From a very young age, my best friend Refrus and I (Revlis) roamed the streets of the city called Melinir, the largest settlement in Thunder Rift.  Both of us were orphans and that meant we had to fend for ourselves and sometimes that meant we strayed to the wrong side of the law:  We were thieves; there I said it.  As babies, we had been left at the doorstep of the Temple of Kord.  I arrived first and Refrus a month later.  The monks did what they could to set us on the right path, but all too soon it became clear that our destinies lay somewhere beyond the Temple walls.  Yet Kord would play his part in our lives, but not till much later.

By the time we were ten, our ability to outwit the stalwart Captain Commander Malek and his disciplined city guard had caught the eye of the goblin, Numbilung and he recruited us into his band of misfits.  One night, Numbilung sent us on a mission to break into the house of the Lord Protector of Melinir, Valum..  Numbilung had heard that Valum had bought a small statue of Kord from a gold merchant and locked it away in his vault.  Numbilung knew that only a pair of ten-year-olds would be foolish enough to attempt such a feat.  He also knew that we possessed the skills to pull off the job. 

We gained entrance to the house.  We gained entrance to the vault.  We found the statue, and then we found something else hidden in the vault.  Refrus saw it first:  A small silver flask, glinting in our torch lights.  He picked it up and made as if to sample its contents, but I cautioned against it.  He relented and settled for secreting the potion in his cloak.  I did the same with the statue.

In the hall we noticed a ribbon of light streaming from a doorway.  We crept closer and beheld a vision:  Miranda, Valum’s eight year old daughter fast asleep in her bed.  A candle she had been using to read before she drifted off was the source of the light.  I think we both fell in love with her at that very moment.

Later that night Numbilung explained to us why he had wanted the statue.  It had the power to cloak the location of our hideout.  He was afraid that Captain Commander Malek and his men were getting too close.  With the power of the statue, even if they found the hideout they would perceive it as just another empty building.  Suddenly Numbilung gave Refrus a suspicious sidelong glance.  What is that I spy in your cloak?  Give it here this instant boy!  Refrus sheepishly handed him the flask.  You should know by now that you can’t hide anything from me.  Now let’s see.  Ah yes, this potion was distilled by a powerful Djinn.  It shall grant your most fervent wish if you drink it.  But most likely NOT in the way you would like.  I will give it safekeeping and maybe just maybe, I will return it to you when you are older.

Over the next few years, we spent as much time with Miranda as possible.  The Lord Protector would never let two street urchins like us anywhere near his daughter but we were stealthy and we found ways around that.  Then one day when Miranda was 15 and we were 17, she confessed to us that she had fallen in love with both of us but it didn’t matter because her father had found a suitor for her, his name was Terlalecyn, and he was said to be a direct descendant of Gravis, the first King of Thunder Rift.  She was to be married to him before the end of the year.

If there was one thing that Refrus was more obsessed with than Miranda it was the flask.  He resented Numbilung.  Over the years, that resentment had simmered into a pure hatred.  He finally decided to give up Numbilung’s location to Captain Commander Malek.  He knew quite well that as long as Numbilung had the statue, he would stay hidden.  So, the only way to betray him was when he was away from the hideout..  He told Malek about a job the goblin was planning and which pier he would be at.  Numbilung was arrested on Refrus’ information, but his goblin friends broke him out, he took the statue and left for parts unknown...

The morning of Miranda’s wedding finally arrived.  I awoke to the sound of someone banging on my chamber door.  It was Refrus.  He had spent the night before drinking himself to the bottom of a bottle of the heaviest spirits he could find.  Since Numbilung’s disappearance, he had searched for the flask virtually every waking moment.  And then it came to me.  He drawled as he stumbled into my chamber, pulling a knife and waving it in my direction.  The only way Numbilung could hide the flask where I couldn’t find it is if he had given it to YOU!  He was right; the goblin had given me the flask because he knew I would try to protect my friend (not that Numbilung cared).  For some reason Refrus never saw the danger of the potion; but I did and so it is ironic how things turned out…  GIVE ME THE FLASK!  Refrus demanded and I could see an insane glint in his eye..  I quickly knelt, reached under the bed, pulled the flask from its secret compartment, took a swig and made a wish.

It was a simple wish.  All I wanted was for all my troubles to go away.  I stood up and realized that I was alone.  Refrus had disappeared.  And not just from my room.  The potion had made it as if he had never existed.  I was to learn later that miles away there had been a gathering, but no one seemed to remember what it was for.  It seemed to be a wedding but there was no bride.  Miranda had disappeared as well, as if she had never existed no one remembered her, not even her father.  My troubles then were the fact that I was in love with my best friend’s girl and the potion had made them both go away.  They never existed…. But I remembered both of them.  I thought I heard the faint sound of a Goblin’s laughter on the wind.

I spent the next 19 years training to become a Paladin at the Temple of Kord.  The monks came to me and told me the time had come for me to seek out Numbilung and bring back the statue of Kord.  I had never told them about him but somehow they knew.  It has been too long in that vile creature’s hand.  You must seek him out and return the Statue to its rightful place here in the Temple.  I wanted to know how I would find him, since the statue was protecting his location.  They gave me the Armor of Eyes which they said would improve my perception.

I took Refrus’ name as my sir name as a remembrance and the last few months, at monk’s advice, I have been sailing with the Pirates of Goathe, but so far I have learned little as far as the location of the Goblin.  Yet someday my most fervent wish is to somehow be reunited with my best friend and the woman we both love.  Oh and in case you were wondering, the flask is somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.