Once upon a time there was this guy named Scott Chen from a place called Addventure, Game 3. Now, this place was.....weird. It was a place which seemed that anything and everything that one could imagine happened on a daily basis to this fellow, and the beings who did the doing were called Authors (sort of god like entities).

Well, that said, there is the added complication that there seemed to be multiple copies of this Scott running around. Most of them were real ass.....hrmph....real jerks, but this particular was was an okay guy, according to my sources.

This Scott Chen's adventure began like so many other Scott's in this strange room (called Room 1). He was able to make an escape into a strange room with something called a "Transmorgrifyer" and got changed into an AD&D blue dragon (an evil species of the dragon kind, folks). Somewhat disoriented, the new dragon knocked himself silly on the low ceiling when he tried to lift off and soon found himself somehow having been teleported to the world called Krynn.

Scott in fact was inside the lair of an ancient, very powerful blue dragon (called a great wyrm at that stage in life), uninvited. That would have been certain death for intruders (dragon or not), but for some reason the wyrm in question was in distress while looking into a mirror in horror. Able to somehow overcome the instinctive lust for treasure, Scott went to see what was the matter and discovered this magical mirror that the wyrm was looking into. Seems that somehow this mirror was letting its viewer have a looksie into the very mind of this one evil "goddess" known as Takhisis, and what the wyrm was seeing was how little this "goddess" actually thought of her followers (which included this very dedicated follower that the wyrm happened to just be). Apparently it was so much of a shock, the dark nature of the mind and the revelation that it was literally driving the wyrm insane....but due to the nature of the mirror the wyrm just couldn't pull away his gaze. When Scott accidently broke the wyrm's gaze, the thing screamed and ran into another part of the dragonden, and in a fit of despair and insanity, made a.....rather poorly worded wish. Several in rapid sucession, to be exact, using all but one wish (was a multi-wish ring, natch).

A flash of light and Scott saw the results. The vast majority of the Wyrm's hoard got teleported away somewhere (would turn up later in another cavern....in another quest). A magical entity known only as "Roger" was created (a sort of magical caretaker for the wisher). The wyrm himself got turned into the cutest, most innocent and nice hatchling you could ever meet, and due to the nature of the wish.....will forevermore remain that way (i.e. won't ever grow). Little guy can breath lightning bolts as powerful as he could before the wish and is as strong as he'd been before the wish, but it has been compacted into a young form. The mind of the guy is that of a child and every time you almost see him begin to grasp something that would advance him forward in maturity.....it's like a switch is thrown and it.....fades. Don't know whether or not Roger is somehow involved in this business, but it appears that that entity also can act as an invisible body guard, preventing physical harm to "Junior" (as the little dragon calls himself now) as well.

Whatever.

Soon after that Scott kind of got adopted by the baby dragon and was able to, by using a carefully worded wish on the wish ring, return to being a human. However, the blasted nature of the ring's magic acted up and teleported Scott, Junior, the magic mirror, and what was left of Junior's hoard into another cavern on Krynn. Point in fact, it was the very tunnel that a small contingent of Draconians led by a a Draconian named Kang and Slith were coming down!

What's a Draconian, you ask? Who are Kang and Slith? Well, let Uncle Eddie tell you about it. To do that, you need to know a bit of background about the world that my scaly friends were born into here. That, and let me give you a little background about what exactly Draconians are, people wise and such (got it at a little spot on the Net at Now, you may wonder what Kang's and those Draconians' story with him is, right? How exactly did they find themselves down in those dark, damp caves where they found Scott? Well, I could tell you in my own words, but instead let me point you to this stuff I pulled off of the "Internet". Got the following right here

http://www.dragonlance.com/reference/races/races.cfm?SecID=9.

