This is a work of fan fiction, created for entertainment purposes only and with no claim to the characters depicted. Ownership of RWBY characters and concepts belongs to Rooster Teeth. Dungeons and Dragons and the d20 System belong to Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast. The World of Ere setting belongs to Landon Porter and Paradox-Omni Entertainment.

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Chapter 11: Session 2 pt2 Big Damn Heroes

Actually casting the rituals to move the ship turned out to be not problem at all, thanks to Jaune managing a Spellcraft check of over 30 on his own, aided by none of the others rolling under 20. With the help of the ship's crew, they steered the Bull's Head in a long, lazy loop to avoid being spotted by the bandits before making for the camp.

"As we get closer to where Vanio sad the base was, I'm climbing to the highest point on the ship and using the Farsight Lens ritual, Ruby." Pyrrha announced. "I want us to stop far enough from the camp that they don't notice the ship."

Ruby nodded. "Okay, roll a climb check first, then a Spellcraft to cast the ritual."

Both were easily passed and Pyrrha was able to tell the others when to end the Conjure Winds rituals so they only had a fifteen minute walk to the bandit camp.

"The camp itself looks like it was set up on top of the remains of a long-abandoned township. The wooden palisade they've erected incorporates parts of the original stone wall while the bandits appear to have at least partially restored a large building in the center. It might be a church or a town hall, but it's two stories tall and made of stone, some ancient and moss-covered, some freshly placed. Give me a Perception check, Pyrrha."

The steel d20 came up 3. "..." Pyrrha glared at the dice. "9?"

"It appears that the camp is completely abandoned." Ruby reported with a smirk.

"Good job, Eagle Eye." Jaune teased, earning himself a flick to he ear from his best friend.

Ruby moved the minis aside and took up the ship map she'd put down before, replacing it with a transparent town map, with several buildings covered up by sticky notes so the players couldn't see what was there until they went inside. "Now. You guys are here, on the south side of the camp. How are you going about getting in?"

"Given the party make-up, it's possible to sneak our way in," Ren observed, "Gao Is the least stealthy of the group and he's still not bad at it."

While he was talking, Jaune was staring at the map. "Hey Rubes? What kind of gate is this?" He pointed tot he closest one.

"That's a wooden gate that's raised by a set of wheel and chain mechanisms on the tower next to it."

"Hmm. Nora, how's Lynn's Climb?" he asked.

"Awesome! She's like a ninja!"

Jaune nodded, gears obviously turning in his head. "Right... Okay, how about this: Darian can turn into a spider and ride on Lynn's shoulder. Lynn can climb the wall and the two of us can stealth-kill whoever is guarding the gate control. Then we open the gate. Gao and Seri can be waiting in the woods in front of the gate. When it stats to open, you can ambush the guards on the outside, while we go for the ones inside. Sound good?"

The others all agreed.

"While we wait for them to open the gates, I'm going to use one of my cleric's god-specific spells and Fortify Water. It turns one gallon of water into one gallon of weak ale," Ren consulted his sheet like an accountant looking for missing funds. "As soon as the gate starts to open, I'll take a drink."

"I'll hold my action to cast Plane of Force in blade mode," Pyrrha added.

"Okay, so Nora, Climb and Stealth checks, please." Ruby started rolling Perception for the guards at the gate.

"Nineteen plus twelve is Thirty-one for Stealth!" Nora crowed, only to groan as the second dice came up 8. "Awe, that's only seventeen."

Ruby kept her face straight as she said, "So with perfect silence, you scramble halfway up the palisade only to side down and land on your butt!"

"Hey, when she's halfway up, can I jump off her and climb the rest of the way up the wall? In spider mode, I have a climb speed of 10." asked Jaune.

"Sure. While Nora tries and fails, you abandon her to crawl up onto the wall. The top of the wall is sharpened wooden pikes and a drop down to the other side—there's no walkway or anything. You're thirty feet from the gatehouse and you can see two guys sitting on a bench inside the gate wearing boiled leather armor and wielding halberds."

"Is the door to the gatehouse open?"

"Nope."

"Then a scuttle over to the door and wait for Nora... Lynn."

Ruby nodded and turned back to Nora. "Another Climb check, please."

Nora almost rolled her pink die before thinking better of it. Instead she reached over and grabbed one of Ren's d20's. "You know the pink one just rolled a nineteen for you, right?" he complained as his dice was filched.

"I know, but I just can't trust it in a clutch anymore!" Nora exclaimed, chucking Ren's die. "Yes! Fifteen plus nine is... Twenty-four!"

