The Forgotten Realms Prologue: Part 1
An elf, about fourty years old, looked up from his work. He had long blue hair and sparkling silver eyes and the pale skin which was common among Moon Elves. Today was this elves last day of apprenticeship, today was the day he'd finally become a sorcerer in his own right! This day had been twenty years in the making, but it was none the less deserved. Just then, a man, about seventy, with skin that was a medium tone of brown, black hair, and a black beard walked in.
"Hello there Aldalon," The man smiled, "It is good to see that my apprentice is hard at work, even on his last day."
The elf nodded, "If I'm going to be the best sorcerer in Faerûn I'll need to work hard, Thaneus"
The man nodded, "I see what you're saying. How is the rod coming along?"
"I just need to finish up this thing real quick," Aldalon said and tried to fix a mistake he had found on the rod, unfortunately, something went wrong and weak acid splashed in his face. Aldalon shook his head and Thaneus laughed before walking over to the rod. After casting an identify spell, the teacher found out what was wrong with the rod and fixed it with ease.
"Aldalon," Thaneus said, "I have a special take for you. I need you to go and pick up some things from Voltrix's shop."
"I am NOT going!" Aldalon exclaimed, "Last time I went there I got turned into a pig for a few days!"
"It was all in good fun," Thaneus laughed, "And Voltrix gave you some compensation for it."
"I was almost turned into a pot roast!"
"Now, Now Aldalon, when you get back, I will have something special for you."
"What is it?"
"I can't tell you, it is a surprise."
Aldalon sighed, "Alright, what do I need to pick up."
Thaneus handed his student a list, the elf grumbled and went on his way. After a few minutes, he felt a tug on his robe. He looked down and saw a young girl staring at him.
"Excuse me sir," She asked, "But can I please have one gold for some candy?"
Aldalon recalled that candy normally costs only a few copper, giving one gold to the girl would get her enough candy everyday for a month.
"Do you really need candy?" Aldalon asked the girl, he looked up and saw a woman giving him a hopeful look. He guessed that she was the girl's mom. He sighed and took one gold out of his pocket, giving it to the girl.
"Yay!" The girl exclaimed and ran off; the woman looked at Aldalon and smiled slightly. The rest of the walk was uneventful save for one parent snarling at him for no good reason. He opened the door to Voltrix's shop.
"Why if it isn't my prized pig!" An old man, who looked like he was going to depart from this world any second, exclaimed and walked up to Aldalon, "Today is your last day of apprenticeship!"
"Yeah, here is a list of things Thaneus needed from you," Aldalon said and handed Voltrix the list.
Voltrix looked over it and nodded every time he said something, "Oh I forgot," Voltrix said and gave Aldalon a ring, "This +1 Charisma ring will come in handy."
"It better not have a polymorph spell on it!"
Voltrix sighed and took the ring back, he muttered something, "Well for seeing through my little prank I'll let you keep the ring, do you wish to inspect some of the other items as well?"
Aldalon nodded and began to look through some of the weapons and clothes that had been placed on the table.
"These are some shazzy shoes!" Aldalon smiled, "Just like Thaneus to keep up with the latest fashion trends."
"I do not think they are for him," Voltrix smiled, "If you know what I mean."
Aldalon laughed, "For a special someone?" Aldalon received no answer and inspected a crossbow. He found a compartment which one could put other small things into; he didn't know anything more than that, "Everything seems in order," Aldalon said and put the things into his never-ending bag, "I hope I get to see you before you keel over!" The elf joked and walked out the door.
"Not likely!" The old shopkeeper yelled back, causing the young, Elvish sorcerer to chuckle. On Aldalon's way back he saw the young girl skip past him from earlier eating some kind of candy bar. Aldalon checked his pockets again to see how much gold he had. He fingered each gold piece and came up with one hundred forty-nine.
That was one hundred more than I had earlier! Aldalon exclaimed in his head.
It's the change, Thaneus asked that I let you keep it, Voltrix's voice said in the elf's head.
Aldalon smiled and arrived back at Thaneus' shop.
"Alright, I have everything right here," Aldalon said and set the pieces of equipment down. Thaneus smiled, "They're all for you."
