Meng, Grim, And Draconus The Norse Dragon's Quest
in the forgotten realms, a land that stretched as far as the material plane allowed it, there emerged three heroes destined from a young age to ward off a malevolent being bent on the demolition of the forgotten realms. the first of these three heroes was Grim, a towering human barbarian that had the ability to communicate with the third hero. he wielded a Greataxe as heavy as a totem pole. the second hero was Meng Mei, a human rogue who was crafty and sneaky. he wielded a rapier that had cut down thousands of enemies. the third hero was the most powerful of them all. he was a norse dragon, large enough to perch on the tallest mountain peaks, fast enough to outfly a silver phantom dragon, the formerly fastest of the dragons. his combat skills were unrivaled. his claws disassembled his enemies. his lightning breath turned entire armies to ash. and his strike was so quick his enemies didn't know they were dead until ten minutes later. and his name was Draconus. the party set out to stop a cult that was planning to unleash a demon prince. Grim and Meng climbed onto the back of Draconus. Grim shook the reins, and they were twelve miles away from the village in five seconds. they reached the rainforests of chult in ten minutes, where Grim and Meng dismounted. Draconus followed them as they picked their way through the forbidden jungle. they reached the cult's lair, an ancient tomb, by noon, the time they were supposedly unleashing the demon prince. grim drew his greataxe, and Meng drew his rapier, named pokey. the following battle was fierce, thirty cultists against three powerful heroes (please don't ask how they were able to fit Draconus in the tomb. it was traumatic). Grim flew into a rage, cutting down his enemies with mighty sweeps of his greataxe. Meng darted in and out of the shadows, disassembling his enemies with calculated precision. then he got knocked unconscious. Draconus slashed at his enemies with his claws and exploded them from a distance. then, in the final moments of the battle, Draconus got hit with a sleeping dart. he collapsed. the cultist then went about tying him up. grim fought even more furiously, tearing at his enemies with his fingernails to get to Draconus. then he got bashed with a Morningstar, and fell to the ground, unconscious. the cultist had won. they knew they had won. except for one thing: Meng Mei! while they had been celebrating, he had snuck over to grim, whispered a spell, and healed him. grim now exploded, sending his foes flying as he made his way toward Draconus. he woke up, looked refreshed, then a look of dismay crossed his face as he realized that his companions were fighting to free him. he started thrashing, his tail tossing wildly, trying to help. grim got over to him, then started hacking his way through the chains that bound him. Meng started blasting everyone to smithereens with the titan fire that burned in his veins, for he was a son of helios, titan of the sun. meanwhile, grim was still hacking away... meng summoned earthquakes, volleys of arrows, magical swords, and cookie dough (we're talking pepperkakor), but he was soon overwhelmed by the sheer number of cultists crowding around him. he used the last of his magic to summon a sphere that encircled him, acting as a shield. he lay there, waiting for the cultists to destroy the barrier, the only thing that kept him clinging to life, like a tree that would not tumble... wait a second. why didn't he think of this before? he used one last spell. it was a spell named wish, a spell that would grant him anything he wanted. he used it to rejuvenate himself, filling himself with new life. magic, like everything, deserved a chance to grow. he stood up, leveled a steely glare at his enemies, and smashed the earth, a pillar of stone rising where he was standing. at the top of his earthen tower, he casted wish one more time. he radiated a blast of magic, surging through his veins and blasting the cultists to ashes. he spared his friends, though. he rushed over to grim, who was still slashing as the chains that bound draconus. he told grim to stop, then took a good look at the chains. Draconus looked up and tried to speak, but his roar was muffled by the chains that bound his snout. just hearing draconus's muffled roar enraged grim. he blade-smacked the chain that bound draconus's left wing. Meng shot him an irritated look. "I'm trying to work here! your vibrations are not helping!" "I know!" grim replied, his voice drowned in misery. hearing Grim's reply made Meng instantly feel sorry for him. he sighed. "here, I know you want to be useful, so I have a job for you. go underneath him and try to find a metal lock resting against his chest." grim nodded, his look, well, grim. he told Meng to hang on, and he went underneath draconus and picked him up. draconus moaned in protest. "I know, buddy, but we gotta do this." said grim. he looked at draconus's chest, which had a crisscross patchwork of chains, intersecting so densely that grim couldn't see his scales. grim was tempted to go on a rage just so he could free friend. nonetheless, he restrained himself through heroic effort, and if he tried to free him, he would probably get himself flattened into a barbarian pancake drowned in norse dragon sauce. after several minutes of intent scanning, grim announced that he had found nothing. he heard a gasp, and, using a rope, meng hung into his vision, looking appalled. he startled grim so much that he almost dropped the dragon. "do I have to buy a 'barbarian at work, do not disturb' sign just so I don't flatten myself?" Meng grinned. "sorry. I like sneaking up on people." his face turned grim. "you were saying: you didn't find anything????!!!!!!!??!!" "yup." said grim. "WHAT!!??!!??" said Meng. normally, Grim wasn't intimidated by small twenty-year-olds that dropped into people's faces and grinned a lot, but right now, as one of them yelled in his face while he was holding up a 15,000 pound dragon, he was definitely feeling pretty uneasy. this guy could blow up armies of cultists. why couldn't he blow up one barbarian? suddenly, Meng had a completely different look on his face. his face went through multiple phases of ingenuity before he cried, "aha!" Grim stared at him blankly. "what?" he said. "I just remembered a spell that can undo magical locks!" said Meng. "yes?" grim said eagerly. "give me some space here," said Meng, and he began a long, droning chant. the words were in thieves' cant, a language known only by rogues and their allies. grim didn't know if it would help, but he banged his axe against his breastplate, hoping to embolden Meng. Meng droned on, and the chains started to shimmer, as if they were dissolving. as if on cue, the chains dissolved, leaving draconus free to open his wings toward the sun. the three heroes emerged victorious, knowing they would be remembered as the saviors of the forgotten realms. after all, everything deserves a chance to grow.