Traudl Quest: Part 1

Back to the well this week. Here’s the first part of something I wrote almost twenty-five years ago. I’ve basically re-written from the ground up in order to detach it from a larger series I was working on (that never went anywhere), and also to make it a little less on the nose than it originally was. A little more background and explanation will follow.

Enjoy!

Far to the north, at the edge of the word, as the denizens of the Bagamoth Empire knew it, was the town of Enas’ni. In the waning days of fall, before the bitter winter would set in, a strange child wandered into town.

She went by the name Traudl. Traudl of the Blumenschnüffler halfling clan, though she didn’t bear the hallmarks of that species. She stood four and a half feet tall, much too tall for a halfling. Her head was cropped by an unkempt tangle of short auburn hair, not an entirely unknown shade to the halflings, but extremely rare. Her ears were sharply pointed, and her eyes shimmered like emeralds. If she was a halfling, as she claimed, she was the rarest of the whole bunch.

Traudl became something of a town celebrity, going from house to house, helping with chores and asking questions. She listened more than she spoke, and said little more of her past beyond that she came from Tomilton, a halfling village far to the south and west.

Before the coldest of winter arrived, Sylva, the seamstress, took Traudl into her home on a more permanent basis. Sylva had been living alone since her husband ventured to the north and never came back. With no children to help with the business, she was glad to have Traudl around, willing to work in exchange for little more than a roof over her head and whatever food she could spare.

In those times, Enas’ni had little or no dealings with the cities north of them. The town’s people would refer to the “rude folks from up north” with contempt. Some would also say the land was dangerous and not to be traveled lightly. Sylva certainly believed that, given that her husband never returned.

Still others boasted of great treasures in the north. Traudl was fascinated by these stories and made up her mind to head north, as soon as the spring thaw came, to see if she could find Sylva’s husband, and maybe some treasure too, in exchange for all her generosity.

Traudl knew Sylva would worry about her if she said she was going north, so she told Sylva that she needed some shoes. Sylva was always worried by the fact that Traudl wore no shoes, as is the halfling custom, but in truth, having not worn any for her entire life, Traudl’s feet had become quite tough and immune to the elements. She further extended her fib by saying the local cobbler had no shoes in her size, so she would head south, to Tharzus, to find a pair.

On the first warm day in April, Traudl headed south out of the city until she reached the forest, whereby she turned east toward the sea. From there she could head north without Sylva suspecting a thing.

From the travelers at the Enas’ni tavern, Traudl had learned the nearest city was a great castle town called Ailehan. It would be two days by horse to get there, or triple that on foot, but Traudl was fast and light on her feet, so she made the journey in just under four days.

On the forth day, Traudl noticed some changes in weather. The sky had cleared, and the air was suddenly warm and pleasant. This was rare for spring, and even rarer considering she was heading further north, where it would be cooler still. Even more impressive was the grass under her feet. Traudl’s feet were notoriously tough, but she could feel how soft and perfect the grass seemed. In all her wildest dreams she couldn’t have imagined a more beautiful setting. It made her begin to question the tales of horror and danger surrounding this seemingly wonderful land.

Finally, over the horizon, she spotted a magnificent castle. It was like no castle Traudl had ever seen before, it was perfectly symmetrical and glimmering white, as if rain and wear had never tarnished it.

Surrounding it was a town, again of meticulously perfect buildings. The buildings’ thatched roofs, stone and wood walls were untouched by the ravages of the elements. Strangely though, there were no farms, and nobody seemed to be working.

As she got closer to the city, she could see some people about, but they weren’t working. They walked to-and-fro with seemingly no purpose. Traudl approached the first woman she saw, but before she could say anything, the woman spoke.

“My husband doesn’t like my cooking.” She said very plainly.

Traudl smiled, “I bet it’s very good. I’m quite hungry. Can I have some?”

The lady said nothing, she just stood there staring at Traudl. Finally, she stepped away. Traudl quickly walked in front of her again.

“My husband doesn’t like my cooking.” She said again in the same voice.

This time Traudl didn’t say anything and just let the woman walk away. Maybe the lady was blind or simply confused?

There were a few other people walking around, who all mysteriously looked similar in appearance. Traudl found a man standing behind a counter in a store. Outside the door was a sign that had a picture of a shield with a sword across it. Again, before Traudl could get a word out, the man spoke.

“I deal in weapons and armor, would you like to see my wares?”

Traudl shook her head, “I don’t like weapons or armor. They’re too heavy for me.”

The man said nothing. He just stared blankly at Traudl. After a few moments of silence Traudl said, “Know where—” but before she finished, the man cut her off.

“No?  Too bad, come back soon.” He said, smiling.

Traudl left the store and wandered into another building that had a sign that said “Inn” out in front of it. Again, as she approached the counter the person spoke.

“Welcome to the Travelers Inn, room and board is six gold pieces per night, would you care to stay?”

“I’m not tired yet.” She said. “I need to know—”
“No?  Too bad, come back soon.” He said, while cutting her off.

