Canterlot High's D&D Club

by 4428Gamer

(29) Death Save(s)

Stostine’s POV
Outside

---

With a yelp, one of the humans went down. Vareén had parried his blade and made a sizable slice through most of his arm. Probably until she hit bone.

The other two didn’t take the sound of their friend’s crying as a sign to surrender. Instead, they zeroed in on Vareén as the Dwarves finally caught up to us. The one with the torch wasted no time running right into the fray, ditching his crossbow for a scimitar.

The second one, meanwhile, stayed back. He had his crossbow ready, aimed straight at me while Vareén was surrounded.

“Shoot ‘er,” the torch bearing Dwarf directed over his shoulder.

I gently raised my hands halfway and stared back at the other Dwarf. “Now...Hold on,” I suggested. “You don’t have to.”

“Quiet!” The first Dwarf glared. Then she turned to the humans. “An’ you two! Finish ‘er off already!”

Vareén tried backing away when the humans let their eyes adjust to the torchlight. Unfortunately, she only made it a few steps. The humans easily stepped over their dead coworker and readied their swords again.

Vareén let out a breath and shook her fear as she tried defending herself again. Except now she had three targets that could all see her clearly and she was cut up and drained.

She blocked the first swing, deflecting it up into the air for her to duck under. Although, as the next human came in, her arms were still above her and she was exposed.

Before the Dwarf ever had a chance to swing, a sword found its way between her ribs and into her chest cavity. The man wrenched it around several times before pulling it out in a heavy arc; coagulated blood spilling across both the humans.

Story sat behind his screen, taking some time to himself. To the girls, he did well to play his role up until now. But staring into his scene as moments of blood and gore met him with every narration of his was getting to him.

At first it was like an action movie. Now this was turning into something far more sadistic. Especially when he saw Vareén and Stostine in Sky-Space operating like living people.

Then, without any prompt, the girls suddenly saw him sitting there with a tear in his eye and on the edge of a breakdown.

At the same time, Applejack adjusted her stetson over her eyes so no one could see how she looked. Again, the girls didn’t see any kind of warning.

After a few seconds of silence, Story took the Redbrands’ turn. Then, in the fewest amount of words needed, he narrated Twilight’s character getting brought down. When he finished, he took a few more seconds of silence before looking up.

More tears were in his eyes.

“Twilight?” He started. “I need a death saving throw. For Vareén now.”

Twilight nodded and carefully rolled her die. Then flinched when she saw the dark patch around her character sheet pulse and spread. At the same time, it began growing out from the side of her chest, creating this greyscale look on her shirt.

“N-Nine,” she said with a shaking voice. Feeling the grayed space for a second. It didn’t hurt and she tried telling herself it was just more illusions. Illusions only she and Story could see.

Story swore under his breath and sat up to wipe his face. “Mark one failure.”

“Sto-Stost—" Vareén hacked up a sickening glob of blood that landed like a jelly mold. “Run. Ru-Ru—”

She hacked up another chunk as a bright blue light fired from my finger and into the Dwarf’s torch. Then I traced it down his arm and up to his neck, leaving a heavy trail of frost encasing his skin.

The torch’s flame doused and the ice cracked the Dwarf’s skin wide open with his heavy screams filling the darkness that smothering the humans.

When the skin on the Dwarf’s arm started chipping away, I watched him fall not four feet away from Vareén and the human she killed.

“Please, just give up!” I shouted towards the humans as they waved their swords where they last saw me. “None of us want to kill you! We want you to leave this town alone! We never started any of this with you!”

The two humans were already approaching me, swords pointed at the sound of my voice. They weren’t listening. The only one who seemed to actually care was the Dwarf.

And he, actually able to see me, watched me backing away with my hands folded behind my head. He saw my face and how I meant what I said. He also saw that most of my attention was wholly on Vareén and her trembling body in the mud.

“Yernal, where is she?!” One of the humans shouted at the Dwarf. “And why aren’t ya shootin’ man?!”

“A-Ah. Ah…” He trailed off, staring down at the crossbow in his hands.

Taking a low breath, I slowly stepped towards the Dwarf. “Yernal?” I spoke softly. Then he realized I was looking directly at him. “Your leader. Is a necromancer,” I began, trying to keep away as the humans kept zeroing in.

“We’ve already sent word to Agix. He will be caught. They’ll be here in a matter of days. If you stand down, they might only arrest you for extortion. It won’t be a death sentence then. But if you keep siding for him? They will judge you as an accomplice to necromancy. That is immediate execution. Please!”

“Yernal,” a human shouted. “Shoot. Her.”

“You don’t have to do this,” I reminded him. “Please Yernal. We don’t need anymore death tonight. Just stand down.”

“Shut it hag!” The other one joined. This time they didn’t step carefully. They were marching right at me. “We know how casters like you act! We’ve heard the stories! Stalwart’s told us ‘is own! Yer type can’t be trusted. Yernal, don’t buy this crock!”

I stayed quiet. Nothing I said would convince them. So instead I turned to Yernal and folded my hands together, staring at him pleadingly.

“Twilight?” Story spoke. He was getting over whatever made him tear up earlier. Or at least doing better to hide it. “Another death save.”

She nodded and took a breath before picking up her die again with her graying fingers. But after she rolled, Vareén’s character sheet became nearly unreadable as the paper had turned coal black.

Not only that, but the gray coloring spread much further. They formed in lines across her body and limbs, with two large orbs forming just over her heart and lung. Her fingers and toes had this numbness to them and she could have sworn her vision was getting worse.

When the girls saw Twilight squirming and trying to dust off phantom spots only she could see, they got worried.

