Adventures of Dragonis
Disclaimer – I fricken' OWN Dragonis! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!! I do not however own Dungeons and Dragons, Forgotten Realms, Wheel of Time, Star Wars, the Oriental Adventures, Avatar, Harry Potter, Evangelion, Ah! My Goddess, Tenchi Muyo, Sailor Moon, Rune Soldier, Ranma ½, Inu-Yasha, Rurouni Kenshin, Firefly, the Easter Bunny, or Christmas.
Authors Note This is a preface to the actual story. Feel free to skip it if you don't want background info on a main character.
I know what your thinking. Who the hell is Dragonis? Well I'll tell you who Dragonis is. He is a D'n'D character that played from 1st level all the way the hell up to 320th level. Yes, in a game whose basic handbook only gives rules for levels 1-20, and whose Epic handbook only actually increases that to 30, I have a totally legal 320th level character. How? The epic level handbook gave rules for extending all tables indefinitely!!
I had thought of turning his ridiculously long and involved, super convoluted history into a series of Fan Fic, but that would take for-fricking-ever. Also, my more detailed campaign notes vanished along with everything else on my hard drive due to a computer fuck up. Instead of trying to write this fic solely on memories of events that took years to transpire, I figured I'd write his continued adventures use this chapter to put the broader points of his history down so you'll know who this bad ass is.
Back Ground
This all started when my father introduced me to a game when I was eight. It was D&D. We started playing in basic. Several years later, my friends became interested in my favorite pastime so my father put together a full range epic campaign. We all drew up two characters who drew together to form a large party of adventurers who quested after the ultimate weapons in existence. 12 swords forged by the god Vulcan. Ever read Fred Saberhagens Books of Swords, or their continuations the Books of Lost Swords? Go read them, they rock.
After finding those swords, we killed the gods and took their places. Making my powerful fighter, Karl Culmain, the God of Combat, and my super cool mystic (Martial Artist), Draco Dragoon, the God of All Things Oriental, which was basically the Oriental Adventures game moduals back then.
Several years later, 3.0 came out. The same group of friends + one more got together and started rotating DM (Dungeon Master aka: the man in charge) responsibilities with each story arc to familiarize ourselves with the new system. Again we all started with two characters, sadly, not all of them made it. I had an elven ranger named Zoltan, and Dragonis, a monk (the new and improved martial artist)
Forgotten Realms Arc 1
So, my dad started us off. In ancient Faerûn, in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, their was a powerful warlord named Kraden Mullencampt who brought the north of Faerûn under his heal, until his forces were destroyed by some upstart group of goody-goody adventurers. He fled with his most trusted men to the great glacier that dominated the extreme north of the world and promptly set up a caravan guard service to get the lay of the land and powers.
He quickly wed the daughter of a local lord, Melina, and ten months later she died bearing him twins named Merrick and Cole. Merrick was just like his father, cruel, calculating, and evil to the core. Cole despised his father, and received much abuse because of it the one time the boy ever saw his father cowed was when he was nine, and it took a high level Shadow Dancer to do it.. He was semi-adopted by the local blacksmith and his wife, Jeb and Martha Loneshadow. When Cole was ten he came to Jebs smithy, beaten to a pulp by the recently returned Kraden. Jeb was furious and challenged Kraden, who killed him in the town square. Kraden then ordered Jebs wife killed and their residence and shop burned to the ground.
Cole stole away in the back of a newly arrived caravan heading even deeper into the frozen waists. When he was discovered he took the title of no-name in favor of keeping the name his father had given him. He soon found it was a caravan of Martial artists seeking admittance into the legendary Dragoon Cloister, a monetary said to have the best trained Monks in the world. When they arrived, out of the 43 people, only 8, including Cole were accepted.
Cole Quickly became the favorite of Grandmaster Draco and was given the name Dragonis to symbolize his new life and fighting nature. Dragonis excelled in his combat studies, but the Grandmaster realized that he only had one goal in mind, kill his father. At the age of 15, Dragonis was sent out into the world to better his training and, eventually, fulfill his goals. He joined an adventuring band to take on a mission for a wealthy nobleman.
At this point he was Lawful Evil, meaning that he obeyed the law, but twisted and used it for his own benefit. He adventured with this group up to 30th level, which is the farthest the books will allow without you using the rules for extending the tables. It had been two years of heavy gaming, three eight hour sessions a week with 48 hour strait weekend games, 72 if their was some lesser holiday to allow a three day weekend, like labor day. Everybody had DM'd at least twice when it came back to my father.
True to form, he came up with something appropriate to finalize our game. He got his hands on a boxed adventure from AD&D, the previous edition, named "Tale of the Comet" and converted the whole damn thing to 3.0 rules. In this adventure, Alien forces land in the D&D realms and lay waist to all who oppose them unless the heroic party can stop them. Yes, this was an adventure mod put out by TSR. To make a long story short, um.. er.. right... to shorten this stories grandiose length considerably, in the end our magic user (who called himself Merlon) cast a perfectly and meticulously worded Limited Wish spell that managed to chain react and destroy the entire evil alien empire.
