Dungeons & Dorks

Chapters

Start of a journey
A group of "Heroes"
Encounter!
Through the dungeon...
The final battle
End of a journey?

Start of a journey

It was Friday night. While the city was bursting with life, people from all age (though mainly teenager and students) strolling through the streets and entering the various places of entertainment, things were a lot calmer in the suburbs. In one of those calm single-family houses, there was a door in a coridor. That door lead down a staircase into the basement of the house, which consisted of a single room poorly equipped with furniture. The air down here was moist and cool - not so much one would freeze, but it didn’t make the atmosphere very comfortable either. Only a single ceiling lamp illuminated the small room, casting a circle of light on the table in its center. Most of the table's surface was covered by a large poster that looked like a map, displaying a forest on the left and a huge mountain alongside a scheme of its internal caves on the right side. On top of the map various sheets of paper as well as a handful of books were scattered over the table, alongside several dice with up to twenty sides.

Around the table five teenage girls were sitting, their faces sparsely enlightened by the lamp. One of them was reading out from a rather thick book, while the others listened more or less interested to what she said. Occasionally one of them let out a yawn, none of them looking very excited (with the exception of one, who seemed to listen more to the music from her headphones however than to the girl reading).

“…and that’s the basic rules” Sunny Flare finished, closing the book. “Did you all get everything?” she asked, looking in the round.

With a lovely look on face Sour Sweet smiled gently at her. ”Just one question.”

Sunny turned towards her. “Yes?”

“WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?!” Sour yelled, making Sunny wince.

“Yeah!” Indigo Zap exclaimed, elbows on the table and head resting on her hands. Her expression was not as furious as that of Sour, but she was radiating an aura of annoyance and boredom. “No one really wanted to play that dork game, especially on a Friday night! We only put it on the list as a joke!”

Sugarcoat, who had her eyes cast on another book lying open in front of her, raised her glance. “You two insisted on everyone having a veto to cancel an entry from the list” she sharply reminded the two grumps with her fast dry voice. “By the end this was the only thing left.”

“It's Indigo's fault!” Sour complained, waving angrily towards the blue-haired girl. “I wouldn't have used my veto on the climbing wall if she hadn't used hers on movie night!”

“You wanted us to watch some sap about an architect falling in love with a country girl!” Indigo scoffed, looking even more annoyed than before.

From a pouting little brat Sour abruptly turned into one of wistfully yearning lover. “It's so romantic, because they are from entirely different worlds♥” she sighed.

“I still don't get why we couldn’t join a reading club” Sunny chimed in.

Putting her headphones over her neck Lemon Zest glared at the short-haired girl. “Seriously?” she asked sarcastically. “You are surprised none of us wanted to spend their Friday night reading books?”

“I'd still prefer a reading club over marching into stranger’s houses and crashing their parties” Sugarcoat sternly told the party-loving girl.

Lemon put her hands on her hips. “Well nobody seemed upset when ‘Truth or Dare’ got cancelled!” she snapped back. “Especially since you wanted to play without dare!"

The hand of Sour soundly slapped against her forehead. “Okay, you know what?” she stated in a mixture of fatigue and bad temper. “Let's just get this over with! Since we can't agree on anything anyway, we might as well all play this weird game and be equally annoyed by it.”

Moaning Indigo dropped her head on the table. “I feel like a dork already...”

“Come on girls!” Sunny tried to cheer them up. “Who knows, maybe this will be fun? Table-top adventures are all about fantasy and the imagination of the players. By playing this I'm sure we can learn a lot from each other!” With a big smile she confidently at everyone around the table. “Has anyone decided on what they want to play yet?

Sour Sweet briefly went over the race and class list lying in front of her. “I'm gonna be a werewolf priestess” she said.

Sunny’s head jerked back slightly. “A... werewolf priestess?” she repeated incredulously.

“Yes!” Sour chirped with a kind face. “That way, I can heal and cure you all when you get injured – but still crush anyone who dares to cross me!” she suddenly shouted while clenching her fist, her friendly smile turning into a malicious smirk.

Carefully Sunny pushed her chair away from the overly excited girl. “Ooookay...” She slowly turned her head towards Sugarcoat. “And did you make a choice already?” she asked her with a smile.

“An orc brute” she flatly replied, still reading the book in front of her.

The corners Sunny’s mouth dropped slightly. “That's… um, a very straightforward choice” she remarked.

“Exactly” Sugarcoat agreed, pushing up her glasses. “No gimmicky game mechanics or complicated extra rules. Just a girl and her axe.”

Indigo rolled her eyes. “I'm learning so much about you guys already” she murmured, glancing towards Lemon. “What about you, Lemon? Set on what kind of dork you wanna be?”

A big grin plastered over her face Lemon jumped on her feet. “I'm gonna be a rockstar!” she shouted, playing on an air guitar.

Everyone gave her an odd look. “Great idea” Sour praised her in friendly sarcasm, before adding in not so friendly sarcasm: “Buuuut I'm pretty sure there’s no rockstar-class in this game.”

Stopping her solo Lemon gaped at her in surprise. “Really?” she asked, letting herself fall on her chair again. “Then count me out.”

“Well, there is the bard” Sunny offered, pointing at the entry on her class list.

Through the mess of sheets lying in front of her Lemon searched for a moment, then pulled out her own class list. Reading the entry about the bard she turned up her mouth slightly. “Sounds lame, but whatever” she mumbled, dropping the sheet back on the table. She then took a glance at the race list, and her lips curled up to a grin again. “Oh, and I'm gonna be a snake-woman!”

Placing her elbow on the table Sunny put her chin on her hand. “Any particular reason why?” she asked.

“CAUSE SNAKES ARE AWESOME!!!” Lemon replied loudly, raising both her fists into the air.

Sunny shook her head. “How deep” she commented. Sitting up straight she raised her nose, smirking smugly as she put her hand on her chest. “I will play as a rouge” she declared grandly. “My character is gonna be the young heir of a noble family. In the eyes of the public, she is a beautiful and elegant young lady with hundreds of admirers sending her roses and love letters every day." She gestured with her arm as if she was pullign a cloak over her face. "But at night, she slips into the role of a devious femme fatale fighting for justice! Roaming the streets of her town she lives the life of a righteous thief, stealing from the arrogant upper-class to give her loot to the poor and suppressed citizens of-”

“Just out of curiosity” Sugarcoat interrupted her without looking up from her book “Which character from what book are you ripping off here?”

Sunny looked a little irritated at Sugarcoat for a moment, blinking several times. “Shade Valentine from ‘Night of the Daggers’” she eventually admitted, slumping her shoulders.

From her unorganized pile Lemon pulled out her character sheet, at the same time grabbing a pen. “So, Gogo?" she asked Indigo while putting her pen on the paper. "Made up your mind yet?”

Lazily Indigo glanced over her class list. “I'll take the paladin” she eventually decided, before dropping her head on the table again. “It sounds the least dorky.”

Sugarcoat looked at her class list. “The paladin is capable of supporting the other members of the party as well as dealing out and receiving a respectable amount of damage” she read out loud.

“Sounds like the perfect class for you” Sour remarked happily, then frowned. “First you yell at us to try harder and then throw yourself into the fray without thinking.”

Dark glances were cast forth and back between Sour Sweet and Indigo Zap. Both girls suddenly turned their heads as Sunny clapped in her hands. “Okay ladies, I think that’s enough” she strictly told them. From her neat staple she took the sheet on top. “Since we’re all set on what we want to play as, I’d say we all start filling out our character sheets now.” After taking her pen she pointed at the book lying in front of Sugarcoat. “If you’re not certain about something, take a look into the advanced rule book. Everything is depicted in very minute detail there.”

As if to approve of this Sugarcoat nodded.

“Alright” Sour murmured, also taking her character sheet and pen. “Let’s get this over with…”Indigo grumped, reluctantly picking up her stuff as well.

Quietly the Shadowbolts worked on their character sheets. Soon the only sounds that filled the gloomy basement were the rustling of paper and scribbling of pens, underlined by Lemon’s music. Sitting straight on her chair Sugarcoat calmly filled out the various fields on her sheet. Before every new entry she first took a look into the rule book or the various guides spread over the table, reading for a few minutes about the various aspects of the game. Rarely she picked up the eraser lying next to her, seeming very convinced about each of her choices.

On the contrary Lemon seemed to spend most of her time making corrections and changes. Leaning over the table her pen was constantly writing, only for the letters and numbers to be erased again once she took another look into the guides and lists, finding an ability or item that excited her even more. Her spontaneous changes led to a few contradictions and mistakes, causing her to reset her to constantly make adjustments. She didn’t look into the rule book very often, and whenever she did Lemon mostly stared in confusion at the pages. Nevertheless she seemed quite enthusiastic, happily bopping her head to the rhythm from her headphones despite clearly being overwhelmed by the complex game.

At first Indigo kept her bored and annoyed attitude, head resting on the table as she filled out her character sheet, weakly holding her pen between her fingers. But the deeper her pen moved down the sheet, towards the fields responsible for battle, the more intrigued she seemed to become. Bit by bit she lifted her head, while she tightened the grip on her pen. She then put it aside for a moment to take a look into the combat guides, growing more and more curious. Soon she was working on her character with the vigor the sporty girl was usually known for, sucking up every information from the numerous guides around her to create the best possible warrior.

While Indigo’s main focus clearly rested on the abilities for battle Sunny only took a few minutes until she had all the combat data written down on her sheet. Just as quickly she had also filled out most other fields, from non-combat abilities to the general information about her character like name and age. However, as she reached the last two fields on her sheet, the pace of her progression abruptly dropped: While she had quickly decided what weapons to add to her gear list, it took her a long time to depict the outfit of her character. Even after she had decided on what to wear she kept changing the colour of the clothes over and over. Once she was finally done she put her pen on the last open field on her sheet, the biography of her character. With a glint in Sunny's eyes her pen seemed to be flying over the paper, her passion evident in every word she wrote. Soon she had filled out the entire field, despite writing in very little letters. Nonchalant she took one of the sheets around her, and continued to write on its backside.

While everyone else was busily creating their character, Sour at first only stared at her own empty sheet. She tapped her pen on the field for the name, pondering. While the combination of a support class with a physically powerful race seemed to make sense, enabling her to both heal and deal damage at the same time, she had to be careful not to end up half-hearted in both disciplines. Hesitantly she began to set her stats, putting her focus on strength and wisdom. After a while however she erased them and started over again. And again. And again. Still unhappy she turned towards the skills, but found she was just as unable to make up her mind how to split the limited numbers of abilities between healing spells and werewolf attacks. Becoming increasingly frustrated she juggled forth and back, unsure where to settle: Should she become a magnificent medic capable of rejecting nearly all kinds damage from her allies and friends? Or should her focus on turning into a ferocious beast that could slice all enemies into tiny pieces? The medic sounded the more useful choice in a group of course, but the ferocious beast tempted her as well…

Filling out their character sheets none of them noticed how much time passed in the basement. Eventually they one by one put down their pens, waiting more or less patiently for the others to finish. “Alright” Sunny declared once everybody was done. Contently she looked down on the four sheets of paper in front of her, cramped with the backstory of her character, before gazing around the table. “Is everyone ready?”

“Doesn’t one of us have to be game master and play against the others?” Indigo asked.

Interlacing her fingers in front of her Sour fluttered her eye-lashes towards Indigo. ”For someone who thinks this game is for dorks you know quite a lot about this nerd stuff” she remarked.

Indigo scowled. “Shut up.”

“There is no need for a game master in this version” Sugarcoat stated, glancing at the book in front of Sunny. “This is a more or less a fixed scenario for beginners. We can make our own characters, but the events are all described in the story book over there, including the corresponding dice checks in field and combat situations. Depending on the outcomes and decisions we make the book jumps to different pages, like in an interactive story. There is no need for one of us playing against the others.”

“But we could like, backstab each other, right?” Lemon asked, trying not to glance towards Sunny. “Not that I intend to do that of cooouuurse.”

Sunny rubbed her temple, sighing. “Yes, darling, if you feel like sabotaging the game and ruining it for the rest, you could theoretically stab a dagger in everyone’s back.”

Picking up her eraser Lemon rubbed it over her sheet. “What are you doing?” Indigo asked.

“Changing my weapon from bow to dagger” she replied.

Groaning Sunny opened the story book. “Okay then, is everybody ready? Then let’s begin.” Placing a fist in front of her mouth she cleared her throat, before taking the book in both her hands.

“The moon shines down on you from the clear night sky, illuminating the forest ahead in a cold sheen of white light” she began to read out loud, all eyes set on her. “Behind you the warm lights of the villlage you just left are giving of a cozy gleam. You look around, seeing into the faces of your companions that you have met in the local tavern earlier this night.”

As she spoke everybody was slowly leaning towards her over the table in fascination, while Sunny herself bent closer towards the book.

“You may have set on this quest for different reasons, but fate brought all of you together to this place...”

A group of "Heroes"

The moon shone down from the clear night sky, illuminating the forest in a cold sheen of white light. On a path leading towards the forest a group of five heroines had gathered around a signpost. Behind them the warm lights of a village were giving off a cozy gleam. The unlikely allies took a look around, seeing into the faces of their companions they had met at the local tavern earlier this night. After finding out they all shared the same goal of defeating a dragon that lived nearby, they had decided to join forces, each having their own reason to go after the creature.

