A bluish-skinned lizard and a bearded dwarf dialogued loudly in the tavern at the table near the window. But suddenly the dwarf interrupted conversation and looked out of the window. It was sleeting in the twilight outside. In gathering December dusk two silhouettes, a big black dragon and a small green orc, could be made out; both of them were dressed in green colours of the magistrate of HeroesLands and behind them there were carts covered by hay. The dwarf lent his ear and heard scraps of conversation through the tavern din.
The Orc shouted "Sir Pool! I asked you to find presents for New Year! And what did you drag in the Capital of HeroesLands?" In reply the irritated black dragon spat with a flame and one of not numerous orc’s hairs caught fire. As if nothing had happened, the ork spat upon his fingers and, on putting out the flame, said "Take it easy! Explain to the Orc clearly what kind of presents is there". The dragon sighed, came up to the cart and, on digging out in hay a chest tied with a red tape, said "Gorbik, I’m telling you, usual presents with a clockwork that unlocks the chest on December 31. A trouble only occurred, gremlins attacked us in the pass, you know, they like machinery and there are a lot of them here … We fought furiously, in general, gremlins failed breaking down clockworks, but spells, cast by erathian wizards to the chests, were harmed and now not all chests contain good presents".
- "Not good presents? What do you mean?" the Orc did not understand.
- "Well, for example, an inhabitant of HeroesLands wants to open such a present and instead of 200@ he finds an artifact "cloud of anger" and a spell "vow of silence for two days" there. And I’m asking you, Orc, what we’ll do with these presents? But I want to notify you that not all of them are harmed and majority has conserved good qualities. The Orc scratched his head, murmured something and summed up.
- "In brief, we are giving the presents to all living in the Capital now or came till December 30, after my 28-th birthday, but we’ll notify them that there is a risk to open these presents, let them decide themselves, if they are real heroes, they will not be afraid, but if they don’t want to risk, the presents being not unpacked will be taken away in two weeks after New Year. Let’s go inside, dragon, it is cold here! "
On hearing the last phrase, the lizard hit on the head of gaping dwarf with a tankard so that he lost consciousness, having buried his nose in the table. The lizard murmured "Presents, I like them … " and looked at the Ogre-barman. Wiping a smug, the Ogre looked askance at the lizard.
- " This Sir must have drunk a lot" the lizard said, smiled awry and has jumped out in a hurry in the street past the magisters Gorbik and Pool coming in. The black dragon Pool walked to the bar stand and ordered a smug of glint wine. The Orc shook snow off himself and climbed the stage near the bar stand which was used for public performance and dances of erathian sprites in winter.
- "Noble knights!" he began screaming. All tavern visitors became silent…
- "We have a momentous Day! Or night, or another time of day, it depends on your race in HeroesLnads. I’m happy to introduce two new commanders of our Lands! It’s them who will lead you to campaigns; I’ve become old, and I’ll be only in the arena of public duels ". The visitors being interested made a fuss … and the Orc continued "It is Sir Pater Alex, his race is phoenix, and one more padre … Sir Vadim99, his race is a monk,. These players are certainly well known, they were in many campaigns together with you, and now Vadim99 will lead you in campaigns in HeroesLands 4, and Pater Alex in HeroesLands 3. I hope coming New year will be much more interesting than this year, surprises from the Magistrate await you, I don’t know if they are good or they aren’t, but they are certainly interesting! Magic be with you, the sword not falter in your hand!" After these words glasses were raised to the Magistrate, but in a second someone stepped on somebody’s foot, someone poured ale on someone, a duel was about to happen, the tavern lived its life. The Orс looked round, smiled and said "I like this place …"
