BranchWood Academy - Canceled

"Na na na na na na na..." SLICE. The body hit the floor. Countless balls of fire, energy blasts, and winged demons were flying around in random directions. "na na na...na NA!" SLICE. The kill-count was up to twenty-two now. "na..na na...na na na..na na.." the chanting had become a faint whisper now so as to not reveal his position. SLICE. SLICE. SLICE. Twenty-five. Only three left. Whizz. A beam of energy had nearly hit his left ear. He looked over at its sender who gave a look of apology which he instantly refused in his return eyebrow frown. Resuming his stealthy task, "na na..na na.." SLICE. SLICE. Last one. Running from object to object for cover, he maneuvered his way around to end up behind his target. "nananananananananaNANANANANANANA SHORT-ROUNNDDDDDDD!" the imp cried as his knife made the final slice into the twenty-sixth bandit. Wiping the blood off his knife with his loincloth, he returned to his sidekicks where the smallgirlwolf one apologized once again, to which Short-Round replied by lifting his loincloth up and saying "Talk to the loincloth, doll." Adressing his sidekick group as a whole, he said, "twenty-six." One replied, "Eighteen." Another said, "Eighteen as well." The last spoke up, "....Four." Short-Round began his victory strut having slain more thieves than his companions. After smirking, Poketargetmageman said, "We have cleared the village of its bandits and rescued the two hostages. Let's return to the encampment and notify the villagers that they can safely return to their home now." Demonman nodded and the four exited the village and headed to the encampment of the townspeople. Their town had been overrun by thieves and looters and the village mainly consisted of farmers so they had no way of defending their village from the pillaging. Taking what they could with them and abandoning the village, they enlisted the help of these four adventurers. They had begun to make a name for themselves as the Fabled Four after a series of mission victories, the largest of which involved slaying a giant multi-headed hydra. After a brief walk down a cobblestone path, they reached the outskirts of the temporary encampment of the exiled villagers. Their leader, Kalan, approached them and they began "the usual", as Short-Round liked to call it, which consisted of telling of their victory, receiving countless thank-you's, and collecting their reward. During this the two women that had been taken hostage ran over to embrace their families. After receiving the numerous thank-you's from the villagers and collecting their pay, they left the encampment with another victory under their belt.

After finishing off what was left of the bandits and heading to the nearest inn Erestor, Wraither, And Amano all sat down at a table, leaving Short-Round to settle their sleeping arrangements. "So how would you rate that last mission? Better or worse then the time that we had to cleanse the orc village of their Pixie infestation?" Wraither asked as he called over the Waitress "I had like twelve of them on my sword at one point, buggers were everywhere. They really did a number on your hair Amano." He said snickering as he thought back to the whirling mass of fur that was Amano's head. The waitress arrived and introduced herself "Hi, I'm Aela and ill be your server today. How may I help you?" Wraither looked up at her and said "Yes, We'll have two pints of your finest ale and a pot of tea, preferably green." Wraither looked back to the group waiting for a response.

"I'd rather not think about that mission. Two dozen of them latched onto my robes and lifted me a few inches into the air before I got them all off. Short-Round went completely flying on them. But it was funny to watch that as well as Amano's best hairday," the mage replied, glancing over at her to see the frown he knew was coming. Erestor then looked up to Aela and said, "Hello my fine lady. I would like two pints of ale as well if you don't mind. Our fourth companion would like the same. Thank you." She smiled and nodded before leaving to fill their requests. Short-Round sat down on the table next to Amano and opposite the two men. "Got three big rooms. You order my happytime drink?" the imp asked. He was referring to ale as the group had introduced to him the wonders of alcohol. Erestor nodded to the imp before speaking up again. "Back to what you said earlier, Wraither, I definitely liked this mission more than the Pixie infestation one, but neither of them tops the time we had to help the riverside village with their piranha problem. All I had to do was heat up the water enough for it to evaporate to steam. The piranhas flopped around and suffocated while I kept a wall of fire up to act as a dam for the river's inflow of water. We had a free relaxing steam-bath in the river after that. Best. Quest. Ever," he finished.

Amano frowned and glared at Erestor and Wraither. "Don't remind me. That mission was just the worst. I especially hated that one pixie, what did we call him? Oh yeah, it was Dinger... He was really annoying." Erestor and Wraither reminiscing about their previous heroic deeds reminded her of the time when they defended a city from a siege from a neighboring country. "Guys, remember when we saved that city? That was some hard work, but we got paid a lot from that. Both the gratefulness of the citizens and the gold was nice." She thought about how fun and interesting her travels with them were, even if some of them were bad.

