SPECIAL NOTE: This picture does not even resemble Jaridis Blade, and is here for diversionary purposes only. I am not in any way suggesting that it appears even remotely like Jaridis Blade. Any similarities between the two would be
strictly coincidental. On my part, I just thought the picture looked cool.
In the D&D world of Ulysii, which was created by an aquaintence (the DM) the name Jaridis meant alot. To me also, Jaridis meant much. He was my first D&D character I ever made, and I remember him rather fondly. It is for this reason that I have decided to use his name on this site.
I remember the first few of his adventures quite vividly. It was a few years ago, and me and the DM had just started reading D&D books. Back then, our role-playing was pretty crappy. Even so, it was alot of fun. But after awhile, it began to grow boring playing just the two of us. So we got our friends
into this as well. Soon our group got much larger, but we then discovered there was a few problems with that. Two of our players (To whom we shall give the names Bob and Bob junior..) could never show up. Don't ask me why, but when they did show up, it was a few hours late. Then the terror truly
began. Bob discovered, late one night when knocking on the window, that he could easily break into the house. Me and the DM, of course, were both terrified....But that's another story, and anyone who comes here probably doesn't want to listen to me ramble on about Bob and Bob junior..
So now I will talk a bit about Jaridis's many adventures. (I'll try to keep this short..)
Jaridis was a bard who often performed at a small inn in the town of Namash, in the great kingdom of Krandov. That's right. Before I go on, I should give you a short geography lesson. In this homebrewed world, there were two major continents: THE continent and Syissaria. Syissaria was the big evil
place where ruled the fiendish and immortal emperor Zethari(to whom we quickly gave the name Zethy). On THE continent were five seperate "good" kingdoms, of which the most powerful was Krandov. Anyways, back to the story. Jaridis was living in Bo's bar, where he entertained the populace. The first important NPC was Aidia, a female theif who hung out at the bar. The adventure truly started with the arrival of a mysterious man who called himself Grayhawk. (He was in fact Thrash Solegan, leader of the evil order called the Dark Knights.) Anyways, Grayhawk hired Jaridis and Aidia to sneack into the capitol of Krandov, which by the way was called
Krandov Keep, and steal secret governement papers. Jaridis wasn't exactly a criminal at that time, but the gold Grayhawk offered was more than enough to convince him to undertake this mission.
The journey from Namash to Krandov keep was short, and as I recall, totally uneventful. Finally, our "heroes" arrived at Krandov Keep. Once there, a plan was made. Aidia would steal the plans while Jaridis, masquerading as a Bard invited there to perform, would distract the guards. The operation went off flawlessly, all because of my..errrr..Jaridis's ingenuity. I convinced Lt. Bungo, the most incompetent guard in the universe, that the keep was under attack, and so he rallied all the troops to counterattack. (This was just the first meeting with Bungo, as later he chased Jaridis trying to arrest him for that charade.. He usually caught us too, (thanks to the power of The Horsekiller Dm..) Anyways, after Grayhawk payed them and disapeared, Jaridis and Aidia decided to head for Troede Tower (The capital of the country of Trode, and home of the magecouncils..) since Bungo was hot on their heels. On the way there, they were attacked by some giant rats, and since I was using a fixed D20, were in need of help desperately. Fortunetly, Hawk the neighborhood ranger showed up and became friends with the two, after slaying all the rats. Then Hawk went back into the forest, and Jaridis and Aidia continued on their way to Trode Tower.
That was about when our second player joined the game. He played a rip-off character from the game Final Fantasy 3 named (coincidently) Edgar Roni Figaro. After Jaridis met him in a bar, Bungo sought to arrest him as well for associating with the infamous Bard. It was when in Troede that Jaridis aquired his "magic" scimatar, from the assasin dealer.
And now, for your enjoyment, I am going to write a specimen of our crappy roleplaying at the time we met Bob and Bob Junior's characters..
The DM sat back in his chair, smiling smugly. The stage was set. All was ready. The only thing that remained was for the PC's to find a link between the two groups so they could travel together. The DM waited expectantly for some good role-playing. (I don't know what he expected us to do, really...But we sure disapointed him this time..)
The other players and I exchanged glances, not quite knowing what to do. Tension was thick in the air...Then we all got cans of pop and the situation improved dramatically.
Feeling much better about this whole thing, I tentatively said "Uhhh...You guys look strong..Want to travel with us?" To this Bob responded "Yeah, sure." Bob junior simply said "Okay." The DM sat up in his chair, face red with rage. "That's REALLY crappy role-playing you know,"he shouted, "I want you to do that scene over again! And this time
do it right!" We all looked at each other, uncertain on how to proceed, when I had an idea. "Hey! I know you two! You're my cousins!" Bob and Bob Junior got the cue and responded that indeed they were. We all looked at the DM, who was beginning to go red again, but in a valient move, before he could say anything, I shoved a nearby Perrier bottle in his mouth.
Special note: The preceding was a dramatization of real events. I DID NOT in fact shove a Perrier bottle into the DM's mouth. (Though he does drink Perrier, which I find rather strange, although it's really not all that bad.) Other then that, it was pretty much the real event. For more on Jaridis, keep reading.