“Y’alright Sugarcube?” Applejack asked, snapping out of her daze.

“...Four.” No one heard her speak but Twilight held up four fingers. It’s all illusions, she told herself. Just magical sensory effects trying to make me feel invested in. In a...

Her mind wandered as she looked to the DM screen where Vareén’s image sat, bow still drawn.

Invested in Vareén’s death, Twilight realized.

“Two failures,” Story said. But he said it with a breath of relief. “Pinkie? It’s your turn. And thanks to your extra run—”

“VAREÉN!”

The humans spun around in the dark frantically, unable to see anything. Yernal on the other hand, turned and raised his crossbow only to be smacked to the ground by a charging half-orc.

“Glemerr!” I cheered.

“Ah’m ‘ere!” She yelled back, tearing the mask of cloth strips off her face and power sliding next to Vareén. Then she turned the archer over, resting her on the ground with one hand while pulling a healer’s kit out with the other.

“Ah’m ‘ere Vareén! Stay wit’ us, ‘kay? Ah’m ‘ere!”

I watched Yernal stand back up and again raise his crossbow. This time to Glemerr.

“Yernal!” I shouted, making him flinch visibly. He looked back at me. “Don’t do this!”

He then watched me ducking under the human’s sword. One ran straight for me after I screamed while the other turned and tried finding Glemerr as she treated Vareén.

I jogged backwards a few feet and watched the human turn towards me. He could hear where I was running just as he did with Vareén.

But even then, I didn’t bother with him. Instead, I lit my hand with magical fire and after saying those short magical words, I flicked my hand towards the bandit closing in on Glemerr.

“Bwaaaah! BWAHHHH!” The fire’s light drew my Redbrand’s attention as it sunk into his friend’s back. It lit up the area until snuffing out along with the man’s life as he fell on top of the sword he was about to use on Glemerr.

“Thanks,” Glemerr called out as she kept up her work.

As Pinkie finished marking off a use of the healer’s kit, Story turned to Twilight with a thin smile. “Erase the death saves. You’re stabilized.”

As he said those words, any sign of gray or black voids left Twilight and her papers, as well as the numbness that was traveling up past her wrists at that point.

“Thanks Pinkie,” Twilight breathed in relief. She only now realized she was holding her breath until now.

“No problem!” Glemerr shouted out.

Meanwhile, I was shying away from another sword and running a few more paces away. Then I lit both hands on fire. “I just want you to know.” I paused to look over towards Yernal the Dwarf.

All that was there was a discarded crossbow.

I let myself enjoy the moment before narrowly avoiding another attempt at cutting me down. “You brought this on yourself.”

“Pfft. Sure,” he spat sarcastically. “Yer the one that brought this on yerself, ya hag!”

I let my consciousness flow back and forth for a moment, watching as the colors of my flames changed color with my eyes until they settled on a musturd yellow. “You have no idea.”

---

Ricven’s POV
The Sleeping Giant

---

I began a new song.

As I swelled my illusions into a band, drums, strings, and whistling filling the bar as Rava hooked her hammer underneath a chair and launched it. Stalwart bounced it away with his shield, redirecting it in a way where Thorn Wielder used her vines to catch the chair and smash it on the ground over the groaning bodies of the Redbrands beneath her feet.

While Thorn and I turned away from the shards of furniture, Stalwart went for Rava’s head. She caught the blade with her own hammer, rotating the weapon counterclockwise to throw the sword away before stunning him with a shield bash.

When Stalwart gained his footing, he stomped on the ground and spoke a few words in Infernal. We all then watched as the floorboards began rattling and shaking the building. Rava stumbled for a moment and Stalwart tried taking the chance to cut through her chain.

However, he was forced back as the sudden migraine I made with my violin strings burrowed into his mind. When it wore it off, he roared and chucked his shield like a frisbee over the tables, forcing me to leap to the left and lose my place in the song for a moment until I reclaimed it.

Rava used the chance to try caving his skull in. Even without the shield, she couldn’t hit him. He got faster and slipped away from her heavy swing before stomping the floor again. This time he upended an entire floorboard in such a way where it slapped at the bottom of her shield.

Stalwart spoke more Infernal, casting more Thaumaturgy to rattle the floorboards further until one caved under the Dwarf’s heavy armor and her metal boot sank through the floor, locking her in place.

Desperate, she held her shield over her head only for him to stab into her side. Blood sprayed her armor as he used both hands to twist the blade deeper only to start coughing up shards of crystallized water while Thorn brought another force of Frostbite.

“Fine then!” He screamed, pulling out his hand crossbow and firing at Thorn who hid behind her shield. It still had several bolts still jammed in it and Stalwart’s was just another one as it formed a large crack in the round chunk of wood.

In response, Thorn Wielder drew her scythe, letting her vine freely smack away the rubble between her and the tiefling.

“You die first,” Stalwart decreed.

“She’s in line!”

Rava slammed her warhammer with both hands into Stalwart’s back where his tail met his waist. As she did, a little mote of my magic reappeared behind her head and popped like a bubble. It made no sound but it was the closest thing I had to progress so far.

After striking the man, Stalwart roared as his tail suddenly jerked upward and then fell limp to the ground. He had no feeling in it anymore.

Still, Stalwart didn’t completely change focus. He made one swipe at Rava and she had no issue blocking it. However, it tripped her into yet another floorboard that caved under her armor as Stalwart redoubled his efforts at Thorn.

He ducked under the tentacle-esque vines multiple times and waited to rise to his full height to deliver an upward slash. Too bad for him that it went nowhere as it was tossed to the side not by the vines but by Thorn’s longer curved blade.

