Chapter 4: Forging a Party
“Though kind at first the world did seem
Dark ambitions stirred beneath
Evil ponies do plot and scheme
And great monsters gnash their teeth”
Paperback had finally picked out the armor he wanted. Chatting up with the NPC vendor who stood nearby, he purchased a set of Conscript's Mail, which was an iron and shiny replacement to the rusty old thing that he wore now. It wasn't magically enchanted; that would cost him too much. Rather, he used the gold he had saved to buy Iron Bracers, a dramatic improvement to the battered pair he wore now. Indeed, their durability was about to drop to zero, and he got only one bit off the sale of them.
Indeed, it should not have taken him ten minutes to purchase such relatively simple armaments, but he was distracted by the show happening at the cloth vendor across the plaza.
Rusty Nail walked towards Sound Wave with a gait that could only be properly described as a classy strut, and even then the term might not do justice. Cool, confident, self assured, Rusty was quite obviously confident in his way among the ladies. How successful he was at actually scoring a mare remained to be seen.
Smoothly sliding his way next to Sound Wave, Rusty's first move was to gently brush flanks. Too light to be rough, but just hard enough to not be an accident, cutie marks of a wrench and musical notes met in a sensual stroke. While this moment of physical contact was happening, the side of Rusty Nail's mouth opened and said, “Hey there good looking lady. What's a sensual young thing like yourself doing in a game like this?” Even from a good twenty paces away, Paperback could hear every word, and felt his eyes start to water from laughter. Even Rusty's laid back tone of voice sounded more refined.
Sound Wave caught on immediately, it seemed, and switched to a more feminine voice. Unlike the southern belle accent he had pulled on Paperback, this one was much more believable. A mild voice of a city mare came from his lips, just barely loud enough for Paperback to listen in. “Oh, you know, even a filly like myself gets to be a nerd every now and then.” Luckily, Sound Wave's more characteristically male facial structure was hidden by his mane, which fell down over the side of his face facing Rusty Nail.
“Well now, perhaps you'd like to swing on over to the inn there and have a drink with me? My treat.” Rusty said. The merchant at the armor stall gave a questioning look at Paperback, who was sniggering into a hoof as quietly as he could. Leaning over, Paperback whispered the situation to the NPC, who gave a grin and started watching the show as well.
“It's sweet of you to offer, but I was actually about to head back out and do some more quests.” Sound Wave countered, continuing in the female identity.
“Well I can do questing too! How'd you feel about having a dashing rogue like me protecting your flank from all the monsters out to get you?” At this point Rusty rubbed against Sound Wave's flank again, eliciting a light giggle from the pseudo mare.
“I bet that you'd spend more time watching my flank than protecting it, tough guy.” Sound Wave said, and after saying it he bumped Rusty's flank back, making Rusty giggle too.
“Alright then, you go off on your way. I don't suppose I can have a smooch before you take your sexy body out and slaughter some wolves?” Rusty looked downright hopeful at this point. Paperback knew what was coming next. It would be so funny, yet so painful to watch. The most apt synonym his mind could come up for the occasion at the time is that it was like watching a clown car about to careen off a cliff.
“Oh, if you insist, then I suppose I can give you that one little thing.” Sound Wave said, except now his voice was lower and decidedly colt-sounding. With his long hair now brushed behind Sound Wave's head, Rusty was given a view of Sound Wave's face for the first time, and the green pony promptly recoiled in shock. He tripped over his hooves in a comical manner, which Paperback could only guess was how he looked whenever he did it. Rusty rolled over on his back to right himself, and glared slack-jawed at the colt who had just tried to seduce him. The worst part it seemed for him is that it almost worked.
Now back onto all four hooves, Rusty made an exasperated half-strangled noise that came out sounding like, “Yeahthatsnotgonnhappenokbye.” Turning quickly, he broke out into a clumsy run that ended behind the stall where Paperback and the Armor merchant were laughing openly by this point.
“What's the matter, Rusty? Expectations not living up to reality?” Paperback said after he managed to calm down. In response, Rusty shot him a death glare from underneath the cart where he was now hiding.
“Alright. You have your stupid armor now, right? Can we go?” Rusty muttered a few minutes later after Paperback had made his purchase. He was still sitting underneath the armorer's stall, probably now more so out of boredom than humiliation.
“You're so terribly impatient. Are you always like this? I was adventuring with another person whom I just met today before you tagged along, and it'd be polite to wait for him.” Rusty rolled his eyes at this and Paperback shrugged. He could tell that Rusty was a hardcore gamer at heart, and any moment not gaining experience was a moment wasted.
