The "Best" RPG Ever-110

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I have a small announcement not specifically related to this story: I recently went and updated the tables of contents page, which can be found here. There's also a link to it a ways down in the right sidebar, so it should be accessible from any page. All of the major stories and a couple of series have been added in and everything should be up-to-date (or at least mostly so). Hopefully it's helpful, although a lot of the parts of TBRE have no description to go with them. If anyone wants to contribute a brief description for some of the numbered parts that don't have them, feel free to write it into a comment on that page.

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Mira carefully led the way through the increasingly dense forest, watching and poking the blade of her scythe ahead for spiderwebs and turning aside whenever one was directly in their way. She wasn't particularly worried about getting lost here; Lupa could probably follow their scent trail back with ease or something. Worst case, she could fly each of the others out on her broom once the monsters were all gone.

In this way, they had opportunity to see what else the resident giant spiders had caught in their webs. More deer, along with both smaller and more predatory ordinary wildlife was present, to be sure, but before too long they also happened upon a dark green, scaly tail hanging out of a particularly large bundle tied one-third of the way up one particular web. Near this was a small clearing with five more webs hung around it, each occupied by a similarly-sized bundle of web, and one mostly-intact giant lizard corpse lying on the ground.

The witch stopped off, staring at this clearing for a moment. "Say, Lupa," she half-whispered. "Monsters don't usually fight each other, do they?"
"This one's pack fought many other big animals that attacked," she said softly. "Buut, mud-men always kept distance, like...not want to fight."

"Mud-men..goblins?" Nora guessed. "Perhaps...there seems to be something of a difference in general...between monsters 'made out of animals'...and others, such as goblins and ogres."

"Well," Aria sighed softly, "I hate to say this, but even if the lizard problem's solved itself, we can't just leave. No blood here that's anywhere near fresh enough to satisfy."

"W-we um...we should...track down, the.." Nora struggled to actually say it.

"We should kill the spiders anyway, right?" Mira finished for her. "Since the point is really to make this area safer, and one gigantic ambush predator is probably no better than the other." The elf just nodded, visibly trying to keep herself from shaking again.

The witch turned and began to carefully pick their way onward again, going for several more minutes before Aria gently placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. Once she was looking, the shifter pointed off to her right, then at one of her presently giant, fuzzy ears. Nora gave a small nod to agree with the implied message, wringing her hands a bit. Mira turned in that direction and began to slowly lead them until she could hear it too, a soft skittering and clattering sort of noise.

There was no going around the webbing as they approached, so she split her weapon into two smaller scythes and used them like machetes, carefully clipping through the web while trying to make as little noise as possible. Eventually they came in view of a group of five or six spiders the height of a man, and another that was twice as big as the rest in the center.

Opposite their vantage point, one such spider was halfway up a web between two trees, busy spinning its web around a winged, humanoid body with brilliant red hair and plumage that seemed out of place in the otherwise gloomy scene. Aria had her sword out, but still sheathed for the moment; she tapped the back of its hilt a couple of times and pointed to that body, mouthing 'still alive'.

Mira pulled her weapon back together into a single scythe, and looked to Nora, who was quivering but had her right hand out, a bracelet with a bright red gem set into it on the wrist. The witch gave the weaver an encouraging grin and mouthed 'kill it with fire', which she replied to with a rapid double-nod.

---

When the carts stopped for a bit, the three soldiers driving the horses came out to stretch their legs, and the four in the sick wagon came out next to them. Everyone else moved that direction too, led by the prince. "Are you all well-rested?" he asked.
"Sure 'nuff, Sire," one woman said, saluting.
A man nodded, agreeing. "Not all perfect, but fit enough to fight again, I'd say."

Peregrine nodded. "Very well." Turning toward the adventurers, he said: "Allow me to introduce you—other than miss Clera, of course. Lady Zack, Katherine, Rayna and Lynn. These are Nils, Jehora, Leif, and Otrin." Each of the four nodded or slightly bowed in response to their names; Jehora and Nils were women, and the the other two men, but all were human and had more or less the same manner as the first three the group had met.

The prince moved with the party toward the front of the caravan, leaving the soldiers not on horse-driving duty to guard the back. Zack remained the farthest back, weaving back and forth occasionally to see that all were still present and keeping his ears peeled for anything unusual. Nothing much happened, however.

