SUNRISE

Sunrise grew up in the back alleys of East Borphee all his life, making his living by breaking-and-entering. He was a thief, one of the best. He could pick a lock faster and more subtly than one could pick their nose in heavy traffic. He never learned to write. By 665 GUE, at about the age of fourteen, the boy was rounded up with many other vagabonds in the city and enslaved aboard one of the king's battle biremes, the Screaming Queen, commanded by the infamous Captain Chulig. Sunrise was prompted to the position of cabin boy, which endowed him with the responsibilities of tending to the captain’s many needs, including handing out the food for the crew, whipping disrespectful prisoners (with the captain's special whip, Betsy), and even rumors that he was the captain’s object of rape.

In those days, he was described as a slender young man, with darkly blond hair. The time aboard the ship forced him to become bone-thin and undernourished. He moved with a lithe lean-muscled economy of motion on the gently rocking deck, yet he had a beaten, abused look.

A man named Caspar Wartsworth sparked his interest, who had joined the crew only hours before the fleet set sail for war against Antharia. Due to verbal rebellion, the captain commissioned for Sunrise to punish both Caspar and Number 23 with his infamous whip known as Betsy. It was during this time that Sunrise realized that Caspar would help him off this ship, for the man was not like the rest of the tired crew. Caspar was younger and stronger and angry—Sunrise knew the man would find a way out of the mess.

When the fleet sailed south past the shore of Mauldwood, the wind died and oars were again taken up. Clever Sunrise, wishing to free both himself and Caspar, knew that he needed to get close enough to Captain Chulig in order to snatch his keys. When the captain summoned Sunrise to pour his wine for him, the boy feigned a mishap by spilling it onto his pants. This decoy pressed him close enough to Chulig in order to snag the ring of keys from his belt. Because of this error, Sunrise was heavily beaten by the captain. But the boy’s punishment was interrupted by the rising head of a sea serpent. The prow of the Quendoran bireme they were upon had been fashioned in the likeness of one of the fearsome serpents, that from a distance, no doubt appeared real. The real sea serpent had found the prow of the bireme to be an attractive mate. Had the serpent not stuck his head out of the water at the moment, Sunrise may have been beaten until he was killed.

The ship's wizard, a man by the name of Satchmoz, VAXUMed the beast, hoping to subdue it. This was in terrible error, as casting VAXUM upon an already friendly creature makes it affectionate. Thus the serpent fell madly in love with the prow, coiling around it, ripping it away, and departing into the sea with the prize. The Screaming Queen was left to sink. Sunrise, who had the captain’s keys, unlocked the chains that were keeping Caspar bound to the ship, but was unable to undo the manacles about his wrists. Both of them were knocked into the water. Sunrise, Caspar and Satchmoz were only saved by hanging onto a floating galley drum.They swam to the nearby Mauldwood shore.

The three spent the night around a RADNOGed fire and shared a BERZIO potion. While debating whether to travel to Mithicus or to Borphee, they were ambushed by a clan of ten kobolds. A quick battle forced the three to flee separate ways and spend the entire night isolated from one another. The next morning the three reunited and agreed to return to Borphee. Knowing the dangers of Mauldwood, they headed north along the shore to avoid entering the forbidding trees. This evasion forced them to trudge through a swampy delta. Satchmoz slipped into an unseen drop-off, and while trying to help him out, Caspar too fell in. Due to the combination of all the hazards of the swamp, the party, defeated, reluctantly chose to enter Mauldwood instead of continuing through the muck.

The evil enchantment of the forest permeated them, and by the next day the symptoms were becoming transparent—the rude and ill-tempered behavior was beyond evident. As they followed a stream, the companions grew more paranoid, angry, queer, and frightful by the effects of the woods. Arguments and quarrels were born—one led Sunrise to attack Caspar. While fighting, Caspar held the boy’s head underwater as his arms flailed. Satchmoz laughed—the disturbing enjoyment of their conflict restored some sanity to Caspar. He pulled Sunrise out of the water, begging forgiveness. That was when they all realized that it was Mauldwood’s evil enchantment that had been affecting them. To counter the effects of the forest, they fought off the evil influence with forced joviality and fun, but eventually they had a true cause for joy—for they stumbled upon an unused road, and they followed it as it curved north to follow the stream.

