Adoian Darkeyes part 7

"What should I do? I don't have time for thinking, just run Adoian!" Adoian thinks to himself as he starts to run to the exit of the room, but at the same time he uses minor illusion again and makes a loud noise. The troll wakes up immediately and noticing the giant spider jumps at it. With the end of his eyes, he can see that the spider, even if he was pretty badly wounded, tried to fight the troll, but this battle will probably be his loss.

"That troll was very fast... I don't really know how fast is a troll, but I don't think he gets a lot of food in here so he probably eats whatever gets in it. If he noticed me, I would have been dead." For the first time in his life Adoian felt a surge of different emotions fear: excitement, happiness, he wanted to do it again and again and again. "I have won".

This was overwhelming for him so he falls on the ground for a bit laughing, he felt alive, he realized that at that moment his mind was working really fast, and he never felt anything like that. Hiding in the dark, knowing that in a second you might be found and lose everything was really interesting even if he didn't really understand why. "I am probably crazy, I was nearly killed a second ago and I can't stop laughing. I like this."

After this, Adoian stands on his feet and starts going in the direction in which the thread shows. He follows the thread for about an hour or so and he hears the owl again. Behind him, the giant spider runs after him. It was in an even worse state than when he saw it before. He didn't have any eyes left. And he only stumbled across with his remaining feet.

Adoian starts and runs in his front and the spider comes at him clumsy but faster and faster, but in a moment everything ended. Adoian starts to run towards the beast and he slides under him with his dagger in hand killing the beast for good.

"I should stab him more. He should have been dead for a long time now." And when he comes to look closer at the spider he vanishes. "This was magic? But why would anyone put a thing like this in his garden? My family is crazy. Who would do this? What if I didn't find out about the thread and was killed? But I'm not and I had a little bit of fun out of this, let's go to the end of this damn place."

And so Adoian walks in the direction pointed by the thread. After an hour of travelling, he finally gets to a dead end. But there in the middle of it he sees a chest and near the chest lying down he sees Savios sleeping.

"I am here."

"Oh! You startled me. Well, you got here sooner than expected so, I will train you. Come and take your reward from the chest."

Adoian approached the chest and when he opens it and he can find only a small medallion. "What is this?"

"That's the holy symbol of Miriam the Goddess of Knowledge and Curiosity. I was pretty surprised when I saw it here. Take it with you, it's not a bad idea to have one of this with you."

"Okay, but how do we go back now?"

As he says that Savios put his hands on him and lifts him, touches a part of the garden and Adoian sees that his outside of the Labyrinth.

"How did you come so fast?" Asks Emma.

"This labyrinth is weird you can spend a day in it and here it will pass only about 10 minutes." says Savios

"That's fascinating. Did you make it?"

"Yes, I did" sais Adoian.

Savios just puts his hands on Adoian and Emma and says "Training starts tomorrow at 7 in the morning. Be here or I'll leave."

As Adoian went to bed he remembered his confrontation with that spider and dreamed about different places and creature that he will see in his adventure s.

Adoian Darkeyes part 6

"I hate this place. Why would anyone come here? It's just stupid and pretty scary. What treasure could it be at the end of this labyrinth I don't know. Well, at least Savios will teach me a few tricks." As Adoian thought about these things he heard yet again the sound of an owl. The strange thing was that it didn't really come from a specific place. It came from all around him, it was like he made those noises himself. He was scared and didn't really know what to think about it. "It is some sort of magic for sure. Savios is trying to do something to scare me. I am just going to follow this thread and go straight ahead. "

As he thought of this he started to feel chills, the labyrinth became darker and darker, as he continued his road felling more and more afraid, until he heard some sort of movement from above and saw a giant spider coming after him. He started to run and run and run. "What is this creature doing here? Why it is here? Who would let a spider in the garden, this is insane. Why didn't father destroyed this place? Shouldn't be that hard. What can I do? The spider is getting closer and closer. Wait, I know."

Adoian runs as fast as he can and when he sees a place where he can hide, glides into a small corner and tries to use what Emma thought him the day before. He hears a beautiful noise from the direction he had pointed his spell. When the spider heard the sound, he runs in that direction. Shortly after, Adoian hears a scream of pain coming from the spider.

