• Published 12th Oct 2012
  • 3,332 Views, 141 Comments

The Unlikeliest of Places - Desideratium



Chrysalis finds herself powerless. All she needs is a little kindness.

  • ...
3
 141
 3,332

A Role to Play

“Ready to go?” Cadance peeked into Chrysalis’s temporary sleeping quarters after knocking on the half-open door.

Chrysalis didn’t look up or acknowledge Cadance’s presence in the slightest. She was sitting on her bed, nose pressed firmly into the Player’s Handbook Twilight had lent her and frowning intently.

“Chrysy?”

“Shh.”

“Done making a character yet?”

“No.”

“Well we’ve gotta hurry. It’s six forty-five, Twilight said to get there at seven. Can you work on it on the road?”

Chrysalis reluctantly snapped the book shut and stifled a yawn behind her hoof. She hadn’t read that much since . . . well, ever. She’d never been much of a bookworm, but the Handbook had really grabbed her attention. It was like something she’d never seen; something almost otherworldly. Chrysalis stood to her full height, pleased to notice that in her natural form she was much taller than Cadance. “Fine. Let’s go.”

“Mind turning back into Prism?”

Chrysalis was already walking out the door when the poisonous green curtain emanating from her horn engulfed her. When it cleared, Cadance saw only the tip of Prism Brush’s tail disappearing into the hallway. Seconds later, the two books on Chrysalis’s bed flew into the air and followed the unicorn.

“Why the sudden hurry?” Cadance asked, emerging out of Chrysalis’s room.

“Waiting on you now,” Chrysalis said. She donned her wide hat, despite the lack of sunlight outside, and threw open the cottage’s front door.

“I don’t think I’ll ever quite understand you.”

“Good.”

Chrysalis was quiet during the walk. Her mind was buzzing, working out all the little details in her character that she hadn’t nailed down while she was reading. Cadance had recommended that she try not to be too in-depth with her imagining, reasoning that whatever development she didn’t address would be handled later on down the road anyway. Chrysalis, of course, had ignored her. It was in her nature to be thorough, be it in hostile takeovers or role-playing games.

Time passed quickly in Chrysalis’s head, so it seemed like she had barely stepped out of Cadance’s cottage when she suddenly arrived at Golden Oaks Library. She heard muffled voices from within; clearly the other players had already arrived.

“No turning back now,” Cadance commented.

“Just knock,” Chrysalis said. She felt an unfamiliar feeling swirling in her stomach, and she wondered if she might be getting sick. Nervousness? Is this what nervousness feels like? Chrysalis noted that she did not enjoy nervousness.

Cadance knocked, the sound causing Chrysalis to jump. The voices from inside silenced. Immediately, the door to the library glowed heliotrope and swung open. Chrysalis instinctively ducked behind Cadance, allowing the tall frame of the alicorn to hide her own small body. She peeked through a gap in Cadance’s mane, her view of the inside of the library only partially obscured by pink, purple, and gold.

Twilight approached at a prance, beaming. “Cadance! Hi! Where’s Prism?”

Cadance stepped to the side, revealing the sheepish Changeling. “Hi Twilight, sorry we’re late.”

“Not to worry! We’ve only been waiting about a minute!”

Chrysalis’s gaze drifted past Twilight and deeper into the room. A large reading table sat in the center of the room, covered in papers, tiny plastic figurines, and an assortment of snacks. Surrounding the table were three other ponies, all of whom Chrysalis recognized immediately. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity, whom she’d bought her hat from. Chrysalis tensed.

“Come on in!” Twilight said. She stepped aside to allow Cadance and Chrysalis to pass. “Good to see you again, Prism. Did you like those books?”

“Yes,” Chrysalis replied, tearing her gaze away from the other Elements. She levitated the books out of her saddlebag and gave them back to Twilight. “They were very interesting. Where did you find them?”

“I got them from Princess Celestia’s personal library. She seemed to think they were dangerous, or something, so she gave them to me to pre read. I may have made a few revisions,” Twilight said slyly. “Feel free to have a seat anywhere, then we can get started!”

Cadance sat. Chrysalis immediately took the spot adjacent to her. Rarity, on her other side, smiled politely when she sat down. Rainbow Dash and Applejack sat across from her; both regarded her with curious looks. Chrysalis put on her best friendly face. Twilight assumed her position at the head of the table and erected a divider between her notes and the players. “Okay! Could we maybe go around the circle and introduce ourselves?”

Rainbow Dash sat up. “Rainbow Dash here, Element of Loyalty and all that.”

A slight pause followed. “And our characters too?” Twilight suggested.

“Sure. I play Firefly, pegasus Ranger extraordinaire!”

