//------------------------------// // The Rough Journey // Story: My Way or Role Play // by PonyPixel //------------------------------// The six made it out of the woods and could see some houses in the distance. “Good,” Sandbar sighed. “Maybe we can ask them for directions.” “Sure hope there’s some creature who can think,” Gallus said. “Maybe one that thinks about what it attacks.” They made their way down the hill as Silverstream had to bring up her friend’s fire feat. “Do you think we could use other elements?” the hippogriff asked. “I’m not sure,” Ocellus said. “I’m barely getting the hang of this.” “Friend just need book to help,” Yona said. “Yeah,” Sandbar said. “I hope I can get a new shield.” He showed what he meant as his shield had a large crack down the middle of it. “Wow, that looks bad,” Smolder commented. “I know. One more hit and this thing is going to hurt me more than protect me.” “We’re almost there,” Gallus said. They came into the village and were surprised to see what the citizens looked like. There were various centaurs walking around. They all looked to have average builds, nowhere near as big as Tirek. The centaurs all looked to be minding their own business. Pulling carts filled with goods, chatting with friends, and a few parents walking with their children. “You think these guys will drain our magic?” Sandbar whispered. “They looked just fine,” Silverstream said. “Excuse me!” Her shout caught the attention of a merchant. “What can help you with travelers?” the merchant asked. The thief dragged the paladin toward the centaur. “Silver, what are you doing?” Sandbar questioned. “You said it yourself,” the hippogriff replied, “You need to get that shield fixed.” The merchant was surprised at the shield’s condition. “No wonder,” he said. “What caused this damage?” “Bugbear,” the pony answered. “Hmm. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can fix this. I can get you a new one, however. Follow me.” He led the adventures into a shop were where there were some shields, swords, spears, and various other weapons. “Sweet,” Smolder commented. “You know, while we’re here, could you hook me up with a couple of arrows?” Gallus asked. “I think so,” the merchant said. “Though, it’s going to cost you.” The team looked at each other as they knew they had a problem. “How do we get money?” the griffon whispered. “I don’t know,” Smolder replied. “Maybe there’s some in the bag,” Silverstream advised. “Silver, I only put potions in here,” Ocellus reminded. She looked inside to show her friend and was surprised to see what looked like bits. Though, they were copper instead of golden. “Okay.” “Why am I surprised by this,” Gallus said under his breath. Ocellus handed the coins to the centaur. “Will this be enough?” “It should be for your friend’s new shield,” the merchant responded. Sandbar smiled as he looked at which shield to buy. “Where you headed anyhow?” “Friends going to find Discovery,” Yona answered. The merchant stumbled back in surprise. “You sure you wanna do that? I met a team who fought each other just to stay in charge.” “We made it this far,” Silverstream explained. “That’s like a bird being able to fly a meter off the ground. This would isn’t as easy as you may think.” “We kind of figured that out,” Gallus mumbled. His eye widened as he looked at some interesting arrows. “Fire arrows? Ice? Explosive?!” He excitedly looked at the merchant. “How much do you charge?” “You’re not blowing anything up,” Ocellus asserted. “Just please get us some regular arrows.” The centaur nodded. “Alright, fine. We’ll just use some of your magic.” “I can barely control this thing.” “Then you definitely won’t stand a chance out there,” the merchant chuckled. “Could you at least give us tips instead of just telling us what you think is going to happen?” Smolder asked. She was getting annoyed. The centaur was handed some coins from Gallus, who was then given the arrows. “I’d recommend you take the long way around the Sand Swamps.” “Sand Swamps?” Sandbar asked. “Trust me. You don’t want to go anywhere near that place.” The paladin shivered a bit as he showed the shield he wanted. “Hold on,” Silverstream said. She showed a long blue dagger that shined in the light. “How much is this?” The group carried on their adventure as the hippogriff was amazed at her new dagger. “It’s a shame I had to sell my old ones,” she sighed. “Why did you even do that?” Smolder questioned. “Well... I found something underneath where this dagger was at. It said, ‘ten percent more damage on undead enemies’.” “You too?” Sandbar asked. “Mine said, ‘fire resistance’.” “You