Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Off to see the Wizard (Closed)

Maddi's eyes shot daggers at the girl. "Perhaps your friend is already dead." She said coldly, her face made of stone. "I suggest you play nice." She said, a dark and brooding look on her face. Maddi's personality was one of complete bipolarity, depending on the situation. One moment she was shy but cheerful, the next she was making scathing remarks and plotting to kill you.

As soon as the group hit sunshine, Maddi's mood improved monumentally. She skipped along the path, grinning and laughing. She spotted a butterfly and chased it for a while. It was a little hard to tell her from a four-year-old. Maddi reached out and gently clasped the bug in her hands. "Look! I caught a butterfly!" She bounced on the balls of her feet, her hair flouncing up and down. She eyed the bat sternly. "Don't eat Mr. Wingsies." She said, in case the mammal had any notions.

Robin widened his eyes at Maddi's remark. Already dead? That's a hell of a thing to say. He shook his head, trying to brush off the comment and focused on Kara's question. "There's not much of a story to be told. I'm a shoddy wizard, but I'm an even worse alchemist. I mixed the wrong things, and one lab accident later I'm stuck like this - lucky I got off as easily as I did though, I could have been blown to bits. Unfortunately I lack the knowledge and the materials to cook up something to undo it, so the wizard's my best bet."

God forbid anybody else in the entire province should be a half-competent magician, he thought bitterly.

They continued on their way for a while, Robin watching Maddi with faint amusement. Despite the ice in her voice earlier, she seemed nice enough. But he would have to keep an eye on her. Maybe she wasn't all she seemed. Glancing at the butterfly in her hand, he tried to shrug - difficult to do while flying. "Never tasted butterfly before. Not that I'd like to." He noticed that his arms were getting a bit sore. "Hey, I mean to ask earlier - can I sit on someone's shoulder? Flying is expensive, energy-wise."

Something caught the group's eyes. Sitting just off the path ahead was a small shack. Although it was made of sticks and mud, it looked almost.. elegant... in its construction. What could it possibly be doing here? Legends of the Wunschwald claimed that the forest played tricks on travelers - phantom buildings, impossible trails, dangerous animals... perhaps it would be safer to move along. Or perhaps there might be something or someone inside worth seeing - the path to Bob the Sorcerer was a dangerous one, after all. They could use all the help they could get.

Kara reflects on Maddi's earlier comment. "Already dead? No...he can't be. Not if he's the Tyler he was years ago," Kara says, hoping to sound confident, but again her voice wavers.

At Robin's request, Kara double taps her shoulder. "Hey Robin? Anyone ever make fun of your name? A Robin being a bird and all..." She asks the small creature. A shack. I don't trust it, but there could be help. No, we're fine. But what if it makes our path simpler? There are three of us...perhaps we should vote. But can you really trust them? The bat seems trustworthy. Kara has this self-arguing conversation in her head. This happens often, as she finds it the best method for making a decision. "The shack," Kara says, just pointing it out so the others will notice.

"We all see it, idiot." Maddi said nastily. "It's as plain as the nose on your face, which, if I do say so myself, is quite ugly." She seemed to switch personalities on a whim, and as if to prove this, she let the butterfly go, only to quickly pierce on of it's wings on a stick. She laughed nastily and watched the half-dead creature flutter around on it's broken wing. "I say we go to the shack. But that one can go first." She jerked her thumb in the direction of Kara. "This one seems annoying, so if there's anything dangerous in there she'll die first." Maddi said this as if talking about an inanimate object, not a real person. She pulled a small axe from her basket and wielded it. "In case it kills Kara quickly and comes after us." Maddi explained to the group.

(I sincerely apologize for being so horrible! I'm usually not this mean, I promise.)

Robin rolled his eyes at Kara's question. "You have no idea how grateful I am that you asked instead of just telling the joke. After everyone in my village had made the same comment, it got a little old. I might not have minded as much if they'd at least bothered to help me out, but no, they were all too busy to lift a finger." His tone was lighthearted, but his words betrayed his bitterness at his neighbors' unhelpfulness. One could be forgiven for expecting a helping hand after sharing in a community for twenty three years.

As they approached the shack and Maddi spoke, Robin threw Kara a nervous look. From his perch on her shoulder, he whispered, "Maybe she should ask the wizard to fix her personality." He was only half kidding. Magic could alter minds as easily as it could reality, and Robin might feel better if he wasn't suspicious that his traveling partner might kill him on a whim.

"In any case, there's no sense in standing out here looking dumb," he said. "Maddi votes we go inside, I don't have an opinion much either way. Kara?"

