Korak was new in town, a newly graduated sorcerer from Rookgaard who’d chosen to move to the mainland and start his career as an adventurer. Rookgaard had been his home for a while now, it was a small island away from the dangers of the Mainland where a soon-to-be adventurer could hone his skills. Korak had proven himself worthy in battles against the Orcs and as an outstanding cheese and pelt-trader. The interest in the noble practice of a Sorcerer was something he and his friends all had in common. Being able to shoot fireballs and deal death from a far spoke to them more than any arrow or sword ever did. His friends who’d left their training before all live in the northern city of Carlin where they made their living by rune-crafting or taking the ferry over to the cold ice-covered island Folda seeking items to trade.
He’d spoken to his friends Aqualizer, Jaggan and Wolfoz before hand and they were all highly awaiting his arrival. Having heard stories of the rampant crime and mischief that went on in the bigger cities he couldn’t help to feel a bit nervous before his permanent move away from his safe training-grounds. As he went to speak to the teleportation-statue he made sure that everything went as planed, he’d been planing his speech before hand going over it again and again in his head. Even-though he’d gone here before as his friends moved away this time was different. The echo from the statue might have been louder in this empty hall this time, and Korak had his friends in mind as he resisted his well-practiced speech.
The transport went fast and within seconds he was greeted by his friend Wolfoz on the other side of the teleport. His new home Carlin was bigger than he could have imagined. People were running up and down the cobblestone roads and treasure could be seen on display from the many apartment balconies. This was without a doubt the big city.
Wolfoz took Korak on a tour through the city showing of the sorcerer quarters where he could learn his new spells which he needed to survive and thrive in his new environment. The ability to light up his surroundings was something he liked, but he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed as he was promised greater magic tricks. They moved on and Korak was shown the sewer-system underneath the city where Korak would have to face of against multiple bugs before going north to Folda or east to the Goblin controlled Femor Hills. The tour ended outside of the city center, the depot where all your equipment, items and money was could be stored safely. The area was filled with people of all classes and with a variety of different languages. Droids were standing around eat fish, chatting with one an other as they were crafting runes of magical healing. Traders were screaming out prices for special loot they’d gathered or whole bags filled with magical runes. Criminals were trying to scam people for money or causing general mischief kicking bags of junk around the city crossing.
Aqualizer appeared as the tour had ended and the friends went for a drink of wine on the roof of a nearby apartment building. Jaggan would not be able to join the group as he was away adventuring, but the three friends managed to have a nice time out in the open anyway. Being as excited as he was Korak drank plentiful of the red beverage and would fill several flasks with the alcoholic drink. The three friends would talk about the new world they had found themselves in and of parts of it that for them was still left unseen. They talked of the city of the Elves to the east and the mines of the Dwarfs south of there. And beyond that was the capital, Thais, even bigger than Carlin.
Even though Korak was fresh to Carlin, and had not seen as much of it as his other friends he also wanted to go explore these places. The move to the big mainlands and the city of Carlin was exciting but he wanted to know what else was beyond the horizon, not just go and visit the hunting areas surrounding his new home. It might have been the wine talking but he wanted freedom to explore and journey through the land after all that time spent in Rookgaard fighting orcs and trading cheese. He stood up and felt his legs weak after all the alcohol he had consumed shouting. “Let us visit with them elves, raid the dwarfs of their precious beer and have a grand feast in the city of Thais.” Wolfoz and Aqualizer stared at the drunk buffoon on the end of the table who’d until now had stayed rather quite with his wine in hand. The two wiser more experienced magicians exchanged eye-contact and then stood up, a lot more controllable than Korak and agreed to journey south.
The party of adventurers left the roof to pick up what ever equipment they needed for their new-found quest. Aqualizer search through his packed chest full of useful items, backpacks of runes to sell and food. It was well-organized through a system of chests and easily maneuverable if you knew how the storage system worked. Wolfoz took Korak to the pond in the park and using a newly purchased fishing rod Korak started to learn the valuable art of fishing. It wasn’t easy though he quickly learned the basics, as Wolfoz caught fish after fish on his fishing-hook. Aqualizer meet them at the pond and now, with his equipment and Wolfoz’s fish they were ready to leave the safety of the city and journey out into the wilderness. Korak took a flask of wine to his mouth as he waved good-bye to the guards on the wall surrounding his newly found home.
Under their feet the mud road run long, it stretched from Carlin away beyond the Femour Hills to the Elven City of Ab’Dendriel, their first destination. In the forests on the side of the road deer could be spotted running among the overgrown trees and bushes. If you go of the main road to far you’ll also encounter the Amazon warriors which roam the uncivilized parts in the northern regions of Tibia. The band of sorcerers heavily consumed the wine and fish as they traveled and soon found all the food had been eaten, and they hadn’t even reached their first goal on the journey yet.
As they got further east the Fumour Hills started to rise up from the ground. This was the place of Goblins, Orcs and worse, Cyclopes. This was place for novice sorcerers to hunt. Ill-minded adventurers could easily trick them onto the wrong path, lead them into the grips of a giant palm just to be able to steal from their dead corpses.