"I was right, this place is full of traps. I should hurry." But again he hears the owl, and he tries to walk as sneaky as he can.

After a good two hours, he sees that the thread splinters in three. "Which way should I go?" But then he notices a small plaque on which he sees some letters that looked like elvish, but a very old elvish. "What is this?" As he goes down to touch the engravings.

"Smarts and logic go to left, strength and might go to the right, onwards goes the sneaky guy."

"What was that? Well I should follow Savios as he probably went forward. Plus I am not that smart or strong."

So Adoian starts to go forward following the thread. But this time he sees that there is a big room with some pillars and a huge troll sleeping while being chained.

"How can this place be so big? I am sure that I should have been in the centre of this place already. Maybe this is some sort of magic... But I am not very sure... I don't really understand magic and these sorts of things."

"Steady does it." Adoian starts going slow and slow taking cover wherever he can. He stands still, looks at the troll and then goes again. But in the middle of the room, he hears the owl again and then looks behind. There he sees a heavily wounded spider with only 5 legs, many eyes missing that starts to come at him.

Adoian Darkeyes Part 5

Adoian woke up in his room. Still being sleepy he looked near the window and saw Savios.

"What are you doing here?" asked Adoian excited.

"Your father called me... He said it was your tutor's idea. So wake up and come quickly, I want to see what is this all about."!

On their way, outside, they saw Starset, one of Adoian older brothers.

"Hi, brother."

"Morning, Adoian. Good luck with your class."

"Thanks."

Adoian briefly saw how his uncle looked at his brother worried. It was like he knew something about his brother that he didn't.

After exiting the house, they met with Emma.

"What's this all about?" asked Adoian.

"I found you a trainer. You said you need someone to train you to stay in the shadow. I kept thinking about it, and your uncle seems a perfect choice. What do you say?"

"Well, if he agrees." looking at Savios.

"This sounds interesting. I will train you with one condition. If you can find me. Let's go to the garden in the labyrinth, I am going to explain myself better there."

Both of them followed Savios to the garden. There they saw the immense labyrinth of the Darkeyes estate. Being 30 feet tall, it was a nightmare to anyone in the family. There were even some legends about this labyrinth. They said that in the heart of the labyrinth there is a treasure, but there are gruesome creatures that guard the place. Adoian knew that his father forbade him and his brothers to enter in it.

"I am not allowed to enter it." said Adoian.

"Then don't. My arts are not something that should be thought to people who play by the rules. I am going to stay there for 1 day. If you want, come and find me. Bye!" And with that Savios seemingly vanished from the eyes of the kids.

"What will you do?" asked Emma.

"Obviously I will enter. There are so many questions that I have for him."

And so Adoian entered his family's labyrinth. But soon after he entered it, something strange happened. It was like there was something in there calling for him. He forgot that he was looking for Savios. He wanted to find out what was in the center of that place. He continued forward for a little bit and then he saw something like a dark snake in front of him. After looking at it more, he realized that in fact, the snake was looking at him, too.

"What could this be? It looks like the illusions that I can make. I shall just go past him."

And so he did. He passed the snake and went deeper and deeper into the labyrinth until he found a note.

"Nice you came. I am waiting for you in the center of the labyrinth. See you there, boy." And a dagger near it.

Adoian took the beautiful dagger that Savios left him. He looked at it and it was beautiful. It was shining, it had a small piece of jewelry on the handle, and the blade was made out of silver. He took the paper again and saw something else on the paper.

"Follow the line, and be cautios for the owl."

"What line?" And then, while looking down he saw something like a golden thread.

"This thread."

And so he did. He followed the thread, but it was very hard. From time to time, when there was a decision to make he saw in the opposite directions treasures, gold, weapons, trinkets even some artifacts that he read about. But he followed the thread. He saw nymphs, small dragons, and other creatures, but he kept following the thread until he heard from far away the song of an owl.

Adoian Darkeyes part 4

Next morning Adoian looked outside and saw his new teacher, Emma, practicing what seemed like some sort of a spell. He kept watching her until he saw a giant fireball coming from her and hitting the dummy that she used for practice.

"That was really cool." and he started running outside to meet her.