One of them was a priestess, clad in a white sleeveless robe that glistered in the moonlight. Golden insignias were stitched into the fabric, symbolizing her gods. Her hair was tied up at the sides of her head, the faithful cleric radiating an aura of beauty and elegance that comforted everyone around her. Only few knew that behind the frail façade of this fair lady, a wild heart was pounding. Bitten by a pulp she selflessly had rescued from certain doom she had been inflicted with a terrible curse that had forever split up her gentle spirit - only a magical elixir could free her from the beast within. And so it was that the priestess, Honeytooth, searched the whole world for the ingredients, one of them being the scale of a dragon.

From the distant mountains of the dark lands a blue-skinned orc brute had travelled to this land. Most of her body was covered in rough iron plates, sporting sharp thorns at the shoulders and joints. On her head a helmet was a helmet with three holes for her white pigtails, also sporting spikes on the top - even her metal glasses had small sharp appendages at the edges. Her hostile and rough appearance was enhanced by the numerous warts on her face, as well as the two sharp teeth pointing out from her lower lip. Searching for glory and fame the young warrior, only being referred to as “the Axe” by the large weapon she wore on her back, had come all the way here to slay her first dragon, which would grant her great reputation and honour among her people. Also, she wanted to tell the dragon straight in its face how dumb it was to hoard tons of gold in his lair despite never getting a chance to actually spend it.

While all the heroes that had assembled in this night were well known throughout the world, the most famous one was without a question the paladin among them. Her full-body armor only left her left arm uncovered, for a large shield bearing the crest of a lion head was wrapped around it. A sword was hanging on her side in is sheath, a noble weapon that had been the doom to many foul beasts already. And tonight, the righteous warrior had decided it would seal the fate of the maleficent dragon that terrorized the village. Such a vile evil couldn’t be ignored by the legendary warrior known as Thunderblade the Champion, heroine of a hundred countries, captain-commander of the royals knight, wielder of the holy grail and all in all a really swell gal.

Within the group a bard was chilling out, bopping her head to the melody she played on her guitar. A red fedora hat with a big green feather was on top of her wild green mane, matching her red bard top. Her sleeves were rolled up and her collar disarranged, giving the actually very noble attire a rather casual appearance. Her messy outfit however wasn't the oddest about her appearance by far: Below the hem of the jacket her body didn't continue in a pair of legs, but in a long snake-tail twice the length of her torso. A close look on the exposed parts of her body also revealed it wasn’t covered by smooth skin, but a rough layer of reptilian scales. Wiggling her tail to the melody she played the snake-woman bard named “Snakes R. Awesome” waited for the group to start their journey, having decided to join them because defeating a dragon was totally radical.

The last member of the group was hard to spot at first glance, for she stood in the shadows of the trees on the side of the path. Her long black cloak beautifully poured down to her feet, like a waterfall of obsidian fabric. From time to time one could take a glimpse at the formal attire she wore underneath, resembling the clothes of the bard, as well as a silver shimmer under her cloak when the moonlight reflected on the daggers of her belt. Her eyes and nose as well as the majority of her face was covered by a heart-shaped mask made out of shining pure silver, only her mouth and right cheek being exposed. At day she was known to the world as Velvet Cloak III., heiress of one of the wealthiest families in the whole kingdom. But at night she changed into the cloak of the righteous rogue going by the name of Nightheart, a hero of the people who stole from the corrupted aristocracy and gave the money to those who really needed it. In her attempts to make the situation for the poorest of her home better she had struck a deal with a dragon, for they were known to hoard large amounts of treasure. However, while she had kept her part of the deal, resulting in an adventure that was worth its own story, the dragon had refused to pay her out. So, she had come to this place alongside the other heroes, to best the beast in battle and claim the reward she deserved…

"Seriously?" Sour asked, glancing with a raised eyebrow over the table at Sunny. "That's your hero's motivation? The dragon owes her money?"

Sunny crossed her arms. "My hero, my story” she replied, holding her nose up. “Deal with it, ‘fair lady’."

“You really wanna name your character ‘The Axe’?” Indigo asked Sugarcoat with a skeptical ring in her voice. “That’s rather blunt, even for your standards.”

“Naming her after a weapon gives her a certain flair of danger and inhumanity” Sugarcoat replied in a slightly unfriendly, but not really rude manner. “And it’s a lot more intimidating than adding some goofy title like ‘the Champion’ at the end of her name” she added, leading Indigo to cross her arms in offense.

“Hey, hey!” Lemon squealed, wearing a big grin while wailing her arm through the air. “Anybody wanna guess what the R. in my name stands for?”

The others exchanged a glance. “Rockstar?” they all replied in unison. Lemon lowered her arm, blushing shyly.

Rubbing the bridge of her nose Sour sighed. “Let’s just keep on playing” she suggested.

Standing around the signpost the heroes were all – with the exception of the guitar-playing Snakes – staring into the distance. On the horizon a large mountain was towering over the lush forest. While the whole night sky was clear with a free sight on the moon and the stars, for some strange reason dark clouds were circling around the summit, swallowing it in a maelstrom of darkness. It looked like a black aura was cast over the mountain, warning everyone of the great evil that lurked within.

From the shadow of the trees Nightheart emerged. The rogue stepped into the middle of the group, getting everyone’s – but Snake’s - attention. “Hear me, companions!” she called out, dramatically stretching her arm towards the mountain. “We all share the same burden destiny has laid upon our shoulders! Tonight, we have come together under this very moon, to compete with one of the most evil and sinister beasts to have ever roamed the lands! And as daunting as this task may seem, with our combined strength we shall overcome the creature’s fiery breath, and remain victorious in the face of its overwhelming might! So that it shall never again threaten innocent citizens with its reign of terror!”

Thunderblade stepped forward. “Yeah, let’s go kick some dragon butt!” she yelled. Through her mask Nightheart coldly glanced at her, the champion staring back in confusion. “What? That’s what you said, wasn’t it?”

The Axe stared towards the mountain, then lowered her gaze at the forest spreading out in front of them. “The battle will be very fierce, and the way to the dragon probably full of dangers” the orc warrior remarked, speaking in a rough, but not directly rude manner. “We must be very careful when we proceed. It’s possible not all of us will make it.”

A confident smile on her face Honeytooth tapped with her staff against the dusty road. “Don’t worry” she told her comrades in a kind, reassuring voice. She placed a hand on her chest, right over her heart. “With the divine gift bestowed upon me, I can heal you of all injuries you may receive.” Her soft expression suddenly hardened. “So let’s go give that dragon what it deserves!” she declared, sounding determinate and aggressive. For a short moment the pupils of her eyes narrowed to small rift, while their irises turned yellow.

With one last stroke on the strings Snakes put on a big grin, showing her sharp poison fangs as the echo of her guitar resonated through the night. “Well, what are we waiting for?” she asked. “It’s time for us to chip that dragon sucker into piecesss!” The snake-woman stuck out her split tongue, hissing in excitement.

In an exaggerated gesture Nightheart pulled her cloak around her body. “I do not approve of the vocabulary, but she is right: Let us get moving, onward towards our destiny!”

The sound of a sword being pulled out of its sheath sounded through the quiet night, Thunderblade raising her weapon towards the full moon. “Yeah, towards our destiny!”

Smiling Honeytooth put a hand on her hip. “That’s right” she nodded, her kind demeanor shifting into a slightly devious for a moment. “Towards our destiny!”

Looking rather bored the Axe crossed her arms. “Yeah” she stated without any vigor “Towards our destiny.”

And so the group set out, following the path that led to the dark mountain in the distance. Soon the lights of the village had faded behind them, while around them the light cover of tress was steadily becoming thicker. Eventually the path was completely enclosed by the forest. Above their heads there was still a clearing in the canopy however, allowing them to keep their destination in sight. The imposing summit appeared to become taller with each step they made towards it, while the whirl of dark clouds above it seemed to increase. Soon it became apparent the clouds were actually coming out of the mountain, a fine trail of black smock rising up from a cave near the peak. Under the shimmering light of the moon the heroines walked (respectively slithered) deeper and deeper into the forest, slowly but steadily approaching the goal of their journey, heading towards their destiny.

And they walked.

And walked.

Under the moonlight.

Towards the mountain and their destiny.

Slow but steady.

More slow actually.

Under the moonlight.

They walked.

Respectively slithered.

Towards their destiny.

“This is boring” Honeytooth grunted, slumping her shoulders.

“Yeah!” Thunderblade moaned, looking at the dark trees around them. “I mean aren’t adventures about having, you know – adventures?”

“Perhaps our bard can sing a little song to cheer up the atmosphere?” Nightheart offered, turning towards Snakes.

The snake-woman, who had idly tucked on the strings of her guitar up to this point put on a wide smirk. “Thought you’d never asssk” she hissed happily. She trimmed her guitar a bit, clearing her throat and closing her eyes. After a short calm she suddenly released a storm on her instrument, frantically smashing on the strings.

“AAAAAAAWWW YEEEEEEEAAAAAHHH!” Snakes' shrill voice cut through the silence of the night, the rest of the group jumping slightly in surprise. Screeching Birds were flying up all around them from the trees as she played loudly on her guitar, in a bizarre manner that seemed several centuries too early for this age.

“Through the wicked forest under the eyes of the moooon, we take a strooooll bringing chaoss and dooooom♪ The dragon ssssuuucker won’t stand a chance, something something sssomething something got to daance♪ GUITAR SSSOLO!!!”

Waggling with the tip of her tail she put the guitar behind her head, pressing it against her fedora hat while playing a highly complicated riff. Her face looking up she hissed and gargled at the moon, her poison fangs shimmering in the moon light as her split tongue wiped through the air.

The play abruptly stopped when Nightheart snatched the guitar from her.

“Hey, I was about to get to the best part!” Snakes complained, her slit-shaped pupils glaring at the rogue.

“Yes, that was what I was afraid of” Nightheart dryly replied, reluctantly handing back the instrument. As Snakes took a look around she noticed not only her, but Honeytooth and Thunderblade were also staring rather unhappily at her. Scoffing took back her guitar, silently she pulled on its strings by herself again.

While the rest of the group had stopped to scold their bard the Axe was still moving forward. A few meters ahead of the others she also came to a halt. “While I'd be more than happy to give our terrible bard a piece of my mind, I think this is here is more important” she told the rest of the group.

Jolting up in excitement other heroines dashed behind the orc brute. “What? What did you see?” Honeytooth asked expectantly.

“Bandits hiding for an ambush?” Nightheart asked, glancing around the forest.

“An evil monster blocking our path?” Thunderblade asked, sounding very eager to fight it.

“A space pirate riding on a unicorn?” Snakes asked, leading the others to furrow their brows at her. “…What? That’s totally a thing!”

The Axe shook her head. “Nope” she replied, pointing ahead. “The way just splits up.”

Everybody groaned, dropping their heads in disappointment. Forming a line they saw the dusty path was indeed splitting up in two separate ones. To the right the way seemed to leave the forest, going in a straight line directly towards the mountain. The night sky clearly illuminated the path, showing its straight course. There were no bushes or trees on the sides as far as they could see, and only a few small monsters were snoozing on the dust road itself, all of them looking very manageable to defeat. In striking contrast the path to the left was very crooked and narrow, and after a few meters led into an even gloomier part of the forest. The trees there all seemed to have holes and carvings in their bark that made it look like faces with evil grins were glaring at them. The canopy was so thick no trace of the moonlight was able to shine through it, the path vanishing a few meters beneath the trees. Howls of terrifying beasts were coming from the pitch-black woods, sending slight shivers over their spines.

Quickly regaining her composure the Axe adjusted her spiky glasses. “Since it is obviously the easier route, I'd say we take the straight path leading directly to the mountain” she suggested.

Nightheart nodded. “Agreed. Only idiots would go into a dark and probably wicked forest full of horrible monsters on their ow-”

“CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!” Thunderblade suddenly yelled, pumping her fist into the sky.

“OH YEAH!” Snakes shouted with a wide grin. “Let’s go crash thiss party!”

Nightheart slapped her mask, while the Axe rolled her eyes.

“Really?” Sunny asked, looking in a mixture of disbelief and fury at Indigo and Lemon. “You want to get us wiped out before we are even close to the dragon?”

"We are all absolute amateurs here" Sugarcoat stated. “We didn’t even get a level-up yet!”

Frowning Indigo crossed her arms. “You just complained how boring this is, and now you wanna take the boring route?” she snapped back.

“Yeah!” Lemon mourned. “We should go where the fun iss!”

“You don’t need to hiss when you don’t talk in character” Sugarcoat reminded her.

“I know, but hissing is awessssssome!” she grinned, spitting slightly as she talked with her tongue between her teeth.

The two factions exchanged some furious glances, before all eyes turned towards the fifth member of the group.

“What do you say, Honey?” Nightheart asked their priestess. The young cleric put a hand on her chin, looking thoughtfully at the two paths.

“I'm not sure” she admitted. “The straight path looks safer…but the crooked one probably has more loot!”

For several minutes the group stood in front of the splitting path, Nightheart and the Axe on the right side, Snakes and Thunderblade on the left. Honeytooth stood right in the middle, looking from one path to the other. “Jeez, make up your mind girl!” the paladin moaned, tapping impatiently with her steel boot on the dirt.

