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Gather round fellow heroes great and small. Come listen to my tail (my head will talk too) of my land so far away. Unlike you I am not Elf, Dwarf, Man, Werewolf, or any of the others who inhabit this realm. I...am Dogg! As man is to ape, so too am I to dog. I am of most noble lineage. Son of Lab and son of Retriever. Together my Sire and Dame merged those two greatest of breeds, and now I am destined to be ruler of both. Or at least; that was the plan.... Long ago when I was but a lad, Sir Scott came to my homeland of Doggainia. He brought with him great stories of a far off land. Of dragons and gnomes, of trolls and pixies, and the like. He claimed to be and embassy from the land's most noble court, the Dragon Court which was presided over by the great Queen Beth. Naturally when he asked for the bravest Doggs in the land to join him in adventuring to this Dragon Court, I was first in line. And like good faithful chums, my dearest friends all agreed to join me in this endeavor. There was the mighty Butch, whose very steps caused hills to thunder. He is the prince of the Bulldogs, and a stalwart companion as ever there was. Flash the lightening also was with us. His lineage is far less pure than either Butch's or mine, but his quickness of foot and skill with the sword is legendary. Last but not least, was my tutor and councilor James T. McDougal or Scottie for short. Like all wise magi of my land, he is a noble of Terrier descent (in his case the Scottish branch rather then the more prevalent Yorkshire). On that day when we left the shores of our fair land, along with many more of my loyal subjects, my Dame had a vision. All of our oracles were at a lost to explain it, but my Dame naturally feared the worse, and begged me not to go. It was only after the repeated assurance of my councilor Scottie that her vision was not a foreboding of evil towards me that she was able to unwrap her arms from me so that I could leave. My Sire gave me one last parting hug and a word of advice, the same advice he had always given me...To act with honor in all that I would do, so has to bring honor to our proud breed in this new land. To my knowledge I have upheld my breed's honor in my adventures here, but if only the wise Scottie had used his gift for deciphering visions better on that day. Scottie was right that no evil was in my future, however evil was most certainly the reason for my mother's vision. I will not bore you with the details of our band's questing here in this land of Queen Beth's Dragon Court as you are most certainly familiar with the adventures of this land yourself. I will instead skip ahead to my recent homecoming. Has our ship approached our home port of Rover we immediately realized that something was wrong. Instead of the throngs of merry pheasants who normally crowded around the port at the first sign of a ship, there was an eire stillness and silence in the air. After we anchored in the harbor we set about exploring the city, looking in vain for some sign of life. We found nothing, the entire whole of Rover was naught but a ghost town. Naturally Butch and I were most worried about our families, for the first place an enemy would try to do would be to destroy our royal families. I sent half of those men who had traveled to the Dragon Court with Butch so that he could go check on his family in the City of Borwune's Castle. The rest I took with me to see about the safety of my own family at the great Castle Rover. When Butch and I reunited just a scant half-fortnight later, we had the safe story to tell. Both of our families were found hanging from the ramparts of our respective castles. As it had happened the week after we had left (this we learned from an old witch Butch had found living in his castle's cellar), the stench was horrendous, and sight even more grisly. We vowed to avenge our families' honor and our remaining adventures and what few surviving peasants we could find agreed to aid us in our cause. Look now, the time is late, and fire is burning low. I'll let you all ponder on what I have told, and some time soon I will collect my thoughts of this turbulent time, and continue my tail. Ace Dogg of Doggainia |
