Each of the following 'chapters' are short stories, complete in and of themselves, based in part on events, directly recorded, or inspired, by role-players during my three year jaunt in the various Neverwinter Nights persistent worlds. Since many of these characters have been developed over the years, I choose to tell each story as a flashback through the recollections of S'nae D'Vreeze, the Bard of the family.
S'nae D'Vreeze looked over the latest group of adventurers which the ship had disgorged from the holds. Like all adventuring groups 'just off the boat' they were still struggling to get their bearings. They had come up to the Plaza Tymora and noted the great Temple of Tymora, the Adventurer's Guild Hall to the temple's right, and a very large hole which could have been a basement had there been a building on top of it. They had been wondering aloud why all the adventurers were seated around this hole and calling it, 'The Bar'.
She smiled at them, enjoying the expressions on their faces. Their looks suggested a little fear and a great deal of suspicion. It didn't help in the least that she was wearing the Beldin Piper uniform, her bag pipes slung over her shoulder, her jaunty black beret, white blouse, blue and grey plaid woolen skirt, black supple leather calf boots, and a grey woolen cape which gently rippled in the breeze.
"I suppose you are wondering why everyone here is calling this hole in the street 'the bar'?" she queried in a musical sing song tone.
"Um . . . Yeah?" suggested what was apparently the ringleader of this band of adventurers, who referred to themselves as Hengist's Hackers.
"Such a bright fellow!" suggested S'nae with a teasing grin. "Well you are looking at the foundation for the new Fearthegn's Bar. The old one has a bit of a story behind it. You see, Alan figured if he built it in the swamp of the delta ten miles down, he'd catch all the adventurers before they ever arrived in the town. Everyone of course said he was daft to build a bar in the middle of the delta, but he built it anyway . . . Just to show them."
"And?" asked Hengist.
"It sank into the swamp," replied S'nae in a matter of fact tone. "So he built a second one. That one sank into the swamp as well. Then he build a third inn. That one burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one . . ."
"I suppose you are going to say that one sank into the swamp as well?" snapped Hengist.
"Yes but only to the fourth story." finished S'nae. "And you can see it there to this day.
"Oh come on now!" shouted Hengist. He folded his arms and snorted. "Do you expect me to believe that drow?"
S'nae's eyes went wide.
"Drow?" she queried. "Drow? Just because I have silver hair, deep grey skin, ruby red eyes, I'm short, have dashingly stunning good looks, not to mention an attitude, use the phrase idiot-male on a routine basis, and have been telling you a pack of lies; you assume that I'm drow? The nerve of some people. Just jumping to a conclusion like that."
She turned to the collected adventurers seated at their various make shift tables.
"I appeal to fellow adventurers!" she cried dramatically holding her arms wide facing the collected assembly. "Is there not a Faerthegn's Bar sunk up to the fourth story in the delta swamp?"
Nearly all of those adventurers present had been part of that magical misadventure where the bar had been teleported from it's foundations in the Plaza Tymora to the swamp where it had sunk into it's depths just three days prior. So naturally they all concurred.
S'nae turned and gave Hengist and his hackers a 'See I told you so' look.
"Must be some sort of initiation rite," muttered Hengist to himself.
S'nae, still grinning, turned and sauntered away and saw one of her families old friends, Delanna laughing and bending forward in mirth.
"Oh Sisi!" she howled. "That reminds me of something which happened back a few years before you were born with your older sister . . ."
It was shopping day for Delanna. She paused as she checked up her list and made sure she had gotten everything, brushing her long black bangs from in front of her moon elven eyes, bright shimmering emerald green, and small bobbed nose . . . Yes, there it was, strawberries for the pie, elf-root for the healing potions, and clean woven linen bandages for the Healer's Guild. She had gotten them all. Looking up at the bell tower clock which towered over the market plaza of Beldin, her eyes adjusting to the glare of the sun, she noted that it was still before mid-day. She paused and noted the salt air tang in the air. The wind was off the Sea of Swords, blowing north into the Karen River Valley. There would be time for a nice lunch in The Bar.