My dad nearly faceplanted. We all jumped a good 15 levels on the spot, finished up the plot points, and were visited by the gods and offered divinity. All accepted... save Dragonis. Why not? This was the end of the adventure. The characters were ridiculously powerful. Godhood was on the line! Well, as a player I already had two (three if you count Zoltan from this campaign) characters turned god under my belt. As the character, he still hadn't killed his father. Dragonis wished for immortality instead. More accurately, he could never die of natural causes and ceased to age. So began the time of MANY dungeon masters.
The Shadow Dancer that visited Kraden when Dragonis was 9 was actually an agent of a powerful evil force that wanted to recruit Kraden. They did, and Kraden spent the next 21 years preparing. When Dragonis arrived back in his old home region, it was to find an army in waiting. Dragonis fought his way through the army, slaughtering them with ease using gorilla warfare against them. Finally, he came face to face with his Father, and his twin. Merrick had become Kradens right hand man. The three met in an epic battle that lasted for four hours in Real Time. Dragonis came out victorious, but now he faced an eternal life, with no real goals! He had lost his ever present focus. Wham! Alignment shift from Lawful evil, to Neutral Evil, meaning that now that he could basically take on armies and win, laws seemed trivial. He simply ignored the ones that were inconvenient to him.
Dragonis returned to the Dragoon Cloister and stayed on as an instructor for 50 or so years, until his master, Draco, sent him off into the world to rediscover his focus. Dragonis wandered ancient Faerûn getting into many adventures as various DM's tried out ideas. He wandered around for 2 thousand years. In that time he had many lovers, but only three wives.
The first was a treasure hunter, she died when she failed her reflex save to avoid a 5 ton block falling on her. The second was a thief in the land later known as Calimshan. Together they created the strongest guild in the capital city. The lesser guilds eventually banded together and assassinated her. Dragonis was outraged and proceeded to horribly and brutally slaughter the heads of every guild involved. When he was done, he left the city and, spotting a halfling caravan (think Hobbits crossed with gypsies), decided to use one of his many magic items to alter his appearance to that of a halfling and joined them. He traveled with them for twenty years, taking a wife, Mara, and learning the ways of good people. Whirrr, alignment shift to true neutral. No longer does he seek only for his own good. One day, while he was out hunting, the caravan was attacked by Orcs and everyone killed. When he returned he fell into a pit of hate and rage that lasted another 15 years, exactly how long it took to hunt down and kill every Orc in the region.
Having run out of targets, his rage and hate turned into a depression of awesome magnitude. He seemed doomed to lose the ones he loved to violence. Even if they didn't fall to violence, he had Highlander syndrome. He would outlive everything he cared about, watching it age die, and decay around him. He climbed to the tallest peak of a great mountain, I forget which one, and meditated till he was on the cusp of death from starvation, dehydration, and exposure. There he was visited by Draco, who only now revealed himself to be a god, and given a choice. He could die, here and now, or he could take a gift from Draco, and truly attempt to regain his focus.
Dragonis took the second option and received the ability to "hop" from one demention (aka:D20 campaign setting) to another. The ability also allowed him to gain basic knowledge of the demention he was in. This triggered a new alignment shift, to Chaotic Neutral, basically, do what I want, when I want. Dragonis came down from the mountain, fortified himself, and promptly hopped right on over to the Star Wars D20 setting.
Star Wars Arc
He popped up pre-prequel. As a matter of fact, I hadn't seen the prequel in theaters yet, and was going to wait till it went to DVD. Dragonis immediately went to the bad part of Coruscant and rolled several not nice fellows for their credits, then held up at a library, learning things, and familiarizing himself with technology. When he felt suitably prepared, he joined the Republic as a Scout, seeing it as a way of exploring this new reality and receive training on this worlds tech while using skills he'd honed throughout his life.
After 20 years, people started to catch on that he wasn't aging, so he "killed" himself off, and established a new identity as a Tech Specialist. That lasted ten years, until a bounty hunter tracked him down. He killed the bounty hunter and "died" at his hands, then set up a new identity for himself as a fringe world soldier and prepared to disembark. Then he came across a young lady being attacked in an alleyway.
He used his dungeons and dragons abilities to take them down and rescue the woman. I should probably note that at this time he was a monk over double the Epic level handbooks final listed level, as well as an incredible fighter, and massively skilled rogue, with double the standard levels of shadow dancer. He literally moved faster than a speederbike, melted into and out of shadows, and hit harder than any blaster bolt.