The Races of Krynn: Draconians

Draconians are the human-sized corruptions of good dragon eggs. By using captured good dragon eggs shortly before the War of the Lance, Wyrllish the cleric, Dracart the mage and the ancient red dragon Harkiel developed the process for corrupting the eggs into Draconians. Though there is some debate, and consequently some conflicting information on the subject, it is generally agreed that Draconians can't reproduce. (There are reports, however, of female Draconians.)

Draconians were the crack troops of the Dragon Highlords. Because of their connection to the dragons, Draconians are immune to dragonfear and seem to worship the evil dragons. Draconians are more likely to follow orders than the typical ogre or goblin (or mercenary, for that matter), some types can use magic—clerical and magic-user spells, and when they are killed each Draconian has a special attack that is carried out at the end of their life. Draconians are immune to human diseases and live to be 1,000 years old.

The five types of Draconians are as follows: Baaz, Kapaks, Sivaks, Bozaks and Auraks.

The Aurak Draconians are the only Draconians without wings, and the Sivaks are the only ones who can truly fly.

Baaz

These Draconians are the smallest of their brethren, and are used as common ground troops. They are of chaotic alignment for the most part, and as a result are interested in getting what is best for them individually. Baaz wear disguise often, concealing their wings and scales underneath large hoods and masks when traveling through non-Draconian lands. When a Baaz is killed, its body turns to stone and then to dust, but remains in solid form long enough to trap whatever weapon killed it within its stony remains.

Kapak

Kapak Draconians are generally the assassins of the group; they use their venomous saliva to coat their weapons, which makes them perfect as assassins. Like their copper dragon parents, Kapaks lure their targets into traps and use any way they possibly can to gain an advantage. When killed, a Kapak dissolves into a mass of poison.

Sivak

These silver Draconians are the only ones who are able to truly fly (the others may be able to glide, but not fly). These Draconians are second only to the Auraks in power. They generally attack with huge two-handed swords, as well as their claws and armored tail. In addition to flight, Sivaks have a unique (but limited) ability to shape-shift. When a Sivak kills a humanoid-size or smaller creature, it may polymorph into the shape of the victim. Once it shifts back to its regular shape, however, the ability to take the shape of the victim is lost—until, of course, they kill again. A Sivak will also assume the form of someone who has slain it: the "death shape" will last for three days, after which the body will decompose into black soot.

Bozak

Bozaks are perhaps the most magical of the bunch, with the exception of their "enchanted" Aurak cousins. Created from the eggs of gold dragons, the Bozaks are able to cast spells like a 4th-level magic-user. Bozaks are cruel warriors, only sparing a life when it is to their benefit. Bozaks explode when killed, injuring those unfortunate enough to be near it.

Aurak

The Aurak Draconians are the special agents of the Dragon Highlords because of their intelligence, cunning and magical abilities. Auraks appear to be 7 feet tall, with thin limbs and no wings. Auraks have the ability to cast Dimension Door three times a day. They also have to ability to exert some mind control over their victims. When fighting Auraks, they must effectively be killed twice. The first time their hit points are depleted, the Aurak goes berserk and attacks when melee attacks only, forgetting their magic spells. When slain, the Aurak becomes "enchanted" and immolates itself and those around it, though it is immune to harm. After several rounds, the Aurak explodes, injuring anything near it.

Now, that all said (and I'm afraid I found it a bit.....biased), we're moving on to the background environment that my friends grew up in. That's right, the dreaded background stuff! Now, I'm sure that there will be some avid AD&D players out there who'll scream blue murder with this, but.....

