I’m very lucky to say that I have very few stories where I almost reached the goal line before giving up on them. I’ve got a few stories near the goal line I’m still holding out hope I’ll finish one day… But unfortunately this is not one of them.
I wanted to go off on a high note for this abandonware series, so enjoy this epic(?) season finale! Maybe in ten more years I’ll have some more stuff I’ll be comfortable enough to share.
A Quick Adventure
Originally written as part of DPC’s Fantasy Themed contest. I got so close to finishing this one, but real life head butted in the way, and with the contest finished and high fantasy not really being my genre, I just can’t muster that oomph to finish it up. But hey! Fans of ANGA might recognize a familiar face I ended up recycling for Season 2. I believe I wanted to end this one with Kelly deciding to change classes to a flesh crafter somehow? IDK. Anyways, enjoy!
Characters:
Sydney —> dm
Kelly (main character) —> Gwendolyn the Human Fighter
Hanna —> Jalbrodena Brightbasher the Dwarf Huntress
Georgia —> Isilynor Omaphine the Elf Bard
Straeselm the Fleshcrafter
“Thank you so much for allowing me to tag along,” Kelly said, pulling out her character sheet from her laptop bag.
“No problems,” Georgia said, grinning, “We’ve been looking to expand our party, and I know that’s it’s something you’ve always wanted to try out.”
“Yeah, you were easily our first choice,” Hanna agreed, “Although, I think it’s only fair to warn you that we play D&D a bit different from how most people play…” She lifted her eyebrows up towards Georgia and Sydney knowingly.
“Alright…” Kelly said, even more nervous than she was previously.
“Don’t worry Kelly,” Sydney said, giving her a reassuring look, “She just means that we get into it a bit more than most parties. We like to actually act out our characters a bit. You know, try and speak like them, act out what we want to try to do. You know, sort of like when we did improv stuff back in high school. It’s why I asked you to read the story so far document and be as specific as possible with your character sheet.”
“Ah. I was wondering about that,” Kelly passed over her character sheet to Sydney, who gave a once over the entire document.
“Oh wow! You even did a little drawing of her.”
“Yeah,” Kelly blushed, “I hope you don’t mind, but I had so much fun making my character that I got a little carried away.”
“I don’t mind at all, it makes my life a whole lot easier-“
A ringing at the door announced to the girls that the pizza they had ordered had arrived, so game talk was postponed until they had their fill.
~~~
Once the pizza was consumed and the girls had tired of talking about their college classes, they finally prepared to start playing the game. “Now, girls, I just want to make sure before we begin that everyone remembers their safe words."
“Safe words?” Kelly gulped.
“Sorry!” Sydney said, her face going red, “I forgot this is your first time playing. When we start up we generally try to stay in character as much as possible. So we made up codewords to use when you want to talk directly to the DM or out of character. Hanna pointed out that they were basically the same thing as safe words, so we just started calling them that.”
“Oh… Okay…” Kelly said nervously.
“I swear! Sessions normally don’t go that way-“
“Unless you want them to,” Hanna interrupted.
“Hanna!” Sydney said, blushing just as much as Kelly was, “stop trying to scare away our new guest.”
“Oh c’mon Syd. I’m just hazing the newbie a little bit,” Hanna grinned, “she doesn’t have to take part if she doesn’t want to.”
“Hush! Now Kelly do you have an idea for what your codeword will be? It should be something that you probably wouldn’t say in conversation.”
“How about Zaggle?” Georgia recommended.
“That sounds fine with me,” Kelly said.
“Great!” Sydney said, relieved that they could finally start the game now. From a nearby dresser, Sydney pulled out a large, brown, leather-bound book and slammed it down on the table. She opened to a seemingly random page and said, “Once again, the girls at the table returned to the world of Tolemac, however this time they brought along a new girl, interested in joining on their quest to save the land.” A white fog began to expand outwards from the pages of the book.
Kelly, in a panic, managed to jump out of her seat, before being consumed by the fog.
~~~
The fog clouded Kelly’s vision entirely. She reached her hands up, and even though they should have been inches from her face, Kelly was unable to see them.
