Until now he had held back on majesticly gliding over his territory in wide circles to assert his dominance, as he did not wish to become the enemy of an eager adventure party out for gold, glory and his own hide. Just one look at his amethyst body screamed please make me into armour, weapons and jewellery. But thanks to the completely broken Polymorph ability of his new body, he was not afraid to venture out. Argentarius had insisted, that his knights try to knock him unconscious while transformed to see what happened. As it turns out, besides it being painful, nothing. He just awoke still transformed as a human. As to what would happen if he died, well he was not eager to find out.
"Tell me my children, should I scout the area alone while hidden or should we travel together and pose as adventures?" His gaze swept over the shining bronze bodies of his three knights. They sat in a half circle around a big campfire, gutting, cutting and grilling his breakfast. Generally he preferred raw, fresh, often alive fish but sometimes he fancied them seasoned and crispy. Arthur was the first to speak: "Father, we were born to protect you. Of course we will accompany you." Hou Yi was quick to jump on the bandwagon: "After long nights of reviewing yours and our behaviour inside the Staircase, we concluded that what we did was quite reckless. But the only thing we did right, was to always stay as a group, just imagine what would have happened if you had run into the Far Realm alone." Argentarius munched on a giant crab and let his tail flip right and left. "Fine, we will need a cover story." His golems were now able to communicate between themselves via a strange mind link, he had no idea how that happened. As they had no need for sleep, they often discussed all sorts of topics for hours on end. He himself was mostly to lazy to participate, resulting in them wining most arguments with him through logic and reasoning. This of course annoyed him to no end. Amazingly, acting like a spoiled child was a valuable choice as a dragon. Anything not wanting be crushed or eaten, gave in to your whims. Yet the part of him remaining the logic driven wizard mostly contained such outbursts, the bootlicking and catering to his every need from his children was also helping a great deal in placating him.
After a day of discussion, what he imagined was quite the heated debate, his knights had decided on a cover story. Or more accurate that they did not need any, they would just be ambiguous and say that they were stranded because of a portal accident and got teleported to this plane. People being honest with the most ridicules story often made the listener want to believe it.
And so Argentarius, after setting a few nasty traps, left with his party the same day. They followed the biggest river, running through his swamp. Most cities were build near flowing water, this rule was sure to apply even in a fantasy world as transportation via land was often ten times more expensive.
Arminius waved to get his attention and pointed upwards after Argentarius glanced over. Searching the sky he finally saw it, a big ass ship flying at 200 feet altitude above the canopy. His sense of reason was restored as the ship landed in the river a mile further south and continued its journey in the same direction as them. He and his party looked much the same as they had on earth, only his outfit was more sophisticated or some might say, old school. The hat become a size larger, the cloak longer and his boots more rugged. His apparent age also changed towards a middle aged man, as he still felt ashamed of having lost his archwizard status. When he one day regained his 9th level spells, he would once again dawn the mantel of wise old wizard. They travelled with a mix of running, flying and hovering. For him it was no problem to pretend to be casting Fly or Levitate on all of them.
It took them the entire day to get out the swamp, the local crocodile, piranhas and occasionally undead were avoided or eaten. As the river passed the last remnants of the wetland, open fields and grassland greeted them. An ocean or large lake lay beyond the mouth of the river. They passed herds of grassing animals roaming the endless fields. Most of the shepherds waved at them but seemed rather unfriendly, once he got close and they had a good look at him. Flying wizards seemed totally normal to them, yet strangers put them on edge. Therefore they avoided the small hamlets and villages along the river. Early on their second day they finally reached the ocean, Argentarius had not resisted the urge to go dive for breakfast and was soon impressed by the depth and wildlife inside the salty water. A few ships could be seen, not far from shore, battling with big waves and strong winds. The wind swepped unhindered over the open plains and apparently made live difficult for the sailors. Swapping between flying above and diving beneath the waves, his party followed the ships sailing north. A dead adventurer had provided them with an elebrotly decorated one made from messing. Travelling in this manner for dozens of miles bored Argentarius, so he dove in hopes of finding new an exciting snacks. He was not disappointed as he soon had his first taste of calamari, after a short bout with a giant squid.
Seeing the sight before him after three days of travel made his worries disappear. He gazed at a wide, sprawling town with hundreds of wizard towers jumping upwards from an otherwise low-slung city profile. Each tower seemed to try and reach higher then his neighbours, resulting in adventurous looking shapes. One owner had placed a 100 feet tall flag pole on top of this house, it swayed dangerously in the strong wind.
Argentarius had a wide smile on his face, had they found a wizard kingdom?