Honeytooth turned her head towards the champion. “Don’t pressure me!” she snapped at her. In the blink of an eye her teeth seemed to become a little sharper and longer, turning into small fangs before they retreated back to their normal size and shape. She then looked at the paths for a few more seconds, before raising her staff. “Alright!” she exclaimed, pointing with the tip of her staff straight ahead. “I shall now consult my divine leaders via an ancient ritual to decide which path shall lead us to greater fortune!”

“She’s gonna ‘eeny, meeny, moe’ it” the Axe whispered to Nightheart.

For a second Honeytooth appeared to be annoyed, then took in a deep breath. “Eeny, meeny, miney, moe” she began to recite the holy incantation passed down through the priestesses of her temple for generations while wailing her staff from one side to the other. “Catch a sinner by the toe. My gods told me to pick the best, and that - is - you!” She held out her staff, the tip pointing straight in one direction.

Encounter!

Cries of crows and owls hauled through the woods. Under the thick shield of the canopy not a single ray of light passed to the crooked path the group travelled on. Ahead of the others Snakes was slithering, happily humming by herself while holding up a torch, the only source of light to illuminate the way. Behind her the Axe was walking, followed by Thunderblade. The two armored warriors were carrying Nightheart, the Axe holding her feet while Thunderblade had grabbed her by the shoulders. The cloak of the rogue was dragged over the dusty road, while the noblesse herself seemed to be unconscious, the back of her hand lying on her mask. Beside the faint femme fatale Honeytooth was going, holding her staff over her body. A weak light emitted from the tip, streaming into the rogue’s body. The whole group seemed slightly torn up, their clothes full of dust and dirt. Not only their outfits had taken some bruises however, their bodies were also carrying some slight wounds. Mist was hovering over the ground, like a thick soup wailing around their ankles as they marched through the pitch-black forest. It felt like the trees were watching their every step, the torch casting eerie shades on their barks.

“I told you not to open that treasure chest” the Axe said over her shoulder to Thunderblade, who let out an angry huff in response.

“You said that about EVERY treasure chest we’ve found!” she complained. “We’ve been walking past three of them without opening one, but still had to defeat the demon trees, monster crows and undead squirrels guarding them! And after nearly losing my shield against that crazy dryad, I just had to open that one! How should I know it was a mimic?”

“You always have to consider mimics” the brute told her sternly. “You can expect one in every dark forest, dungeon or gloomy castle.”

Looking up at the dark ceiling of leaves Snakes made a ponderous face. “Wait, if the last one was a mimic, doesn’t thiss mean the others were probably reals treasure chestss?” she wondered.

The Axe shrugged. “Probably.”

Raising her gaze from her patient Honeytooth smiled towards the orc warrior. “Wonderful!” she chirped. “We skipped a ton of loot because our orc is an overly cautious coward. I’ll say it again: Our ORC is overly cautious!!” she snarled, flashing her fangs.

With a groan Thunderblade glanced down at the silver mask of Nightheart. “You know, for a nimble and fleet-footed rogue you are quite heavy” she remarked.

As if that comment had woken her from her coma Nightheart took her hand off her face, evilly looking upwards at the champion. “Oh be quiet and carry me, will you?” she snapped at her. “As a paladin, it would have been your job to protect me from that monster’s attack anyway!”

The paladin frowned. “Hey, you could have just dodged that slowpoke bite with your oh-so-quick feet!” She then turned angrily towards the priestess. “Besides, I was busy tending to my wounds, because our healer here was busy fighting her inner demon!”

Honeytooth cast a snide glance at the champion. “What?” she asked, stemming a hand against her hip. “It’s not my fault that stupid box on legs stomped on my robe!” She held up the hem, revealing a small rift in the fabric. “When it ripped, I guess I got a little…” Her eyes flickered yellow for a moment. “…carried away” she mumbled, before focusing on treating Nightheart’s wounds again.

The Axe shook her head. “You guys are terrible at your roles” she told them.

Through her mask Nightheart glared up at her. “That’s easy to say when your only role is to swing a giant axe...”

“Chill, dudes” Snakes chimed into the conversation. With her free hand she grabbed the neck of her guitar hanging over her back. “Hey, shall I play something to ease the atmosphere?"

“NO!!!” the others replied sharply in unison, causing the Snake-woman to pout.

Quietly the group moved on through the misty forest, cautious of any movement around them. After a while the light from Honeytooth’s staff faded. Smiling in content she looked down on Nightheart. “There, that should do it” she told her, Thunderblade and the Axe stopping. Carefully the two warriors let the rogue down, the Axe slowly setting her on her feet while Thunderblade helped her get up. The rogue was shaking for a moment, seeming a little insecure on her legs, but then quickly found her balance again. With a smile she looked down on herself, seeing all her bruises had disappeared.

“Thanks, Honeytooth” she said, bowing slightly in front of the priestess. “I owe you one.”

With her unarmored arm Thunderblade wiped some sweat from her forehead, also smiling. “Don’t ever make me worry like that again, Hearts!” she playfully scolded her.

Having not noticed the rest of the group had paused Snakes had kept on gliding over the crooked path. She wasn’t far from the others however when she also stopped. Holding up her torch she squinted her eyes. In her vertical irises a weak glimmer from the distance was reflecting. “Hey galsss!” she called out, swinging her tongue in excitement as she waved at the others to come over. “I think we’re almost out! Ssss!”

The group quickly caught up to their bard, staring down the path. Not too far away they could see the crooked way breaching through the trees, a weak light shining into the dark forest.

“Finally!” Nightheart sighed, putting a hand on her chest. “I thought we’d never leave this cursed place.”

Honeytooth nodded. “Oh, and please remind me: the next time my gods tell me to go into a dark and gloomy forest, I will change my faith.”

“Well, it was exciting” Thunderblade said, smiling a little sheepishly.

“Jumping from a cliff is also exciting” the Axe commented while moving on. The group made their way towards the exit, Snakes going ahead with the torch. The further they went down the path the more they could see outside of the sheen of flames, the light shining brighter with each step. Eventually Snakes tossed the torch on the ground, the others stomping over it as they dashed into the flowing light.

Stepping into the light the heroines were blinded for a moment, slowly adjusting to the light. Outside the woods there was a group of bushes, the five girls standing waist-high in leaves. The canopy of the forest edge still above their heads the group gazed forward. Just a few dozen meters in front of them they could see the foot of the mountain, solemnly towering over the forest. Awestruck they raised their heads, staring up the monumental wall of stone. From the bottom the summit was almost out of sight, surrounded by the circle of smoke. Despite the clouds above and forest behind them the moonlight still reached out to the small passage between the mountain and the trees, allowing them clear sight on what was ahead of them. As the group quietly stared at the destination of their journey for a while Honeytooth suddenly winced.

“Cover!” she whispered with pressure, quickly ducking herself in the bushes. The others immediately followed, only Snakes standing confused on the spot.

“What’ss wrourk!” The snake-woman nearly bit her tongue when Thunderblade grabbed her by her collar, dragging her wiggly body into the bushes.

“What did you see?” the paladin asked their priestess, carefully holding a hand in front of Snake’s complaining mouth (carefully not because she was afraid to hurt her, but because of the poison fangs). Quietly Honeytooth pushed the leaves aside, showing the area in front of the mountain to the whole group.

Straight ahead from their position there was a cave. A campfire was burning in front of it, three vaguely humanoid figures sitting around. Their skin was brown and wrinkly, covered in dirt all over their bodies. Sharp noses and ears pointed out from their faces, sporting two tiny eyes and swollen grumpy lips. Their limbs were frail and long, their arms hanging to the ground and legs stretched out to the fire, while their bellies were bloated with fat. In their lanky fingers they held thick wooden clubbers.

Nightheart backed off in disgust. “Gross!” she murmured, resisting the urge to throw up.

Snakes leaned closer in awe. “Cooool!” she whispered, staring with big eyes at the creatures.

“What are those things?” Thunderblade asked in a low voice.

“They are goblins, pesky little creatures commonly found in or near caves” the Axe explained quietly. “For experienced adventurer groups they are little more than a nuisance. But seeing how we barely managed to reach this point in one piece, I’d say for us they are absolutely fatal monstrosities who will probably defeat us within five seconds.”

Honeytooth looked sweetly at her. “Why, aren’t you an ever-sprouting fountain of optimism?” she chirped.

Slowly Thunderblade began to pull out her sword. “Wait!” Nightheart interrupted her, putting a hand on the paladin’s arm. Pulling her cloak back a little she let her dagger shine in the sparse moonlight. “I think I can take of this situation with a bit more… finesse” she said, smirking deviously at the goblins.

Thunderblade let her sword slide back into its sheath, snorting. “Fine. But just for the record: smacking stuff with a sword and shield also takes finesse!” she insisted.

With one of her clean and smooth hands Nightheart waved her off. “But of course, darling” she stated, taking a quick peek at the fire. While the cover of bushes wasn’t constant there were still some scattered around the camp side. One was located directly behind one of the goblins. Confidently Nightheart sneaked out of her hideout, approaching the group of monsters. Keeping herself ducked she watched the movements of her enemies, especially where their eyes were looking. Carefully setting one foot in front of the other she slunk towards the next bush, taking cover behind it for a second before moving on to the next. Each motion was timed and executed with precision, the rogue pausing every time she spotted a goblin turning its head in her direction. While keeping an eye on the monsters she slowly snuck up to them, her feet skillfully evading any branch or leaf that could have made a sound upon contact. The closer she came to her targets the more the heat of the campfire waved against her, while her nostrils caught the foul smell of the dirty creatures. Despite her low pace she reached the final bush relatively swiftly. Careful not to make any noise she hid between the branches. Her fingers reached for the dagger on her belt. Eyes fixed on the neck of the as she pulled out her weapon, ready to strike. Then, within the blink of an eye she leapt out of the bush, the goblin not even having time to turn its head as she raised the dagger above her head and…

“Excuse me Sunny” Sugarcoat interrupted her friend’s depictions “But you failed the stealth check.”

Holding her pen above her head Sunny stared in confusion at the girl with the three pigtails. She took a look at the dice lying in front of her, then at her character sheet, and at last the open story book. “What are you talking about?” she asked, angrily putting her pen on the table. “I needed a ten and got a 14!”

“True” Sugarcoat agreed, before pointing at small side note in the rule book. “But because you wear a long cloak you get a malus of 5 on stealth.”

Sunny raised an eyebrow. “You're kidding, right?” Sugarcoat held out the rule book to her. Sunny’s eyes scanned the page, her face turning into a frown. “That makes no sense!” she yelled, stemming her hands against her hips. “How can a cloak make me less sneaky?”

Indigo coughed. “Well it could go like this…”

As Nightheart was about to strike the goblin her foot suddenly got caught up in her cloak. Silently she waved her arms, trying to maintain balance. Despite her struggles however she eventually fell out of the bush, planting her masked face into the ground. The rouge slowly raised her head, peering up at three pair of small yellow eyes looking down on her…

The whole table trembled as Sunny slammed her hands against it, angrily standing up. “That's ridiculous!” she shouted. “My character is a righteous thief who skips over rooftops every night. She doesn't stumble over her own cloak!”

“You should have considered that before giving her a fancy cape” Sugarcoat remarked dryly.

Sour put a hand on Sunny's shoulder. “Look, I also think she’s nitpicking here, but she does have a point.” she told the short-haired girl who was trying to stare down Sugarcoat (with little success). Putting on a big smile she cooed: “So, could you please be so kind and accept your character failed so we can continue?”

Sitting back down Sunny grumbled something that vaguely sounded like a “Fine.”

With her face in the dirt Nightheart stared up at the three creatures. Squinting their eyes they showed their fangs at her, grinning slightly while one slapped his clobber against his hand. The femme fatale gulped, quickly crawling onto her knees. She didn’t know what was worse: The fact she was about to get beaten up, or their smell.

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, YOU EVIL MONSTERS!” Startled the three goblins turned their heads. The rest of the party had jumped out of the bushes, the Axe holding her weapon in both hands while Snakes and Honeytooth held their guitar respectively staff ready. Heroically pointing her sword at the goblins Thunderblade stood at the front. “You servants of the dragon shall not lay a hand on our comrade!” she declared, raising her weapon towards the sky. “For honour and glory, we shall face you in a fight that will turn into a legend, a tale so grand it will be recited for centu-“

“Excuse me, but could you give me a strength buff?” the Axe cut her off. The paladin seemed a bit irritated for a moment, but then nodded.

“Oh, right, of course.” Thunderblade turned towards the Axe, holding out her hand to her. A bright gleam surrounded the orc brute for a moment, before a crest of light popped up over her head. The luminescent emblem bore the sign of a clenched fist. “There you go!” the paladin stated, then raised her sword again. “ALRIGHT! Now for honour and glory, we shall face you in a fight that-”

“Sorry, but could I get a wisdom buff please?” Honeytooth interrupted her with an innocent smile plastered over her face. Thunderblade slumped slightly, looking a little annoyed at her comrade. “Hey, don’t look like that!” the priestess told her strictly. “I need it so I can heal YOUR wounds better!”

With a sigh Thunderblade held out her hand. After being surrounded by light for a second a transparent crest with the emblem of a book appeared above Honeytooth. “Thank you!” she chirped.

“Yeah yeah, whatever” the paladin murmured, before raising her sword once more in vigor. “ALRIGHT! For honour and glory we-”

“Hey, can you give me a strength buff too?” Snakes chimed in.