"I see that you are early today."

"You said you will teach me that trick."

"Okay, come here. This is a little more complicated, let's start with something easier. Let's try to cast a minor illusion"

"What is a minor illusion?"

"A minor illusion is a spell that can be done in a second and creates a small visual or a sound illusion, for example."

As she said that all of a sudden in front of Adoian appeared a small box. When he tried to touch the box it disappeared and out of nowhere, he heard a small alarm sound.

"This is what a minor illusion can do."

"Okay, that will do for today, so how do I do it?" and Emma started to explain how he could use minor illusion. During the lecture, Adoian remained pretty confused on how exactly this type of spell was supposed to be cast.

"Enough with this now, we should start our history lecture. Master Darkeyes told me that you must have at least some basic knowledge about the history and the politics of the elves until next month. If you manage to do well on your exam, I'll teach you even more. But before starting the next lecture, did you have any magic teachers until now?"

"No, not really. Honestly, I've never shown any interest towards magic. I'll probably never be very good at it."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, I don't know. I guess that is only a feeling, but what I enjoy is using my agility to resolve problems. Also, I really like hiding in the shadows. Maybe it's just me, but I feel safer there, no one will come there to harm me, or bore me."

"You should then talk with some scouts, they are used to do this type of things. Actually, no, that wouldn't be appropriate for you."

"I've trained under some scouts, but they are boring. They want me to do some reconnaissance, and then return."

"Let's talk about this a little bit later, if you pass your exam, I might be able to bring someone who can help you."

After two more hours of study, in which Adoian did his best to try and listen and memorate what Emma told him, the lesson ended. Adoian asked Emma:

"Why are you trying so hard? You are from a very respected family, you could just continue what your father does, not to mention you are smart and cunning and you could do great in politics."

"Well, I just don't like the idea of doing the same thing. Also, I have an older brother who likes politics so I would like to let him handle that sort of business. I just want to escape that life. I am proud of who I am, and of my family. But I don't want to have such a life, I want to travel to see the world, to make unlikely friends. A life in a clustered space sounds extremely boring. What about you, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know... I want to travel... I want to escape... Sorry, can we meet tomorrow?"

"Adoian! How much are you going to run away from your decisions? If you want something you must fight for it."

"I want to run away, I don't like this place... But how can I do that? I love my family. But I will leave. Not yet, but I will."

"Tell me when you do that, we can start traveling together."

"That would be nice," said Adoian smiling.

After Adoian returned to his bedroom he started picklocking and to his surprise, he was getting better at it. And so Adoian went to sleep thinking about a place which he wanted to visit first.

Adoian Darkeyes part 3

"The Elven Kingdom is ruled by a king. He receives help from twelve councilors. Your family is in this council. After this circle called the main one comes the secondary circle which consists of some old families who help the twelve. My family is in this circle. And then there is the third circle, which consists of 36 families who are elected by the people to represent them. Those people have the responsibility to find out the needs of the people. They also announce to the people what the king says. Do you have any questions so far?"

"Who actually rules the kingdom? And why the need for such a complicated system? And why should I care about this?"

"The king. To make people more comfortable. And because you were born in a noble family."

"But I don't care about politics."

"Well, unfortunately, you probably won't have a choice. You won't be the family heir but even so, you must learn those things." 

"You know what? I'm bored, we will continue the lesson tomorrow."

Adoian tried to leave the room but as he did, the door and window slammed shut and he remained in the room.

"Until the end of the class, you won't leave this room."

Adoian looked at her with admiration and said:

"How did you do this?"

"This is a simple trick."

"Can you teach me?"

"Let's finish the lesson and we will see after that."

And so the lesson continued revolving around how the elves got here and why King Sartai decided for this type of government.

"I'm tired. Can we stop?"

"You did well for the first lesson. This was an introduction so it took a little bit more, from now on the lessons will take around two hours."

"Can you show me now how to do that?" 

"Go and rest will see about that tomorrow."

Adoian left the room thinking about what a cool prank will that be for his brothers. As he went he sees his oldest brother Fayrun.

"Oh, did you finish your lesson with that Darkblood girl?"

"Someone is jealous that he had his lesson with an elvish elder?"

