Thursday, January 01, 2015

This may seem somewhat familiar...

Official Wyrminghall Background Info

Lo! You have heard the story of the Dragon-Knights of old, now hearken to the tale of kind King Ægidius founded the realm known as the Little Kingdom. The former alehouse bully achieved this feat by subduing the great dragon Locheed and claiming its great hoard of treasure. He was able to achieve this victory with the aid of a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range. The king imprisoned his pet dragon in a great pit and built over it a great feast-hall, which became known as Wyrminghall, owing to the great wyrm contained below it. From his mighty hall the king founded Order of the Wyrm, a small order consisting of His Majesty and his nine bravest vassals. Although he paid nominal tribute to Alfred the Great, the lord of Wyrminghall ruled the Little Kingdom free of outside interference. 

Despite the king's ineptitude as an administrator, the Little Kingdom flourished, owing in large part to the fear of neighboring kings. None dared make war against the realm, for fear that the last thing they saw would be a flash of green scales shimmering in the bright sunlight, followed by an enveloping gout of fire. Another factor in the success of the kingdom was the influence of Queen Matilda, wife of the Lord of Wyrminghall. More shrewd than her husband, she was also known as a witch. It was said that she first expanded the pits below Wyrminghall, adding a series of vaults to better protect the treasures of the realm and fiendish traps to guard the vaults as well as a series of dungeons and torture chambers for the benefit of local tax evaders. Some tunnels below the hall are said to be the result of the dragon attempting to burrow his way out of bondage to the king. Another tale suggests that some of the excavations originated from deep below the hall, made by the the undergnomes known as the smurfnibblins in an attempt to locate the gold and silver of the king. 

The first Lord of Wyrminghall enjoyed a long reign, as many as eighty winters by some accounts, before dying in bed of a bad sniffle. His wife ruled as regent for several years until their son returned home from fighting as a mercenary in France. The son of the original king and queen of Wyrminghall, George, ascended to the throne. Barely adequate as a warrior and terrible at everything else, the second Lord of Wyrminghall's reign was short and disastrous, with most of the Dragon-Knights dying in battle against marauders or seeking service with a more worthy liege. The second lord died without issue, leaving the tattered realm in the hands of his henchman Sir Suovetaurilius. Eventually the hall was abandoned completely. What remained of the Little Kingdom was absorbed into the Kingdom of Wessex. Much later, Wilchester the Mad, one of the founders of the Invisible School of Thaumaturgy at Christminster University, briefly took up residence in the now ruined hall. No one knows when the dragon left Wyrminghall to return to its native Wales, but all authorities agree the beast is long gone from the vicinity.

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