The Dream
I remember waking up in a bed not knowing where I was or even how I got there in the first place. The thought, though, didn't occur to me until minutes later. Initially, I was more focused on how comfy the bed was and how relaxed I was feeling. It wasn't until I sat up in bed did I realize that something was amiss.
I tried to remember the circumstances that led me there, but nothing came to mind. I could remember Gilderland, Yoitz, and everything in-between, but not what happened just the day before. At that point, I wasn't too worried as it didn't seem I was in any sort of captivity or immediate danger, so I just attributed my lapse in memory to a hangover. Surely it'd all come back to me, or so I thought.
Looking around the room, I saw my jacket, cloak, and other pieces of clothing nightly folded in a pile on the dresser. My pack, or at least what I thought to be my pack, was sitting on a table along with my rapier and other affects. On the floor beside the bed were my boots and chaps. Nothing didn't seem to be too out of the ordinary, though I could tell even from sitting in bed that my clothes weren't my usual outfit. Maybe I had gotten my normal clothes dirty in my drunken escapade the night before, or so I had thought.
Curious and eager to find some clues to jog my memory, I got up and went to inspect the contents of my bag. I took a chair and sat at the table, taking the bag and opening it up. When I looked inside, I had to admit I was rather confused as it all appeared to be just camping gear. I didn't remember to be going on any outdoors excursions and questioned it this was even my bag to begin with. I began to take out the contents of the bag little by little and set it on the table. I shook my head, confused as more of the same came out. Torches, rations, a mess kit, a tinderbox, tent components, candles; it was just all camping equipment. Then I came across several containers of what appeared to be bug repellant and figured this had to be my bag; only I'd buy this much bug repellant at one time. But why did I need this much, I wondered. Towards the bottom of the bag, I found a book and a large sack of money. No wonder the bag was so heavy I thought to myself. The sack had mostly equal amounts of gold, silver, and copper coins. I satisfyingly set the sack aside and inspected the book for anything noteworthy. It was a romance novel, of course, but I didn't recognize the author. I gave the book a quick thumbing but it didn't appear to offer any clues. Having found more questions than answers, I packed everything back into the bag like I had found it and went to get dressed.
As I stood up from the table, I gave myself a quick look over to see if I had gotten any injuries that I was not immediately aware of. I only had a sleeveless turtleneck and pants on, so it didn't take too long to give my body a quick inspection. I took off my shirt and pants and looked around the best I could without a mirror. I seemed to all be in one piece, which was a good sign. I did find a scratch on my left arm, but it wasn't anything major to be worried about.
After that, I got fully dressed and geared up. It was time to find some answers I thought to myself as I headed towards the lone door in the room. I took hold of the handle and gave it a turn. It wasn't locked, so I opened the door to find myself at the end of a hallway. Just as I did, the two doors on the left side of the hall and the two on the right opened as well. I placed a hand on my rapier underneath my cloak but then stopped as I suddenly recognized the four figures that came into view.
There was Freya the half-elf ranger, her wolf (Rollo), Hafthor the dwarf warrior, Einar the blind human monk, and Corin the elf paladin. Even though I couldn't exactly remember how I met these people, I somewhat felt comfortable being around them, like I already knew them for quite some time. We all exchanged awkward greetings as we looked to one another in almost the same confused manner.
While the others talked amongst themselves, I noticed other voices and noises coming from down the hallway. It appeared we were at a tavern or pub of some sort. I let everyone know what I heard and we all walked down to the end of the corridor to investigate. As we came to the end, a barmaid turned the corner to greet us. She was an older woman with thick, red hair. She told us to have a seat anywhere and that she'd get our orders when we were ready. Breakfast, or so I assumed, sounded pretty good at the moment, so I followed everyone into the tavern area.
We all decided to sit together and chose a table near the center of the room. I sat at the end and thought about what I wanted to order. When the barmaid came by to take our orders, I opted to get a nice chocolate pastry and a cold glass of milk to start my day. The others ordered big plates of food which was way too much for me, especially in the morning. The wait wasn't too bad and not before long, the barmaid came back with our orders. The pastry was nice and flaky as well as not too sweet. The first bite was superb and the quick swig of refreshing cold milk was the perfect complement to it.