"I bet you couldn't hit me with that axe if I stood a foot in front of you little girl!" Kara exclaims. She calms herself down, breath by breath. She turns toward Robin and sighs, "As much as I would love to disagree with that little monster over there, I think she's right about both things," She gulps, "We should go in. And I'll go in first."

With the crack of straining wood, Kara opened the door and the three of them looked inside the shack. Robin gasped, both at the sight before him and the overwhelming smell of magic that rolled out the door. Magic had a distinctive odor to it, like the air after a lightning strike. Most animals - bats included - could pick up on it, although Robin usually couldn't smell anything past himself.

The shack seemed to be bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. Either a simple illusion, or a warping of space, the work of fairly advanced magic. The smooth, finished log walls were decorated with rich silk tapestries, and on the wooden floor was a bright red carpet leading to the one piece of furniture in the room - a pale wooden alter, with a longsword lain precisely on top.

Even from across the room, the three of them could see the sword was an incredible work of art - finely crafted, with a gilded handle and jewels set into the hilt and pommel. The blade was tinted blue-green - perhaps colored steel, or perhaps valuable mithril - and caught the light from the torch sconces on the walls, throwing out reflections that didn't seem naturally possible. Whatever this thing was, it was beautiful.

"Monster?" Maddi asked, as her eyes filled up with tears. She burst out in big, loud, sobs. "WAAAAAAAAAAAH!" She cried, covering her face with her cloak. As they opened the door, her sobbing eventually petered out into occasional sniffles. "Wow!" She said, spotting the sword. "Pretty..." Her eyes gleamed and she started to move forward towards the weapon. She entered the shack and gasped at the inside. "So tasteful!" She cried, a more sophisticated personality starting to show. Maddi ran up to the tapestries. "Look at the stitching on this... The artistry is incredible!" She breathed, running from each new wonder to the next.

(Sorry for the delay, I've been really busy!)

Kara stands by the door and looks in, her eyes practically watering at the sight of the sword. "It's beautiful," she says. Kara walks in, almost knocking over Maddi to get a closer look at the sword. "So beautiful..." Kara can't take her eyes off. She reaches for the sword, but her voice echoes in the back of her head: It could be a trap... Kara just stares, her hand inches from the handle.

Robin looked around the room uneasily. Like Kara, he suspected a trap.

"Hold on a second, guys." He flew over to the altar, landing at the base. "I think I can deal with this." He muttered a quick incantation, hoping to remove whatever illusions the room held. Even at seven inches tall, Robin still had some of his magical abilities.

When he was done, he looked around and waited. The walls of the room shimmered slightly and blinked, revealing underneath simple wood and mud like the outside of the shack. After a few seconds, the illusion reappeared. So the walls were false, but harmless. Other than that, the room - and the sword - seemed to be exactly what they looked like.

Maddi seemed to suddenly notice the sword again. "WOAH! WHAT'S THAT!?" She yelled, running towards it. "IT'S A SWORD! YOU GUYS, IT'S A SWORD!" She shouted, bouncing up and down with excitement. Maddi pointed at the object. "Can I touch it? Please please please please please please please?" Without waiting for an answer, Maddi poked the sword. When nothing happened, she poked it again. "SO COOL!" She yelled, and ran back outside. Maddi soon returned with a long stick and began to poke the sword with that.

((Ah, ah, ah, not so hasty!))

As it happened to happen, something did, in fact, happen, when Maddi touched the sword. Immediately the door to the shack slammed shut with a bang. Out of thin air, a gigantic creature appeared, stretching up to the ceiling. Its skin seemed to be made of bark, and plant tendrils crawled their way across its large chest. The triangle of glowing red eyes in the center of its head were fixed on Maddi.

Robin swallowed, hard. "I guess I didn't dispel that illusion properly after all," he squeaked.

The monster opened its gnarled mouth and roared, "Foul thieves! Who dares steal this precious instrument? Explain yourself, or be destroyed!"

Kara gulps and steadily readies an arrow. "Um, hello!" Kara says to the beast, her voice shaky, "I'm Kara, the little girl over there who...summoned you...that's Maddi, and the bat thing is Robin. We are NOT thieves!" Kara yells, trying to convince it. "We deeply apologize and I will be sure to keep an eye on this kiddo," Kara says, putting on a fake smile, chuckling a little, and messing with Maddi's hair playfully. Just go with it, Maddi. Kara smiles at the beast and puts the arrow back into the quiver. "See we're just a nice and friendly group of people," Kara says as her eyes start to water.