An hour or so after this, Rayna put up her hand from near the front. Hit my spot check, she thought toward Katherine as Peregrine correctly translated this signal into one for the caravan's present drivers and guards to stop. Looks like eleven of those guys hiding behind trees; none of the big boss ones thankfully.

Injured? Lynn asked as the five of them—four adventurers and one prince made their way in front of the real caravan, watching the illusionist's false one merrily continue onward into danger.

One or two. Nothing debilitating, unfortunately.

Everyone drew their weapons: Zack in dark from with Enceladus and his shield at the front, Katherine and the prince not far behind him, and Clera and Lynn between them and the illusionist. The catgirl had two knives in her hands and two more floating around next to her; Lynn notched an arrow and stepped out to one side where she'd have a clear shot; Clera didn't draw her sword, instead gently placing her hand on the necklace Tsaron had gifted her and mentally preparing a few low-cost spells in case they were needed.

Once the illusory caravan's was roughly centered between them, the goblins all yelled—nasty, guttural noises—and charged in toward it, poorly-maintained axes and swords and knives going into the false guards flanking it and briefly appearing to succeed in taking them down. Then an electrified arrow struck the nearest one in the side of the head, a spark arcing from it to the nearest two to send them into brief convulsions. Zack charged, Katherine following briefly before breaking off to one side; Peregrine, seemingly distrated briefly by looking at the knight's sword, followed after them. Clera maintained a position in front of Rayna to keep the illusionist protected, as well as to easily see if anyone got injured.

Not even Zack expected the results of his first swipe of the artifact sword's blade into a goblin's side—the weapon cleaving the entire way through, cutting it in half with the points which had contacted the blades white, firelike glow seeming to burn with the same same briefly as it fell apart. He hesitated only slightly, however, before continuing to stab it effortlessly into a second one, swinging the sword up through its head and acheiving a similarly instantaneous kill.

Katherine went for the stunned goblins, giving each one a psionically thrown and guided knife to the chest and setting off the magic in each one—burning one goblin, freezing a second, and re-electrocuting the third, this time with more fatal results. Then she swept the knives up to slit their throats, just in case. The prince continued past her, his foil sheathing itself neatly into the heart of another of the goblins and just as easily slipping back out as he kicked it forward onto its back. A second goblin came at him with an axe, and he dodged aside and away from its enraged, sloppy chopping before taking advantage of a particularly poor swing to catch the axe's blade from the bottom with his own and slip it out of the monster's grip entirely. A third charged at him with a knife, tackling at this point and rolling along the ground when he also sidestepped this.

After a third kill, Zack turned to see the prince's fight and quickly moved in, raising his shield as the just-disarmed goblin pounced with its arms out and aiming for the prince's throat. Peregrine was in no position to notice—much less deal with—this threat, as he had turned around and raised his sword to confront the one with the knife instead. The knight arrived just in time to bash the goblin off to one side and then stab the ground through its stomach, pulling the blade up through its body to take it apart. At the same time Peregrine took down his quarry, unaware of the danger until he turned around to see Zack finishing it off. Meanwhile, Lynn took down the farthest-off goblins with a series of various elemental arrows, so that overall the fight lasted under a minute.

Zack brought his sword vertically in front of his eyes, staring at it for a couple of seconds. Did you find a shop selling strength potions while we weren't looking or something? Lynn asked. I knew you were strong, but not 'cut flesh like a knife through butter' strong.

No, it's this sword, he replied, sheathing it. It was like I was still just cutting through the air.

"It appears I was rather careless," Peregrine said after taking about this long to survey the area and see that all of the goblins were dead. "My deepest apologies, and my thanks as well." He bowed toward Zack.
"...Just doing my job, your highness." He caught himself frowning for some reason, and wrestled his face back to a neutral expression. No, thinking back another second or two, his face felt slightly warm and his tail was trying to move, and the frown was because of that...weird. But, it had already quit, so he didn't dwell on it.

Meanwhile, those with animal ears could easily hear some of the soldiers' quiet commentary. "Gods above, that was.."
"Wha', you could actually see it? All a blur to me, mate.."
"Like I told you, the sort what survives the frontier are made of different stuff.."

