I would have been surprised by Orflam's arrival if I wasn't so jaded. I hadn't heard from him since our time together in the mysterious realm of Datatran. Orflam it seemed had decided to turn to adventuring, and had also decided that Neverwinter was the place to start.

Orflam was lucky, for if Shakina had been in town I would surely have been wrapped up in her. As it was, Orflam and I decided we should go out to Longsaddle, to see if there were any farm girls around who needed saving. We set out southward, (I was sure to pack my map of the Lost Hills, been a long time since I went that way), and in Vilnask we encountered Vet Sblade, who I recognized from various GCO parties. He had obviously heard too many 'travelling salesman' jokes and decided he had to go look for farm girls too.

After scaring off the usual riff-raff (I mean wolves and lizards, of course) we made it to the Lost Hills. After a couple abortive starts (Orflam learned quickly how sharp the claws of a griffon are) we were making good progress. (It seemed Vet was having trouble maintaining reality, as he would cast a double size stinking cloud, then disappear, then show up later. On the third try he never came back.)

Suddenly I found myself in a battle with a wizard I had never met before. Crazy Zeek was his name. My immediate instinct was that he wanted to battle, and I thought this confirmed when, in the face of pigs, he cast a Minor Globe. Surely he meant ill. I was wrong, Zeek was simply being cautious, and we joined forces. Zeek had a few others with him: Grimstan, and Lorelei. They were off to kill a couple of DracoLiches. We joined them.

After what seemed an endless trek through the Lost Hills, we were (finally) at the lair of the undead dragons.

"Orlam, when we get in there, hide, but watch and remember, that you may tell the tale of our heroic deaths should we fail." Orflam did not argue. We spelled up, then burst through the door.

The action was furious, but I remember a few things:

I remember Grimstan the Paladin whacking one of the dracoliches. It didn;t seem too badly hurt. I also remember he was quickly paralyzed.

I remember one of the dracs breathed fire on Grimstan, but in the process killed not only the mummies who seemed to be attending the dracs, but the other drac as well!! Grimstan's wound was more serious than it seemed, obviously.

I remember, and this would have been funny had it not been so violent, Zeek teleported to the other side of the room, apparently hoping to get some room for casting. As soon as he appeared the drac ran over to him, paralyzed him, then bit his head clean off!

I don;t remember what happened to Lorelie.

I would surely have been dead if I didn't have multiple images absorbing damage. I avoided 2 or 3 gazes and 2 breaths before my images were gone. I had cast all my fire spells, and re-learned that lightning doesn;t affect dracs. I was down to 3 points after another drac breath, and the drac had 20. Grimstan, still paralyzed though able to talk, was encouraging me fitfully! As I cluthched my sword and stared into the empty eye-sockets of the approaching dragon, I remembered that my old favorite, magic missile, was effective against dracs. With what surely would have been my last breath had I been wrong, I missiled the drac, and it collapsed to the ground. We had won!

Well, to bring this long embellishment to an abrupt end, Orflam and I tokk Myrkul's highway back to NW, where he got trained and I got la - (oops can't say that) I got a date. Orflam fought bravely against the wolves, lizards, griffons, pigs, and Krak-heads we encountered, though he was only the newest of newbies.

Well, I ust be off now, thank you for listening to my tale.