"And through the magic of theft, you're up and over," Ruby replied. "You land on the other side of the palisade without a sound and see the two guards on this side of the gate and a big spider standing by the gate house door."

Nora actually gave this some thought: she could charge the two guys like she normally would, but if she made sure the gate was opening first, she could get surprise on them, which meant sneak attacks. And she needed those sneak attacks because Pyrrha was ahead of her on body count so far that campaign and that was unacceptable.

"I sneak over to the gatehouse door and listen at it." She rolled, "fourteen Perception."

"You hear what sounds like one man shuffling around inside."

Nora grinned. "Ready, Jauney?"

"Yep. Ruby, going to almaga form." He replaced his mini with the Man-spider one. "Then I open the door for Nora so she doesn't have to spend an action on it."

Ruby rolled again behind the screen. "Okay, Nora, you have a surprise round. The door opens to reveal a dingy, barely lit room with a huge, rusty iron wheel attached to a chain drive in the south wall, a rack for weapons and armor on the north wall, and a man in boiled leather sitting on a stool just inside.

"I murder him!" Nora chirped, rolling Ren's die again. "Nineteen to hit with Opportunist's Gambit. And if that hits... fourteen damage. Wait... does my new sword do anything extra?"

"The Adamantine one?" Ruby asked, "Yeah, since you're level 5, it gives you a +1 to attack and damage. So that's really fifteen damage. He's badly hurt, but not quite dead yet."

"I'll draw one of my masterwork whips with the mechanical short sword in the handle, pop the sword and take a swing at him." Jaune said quickly, before Ruby could say the surprise round was over. Will thirteen hit? If it does, that's... four damage."

Ruby consulted her notes and huffed a bit behind her screen. It would have been nice to have the gatehouse guard get off a cry of alarm, but alas... "Nora slashes this guy's chest open, but he opens his mouth to yell when Jaune slashes his throat, silencing him forever. And you two have the gatehouse."

"Sweet!" Jaune and Nora high-fived. "Okay, Nora, head around and get ready to charge those guys the second I start opening the gate, okay?"

"Aye-aye, fearless leader!" Nora saluted. "You heard the man, Ruby—Charge!"

"Gonna need initiatives now. You're all going to get a surprise round, but we need to know what order." Ruby started rolling for the bandits while the others did the same for their characters. "Okay, it's Nora, Jaune, the bandits, Pyrrha and Ren. Nora, get to it; the gate is starting to come up."

"Charging! Hitting the first one with Opportunist's Gambit." She rolled a total of nineteen, easily hitting and getting her Sneak Attack. Sixteen damage dropped the bandit in one hit. "Okay, now... Action Point! I get another standard and use Opportunist's Gambit on the other guy!" She hit again, but only did ten damage, leaving her target standing.

"Aw man." She pouted.

"Sorry. Jaune?" Ruby looked to the blond.

"Can I see the gate from inside the gatehouse?"

"Yup."

"Then I'll cast Charlatan's Orb on the guy Nora nearly killed. Will—crap—an eleven hit as a touch attack, no armor bonus?" Ruby nodded. Jaune had to do a double take in surprise. "Really? Wow. Okay, so it does damage equal to my CHA modifier plus level. That's nine."

Ruby reached over and flipped the glass counter representing the guard. "And he's dead."

"Kill stealer!" Nora shook her fist at Jaune. "That's twice now!"

Choosing to ignore her, Ruby moved on. "Bandits can't act while surprised, so it's Pyrrha's turn."

Pyrrha nodded. "Okay, I'll cast Plane of Force in shield form instead of the blade. Then I'll walk up to the bandit on the left."

The pint-sized GM blinked in confusion. "Wait, what? You're just going to walk up to him?"

"Mmm-hmm." Pyrrha smiled, then gestured to Nora, "Exactly in the right place to set up a flank if Nora charges."

Nora's eyes sparkled as if she was being given a brand new car. "You're the best, Pyrrha! Thanks!" She picked up her cotton candy pink die and rubbed it between he palms with a sadistic grin. "Is it my turn yet?"

"Nope, it's Ren's." Ruby held out her hand to the quiet one of the group.

Ren steepled his fingers, observing the board like a seasoned chess player. "Okay, as my minor action, I'm going to Drink Like a Fish, Fight Like a Demon. Then I'll use my Move action as another minor to cast Blessing of Ferocity on Nora. She gets a +1 to attack and damage for the next five turns.

"No. Wait, Ren's the best!" Nora.

"Then I'm going to cast Binding Flames on the remaining bandit. He gets a Will save."

