Yoy woke up and sat up in his bed. It was his sixteenth birthday.

Although the sickness he had received while he was a child had been life-threatening, he eventually got over it without any help from the alchemists who had sent his father away to try and pay for their expensive cure. When his father never returned and they no word was ever received from his friend Greegan, his mother had assumed that both had died trying to find the great pearl. A few years later, Yoy’s mother had learned that the high-priced alchemists who had offered them a cure had been put to death for treating their patients with a nerve-numbing poison that only made their patients feel better long enough for them to be paid, but only quickened the journey to the grave. Although Yoy’s mother was forever regretful for allowing her husband to leave on his foolhardy quest, she secretly gave thanks that he had not returned.

When Yoy walked into the den, his mother gave him the key to the chest he had been waiting to open ever since he could remember. He turned the key and opened it up. Inside the chest were a crest and a letter. The letter read:

“To my dearest son Yoy,

It grieves me dearly that I have left this world leaving you only this letter as an inheritance. Although when I write this, I know not whether it will ever be read, for at this time you illness is in the gravest of situations, and I have been informed by men with more knowledge of the body than I that unless a cure can be paid for, you will not survive the winter. Yet I hold within my heart the hope that even though I may die, the gods may smile upon you and yet extend your life past my own. It is always been every father’s wish that their sons will outlive them, and if you are reading this, then my own prayers have been answered.

Take this crest before you and bring it to the king. It signifies your heritage and bestows on you the right to become a knight of Selenica. It may be hard work, but it will give you a means to live in all but the most desperate of situations, for a merchant will come upon hard times, but a knight is paid whether he is on the field or at home. I hope that the occupation will give you the same sense of pride and belonging that it has given me throughout the years.

Take care of your mother. And know that I will be watching over you, and will be proud of you, no matter what roads in life you decide to take. I love you.

Your departed father,Kage”

The End

Author’s Note: This story was based on Dungeons and Dragons Expert Game Adventure “The Isle of Dread” which came with the original D&D “Expert Set”. Although I changed many of the concepts in the adventure, for example the frozen volcano, I nevertheless tried to keep at least somewhat faithful to the maps inside the booklet, so that the paths of the adventurers could be followed. Most of the events that happened in the story happened when I played the game with my friends in the 8th grade, which was some time around ’91-’92: Everett Bradshaw, Keith “MC Viper” Freitag, Kevin “Greegan” Schottie, and Angelo “Gandalph” Bertolli. However, to add to the story, I invented some more characters to go along including: Kage, Billard, Kirby, Jerek, and Denier (who was a real non-player character, but did not actually go on that adventure).