A voice echoed through the fog, which Kelly quickly realized was Sydney’s voice, “Tonight’s adventure takes place, once again, in the enchanted forest on the edge of the Praxian empire.” The fog around Kelly began to swirl, more definite shapes appearing around the edges of her vision. “The thick forest, with it’s tall trees that nearly blotted out the sky, was well known for the dangers that it harbored, but the prospect of hidden riches meant that an adventurer was never too far from running into another adventuring party.” The shapes began to take a more solid form, turning into large black trees that seemed to stretch upwards forever. The canopy of the forest creating an almost twilight effect on the forest floor below, which Kelly now realized, was beginning to look like a rudimentary dirt path. If Kelly had a mouth, or any body for that matter, it would have been open in amazement.
“It is along one of the many trails in this forest that the young human Gwendolyn found herself traveling down, in hopes of finding the barbarian that had ransacked her village and killed her family,” Upon hearing these words, Kelly felt a strange tingling around where her consciousness seemed to be floating. She opened her eyes, not even realizing that she had closed them, and looked down at herself.
The pink sweatshirt and jeans she had been wearing were no where to be seen. Instead, she was wearing a shiny metal breast plate which perfectly cupped her clearly enhanced breasts, which transitioned into chainmail that covered what would have been her exposed midriff. A pair of bulky armor pants likewise had replaced her jeans, and she wore some two silver gauntlets that transitioned into some ornately decorated vambraces bearing her fantasy household’s crest, more chainmail protecting her upper arms.
Just as she was about to scream, Sydney’s voice once again popped into her head, although it sounded more like a whisper than her previously booming voice. “Hey Kelly. It’s me, Syd. Just gonna conjure a magic mirror for you so that you can fine tune your physique. I did my best to match your drawing, but you can fix it however you like.” And as the voice faded away, a large ornate mirror appeared before Kelly, and she could get a good luck at herself.
True to Sydney’s words, Kelly had been transformed into the near spitting image of her D&D character. The magic mirror showed herself without any of the bulky armor on. Unlike her normally dumpy 5’2” form, Gwendolyn was a rather muscular 5’11”. Her ratty brown hair was replaced with straight blond hair tied up in a bun, which made sense since she was currently wearing a knight’s helmet to protect her head. Her small pert A cups had ballooned outwards to two well-endowed D cups, and her hips were similarly enhanced. ‘Wow,’ she thought, stepping closer to get a closer look at herself, ‘I look exactly like I always imagined!” A small pop-up appeared on the mirror asking if she was satisfied, which she immediately pressed ‘yes’.
The mirror disappeared, and Sydney’s loud narration continued, “About halfway down the path from her native village of Northshade to the neighboring town of Cragrest, when she had heard a commotion from the woods, and felt compelled to go investigate.” Just like with how the world around her had appeared when Sydney had commanded it, Kelly heard the sound of screaming and the sound of weapons hitting trees. Against her will, her body turned away from the path, making its way through the low hanging branches of the tree towards a small clearing, where she came across an interesting site.
Standing in the clearing was a short humanoid comforting a female elf. The short person was wearing a dark blue cape that obscured what she was wearing, but Kelly was able to see that she seemed to have two dagger holsters attached to her hips. The female elf was wearing a white dress that looked exceptionally regal, her long, straight blond hair reaching down to her knees. Her eyes were puffy and her face was pink, accentuating the fact that where her mouth should have been, was instead a blank patch of skin, just as pink as the rest of her face.
As the tress ruffled behind her, the short one turns to face the sound, pulling out her daggers and shouting out in a gruff voice, “Have you returned to steal more from us witch! I will not let you lay another finger upon Lady Omaphine!” Underneath the cloak, Kelly could clearly see that the short person was a well-built female dwarf. Her short, stocky figure was concealed by her black, leather armor. The hood of her cape was doing its very best to contain her frizzly, orange hair. Similarly to how the elf was missing its mouth, the dwarf was missing it’s eyes, the area completely smoothed over as though she was never born with them.
