Your Audience with King Emry

But soon it is time to continue your journey. With a wave of your hand and the toss of a bag with enough coin to buy drinks for all around you bid them goodbye and take your leave of the happy inn. You lead your horse from the stable, mount it and head up the wide dirt road that leads to the King. With your spirits renewed, you make all haste to cover the many leagues that lie between you and Caemlyn. The trip is long, for the Great Kingdom is indeed very great. It takes you many weeks to reach the capitol but when you arrive you are led directly to the grand throne room and the waiting King.

"My liege," you say, and genuflect before him. "Rise, my knight," he says, "Now tell me, is your quest completed? Is the Dragon dead and its reign of terror brought to an end?" You shuffle your feet nervously, "I am afraid that I do not bear such joyful tidings," you answer gravely. Your ear picks up a whispered voice from the assembled nobles behind you, "Afraid? Aye, and his heraldry should be dyed yellow to honor his bravery." The comment is followed by a derisive chuckle. But you do not turn to confront your faithless detractors, hidden as they are among the nobles of the land. You are here to acquit yourself before King Emry and to reveal what you have learned.

"Are you here then to renounce your quest and to accept the black ribbon?" King Emry asks, disappointment thick in his voice. You take in a deep breath, your heart beating fast within your breast. "Never," you say, "I have sworn myself to your service, wherever the path might lead. But the path to the Dragon is not so straight as we were led to believe, and it is a foolish man who fights with his eyes closed." The King smiles at your words and his eyes skirt the men who stand behind you. "The Dragon is a cunning and evil beast," the King says, "there is no question that the way shall be long and hard and your feet will follow a crooked course before you can fulfill your quest and destroy the monster. How then have you been misled?"

You pull out the map that the King had given you at the start of your quest and hand it to him. "All those who have been sent to kill the evil Dragon were given this to chart their way. Our only hope of success lay in knowing the plan of the monster's caves. All else would rest on our ingenuity, bravery and skill. But without a true outline of the Dragon's dark abode, any who entered that labyrinthine maze would find only death regardless of what turn they took."

The King's face becomes hard and angry. "This map was drawn by Lord Samanthus," he says, "the greatest warrior this Kingdom has seen in a hundred years. And he accomplished that dangerous feat at a most terrible cost. He traveled through those dark and twisting caves with but a handful of brave men and he alone returned to this court. He never spoke another word, his mind shattered and his body mangled. An entire arm torn from the roots, his face scarred, his armor dented and scorched. This map was his last gift, his last heroic deed for our people. And you dare say that it is a worthless piece of parchment, a madman's forgery?!" A tense murmuring rises from the nobles.

"No, my liege," you answer. "I believe that the map was once straight and true. But Lord Samanthus' ordeal took place seventy-five years ago. Since that time the Dragon's lair has changed. If you go to the Southern Caves today, you will find two cave mouths instead of one. Which was the one Lord Samanthus entered? I do not know. But the mouth I entered led me to a chamber of four graves. Four graves which bear the names of four knights; Fred, Toby, Josh and Paulito. And nowhere on Samanthus' map will you find such a room."

King Emry closes his eyes, his hope that the four knights still lived dashed forever. "They are dead..." the King said heavily. "Perhaps not," you suggest. The King eyes you hopefully, "What do you mean?" The memory of Fred's empty coffin still chills you, but you tell the King of how the grave had no body. The others might be just as unoccupied. You then pull out a second parchment and hand it to the King. "I have begun a new map, one that I wish to complete. But a single man cannot succeed at this task. I call now, as is my right, for a gathering of Quest Knights. I tell you my King that it is only through a company of brave men that your quest can be achieved, and that the fate of Fred and the others might be found out." King Emry ponders your words and your request, while at the same time studying your new map. "I see here the chamber where you found the tombs," he says suddenly. "But I thought you said that there were four graves? There are five marked here."

He hands you back your map and you look down at it. There are indeed five graves marked. "But this is not of my hand," you begin as you read the names inscribed on the parchment. Fred, Toby, Josh, Paulito and... "What crap is this?" you cry out. "My name is marked on the fifth grave. But that would mean that I'm...dead?" You then feel a strange lifting up of your body. The map flutters to the floor as the color bleeds out of your limbs and your body becomes as light as a feather. You lift one of your hands to your face and stare as your fingers unwind in ribbons of smoke. You are quickly vanishing into thin air. Like a ghost who's troubled spirit no longer clings to the mortal sphere, you are fading away and passing beyond.

'Well this sucks...' you think as your body rises like an ethereal cloud and then disappears forever from the sight of Living Man.

1. King Emry calls upon yet another knight to continue where the others left off.

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