Chapter 1 - 50/50 Chance And In Need Of A Break

Chapter 1

Fifty / Fifty Chance And In Need Of A Break

Buried knee-deep in gold, silver, copper, and jewels—and on the run from an angry dragoness—was not the way Braxton Zeddmoore imagined his last moments on the living plane of existence to be.

Braxton leaned his forty-year-old form up against a bit of cool cave stone. His short ponytailed platinum blonde hair touched with vibrant silver and perceptive lapis lazuli eyes looked for a way out of the antechamber he found himself occupying, thankfully only dark and damp. Braxton attributed his rather bleak set of circumstances to several damning variables in no particular order.

There were the villagers of Emir, who had asked him to look into why the swamp was overtaking their fertile farmlands. After offering Braxton—a militant Invoker by trade—enough gold to probably keep the village going for at least three planting seasons, and more than likely the life savings of all of the farmers upon the Fife. Benevolent gods, why was the lord of the fife not here asking Braxton for aid himself?

Easy answer: by Braxton's reckoning, no nobility ever felt the pinch of loss of goods or gold. Those that worked the lands did, however, benevolent gods bless them, and thus he bartered his fee down to one-fourth the cost. Though the task they asked of him was not as simple as casting a spell to fix the situation, Braxton did not have the heart to take hard-earned needed gold from honest folk.

Then there was the matter with the magicians’ guild. After Braxton had sent what passed for their bully-boy enforcers/recruiters packing with a few apprentice spells and a swift boot to the ass, they came back on far more cordial terms to Braxton's Keep. The last matter might have put events on a more personal note as the encroaching swamp has also overtaken where Braxton had built his keep, and the inundating swamp causing said keep to fall into the said swamp. To top off the rather unpleasant week, Braxton had found the reason for the swamps exponential growth: An adult Black Dragoness had desired to set up her new home here.

The Lizardfolk village could be seen by the torchlight that ringed the perimeter, as both the Blue Moon and Threeal made their way into the sky. Braxton knew that going into the village without a plan was a sure way to get yourself killed, particularly at night. As a precaution, his willed his eyes to become cat-like slits instead of normal human eyes. In that state, his vision became black-and-white and he could see the heat of the torches around the Village as well as the black and white shapes of the lizardmen.

Sneaking past the two perimeter guards patrolled outside of the torchlight, Braxton had to thank his cloak of elvenkind for camouflaging him to look like the swamp, its magic making him look like the vegetation about him and covering his own heat since the lizard men possessed the gift of seeing in the infrared spectrum.

That was far from his only asset, however. He was armed with a sword upon his back, and in the sword's pommel was a pale lavender ellipsoid stone. The stone had mercurial stars that seemed to shimmer softly even in the starlight; the handle looked as though it had a silvery filigree etched into the hardwood. The gold hilt was sculpted into the shape of a dragon posed in a gentle S as the head made its way down near the pommel with the tail acting as a back strap guard. On the throat of the scabbard was a polished brass dragon’s head, with its mouth opened to look as though it was swallowing the sword itself. A silver silk cord braided its way down to the polished brass tip cap with a dragon’s face embossing it.

Such was his weapon, but he had a shield of sorts as well. His black leather armor and green chainmail that overlaid it helped complement the cloak in doing its job, the latter providing stealth while the former offered protection against swords and spellcasting. His black breeches were the color of dark ink and his magical boots of spider-climbing, while they did little here, were at least waterproof despite being caked in mud and muck. The Lizardfolk would surely kill him given his name was known about the land as a hero of good and one who played fast and loose with the laws. The latter they wouldn't care about; the former they would.

As Braxton looked over the village contemplating his next move, a soft melodic voice rippled into his mind. One he had known for many years and shared just as many adventures with him. “So, do we go in spells and sword blazing? Or do we have a possible plan?”

“If the lizardfolk keep to their normal patterns and tactics, this will be a forward outpost that the women and children and slaves will migrate to,” Braxton reasoned. “But I do have a plan.”

