>>35137040
>Drop dead animals, run to find out what's happening and if you can save anyone
Dammit Shax, not again.

>>35137040
>>Drop dead animals, run to find out what's happening and if you can save anyone

>>35137040
>>Drop dead animals, run to find out what's happening and if you can save anyone

>>35137040
>Drop dead animals, find and kill responsible parties

We shall arm ourselves with our edge.

>>35137040
>>Flee. If they overpowered the village, they can overpower you

>>35137040
>Drop dead animals, run to find out what's happening and if you can save anyone

>>35137040
You shed your load of dead meat and race toward the village, hoping to find someone, anyone, still alive. You remember your little sister's face as she waved goodbye from the cottage door this morning, wishing you good hunting, and it gives wings to your feet.

The air is hot, burning in your lungs as you close in on your house. It's blazing, and it looks like the roof might cave in any second. The door hangs drunkenly on its simple hinges, flames licking its length. You can feel the heat on your skin. There's no way anyone could last long in an oven like that.

There's a crashing noise behind you, and you glance over your shoulder to see old man Rima's little shack collapsing to the ground in shambles.

>Barge inside your house - must try to save your family
>Looks too dangerous - there's no way anyone could still be alive in there
>Look around carefully for the goblins

>>35137323
>Barge in to try to save who you can

>>35137323
>Barge inside your house - must try to save your family
We won't go on suicide mission because of small chances, but we have to try this much.
Do we have some important item there, like a family weapon, or one given specifically to us/meant to be given to us?

>>35137437
>living in a village that's barely a spec on the map
>having a family heirloom weapon

>>35137323
>Barge inside your house - must try to save your family
We can't go full revengeance if we don't hear our sister's last words.

>>35137323
>>Barge inside your house - must try to save your family
Damn you goblins!!

>>35137492
Not expecting a crystal sword forged from the bones of the god-dragon, made by the smith of the thunder, on the peak of the mountain that reaches into the clouds, anon.
I'm thinking a decent sword that our family bought once and have been using since, or something.

>>35137323
You wrap your coat around your arm and pull open the door. It falls awkwardly off of its hinges, sending a shower of sparks up as it hits the ground and shatters.

Holding you breath, you rush into the only home you've ever known. The air is opressive, shimmering in front of your eyes, everything lit by the hateful, flickering light of the consuming flames. Your eyes scan the room - everything's on fire, from the floor mats to the drying strings of onions your mother hung to dry months ago.

One corner of the common room has already caved in, and you see her pinned underneath it, burning logs crushing her to the ground. The flames are already eating the woman who brought you into the world.

>Into the sleeping room!
>Out of here while you still can!

>>35137726
>>Into the sleeping room!

>>35137726
>>Into the sleeping room!
Odds that little sister is still alive:

Nil.

>>35137726
>Into the sleeping room!
Is there any other option?

>>35137726
You can feel the fire on your skin, roasting you like a rabbit, but nothing's going to stop you once you've come this far. Nothing, not even the beams and half-crushed wall that have sealed off the sleeping room.

You haul them away, thanking the gods for the sturdy coat protecting your arms, calling out to anyone trapped inside. You finally make an opening, and step through.

It's the same small enclave you remember, but instead of your father's stories of noble knights and pretty princesses winding through the air, smoke twists into your face, stinging your eyes. You get down on the floor, under the smoke, and see a bundle crouched in the corner. The smoke is making your eyes water, so you only realize what it is once you're nearly touching it.

It's your father, huddling in the corner, his back to you, his clothes scorched, burns covering his exposed skin. He's not moving. He's not breathing.

But then you hear a light cough.

You pull his senseless arms away, and find your little sister wrapped tight within his protective grasp, shielded from the flames by his failing body until his final moments.

"Cally!" you yell, and she turns bleary, smoke-filled eyes to you.

The you hear it, that awful grinding noise, coming from behind you, from all around you. The house is about to collapse.

>Grab Calene and out the way we came
>Grab Calene and out through the collapsing wall
>Grab Calene and shelter under your father's body, then dig out of the ruins later

>>35138159
>>Grab Calene and out through the collapsing wall
Or smash a window and leap through with her, if possible.

>>35138159
>Grab Calene and out through the collapsing wall

>>35138159
is this european wooden shack, or japanese paperwalls?

>Grab Calene and out through the collapsing wall
We get injured enough and we can play Calene! Little Sister to the rescue!

>>35138159
>>Grab Calene and out the way we came

>>35138159
When the house falls, everything will come apart at once, and, if you charge at the right moment, you should be able to shove your way through the wall while the fire-weakened wood collapses.

