Forge World: The Full Metal Fantasy Role Playing Game

by shenadri

3: Spike's Campaign- Exodus

        “Well, it’s settled. We’re gonna go and help some Thanites get to the Obsidian Flats” Spike said as he pulled out a small booklet with the big word EXODUS, BY: SPIKE written in all capitals neatly scrawled on the cover “Honestly, I’m surprised at you guys. I didn’t automatically expect you to choose this campaign. You know, with dead raising zealots and everything” he chuckled a little.

        “What’re you talking about Spike?” Said Pinkie “We didn’t make the choice. They did” Pinkie then turned her head to face you. Yes, you! The readers. She gave all you guys and gals two hooves up and a wink before turning back to her confused friends.

        “Uh... Pinkie, who’re you talking to?” Twilight asked the reality bending pink mare, but brushed it off when she remembered just who she was talking to “Er... nevermind” she nervously grinned before regaining her composure “Anyway, we did pick this campaign, Pinkie, we all thought it sounded interesting. Remember?”

        “Oops, that’s right, we did! Didn’t we?” Pinkie said as she let out a cute little chuckle. All her friends just smiled and rolled their eyes at the mediocre normalcy of Pinkie Pie.

        “Well, it’s only two o’ clock. We got plenty of time to go through the first half of my campaign” said Spike as he set up his game master’s board and collected his color coordinated die. He continued to look through his little booklet and pulled out several sheets of papers that everyone assumed was integral to his story.

He reached into his dice bag and pulled out a set of d20’s which he passed to each of his friends. As the girls received the dies they all marveled at how exquisite the quality of the dices were. They were all beautifully carved out of individual chunks of solid marble and shined to the point where the luster could blind a lesser pony.

Each die was special in that they all had their own unique little color scheme, each one representing the color palettes of everyone present at the table.  One was lavender and dark purple, another was pink and pinker and so forth.

        “Wow, these are some pretty fancy looking dices. Say, where’d ya get these thing, Spike?” Applejack asked as she shined her die on her coat. Spike juggled his own die with a smirk on his face.

“Made them myself, cool right?” he coolly replied with a wide smile as he twirled the die on the tip of his claws with incredible dexterity “But enough about me, this is about you girls. Are you ready to help out some Thanites?” everyone at the table nodded at Spike and he began to properly set up the table.

“Okay, lets see... dice, game master board, character sheets” Spike quietly muttered beneath his breath “Normally this would be played with little models and a game mat but I think we can manage with some imagination and creativity” he said as he assumed his position behind the game master board.

All the girls shuffled around in their seat to get comfortable before they went questing in the world of Metallos. Pinkie somehow managed to filled part of the table with snacks and chilled fizzy drinks of all kinds from seemingly out of nowhere...

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road” said Spike as he cleared his throat as he flipped through his little booklet to find the right page.

“Here we are” he placed a claw on a page “You six are all members of a mercenary charter in the Protectorate of Rubinelle that you all decided to join for one reason or another” he flipped his little booklet over to show an image of a big stone building that looked like a shoddy yet spectacular warehouse from Canterlot “You six are all new and are meeting for the very first time” Spike put the book down and looked at everyone else

        In the neutral land of the Protectorate of Rubinelle lies a small mercenary contracting company off the edge of Sprocket City, Rubinelle’s largest city. There stood a large stone structure that looked like a bizarre mix of old and new. The old stone and woodworks were covered with vines and metal pipes of all sorts, surrounding the building in plant life and metal.

Basically it looked like a hacked together building that had been upgraded hastily to conform to the industrial age. Aside from the outside appearance, perhaps what stood out from the rest of the other contracting companies was the fact that the building was close to empty at the moment.

        Normally when a company like a mercenary contractor is empty that means one of two things; they were either completely rented out or they were going out of business for good. Luckily for the remaining staff of the company it was the former. All the soldiers and guns for hire had all been contracted to some fancy noble around the nation of Silverus, leaving behind six members that were basically the scraps at the bottom of the barrel.

“Hey! I thought we were like heroes or something! Not the ponies that nobody would hire” shouted Rainbow Dash, clearly miffed about being some sort of reject in a fancy company.