know what this feels like?” Gallus asked. “What?” Yona replied. “An RPG. Like Ogres and Oubliettes.” “You don’t think we’re in the game?” Ocellus questioned. “Those skeletons do seem familiar,” Sandbar admitted. “Skeletons scarier in real life,” Yona spoke. “If we’re in the game,” Ocellus said, “Then we probably have to follow the same rules the game has. Which means I can only cast so many spells per day.” “And these weapons could break,” Gallus added. “Not to mention we can feel pain here,” Smolder mentioned. “Oh, that just makes things so much better.” “Friends try to avoid fighting,” Yona suggested. “Probably a good idea,” Ocellus said. She checked the map to see where they were. “I think the Sand Swamps may be the river, here.” “You sure about that?” Gallus asked. “I don’t see anything else that looks like a swamp on here.” Walking a little more, they could hear some bubbling, along with a ponging smell. “Ugh,” Smolder groaned. “What is that?” “I think that might be the swamp.” The six walked along and soon found the Sandy Swamp. There were some trees in the mucky water with vines hanging from them. The swamp looked to be filled with sand, making it live up to its name. They could see several frogs-like creatures sitting around on lily pads. “That centaur said we should take the long way around,” Sandbar reminded. He and Yona started walking as Smolder started flying above them. “Can’t we just fly over this?” the dragoness questioned. “...That’s a good point,” Gallus agreed. “What’s stopping us from just flying over this? It’ll be a lot faster and we could get home as soon as possible.” “Longer route safer route,” Yona spoke. “Yona, do you want to be stuck in this world filled with living skeletons?” Smolder asked. “No.” “Okay then. Gallus, give me some help.” The monk and archer picked up the barbarian as Silverstream did the same for Sandbar. However, the paladin’s armor made him pretty heavy. Lucky for the thief, the mage put her staff in the bag and helped lift the colt. The smell was horrible for the flyers. They tried breathing through their mouths, but it didn’t help enough. “What’s in this swamp?” Silverstream questioned. “I don’t wanna know,” Ocellus responded. “Let’s just get out of...” Suddenly, a large bubble popped from below them, sandy water, causing Sandbar and Yona to fall out of their friends’ grip. They splashed into the swamp and slowly started thinking. “Gah!” Sandbar cried. “This feels like quicksand.” “Guys, hold on,” Silverstream said. She and the others tried to pull their friends out as something started surfacing from the water. It was a giant Bufogren with dragon-like teeth. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Gallus groaned. He tried firing an arrow at the frog, but it just swallowed it. “Yeah, that worked great,” Smolder said sarcastically. “Friends need help!” Yona reminded. “Ocellus, try a spell,” Silverstream proposed. The changeling pulled out her staff and wave it around. She ended up shooting out some fire. This proved to be useless as the Bufogren swallowed that too. “We can only run now,” Ocellus said. She helped Silver pulled Sandbar out of the sandy water, Smolder and Gallus did the same to Yona. As soon as they were free, they flew back to land. Looking back at the Bufogren, Ocellus saw it frowning before sinking back into the swamp. “That was a bad idea,” Smolder commented. “You think?” Sandbar asked. “Friends sticking with long route,” Yona asserted. She and her coltfriend led the way. “Be honest,” Gallus said, “You want to get out of here too.” “That may be true,” Sandbar admitted, “But we want to survive.” “Are we still heading the right way?” Silverstream asked. “Hope so,” Ocellus acknowledged. She checked the map to see if she could find out where they were. “I’m mixed up here.” “Hang on.” The hippogriff flew into the air to see if she could look around but then saw something. A flock of Rocs was flying around until they spotted her. “Oh, seashells.” The flock dive at the thief, who flew back down to her friends. “RUN!” The rocs tried to peck through the treetops, which bought the team enough time to make a run for it. “Of course,” Smolder moaned. “Of course there’d be rocs.” “Just shut up and run!” Gallus said. “Can’t you fire an arrow?” “There’s too many and I only have so many.” “Look, cave,” Yona cried. They ran inside which was too small for the rocs to follow them through. “Whoa, this cave leads to a tunnel,” Ocellus gasped. “Let’s see where it leads,” Sandbar said. “You sure about that?” The archer and monk pointed back to where they came, where the rocs were