Dwyfol always liked to say he left the temple
because he was unhappy with the way it was progressing. Certainly
that was the story he told at parties. And used as pickup lines. Or
whatever. The truth was somewhat more mundane, as Dwyfol was, in
fact, thrown out of the church for refusing to engage with it the
way the elders wanted. They were wrong, anyway. He’d show them. He
left with only his current clothes and a copy of the bible to
Mishakal, his God. They were narrowminded and wrong, anyway. He’d
show them one day.
He travelled the countryside, and eventually
met up with K’churlat, a disgraced Monk. Together they found enough
supplies to live on, and managed to build a meagre fortune by
performing minor miracles for the townsfolk. He never seemed to
make any friends, though. They wouldn’t listen to him. They were
wrong anyway, he’d show them.
Eventually the two clergymen found themselves
in a party with two tieflings. It wasn’t easy to get them to trust
each other, but somehow it happened, and the team successfully
delivered some supplies from Neverwinter to Phandalin, picking up a
goblin recruit, affectionately named Gobby. They were then tasked
with the location of a lost miner, in a cave in the area
surrounding Phandalin. The team realised the dangerous nature of
this quest after an encounter with a female dragon from which they
only narrowly escaped with their lives.
On their quest to find the lost miner, the
party successfully vanquished some bandits from Phandalin, and
Crow, one of the Tieflings, adopted a minion and attempted to adopt
an owlbear. After a particularly gruesome battle, Gobby was killed,
and resurrected by Crow into the body of a bugbear. It was here
that Dwyfol began to see his true use in the world.
Having, in this instance, convinced a group of
bugbears that praying to God for salvation would grant them it, the
bugbears volunteered themselves to Dwyfol’s cause with no
reservations. The ones that were not chosen stayed close to Dwyfol
as his followers, and he found himself with the army of loyal
believers he had always wanted.
After the successful location of the miner and
his safe return to Phandalin, Dwyfol and his bugbear army decided
to crusade back to the castle they had first faced the dragon and
lost the battle. This story ends with the small army of goons
walking off with axes in hand, seemingly prepared to fight the
dragon, never to be seen again by the people of Phandalin.
The tale was told for generations of a gnome
walking with an army of bugbears up to a castle with the intent of
war, and then deciding to stay for tea. Then the night. Then the
next night. Until eventually the castle was no longer the dragon’s
residence, he actually lived there too. The tavern down the road
was understandably freaked out.
A gnome and a dragon walked into a bar. The
gnome used the door, the dragon demolished the whole wall. It was
the result of at least a month's worth of cat and mouse. Or gnome
and dragon, if you prefer accuracy. When they met, it was murder.
For the army of bugbears, at least. None survived, but they didn't
need to.
The fling lasted as long as you'd expect to
maintain a dragon's interest. Exactly once. Unfortunately, once is
enough. The offspring was the size of a large human with the head
of a small dragon. He'd never fitted in anywhere. The church was
the only home he'd ever known, except for the one night as a baby
he'd slept in the forest under an owlbear's wing.
Until, even then, he got cast out, with only
the shirt on his back. And the other shirt on his back. And the
ability to breathe fire, which kind of made up for the lack of
worldly possessions. Every person he'd ever come into contact with
had betrayed or mistreated him in some way, and the real tragedy
was that he didn't want revenge -- not really. He just wanted to be
worth something. Even if that 'something' was money -- resulting in
several interesting run-ins with slave traders. Until eventually he
found himself at the tavern in Phandalin ...
The party he met there accepted him
immediately, but he held back at first. Withholding his name
completely at first, it’s amazing the party let him stay around.
But a well-meaning, but slightly hapless knight invited him in for
dinner and accommodation, too. So obviously neither this party nor
the people it interacted with were harmful to him. So, he warmed
up. Not hard for a dragon. He could breathe fire. Thus ability came
in useful on occasion, too – rescuing a young boy from his abusive
family.