You scoop your sister into your arms as you gather your legs under you for the push. "You came back!" she says, smiling up at you as you tense, waiting for the right moment.

It comes, blowing its load of smoke and sparks all over you. You wrap Calene in your arms and bull through the wall as it shreds itself. The falling wood bruises and batters your shoulders, but you soldier through, a wave of Hellish heat slamming into your back, like a feverish dying gasp of the old house.

You plod away, away from the death, away from the heat, and lay Calene gently on the grass.

>"What happened?"
>"Are you ok?"
>Say something comforting, then go back and look for answers

>>35138523
>Are you ok
Go into the forest or somewhere we can get through the night that' relatively out of sight
We'll get info later, we're not in a shape to fight right now

>>35138523
>>Say something comforting, then go back and look for answers

>>35138523
"I love you sister, but I need to go back."

>>35138523
>"Are you ok?"

File: 1404806968806.jpg (234 KB, 500x738)

234 KB JPG

>>35138523
>Answers

We need to find out who did this.

And make them pay.

>>35138579
Seconding

>>35138663
family first, everything else second

>>35138523
>Are you ok

>>35138523
"Are you ok?" you ask her, as she spreads out overheated limbs on the cool grass.

"Father..." she coughs, "He protected me. But there was so much smoke - I thought I was going to die." You look her over quickly. She seems to be fine, as far as you can tell. The fresh air will do her good.

"He..." you want to say something about how brave your father was, but the words stick in your throat. It's as if saying them is a final admission of his death. "I'm glad he kept you safe," you finally say, "he loved you so much."

"I love you too, sister," you say, straightening up, "but I need to go back."

"I love you," she says, staring up into your eyes, "keep coming back to me."

You nod, you don't trust yourself to say anything without breaking down, then turn back toward the village. It's been flattened, the cottages collapsed into level ruins or reduced to blasted hulks, burning beams piled crazily together.

Smoke hangs over everything, glowing red in places from the fires that are still burning. You walk through the haze, looking and listening for anything but the hungry glow of flames and the crackle of burning wood.

You're in the middle of the village before you hear it, a voice barely audible over the noises of the fire: "Excellent fire propagation, negligible initial explosive shock..." it's a refined voice, seemingly lost in its own academic world, "...hmm. Perhaps Sowilo for Raido, although that might decrease saturation. Or just append two Sig, although that might make it unstable."

The voice is moving, and you hear a scratching noise, like the feather pens your father taught you to make, moving with it.

That's no goblin raider.

>Run for the voice, screaming bloody murder
>Stalk the voice through the ruined town
>Write-in

>>35139193
That's me.

Forgot my trip.

>>35139193
what weapin do we have?

>>35139193
>>Stalk the voice through the ruined town

>>35139193
>Stalk the voice through the ruined town

>>35139256
You've got a hunting knife, and there are no end of firebrands of varying sizes littered around.

>>35139193
>>Stalk the voice through the ruined town

>>35139193
You pick your way through the debris, keeping low to the ground and being careful not to make any noise. The voice is moving opposite you, talking to itself absentmindedly, just on the other side of a burned-out cottage.

"Hmm," you hear, "it looks like the flame constrained to act as a liquid did particularly thorough work."

You quickly double around the destroyed building, trying to come up behind the speaker.

By the time you make it around, the voice has moved farther on - you see the back of a robe that might have been red once vanishing into the smoke ahead of you.

"All in all," the voice continues, the quill scratching, "an admirable weapon against populated settlements. Wonderfully low survival rate."

This destruction is wonderful to this man? He just burned down your village, leaving you and your sister friendless orphans. He's killed nearly everyone you know, and it's "admirable"?

Fuck him.

>Draw your knife and stab him
>Pick up a burning cudgel and beat him down to question later

Roll 2d20 - first is for sneaking, second for the attack

Rolled 17, 10 = 27 (2d20)

>Draw your knife and stab him

Rolled 3, 9 = 12 (2d20)

>>35139667
>>Draw your knife and stab him
We can question him when he's dead.

Rolled 14, 18 = 32 (2d20)

>>35139667
>Pick up a burning cudgel and beat him down to question later

Rolled 3, 1 = 4 (2d20)

>>35139667
>Draw your knife and stab him

>>35139667
>>Pick up a burning cudgel and beat him down to question later

Rolled 20, 12 = 32 (2d20)

>>35139667
>Draw your knife and stab him
There is no need to question the insane.

>>35139667
You draw your knife silently from its pouch, stalking toward your prey. His hooded robe is a dingy brownish color, and the sides of the hood flap in the draft from the fire.