The Fearthegn's Bar (It's where it are) had been run by the Fearthegn family since time out of mind. Alan was the barkeep and nearly all the adventurers in the Adventurer's Guild would hang out there when not busy saving the world from the latest explosion of evil which marked typical day to day affairs in the Forgotten Realms. Turning, she began to wind her way through the bustle of the mercantile section of town towards the stairs which would take her down to the dock plaza where the Bar, the Temple of Tymora, and The Adventurer's Guildhouse were located. There were just a few streets she would need to cross and then, she paused.
There, peaking out from between barrels in the shady awnings of a local smith, was silver mussed hair, ebony stained skin, wide ultraviolet eyes, a pert little nose, and a slightly opened mouth. It was a drow child, but not any drow child. For starters such children were a very rare sight, even in as cosmopolitan town as Beldin, filled with adventurers, sons of adventurers, and grand-daughters of adventurers from all parts of Faerûn. But likewise this one was known quite well by Delanna, and this little drow girl had a name, specifically M'randa, First Daughter, House D'Vreeze, or as Delanna called her, Mimi. But that was not all that was special. For M'randa had a quality which was nearly impossible to achieve in drow culture due to the manipulations that Lolth had inflicted upon drow fertility. M'randa had a twin sister, R'seria, Second Daughter, House D'Vreeze, whom Delanna called Rhorho. And for the first time in Delanna's memory, M'randa was not with her twin sister. Likewise, M'randa was barely six in human years, which put her maturity level at about three. Delanna highly doubted that Vikii, her mother, would let her wander like this.
It was a mystery, but one no doubt solved easily in no time since Delanna was an optimistic young moon elf and seldom expected trouble. She smiled, waved to M'randa to come over, and the little girl promptly scurried out of her little shelter and grabbed Delanna's hand looking up at her smiling.
"Hello Mimi," said Delanna. "You are having a busy day?"
"Hi Anidel," replied M'randa. Officially Delanna was Aunt Delanna in the D'Vreeze household due to a long time friendship with Vikii, another very rare thing in Faerûn. M'randa's vocal chords were still developing however, and she could not say her t's and th's.
"What are you doing out here so far away from your home in the Bar?" queried Aunt Delanna.
"Mamo's mad," explained Mimi. Vikii being a formal woman when it came to drow culture, insisted on her children calling her Matron Mother. M'randa had not reached the state of sophistication to call her that.
"Mad?"
"Ad Rhorho," continued the child.
"But why on earth for?" queried Delanna. Now of course drow children and trouble go together like ice and cream, sun rise and daylight, or Mass and Effect (specifically Shepherd and Tali). But it was one of those unexplained mysteries of Beldin that the D'Vreeze twins were always perfect little angels around Delanna. As far as everyone else was concerned, the twins could be mischievous, that is, blood was copiously shed, but these things always happened outside of Delanna's loving gaze.
"For sperimen," explained Mimi very calmly.
"Experimenting?" clarified Delanna.
"Uh huh?" answered M'randa nodding her head for confirmation.
"What sort of experiment?"
"'member our Birday party?" asked Mimi.
Delanna nodded and tried to smile. It had started out charming enough. The twins had a nice cake and candles with singing and little games. But then Jerry, the fiery red haired priestess of Suné, and and Shovelface, a loud and rowdy half-orc had proposed taking the twins on . . . An Adventure. It was also clear that Vitrine, the mischievous Tiefling from the Raven's Ravagers adventuring party, and her sidekick, Pellifer, also of the Ravagers were in on the scheme for they had promptly agreed and everyone effectively outvoted Vikii who's rights as a mother were conveniently overlooked or simply ignored. Things had happened too fast for Delanna to decide for or against Vikii so she had retired to make more tea placing herself conveniently out of earshot as Vikii grumbled to herself about surface elven treachery.
The adventure was to be held in a very local deep dark dungeon, specifically the basement of the Fearthegn's Bar. Shovel and Jerry were already gone and Vitrine provided the twins with magic weapons, specifically socks filled with flour. They were likewise equipped with magic shields which looked very much like Shovel's shoes, and then magic armor, which looked very much like blankets from the Bar's common bunkhouse. The twins could have been described as being in a high state of excitement and Vikii, her own upbringing described charitably as highly dysfunctional, was left without any stratagem to make this Not Happen. Thus Vikii, still struggling to come up with sensible reasons to head this off, was left behind as Delanna returned with a new pot of tea while the twins went off with Vitrine and Pellifer.