As you can probably tell by now, this story could get veerrry long, and since I don't want it to drag, I will begin to really summarize. Although it may seem that Jaridis is not exactly "good", he shows his true colors later on as he becomes a hero in the kingdom of Krandov fighting off the Syissarians. (I'm a bit ahead of myself here...Time to backtrack. Despite the peace talks, Syissaria went to war anyways..)
This was sort of predictable, since the Daemonic emperor Zethari was obsessed with global domination. To make it short, after the festivals surronding the peacetalks, the king of Krandov suspected that Zethari would attack anyway, and so called on Jaridis and his compagnons to go to Syissaria and spy on the state of Syissarian army mobilization. But after finally reaching the capital of Syissaria (called Drak-Zed) our heroes were drafted into the
syissarian army! Soon they were on ship back towards THE continent, stuck in the enemy army!
To make this short however, the boat they were on was sunk by Kainazzo (another rip-off name) a giant dragon turtle who haunted the seas, and also one of the four fiends of the elements. After a few underwater adventures, the tired group was finally beached on the continent. With all possible haste (which wasn't much thanks to the afore mentioned Horsekiller DM..)they set off towards Krandov Keep.
Upon arriving, they discovered that the syissarians had ALREADY attacked and that Ridaar and Nardaria (two kingoms on the continent) had already fallen. And so, like a vice, the Syissarian armies squeezed in on Krandov from both north and south. On their own, Krandov would never hold out. But then one of the advisors had a suggestions. In old tales and legends, another continent was mentioned, far to the west of THE continent. This place was called the Orient,
and possibly, should a messenger be sent, they could convince the rulers there to send troops to aid in the war. Well, guess to whom they gave that job?
Jaridis and his friends traveled long and hard, now joined by a new theif named Neflite (I didn't make up the name, so don't ask me!). After many days at sea, they arrived in the Orient. The adventuring in the Orient took us a few months to play, but I can summarize it in one sentance. We traveled about, doing services for the various kings until they pledged their support to the cause. Finally, the party returned to the Continent where the war
still raged hot. With the help of the Oriental troops, Krandov managed to hold out longer. Finally, a strike was purposed into the heart of Ridaar, where the emperor himself waited. Jaridis and his friends volunteered to scout ahead of the army and warn of any ambushes. There were none. Finally, the army reached Ridaar castle, only to find it abandonned...And then a projection of Zethari appeared in the main square. It informed the king that while they had advanced on Ridaar, the Syissarian force had slipped away and were now attacking
the practically undefended town of Krandov Keep. Worse, Zethari informed them that he had control over almost a dozen shadow dragons. Against the force of the Syissarian army and the shadow dragons, Krandov Keep had no hope of surviving...
It looked like that was the end of the kingdom of Krandov, but this tale is not finished. There was a man called simply "The master" who was hunting Jaridis throughout these and more adventures. This evil mage for some reason wants Jaridis dead, but at this point he helped our heroes save the continent. At this point, the master and his hirelings Kella, Athena and Dartagnon arrived atop red dragons. The master offered a simple deal: He would lend his red dragons to their cause in return for, when the battle was over, Jaridis would
surrender himself to him. Jaridis hardly hesitated before agreeing, and soon they were back at Krandov Keep, having flown on the backs of the reds. There, they faced off against the shadow dragons and managed to prevail. But they were already too late: Zethari had already entered Krandov Keep, and the Syissarian army had breached the town walls. Hurriedly, our heroes entered Krandov Keep in an attempt to stop Zethari from assasinating the royal family. However, they first had to face Zethari's two top bodyguards. By the time they were defeated, our heroes were very wounded and stood no chance against the evil emperor. That would have been the end
but for the appearence of Zirco Featherhilt, Ulysii's most powerful assasin. For some unknown reason, Zirco joined with Jaridis and his friends to stop Zethari. Before the fight could begin though, the emperor disapeared...
Things still looked grim for the heroes, but nevertheless they manned the keep walls to defend against the encroaching hordes. But just then, another army arrived, this one sent by BOB SHMENKY fried chicken! Bob shmenky was a friend of the PC's who owned the largest food chain on the globe. At the sight of this new army, the Syissarians lost heart and fled the battlefield, leaving our heroes victorious..
Special note: That is where the tale ends. The adventure is not over, for Jaridis promised to turn himself over to the master at the end of the battle. And what of the Syissarian army and the malignant emperor Zethari? Although defeated this time, their armies are by no means routed. To put it simply, this tale is incomplete, and purposefully so, I think. For although it is then that we stopped the role-playing, you may still imagine your own conclusions to this epic. On another note, I would just like to say that this is a VERY abbreviated form of the travels of Jaridis. There are many other
adventures which I did not even mention in this text. There are many characters and places which I figured I did not have time to mention. In the end, this text is incomplete. But it is hard to write down two years worth of roleplaying in the amount of time I have. And so, that is all there is here. -The Blade