“Alright fine, fine. I don't suppose you could tell your other dude to hurry it up?” Rusty said, finally extracting himself from under the cart.
“Oh don't worry, he's coming over now.”
“Where? I don't know what he looks like.”
“He's that one. Right there.”
“Wait- no. You don't mean-”
“Yep.”
“And you knew?”
“Of course.”
“And you didn't tell me because-”
“Some humor was required. More compelling drama this way. I felt like it. Take you pick.”
“You are an ass.” Rusty Nails hissed, putting extra emphasis onto every word.
Sound Wave reached the duo at that moment. He had a new robe protecting him; a starch white garment with a red trim on it. It looked nice enough, but still wouldn't stop most damage in combat. In addition, the red bandana which he had gotten repaired was now tied around his forehead, keeping some of the hair pushed back in a way so that he'd only be mistaken for a filly part of the time.
An awkward silence settled over the group as Sound Wave completed the triangle. He stared with a bemused expression at Rusty Nails, who in turn shot daggers with his eyes at Paperback, and pointedly avoided eye contact with Sound. Paperback merely stood there, smirking with his eyes closed at the mental picture of Rusty flailing over his back hooves. The picture would stay with him for the rest of his life, because it was that perfect.
“Well then Rusty, ready to head out? We're going to the mine to do that quest for the mayor.” Paperback said a few seconds later, having filed the memory away where he would be sure not to forget it. Rusty let out a halfhearted affirmation, and the three of them turned to the road.
------------
A few minutes had gone by. Silence pervaded the three of them, the awkwardness caused by Rusty not speaking to either of them spread to Paperback and Sound Wave, and the two just rolled their eyes and walked without talking. This continued on until about halfway to their destination, when Paperback finally talked.
“Look over there.” He said, and the other two obediently turned their heads and followed the direction his hoof was pointing.
“That is a big freaking boar.” Sound wave said after a moment. Indeed it was. Standing half again as tall as a pony, a massive boar could be seen moving through the undergrowth far off to the right of the path. A wooded area, the distance and shadow cast by the leafy branches made it hard to make out anything beyond it being a boar and humongous.
“Probably a challenge. Should we kill it?” Paperback said, trying to make out a name or a level on the thing. He was unsuccessful, there was too much space between them.
The two of them seemed to think it over for a minute, before Rusty finally opened his mouth again. “The big beastie you two are looking at is named Briarbuck, so I heard last night. A high level monster who has a ridiculous roaming range. A group of four fivers like us ran into him farther up north and got squashed flat before they could do much of anything.”
“Four level fives should have been at least able to do something against it.” Paperback countered. After all, he and Sound Wave had been able to take out three bandits who were leveled four and five, and this was only one monster.
“You would think so, wouldn't you? Nah, Briarbuck is apparently an 'Elite Monster', which means that his stats are buffed up beyond that of normal.” Rusty Nail stopped for a moment, and chewed on his tongue before continuing. “Not long after, a level ten fighter showed up with one of the fives to show him where they found it. I saw them arrive, and then I saw them arrive again a half hour later. Talked to him for a minute. Apparently the fighter got his flank kicked back all the way to Aeroslida while barely making a dent in the boar's hitpoints.”
“Right. So. Avoid the scary boar thingie for now. We'll get back to it later. Probably has some sweet loot.” Sound Wave said.
The trio continued on their way, now talking regularly since the spell of silence over them had been broken with the encounter of Briarbuck. Shortly, they saw the mine ahead of them. A clearly marked entrance into the side of a hill, the entrance to the tunnel was carved through gray stone, which jutted out around the hole. A track ran out of the cave and to a nearby hut, presumably built from the solid trees that were scattered here and there in the clearing. A stream ran around the hill from the mountains to the north, forming a natural barrier around another half of the clearing. Thus, the only way to enter the mine would be to walk straight to the front door, unless they wanted to swim or climb.
NPC's registering as 'hostile' were scattered about in groups of one to four. Ponies, who were bandits much like the ones destroyed by Paperback and Sound Wave earlier, of all different races. A bit more than half were earth ponies of obvious rogue and warrior classes. Another quarter or so were pegasi, including one that was patrolling the skies above the clearing in a vague elliptical motion. The remainder were unicorns who were placed into the larger groups. Obviously they were spellcasters of some sort, which would make them the first ones that Paperback had dealt with in the game.
