Forge World: The Full Metal Fantasy Role Playing Game

by shenadri

9: Spike's Campaign- The Lead Wind Blows

“Gee, it feels like ages since the last time we played” Pinkie quipped as she fiddled with her dice “It may have been seconds for us but to me it felt like months”

“Uh, Pinkie? What are you talking about?” Spike furrowed his brow “We’ve only just started the battle phase, and thanks to Rainbow’s fog you might have another chance for a preemptive strike”

“Yes, and we should capitalize on that if we want to survive this next encounter” Twilight joined in “There’s only three of us now, plus my robot. But even then we’re still going up an elite group of soldiers trained to stop magic users”

“Luckily for us the only one around here who can use magic is you, Twilight. Even if it is just for making stuff and tuning up machinery” said Applejack “But it’s a good thing y’all got that big fancy pile o’ junk to make up for that” she snickered.

“Can we just move on with the fight now?” Twilight snapped, clearly irked about the insult to her imaginative robot.

“Alright, where were we” Spike drawled on “So Rainbow Blast managed to conjure up a fog to keep everyone else hidden as they made their way to the U.S.S.R. transport ship, while the rest of you girls are in for another fight against overwhelming odds...”

A dense fog blanketed the cobblestone streets of Starboard Port as our heroes readied themselves for a volatile sneak attack. Even though the odds were against them, the trio that remained were ready to lay their lives on the line to make sure that the others could escape successfully. And to do that, they had to stop these marauding band of self righteous murderers by any means necessary.

Using whatever time they had left before the fog slowly lifted itself away, the three mercenaries devised a plan that would make or break everything that they’ve built up until now. Positioning themselves to the best of their abilities, save for one pirate who was too drunk to follow instructions but still had enough brain cells to follow simple orders, the trio crept past the guild members silently to find a way to gain a leg up in the situation.

       
“So girls, tell me. What do you plan to do to try and turn the tide?” Spike asked with interest clearly laced in his voice.

"Oh, we can’t tell you that, Spike. It’s a surprise” Twilight grinned mischievously, something that she rarely does only unless she was really having fun. Spike grinned back, it was nice to see her have some fun that doesn’t involve saving the world or something mundane as weekly organization of book.

"Alright, alright, I can respect your privacy” said Spike as he stole a glance from his little booklet “Although, you three are going to having to roll for sneak if you want to avoid being seen past the fog by some of the more eagle eyed goons”

“That’s all Ah got to do right? Okay, Ah can do that” said Applejack with a curt toss of her D20. With a clickety clack on the table, the die landed on a fifteen. Not bad for a sneak roll “Hmm, well wouldja look at that”

“I got a nineteen. That should be more than enough” said Twilight as she reclaimed her color coded die.

“Yay! eighteen! What do I win” Pinkie jovially exclaimed.

“You girls all won all expense paid trip to your destination of choice without being caught by the guild members!” Spike announced with fervor “Now, onto the actual sneaking itself....”

“Darn it... I can’t see a bloody thing...” one of the stallions grumbled to himself as he unknowingly trotted past his intended target “Hey!” he shouted as he turned around “You guys see anything yet?”

“Nothing yet!” a voice shouted back.

Twilight had to suppress the urge to break out into laughter at the brick level intelligence that her opponent exhibited just so that she didn’t blow her cover. Thankfully she had her glowing pauldron hidden beneath her great coat to avoid turning into a walking target. With her breath held, she switch from walking to trotting as both her teammates reached their intended destination: the Silverus war carriage.

As the trio examined the carriage up close, they had to pay close attention to the gryphon that lazily guarding the gatling gun atop it. Making sure to stay out of his line of sight, Twilight inched up to the top as quiet as a mouse before pulling out and readying her massive wrench to brain the poor fooling for his lax behavior in the heat of combat.

“Sorry about this...” Twilight whispered beneath her breath as she raised her wrench high “...But I really want that gatling gun!” she shouted causing the gryphon take notice.