“Hey, you gotta start somewhere right? We’ll get to the whole heroics part later in the campaign” Spike replied as he flipped through another page in his booklet “Anywho...”

        Standing outside of the building was a unicorn who was busy cleaning and repairing her rusty labor engine, the sounds of whirring gears and splashing water was the only thing that could be heard in the quiet clearing.

The unicorn had a light lavender coat with a spiky electric pink mane that had a few streaks of deep purple running through it. She had a large pipe wrench on her back and was wearing an armored great coat that had metal plates and studs implemented into the fabric of the clothing to help fend off physical blows. She was also wearing a scarf and a set of leather gaiters along with her horseshoes. To put it simply, she was wearing armored mechanik gear.  

“Jeez, cleaning a light engine is harder than I thought” said the unicorn, who let out an exasperated groan as she wrung her towel dry. As she was drying off her robot she caught a glimpse of another pony out of the side of her eyes who was trotting towards her. The silhouette was equine in shape, but what set the rest apart were the obvious set of wings that they had on their side. It was a pegasus.

“Hey!” the pegasus shouted, though the sound of their voice was muffled as if they were speaking through a metal bucket “Is this the Cheap N’ Disposable contracting company?” the pegasus continued to trot their way towards the weary unicorn. The unicorn wiped the sweat off of her brow and dried herself as turned to greet the visitor.

“Why yes, yes it is” the unicorn replied matter of factly, with a warm smile. “My name is Twilight Sparkplug, how can I help you?”  she asked. As Twilight awaited for the pegasus’s reply she examined them.

The pegasus before her was covered from head to hoof in a full set of metal armor. Special Silverus skyterror plate mail to be exact, complete with a matching arnet helmet and a large tower shield. The armor was a beautifully rich navy blue that had been highlighted with streaks of lustrous gold. On the back of pegasus was a long spear like weapon, one that Twilight had some experience in repairing for certain individuals.

It was a blasting pike. A weapon that was entirely exclusive to the Silverus military and is feared by lesser soldiers throughout the continent of Metallos. It was basically a long spear like weapon that had an interchangeable head, one being an average spear head while the other was a special tip that had been carefully crafted to house lethal amounts of high yield explosives designed to detonate on impact.  

One last thing that piqued Twilight’s interest was the rainbow coloured mane that was sticking out of the back of the helmet in a ponytail. Twilight’s train of thought was interrupted when the pegasus lifted up the concealing helmet half way to reveal their face. The color of the pegasus’s coat was a blue that was only a few shades brighter than their armor, and one interesting aspect about the partially revealed face was the small scar on the side of their cheek.

“Yeah, you can help me” the pegasus said, her voice now identifiable as female. “The name’s Rainbow Blast, best Skyterror in all of Metallos” Rainbow pulled her helmet all the way back to reveal her face which had a cocky smile plastered onto it “I’m looking for a job”

“Wow, even in a whole other world y’all still got an ego the size of the whole dang world” Applejack joked as she tried to suppress a snicker.

“At least I’m in the story, Applejack” Rainbow Dash retorted with a smug grin “Cause, you know, I’m just awesome like that” she flashed the same cocky grin that was just like the one Rainbow Blast had. Everyone just rolled their eyes, saying anything else would only put Rainbow on a ego trip.

“Oh for the love of....” Spike grunted “Twilight, how would Twilight Sparkplug react to this?” he asked. Twilight held a hoof to her head and pondered the situation.

“Well for starters....” Twilight paused with an inquisitive look on her face “What’s the best Skyterror in all of Metallos doing at a crummy merc contracting company looking for a job......”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the questionably confident Skyterror before her. She was no wizard when it came to job management but she knew that Skyterror’s were the elite when it came the Silverus military hierarchy. They were treated like celebrities, and they could have whatever they wanted. So what was a so called Skyterror doing in perhaps the shadiest area of Sprocket city looking for a job as a merc?

A true Skyterror’s payroll would almost be ten times the amount that Twilight would ever make if she’d actually get a contract for her expertise that is. But then again, she’d only been in the company for a week. But business is business, so she might as well go and get Rainbow Blast into the system of their company.

