Characters

Darin' Dakota Hotspur - a male human

You were born Dakota Hotspur, and grew up east of the fabled Bron-yr-Aur, in the Northern Reaches, on the edge of the Mountain Kingdoms. A popular young boy, you were athletically gifted, and were always named captain of any team you played on, whether the sport was haisix, crack-the-skin, or blood bowl. You were called Darin' by your friends for never turning down a dare, and the nickname stuck when you returned from the haunted city of Bron-yr-Aur with the doorknob from Keramix's mansion. Your streak of white hair is testament to your brush with the ghost of Keramix himself.

You grew, as did your strength, agility, stamina, confidence and mastery of almost all games, your specialty being Blood Bowl. It wasn't long before the universities began scouting you, and Blood Bowl guru Stig Farcicle even touted you as, "the hottest quarterback since Harry 'Hades' Hallenbach". The Sea Kay Battling Otters and the Whippany Wombats went after you hard, but in the end you decided on the Wolverines of East Lansing University. As a rookie quarterback, you led your team in an upset over your archrivals, the East Lansing State Spartans. You threw for three touchdowns to who would become your favorite receiver, and best friend, Harrison 'Two-feet' Barowtom. He got the nickname 'Two-feet' for his miraculous ability to keep two feet in bounds. For all of this, you managed to lose the rest of your games due to seemingly continuous injuries to your offensive line (you learned a lot about running backwards). Your courses all seemed fairly basic: Freshman Studies, Rudimentary Minotaur Poetry Appreciation, Basic Stargazing, Introduction to Fitness, and Blood Bowl Strategies 101. During the spring semester you made the track and field team, and excelled at the javelin throw, as well as the hurdles.

During your brief summer vacation (you had to get back early for Blood Bowl camp), you parents seemed concerned with your studies. "Why sell yourself short", they said. "You're better than that", they said. "Why give them Blood Bowl and get nothing in return?" That hit home. When you returned to school, you talked to coach Ironskull about your classes. He wasn't happy, but you told him that you wouldn't play without getting the education you were supposed to get. It was the first time that you felt in control of your destiny.

Two months later, your destiny felt a little out of control. The course load along with the Blood Bowl schedule sent you floundering. More bad grades and you wouldn't be allowed to play. You needed the best help you could get. The best tutor on campus was the legendary world's oldest freshman. A real life genius who just couldn't seem to settle down. She had been at ELU for eight years, had eleven different majors, and yet due to the stringent matriculation restrictions, she was still only a freshman. You went to see Jaz Mirastar, the freshman genius, and your first visit was less than you had expected. She slammed her dorm room door in your face.

The next day you caught up with her between classes and she told you, "You jocks got it easy. Why not just play your dumb sports, and let me help those who really need it." Wow, you thought, a girl who didn't like sports. You had heard of them, but never met one before. You were so distracted by her, that you threw two interceptions in the game against the Livonia Decimators. The team bounced back, but the offensive line was still a source of concern.

When you got back to ELU, you continued to seek out Jaz Mirastar. Quitting is not a quality that makes for a good Blood Bowl quarterback, or a good student for that matter, and after two weeks of pestering the tutor, she finally agreed to take you on. Luckily, it was just in time to help you pass the basic algebra exam, which made you eligible to play in the final game of the regular season. Your running game was abysmal (due to the weak offensive line), you could barely move the ball through the air, and the Ann Arbor Ice Wielders won the game, 21 to 17 ending your post-season aspirations.

Normally, you would have been bummed out for about a month or so, but being with Jaz seemed to put things into perspective. You always figured that you were popular because of your looks, and that some even liked you because of the sports, but Jaz was different. She was the first person to look past all of that stuff and see you as just a person.

You didn't have much time to think on it because only a few days after the loss the local press was bashing your team, and so were your cross-town rivals, the East Lansing State Spartans. Something had to be done, or so said your team's star tackler, Nigel Vegemite. He had a plan that you and some of the boys would steal the East Lansing State mascot, a three-foot tall green golem named Sparty Spewhead. You were hesitant to go, what with your budding relationship with Jaz, but you're not one to quit on your team, and besides, he dared you. The only flaw in the plan was that State was playing a playoff game in Elkton that weekend against the Wrobfish, and to get the mascot now would require some travel. "Only adds to the surprise", said Nigel. "Only adds to the surprise." Apparently Nigel arranged to 'borrow' some horses from the school's equestrian team, so a four-man team of you, Nigel, Harrison and Skeeter Jackson set off the next morning.