He wanted to try again but he barely had enough time to return his sword to a defensive position and block a slash from Thorn as she swung for his chest. And then for his shoulder. Next, his neck. By the fourth and fifth attempts, she started twirling the scythe like a baton in this tiny space.

It was almost majestic. Thorn stepped around the debris, loosened floorboards, and bodies of dead bandits as though she were performing ballet in a field. Whatever obstacle that threatened to be in her way, the vine grabbed and yanked them aside.

Stalwart was not as majestic. With his tail unmoving, he stumbled and kicked things as he kept backing up. On top of that, the vine had to put those obstacles somewhere else and so it decided to throw them right at his feet as he stepped and jumped over them. He also had to keep that up while deflecting or avoiding the whirling death scythe.

Admittedly, for such a disadvantage, Stalwart matched speed with her. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that Thorn was twirling to the beat of my song. And after realizing it, Stalwart had no choice but to dodge to the same beat.

The whole performance gave Rava plenty of time to rip herself away from the weak flooring and set herself behind Stalwart. Sadly, as he weaved around a thrown chair, it took all Rava had to raise up her armguard and hammer to keep from being smashed over the head from Thorn’s recital.

I would have loved to pick up the tempo to make the chaotic scene even more insane but I thought better of it and signaled my illusions to carry on without me as I took my chance.

Sliding under one table, I reached to my side and brought out my mace as I hopped back to my feet; surprising everybody. Thorn and her vine paused, not wanting to catch me in the crossfire while Stalwart was entirely exposed from my position.

So with a heavy crack, I swung my mace directly into Stalwart’s armored shin. I felt something in his leg give and he howled in brilliant pain as the ladies watched the tiefling fall against a table away from me to support his second broken limb.

“Huh.” Rava beamed. “So ya really can get yer ‘ands dirty! An’ ‘ere Ah thought that mace was just fer shoo’.”

“What can I say.” I slung the mace over my shoulder and flipped my hair back. “I see a perfect entrance? I seize it! And I couldn’t bear watchin’ this fool take anymore stabs at you lovely ladies.”

“A bit late fer that, wouldn’ ya say?” She furrowed her brow playfully.

“Silence.” Stalwart mumbled. Whether his leg accepted it or not, he stood tall on both of them and readied his blade at me. “I won’t die to a caster! I refuse!”

I didn’t flinch. Rather, I watched as a wicked blade ran through Stalwart. Going through his back out the collarbone, narrowly missing both major arteries and spine entirely.

Thorn pulled her scythe out slowly, letting Stalwart hiss in drawn out pain. “Raug-hén. Bel na curunir,” she growled in Elvish. Then, after a tired breath, she withdrew the rest of her scythe and tossed Stalwart to the ground.

“S’ppose it’s my turn ta ask.” I gave a flamboyant signal to my illusory band to calm their intensity while in actuality I just lowered the volume. “What’s yer next move, tieflin’?”

“You brought all yer folks ta their deaths err capture,” Rava told him. “Yer alone, n’ ya failed. Ya think yer necramantic boss’ll take kindly ta tha’?”

Thorn didn’t have a quip of her own. She just readied her scythe.

Stalwart glared at each of us from his sad position. He didn’t have a leg to kick on and his tail was dead weight. Clumps of ice frosted over areas of his skin and armor and his red skin was turning purple with all the bruises he had taken from Rava’s hammer.

Meanwhile, Thorn was actively bleeding from all the open bolt wounds and was trying not to use her scythe for balance while Rava just looked like a total mess. The poor Dwarf smelled like burning hair and her armor was redder than brass at this point.

I was fine though. Not a single scratch or hair out of place. Although, my fingers did feel pretty strained from playing and avoiding all these attacks on my person. My shoe was untied too. Ugh.

Stalwart studied each of us for a few more seconds before raising back to his feet. “I’m not dying. You don’t get that satisfaction.”

We readied ourselves for his last attack but it never came. Instead, he drew up his sword and ran.

There was an obvious limp thanks to my methods, but he still made good time as he bounded for the door.

“Aw nah ye don’,” Rava shouted.

We all ran after him. Rava tried cutting him off at the doorway and with a heave, she swung and destroyed part of the entryway frame with her hammer. She missed and Stalwart was out the door.

I duck past the raining mulch and into the night behind him. As he struggled down the porch steps, I caught up and brought down my mace only to cave in one of the porch steps.

I missed and Stalwart didn’t even bother pausing to spite me. He simply took his chance to keep running further into the night.

---

Story’s POV
Game Room

---

“Dang it!” Rainbow pounded her fist onto the table. Not enough to break or shake everything but it made her point. “I can never hit anything when it counts!”

“I didn’t fare much better, darling,” Rarity reminded her with a huff.

Fluttershy, who sat between them, reached over and meekly tapped Thorn’s mini outside the building and stopped two blocks away from Stalwart’s mini. She then took her hand away from the map quickly as the hologram-esque magic reformed.

The holograms of each of the three maps grew about an inch up from the surface. The Sleeping Giant and Griffonbound Vendors maps I made beforehand so the originals had a lot of detail to them. However, tables, chairs, supplies, and the countertops for both buildings all stood with magic. It made low-detailed floorboards where they were needed too.

Outside of the Sleeping Giant where the Redbrands entered from was the bar’s porch and the yard beyond it. The magic did well to link that with the temporary map Fluttershy used to mark all the potholes she dug as a bunny ahead of time.

Next, with Vareén and Stostine’s fight, I just cleared space for a vinyl map. However, the magic took its time forming dirt and grass patches. Then it added in a small stretch of abandoned fence posts and a tree stump or two to make the scene seem a little more lived in. They were inside a town after all.