Traudl ran out of the shop and looked for someone else who might help her. She found a young man who was just walking in circles. Just like the others, he spoke without being spoken to.

“If you need to get to the east, you’ll need a ship, but only Thalengarde to the north builds ships anymore.”

Traudl questioned him, just like the others, but he would not respond. He only repeated the same thing over and over again.

Traudl found a local eatery, or so the man behind the counter called it, though she couldn’t seem to get him to serve her any food. However, that didn’t seem to matter much anymore. Traudl realized she wasn’t actually hungry. This perplexed her, because she was always hungry, but now the need to eat just wasn’t there. It wasn’t that her stomach was full, she just didn’t desire food.

Sitting around one of the tables at the eatery were two people, a man and a woman. Traudl walked up to the woman.

“Oh no!  He’ll destroy the world!” She exclaimed.

Traudl jumped back, “Who will destroy the world?” The lady wouldn’t answer. Finally, Traudl turned to the man.

“The Great Fiend Mozebarr is gathering his forces in the east. Soon he’ll launch an attack.”

“Mozebarr?  Will he destroy the world?” Traudl asked, turning back to the woman.

“Oh no! He’ll destroy the world!”  She exclaimed.

Traudl left the eatery and decided to head into the castle. Unlike any other castle Traudl had visited, there weren’t an abundance of guards, just two men in armor who looked the same, on either side of the entrance.

“Welcome to Ailehan castle!” the left guard said. Traudl then turned to the right.

“Welcome to Ailehan castle!” the right guard said.

“Twins?” Traudl asked, but they did not reply.

Traudl wandered around the castle for a while, and no one seemed to care much. In most towns Traudl had been, they would stop her if she went into a castle, more specifically, if she went into someone’s room in a castle. Here they didn’t mind.

Traudl tried to avoid people at all costs, because they wouldn’t talk with her, they would only talk at her. Accidentally, Traudl bumped into a man in the castle, who looked much like another man she had met outside.

“The king is worried about the Great Fiend. He awaits a mighty warrior to come and save the kingdom.”

By this point Traudl had learned her lesson and simply walked away from the man without questioning him.

She found she could go pretty much anywhere in the castle, except one room that had a locked silver door. She knocked on the door a few times, but no one answered.

Traudl was convinced the town was under some sort of horrible spell, possibly cast by this Mozebarr person she heard about. She wandered around until she found the king. If anyone was likely to be immune to magic, it would be the king, or so she reasoned.

There were a few guards in the king’s chamber, who looked to be related to the guards at the front gate, but they didn’t seem to be alerted by Traudl’s presence. Before talking to the king, she wandered around the room for a few minutes and investigated. Just like everyone else in town, the people in this room were also under the “one-way-talk spell”, which is what Traudl had come to call the magic force at work.

Unfortunately, the king was not immune to the spell, as Traudl found out. He burst into a speech before she could get a word in.

“Mighty warrior from afar, long have I awaited your arrival, for your coming was prophesized by the sages. The Great Fiend Mozebarr, once an ally of my kingdom, has taken the crown of Eyezendur and uses its magic to his own ends. He will attack our lands, I fear, if he is not stopped. In return for this deed, I shall grant thee the gift which you seek most.”

“Go now, warrior of legend, and conquer the evil Mozebarr. Take with you this gift of gold to purchase equipment to start your journey. Fare thee well, Traudl!  May the light of the gods shine upon you!”

The king reached out and gave Traudl a bag with a hundred gold pieces in it. “Oooh, that’s a lot of money.” Traudl said. She took off her backpack and put the money in it.

“Wait a minute.” She said as she put the bag back on, “How did you know my name?”

The king did not answer, but as Traudl stumbled forward, overcompensating for the weight of the gold, she came before the king again.

“Fare thee well, Traudl!  May the light of the gods shine upon you!”

“This king is just like everybody else, huh?” She asked, but she knew no one would answer. “Mozebarr must have put an evil spell on you too. I’ll find him and get the crown back, so everyone can listen to one another again.”

Traudl made her way out of the castle and into the city again. Someone in town said this Mozebarr person lived to the east, and she remembered that the only way to get to the east was by boat, or so a man said earlier. However, the only places that made boats were in the north.

“I can buy a trip on the boat with this money!” Traudl said as she began skipping out of the town heading north.

I’ve been replaying a certain Japanese role playing game series that originated in the NES days… perhaps its name is similar to the title of this story? Perhaps the associated image is from that game? Who knows?

I was reminded of this story I wrote way back when. In my defense, I wrote this long before I knew about the Isekai sub-genre where a character is teleported into a video game world. Technically that’s not exactly what’s happening here. It’s more along the lines of “What if a land, or series of characters, operated with classic role-playing game logic, and then a sensible person had to navigate it?” I like to think my story has a lot more going for it than some idiotic power fantasy of a know-it-all from our world dominating the video game world of Zelda, or some crap.

I promise I’ll summarize the chapters where Traudl grinds low level mobs for hours and hours to get enough money to buy a club.