As we were eating, we heard some commotion coming from outside the tavern. It sounded like people shouting and what appeared to be a sheep bleating as well. The others took it upon themselves to investigate the disturbance, but not me. I was quite content with finishing my meal and not concerning myself with things that weren't my problem. While they were outside dealing with who knew what, I got to finish eating in relative peace. As I was preparing to pay for my meal, the others came barging back into the bar and hurried towards the guest rooms. I just watched dumbfounded as they passed me by. I think they were carrying a sheep with them as I heard the bleating get louder as they entered the tavern. With an exasperated sigh, I left a few coins on the table then got up to see what they were up to.
As I walked down the hallway, Corin and Hafthor were there looking like they were getting ready for a fight. When I asked what was up, they said something about having to protect the sheep at all costs. So that was a sheep, I thought to myself as I walked passed them, shaking my head in utter confusion. Einar was behind them being... well, Einar. One of the rooms was open, so I stepped inside to see what was going on.
Inside, Freya and Rollo were standing in the center and in the corner of the room was... a sheep. Just a normal looking, white and fluffy sheep. I looked to Freya and asked what was up with the sheep, but just as she was about to answer me, the sheep approached us and began making sheep noises. It looked like it was talking to us but it was just making more sheep sounds. When I turned to Freya, she was totally focused on the sheep as if she could understand what it was saying. I guess that was to be expected, since she was a half-elf with a wolf companion; I just didn't know she understood sheep as well.
I asked her to translate and she relayed what the sheep saying, though in a more concise manner. Turned out the sheep wasn't actually a real sheep, but an elf wizard by the name of NAME. He had been turned into a sheep by his apprentice and needed our help retrieving his wand to turn back to normal. Before he could continue explaining his story, we heard howling in the distance. As soon as we heard it, the sheep began freaking out and started running around the room. I didn't fully buy into his story, but what was I going to do? I was already in the middle of this odd situation. Freya and I left Rollo to watch the sheep and went back into the hallway to check on the others.
Just as we left the room, the howling grew louder as the front door to the tavern was busted down. Corin, Hafthor, and Einar readied their weapons while Freya moved behind them. Me? Well I just snuck back into my room and closed the door. Whatever was out there, it was dead set on getting its stupid little sheep back and I didn't feel like dying for something as trivial as that, you know? If the others all died and the sheep was taken back by its rightful owner, no skin off my nose, right? If they succeeded in fending off whatever was out there, then good for them; I was right back where I started before they showed up. Even so, I drew my rapier and listened closely through the door.
From what I could tell, there were wolves out there and an orc or something like that. He had that distinctive accent but his voice wasn't as deep as a normal orc's. The guys and the orc, whose name was apparently Guz, exchanged a few words here and there before things began to heat up. There was a loud crash as it sounded like something wooden was smashed to pieces. I remained on standby in the safety of my room from behind the door, confident that the others could handle the situation by themselves. If not, the orc and his crew were none the wiser and didn't know I was even there.
I'm not completely sure what caused the fight to start, but someone threw something at the orc and that's when it all went downhill. I could hear the wolves snarling and barking, the sounds of weapons hitting armor and other weapons, people grunting and shouting; it was utter chaos. Curious, I decided to carefully crack open my door to take a peek outside.
It was a grisly sight. One of the wolves had already bitten the dust and was cleaved right in half along its midsection, its innards and blood strewn all over the floor. The guys were at the front fighting two other wolves and what appeared to be a half-orc and not a full one. Freya was covering them from behind using her bow. It looked like they were handling it well enough, so I slunk back into my room, closing the door quietly. I wanted to just sit down and read the book I found in my bag, but it was too noisy to concentrate.