Eventually they reached Ab’Dendriel. This was a city built by nature with green walls covered in tree branches and vegetation. Korak’s first impression of the city was how bad it looked. It looked like an unattended garden left uncontrolled for years. The grass was uncut, the trees reached too far and took too much space. There was no structure to the city and he didn’t want to spend anymore time walking along its grassy trail. There were even tree roots growing across it and he had to make sure not to fall on them in his slightly altered state of mind.
Some meat was bought from the elves and then the party went on to down south towards the great mountain of Kazordoon wherein the city of the Dwarfs can be found. On one side of the road they still had the Femour Hills and on the other the Ocean. Korak blurred out hatred towards the Elves and said that Wolfoz probably could have caught some fish here straight out of the ocean.
The mountain started to take form and in the distance the three friends could see its giant wall rising up, the peak covered in the clouds. The road lead them into a narrow pass through the mountains, the pass was so narrow that on some places you would have problems going through if there were other groups of people coming from the opposite direction. The air was cool in here and not much sunlight got through. From the top of the mountain melting snow ran down the mountain walls and drops fell onto their heads.
There were many different path to take as they moved south through the pass some so narrow that they wouldn’t be able to pass through or paths made shut due to cave-ins. They walked for a long while and read yet saw no sign of any civilization or a Dwarven city. Tales of dragons occupying curtain caves in the mountains sent chills up the sorcerers spine. The wine was now gone and not much food remained from Ab’Dendriel and their feet ached after all the steps onto the hard mountain underneath. After awhile they noticed that the mountain over their heads started to descend again down. The pass began to open up and they realized that they’d walked through Kazordoon yet not seen any sign of the city.
Up ahead was a bridge, this was near the center of the mainland which separated the southern parts including Thais and Venore from the northern areas which they had traveled from. They cursed themselves and questioned whether they’d seen any leads of civilization as they walked through the pass. The question came up whether to continue towards Thais and skip the raid for the Dwarven ale or if they should go back into the mountain pass and maybe from this direction they would see it. A vote was cast, Aqualizer voted to leave the Dwarfs behind and get down to Thais before it got late. Wolfoz was interested in the dwarfs and wanted the chance to meet with this strange beings who choose to spend their lives underground. Korak wanting to stick to his plan and get some alcohol into his sobering body adjusted his backpack and started to walk back the way they’d came.
It all looked pretty much the same from this angle as well when the came so deep into it that the sunlight couldn’t break through. They were all a bit grumpy now and the long journey had turned out to be a lot more tiring than they had hoped. Walking for a while not finding any entrance they decided to try the next opening of the pass they could find. Weaning of the road they’d stayed on since the journey started they found themselves in a narrow crack in the mountain wall which lead them to a hole in the ground. Aqualizer had his doubts about this being the way to the dwarf city underneath. Korak, being too bored of the journey not living up to his expectations went down to explore the lower levels of the mountain and then signaled up to the others to come down.
They went deeper and deeper into the mountain until they reached a large cave. There didn’t seem to be any dangerous creatures down here and the group continued until they come upon an opening in the cave wall. Surprisingly the sunlight hit the adventurers faces. There were a small patch of grass with trees and bushes surrounded by water outside of the cave. Unaware of where they’d ended up the group went out of the cave to have a look around the area.
A strange man approach them after a while speaking in a strange tongue unknown to the group. It was a hunter equipped with a bow wearing rare and expensive looking armor. He was angrily motioning for the group to leave him alone, from the look of it he’d been here alone for a long time. Korak, Wolfoz and Aqualizer didn’t care much for the incomprehensible man and started discussing where they were suppose to move on from here. After some arguing they decided to trace their steps back into the mountain and try again from there.
Walking back towards the cave entrance a deafeningly high sound hit them together with a smell of ash and death. The cave was bright and colored with a red blaze in-front of them. A thick black smoke towered towards the sky from the hole in the mountain and out of it came a huge beast at high-speed running towards them. Green scales covering its body from the tip of its large tail, across its stomach and over its face. Two piercing eyes fixed on the three friends and large fangs made to hunt and kill bigger victims than these tiny humans. It was a dragons cave they’d gone through, and to have passed through it once unscathed had made them three of the luckiest men in all of Tibia but this time they wouldn’t have the same luck.
Gripped with panic the adventurers started to flee for their lives. Aqualizer and Korak away from the cave towards the hunter, and Wolfoz down away from the group. The dragon took a turn and started accelerating towards the lonely sorcerer. Filling its lungs with air the beast aimed for the soon to be dead body and sent out a wave of fire towards him. Korak couldn’t just stand still watching his friend burn to a crisp and clenched his swords, running towards the beast. Swinging his swords towards its thick scale didn’t have any effect upon the creature. The dragon took his sights away from the burning Wolfoz and streached its long neck. A small sigh like sound was the last thing Korak would hear before getting his body bitten into two halves between the dragons giant razor-sharp fangs.
Aqualizer would be the lone survivor from this unsuccessful quest to reach Thais. He had stood safely by the hunters side and as the dragon was done with his friends the stranger stretched his bow-string with a magical arrow and went into battle with the hellish creature.
THE END
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