Travel was a little more rugged without the Blood Bowl Boosters sending along all those creature comforts, like bed rolls, cooks, good food, team trainers and masseuses. So, after one night of roughing it with only Skeeter cooking something he called 'Swamp Bug Surprise', you decided that the next night you were going to get actual bed rest and actual hot food. You stopped at a small roadside inn, the Inn of the Perilous Journey.

The inn was warm and a large empty table dominated the common room. A large matronly woman smiled and bade you to sit. You asked for a couple of rooms and whatever was making that wonderful smell. "A couple of ales also", added Harrison. The woman laughed and brought out bowls of a thick, rich-smelling stew as well as a couple of pitchers of ale. The food gave you a warm, pleasant sense of fullness.

You woke up the next morning shivering. You and your companions lay on a cold stone floor, surrounded by stout iron bars.

"Wh-, what happened?" stammered Skeeter.

"Ohhhh, my head", mumbled Nigel, rubbing his head.

"Ah, yes. My trap is again a success." You all turned towards this new voice. There was a tall, bald man, with a long, white beard looking back at you.

"What do you want with us?" you demanded.

"Oh, you'll be part of it soon enough. Now be good boys and get some rest", he responded, "you'll need it".

He then stalked away. You appeared to be locked in a dungeon. You had no way of knowing where you were apart from that.

"Let's try to muscle open these bars, boys", you ordered.

After a few minutes of fruitless struggling, you tried to formulate another plan. A short while later, a door at the end of the hall opened and heavy footsteps could be heard. Your teammates recoiled in horror at the giant horned figure that appeared in front of your cell. Your teammates backed as far away as possible from this immense body, but you accepted the tray of food he (?) offered through an aperture in the bars. You sampled some of the fare (and possibly detected a surprised look on your jailer's face) and immediately spat it out. It was awful, even worse than Skeeter's Swamp Bug Surprise. The giant jailer sighed and gave a gentle nod, shrugged his enormous shoulders, and turned to leave.

Soon, the tall, bald man with the long, white beard returned.

"And how are my little subjects doing?" he asked.

"What are we going to be a part of?" you asked.

"Now that you are well fed", he replied, "I will explain. I am a bio-mage. I specialize in joining two or more creatures into one. In so doing, I can give one creature the benefits of many. If my experiments are successful, soon I will have an army of invincible warriors, single-mindedly devoted to me. I've already introduced dogs with humans for loyalty. Currently I'm working with pigs and goats to develop the ability to subsist on any type of food item. With any luck, you will all have the privilege of being goat-pig-men."

You glanced back at your stunned, open-mouthed companions. They would be of no help in designing an escape. The mage walked away giggling to himself. It was now up to you. You had to see something... find someone... You decided your only hope was the giant jailer.

"All right", you declared, "everybody listen. We're getting out of here, but we need to ask that guy who brought us the food for help."

""What?!?" yelled Skeeter. "Are you nuts? That thing is some kind of monster! That mage probably feeds it the bad experiments!"

"Monster may be a little harsh..." you began.

"Harsh?!" interrupted Nigel. "That thing's got horns, claws and fangs! Monster enough for me!"

You didn't quite look at it that way. People were always judging you by what you did and how you looked, and it wasn't true. Jaz seemed to see past that, and now you could too. Maybe this guy was a monster, but maybe he wasn't.

"Okay", you started. "So he looks a bit tough. That doesn't mean anything. Remember when we went to play the Arlington Grasshuggers, and the way they all looked at Big Brady Sleewell? To them, old Braids was a monster. This guy may well eat us, but I'm going to ask for his help, so don't wreck that chance."

The boys looked apprehensive but saw your point. Later, the big guy came back with some more food.

"Hello", you said. The guy looked genuinely surprised.

"Hi", he responded.

"My name is Dakota, what's yours?"

"Oglethorpe. Why do you want to know?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well, we need your help. Our families and friends all miss us, and we want to go back to them. Could you please open the door so we can get out and go home?"

Oglethorpe seemed to really concentrate. After a while, he gave a slow and deliberate answer.