Dropping her blade Thunderblade turned towards the bard. “You’re a bard! You don’t need strength!”

Snakes grinned. “Yeah, but the fist looks just RATSSS!”

Thunderblade rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Fine” she mumbled, casting the strength buff on Snakes.

“AWESSSSOME!” the snake-woman hissed.

The paladin breathed in sharply, slowly holding up her sword. “Alright” she began again, trying to keep her composure. “For honour and-”

Her speech was again interrupted as Nightheart, who was back on her feet cleared her throat. “Um, pardon me please, but could you be so kind and-”

“WHAT?!” Thunderblade shouted, the vein on her forehead twitching in fury. “Want me to give you an agility boost so you can hop around a little more elegantly?! Or maybe you need a buff in manners so you guys STOP INTERRUPTNG MY AWESOME PEP SPEECH!!!”

Arms crossed over her chest Nightheart stared sternly at the paladin. “Okay, first, you aren’t seriously suggesting your manners are better than mine? And second…” She then paused to dodge the strike of a goblin, barely evading the hard clobber. “I don’t need a buff, I need the paladin to stop psyching herself up and get her butt over here to protect me like she is supposed to!” she blared at Thunderblade while dancing around the goblin’s attacks.

Although she was gazing furiously at Nightheart a slight blush crept onto the cheeks of the champion. “Alright, alright” she muttered. “But you’re gonna let me finish my next pep speech!” She pulled back her sword, taking a fighting stance. Multiple crests of light popped up above her head, the paladin grinning as the air around her begin to shimmer in holy energy.

“Time to show ‘em my stuff!” she declared, her eyes gleaming with the fire of the sun. Hollering a mighty battle cry that raised her spirit Thunderblade stormed forward. Surrounded by a golden aura she seemed to be flying over the ground, leaving a trail of churned earth in her wake. The goblin who attacked Nightheart stopped, looking in horror at the paladin charging at it. As she stormed towards her target Thunderblade raised her sword, the edge being encased in a golden light that made it three times bigger than normally. Just in front of the goblin she planted her boot into the ground, swiftly striking her weapon downwards. Like an arrow from a bow string the light was shot off her blade, flying forward as a holy beam of light cutting everything in its path. With the speed of light it hit the wall of the mountain, leaving a deep cut in the hard rock.

Thunderblade panted, her face covered in sweat. The light around her and her blade dispersed, while she felt the strength from her other buffs fading as well. As the dust began to settle she could see the victim of her attack.

She has missed it.

Her jaw dropped the paladin stared in front of her, nearly letting go of her sword. Her attack had left a deep chasm in the ground that reached up to the scar in the mountain. Next to the cleft the goblin was standing, completely unharmed and snickering.

“You shouldn’t have used all your buffs in one attack” she could hear the voice of the Axe calling out from behind her. “Goblins are very good at evading attacks.”

The blunt words of the orc and giggles of the goblin made the champion scowl. “And you’re telling me that NOW?” she mourned, narrowing her eyes in annoyance. They went wide open again however when she noticed a shadow in front of her face. Seeing the clobber reach for her she tried to evade, but her heavy armor made her just a second too slow. All of her comrades winced upon the smack. The impact sent her tilting over, lying on her back with her arms spread out on the ground. There was an awkward smile on her face, while her eyes looked like they were counting the stars circling above her head.

“Don’t worry, I got this!” Honeytooth quickly called out, rushing over to the wounded paladin while the Axe spurted towards the goblin, clenching her large weapon in both hands.

Watching the scene Nightheart put her hands on her hips, her arms slightly covered by her cloak, and let out a sigh. “Oh well, at last she got that creep’s attention from myikes!” Pushed forward she put both her hands on her back, feeling a sharp pain jolting through it. With a grin that showed its rotten teeth the goblin behind her raised its arm, preparing for another strike. Stumbling Nightheart barely evaded the second blow, hastily fumbling around the dagger in her hand as she turned around. Before she even had the chance to counterattack however she bumped with her back against something, and heard a loud shriek. A moment later she shrieked herself as she fell down, taking down and landing on whoever she had bumped into. Groaning she rubbed her masked forehead, feeling a little dizzy. Her senses abruptly sharpened however when a snarl beneath her made her realize who she had landed on.

”GET OFF!!” Honeytooth blared into Nightheart’s ear. The rogue felt like hundreds of tiny needles were poking into her back where she lay on priestess’ face, as if lots of tiny hairs were growing out from it. Quickly she got back up on her feet.

“S-sorry!” Nightheart quickly apologized, turning around and reaching a hand out for the girl on the ground. The priestess pouted, the slight layer of fur disappearing again as she took Nightheart's hand and let herself be helped up. She seemed like she was about to scold the rogue, but was cut off by a clobber going down right between the two heroines. Startled they quickly glanced at the goblin in front of them and then at each other, their eyes wide in shock, before making a run for it. The goblin chased after them, swinging his clobber through the air and barely missing the two as they were racing around the still unconscious Thunderblade.

Meanwhile the Axe was swinging her two-handed weapon in wide arcs at the remaining two of the pesky creatures. But her opponents were surprisingly fleet-footed, jumping back at each of her attacks and grinning with their fawn teeth at her. The wart-strewn face of the orc turned even more aggressive as she pulled back her weapon for an especially powerful strike. No matter how much strength her attacks had however, the large weapon moved so slowly the goblins had no trouble avoiding it, laughing at the slow brute. With a grunt the Axe stopped her assault, slumping her shoulders. She looked over to Snakes, who was standing on the side with the guitar in her hand. “Hey, can you play a song that will improve my precision?” she asked her.

Looking up at the stars Snakes pondered for a moment. “Hmmmm nope” she eventually replied.

“Then how about one that will lower their chance to evade?”

“Uh-uh.”

“A song that enhances the reach of my weapon.”

“Wait a sec… nope.”

With a sore look Sugarcoat turned to Lemon. “Did you give your character any skills that actually make use of your guitar somehow?”

Lemon looked over her character sheet for a moment. “Err… nope.”

“Great” Sugarcoat murmured. “This means my character is basically useless, because the goblins have way too high evasion for her to hit them. And one of our buffers who could fix this has no buffs, while the other one is dazzled.”

With a dice in her hand Indigo glared at Sugarcoat. “Hey, I don’t have a precision buff either!” she told her sternly. “And don’t blame us you picked a class who can do nothing but swing her axe and hope she doesn’t miss.”

“I love the irony of this comment” Sour snickered “You know, since it’s coming from the girl who wasted all her abilities because HER CHARACTER MISSED!!!” Everybody stared at the huffing and puffing Sour as if they were expecting her to turn into a fanged beast.

With a sigh Indigo raised the hand with the dice. “Alright, ten or higher and I wake up” she declared, throwing the dice. It rolled over the table, the numerous sides dancing on the map until it came to a halt…

Feeling a little groggy the paladin got back to her senses. She put a hand on her aching head, mumbling as she slowly stood up again. Once she was on her feet she took a look around. At first she thought to be still in a daze for everything seemed to turn around her, until she realized it were actually Nightheart and Honeytooth running around her, screaming while a goblin was going after them. She first looked a little confused at the scene, before a big grin formed on her face. As her comrades had passed her she stuck out her foot, the goblin running right into it. Screeching the creature stumbled, falling flat on its face. The champion looked down on it, rather proud of her work.

Suddenly the confidence vanished from her face when she noticed the other two goblins were approaching her from the side. The one on the ground also quickly got on its feet again, staring furiously at the paladin. A little worried Thunderblade stepped back. She couldn’t retreat far however before she bumped against Nightheart and Honeytooth. Soon the Axe and Snakes joined them, driven back by the other two goblins. Standing shoulder to shoulder the five heroines faced the three monsters baring their fangs at them. Nervously the group moved backwards, their muscles stiff from tension. Eventually their backs bumped against the mountain, leaving no room to escape the approaching creatures.

“Well, we held out a few more seconds than I thought” the Axe stated.

Thunderblade held out her sword towards the goblins, barely able to hide her panic. “Um… anybody got an ace up their sleeve left?” the champion asked, a hint of despair in her voice.

Hastily Snakes’ snake eyes looked around. When she spotted a rock behind the three goblins she suddenly snapped with her fingers. “Hey, I ttthink I have an idea!” the bard exclaimed.

“Oh please!” Nightheart muttered, waving her off. “As if you could contribute anything productive.”

Honeytooth looked at the three angry monsters. “Well, seeing how she can hardly make things worse, I’d say GO FOR IT!” she shouted.

After taking in a deep breath the snake-woman dashed forward, keeping her body close to the ground as she slithered past the goblins. They and her companions stared in surprise as she winded herself around the rock, wrapping her tail around it while raising her body into the air. Turned towards the gaping audience the bard held the neck of her guitar tightly with one hand, raising the other one towards the full moon.

“FLASH MOB!!!” she yelled, pulling on all the strings simultaneously. The melody cut through the dark, startling everybody. The animals in the forest howled and screamed, but their noises were soon drowned by the enthusiastic snake-woman as she shouted and wiggled her body on the rock, playing with feverish passion on her instrument.

Dumbstruck the rest of the heroes stared at their bard. The goblins also watched her, one tilting its head in confusion while another scratched its bald head. Suddenly the third one began to tap its feet to the rhythm. The other two first stared at it in surprise, but soon also joined in. One began to twitch its shoulders to the beat, and another bopped its head, slightly at first, then steadily harder. As if on command they began to move their hands and feet to the music, shuffling while pointing with their thumbs to the sides. Turning around themselves they spun like gyroscopes over to the bard, clapping their hands as they stopped in a line right in front of the rock. Following the melody of the snake-woman they put on a wild choreography, moving in perfect sync to each other. Snakes’ tongue danced in the air as she wailed away on her guitar, the goblins shaking, shuffling and twisting their bodies to the banging rhythm.

Thunderblade, Nightheart and Honeytooth stared awkwardly at the scene, before glancing at each other. Eventually however they shrugged their shoulders, and jumped over to the rock. Joining the flash mob they moved alongside the goblins, clapping their hands and bopping their heads while stomping their feet on the ground. Her arms crossed in front of her the Axe glared at the dancing party of heroes and monsters, growing increasingly more furious. When they performed a moonwalk under the full moon she couldn’t hold back anymore.

“STOP!” Sugarcoat pointed at the rule book. “There is no check for flash mobs!”

Holding her hands like she was playing on a guitar Lemon looked at Sugarcoat. “Aw come on, that’d be so cool!” she begged her, putting a hand on her character sheet. “And I need to do something with this music stat! I spent like half of my points on it, but never get to use it because all we ever do is fight!”

Indigo raised an eyebrow. “You make it sound like that’s a problem.”

Taking the rule book Sugarcoat held it up. “The rules precisely describe what stat needs to be checked in which situation” she lectured the green-haired girl, opening the book on the corresponding page. “The music stat would be helpful in cities to earn money by performing on the street, or gain the trust of a stranger in a conversation. However, if you had made some research before creating your character you would have noticed there are no cities or conversations in this scenario.” She closed the book again, glancing at Lemon. “So, I’m afraid the music stat is pretty much useless.”

Lemon dropped her head on the table. “Bummer…”

A cough turned everybody’s attention towards Sunny. “Um, as much as I hate to say this, but…” She hesitated a moment, before stating with a smile: “I’m on Lemon’s side.”

Four pairs of eyes grew wide in surprise. “REALLY?!”

“Well, yeah” Sunny confirmed. “Of course, I would have never used such a silly formulation like flash mob in a medieval fantasy game. But I find getting the goblins to cease fighting via music to be a rather creative and original way to solve the situation peacefully.”

Sour put a hand on her chin. “Well, it is funny” she admitted. “Dumb, but funny.”

Again Sugarcoat placed her finger on the rule book. “But there is no rule goblins can be convinced to join flash mobs!” she insisted.

Indigo, who had been sitting around with her head and arms on the table, sat up straight. “Alright, who thinks goblins should be able to join flash mobs?” she asked.

Everybody but Sugarcoat raised a hand.

“You can’t just add rules through democratic vote!” Sugarcoat told them.

“Who thinks we should be able to add rules through democratic votes?” Indigo asked.

Everybody but Sugarcoat raised a hand.

“Then it’s settled” Indigo confidently declared. “Now let’s go on!”

Sugarcoat slumped in her chair, grumbling.

After dancing with the heroines for a while the goblins bid them farewell, setting out to spread the magic of flash mobs through the lands. Snakes waved after them, until their silhouettes completely disappeared in the dark forest. “Nothing like a good flash mob to make new friendsss” she hissed in content.

“It was kind of amusing” Nightheart admitted, wiping some dust off her clothes. A little more sharply she remarked: “Of course it would have been better if you actually played some decent music instead of making noise.”

Snakes narrowed her eyes. “Careful there” she warned the rogue, licking her poison fangs with her the tips of her tongue. Quickly Thunderblade stepped between the two, holding a hand out to each.

“Hey, would you two cut it?” she scolded them, before saying more softly: “We defeated the goblins! I’d say that’s a reason to celebrate.”

“We didn’t really defeat them” Sugarcoat reminded the paladin, looking rather grumpy. “And considering our performance in battle, I’d say it was sheer luck we made it out.”

Honeytooth walked up behind her. “Aw, come on” she tweeted into her ear, pinching a big wart on her cheek. “A victory is a victory – so stop being such a dork.”