After a few more moments of waiting anxiously, I decided to take another peek to see how things were going. I cracked open my door once again and peeked through the gap. The half-orc was already dead and lying on the ground behind Corin. Another of the wolves had also been taken out and was sliced right down the middle with even more gore covering the floor. The crew weren't looking much better themselves. Hafthor looked to be banged up pretty good, his balance thrown off by what appeared to be wounds on his lower legs. Einar was doing his best to distinguish friend from foe and kept swinging his wooden stick. After taking a closer look at Corin, I noticed that he had an arrow sticking out his back. An arrow... in his back? I looked around and didn't see any enemies behind him, only Freya. When I turned to her, she was looking a bit embarrassed as she had stopped firing. Then it clicked in my head where the arrow came from. How embarrassing indeed. Suddenly, I heard a loud growl as I looked to what Corin was fighting. It was a large, brown bear and it was looking right at me. Corin took a moment to look over his shoulder and saw me too. Stunned, I slowly closed the door and backed away, readying myself for a fight.
Well great, now my cover was blown, I thought to myself as I gripped my blade and focused on the door. As I waited for the door to just break apart and a bear coming rushing in, everything went disturbingly quiet. Were they all dead? Then I heard their voices once more and sighed with relief. As I stepped towards the door, I heard another voice shouting, one that I didn't recognize at first. It was the barmaid and she was yelling at Corin, saying something about the mess they had caused and wanting to know what it was all for. Corin tried to dissuade her from going into the room with the sheep, but the barmaid didn't seem to be in the mood for his excuses. Seeing as how I didn't help them during the fight, the least I could do was prevent the barmaid from seeing that the sheep was what they were after. A sheep. Really. She'd be pissed if she knew that was what it was all for. I mean, I know I would if I were in her shoes.
I reluctantly emerged from my room and saw the barmaid already halfway down the hall. I got her attention and put on my best helpless nun act. I meekly walked up to her right before she got to the room with the sheep, which was still making a racket despite everything that was after it being dead. I told the barmaid that the half-orc and its animal friends were after me, being a nun and all, and that Corin and the others graciously came to my aid to dispatch my would-be kidnappers. I told her that she should be in their debt, despite the damage. She easily bought my nun spiel, but still wanted to be compensated for all the damage. I tried to explain to her that the gods need not concern themselves with material things and that she'd be blessed through other means. The barmaid kept putting up a fuss, so Corin took her into the kitchen to try and calm her down. Once they were gone, I let out another sigh, glad that I didn't have to keep up the act any longer. It was rather tiring pretending to be some pushover nun.
Once that was taken care of, I went to see what was making so much noise in the room with the sheep. Hopefully Rollo had torn into the stupid thing and was having a nice morning snack. When I entered the room with Freya, we saw Rollo sitting by the entrance, watching with a quizzical look as the sheep kept clawing at the wall just beneath a small window with its hooves. The scrapping was giving me a headache so I told it to shut up and knock it off. It immediately stopped and turned to me with its stupid, clueless sheep eyes. I couldn't take any more of the nonsense and just left, leaving Freya to handle the sheep's well-being.
When I went back into the hallway, I nearly gagged as I saw Hafthor taking a knife to the bear's corpse, attempting to skin the creature right there and then. Disgusting. And he seemed to be having a good time while doing it. I stepped around him, careful to get as little blood on my boots as possible. When I got to the half-orc's corpse, I took a moment to give it a quick pat down to see if there was anything worth looting. There wasn't anything of value, which was very disappointing, but I did find a scroll outlining the half-orc's objective. The scroll said that he was to find the sheep and bring it back alive. It was very vague, so I just dropped the piece of parchment back on the body and moved on. Before I got back into the main tavern area, Corin and Einar came around and said they were going to get some answers from the sheep back in the room. I rolled my eyes and decided to follow after them, wanting to hear what the sheep had to "say". We all went back into the room, except for Hafthor who remained in the hall to continue skinning his trophy, and circled around the sheep who had calmed down, but only slightly.
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but when Corin asked the sheep to explain itself, I listened only to hear more sheep talk. I played along for the first few moments, pretending to understand what it was saying and waiting for everyone to say how bizarre this was, but they didn't. They actually seemed to be understanding what the sheep was saying and it turned out that I was the odd one out. I scooted closer to Freya and nudged her in the arm, asking her to translate in a whisper.