“Ahm Applejack, Ah’ve got Midnight Strike. Earth pony Fighter,” Applejack said, holding up a diminutive figurine of a black and yellow pony with a sword.

“We’ve met before, but I’m Rarity, and I’m playing Jade Thunderbuck, the earth pony Barbarian.”

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “Barbarian?” From her reading, she recalled that barbarians were everything Rarity was most distinctly not. She’d fully expected Rarity to play a magician of some sort. “Not, like, a wizard, or something?”

Rarity tittered. “Now, who’s to say that a lady can’t play as a barbarian?”

Chrysalis shrugged. “I suppose so.”

“And I’m Cadance,” Cadance said. “I’m Angelic Whisper, the unicorn Cleric of Chauntea. Here to show you all the light of my goddess, whether you like it or not.”

Chrysalis took a deep breath. Her turn. All the minutia of her character were suddenly wiped from her mind. All of the hard work that she’d been so proud of. “Hi. I’m Prism Brush. I’ll be playing Slash Lyric, the Changeling Warlock.”

Twilight raised her eyebrows curiously. “A Warlock?”

“Yes.”

“And a Changeling too! Just out of curiosity, what’s your alignment?”

Chrysalis struggled to remember what she had decided on. “Um . . . Neutral Evil.”

Twilight rubbed her hooves together. “This is going to be fun! We don’t have any other evil players.”

“Changeling?” Rainbow said incredulously. “Are you even allowed to do that?”

“Yes,” Twilight said. “Changelings are one of the playable races.”

“Rainbow, you may have forgotten that our Bard is a Minotaur,” Rarity said. “A Changeling is hardly the strangest thing in our party.”

“Yeah, but that’s Pinkie,” Rainbow protested. “I assumed that Twilight just didn’t want to argue when she said she wanted to be a Minotaur.”

“If you’d done the reading, you’d know that she was perfectly within the rules,” Twilight admonished. “Now, should we get started?”

After a general nod of assent, Twilight took a deep breath and began to speak:


“Your party returns from their latest adventure. The sight of that familiar inn, the Crimson Draco, has never been such a welcome sight. Grateful to get out of the rain, you enter the modest establishment and are met with the sights, sounds, and smells that you would expect from such a place. Despite being very late in the evening, the bar is crowded and loud. The roaring fire at the hearth provides warmth that you haven’t felt in a long time.”

“Ah immediately sit down at the bar an’ order a drink,” Applejack said.

“I do as well,” Rarity added. She put on a deep, gravely voice. “Barkeep! Give me the largest ale you have!”

“ ‘Of course, Miss Thunderbuck,’ ” Twilight answered as the bartender, her voice changing to a lighter, more nasally tone. “He pours an enormous flagon of amber liquid and places it in front of you. ‘What tales have you of your latest adventure?’ ”

“Too many to tell in a single night, my good man. But believe when I say they are legendary, to say the least.”

“ ‘Aye, that I can believe. Say, somepony a bit odd came in earlier. She looked to me like the adventurin’ type.’ ”

“Is that so?”

“ ‘That it be. Some manner of warlock, she looked to be. Said something about looking for companions. I told her I’d keep my eye out.’ ”

“I would like to force myself into this conversation,” Rainbow said. She squinted her eyes, looking intently at Twilight. “Where’s she at now?” she said in a slightly less husky voice. The voice of Firefly. “We might want to have a talk with this lass.”

“So, the barkeep sort of nods at the far corner of the inn with his head. You see a figure sitting half in shadows. ‘That be her over there. Hasn’t said a word in hours.’ ”

“Let’s go talk to her, see what she’s made of,” Rainbow said.

“Yes let’s,” Cadance said, and Applejack nodded in agreement.

“Go ahead, I’ve got a date with this alcohol.” Rarity mimed taking a swig from a mug.

“Okay,” Twilight says. She looks to Chrysalis. “Slash, you see this trio of tough-looking adventurers approaching you. What do you do?”

Chrysalis was caught off-guard. She was amazed how quickly the others slipped into character, like it was the most natural thing in the world. Rarity, in particular, had undergone an incredible transformation. “I . . . uhm, I would like to . . .” She looked down at her spell sheet, wondering in vain if anything there would help her. “I’d just . . . not look at them as they come closer.”

“Alright. Firefly? Do you want to lead this conversation?”

“Sure thing.” Rainbow gazed at Chrysalis intently, her brow furrowed in a threatening way. “Hey you.”

Silence overtook the table as all eyes went to Chrysalis. Taking the hint, she responded. “What?”

“I hear you’ve been looking to share in an adventure with someone, right?”

“Perhaps.”

“It just so happens that we’ve been looking for a new . . . intern, of sorts. What do you say to that?” Rainbow looked to Twilight. “Do you want me to roll a persuasion check?”

