THE PROLOGUE

In ancient times, there was a Flower King. He was lord over all the plants of the earth. The King was very powerful, but also very stupid and vain. So when the people started crafting things out of plants and wood, he grew bitter, for he could not have invented these. So one day he decided to take away almost all the plants of the earth, making it barren bar vast fields of grass, out of his envy, but allowed the dwarves to cultivate and gather them for another year.

23 inventive dwarves, honest friends, heard of this, like all dwarves of the land, and decided to slay the Flower King and reclaim the plants. Over the year they have travelled and assembled all manner of items in their bottomless backpacks, courtesy of a mighty sorceror partial to their cause, and finally, when all plants except those in the garden of the King started withering away, they began their journey to the far lands where the Flower King lived.

SWAMP OF TRUE THOUGHTS

The first trial that awaited them was the Swamp of True Thoughts. The way around it was long, and the dwarven people were suffering with the plants dying all around them, so the adventurers decided to take a shortcut through the swamp. There, they found their thoughts turned to truth and vocalized for all to hear. As they began noticing the little mistakes they commited and irritations kept building up, they began to bicker and argue, remembering and hearing all kinds of grievances from the past that happened between them. This soon tired them out, yet the tangled thoughts kept on whispering all around them, driving them insane.

It is at this time that they stumbled upon a stilted house amid the drier portion of the swamp. A monk greeted them once they had come in, and, seeing their plight, offered his advice. He had been living for a long time in the Swamp of True Thoughts, honed his mind and learned its secrets. The dwarves asked him for a way out of this accursed place, and the monk replied: "Only those that share their darkest secrets with someone else are allowed to leave the swamp. If you're not ready to commit to it, you'll be imprisoned here, among gnarled roots, naked trees and murky water, forever."

The dwarves steeled themselves and decided to share their secrets for everyone in their group to hear. One killed a child in the past. Another raped a woman. The third drove someone to suicide. Terrible secrets spilt out of their mouths, and at the end of their speech, they were grim and silent, disregarding the voices around them uttering cries of guilt and aversion. "I will teach you" said the monk. "to control your thoughts. This way, you will be able to weather the swamp's curse and make it out of this place."

The dwarves stayed for a month at the monk's place, silencing their inner voices, burying themselves in work and hunt. At the end of this training, there was, at last, calm in their minds, steeled against the trial they were presented with. "You are ready. Be on your way." said the monk. And so the dwarves thanked him and left, promising to succeed in their quest. Soon, after a silent trek, they made it out of the swamp on its other side.

THE NAME WITCH

As they travelled, the dwarves heard of an eternally young witch that could be of help in their quest. Rumour had it, she had an array of weaponry of unparalleled quality, yet used it to kill brave adventurers to consume their lifeforce and lengthen her life. She had, however, one weakness, as the dwarves learned in a village near her castle: she could only hurt people she knew the true name of.

The dwarves headed to the castle, intent on claiming the weaponry for themselves and slaying the witch afterwards. However, they did not know the location of the stash, which could very well be hidden deep in the castle, in one of the secret rooms, so the dwarves approached the witch openly. They introduced themselves with false names. The witch, an old being with the appearance of a young woman, greeted the dwarves gregariously, but decided to test the truth of their names before attacking them. She led them through the halls of the castle filled with traps, and when they did not activate, she knew they were lying. But she said nothing, for there was one method she had of pulling true names out of the people she captured.

Once the dwarves were asleep as guests in the castle, the witch sent a sinister spell against them. It called upon their most wistful memories to make them reveal their names in the dreams. One dwarf saw his long lost daughter approaching him, yet hesitant whether he truly was her father. She asked him his name, and he revealed it. In such a manner, most of the dwarves had endangered themselves to the sorcery of the witch - most, but not all. 7 dwarves that would later be known as the hidden-namers remembered in their dreams their mission due to the great control of their own mind that the monk taught them, and gave another false name to those that requested it in their dreams. They then awoke, and, grouping up with the others, followed the witch as she was making her way to the location of the weapon stash, confident she can now kill the dwarves easily.

Once she reached the hidden passage and opened it, they attacked and slayed her. However, the weaponry was not only hidden, but also locked with a great arcane lock, so the dwarves could only pack up, take the locked stash with them, and continue their way.

ARENA OF GIANTS

The dwarves journeyed on. In their travels, they heard rumours of a birdman that could unlock locks with his horrible song, the magical power overcoming the structure of the locks. The dwarves decided to visit him, but before they could proceed, there was another obstacle in their way. Between two impassable mountain ridges of death there was a small gap that they intended to cross - a desert about 20 km in radius that was known as the Arena of Giants.

It was named so because giants, for one reason or another, endlessly battled in it, making it a dangerous pass. The dwarves decided to take it nonetheless. Since the fighting would probably be going on mostly in the centre, they decided to brew potions of haste with the plants they collected while they prepared for the journey, and cross it by its rim to stay out of the main action.

So their journey through it began. The initial part was successful - they ran at a decent speed with no obstacles in their way, the giants fighting somewhere beyond the horizon, but soon, the dwarves found a giant materializing out of thin air. It turned its enraged eyes towards them, let out a roar, and charged the poor dwarves. But the adventurers were enhanced by the potion and could, with some effort, evade the giant's attacks. So they distracted him while 4 dwarves approached its feet and cut its achilles tendon, collapsing the giant. As he writhed in pain and rage, they climed from its back to its neck and cut the arteries, letting out a river of blood. The giant soon died.