The orc brute shook her off. “I’m not a dork, just a realist” she informed the priestess. “Also, if I may remind you…” She turned around, everybody else following her gaze. The whole atmosphere suddenly became a lot more tense and serious, looks of concern and worry crossing the heroines’ faces.

Staring into gaping darkness the group looked at the cave that led into the mountain. A slight breeze was blowing out of it, making their hair flutter slightly.

“…the real battle is just about to start.”

Through the dungeon...

The inside of the mountain was dark and desolate, devoid of any light. Ahead of the other heroines the Axe was leading the way, followed by the rest of the group. The torch in the hand of the orc was the only source of light down here, the moonlight having vanished a few steps after they had entered. Nervously heroines watched how the flickering flames cast dancing shadows on the rough walls. The cave looked like a giant creature had carved out the mountain with its bare claws. The ground they walked on was just as uneven, making it kind of slippery despite being absolutely dry. Outside of the torch’s sheen there was nothing but darkness, both behind and in front of them. Only the crackling of the torch and echo of their own footsteps sounded through the cave. Nothing had happened so far, the group having walked through the mountain without any interferences or encounters. Yet the tension was so high each of them felt as if a heavy weight was lying on their hearts, the darkness and silence tearing on their nerves.

Gazing hectically around Nightheart rushed behind Thunderblade, as if she wanted to hide from the shadows behind her back. “O-okay… anything else having the creeps here?” the masked woman asked. Watching one of the shades it suddenly seemed to turn into a monster, with gleaming eyes and a huge jaw lunging for her. Screeching she grabbed Thunderblade’s shoulders, making everyone else wince in shock.

Despite being just as nervous the paladin forced out a laugh. “W-what’ wrong?” she asked, trying to sound confident and fearless. “’Fraid of your own sha-”

A loud roar suddenly cut her off, deep and primal as if it had travelled here all the way from the beginning of time. Resonating from wall to wall it echoed through the entire cave, making the walls tremble. For a moment the bestial roar was drowned however by Thunderblade’s high-pitched scream of terror. The brave paladin jumped into the arms of Nightheart, her whole body shaking. “DON’T EAT MEEE!!!” she screeched.

For a brief second Nightheart looked annoyed at her, before the ongoing roar made her shiver as well. The Axe grabbed her weapon while Honeytooth tightened the grip on her staff, their bodies stiff as they stared around into the barely illuminated darkness.

Suddenly, the roar turned into hysterical laughter.

“DUUUUUUUUDE!!!” Holding her stomach with both hands Lemon tilted back in her chair, chortling so loud almost fell over. “You should totally see the look on your faces!”

Looking around Sour seemed disorientated for a moment, as if she didn’t realize she was not in a dark cave, but in a basement. Once she had gathered herself again she turned towards the laughing girl, putting on a lovely look. ”Very funny, Lemon – you want us all to get a heart-attack?!” she groaned, knitting her eyebrows and gritting her teeth.

Slowly Lemon calmed down. “Sorry” she said between giggles, wiping a tear from her eye. “But you were all like, TOTALLY absorbed in this stuff, like you were REALLY thinking you were walking through a dark cave of a mountain!”

Sugarcoat glanced around the dark and gloomy room. “The atmosphere is kind of fitting” she remarked.

“It was so tempting, I just HAD to give you a little scare” Lemon winked at the others. Forming a funnel with her hands she let out another loud roar, not nearly as bestial as it had been in their imagination, before bursting out turned into laughter again. “Pretty good, ain’t it?”

“Not cool, Zest!” Indigo scoffed, furiously gazing at Lemon. Her anger quickly gave way to confusion however when she heard someone coughing into her ear. Turning her head she looked right into Sunny’s frowning face. Indigo was confused, before realizing she was lying in her arms, arms wrapped around her neck. With a shy smile she got off Sunny, quietly sitting back on her own chair.

Sighing Sunny ran her hand over her face. “Alright” she said, trying to stay calm. “Let’s just ignore that childish interruption of our dear little girl here and start over from the point BEFORE she nearly scared us all to death!”

“Oh no, that dragon roar was totally canon!” Lemon insisted, being very serious. “Just like your characters chickening out!”

“Sorry dearie, but just because you can roar like a wild animal doesn’t mean your character can” Sunny told her.

“Oh no, no, no, no, hold on!” Hastily Lemon searched through the mess of sheets in front of her. “Ah, here it is!” she grinned, pulling the one with the abilities of her race out from the chaotic staple. Holding it upside down she turned it around, then smacked it on the table. “There!” she proudly declared, pointing at the entry on the bottom. “It says because snake-people are the descendants of dragons and stuff, they can roar like ‘em if they want to!” She leaned back, victoriously sticking her chest out. “So, my little Snakes CAN scream like a wild animal!”

Sugarcoat leaned over the sheet of paper. “You realize this is an ultimate ability you can only use once every game?” she asked, putting her finger on the sheet. Puzzled Lemon followed Sugarcoat’s finger. It pointed at a small notification in the bottom of the dragon roar entry, reading “number of uses” – and next to it the number one.

The pink cheeks of the punk rocker turned even pinker. “Oopsie” she whispered, grinning in shame while sliding down her chair.

”It’s not a problem” Sour assured her, smiling in comforting warmth at her friend. “You just wasted one of your best abilities for a stupid prank. No reason to be mad at you.” Her comforting warmth turned into scolding coldness.

“Can’t we just act like this didn’t happen?” Sunny asked. After a look at Sugarcoat’s face however she mumbled: “Wait, forget this. I don’t wanna get into another argument with Miss Nitpicky over there.”

“No problem” Indigo muttered, dropping her head slightly. “Tis gonna make it just a little more challenging.” Even she however didn’t seem convinced by her words.

After having digested the shock the group moved on, the bard under constant glares which she tried to ignore as she slithered along. As they marched deeper into the mountain however the rage towards the snake-woman gradually faded, being replaced by the uneasiness the dark cave cast on their souls.

Nervously Nightheart stared on the walls around them again. The flickering shadows caused her to shiver slightly, the rogue pulling her cloak closer around her body. She was about to focus her gaze on the orc leading the way, when her eyes caught something on the wall. Just barely inside the wandering sheen of the torch she spotted a line of strange symbols, some sort of runes carved into the stone. “Hey, what’s that?” she called out, causing everybody to stop. Raising her hand the rogue pointed at the mysterious writing, the symbols dancing in the light of the-

“Excuse me, Sunny” Sugarcoat chimed in “But your insight is too low to spot the secret writing.”

Startled Sunny jolted up. She looked at her character sheet, then at the story book in front of her, before sneering at Sugarcoat. “No, it isn’t!” she told her. “I take it you are referring to the fact we are in a cave, so the darkness causes a malus on insight for every character.” Triumphantly she put her finger on her character sheet. “However, you have missed my character possesses the ‘Night sight’-talent! It reduces the malus of the darkness, giving her just enough insight to spot the secret writing.” With a smug smirk she glanced over to Sugarcoat. “Or were you gonna tell me my cloak give me a malus on insight too, dearie?”

Sugarcoat shook her head. “No, but your mask does.”

Taken by surprise Sunny winced. “THAT’S-” she burst out, but then paused. “Okay, that actually makes sense, but still, COME ON!”

“Can’t you just let it slip?” Sour asked the blunt girl, leaning against the table. “I wanna know what’s with that hidden message!”

“No!” Sugarcoat insisted, sounding a little sore. “I’ve been way too lenient already. At this rate we could just jump to the final battle and one-hit the dragon with a random attack!”

Lemon shrugged. “Sounds good to me.”

Raising her hands Indigo gestured everyone to calm down. “Relax, guys” she said, putting an arm over the backrest of her chair. “I think I have an idea how to settle this…”

Nervously Nightheart stared on the walls around them. The flickering shadows caused her to shiver slightly, the rogue pulling her cloak closer around her body. She was about to focus her gaze on the orc girl leading the way. Suddenly she felt her foot bumping against a stone on the ground. Before she could react her whole body was falling forward, landing hardly on the floor. The impact caused her mask to slide off her face, the silver ornament clanking as it skipped over the hard stone. Groaning Nightheart slowly got on her knees. She snatched her mask, about to put it back on her face. As she looked a little dizzily upwards however she paused, squinting her eyes. Just barely inside the wandering sheen of the torch she spotted a line of strange symbols, some sort of runes carved into the stone.

“Is making my character fall on her face the only thing you can think of?” Sunny asked sarcastically.

“As long as it works” Indigo smirked.

Sour turned towards Sugarcoat. “Are you okay with that, oh great overseer of tiny annotations?” she asked in cynical kindness.

“If she loses some HP for falling” Sugarcoat responded.

Sunny was about to protest, but the combined glares of the other girls silenced her. “Fine” she mumbled, puffing her cheeks as she pouted.

“Hey, what’s that?” Nightheart called out, causing everybody to stop. After she got back on her feet and put her mask back on the rogue pointed at the mysterious writing, the symbols dancing in the light of the torch.

“Looks like an ancient inscription” the Axe remarked.

Thunderblade scratched her chin, tilting her head as she looked at the symbols. “Err, anyone here who can read that junk?”

“Well it is the cave of a dragon, so it could be written in dragon hieroglyphs” Honeytooth theorized, turning with a sweet smile towards Snakes. “And as she just demonstrated, we have a descendant of the dragons right here.”

The bard blushed, staring up the wall. Her horizontal eyes scanned the writing, slowly deciphering it. “It says sssomething about a shortcut to the dragon's lair” she told the others.

Nightheart raised an eye-brow. “Well that’s convenient.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little too convenient?” the Axe asked skeptically.

“Oh don’t be such a pessimist!” Honeytooth snickered, turning towards Snakes. “Where is this shortcut?”

Snakes looked around the walls. “Over there!” she exclaimed, pointing straight up. Raising their heads the group followed her finger to the dark ceiling. As the Axe held up the torch they could vaguely see the contours of a hole in the stone.

The cheerful expression of the priestess turned rather sour. ”Great” she mourned. ”A secret passage you only find when you can read dragon runes, and are only able to reach when you can fly.”

With a ponderous face Thunderblade inspected the hole in the tall ceiling. “Well, anybody volunteer for bottom?” she asked into the round.

”Are you kidding me?” Honeytooth yelled, furiously pointing upwards. ”We’re not gonna make a leg-up up there!”

“You got a better idea?” the paladin asked with knitted eye-brows.

Honeytooth was about to reply something, but then paused. After thinking for a moment she slumped her shoulders. “Let’s draw straws.”

A few minutes later Honeytooth found herself as the bottom of a living totem, a rogue and a snake-woman above her while an orc brute climbed up her body.

“Ouch!” The priestess yelped as a spiky boot stomped on her face. "Watch out where you step!" she snapped at the orc. Clenching the feet of Nightheart her fingers swelled slightly, a vein throbbing on the back of each hand while her nails turned into sharp claws.

“Hey, not so tight!” Nightheart called down, gritting her teeth as she felt both Honeytooth’s finger squeezing her feet and the Axe climbing up her body. “And you, a bit more careful!” she coughed at the orc. It was hard for her to talk due to the wiggly pink snake tail wrapped around her neck and chest. “I’m in the worst place here!”

“Hey, I’m the one who’s gonna have those spike bootss on her shoulderss!” Snakes hissed at the rogue as the Axe reached her.

“Oh, you poor things!” Honeytooth sobbed, looking pitifully at the girls above her before making a grimace. “I’ll have four people standing on my shoulders, damnit!”

“If you’d asked me I would have taken the bottom” the Axe stated as she reached the top of Snakes. “It would have actually made more sense to have the ones with the heaviest armors down there and not on top.”

Thunderblade, standing at the feet of the four people tall tower, looked a little grumpily at her. “Do you do that on intent?” she asked in cynicism. “Having good ideas when it’s too late?”

Snakes huffed as the Axe got on her shoulders, the heavy iron boots digging through her rolled up sleeves into her scales. “Just get up here!” she moaned, grabbing the smooth metal of the orc’s footwear. “The shorter we keep thiss the better!”

After spitting into her palms and rubbing them together Thunderblade began to climb onto the top of the leg-up. Her boots were not spiky like the Axe’s, but the hard iron still caused the one she currently pressed them against to wince and groan as she got up their bodies. Eventually she reached the orc brute on top, and climbed onto her shoulders. The tower of girls trembled slightly, each heroine feeling the weight above them. Thunderblade carefully straightened herself, holding out her arms to keep balance. Once she stood straight on top of her comrades she raised her gaze above her. Just a few feet over her head the hole was gaping in the ceiling. Slowly she reached her armored arm for it. Her finger clutched into thin air, the edge of the hole being a few inches out of her reach. A little frustrated she stretched herself as much as she could, slightly hopping on the Axe’s shoulder.

“Stop it, or we’re gonna fall!” the Axe shouted at her.

“It’s not enough!” the champion called down. “We need to get higher!”

“Oh no problem!” Honeytooth chirped, before mumbling sarcastically: "We’ll just spontaneously grow a few inches."

Past the other members of their group Thunderblade stared down at their priestess, seeing the bad temper in her face. Her lips curled up to a smirk. “Sorry, did you say something?” she asked. “I don’t speak whining.”

Irritated Honeytooth looked up. “W-what?”