It ended with one of those "I could have told you so" moments. The twins and their adventuring companions arrived in the basement when suddenly a dragon costume came out from behind the beer barrels bellowing. It was Shovel in the front and Jerry in the back, but the twins did not know that. It then unleashed a great gout of flame, which was one of those cantrips which Pellifer had prepared before hand. Again, it was something the twins were not aware of. Then with Pellifer unleashing firey gouts of flames (all illusional) and Vitrine busy in front with her rapier parrying the swiping claws of the dragon, the twins let into the beast with their flour socks.
Shovel did a masterwork job of acting like a ferocious dragon, and if he had died when he was supposed to, it's possible that things would have ended on a good note. But Shovel was not that impressed with the illusory gouts of flame and of course he was barely feeling the sock maces, so he bellowed that puny people were not going to hurt him and charged even more ferociously. Well Vitrine did a skillful job of pretending to be panicked and Pellifer was more than capable of unleashing fireballs and magic missiles of an illusory sort but the twins, their eyes going bright red, recognizing with that ancient drow instinct that their sock weapons were insufficient for the task, ducked into the shadows, switched them out for their daggers, for all drow children are given daggers when they get old enough to walk, and proceeded to attack the most intelligent spot on the dragon, that being it's end opposite of the breath weapon. This was Jerry's delicate posterior.
She ended up with five stab wounds in her backside and upper back thighs and Shovel, in the middle of this crises suffered one of his notorious bouts of flatulance. Accordingly, the birthday party had ended with Vikii casting heal wounds spells on Jerry while Delanna persistently fanned her face with a rose scented fan.
"Viti hadda sorch," explained M'randa.
"A sorch?" queried Delanna. She was totally clueless as to what M'randa was talking about. But she figured that if she asked enough questions, she would figure it out soon enough.
"And?" she asked.
"Wanded a sorch," continued Mimi. "So I say sou Rhorho, 'led's gedda sorch,' and she says, 'ok', so ids nod my fauld."
"How did you get this sorch?" Delanna's forehead was creasing in it's typical fashion which marked her beginning to worry.
"Rhorho ged chair leg," explained M'randa.
"A chair leg . . ."
"Uh huh, and sads why Alan's mad."
"Alan's mad? Alan Fearthegn?"
"Yeah, he was in chair when Rhorho ged the leg."
"He was?"
"He fall down, go crack, and yells. Rhorho run away with leg. So ids nod my fauld."
There was a curious acrid smell coming off the shoreline to the south. Several people noted it and were looking in that direction while someone on horseback rode by rapidly heading north.
"Then we ged pinesdicky and sawduss," continued M'randa. "And we pud id on the sorch. We made a ball on de end of chair leg." She pantomimed making a round object with her two small hands.
"That's nice dear," suggested Delanna who was struggling to figure out just what the twins had been trying to make. A rattle of horse hooves on the cobblestones, the crackling of metal rimmed wheels rolling over the same, and the clanging of a loud bell marked the sudden rapid passage of a great water wagon heading south. More people were now dashing south as well. Something was clearly happening and this little child needed to be gotten to her mother.
"Why don't we go see Mommy now," suggested Delanna.
"Mamo mad!" insisted M'randa, stamping her foot for emphasis. "An ids nod my fauld!"
Delanna sighed. She did not feel like dragging M'randa down the street. It just was not in her heart to be firm with the child, especially since M'randa was explaining things in her own time.
"Okay Hunny," suggested Delanna. "What happened next?"
"So we need lam oil," continued Mimi. "And Rhorho spilled id."
"Spilled lamb oil?"
"I think so," replied M'randa. She had put her finger on her mouth, much like her mother did when she was trying to figure something out.
The temple tower bells were starting to ring out the alarm all over the town. Delanna knew that M'randa needed to be gotten back to her mother and sister. Vikii was no doubt sick with worry if not in a full panic. But she had to keep calm! She worked on keeping the fidgets down to the mild setting and continued to get the story out of M'randa.
"So what did you do then?"
"I told Rhorho to lid sorch and she lid sorch under bed," finished M'randa. "An Mamo come in an scream ad us and I run away 'cause ids Rhorho's fauld."
Delanna gently began to lead M'randa south down the street.
"Let's go find Mamo at the Bar," She suggested.
"Cand," replied M'randa.
"Why not Mimi?"
"Cause sorch sed Bar on fire," finished M'randa.