It even formed the corner of some commoner’s house at the edge of the map. Only, the wall faded off after an inch like everything else. There was just enough height to show the beginnings of a windowsill.

The girls let me marvel at it when it appeared. But now, I was focused on Stalwart fleeing. He thought he was powerful enough to slaughter the casters with his Redbrands to finish the job quicker. Now that everything turned against him, he was simply determined to live.

Fluttershy looked up from Thorn’s mini and picked up a die. “Um. I’ll go ahead and Thorn Whip again.”

I gave her a nod, eager to get this over with, and watched as she rolled and counted the glowing numbers. But even what was on the die was more than enough.

“Nineteen?”

“Hit,” I confirmed. “Roll damage. This might do it.”

Rarity smirked. “You have to admit Rainbow, it is amusing seeing Fluttershy hit everything.”

Rainbow snickered. “Okay, yeah, that is pretty cool.”

Fluttershy hummed guiltily. “I don’t mean to hit everything. Thorn Wielder might look scary but I didn’t make her to actually be scary.”

That scary part might’ve been my fault, I realized with a hint of humor. She wanted me to describe Thorn Wielder as this ‘aloof, mysterious guardian of the forest.’ But after seeing what all Fluttershy was willing to have Thorn Wielder do to guard said forest, scary fit the descriptions naturally.

Fluttershy picked up and rolled a six-sided die. Then she scrunched her nose in defiance.

“...Only one point of damage,” she grumbled.

Not to mention she was kind of letting herself fall into that role.

The unlikely duo of Rarity and Dash tried to keep from laughing at their shy friend’s disappointment.

I felt my face twitch as I looked at his HP. He had two. Two hit points. Now he had one.

I reached out and dragged Stalwart’s mini next to Thorn. At the same time, a ghostly green vine tried replicating the same thing visually. It didn’t look good; like watching a video on the lowest resolution. It did what it needed.

“E-Every little bit helps,” I strained, watching as she put her grievance aside. Then I looked up at the remaining tendrils above my screen.

Those things still freaked me out. Reaching through them to look at the maps made me flinch at the start but I was doing better to hide it now. Especially since there were only three.

The first was a regular Redbrand tentacle. A sentence I just came up with casually, I told myself. It was entirely untouched and was committed to towering over Sunset who stared back with distaste.

Then there was Stalwart’s. It was once the strongest and most terrifying tendril of them all. Now it was shrunken, dried up, and lulling to the side like a dying flower. It occasionally swung towards Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy but was ready to keel over.

The third was seemingly frozen in time. A blue and thin noodle of a thing that moved faster than the others. But once Applejack’s fight ended, the tendril froze outstretched towards Applejack mid-attack and remained in that position since.

And no one but me saw it.

The girls certainly didn’t. And Applejack, who paid it mind before, sat there with her hat pulled low enough to avoid it. Not that she would’ve watched it anyway. Instead, she was staring at me from the shadow of her stetson in slight concern.

I forced myself to ignore her and finish the rest of the fight. I’m sorry, I repeated in my mind. I know what I did. I’m sorry.

I stared back at my screen, reading the turn tracker to figure out what was next. Except, once I figured it out, a handful of scenes played out. All with different results depending on the dice.

But almost all of them had my face turn cold.

“No.” I planted my hands on the sides of the screen. Then the scenes kept playing out and I nearly puked. “NO!”

“What?” Sunset asked me. “Story, what’s wrong?”

I wrenched my eyes away from it and towards her, fighting the pizza and apple cider back down my stomach. I felt like if I talked I was gonna decorate the table.

So I kept my hand to my mouth, took a few seconds to myself, and slammed the screen against the table like a laptop monitor. The magic flickered but didn’t dispel. It knew we weren’t done yet. I just couldn’t keep watching her. Watching her...

I shook my head defiantly, only speaking when my stomach felt stable. “No. I-I’m. I’m not— No, I’m. I’m not doing it! Give me a second, I’ll fi—”

“Story.” Applejack’s voice was harsh as she stared down the flinching DM. “Do it. Ya can’t weasel yer way outta this one.”

“Do what?” Rarity blinked. “Is everything alright Applejack? You’ve hardly said a word for a while now.”

“Come to think of it, Story?” Sunset turned to me as I leaned over my papers; arms propping me up. “You skipped Platick and Leanne’s turns I think four times now. What happened?”

I took a few breaths and choked down the bile. Then I grumbled for a moment before looking up. “Their fight's done already.” When everyone, Gilda included, reacted to gargling, I bit my lip and nodded.

Thought so, I told myself. “Platick had his own scene. And the fact that you all think he’s fighting Leanne tells me a lot of their fight was gargled for you too...Hold on.”

I stared down at the table and at the Griffonbound Vendors map. I reached forward and picked up the doppelganger mini. Since the fight happened after the reveal, I set it out along with Platick’s mini and the prebuilt map when Applejack rolled initiative.

“What does this look like to you?” I asked, holding up the doppelganger.

“A woman in a rather plain dress,” Rarity spoke bluntly. “I assume it’s Leanne. I wasn’t going to say anything but some form of embroidery wouldn’t go amiss.”

They think it’s Leanne, I realized. Then I pointed at the Griffonbound map. “Can you all see the map?” They confirmed that they did. “Okay. And what about where the minis were? Where they moved and everything?”

They were about to nod again but paused. Then they looked back at the map and studied it closer. While they started getting confused, Twilight was the one to speak up.

“You never moved either of them,” she told us. “They’ve stayed in place this whole time.”

I leaned far back and shook my head at that. Applejack had about the same response.