“Oh you heard me right!” the champion called down, sneering at the priestess. “You’re just a whiny little girl hanging on the seam of her gods! Bet’cha can’t even pick a robe without asking for divine guidance”

The eyes of Honeytooth turned yellow. “Hey, don’t insult my faith!”

“Aw, did I hurt the little puppy’s feelings?” the paladin asked in mocked sympathy. “Do you need a stroke behind your ears?”

Honeytooth crunched with her teeth, which were growing into long sharp fangs. “I’m warning you, you better stop right here or…”

“Or what?” Thunderblade interrupted her. “Will the little puppy nibble on my ankles?”

A snarling sound came out of Honeytooth’s throat. Nightheart could feel how the grip on her feet was tightened. Not only did the strength of the hands holding her seemed to increase however, the palms and fingers also began to feel… hairier. “Um, Thunder?” the rogue raised her voice in concern.

“Just admit it!” the paladin went on, the contours of Honeytooth’s face turning more animalistic and furious with each word she spoke. “You’re just a whiny little whelp wanting attention who can’t even properly heal her comrades because you're too weak to get over your anger issues!”

The totem trembled. Hearing an angry growl beneath them the four girls on top of Honeytooth could feel themselves being pushed up, rising towards the ceiling. Nightheart waved her arms through the air, Snakes wrapped her tail more tightly around Nightheart, and the Axe held stronger onto Thunderblade’s boots. Trying to keep her balance Thunderblade watched the hole above her approaching, reaching out her hand for it. Just as her fingertips grazed the stone however the ascension stopped. She tried to clench the edge of the hole, but her efforts were in vain. “Aaaaaaand… yo momma’s fat” she said after pondering for a moment.

The howl of a wolf echoed through the cave. "WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT MY MOTHER?!?" a beastly voice blared from below, shaking the walls. In an instant the tower of heroines shot up several inches. Instantly the paladin grabbed the edge of the hole and pulled herself up. Climbing into it she entered a small tube-like corridor running horizontally from the cave. Once she was completely inside, the corridor so narrow she had to keep her head low even when kneeling she leaned over the hole, looking down on the hero totem.

“Thanks Honey!” she happily called to her. “You’re awesome!”

Immediately the other three girls dropped to their original altitude. “Aw, thank you♥” Honeytooth said all gentle and sweet, before adding more grimly: “About time you noticed.”

Sitting as straight as it was possible Thunderblade looked confidently down on her comrades. “See, guys?” she exclaimed with pride. “There’s no problem that can’t be solved if we put a bit of hard work and some wits into it. Taking that dragon down will be a jiffy!”

The Axe raised her gaze, looking at the paladin in the hole several meters above her. “And how will the rest of us get up there?” she asked.

Dropping her victorious grin Thunderblade blinked down at her comrades. “Eeerrrrrr...”

And then she got back down and they continued on the normal route.

The final battle

With a powerful swing the Axe split the ore golem apart. The greasy creature’s roar sounded like it was gargling pebbles, the two halves of its body slowly dissolving into crumbles of raw iron. Turning into a pile of ore it grew silent, lying in front of the orc’s feet. The Axe stared down at the foe she just fell, panting slightly. As she put her weapon back on her back she turned around. Her comrades were standing behind her, all panting and sweating, with three more piles of iron ore lying between them. Snakes was leaning against the wall of the cave with her hat knocked from her head, Nightheart leaned forward and clenched her knees, Thunderblade lay on the ground with her limbs stretched out and Honeytooth, the torch in one and her staff in the other hand, was tilting her neck back towards the ceiling as she caught her breath. A pair of fangs was shining in her mouth, slowly retreating back to their normal size.

Glancing around the exhausted members of her group the Axe adjusted her metal glasses. “The dragon is so gonna turn us to ashes” she stated flatly.

Leaning her head forward Honeytooth looked at the Axe, the last remnants of yellow in her eyes vanishing as she smiled at the orc. “Don’t be absurd!” she comforted her. “Just because a handful of weak golems were already more than we can handle doesn’t mean we can’t deal with a giant fire-breathing monstrosity that can wipe out entire armies in the blink of an eye.” Her whole body slumped, a depressed sigh making its way out of her mouth.

While she spoke Thunderblade got back on her feet. “Well, we’ve got this far” she declared, though without any vigor in her voice. “Might as well go all the way.”

With her tail Snakes flipped up her fedora hat lying on the ground. “As if I’m gonna turn around!” she yelled, snatching her hat and putting it back on top of her wild mane. “I didn’t join thiss party just to stop a few inches before I get to see one of the most radical beassts ever!”

Stretching her back Nightheart groaned slightly. “I guess there are worse ways to meet your doom” she mumbled. “Though honestly, I can’t think of that many.”

Honeytooth handed the torch back to the Axe. Grunting she took the flame, leading the way deeper into the mountain. The others followed her, their steps slower and more strained than at the beginning of their adventure. As the cave made a curve in front of them they stopped for a moment. There was a weak glimmer of light coming from around the corner, pulsating slightly.

“There seems to be some kind of fire” the Axe concluded.

Nightheart gulped. “And this is the lair of a fire-breathing dragon…”

Metal screeched as Thunderblade pulled her sword out of its sheath. “Looks like this is it” she murmured. “The final battle.”

The group exchanged some glances, before slowly walking around the corner. As the light intensified the Axe tossed the torch on the ground, taking out her two-handed axe. With her comrades behind her she marched around the curve, the others following her into the warm light.

The cave opened into a huge dome-like hall. A large platform was occupying roughly half of its space, going from the entrance to the middle of the room. The edge of the platform fell several meters downwards, before ending in a pool of lava. The flowing magma put the place in an orange-yellow sheen, the group feeling the heat all over their bodies. From the center of the lava pool a pillar of smoke was rising up straight towards the ceiling, vanishing in a giant hole.

As they looked around Nightheart spotted a small hole at the top of the entrance. “Well, there is our secret shortcut” she grumped, pointing above their heads.

Snakes looked up at the exit of the passage. “Too bad we didn’t have ssome kind of rope to get us all up” said, unconsciously wiggling the tip of her tail.

Thunderblade and the Axe prepared their weapons. “Is everybody ready?” the paladin asked.

Honeytooth looked a little annoyed at her. “Once you buffed us, yes.”

“Oh, right” Thunderblade blushed. She gave everyone the buff they needed (and Snakes the strength buff), then turned back to the column of black smoke. “Alright, let’s wake up that dragon and put it to sleep!” she exclaimed, raising her sword into the air.

The Axe frowned. “That makes no sense.”

“Just swing your axe, Axe.”

Slowly the five heroines moved over the platform, towards the smoke. They weren’t even halfway there however when the ground beneath them suddenly began to shake. Trembling the heroines tried to keep their balance, Snakes rolling up her tail to give her more support.

“W-what’s going on?” Nightheart screeched, falling on her knees. Thunderblade nearly followed, but managed to press her iron boot tightly against the ground.

“Stay on your toes!” she exclaimed. The ground in the middle of the platform was starting to break, a red light shining through the cracks. With a loud explosion it burst open, a huge pillar of flames rising up to the ceiling. Holding her shield up the champion shielded herself them from the stones flying around, the others cowering behind her. As the hail subsided and the fire had burned down the paladin lowered her shield, the group facing a crater in the middle of the room.

From the hole a green hand emerged, its lanky fingers grabbing the edge with long sharp nails. Slowly a large humanoid creature pulled itself out of the hole. Like Snakes its body was covered in scales, but instead of resembling a snake it looked more like a lizard. In one hand it held a saber, in the other a black shield. Sticking out its split tongue the vertical eyes of the monster scanned the group. Another of those lizard men then dragged itself out of the hole, followed by a third. The three stared at the group with a slightly dumb look on their faces, hissing and gargling with their throats.

Putting her hand under her cloak Nightheart grabbed the hilt of her dagger. “Are those the dragon’s guardians?” she questioned.

“Probably” the Axe stated, taking a fighting stance. Suddenly Honeytooth stepped in front of the orc brute, holding out her arms.

“Wait, maybe we don’t have to fight!” she said, turning towards Snakes. “You speak dragon tongue. Maybe you can convince them to leave us alone because of your shared heritage?”

The bard frowned. “Hey, just because we both have scaless doesn’t mean-”

“JUST DO IT!” the priestess snarled, the hairs on her brows growing more numerous as she knitted them.

Slightly intimidated Snakes slithered forth. The three lizard men looked at her as she began to speak to them, hissing and gargling while occasionally making some deep, growling sounds. The three monsters responded in the same manner, Snakes seriously nodding as they spoke. Once they were done she returned to her comrades.

“What did they say?” Thunderblade asked.

“They’re gonna oat us and use our ear-cones as vices” Snakes told them.

Everybody looked at her in confusion.

“No wait…” Lemon held the red plastic disk closer over the story book, looking through it at the encrypted text passage. “’They’re gonna eat us and use our ear-bones as dices’” she red out loud. “My bad.”

“What would they have said if you hadn’t tried to use your connection as reptilian people, but one of your dialog skills?” Sunny asked. Sugarcoat looked at her in disapproval. “Hey, we messed up anyway!” Sunny snapped at her. “So it doesn’t really count as cheating if we look up the other possibilities.”

With the plastic disk Lemon inspected all the other red boxes on the page, displaying the replies of the lizards for various checks in diplomacy, intimidating and other skills. “Nope” she replied once she was done, putting the deciphering tool aside. “Only difference is the stuff they do with our bones.”

Sour smiled. ”Well it’s nice to know they won’t let them go to waste.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever” Indigo waved it off. “Let’s just beat up those geckos and go on to the dragon showdown. I mean how hard can fighting a bunch of lizard man be?”

Taking the book back from Lemon Sunny cleared her throat.

From the hole behind the lizard men two more pair of hands suddenly appeared. Unlike the slim fingers of the reptilian creatures however these were large and clunky, each palm bigger than the heads of the heroines. Slowly two giant golems dragged themselves out of the hole, made out of clean shining steel. Towering above the group they silently took position at the sides behind the lizard men. A scorching noise then could be heard from the bottom of the hole, growing steadily louder. In an instant a huge mass of fire shot out from it again. Instead of dispersing however the flames took on a worm-like shape, forming a monster even larger than the golems. Its body was entirely made up of fire, searing and flickering while still keeping a solid form. The fiery creature pointed its tip at the party, as if it was looking with invisible eyes at the group like the rest of the creatures.

Sour glared at Indigo. “You just had to say something.”

Lowering her head Indigo grumbled. “Shut up.”

“We need a plan!” Sugarcoat told the others.

Sunny rolled her eyes. “You don’t say…”

“Hey!” Indigo suddenly exclaimed, sitting up straight. “In video games fire monsters are usually weak to ice attacks! Maybe we can use this to take out the fire-worm-thing quickly?”

Sugarcoat looked incredulously at her. “That doesn’t make much sense considering the ice would melt-”

“Does it even matter?” Sunny cut her off, sounding rather gloomy. “We don’t have a mage in our group anyway!”

Putting a finger on her lip Sour stared thoughtfully at the lamp. “Wait, aren’t bards usually able to inflict elemental damage on weapons?” she asked. When she noticed everyone’s awkward glances she furiously blushed. “What? I play video games, too!”

“Okay” Indigo yelled, turning towards the bard of their group. “So Lemon, you’re gonna give me and Sugar an ice buff” she told her. “Then we go in and-”

“Yeah I can’t do that” Lemon interrupted her.

The others winced, staring at her with wide eyes. “What?” Sunny yelled.

Rubbing her green mane Lemon grinned a little sheepishly. “Sorry. I thought about picking that ice stuff at the last level-up, but then I thought nah!”

”Mind to tell us why didn’t you pick it?” Sour asked her gently. “Considering you knew we were up against a FRIGGIN FIRE DRAGON!!”

Looking at her character sheet Lemon pointed at the list of her abilities. “Well, I could either chose between the ability to enchant weapons with the powers of winter and frost – or to PLAY THE FLUGELHORN!” she cheered, happily raising both fists into the air.

“Does your character have a flugelhorn?” Sugarcoat asked.

Lemon looked at her character sheet again. “Um, nope. Just found the word funny.” She giggled. “Flugelhorn!”

Leaning her arms over her chair Indigo moaned in frustration. “Seriously, you only threw stuff together you found cool or funny, didn’t you?” she scolded the carefree girl. “Did you put a SINGLE thought into how we can win this thing?!”

“Or throw a single look into the rulebook” Sugarcoat added as she took a more thorough glance at Lemon’s character sheet. “I can see a dozen errors on the spot. You could never have this set of abilities with those stats!”

Indigo shook her head. “Jeez, is taking this at least a little serious already asked too much of you?”

The cheerful attitude of Lemon vanished in a frown. “Hey, just because I don’t know every tiny rule of this game or put all of my thoughts into victory doesn’t mean I’m not taking it serious!” she shouted at them. “I just want to play something cool and have fun!”

“She does have a point” Sunny admitted, dramatically raising her hand towards the ceiling. “This is not a silly video game, but a table-top RPG! It’s supposed to celebrate and agitate the creativity of the ones contributing to it, to enrich our minds and share the passion of setting up a world not following the rules of our own!”

“Funny the one talking about creativity ripped the idea for her character from a poor fantasy novel” Sugarcoat scoffed dryly.

A razor-shape glare was thrown on the white-haired girl. “Night of the daggers isn’t a poor novel, it’s a CLASSIC!!”