“Alright. So how do we want to go about this?” Paperback said, a safe distance away from aggroing any of the bandits. Sound Wave gave him a blank stare, while Rusty looked thoughtfully at some of the single guards patrolling the outside perimeter.
After a moment, Rusty looked at Sound Wave thoughtfully, then spoke aloud “Well, we can always have the bard here grab them one by one with a bolt, then the two of us can knock them over quick enough before any of us get really hurt.”
Paperback nodded. “That will work. Ready Sound Wave? Start with single guards first.”
“Don't I get a say in this?” Sound Wave said, clearly uncomfortable with being the first target.
“It's the best plan. Don't worry, we got your back.” Paperback said. Rusty Nail pointedly said nothing, but turned his head away and whistled nonchalantly. Paperback quickly smacked him on the shoulder with a hoof.
“Oh alright fine. We promise not to let the big bad bandits hurt a single hair on your precious mane.” Rusty said, stretching out the last part of the sentence with as much foalish sarcasm as he could muster.
“Alright then. Here goes something.” Sound Wave said, and charged the first bolt of Piercing Chord. Letting it loose, it struck a lone guard square in the ribs, and he quickly turned and charged towards the trio. Pulling their weapons out, Paperback and Rusty waited until the guard was upon them then both simultaneously struck with abilities. Paperback brought his mace down on the bandit's head with a Strike/Shocking Grasp combo. Rusty Nail had the wicked looking dagger in his mouth, and sliced it across the pony's side. A second attack from Rusty, who was slightly quicker in attack speed from using a light weapon, brought the bandit down to zero and he fell over.
“That was ridiculously easy.” Rusty Nail said, leaning down to loot the corpse. A small amount of bits was distributed between the three. “Let's try grabbing two this time. We didn't even get hurt.”
“Feeling cocky, are we?” Paperback mused. “Alright Sound Wave, wait for that pegasus overhead to fly around and then grab those two over there.”
Sound Wave obliged, and a Piercing Note went zooming towards another earth pony bandit. This one had a buddy, and both angrily ran towards the party bard, shouting more generic throwaway lines. As before, when they reached the two melee fighters, they were quickly engaged by Paperback's Strike and Rusty's Backstab, the latter allowed the other pony to get ahead of him before engaging.
Both bandits had their attention turned onto their new aggressors, and melee combat ensued. Paperback dropped his enemy to below fifteen percent of his health, and he turned away, intending to retreat towards another group of three some distance off. “Sound! Speed Riff! Now!” Paperback barked, and Sound Wave hastily cast the spell that boosted the party's movement speed. With incredible agility, Paperback caught up to his prey and smashed his mace into the side of the bandit's head, felling him with Strike. The bonus to movement speed was already over, but Paperback was in a good position to intercept Rusty's bandit when it tried to do the same a second later.
“Alright, so they run when pushed down to low health. We really don't want to let them get back to their friends.” Paperback said, resting while his hitpoints came back up to full. “New addition to the plan, whenever one of us gets them to the point of about to run, we all focus on him, got it?” The other two nodded, perfectly willing to let Paperback take charge and make the plans. Since when did I become the leader type? He thought, I never do any of this plan stuff in the D&D group.
The next two encounters went smoothly. Another two bandits went down in the first one, and in the second which was composed of three, a pegasus bandit had tried to take off early but was quickly grounded from a Piercing Note. A fair bit of loot from coins, weapons, and paltry amounts of armor were split between the party. Now was the real challenge. A group of four bandits was their last remaining main obstacle to get into the tunnel, one of them being a unicorn.
“Now. This is the tricky part. The unicorn over there is level six, which is higher than us. However, if Rusty can get close, he can continually disrupt his spells. Which means that I'm going to have to hold off three at once. Sound Wave, you're going to be healing me as soon as they reach me. Don't let me die, or else I'll haunt you for the rest of time.” Paperback said sternly. The last part was obviously meant as an idle threat, but the rest of the instructions were quite clear.
Sound Wave gulped loudly as he stood at the maximum range allowed for him to be able to cast a spell. Paperback stood beside him, ready to engage three fighters. Rusty was far off to the side as close as he could get without being spotted -which was rather close, seeing as he was a rogue- so that he could rush the wizard as soon as the fight began.
The first spell was thrown, and struck a pegasus in the side and 'crippled' his wing long enough for him to choose to sprint towards the caster rather than fly. Two others shortly followed him, and the unicorn's horn began to glow with energy. Rusty sprinted in and tackled the unicorn, causing the spell to fly wildly into the air and dissipate. Meanwhile, a second Piercing Note hit the pegasus as the three closed distance with Paperback and Sound Wave.