At twilight, the forest trek led them to the castle in the forest that belonged to Nasturtium, formerly owned by the father of Esmerelda. Since 160 GUE, Nasturtium had remained dwelling within the castle that was still protected by the time-suspension as well as a spatial-displacement spell (known originally as TRIZBORT, but later plagiarized as SATCHMOZ).

Sunrise picked the gate’s lock with a dagger. A smart-mouthed statue was encountered in the courtyard. The gates closed behind them as it threatened to sound the alarm. Hoping to prevent the emit, they pushed the statue over, (the statue actually thanked them for doing this, as he had been standing on his feet for too long) but this feat was unable to prevent the alarm.

Ignoring it, the three went onward into the castle’s main hall with the doors closing behind them. The moment he entered, Satchmoz became aware of the time-suspension spell that was placed upon the entire structure. As they followed the left corridor, they magically found themselves back in the main hall. The right corridor took them to a room with a spinning wheel. Leaving this room returned them to the main hall once again. The staircase took them to a long upper hallway. The first three rooms had nothing inside, but as they left the fourth room, they yet again returned to the main hall.

It was then that Satchmoz noticed that this castle was additionally enchanted with TRIZBORT, a spell that he had never witnessed before. It had kept kicking them back to the entrance hall, or the library in the upstairs. It was a brilliant piece of magic. He whipped out his infotater and sat down in the middle of the floor.

Leaving Satchmoz to meditate, Caspar and Sunrise returned up the staircase to continue the exploration. At the top of the stars, the largest, ugliest, most mange-ridden black house-cat came down the stairs towards them—Meezel. Thankfully, the cat was friendly. Meezel lead the way, and the curious pair followed him along the second floor corridor to a tower, then to the landing of the high tower room. Caspar pried the door open with his sword.
In the room was a crystal coffin with the beautiful young Esmerelda within. She was sleeping, but the other two assumed she was dead. After pressuring one another to kiss her, Sunrise took up the dare. The sleeping beauty reared to life, screaming, “Rape!” and with a fast uppercut, caught Sunrise in the jaw.

Esmerelda was not yet aware that she had been sleeping for five-hundred years, nor was she aware of TRIZBORT until they attempted to leave the tower room and were transported to the library. After some difficulty of traversing the TRIZBORT enchanted castle, they rejoined with Satchmoz on the main floor. He had “discovered” the workings of TRIZBORT and planned to make it his own spell when he could completely analyze it.

When the three men, Esmerelda and her cat were about to leave the castle, the main doors suddenly disappeared and were replaced with a solid wall. The witch Nasturtium had returned. After a lengthy argument, Nasturtium finally gave in to their pleas and allowed for Esmerelda to depart with the men.  As they left, Nasturtium called behind them, “I told you boys you’d pay for waking her up. Well, you will, too. I’m letting you take her.”

Esmerelda turned out to be an incredibly spoiled, selfish, demanding, complaining woman. She asked one of them to carry her, then chastised them for holding her too sensually. This constant bickering irritated everyone. Esmerelda lead them towards The Red Cock, a nearby inn to the north.

A surmin waddled out on the road and was paralyzed by their torchlight. The three slowly backed away from it, hoping not to startle it into blowing wind. The rodent slowly wandered into the bushes, but despite their extreme caution, Meezel chased after it. Fearing the retribution of the feline’s attack, everyone fled in the opposite direction, but were still unable to escape from being drenched by the extremely powerful stench of the surmin’s flatulence.

The stinking party was not welcomed by the six rough men of The Red Cock, save for Esmerelda whom they were frothing with the desire to rape. When the men came to claim their prize, Satchmoz hexed their shoelaces, and the men tripped, giving leave for the party to escape into the woods.