As the sheep continued to explain itself, with Freya translating for it, I learned that the sheep, who again was a wizard, was a big dick and molded his apprentice, NAME, into the thing that became his undoing. He needed the wand that the apprentice had stolen to turn himself back into an elf. He specialized in transmogrifying magic and was apparently somewhat of a celebrity in the wizarding world, or at least, so he said according to Freya. The important thing was that he said he'd compensate us for our troubles, so with that vital tidbit out of the way, I agreed to help out for some odd reason.
Once the sheep was done blabbering, I left to get some fresh air and away from the dumb animal and all the gore in the hallway. I went back into the main tavern area and found a secluded spot to finally begin reading my book. We weren't heading out just yet, since the others had to clean up the mess they caused, so I took the time to relax and make some progress in my novel. The men went about repairing everything that was broken and removing all the bodies while Freya cleaned the floor of all the blood. As payment, Corin gave the meat from the wolves and bear to the barmaid to cook or sell. The cleanup took a few hours, and after they were done, we met up at the bar to get something to eat.
I took a seat next to Hafthor and the others and waited to be served. It appeared Hafthor and Einar were already indulging in beverages of the alcoholic variety based on their boisterous behavior. The barmaid had cooked up some of the bear meat into a sort of stew which Corin and the others gladly partook in. I wasn't much of a bear type of person, but I decided to try it since it was on the house. After eating, we all met up in the lobby and decided to head out towards NAME's house, which was around a day's walk away.
The journey for the rest of the day was uneventful, which I kind of wish it hadn't been. All while we walked, the sheep kept "talking" and I was told that I was lucky I didn't understand what he was saying. When it began to get dark, we all stopped for the night and found a spot to set up camp. It was a large clearing just outside the tree line. We lit a fire in the middle of the area and began settling in. I wasn't on tap for watch duty, so I took the tent I had with me and set it up along with my bedroll. Fortunately, the sheep had turned in as well, so it was more or less quiet as I tried to get some sleep.
Roughly halfway through the night, I was rudely awoken from my slumber by Hafthor yelling about something. I grumpily rubbed my eyes and almost told him to shut up, but then I heard him yell "zombies". With a loud groan, I begrudgingly got up out of my tent and grabbed my rapier, looking to where he was motioning towards. The others quickly grabbed their weapons as well and we all looked toward the tree line as shambling figures began coming into view. A large group of zombies were making their way towards us and NAME notified us that zombies were a rarity in the region we were in. Thanks sheep, that's very helpful, I thought to myself as I readied my sword.
As the first wave of zombies came into range, Corin and the other melee fighters in our group attacked them head on. At that point, the sheep began bleating again and ran off in the opposite direction. I just stood my ground and watched the initial few moments of the fight play out. The ground was wet and muddy which wasn't exactly ideal for running on. This was made clearly evident as I watched Einar sprint towards his first target, trying to get behind it with a fancy maneuver. Instead of looking like a cool guy, he slipped in the mud and landed face first on the ground behind it. Once he was on the ground, the two zombies right beside him began pounding away at him while he was helpless and prone. I almost felt bad for him until I witnessed another one of my brave companions lose their footing. This time, it was Corin who slipped as he swung his sword with too much ferocity, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the muddy ground. It was almost too much to watch as I then noticed two zombies approaching from my right. Rollo had engaged them so I went to help him out since he seemed to be the only one capable of fighting on muddy terrain.
While he had one zombie preoccupied, I focused on the other and speared it through the heart with my rapier. I felt my sword hit home, but the zombie seemed unaffected. It swung at me with its decaying arm and gave me a good hit across my cheek. Fortunately, I didn't feel a thing as Corin had blessed us all before the fight. After I recovered from the blow, I withdrew my sword and stepped back, taking a quick moment to glance towards the others. It had only been a few seconds and a third member had fallen prey to the mud. Hafthor was lying in the mud in front of a zombie, apparently having slipped himself despite his short stature. I shook my head and redirected my attention to the zombie before me.
