Author's Note: So if any of you have read any of my stories, you know immediately that I don't usually put an author's note at the beginning of the story. I'm doing it now because this is taking place a bit into the future of Skyros. A few weeks after initiation. Seeing as that is a bit into the future this has maybe some rather minor spoilers. Or are they spoilers? Teams have been formed, although the team leaders haven't been named yet, and I won't name them here.
tl;dr The teams are switched around, Pyrrha, Ruby, Jaune and Blake compose one team and Nora, Ren, Yang and Weiss compose the other team. Read 'Skyros: The Peerless' if you want to know more
Chapter One
"Feeling brave tonight?" A ominous voice asked the assembled huntresses and hunter. "How brave? Brave enough to do battle with hideous monsters hmmm?" The speaker looked around the room, staring deep into each of the assembled student's eyes. "Brave enough to sneak around dank castles in the dark and chance being next victim of a dragon strike?"
Pyrrha looked down at the sheet of paper she held and back up.
What did I get myself into…
It was Friday night, and therefore the beginning of the weekend. No more classes until Monday morning. Pyrrha had been content with reading one of the many books that Blake had suggested to her or even going to see Vale, something she had yet to get around to in the few weeks she had been there.
Nora had other ideas.
A few days before the end of the week, she had shown up at Pyrrha's team dorm.
"Pyrrhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa….." It was Nora. She might not be on the same team as Pyrrha, but you would never know it, considering that she seemed to live in Pyrrha's dorm.
"Um… sorry?
"Whatca ya doing Friday?" Curious blue eyes stared at the red head.
Pyrrha tapped her chin in thought. Truthfully she hadn't thought that far ahead. "Honestly I don't have anything going on then."
A huge grin appeared on Nora's face as she reached into her school bag and pulled out two sizeable books. Pyrrha peered at them, intrigued. They aren't textbooks… and they have some interesting artwork on them… I wonder what they could be. Pyrrha could hear the closing of a book, a quick glance over to Blake's bed confirmed that Nora had garnered Pyrrha's quiet teammate's attention. Next Nora pulled out a stack of paper and some odd shaped… dice? "Make a character. My dorm. Friday at five pm. Bring chips and your team!" and with that Nora merrily skipped out of the room.
Looking at Blake with concern, who had by this point gotten off her bed to see what book Nora would possibly read, Pyrrha opened the book.
As Blake and Pyrrha read through it, it seemed to be some kind of… guide for a type of a game, with a myriad of rules and variations and lots and lots of dice rolling.
This was going to take a while.
Pyrrha had looked through the book a few times, before telling Ruby about it. Blake read it once before she started making a character sheet, and finished within an hour. Ruby and Pyrrha each made a character, asking for a few helpful pointers from Blake.
Jaune on the other hand…
It had taken Ruby, Blake and Pyrrha a few hours to get a character sheet done… it took all of them the evening before Friday to get Jaune character done. It had been a challenge… but they got it done.
The weirdest part, was Pyrrha could help but feel it was similar to her semblance, but the rules for this were clearly different but very very similar in some regards.
It was a little after five on Friday now. Team RAPB was seated at a giant card table that took up most of Nora's dorm. Opened books strewned its surface, a venerable looking box held a plethora of colorful polyhedral. There were a few folders that were set up so they were standing, blocking the view to one of the chairs.
"So. Are you feeling brave tonight, adventurers?" the ominous voice asked once more from behind the folders.
"Why are you hiding Ren?"
"That's what I t-" the ominous voice stopped, before turning into the hunter's normal voice, "I'm not hiding Ruby, I'm the DM."
Ruby turned to Blake, "What's that?"
"The Dungeon Master."
"Oh. Okay." Ruby nodded her head in understanding
"As I was saying…" The ominous voice returned as Ren disappeared, "Are you feeli-"
"What's a Dungeon Master?"
The folders were lowered as Ren looked at her, before turning his gaze at Nora. "You did tell them to read the handbook right?"
"Uh-huh!"
"….the dungeon master is the person who is the narrator, simply put."
"Oh. Okay!"