A third Piercing Note hit the pegasus at the same time that Paperback smashed him with both of his Strike and Shocking Grasp abilities, causing him to crumple. Now the two earth ponies remaining were flanking Paperback, and he took a couple hits before he could jump out of the way. Gritting his teeth, he punched out with a hoof and cast Chilling Touch on the earth pony who wielded a mace like his own. That pony weakened, Paperback used him as a shield to keep between himself and the unstruck bandit, while using his mace to bash the first one in all the while. He still took some more damage, but luckily Sound Wave's Healing Chord meant that he was still floating around two-thirds of his health.
Paperback glanced over, and saw that Rusty was making quick work of the wizard, using his abilities to disrupt most spells, and the wizard wasn't dealing enough damage in melee to be any significant threat. Turning his attention back to his opponent, he swung his mace up and brought it down with Strike, finishing off the wounded bandit. Now, there was just the one left. Feinting, he moved to the right, only to sidestep a blow and bring his mace in from the left, knocking the bandit across the side of the head.
Now all he had to do was wait for strike to come up again, and the combo should be enough to send this one running so that Sound Wave can- WHUMP.
A familiar sound, that whump. The pegasi bandit that was circling above had obviously seen the fight, and had dived down to help. He was sent sprawling across the grass, his eyes rolling in his head. Picking himself up, he could feel the damage making his hitpoints cry tears of blood as they were sent skyrocketing down into critical levels. Curse whatever designer gave pegasi rogues that auto-crit ability when diving from the sky. Another healing spell from Sound Wave brought his health back up a little bit, but he was still on the defensive as the pegasus and earth pony closed in on him.
Suddenly, a green blur charged the earth pony, sinking a dagger into his hide. Rusty it seemed has finished off the unicorn and had come back to help. The earth pony bandit took another quick hit from Rusty and fell, leaving the pegasus trapped between the two fighters. Closing in, Rusty and Paperback swung their weapons in unison, dealing massive damage to the pegasus, which Sound Wave launched a Piercing Note at to drop him out of the sky when the bandit turned to run.
Level Up!
Sound Wave has reached level 5!
He has gained the following skills!
~Soothing Chord, Rank 2: Increases the amount of health healed by the ability.
Music to soothe the soul and mend the body.
With the fight over, the group looted the bodies. The activity went in relative silence as weapons, armor, and other trinkets were picked up until Paperback spoke, “So. I vote that next time we let the bard try and fight one.”
Sound Wave's spluttered protests were almost unheard over uproarious laughter and agreement from Rusty Nail. With the task complete, the trio turned towards the open mouth of the earth that led down into the mine.
“It's surprisingly well lit for a dank hole in the earth.” Sound Wave said a few minutes later, remarking at the lightly lit stone walls that surrounded them. Lanterns were located every thirty feet or so; be it hung up on walls or placed on large stones that jutted out of walls without being cleared. The tunnel caverns reflected more light than they probably should have, and what should have been near darkness was instead simply shadowed.
They followed the rail for mine carts down a central tunnel, with side passages splitting off at random intervals down the track. Patrolling enemies moved around down here, but the trio kept quiet and ambushed them whenever they passed by. These bandits walked in pairs, and one of them was usually carrying a lantern, which made them easy to spot as they walked up from the tunnels below.
After they passed the fourth or fifth passage branching off into a dead end, Paperback noted that his quest marker discreetly appeared, and signaled him that the person to turn a quest into was near. “Hold up a moment guys, Quest marker points down this passage.” Paperback said, and started walking down the gradual slope of stone. Rusty Nail and Sound Wave followed close behind, their quest markers also activated.
At the end of passage there was no lantern, so it was less illuminated than the rest of the mine system. Still, Paperback could see that the tumbled rocks and boulders here were not natural, but like there was some sort of collapse. He drew closer to the cave-in, and felt gritty stone and sand fragments underneath his hooves. “A cave in? Explosion?” He mused aloud, but suddenly the shadows in the corner of his eye moved.
Paperback was tackled yet again, and slammed into the side of the cavern by an earth pony rogue who had been blending into the darkness behind a boulder. The rogue got another two hits on him, but by then Paperback was back on his feet and Rusty had started the assault with his dagger. Bringing out his mace, Paperback grimly noted that the bandit was three levels higher than the party. No wonder my hit points dropped that much.