As the gryphon turned around, a massive iron wrench collide with his face, smashing his beak to bits and splitting his head wide open like a walnut. Brain matter splattered to the side of the carriage as a steady trail of blood made its way onto the ground. Bingo, the gryphon was dead as a doornail without so much as a peep to be made, save for the thunk noise that came with the wrench meeting with the recently deceased gryphon.

“Captain!” Twilight whispered loudly “Help me get this chump off the gun!”

“Okey dokey artichokey!” Captain Pinkie saluted as she climbed up to remove the obstruction.

“Lora, keep watch! The fog is fading, and I think everyone else is starting to get mighty suspicious about us!” Twilight commanded once more “Hide behind the carriage and get your weapon ready, they might fire on us at any moment’

“Understood” L’ Orange nodded “But don’t think this will give you any ideas to act all authoritative around me!” she hissed obnoxiously as she ready her cannon shield by the carriage. She flipped open the cover to her scope and assumed a sniping stance. The fog was dissipating and she had to be ready for anything that’ll be thrown at her “Perimeter is secure, few are looking back at the carriage, they think we fled to coastline”

“Good, let’s try to keep it that way. Now, onto the real prize...” said Twilight and she and the Captain chucked the gryphon’s corpse onto the ground. With the body out of the way Twilight’s eyes sparkled with a glint of excitement as she caressed the technological marvel that was the murder gatling gun.

 An incredible combination of mechanical gears, polished steel and diamond dog ingenuity. It glistened as the sun’s ray pierced through the fog, accentuating the beauty of the brass, steel, and blood that accidentally found its way onto the surface of the finely tuned prototype death machine.

“Oh, you are just a beaut, aren’t you?” Twilight gushed at the weapon “Twilight Sentinel will be thrilled to have you as his brand new toy!” she continue to mindlessly fantasize about the weapon until a stray bullet grazing the side of her forelegs brought her back to reality. She turned to face the direction of the bullet and was startled to see that the fog was gone and that they were out in the open and were being fired upon “Aw, manure...”

“Welcome back to earth, miss engineer” Captain quipped as she hid behind the side of the carriage“Now hurry up and get a move on with that weapon!” she shouted as she began to load up her handcannon “Come on! I’m not drunk enough to stand around and do nothing!”

“So that was your big plan eh? Pretty clever if you ask me” Spike complimented “Going for the best weapon and hooking it up to your engine during the confusion in the fog. Not too shabby” he clapped as loudly as he tiny claws would allow him to.

“Well, we are going up against some heavy hitters, so it would only make sense if we were to level the playing field a bit” Twilight replied.

“With a massive robot carrying perhaps the deadliest weapon this side of the protectorate?” Rainbow added with some snarkiness.

“When you put it that way, you make it sound like a bad thing...” Rarity trailed on.

“I think you’re robot is due for some new equipment anyway. I mean he did save us back in the plains” Fluttershy added “A little boost here and there wouldn’t be so bad”

“Fluttershy, sugarcube. We’re talking about a mechanical death machine using another mechanical death machine here” Applejack cut in “Besides, how do you keep doing that... thing you’re doing?”

“What thing?” Fluttershy inquired innocently.

“You know, that thing where nothing seems to faze you” said Rainbow Dash.

“It’s only a game” she replied “It’s not like it’s real or anything” everyone stopped what they were doing and pondered her response a bit. After a few minutes of some pondering, they all shrug their shoulder and accepted Fluttershy’s logic, once again.

“Eh, fair enough” Applejack brushed the whole idea off “How about we get back to the fighting now?”

“As soon as you all agree to stop acting so weird whenever Fluttershy says or does anything that makes you question your her thought process” said Spike as he nonchalantly flipped through his booklet “Seriously, it kinda detracts from the whole experience of role playing”

      
L’ Orange braced herself from behind her cannon shield as she used her mounted heavy rifle to retaliate upon the aggressors. Bullet after bullet was loaded into the rifle but she found herself having very little impact on the battle itself. Even with her crackshot capabilities, she was trapped in a hail of projectiles that threatened to turn her into swiss cheese.