"Even the crossbow?" Aldalon asked, "I know that I had a little crossbow training but why?"
"It is for when magic does not solve your problems," Thaneus said, "I always keep on one me for those cases," with that Thaneus gave Aldalon a few crossbow bolts.
Aldalon nodded and Thaneus held up a blue slip of paper.
"Now Aldalon, this coupon is for one night of free drinks from the Lily."
"How did you get that?"
"I happen to go the place a lot, but I figured this would be a good present for you."
"Awesome! Thanks!" Aldalon exclaimed as eagerly grabbed the coupon, and rushing out the door with lighting speed. He ran to the Lily so fast you would have thought someone would have cast several Haste spells on him.
"Welcome to the" The door greeter for the bar said right as Aldalon rushed past her, "Lily"
The eager elf sat down in front of the bar and loudly proclaimed, "I want a Wizard Mind Bomb!"
The bartender gave him a strange look, "But you know that the Wizard Mind Bomb"
"I don't care!" Aldalon snapped, "Give to me now!"
The bartender saw the coupon and grunted. Soon a blue colored beer entered Aldalon's hands.
"Bottoms up!" Aldalon exclaimed and swallowed the drink in one huge gulp. The drink tasted cold and sweet, but he couldn't help but think something bad was going to happen.
"Five, Four, Three," The bartender said.
"Excuse me sir, why are you counting?" Aldalon asked.
"Two, one," The bartender stopped, "Bam."
All of a sudden a cold began to grip Aldalon's mind he felt everything go black before he heard a thud.
Aldalon awoke in a bed with two goblins about to murder him. Acting quickly, the elf grabbed the faces of the two goblins and yelled, "Burning hands!" Fire shot out of his palms and incinerated the heads of the goblins. The two headless corpses fell onto the ground and Aldalon jumped out of the bed. He ran outside and noticed that he was in the upstairs room of the bar and a woman was running towards him. This woman happened to be the mom of the girl from earlier.
What is she doing here? Aldalon thought and saw three goblins chasing her. The sorcerer jumped into action and ran in front of the girl, one of the goblins managed to stab him in the knee. Aldalon cringed for a second but regained his composure and used Burning Hands again. This time, the goblins were fried to a nice golden brown.
"You okay ma'am?" Aldalon asked the woman.
"Yes but my daughter is downstairs!" The woman shouted in panic.
"Don't worry, just find some place to hide," Aldalon said and ran down the stairs. He came to the room where the bartender and a cleric were trying to fight off some goblins. The bartender had a long sword drawn and easily cut the head off one goblin while his cleave killed the other. The cleric cast the inflict minor wounds spell and killed another one of the goblins. Aldalon assisted them by throwing a ray of frost at another goblin, completely freezing it. He saw the girl he'd given candy to running away from huge goblin, presumably the chief of their tribe. Aldalon sent a light spell at the goblin's eyes to blind him. This worked and Aldalon quickly pulled out his crossbow and aimed at the goblin's head. He fired a bolt of his crossbow which whizzed through the air. The bolt hit the goblin chief between the eyes and knocked its head clean off.
The room fell silent, everyone was looking at Aldalon. A second later, a scream of panic erupted from the goblins and the other two warriors in the bar mopped up the rest of the goblins.
"That was some nice shooting there," The bartender smiled.
"Aye, ye don't happen to be a ranger, do ye?" The cleric, who was a dwarven female, replied.
"No ma'am, I'm just a sorcerer," Aldalon replied.
"Still, You are one hells of a shot," The bartender laughed, "I guess I was wrong about you."
"Ya after ye ordered the Wizard Mind Bomb, The goblin's came. We dragged yer sorry arse up the stairs and into that room to save ya!" The Cleric exclaimed.
"That doesn't explain the two goblins that tried to kill me!" Aldalon snapped.
"We're not the best guards in the world," The bartender laughed.
"Ye best be gettin' back to Thaneus," The cleric said, "I bet he'll want ta here about this."
The woman Aldalon had helped so many times ran down the stairs and embraced her daughter.
A smile crept across Aldalon's face, "Well, that was enough excitement for one night!" He laughed, "I guess I better head home."
With that the elf departed, not knowing the horror that was about to come.