Notes
Time for the sad news. I won't be continuing "Rise of the Tank" because my laptop's hard drive failed a year ago. I am really sorry for anyone who was waiting for my story for that long. I never had the courage to tell you guys and because it left me in state of shock because 24 chapters were all outlined and in a blink of an eye, gone. Now back to this new beginning, thank you Black Friday because I got a new laptop!
A crossover between Touhou and Etrian Odyssey IV, with minor modifications. What kind of modifications? It's mostly on the Etrian side of things:
1) Each guild member only has one class and does not have a subclass like in the game because it'll make things confusing for me.
2) The guild in this crossover is not the guild we all play as to save the day, it's just a guild with a bunch of nobodys.
The guild only has six OCs. One is a self-insert, not telling who, but you can figure it out. If you know your anime and video game character names then you'll figure it out with ease (Or just scroll all the down to the next set of notes). I am knowledgeable on the Etrian Odyssey series, but the first chapter is the only one that will take place in Etrian Odyssey. Don't mind the equipment names like caster's coat and such because if you don't play Etrian Odyssey IV, just think of it as favored text.
Also note this: Updates are slow, working on my master degree, this means essay, essay, and essay. Also because I usually wait at least a week before I proofread my stuff.
Major kudos to the Etrian Odyssey wikia, I don't know how I would have survive without it.
And credit to Subzero Dragon for beta reading the first chapter.
Chapter One: Detour?
The Pathfinders Guild is one of the many small guilds that resides in the peaceful city of Tharsis located in the Outlands, which is famous for its natural mazes. Tharsis used to be a city on the brink of economic collapse because of its remote location, but due to the invention the skyship and unexplored lands, the city regained life because of explorers. These explorers would form groups called guilds and work together in the name of fame and fortune.
Explorers get their jobs and missions from either the count or from a bar known as the Dancing Peacock. Outside of the bar, there were two men; one is standing and the other one is drunk. The man that is standing, is named Domhnall, he is the leader of the Pathfinder. He has short black hair and brown eyes. He is wearing glasses, a gray jacket reinforced with boiled leather, khaki pants, and boots made out of hide. The drunken one is Steiner, he has light brown hair and eyes. He is wearing a lab coat, brown pants, hide boots, and has a messenger bag with a red cross that lets everyone knows that he is a medic.
Domhnall shook his head in disgust, "Steiner, how many times have I told you not to get drunk right before we start a job?"
Steiner pointed to himself and proclaimed in an unknown language, "I AM MAD MEDIC! INVADE! DESTROY!" the dude then collapsed towards Domhnall.
A female landsknecht walked out of the bar with an official-looking paper in hand, she has purple hair and eyes. She is wearing plate mail complete with a chain skirt, a type of shield called an aspis dangling on her right arm, leather gloves, and chain greaves. As a landsknecht, her job is to deal a lot of pain and suffering to the monsters the guild fights.
"Karen" Domhnal calls out, "Can you carry him back to the Silver Will?"
The Silver Will is the Pathfinders' skyship, it was issued after their first mission from the count. The hull is 47 feet long and stands at a height of 15 feet, however it is actually 35 feet tall if the blimp-like structure is included. The skyship is unarmed in order to make room for quarters to sleep in, bigger storage and fuel capacity. The ship's engine uses iridescent ores as fuel to power the propeller on the back and the exhaust goes into the blimp-like structure to provide lift.
Karen looked at the guild leader with a bewildered look. She thought to herself, "Does he honestly expects a lady to do the heavy lifting?"
Domhnal pleaded, "Come on, you kill FOEs with ease, so a drunken medic shouldn't be bad." The FOE is a deadly monster that wanders outside of Tharsis, they can either provide a challenge for explorers and the military or just outright slaughter them. The term stands for Field-On-Enemy which was coined by the military, but most explorers just call them Fucking Overpowered Enemies.
His pleas fell to deaf ears as she grabbed a guard and bribed him one thousand gold, "Guard, take this man to the Silver Will." The guard nods and carried Steiner away.
"That was part of our guild funds, right?!" Domhnal said in a panicky voice.
"Yes, you think a lady like me should carry drunks and pay out of her wallet?"
"B-b-but we're almost brok-" Before Domhnal could finish, she thrust the official-looking paper in his face.
"That," she said as the leader held the paper, "is a job. The military wants a guild to map out the Sacred Mountains. Reward? 8000 gold."
