The Companions of Tartiël

by Jeff Wilcox

  “Oof,” said a familiar voice. “Oh, Lurai. Pardon me.”

  Kaiyr looked back as Caineye squeezed himself to the side, having entered the dojo just as Lurai was leaving. The human druid’s bronze dragon armor gleamed dully in the evening light. “I’m back, but I’ll be leaving again before long,” the druid said by way of greeting.

  Kaiyr bowed slightly at the waist and approached the other man. Leaning forward, the two of them touched foreheads. “Well met, Brother,” Kaiyr greeted his most treasured companion with a warm smile that slowly spread across his face. “Is the pack keeping you busy?” Reaching up, the blademaster untied the black eyepatch he wore over the eye Saraël had ruined, long ago by Caineye’s standards. The motion revealed not an empty socket, but a thin scar running from Kaiyr’s forehead, through his eyebrow, and down his cheek. Nestled right at the heart of the scar, however, was a perfectly functional eye that flashed with all seven colors of the rainbow.

  Caineye chuckled and scratched his salt-and-pepper hair. “Yeah. Vinto has most firmly asserted himself as the alpha male, but even with the two of us, raising three dire wolves isn’t an easy task.”

  Kaiyr nodded. Having seen the enormous pups himself—they already stood several inches higher at the shoulder than Vinto—he could understand the difficulty in keeping the playful hunters in line. Caineye had, during last year’s game shortage, convinced a mother dire wolf to entrust her pups to him. She had done so and had traveled west to find more abundant food.

  “It is difficult to believe that you have already been taking care of them for more than a year,” the blademaster said, carrying a broken sparring weapon to the balcony, and, after making sure nobody was loitering below, he dropped it back into the forest whence it had come.

  “I know,” Caineye replied, joining his friend and honorary brother at the railing. The two of them leaned there for several minutes, staring at the late summer sky as it changed colors from periwinkle to orange to red and violet. At length, the druid found a smile creeping across his face. “I wonder what Wild’s been up to for the past four years. We haven’t heard from him since… well, since we left Ik’durel.”

  Kaiyr just shook his head, a wry smile on his lips. “I imagine his fingers must be heavy with rings by now.”

  The blademaster’s uncharacteristic humor elicited a chuckle from Caineye.

  “Will you at least remain here for dinner? I have been smoking fish all day,” Kaiyr offered.

  Caineye snorted. “So that’s why my pack’s been going crazy today. I had to use magic just to get the full story from Vinto. Your cooking is awfully enticing to them, you know. That’s half the reason we stay near Ivyan.” He chortled and pushed himself from the railing with a grunt and stretched before making for the ladder that led back to the ground below. “Unfortunately, I have to see to my children’s dinner. I would love to, otherwise.” He tipped his head. “I’ll be around.”

  Kaiyr nodded to his friend and watched him go. When Caineye reached the ground, he was joined by Vinto and a trio of large and still rather ungainly dire wolf cubs. They would grow to the size of large horses before they reached full maturity, and woe be to him who stood between them and their dinner, Kaiyr mused.

  It was after his dinner of fish, bread, and fresh greens that Kaiyr heard a knock at his door, interrupting his evening meditations. Rising, he prepared another lecture for Lurai, who constantly bothered him about blademaster training. Pulling out his eyepatch, he raised it to his right eye and held its loose ends in one hand as he slid open his paper-covered door.

  Moments later, the black eye covering fell to the floor, entirely forgotten. Kaiyr’s body shook, and he looked with both eyes upon a face he thought he might never see again.

  “L… Lady Astra,” he stammered, surprised for the first time in a long while. His heart skipped a beat, and when it picked up the rhythm again, it thrummed to a new, faster tempo.

  Astra stood just beyond the door, her hands fiddling with each other as she looked up at the much taller elf. Their eyes met. His blue and rainbow eyes held hers, and her violet orbs captured his gaze.

  Neither of them would later be certain who moved first, or whether both of them moved at the same time, but the two of them crashed together with the force and passion of two waves in a stormy ocean. Unlike such tides, however, they did not part. Kaiyr wrapped his arms around Astra’s slender form, and she returned the embrace tenfold, hugging him close.

  “Kaiyr,” she laughed as tears spilled down her cheeks. “I… Oh, Kaiyr, I never realized…” Her voice trailed off into incoherent sobs and promises to never leave his side nor misplace her trust again.

  “L—Astra,” Kaiyr whispered back into her ear, enjoying the sound of her name on his lips without her title. “Astra… You have come back, and that is all that matters!”

  Astra nestled her head against his shoulder, and joyous sprang into their eyes to stream down their faces. Kaiyr could make neither heads nor tails of what she told him almost feverishly, but he gathered that she had suffered countless ordeals to make her return. But it had been worth it, and she swore she would never again put either of them through such pain.

  At last, she stopped retelling her broken story, and slowly, they both settled down, their breathing matched, their hearts beating to the same cadence, that of love. Astra pulled back and looked up at Kaiyr, and he back at her, and before they knew it, their lips met in a gesture of finality, of love and passion.

