Flintog and Gendrek's Quest for the Ring of Power

I looked over the Lord’s table with a keen eye. He had been gone almost two weeks now and he never left his table unattended. I could see water rings from his goblet, or tankard, or whatever it was. The dark wood was worn smooth in places where he had been sliding his fingers along the wood grain for years. He usually sat at his table to eat, to drink, and to meet with people. It was obvious that he wasn’t traveling out of the castle at this time because there were no servants moving around the rooms nearby.

I went over to the door behind me and listened carefully. Distant voices reached my ears; voices of people walking through the castle in either direction. I heard a man’s voice up ahead. “…and we are going to send them south, too! We don’t need their kind here!”

The woman’s voice came back, “I know what you said, but we can’t just exile them like that. We have to at least give them a chance to leave on their own before we banish them!”

There was no response from the man so I listened intently for the rest of the conversation as it faded away toward other parts of the castle. I opened the door slowly and slipped through it into a dimly lit hallway. There were torches above me on the walls flickering with dying light and laying a trail of light down the hallway before me.

The voices were still coming from somewhere above me and I slowly made my way up stairway after stairway until I finally stepped out into an open room with a high ceiling covered with elaborate carvings and paintings of dragons fighting knights in armor, wizards battling ogres, and knights rescuing princesses from castles guarded by trolls. The voices were loud now and they were coming from a large pair of wooden doors at one end of this magnificent room.

I moved forward toward those large doors when suddenly from another door across from me entered a small group of men dressed in long robes with hoods covering their heads. They moved quickly toward those magnificent doors as well and started talking loudly about how they would have their revenge today against all who opposed them.

They pulled out keys from underneath their robes and unlocked the doors which then swung open revealing a large throne room filled with people suddenly going silent as they noticed the hooded men entering followed by three more hooded men dragging along two people by chains binding their wrists together behind their backs. The first set of hooded men led Flintog and Gendrek into the throne room as they walked past many rows of seats full of people sitting silently on either side making it seem even more imposing than it really was because you felt like there must be thousands in attendance when in reality there couldn’t be more than 250-300 people present all together in various states of dress, some wearing shiny armor while others wore simple clothes of farmers and villagers; most had swords hanging from their belts while others carried bows or other weapons able to inflict damage on others; all races were represented in this crowd including humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, hobbits, orcs and other miscellaneous creatures native to this world where magic existed but not everywhere at every time like our world does today; some cheered loudly as Flintog and Gendrek entered while others stood silently with heads bowed showing respect to these two foolish adventurers who dared challenge forces beyond their power; some whispered quietly among themselves wondering why these two young adventurers would dare come here alone intent on stealing something that belonged only to them; others shook their heads knowing that these two foolish adventurers wouldn’t live much longer now that they have been caught by their enemies who would stop at nothing now that they have finally captured them; others stood quietly wondering what would happen next; many wondered if these two adventurers would be granted mercy or would suffer a horrible death for daring to steal something that rightfully belonged to other people who had better right than these two young noble lads who thought they could do anything they wanted without consequences…but most simply wondered what was going to happen next?