However, its soul lingered. The dwarves asked it "Why did you attack us? Why are the giants here eternally fighting?" and the soul, calm unlike when it was still in its body, answered "We were imprisoned long ago for a crime by the sorceror kings of ages past. They intended for the punishment to be temporary, but then forgot about us, and so we are bound to fight forever here by ancient sorcery, doomed to reincarnate over and over again." The dwarves felt sorry for the giants, and decided to free them and possibly enlist their help against the Flower King. They swore they would find a way to free the souls of giants and continued their journey. They were not interrupted on their way out of the desert again.

MASTER OF SOUL IMPRISONMENT

The dwarves learned from various sources as they travelled that a master of enchanted armour lived nearby. He was a reclusive and cruel master - imprisoning souls in armour and binding them to his service in hopes of building an army and conquering the land. To stop him and obtain the secrets of shattering soul shackles, the dwarves journeyed to his fortress.

They used potions of invisibility to slip past the armour patrolling the outskirts and the halls of the fortress, and found the master in his smithy at work. They snuck around some more and, making sure there were notes detailing the liberation of souls, slayed the master in a surprise attack. The armour he created was dismantled using the techniques described in his books, but the sorcery binding the giants was, from the looks of it, too complex to shatter without advanced components - namely, the burning core of a volcanic mountain. The dwarves noted a powerful volcano on their map and continued on their journey, but not before using the expertise of one of them combined with the master armourer's notes to craft sets of indomitable armour for themselves.

THE LOCKBREAKER

They came to the nest of the birdman next. They learned he was not so strong, but evil in his ways, devouring weak people that were going through his vicinity. The dwarves disguised themselves as weaker than they truly were, with rags on them, yet not entirely weak, and approached the birdman's nest. "Hail to you, great birdman." they said "We have heard of your power and ability to break locks with your song, but also of your evil ways. We could subdue you, but it would cost us a great deal of blood, powerful as you are, so we wish to offer you a deal: you can demand something in exchange for the song, and we will part ways once you sing it." The birdman said "I agree. For my demand: give me one of you to devour, and I will sing." The dwarves asked him to sing beforehand to prove his trustworthiness, but the birdman placed another condition: that he devour the hand of one of the dwarves before singing so that he is sure they offer him a sacrifice in good faith.

The dwarves thought long about his offer, but at last, they decided to choose one of their own to sacrifice an arm to the monster. One of them came forward with grim determination and decided to offer his arm. The birdman devoured it, and began his horrible song. As the dwarves covered their ears, they looked at the arcane lock of the witch coming off and the weaponry becoming accessible. The birdman did not wait. The moment he finished, he was upon his victim, but the dwarves were quick too, and, having seized their newly revealed weaponry, slayed the birdman before he could harm their friend further. The dwarves then continued their journey.

THE VOLCANO AND THE FALLEN STAR

Arriving at the volcano, they saw a sinister campsite under ashen skies nearby. The dwarves passed it without entering, disguised, and after an arduous climb up the slope and through the caves arrived at the heart of the volcano. The volcanic spirit said, in answer to their plea for power "I will help you if you help me in turn. The evil people that built a camp in the shadow of the mountain are plaguing the land with their accursed magic. They are, however, afraid of starlight, but with ash constantly pouring out of the volcano it is not an issue for them. Find a way to get rid of them and I will grant a portion of my power to you."

The dwarves, at a loss regarding how to clear out the sky for starlight to pour through, prayed to the gods for help. The gods then sent a fallen star nearby, and the adventurers sought it out. When they came upon it, its light was dim - far from enough to purge the evil people afraid of stars. So they bargained with the fallen star as well "What do you need to shine brightly again? We need your light to exterminate someone evil." and the star said "I wish to be returned to the sky. Find a way for that to happen, and I will gladly shine for you in anticipation of the arrival back."

The dwarves thought for a while, and decided to approach the volcanic spirit again. They forged a deal where they would obtain not only one of the mountain cores, but also where the volcano would erupt, sending the fallen star back up into the night sky.

The plan worked flawlessly. They bought a cart, loaded the star onto it, and drove around the camp as the star shone bright as a great lantern, eliminating all the dark, ominous beings lurking in the camp. When they were done, the dwarves claimed the mountain core and sent the star down deep into the crater. Running as quickly as they could, they saw a blazing sphere rising into the night sky amid the lava and ashes.

THE LIBERATION OF GIANTS

The dwarves, ready to break the giants' shackles, journeyed back to the desert. On their way they imbued their weaponry, already quite strong, with the mighty fire of the mountain. In a great ritual, as the giants calmly watched for the first time in centuries, the giants were freed from their sentence.

"What can we do to repay you for your kindness?" asked the giants, and the dwarves answered "Help us slay the Flower King and return plants to the earth." The giants smiled and replied "Your cause is right. It will be a joy for us to fight by your side."

THE FINAL BATTLE

So they journeyed farther than they ever had, giants and dwarves together, armed with masterwork weapons and armour, to slay the Flower King. In the distance, his gardens began to show, and with preparations for the final battle out of the way, the dwarves broke into his palace using giants' strength.

The Flower King, armour adorned with flowers and wielding an array of floral weaponry such as a thorn whip and wooden javelins, met them. "I thought the people wouldn't be happy about my decision" he said in answer to the dwarves demands' for him to return the plants. "but I will not revert it. You never ever offered me tribute with your inventions... Such hubris! You are doomed to die here with it."

The battle was long and hard. The healing rain strengthened the Flower King and weakened dwarven weaponry. Giants hauled logs of great trees, dismantling the palace, and everyone fought off the ever-vicious plants. Many of the giants fell, but at last, the Flower King was bested and slain.

EPILOGUE

The dwarves, battered, but alive, reclaimed the plants and brought them to the world again, bestowing graceful flowers and mighty trees, bitter herbs and sweet berries upon it. And with this, they returned to their previous lives, hailed as heroes by all of dwarfkind. It is said that perhaps they still walk the earth as demigods in the grace of the gods...