Now, Krynn is basically a sword and sorcery world with the forces of good and evil had been going at it since the very beginning. Sort of like a giant boxing match in a sense, really. In one corner we have the forces of evil, headed up by a "goddess" --note the quotes--named Takhisis. She was also known as the "Dark Queen" of Krynn, and that names implies what her future plans were as far as career goes. Not a very nice person, this Takhisis. The color of this camp was black (reflected in the dress of her mages and the color of the invisible, now vanished moon in the sky) In the other corner, headed up by a "god" of good called Paladine (an entity that, according to Slith when he looked back in retrospect, actually at least lived up to a bit of the hype). The color of this camp was white (reflected in the dress of his mages and the now vanished moon dedicated to that cause). Of course, in any conflicts, there are neutral parties, and in this supposedly eternal conflict was a faction of neutral "gods" (the dwarven "god" named "Reorx" being the most notable)....but like back on my old Earth it seems that the "neutral" seem to side more with the forces of "good" (which were on relatively friendly with the "neutrals") to the forces of evil (which were hostile to them). Uh, never mind. The colors of the dedicated moon and the mages are both red.

Well, you can see the factions that had been in play on Krynn

Well, the thing here is that the struggle between the parties had been going on for a long time, and quiet fiercely at times. At one point when Takhisis was getting an upper hand the forces of good actually razed an entire continent with a meteor shower (called "the Cataclysm" and the even used as a dating system afterwards by the local mortals). In one of the more recent battles, the Battle of the Lance, Takhisis had the eggs of the good (metallic) dragons captured and used as hostage to keep them out of this conflict. Terms were basically "keep out and your children won't be harmed". Well, that worked for a while and the forces of Good were getting pushed back and back without the aid of the metallic dragons. Then, it came to light that Takhisis had basically lied to the metallic dragons when the Draconians came into being. See, the dark forces had taken the unborn embryos inside those dragon eggs, used magic on them, and caused them to mutate and split into dozens of beings known as Draconians (humanoids with dragon features). The Draconians were to be used as shock troopers and such. Disposable, pliant weapons to be dealt with easily as soon that war was over, the Draconians were to be. Only...

Only the Draconians turned out to be much smarter than expected. Smarter and more powerful than what the human commanders of Takhisis forces wanted. Seen as an eventual possible threat to humanity and the other races.

To keep them in check, the means of the Draconian's continuation was put into play. Originally, the magical ritual that made the first batch of Draconians produced both male and female Draconians (with all that implies). For the sake of control, the female Draconians were not allowed to hatch and their existence covered up. Instead, the magic ritual creating Draconians from metallic dragon eggs was modified to make only male Draconians. The world at large thought that the Draconians were sexless creations, with only the means of the "corruption ritual" as a means of making more Draconians...with only rumors of other means (like the unborn female Draconians or some kind of magical gem that Slith mentioned in passing....a tall tale). That "corruption ritual" was the only game in town for my scaly friend's species continuation, and I see how it could be a means of blackmail to keep the Draconians in line with their human commanders. Not that blackmail was really needed, honestly, to keep them in line and loyal to Takhisis herself, but...you get the idea.

Now, you gotta know that Draconians had lousy role-models for parents and knowing only what they'd been taught, they fought and killed for the glory of Takhisis. They did it out of a sense of...well...what I could only say was love for the Dark Queen. That or sense of obligation and loyalty for the being who created them. Okay. To put it into simpler terms, the Draconians saw their side..as being the good guys...and Paladines forces and such as the ones in the black hats (i.e. the villians). Any questions at certain tactics and dark allies of Takhisis were put off as using the best tools in a bad situation, I guess, if the young, naïve Draconians bothered to think at all about it.

The metallic dragons and the forces of good kind of flubbed it, it seems, when trying to get the Draconians to see the truth of the matter. One doesn't get the best results by saying to those your trying to get on your side that they were perversions and only by coming over to the other side could their full, good potential be realized. Oh, I guess that the good guys meant well and used otherwise sound strategy and magic....but they utterly failed. No Draconians converted and the grieving metallic dragons and many of the forces of good grieved, writing the Draconians off as wholly evil and beyond salvage. That said, the forces of good proceeded to act as such. As such, hostilities between the two only served to re-enforce the propaganda of Takhisis with the Draconians, and that was that.

