[Enter The Tragedians]

A wolf began to howl. He was glad that there would be a full moon tomorrow night. I called Agilis to speak with the creature, hoping to get some useful information. I called out "greetings friend wolf, a traveller in your lands requests direction." It got very quiet after this, and I began to wonder if that had been a good idea.

From down the road, we heard sounds along the road and soon we saw a very tall wagon pulled by a pair of black horses. Lanterns were hung from the wagon and pots clanged against its sides. Two men rode atop the wagon. One climbed down when he saw us and helped open the back of the wagon where three or four others rode. The man then introduced himself as Malcom and his company as the Tragedians, a troupe of actors, specializing in tragedies. He asked us to join him and his fellow players at the witching hour for a tragedy.

Our group seemed somewhat reluctant, so I asked the man if he had a part for Duke Fulbright. He assured me that indeed he did and that my role was to lose a duel. The others looked startled when I readily agreed and began to urge them to play along with my dream. Perhaps the most outrageous part was for Kragon. When we had asked him who he had been called in his room he claimed it was a king. We now found out that his part was nurse Bonniface or Bonnie. He made a rather horrendous looking young lady. Rodriguez, an actor, also had a part in this play. He rehearsed a duel with Sir Thomas The Pure (Maeli) before we got started.

Finally we were ready, and the curtain rose to reveal a great hall within a fine castle. A doorman announced each of us as we entered. I looked behind us quickly and saw neither stage nor curtain, but then dreams often do strange things. A king sat at the end of the hall and welcomed us. The doorman also introduced Rodriguez, son of King Balag (a neighboring king a gathered).

We learned from the king that his daughter Mary was to meet he betrothed, Prince Sedgewick, today but she was foully abducted and spirited away. Sedgewick, the court wizard, and several brave Knights went after the evil thieves only to find that the loathsome criminals had sold her to two dragons for gold. We had noticed the head of a very large red dragon over the throne and the king went on to explain about the feud between the offspring of this dragon and his kingdom. The dragons lived in Caer Carak, an old, abandoned stronghold in the nearby mountains. The prince and his party attacked the dragons and fought until the beasts ran out of fire. The other knights were killed in the battle but before the dragons killed the wizard and the prince, the wizard was able to lock the beasts in the stronghold and teleported Sedgewick and some treasure out. The wizard was killed, and Sedgewick is in grave condition here in the castle.

The king went on the promise the hand of his second daughter, Arachnis, to the slayer of the dragons. He had a map of Caer Carak made up and brought in the treasure recovered by the wizard. Two arrows of dragon slaying, a sword which was strongly enchanted to fight dragons, especially red ones, and a dagger with an enchantment similar to that of the sword were given to us. Malagar, whose part was that of a mage went up to the court wizard's lab to look for useful items while the friar (Lathaniel) and Bonnie tended to Sedgewick.

Malagar returned saying that he could get past the iron portcullis and work the lever to open the gate which the king had told us about. Lathaniel returned to say that Sedgewick would not be going anywhere for a few days.

Suddenly Rod burst into the room all in a huff and demands a duel with me. I could have easily snapped the man in two, but I played along. The duel started and I threw a punch that missed intentionally. When we were close, he handed me a small bladder. His sword whizzed past and I held the bladder up to my neck and squeezed. Blood gushed out of the bladder all over my neck and I fell over pretending to be dead.

He then challenged Sir Thomas The Pure. They fought for a short time when Rod slipped on some spilled fruit and Sir Thomas ran him through. She was very upset by this, as the poor fellow really did look dead. The good friar came over and "resurrected" me, and the king had Rod hauled away.

We selected weapons and gear for the battle with the dragons, and I found a long bow and a thing they called a fauchard which looked similar to my naginata. It responded differently in my hands however and was not made as well as my weapon.

Fine horses carried us up to Caer Carak where we saw the path up to the stronghold. Laertes scouted the way and tried for a shot with one of the dragon arrows. He came back down, reporting that he had missed with the first arrow. He returned and hit with the second, killing one dragon instantly. The other dragon charged the gate and hit it causing rocks to fall all around. One struck Laertes but he was able to come back and report his success. We all approached and began to attack the beast through the bars, providing a distraction so Malagar could slip in and raise the gate. More rocks fell as the dragon crashed repeatedly against to gate and several of us were hit. Maeli tried to dodge one rock but instead stepped right into the path of a larger one. She went down and did not rise. Lathaniel got to her immediately and began to do what he could.

The sword and dagger given to us by the king proved to be the only effective weapons that we had against the dragon. Laertes picked up the sword dropped by Maeli and hit the dragon hard. Malagar, after raising the gate, dove from the ledge near the lever and slammed the dagger into the dragon's back. Laertes struck again with the sword and nearly severed the beast's head. The thing died almost immediately. I felt very ineffective during the battle, I missed with the arrows I shot, I almost dropped the fauchard twice, expecting it to handle like a naginata, and when I finally gave up on that and began to attack with fists and feet the thing was dead. Laertes found a ring on the horn of the dragon he killed with the arrow and when he removed it, it changed from huge to normal sized. We freed Mary from her cell in the rear of the cave, finished severing the heads and dragged them back to the king. I took two of the large horns off of one dragon for use on the shaft of my naginata.

Maeli was unconscious but still alive, and we rode back to the castle to report. Everyone there seemed a little surprised that we returned at all, but the king welcomed us back joyously and announced wedding tonight. He was amazed that One knight had slain both dragons and told our ranger that he could marry Arachnis tonight in a double ceremony with the wedding of Sedgewick and Mary. Laertes seemed less than thrilled. Although he had never met the girl, mention of the name seemed to give the man a chill.

He was right to be apprehensive. Arachnis was a drow! Laertes went along with the play however and wed the lass. It was clear that kissing the bride was not something he relished.

Things went downhill from here. Sedgewick screamed out something about revenge and turned into a huge red dragon. He reached out and bit off the king's head. Mary transformed as well and they both let out huge gouts of flame burning everyone to a crisp.

I woke up at this point, grateful to find that it had indeed been a dream. This was before I noticed that I was still wearing the costume of Duke Fulbright and that I carried the wounds received from a falling rock. I also had a very mild burn, much like a sunburn, over my entire body. On the bed were a longbow, the fauchard, and the two ears. Some dream. I sat and contemplated what had happened this night and was not pleased with the conclusions that came to me. I was even less pleased that I had not asked more questions and figured things out before it was too late. I looked again at the delicate, feminine ears that had once been dragon horns and wondered what I was to do now that I knew that they had really been a part of Princess Mary. A fine tragedy indeed.

30 Eleasias. We all eventually assembled at the burrow this morning and talked about our dream-adventure. Maeli was the only one missing, and we learned from Lathaniel that she was at his temple, and was still unconscious. We made plans to discover what we could about our night's work and learn more about options for our trip to Ilmwatch. Niel also mentioned a favor that he wanted to do for Lady Nadeaux. All he knew was that it involved some security at an embassy party. He was to find out more over the next few days. Laeretes, Elton, and Lathaniel were to go see Sam Shock who had fixed our rings previously. We believe that the rings may have been responsible for our involvement with the Tragedians. Laertes would then try to find the Treant Brommm to learn more about the overland route to Ilmwatch.