“Now how’s that make any sense?” AJ challenged. “Haven’t y’all seen us reachin’ out an’ movin’ the pieces around?”

“What are you talking about?” Rainbow asked, frowning. “Neither of you touched anything! We just assumed whatever that gargling you did was about saying where you moved to.”

“No. Isn’t that what y’all were doin’?” Applejack shot back. “None ‘a you touched any ‘a yer pieces. Either y’all are naturals at mental chess err there’s some mind trickery goin’ on.”

“Huh?” Gilda crossed her arms. “Both of you are wrong. I’ve been here the whole time. Everyone’s been moving pieces. That Stalwart guy, Leanne, all the thugs, you guys. And you’re all reaching out to move them. How are you missing that?”

I rubbed my temples. Yeah, this is mind trickery alright.

Sunset fell back in her seat. “If everyone’s only able to see what’s going on with their scenes, that means there’s more illusions than we thought. And Story and Gilda are the only ones that see the real deal.”

“Still no,” I corrected, earning her attention. “Gilda just said—” She said Leanne instead of the Doppelganger, but how do I explain that when it’ll get gargled? “Uh...J-Just believe me when I say she can’t see it all either.”

“Right.” Sunset did exactly that. “The gargling happens when we try giving away facts someone’s not aware of. As well as half-truths or lies that would help figure it out. Whatever’s going on here must be another form of gargling.”

“Illusion magic,” Twilight simplified.

“Which means they don’t even see...” AJ’s voice faded as she stared back at the map and the two pieces that remained there. Meanwhile, I stared at the doppelganger piece in my hand.

“Uh. S-Story?” Applejack started.

I shook my head. “They won’t hear it anyways. ‘Don’t rock the boat,’ remember?” It was something she told me a couple minutes ago.

“Alright. Ya don’t gotta gimme sass about it,” she said dismissively as she went back to her own thoughts. As she did, I went back to the doppelganger.

They see Leanne instead, I figured, turning the mini by the base. However, as I studied it, something started happening. Magic swirled up from the items on the table and cocooned itself around the plastic.

I tossed the mini away from me and watched as the magic shriveled up and dissipated to nothing.

“Do that again,” Twilight said quickly.

“H-Huh?” I glanced up and saw her as well as most of the table looking at me.

“Try that again. I saw it,” she told me. “The magic from the game. It responded to what you were doing.”

“Twilight, calm down,” Sunset asked her. “Tonight’s already been a lot. Let’s not push ourselves more than we already are.”

I opened my mouth to thank her only to glance down at my still flat DM screen. After my stomach did another flip from what I saw, I shook my head. “Nah. Nah, it-it’s cool. I’m all for figuring out this really interesting miniature magic-thi—”

“Story,” Applejack warned.

I whined like a kid that didn’t want to get outta bed. “Come on. You’re all really not gonna like what happens next.”

“Oh Ah know we ain’t,” Applejack refolded her arms. “But ya don’t get outta chores by waitin’ ‘em out. Let’s get it over with.”

I rubbed my eyes. “...Okay then.”

Gently, I started setting my screen back upright. The image was gone but now I had to narrate it. Fantastic. “Just know that I hate every part of this.”

With another slow breath, I focused my attention at Sunset. “Redbrands’ turn.”

---

Glemerr’s POV
Outside

---

I secured the last of the gauze and used my bedroll to keep Vareén’s head elevated. Her injuries were mostly at her torso but I wasn’t sure what all to do beyond treating the obvious problems.

I’ve treated stab wounds before. Sometimes my own but mostly the others. It came with living beside the canals of Alderstone. It also helped that, so long as the cuts weren’t fatal, just about everyone had their own way of laughing it off at the end of the day.

But all of Vareén’s melting skin? The gooey blood? That was new.

I wiped the odd blood off on my pants and lightly patted the side of Vareén’s head. I half expected the skin to stick to my hands but no. It was more like touching wet clay.

“Va-Vareén?” I asked lightly, looking over my shoulder. Stostine lit the area with green flames as doing her best to dodge the man’s sword while trying to burn him alive. “Ya aw’rite? Wake up, Ah know Ah ‘eard an ‘eartbeat.”

Her eyelids slowly peeled open. Instead of those blue eyes I’d seen her with, her eyes had no pupils. No irises. All one solid color. My darkvision only let me see in shades of gray so I had clue what color they were. But I saw the fear through it.

“Guh-Gl-Glemerr?” She spoke. It was her voice but only barely. It was a lot craggily than usual. “Wh-What are...You’re not suppos..."

“It’s cool. It’s cool,” I told her. “Ah ‘eard Stostine an’ came runnin’! Everythin’s fine!”

She tried turning her head as a burst of fire missed the Redbrand and singed his cloak. I corrected her head and kept it straight.

“No. Nope. Keep lookin’ ‘ere, ‘kay? Ah dink dem Raisinbrands musta put some poison err somethin’ on d’ere swords. Yer skin’s actin’ all weird.”

“M-My skin?” She forced herself to bring her hand up to her where her eyes could see it. Those archery gloves she always wore were kinda baggy over her hand now. Pretty sure they were just regular leather, no straps or anything.

When she saw this, her gasp sounded like a dying fish as she tried sitting up only to cry out in pain. Then she got the wind knocked out of her as I pushed her back to the ground.

“Stay down,” I ordered, using my tough voice. “Ya move an’ dem wounds ‘re gonna reopen!”

“D-Don—” she coughed and hacked, prompting me to recheck the bandages. “Don’t look at me!”