Twilight shrugged. “If Prism wants.”

“Yes,” Chrysalis said. “I’d like to play hard to get.”

Twilight laughed. “Okay, so that’s how it’s going to be. Roll persuasion,” she said to Rainbow.

Rainbow scooped up a twenty-sided die with dexterity that Chrysalis could never match and rolled it onto the table in front of her. She glanced at her character sheet. “Eight plus . . . one. Nine.”

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow and regarded Rainbow scornfully. “Trying to impress me?” she said as Slash Lyric. Her voice suddenly sounded less like Prism Brush and more like Chrysalis. “You’re going to have to try harder than that.”

“I’d like to interject,” Cadance announced. She sat up a little straighter and assumed a more royal air. “My dear lady, my name is Angelic Whisper, a Cleric of Chauntea. Would you mind if we joined you for a drink?”

Slash Lyric gestured to the vacant seat in front of her.

“Thank you, now we’ve heard that you’re an adventurer. Is this true?”

“Yes, it is. But I don’t plan on joining up with just any old band of miscreants.” It felt good to say. It felt good to be snarky and vindictive. Even though the words came from her character.

“Well, I’m sure that you’ll find that we’re much more than just any old band of miscreants. If you would be willing, we would gladly allow you to travel with us and share in the benefit of being in the presence of our goddess Chauntea.”

“Our goddess?” Rainbow said.

“Yeah,” Applejack added. “Don’ try to force yer hokey religion on us again.” She turned to Chrysalis. “Don’ listen to her. The real kicker is all the gold we bring in.”

“Roll a persuasion check, Angelic and Midnight,” Twilight said.

After a moment of clattering dice, Cadance and Applejack announced their results.

“Ten,” Cadance said.

“Eighteen,” Applejack said proudly.

Twilight looked to Chrysalis, but didn’t say anything. Chrysalis took this as an invitation to proceed. “Gold, eh? That is something I am in need of.”

“Then can we call it a deal?” Rainbow asked.

“For now,” Chrysalis replied. “But no promises for later.”

“Okay!” Twilight said. “With that done, would you like to turn in for the night? Is there anything you want to do before that?”

“Drink, mostly,” Rarity said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a proper ale.”

Rainbow tore open a bag of chips with her teeth. “I’m good. Let’s go to bed, go find some adventure in the morning.”

“And with that, you all go to your respective rooms and go to sleep. Hours later, you awaken, refreshed. When you go downstairs to get breakfast, you notice that the bar is significantly less crowded than it had been last night. The only pony at the bar is a tired-looking old unicorn.”

“I’d like to sit next to him,” Rainbow said. “See if he has any gossip for us.”

“Okay, when you do, he looks at you sort of apprehensively but doesn’t say anything. You see that he’s really worse for wear. He’s got a couple bruises on his face and he looks like he hasn’t slept in days.”

“Hi there, friend. Rough night?”

“ ‘Not really, no,’ he says.”

“Uh-huh.” Rainbow tapped a pencil. “I would like to see if he’s lying.”

“Roll an insight check.”

“Nineteen.”

“You can tell that he’s not necessarily lying, but he’s not telling the truth either. You get the impression that he doesn’t really want to talk to you.”

“Too bad, ‘cause I’m gonna talk to him anyway.” Rainbow leaned in, glaring. “Is that so? Cause you look like you’ve been wrestling manticores.”

“Roll persuasion. Or intimidate, if you like. By the way, is everyone else down here watching this conversation?”

“I’m sleeping in,” Rarity said. She brought a juice box to her lips and sipped.

“Everyone else?”

Nods around the table.

“Anyone else want to get involved? What was your check?” she asked Rainbow.

“Not great. Six for intimidate.”

“No good. He just looks at you in an unimpressed way and doesn’t say anything. Anyone else?”

“I would also like to intimidate,” Chrysalis announced. “But first I’d like to shapeshift into a griffon.”

“You can do that?” Rainbow protested.

“Okay, roll a D20 and add your modifier. It should be . . .” Twilight leaned over, squinting at Chrysalis’s character sheet. Her eyes widened. “Plus six.”

“Plus six?” Cadance asked. She looked over for confirmation. “How do you get that so early?”

“Changelings have massive boosts to intimidate and deception,” Twilight said. She laughs a little. “Forgot about that. Anyway, roll away.”

Chrysalis levitated the die into the air and gave it a spin, allowing it to clatter down onto the table. “Nineteen plus six. Twenty-five.”

All eyes turned to Chrysalis, excited.

“Yep, that definitely does it,” Twilight said. “What would you like to say?”