The party had been tasked with restoring peace
to the plane of Innistrad, but a shock encounter with a Gitrogg and
its henchpeople laid one of the party to rest, and Lasair found
himself questioning the point of a quest where death was the only
viable answer.
On a rare break from questing, he found his
way back to Phandalin through the help of the priestess that had
placed him into Innistrad, and his friend Goblin Ramsay was brought
back from the dead by his father Dwyfol, thanks to a Tinker ability
common to gnomes. The relationship between the two was strained,
for obvious reasons, and the older gnome seemed anxious to be rid
of his younger, less competent son, and disapproving of the ways in
which the younger man had chosen to live his life and enact the
lessons of the church. Perhaps ironic, given Lasair’s own
relationship with the church. This revival had the condition that
Goblin would stay and help around the castle, and so not travel
with the party.
The quest continued, as Innistrad had not yet
been saved, and eventually Lasair found a fight he could not rage
his way out of – a confrontation with a deity killed Lasair and
Chad, one of his friends in the party, leaving Balliuus alone to
continue the quest, and later, plan the funerals.
Dochas had been born in Phandalin, destined to
die at birth. An elven couple, his parents, in a desperate bid to
save their dying child, promised an alchemist that he could insert
the blood of a dragon into the child’s veins. The only nearby
dragon being the one in the castle. Under the pretenses of a
religious ritual, the gnomish priest guarding the dragon is
convinced to give up a vial of his wife’s blood, and this is
inserted into the child, who is then saved, but with special
abilities, especially when communicating with dragons.
This child seemed unnaturally gifted, as if
blessed by … magic. So he sailed through childhood and into
adulthood well-armed with the knowledge that Gods were real, and he
had the blood of one flowing through his veins. At least that
seemed to be the story he was told by his parents, who had
interpreted the events in that way. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they
were wrong about most of it.
Dochas had begun learning magic, been good at
it even, and he was pulled from his world into a new one, with
green-purple light and a faint, almost imperceptible sound of an
incantation. He knew better than to question the Gods – because
what other explanation could there be – so he picked himself up,
only the clothes on his back, and began to wander through the
Ulvenwald without much purpose, but killing enough creatures to
survive.
Eventually, he met up with a quester, and
another straggler called Chad, and they formed a party. So now he
had a purpose, to restore peace to Innistrad – and to hopefully
someday return to Phandalin, where he was from. Their quest
continued, and got them caught up in a fight with and between Gods,
and an attempt to free a trapped Elder God was met with conflict
from its mentor. But this conflict was ended when master and
student turned on each other, leaving the party to watch in awe as
peace was restored before their eyes. Temporarily. A large
nonstrosity filled the skies of Innistrad afterwards – but surely
that would be a problem for another day. The party had dead to
mourn and needed to rest.
There were in fact 4 children from the gnome
and dragon, all dragonborns. One had the upper body of a dragon and
lower of a man. We’ve met him already; his name’s Lasair. Another
had the top half of a man, and legs of a dragon. He made friends
even less easily than his brother, if such a thing were to be
possible. His name, and this might have gotten confusing at family
gatherings, was Lasair. The third child was full dragon. He got
along best with his mother due to their shared heritage. His name
was also Lasair. The final child was full human, and he had a
decent relationship with his father. This dragonborn was
particularly adept at taxes, and able to pass for human – so led a
relatively normal life.
Due to the family’s unusual construction, and
the extremely high possibility of supernatural events happening to
them in particular, it came as no real surprise when the
dragon-human Lasair was recruited into a quest to save a parallel
universe. Even less so when the full-dragon Lasair disappeared in
purple-green light. Presumably he’d return some day. His mother
privately worried that he might never return – and these fears were
compounded when her fourth child, her youngest son, was taken in
purple-green light also.
The third son found himself in a city called
Ankh-Morpork, where the townspeople took an immediate dislike to
him. He hadn’t even set up before a wizard showed up, claiming to
know what had happened to him, and a merciful band of adventurers
returned him to Neverwinter, with the help of the wizard. By all
accounts, the relocation had been erroneous; the result of a failed
test.
