Steel Strong Adventuring Company.

(POV: Friedrich the Rogue)

I walked out the reinforced doors of Fort Shatter-Shield with Thalia, both of us have high Dexterity which will help us in scouting out the surrounding area. Thankfully our stronghold is on nice hill with open plains around it, which can be a double edged sword. We can see people from miles away but the same can be said for us.

“So, how do you want to do this?” I ask.

“Well, I’ll take the Northern and Eastern sections while you take the Southern and Western. Sound good?” she stated, her eyes never in one place for too long as she spoke.

I simply nod then ask. “Are we going with the standard lookout procedure?”

“Yep, 5 miles in all directions from the stronghold. We should be done in a hour if we hurry.”

“Right, I’ll see you back at the fort.” With that we split off and after a few minutes I pull out my compass and start trudging off in the correct direction. South.

It didn't take me long to spot something, I can see a body lying on the ground about a half a mile away whether they’re alive, asleep, or dead still remained to be seen. I unsheath one of my throwing daggers and start to approach the figure. As I’m approaching I notice the gleam of armor shining right in my eyes every now and then which says two things. One; whoever this is, is a warrior of some type. Two; I’ll have to take care in my approach as to get the jump on whoever it may be if needed.

When I get within about 50 feet of the figure a powerful scent hits my nostrils, a smell I’ve smelt many times. The stench of blood. Then I notice a few disgusting little creatures sitting on the body of the figure. Stirges, the hell spawn bastards must have gotten the poor sap while he was travelling.

There’s 5 stirges on the body, sucking it dry of all its blood. Little shits, they’re a hellspawn cross between a mosquito and a bat, normally you don't have to worry about one or two of them, but in a swarm or in small groups if you’re alone, they can be a problem. Especially if they catch you off guard.

So, I pull out two more throwing knives and line up where I want all three of my knives to go.

I quickly throw all three knives in succession, two of the knives find their marks in the cranium of their hosts, the third hit’s the stirge in the wing effectively crippling the bastard.

The ones that are unharmed remove themselves from the body and start flying to me, I draw my short sword and I wait.

The first one gets within my reach and I swing my blade in an uppercut motion, slicing off the creature’s wing. On the downward stroke I slice the stirge in half.

The second one tries to dive at my leg, I sidestep then promptly stomp the fuck into the ground, killing it on impact with the sole of my boot.

With that finished I walk over to the last of them, the stirge that got it’s wing sliced with my knife at the start, seeing that it’s slowly crawling to me, I decide to end it the same way the last one ended.

With that little problem over I recover my throwing knives from the bodies, wiping the blood off on them as I do so. Now that I’m not fighting bat/insects the size of my fucking fist, it’s time to get a look at the idiot who dropped his guard enough to get killed by these hellspawn.

Well, beside the body looking almost like mummy from all the blood loss, I am actually surprised at what I’m looking at. Some type of furred creature wearing gold armor, who wears gold for armor? Anyway, the creature who I’m going to refer to it as a ‘he’ based on body build, he has some almost pure white fur, minus the blood on it, and has a satchel next to him and a spear. His face structure is unrecognizable, one of the Stirges had clamped itself to the poor fuckers face and broken most of the bones beneath searching for somewhere to get deep enough to get a sizable amount of the guys fluids. Well, if anything, he wasn’t suffering for too long.

I pick up the satchel and sift through its content and I’m happy at what I do find inside. Other that what looks like rations, I find several in common script along with a map! This is extremely convenient, now I can sit back and relax at the fort. Right after I take this guy's armor.

I unlatch the armor and pull the thing off of him and his fur changed color from white to dark brown. Hell, this thing must be enchanted or something. Maybe Kasula will find a use for this stupid thing… or even Gralon now that I think about it. The dwarf does like working with enchanted armor.

I put everything back in the bag and I sling the armor over my shoulder and start my semi-long walk back to the fort. I don't grab the spear because we got enough of those useless things in the armory. Out of curiosity I pull out a random scroll from the satchel and open it.

“Ha! The group is going to get a kick out of this.”

(POV: Belkas the Monk)

For the past hour I’ve been cataloging everything we could use in the fort. We have enough dried meat and bread with other assorted foods to last 2 months if we need it. Everything in the fort’s keep is the same as we decided in game.

On the first floor is a Grand Hall to meet and greet, A conference room which doubles as a dining room, a kitchen, and a library, in the basement is both a dungeon and a storage area, Granted the two are separated by reinforced wooden doors. On the second floor is all the personal quarters for the six owners of this fort, we all got our names on that document.

Finally, the third floor is a lab and war room. Although, the war room will need to be fixed, seeing as we’re in an unknown land.

Then we get to the buildings of the fort itself, we have a barracks able to house up to 25 people if needed and a private quarters for VIP’s and such. We were planning to expand our group, but I think that idea is on hold for now.