The girl introduced herself as Shmi. They become friends, then lovers, and finally man and wife. They often joke about his unique abilities, that he isn't a man, but the Force embodied. I was blissfully unaware of what the DM intended at this point, after all, the DVD hadn't come out yet.
Dragonis pays for a pleasure cruise for their honeymoon. While on their honeymoon, the cruise is attacked by pirates. Dragonis gets separated from Shmi and hopes for her safety. The DVD finally came out, and I find out that the DM set it up that Dragonis was Anakins father. I was less than amused at this campy turn of events, but nevertheless, I remained in character.
Dragonis becomes a Bounty Hunter and hunts down every surviving member of the pirates that took his wife, spending five years doing so before finally running out of leads and leaving this reality. The DM then and only then told me that the pirates had worked for a Ortiez the Hut. When they returned to their master he was displeased with the fact that they had lost so many people (courtesy of Dragonis, thank you very much) with only a handful of slaves taken. He then sold the slaves off, and was promptly killed and taken over by Jabba the Hut. Her time in captivity, and the tortures of her capture drove poor Shmi off her rocker and she started to believe weird things he tells me. Fricken' nutter that DM was.
Wheel of Time Story Arc
New DM wanted to put Dragonis in the Age of Legends. He ended up befriending several Aes Sedai both male and female, and was their when the Hole was Bored. He went with the hundred companions and was merrily slaughtering the enemy when they sealed the Bore. After they all went crazy he helped the Aes Sedai take many of them down before he was handed the task of escorting the Aiel and protecting the last remaining Avendesora. After helping them set up Rhuidean.
After recrossing the Spine of the World, he joined Manetheren and was one of the major pushers for them to join the Compact of Ten Nations. When it fell, he fought the Trollocs north to the border lands and back into the blight as a mercenary before settling in Malkier. He was taken as a Warder by Villiandra of the Green ajah. Together they were an incredible team and they helped keep the blight back for many years, until she died. It was here that Dragonis decided that he was done in this world.
Oriental Adventures Story Arc
Dragonis, is a gaijun. Not oriental at all, and that got him into a bit of trouble during his first few days in this campaign world. Had to kill a party of samurai at the first inn he attempted to stay at. After that he used one of his many magic items to appear oriental. He joined the Dragon clan and became one of their samurai, but focused on a new skill he found interesting, Iaijutsu. The art of drawing ones sword and striking in one motion. In the Anime Ruroni Kenshin, this is called battojutsu.
He ended up becoming an Iaijutsu Master. After twenty years of standard adventuring, where his Lord only used him for seemingly impossible jobs, he staged his death and moved on. Frankly, the world was two damn Lawful for him and the DM had no idea how to use him in it.
Forgotten Realms Arc 2
And so Dragonis returns to his birth place to discover 3,000 years have passed in this time line and we are in the modern Realms time line. He helped out as a guest appearance character in many campaigns, learning the ways of the Sorcerer and discovering it in himself to become a Warlock. (incidentally, a Warlock is someone with a demon residing within themselves. When I created Dragonis I used the Hero Builders Guide Book to generate a basic background which I then fleshed out. One thing that did was gave him an ancestor of note. Turned out it was a very powerful warlock my dad created in 2007. Meh, the game goes on. Dragonis beat the demon down and absorbed it.)
Dragonis also hunted down and claimed all the epic magic seeds. I don't truly get it either but apparently, a magic seed is the primal source of power epic casters tap into to do epic spells. The DM gave each seed a physical representation and had me quest to gain them all. Around this point Dragonis returned to his mentor, Draco.
They hung out and swapped stories before he was offered godhood again. This time Dragonis took it. After all, 4th edition was in sight, I had long since stopped gaining experience through encounters, and I had done pretty much everything with Dragonis that interested me.
Ahhhh, but herein lies a dilemma. The gods in D'n'D have stats. In fact, most gods have 30-40 character level. The head's of the various pantheons have like 40 character levels. Dragonis had 320 character levels. He jumped right up the deified ranks to Over Deity. He'd never been a god before, and now he was in charge of creating a multitude of realities and controlling them.
Well, now he needs to learn what goes into all that. Luckily, he has a mentor from the first party I played in that went god. You remember Draco? Helped kill the gods and take their place. Well he and the other party members had to become over deities too, and then put the current gods in place to run things. Dragonis went to see his mentor again, this time at Draco's godly pad. Now, if Draco is the "Oriental" God, that makes him Kami-Sama. You know, guy in charge of the world computer, Yggdrasil. Yeah, that's right. Fan fic now allows Dragonis to try his hand in the Megamultianimeverse! Heck, as long as fan fic is involved, I can go to any 'verse I want. Imagine his adventures in Avatar, Harry Potter, Evangelion, Ah! My Goddess, Tenchi Muyo, Sailor Moon, Rune Soldier, Ranma ½, Inu-Yasha, Rurouni Kenshin, or Firefly! Oooooohhhh, I feel all tingly now.