Lemon crossed her arms. “You guys are no fun…”

Sugarcoat pushed up her glasses. “You are all cheaters.”

Sunny put up her head. “You have no fantasy!”

Indigo grabbed the edge of the table. “And you all have no ambition!!”

Suddenly Sour’s chair fell down to the floor, the yellow-skinned girl jumping on her feet. “ENOUGH!!!” The dices jumped into the air as she slammed her fist against the table. Startled everybody turned their eyes to Sour, angrily staring back at them. “Look, it’s getting late, and we’re all pretty ticked by this stupid game” she griped, a furious ring in her voice. “But even though this Friday Night was basically wasted, I’m not gonna give up when we’re so close before the end - we’re Crystal Prep, damnit!” She took in a deep breath, calming herself slightly. “So, while I agree Indigo is being way too competitive, I think I have an idea how we can still win.”

Indigo raised an eyebrow. “Do you have a secret super ability that will instantly destroy those monsters?”

“Did you find a note in the rules that can help us turn this around?” Sugarcoat asked.

“Did you come up with an original solution that will require our non-combat abilities in a clever way?” Sunny wondered.

“Do you have a flugelhorn?!” Lemon called out in excitement.

Sour shook her head. “No.” The corners of her mouth rose to a big smile, while she put on the most darling look she could muster. ”How about instead of just buffing and healing each other while fighting by ourselves, we actually combine our skills and work…” She made a small pause. .“…tooo-geee-theeer?”

Four pair of eyes blinked at her, as if the others were unable to compute the information they had just received.

“Yeah, that’ll never work” Sugarcoat eventually told her.

The rest nodded in agreement.

Sour Sweet huffed. “Fine. Then let’s at least get our butts kicked quickly so we can go to bed.”

With a loud battle cry Thunderblade stormed forward, straight towards the middle of the lizard men. Raising her sword she let it go down towards the beast’s head. It raised its shield, easily blocking the blow, while at the same time pulling back its saber. Thunderblade managed to block the strike with her own shield, the two warriors engaging in a one-on-one battle. At the same time the two other lizard men dashed forward, one of both rushing towards Honeytooth and Nightheart. Hectically pulling her cloak around her the rogue tried to hide herself, but the lizard man coming at her didn’t let her out of its sight. Jumping backwards she was barely able to evade its blade, unable to prepare a counterattack as the next strike followed quickly. While Nightheart danced around the attacks of the lizard man Honeytooth prepared herself for the strike of the other one running at her. Suddenly the Axe stepped in front of her, stopping the assault of the enemy.

“What are you doing?” Honeytooth yelled at her as the orc crossed weapons with the lizard. ”I can handle this guy, go help Hearts!”

The Axe pushed her opponent back. “You’re the healer, you’re more important” she told the priestess, moving in to the lizard man. “Just stay there and heal us when we need it.” Honeytooth grumped, but did as she was told.

Standing behind the others Snakes’ eyes gazed at her comrades, a slightly helpless look in her slit-pupils. She clutched her dagger in one and the neck of her guitar in the other hand, unsure what to do with any of them. “I guess these guys won’t be up for a flash mob” she mumbled.

With a shout the champion kicked the lizard man into its stomach, making it stumble towards the hole. She was about to push it over the rim with her shield, when she noticed a shadow above her. Looking upwards she could just raise her shield in time to block the punch of the giant steel fist going down on her. The paladin sunk to her knees, the impact so powerful the stone shattered beneath her feet. Its fist on her shield the golem pushed downwards, trying to squash Thunderblade into the ground. Groaning she used all her strength to withstand the fist. In her struggle she casually threw a glance at the others. While Honeytooth and Snakes were standing behind the line of battle the Axe and Nightheart were fighting the other lizard men – though in the case of the rogue, it was more a game of cat and mouse, with her comrade in the unfavourable role. A long rift was cut into her cloak as the lizard swung its blade, the tip of the saber grazing the noble attire underneath. It was only a matter of time until the monster would get her.

After watching her for a while Thunderblade looked with grit teeth back up at the steel fist trying to crush her. If she infused her shield with holy force she might be able to push it back. However, it would drain her stamina, making her unable to use another holy power for a while. Her gaze returned to the rogue. Driven back against the wall she held up her dagger in front of her, the shimmering blade shaking slightly as the lizard man approached her. After looking forth and back between the golem above her and her comrade in danger she let out a sigh.

Her shield arm still raised to block the golem’s fist Thunderblade pointed with her sword in Nightheart’s direction. A beam of light shot from its edge, flying directly towards the reptilian. Its saber raised it was about to strike Nightheart. Suddenly the beam of light hit its hand, causing a small explosion. Screeching in a high-pitched voice the lizard man dropped its weapon, hastily shaking its smoking hand. For a second Nightheart looked in surprise at her opponent. Realising her opportunity she pulled back her dagger, staring sternly at the monster as she thrust it forward. Just before her attack could connect however Nightheart froze. On the hip of the creature she noticed a small linen bag. It was tightly sealed, but hints of a black powder were spilling over it.

She looked at the bag, then shifted her gaze towards Thunderblade. The paladin was still struggling with the golem, steadily giving in to its power. Unnoticed by Thunderblade the huge fire-worm behind the golem was turning its head towards her. Some sort of burning salvia was dripping from its tip onto the platform, its body moving backwards as it prepared to lunge forward.

After hesitating a moment Nightheart pulled back her dagger. Instead of striking the monster she quickly snatched the bag from its belt. Leaving the still dazzled monster behind she dashed past it towards her comrade. With as much power as she had she threw the bag towards the burning beast lurking over Thunderblade. The moment it hit the flaming head the bag suddenly exploded. A screech like the sound of a raging inferno echoed through the hall, the worm wiggling around. Its body burned irregularly, a large part of its head missing. Winding from side to side the worm swiftly retreated into its hole. The shockwave of the blast also affected the golem, forcing it a few feet to the side. It was just enough for Thunderblade to slip out beneath its fist, finally lowering her shield as she straightened herself. She panted, but was physically unharmed.

“Thanks” she brought out between breathes as Nightheart ran to her side. The rogue gave her a smile.

“I think we’re even” she stated, winking through her mask at the champion. Smiling back the two of them turned towards the several feet taller golem, looking into its unmoving metal face.

Watching her two comrades a slight smile hushed on Honeytooth’s lips. A glimmer in the corner of her eyes suddenly alarmed her. The hand of the second golem, still standing at the same spot as before, had begun to gleam bright red. Honeytooth saw a large fireball forming inside its palm, the eyes of the creature focused on the orc brute still fighting the lizard man.

Panicked Honeytooth looked at the Axe, who was too busy fighting to notice the danger. She was about to shout for Thunderblade, but the golem was already about to hurl the pyroclastic projectile towards the orc brute. After glancing around between the Axe and the golem she rapidly dashed towards the steel monster. Just as the fireball left its hand Honeytooth jumped in front of it, holding her staff up. Looking to the ground she heard a loud explosion, the impact shaking her whole body. Splinters were raining down on her hair. Nervously the priestess opened an eye. Her beloved staff was split in two, Honeytooth holding a half in each hand. Whimpering she held the two pieces in front of her, tears forming in her eyes.

Suddenly the sad sheen in her eyes turned into a look of pure hatred. Groaning towards the metal golem she grit her teeth, furrowed her brows and tightly clenched the halves of the staff in her fists. The colour of her iris turned into a shining yellow, while her pupils diminished into thin blades sharp enough to slice anyone apart. Her angry groan became an animalistic snarl. Her teeth crunched as they extended into dagger-like fangs. Grabbing her staff ever tighter her fingernails turned into razors. A thick layer of fur sprouted out of her skin, her hands growing larger and more muscular alongside the rest of her body. The golem slowly raised its gaze as a steadily larger shadow was cast down on it, the shade taking on more and more of a canine appearance.

The Axe raised her weapon, about to strike at the monster in front of her. Beastly roars and the screeching sound of metal getting sliced apart behind her however made her stop in her tracks. The evil lizard was about to take advantage of the situation, raising its own weapon. Suddenly a large chunk of steel flew past the orc right into its face, knocking her opponent over. As abruptly as it had begun the commotion ended. Surprised the Axe turned her head around. In the middle of several pieces of scrapped metal Honeytooth was standing, arms crossed over her chest with a rather indignant look on her face. Casually she spit out a chewed piece of steel.

Eyes wide open the Axe stared at the frail human priestess. A painful hiss from behind her caused her to turn her gaze. Standing in front of Snakes the disarmed lizard man had grabbed her throat, the bard wiggling her tail as the slim fingers were pressing against it. Gargling and hissing she dropped her dagger and guitar, helplessly trying to tear the claw off her neck. Immediately the Axe rushed over, raising her weapon. Just as she swung it down on the monster it raised its shield, blocking the blow while still holding Snakes with the other hand.

“You have to do something!” the Axe yelled at the snake-woman.

Her snake eyes glanced over at the orc warrior. “Grah- argh- ungh!” was all she was able to stammer.

“I don’t care what!” the Axe grunted, grinding her weapon against the shield. “And I’m terrible at improvising, so don’t ask me!” In Snakes’ painful grimace signs of surprise appeared. “Just think up something, anything, no matter how dumb or silly it is, and-”

Suddenly the lizard man pushed its shield forward. Caught off-guard the Axe fell on her butt, her weapon slipping out of her hand. Shocked she watched it fly in a wide arc away from her, smashing a good dozen meters away into the ground. She stared at her weapon for a moment, before turning her head towards the monster above her. The lizard was looking back down on her, sticking out its split tongue. It raised one of its clawed feet, about to stomp her. Closing her eyes the Axe cast her eyes away, awaiting the monster’s cruel punishment. However, nothing happened. Carefully she peeked up with one eye, before opening both in surprise at the scene she witnessed.

The lizard man was still standing there with its foot raised. But it couldn’t put it down, for it was fighting with a pink snake tail wrapped around its neck. Wheezing for air it tossed its shield away, desperately trying to pull itself free. With its other hand it still held Snakes, who was gritting her teeth both in pain and effort as she fought against its grip, while at the same time wrapping her tail tighter and tighter around the monster’s throat. Sweat ran down her scales, both reptilians trying to squeeze the air out of each other.

Finally the lizard man let go of Snakes, pulling with both hands on her tail. Immediately the bard gasped for air, putting back her head so far her hat nearly flipped off. Unfortunately the short breather was already enough for her opponent to tear her tail off its neck, and toss her to the ground. The snake-woman grunted as she landed hardly on her back, staring up at her distant relative. It moved its foot, holding it over her head. Raising the claws it was just about to stomp her, when it felt a finger tapping its shoulder. Startled the lizard man turned its head to the side.

The next thing it saw was the iron-clad fist of an orc flying towards its face.

Knocked backwards the monster hit the wall, forcing a small crater into it. Its slit-eyes rolled around as it let its spit tongue hang from its mouth. Having already lost consciousness it fell face-down on the ground. Staring at it the Axe grunted, before helping her comrade back up. “Thankss” Snakes smiled, her voice a little hoarse as she rubbed her throat.

Being slightly misplaced the Axe adjusted her glasses. “That wasn’t a very creative solution” she told the bard. A bit softer she added: “But… it worked.”

The scales on the snake-woman’s cheeks turned a little red.

At the same time Nightheart and Thunderblade were still fighting the golem. Again and again the large creature slammed its fists towards them. Thunderblade blocked all the strikes at her with her shield while the rogue jumped away from each blow, causing the golem to smack a crater into the ground every time. As she was about to avoid another attack however she was one step too slow: Brushing her chest the golem’s fist send her flying backwards. Screaming she rolled over the ground, her head getting wrapped up in her cloak until she came to a halt. As she stood up it looked like a turban was lying too low on her head, completely blinding her. Groaning she tucked on the cloak, unravelling it until only her mask veiled her face again. She then held her chest, feeling a sharp pain where she had been hit. It was just a bruise, but it still hurt whenever she breathed, making her grimace in agony.

Suddenly the pain disappeared. Surprised she looked to the side, seeing Honeytooth pointing the tip of her broken staff at her. “Better?” she asked with a smile.

Smiling back the rogue nodded. “Thanks” she said. She looked over at Thunderblade, who was holding off the golem by herself, then at her cloak that had been lying around her head a few moments ago. “…you stupid pup” she mocked the priestess, smirking mischievously at her.

Wincing Honeytooth stared irritated at her. As Nightheart winked at her however it hit her, and she also cracked a smile.

Punch after punch went down on the paladin. With the golem’s full attention on her she constantly had to hold up her shield, with no chance to counterattack. Bit by bit she could feel how her defense was giving in, pieces off the crest. Showing no signs of exhaustion the golem raised its fist once more, about to slam it on her strained shield.

“Hey, big guy!” Surprised Thunderblade and the golem turned towards Nightheart. They just saw how the young noble was tossed by a large furry arm, heading directly for the golem. Landing on its shoulders Nighheart took off her cloak. Swiftly she wrapped the fabric around its head, tying a knot into it. As the world turned black around it the golem’s arm froze in position. Jumping off its shoulders Nightheart left the metal man stumbling around the platform, trying to rip the blindfold off with its large clunky hands-

“Excuse me, Sunny…”

The table trembled as Sunny slammed her hands against it. “What?!” she yelled, furiously jumping on her feet. “Does my character slip because her boots are too polished? Can’t she make a knot because the cloak is too thick? Or does a giant spider leap at her from the ceiling because one of her friends is a nitpicker who takes the rules of a stupid game WAY TOO SERIOUS?!”