Domhnal sighed, "Well at least you did something I told you to do."
"Next time try going in yourself, our guild leader can't be that shy!" she said while walking towards the direction of the city gates and laughed, "O~hohoho!"
Domhnal thought to himself while walking on the cobblestone streets, "The other three should be at the Berund Atelier selling off our loot."
The Berund Atelier is the city's item and blacksmith shop. The guild leader sees the rest of the guild members walking out of the shop with a bag of gold. The serious person with brown hair and eyes that is carrying the bag is Rock, the guild's fortress. His duty as a fortress is to take hits and relieve pressure from other guild members. He wears similar gear to Karen, but he has a heavy mace instead of a sword.
Rock saw Domhnal walking towards them, so he gave the guild leader a nod and said, "We received 8000 gold from the loot, and spent 5000 on supplies."
"Too much on supplies." Charlotte stated. She is the guild's sniper, she has brown eyes and dark blue hair tied into a pony tail by a red bow. Her role is to bind the monster's legs, arms, and head so it can't fight back. She wears studded leather armor, a feathered hat, chain greaves, and is armed with a recurve bow. She is a woman of few words.
The scanty clad dancer with green eyes and pink twintails shouted, "Too much on supplies? Well excuse me, I tried my best haggling! Why don't YOU try talking?!" Her name is Maki and she is the guild's dancer. Her role is support, she can assist in fighting alongside with the fighters and heal them with her dances. However, her personality isn't as graceful as her dances.
"Shall we get to the Silver Will?" Domhnal asked and showed the official-looking paper, "We have a new job."
Maki snatched the paper, reads it, and asked, "Mapping the Sacred Mountains? Why? Didn't everyone set off to the Cloudy Stronghold to deal with the Imperials?"
"Which is why we are mapping the Sacred Mountains, plus I hear news that the Underground Lake is really warm now because one of the more renowned guilds melted the ice with some kind of fire from the Cloudy Stronghold. We can stop there to warm up." Domhnal stated.
The guild leader and his mates started to walk down the cobblestone streets towards the city gates and Maki muttered, "I didn't join this guild to map places out, I wanted to become famous..."
Domhnal said, "We will become famous in our own way."
"Wah?!" Maki jumped and thought, "Damn it, I didn't expect him to hear me."
Despite being called the city gates, it is actually a pier where guilds would dock their skyships. It is also home to the Geomagnetic Pole, a teleportation device that can teleport an entire skyship to a different area or labyrinth. It is a very busy place because skyships come and go, trading ships, explorers heading out, and explorers coming back either in one piece, missing a few pieces, or in a wooden box.
Once the guild members board the Silver Will, they stood on the deck in a circle. Domhnal took a deep breath and said, "1, 2, 3, go!"
Domhnal has rock and everyone else has paper; he lost and now he has to pilot the nice boat.
Thanks to the Geomagnetic Pole and other guilds that discovered the other pole in the Sacred Mountains, getting there was really simple. Simply fly the skyship into the pole, the pilot has to think about his destination, and the skyship will appear there in a blink of an eye. The Outlands which is where Tharsis is located in a green and warm place. The Sacred Mountains, however, was frigid and snowy. Sometimes, a blizzard can start and those can ground skyships because of poor visibility and inexperience pilots can crash. The second biggest threat are tornadoes because blizzards can make them seem invisible and the biggest threat are FOEs.
Things weren't going well, while in the middle of mapping the Sacred Mountains, the Silver Will was jumped by a FOE that was hiding the blizzard. The FOE is an icy pincer, a giant mantis with frozen sickles, it has a special ability which allows it to control the cold.
"Charlotte!" Domhnal shouted.
Charlotte climbed out of the hatch, she observed the mantis and knew what to do. The mantis attacks with its sickles, so therefore, she needs to bind the arms. She fired her first shot.
Twang!
They are on a moving skyship, hitting a moving target while on a moving platform is nearly impossible.
Twang!
They are in a blizzard, and that made things even more difficult.
Twang!
Every single shot she fired missed because the wind blows them in different directions, bad visibility, or the icy pincer would just freeze them. Seizing the opportunity, the icy pincer swiped at the blimp-like structure on the Silver Will, causing the skyship to rapidly lose altitude. The icy pincer was so focused on the skyship that it didn't notice a tornado, and was promptly sucked in to it.