"I will help you. Stand back." He then proceeded to rip the iron door off of its hinges. "Well?" he said, "Go. Get out before you are found out."

He had a big grin on his face as you boys piled out of the cell. As you moved down the hall, you glanced back at Oglethorpe. He still had that grin on his face.

"What's going to happen to you?" you asked.

"Oh, I suppose the master will be upset and put me in the hole", he said dejectedly.

"Why don't you come with us?" you said. You noticed a couple of the boys shaking their heads fearfully.

"Go with you?" replied Oglethorpe. His massive forehead wrinkled in thought. "What would I do? I don't know anything but this life here."

"We attend a school, where you could learn anything you want. I'll bet I can get you a scholarship if you wouldn't mind playing some ball with us."

He thought for a while, and the boys were urging you to hurry. You would not be moved. You wanted this Oglethorpe to have the opportunities you had. He kind of reminded you of yourself.

"I will go to your school, and learn, and play ball. Let me lead you out", he said as he pushed his way to the front.

With Oglethorpe's help you escaped quite easily (he led you past all of the traps and whatnot). You made your way back to East Lansing. Nigel commented that this trip should be kept hush-hush, as it might get you all in trouble. You decided to call it a scouting trip, and upon finding Oglethorpe, you deemed it a successful one. Upon reaching the college, you went straight to the athletic department. You introduced Oglethorpe to Coach Ironskull. Coach, after subduing his initial shock, seemed downright enthusiastic.

"Let's get this boy enrolled before East Lansing State sees him", declared Coach Ironskull.

The coach brought you and Oglethorpe down to admissions. You helped Oglethorpe fill out the paperwork (to your surprise, he read quite well), and coach went in to talk to Dean Whitman. You knew that with no real academic background, coach would have to pull some strings to get Oglethorpe into school. After a while, the coach came out.

"Well", he said to Oglethorpe, "you're in, but you do have to pass the entrance exam, and take some remedial courses. But, having completed them, you're on the team, full scholarship."

"Don't worry about that stuff", you said, "My girlfriend is an excellent tutor. She'll help you out."

You took Oglethorpe over to see Jaz and you got quite a few stares walking across the quad. Jaz looked surprised when you showed up at her dorm room with Oglethorpe. You explained the situation to her, and she seemed fairly enthusiastic about having this new special student. You then set Oglethorpe up in your frat house, and took him over to the bookstore.

"Don't worry about paying me back. I have a fairly lenient clothing allowance", you said.

You wound up ordering most of Oglethorpe's clothes (they didn't have much in a XXXXXXX Large). You were able to load him up with books from the list that Jaz gave you.

The rest of the semester went well. Oglethorpe was passing all his classes with flying colors. You and Jaz were getting closer, but you sill decided to keep things away from the physical area. Jaz did seem to get more involved with some group, however. This group, called NO-DOPE, seemed opposed to the Great Vault. The Great Vault was where they kept all of the recovered items from all the past Great Hunts. NO-DOPE believed that the Vault was dangerous for some reason, too much magic or something. You asked Jaz if you could go to a meeting, and she seemed to think it might be a good idea. When you went, to your surprise, Oglethorpe was there.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" you asked.

"Well, I've been a member for a couple of weeks now", he replied. "Magic left unchecked, and with no real moral compass, leads to bad things. Look at me for example."

You remembered now about Oglethorpe's physical exam. The doctors were quite sure that he was some new kind of life. When Oglethorpe had explained to them what he had done in the past, the doctors determined that he was part minotaur, part troll, as well as part human. In fact, some of the guys at the frat started calling him 'Trollspine'. You decided not to ask him about his membership in this group anymore. At the end of the meeting, the leader of the group, a Professor Adanac, came up to you. You were chatting with Jaz and Oglethorpe when he interrupted.

"Well, well. The famous Darin' Dakota", he said. "A pleasure to meet you. So what do you think of our group?"

This guy was said to be one of the smartest professors at the school, and there he was, asking you what you thought. You had to answer carefully.

"To be honest", you began, "I don't understand much of what you said. Besides, if the Vault were all that dangerous, wouldn't the government do something about it?"

