T'is a story which will travel on through ages, from tounge to tounge, from song to song and it's based on a true happening that we tell our children before they fall asleep. I shall write what I saw with my own eyes for the sake of history to take up, this is Rupert Ridirs report of the
Quest for the Lighthouse.
On a normal avarage sunny day, when the birds played playfully up in the air, the rabbits jumped around in the bushes and the undead lay resting in their coffins. A quickly scribbled note had been put up on the Barrack board, written by no one else then the great Vince Valentine, the Junior Grenadier. And if I'm not wrong, the note said something like this...
"When: Tuesday 22nd November
Time : 7.30pm GMT
What to bring: Full battle gear, bandages, provisions and ye torches
Where: Rally at the barracks
Seems we've 'ad some reports from some of our sea-dog traders tha' th' lighthouse they rely on te guide 'em inland 'as stopped workin'! This coul' be devastatin' fer our town, wha' if they stop bringin' booze in?? *Shudders*
We must investigate....."
Quickly I departed for my home, I knew I had to get started early to gather up my equipment and set out for the barracks if I would be able to make it there in time. I grabbed my arrows, bows and armor, carefully made a few bandages and jumped into my boots then legged it towards the waiting squad of Militia men, the true protectors of the best liquor, wine and ale in the country!
Shortly thereafter I arrived at the scene of a lineup with the great Vince Valentine infront. Quietly I saluted and joined in the line. The following guardsmen took part in this epic quest,
let their names sound eternally in history through poety, music and theatre.
Vince Valentine, Junior Grenadier - (Leader)
Drachir, Officer Cadet
Erik Arkay, Grenadier Sergeant
Gord Blackwell, Junior Guardsman
Rupert Ridir, Watchman
Raz Al'Durron, Guardsman Recruit
The men looked calm and peacefully, enjoying the heat from the sun and a laidback Vince. We had a quick breifing over what was going to happen, but the sound of the wind made most of the men unable to hear when Vince mentioned that there would be alot of walking ahead of us, strangely I also missed that at the time but atleast I heard him say it when the Quest was over, but did everyone survive?
Vince explained that he had set up a sentry on the other side of the desert, a mighty sentry which would stop anyone who wished to pass over the bridge over the cliffs. And that was our first goal, to get to the sentry.
Once we were at the great mighty sentry, Vince lined the men up, me included. Then we got to know our second objective, that was to walk through the desert, kill everything we sight that showed hostile nature. Even if they happened to be cute small dragonostard babies. We set out to begin the long walk without any water to dampen our thirsty throats. And it felt like we were going on forever, up...up...up. But then Drachir managed to tell a awful joke which got our spirir up to get out of this desert as fast as possible. We faced small dragons, big dragons, flying men and scorpions the first short walk into the desert, but the great Vince, strong as he is, managed to keep the men alert and we faught bravely through the masses of animals and stones.
After we had walked north for a bit, we suddenly decided to make a turn and go east. Mayhaps because we were lost or dying from thirst but that was what we did. That is why I'm still alive. We kept going on east...east...east. Facing masses of the same creatures as before but now suddenly a huge stone man appeared. He fell in a second.
After we had walked east for a bit, we suddenly decided to make another turn but this time to the north again. It felt like the suns heat was driving the men mad, inside our helmet I felt my sweat crawl down over my body, leaving me all dried out, but still I kept on going to keep up with Vince and the rest. The recruit suddenly fell from exhaustion, he started to cramp and shake on the ground until he finally passed out. Instantly a few scorpions crawled up to him and tried to eat him I suppose. But Drachir and Gord acted swiftly and fended the creatures off while Vince tried to breathe life into the lifeless recruit. The great Vince managed to bring the recruit back to his feet, told him that it wasn't much longer to go since he saw the lighthouse in the distance. The recruit Raz struggled up and took new fresh steps.
The party of brave guardsmen arrived at the abandoned lighthouse, the light could barely be seen from the outside, perhaps because it was day but at the moment we did not think of it like that. to us, the light was faded, we needed to fix it. We went into the lighthouse, secured it to ensure we were safe.
Inside the lighthouse, Drachir ordered me to jump, as high as I could. Don't ask me why, but I think he sees something in my legs that history and this report never will know. After the short bit of athletic practise which Drachir also tried on the recently knocked out recruit Raz (without success) we headed for the roof where the great Vince Valentine, our brave leader, questioned us how we could make the lighthouse shine again. Myself, I'm quite bright at times I've been told so I gave it a shot. Get a huge candle. Drachir gave it another shot, as bright as he is and managed to say lantern, that is one more letter than candle!
After some discussion with himself, the great Vince, our brave leader and noble granadier, told us that we needed four or five crystal thingies to light up the lighthouse once again. And where could we find these? Well of course! In the dungeon Wrong, on the floating metal heads. No idea what he meant. But we went there anyway, humming tunes that only great warriors and bards are able to do. About lasses mostly. Mmhm!
So we arrived at Wrong, luckily we didn't have to walk to that place. I don't remember how we got there because when I'm writing this I'm still feeling a little bit dried out. Anyway! Great stories shouldn't get pauses so lets go on with it. We, the brave guardsmen faced fear in its face, went into the dungeon and stared the...evil men in their eyes before we slayed them. We also tried to do that with the large metal men but they had no respect for us hard working men. So we had to bonk them down to rubble.
We managed to find the crystals after going deep into Wrong, defeating huge lords of terror and floating heads with saws built in. That wasn't so hard. The hard part came when we, the brave guardsmen, lead by the great Vince tried to escape out the dungeon. The great Vince got caught by several of the men and tortured infront of our very eyes! Then they took the recruit Raz also! Poor recruit. What a destiny...until me and Drachir decided help our fellow guardsmen. And so we did.
After some struggle we headed back towards the lighthouse. This time getting lost in the desert countless of times following the SCOUT Drachir who obviously seemed bothered by the lack of water to drink and good jokes to tell. Four of us made it back to the lighthouse roof. Four. Where the rest went I dare not to speculate in if they were together or not. Vinced lined the tired, breathless men up again. This time to congratulate us on a job well done. He placed the crystals near the large lighthouse lamp and told us the engineers would come to fix it now. Finally, we can drink once more. So everytime you take a sip in Cove, remember those who faught bravely to keep the steady income of booze up.
Honored to fight alongside the brave men this story reveals.
Rupert Ridir, Watchman
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