He doesn't see you. He doesn't hear you. He's wrapped in his own world of funny words and self-congratulation at the destruction of the things and people you love, chattering to himself and, as you can see once you get closer, writing in a little book with a quill held in his gloved hands.

It's the last thing he'll ever write.

You drive your knife forward, through him.

Through him?

The empty robe swirls in the air, entangling your arms. The book, quill and gloves fall to the ground.

"Insolent wretch," the voice says from the book, "did you think I would let myself be killed by the likes of you? Hah! As if you could match my incredible spells with your puny little knife."

The robe pulls tighter, binding your arms together. You can feel your shoulders strain as your elbows touch, then grind against each other.

>What do you do?

>>35140148
Why this place?

>>35139701
>>35139817
17 on sneak, great success

1 for critical failure on stabbing, your wizard is in another castle.

>>35140148
Rip up the robe with my awesome muscles, then find the stupid caster and stab him in the face.

Wait, that 1 was the fourth roll.

>>35140148
Put the robes on fire and tear them apart when they're weakened.

>>35140148
Throw the knife at the book.

>>35140218
How many dice rolls do you take?

>>35140148
try to gnaw trough it?

>>35140148
"Why this place?" you ask, writhing against the robe. You're strong, but there's something beyond the ordinary about this cloth.

"What do you produce here?" the voice asks, "your annual taxes are worth nearly nothing, your crops are barely enough to feed yourselves, and this location isn't of any strategic importance. This is the highest use this place could have been put to."

As he gabbles on, you walk to the burning cottage and stick the robe in the fire, arms and all. It catches, and as the flames gnaw at the fabric, you flex your might muscles and rip it apart.

Quickly, you turn and throw your knife at the book. You fumble the throw with your bondage-numb hands, and the knife hits it blade-on, slicing of a couple of pages. The voice laughs as the pages blow away in the gust from the fire.

"Do you think harming my implements harms me, farmboy? You must have as much dirt between your ears as you have between your toes!"

You barely hear him. Something is grating on your hunter's sense - the pages are moving against the wind, as if pulled by in invisible thread.

>Follow the pages
>Watch where the pages go, but go there by a different route
>Burn the book and robes
>Cut more pages off of the book
>Write in

>>35140698
>Follow the pages

>>35140698
>Watch where the pages go, but go there by a different route
Also pick up a new weapon on the way.

>>35140698
>>Burn the book and robes

>>35140367
Three or four, usually.

Since this is a oneshot, I'll try to include crits if I see them before I'm done writing.

Unfortunately, the crit success on the sneak roll >>35140031 wasn't going to make the stab any better.

FYI, a critfail on stealth with a crit success on the attack would have let to you running at him screaming bloody murder, then carving his guts out.

>>35140782
The knife is fine, it's just lying on the book.

>>35140698
>Watch where the pages go, but go there by a different route

>>35140698
>Follow the pages

>>35140698
>Watch where the pages go, but go there by a different route

>>35139193
>Follow the pages
Grab burning stick or something along the way

>>35140698
The way those pages are moving is definitely unnatural, so you decide to follow them. Maybe theyll lead you to whoever's speaking through the book.

But you won't follow them directly, you're too cautious for that. You pick up your knife, and grab a thick piece of charred, burning wood, then set off doubled over again, loping along with one eye on the pages.

They drift along in fits and starts, and if following an invisible trail for the other side of the village. One of them catches fire on its way through the embers of a cottage, after dipping into a pool of liquid fire.

The other one loses itself to the raging updraft of a still-burning cottage, but you don't need its guidance anymore.

There' a bearded man in shirtsleeves seated on the grass between the village and the woods, looking at a book, the contents of a large knapsack strewn on the grass around him.

You're another house or two down from him, hidden by the smoking ruins. He doesn't seem to have noticed you yet.

>Sneak through the woods
>Charge him
>Call out to him
>Write-in

1d20, please.

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>Sneak through the woods

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>35141397
>Charge him

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>35141397
>Sneak through the woods

>>35141475
Aw fuck yeh

>>35141475
woo we are GOOD at sneaking.

>>35141503
Additional dice info - whatever option is picked, the dice rolls are for that option, not the one their post voted for.

>>35141509
Rogues are martials.

>>35141540
yeah that is fine. Otherwise you might see vote switches if the dice is high.

>>35141397
You time your dash for the woods with a gust of wind. You race through the swirling smoke, using it to screen your dash for the timberline.

Now you're in your element. You circle around slowly, creeping up on him, watching his every movement, never making a sound. He's writing in the book and talking to himself, glancing up at the burning village every so often.