The fourth son was deposited in some woods in
a world he didn’t recognise. After struggling and fighting against
wolves and several local bandits, he made way to Stormwind City.
Skulking in the shadows, he survived on sewer rats, eventually
realising that a small town in the forest called Goldshire was his
best bet for survival and being left alone. He then set himself up
in the local inn as someone that the vendors could refer to for
their accounts. This adventuring party seemed to bring with them an
ethereal witch called Granny who communicated with Lasair
internally, and he was brought along with the party for their
adventures. The party was split by misfortune, but were rejoined
due to guidance from Granny.
Dwyfol’s dragon wife, Neidr, didn’t know what
to do. Nobody ever quite prepares you for when all of your children
are displaced by magic and nobody seems to know why. Well, your
cleric husband has no idea, and nobody else was consulted.
Something about being a massive dragon that makes being a town
crier difficult.
On the second week after her children’s
synchronised disappearance, Neidr had the local elven couple
brought and interrogated for their knowledge. Normally this
strategy would fail, but their son had also been lost. Almost like
everything Neidr touched turned to …. Magic. And disappeared.
Almost like someone was conspiring against her. But surely that
wouldn’t have happened?
The Phandalin town wizard was trying to
understand Neidr’s power rather than harvest it – but doing things
without understanding was often the root of more problems than
solutions.
Neidr found the wizard easily enough – he didn’t
exactly try to make himself hidden (and even if he had, the people
of Phandalin would have given him up). They reached a compromise of
sorts, where the wizard would try to get the children back, in
return for some lessons as to her power.
She sat back (as far as
possible) and let him get on with the incantations. These aren’t
perfect, he’d say – but it’s the best we’ve got.
And
that was okay for now. But the incantations didn’t seem to have
brought them back. She’d seen the magic and everything, but …
nothing. For a very, very long time. She gave up after hour 30, and
gave the wizard some knowledge for his trouble. Went back to her
castle to wonder whether her kids would come home …
The elven child, Dochas, stood in a field in
the plane of Innistrad. It wasn’t supposed to end this way. He
looked down at his battle wounds and then sighed, accepting his
fate. He should have known his birthright would lead to the
universe conspiring against him. Or sticking an axe in his belly.
Same difference.
He looked at his hands as they started to turn
white. His parents had always said he was ‘a special child’ – maybe
this is what they meant? He looked at his hands as they glowed, and
noticed them change – get smaller – shrink down and down, until
actually wait no – his whole body was getting smaller …
The rest
of his adventuring party would swear he had turned into a baby by
magic.
Then a dragon, or half-dragon – they would never quite be
sure, swept in by the same glowing magic, swept the glowing ball of
magic up in their arms and swept out, all in one move.
Rie, the youngest son daughter, was
different. One might have thought this was, or could be implied by
her gender (and they would have been right), but it did seem, even
as early as her childhood, that she had a unique way of avoiding
the manipulation, abuse and neglect tactics employed by her father
towards her three brothers (all called Lasair, for added
interchangeability). This being – she was useful. Useful to the
town, even though they treated her with a customary amount of
distrust, but she won them over in the time that followed. While
her brothers tried to earn their father’s approval directly (and
failed, with interesting results as documented prior), she
therefore, set about earning the approval of her mother. Succeeding
for the most part, as the ne of the children that would help around
the castle and mitigate Dwyfol while he was in his … less
favourable moods.
After a time of being the family mediator, Rie
grew tired of this and wished to be free like her brothers. She
had, perhaps crucially, misunderstood why they were free, but she
at least wished for the same opportunities. So she ran away, to the
depths of Wave Echo Cave to be calmed by the sounds of the river
magnifying off the cave walls. Dwyfol’s adventuring party had found
her – and he had been unreasonably angry at her leaving the castle.
But, instead of returning to her previous life, Rie was taken by
Klagen to train in the arts of stealth and cunning.
