no ear
present could be quite sure of what was said but all knew they had to be magic
words. The great smoky clot of gasses reappeared and obscured the wizard
completely. In a moment, the cloud was gone, as was the wizard.
The moment he left, the King's guests were in
an uproar, shouting questions and bellowing orders, demanding the safety of
their lands and holdings, crying out for the king to do something about the
horrible doom the evil wizard had laid on them. As their voices echoed down the
castle halls, servants scurried about those same halls, carrying the news of
the Dark Wizards visit to any ear that would hear them. Not even a full day
would be necessary before the whole kingdom knew of the fate befallen them.
Placing one hand on the table and leaning over
to speak to Old Mundy, so that the shouts of the assembled lords would not
drown out his voice, King Haverstone spoke deliberately to his general.
"I think it would be best if you put the
word out that we are in dire need of some heroes as quickly as possible."
Hello and thank you for reading the prologue! If you got through it and are still interested, great! If you aren't interested, I don't know why you are still reading, but you do you. Some General Information: My name is James I have been a DM on roll20 for a few years now. I've taken a break for the past nine months or so, but I'm ready to get back in the game. I am looking to recruit four players for a medium-length campaign of D&D 5th edition. The setting and plot are homebrew. Games will be held at 7 PM EST on Thursdays. Sessions will usually last around four hours, depending on good stopping points. Roll20 will be used for the maps of course, but Skype will be used for voice communication. The Game: The campaign I have designed is purposefully on the light-hearted and silly side of things. Jokes, puns, and bad accents are all to be expected during any given session. Players will be encouraged to create colorful and entertaining characters. Dark and depressing dramatics will be avoided. Characters will start at level one and stats will be rolled using a lenient system. All classes and races are open for play, including the races from the Player's Companion. The Setting: The whole campaign will take place in The Fairlands, a small kingdom that is perfectly pleasant and just a little boring on an average day. The Fairlands has no enchanted forests or troll-infested caves. Dragons don't soar overhead and villains don't skulk in bushes. But a Dark Wizard has recently cursed the lands to suffer misfortunes of unknown quantity and intensity, and the king has sent word that he needs heroes rid the land of the the evil that has taken up residence. Player characters will originate from kingdoms outside of The Fairlands, and will be personalities of the type that want to gain fame or fortune or simply want to do the right thing. I leave the specifics to the players, so long as the character is ultimately a fledgling hero. A paragraph explaining character backstory will be required once a player has determined what he or she wants to play, but there is no need for a novel. Just enough to aid me in recognizing what the characters main points are all about. DO NOT come to this campaign with a pre-existing character unless you are certain the character will fit in a silly story! Don't try to cram a dark and moody demon slayer into a light fantasy romp of fluff. It won't work! DO come prepared with an attitude of fun! Go ahead and use a stupid accent! Roleplay your character doing stupid things! Make a pun or two! But no more than two a session; lets not go crazy here, right? Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from interested parties below! Please ask questions, I will do my best to answer as quickly as possible.
