| Fred ate quietly at their noonday camp and thought back on all that
had happened on the long road that had led him to this grassy plain in
the heartland of MalBoncton. It had started with a kingly quest to kill
a dragon. And so Fred had traveled to the Shreken Mountains and the Southern
Caves that crouched within that dark expanse. There he had met Astra and
killed the dragon Velus. But then its master, Minestus, magically sent
them far to the north and stranded them in the sun baked sands of the Calamari
Desert. Luckily they found succour with the strange hermit mage Dr.Vincent.
But Astra was again magically abducted by Minestus and taken to his lair
which was hidden in the hills of the Goth Mountains. There he cursed her
with the form of a demi-fox. She was abandoned in the nearby forest where
Fred soon joined her and he too was then changed into a demi- fox. With
the guidance of a rogue dragon, Malachi, they returned to Minestus' lair
and in a terrible battle, Malachi and Minestus destroyed each other.
Their mission then was a simple one, if frought with danger and uncertainty; find a way to lift their curse. And through a strange mix of luck and happenstance, they finally succeeded in doing just that. But now they were at the mercy of a greedy barrister who possessed a powerful and mysterious magical crystal and he was forcing them to return once again to the lair of the evil dragon Minestus. Fred unfolded the map and stared once again at the final destination of their journey; the foothills along the dark ramparts of the Goth Mountains. His finger traced a line along those harsh and cold peaks until it reached their head where the Goth jutted out from the even greater heights of the dream haunted range of the Shreken. And on the northern side of the Shreken Fred's home waited for him. But his homecoming would not be celebrated any time soon. He was riding to the north, but only to meet up with the foothills of the Goth. From the spine of the Shreken the Goth ran to the southwest, and Minestus' lair lay almost at the very end of that forbidding range. Fred was still amazed at the power of the dark-spawned dragons. Upon the death of the wyrm of the Southern Caves, its master, who lay far, far away in the hidden hills of the Goth, felt the dragon's dying throes and, reaching out across the many leagues, meted out its angry vengeance as if it had been in the very same room with them. But that dragon was now dead, Fred reminded himself, and its treasure lay waiting for anyone brave enough to take it. Or greedy enough, Fred thought and looked over at Master Rift. "Let's get going, break's over," Rift said and began breaking camp. By day's end they would reach the foot of the Goth and spend the night in the little village of Mordnse. From there they would cross the border into Salmonshire and ride northeast along the the foothills of the Goth. And then they would pass through the Fox's Forest and up into the hills themselves until they found the broken opening of Minestus' cave. Go Back |
