Dragon Games

JOURNAL ENTRY 1

I thought I would start a journal. Things have been crazy, and I am not normally a journalling kind of guy, but given the situation, it’s probably best for processing this all, and for anyone that comes behind me. 

My name is Martin Gray. I lived in my van behind a truck stop on high way 2 in the middle of nowhere past Monroe but before it hit the mountains. 

This all started in fall right before a astronomy event. Some sort of big aura borealis event that we rarely see this far south. Lots of folks were coming in to see it for a better mountain view. 

I figured I’d go after work and go see it on the biggest day because Eddie, my boss, had me working like crazy. I can’t really complain because she lets me live on site and use the facilities. 

Major players in all this were a group of cheerleaders heading over the mountains for a cheer competition. Dora was a blond UW cheerleader in that group. The assistant coach was creepy as hell. Didn’t have a good feeling about him. I asked them if they needed me to call someone or step in, but they didn’t. They were all in their 20s and seemed to have it under control. 

The second group was the off worlders, off plane, whatever. They looked human but weren’t from around earth proper, and you could tell. At least I could. Thegs and Sam were in that group. I liked them alright, but I sure as hell didn’t trust the skinny tall blond in that group. 

Then there was Karl. He was a tall buff blond dude that escaped from a prison transport. I made him as trouble straight up, and talked to Josh, the state patrol guy, and his newbie patroller, Shirley. They wanted him for a lot of crimes. I met Karl when he stopped in to get cleaned up after the bus wreck, and he had trouble written all over him. He said he’d had a car wreck but didn’t want me to call anyone but it was so busy I didn’t see him with an actual car. 

Then there was Dawn and her fiancé. Dawn is my ex girlfriend/fiancé, but we split up amicably. I didn’t want to get married, hold a 9-5 job, or have kids. She as all over that life. We have been friends for years since we broke up. I am the project she never managed to fix. 

My life is more about hiking, and being out in the wilderness. I like going out and spending time out in the woods and the mountains. It’s why I stayed where I was. Oh, and the defaulted student loans that ruined my credit, and made it impossible to rent. 

One more thing. When all this started, an giant fat orange tabby cat, and a very derpy lazy cougar showed up. They apparently like me. I have no idea why. They both showed up the same night Thegs, Sam, and the rest did. 

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The Situation

People started disappearing at a faster rate than normal. The entire cheerleader group was missing. I let Josh, the trooper know I had reservations about the cheer coach. He usually takes my hunches seriously. I’m right a lot of the time. 

Dawn came by with Trevor, her fiancé. They were on their way to Leavenworth for a pre-wedding trip. They live in a nice big million dollar condo in Seattle, with all the things, and Trevor makes big money in the finance sector. I am happy for them, but Dawn still thinks she needs to fix me, and Trevor offered me a job, to which I declined. I am sure I do not have the qualifications for anything in his field and even if I did, I would hate it. 

Dawn then asked if I’d come get breakfast the next day with them. Except she never called and I was kind of grateful because it was awkward. I then realized Dawn never called at all and I was getting worried with the entire cheer squad missing, and all the other people that went missing recently. 

I called the hotel, and she never checked in, so I called Dawn’s mother, who is still nice to me, and she started to panic. I said I’d find Dawn.

I drove to Leavenworth, and on the way I saw Thegs. At the time I suspected she was being trafficked with the hand tattoo she had, and her behavior. She was damn young looking, even if her clearly fake ID said 38. 

I was already suspicious because Sam could not work out the cost of anything, and didn’t realize if you call in the ID with the cops, there was a database. They all had fake IDs. They spoke in a language like Farsi, or one of the dialects from over there. It wasn’t hurting anyone so I let it be, but I was aware. 

On the way back Thegs said she could help me. She did some sort of ritual. I guess she’s a priestess, but I didn’t know at the time. I could feel her magic like a pull string lawn mower that just wasn’t starting. She touched me to start it. 