  When at last they parted, Kaiyr took her hand and led her inside his home. As he closed the door behind them, Astra wrinkled her nose. “You know, you taste like fish….”

  *

  The three of us sat back in our chairs, deflating as soon as Dingo said, “The end.”

  “That… was the very best story ever told,” I said at length, sighing and tossing my clipboard with my character sheets onto my desk, which was empty from my having begun to pack up for the summer vacation.

  “Yeah,” Xavier agreed, completely dazed.

  Silence reigned supreme in the room as all of us replayed our favorite parts of the campaign over in our heads. I relived my favorite battles, interspersed with the roleplaying sessions involving Astra and other NPC characters. I saw Caineye next to Kaiyr, standing proud in my mind, and Wild skipping along next to us, with Vinto padding beside his master.

  Dingo stirred first, picking up his notebook. “We’ll have to talk more later, guys,” he said quietly. “I have to pack.”

  “Yeah, me, too,” Xavier sighed.

  I glanced down at my character sheet, then back up at Dingo. “Say… since we’re all going to be here next semester, if all our schedules happen to work out… ah, you know, I could totally keep playing as Kaiyr. That would be awesome.”

  Xavier looked over at me, a smile growing on his lips. “Definitely,” he said, bobbing his head. “I’d love to keep playing as Caineye. I’m loving this character and this group.”

  Dingo chuckled and shook his head. “You guys. Already thinking about next semester.”

  “Duh,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I look forward to school, if only because it’s where I get to play the most D&D. You can’t imagine how difficult it is to get a decent group going over the summer.”

  “Well,” our Dungeon Master replied, “I’ll have to think about it. I wasn’t planning on taking this any further, but when the time comes, if you guys really want to keep going, I’ll keep it in mind as a possibility. For now, though, I’ve really got to get going. I’ve got another final tonight, a paper to write, and a final tomorrow before my mom picks me up at three.”

  “Hey,” I said before he got any further. I stood up and extended my hand. “Dingo, in case I don’t see you before you leave… it’s been awesome. I doubt we’ll get a chance to hang over the summer, but good luck with whatever you’re doing. It’s been a blast.”

  Grinning, Dingo gave my hand a hearty shake. “You, too, man. I’m already starting to look forward to next semest
er, too. Xavier.” The two of them shook hands as well, and Dingo was gone.

  *

  It wasn’t until Friday afternoon that I could leave the school. I worked at the dormitory as a desk assistant, and I was scheduled to work the last shift of the year.

  Finally, at four in the afternoon, I was free to go. I had already managed to stuff my red 1993 Camry with everything I had brought with me (don’t ask how I got the fridge in the back seat), and I took one last look around Lackhove Hall room 152 to make sure everything was in place. Our beds were broken down and bare, and the desks, which hadn’t moved since our arrival, were the same. I made sure the room was ready for inspection and gave it a silent salute for all the good times I’d had there. Then, after closing the door and locking it, I dropped my key in the return box and hit the road.

  Afterword.

  In July of 2008, Xavier and I spent many weekend afternoons at my parents’ house painstakingly recalling and documenting our adventures across the face of Tartiël with Matt and Dingo. Our construction of the synopsis also included not a few phone calls to the other two players, who helped us fill in any gaps. I had really latched onto the idea of eventually writing some kind of chronicle of our characters’ deeds, and I wanted to record the events while they were still fresh in our minds, though I wouldn’t begin writing the manuscript until January of 2009.

  Our characters did indeed go on to further adventure throughout Dingo’s world, and (spoiler alert) we continued playing with our characters for two more semesters before finally retiring our alter egos when Xavier I graduated. Matt never made a return to the game, and we saw neither hide nor hair of the halfling, but we did occasionally hear of his deeds, constructions on Dingo’s part. We had a few players come and go over the semesters, as well, but Xavier and I, as well as our characters, remained unwavering and close companions forevermore.

  Perhaps those tales, too, will be told. Perhaps I, or maybe Xavier, or Dingo, or one of the players who joined later, will be the one to tell the next story; or the next tale may simply fade and leave the next adventure up to your imagination. But that won’t be so different from the actual story; after all, I know that I, for one, fantasized about the next adventure even before it happened, and some of the things I wished for came true, while others surprised me and turned me about, but that is what the Dungeons & Dragons game, and roleplaying in general, are all about: the imagination.

  The sky’s the limit where that’s concerned.

  [49]

  Sources.

  Bernstein, Eytan, Andy Collins, Mike Mearls, and Stephen Schubert. Dungeons & Dragons Magic Item Compendium. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2007.

  Cook, Monte. Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide: Core Rulebook II v.3.5. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2003.

  Cook, Monte. Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook: Core Rulebook I v.3.5. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2003.

  Decker, Jesse. Dungeons & Dragons Complete Adventurer: A Guide to Skillful Characters of All Classes. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, Inc, 2005.

  Grubb, Jeff, Mike McArtor, and Matthew Sernett. Dungeons & Dragons Spell Compendium. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2005.

  McArtor, Mike, and Wesley Schneider. Dungeons & Dragons Complete Scoundrel. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2007.

  * * *

  [1] Dungeons & Dragons is © Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. “Dungeons & Dragons™” will hereafter be referred to mainly as “D&D.”