The men gave chase. Sunrise hit one of the pursuers in the face with a torch, enveloping his beard in flames. When they thought that they had outrun them, Esmerelda ignorantly decided to take a bath in the stream despite wise protesting. This delay was a boon for the brigands to catch up to Esmerelda. Knowing the lust of men, she slyly pretended to seduce him, and when he was enamored enough into believing her gig, she kneed him in the groin. Three more of the men, including the leaders caught up with them. Esmerelda tried to further fight back, but her neck was placed at dagger-point.

Satchmoz FROTZed the brigand leader’s dagger. Believing that it was Nasturtium who cast the spell and that she was after them, all of the remaining brigands fled the scene. Esmerelda showed Satchmoz an AIMFIZ scroll that she had stolen from Nasturtium ages ago. All of the companions joined hands and Satchmoz AIMFIZed the entire group to a brogmoid named Burble at the Wizard’s Guild in Borphee.

While it only seemed that they had been away from Borphee for days, time had progressed differently under the oppression of the enchantments of Mauldwood. Little did they know, but they would be returning to Borphee in the year 668 GUE. The passing of three years was but a few days in the woods.

? By the time that Caspar, Sunrise, Satchmoz, Esmerelda and Meezel arrived in Borphee, several tunnels (thanks to the magic of the Frobozz Magic Tunneling Company) were already complete, reaching as far south as Mithicus and as far north as the wilds of Thriff and all the way to the Gray Mountains of the Westlands. And more tunnels were under construction.

Everyone was puzzled by the tremendous passage of time that had occurred outside of Mauldwood. The war with Antharia had been fought and won. But what was most perplexing for Satchmoz, was that now that Antharia had been conquered, why had the wizards had not yet returned to the guild? It was still vacant save for the brogmoid Burble, who had been quite confused during their absence (imagine a five-year old child running any entire household for three years, doing as he pleased).

The next morning, the entire building trembled from the digging of the Frobozz Magic Tunneling Company. Everyone but Esmerelda gathered at the Crystal Room for tea and biscuits. Satchmoz enchanted the front door with a “rap at the door” in hopes of preventing them from leaving the guild, while he locked himself in the library in an attempt to search for Berknip. After dinner, Sunrise and Caspar decided to explore Borphee. They were prevented by the “rap at the door” who told them in style that Satchmoz demanded that they stay inside. Upset at this barricade, Caspar stuffed his cloak in its mouth and after suffocating, it vanished.

Caspar was mesmerized by the sight of the Borphee wharves with all of its majestic ships. After the sightseeing, the two headed to the Blue Whale, the most popular bar in Borphee which lay at the heart of the city—The Serpent’s Back. The streets there were deserted, as the soldiers had already rounded up all the orphans, homeless, and criminals that once plagued this sector of the city. Now that a curfew was in effect, six soldiers found them in violation of his new law. To escape them, Sunrise used his superior knowledge of the city to escape with Caspar into a warehouse. After the soldiers were gone, Caspar insisted on sneaking into the Borphee Royal Palace to find out what was going on. He found the palace too well-guarded to break into, and they returned to the guild hall in defeat.

Satchmoz returned to the guild hall via another AIMFIZ spell, but he had discovered no new information during his journey. He agreed that the knowledge he sought was within the palace. Esmerelda outlined a bold, though risky, plan to enter the castle. This plan was quickly put into action.

Burble was left at the guild hall as their AIMFIZ anchor. Sunrise sneaked the rest of them (including Meezel) to a secluded park near the palace’s main gate where guards were stationed. While waiting for the proper time to put their plans to action, Meezel aroused Sunrise’s allergies, flinging him into a bout of sneezing that alerted the guards. Before getting all of them caught, Caspar though quick and leapt to his feet impersonating a drunkard. When the guard was reluctant to arrest him for breaking curfew, Caspar kissed him. Thus passage to a personal cell was bought.