Maddi shuffled quietly into a corner, back on the verge of tears. "W-what do you n-need?!" She burst out loudly, accompanied by more sobs. She hugged her knees and made herself as small as possible. Maddi started inching towards the door, hoping the tree would look over her. She succeeded in reaching the door, and burst out as quickly as she possibly could. She made a mad break for the woods on the other side of the road, and scrambled up a tree, covering herself in her cloak, until Maddi was nothing more than a shivering ball of velvet.

((Wait up a bit, Maddi. You might be moving a bit faster than the rest of the story.))

The door to the shack refused to budge under Maddi's grasp. It was locked, or sealed by some magic. The creature took a step closer to the sword - and the three travelers.

"Do not lie to me, thieves. You have come to take what is mine, haven't you?" Leaning forward, he fixed his glare on Maddi. "Dishonesty must be punished."

"Hold on a second," Robin whispered. "I've read about these things; they're called Aesops - monsters that set up tests of character for people and eat those who fail. We'll either have to fight it, or convince it that this was a misunderstanding. But it didn't seem to believe you before..." He thought for a moment. "Tell you what, if you can keep it distracted, I might be able to magic open the door. It's really up to chance though. Do you..." He glanced down at the weapon on the altar. "Do you know how to use a sword?"

Kara swiftly moves to Maddi, standing in front of her and attracting the monster's attention. "Maddi," Kara whispers, "I'm sorry for calling you a monster. This is a real monster." Kara looks at it and raises her hands as if surrendering, "We aren't thieves!" Kara yells, "We're just stupid curious travelers!" Kara tries to explain.

"The sword?" Kara whispers frantically to Robin. She gulps and nods, "Yes, I can," Kara steps forward and grabs the handle of the sword, waiting in fear of what could happen next.

(Oops, sorry!)

"O-okay.." Maddi replied, sniffling. "I-I'm not s-sure if that h-helps m-much though.." She said timidly. "A-all monsters are s-scary.."

Maddi's personalities seemed to make a smart choice by choosing her weak, frail mindset for the encounter. She let the seasoned warriors do her thing, and didn't interfere or screw something up. She broke silently away from Kara, and shuffled into the corner again, covering her head and neck with her arms.

Robin jumped into the air and flew in a wide arc around the monster to land - sort of - on the shack's doorknob. He hissed a quick incantation and touched the claw on his right wing to the inside of the lock. There were two possibilities: Either the lock was mundane, and had been closed and locked by magic, or the lock itself was inherently magical, which would make it much more difficult for him to undo, especially in this form.

While Robin contended with their freedom, Kara swung the sword at the monster, hoping, if not to injure or kill it, then at least to ward it off until Robin was finished.

"Maddi, make yourself useful!" Robin snapped at the whimpering girl. "Throw something at it, make fun of its hair, something!" He swore as the lock refused to open under his touch. This wasn't going well - it seemed the lock was beyond him. It would be up to Kara and Maddi to deal with the monster - though Robin would do what little he could.

Diving off his perch on the doorknob, Robin squeaked a quick evocation, sending from his fingertip what would normally be a jet of flame. In his form, however, the most he could manage was a stream of hot sparks to send at the monster.

((I'll leave it to Kara to determine how effective her attack and the monster's are based on these rolls))

"Die, thief!" The monster roars, its eyes fixating on Kara. It swings its large fist at Kara and she avoids it, jumping to the side just in time for the monsters hand to hit the ground with full force.

Kara runs at its giant hand and climbs atop, stabbing downward at it. The monster yells louder, and it swats at Kara as if she is a fly. Kara is thrown and smashes into the ground hard, her knees instantly ripped open and bloodied. The sword Kara had used must have slipped out of her hand, as she now frantically searches around for it. "Maddi!" Kara yells, the sword now laying on the ground several feet from Maddi's feet. Think Kara, think! Kara smirks as she readies her bow, pulling an arrow from the quiver. Just nail this shot! Kara aims at the monster's eye and after only seconds, releases the arrow.


[OOC: I like the dice thing, let's give it a shot *wink wink* Also I've played DnD twice, so I kind of know what the various dice are for X3]

(I'm not gonna do any dice. I'm confused very easily )

Maddi leapt up with a giant yell, brandishing the sword with newfound strength. "YOU WORTHLESS TWIG! IT'LL TAKE MORE THAN A TINY SAPLING TO KILL US!" She roared fiercely. The monster turned it's head toward the small girl, as Kara's arrow pierced it's eye. Maddi launched herself at the tree's other eye, slashing it out. She retreated, tumbling down into the corner, as her attitude changed from fiery to meek. "G-go Kara!" She said in a small voice, watching the rest of the fight as she quietly cheered on her companions.