Intro of Deux'Dal, Death of Nine Digit Donnie
Donnie disengaged from the draconians on the boardwalk and leapt down into the sand. As soon as his boots touched down he scrambled forward while pulling his bow out and knocking an arrow. Once knocked he slid, turned around, raised himself back up, steadied himself and fired, all in one smooth motion. It would have been perfect…if his arrow hadn’t missed badly.
The frustration was palpable within Donnie, more than fear. And it should have been fear, there was a black and red dragon spitting fire not that far from him. Instead of being afraid he moved smoothly and quietly into the water amongst the debris. He was a little stiff still after being turned to stone earlier and his movements were not as assured as they normally were, he wasn’t sure if he was hidden or not.
By David it had been a rough day. Donnie had missed the first combat somehow, got turned to stone in the second and when he returned to flesh he saw the cute little Kender barbarian had grown this bizarre tail, and the chick with one white eye (which was creepy enough) she had turned into he didn’t know what the fuck. “And who knows what’s under Eros’s mask.” he spoke softly to himself, half in the water, wondering what type of group he was mixed up with and how well had he actually know Ispin.
“Man, I need some luck, I need…” He was then rudely interrupted by the dragon’s roar. Donnie turned to look just in time to see the fire erupt from the dragon. The flames swept across the dock less than 10 feet from Donnie. Most of the people were incinerated immediately, but a few had the ill fortune of having some low level spellcaster on the dock try to protect them. At the moment the breath weapon had borne down on them a beam of icy cold burst forth from the fingertips of a gorgeous man in leather armor. So natural was his beauty and so overpowering, that even in the midst of deadly combat with dragons and draconians Donnie paused for a moment to contemplate his own sexuality.
But it was for just a second, the heat of the fire, and a mix of smells, and relentless screaming brought Donnie back to the seriousness of the situation. Donnie could smell the ash of so many charred bodies, but he could also smell the deliciousness of perfectly cooked pork. He was sick with himself with the realization. The beam of icy cold had only provided so much protection and this was the result.
Cut scene:
“Duexdal. Duexdal the handsome. Duexdal the lucky.” He smiled into the mirror and gave himself a wink and a nod as he admired the image. He was just as helpless in preventing himself from staring as everyone else was. For at least a minute he just stood there looking at himself. He was so lucky. He knew he had done nothing to deserve being born this way so he liked to take a moment to thank the gods. And by that he meant he just stared at himself in the mirror and said “you’re lucky dude, always have been, always will.” He pointed at himself and gave another wink.
The tolling of the town bell roused him from hypnosis. “Time to go” he said to himself as he donned his leather armor reluctantly. Plain old leather armor, not much to look at. Next Duexdal grabbed his daggers and darts and then his cloak before heading out to see what the fuss was all about.
He saw up ahead a crowd was gathered and was listening to a man in a mask inform the town of the need to evacuate. Duexdal covered his head before he got too close to the crowd, he didn’t want to distract them, this seemed important.
After the man in the mask was done speaking, Duexdal was assigned dock duty to assist the townsfolk. Normally a fighter of his skill would be at the front lines, but since he was just so damn pretty people tended to look and listen so it was easy for him to lead them. He removed the hood and directed the crowd. Things were going fine for a while. And then they weren’t.
At the current moment he could see the battle between the “heroes” and monsters. They were near the dock on the boardwalk and one of the heroes had just jumped down on the sand and fired an arrow that missed wildly. Who could blame him though, there was this huge dragon colored both black and red bearing down. The dragon roared and Duexdal felt badly for the heroes as they were about to get roasted. And why? Because Duexdal was lucky, the dragon wasn’t going to cook all these fleeing civilians on the dock and would instead aim his blast at the heroes. So sure of it in fact that he couldn’t actually believe anything that happened in the following moments.
First, the dragon did blast the dock and the civilians with him in the middle of it all.
Second, his right arm shot up and a beam of chill fired right into the oncoming breath weapon. (ray of frost)
Third, as the flames swept over and through the weak protection of the ray of frost, Duexdal’s armor caught fire, as well as everything else, but as it melted away Duexdal’s skin seemed to change, to thicken and gain and odd coloration in certain parts as the skin absorbed some of the fire. (this is both Absorb Elements as a reaction as well as the change brought about from taking the first level in sorcerer with draconic bloodline.)
The dock was ablaze, everyone dead around him, most of them charred to a crisp or ash, but a few of them, right next to Duexdal, were “right out of the oven, cooked to perfection.” Duexdal was unfazed.
With the smoke rising all around him Duexdal took some time to assess the situation. He pulled his personal mirror from his pocket and studied his new body. No longer was his skin smooth and blemishless, no longer were his eyes blue and hair blonde, no longer was he a mesmerizing beauty whom the sight of people couldn’t resist staring at. And so he screamed. And screamed. And screamed.
Cut scene - back to Donnie:
The screaming was relentless. Donnie was sure there must be a few survivors, barely alive, skin blackened and smoldering, just moments from death. But the screaming continued. “Why won’t they die?” Donnie pleaded to gods in anguish. “Put them out of their misery, please!”
Instead the Dragon roared again while it turned towards Donnie. And after just a moment Donnie, finally, could no longer hear the screams.