Prologue

"The blast of burning wind washes over you, searing lava heat caressing your skin, armor and clothes but dealing no damage whatsoever. You prepared for fiery dragon's breath, but the fire and heat are not the full extent of it, as Riana is struck by a powerful, sizzling bolt of lightning from the storm-laced exhalation, and the tornado-force wind blows Amdolf, Riana and Janetta down the tunnel, until their bodies strike unyielding stone with an unpleasant sounding crack. Ambar and Gondorian cling to their feet by main strength combined with a healthy measure of good luck," the image of the wingless dragon on the screen changed, its mouth opening and a streaming cone of lightning-cored fiery windblast enveloped over half the screen, blurry figures struggling within.

"Amdolf activates feather fall, landing lightly on his feet and casting a ray of freezing death at the Father of Linnorms. Polar ray."

"Janetta casts a heal spell on Riana, half of which is echoed back to her."

"Riana delays long enough to receive healing, then dimension steps behind the dragon and makes a touch attack with her rapier to drain blood."

"Gondorian blows the horn of triumph, if necessary moving to ensure that no one else is caught in the blast of sound, then rages and charges."

Ahem, I was delaying everyone, looking at the character sheet frantically for options, then sighed and typed, "Ambar the Righteous shouts out to Iomedae to smite the evil of this abomination, and calls upon the heavenly spirits to empower Kalindrar with speed, frost and the cold, relentless power of law, charging with smite evil, tumbling to avoid AOO. Kalindrar the holy avenger readies actions to counterspell, adding its wild-voiced exhortations to the noisy fracas in a strident voice."

All too often, what paladins did was charge right in. To do otherwise, like say, display too much forethought, caution, or employ 'let someone else go to melee with one of the most powerful monsters in the three nearby continents' warine ... cowardice, if you will, was simply out of character.

"Frost rimes against thick draconic scales as the cavern echoes with triumphant thunder, a solid blast of sound that causes the wyrm to flinch and recoil even as it buoys and uplifts your spirits. Fafnheir's bite almost wrenches Ambar's shield from his grasp, but the champion perseveres and charges through, leaking blood and flaming liquid poisonous bile from a shallow wound, to deliver a terrible blow - flinching back in time to avoid a virtual fountain of blood as a tower-shield-sized scale is rent in half. The linnorm's scream grows weak and fades away in a choked gasp at the life-draining touch of Riana's steel, to which it responds almost instantly with a slap of its massive tail, the appendage coiling around her in a bone-crushing embrace. The rest of its ire is quickly delivered against Ambar, clawing, goring and biting to terrible effect. A quickly-fading scintillating rainbow fog of chaotic arcane energy is the only visible display of colliding magics as both holy blade and dragon unleash dispelling abjurations that counter each other in a wrenching vortex visible only to those who can see such energies, which quickly falls in and collapses upon itself."

The screen changed again, showing Riana's tiny head bobbing from the massive constricting coils of its tail, and my character, Ambar, standing courageously before it, shield and sword raised, looking impossibly small when compared with the colossal dragon. The rent scale was pumping scarlet and Ambar's shield and armor were visibly dented, a trail of blood marking the path of his valiant charge, with bubbling pools of life-liquid and flaming drips of the dragon's poisonous saliva staining the cold stone floor. The graphics were incredibly detailed and looked almost realistic, especially on the large HD screen. The character sheet also auto-updated, and I managed not to wince as I saw a quarter of my character's hit points just ... gone.

"Ambar's roar joins that of Kalindrar as they hew away at the dragon-mountain before them, joyful despite the terrible pain of injury. The paladin knew that Iomedae was with him, with them all, and this day a great evil would fall forever." Time to die, I thought wryly - certainly, someone was going to.

Chapter 1 »