jollybane

29-Godsbane

Arthur Decius- Whispering Grotto

Arthur had been unceremoniously paired off with some other initiates, forming an impromptu squad. The towering twins Salamin and Solomin, their imposing statures and golden locks matched by their tower shields and generously donated familial armor. Arthur still wore the simple initiate's breastplate and mail hauberk, although he had been gifted a very unusual weapon by the archbishop as a congratulations on his unique situation, saying it was appropriate...

28- Arsenal of Horror

Vraxious- Whispering Grotto Dungeon

The flickering speckles of green luminescence drifted aimlessly above and around Vrax for just a moment longer. Creating an eerie contrast to the slavering horde rushing towards him. Then, just as the goblins entered the light cast by the acidic lurkers, the dandelion seeds dove lazily at first and then with increasing intensity as their newfound wings propelled them into the unsuspecting goblins. A fantastical cascade of firefly-like visuals disappea...

27- Gather The Horde

Vraxious- Whispering Grotto Dungeon

Vrax and Torvald had spent the next hour creeping farther into the dungeon, absolutely ruining the few small packs of goblins they had stumbled on. One pack died unceremoniously to just the Acidic Lurkers when Vrax dropped into the middle of them and summoned both directly next to four goblins. They were wrapped up and melted before they could even figure out how to respond.

Another pack hiding in ambush that Vrax had missed had charged Torvald....

26- Loot and Horrors

Arthur Decius- Crucible Hamlet

After a long and arduous journey, the procession of paladin initiates finally made it to the shabby little town sitting dangerously close to the maw of the malevolent entity known as the Whispering Grotto. From what Arthur had been told, they would form into squads of five initiates with one paladin each to watch over them until they had all reached level ten; then, if they proved themselves, they would be left to delve alone while the paladins plumbed the...

25-Testing The Daisy

Vraxious- Whispering Grotto Dungeon

Vrax slid to the entrance of the rock formation while the jar was still making its lazy descent towards the urinating goblin. The daisy jar shattered against the ground just past the feet of the goblin, stopping the low chatter of the monsters milling about. All nine goblins looked up in alarmed surprise, especially the one in a rather compromising position. Come on, let’s see what my little prank gone wrong can do.

The daisy quickly ...

24- Dungeon Bets

Vraxious – Whispering Grotto Dungeon

Vrax stood beneath a sign stretching over the road in cheerful yellow lettering. It read, “Welcome to The Whispering Grotto.” He looked around, shading his eyes from the midday sun. The stark blue stone staircase leading down into the dungeon sat before them, manned by a pair of well-armed adventurers, fresh green blood staining their tunics from a goblin that had wandered up an hour ago. Torvald was pacing back and forth, asking every person w...

23- Torvald Loves It Here

Vraxious- Hopes Path- Dungeon outskirts

Vrax and Torvold had grabbed lunch in the guild tavern; it was horribly overpriced, but both of them were too busy enjoying the new sights and sounds and trying to eavesdrop. After that, they had headed straight out of the city to make sure they reached the tiny hamlet that sat practically on the dungeon's entrance before sunset. The hamlet had a reputation for random monster attacks. Vrax wasn’t sure if they came from the dungeon or were just t...

22- Official Adventurers

Vraxious- Hopes Path- Adventurers Guild

The foyer Loomed in front of Vrax like a scene from his favorite tales as a child. Storied wooden floors layered with grime and blood over the decades that no matter how much one scrubbed, stains remained. A barely separate tavern filled with heavily armored men, women, and fantastical summons lurked on the left side of the lobby. A sky eel sinuously writhed through the air, winding between tables, and settled on the shoulder of what appeared to b...

21- The Prank Went Too Far

Vraxious- Kings Road

Vrax smiled wickedly into the campfire. He held the daisy between his hands, the fire dancing off his eyes, the perfect likeness to many a mad mage as he focused on his creation. Tovald slumbered loudly next to him, unaware of the abomination Vrax had wrought during his watch.

The daisy, being as basic and weak a creature as he had tried to adapt so far, took an insignificant amount of mana for the first changes. He had lengthened and thickened the roots into ...