“Bah! Can’t get a good shot. Zere are too many of them!” L’ Orange shouted. She gritted her teeth, cursing herself and her teammates for making such a horrid mistake. Misconception was their enemy. They believed that there were only about eight opponents and a war carriage to deal with. Turns out that there were more than a few dozen including some alchemist that turned the whole firefight into horrible chemical warfare.

Twilight ducked to avoid gunfire behind the gatling gun and began hastily loosening the bolts that tied it down to the carriage. Under constant pressure and the ever present possibility of and immediate death, her erratic movements weaved its way around the base of the gatling. Unscrewing every bolt in the process.
        
“I work better under pressure! I work better under pressure!” she kept screaming at herself as she painstakingly continued to remove the gatling gun from the carriage. Beads of sweat slowly turned into a torrent of perspiration threatening to cause her to slip under her own liquid nervousness “Keep holding them off, I’m almost done!”

Beside her, the Captain chugged down some liquid courage from her hip flask before blindly firing her handcannon in the general direction of the Broken Wands Guild members. Not surprisingly enough, it missed. She groaned at her lack of aim and peeked outward to see if she could get a good look at her opponents, only for her eyes to widen upon noticing several alchemical grenades flying towards them.  

“Everyone! Get down!” she shouted as she brought up the sleeve of her alchemist leather jacket to lessen the effects of whatever it was coming at them.

With L’ Orange dug in deep, and Twilight feverishly working to attain her prize, they failed to avoid the grenades at they detonated in the air, clouding them with one of the more sinister forms of alchemical concoctions: fear gas.

“Don’t breath it in, it’s fear gas! The gas will cause you to hallucinate and go mad!” the Captain shouted as she slowly pulled away from the gassed area, sleeve still firmly pressed against her face.

L’ Orange immediately held her breath as the gas crept its way to her. She holstered her rifle and pulled her shield out from the ground as she pulled back. She didn’t want to be shot, but the last she wanted was to be driven mad by gas.

Twilight on the other hand ignored all sense of danger as her body regulated itself to adapt to the stress being exerted on her body as well as her psyche. That was when it happened, she opened her mouth just a little to take in some oxygen, and the fear gas found its way into her system.

“Come on, come on!” she yelled furiously. When the final hook holding the gatling gun was removed, she could feel a wave of relief wash throughout her body, only to realized that it was fear instead “Oh boy... this is bad...”

The world around her melted like a wax candle in a fiery kiln. Her sanity slipped and the whole world that she knew became a horrible illusion . Her heart pounded in her chest, the fear epicenter of her brain was being pinch, massaged, and squeezed as if it were a overused stress ball. She was losing it, and losing it bad.

To make matters worse, the wrench that she was ever so fond of hissed back at her. It slithered its way out of her grip like a snake and with a forked tongue in the mouth of the wrench to boot. Venomous fangs protruded from the metal frame before it coiled around her fear stricken body. Before long, it sank its terrible fangs into her neck as she let out a bloodcurdling scream.

The Captain and L’ Orange watched as Twilight dropped into the depths of the abyss whilst fighting off her imaginative enemy. It was ridiculous overall to see the egghead struggled with her wrench, but if they didn’t do anything soon she’ll soon fall prey to the sharpshooters.

“We have to help her!” L’ Orange cried out “You’re the alchemist! How can you get rid of the fear effect?”

“According to my knowledge, fear gas is just what it is: gas!” Captain Pinkie replied “We need to splash her with water to get her back to normal! If we don’t that fear will kill her! But where are we gonna get water?”

“We’re in a port town! There has to be water somewhere!” L’ Orange began to look around for something that could help, although she had to keep in mind that she and the Captain were pinned down by gunfire. Their movement was limited, so they’d better work fast.

“Oh, come on!” Pinkie yelled out “How can we not find water in a port town? That’s like saying you can’t find sugar at Sugarcube Corner!”