Clera turned back toward Rayna to confirm: "No one is hurt?"
"Not a bit," she shook her head, and exhaled softly. "I'm glad to be rid of the fake caravan. Just making the real one invisible is enough work."

As they walked back toward the caravan, Peregrine changed the subject slightly: "My curiousity overwhelms me concerning your blade, Lady Zack. I don't believe I've seen anything like it."
"It's..on loan," he said. "I was told its name is Enceladus."

"Quite an unusual name, and yet...not one I have heard before. Enchantments of such potency are usually better-known, I would think."
"Well, its owner just had it sitting around gathering dust," Katherine chimed in. "One of those eccentric collector types, you know."
"I can only be grateful to this collector for placing it in such capable hands, then," the prince said, smiling and nodding toward Zack. This time the knight looked off to one side to hide a scowl as he tried to dispel it. His tail wouldn't quit moving for another few steps afterward, either.

Once they were more or less together, Peregrine stopped facing all of the adventurers. "So that it does not go unsaid: My thanks to all of you for dispatching these foes," he said. "Truly, all of you are as capable as you are beautiful. Do any of you require rest before we continue?"

"You're too kind, your highness," Rayna said. "But, honestly, these were somewhat small fry compared to the other threats we've encountered out here."

"We should be fine," Lynn added. "Just need to keep an eye out."
"But of course. Then, let us onward."

Zack made for the left side of the caravan as soon as he saw the prince head for the right. As they started moving, Katherine's voice came to his head: Are you..growling?

...No. Well, he wasn't anymore, anyway. She moved up next to him to give him a 'really' look, and he just shrugged.

Seriously, what's wrong?

Nothing. He's just. Annoying.

I don't think he's trying to be.

Yeah. That makes it worse.

Zack just wanted to be left alone and not think about it any more. Since she knew this, the psion shrugged and fell back to a position behind him.

Lynn stayed on the right side, along with Rayna and the prince. How are you holding up? Need a break from making us invisible?
...Soonish, yeah. I don't do sustained illusions like this usually. But I think I can keep it up long enough that the trail from those goblin bodies will be cold and nothing'll follow us too closely from behind.

"Pardon me, miss Lynn," the prince said, coming to her. "Do you still have your bow?"
"Uh..yes," she nodded, not immediately certain of the question's purpose.

"Yet it isn't visible in your hands, nor on your person," he pointed out.

"Oh. Well, uh.."
"I have heard tell before of a particularly rare magic, which allows the easy storage of a small number of items in no apparent location," he said. "In fact, Lady Ezra is the only one I have heard to be capable of such a thing before now."
"...Ah."

The fox-girl slid her way into the conversation at this point to rescue her. "This isn't something one can 'teach' so much as 'have'," she explained. "Or in our case,' borrow'. It is pretty handy, though."

"I can imagine," he nodded, deliberately not pressing the issue beyond this.

"Just...how well do you know Lady Ezra, anyway?" Lynn asked, both curious and eager to change the subject away from something she didn't feel it possible for them to fully explain.
"Well, I have not met her in person but once, and at the time I was quite young—no more than half my present height," Peregrine said, holding a hand out palm-down next to his own waist to demonstrate. "However, I came to know her reputation quite well over the years. Rumors regarding her abound, to the point where many of the best-accepted ones must be fact. I know that she is somehow an immortal human, and I therefore imagine she looks the same now as when we met those years ago. They say that she has been knighted or ennobbled by no less than a hundred countries, two-thirds or more of which no longer exist. Some say it is an honor to the country when she willingly attends such a ceremony, and Kyzerath was so honored quite a long ways back.

"She has been known to disappear for months or years on end, or even fake her own death sometimes, only to suddenly reappear during events of great import. Some rumors even say the gods themselves guide her actions, as she seems to have a knack for being in just the right place at the right time to influence such events. Lately—that is to say, at least since my grandfather was young—she seems content to remain in our frontier town for increasingly long periods, and in so doing has built it into the most stable patch of civilization out that way. It seems to be a sort of pet project of hers, perhaps.

