Part 135: Tales from The Lost Kingdom - Rescuing The Princess

On a bookshelf in the Story Department section of the secret developer area is a novella written in German about an adventure. It was never localised because it's not important at all, and it would be far too expensive, and that makes sense, it is about 250 in-game book pages, and 54 pages in Microsoft Word. It's huge. Two posters from the Larian Forums (AlrikFassbauer and Raze) provided me with an English translation of the text, so thanks to them for their help. This story has nothing to do with the Divinity universe or game.

The translation was... not perfect, so I had to do some heavy editing to get it to make sense. Here is the original, so you can see what I had to work with.. This is quite a long story, so it's on 9 seperate pages.

Tales from the Lost Kingdom - Rescuing The Princess, Part 1

The Raven landed on a long, gnarled branch of the old oak tree which the people called the Gallows-Tree. He watched the folks talking and trading on the market-place for a while.

A colourful bunch of people had gathered here to the annual Festival of Spring. There were proud Elves and strange Dwarves between all the Humans. Sometimes he could even see a Lizard-Man or a Cat-Man wandering through the crowds, and beneath them some Halflings, who had some trouble making their way through all of the people's legs.

As he was wondering if it was safe to catch some meat off the ground, his gaze was attracted by a horde of riders, making their way determinedly through the crowds. They stopped their horses directly under the branch. One of the riders, a small man in a blue garment and a lot of gleaming and glittering things on his hands and neck, went down and pulled a parchment from out of his horse's saddlebag. He did something with it at the trunk of the tree.

Unsure whether he should stay or fly away, the raven began cleaning his feathers. But he did not let the man leave his sight. Then the man got on his horse again, and rode away, together with the other riders. Now curious, the raven looked at the parchment the man had left on the tree. It was a light-brown skin with many small black spots on it. It seemed to have an magical attraction for all the people around it. But now it was too crowded for him, and he opened his wings, lifting himself into the blue sky.

Because the raven could not read, at least not this kind of writing used on this piece of parchment, he didn't know WHY the parchment had such an appeal on all the people standing around it. It was because the sheet that hung on the tree, showed astounding news!

"Go on, tell me! What's on the sheet? I left my glasses at home!" shouted someone in the crowd.

A man, who stood in the front of the tree, inspected the parchment, and began reading it aloud, for everyone to hear what was inscribed on it:

"My people,
Through an sly attack by the Old Dragon "Gezitrdoch", my youngest daughter Sahita was stolen. And, what's more, the Old Dragon demanded to get the half of all our yields from the fields, and the half of all our animals from the farmers. Or he will bring death and disaster over my beloved land, he said. I call all my people, to withstand him and actively fight against him, the Old Dragon "Gezitrdoch". Additionally, I will give the one who slaughters the Dragon 1000 gold pieces and the hand of Princess Sahita in marriage.

This message was written by King Fasabar el Radiash."

A woman named Sajet, dressed in the typical clothing of the Southerners went to the front. "Well, that's a typical nerf-herder! The hand of the daughter, as if only men were able to fight!" She snorted in disdain. "He can keep his daughter, but I'd really like to get this gold. What's beneath the main writing? Able fighters should show up at Captain Timogrim of the Town's Guards. Well, there's nothing left to lose for me. Go away, folks, I've got a job to do!"

On the other side of the town, a man called Thorwyn inspected a house. Going into the next room at the right of the main hall, he just managed to defuse a trap with critical success, and he tooks a magical sword which had been glued under a chair. Unfortunately, it was an intelligent weapon, which almost drives his new owner Thorwyn mad with all its talking and jabbering, as he made his way to the headquarters of the Town's Guards.

Having arrived there, he saw a woman applying for the Quest, too. After putting some coins into the Cauvinist's cashbox, he takes on a wide, chauvinistic grin.

Suddenly, a very robust and angry looking dwarf in an armour assembled of leather and chains, pushed the people, who were standing there, aside, shouting: "WHERE IS THE DRAGON? LET ME HAVE HIM!!!" While shouting, he showed his enormous Plasma-Cannon,which was almost as big as he was. The people fled.

