The Story of Seek

Seek grew up a sheltered life as a floor-scrubber in the city of Felwithe. He scrubbed the floors of the Paladin’s guild, and later the Clerics temple, for several hundred years -- most of his life in fact. He even had to scrub the bridge leading over the city’s moat twice a week. You may notice how clean and white the floors and walls of Felwithe are? Well, that is Seek’s doing. Several centuries of scrubbing will do that. Seek was a janitor. How did he come into such a lowly, but necessary position, before becoming a Mage you may ask? That will require some basic Seek history. The Story of Seek, if you will. Or, the S.o.S, as it is known to Felwithe society.

Seek’s mother, Celia, was a rather plump and short Cleric of Karena who usually kept to her veggie and herb gardens on the mountainside behind the city. If she was not planting and tending her mountainside gardens, she was planting green ivy along the tops of the Felwithe walls. Seek’s father, Beek, was a pale, weak looking wizard who had spent 199 out of his 200 years inside the Arcane guilds (this is before meeting Celia). Beek’s strength was barely enough to hold his large spellbook and keep his enormous, bulbous head aloft, but it was sufficient for his purposes.

But, I have not related just how Beek and Celia met in the first place. This will require the telling of the Story of Beek, if you will. The S.o.B, as it is known short hand, in the Felwithe social circles.

Now, it must be mentioned that the honorable, if antisocial, Mr. Beek had a difficult time learning one of the hallmark wizard crafts, that of magical travel. Sure, Beek could easily invoke enough lighting, cold, and fire to practically wipe out the south side of Felwithe, but even his Gate spells usually fizzled or even misfired with serious side-effects. Perhaps it was that old Beek had a psychological block against traveling -- after all he was such a bookworm that absolutely hated to the leave rooms and libraries of the Arcane guild for any reason. But to be a true wizard, Beek had to learn not only Gate, but Shadow Step -- and even Teleportation -- the most horrific of all!

Yet, Beek was able to learn and tame the Gate spell after enough study. Many said, with great insight, that Beek eventually mastered Gate because it served his interest. Beek was bound in the Arcane magics guildhalls, and would cast Gate to return to his beloved home instantly. For many years, he did not try to learn his other travel spells aside from Gate -- even becoming as high as a level fifty wizard without ever trying to cast even a single Shadow Step spell! But, alas, one day the wizard guildmaster, “The OmniWiz,” as he was known, came before Beek, surprising him in his studies. Beek looked up from his work translating a Combine empire scroll into the Elvish language. Beek could tell something was up with The OmniWiz, and immediately began to sweat from his white, pasty forehead.

“Beek,” snapped The OmniWiz, “this has gone on long enough! I saw your presentation. I read you remarks in your journal scroll. None of us believe it. There is no chance of going unintentionally to the Plane of Fear accidentally by casting Shadow Step or Teleport!”

Yet, Beek was positive that such a chance could occur, sadly taken in by his fears.

“But M’Lord Omni....”

“No more words or excuses Beek! You are a level fifty wizard for crying out loud! Tomorrow we have to move several high-ranking Paladins to support Firona Via in her exploration of the newly discovered continent of Kunark. All of my regular, traveling wizards are already employed in this exercise. I need some help here.” Beek quailed at the thought of trying to port not only himself, but others as well. “M’Lord, I cannot undertake this . . . my studies will suffer drastically and . . .” “Tomorrow,” interrupted The OmniWiz, “tomorrow you shall take a sack of Malachite's and assorted regents to a newly discovered telporter in a place called the Deadlands.” Beek stared at The OmniWiz in shock.

“The Dreadlands, M’Lord?” Beek said with a look of horror on his face.

“Yes. Here are the coordinates of the Combine Empire teleporter.” The OmniWiz then handed Beek a small, brown envelope. As Beek took it in his shaking hand, the note dropped to the floor. The OmniWiz shook his head sadly as Beek attempted, repeatedly and unsuccessfully, to pick up the note.

“Better practice your spells, Beek. There can be no more excuses. I need you to help us out with this,” said the OmniWiz as he walked out of the room. . . .