“Alright then. Come on, follow me into the building” Twilight replied as she motioned for Rainbow to follow her. Just as Twilight was about to walk into the building she stopped and turned to her inactive labor engine “Whoops! Almost forgot” Twilight immediately dashed on over to her robot, leaving behind a very perplexed Rainbow Blast.

“Alrighty Twilight Sentinel, time for you to go to sleep” Twilight approached the large robot’s mechanical legs and pressed her hooves onto Twilight Sentinel’s left kneecap servo. With a little flash of light, a small ring of runic inscriptions glowed before her.

A few seconds later the runes levitated off the metal and expanded until it was about the size of the engine itself. The inscriptions slowly enveloped the engine until it disappeared in another flash of light. When the entire process was done the only thing that remained of the rusty robot was its shiny metal kneecap, which Twilight promptly affixed to her shoulder as a makeshift pauldron.

“Now that that’s over with, what do you say we get you employed?” said Twilight as she nonchalantly walked into the building right past Rainbow Blast who was frozen in awe with a slack jaw expression.

“Wow, you practically blazed through my book, didn’t you Twilight? Using runic inscriptions early on like this comes in very handy” Spike said, sounding genuinely impressed with a wide smile. Twilight just giggled and smiled back at Spike.

“Wha- whuah? What just happen?” Rainbow asked, incredibly confused at what she’d just experienced “How did she just do that?” Spike and Twilight shared a small bout of laughter at the confused mare.

“Do you want to explain it to her or do you want me to do it?” Spike asked Twilight.

“No, it’s alright. I can do it” Twilight said as she turned to Rainbow Dash “My other career, the Arcane Engineer, allows me to use my rune etching kit to create special runes that have a variety of effect on all sorts of items, such as my engine” she paused to let Rainbow Dash absorb the information

“I chose the pocket dimension inscription. It allows me to house my labor engine in a regular object, such as my shoulder pad. Did you get all that?” she finished which left all of her friends more confused than content with her answer. Spike rolled his eyes and continued on with their story.

“Meh, they’ll figure it out sooner or later. But for now, we have a new member to greet.....”

Both Twilight and Rainbow Blast walked in the unusually quiet foyer of building. The halls that they passed through were surprisingly well furnished and better looking than the outside. The hall and floor moldings were all made of  wood that was stained with a brilliant mahogany shine. The floorboards didn’t squeak, no matter how old it looked.

As the two continued down the hall they came across a set of large wooden doors that had been carved with all manners of designs with extreme precision. Twilight went and opened the door, and with a loud creak they were greeted with the sight of the lounge and four other staff members.

“How about I introduce you to the other members of the crew?” said Twilight. She pointed over to a stalwart earth pony soldier sitting in the corner of the room cleaning her rifle.

She was about an average size earth pony, with an orange coat and a golden mane that had been gracefully wrapped up into tight bun. She had a beauty mark on her face that only accentuated her plump lips and alluring sapphire irises.

She was wearing a set of specialized infantry armor that appealed to the natural curvature of her body. It was mostly heavy cloth that had been plated with metal around her shoulders, sides and her neck. There were a set of greaves on her back hooves that show some signs of natural wear and tear. She was also wearing a bright red ribbon that was used to tie her hair back.

The weapon that she was cleaning was a cannon shield. It was a heavy carbine that had been fitted for a scope and a long sharp bayonet, it had some elegant engravings along the barrel and a varnished stock. It was attached to a massive metal assault shield that had metal studs embedded onto the surface for bashing would be chargers.  
 
“That’s L’Orange De Apple” said Twilight “She’s a soldier from the Lazurian Empire. I heard she was dishonorably discharged from the military” Rainbow Blast grew nervous all of a sudden and swallowed a lump in her throat.

“W-what for?” Rainbow asked.

“She told me the military couldn’t handle her excellence” Twilight said with evident sarcasm in her voice “Truth be told she really got discharged because she was an insufferable brat of a soldier” she snickered just as L’Orange caught her insult.

“Hmph” she huffed as she raised her nose high “You are just simply jealous of my unfazomable talents Mizz Sparkplug” L’Orange spoke with a very thick french accent that either charmed you or annoyed you to no end.