Caspar waited in the cell until the rest of the group AIMFIZed to him. Satchmoz REZROVed the lock. While the others left to explore, Satchmoz huddled in the cell as a decoy for Caspar as not to arouse suspicion from a vacant cell. When Esmerelda refused to leave Meezel behind, she went on ahead without warning. Caspar and Sunrise quickly lost sight of her. The two males headed to the upper level, past a sleeping guard. Caspar traced the route which the jailkeeper Olio had taken him on during his prior visit to the king. They eventually made their way inside a bedroom, then onward to a library which was stocked with blueprints of the Great Underground Highway and several spell scrolls.

While inside, soldiers could be heard running up and down the corridor outside the door. For elsewhere in the palace, Esmerelda’s handiwork had alerted them. When the footsteps were no more, Sunrise and Caspar went out. The movement of guards was heard again and they rushed into the harem just in time to see them pass the closed door. At Caspar’s suggestion, they both disguised themselves as woman complete with veils. Disguised walking brought them to the throne room, where Caspar carved “The king is a fink!” into the wood of the throne. Guards passed by the room again. The commotion was becoming way to much in the halls, so they attempted to return to Satchmoz in the cell. Past the harem, Caspar and Sunrise found a pair of sentries. Pretending to be women who had just spent the night with Pseudo-Duncanthrax, the guards informed them of the intruder. Sunrise kneed one of the soldiers in the groin, and Caspar tripped the other.

Returning to the dungeon, the guard at the desk was no longer asleep. The two were able to deceive him into believing that Duncanthrax had sent them to find Olio. When Sunrise convinced the guard to allow him to whisper a secret into his ear, he instead caught the guard off-guard and they both assaulted him before heading down into the dungeon. Sunrise and Caspar returned to find Satchmoz and Esmerelda at the cell. As the soldiers stormed the cell and Satchmoz cast AIMFIZ, Meezel leaped at the guards and was left behind.

When they returned to the guild hall, Satchmoz mentioned that while in the cell he had sensed powerful magic being used—his head had been “buzzing like a hornet on a three-day drunk”, as he put it. Sunrise had managed to steal a jeweled belt, silver medallion and a VAXUM scroll from the palace. None of this was of interest to Esmerelda, who unreasonably desired to go back into the palace for her beloved Meezel.

In the meantime, the palace guards recognized the usage of the party’s magic from their break-in attempt. They equipped themselves to raid the guild. Knowing this was evitable, Satchmoz knew that they could not remain in the guild. They had to flee before the soldiers arrived. To protect the scrolls from being seized, Satchmoz instructed for everyone to fill backpacks with as many of them as possible, while Burble packed provisions. Satchmoz and Caspar additionally each made a copy of the TRIZBORT/SATCHMOZ master scroll that had been recently prepared.

The soldiered arrived at the courtyard of the guild and broke down the unlocked doors with a battering ram, then entered. One lone man remained outside. Burble imitated a little whimpering child and the soldier, knowing the immaturity of the brogmoid species, was fooled by this act. Unexpectantly, the soldier was knocked down by Burble and he threw him inside.

Once all of the soldiers were completely inside the guild, Satchmoz cast TRIZBORT/SATCHMOZ upon the guild hall, so that all of them would keep ending up in Krepkit’s bathroom instead of being able to escape. Then the entire party proceeded to escape. But blocking them from leaving was Nasturtium herself. She was agitated because of the shaking caused by the digging of the Great Underground Highway beneath her basement—the entire north tower of her castle had fallen in. She was determined to find those responsible and had followed the tunnel all the way to Borphee. She joined the group as they fled the courtyard to an old warehouse near the wharves.