"Any more questions?" Ren eyes the group, who shake their heads, some more confidently then others. Putting the folders back up, "NOW! Who feels brave tonigh-"
"RAGNAR THE DWARF DOES!" Nora slammed her fist into the table, making all but the DM jump, "Ragnar is ready tae feest oan th' bluid ay his enemies an' turn their skulls intae cups fur his mead!" her voice adopting a weirdly deep accented quality. "Who joins Ragnar th' fighter oan thes quest ay adventure?"
Team RAPB looked amongst themselves before the quietest member spoke up, "I, Aurora Longleaf am ready."
Nora laughed loudly, "And whit be ye, a whiny druid?"
Blake's eyes narrowed, "I am a proud shifter ranger!"
"So yer sayin' ye ur a mangy mutt?"
The black haired huntress' mouth open and closed in shock before she became vocal and loud. "We shifters have a long and cultured history! WE ARE NOT MANGY MUTTS WE HAVE A DISTINCT CULTURE THAT IS FULL OF KNOWLEDGE AND…" Blake launched into a triad about how shifters had equal rights. Pyrrha could swear she heard Ren sigh as he observed. Ruby leaned over to Pyrrha.
"What's a shifter?" she whispered.
"They are one of the races and descended from werewolves I think?" Pyrrha had read the shifter entry, but hadn't been completely sure what it was about. She had opted to go with a simple option, similar to Ruby. Ruby had opted to play a paladin, a paragon of lawful goodness. Pyrrha had decided she was going to play a cleric, I mean, more healing is always good, right? At least that was her rationale. It seemed easy enough, a few spells, all of them healing or detecting.
"Enough." All eyes were focused on the folders surrounding the Dungeon Master. "Jaune, who and what is your character?"
Jaune panicked as he looked down at his sheet, "Um…um… J-Jaune Arc?"
"No Jaune, what's your character's name."
"B-b-but that's what I-I-I put as the character n-n-name…."
Nora deadpanned stared at the eyes peering over the folders, "Rennnnnn we have a no name character over hereeeeee." Her character's accent dropping completely.
"It's okay Nora, it's his first character."
"But Rennnnnn" Nora pouted, staring directly into Ren's magenta eyes.
"Let it be Nora… Jaune, what class and race are you?"
"Changeling bard?" Both Ren and Nora sucked in their breath. "Jaune, that's both a complex race and class. Are you sure you want to do it?"
Jaune's eyes went wide before his shoulders slumped, "…maybe I shouldn't."
"Lit th' loon play th' bard, I need someain tae gezz some guid skitin' songs oan th' road!" Nora's voice had returned to the nigh comprehensible accent. Everyone stared as they attempted to piece together what she had said.
"We..we can always just help Jaune out, right?" Ruby asked, "I mean the point is to have fun…I think?" Ruby looked at Pyrrha for confirmation and received an encouraging nod. "Right, Jaune?" Jaune gave a shaky nod.
"B-b-but should I rename my character?"
SLAM
Nora had pulled out a huge spiral bound book, slamming it on the table before throwing dice at Jaune. "Roll."
"Wha-"
"ROLL!"
The sounds of three dice rolling followed by Jaune, "Seven hundred and fifty two?"
Skimming through the pages of her huge book with the occasional mutter of "Changeling" or "bard", Nora finally stopped on a page. "I dub thee… Mirerindra Ethendakoth the Moderately Tasteful!"
"…"
"…"
"…can I just shorten that to Ethan?"
"…"
"…moving on, what is your character Pyrrha?"
"I am Kianna of Thrane, a cleric who wishes to bring healing to the good people during my travels through Khorvaire. Oh! I'm also a human." I hope I did this right…
Pyrrha could make out that Ren nodded in approval over the folders. Jaune gave a weak smile, while Blake gave a silent nod before returning to stare at Nora. Nora… "A cleric ye say? We shaa need a body fur th' bard will falter in uir joorney! Greetings tae ye!"
"Ruby?"
A little more composed then Jaune, Ruby glanced nervously down at her sheet, "R-Rive… Rive! Um…I'm a paladin of the Church of the Silver Flame?"