She created a will’o’wisp and we followed it. Dawn’s car was over the edge in the brush off the ravine. I tracked her and Trevor out of the car to the road, and they were gone. I started to panic. The tracks were days old. 

I was sure Thegs was not human at that point. I was thinking something short and reptilian but that made no sense to me. 

On the way back to work, Shirley’s state patrol car was there. She was missing and again I tracked her footprints to the road and gone. She had been taken too. 

All hell broke loose when I got back. Eddie was there because I was late, but she was understanding and fine with me going out to look. All the phones were down, but we got on the CB and the truckers were relaying the problems out. They are like middle school gossips to hearing folks were missing, including a trooper got everyone on the line to try and phone it in. 

It would take a while for them to get to us, but with Shirley missing, they’d come. I got out my map of the area, and few miles above where Sam and Thegs group were camping, there were some cabins that were closed for the season. I bet if someone unfamiliar with the area was trying to hide, that’s where they would go. 

At the time, I was operating under the impression that Karl was the culprit. That turned out not to be true, but it was a reasonable assumption given the rap sheet that Trooper Josh gave me to hang up. 

I got a pistol, my hunting rifle, and my bow, and drove up an access road in my van behind the camp and walked down real quiet. I am pretty good in the woods. Sam said once I am a ranger while at the shop, and maybe if life was a game I probably would be. 

I saw four cabins with lights on. I checked them. One had the cheerleaders coach, he was skinned and dead. The other had three tied up crying cheerleaders. one had Shirley dead, and the last had Dawn, alive. 

Dawn has always had a level head and I decided to get her untied first, because the cheer girls might be louder to get out easily. I didn’t want to bring attention faster than I had to.  

Then Sam hit me like a ton of bricks. I never heard him come in behind me. He was clearly under duress, and said he’d try to put Dawn last, and apologized as he didn’t realize she was my ex. We’d been talking and friendly for weeks, and Sam had always seemed straight with me. 

I told him I didn’t think they were from here and that they weren’t human. He was really surprised I figured it out. The tattoos on Thegs hands were also on Sam’s. I said was it magic that was binding them? Was the guy in charge a mage? After Thegs magic ritual, it was clear that was a possibility. 

He was shocked I had figured that out, but I do read a lot so it’s not unheard of in our worlds fiction. Sam also said I was a ranger, and the cats were for me. I had called them, but I don’t think I did. Ranger maybe, calling them definitely not. 

Sam stuffed me under the bed, and took Dawn to the main dining hall. The tabby appeared. I figured if I was a ranger somehow, I asked the tabby to chew the rope off and he obliged. 

I then was weaponless, but I had to figure it out. I found a fire axe and while it’s not optimal to fight a long ranged opponent in hand to hand, Dawn was going to die. I had to get her out. Same with the girls. 

The other big guy in their group came around the corner, and just saw me. Nobody should be able to see me in the dark like that. I assumed he wasn’t human. The cougar had showed up and was with me, and gave me warning when he came around the corner. I was well hidden. 

He just told me I was going to die if I continued, and went on his way. 

I saw a big blue sparking fire and Karl, the escaped convict, tied up next to it. So it certainly wasn’t him. However, I read the police report, the guy could fight. I took a gamble and undid his ropes. He told me Sam had put my things in the maintenance shack, so I went to get them, and he said he’d back me up when I made my move. 

I still had my pistol, so I gave it to Karl, and headed to get my bow, quiver, and rifle. I don’t know what a mage can do, but I am thinking shooting first is the best policy. 

I jumped up on the roof with the two cats in tow, and laid out to take my shot. 

While I waited patiently for the tall skinny leader of the group to step into my range, I saw the other three, Thegs, Sam, and the big guy, all walk over the the crazy fire and put knife to skin and fling blood into it. 

As each one did, it revealed them for a moment. Thegs was a tiny lizard person, a kobold. Sam was an orc, and the big guy was a giant lizard person. 

Karl is definitely dangerous. He saw me wherever I was, even before I freed him. He watched me get into position on the roof. 