Making sure to be at the edge of his vision and using swamp vegetation to cover himself, Braxton began to cast a spell. He grew a full two feet four inches from his already imposing six foot two height. His tawny skin became scale like the color of tarnished green silver, his fingers grew to match his height and his fingernails became claws. From his shoulders grew wings and his eyes became emerald green and cat-like, even more so than his night-vision spell already made them. His armor and sword seemed to vanish as Braxton polymorphed into another denizen of the swampland--a Shivak Draconian. A particularly wealthy one—Braxton's clothes seemed to grow with him and became fine rich cloth.

“Might be a good idea to stay hidden, Kylnn Ka' Tar,” Braxton thought as he moved the sword to the small of his back and made his way to the perimeter guards.

The two guards drew steel when the draconian approached, their pockmarked swords shining dully in the torchlight.

“Who goessss there?” the guard on Braxton's right said.

“A skin brother who seeks to see the shaman,” the draconian said to the two.

The two guards looked to the imposing draconian then to one another before allowing him passage into the village, apparently deciding he far as important as he looked, they had best let him pass quickly.

“The ssshaman isss in hissss hut. With the sssmooth ssskin woman.” one of the guards said off offhandedly going back to patrol.

“They are talking about an elven woman. At least, that is what I picked up on surface thoughts,” Kylnn Ka' Tar told him.

“No surprise there,” Braxton answered as he made his way to the shaman's hut where he pounded on the door with his fist.

When the rough-hewn wood door opened, a bipedal lizardman roughly six feet tall and broad-shouldered answered the door. Tattoos covered his carapace and a side of his face in tribal markings denoting his power as an unholy man. His cold black soulless eyes looked up at the imposing figure at the door. The shaman drew in a breath for a moment before speaking. “Sssskin brother... I am honored by your visssssit. What bringssss you to our door?”

Braxton leaned down so he could look into the shaman's eyes. “My leader of the Shvak legion wishes to know why the swamp is spreading and worries that it may be an omen of impending war.” Braxton had at best a few precious seconds to take in everything about the room, though he could hardly miss the prominent altar to the vile seven-headed goddess Tiamat. The black dragon head stood taller than the other six heads and was sculpted out of Onyx, while the rest of the dragoness bore more of a primitive look of woods and grasses and more common stone. In front of the altar was a fire pit with a large bubbling cauldron next to it a cage of cold iron suspended from a rafter just high enough for its occupant to not be able to touch the floor with her feet or her hands.

The beautiful elven maiden that resided in the cage had bruises upon her naked flesh. Several long trails of cuts marred her finely shaped breasts and her pear shape hips. Her matted golden hair had been cropped crudely with a knife to just to the base of her slender neck. Her eyes of deep jade bore the look of one whom had endured much suffering at the hands of her host and looked as though her only sustenance was water.

“Come in, sssskin brother.” The lizardman beckoned the tall draconionan into the hut. “Yesss, war isss brewing. With the aid of our goddessss, we will have many more warmbloodsssss in time.” As Braxton entered the hut while the shaman spoke and ducked down so as not to hit his head on the ceiling rafters, closing the door behind him. “If your ssssuppior wissshesss to join ussss, we would gladly sssshare ssslaves.” The shaman made his way over to the cauldron.

Braxton thought a moment before he spoke again. “Then our general of the legion will be informed. I am sure he will be honored to join you in battle, skin brother.” Braxton turned towards the door to leave when Klynn Ka' Tar echoed within his thoughts softly “He is casting a spell, Braxton!” she warned him.

Braxton spun around, his hand going for his blade hidden at the small of his back. The shaman completed the spell of hold monster as Klynn Ka' Tar cleared the scabbard with a sharp ring of steel. The reflections of the elven girl and Braxton in a Draconian form shone within the blades reflective surface, but the lizardman did not for he was without honor. Braxton put the blade defensively in front of him. As the spell orb struck the sword, it was reflected back to the shaman, striking him in the chest and leaving him with a stunned look on his face.

The sharp ring of steel had brought the elven girl up from her state of hopelessness with a small ember of hope. Only one blade in all the land made that noise upon being drawn... The seed of prosperity. Seeing the runes in mythril filigree upon the blade told the elven girl it was the true sword, but how in the name of all she held sacred did this evil being come to wield that noble blade…?