I gripped my rapier and charged at it again, piercing it through the center of its chest. Like last time, the zombie shrugged off the attack and swung at me, hitting me in the arm. I cursed at the zombie and promptly withdrew, and as I did, I almost couldn't believe my eyes as I happened to look over once more towards my teammates. This time, it was Freya who was down in the mud. She was standing still! How did she end up kneeling in the mud being that far from the zombies she was shooting at? I shook my head in disbelief then grimaced at the zombie that was still standing mockingly in front of me.
I decided to try one more thing and lunged with my sword, plunging it right through the zombie's head. It seemed to do the trick as it went limp and fell to the ground. Satisfied, I whisked the blood from my blade and looked once more to my teammates. By then, it seemed they had gotten their act together as they began cutting down zombie after zombie. I even witnessed some of the zombies fall over due to the mud, which only helped Corin and the others finish them off. I continued to watch them do their thing and finally, the last zombie fell to their attacks.
After the fighting was over, we made sure the area was clear and that no more zombies would be coming through the trees. Eventually, the sheep returned as we were finishing piling the bodies off to the side before lighting them ablaze. Once it was safe, we all returned to our spots and went back to sleep.
The rest of the night was uneventful, or at least I assumed it was since I wasn't roused awake prematurely. After a quick breakfast and packing up camp, we continued on our way towards NAME's place. We eventually arrived there around midday and planned our next move as it came into view. We made sure to remain hidden as we approached the front of the complex. In the distance, we saw a small shack that appeared to be an outhouse. As I got closer, I heard what sounded like someone... or something having a hard time while on the john. It sounded almost like a bear was having stomach issues while in the outhouse. We also noticed three apes in the open, two of which were playing with what looked like a giant fuzzy dice while the other was taking a nap. There were greatswords stuck in the ground beside all three, so we figured they had to be guards of some sort. Other than the three apes and supposed bear, we didn't see any other signs of life. Seeing an opportunity to truly shine, I volunteered to do some recon of the area and perhaps even find NAME and kill him. Freya volunteered as well, taking one direction while I took another. The others just stayed back and tried to keep hidden while we scouted ahead.
After leaving the group to do my own thing, I felt completely liberated. It was nice to be on my own for a bit with the freedom to choose how things played out. I sneakily advanced around the perimeter, keeping way out of view from the distracted guards. Along the way, I came across two guard shacks that were empty, which was a good sign. Hopefully that meant that the four out front were the only guards around. After that, I continued to circle around and came to a spot behind the main tower of the three-tower house. It was the largest of the three and the house portion stood around twenty feet above the ground.
As I stood in the shadows, I thought I heard a voice muttering to themselves from inside the structure. That had to be the target, so I tried to look for a way in. When I looked up, I saw a small window that appeared to be just big enough for me to squeeze through. I then remembered the rope with the grappling hook strapped to the side of my bag. I took off my pack and retrieved the hook, making sure it was securely tied to the rope. I lined up my shot and tossed the grappling hook up towards the window. Unfortunately, my first attempt missed by just a tad as the hook hit just below the window before falling back to the ground. I quickly picked it back up and tried again, this time hitting home as I gave a firm tug on the rope to make sure it was securely in place. After taking the rope in both hands, I eagerly began my ascent and came upon the window. I grabbed on to what I could in order to stabilize myself while I peered through the window. It was much smaller than I had thought and there was no way I could fit through it. So instead of trying to infiltrate the place, I did a little recon and saw nothing but an empty kitchen. I did hear that the muttering was louder than before so whoever it was, he was in that portion of the tower somewhere.
Disappointed that I couldn't claim all the glory for myself, I slid back down the rope and wiggled the hook free. As I was coiling up the rope, Freya came by and I reported my findings to her. She didn't find any other guards either, so we made our way back to the others at the front of the complex. We made it back relatively unnoticed except for a slight mishap towards the end. Freya rustled some bushes which almost gave away our position, but fortunately the guards were too distracted. I gave her an annoyed look as she was cramping my style, but I just left it at that as we rejoined the group and reported in.