Chrysalis thought for a moment, then began to speak: “Listen, you. I don’t care what kind of night you had. I’m going to make this very simple. You’re going to tell us what made you so tired, and I’m not going to feed you your own legs. Are we understood?”

Twilight laughed. She took a moment to compose herself. “ ‘Y-yes of course!’ he stammers. ‘There’s a group of necromancers what’s been terrorizing the cemetery, bringing corpses back from the dead. I’ve been with the city guard trying to keep them off the streets.’ And upon closer inspection, you do see the insignia of the guard on his sleeve. So, you just threatened a lawman, congratulations.”

“That sounds like something worth investigating,” Cadance said. “Necromancy is an abomination to Chauntea; we cannot allow them to continue.”

“Where is this cemetery?” Chrysalis continued.

“ ‘At the far east side of town, you can’t miss it!’ ” Twilight replied, the deep voice she’d been using for the lawman raising slightly.

“Then let’s go,” Rainbow said. “No time like the present, I say.”

“You all go ahead, I need to take care of something,” Chrysalis said.

“Okay. I guess we all file out, except for Slash,” Cadance said, giving Chrysalis a curious look.

Twilight pressed her hooves together. “Now that the others have left, it’s just you and the lawman.”

“No bartender?”

“Conspicuously absent.”

“Alright. Then I would like to impale him with my sword.”

Gasps and cries of protest sounded around the table. Twilight’s jaw hung slack. She shook herself, looked down at her notes, then back up at Chrysalis. “Umm, okay . . .” She frantically shuffled through papers. “Roll . . . roll a sneak attack roll, I guess.”

Chrysalis rolled, ignoring the apprehensive buzz from the other players. As the die came to a halt, she glanced at her character sheet. “That’s a twenty for the sneak attack.”

“Natural?”

“No, modified.”

“Okay!” Twilight’s brow furrowed in concentration. “You thrust your sword into his back and he collapses to the ground in a crumpled heap. He’s still alive, but just barely.”

“Can I stab him again?”

“Before you do, he looks up to you, coughs up some blood and spits out one word: ‘Why?’ ”

Chrysalis lowered her voice to a whisper. “I can’t have you telling anyone that I’m a Changeling, now, can I? I promise, this is nothing personal.” Chrysalis mimed pulling her sword from the victim. “Just.” She thrusted. “Good.” She thrusted again, deeper this time. “Business.” She buried her blade to the hilt.

Her murderous actions were met with stunned silence.

“Well that was indeed unexpected,” Rarity said.

Cadance and Twilight were both regarding Chrysalis with unease, but Rainbow grinned ecstatically. “Okay, that was awesome. You’re hired. I’ll even let you skip the paperwork.”

“You’re not there, you went outside,” Twilight reminded her.

“Well Ah’d say we’re off to a good start,” Applejack said. She snorted amusedly. “Only met ya five minutes ago and you’ve already up and killed a guy.”

“This campaign is definitely going to be an interesting one,” Cadance agreed.

Chrysalis shrugged. She found herself breathing heavily. “Neutral Evil. It’s what I do.”

Twilight, still looking very shaken by the event, shuffled her notes once more. She looked slightly flustered. From what Chrysalis knew about Twilight, she knew that she hated deviations from the plan. “Now that that’s done, would you like to join the others outside?”

“First I need to hide the body.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Your thoroughness scares me a little, to be honest.”

“Roll . . . I don’t know, roll a stealth check, I guess. We’ve never had to hide a body before. I don’t really know if there’s a body hiding mechanic.” Twilight flipped open a manual, searching the index. After coming up blank, she shrugged and looked up to Chrysalis.

“Seventeen.”

“I suppose that’ll do it.”

“Then I’d like to hide him under the bar.”

“You do that. He’s invisible to the casual observer, unless they decide to go behind the bar.”

“Now I’ll join the others outside.”

“At this point I’d like to come downstairs,” Rarity said.

“Huh?” Twilight said.

“I slept in, remember? I missed all of this. I’d like to go outside with the others.”

“Hiya Jade, have a nice sleep?” Rainbow said.

“Oh, most definitely. I’m not sure if any of you noticed, but there’s a very unbecoming blood stain on the floor inside. I wasn’t sure where it came from, do you have any idea?”

All eyes flew to Chrysalis, who shrugged. She inwardly cursed. Only an amateur forgets to clean up the blood. “No idea.”

“Roll a deception check,” Twilight said, determined to regain some control of the goings-on.

Chrysalis complied. Her emerald-colored twenty-sided die tumbled across her character sheet and came to a rest near her printed ability modifiers. Cadance and Rarity, sitting on either side of her, leaned in to see the result.

“Natural twenty.”

Author's Note:

I have never played D&D.

Here I am trying to write a D&D campaign.

Pardon me if things get a little messy.