Wraither looked to Erestor "You know, i never had piranha before that quest, and I don't think i will ever again. It was terrible. But that steam bath, that was nice, it was like being payed to relax." Aela had arrived with their drinks "Six pints of ale, And some tea." She said as she handed them their drinks. Amano sipped quietly on her drink as Wraither, Short-round, and Erestor rammed their cups together in a toast for their former conquests. When Short-round lifted his drink a small piece of paper fell from the bottom. "What this?" the imp asked inquisitively Amano picked up the slip and read aloud meet me outback later cutie XoXo Aela "Meet her Pfft you guys way funner." Wraither, Erestor, and Short-round continued being obnoxious and drinking for a few more hours, while Amano occasionally chimed in and sipped on her tea. At midnight Short-rounds "Happy Juice" really kicked in. He jumped on top of the table and re-enacted the entire hydra fight with stunning accuracy. Erestor and Wraither were great actors in one of Short-rounds famous Tabletop plays they both played their own parts, and the hydra's. While Short-round played the hero and the damsel, Amano who watch idly as this awe striking and tear jerking performance was enacted before her.
The next morning They all awoke, Amano in her room, Short-round in his with the waitress, and Erestor and Wraither both on the floors in theirs while the bed no-where to be found. A blast of cold air burst into each room, carrying a proposal that was most dangerous. to guide the snow elf caravan down The Cracier Pass, the most dangerous trade route on Dravor, was the proposal, However the reward was massive. Upon receiving these letters the group members all leave their rooms and meet up in the hallway between them, above the tavern in the inn.

Erestor sat up in the room and felt the cold breeze flow in, bringing with it a letter. He began to read the strange proposal and it informed him that the snow elves to the west had run in to some trouble in the past with snow trolls attacking their caravans. They were after the elves' precious cargo: fresh food supplies. The snow elves lived mostly on and around the snowy mountain peaks and could not farm their own crops. They relied heavily on trading with the surrounding villages. The letter requested the group escort the next caravan that was departing from the city of Maston and heading through Cracier Pass tomorrow. Finished with the letter, he and Wraither walked out of the room to see Short-Round and Amano in the hallway with the same letters. "Well this is odd. All of our missions thus far have come from mission boards that just anyone could accept. It seems as if this quest was given to us specifically. I think we should take it. If we do, we would have to leave for Maston right away," Erestor said.

They all agreed with Erestor's idea, and immediately set out for Maston. They were out of teleporting crystals, so they couldn't just teleport directly to Maston. Instead, they decided to take a caravan, as walking would have taken way too long. With many enemies along the way, including bandits, wild animals, and environmental hazards, they fought their way to Maston. Through the frigid wilderness they went, and it took a while, but they eventually did arrive at Maston.

After about three days of walking the group arrived to a trail that was heading for the city. They were walking because after the first day with the caravan, the people on the caravan tried to eat Short-round. so the fabled four broke their wheels and carried on, on foot. Erestor kept them warm throughout the frigid terrain with a pocket of warm air he would keep heated. Short-round guided us along the way. Wraither looked down to Shorty and asked "How do you know where to go?" Short-round looks up confusingly "Back of letter is map, Idiot." Then continued through the frozen over forest until reaching the end of the trees. As they exited their tree filled terrain a polar bear lept at them, however without even turning around Amano forged a blast of light, severing one of the bears arms. Erestor shot a spike of flames, impaling the bear through the stomach and sending it back. And wraither opened a portal and released some other worldly beast that lept through the polar bears chest. "Short-round alerted us that we need to wait, we all stared inquisitively at the imp who proceeded to walk over to the carcass of the bear pulling out Indiana, his loincloth dirk and skinned the bears head. The imp now wore the top half of the beasts head above his own and the neck skin the led down to the back of his knees. blood dripped down his face but he didn't care proclaiming that "You call me Short-bear now." Short-round continued to strut down the path until reaching the path that leads to the city. As they grew closer to the city the sounds of trees falling grew faster and faster.

"So, how do you think this mission will go, Tall-Skinny?," Erestor asked. Short-Round stopped dead in his tracks and Amano bumped into him from behind. "Oh demonicsnap..," Wraither whispered. His and Amano's eyes had widened and their mouths gaped open. The imp very slowly turned to face Erestor, Indiana drawn at his side. "You...what,..doll?," the imp slowly asked, clearly trying to keep his anger in check. "Oh I was just wanting to know how you thought this mission would turn out, Snorts-Hair. Wait, did I say Snorts-Hair? Silly me, I meant Sports-Wear. Is that right? You wanted us to start calling you Quartz-Mare? Wait, it was Orcs-There. Yeah that's right," the mage replied, trying to hide the grin off his face. "WHY YOU LITTLE-" the imp said, jumping onto Erestor's back and repeatedly poking him in the head with the butt of his knife. Erestor couldn't stop himself from laughing and tried to throw the imp off his back but the imp wouldn't budge. He continued to poke him in the head while Erestor ran around laughing trying to shake him off. "I was only joking, Short-Bear. This travel has been long and boring. I figured we could use a good laugh, or in your case, a good poke," the mage said. Short-Round hopped down and put his knife back in his loincloth and wiped a tear of joy from his eye, saying, "You know me too well, mageman." The group finally reached the Maston city limits and headed over to the stables to find the caravan they were tasked with protecting.