After filling in the rest of the group about what we scouted out, Corin looked to me and handed me a lit torch. I just looked at him and asked what he wanted me to do with that. He apparently wanted me to sneak up to the outhouse that the bear was in and set the front on fire using the torch. This was supposed to cause a distraction allowing us to get a surprise attack on the other guards. After he explained this to me, I continued to look at him with an unamused expression almost wanting to ask him if he was serious or not. Seeing as he was dead serious, I sighed and grabbed the torch from him, putting out the fire. Before he began to protest, I held up a finger to silence him and told him if he wanted it done, I'd be doing it my way.
With that being said, I slipped away into the brush and snuck around towards the outhouse. I hid behind some bushes and relit the torch, making sure the smoke didn't rise too much above my position. I looked towards my target and decided I'd just toss the thing on the roof or something. I then noticed that there was a moon-shaped opening in the front door. Looking at it, I figured I could probably get the torch through the hole from where I was, so why not give it a shot. I was in an ideal position to remain hidden after throwing it, and if I missed it'd still end up in front of the outhouse like Corin wanted. With the torch in hand, I prepared to hurl it like a javelin at my intended target.
Once I thought I had the trajectory figured out, I flung the lit torch towards the hole in the door. Immediately after it left my hand, it looked like it was going to fall short, but thankfully, it barely made it in. The bear that was inside must have been at it for a while, because once the torch was through the door, the outhouse exploded into a ball of flames. The build up of methane within must've been a lot to cause the small shack to erupt into a flurry of wood shrapnel and debris. Surprisingly, the bear wasn't dead yet and let out a bloodcurdling cry as it emerged from the explosion completely covered in fire. I'm guessing the others weren't expecting the explosion either because when the ape guards looked to see what caused the disturbance, one of them saw a bow and quiver full of arrows peeking over the top of the brush.
The apes rallied together and picked up their swords, heading towards Freya and the others. Luckily, they hadn't seen me, so I stayed put behind my bush and watched the show. There were only three apes against four and a half from my group; they had it covered. Next to me in front of the outhouse, the bear had gone prone and was trying desperately to put out the fire. I suppose being covered in fur as well as being the source of most of the methane didn't help. I almost felt bad for the bear since he was having such a bad day. He was dealing with stomach issues when all of a sudden, he found himself in an explosion and covered in flames. Then to top things off, while he was trying to save himself while rolling round on the ground, a wolf began attacking him while the others beat him with sticks and swords. But like I said, I almost felt sorry. Almost.
As I watched the others fight, I had to admit it wasn't nearly as hard to watch like last time. They made quick work of the apes and put the flaming bear out of its misery. I even lent a hand towards the end and finished off one of the apes with a single throwing knife. Once the opposition was dealt with, we were ready to storm into the tree house and find the sheep's wand.
We all went over to the front gate that led up to the first tower. The gate was locked, but fortunately, it was just a plain lock unaided by any magic that we could tell. Before the more brutish members of the party decided to break the door down, I got out my lockpick and easily unlocked the door for them. One it was unlocked, I stepped aside and motioned for Corin to take point. He led the way through followed by the others. I went in after them and saw what looked to be a garden on this level. Across the ways was a bridge that led up to the second and main tree segment.
The garden was clear of enemies, so we proceeded towards the main section across the bridge. Corin took the lead across and came upon the door leading inside. The door was locked, but before I could get there to pick it, he had kicked the door in right off its hinges. He then rushed in along with Hafthor and Einar. I just slapped my forehead in astonishment and followed them in.
Lucky for them, the room was unoccupied. If NAME's apprentice was as strong and paranoid as he said he was, Corin and the others could have been vaporized or something if he was in here, but he wasn't. Instead, it appeared we walked into a lab and study area filled with books and expensive looking lab equipment. In the corner of the room I could have sworn I saw something as I looked to a closed door. I tapped Corin on the shoulder and directed his attention towards it.
He gave me a nod and cautiously headed over to it, his weapon at the ready. The others and I followed suit as we moved further into the room. Corin carefully touched the handle on the door and felt that it was unlocked. The door didn't appear to be booby-trapped by any magical or normal means, so Corin opened the door and stood in the doorway.