Still, the rogue was only one bandit, and it did not take terribly long for the three to dispatch him. As the foe was killed, Paperback noticed that there was a hole in between the rocks at the top, and that he had been unable to see the faint amount of light pouring through until he had gotten closer. A mare's voice issued from the crack, calling out “Hello! Hello! Is someone out there? We need help!”
Paperback placed his two front hooves on the rocks, raising himself up enough so that his voice would carry through the hole back at the mare. “Yes! We're here! What happened?”
“Oh thank goodness!” The mare's voice replied in relief, “Bandits have overrun the mine! We're all of the workers who they didn't kill. They piled us into this tunnel and collapsed it. We're trapped down here!”
“Is there any way for us to get you out?” Paperback inquired loudly.
“Yes! We have some blasting powder in the central cavern farther down in the mine. If you could bring that up here, you could blast these rocks enough so that we can dig our way out.” She said.
“Alright, don't worry, we'll be right back!” Paperback said, and turned around to start walking up the cavern as his quest log bonged to tell him that he completed one quest and started another.
Next to him, Rusty Nail was admiring a sword that was now equipped to him. Fairly standard looking, it nonetheless gave off a sparkle when light from a lantern hit it and looked well cared for compared to the other gear of the bandits. “Hey Rusty. Where did you get that thing?”
“This baby? I looted it off the rogue that ganked you back there while you were chatting it up with the miners, mate.” Rusty Nail said, gesturing back to the spot where the now digitized bandit used to be.
“It's enchanted, right? How come you didn't share that with us?” Paperback asked, a slight crease in his brow.
“Didn't think to. I saw something better than what I was using, so I grabbed it. I'd share now, but it binded to me when I equipped it.” Rusty said, shrugging his shoulders. Paperback frowned. “Look, if it bugs you so much, then set the party details so that enchanted stuff has to be rolled on before it can be looted.”
The frown stayed on Paperback's face as he kept walking. He could do that? Slowing down his pace so he didn't trip, he experimentally opened up party options and saw that he could indeed set the loot rules for enchanted items so that everypony had an equal chance at acquiring it. He toggled it so that even low level enchanted items would be shared, and closed the tab.
Feeling more confident about their ability in combat, the three of them no longer snuck about and instead boldly marched down the tunnel to the central cavern where they were told that they would find the blasting powder. Along the way, they found a mine cart on the tracks, and a quick search found some of the ore that the smithy back at the guard outpost requested of them.
Level Up!
Rusty Nail has reached level 6!
He has gained the following skills!
~Backstab, Rank 3: The rogue does 190% more critical damage when attacking an enemy from behind.
Through the spine and out the heart, the battle's over before it could start!
With more bandits dropped and more ore discovered, they soon saw themselves looking into a large chamber which the tunnel exited into. Stretching about thirty meters across, the ground was smooth but in uneven steps as rocks has been cut around rather than through to make the floor. The center of the cavern was lower that the outside ring, and many barrels and crates were stacked there. Including, Paperback noted, the blasting powder.
Unfortunately, the entire room had bandits scattered to and fro in it, about eight in all. Most were of fourth or fifth level, something that could be easily taken on by the trio, but another eight level rogue could be spotted entering from a different tunnel, and a ninth level bandit overseer was standing at the back of the cavern to direct operations.
“Put yer backs into it lads, we need to strip this place of all the ore it has before the guards get wind of us being here.” The overseer barked at the milling ponies. A few of them were swinging pickaxes at the walls while other were digging through minecarts.
Three heads slowly withdrew to behind the cover of a boulder, and Rusty Nail turned to his two compatriots. “Alright. So. I think we can take them.” He whispered.
“Are you crazy?” Sound wave hissed. “There's no way we can take on eight at once! Especially with two of them that high of a level.”
“No, no! Just hear me out! Look, one of them is taking some of the barrels that have the powder into a tunnel over there, right?” Paperback stuck his head out over the rock again, and he indeed saw one of the bandits pushing a cart with two barrels of powder in it. “Alright. So. We know that there's still at least five barrels of explosive powder in the center of the chamber so-”
“Paperback, please help me tell him he's crazy!” Sound wave frantically whispered, as the realization dawned on him of what Rusty's plan was.
Paperback, himself feeling just a bit daring said, “Hold on. I want to see where he's going with this.”
“Thank you. Now. As I was saying. There's still some barrels left, so if we can get everyone on the two of us near the center, Sound Wave can sneak over to a lantern and throw it on the pile. Lantern breaks. Barrels go boom. Everyone goes home happy, except for the bandits. Easy, right mate?” He said in an undertone, turning to Paperback for support.