With the hapless shaman under the sway of his own spell, the Draconian made his way over to the cage. His emerald green eyes turned to their natural Lapis Lazuli hue, and he spoke in flawless elven. “Be at peace, fair maiden. I will get you out of there. Might I ask who you are?” Braxton pulled on the hinge bolts of the cage door and both bolts came free, hitting the soft dirt with a thud. The draconian form he had polymorphed into giving him greater strength than his normal form.

The elven girl tried to cover her nakedness under the gaze of this very strange draconian who seemed more than he claimed to be. An arm covered her breasts and a hand covered the cleft of her womanhood as a strong blush crossed her cheeks. “Arryn,” she all but whispered into the imposing figure’s dragon-like face, and it was all the name she dared give this strange draconian being.

Braxton nodded and said as he turned his back to her once more in flawless elven. “I am Braxton Zeddmoore, my fair lady. Can you get away from here without my aid?”

Arryn's eyes widened at the mention of the name. “As in High Arch WarMage Braxton Zeddmoore?” she stammered quietly, instant respect and even greater awe in her voice.

“The same... but I don't like such titles, fair lady,” Braxton replied to Arryn, his head still turned away from her.

Arryn began to sob as she leaned into Braxton, no longer caring about her nudity. “Thank Mielikki! She heard my prayers!”

Braxton smiled at that. “Do you follow Mielikki in faith or practice, good lady?” he asked softly.

“I am a druidess of her herd, honored War Mage,” Arryn answered with a small hint of pride in her soft voice.

“I see. Then if you have the will and some favor left with her, can you cast a spell for me?” Braxton asked as he heard Arryn moving about the hut looking for her belongings, or at least looking to cover herself up in front of a male with enough manners to turn his back to give her a bit of privacy.

“If I've not exhausted all favor with her? I can cast such a spell. Where would you like it centered?” Arryn asked as she found a few rags that would cover her nude body and give her a little modesty. Of more relief to her was that she also found upon the blasphemous altar her holy symbol—a silver unicorn upon a silver chain.

“Upon myself. So that I may interrogate our gracious host to find out about the goddess he serves. I expect it will be noisy.”

“As you wish, noble war mage.” Arryn held her holy symbol and softly whispered an ancient incantation. Her hands began to glow a soft blue hue before she reached out to touch them to the large draconian before her with his back turned still. “Two feet or closer and they will hear you. But fifteen feet out none will hear a thing. I thank you for your kindness and respect for my modesty, sir. You can turn around now.”

Turning around Braxton gave a nod and said in a gentle tone “I thank you as well, fair maiden, but it is time for you to leave the village now. Not in a panic, but now.”

“I can Earth meld. But what are you going to do?” Arryn asked with concern in her voice.

Braxton looked at the still frozen shaman.“After I am done with him I am going to level this village. So get as far away as you can good maiden.”

Arryn could only nod. She would spare no regret for her prison and even if she were inclined to object, the last thing she wished to do was tangle with him. Whatever business the High Arch War Mage had was his and with that thought, sunk into the earth and was gone within moments without a trace to mark her departure.

Satisfied that she was safe, Braxton walked up to the Shaman, his sword still drawn. “Harm him and it will break the spell,” Klynn Ka' Tar said to him softly.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Braxton wasted no time after that as he drove his sword into the shaman in a painful but not life-threatening area, stabbing him through the shoulder while grabbing him by the throat.

The shaman let out a wail of agony as his spell broke, his eyes focusing with difficulty on his captor. “Where is your goddess' lair, you walking piece of luggage?” Braxton asked in a hard tone.

Despite his predicament, the shaman worked up some defiance, refusing to answer. “Even were I to tell you, The Goddesss will kill you for trespassssing, fool! You will be her most long ssssuffering victim.”

Braxton withdrew his sword as the lizard man gave a gasping yelp, his thick greenish blood coating the blade. Placing the blade on the altar and then grabbing the shamans arm at the elbow, he dragged the shaman over to the boiling cauldron. “Victims... aren't we all,” he mused as he drove the shaman’s hand into the boiling substance, causing his captive to scream in pain, though the elf’s spell kept anyone from hearing it. He pulled the parboiled hand free a moment later and the lizardman's cries faltered, eyes squeezed shut in agony. “Your head goes in next… so I ask again: where is the lair?”