Finally recognizing this dwarf and elf duo most likely as her friends, she tried to shout out, ‘Gals! It’s me! Kelly!’ but found the words stuck in her throat. Try as she might, the best she was able to get out was a wheeze. ‘Sydney! Help!’ she thought.
Thankfully, she was answered by the voice of Sydney, whispering a reminder, “you need to use your safe word if you want to talk to me.”
“Zaggle!” Kelly finally managed to shout out, the ambient noise of the world around her disappearing as everything seemed to freeze in place. From out of nowhere, Sydney’s disembodied head appeared, floating at a level that meant Kelly didn’t have to strain to look her in the eyes.
“You called?”
“Sydney! What the heck is going on?!”
“We’re playing D&D, silly. I warned you that we went hard when we played,” Sydney’s words were filled with innocence, but her eyes gave away the fact that she was clearly having fun with Kelly’s inability to comprehend the magical world around her.
“Okay, fine. The whole taking us into the story bit I sort of understand, but why can’t I talk?”
“Oh. It’s just one of our house rules. If you want to talk in universe, you have to talk ‘in character’. None of this meta shenanigans around here.”
“But what if I’m not sure what my character talks or acts like?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Sydney said, her head growing more transparent, “This world has a way of bringing that sort of information out on its own.”
Back in the moment, Kelly was spooked a little bit when the dwarf woman shouted out, “Tell us who you are, or I shall happily slice you to bits and leave your remains in this clearing without a proper burial!”
“My name is Gwendolyn Montallard!” Kelly smiled at the fact that she was finally able to talk. Gwen’s voice sounded similar to her own, but there was a certain quality that Kelly couldn’t quite place that made it sound different. “I am the first and only female guard from my home village of Northshade. I was on my way to the nearby town in order to find the whereabouts of the barbarian tribe that ransacked my village. When I heard the sound of screaming and fighting somewhere in the woods, I immediately came out to investigate, where I found you two.
“Christ girlie. I only asked for your name not your whole life’s story,” The dwarf backed down, her gruff demeanor loosening slightly now that she knew they were not under a threat again.
“Now. Would you mind introducing yourselves?” Gwendolyn kindly demanded.
“Aye. My name is Jalbrodena Brightbasher, otherwise known as the best hunter throughout all of Tolemac. And this here is the Lady Isilynor Omaphine.”
“Lady? Is she royalty?”
“Aye. She is the daughter of Queen Soliana Omaphine, and rightful heir to the Praxian Empire.”
“And why, pray tell, is the princess to the empire traveling practically unaccompanied through the woods?”
“Ah. That’s simple. Because I’m kidnapping her.”
“Aha!” Gwendolyn shouted out, unsheathing her longsword from her own hilt, “So was it you that I heard fighting out here in the woods?”
“No no!” Jalbrodena protested, pulling out her own dagger and holding tightly to Isilynor, “You have misunderstood the situation-“
“And what exactly might that situation be?”
“Isilynor here does not wish to be the ruler of the Praxian empire. That is why she has paid me to kidnap her! In order so that she may fulfill her true dream of becoming the best bard in the land and holding a concert to unite Tolemac in the cause of destroying evil and bringing everlasting peace!”
“This sounds like a load of rubbish to me,” Gwendolyn said, slowly approaching the gruff dwarf and preparing to strike down upon her blind opponent.
Before she could even think of attacking her unprepared opponent, Isilynor broke free of Jalbrodena’s grip, swinging her arms wide in order to protect the short creature from harm. While she still did not have a mouth, and was thus unable to communicate directly with Gwendolyn, this action, and the look of sincerity in her eyes made her pause.
“Is what that dwarf said the truth?” she asked. To which the mute princess nodded in earnest.
Gwendolyn resheathed her sword and announced, “Alright. I do not pretend to understand your situation and the many perils you two may have faced until now. But, as a member of the Guard of Northshade, I swore an oath that I shall protect my village, my empire, and my land. And if Lady Isilynor believes she must run away from her birthright in order to protect it,” for dramatic affect, Gwendolyn knelt down on one knee, “Then I shall do all that is in my power to ensure that she achieves her desires.”