Across the room, we saw what appeared to be NAME and he was standing in the doorway leading to the third tower. When NAME saw Corin and the others start to slowly file into the room, he stopped and turned towards them. I, on the other hand, waited back in the lab area, standing just within the doorway. I wasn't too familiar with magic in the first place, so I didn't know where to begin when fighting against a magic user.
As I peeked my head through the door to watch the engagement, NAME and Corin began talking about the sheep and such. NAME inquired about the sheep to which Corin naively replied with he didn't know anything about a sheep. That, of course, didn't fool NAME and it only agitated him more. The apprentice then asked about the whereabouts of his lackey, Guz, and the rest of his group. Well I know where this was headed. Spoilers: nowhere good. After the apprentice asked the question, Hafthor stepped forward and tossed a bloody bear pelt right at the apprentice's feet, saying that they basically killed him and the others. Where he pulled the pelt from and why he was still carrying it around, I have no idea, but once the apprentice saw the pelt land right in front of him, he got pissed.
Looking to Hafthor, NAME muttered some words and angrily fired a spell at him. For once, Hafthor's short height helped him out as the spell was aimed too high and hit a painting behind him on the wall. Seeing the spell turn the painting into a shrubbery, NAME cursed to himself and ran through the doorway, shutting the door behind him as he fled into the next tower. We were all too distracted by the spell he cast that we failed to prevent him from escaping.
We all moved into the room and approached the door that led outside to the bridge connecting the two sections of the tree house. While Hafthor wanted to ram the door using brute strength, I tried to offer my assistance and just pick the lock. While he and I were arguing, Corin got a running start and used his shield as a battering ram to break down the door. He easily burst through and came upon the bridge leading to another door. I'm honestly surprised how long these guys have survived with such a cavalier way of doing things. I mean, what if the door was booby-trapped or if the bridge was destroyed by NAME? As I was pondering how they could have made it that far without dying, Hafthor decided he wanted to give it a try and ran across the bridge to ram the next door.
I watched him in pure disbelief as he ran straight onto the tiny bridge with Corin still on it. He then stumbled and almost knocked Corin off the bridge as he tried to move out of the way. Hafthor lost his footing and almost plunged off the side until he caught the edge at the last second. It was only a thirty or so foot drop, but it still would have hurt. Like I said, these guys were too lucky for their own good. I began walking towards the bridge while Corin tried to help Hafthor back up.
As I did, an arrow whizzed by my head and impacted the door across the bridge. It landed near the door's lock, so I slowly turned around towards Freya and gave her a puzzled look. Like, was she trying to shoot the look intentionally? And why didn't she warn the three of us before she shot? She could've hit one of us like she did back in the tavern. I just shook my head at her and turned back to the bridge.
I shimmied passed the two oafs and inspected the door before they tried breaking it down. It was locked, which was to be expected, so I took out my lockpicking tools and began getting to work. Luckily, the arrow didn't hit the lock or else I would have had a tougher time trying to pick it. It took just a tad longer than before, but I eventually got it open. Just as the lock clicked to the unlocked position, there was a bright light that shined from inside the room and a loud sound. It seemed like NAME was preparing for a fight. I carefully backed away from the door and walked back across the bridge towards the sitting room, telling Corin and Hafthor it was all theirs. I stood just inside of the doorway while Einar advanced forward behind the other two with Freya readying her bow next to me.
When they were ready, Corin and Hafthor stormed into the final tower and beheld a strange sight. After Einar had gone in with them, I could see somewhat of what was going on through the door. From what I could tell, NAME had turned the bed and its linens into some sort of dragon-like thing. The bed acted as the body with the sheets making the tail and wings and a pillow for the tail's tip. Once he saw the three enter his sanctuary, NAME conjured up a spell that shot out in all directions from him. It seemed to go through walls and even managed to reach all the way back to me and Freya, but once it got to us, I felt perfectly normal. I looked around and didn't notice anything wrong with us. Then I heard what seemed like bleating from the sheep, but it was much deeper and slower than his usual whining. I looked to him and he appeared to be moving in slow motion, which was odd. I looked back into the room with Corin and they all seemed to be unaffected as well. It appeared the only casualty of NAME's attack was the sheep. For such a powerful wizard, the apprentice wasn't really living up to all the hype.