“Uh. A-Ah kinda gotta,” I half-joked, one hand to check the gauze and another to pin her squirming body. “Look, Ah’m not lettin’ anythin’ bad ‘appen to ya. As soon as were safe, Ah’ll get ya ta a warm bed and you can rest up all ya nee—”

“GiiiiiiaaaaaAAAAAHHH!”

All the green flames snuffed out as the Redbrand dragged his shortsword away from Stostine’s slashed abdomen. She fell to her knees, screaming in agony as I watched the man step back.

Still not a single burn mark that mattered.

“Glem!” Vareén tried to shout. “GO!”

As a little globule of blood hung on the corner of her lips, I took off like a shot from her quiver.

Screaming the whole way, the Redbrand turned and even though he saw nothing, he heard my footfalls rumbling straight for him. He tried shifting to the side, hoping I was as blind as he was.

Then, if he wasn’t desperate enough, he chucked his sword right at my screaming.

Seeing this, I drove my heel into the ground and used it to fall into a spin that took me well out of the way of harm. Still, I threw out my hand and wrapped my fingers around the blade before finishing my spin so I could stare down the idiot in front of me.

With my roar reaching max volume, I tightened my grip on the blade until my fingers bled and swung, smacking the crossguard of the sword into the jaw of the man. I felt a crunch travel down the metal weapon as his jaw became greatly misaligned. Teeth and blood went flying and he was knocked into the air for a spin of his own until he clambered back onto the dirt.

A puddle started spilling out his mouth.

“Stostine!” I tossed the sword away and fell next to her, my anger switching back to worry. “Stostine, tell me yer alright?!”

“I-I-It...It. It-It’s always. The stomach.” Her voice was a strained series of squeaks. “Wh-Why? Does the Master always aim for the stomach?”

Somehow, that made me smirk a little. “Well, it is the easiest target when ya don’t bother dodgin’ da right way.”

She let out a weak murmur of whines and made herself look up at me. “Yo-You know? I think that’s the. The nicest way I’ve heard som...Someone call me clumsy.”

“What?!” I went right back to angry Glemerr. “Yer not clumsy! Who called ya clumsy?!”

“That. That was a joke, Glem,” she told me weakly. “But I-I really am pretty clum..." She glanced past me and I saw her eyes widen. “Watch out!”

Reaching for her side, Stostine pulled out a knife and made a dive over my shoulder. She landed like a wet fish but I realized she threw the knife at something.

Thinking fast, I used my arm to steady Stostine on my shoulder and whipped around just in time to see the gurgling Redbrand with a dagger in his hand and now a knife in his lung. He was close enough to stab me in the back but after a few awkward steps, he fell back to the ground. Dead.

Stostine started groaning in pain as she reached for her stomach. Obviously the cut wasn’t so deep because she was able to make a lunge like that but the moment had passed and she felt miserable for it.

I let my muscles relax and, very carefully, set Stostine on the ground beside me. She clutched at her stomach but after some steadying from me, she at least forced herself to stay on two feet.

“Thank you,” I said in shock. “Ah dought dat guy was down an’ out.”

“They’re surprisingly resilient,” she admitted through her teeth. “He was the last one. Are Rava and the others alright?”

“Ah’m gonna check.” I took a few steps away, making sure Stostine didn’t collapse. “Sit wit’ Vareén! Ah’ll be ba—”

“NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—!”

A second scream, this one louder than Stostine’s as it erupted from the front of the Sleeping Giant. Ahead of me, well over a hundred feet, I saw the scene.

Rava, Ricven, and Thorn were in the process of chasing Stalwart who looked broken and exhausted. He might’ve gotten away if he wasn’t dragged back by Thorn’s vines.

But he wasn’t dead. Instead, I saw him standing there with a hand on Thorn’s shoulder and his longsword in her gut with the end of it sticking out her back. Blood spilled from her mouth and Rava was screaming bloody murder for him to stop.

But he didn’t. Instead, Stalwart pulled his sword out, twisting it as he did to further rip apart everything inside until Thorn fell on her back. Then, the tiefling stomped his boot onto Thorn’s body and raised his sword high above his head.

This time I screamed. I screamed as the tears I earned from seeing Stostine fall fell off in the wind that helped to hold me back. After that, new tears started falling out.

No. No NO NO!

“STOP IT!” Rava kept screaming, picking up her hammer and running to stop him. She was closer but much slower.

“This is what you deserve, filthy Cortássian,” Stalwart screeched. Then he swung.

We all screamed for him to stop. Even Ricven screamed. Behind me, Stostine and Vareén watched in frozen fear as the entire moment was lit up in the purple flames of the bar’s fireplace.

I made it a quarter of the way before Stalwart’s sword sunk into Thorn’s stomach again. It pinned her in place as her arms and legs flinched upwards and all her vines tensed up like a rope trap around Stalwart’s neck.

“GET AWAY!”

Rava finally reached him and swung with all her strength, colliding into his chest. His whole body was flung away as Thorn’s thorny vines crushed his neck and snapped it immediately.

He was dead before his body could flop to the ground beside the actively dying body of Thorn Wielder.

“He hits you while you’re unconscious,” Story said lifelessly. “That’s two failed death saves automatically. You have one...”

Fluttershy and Story watched the gray void cover her character sheet and then all over her body where Thorn Wielder had been struck this whole fight. More specifically, it covered Fluttershy’s entire torso where Thorn had been stabbed twice.

Fluttershy couldn’t feel her abdomen. The entire thing was so numb that she felt nothing. Even her legs were somewhat unresponsive. It terrified her to her core.

She and Story were the only ones to see it but by this point Twilight realized how bad it must have felt.

“I wanna heal her,” Rainbow told Story.