"Everyone, brace for impact!" Domhnal shouted down into a speaking tube to let everyone inside know. He skillfully glided the Silver Will and it softly landed on the snow, if this was anywhere else that wasn't snow or water, everyone could have been badly maimed or dead. The guild leader then gave Charlotte a telescope, "Keep watch." He climbed down the hatch.
Inside the ship, everything looks alright, except for a few stuff were knocked off their shelves and broken portholes. Domhnal spotted Steiner in the bathroom and he wasn't drunk this time. The medic was wrapping a wound dressing around Karen's right arm. He glanced at Domhnal and said, "Nice landing. Only casualty is Karen because of broken glass."
The landsknecht looked away and pouted, "It's only a flesh wound. It's not like I'll die from a silly paper-cut."
Domhnal then heard rapid footsteps and shouting from Maki, "Rock, hurry up! The faster we board up the broken portholes, the less heat we lose!" Unlike back in Tharsis, where she was scanty dressed, she wore a caster's coat here to keep warm. Rock approaches the guild leader.
"Domhnal."
"Rock."
The fortress was holding some plywood, "My hands are full right now, give me a few minutes to board up the broken portholes."
The guild leader walk towards the storage room to search for a very important item, the ariadne thread or the warp wire. It's a must have for any guild going out to explore because it'll warp them back to the city. He searched and searched, but to no avail. He silently cursed at himself for not ordering them to buy at least two ariadne threads.
Domhnal took a deep breath and shouted, "WE FORGOT THE ARIADNE THREADS!" Everyone inside the ship heard that and ignored him, some people like Maki, laughed at him.
The sound of the hatch being opened can be heard. Charlotte raced down towards Domhnal, "That blizzard died down. You need to see this."
The guild leader nodded, "Alright, stay here and help out."
Charlotte shook her head, "I'll follow you. It's dangerous to come out alone because you are unarmed."
Once the duo is out on the deck, Domhnal looked at the stern of the ship realized that the 50 foot propeller is mangled up; it was damaged beyond repair, they would have to abandon the Silver Will and salvage what they need if they are rescued.
Charlotte tapped on Domhnal's shoulder, "Look at the bow."
The guild leader looked across the ship's bow and saw a cave, he grabbed out his map and said, "Wow, thank goodness, we landed in front of the Underground Lake." He stuffed the map in his pocket and ordered, "Charlotte, get everyone to put on backpacks and gather them all up the deck." the sniper was about to go down until he stopped her, "Oh and one last thing, turn off the engine, lights, and heat, it'll attract monsters if it's on."
It took roughly less than half an hour to get inside the cave. By the time they got to the cave, it was already dark and temperatures outside dropped to below freezing. Unlike the outside, the Underground Lake is very warm and all the ice has melted. Maki breathed a sigh of relief, "It's nice and warm, who'd except to find such a nice place out here?"
Charlotte whispered, "FOEs"
The guild looked on and noticed that all the ice melted and formed a lake, however this means that whatever FOEs were frozen inside had come back to life.
Rock added in, "Well, it's better than freezing to death."
Maki nodded, "Or being mauled on the Silver Will."
The guild leader then ordered, "Alright, everyone form a line, two ranks deep. Rock and Karen, take the left and right. Steiner stand in the middle."
The three people who were called up stood up front. Rock was standing on the left, Karen on the right, and Steiner in the middle. Domhnal continued, "As for the rear, Charlotte stays behind Rock, Maki stays behind Karen, and I stay behind Steiner. Got that?"
A sound of agreements was heard and the guild members got into formation. It is a simple formation, it allows them to be more focused on the front, but leaves them open from behind. The monsters here are just pushovers, Venomshrooms and Hexfrogs are the only ones that can give the group some trouble because they can poison and cause paralysis, but the FOEs here are still a problem. The deeper they went into the cave and the closer they approached the lake, the warmer it got.
Then they encountered the dreaded FOE, a plated chaser. A giant turtle that is actually really fast, despite its sluggish appearance.
"Domhnal, that plated chaser is acting weird." Karen pointed at the FOE, it was moving much more sluggish than usually, "I guess those guys aren't used to the heat. Piece of cake!" she said with a smile.
"Nope! Those guys are a pain to kill and their shells are tough." Steiner commented.
Domhnal sided with Steiner, "I agree. We just crash landed, so we need to conserve our energy and well-being."
Karen pouted, "It's only one FOE. Besides, I bet it'll go away if I bribed it, just like what I did with the guard."