"Adoian you should be careful not to make me angry. After all, I will be Lord Darkeyes and you, no one."

"Oh! Thank God I won't have that nasty name." 

At that moment, his brother throws a fist at Adoian, which sends him straight to the ground.

"That's your place, Adoian."

"Stop it Fayrun!"

Adoian looked around and saw another one of his elder brothers Dionis.

"Aren't you ashamed of yourself? Hitting our youngest brother? I won't let you spoil the name of our family anymore with that kind of behaviour. If you want a fight, try me." 

"Dionis. You will pay too." And he left.

"Adoian, you should not make Fayrun that angry. You might have a lot to suffer because of him." 

"I don't like the way he looks at me. Like I'm no one. Thank you for your help."

"Adoian, listen to the girl tutoring you, she will bring a lot of good things upon you. I've met her. She is an interesting one. You know what? I've seen you learned swordsmanship, let's practice a little."

Adoian went with his brother to the training grounds where some of his family's guards were training and practicing.

"Master Dionis you came to play?"

"No. Today I'm seeing what my brother has learned so please give us some privacy."

"Right, have fun young masters."

"Pick your weapons."

"I'll take a dagger and a rapier."

"Nice choice, then I'll take a sword and shield. Show me what you've learned."

Before having any time to prepare, Dionis jumps in front of Adoian and tried to strike him. But Adoian managed to dodge very quickly, getting behind his brother and throwing his wood knife at him. Hitting his brother in the arm he held the shield.

"That was really good. I'm going to throw my shield. Be prepared."

Dionis threw himself into the battle and after a small exchange of blows, Adoian fell to the ground.

"You're improving very quickly. Soon I might be in trouble."

"Please, brother. You went easy on me. After all, you are a Captain at such a young age. At dueling, you are probably the best in our family."

"So you knew. Well, I've never fought our father, but between us brothers that's true."

"Is our father skilled in swordsmanship?"

"I really don't know. He never wants to spar with me. But I've heard that he had a duel 80 years ago with a Goliath and that the Goliath never stood a chance." 

"I'm going to my room to rest a little."

"Okay, but remember this. You can do great things if you use your abilities to the fullest."

"Thanks, brother!" and Adoian went to his room. 

After he got there he started to work with the thieve's tools, trying to picklock the small chest that he had. And for the first time, he managed to do so. With this in mind, Adoian goes to sleep thinking about how tomorrow he will learn such an interesting trick.

Adoian Darkeyes part 2

"What should I do now?", Adoian thought to himself.

"Adoian come down now, all the guest left", said his father angrily.

"Sorry, I've been here with Savious for a while"

"What did you talk with that man? He is a disgrace to our family, I hope he didn't try to convince you to do anything stupid. That man is the worst of the worst, he is a pirate.", said Adoian father with spite.

"Yeah, I know that he isn't very loved, but how did he become this way?"

"It's an old story that doesn't matter, you should focus on different things. Tomorrow we are going to take a small trip to the Blackblood family. So go to sleep."

"Yes, father", said Adoian.

After that he went to his room, he locks a small chest that he has near his bed and starts picklocking. But he found soon enough that this was not an easy feat.

The following morning he woke very early and went to the Darkblood family, the family who now served as ambassadors in the human kingdom. The meeting was as usual, very formal and not very interesting, but something unexpected happened to Adoian just before leaving. He met someone, a small girl around his age, who very boldly tried to cast some sort of spell at a mannequin.

"Oh, I see that your daughter is getting better at magic.", said Adoian's father.

"It is the only thing she does every day, she doesn't care about politics, she thinks it is stupid. But she is very diligent with her studies."

"Oh, is she now? Then we might have something to talk about in the following days. I am going to contact you later."

After they left Adoian asked: "Isn't Blackblood a very old family, as well?"

"Of course they are. You know the elf empire is ruled by the king with the help of twelve counselors. This is the first circle, which we are part of. Every family that has a member in this council has another family as helpers, that being the second circle. The Blackblood family are our helpers. These families are the ones who help us, not serve us, are as old as we are. The only difference is that in the history of our people their families never had a ruler. The families in the council must have in their history a king, that's the only criteria."