I wasn’t sure what else to do, but my theory was that Thegs, Sam, and the big guy were under the skinny blond’s guys control, and if I killed him then I would not have to fight them too. 

When the tall blond came into view I carefully lined up the shot. I have never shot anyone, but it wasn’t as angst ridden as movies and books make it out to be. I had always felt something was off about the guy, and that he had a cruel streak. I don’t feel bad for killing a serial killer. 

I just pulled the trigger and watched as the bullet slowed right before hitting him. Some sort of magical barrier? I chambered a second round immediately and pulled the trigger before the first one hit. It’s weird how in a crisis time seems to slow down. 

My second bullet hit him, went through his head, and hit a big sparkly magic stone in the center of the fire. 

That seemed to destabilize the entire ritual and things started blowing up. I jumped off the roof and ran to Dawn, and cut her loose, and then the cheer leaders. 

Then the fire magic ritual thing blew for real, and I woke up face first in the dirt. I didn’t think we were home anymore because the stars were wrong. I heard chanting and nobody else was there, so I followed it. 

Thegs was chanting over the mage. He was dead, but Sam had said I need to redefine my definition of death in this situation when he had captured me, so I didn’t even hesitate, I shouldered my rifle and blew the fuckers head clean off. Then I chambered another round and hit straight in the heart. 

I still had my fire axe, so I closed the gap and swung decapitating him. I think most things probably die with that, but Thegs was still chanting uncontrollably. That meant he wasn’t dead if he could still forcer to her comply. 

I noticed there as wood in his skull. Not bone. My first thought was liche, like D&D. Or a horcrux like Harry Potter. 

Karl caught up to me at this point, and I said that was my theory. We then went into the cabin Thegs was chanting outside of and opened the cabinets. Dozens of skulls where in there. I had seen them before when I searched the cabins, but I said if his skull wasn’t in his head, we needed to look for an elven one. Like him. 

I rejected the human skulls, and Karl seemed shocked I could tell the difference. I hunt a lot, and had a human anatomy class back in college. Human bones didn’t look that delicate. 

I came up with four candidates. I took them outside and got my fire axe and smashed one that I thought was the most likely option. I think I was right because Thegs stopped chanting. The other four however, sprouted bone legs and attacked. Karl and I finished them off. 

The fire was still going on this side of things, and Thegs said blood was necessary. She offered herself in sacrifice, but I said give me a minute to think. 

Karl did not give me a minute. I heard him empty his pistol into the big guy that had come to see, and then he literally hurled that giant lizard man into the fire. I don’t know if Karl is really strong, or panicked so bad he just did it. 

I shot the stone again to destroy the ritual on this side. 

I woke up in the dirt again. It was mid mornings and Karl was unconscious next to me. We were laid out all nice, but I didn’t see Dawn or the cheerleaders, Sam or Thegs. I was worried. 

I checked for my rifle, bow and knife, and started to look around when Dawn and Dora the cheerleader showed up with fire wood. 

They were fine. The other two girls weren’t here. Never had been when we ended up here. 

Sam showed up, apparently his name is Bhagg the Defiant. he was jogging in with a full ass buck deer over one shoulder. He really was an orc. 

Thegs was there, as some sort of short lizard kobold. I guess some of them are dog like, but she’s the lizard variety. I have no idea why the difference. 

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The Explanation

Karl, while me makes me uneasy, is truthful. I would say he’s a straight up sociopath, but true to his word. He’s honest that he’s killed people, but also says they all deserved it. We should find out what he deems worthy of killing over. 

He has been looking for a gate here for 30 years. He’s older, and has a notebook filled with geo locations and whatnot. I think he’s been to different gate sites. I guess it happens from time to time but not enough to be known fully. There’s room for conspiracies with that knowledge. 

Thegs and Bhagg were purchases as slaves by the dark elf I killed. Those tattoo marks transferred to me. I do not want to own people, and without either of them Dawn would be dead, if not me too, so I think we should figure out how to free them. The slavers guild is big on keeping slaves from not being freed from my understanding, but we will figure it out. If you can build something you can break it. 