still trying to get in. “Right. It’s not that dark in here anyways. We might as well see if we can find anything.” The team slowly walked deeper into the tunnel. “What do you think we’ll see in here?” Silverstream questioned. “Yona don’t wanna know,” the yak shivered. “Hope it’s not something too strong,” Sandbar wished. “Those other creatures would’ve literally stomped us.” “We stood a good chance against those skeletons,” Smolder reminded. “Because they were similar in size.” “Shh,” Ocellus shushed. “I think I hear something.” “Now what?” Gallus groaned. Looking around the corner, the team saw six sets of armor. “I could’ve sworn I heard something moving. Let’s keep going.” The six walked deeper into the cave until Smolder saw a chest. Out of curiosity, she looked at what was inside, unaware of what was going on behind her. The sets of armor started moving by themselves. They slowly stomped towards Smolder, until Yona surprised the sentient inanimate beings by hitting one of them with her ax. “Yona, what...” Smolder paused when she saw the moving armor. “Okay, I didn’t see that coming.” The other four looked back to see what happened. “Living armor?” Gallus questioned. “I should probably be used to this by now.” Drawing his bow, he helped his friends fight off the armors. Some of them had weapons and the one with a sword blocked Sandbar’s weapon. “Silver, a little help,” the colt begged as he kept clashing his blade with the armor’s. The hippogriff flew towards the armor attacking her friend and jabbed it with her special dagger. The armor backed away in shock, leaving Sandbar enough time swing his sword to smashed the set into pieces. The pieces vanished and there was a sound of coins landing on each other. “What was that?” Ocellus asked. “Who cares?” Smolder questioned. She decked one of the sets in the face, causing the helmet to fly off and the armor vanished. The cash sound was heard again. “I think I may know what that is,” Gallus said. He looked back and could see his quiver had ten arrows left. “Could use some help here.” “On it,” Ocellus said. The mage waved her wand around until she felt some heat coming from it. Instead of shooting out fire, lighting shot out from her staff. At the same time, Gallus had launched an arrow at the same set of armor that Ocellus was aiming at. The lightning bolt and arrow collided with each other and both hit the armor set. This caused the armor to spaz out and make it hit another set with his spear, causing a chain reaction making all the armor set electrocute each other and they vanished. “...Well that happened,” Smolder commented. “How friends do that?” Yona asked. “I think it’s like what happened with Sandbar’s sword,” Ocellus answered. “Maybe we should get out of here before more creatures show up,” Sandbar recommended. “Sandbar have good plan,” Yona said. She and her friends ventured into the cave, which was far from easy. Just turning the corner, there was a scorpion that was big as Yona, a bat pony, and a griffon ghoul. “...Give us a break,” Gallus groaned. They made a run for it, with the three creatures chasing them. “We need a plan,” Sandbar said. “Okay, give me a second,” Ocellus said. The scorpion shot out some poison that hit Silverstream in the back. The hippogriff started feeling woozy as she and friends found a door. It led to a room that the sextet hid inside to buy them some time. “Anything?” “Yeah. Gallus and I will stick in the back. Our classes are better at fighting at range. Sandbar, because of you health and defenses, you’ll take the lead. Yona, Smolder, Silver...” The changeling paused as she saw her friends face. “Are you okay?” “I think that scorpion... Got me,” the hippogriff moaned. “Hold on,” Gallus said. He reached into the bag and pulled out one of the potions. It read, ”Antidote”. “Hope I got the right one.” He gave the potion to his poison friend, who was feeling better. “Thanks, Gally. What were you saying Ocellus?” “You’re with Yona and Smolder upfront with Sandbar.” “Got it.” “Wait, what’s over there?” Smolder asked. She pointed to two chests. The archer walked over to them and found two things inside, a set of twenty arrows, and five smoke bombs. “Silver, I think I found something for you,” the griffon said. The scorpion, ghoul, and bat pony were waiting outside until the sextet burst through the door. Yona fought off against the scorpion with Smolder as Sandbar and Silverstream took on the ghoul. Gallus and Ocellus struggled to fight the bat pony while staying in the back. “He’s too fast,” Gallus noted as he prepared another arrow. “We better change things