Shortly after that incident, a giant Northlandish Ranger came and beat the dwarf with his fist on his helmet, with the result that the helmet was pushed over the dwarf's head and he wasn't able to see anything anymore. Disoriented, the dwarf sat down, only to be taken away by the Ranger, who also took away his weapon. Excusing himself, the Ranger said: "Sorry, wrong game..." Walking away, the remaining people could hear him murmur: "...And I DID say to him not to play THAT much of that game from Q...".

Meanwhile, Captain Timogrim of the Town's Guards discussed some strategical questions together with King Fasabar's Advisor.

He wondered if he should send the heroes alone to the Dragon, or in groups? What, if the woman managed it to defeat the Dragon, or a married man? The advisor decided to try and persuade the King to give the one who solves the quest additional 1000 pieces of Gold instead of the daughter, if one wouldn't want the daughter. Additionally, with this system it would be possible to send a group of heroes to the quest, because a single daughter couldn't be divided between a group of heroes.

"Well", he said, "now we should make a list of those who have applied so far."
1. Sajet, The woman from the Southlands
2. Thorwyn (with his magical sword)
3. ----
Chief Timogrim and the Advisor notice that the list is a little bit too short, and decided to talk to the King about an increase of the prize.

After the people were gone, a smart fox had read the appeal, too. As he was always on the side of the fair ones, he immediately decided to help the King.

But he also knew that his real shape would only frighten the humans, he ran to a befriended Magician, who gave him temporarily human shape, but one which tended to show similarities to his real self.

So, "The Fox" went to the King, and asked him about the quest. Since he was well equipped, and because he told him he would do the job without the prize, having fun in defeating the Dragon alone, he also was sent upon the quest by the King.

The other heroes, who couldn't imagine someone giving up a prize of 2000 pieces of Gold, looked at him with some mistrust.

Even from a fair distance King Fasabar and his Advisors could sense an enormous helter-skelter, see several Servants being knocked down, and hear a loud, babbling voice calling "That's a fact!"

Soon, the creator of all this rumble and tumble stood before the King himself and tried to perform an unpracticed - and therefore clumsily looking - bow and let the amazed King know: "For the Wale-God's sake! The one dragon, which catches up with Ulath, the Northerner, must still be born! Of course I will lead this group of heroes! That's a fact!" After that, the King could hear him murmur: "Is there anywhere a bottle of "Fire" schnapps?" The King shook his head.

Having said these words, the big, viking-like man from the north-west of the country staggered away.

Having caught his breath again, the King rubbed his clean beard thoughtfully and said to his Advisors: "I wonder if this will turn out well... This seems to become a rather strange group. And which one will become the leader of this group is most unclear. I can only hope that they'll kill the dragon, before they manage to kill themselves..."

Meanwhile the Servants could hear a loud scolding and crying coming out of the rooms of Princess Tira, the eldest of the King's three daughters. Knowing the awful moods of Princess Tira, they went away from her rooms as quickly as possible. If only they had listened a bit longer...

"How does my father dare prefer my little sister? 2000 pieces of Gold for the one who rescues her! And the hero gets her hand! Although Sahita is only half as pretty as I am! And I only wonder what happens if someone really manages it to rescue her!?! Maybe she won't be able to shut her mouth and begins jabbering about how she was kidnapped!?! This is something we cannot let happen.

A few seats away sat her half-brother Qarn. It was surely forseeable that his criminal career - which covered things like stealing, betrayal, blackmail and assassination - would surely lead his ways to the old Gallows-Tree.

Naturally, he agreed with her. "Yes; we cannot let them succeed! Haven't you seen these fools who are going to make their way to your unfortunate sister? My guess is that they aren't even able to rescue a cat from a tree!"

"Yes, that's true, but we still must not allow them to succeed in their quest. You must go after them, and make sure that they'll never come back!" the sly designated heiress answered. Merciless, Tira added: "I will be able to help you with my magic. Don't lose my magical amulet! And if not only the Dragon Gezitrdoch, but also our detested sister become victims of these stupid 'heroes', the better for us..." [Insert evil and merciless laughter here.]

Only one hour later, in the darkness of the night, a figure shrouded in dark clothes left the castle, heading for our group of heroes...

Party Members
1. Sajet, The woman from the Southlands
2. Thorwyn (with his magical sword)
3. "The Fox" (an intelligent Fox polymorphed into human shape)
4. Ulath, from the Northlands (a bit of a drunk)




Don't take this too seriously folks.


Yes, that is actually in the original text.




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