“I don’t care how you do it, but you better do it fast” said Spike “Fear gas spreads through the system like a virus, and is very lethal unless you get rid of it”

“Can’t I do anything about it?” Twilight asked “I mean I’m the one whose feared here”

“You could roll to shake off the fear, but it’s only a temporary cure” said Spike “Roll ‘em”

Twilight rolled her die to try and shake off the effects of the fear gas. She was practically useless in her state, not being able to do anything and having a panic attack over an inanimate object. However, when the die landed, she earned a measly two.

“Oh, darn it” Twilight pouted “What does that get me?”

“Nothing with a roll that” he snickered “Sorry, Twilight. But the effect stays”

“Let me do a search” said Applejack “There’s bound to be something we could use to stop twilight from bugging out”

“Do a perception check, that should help” Spike suggested “You know the drill”

“Alright, here goes nothing” Applejack chucked her die against the table, the clacking proceeding unceremoniously until it landed on a decent number. Fourteen “Now, that wasn’t so bad. What do I see?”

“Okay, with a fourteen, L’ Orange De Apple scans her surroundings to find some water” narrated Spike “Upon looking up, she found her teammates saving grace...”

“Captain, look!” L’ Orange pointed to a large water tower above a nearby building “Are you zinking what I’m zinking?” she smirked. Captain Pinkie smiled back as she pulled out her handcannon and loaded in a fresh round.

“Way ahead of ya, Lora” both the Captain and Lora aimed high at the water tower and fired straight at it. The resulting shot pierced through the wooden exterior of the tower and showered everything on the streets with water. Old, mucky, green, stagnant water that was probably caked on the surface with an insurmountable number of mosquito nymphs and dead leaves.

“Eeeewwwww....” Fluttershy cringed as her stomach pulled a flip flop.

“I second that eeeeewwwww....” Rarity turned green. The description was way too graphic for her sophisticated taste “Spike, please refrain yourself from describing stuff like this in extreme detail”

“Now where would be the fun in that if I didn’t do my job as a GM?” Spike as with a raised eyebrow “Or would you like me to go further into detail how disgusting the water really is?”

“No, no, no!” Rainbow jumped up “That’s okay, we’re fine. Just go on”

“Uh... yeah! What she said” Twilight joined in “But mucky water or not, did that help me at all?”

“Assuming it splashed you of course. I mean you were atop a carriage. Eh heh heh...” said Spike “Eh, I’m just playing around. A good amount of water splashed onto you and you feel reality stitching itself back together for you, or at least what’s left of it...”

“AAAAAAAHHHH!” Twilight screamed as she wrestled with the snake wrench coiling around her throat. It was even worse now that she smelled like the ocean during low tide after being splash with some sort of muck from seemingly out of nowhere.

Before long, her nerves steadied themselves and the world around her returned to the way it was supposed to. Fear escape her system and she found herself gripping onto her trusty wrench as if her life had depended on it. Which for the last five minutes, her life really did depend upon it.

“Whuah? What happened. WAH!” she yelled as a stray bullet whizzed by her head, causing her to stumble and fall back behind the carriage “Ouch... that hurt...”

“Welcome back to Metallos, miss engineer. Did you enjoy your trip to the realm of insanity? I hear the beaches there are quite nice” Captain Pinkie joked in spite of their dire situation.

“Ha ha... very funny” Twilight deadpanned before commands could be heard shouted from behind her.

“We have them pinned down, don’t let them escape or steal the prototype” a goon shouted “We have orders to kill on sight!”

“Well, zat’s reassuring...” L’ Orange grumbled “Twilight did you completely remove ze gatling gun yet?”

“All of the bolts are off but now we have to get it off the carriage itself. Then I have to hook it up to Twilight Sentinel which will take some time. Lastly, we need ammo for the weapon itself. There should be an ammo box in the carriage somewhere” Twilight explained.

“And just how are you going to get the gatling? It must weigh a ton!” the Captain pointed out. Twilight tapped on her pauldron and the runic inscription on it glowed luminously. In a bright flash, Twilight Sentinel appeared from the circle in his rusty glory and activated with a loud hiss of steam. His red eyes glowed as he rose up and yanked the gatling gun right off of the carriage itself in a single move.