Sound Wave interjected again, “And what about the part where you two go boom with the bandits?”
“We run past em as soon as you give us the signal and duck into a tunnel. Sure, one or two might survive the blast chasing us, but we can take em.” Rusty Nail countered.
“And what signal am I supposed to even be giving you?” Sound replied in contempt.
“Were you not listening? You throw the lantern.” Rusty said, a hoof brought to his forehead in mock irritation.
Paperback spoke up, “While there are indeed many flaws with this plan, it is far better than the 'run in there and tank them all' option which is second.”
“Alright then. So we're in agreement. Don't screw us over on this, you spoony bard.”
“I'm not in agreement! And what did you call me?” Sound Wave said irritably, but an answer would not be forthcoming, because Rusty and Paperback were already strolling into the cavern.
At first, it was like the enemies didn't even notice them. They reached halfway to the center pile of crates and barrels with only the overseer staring at them incredulously. Then, at once, all of the bandits stopped working and just turned and stared. The overseer, a brown earth pony with a two handed sword of some sort strapped across his back, stepped forward with mail armor clinking in the dim underground. “And 'oo the hell are you?”
“Oh, we're just some nobodies come to see what you're all doing down here.” Rusty Nail said sweetly, pouring on the same charm that he had tried to use to seduce Sound Wave earlier. The ponies around the sides of the cavern now slowly moved in, surrounding the duo in a ring. Paperback had figured out Rusty's plan. Since this was a named character, it would obviously have more AI than the common variant, and thus combat could be held off with the right conversation.
“If you're here, then you must have killed your way through my men above ground.” The overseer snarled, mouth turning downwards in a wicked grimace. From his position, Paperback couldn't tell if Sound Wave was grabbing a lantern or not. He really hoped he was. It would be rather impossible to fight off seven ponies. “We ain't accepting new workers into our organization. You made a big mistake coming in here...”
The ponies around the side were grinning now, drawing weapons. Great, the presence of one major NPC made them all the more realistic, and therefor far smarter. Paperback strained his ears behind him, desperately listening for sound against the back wall. What was that? Scrape... clink! Went a sound, and Paperback could have only one guess as to what that was. “NOW!” He shouted, and turned around and bucked one of the barrels containing explosive powder over. Rusty did the same with a different barrel, and black powder spilled all over the smooth stone floor. Both of them drew their weapons and cleaved their way through a guard behind them, running for the exit as fast as they could. The duo took a few hits as the bandits turned aggressive, but that was only a minor concern to Paperback as he saw a lantern flying through the air in slow motion.
In a moment that seemed to last for eternity, Paperback and Rusty hung in midair with six angry bandits lunging after them, the seventh lying dead on the floor. Of course, no moment ever truly freezes in time, so it was inevitable that the lantern would land in the middle of the bandit group, fire igniting the powder that lay on the floor and rushing up to the barrels full of it.
Fwoooo-BOOM!
Paperback was flung forwards into the tunnel, with Rusty Nail landing on top of him. He knew that the IPV wasn't supposed to simulate any sort of true and lasting pain, but the heat from that blast was just a little too toasty for comfort, and his head ached something terrible. As Rusty rolled off of him, he groggily stood up and checked his hit points. Five percent left. All things considered, he should really be dead right now, so he was willing to call five percent a miracle.
Sound Wave poked his head up from behind the rock. His health had taken far less of a dive, and still stood at a solid seventy five percent of their maximum. Immediately, he began casting a Soothing Chord on Paperback.
As the healing relief of the spell washed over him, bringing his life into a more stable number, he saw Sound Wave's eyes shrink in fear. He turned his head, and saw the big boss overseer leaping at him with that greatsword. Well. Figures he wouldn't die.
The sword came down, and Paperback rolled with the hit, bringing his health yet again dangerously close to zero. Luckily, there wouldn't be a second swing from the overseer, because Rusty already had his sword out and jumped on top of the bandit, where he thrust his weapon through a weak point in the armor to deal massive damage and finally bring down the rampaging warrior.
Level Up!
Paperback has reached level 6!
He has gained the following skills!
~Strike, rank 5: Your Strike deals 15% additional melee damage, and 10% improved spell damage.
Strike with your weapon and strike fear in their hearts.
Paperback abandoned getting up and just lay on the ground for a moment, as the game went through the process of letting him feel that a couple of his limbs were crippled and that he desperately needed some healing. Another healing spell from Sound Wave washed over him, and the game allowed him to move his left foreleg again.