Rock face-palmed at Karen's words. The guild continued on until they reached the lake. In the middle of the lake was a hovering black flame, without that flame, this entire cave would be frozen.
Domhnal said, "It's hard to believe that a black flame can hover above water and melt an entire cave filled with ice." Everyone nodded in agreement. "Okay, drop your backpacks, we'll set up shelter here and wait for rescue."
Maki ran up to the lake, removed her boots, took off her coat, and put her feet in the water. She let out a blissful sigh, "Oh my god, this feels so nice, it's like a hot spring!" A green mob cap hit her leg and she picked it up. Suddenly, the water in front of her started bubbling and a body floated up. The dancer's face went from blissful relaxation to horror as she let out a scream.
Maki calm herself down and dragged the body out, she touched around the neck and felt a heartbeat. "STEINER!"
Steiner and everyone else ran towards Maki. Noticing the wet body, he performed CPR. After a minute, the "human" woke up and Steiner was about to wrap a warm blanket around her. She was a child, she has cat ears, two tails, brown hair and eyes, and wore a red dress.
Domhnal ordered, "Alright get back to work people, Maki and Steiner, keep this kid company and let her rest."
Maki got the catgirl to rest on her lap, she started to pet her and had a face of pure joy. Steiner cast a healing spell and then asked, "So are you feeling better?" The catgirl nodded and he asked, "What's your name and where are your parents?"
The catgirl tried to sit up, but was too tired, "My name is Chen. Yukari and Ran are on the other side. I saw a pair of giant bats so I rode on top of one and waved Ran goodbye. It was fun! But I fell off into the water."
"Huh?" said both the medic and dancer.
Maki ordered, "Steiner, get Domhnal here."
The good medic left. Then another voice was heard and it was older, "Chen?!" Right in front of Maki were two weird looking ladies. One with a purple and light blue dress and nine yellow tails. The other in a purple dress with half her body inside a black hole.
"Ran!" Chen, took off the blanket and flew off towards Ran. Maki sat there with her mouth open, not because that one of them is inside a black hole with creepy eyes and the other has a bunch of tails, but because they were flying.
The rest of the guild came down and stare in wonder at the three not-so-human beings. Charlotte tilted her head and said, "FOEs?"
Yukari took out her fan and covered her mouth, "Ara ara~ we are not FOEs. We are..." there was a belief pause, "runemasters from another land."
Screech, screech, screech!
Suddenly a swarm of patrol bats appeared, they were probably angry that one of their comrades were ridden by a catgirl. They are another type of FOE, they are giant bats and are well known for taking down people with their claw dances.
Karen slapped the dancer, "Maki, snap out of it!" the poor woman is still in shock at the three floating "runemasters".
Steiner pulled out his heavy mace, "There's too many of them!"
Rock got his shield up, "One or two is fine, but twenty?"
Charlotte whispered, "Too many."
Maki shouted at Karen, "Stop hitting me!"
Domhnal shouted, "Calm down people! We're not gonna fight all of them. Create an opening to punch out and then make a beeline out of the cave, okay?" Of course, that did little to ease the tension because no matter how good the plan is, if they are being gang-banged then they're all coming back in wooden boxes. He looked back at the three "runemasters" and said, "When you get the chance, get the heck out of here, there's too many."
Maki looked at the guild leader all teary eyed, "I know I said I wanted to become famous, but I didn't want this kind of fame!"
Chen looked at Ran and said, "We should help them! That guy in the lab coat saved me by kissing!"
Something inside Ran snapped, "LET ME AT HIM!"
Immediately, she was smacked in the head with a fan by Yukari, "It's called CPR, Ran. CPR."
Yukari smiled at Chen, "Don't you worry, I'll help them out, but first I want to watch what they are doing."
The battle had started. The main tactic for a patrol bat FOE goes like this: Charlotte bind the arms with her attacks so the bat can't fight back with their claws, and then everyone just rush it until its dead. This tactic works great on 1 or 3, but it's a challenge for anything greater than that.
Domhnal ordered, "Rock, provoke them!"
The fortress loudly banged his shield and attracted nearly every single bat.
The guild leader tapped Maki's shoulder, "Ready up your chase samba."
The dancer performed a chase samba which allows her to attack again when another ally attacks.
The guild leader looked at Karen, "Karen, ready up your electric link!"
The landsknecht bashes a patrol bat with the electric link which was super effective and then Maki followed up on the attack. The electric link is an electric attack that allows Karen to attack again with an electrical attack when another ally attacks.