“Details, details... Now cover me!” Twilight commanded “Captain, use your ember bombs! Create a wall of flames to keep them at bay!”

“Hmph, I’d thought you’d never ask” the Captain smiled and cackled deviously as she reached for her grenade bandoleer. She pulled out two ember bombs, one in each paw and ripped the pins out with her teeth “Here! Pinkie wants to give you all a present!”

“Whoa, easy there Fullmetal Alchemist” Spike stopped Pinkie “That’s two ember bombs in each paw, even with your explosive expertise you run the high risk of causing collateral damage with those things. The last thing we need is another fire”

“So does that mean I have to roll for something?” Pinkie asked.

“Only if you want those bombs to land on the spot you want. They could roll around given the shape” said Spike “Roll the D20 plus add your DEX to it to see if you land it right on the dot. And I’ll do my only roll to see just how destructive it really is”

“You got it boss” Pinkie threw her die and  watched it intently as it slowed down “Ooh... let’s see, that’s... seventeen!”

“Not bad, your bombs rolled around a bit but it’s nothing self destructive. As for the the rampant destruction you caused...”[

Fire consumed the streets of the port town as the ember bombs once again reduced everything caught in the blast radius into a smouldering remnant of what it once was. Thankfully all of the civilians had evacuated by then but that left unattended buildings and some unlucky stragglers of the guild turned to char. Among other things, a raging wall of flames blocked off all access to the carriage and the mercenaries.

“Hmm, not bad” L’ Orange complimented “zat’ll keep zem at bay until ze egghead finishes her little project”

“Maybe you’d like to help, Lora?” Twilight rebutted “Help me remove T. Sentinel’s left hand. I have to jury rig the gun onto the arm so that he can use it”

“Couldn’t he just, oh gee I don’t know, just hold the gatling gun his one arm and turn the crank with the other?” L’ Orange shot back.

“It doesn’t work that way, Lora. One, there’s not handle. Two, if there was one don’t you think I would’ve just hooked it up to the crane so that he could use it!”

“You two! As a Captain I’ll handle everything!” Captain Pinkie asserted herself into the conversation “Lora, dig in and prevent some of the alchemist from reaching us! Their leather can survive the intense heat from the bombs. I’ll help Twilight with everything else”

“Fine, but this better not get us killed... I want to get paid after all of this” L’ Orange muttered as she set up her cannon shield again. Firing off a few warning shots to keep the enemy back towards the wall of fire.

“Alright, Twilight. I’ve got the hand off. What now?” Captain Pinkie asked as she held onto T. Sentinel’s left hand.

“Try to find a crate of ammo somewhere in the carriage” said Twilight as she began to attach the gatling gun to T. Sentinel “Once I hook up the gatling to his arm and place the crate onto the crane, T. Sentinel’s lazium cortex will do the rest. His cortex should know how to work this thing”

“Isn’t it just aim and crank? How hard could that be?” the Captain inquired as she rummaged through the carriages holding compartment.

“It would, except for the fact that blasted thing was unloaded and the feeding mechanism is entirely unique to the weapon itself. It isn’t as simple a putting a bullet into a chamber and pulling the trigger, Captain. I doubt any of us could’ve worked it properly without it blowing up in our face”

“Fair enough” the Captain replied as she came upon a her quarry “Hey, wouldja look at that, ammo! It’s not in a crate but it’ll have to do” she reached into the compartment and carried on over a large ammo drum. According to the numbers printed on the side, the drum was still full with more than a couple hundred rounds to spare.

“Perfect, and just in time too. I just finished jury rigging the gatling to T. Sentinels arm” said Twilight “Help move that drum onto his hydraulic crane. He’ll know how to feed the bullets into the gun itself. Isn’t that right?” T. Sentinel nodded and let out another hiss of steam from his boiler.

With the drum secure onto his crane, he began to work his magic and armed himself with a new toy. He pulled on the ammo drum and attached the ammo belt into the feeding mechanism. Once it was secured in place, he used his free hand to test out the crank. It was a little stiff but nothing he couldn’t handle. He turned to face Twilight and Pinkie and gave them both a thumbs up. Twilight could’ve sworn that her robot was smiling on the inside.