Well, as in those fantasy novels the forces of good prevailed. Evil smitten and driven back and all that. Slith told me that the reason why things fell apart at the end for the forces of Takhisis was that the human commanders were involved more in infighting and gaining prestige than the glory of Takhisis (or concentrating more on keeping the ground gained during the war).

Thing is, the Draconians were still about, despite being on the losing side. Some turned to banditry and robbery, and were soon wiped out in mop up operations by the forces of good. Some, like Kang's group, saw that a breakdown in discipline and going down the road that the others had gone down was a sure recipe for disaster and stayed together as a military unit. Kang's regiment of Draconians went out into some remote mountains (near a dwarven enclave) and set up shop there. While Slith and Kang didn't say it, I think they'd all gone out to that place in order to spend their remaining days of their lives there to live in peace and quiet. Where they'd occasionally raid their dwarven neighbors for needed supplies, making sure not to make too much of a menace of themselves so that the forces of good (who by this time were breaking back down into regular bickering kingdoms and such, business as usual) wouldn't sweep them off the map. They expected to spend their entire lives there, in their own enclave...and eventually die. Drepressing, ain't it' Probably was the reason why Draconians drank so heavily (even that God awful brand of Krynnese "Dwarven Ale", stuff that stank so awful and tasted so horrible that Tarin Gazin, a Terra Prime dwarf....gagged on it!)

Then came another war. A different, horrible war that originally looked like something like the last one, but was actually a war for survival for Krynn.

Seems that, according to what a Scott Chen told them, the dwarven "god" Reorx goofed and freed an elder "god" from his magical prison. That elder had it in his head that Krynn would do well as a burning cinder and the Krynnese "gods" weren't too keen on that. All those Krynnese "gods" got together to fight this elder (called itself "Chaos" by the way, this elder). Rough battle, this Chaos war. Assets and people were called out from everywhere, including Kang's gang. Takhisis used the existence of the female Draconians to get Kang and friends to go out to kill a nest of super powerful Chaos dragons before Chaos could use them to defeat the Krynn forces. Takhisis revealed her true nature in the way she got Kang into this mess...and I don't think Kang or any of the Draconians will ever forgive the Dark Queen that, despite the female Draconians...

Just don't see it happening. If anything, I get the feeling that their hatred of Takhisis has not grown any less over the time we'd been away...

The fallout of this war between Chaos and these Krynnese "gods" was something of a stalemate, apparently. The "gods" were able to magically force Chaos into a deal where in return for not destroying Krynn, the "gods" (those who hadn't retreated in the final conflict with Chaos) of Krynn would never return to this world, leaving those left behind to fend for themselves. This meant that things....changed.

Magic of whatever kind was controlled by the "gods" and with their absence the mortals of Krynn had learn how to channel that mystical force all over again. Before the Gods did some of that channeling, if you will. Now, the mortals had to do it directly. Needless to say, a lot of mages and clerics weren't happy about that...including those magic using Draconians!

Scott Chen, a fellow from a place called Addventure, got sucked into things near the end. He and the Draconians tripped over a cache of otherworld weapons that were from a world much like my Earth! Scott convinced the Draconians that these science based weapons and equipment weren't a joke like the tinker gnomes seemed to make them look like.

This particular Scott, unlike many of his duplicates back at Adventure, saw also that Takhisis had kept this stash of weapons secret up until now for a reason. What Scott figured was that before her peers wouldn't have allowed their use on Krynn (too unbalancing), but now that she was being forced to leave forever, she was throwing it at the Draconians as a means for them to use them to run wild all over Krynn....wrecking the Hell out of everything and everyone! However that's not how things turned out as it turned out.

Kang and the other Draconians were getting tired of just killing and destroying. They wanted to do something more than that. They wanted to now take their proper place in the scheme of things, become a proper civilized race and all that, I guess. That's the vision that Scott Chen had, it appears. Become some kind of couterbalance to what Scott knew was coming, a bunch of bloated, powerful evil dragons who'd try to fill the power vacuum left by the departure of the "gods". Kang and the other Draconians may have not totally agreed with Chen about how to go about using the stuff that Dark Queen had dumped upon them, maybe something less.....well....grandiose....but what Scott finally did at the end set them on that course.