There’s the Armory, which doubles as our forge. Most of the time you can find Gralon working on something inside. Just across the road from the barracks and armory is the training field, the field itself takes up the rest of the fort’s available space. Like said earlier we were planning to expand so we made the field bigger and removed a few buildings that were there earlier. I sigh as I walk out of the keep, heading for a particular spot in the fort.

Right next to the gate is a small patch of grass where a well sits and just a few feet behind it is a small weeping willow tree. A nice little area to relax and reflect.

I can hear both Zurug and Gralon arguing over who’s better at… smiting tax collectors?

I tune them both out as I reach my little spot underneath the tree where I proceed to sit. I feel a calming sensation flow over me as I reflect on todays events. Waking up in a strange new land as my character from D&D and an unproven theory of mine that we’re slowly developing our character’s mentality…

I continue to think about other such things like plans and battle strategies our group could use should it encounter trouble. I stay like this for a short while before I hear the gate doors opening and the sound of Friedrich’s hearty laughter and following behind him is a snickering Thalia.

“Oy! What ye’ be laughing at so much down there?” I hear the dwarf yell from the wall.

“You won't believe what this world has problems with!” He says loud enough for all 5 of us outside to hear. “But apparently the leader of this realm is having a, and I quote; “Mad fish people infestation who worship a tortoise and a snail as if they were gods.” he pauses. “Sound familiar to you?”

The inhabitants of this land were actually having a problem with the Kuo-toa. That’s almost sad if not outright funny. I give a light chuckle at this revelation, and pretty much everyone else bursts into laughter.

“THESE PEOPLE ARE WEAK IF THEY CAN NOT EVEN HOLD BACK AN INFESTATION OF THE ‘MAD FISH PEOPLE’”

That comment sent everyone, including myself, into another round of laughter. After a few moments we finally calm down.

“So” I begin “Anything else it says?”

“Only that some princess of the realm, will be arriving at some area on this here map sometime soon.”

“Wait, when did you acquire a map?”

“Oh, there was a dead dude back there. I relieved him of his satchel and armor, which by the way is enchanted so I’m going to take the armor to Kasula and see if she can make any sense out of the enchantments on the armor.”

I nod. “Alright, put the maps and letter in the war room when you’re done. I think Kasula should be in the lab if-”

“Belkas!”

I turn to look at the keep, and out comes a frantic Kasula.

“What is wrong?” I simply ask.

“Belkas, I just discovered something incredible. You know how mages need to use materials sometimes to make a spell work?”

I simply nod.

“Well, when I was casting some spells to see if my magic worked here I noticed I wasn't using up any of the spell components!”

This silenced everyone for a bit, spell components are needed to cast some of the more higher leveled spells. They act as a sort of magical booster to help the spellcaster cast the required spell. Afterwords, said components are destroyed because they used up all their magical properties.

“That is something noteworthy…” Is all I can manage.

“Yeah, however the verbal components and body motions are still needed. Also there’s something I want to talk to you about later.”

“Oh that’s right!” Fredrich snaps his fingers. “Here, some enchanted armor from a dead guy not far from here. His fur changed colors when I took it off, I don't know if there’s any other enchantments on it though.” He hands her the armor.

“Wow, native enchanted armor! Do you know what that means!?” She takes the armor from him excitedly.

“No, I just want to go take a nap...” I hear Fredrich mumble.

“It means,” she continued “That this land has magic of its own, therefore new knowledge and- wait did you say you saw a dead being wearing this?”

“Yeah, his face was pretty toasted by the time I got to him, but he was covered in fur which which was white when he had the armor on but turned brown when it was off. I didn't get a good look at the body other than grabbing the loot, and getting out of there before someone could link me to it.”

“What makes you think someone would accuse you of killing the man?” I had to ask.

“You can never be too careful, also with my clothing I kinda look suspicious next to a body.” he returned, motioning his hands up and down his jacket.

“Makes sense.” I say.

“Well, if you lot don't need me anymore. I’ll be taking a nap in my room. Assuming everything’s the same in it.”

“Yep everything is the same still, just as you left it.”

“Sweeeet!” He says before strutting away for his nap.

By this time, both Zurug and Gralon had gone back to conversing with each other only this time they were both joking about how weak the military of the land must be. Thalia walked off to the training yard and seems to be setting up an archery target.

I turn back to Kasula. “So, what did you want to talk about?”

“Well, when I was casting some spells back in the lab I decided I wanted to keep a journal about what has happened to us.”

“And the problem with that is...?”

“That’s just it, I can’t remember how we got here in the first place! And when I think back to how this all happened all I got was my character's set of memories! All I can remember from my old life is after my birthday party when I was 13!”

This disturbed me and I tried thinking back, the only thing I got was when my dad and mom took me to Disneyland with my sister, but that was when I was 10!