Unfazed Sugarcoat blinked at the huffing and puffing Sunny. “Actually, I wanted to congratulate you on the smart move.”

In an instant Sunny’s angry frown turned into a pleased smile. “Oh why thank you dearie” she politely stated, proudly holding up her nose.

From afar Honeytooth watched the golem walking around without orientation, grinning. Focused on it she didn’t notice the silhouette that was sneaking up behind her, a large saber in its hand. Quietly the lizard man approached her, holding up its weapon. When it was directly behind her back Honeytooth finally turned around. Her eyes widened fearfully at the monster, a look of horror on her as she faced the creature ready to strike.

Suddenly the lizard man froze. Its dull eyes gazed past Honeytooth, making her frown in confusion. Taking a closer she then noticed Snakes was hanging with her mouth on its neck, the bard tightly pressing her lips against its scales. After a few seconds she let go, slithering backwards as the tall creature fell to the side. It didn’t even move a muscle as it hit the ground, only gargling slightly while twitching its eye. Startled Honeytooth stared at the bard, who was grinning down on the defeated foe. Drops of a green liquid were dripping from her fangs to the ground. They vaporized the moment they landed – Honeytooth wasn’t sure if it was due to the heat in the cave, or because the venom actually melted the stone.

With a chuckle Snakes wiped the poison from her lips. “You’re not the only who can bite” she told the priestess.

Meanwhile the Axe pulled her weapon out of the ground, before turning towards the golem. Still tucking on Nightheart’s cloak it wildly kicked around. Thunderblade tried to attack it, but whenever she raised her sword she had to jump back to avoid a large metal foot. As the paladin grew more frustrated she charged up her holy power, her blade shining bright like the sun. The Axe noticed the golem was only a few meters away from the edge of the platform, and the pool of lava.

“Push it back with a divine shockwave!” the orc brute called over to the champion. Thunderblade, who wanted to simply slice the golem with her holy force looked with a lifted eyebrow at the Axe, before realizing the golem’s position. With a big grin she raised her sword, hollering as she struck it down in a straight line. The light around her blade exploded, sending off a shockwave directly at the golem. The blinded monster was pushed back, grinding its feet into the ground while approaching the pool of lava. Just on the verge of the platform it came to a halt, waving its arms through the air as it caught its balance.

Angrily Thunderblade stomped on the ground. “Darn, we almost had it!” she moaned.

“It was enough” the Axe told her, calmly walking to her side with her weapon on her back. “The stone can’t hold its weight.”

Under the golem the ground began to crack. Loudly the edge gave in beneath its feet, the creature tumbling backwards and falling off the platform. There was a splash of lava, the golem’s arm reaching up for a moment before it slowly sunk into the searing liquid.

The party assembled at the broken edge, staring down into the bubbling lava. Glancing at the face of Nightheart Honeytooth noticed she seemed slightly discontent. “You’re not upset about the cloak, are you?” she asked her sternly.

The noblesse puffed her cheeks. “It was a designer model” she mumbled.

As the heroines looked after the fallen foe into the lava they didn’t notice something moving behind them. The lizard man who had been knocked out by the piece of the golem got back on its feet. Narrowing its eyes it stared over at the group, growling. It dropped its shield, grabbing the small bag at its belt. Spiting a sparkle from its mouth it ignited the small threat that kept it closed, causing it to slowly burn towards the bag. The bag above its head and its saber in front it the lizard man stormed at the group, ready to take them all out at once. Hearing the burning fuse Honeytooth turned her head, panicked as she saw the lizard man about to throw the bomb.

“Behind us!” she screamed, everyone turning around. Being the first to react Snakes pulled out her guitar and threw it at the creature’s feet. Stumbling over the instrument it let go off the bomb, the bag landing a few feet in front of the group. Quickly they jumped to the side, Nightheart and Honeytooth to the right while the others escaped to the left. There was a loud explosion, the heroines bracing themselves against it. As the fire subsided into a cloud of smoke the lizard man suddenly jumped out of it, its blade held high, lunging at the isolated rogue and priestess.

Immediately Nightheart pushed Honeytooth aside, staring up at the enemy. As the lizard man came down on her she stepped aside, letting it land close to the edge of the platform. Her dagger flashed in the light of the lava as she pulled it from her belt, thrusting it towards her opponent. It wasn’t slow to react either, immediately striking with its saber at her again. Everything happened within the blink of an eye, but time seemed to stand still as the two weapons approached the vital spots of their opponents. Passing the saber of the lizard man Nightheart’s dagger aimed for its neck, the rogue putting everything she had into a this single attack...

“NO!” Sunny’s shrill scream nearly deafened the others in the basement. Pulling on her violet hair she stared at the dice, the number one clearly pointing upwards. “Please, no!” she begged, folding her hands. “Not now!”

Lemon clenched her fists. “Dang – we were SO close to winning this!”

Frantically Sugarcoat was searching through the pages of the rulebook, at the same time scanning the various guides on the table. “Sorry, but this is a clear fail” she eventually stated, sounding somewhat frustrated as she closed the book. “And I’m afraid there is no rule to turn this around.”

Intensely Sunny stared at the dice, as if she was hoping she could change the number with her gaze. “Damn it! It can’t end like this!” Desperately she looked at the others around the table. “Isn’t there any way I can take this guy out?”

“Well, I have an idea” Indigo said, smirking a little deviously. “But you’re not gonna like it…”

Sunny looked in confusion at the blue-haired girl. Realizing what she meant she first widened her eyes, then glanced annoyed at her. “Seriously?” she mourned, then sighed. “Oh alright, if it has to be…”

As she thrust her dagger towards the monster Nightheart suddenly felt herself losing balance. She stumbled forward, past its saber right into the lizard. Perplexed the creature was pushed off the cliff, screeching in a hissing voice as it fell into the pool of lava.

A finger on her lip Sugarcoat pondered. “That’s a valid interpretation of a counter fail I guess” she remarked, a slight smile crossing her face for a second. It only lasted for a moment though before she stated more dryly: “But your character is gonna fall into the lava too.”

Sour grabbed a dice from the table. “Not if I can do something about it!” she declared, taking a look into a guide and on her character sheet. “Six or higher and she should be fine!” Raising her arm she rolled the dice in her hand, before throwing it on the map. Tensed everybody leaned over the table and watched it come to a halt, clearly displaying a number.

Five.

Five fingers clutched Nightheart’s wrist, stopping her fall.

“Got’cha!” Honeytooth exclaimed. Her arm bulged slightly, becoming a little more muscular and hairy as she pulled up the rogue with a groan. After she had dragged her back on the safe ground of the platform the others dashed to their sides. Nightheart panted slightly, but even with her mask the happy look on her face was apparent.

“Thanks again” she told the priestess. The two of them smiled at each other, before turning towards the rest of the party. Thunderblade smirked confidently with her hands on her hips, Snakes waggled her tail and tongue in excitement, and even the face of the Axe looked a little less hostile, despite all the warts on her cheeks and the sharp teeth pointing out from her lower lip.

The cheerful moment abruptly ended when the whole platform began to quake. Near the hole in the center another one suddenly popped up. The fire worm raised its body out of it, having completely regenerated. It threw its head around, growling like the crackling flames of a campfire towards the group.

The five heroines looked at the fiery creature, before confidently smirking towards each other. In unison they let out a loud battle cry, storming at the worm together. An assault of light blades, steel axes, wolf claws, poison fangs and shining daggers was unleashed against it. After a brief encounter the body of the monster sunk to the ground, with almost as many wounds on its body as stars in the sky. It roared for a moment, sounding like a dying fire while the flames on is body dispersed. The worm shrunk down before vanishing completely, leaving nothing but a flickering silhouette of flames on the ground.

After watching it disappear the group turned towards each other again, a proud look on everybody’s faces. “We make a good team, somehow” the Axe commented.

Everybody giggled. Bust as she stared towards the center of the lava pool Nightheart winced. “Hey, where did the smoke go?” she asked. Startled everybody turned towards where the rogue was looking. There was no trace of the pillar of smoke that had been towering above the room the whole fight, leaving clear sight on the hall up to the ceiling.

Suddenly the whole cave rumbled again. The heroines were shaken, holding on to each other to keep balance. Where the smoke had originally risen up a dent formed in the pool. Magma splashed all over as something huge broke out of the lava. Looking upwards the group watched an ominous shadow rising up. Raising its huge head with the large horns on top a deep growl emerged from its throat. The neck of the creature was longer than the worm’s entire body had been, continuing in an even bigger torso. Wings larger than the platform were sprouting from its back, reaching from wall to wall as it spread them out to their full size. The lower body still in the lava it raised its gigantic claws, each easily dwarfing every one of the heroines. Despite the light from the lava they could only see the black silhouette of the creature, its demonic eyes shining down on the party.

Clinging to each other the five stared up at the dragon, shivering. As they looked into each other’s eyes however their confidence quickly returned. With their backs straight they solemnly moved up to the edge of the platform. Stern and determined eyes with no signs of fear looked up to the menacing monster. Standing in the middle Thunderblade pointed her sword at the dragon, the others also getting ready for the final battle.

“TOGETHER!”

End of a journey?

The lamp illuminated the basement, creating a sparse sheen of light. The Shadowbolts quietly stared at the table with all the guides, dices, character sheets and the map, the girls bearing a somewhat dumbfounded expression.

“Um, what just happened?” Sour eventually asked, not quite comprehending the situation.

Being the first to compose herself again Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses. “We were all eliminated by the dragon’s fire breath” she replied.

Lemon tilted her head to the side. “Sooo… game over?” she asked.

“I guess” Sunny mumbled, scratching her head.

“Is there some kind of checkpoint?” Indigo asked, looking in desperate hope at the others. “Or do we have to start over?”

Opening the last page of the story book Sunny briefly read over it. “I’m afraid so” she sighed, closing the book again.

Lemon let her arms hang down, turning up her mouth. “This sucks” she mumbled.

“You’re the one who sucks!” Indigo snapped at her, scowling. “Getting goblins to join a flash mob is one thing, but a dragon?!”

“Come on Gogo, don’t be so hard on our little punk rebel” Sour gently tried to calm Indigo. A lot grumpier she mourned: “At least she didn’t waste her one-time invincibility on blocking a regular attack.”

“I only defended Sunny because her stealth check failed!” Indigo told her. “AGAIN!”

“Only because Sugarcoat keeps insisting on weird maluses for everything!” Sunny protested, angrily glaring at Sugarcoat. “I mean the lighting of the cave? Seriously?!

Sugarcoat crossed her arms. “I didn’t make the rules, I just follow them” she explained dryly, but in a slightly sharp tone. “And if any of you were doing the same you would have noticed the dragon was weak against archery attacks because he was on lower ground.”

“Why that’s very helpful, Sugarcoat” Sour complimented her, then mourned: “Especially because no one of us was an archer.”

With narrow eyes Sunny glanced towards Lemon. “Bards are usually archers…”

“Hey, you told me to get the dagger instead of the bow!” the green-haired girl yelled, pointing her finger at her.

“That’s a very interesting interpretation of changing your weapons so you can backstab me better!” Sunny responded resentfully.

“Excuse me, but rouges can be archers too” Sugarcoat chimed in.

Indigo rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, everyone here could have gotten way more out of their classes – except for Miss ‘I’ve picked the most boring and useless class ever’.”

“I defeated the most monsters, and a lot more than you!” Sugarcoat reminded Indigo.

“I was the tank!” she blared at Sugarcoat.

”A great tank, who never protected the healer” Sour chirped, giving her a sarcastic thumbs-up.

“And a great healer who rather shreds golems than heal her teammates” Sunny remarked, putting her chin on her hand.

“That’s rich coming from the rogue who doesn’t know how to sneak” Sugarcoat stated.

Chuckling Lemon put an arm over her chair. “Yeah, you guys really sucked.”

“YOU WERE THE WORST!” everybody shouted in unison, making her wince.

Groaning Sour leaned back. “That’s it! I’ve had enough of this stupid nerd game for one Friday night! And on that matter, for every Friday night, or ANY OTHER kind of night ever!”

“Yeah!”

“Absolutely.”

“Agreed.”

“Let’s never do this again.”

The five girls sat around the table, arms folded as they silently stared at it. Pouting Sour looked over her character sheet, then at the map, before slowly moving her gaze towards the story book in front of Sunny.

“…One more go.”

“Yeah.”

“Absolutely.”

“Agreed.”

“Let’s do this!”

Standing up Sunny collected the character sheets. “I’ll go print new ones” she said, heading for the stairs.

“Bring some lemonade and chips while you’re at it!” Indigo called after her, rubbing her belly.

“Hey Sugar, can you help me set up my char this time?” Lemon asked as she grabbed the rule book from under her nose.

“If you help me come up with some interesting quirks for mine” she replied, looking over the class and race list again.

The girls busily prepared everything. Once they had sorted the sheets and guides, gotten some refreshments and filled out their new character sheets Sunny opened the story book on the first page again. “Is everybody ready?” she asked. As the others nodded in agreement she looked down on the book, clearing her throat.

“The moon shines down on you from the clear night sky…”

Author's Note

Thanks for reading the story!

For the friendship report, read the corresponding chapter in Dear Dean...