People like Karl, Dora, Dawn, and I, pop into this new world periodically. There is a very limited number of us, and city states fight over them. Four at one go is unheard of. We are exceptionally strong and talented here in their system of power. 

Dora is the daughter of a bastard of a preacher in her evangelical rapture death cult in Nebraska, and has decided this is the best thing to ever happen to her, because her cult family were going to make her go back to Nebraska and marry or something. She was at UW for college in hopes to bringing a doctor home. 

Apparently they have D&D style classes here in this new world, with full adventure guilds, and magic. It’s like every Isekai coming out on anime and books right now. I wonder if the gates opening makes it an inspirational idea to people in my world. I can’t be the only one that just kind of knew. 

In the world we landed, where Bhagg/Sam and Thegs are from, they have 7 large trade cities, and a bunch of smaller city states. Being an adventurer is the most freedom you can get without being held back by your birth status. Nobility is a thing here, and it matters. If we went to the nobility, we could get a patron really easily as “heroes.” just like the anime. 

Thegs is a priestess to a silver dragon god that has lost a god war event, and is banished, but she still can cast pretty reliably. I felt the dragon in our world when Thegs cast the will’o’wisp. 

Sam is a warrior with family everywhere. Apparently it’s a stereotype with some truth that orcs are big on family. He’s a druid, not a fighter, but he has a lifetime of mercenary style experience. 

Our stories and myths are close, but not always right. Like the elf was a dark elf, but not dark skinned like the Drow from the stories. Drow is a forbidden term for the race, but they are dark magicians and a matriarchy and tied to spiders. Some of it is right, some is not. 

Thegs checked us. I have magic, and so does Dawn, in abundance. Dora does not. Karl has a bit too. 

The most likely classes are me, ranger, and Dawn a mage, and Karl some sort of caster, and Dora a thief. 

Dora thought that was dumb until she admitted she was an acrobat, and her college degree was in mechanical engineering. You know, like trap builders would be. You have to know how that works to know how to undo them. It’s like she was bespoke trained for the role in this world. 

They have honest to god dungeons under each of the 7 trade cities. endless sprawling dungeons. This is a money maker for folks. Money means freedom. 

In addition, folks from our world “replace” folks in this world. I don’t know what that means. I think it means we somehow over write them, but while everyone has classes and skills based on it, we have a duplicate. We get our abilities, enhanced from our world, with an addition of the person we overwrote. Like a doubling of souls in the same body. 

This if further complicated when Thegs tested us. Dora and Dawn have a double shadow. Karl and I have a triple shadow. Not normal shadows created by light, but some little magic she used to illuminate it. Except I was aware of the shadows after that. Karls got a shadow that also includes horns and long ears, like a devil or infernal from D&D. His personality is very tiefling-like too. 

I told Thegs and she did something to let me see mine in a mirror, and I have two human shadows, and one that was slender and elven, with spiders around it. 

Only Karl and I killed a person in all this. I know my additional 3rd shadow is that of the elf I killed. It’s theorized by Thegs I will inherit some of his power, if not his memories. 

I want to know if this is going to happen with everything thing or person I kill, or is it a one off due to the gate or the elf’s ritual. 

If it’s just a perk of being from our world, I can’t shake the feeling Karl is not opposed to killing anyone that gives him more power. 

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The Current Plan

We decided we would all stick together for now, and head to the closest city and sign up as an adventuring group. This is kind of a big deal for groups. 

We will also kind of try to keep it under wraps that we are from another world. The guild will know when they test us and give us a card, but they won’t tell anyone. 

A large stretch of earth is here in this gate event, including the truck stop. We got supplied up there, and on the way we found my van somehow translated into some sort of weird magic carriage. 

The nearest towns 30 miles away, or so, and the van would be a big expensive beacon. Far more attention worthy than a ranger with a cougar and a tabby cat. 

We decided to walk in, and Thegs did a ritual to hide the whole damn truck stop until we return.