After NAME failed to incapacitate us with his spell, he prepared for a more stand-up fight. Corin, Hafthor, and Einar engaged the dragon the best they could with their weapons, but it was quite difficult as it took flight about ten feet into the air within the tall bedroom. I continued to spectate from the safety of the other side of the bridge, but it looked like they were having some trouble. Being the helpful teammate I was, I decided to get my hands dirty and went to give them a hand, because I'm nice like that.
I took off my pack and retrieved the grappling hook and rope. Once I had it in my hands, I made my way across the bridge and into the room with the others. As I saw the dragon hovering there in the air, I readied my grappling hook and flung it as hard as I could towards the dragon to try and latch on to it. I figured that if I could somehow get it on the ground, the others would have an easier time taking it out. I'm not sure why I flung it so recklessly without aiming first -perhaps the others' poor decision making was rubbing off on me- but the hook completely missed the dragon and hit the ceiling, breaking the lone light in the room. As my grappling hook plummeted harmlessly back to the floor, the room got significantly darker as the only light available came from the small windows and the enchanted weapons of Corin and Einar. Completely embarrassed, I meekly retrieved my hook and stood off to the side, not wanting to make things worse in any way.
While everyone was distracted by my poor performance, Freya was able to get a line-of-sight on NAME and shot an arrow at him. As the projectile struck him in the shoulder, he let out the most girlish shriek I had ever heard from either a man or woman. I guess he wasn't used to pain and such, so as he recoiled from his injury, he lost complete focus on what he was doing and caused the dragon to collapse on itself, reverting back to its normal components. All according to plan I thought to myself in order to make me feel better.
Once NAME was vulnerable, Corin and the others seized the opportunity to lay on the damage. They all took a swing at the guy, beating him up pretty good. Corin then delivered the decisive blow as he cast a spell to increase his damage output. NAME was barely hanging on to consciousness as he rested on his knees, defeated and powerless. Corin and the others kept their weapons trained on him, telling him to surrender. NAME had other plans and turned the wand onto himself. I figured whatever he was up to, it couldn't be good, so I rushed over and delivered a solid kick across his jaw. He went limp as my kick knocked him out before he could do whatever he had planned with the wand.
Almost as if on cue, the sheep came trotting in and pushed through us to get to NAME. While the sheep was making sheep noises at NAME's unconscious body, Corin picked up the wand and gave it a look over. If I were him, I wouldn't have touched it and just let the sheep deal with it. Einar and Hafthor took some rope and tied NAME up while he was still knocked out. After the sheep had its fair share of cursing out NAME, or at least, that was what I assumed it was doing, he went back into the sitting room and motioned for us to follow him.
When we were all back in the sitting area, we circled around the sheep to see how he was going to use the wand to change back into an elf. When the sheep was ready, Corin gave him back his wand which it held in its mouth. The sheep then made some noises with its mouth then gave a flick of the wand. The area around the sheep erupted into a cloud of smoke then as it began to clear, an elf man stood in its place. Well, I was quite surprised at seeing him standing there. Turned out the sheep really was an elf and my teammates weren't entirely crazy. That was reassuring to know. The elf stretched his arms and legs then looked down, noticing he was naked. He quickly hurried off back into his bedroom to retrieve what little clothing he could find that was intact. After getting his private bits covered up, he came back to thank us.
Taking his place back in front of us, he expressed his utmost gratitude the best he could without sounding like a complete prick. I can see why it was a good thing I couldn't understand him when he was a sheep; he was completely annoying to listen to. He then said that he couldn't pay us in terms of money or the like, which at that point I almost hurled a knife right between his eyes, but then he assured us there were other things he could do to repay us. If there was anything that we wanted transmogrified, then he was our go-to guy. I had little interest in his offer at the time, so I didn't chime in.
And that's really all I could remember about that crazy dream I had...