Later that night, Beek cracked open an ancient, unused tome. It must have been two hundred years old. Beek blew the dust off the moth-eaten cover. This was his journeyman’s spellbook containing Shadow Step -- a spell he never attempted to memorize, let alone even cast. Beek knew this was it -- the OmniWiz would take his ability to teleport tomorrow as a test. He knew if he failed, he would be placed in Firona Via’s actual company of adventurers. He shuddered at the thought. He briefly thought about leaving Felwithe and going somewhere, anywhere, where he could be in peace. Beek sighed decided against that. Felwithe was his home. “I am going to have to try this” he thought. “I’ll have to start with the simpler Shadow Step and get that down before using Telep . . .” Beek could not bring himself to finish the word.

He began the process of spell memorization. Slowly the arcane symbols filled his head in such a way that he knew, when repeated back vocally, with the right gesticulations, invoke the short range port that would put him somewhere else within the building. “Arcccfla Merbubble Zappini Artulacturious . . .“ he began to cast. Then suddenly the world shifted and Beek felt something happen like a Gate spell, but it went horribly wrong! He was somewhere, but everything was not right. He was no longer in the comfortable halls of the Arcane guilds. Gravity was pulling him with abnormal strength from a weird angle so that he felt way offbalanced. Odd looking misshapen plants grew at weird angles to the ground. Behind him, the place where the horrible gravity pull wanted him to go, was a dark lake full of what he thought looked like black acid. The sky was dark and even his Elvish sight did him little good such was his sudden shock. “The Plane of Fear!” He thought in his panic. Beek grabbed a rock to try and keep from falling and sliding along the ground into that horrible, horrible black lake of death..... . .

Celia was out tending her mountainside gardens the very night Beek attempted his first Shadow Step. She bent down to adjust a small Winter’s Soul flower until it became free of her Ficious creeper. “There,” she thought, “you should grow all right now.” As Celia stood up there was a sudden flicker of light and weirdest looking Elf she ever saw suddenly popped into being right on the mountainside in her very garden before her! He was basically a large head, with sticks for arms and legs attached, or so he appeared at first. He made an awful gurgling noise in his throat as he weakly stumbled about her plants, thrashing all about wildly, seemingly blinded. “Help me!” He shrieked as he began to stumble down the hill. Celia reached out for him but she was too late as he tumbled down with a crash and splashed right into the pool underneath the Arcane Magic guilds. “Helppppbbb. .” He cried as he went under. Celia saw that, not only could this elf not stand on a hillside, but apparently he knew nothing about swimming either. She raced down the hill and dove head first into the lake. She was a strong woman, close to the Earth, empowered by Karena, and had no trouble pulling the helpless Elf out of the lake and to the shore. It was Beek, to be sure, soaked and sputtering, and raving like a lunatic. “Are you OK?” She shouted to him, as though he would not understand her. He did not. Beek passed out.

None know why Celia took Beek as her husband some weeks later. Some said that it was her nurturing instinct, her duty as a Cleric of all growing things, the force of Karena guiding her, to help this strange Elf survive. But, after the “accident,” as Beek called it, they became inseparable, often walking along the Felwithe ponds and lakes together, or even about in the Greater Faydark. Celia tended to Beek as she did to any struggling flower in her garden, seeing worth in each thing’s uniqueness. And, they eventually had a child together, who exhibited some of the paranoia and intellect of Beek, but the steadfastness of his mother -- in the lack of fear she had. Unfortunately for this child, they disappeared when he was but a elfling of the twentieth moon, hardly more than an infant in Elvish time, leaving the poor child to be raised by the janitor guild he was adopted by, as they take in many orphaned children by city law. Some say Beek and Celia went to the Dreadlands using teleport and could not return for some reason, as Celia was always trying to get Beek to face his fears and limitations. Others say that there is a flaw in the Shadow Step and Teleport spells that can take you to some horrible place, and they ended up there when Beek tried to prove his case to The OmniWiz (who, by the way, went missing about the same time). Perhaps we will never know. But, the child of Beek and Celia, the Guildmaster of Janitors, took only a broom, shovel, torch, and a mug of ale, went forth to find them. This child’s original name was forgotten long, long ago, only going by the name of Seek now. He learned Magecraft, affording training in the halls of the Arcane guild after saving his wages for decades. Seek travels the four lands, searching for the truth of his parent’s end, as well as aiding others in the good cause of the High Elves which is, to Seek, burn evil stuff as they would do trash in the municipal Felwithe trash incinerator.

To be continued...the Story of Seek....