“Really, Applejack?” Rarity spoke “That has got to be the worst prench accent that I have ever heard” she said with a little dab of overdramatic flair.

“Oh yeah? I’d like to see you try to imitate my voice!” Applejack retorted.

“Hmph, maybe I will” Rarity quickly shot back.

“Girls, girls. You’re both pretty, now lets get on with your story” Spike said as he dived back into his little booklet “Alright, where were we. Oh yeah, Twilight was talking to Applejack’s character...”  

“Oh keep your shirt on Lora, be glad that the boss didn’t kick you off his doorstep just because of your attitude” Twilight shot back with a smirk as she wandered on through the lounge with Rainbow Blast.

“Uh, Lora?” Rainbow asked

“It’s just a nickname me and the others gave her cause nobody wants to say L’Orange all the time” Twilight answered she pointed to another pony in the room, but this time it was a unicorn who was lazily lounging on her large and comfy looking sofa. She was currently very engaged with a romantic novel and wasn’t really aware of the others standing right next to her.

The unicorn had a flawless ruby red coat with a dark, almost sanguine like mane that flowed around her her like a river of blood. Her eyes were also a rich sea of crimson that flooded her obsidian pupils. She was wearing a long elegant and somewhat frilly dress that was about four different shades of red, the colors were so vibrant and breathtaking they looked as if it were a part of her very skin.

As the unicorn continued to glance through her book she raised her head ever so slightly till she finally acknowledged her two peers.

“Oh my, my!” the unicorn exclaimed “Why howdy there darling” the unicorn spoke flawlessly with a very heavy southern twang “To whom do I owe the pleasure of seeing you again, miss Sparkplug?”

“See, Applejack, it isn’t that hard to speak like you” said Rarity with an innocent looking grin on her face. Applejack just grunted and mumbled something that foals shouldn’t hear underneath her breath. Spike and everyone else shared a little laugh at the bummed apple farmer.

“Just introducing you to the new recruit, Elusive” Twilight replied “Meet Rainbow Blast. She’s a Skyterror from Silverus” Elusive shifted her eyebrow when she heard that Rainbow Blast was a Skyterror.

“Oh really now” Elusive spoke inquisitively “Well what’s a famous Skyterror like yourself doing in a place like this?” she asked. Rainbow shifted around uncomfortably, her eyes darting back and forth nervously.

“I figured a change of scenery would be nice for me, you know?” She shakily replied “Seeing nothing but snow and daylight that last up to six months can be a real drag sometimes” Elusive and Twilight were a little skeptical about her answer, but they decided not to press on it. It’d be rude just poking around another pony’s life like that.

“Well alrighty then, don’t let me slow you two down” Elusive said as she returned her attention back to the book “Also, before I forget, welcome to the crew”

“Uh, thanks, I think” Rainbow said as she walked around another part of the lounge with Twilight. This time they were in the small bar by the darker side of the room. As they approached the bar they were greeted with the sight of a ruffled gray Diamond Dog grunt that looked like she had drunk a few shots too many. To make matters worse, she was playing darts.

“Hey Cap, I think you’re aiming those darts the wrong way” Twilight said which broke the dog out of her drunken haze.

“Whuah, huh? Hic!” The diamond dog got a good look at where she was aiming at, it was the company’s accidents board. Apparently the board stated that the company has had zero days without an accident, the chalk on the board also looked very old and dusty, like it hasn’t been used in a while

“Hic! Thank ya for pointing that out *hic* Twilight” she dropped the dart and returned to the bar where pour herself another glass of grog. Just when she was about to drink the shot full of volatile fluid, the shot glass was covered in a purple glow and pulled away from her “Hey! *Hic* I was about to *hic* drink that!” she shouted in her drunken rage.

“I honestly think that you've had enough, Cap” Twilight levitated the shotglass over to the sink and poured the contents out “Sober up you git, and show some initiative by introducing yourself to our new member” she said as she pointed to Rainbow Blast. The dog just eyed the pegasus with half lidded eyes, smacking her lips due to her lack of grog.

“Argh!” she stated “My name be Captain Pinkie Pirate, *hic*! One of the Pirates around *hic* Black Pearl Cove” Pinkie said as she struggled to stand up straight “Welcome to the *hic* crew” Rainbow just stared at the drunken pirate, she looked far better than one normally would after downing a gallon of liver destroying grog.