Jalbrodena would have rolled her eyes if she had any, while Isilynor gave her a look of gratitude. “Alright then. The first thing you can do is help us with this little problem that we’ve just had.”
~~~
“So what your saying is,” Gwendolyn said after listening to their tale of how they got to this state, “Is that some wizard-“
“Fleshcrafter,” Jalbrodena corrected.
“Okay… Some fleshcrafter caught you two by surprise while you were traveling covertly through the woods, and they steals your eyes and her lips?”
“Aye. That’s what happened.”
“Well did they say why they took them?”
“Some malarky about creating herself the ultimate body to take over the world with.”
Gwen took in this information for a bit, thinking of ways they could go about retrieving their stolen features. Eventually she asked, “Jalbrodena, you said you were a hunter?”
“I said I was the best hunter. One time I managed to track a single pixie over almost half of the continent in order to get back the money he owed me.”
“Do you think that you would be able to track your missing body parts by smell?”
Jalbrodena seemed to freeze up for a moment before happily shouting out, “Aye! I believe I should be able to do that. So long as you two make sure to stop me from randomly barging into her camp.”
~~~
After almost two hours of walking, false leads, and a chance encounter with a bear, the adventuring party slowed down as they heard the sound of fire crackling nearby. Slowing their approach, Gwendolyn made a motion to have Isilynor to stay with Jalbrodena while she went to investigate. Poking her head very careful out of the foilage, she caught site of a small camp in the center of the clearing, composed of a campfire and a small lean-to made of twigs and leaves
Sitting by the fire was the fleshcrafter, almost exactly matching the description Jalbrodena had provided. She was an old looking hag, her wispy white hair going in practically every direction but downwards. Her skin had seemed to fester with her age, giving it a nasty green hue, and practically all of the skin that she could see was drooping. But what was more horrifying was what was laying down on the ground next to her.
The figure laying on the ground looked like a horrifying chimera of various human-esque body parts. Her legs were scaly and red, ending in the three claws clearly reminiscent of a Dragonborn, while her arms were equally muscular with a grayish hint to them and black nails, probably stolen from a Half-Orc. A simple sack with holes cut into it was all that the strange amalgamation wore, making it difficult to make out what race her core was, but whatever it may be, it was clear that she had abnormally large breasts. Her head matched the dark purple color known to indicate a Tiefling, however it was missing the devil horns that would normally follow suit. A mismatched pair of elf ears poked out from her straight black hair, while her face was adorned with eyes that looked much too small for the face as a whole, a dainty nose, and an elegant pair of lips that looked as though they glittered in the campfire.
Gwendolyn could barely hear what the old hag was muttering to the body. “Soon my pretty. I must complete your body soon or I shall surely turn to dust!” A cackling fit turned into a coughing fit.
Gwendolyn retreated back from her perch, giving Isilynor a look as though to say, ‘Really? You both lost your body parts to that thing?’
Isilynor nodded, giving her a concerned look meaning, ‘Yes. Do not underestimate the way she currently looks.’
Gwendolyn shrugged, the group walking around the camp so that the hag’s back was turned to the three.
‘Okay,’ Kelly thought, ‘Just going to stealth on in there, deal an easy fatal strike and win!’ -
Suddenly, the world around Kelly froze once again and from thin air a ruby D20 appeared. Kelly reached out and took the die, throwing it against an invisible surface, where the number ‘5’ came up on top.
-The world started moving at normal speed again, and almost as if on cue, Gwendolyn stepped on a twig. The hag stiffened up, turning towards the party and shouting out, “Who goes there!”
Gwendolyn, in a moment of quick thinking, ran forwards, unsheathing her sword and-
Once again, the world froze in place, Kelly included. Kelly groaned, upset by the interruption to what she hoped would be an epic action, but understanding that this was still a game that they were playing. Moving her free hand that was not grasping her sword, she rolled her ruby D20 once again, this time landing on a ’18’. A second D20 appeared, of which she rolled a ’16’.
-with a single slice of her longsword, she sliced the hag in half, her upper half falling forwards onto the ground as her bottom half flopped backwards off the log it had been sitting on.