“Uh... girls? We have a little problem” L’ Orange interrupted “Half of the group is breaking off to the coast, and the fire wall is dying down. If you’re going to try out that thing, you might want to do it now, otherwise everything we’ve done will be for nothing”

“We have to make a break for the coastline and board the transport ship” Twilight suggested “Everyone hop on to T. Sentinel’s back and hold on! It’s going to be a bumpy ride!”

Doing as they were told, both L’ Orange and Captain Pinkie climbed aboard and gripped the robot for dear life as Twilight hung aboard his shoulder. With another hiss of steam, T. Sentinel lifted his right hand and gripped the carriage on the side. As the fire died out and the smoke cleared, the many guild members after their head started their advance. Something that Twilight was all too expectant of.

“Twilight Sentinel!” Twilight shouted maddeningly from atop her death machine, scaring everyone around her as they witness her go insane with power. Even the guild members stopped dead in their tracks when they realized what they were going up against. Twilight could only smirk victoriously as she watched her enemies visibly pale until they were about as white as a ghost.

“Uh oh...” Pinkie backed away slowly as she say the look in Twilight’s eyes “It’s happening again”

“Whoa, easy there sugarcube. No need to get crazy” Applejack backed away as well.

"Oh dear, not this again...” Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash all followed suit and back to cautiously back away from their friend.

“Hoo boy, are we in for quite a show! There will be lotsa dice rolling here” Spike exclaimed with excitement “Let’s get this show on the road!”

“From this day forward, you are no longer a mere light labor engine! From this day forward, with your new weapon, you will crush your foes! From this day forward, you are no longer Twilight Sentinel! From this day forward, I hereby dub thee: Twilight Heavyarms!” Twilight cackled maddeningly before pointing her hoof forward and shouting “KILL THEM ALL!”

“Jeez... what a large ham...” L’ Orange facehoofed herself before the carnage started.

T. Heavyarm’s eyes glowed blood red before the gears whirring in his body startled the guild members. They all turned to run when T. Heavyarms took the carriage that was gripped in his hand and chucked it like a baseball towards those poor bastards, crushing the unlucky few underneath and turning them all into a red stain on the ground. All of them panicked and futilely attempted to fight back, only to get grounded up by the prototype gatling gun.

“Bwuahahahahaha! The lead wind blows!” Twilight cackled as her robot began wreaking havoc upon everything that was in its field of vision. If you’d thought the previous assault on our heroes was devastating enough, Twilight Heavyarm’s current blood fueled rampage made it look like a tea party. Storming through the streets like a hurricane filled with bullets, the four steadily made their way to the coastline, decimating anything and everything that impeded their destination to the transport ship.

It was like watching rabbits go up against a grizzly bear, if said bear was made entirely out of iron, steel and had a gatling gun grafted to its left arm with a crazy unicorn riding him out on a path of destruction. And as if that weren't enough, support fire came from behind as Pinkie and L’ Orange emptied the last of their ammo on any would be heroes.

“Bah! I’m all out...” Captain Pinkie pouted “Hey, Twilight! Can you drive this thing a bit closer to the enemy! I want to hit them with my sword!”

“Okay, okay. You know what? That got a little out of control, and some of you are having way too much fun with this right now” Spike interjected as he struggled to stifle his giggle.

“Aw, come on, Spike. I was on a roll there!” Twilight exclaimed “We can handle it!”

“We should all calm down a bit” said Rarity “Let’s just get out and enjoy some fresh air for a while. I feel like all this sitting is bad for my circulation”

“I second that, I have got to stretch my wings out like you wouldn’t believe” Rainbow Dash added “Plus I need to grab a bite to eat, I’m starving”

“Hmm, alright. I think it is high time we took a much needed break. I was starting to lose it back there, wasn’t I?” said Twilight with a light blush.

“A little?” everyone raised their eyebrow.

“Oh! You know what I mean...” said Twilight “Now what are we waiting for, I think I hear a daffodil sandwich calling my name...”