There were obvious signs that she was a female. Compared to the male grunts, she was very curvaceous with a certain kick of women that just ran through her legs, arms and face. She looked very strong, despite keeping her voluptuous feminine figure.

She had two golden ring earrings on her left ear while she had spiked earring on the other. She was wearing a red bandanna on her head that was covered with a battered looking tricorne cap, and she was wearing a stylized corset atop her shirt and pants that hugged her like there was no tomorrow. She also had some a pair of long boots that rode all the way up to her hips.

“You like what you *hic!* see?” Captain Pinkie said with a slur in her voice and a wiggle of her hips “Eeyup! Ain’t no other diamond dog got’s a *hic* booty like mine!” the captain then promptly pulled out small treasure chest and opened it up to reveal it’s contents “Yup. Bootylicious!” Before the others got a chance to peek around the chest, Pinkie blacked out on the spot and collapsed onto the floor.

Apparently all that talking and standing took too much energy out of the captain, so she decided that it was a good time to shut down all bodily functions and just take a nap. Within the span of only ten seconds flat the captain was unconscious, snoring louder than a fork that’s been jammed into trash compactor. Twilight and Rainbow Blast took this a cue to move onto the rest of the lounge.

“Don’t you think we should help her?” Rainbow Blast asked, sounding concerned about the unconscious pirate.

“Meh, she’ll be alright” Twilight replied nonchalantly “Besides, this is probably like the fifth or sixth time this week that’s happened” she said as she wandered around to a more silent area of the lounge. It was much more quiet in this particular area of the room than where the others were. As they continued into the darkness a strong scent filled the air; it smelled like a tantalizing mix of cinnamon and vanilla.

“Ah, so this is where she is” Twilight said as they came across an old wooden door. She pushed the doors open to reveal a pegasus pony meditating in the quiet room around a ring of candles. The pegasus was in deep meditation, the outside world was literally blocked out to her “Rainbow Blast, this is Necrolyte Butterfly”

The pegasus before them had a coat that was equivalent to bleached bones, and her mane was midnight black. She was wearing a long set of black robes that had been plated with metal to protect certain vital organs.

But the one that thing that stuck out from her the most was her necklace. It was made of metal and had been pressed into the shape of a sword that’s facing up, with a black alicorn on the center of the blade. The mark of the Thanite faith.

After a few more seconds of waiting, Butterfly shifted around her seat and opened her eyes. With a warm smile, she greeted her visitors.

“Greetings, friend” Butterfly said “It’s good to see you again, Twilight. How are you?” she softly asked as Twilight smiled back at her.

“I’m fine, thank you for asking” said Twilight “How do you like this place? You just got here yesterday, didn’t you?” she asked.

“The accommodations are satisfactory, albeit it’s a little dusty here and there but there’s nothing bad about this place” Butterfly replied before switching her gaze to Rainbow “Are you a new member?’ she asked.

“Uh... yeah, I am... Rainbow Blast is my name” Rainbow cracked a nervous smile in front of the Thanite, she’d heard about some very disturbing things about them and wanted to be as cautious as possible to prevent provoking her.

“Well, it’s good to have you on board, Rainbow Blast” Butterfly replied before turning to Twilight “Ah yes. The boss told me to gather everyone once we were ready. We have a contract to fulfill” she stood on up and with a quick flick of her wings, all the candles were put out

“I’ll head over there first, see you all in a bit” Butterfly then walked out of the room to tell the others. Twilight and Rainbow Blast followed suit and exited the room and well. As they were walking down the hall Twilight noticed that Rainbow was still acting all fidgety.

“Is it safe to have her around here?” Rainbow asked as she constantly shifted her vision to make sure that no one was listening on them.

“Is it safe to have who around?” Twilight asked, not really sure about Rainbow’s question.

“You know....” Rainbow hushed her voice “The Thanite...” Twilight just gave Rainbow Blast a nasty glare before they headed over to the boss’s office.

“Get used to it. This is a mercenary charter, almost everyone is welcomed here. Even Thanites” Twilight said as they trotted down another long hallway. Her answer didn’t make Rainbow feel any better, however.