See, some assassin called Mother Night (an Astra analog) had been hired by one of those evil dragons to kill the female Draconian hatchlings and thus snuff out any hopes that the Draconians had at continuing. The assassin had been able to sneak by Kang's guards undetected and into the room where the baby Draconians were....as well as Scott. He'd been paying them a visit and was there able to defend the little ones! Now like many Astra analogs this Mother Night was skilled with the sword, but so was this Scott Chen guy. Oh, not as skilled as his opponent, but then again this Scott guy was too dedicated in what he saw in the Draconians to back off. Desperation lent him strength and in the end, while he got fatally wounded, he drove off the assassin (really wounding the bi...the assasin in the process). Kang and the other, hearing the sound of battle rush in and find Scott dying on the floor, and a trail of blood leading away. Seeing what happened...and what could have happened, there isn't much Kang and the others can do to help Scott. Dying, however, Scott gets Kang to promise him to think about what they'd talked about....what the evil dragons had in store for them and what role Draconians could actually play in this new world. Thus these particular Draconians were on a course to being a counter-force to the evil dragons who'd try to carve up Krynn for their own. If nothing else, to spite those who'd have killed his race's future....Kang silently vows to keep a promise to a dying man....

The Draconians, per their custom, quickly arranged for a funeral ceremony for Scott, playing a few select songs Scott had requested to be played. It was those songs we heard them playing as I and my friends heard when we walked into the world of Krynn. One was a song from a alternative rock group I was familiar (sort of) with, but one song I'd never heard before. In fact, it hadn't been written yet when Roland yanked me into Midworld! The group was called Radiohead and the song was called Karma Police (both freakin' strange). The other song was by the Beatles called Hey Jude! That wasn't odd (showed that Scott had some good taste), but the thing that blew my mind was that Roland knew the song as well (but in his world it was a hot jazz song....and it wasn't by the Beatles there).

That was when we heard a moan coming from the bushes that that damn assassin had crawled into to hide AND the time we meet Slith and a small contingent of Draconians who'd come along to hunt her down.

Well, could have turned ugly, that initial meet! But it didn't, in large part due to first a visit by that elder "god" Chaos (he'd broken his word to those Krynn "gods"....that and probably killed them). Then, an irate Rule and Agent showed up to stop Chaos from fubaring the whole place (and set up a chain reaction that would destroy a lot of parallel worlds). Then, after those Celestrials took care of Chaos and got their first clue as to what was causing all their problems with the Dark Tower (a bit of time travel or something or other going on here.....since by the time we came into the picture that problem was already in hand).....we got a visit by those Celestrials boss!

Don't....I....

Look, I'm not what one can say a church going man, but....I'm going to start up really now after that Meet! I and the others who have Christian backgrounds attribute the Entity (or Entities....memories fuzzy)...

Have you ever met God? I mean actually met Him?

The....

Well, I think you get the idea. The others saw different things. Synizn saw Tiamat. Astra saw her goddess. The Draconians, I got told later, saw an Entity that was a perfect version of their race (and later attribute it to being some kind of sign that Astra's goddess giving the green light in worshiping her).

Hey, I'm not going to knock another's religious beliefs. Ain't cool, that.

We came out of it normal enough, but the Draconians got a few gifts from that Meet. Before, their metallic looking scales were generally dull and either oxidized or tarnished. Now? Looks like they'd been polished within an inch of their lives! That is how shiny their scales were, now. That and some of those innate properties they'd had since their hatching got altered and/or enhanced.

That aside, we soon became good friends with them. I myself and that Slith....share a similar sense of humor and that lead to a good friendship.

We journeyed with them for a bit.....but that's a different story for later...