This training proved long and difficult, much
as Klagen seemed to think the lessons ought to have been easy, but
eventually results were gained from the tutelage. And after this
point, and about a year, had passed – Rie finally decided to return
to the castle to check on her mother. Upon her return, she found
Neidr paranoid because of rumours she had heard – so she set out to
investigate.
This, once again, involved the summoning of
Dwyfol’s adventuring party, who determined that all dragons in the
area were under threat. After a fact-finding mission and discovery
of a trend in the dragon killings, the party deduced the location
of the next killing and were able to intercept the killer and find
out his motives. He seemed more interested in flirting with Rie –
at which point Dwyfol stood up for Rie for the first time. After a
tense combat between Dwyfol and the dragon hunter (involving the
rest of the party at the end), Neidr was saved.
After this fight, Dwyfol meditated. Oh, he
thought, I’m supposed to care like that all the time. He came to
this realisation over a couple of months’ worth of introspection,
and then after some discussions with Rie and Neidr – agreed to try
and return the whole family to the castle.
Neidr set about asking people she could think
of if there was anything they could do to help with the recovery of
the children, and Dwyfol continued to think. What will I do when
they come back? Why am I reacting this way? Is it even their fault?
What’s actually happening here?
He thought for so long that he locked himself
in the castle. No big issue, he thought – at least immediately, the
reality was that he could just dig deeper into his self-constructed
rabbit hole. But after a further week of this, he realised there
was no way out of this castle for him.
So he sent word to Rie for help. She arrived
with a key and a message. The key helped to unlock the door, and
the message made him lock it back up. He could have lost Neidr.
Or Rie. Or … oh, no. Or both. After a further week of
consideration of these points, he came to a slow and careful
realisation. Well, two.
First, he realised that his family deserved
his attention and he should make amends in any way he could think
of. So, helping Neidr might be a way to do this.
Second, he realised he’d been given the wrong
key. Again.
Neidr would always insist it was her efforts
that had brought her sons back to her. Not the wizard who showed up
at exactly the right moment to cast the incantations responsible
for Lasair III and Lasair IV ending up in Neverwinter. She didn’t
even hear the arrival, which was perhaps a good thing for the two
younger Dragonborns – they’d acquired and used some recreational
drugs from their friends in the adventuring party. They wouldn’t
have been allowed back into the castle.
In fact, she found out that they had arrived
back home when they crashed on to the castle grounds. The only
things that would even come close to the castle since the fateful
gnomish pilgrimage were the two live dragonborns and their sadly
deceased brother, who materialised on the castle lawn. That is his
corpse did. The rest of the family rushed out the castle gates
after they heard the crash. Well, muffled sploof sound. As they
stood around wondering exactly what to do with the son they’d lost
ten year ago but recovered looking as though he hadn’t aged a day,
there was a small pop. In a neatly formed ball, almost a cradle but
not quite, of magic, a baby seemed to have been deposited on the
castle lawn also. Neidr knew the child immediately, but the live
Lasairs seemed confused about the whole situation.
“Great, now
I’m the one that has to give him back to his parents.”
The funerals were held at the same time. Easier that way.
And easier to start a family plot on the castle grounds than … do
anything else. Obviously, the baby Dochas had been returned to his
family for burial in their Elvish custom – he’d been caught up in
all this by a technicality of having some of Neidr’s blood near him
one time. Sometimes Neidr would wonder about the child and whether
he’d lived a long life. She only knew that whatever magic had been
used had returned him at the moment in time he had been …
enchanted. So she had no way to know if he’d lived. Or how.
Dwyfol seemed less than interested as to the fates of their
children, so Neidr watched this gnome that had been so persuasive
early on – systematically ignore her needs, his needs and the needs
of his family to pray to a God he’d never even met. Over the weeks
and months she noticed the patterns, then resented the patterns –
then accepted the patterns. It seemed, even dragons could get
divorced. How exactly, they were about to find out. Or at least
meet the wizard who said he could officiate it (although why he
kept bringing it up, we may never know …)