Dungeons and Dragons - The Curse of Grom the Wicked

by foxy

The Hook

The rural town of Hoofrest is a quiet community nestled in the outskirts of the enchanted forest. Worlds apart from the bustling life of metropolis' like Canterlot and Manehattan, Hoofrest has known peace for generations. However that peace is coming to an end. Rumours spread throughout the region of Hoofrest being attacked by monsters, and a call for mercenaries and adventurers is put out. Five brave ponies have answered this call.

Jack Apple is the first to arrive at Hoofrest. Wearied by travel, the paladin makes his way to the inn to speak with the locals. Silent Dash is not far behind. The mare also makes her way to the inn. The inn is busy at this hour, full of ponies relaxing after a hard days work. As she enters the building, she spots the paladin in the crowd easily in his shining armour. The ponies' eyes meet and there is an understanding between them immediately. Silent Dash steps forward and speaks.

“Hey Mr paladin, you're here for the monster fighting right? We should go fight them together.”

“Yep, that sounds like a good idea to me, safety in numbers and all that.”

-----

“Girls!” Twilight interrupted the dialogue. “What are you doing? You don't just walk up to ponies and say you want to fight monsters with them.”

“But isn't that what this game is about?” Rainbow Dash moaned.

“Well, sort of, but you have to 'roleplay'. You don't just instantly know which character is a player.”

“But I do know.” Rainbow Dash responded.

“Yah, this is all startin to sound mighty confusing.” Applejack put in.

“Look, just imagine that you're all really in this situation. You've just come into a new town and you don't know any pony, what do you do?”

-----

Jack Apple is the first to arrive at Hoofrest. Wearied by travel, the paladin makes his way to the inn to speak with the locals. Silent Dash is not far behind. The mare also makes her way to the inn. The inn is busy at this hour, full of ponies relaxing after a hard days work. She enters the building and goes straight up to the bar, ordering a cider. Jack Apple meanwhile speaks with the locals, trying to find more information about the situation.

Without much effort, the stallion learns that a wizard near the edge of town has posted a bounty for any pony who can stop the monster attacks, but the locals know little more than that. Jack Apple leaves the inn to speak with the wizard in person.

-----

“No! You're supposed to go together.” Twilight Sparkle interrupted the game once again.

“But Why would we?” Applejack responded, “I thought we didn't know each other.”

Twilight groaned and face hoofed. “Okay, okay, I have a solution, why don't we just say you were all friends and you were travelling together.”

“Why would ah be friends with a thief?”

“Why would I be friends with a stuck up goody four shoes paladin?”

“Because! You're adventurers! Adventurers stick together!” Twilight spoke through clenched teeth as she clapped her hooves together. She was getting that crazy look in her eyes. The other five ponies decided it would be safest to just go along with the unicorn's idea.

-----

Five adventurers make their way into the town of Hoofrest together, weary from their travel, they head straight to the inn. The inn is busy at this hour, full of ponies relaxing after a hard days work. As the adventurers enter, they draw the attention of the crowd. The unlikely band of friends, a paladin of Celestia, a thief, a bard, a barbarian and a druid are out of place in the rural inn. Shutterfly moves to hide behind the hulking pink barbarian in order to be out of the view of the staring patrons.

Eventually the patrons lose their interest and go back to their business. Jack Apple begins asking the locals for information and learns that the town has indeed been beset by monsters. He learns that a wizard near the edge of town has posted a bounty, but they have no more information than that.

“Well Ah reckon we all go see this wizard fella, seems like he's the way to go.” The paladin addresses his friends.

“Alright, let's get out of this dump and fight some monsters.” Silent Dash exclaims.

“EEEE! We're going to go fight the monsters, we're going to go fight the monsters!” The over excitable barbarian begins to sing in a high pitched tone.

“Very well Applejack, uhhh... Jack Apple. Off we go.” Farity adds.

Together the five adventurers set out to the wizards home, a small cottage by the edge of town. Silent Dash reaches the door first and knocks on it with her hoof.

“Hey wizard guy! Come out here! We're here to fight monsters!”

“Rainbow Dash! That's no way to talk to ponies!” Jack Apple scolds the blue earth pony.

“The name is 'Silent Dash'”

“Ahh, right, I knew that.”

“Allow me.” Farity steps forward, she knocks gently on the door and calls out. “Oh mr wizard sir, we are five brave adventurers here to deal with your monster problem, please do come and speak to us!”

Movement can be heard from within the home. Eventually hoof steps lead up to the door and a heavy latch is undone. The door swings open. A lavender coated unicorn stallion stands there. His mane is straight cut and a deep purple color, with a streak of pink. He wears a long flowing purple robe that conceals his cutie mark. The wizard looks over the group for a moment before speaking.