With a sigh of relief, Gwendolyn resheathed her sword, turning her back on the ugly creature and calling out to her friends, “I have slain the witch! Let us celebrate-“
Gwendolyn’s celebration was cut short as she looked down at the ground. The foot of the witch was bending in an unnatural, almost hand-like manner. The skin around the legs began to boil, the bones shifting a crackling until suddenly a green pair of arms was now holding her in place.
Looking behind her, she could now see the floating form of the hag that she had defeated, grinning and taunting her by saying, “Foolish mortal! Did you really think you could defeat a fleshcrafter of my calibre with such a simple weapon?” The witch reached up, grabbing her decrepit head in her hand and pulling upwards, a seam opening up on her neck as she completely lifted up off her body. She cackled maniacally as she threw her head, her hair erupting into flames as it careened straight towards Gwendolyn-
Time froze. Dice roll. ‘7’. ‘Drat,’ Kelly thought.
-The head made its mark biting down on Gwendolyn’s arm that was not holding her sword. She screamed in pain as the witch’s teeth made contact through the flesh, completely severing her arm. Much to her amazement, Gwendolyn could still feel the arm, as it flopped down to the floor, and with no blood whatsoever.
The head, meanwhile, had exploded into a pile of ash. The skin where the witch had been cut in half began to bubble, and from the wound emerged her head, attached directly to her former legs.
From her peripheral vision, Gwendolyn could sense some movement making it’s way around the small camp. Although, try as she might, she couldn’t actually see anything.
Now understanding that despite the autonomy they seemed to have in this world, it still operated heavily based on the rules of D&D, and it was most likely that she was the first in the combat order, Gwendolyn took aim with her longsword and -
’19’ ‘So close!’
- stabbed the fleshcrafter in her head, straight through the eyes. The end of her sword exited out the back of the witch’s head dripping green blood.
Despite the fact that this would have killed almost anything, the witch continued to cackle, saying, “A good fleshcrafter would never keep something as important as their brain in such an easy to break vessel!” From the cut in between her eyes, green tendrils began to climb up the blade, causing Gwendolyn to drop the blade in shock.
Her attempt to back away from the blade was short lived, as the grip of the witch’s leg/arms caused her to fall backwards, landing hard on the dirt floor. The witch, now more in control of the situation than ever, stood up her leg/arms. The tendrils of wrapped around the sword embedded in her head, turning themselves into an arm as they pulled the blade out. Turning it around -
’17!’ A second dice appeared, the words ‘Roll at Disadvantage’ appearing in flames. ‘3…’
- Slicing through both of her legs. However, much like with her arms, she was still completely in control of the legs. It was just that any attempts now to sit up caused her waist to sit up, leaving her upper body defenseless on the floor.
“Hey Toads For Breath!” a gruff, voice shouted out disembodied from the other side of the camp. Gwendolyn tried to sit up on her one arm, and was thankfully unaware of the skin on the back of the witch’s head bubbling, forming a copy of her face, since it’s former location had been unceremoniously taken by the arm now wielding Gwendolyn’s sword.
The forms of Isilynor and Jalbrodena suddenly appeared standing right next to the mismatched body. Isilynor was holding the body up, while Jalbrodena was holding a dagger directly over the chimera’s heart, not looking at anything in particular since she still did not have her eyes. “Fix me and my friends up or else I’ll kill this thing.”
“Ha! As if you think I would fall for a bluff such as that-“
“I don’t think so!” Jalbrodena said, immense confidence in her voice as she continued, “You might have all these magic powers that means you can’t be killed. But by my best estimate, this thing is simply just an empty shell currently. You haven’t had the time to switch your conscious over, otherwise I’m certain you still wouldn’t be in that disgusting body of yours. Now, I might not know much about fleshcrafters, but I’m pretty sure like most circles of magic that aren’t necromancy, they typically need things to be alive to shift their soul into it. Now, if you really want to help test my hypothesis,” Jalbrodena moved the blade closer to the beast’s heart, the tip of the blade just entering the skin.
“ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT! I give up!” The hag shouted, slowly backing her mutated lower body and her mangled upper body away from the two groups of girls.