Story’s eyes started welling up with tears. He made himself shake his head, hands shaking. “You used your action to kill Stalwart.”

“Okay. Fine. I use the bonus action!” Story kept shaking his head. “What about movement?! I carry her the rest of the way to Pinkie!”

“Not her turn and she’s too far away. Fluttershy would roll one more Death Save before then.” His voice was monotone as he stared straight down. He didn’t want any more of this.

“I-I. I...Let me heal her!” Rainbow slammed her hands on the table, making every mini hop. Some of them fell over or lost their place. Not that it mattered. The enemies were dead, knocked out, or gone. The fighting was done.

But Story had to keep the turn order to see if Thorn Wielder survived. Although, with the grayness overtaking Fluttershy, it might as well have been the same person as far as he was concerned.

“She would need a ten or higher,” Twilight tried rationalizing. “An eleven out of twenty chance.”

“She had a five-in-six chance of killing Stalwart with Thorn Whip,” Story admitted to them. Now that Stalwart was dead, the magic didn’t bother gargling that.

“Don’t tell us that!” Rainbow yelled. Then she got up out of her chair and walked a few steps away, tapping her heel to the floor. “...One hit. I just had to hit him one more time! Why did I keep missing?!”

“Story.” Rarity spoke with as much calm as possible. “Who’s turn is it now?”

Story glanced over at the turn order by lulling his head to the side. “...Stostine’s.”

Sunset watched a few eyes turn to her but when they realized she was even further away than Glemerr, they lost interest. It only made her feel worse.

“I...I walk over to Vareén,” she said stiffly and pushed the piece with her finger. When it was in place, she gave a pitiful look to Fluttershy. “...I can’t do anything. I end my turn.”

A few of the girls flinched as Rainbow kicked the wall as hard as she could. She put a hole in it.

“Story, you’re not gonna do anything?!” Rainbow turned and glared at his sunken expression. “Thorn Wielder’s like Ravathyra! Like Vareén, and Stostine, and Gekio! I saw her alive in there! She sounds just like Fluttershy! She’s alive! And she’s dying! Why aren’t you doing anything?!”

Story said nothing. Instead, he looked to Applejack as she stared back. She made no attempt to walk back what she said earlier but she was even less confident now.

When she kept saying nothing, Story looked back at the turn order. “Ricven. Then Thorn Wielder.”

Rarity took in a deep breath, doing well to hold herself together despite the glossy eyes and mascara holding in her tears. “For thing’s first. Story? Can Inspiration count towards a Death Save?”

Story opened his mouth, but stalled. “Um...I need to check the wording.”

“On it.” Twilight was already flipping her own book. Since she had half a dozen tabs sticking out of the book, it took her no time at all to find the one labeled ‘Bard.’ She quoted the entire block and everyone perked up when she got to the part they needed. “The creature can roll the die and add the number to one ability check, Attack roll, or saving throw it makes.”

She looked up excitedly. “Saving throw! Death Saves are a saving throw! It would work!”

Rainbow Dash came back over and practically hugged the back of her chair. “Okay! That helps! She has a better chance then!”

“Hold.” Story sat up. “Twilight? Unconscious, status condition.”

Twilight closed the book and reopened it towards the back. After another moment of searching, she read it and the hope died in her eyes. “It says they are unaware of their surroundings. Inspiration needs to be heard. She would need inspiration before falling unconscious.”

“Urrraaaagh!” Rainbow yelled, shaking the chair around in place. “Can’t we just say she’s still awake or something?!”

“We have to follow the rules,” Sunset said sullenly.

“It’s alright. That wasn’t my only idea.” Rarity said, though now shaken enough to hear it in her voice. “I want something from Rava’s backpack. Ricven was there when she packed it and knows where it is. Can I use that thing as an action?”

Rainbow Dash leaned back over the table. “I let her do it!”

Story focused his attention for a moment. “Combat’s over, so that’s not a problem. The issue is that you don’t have possession of it, she does.”

“I give it to her!”

“Not that easy,” Story replied. “It’s stupid but this kinda falls between the rules. Give me a second.”

“Let me rephrase my question,” Rarity said. “I would like to use my entire turn doing nothing else but taking something from Rava’s backpack and using it. Fluttershy is right beside me so I don’t even need movement. I use my whole turn doing nothing but this. Can I do it?”

Story paused, considering the idea. I mean, there’s actions in the game that take longer. He glanced back at the screen and watched a vision of Ricven digging something out of Rava’s pack. The magic agreed.

“Yeah. That would do it.” He watched the girls get excited as Rarity took a huge sigh of relief. “What’re you getting from Rava’s backpack?”

“Outta my way!”

I watched Ricven run in next, taking a knife and cutting open the top of Rava’s pack in a single cut. Once he was done, he grabbed a smaller white bag and yanked it out before dropping it next to Thorn Wielder.

Ricven had Rava’s healer’s kit.

I watched as Ricven tore one supply out of another and right away staunch the bleeding in both wounds. Stalwart took the blade with him when he was knocked away by Rava so no sword plugged either injury.

That didn’t keep Ricven from trying. He put all the pressure he could on the wounds with his forty-ish pounds of weight. At first it didn’t work, but then he got help.

The vines wrapped themselves around Ricven’s hands, helping to grow bloodmoss along the cloth of the bandages just before he applied them to Thorn Wielder. A wave of brown and decay spread out from the point of the vine that grew out from Thorn’s arm but it kept working.

As Ricven kept wrapping bandages and bloodmoss around her, his arms getting more caked in blood, Rava tossed her hammer aside and backed him up. And then, about twelve seconds later, I rushed in right beside them and helped the elf.