“Woah, Kelly or Kasula, whichever one you are right now… you might just be right. I can't remember anything before a trip I took with my family when I was 10…”

“It’s Kelly right now, and what’s worse is I think that Brad and Grant have already gone fully into their character, it might even be the same with Frank or Jazzy.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out.” I say

“Hey, Gralon! Come down here for a bit!” I yell up to him.

“Hold yer horses, I’ll be down in bit.” I hear him yell.

After a few moments the beefy dwarf walks over.

“So, you going to spit it out? I was going to tell Zurug the one about the Kobold and the watermelon again when you called.” he asks, looking a little irritated.

“Do you remember anything about your past life?” I ask.

“Well, if yer talkin’ about life in that stink hole I once called home in the mountains of Gauntlgrym an’ callin’ it a ‘past life’” He said with finger quotes he was barely able to make for the size of his fingers, “then yeah, I remember plenty.”

“No, actually,” I begin, a tinge of worry for my friend worming its way into my mind, “I was more referring to an actual past life in the sense that it’s a life you lived preceding the one you’re living now, same soul, same mind, but different situation, time, and experiences. You see, I ask because Kasula and I have found a possible candidate of one for you. Have you ever heard, or even thought, of a … vertically challenged, human named Brad?” I ask him, only getting more anxious, as much as I can, when he starts stroking his beard, A clearly defined trait of Gralon’s that he only does when he’s thinking hard about something. One that Brad never had as he’d never grown a beard.

“Hmmm… Nope, can’t say I have. Appreciate you guys lookin’ into it an’ all, but I got a joke to finish.” Gralon responded after a few seconds of beard stroking before making his way back up the stairs to continue his warrior bonding time with Zurug.

“Belkas.” Kasula muttered to my side, her eyes not leaving the staircase the Dwarf ascended.

“Yeah?” I returned, doing much the same, my mind running a mile a minute trying to figure out what happened to my friend.

“This is bad, worse even than I imagined, isn’t it?”

“Undoubtedly.”

-ng to explain this to all of you in person, we may well have lost ourselves by the time we finished. I apologise again, friends, that I could not stop, nor even slow our affliction. I only hope that you could forgive us, and maybe more importantly, that we could forgive ourselves for our failure.

Your’s in trust and faith, even should the anvil fall and the hammer break~

Standing in the library of fort shatter shield were Belkas and Kasula, where the Elven and half-human mage and monk had spent the last several hours putting their lives, the lives of their friends, and their culture to paper. And now, at the end of the proverbial end game, the two were stuck on something so simple so innocuous that they both neglected to check for it.

“Belkas?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you remember your name? Your human one I mean.”

“.... No, I don’t. Now that I think of it, I can’t remember yours either. Your human one, I mean.”

“.... Crap.”

“Yeah.”

“FRIENDS! ZURUG HAS MADE FOOD! GET IT BEFORE ZURUG TAKES IT ALL!” The voice of their friend, the self proclaimed, Zurug rang throughout the fort and into the fields beyond the walls

“Come on, let’s go eat. We can still work on this later.” Belkas said, wrapping an arm around his friend to usher her to the kitchen. Before a thought came to him.

“But, just in case.” He mumbled to himself, bending to sign their names at the bottom of the page before actually ushering his friend to the kitchen, leaving a leather bound journal lying on a podium surrounded by the shelves and its kin.

(POV: Twilight)

I looked out the window of the train car watching as the fields of grass passed by. I wondered what we could discover inside that fort, hopefully no monsters lived inside it. Poor Fluttershy has had enough encounters with the strange monsters already, she even had to move out of her home and into Ponyville because of them. I heard the loud whistle of the train and I could see Canterlot not to far from where we were.

I look around me and see all my friends sleeping peacefully, I smiled at this. ‘I wish I didn't have to wake them up.’

I shook my head free of the thought and shook Spike awake who was sleeping next to me. “Come on girls, we’re almost to Canterlot.”

Slowly, all of them rubbed the sleep from their eyes.

“This is going to be so cool! Going on a monster hunting campaign with the Princess!” Dash says while doing a fist pump.

“Well, ah’ hope if there is a monster that we can take em’. I heard some of em’ things are as strong as 10 stallions put together.” Applejack says to Rainbow.

“Oh… I do hope I don't have to meet any more mean creatures…”

“Don't worry Fluttershy, I’ll beat those monsters to a pulp in 10 seconds flat.” Dash says proudly as she strikes a pose.

“I hope something more civilized is in the fort, compared to all of the monsters that are now roaming Equestria, it would be a nice change.” Rarity says.

“Oh! I hope they like parties, and cake, and cupcakes! Oh it’ll be super-duper fun!” Pinkie Pie responds.
“Girls” I remind them “Remember that the princesses wish the speak with us on how we’re going to approach the fort. We have to be prepared for anything.”

They all nod at this as the train pulls into the station and I can’t help but smile when I see Luna and a contingent of her guards waiting for us, and when the conductor calls and we all file out, I wonder just what this day has in store for us.