"As far as knowing her personally, I can only claim what I have gleaned from our correspondence. When I began to attend the court of nobles—Kyzerath's ruling body, you understand—it seemed clear to me that our fair kingdom was neglecting its frontier town, failing to support it in even the most basic of ways even while reaping much benefit from it. Nearly as soon as I began to speak out about this, she made her first contact me. I have no idea how she learned of it so swiftly. We have been allies in this matter ever since then, with her letters constantly encouraging and advising my efforts. It is entirely her doing that I have been so effective a thorn in the sides of those who would rather pretend we had no frontier town to support and reap its profits alone. What we are on our way to deliver, I have been campaigning for for the past two years, and what finally won over the last of the detractors was the assurance that I would personally deliver our country's gift, along with suggestions from those who they thought to be equally weary of me that I may well not survive the trip.

"I never put much stock in the idea that Lady Ezra's hand was guided by the gods, but I must wonder at all of the coincidences I have seen or heard since coming into contact with her. Lately I hear that one of the foremost telemagus has suddenly made his way to our frontier town on other business, and has agreed already to help install our gift. As I understand it, this man was hired by a dragon once, and satisfied him enough to not only keep his life, but make profit."

"Heheh, yes, I've met the man," Lynn said. "He got us to you, in fact. He's rather down-to-earth in person."
"Imagine though," a nearby soldier—Otrin, she thought—chimed in. "Meetin' with a dragon."

"Yeees, that'd certainly be something," Rayna replied cheerfully.

---

"Are you hungry?" Vae said quietly.
"Uhhm, yes. Very, actually, now that I uh, notice." Rose pulled her face up off of the fox-woman's. "Sorry."
"We needed a reminder to cease this at some point," the herbalist said; her tone of voice was as calm and level as usual, but she was very clearly smiling and blushing still. She let go of the dragon-girl, allowing Rose to get up onto her knees. Then her head tilted just slightly. "Your wings..."
"Huh?" She glanced at one briefly. "Oh uh—I've pretty much always been able to do this. This is kinda what they 'really' look like, actually," she continued, tracing a hand along the edge of a wing. "The tiny ones are to make it easier to walk around places."

Vaedin sat up as the dragon-girl got up onto her feet, taking care to hop backward so her foot-claws wouldn't scratch Vae's legs. She looked up and around at the sky briefly before picking herself up too, carefully dusting off her clothes a bit. "I am also quite hungry. It must be..fairly deep into the afternoon by now." She produced her glasses and strapped them back on.

"Errm, I'm glad we didn't break those or anything," Rose said.

"There is nothing of that sort to worry about. I had them enchanted for durability not long after moving here. It wouldn't do to have a potion go wrong just because I, or someone else, broke a bit of fragile glass. I only thought they might feel rather uncomfortable..or, I admit, become dirtied."

"Heheh, yeah, theeey, probably would be."

Rose stood awkwardly in place for a moment with her arms slung behind her back, hands interlocked. It felt like Vae was staring at her quietly, but it was difficult to tell if that was it or she was just thinking about something and the resultant staring into space happened to be in her direction. Eventually she cracked: "Uhhhm, youwannagetlunchsomewhere? I mean, if it can be called lunch at this point, but—still. Like..food?"
"Certainly," she nodded. "I allotted the entire day for this visit, expecting a long trip here and back. But, I did not actually consider food at the time."
"Okay! Um, I'll lead the way, then!" Rose waved for the gorgeous Vulpin girl to follow, pushing her wings back to their smaller size as she headed back in the direction of the door.

When she opened that door back into the house, she found a small piece of paper affixed to the wall across from it and hurried inside, leaning in to read it while Vae followed at a slower pace.

Rose:
went to kill some things and feed Aria's sword,back late afternoon probably

Have fun!

It was signed with a sloppily drawn heart followed by just Mira.

"'Feed her sword'?" Vae asked, finishing her read-through of the note at about the same time.

"Um, yeah, she's got a demon-sword-thingy that's literally hungry for blood," the dragon-girl explained. "It's uhh, she kinda needs to feed it to keep sane. So, they prolly just went after some weak monsters or something."
"I..suppose it is a relief if that is their first solution to that problem."
"Anyway, I guess we can go on out, then! She'd definitely take the note down if they were back by now," Rose said, turning to close the door to her forest and open the door to town. Her tail was wagging a bit as she thought of what sort of place to bring Vae...although, come to think of it, it might be a good idea to ask what her tastes were first...