The lizardman had near entered a state of shock, but Kylnn Ka' Tar read the shaman’s thoughts. “The shaman is going to see her in his mind as he prays to her. The lair is southeast by half a night’s travel.” She fed him an image of their destination she’d picked up from his mind.

At the receiving of that information, The War Mage upended the shaman and placed him head first into the boiling cauldron. He then uttered another spell and his form changed shape again to that of the shaman himself. His immediate task complete, he retrieved Kylnn Ka' Tar, sheathing her in her scabbard before exiting the hut disguised as the shaman. “Let us give this village a blessing. I will need your help with the spells, Klynn Ka' Tar.” Braxton thought as he opened the door and turned around to flick a small red pearl into the hut’s thatch.

“Of course,” Klynn replied, helping him cast an incantation on the pearl.

After that, Braxton moved from hut to hut spacing out more pearls twenty feet apart--a quick and simple task as thankfully, the village only had seven huts built so far. Braxton made sure there were no other followers of good within range of the spell he would soon unleash before placing his last pearl into one of the torch sconces as he exited. He then walked away without breaking stride, counting his paces. It was only when he reached his spell’s limit of four hundred feet from the final pearl that he snapped his fingers.

The moment Braxton did so a reverse domino chain of explosive power ripped through the village, starting with the last pearl he laid and proceeding quickly to the first. The blast was deafening and quite lethal; Lizardmen caught in the flames were incinerated if not outright vaporized as the fireballs were hot enough to turn gold molten. Huts were blown apart sending chunks of their wooden and earthen make almost fifty feet into the air; even the guard posts with their sentries were incinerated. Within seconds the village was a small rippled collection of craters that the swampy ground quickly filled; it might have drowned the survivors were there any to be had.

“So, Braxton, what is next?” Klynn Ka' Tar asked softly as the two continued walking. Braxton dismissed the disguise spell and returned himself to his human form.

“We are off to try a carrot and stick approach with a dragon,” said her master, the tall human not breaking stride as he headed off to the southeast.

The parlay and the audience initially went off without a hitch. To the victor of a simple game of chess went the prize of a near bottomless sack of gold coins, bars, and jewels and allowed the Invoker walk out naked but alive. The Dragoness accepted the terms and even gave her name in the Draconian tongue, naming herself Radiant Onyx.

Queen Onyx—as she wished to be addressed by the lowly but rather attractive looking forty-year-old human before her—decided to play the chess game upon the human timetable, rather than the draconian one. The simple human otherwise was likely to drop dead from old age or be eaten before the game would conclude. While the game was in play, they traded points back and forth on all manner of topics, such as the sword Braxton wore on his back, his clothing—rich and elegant silks—and the rings he wore on every finger, even the prospect of Braxton's seed, given all he had managed talk his way into the Queen’s audience.

Braxton came to know that “Queen” Radiant Onyx prided herself on three fundamental points near and dear to her black heart: One such point was the art of the deal, which Braxton closed by telling the Queen that the bag of coins was all she would get. This was but a small annoyance to the dragoness, but a more perturbing matter was losing the chess game she was cheating at. Though Braxton now ruefully reflected that the straw that broke the camel's back was telling the Queen that the bile he just choked down and the thought of sharing carnal knowledge with her was merely coincidental.

The ensuing slight caused the Queen to become very unladylike towards her guest. Striking out with her massive claws and thirty-four-foot long tail eviscerating the illusion of her guest as well as everything in the general area. Braxton took this as his cue to run like hell into the lair of the Dragoness knowing full well she would follow.

The enraged roar of a Black Dragoness shook Braxton out of his thoughts and back to the present. Letting him know that his rest period was coming to a close, and if he didn't think of something fast, so would his life. Braxton's highly keen and alert senses told him that he was about to be hit if he stayed put, so he threw himself off to the right pushing off the stone wall over a mound of gold coins. The five-foot-wide stream acid that hit his last location splashed up against the stone with a loud sizzle and thankfully the gold coin mound took the residual side splash.

“My treasure! You worthless human, I'll torture you for twenty years for that!” Radiant Onyx roared loud enough to nearly shake down the stalactites in her cave. Braxton had to cover his ears as he rolled away from the mound of gold that had saved him. It was now melting just like the stone her acid had struck and he for one didn't care to join it.

