The Challenger

Chris

Chris was rather new to this. Dodging bullets and navigating politics weren't really his style. He was a stranger in a strange land, doing things that he wasn't really good at. Chris had been born and raised a barley farmer, his parents teaching him the profession. He was really good friends with Sawyer, whose farm was close by, but Sawyer left the farm to join the army in the big city when he was 19.

Chris couldn't wait until he could turn 19 himself and join Sawyer to fight enemy kingdoms and slay evil monsters. But he still had to wait a few years. After a long time of waiting, Chris's birthday approached. The day before, his parents sent him off on an errand to get some eggs from a neighboring farm in exchange for some of the Farlo's quality barley. And so Chris rode off with the family's only horse, which was really just a small pony, to complete the deal.

When he returned, however, he was met with an unexpected sight. His parents' farm, his farm, was burned to the ground. His house, the silos, all still burning. Among the fiery rubble after frantically searching, he found his parent's charred corpses. Upon further inspection, he saw that they had stab wounds as well. This was the work of some sort of criminal guild. He swore in his wrath that he would avenge his parent's deaths.

And so, with burned clothing and nothing to his name but that, Chris set off towards the city. By the time night fell, he found a small church just outside a small farmer community. The priests took him in and offered to teach him the ways of Mor, the god of revenge. Months passed, and intense training in both the martial arts and some spell casting as well turned the humble farmer into a formidable warrior. When his 20th birthday came, Chris was ready to exact revenge on the arsonists and murderers. He thanked the priests for all they had done, and headed towards the city.

On his first night in the big city, he stayed at the Blue Ring tavern, where he met the strangest party of ragtag adventurers he could ever have expected. A charismatic tiefling bard managed to get kicked out for beating the tavern's fiddler in a battle of the bards. Meanwhile a thieving kenku was sneaking some coins out of the tip box. An elf wizard brooded in a corner, a dark raven perched on his shoulder. However strange these adventurers were, they quickly became Chris's new family.

While Chris was getting to know some of them, his old buddy Sawyer walked into the tavern. Chris hurriedly got to catch up with Sawyer, who apparently, didn't make it into the army, and instead joined the city guard. Chris asked about the arson at his farm, and Sawyer said that he had been looking into it, but someone higher up was preventing him from investigating further. Sawyer knew something fishy was up, but he couldn't probe any further without getting into trouble. He gave Chris the few clues he had managed to find, and left back to duty.

What followed was an epic adventure the likes of which Chris never could have imagined, but he eventually ended up on a flying ship soaring through the clouds on his way to some city. He had gained a magic ring that gave him a way to contact a strange deity known only as Araum to Chris. Earlier in his adventures, Zeseis, the tiefling bard, had died as they fled from an evil count's army. Chris, who loved Zeseis like a father, rushed back onto the battlefield, dodging bullets, to try and save Zeseis. Unfortunately, the bard had already died. Chris then noticed a silver ring on Zeseis's finger, which he knew was powerful somehow, and jammed it onto his finger. He thence made a deal with Araum to save Zeseis and also get some sweet loot in exchange for a favor in the future.

Zeseis gasped back to life, and immediately proceeded to punch Chris in the face. When he died, he saw his dead wife and children again. He was happy with his choice to sacrifice himself to let his friends escape. Now, not only had he been ripped from that happy new reality, but Chris had used dark powers to bring him back.

Needless to say, Zeseis was not very happy with Chris. Jumping back to the present, Chris and crew were heading to a mysterious city that he had been told to go to by Araum as payment for his debt. He had yet to discover what she wanted him to do. Suddenly, horns started blaring, and the shipmen started frantically running around.

"The engine has failed!" He heard one of them cry.

"Then why are we still fly-" Chris's quiet musings were dramatically interrupted as the ship suddenly dropped out of the sky.