"Ah", replied the professor, "good point". He then tried to explain his point to you, and with Jaz's help, you began to understand. The government wasn't ready to relinquish all of the powerful magics in the Vault just because something bad might happen. The professor had some formulas to explain that it wasn't a matter of if it would happen, but when it would happen and how badly the world would be affected. He then asked you if you could help. He said that a person of your stature would be able to deliver the message more effectively. You told him you had to think about it.

You, Jaz and Oglethorpe stopped by the First and Ten, a small off campus diner, for some coffee and longthorpes. They both tried to convince you to help NO-DOPE. You promised to think about it, and everybody went home.

You didn't like the idea of suckering people into believing something just because you were good at Blood Bowl. It didn't really seem fair. On the other hand, you didn't want to let two of your friends down, and, after all, it seemed really, really important to them. Jaz, however, was extremely fickle. She had more majors than you had running plays in your Blood Bowl playbook. Maybe this whole Vault thing was just another passing fancy. You decided that you'd have to come to your own conclusion about this. You never had to think about something this difficult before, but think, you did. By the next morning you came to a conclusion. Professor Adanac seemed a trustworthy sort, and what he said seemed to make sense. Magic could be very dangerous. Just like that bio-mage, and what he did to Oglethorpe. You were determined to help the world against such degradations, and the Vault seemed to be another out of control, magical maelstrom.

You got to make a speech at a rally in the quad (Jaz and Perigar wrote the speech), and the student newspaper really gave it a lot of space on the front page. "Blood Bowl Star Takes Anti-Vault Stance" read the headline. The coach didn't seem to think this was a good idea, and he ran you ragged with track and field that season. You were now a pole-vaulter and a decathelete, as well as a hurdler and a javelin thrower.

Right after track season was over, you started in on early Blood Bowl training camp. Oglethorpe needed to learn the game and the team needed to learn how to utilize him. You didn't even get to go home to visit mom and dad. There wasn't even time to see Jaz. All the practicing seemed to pay off, however. Oglethorpe was really coming along, and when the opening game of the season came, Oglethorpe had jersey number double zero, with the name "Trollspine" across it. You guys slaughtered the Sea Kay Battling Otters, 42-3. You threw for three touchdowns and ran for one. Dragfuss ran for one, and Varley 'Vanguard' Vandenwick intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown. The real story, however, was "Tramplin' Trollspine". Although he racked up twenty minutes in penalties, he completely mushed the Otters defensive line, opening up gaping holes, and buying you piles of time in the pocket.

The rest of the season progressed like this. Dragfuss piling up rushing yardage, you piling up passing yardage and Oglethorpe piling up penalty minutes. The opponents fell; Whippany Wombats 31-7; Elkton Wrobfish 35-0; and the team even broke the previous scoring record by beating Ann Arbor 65-3. The only game you lost was against your cross-town rivals, the East Lansing State Spartans, 14-10 when Trollspine racked up a record 65 penalty minutes. You finished the season 10 and 1, went to the playoffs, and walked fairly easily into the championship game. This was it, the championship game against your archrivals, the Spartans.

This time, you would not be denied. Oglethorpe kept his penalty time down and you threw for a record 398 yards and 4 touchdown passes. And after all of the hype and hoopla and the mob of people on the field tearing down the goalposts; after carrying your team off of the field; after all of the parties and excitement, Jaz asked you the question.

"How important are the goals of NO-DOPE to you?" she asked.

Somewhere in the two-hour conversation that followed that question, you had volunteered to be on a Great Hunt team to try to get Perigar Adanac the Pooh-bah-ship.

"This is the greatest gift you can give to the world", Jaz said. "Bigger than any speech or endorsement".

She was right. You wouldn't want your kids to be threatened by unchecked magical energies swirling around. So you joined the team with your closest friends, Jaz Mirastar and Oglethorpe Trollspine. Apparently, some old adventuring buddies of Professor Adanac will be coming with you: some human, Secros Herminides, and a dwarf, Baltak Bigfist. One of Professor Adanac's assistants, Tyric Saxondell, is supposed to be on the team as well. That would be only six members, one short of the seven member maximum, but Jaz was brilliant, and Oglethorpe could deal with just about anything, so maybe you didn't need that seventh person anyway. After winning the Blood Bowl championship you felt so good, that you know now that anything is possible; maybe a new Pooh-bah; maybe even a wedding.