As Braxton crawled away keeping himself low to another pile of silver A soft feminine voice echoed softly in his mind from the sword upon Braxton's back. “I must say, Braxton, you have such a nice light touch with the ladies, and after she practically offered herself to you.”

“Not helping, Kylnn Ka' Tar,” Braxton retorted in thought as his eyes went from rounded to catlike slits. With his vision slipping into the black and white spectrum, he peered around the pile of silver, seeing Radiant Onyx enter the chamber proper still at the entryway.

“Great. One way in and one way out,” Braxton groused to himself.

Braxton smiled softly as he quietly cast a spell, and his entire form faded from sight before he began to crawl slowly. He may have been hidden, but he still made noise if he moved too fast or ran into other objects that would.

“I can still smell you, human! You can't hide from me forever. When I find you I will have my revenge for making a fool of me!” Radiant Onyx roared and snorted.

“Braxton, I retract that earlier statement. She is truly very angry.” Kylnn Ka' Tar mused in amused tones.

“Kylnn I need a distraction over by that pile of copper across our way.” Braxton mentally commanded as Radiant Onyx looked over the cave she whipped her head towards a pile of clinking copper coins.

“Stay still, worm!” she growled and cast a spell covering the room in a thick webbing of silk. In some places, the webbing was two feet thick and very sticky. While this would normally immobilize everyone and everything in the room, Braxton was prepared and thanks to the embossed spiders in the leather of his boots, it merely rose him up off of the floor. But even if he wasn’t immobilized by it, he was still rendered visible by the outline of boots in the webbing.

Radiant Onyx's keen eyesight caught Braxton's outline in her field of view. She lunged at the elusive human with her claws, restraining her temper as she did not wish to melt any more of her hoard. Her own webbing slowing her down despite her size, Radiant Onyx was nevertheless on him quickly, aiming a back-handed claw strike at him after hitting the illusion of his outline.

Braxton ducked under the attack, rolling out of the way as Radiant Onyx's blows sent coins and gems flying high into the air, a few sticking to the webbing upon their return to the ground. Seeing his opportunity, Braxton drew his blade and in one smooth stroke struck the Dragoness. The blow, while not deep, let Radiant Onyx know that the blade THIS mage wielded was powerful as well as skilled. The enchanted metal bit painfully into her hard onyx scales and left a small trench like dragging a warm knife through butter upon her left shoulder.

Radiant Onyx screamed in pain and used her tail on the now visible human, hitting him squarely in the chest. Braxton left the ground as the blow sent him flying through the air like a rag-doll. Thankfully the spider webbing slowed his speed as well as her tail’s impact, though Braxton could feel that a couple of his ribs were definitely cracked, each breath now causing him pain. It was only through sheer force of will that the human adventurer managed to both stay conscious and keep hold of his sword as he skidded through another pile of platinum coins and jewels, coming to rest near the wall of the cave.

“Any other ideas?” Kylnn Ka' Tar mused softly within Braxton's mind.

He didn’t reply as both combatants took stock of each other and themselves. Both were hurt, both were angry, and both had a healthy stock of respect for the other by this point. For Braxton, it was growing increasingly hard to breathe; each gulp of air burned like he was inhaling fire. The ring on his left hand began to glow softly as he forced the pain down to stay focused.

For Radiant Onyx her blood poured from the wound the sword had given her and as much as it hurt, she didn't want to suffer that blade any more than she already had. As their standoff and war of wills continued, they looked into each other’s eyes, searching for any sign of fear or hesitancy; any weakness that could be exploited.

But none could be seen. Braxton knew that if he was drawn into tunnel vision he might miss something. So he widened his view, looking up the trail he had carved through the piles of platinum coins. It was then he saw a staff that he recognized as formerly belonging to Sir Orion Windtalker the White.

Radiant Onyx saw Braxton's eyes flick to the staff for but a moment. Realizing his intent, she drew in a breath and readied to release another blast of acid, not caring about her hoard as much as she just wanted this human dead.