After Nasturtium realized that Satchmoz’s SATCHMOZ looked exactly like her TRIZBORT, they all agreed to reenter the palace. This time Nasturtium would be the anchor for AIMFIZ. She flew into the courtyard on her broom and used a powerful spell to put all of the guards on the exterior of the palace to sleep. She saved an additional one for the soldiers still within. When they had given her plenty of time to properly complete her deeds, Satchmoz AIMFIZed them to her position inside the palace.

Once inside the palace, Nasturtium magically put more guards to sleep. Satchmoz was highly impressed with the magical ability of the ugly witch. Without anyone noticing when she left, Esmerelda went in search of Meezel. A low laugh rumbled out of the darkness—someone knew that they were there. A corridor that they found gradually descended to an abandoned torture chamber deep below the palace. Another low laugh vibrated through the air as they followed the passage beyond that descended lower and lower underground. It was then that the party realized that the source of the laughter was a single pursuing grue. The rumor that all grues had been eradicated by Entharion the Wise caused this encounter to be startling.

To keep the grue at bay, Caspar plucked a few broom straws from Nasturtium’s previously FROTZed broom and flicked them into the darkness. A straw was dropped every twenty paces or so to keep the grue away as the party continued onward. Without warning, the tunnel suddenly sloped download like a slide. They all tumbled into a node with several tunnels leading from it and with a huge crystal door. The FROTZ spell on the broom died, plunging them all into complete darkness. The grue fell into the node with them. Burble went after the grue but was instantly swatted away. In retaliation, Nasturtium FROTZed the grue. Before their horrified eyes, the maddened beast ran about chaotically with pain-wracked roaring, pounding on the walls while its fur and flesh were consumed by the light. All that remained was a black smoking crumbled mass.

Pseudo-Duncanthrax appeared in the chamber, enraged by the death of his pet grue. But before anyone could assault him, he VAXUMed the entire group, forcing them to become adoring subjects. Now that they were all subjected, Pseudo-Duncanthrax opened the great crystal door with a touch of his wand. Esmerelda in the meantime had found Meezel in the dungeon, who had been terrorizing the guards. She suddenly dropped in from one of the chutes. Unable to stop her momentum, she knocked Pseudo-Duncanthrax over. A harsh word from him broke the VAXUM enchantment. The king tried to escape into the crystal room, but Meezel dropped in from above and landed on his back. His cloak was torn off, but using his wand, he escaped through a hidden door that locked behind him and Drespo Molmocker, impersonator of Duncanthrax, slipped from the pages of history forever. A search of through Pseudo-Duncanthrax’s cloak revealed KATPI, VAXUM and PLASTO scrolls in the cloak (as well as a small key ring, bottle opener, 2 zorkmids, 1 zorkle, 4 lint balls).

They passed through the crystal door into the Great Underground Highway, and came to a place where hundreds of men, woman, and children were making mortar for the highway’s roadbed. The real King Duncanthrax in amongst this group, that had all been ensorcelled by Pseudo-Duncanthrax’s VAXUM. An outburst of anger at Duncanthrax from the party instantly broke the VAXUM spell. Burble went around whispering naughty words into people’s ears to break each individual’s enchantment.

Satchmoz realized that the entire group could not return the way they had come, but believed that he could use TRIZBORT/SATCHMOZ to transport everyone home. Satchmoz told everyone present, including Burble, to concentrate on their homes for the enormous amount of presence that would be required by the spell. Everyone chanted “There’s no place like home” while Satchmoz cast the spell. Everyone was transported back to their respective homes. This event of returning home is known today as “The Great Magic.”

Afterword, Esmerelda became Duncanthrax’s bride-to-be, and the jealous king did not approve of Caspar’s friendship to her. Thus he appointed Caspar to be the king’s roving minstrel and roving good-will ambassador for the crown to the outlying provinces and lands far away, with Sunrise as his assistant. As far as Caspar was concerned, with his pockets full of the king’s coins and fine clothes on his back and the doors of every court open to him, the results of the adventure could not have worked out better. Sunrise was also permanently gifted with Meezel.

TRIVIA:
Spenseweed milkshake the favorite food of Sunrise.