Rusty Nail was looting the bandit overseer, and a small tab opened up in Paperback's vision which depicted the greatsword that the high level enemy was wielding. It was enchanted with a bonus to strength, but none of the three of them were proficient in two handed weapons. “Well, looks like we'll just roll to see who gets it to sell.” Paperback said, and the three selected that option. The game rolled a number between one and a hundred for them, and Sound Wave won the weapon with a seventy-five. A simple enough system.
Also in the leader's inventory was an 'opened letter', which despite there only being one on of them, could be picked up and looted by all three. Opening it in the inventory revealed correspondence between the overseer and some sort of boss, who was implied to be the leader of all of the bandits in this region. A new quest was acquired, which was to hand the letter over to Lieutenant Crossroads.
The other bandits were looted as well, and lots of coin and unenchanted items were split between the three of them.
“Shall we go get the other barrels now?” Paperback continued. The other two agreed, and they set off down the the tunnel where they had seen a bandit take the barrels previously. Two thugs were by the cart that had the barrels, but they were quickly dispatched with relative ease. It appeared that they could not loot the barrels like they could with much of the ore they were finding, so the three of them had to alternate pushing and pulling the cart back up the track.
They arrived back at the side tunnel where the miner ponies were trapped behind the cave in. “Alright, we have the barrels!” Paperback shouted, as he propped himself on a rock to get his voice to carry through the hole.
“Great! There's a bend in this tunnel that we'll shield ourselves behind! Light em up!” The mare said, and Paperback and Rusty each rolled a barrel over to the wall.
“Are you sure that this won't just collapse the cave more?” Rusty Nail said, as he pried off the lid of his barrel.
“Pretty sure. The NPC wouldn't have suggested it otherwise, right?” Paperback replied, doing the same.
“Alright then. Let's go get a lantern” Rusty said, and fetched one of the ones further back in the tunnel. From a good twenty feet away, he used the flame in the lantern to ignite a small train of powder that led back to the barrels. The previous incident with explosive materials probably fresh in his mind, Rusty quickly backed off out of the blast range.
Hissssssssss- BOOM went the powder, and after the dust settled the tunnel was clear, several ponies poked their heads around a corner deep further back in the cave. One of them, a mare, trotted up to the trio and said “Oh thank you! We thought we were going to die down there.” The identification above the pony named her Forepony Silver Stone.
“We were only too happy to help.” Paperback said. He heard movement in the main tunnel, and turned around to see Rusty Nail sneak up and backstab a bandit who passed by. “We should get out of here and back to town, more bandits might still be lurking about.”
“Good idea.” Silver Stone said, “Can you lead the way?”
“Of course. Stay close behind us.” Paperback replied. Silver Stone nodded, and half a dozen ponies fell into line behind Paperback as he and Sound Wave made to catch up with Rusty, who was slowly eliminating any patrols that might have respawned.
After a short minute they arrived outside, and the miner ponies visibly brightened their mood when they felt daylight for the first time in what must have been at least a day. They were instructed to stay there for a moment while Paperback, Rusty, and Sound cleared off a couple groups of bandits who were blocking a straight shot out of the clearing. After doing so, they all ran past some of the bandits, who turned to chase them, but those gave up after a few minutes, which gave the group a straight shot back to town.
------------
As they turned in the quest to the mayor, the various miner ponies split off to their homes. The trio received a fair amount of bits for their efforts, which Paperback was already planning on what he was going to spend it on first. I saw a nice helmet back at the armorer's stall, or there was that morningstar at the weapon vendor...
Level Up!
Sound Wave has reached level 6!
He has gained the following skills!
~Galdr of Strength: The caster plays an invigorating song that strengthens allies, helping them deal increased physical damage.
♪We sing our song of Strength and Might/Fear our power, for now we fight♪
New morningstar strapped securely to his side, the three headed off to the nearby hill where the guards encampment was. They each turned in ore to the smithy, Paperback received a nice pair of iron boots for the endeavor while the other two chose cloth and hide armor respectively, since neither of them could wear metal armor pieces.
They went to turn in the final quest, which was to turn in the paper they found on the overseer's corpse to Lieutenant Crossroads. Paperback showed her the letter, and she read it for a minute, her expression continually grew more grave as she reached the bottom. After she finished, she turned back to Paperback and company, and addressed them.