The same patrol bat then smashes into Rock's shield and cause him to fall over.
Domhnal gave out two more orders, "Charlotte, do your best and try to bind their arms! Steiner, get your healing spells ready to heal Rock!"
The sniper fires an arrow at the patrol bat and failed to bind the arms, this was followed up a Karen's and Maki's attacks. While all this was happening, Steiner had enough time to use a healing spell on Rock.
Yukari thought to herself, "Interesting teamwork, I bet Reimu can learn something from all of this" She then closes her fan, "Alright Chen, watch what I'm going to do~"
The "runemaster" opened up a creepy, but totally safe portal with eyeballs in the background. The gap was right where all the guild members were standing. They all fell through and the last thing that was heard were screams of terror.
"Yukari... when Chen said help them, she didn't mean send them to Gensokyo. She meant jump into the fray and fight." stated Ran.
Yukari frowned, "Ran, you're right!" She opened another gap.
Ding, ding, ding, ding.
The familiar sound of an American railroad crossing was heard, then out came a barreling diesel-electric locomotive pulling one mile of boxcars. Every single FOE in its way were flattened. Yukari opened another gap for the train to go back to where it came from.
"Now, shall we enjoy our bath in the Underground Lake?" she asked with a smile.
"What about those people?" Ran asked.
Yukari lazily waved her hand, "Don't worry, I sent them off to one of the safer places in Gensokyo... I think."
"Ugh." Domhnal woke up and checked his surroundings; lots of sunlight and weird green pole-like trees were everywhere. He felt like he had this strange urge to say "Goddamn it!" to someone. One by one, he woke everyone up.
"This sure isn't the Underground Lake," Karen commented.
Maki added in, "I rather be here than there."
"Peaceful," stated Charlotte.
"Hey, isn't this bamboo?" Steiner asked.
"Different from our bamboo." the sniper added. What she meant was that the bamboo here are more natural when compared to the ones at their universe where it is mutated.
Rock tapped Domhnal, "We left our supplies behind. It's best if we find civilization as fast as possible."
Domhnal nodded, "Right, okay..." He pointed to Karen, "Make a mess out of those... bamboo. Cut them down."
Next up was Rock, "Dig a pit and throw a couple of the bamboos in."
Back to Karen, "Once the bamboos are in the small pit, use your blazing link to light a fire, it'll serve as a marker in case we get lost."
Domhnal got out a piece of paper and quill and thought, "this bamboo forest is just like a labyrinth."
The guild then marched off into the unknown.
Notes
Okay, done with first chapter. This is going to be the only chapter when the story is set in the Etrian Odyssey universe, everything else is going to be in Gensokyo. I hope you guys and gals enjoyed this because the next chapter will be up by next year on 2016. By next year, I do mean by the end of January or beginning of February.
Haven't spotted any references to my character's names? I'll help:
Domhnal - Gaelic form of Donald/Donny. So that's the self-insert, however he's only self insert in name. If you guys want a true self insert, it'll became a comedy because there will be a lot of screaming, crying, and running because the poor guy doesn't wanna die (If he dies, then it's horror, well for me).
Steiner - "Steins;Gate". The "I AM MAD MEDIC!" was a huge giveaway because it was based off of this famous quote: "I AM MAD SCIENTIST!"
Rock - "Megaman" or in Japan, "Rockman"
Maki - "Love Live! School Idol Project" and no, she is not my favorite Muse member; it's Nozomi.
Karen - Karen Kujou from "Kiniro Mosaic".
Charlotte - "Charlotte" (That one anime that aired in summer 2015 by Key aka the creators of "Clannad").
Why those names? Well that's what I named my characters in the game itself. Yes, I know there can only be five in a party, but I always like to think that empty space in the back is reserved for the player him or herself who is giving out the orders and mapping the places out. Also if you want to know a little more about the OCs, go to the Touhou OC wiki on Fanfiction. To get there, click on the "forum" button on the top right (under the search bar in fanfiction.)
Uhh bamboo and other trees in Etrian Oddssey are mutated?
Probably not, but I made them like that for my story and I have a very good reason too. It's very big spoilers, but it's also my reason why, so the readers will have to know anyways. Etrian Oddssey, especially the first one takes place in the far future where mankind collapsed and a lot of the plants and animals we know and loved all mutated into monsters. Which is why your party got killed by giant pink/red mole rats or giant butterflies in the first dungeon.