"Then why is that girl trying so hard to do something...?"

"I am happy to see that you are interested in someone. Well, she is a genius, I dare say the person with the highest abilities in her family. She is going to be a wonderful asset to our kingdom. She cast her first spell when she was only two years old."

"But why does she do that?"

"I do not know for sure, but she might do that because she wants her family to be recognized as one of the finest, she probably sees the job of an ambassador as a job that is not important enough for their history. But you can ask her if you want."

"Is that right?"

"Listen to me very carefully, if not for the Blackblood activity, our kingdom would be at war. She is not the only special one in her family."

After that event, Adoian's life went back to normal. But after about a year his father came at him very angry.

"Your teacher said that you are neglecting your studies, why do you do that?"

"I can't find anything that I like, everything is boring. Not to mention the teacher keeps telling me that I should be more like my brothers, which I don't like."

"I guessed that much. I'm bringing someone your age to mentor you, hopefully, you will find it easier to learn."

"Who?"

"Come and see." They went to the living where he saw a girl about his age. "Adoian, this is Emma Blackblood. She is going to tutor you in history and diplomacy."

Adoian Darkeyes

This is going to be a story in many parts.

Adoian is the first DnD character that I have ever made. And I still think he's the best I've done so far. He is a red-haired High Elf who fled from his life of nobility into the big world.

Adoian is from the Darkeyes family, one of the most powerful families in the elven kingdom, so he is well versed in persuasion, deception and all charisma based skills. But unfortunately, he was never a man of knowledge, as when he was supposed to learn he usually was hiding on the rooftops of his house.

At a very young age, he learned that the best weapon is a good dagger, easy to hide, and if you throw it correctly it's devastating.

But his life was not what he wished for. Being so young and in such a confined place he dreamt of seeing the big and beautiful world. The only books he enjoyed were the ones about sailors, so he wished to become one. But he thought that that was impossible due to his origin.

But he kept dreaming.

Even from a very early age his parents saw this inclination of their son, but they didn't want to spoil the family name with a sailor in it, so they tried to show Adoian how good of a life it is, one in which you can have literally anything. But Adoian didn't truly care. He wanted a life full of adventure, not a scholars life, or the life of a politician.

So he started learning the way of disappearing.

At his 10th birthday party, the Darkeye family had an unexpected guest. Adoian's grand-grandfather, who was in a pretty bad relationship with his family, but he was allowed to visit them every now and then nevertheless.

The party was normal, he received some gifts, very influential people in the elven empire came and showed their respect. But after a good 3 hours or so he got bored and he started to think of a way to escape, so he slowly got out of the balcony and climbed on the roof of his house. But for the first time in his life, he was not alone on the roof. He saw his grand-grandfather Savious who said:

''Oh, look at you, did you got bored already? And you came here, you are not all that bad Adoian."

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, you know our family is pretty old. This was my hiding spot 600 years ago."

"This house was here even then?"

"Our family is quite old. At some points in time in the past, I believe we even had some kings. This house is here, from what I gathered, from the 10th year of our existence in this plane. So yes, this small prison is pretty old."

"Small prison?"

"Aye! This place is a prison. That I've escaped from, so I'm not exactly the pride of the family."

"Where did you go?"

"I was and still am a sea dog. I hunt for treasures and for wealth wherever I can find it."

"Ah! So you're just like them. But you do it in a different way."

"Hahaha! You're so young, kid. Try to remember my words, true wealth doesn't consist of money or ignots, true wealth is experience, it's a thrill. I don't care about money, I will steal from rich, just because I want to feel the thrill of getting caught, I travel because I love the sea, I love having everything open. Wealth is the people you call friends and family. Gold is indeed a way of getting to wealth, but it is a cheaters way. That way you will find happiness hard to acquire. Mark my words."

"I want to escape this prison too."

"Oh! I never thought that anyone from my family will say that. If you want freedom then take this."

"What is this?"

"This is my gift for you. This is the thing that can open most doors, while for the rest you will need friends. Maybe we will see each other in our journeys if you manage to escape this place."

"Tha..", but before Adoian finished the word, Savious disappeared. 

This is the first part of the background of Adoian. I'll try to post the next one as soon as possible.