HISSSSSSSSS
Did Blake just hiss at Ruby? "You support genocide Rive?!" Once more the normally quiet Blake was speaking loudly, and vividly. Betrayal etched into her face as she stared at her younger teammate.
"Um um um" Ruby was panicking, not knowing what she had done wrong.
Going to save her partner, Pyrrha spoke up, thinking up a story on the spot. "Kianna is a cleric of the Church of the Silver Flame… is that a bad thing?"
"Yes!"
"I'm sorry?"
Blake rolled her eyes, "Pyrrha, didn't you read the book? The Church of the Silver Flame tried to wipe out the shifters for fifty years. You two are part of an organization that burns people for being different and kills children!"
"B-b-but I just wanna to help people!" Ruby wailed, the tears starting to flow, "I don't wanna kill kids. I mean their leader is like twelve, they can't possibly kill kids…right?" She looked at Blake with big silver eyes, before turning her eyes towards Ren, "Right?"
The Dungeon Master sighed. "It's been a hundred years, and it was Lycanthropes not shifters specifically. They don't murder kids."
"Yay!" The tears were gone as Ruby did a victory fist pump into the air. Ren cleared his throat to get the group's attention.
"The adventure starts in Sharn, the city of towers. Specifically on a bridge between the towers. Now tell me, why would your group be together in Sharn?"
Blake and Pyrrha glanced at their partners, both of who looked like a fish out of water, before glancing at each other. "Kianna is on a holy mission to bring healing to poor of Sharn." If it's a big city there has got to be a lot of disease right? "And…um…Rive is my faithful bodyguard who is charged to protect me?" Pyrrha looked at Ruby for confirmation.
Nodding her head vigorously, "Yes! I…uh…protect Pyrrh- I mean Kianna!"
Surprisingly it was not Nora or even Blake that spoke up next. "I, I mean Jaun- no, Mirerinnaae… Mireenin… " Jaune struggled to pronounce the name that Nora gave him before giving up, "Ethan is here to record the success of their holy mission a-a-and turn it into song? That's what bards do, right?" A few heads around the table nod.
"Aurora met them on her travels in Sharn and it was cheaper to live in a group." Blake replied while staring with slightly cold eyes towards Pyrrha and Ruby. She isn't going to let this go, is she? Pyrrha thought glumly.
Attention was focused on the one remaining member of the group. "Ragnar ay Droranath mit these fowk in a tavern late a body nicht, an' challenged them tae a contest ay skitin'. Naturally Ragnar won, an' they hae bin friends ever since."
"…"
"…"
"I'll order some pizza, and then we'll get started."
As Ren order pizza, he looked over some of the notes he had made during the introduction.
Nora – Ragnar Droranath. Seems to be only a quarter Jack. As long as I don't throw dragons at them, 'Jack the Dragon Slayer, Slayer of Dragon' shouldn't return.
Blake – Aurora Longleaf. Played before(?) She made a character that seems to be relatively well thought out, or at the very least she has done her research correctly to a degree for lore.
Jaune – Mirerindra "Ethan" Ethendakoth. First time player. He picked a rather interesting class choice, and definitely not one of the simpler ones, nor is his race choice simple. Rather uncertain about how to play.
Ruby – Rive. First time player. She seems more certain then Jaune, and picked a relatively simple class and race.
Pyrrha – Kianna. First time player (?) She is the only primary spell caster in the group, and most likely has healing or defensive spells only. I will have to change tactics accordingly.
AU: How Meta can I get? Why yes, I have someone playing Dungeons and Dragons when their semblance is the gamer semblance that works as Dungeons and Dragons.
Yes I know, its a second Author's note, I should be shot on sight blah blah blah.
Think of this as world building for Skyros: The Peerless in the sense of allowing me to explore the characters when they aren't fighting for their lives or are in drama-ville.
For those who are curious, the system they are playing is Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition, with Eberron.
Shoutout to Table Top Adventures by InkMore. Its hilarious and the only story I've seen like this and everyone should read it now.