20- Baths And Levels

Vraxious- Kings Road- Bertrand’s Respite Inn

Vrax let the steaming bathwater lull him into relaxation; he even sprinkled a bit of herbs into the water, filling the room with the scent of spiced fruit. A welcome and stark contrast from whatever horrors were leaking from Torvald's general direction. By the gods, that man needs a bath worse than I did. If he doesn’t take one before we leave tomorrow, I’m going to douse him in herbs the next time he falls asleep at camp.

19- Just A Sip

Vraxious -Kings Road

After cleaning up the Shrikers and giving the poor family a shallow burial. Vrax and Torvald had spent an uneasy night camping a few hundred strides on the other side of the road. Torvald was wearing the magic ring to help speed his healing; he would be mostly patched up by the morning other than the gouge in his shoulder. Thankfully, Vrax was unscathed other than some scrapes and bruises he did to himself jumping out of a tree and diving all around.

They had ...

18-Tag Team

Vraxious- Kings Road

Vrax and Torvald had made good time the first day trekking across the well-worn, pitted road. Neither he nor Torvald had the spare funds to buy or care for a horse, a rather extravagant expense for most people. Hopefully further down the line in their adventurer careers, but for now, by foot it was. By nightfall they had passed a few other small groups traveling on foot that had already settled down at campsites for the evening. Vrax slowed down as he noticed the fa...

17- Bad Ideas

Vraxious- Hopes End

Vrax’s eyelids fluttered in confusion; something was deeply wrong. He felt like he had been run over by a herd of Mynochs. He shifted slightly; it was blindingly bright, and his body was halfway in something uncomfortable that was digging into the side of his face. He kept still and tried to gauge his surroundings. The snarl of some massive beast could be heard mere feet from him. His eyes finally adjusted, and he could see what he was haphazardly stuffed in. A bri...

16- The Big Reveal

Vraxious- Hopes End

Vrax made it halfway out his door before he was once again intercepted by his father. He leaned on Vrax’s shoulder for support as he walked down the hallway with his boy. William had deep, weathered lines across his skin, always drawn back in a smile. Like he had just thought of the best joke. Vrax had tried many times to pry more details from him on what he did before he made his way out to this backwater and setup shop as the town cleric. He had always evaded it ...

15- Levels and Luck

Vraxious- Hopes End

Vrax had camped for the night in the cozy tower overlooking the fort. Luckily Feldwin was nowhere to be seen, so he had laid claim to the extravagant downy bed. He also left a little surprise for Feldwin when he came back. Vrax's mana had been completely topped off when he made camp. Turns out adapting regular old flowers wasn’t terribly mana intensive. The garish conglomeration of climbing vines on the tower now had a glorious, if slight, bright pink glow to them....

14- I Forgot The bet

Vraxious- Forsaken Lands

Vrax looked at the hole in his palm with a pained cringe. He trudged away from the river in the rough direction of town, making sure to skirt the Crystalline Forest. His smite had staunched the bleeding mostly, but it still hurt like hell. He downed a good gulp of a potion and poured a bit on the wound in his hand and the small hole in his side. The armor was noticeably starting to slowly regrow over his injuries. At this rate it would repair itself before he ma...

13-Deadly Experimentation

Vraxious- Forsaken Lands

He looked over the spear he had extracted from the corpse of the resplendent golden warrior. It was so simple and yet not at the same time. A mostly straight wooden branch there wasn’t even a metal spear tip; it simply grew to a spiraling point. And the way it almost seemed to breathe with the faint lines of crackling green energy fading to nothingness and then resurging brighter in rhythm. His new stigmata-granted armor had the same rise and fall of luminesce...

12- Wrath Of The Grove

Vraxious-[System Sanctuary]

Vrax’s perspective once again settled into a god’s-eye view of the cloaked man. He wondered what the skill would be this time. The man knelt in a forest glade teeming with life; his hand gently stroked some kind of wolf-like being that towered next to him. It rounded on him, violently, apparently deciding to tear his throat out. He leapt back, and tentacles of flesh with scythe-like tips flashed forward from under his robes, hooking into the beast and tea...