We never stopped working. For however long it took us, we kept tending to Thorn Wielder like a team of doctors while Stalwart’s dead body sat two feet away from us. And as we started to finish everything we could possibly do, the vine did one last thing.

It buried itself into the ground like a sprout until it struck fertile soil and we noticed every blade of grass and clover react simultaniously. It was sucking every nutrient and pumping it into Thorn’s arm like an IV.

Rava took off her gauntlets and kept listening in for a pulse, finding it and not letting go as she kept watch over her. Meanwhile, Ricven and I collapsed beside one another; exhausted.

“We...We’re alive,” Ricven muttered as he stared up at the heavy clouds in the sky. “Hehehehe...We’re all alive!”

“Yeah,” I breathed. “Yeah, we are. We took ‘em out. Every last one.”

“Ah wouldn’ go tha’ far,” Rava said sternly. “There’s a lodge wit’ a bunch’a skeletons in it, ahehehe. Still! Platick had that Redbeard fella admit there were over forty. This was, what, twenty? Plus eight from earlier on? Then another if Platick’s theory on Leanne was right.”

“Yeah. More den half. Of them..." I slowly turned my head to look back at Ricven who had done the same to me.

“He ain’t come out yet,” Ricven pointed out.

“...Platick?!” I yelled out, forcing myself to ignore all the cuts I had and stand up.

Ricven was up on his feet and already running to the Griffonbound shop.

“Platick!” Ricven cried out, using his illusions to try making himself louder. “All’s clear! Come on out!”

I just started running full speed. When I passed Ricven, I grabbed him by the arm and sat him down on my shoulder so we’d both get there quicker. He didn’t argue.

Rava watched us run, as did Stostine and Vareén. None of them bothered running after us.

“Platick!” “Platick?!” “Platick!” “Platick?!” “Platick!” “Platick?!” “Platick!” “Platick?!”

We screamed like maniacs as I got us to the store in under a minute. When we arrived, the door was wide open, cut rope tied around the doorknob, a chair lying on its side, and a huge puddle of blood sitting at the entrance.

“PLATICK!” We shrieked in unison, with me rushing through the door and stopping only a few paces in.

The whole room was like a hurricane had run through it. Both blue and red blood was all over the floor in streaks and small pools. Also, in the middle of the room, several floorboards appeared melted and burned away as a deep scent of vinegar waved in the room.

On the opposite side of the room, directly across from us, were two bodies. Both of them were propped up against the store counter as one laid on top of the other.

The first body was Platick’s. His was underneath the second body and his eyes were shut. Cuts were everywhere on his body and a single dagger was left embedded just above his right pectoral. His entire face was coated in a mass of blue jelly-like substance that was no doubt seeping into his wounds and infecting them.

As for the second body, it was female. However, it wasn’t Leanne’s. For one thing, their clothing was much nicer than what we ever saw Leanne with. They had a peasant skirt and a white blouse, although the blouse was completely stained red with what seemed like her own blood.

She had the pointed ears of a half-elf and thin framed glasses that were about to fall off of her nose as she leaned over Platick as though to protect him. Her auburn hair hung messily from her head, some of it sticking to Platick’s face thanks to the blue jell. In her hand was an equally bloody symbol of Tymora.

It was Sister Garaele, the priestess of the Shrine of Luck that was right across the street from Griffonbound Vendor. And when we entered the room, she peered up at us tiredly.

“He...He’s sleeping,” she said distantly. “I came to check on Leanne when...When it...I...sav...ed...him...”

Her head fell against his other shoulder and she was as unresponsive as he was. Two stab victims and no culprit.

Author's Note:

And so ends the siege on Phandalin.

Originally, there was going to be a lot of death. Three characters would have all died until I realized the things I kept forgetting:
I forgot the party had another healing potion that they would have given to the two trying to distract half the forces. Had that not been there, Stostine would've been abandoned by Vareén and died.

I forgot Glemerr had another ki point that she would use to reach Vareén and Stostine as quickly as possible. Without that, Vareén would be dead.

Finally, Thorn Wielder. I forgot I had both Glemerr AND Ravathyra buying healer's kits. It's been on Rava's character sheet since Ch. 19. I forgot for so long, I started writing Thorn's death in the first draft. After the scene with everyone pleading, I realized Rainbow had a healer's kit and Rarity was right there.
I even rolled the last death save. Fluttershy rolled a 2. Thorn Wielder would be dead.

I played out the entire fight before Ch. 27 and I knew how and what the Redbrands/Leanne would do before Ch 18. I also knew the plan the girls made to fight wasn't the best. I did that on purpose because it was what I believed they would do. I stick to that.

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If anyone's interested in any of the numbers or other stuff behind it, let me know! If there's enough interest, maybe I'll make a blog post or something. I just have a bunch of notes and play-by-plays of combat for my own DMing practice.

That said, I'll see you all next chapter. I hope you all had a great New Year's!
Cheers,
-Zeke

Comments

[Moonlight Tome]

....... *lets out a shaky breath*......... GEEZ, that was scary!!

[Snow Storm1437]

Wow That's was crazy I don't know what to say about that nice job!

Platick was lucky hopefully he is alive can't wait to see what's next

[The Chronicler]

Phew... That was a close one. I don't trust "Garaele"... It seems too obvious this is You Know What, but it could also be a red herring. I guess we'll see.

[Regreme]

That was amazing.

[Helping Hoof]

Blimey, mate, my poor 'eart can't 'andle this sorta tension. Funny accent aside though, this was stellar. Had me at the edge of my seat the whole time.

Also, hey, speaking of shapeshifters.