up,” Ocellus said. “Silver, your bombs. Throw one at the bat!” “Okay,” the hippogriff replied. She chucked a smoke bomb at the bat pony, blinding it long enough for it to get shot by some fire and an arrow. “I think I’m getting the hang of this.” The mage looked towards the scorpion the monk and barbarian were fighting. She tried to shoot out fire but launched lighting instead. Still, it proved effective enough to help Yona and Smolder finish off the scorpion, making it vanish. Smolder flew over to help Gallus with the bat pony by throwing it into a wall. Yona helped Sandbar and Silverstream with the ghoul which was giving them trouble. “I’m glad you bought that dagger,” Sandar said. He quickly blocked a shot of ice from the ghoul with his shield. “Hmm, maybe this will help,” Silverstream said, holding out an orange dagger. “Where Silver get dagger?” Yona asked. “One of the armor guys dropped it when he vanished.” Holding the orange dagger in her talon, Silverstream slashed at the ghoul. Fire emitted from the knife and it looked to deal a lot of damage. “Cool. A fire dagger.” With the help of the barbarian and paladin, the ghoul vanished. The bat pony was taking care of by the other half of the team, making it disappear. “There,” Smolder panted. “How many arrows do you have left?” Gallus looked back and checked. “Twelve,” he said. “Let keep moving,” Sandbar said. The team carried on through the cave, hoping to have as little conflict as possible. However, Silverstream accidentally stepped on a tile, which released a few other monsters. After what felt like ages, the sextet finally found the exit of the cave. “At last,” Smolder groaned. “I felt like we were stuck in a maze.” “How are our supplies?” Sandbar asked Ocellus. “Let’s see,” the changeling said. She looked inside the bag. “We’ve got three health potions, one antidote, some spare weapons we found.” “Like that bow we found?” Gallus asked. “Yep. And, a lot of coins.” “You mean bits?” Smolder asked. “They don’t look like bits... And...” The changeling paused when she saw something in the distance. “What’s wrong?” Yona asked. Ocellus pointed to what she was looking and her friends gasped when they finally saw it. Far in the distance, was a cave entrance that looked like the mouth of a bear. “That’s the location of the discovery,” Sandbar gasped. “We’re so close now.” “Wait are we waiting for?” Silverstream asked. She was about to fly over there, but Gallus stopped her. “Silver, Ocellus and I are low on ammo,” Gallus informed. “Not to mention some of our weapons might break.” “Gallus right,” Yona confirmed. She looked at her ax, which had a few cracks on the blade and the handle. Smolder’s gauntlets had the same problem. One of her claws were even exposed. “We could just use the weapons we found,” Smolder said, “What about the potions?” “Three isn’t going to be enough,” Ocellus agreed. “What do we do?” “Hold on,” Sandbar announced, “There’s somebody at the bottom of the hill.” The figure was too far away for them to see, so the six walked down the hill to see it was a yak with dirty blonde wool. Her eyes were covered up and her horns were black and fairly short. She was sitting next to a campfire with a cart sitting beside her. She saw the team walking towards her. “Why hello there,” she said. “Where are you heading to?” “That cave over there,” Silverstream explained. “We’re looking for the discovery.” “Ah. Then you’re very foolish children.” “We’ve made it this far,” Smolder stated. “Hmm, you’ve had a hard time by the looks of it.” “Tell us about it,” Ocellus sighed. “You might need some items that’ll help you out.” The yak looked in her cart and show a couple of potions. “You wouldn’t happen to have some coins with you, would you?” “A couple,” Smolder said. Ocellus pulled some coins out of their bag to pay for the potions they were looking for. “Two more health potions,” Sandbar narrated as he picked up the said items. “Ooh, a speed boost?” “How long have you and your friends been on this quest?” the yak asked. “We only started this quest today,” Ocellus said. “It’s harder than just plaining it like a normal board game.” “I see. What are you looking for anyway?” “Something called the Discovery.” “No creature knows what it is,” Sandbar added. “We hope it’s something that’ll get us home.” “Then I wish you all good luck. You may need it.” After the team bought what they needed, the left the yak to rest by her campfire. “Friends sure we’re ready?” Yona asked. “It’s now or never,” Smolder said. “She’s right,” Gallus said. “Let’s do this.” The six each nodded before heading the bear-shaped cave.