“Do you know what time it is?”

“Do you?” Silent Dash responds. “Because I'm pretty sure clocks haven't been invented yet.”

“Dash!” The pegasus paladin nudges her friend. “Be nice.”

The robed wizard points up at the near full moon. “It's the middle of the night! I was sleeping!” he says angrily.

-----

“What the hay!? How was I supposed to know what time it was?” Rainbow Dash growled.

“Wait... did I forget to say that part?” Twilight flips through her book of notes. “Ahem! The sun has just set over the horizon when the five adventurers enter Hoofrest...”

“Okay, okay, I get it, it's night time.”

-----

“Well sorry for waking you mister wizard sir.” Silent Dash begins.

“Midnight Spark.” The unicorn offers his name to the group.

“Yeah that thing. Anyway, if you can just tell us where the monsters are, we can get to fighting them.”

“I wanna fight ALL THE MONSTERS!” Minky Pie shouts.

“It's not that simple.” Midnight Spark explains.

“It never is.” Silent Dash sighs. “Wait, if you were sleeping, why are you wearing your wizards robe?”

“I uhhh... I sleep in it? For warmth?”

“Now Dashie, you can't blame a unicorn for wanting to look his best even when he's sleeping.” Farity interrupts.

“I fell asleep in a pile of cotton candy once.” The barbarian adds.

“Pinky Pie, that's not a real thing in this world.” Midnight Spark addresses the unicorn barbarian.

“My name's MINKY Pie silly.”

“No, that was out of character... Oh never mind.” The unicorn clears his throat “The monsters are being led by an evil cleric of Discord, known as Grom the Wicked. His lair is...”

As the mage speaks, Silent Dash subtly steps up beside him, her hoof casually dropping into the pocket of his robe without any pony else seeing.

-----

“Rainbow!” Applejack shouted, “What a thing to do!”

“What? It's just a game, I wanna see what he has in his pockets.”

“But he's trying to give you a quest!” Twilight tried to reason with the pegasus, “You can't just steal from him before he even finishes speaking.”

“Yes I can, that player's handbook thingy said I can do anything I want. And I want what's in his pockets.”

“Okay fine, just roll your Sleight of Hand.”

“Is it this big dice?”

“Yes, and it's called a die when it's just one. Now everyone else rolls spot.”

The group obliged and began to roll. Rainbow Dash jumped up in triumph when her die came to a rest. “Wooh! I got a 20! Does that mean I win.”

-----

Silent Dash digs deep into the wizards pocket and her hoof comes to rest on a small pouch. She removes the item without any other pony realising and pockets it for her self. There are ten gold coins in the pouch. The wizard continues speaking, completely unaware.

“His lair is located within the enchanted forest, you will need my help to find your way there. If you wish, we can leave tomorrow morning, the inn will have rooms to rent for the night.”

“Why can't we just go now?” Silent Dash asks.

“Because I was sleeping, and I intend to go BACK to sleep.”

“So let me get this straight, we come here for adventure, and you tell us to go to sleep?”

“You don't have to sleep if you don't want,” The wizard responded, “Feel free to go into the enchanted forest alone right now. The biggest monsters come out at night you know? In fact why don't you just slather barbecue sauce all over yourself and...”

“Okay, fine, whatever. We'll go sleep. I just came into some money anyway, so I think I'll order breakfast in bed tomorrow.” Silent Dash winks at the unicorn. “Well see ya later Sparky. I'm off to the inn.”

“See ya tomorrow.” Applejack waved at the unicorn.

“Byeeeeeee.” said Minky Pie.

“Goodnight and sweet dreams.” Farity addded.

“Umm... bye.” The timid Shutterfly ran off after the others.

The five adventurers made their way back to the inn. There were enough beds available for them all, and to the ponies' surprise, Silent Dash offered to pay for all of them, breakfast in bed included. The travel weary adventurers retired to their rooms and set in for a good sleep, dreaming of the adventure that they were to have the following day.

-----

Author's Note

Well here's chapter 2, thanks for reading. If you like this story, please leave some feedback, if you don't like this story, leave EVEN MORE feedback (as long as its constructive).

Also, do you ever get that feeling when you're posting your fic and you just KNOW you've done something wrong, but can't figure out what it is? Well I've got that right now, so if any body can figure out my probably obvious mistake please let me know.

Comments

[NeoNagasaki]

Hey, I actually did enjoy this. Switching between past and present to present a dual story for what's in game and what's out of game seems to be effective. You've made several amateur mistakes but i don't think I'll go into them since you haven't logged in in seven weeks. I'm almost certain you won't be producing any more of this. Well, thanks for the story, what little there was.