  [2] “DM” is an abbreviation for the “Dungeon Master,” in Dungeons & Dragons™. The game is played with numerous players and one DM. The players each have their own characters, usually only one, while the DM controls the rest of the world and spins the story. In a way, the DM is essentially the arbiter and narrator of the story, as you will see over the course of this book. Sometimes we use “DM” as a verb, and we conjugate it normally and even turn it into gerunds and participles.

  [3] “Character classes” are how the characters in a D&D game world define their roles in society, to an extent. There aren’t specific classes for mundane occupations such as accounting, cooking, farming, etcetera. On a day-to-day basis, D&D accountants, chefs, and so on tend to face similar dangers and problems and thus aren’t differentiated very much. Characters owned by players, known as “Player Characters,” or “PCs,” however, have their roles in the party much more rigidly defined by the class they chose. A wizard casts spells, fighters hit things, rogues sneak around, disarm traps, and stab things. Basically, a character’s class defines exactly how you smash, stab, slice, shoot, immolate, and obliterate things in the game. There’s more to it, but I don’t want this footnote to take up the whole page.

  [4] DC is an acronym for “Difficulty Class,” a numerical measure of how difficult a particular action is. Attack rolls (which use AC, or Armor Class as target numbers) and a few other kinds of checks do not have a DC, instead using other means to determine success.

  [5] Short for “retroactive continuity,” “to retcon” means to alter past events in a fictional setting, usually on the fly.

  [6] A critical hit, sometimes shortened to “crit,” occurs when a player making an attack roll rolls a twenty on the twenty-sided die. Normally, a secondary roll is necessary to confirm a critical hit, but Dingo doesn’t like that rule. Once a critical hit is made or confirmed, the attack deals extra damage, usually double damage, but sometimes three or four times as much damage. Some weapons even score critical hits on a roll of 19 or even 18. My soulblade would deal double damage anytime I rolled a 19 or a 20.

  [7] “AoO” is an abbreviation for “Attack of Opportunity.” When a creature does something that leaves him extra vulnerable to attack, nearby enemies may get a free attack on that creature, even during another creature’s turn.

  [8] At the start of a battle, all engaged parties roll initiative to determine the order of actions during a combat round. In D&D, a round represents six seconds of time, even though it can take many minutes to actually play out the events.

  [9] Challenge Rating: a measure of how difficult a monster is.

  [10] “DR” means “Damage Reduction,” an ability some creatures have to ignore a certain amount of damage. Generally, there is some kind of required weapon type or material that allows the weapon to bypass the DR, in this case, silver. The above damage reduction would be written as “DR 10/silver” and would reduce the damage the creature took by 10 unless that damage was caused by a silvered weapon. Most spells bypass damage reduction, because damage reduction applies only to slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage (usually weapon damage).

  [11] Hit points, or hp, are a numerical value with a maximum allowed value determined by a character’s ability scores and their chosen class. They represent how much damage a character can take before dropping unconscious at -1 hp. At -10 hp, a character dies.

  [12] “Hit Die” is a term used to describe the type of die (d4, d6, etc.) used to determine a creature’s hit points.

  [13] AC refers to a character’s Armor Class, an integer that determines how easy or difficult it is to successfully strike the character with a direct attack, such as a sword, arrow, or aimed spell. The higher a character’s AC is, the more difficult he is to hit.

  [14] Combat Expertise is a “feat” characters can choose, if they qualify, which allows them the ability to trade offense for increased defense in a more efficient manner than is normally available.

  [15] Alignment is a nebulous system by which a character identifies himself as a generally good or bad person. There are two axes to the alignment system: good-neutral-evil and lawful-neutral-chaotic. A character’s overall alignment is one of nine types (choosing one from each axis) and can be labeled as “lawful good,” “neutral,” “chaotic evil,” and so on. Certain spells and abilities can detect a character’s alignment or may affect characters of certain alignments differently than others.

  [16] “Tank” is a term originating in online computer games that
refers to a character with high hit points or (in Kaiyr’s case) armor and the ability to avoid attacks. The tank’s job is to keep enemies from attacking the weaker characters behind him.

  [17] “In-game” refers to anything that happens within the frame of the Dungeons & Dragons game; in other words, everything related to things our characters do, see, say, etcetera. Conversely, “out-of-game” refers to everything not covered by the previous term. Obviously, unrelated discussions (sports, the weather, Dingo’s mother) are out-of-game, as are terms for in-game themes. For instance, Kaiyr has a Strength score of 12. That information is out-of-game, because the character Kaiyr has no clue that his physical strength is rated with such a number, even though he knows he can reliably lift and carry about 120 pounds without collapsing under the weight.

  [18] Adamantine is an ultra-hard, very rare, and expensive metal in the D&D game. But still not my favorite.

  [19] A free action is an action taken by a character on his turn in the initiative order that requires virtually no time and only minimal effort to accomplish. Speaking a short sentence is a free action, as is dropping a held object.

  [20] NPCs are “Non-Player Characters.” The term refers to any character in the D&D game that is not one of the Player Characters (PCs); i.e. any character played by the DM.