Braxton didn’t give her chance. He sheathed his sword and ran at top speed toward the staff, calling it to him with his magic so he could meet it halfway. Pulling it to him, he snatched it up to show the Dragoness and bent it slightly, threatening to break it, watching as the Dragoness immediately choked back the geyser of acid she was threatening to unleash. Queen Radiant Onyx had never encountered any human that even gave her remotely this much trouble! First, he charms his way past her worshipers, then he beats her in a chess match that her cheating should have guaranteed victory on, he then insults her, wounds her, and now stands before her threatening to break a powerful staff of magi to kill them both. Recognizing the danger, she aborted her acid attack, swallowing a good portion of it back down her gullet. Some of the acids though drooled out the sides of her mouth as she glared daggers that the human; she reflected then that under different circumstances if she was not so enraged with him, she actually might like this conniving little bastard!

“Are you insane?” both Radiant Onyx and Kylnn Ka' Tar shouted, one voiced aloud and the other within Braxton's thoughts.

“Braxton... this is like going all in on a poker game with a pair of twos!!” Kylnn Ka' Tar exclaimed with both a touch of anger and trepidation in her voice.

“Maybe so... but I'm banking on the fact you want to live a little bit longer, eh Radiant Onyx?” Braxton said with a small knowing smirk touched his face as he spits blood from his mouth; the pain from his ribs was now a dull but tolerable throb in his side. “So what is it going to be? Leave the area and take your swamp with you and we’ll pick this fight up another time... or we both die right here and now!

Fate to Braxton had always been either a help or a hindrance, though he was under no illusions that in this case, Lady Luck had blessed him with a fair bit of fortune of late. But luck only went so far, and he knew his was about to run out. It was high time to give him a good swift kick in the ass, and as fate desired, it happened while Radiant Onyx was contemplating her next move.

Braxton awaited her reply while still keeping the pressure on the staff he held, starting to back slowly towards the exit. It was a good plan, and any other time might even have worked. But this time, the ancient staff proved to be the weak link in this chain when it snapped in his grasp leaving one gobsmacked Black Dragoness, one gobsmacked invoker, and one sword screaming about how irresponsible and foolish Braxton was within the halls of his mind.

“Oh, Shi...” was all Braxton was able to get out of his mouth before a large explosion of magic rocked the underground cavern.

The resulting displacement caused the cave ceiling above to rupture and crumble. Swamp water then poured into the cavern as most of the peat and organic matter filled the void in a mix of very rich soil that would take about a year or so to return the surface above to normal fertile farmland.

After the cave-in was complete, and the shifting earth and rock had settled, an elf in a white robe emerged from the peat, floating to the top of it. He had sun-kissed blonde hair and his skin was very pale; he stared lifelessly up into the clear blue sky but seemed to have a soft smile that seemed to make his chiseled features very lifelike. A broken staff lay over him, and nearby was half the body of a large black Dragoness. Radiant Onyx's head, all the way to her fifth rib was gone.

The shadow of a beautiful woman encased in a blue aura looked over the body of the elf blocking the view of the sun's light, her human features marred by a look of the way a mother looks to a small child to chastise.

“Brother Discord, are you just going to lay there ‘till someone discovers you, or are you going to get up?” the human woman asked in a patronizing tone, crossing her arms over her athletic chest.

With a sigh, the elf blinked. His eyes turned from lifeless to red before a blue aura surrounded him as well as he sat up.

“Ah, sister Fortuna. I fear you’re blocking my avatar’s ability to get a tan.” Discord tossed the broken pieces of the Staff Of Magi away and each piece turned into earthworms. “If this is about your champion, he will be fine. I just need to borrow him for a little while. Besides, the boy could use a break. I daresay he was getting bored here.”

Fortuna merely scowled at him as he continued to talk before a small smirk danced across her face. “How like my brother to always want to play with my toys.”

Discord stood up and dusted himself off before turning his nose up in the air. “I don't have to explain anything to you, sister, nor do I have to be here. So ta ta, and if you wish to visit him, you may find your favorite toy ten tenths from here, hour nine thousand, one dimension over.” Discord gave a nonchalant wave before turning into an orb of blue light shooting skyward.

Fortuna watched him go before she let what was on her mind and lips escape them. “Brother, you are going to pay for this, and it is going to be... expensive,” She informed him before she herself followed suit, turning herself into an orb of blue light shooting skyward.