“Aren’t you afraid that she might try to raise the dead or something?” Rainbow fearfully asked.

“I hope she does, we could use some more help around here with inventory” Twilight nonchalantly replied as both the ponies finally made it to the boss’s office. The door before them was an average wooden door but it had one unique quirk about it., the knob was really low to the floor, about half a foot off the ground to be exact.

“Here we are, time to meet the head honcho of this place” Twilight had to crouch down to the ground just to reach the doorknob. With a quick twist of the knob the door popped open with a delightful little creaking sound.

The room before them was quite small, only capable of fitting around fifteen people at most. But what it lacked in size it made up for in all sorts of random knick knacks and baubles that has been place all over the room. In front the Twilight and Rainbow was everyone everyone else that they’d just met along with a massive wooden desk and an equally huge leather chair.

The smell of a freshly lit cigar filled the little room with the nauseating scent tobacco and some other plants that they must’ve rolled into it by accident. The big chair that was in front of them was view from the back, leaving the enigmatic boss out of view.

“So, who’s the new chick?” a loud gruff voice came from behind the massive chair. Puffs of smoke coming from behind the seat floated into view as the boss puffed his cigar a few times. Rainbow steeled herself to face the menacing sounding voice.

“The name’s Rainbow Blast, best Skyterror in all of Metallos!” she proudly flaunted with a flick of her wing. But the boss didn’t sound impressed, in fact it was quite the opposite. He was laughing his head off.

“Bwuhahahaha! You mean this Rainbow Blast?” the boss, still hidden from behind his seat threw back a newspaper that landed with a soft thump on the desk. On the newspaper it read:

Rainbow’s blue face turned a bright red when her blunder was revealed for all to see. She closed her helmet and tried to block out the world as she waited for the whole situation to blow over. Instead of hearing another bout of laughter from the boss she instead heard... clapping?    

“I like that” the boss stated which gave Rainbow a sliver of hope “That shows initiative, it shows that you don’t take no lip from anyone. We need someone like you as part of this company” off the side of the chair everyone could see the edge of the cigar being tapped a few times to let the ashes fall out into the ashtray.

“Congratulations Rainbow Blast. Welcome to the Cheap N’ Disposable contracting company!” the boss gruffly said as he turned around to reveal himself to everyone else in the room.

He was a diamond dog brute, roughly about one foot tall and one an a quarter feet wide. He had a blond coat and the face of an adorable pug. He had on a fancy looking vest and tie with a hilarious large cigar off the edge of his lip. It was so weird seeing the little guy sit in a huge chair behind and equally large desk too.

The boss hopped off of his chair and walked on over to Rainbow to give her a hoofshake.

“The name’s Boss Hoss, but you can call me Boss” Boss said “I’m a diamond dog brute, the strongest in my entire family” he proudly stated just as Rainbow began to snicker “What’s so funny?”    

“I’m pretty sure you’re a runt, not a brute” said Rainbow “Aren’t brutes suppose to be like two ponies tall or something? There’s no way you can be a brute” she laughed shortly afterwards.

she promptly received her answer when Boss gave her a wicked smile and squeezed her hoof with enough strength to crumple her armor. He then proceeded to lift up Rainbow with one paw and twirl her around like a little rag doll. When he finally stopped Rainbow’s eyes were bouncing around her skull like a superball on steroids.

“Okay!” Rainbow shouted “I get it, you’re a brute” she held onto her head to steady her shaking pupils. Everyone in the room just chuckled and giggle at the poor pegasus’s misfortune.

“Cool it on the new girl boss, what about our contract?” Twilight said, straight to the point without sugar coating anything “What’s the job?” she asked.

Boss just shuffled through the large stacks of papers that he had lying around on his desk. He flipped through a few pages until he finally pulled out a dirty looking telegram that had some blood splattered onto the parchment. While the girls were excited, save for Captain Pinkie who was fighting off alcohol withdrawals, Boss had a look of uncertainty on his face.

“ *Sigh* I know this is your first job but I’m gonna warn ya, it’s a doozy” said Boss as he removed his cigar and flipped the paper to show everyone what they were going to do