“This is bad news. I had hoped that the sudden increase in bandit activity was completely coincidental, but it appears not. Bandits with organization... Such things have spread destruction to entire towns over the centuries.” Crossroads turned and walked over to a map unrolled on a table, the trio following close behind. She pointed to a marked farm southwest of the town, “The letter says that the ore they were gathering was to be taken to the old Sundance farm. It's been empty for about ten years, so it wouldn't be too much of a surprise that they're holed up in here. I know that I shouldn't get dependent on all of you, but I can reward you well if you go out there and find out what they're planning on using that ore for.”
Paperback of course agreed to do the job. As the three of them left the command tent he turned to the other two.
“Well, it looks like we've found the first major quest chain.” He remarked, trotting with a spring in his step. He was rather excited to have a true quest chain on his hooves, it sounded intricate with it's rumors of a bandit organization.
“Yep. Interesting. Say, I gotta do a gig thing in an hour, so I gotta head off.” Sound Wave said. “If you guys wanna wait a couple hours for me, that'd be great.”
Paperback nodded. “Yeah, I suppose I could. Rusty?”
Rusty shrugged. “I can wait, mate. I gotta go tinker with some mechanical stuff anyways.” It was interesting how quickly Rusty accepted Sound Wave as a friend when just earlier today he was repulsed by him. Paperback noted that he wasn't the type to hold a grudge past an hour or so, rather like him and his D&D group. It was a fine party they were turning out to be.
Paperback turned back to Sound Wave, “Yeah, looks like we're taking a two hour break. Then we can knock a couple more quests out of the way before we need to sleep.”
The other two just stared at him for a second before Rusty Nail rolled his eyes, then digitized and vanished as he logged out of the game. Sound Wave chuckled for a moment, then said. “Y'know Paperback, the IPV let's you play the game while you're asleep.”
Then Sound also digitized and logged out, leaving a confused Paperback staring at the spot where they just were a minute ago. Then, his eyes widened in sudden realization, and he shouted at their empty positions, “You can play this game while you're asleep!?!”
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Chapter 4 up. My writing is getting longer. I'm considering this as a good thing, but really it just means that I was more likely to miss something.
Features: Bandits, mild humor, explosions, and a teeny bit of sexual tension!
Now with sixty percent more Proper Tense correction!
Woo!! Chapter 4!!! I'm really liking what's happening here! :D plus new skills! Woohoo! :D
1485216 But of course. It wouldn't be a MMO unless it had skills!
1485150
Sound Wave has sent Paperback a message!
"Psst! I took an im-game picture of Rusty's face when he saw my face, figured you'd like a souvenir!"
~Sound Wave
would lol SOOO hard if Sound Wave really did that XD
Play the game while you are asleep? I would abuse the hell out of that technology if it existed.
Also, love the story. Makes me want to get back into some of the MMOs I used to play.
1488559 I would go back to Classic WoW if it were still around. I joined during Burning Crusade, and played up until they were about to change everything to the Cataclysm. I wish I had found out about the game earlier so I could have played it in it's vanilla days. Never even got to beat Arthas...
1488577 I have allot of fond memories of that game. Played it off and on for about 6 years. I could ramble on for hours about that game.
I plan on playing Legends of Equestria when it comes out. What I have seen in some of the videos for it looks promising.
1488726 It certainly looks promising. Probably be another six or seven months- if not more- until a playable beta is released, though.
Sigh, I really do need something to fill my MMO fix. League of Legends just isn't doing it anymore.
How would playing the game during your sleep affect your brain though?
1490878 Wait and find out. I plan to explore such themes later in the story.
1490885 Spoony bard.Somepony is a fan of Final Fantasy.
1497658 Not so much that as just a fan of TVtropes in general. I heard spoony bard from somewhere before (don't remember where. I've never played any of the FF games) and then I found the page for it a week before writing this chapter.
1497874 Ah Tvtropes not much ta say about that just go get a emulator and play the FF games that existed before square just made them for profit.
I'm loving this story so far! Absolutely loving it!
You have my permission to use Nitro, if you want.
1518576 He'll show up, but I'm still considering Lord Guffington's story, even though he took it down. So I can't promise that you'll be a major character since I already have a whole 'thing' going on.
1520016 Oki doke! And what's this 'thing' you speak of?
1521300 Like, a plot map. What direction I'm taking the story in and whatnot. (Allowing for any curveballs that Chaotic might throw in.)
1521719 Oh. I think the main thing blocking me from starting Nitro's Story is lack of a central plot idea.
Aw man this is really good.
Love Rusty, Sound Wave, and Paperback!