You're directly behind him now, only a thin strip of grass separating you from the amoral magus. You take the first step

A wizard, you think that's what he is. They were in your father's stories sometimes, whispering lies in kings' ears, poisoning people, and transforming innocent princes and princesses into geese.

The reality is even worse than the stories.

Now you're nearly on top of him, and he doesn't even know it.

>Brain him with the piece of wood - potentially nonlethal
>Stab the shit out of him
>Slit his throat
>Write-in

>Slit his throat
Mages need their voices don't they? Better to nip that in the bud

>>35141830
>Slit his throat
try to cast without that

>>35141830
>>Slit his throat
Shove that knife in their good and quick.

>>35141830
>Rape him with your thick peasant cock

This is for you dad

>>35141830
>>Stab the shit out of him
We're fucking pissed, why would we be efficient with this?

>>35141830
>>Slit his throat

>>35141978
>We're fucking pissed, why would we be efficient with this?
Because we want to make extra sure this dude's dead, and opening up his throat like an envelope is better than a bunch of angry stabs.

Yup, people survive stabbings. A slit throat from someone who slits throats professionally to ensure the least pain?

>Hunters slit the throat to drain the animals of blood, and they do it in a way to kill quickly since arrow shots generally don't kill right away.

>>35141978
Because it's a wizard and we only have a knife and some clothing on us.

>>35141830

It's quick and efficient.

It isn't clean, not by a long shot. There's blood all the way down the wizard's front as his mouth flaps uselessly.

You watch through the window as the apprentice sets the room alight, and the wizard's body sags into his chair, the parchments in front of him curling and smoldering as they catch fire. Once you're sure he's done it all right, you clamber back up to the roof, and begin your high-altitude trek to the meeting spot.

The tiles of the capital are a far cry from the thatch of your long-lost village, but the blaze erupting from the wizard's high tower is the same familiar scintillating red, brilliant against the sky. You watch it from a distant balcony, waiting for your apprentice.

He swings up from below, over the railing. Showy, but you suppose he's earned it.

"Good job, kid," you say, "reminds me of my first time. That simple cut, then they can't cast. Makes real sure they're dead, too."

He nods his masked face. "Thanks."

You push through the balcony door and enter the upper room of the guild. Everything stops - the sparring, the knife practice, even the girl on the monkey bars starts swinging in place. All eyes snap to you, then to the young man following you in.

They know that if the apprentice has come back with the guildmaster, he's a full fledged mage hunter.

"You found us another good one, Calene."

>>35142541
What? Where's our sister?

>>35142604
It's a time skip I'm pretty sure.

>>35142541
Oh i get it
You knew we would probably try to learn magic so you made it into timeskip

>>35142604
Presumable managing our guild of fucking magus-killing assassins with us.

>>35142604
Calene's our sister's name.

I hope our mage-assassins at least checks to see if they people they are killing are monsters. Cause killing people just because they are born with a trait strikes me as hypocrisy in this case.

>>35142747
The QM never said wizards are born with magical talent

>>35142747
We fucking killed mage knowing he will explode while he was inside city
You honestly except us to be anything but someone who thinks all magicians are evil?

>>35142623
Eh.

I thought the throat-slitting was a decent segue from "shit, wizard burned my village down" to "my sister and I run the premiere guild of wizard-slaying assassins".

Alternate endings: If you'd tried to beat the fuck out of the wizard, or charged him, you might have founded an order of magus-killing warriors. If you'd died, Calene would have gone for personal vengeance against wizardkind herself, but in a much less organized and stable way.

As a one-shot, this was always going to be over once the wizard died.

>>35142788

The apprentice lit the room on fire after killing the wizard (probably to burn magical scrolls and whatnot). The fire shouldn't spread far, if it's inside an isolated stone tower, and the rooftops around it are brick.

>>35142541

Thank you all for playing. It was fun to run for you guys, and I hope it was fun to play.

If you've got any questions or comments, I'd love to hear them.


If you want to know when I'm running more Quests, I've got a twitter: https://twitter.com/HaikuDeluge

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10 KB PNG

>>35142869
>rooftops are brick

Rooftops are tiles, as stated.

I'm more tired than I thought.

Pic related is basically this quest in a nutshell.

>>35142869
Thanks for the thread HD. I'll check out what else you run since I liked this so much.

>>35142869
Only criticism is that you should've made the transition to a timeskip a bit more clear. Otherwise, excellent quest

>>35142954
You're welcome. Glad to hear you enjoyed it.

I should be running Rock Quest some time in the next 24 hours. Everything is archived on suptg.

>>35143029
Thanks.

Yeah, I thought I'd try an experiment, and it didn't come out as well as I wished. Well, at least I know that next time I try it, I should make it clearer.