Prologue
I just realized this morning that 15 years have passed since my last real adventure. Oh, don’t get me wrong, a lot of things have happened to me since then. However, once you go on a quest ending with you and your group of friends ending up defeating the most powerful demon lord to exist in the last few hundred years, daily life in Viridia never seems that much of an adventure anymore.
It did not help that my friends either retired, returned to their mundane lives, or most simply died. I have been roaming the land by myself since hoping to once again feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins, experience the thrill of battle, the suspense of exploring an unknown dungeon. Unfortunately, nothing appears to have an effect on me anymore. In all these years, not once I felt as alive as I did with my friends. These days I mostly just take the odd job allowing me to get enough money to pay for food and lodging for me and my horse.
When I returned to the Inn this evening the innkeeper greeted me and presented to me a letter with a simple red wax seal with the initials “B.O.“. I know who it is even before I open it and my heart jumps in my chest for the first time in 15 years.
Dear Róvenfaer,
I hope this letter finds you well... or finds you at all for the matter... you know I have had already to send out 10 of these starting 6 months ago and they just keep coming back to me?... hmm... ok never mind... I hope this finds you well and that you will reconsider my proposition this time... the boy is growing restless and I don’t think he can be detained much longer...
Oh, the full Beppo Orure. He is one of my companions from 15 years ago. A halfling with a taste for treasure and adventure said to have been passed across generations of his family once in a while. Some say that comes from having some elven, or dwarf or human, or who knows what ancestor along the line, as halflings are usually content doing their everyday business and don’t much like be inconvenienced by anything like an adventure. Well Bepo had his fill of adventures for is lifetime and the lifetime of everyone else in Nadhras. So, he decided to go back to a boring but happy halfling life once our adventure was done 15 years ago. The proposition he is talking about is to take the foundling living with him as my squire to train as an adventurer. He has been asking for almost 4 years now and every time he gets more insistent. He found the boy less than a year after our adventure ended and has been carrying for him as a foster parent ever since. The boy grew up hearing the tales of our adventures and got stuck in his brain that he wants to be a great warrior and go on the greatest of quests. I can’t really blame him. Being the only human in a town of halflings must be the most boring experience I can imagine myself. I usually try not to stay more than 2 days whenever I visit Beppo. I have seen the boy grew over the years and I honestly had hoped he might one day join me in an adventure. Once he grew up my dreams were smashed in a thousand pieces. The guy was beyond uncoordinated... saying he has two left feet would be a compliment... I have seen mermaids on land more coordinated than this boy while running... and nearly as fast. He is so skinny he can hardly practice swordplay with a stick. He is so scatter brained that he forgets to listen to you before you have time to... hey are you listening to me... never mind. The only thing he seems to be good at is listening to tales of daring adventures and remember every most minute detail about them no matter how many stories he hears. I told Beppo I could not stomach taking him with me as I fear it would not end well and I could not bear it.
... oh, by the way I am actually dying here... so you better take your lazy ass here instead of ignoring me or just send your notes with a big “NO” on them. The sooner the better I am hanging on a thread here.
-Most Sincerely
yours
Beppo Orure
What the... Beppo... Either he is joking or he has the worst sense of humor... or both... or neither... Ok let’s go... no time for supper I guess... I hope I really don’t have to go on an adventure with that “Dummie”.