Ruby rolled behind the screen. "Which he fails. Now he's covered in burning chains. Nice."

"Is saying something intimidating a free action?" Ren asked.

"Not in this system. Skills are always a minor unless they say otherwise." Ruby gave him a sympathetic expression before looking to Nora. "Well, you're up again. Let me guess: charge and Opportunist's Gambit?"

Nora flourished her die. "With my very last Focus Points. Natural nineteen! That's a crit with a longsword!" Instantly, she and Jaune were on their feet, high-fiving and doing their little song as they had last session. Then she rolled damage and Sneak Attack."

"He's dead," Ruby declared the second the d8 for the longsword came up 7. "It's already fourteen before you add strength or Sneak. Pyrrha, Seri sees a black sword explode from this guys' chest just before she is just... covered in arterial spray. He actually has time to wonder why you just got spray-painted red before he realizes that's what was keeping him alive and dies."

"I actually imagine Seripheid's been in this situation many times, so I won't even react."

Jaune glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "Every session, this character gets scarier and scarier."

"Aren't you glad she's on your side?" She beamed at him.

"I like her being beside me a lot better than her being behind me, that's for sure," he gave a partially nervous laugh before turning his attention to Ruby. "I'm going to cast Suggestion on the last guard. Will save DC... let's see, ten plus my Charisma, that's fourteen, plus half my level rounded down, so 16."

Ruby rolled once more behind the screen. "Fails. Ugh. Just fails. What's your suggestion?"

"We're so close to actually getting in here without the alarm being raised, so I point at him and say, 'you want to be silent because if you make a sound, we will be forced to kill you'."

"Well that wor—" Ruby started.

"When it's my turn, I kill him anyway." Nora said with a feral grin.

Pyrrha raised a hand, "Same. Actually, I go first, so I switch my Plane of Force to razor form and slash at him with it. Aaand I miss."

Ren sighed. "Well, since everyone else is doing it, I'll draw my falchion and charge to a place where Nora can flank. Twenty total to hit and... ten damage.

"You didn't have to set up a flank, Renny—I'm all out of FP to Sneak Attack with." Nora said, hanging her head.

Reaching over, Ren gently patted her on the shoulder. "come on, Nora, you can still do a lot of damage. And it's your turn."

She gave him a nearly-teary eyes look and nodded. "Right! One more kill!" She threw here dice and added up her bonuses. "Woot! Twenty-two! For... seven damage."

"That's just enough to kill him." Ruby said, sounding impressed. "You guys actually pulled off sneaking inside without the camp being alerted and the rogue is insanely broken. Well, until she ran out of FP."

"Speaking of which, time for us to take a short rest." Ren said. "Nora's running on empty and the rest of us are down Spell Points." Ruby glared at him, but he only answered with a level, impassive look.

Finally backing down, Ruby sat back. "Alright, so you take a breather. Focus Points all refill totally and the casters regen Spell Points equal to your level, so five plus any bonus regen you might have. I'd say you could use any healing you wanted, but none of you even got scratched in that fight." She pouted at them, then immediately brightened up. "So, where are you going now?"

"Well the place in the center seems the most obvious," Pyrrha pointed out. "We should see if we can just get in there without anyone noticing."

"Aw, but there's probably guys sleeping in these tents and shacks we could kill." Nora complained.

Jaune shrugged. "There's a couple of huts next to the big place. You and Ren can search those while we're getting those doors open. That way we're close enough to help each other if we run into trouble. Remember Rule 1:Never Split The Party."

"Still splitting the party." Ruby warned.

"It's only a double move away, we'll be fine." Nora assured her.

Ren pinched the bridge of his nose. "I really wish you hadn't said that."

Nora lightly batted him on the shoulder. "Oh, it's not like I said 'what's the worst that could happen?'."

"And there it is." Jaune said, facepalming.

"Still checking out this shack!" Nora said, pointing at one of the shacks in front of the larger building.

Pyrrha sighed. "Well she does have incredible luck, I'm sure she'll be okay for a couple of minutes. I'll go to the main building and take out my thieves' tools."

"Stealth checks for everyone. Ren, Jaune, where are your characters going?"

"Twelve." Pyrrha groaned.

"Same." Ren added, "And I'm staying with Nora to administer inevitable healing."

"Eighteen," said Jaune, "And I'm with Pyrrha. If we can't keep from splitting the party, the buddy system will have to do."

"Twenty-one!" Nora bounced in her seat. "And I'm bustin' out my thieves' tools too!"

Seeing the writing on the wall, Ruby just sat back and called for an initiative order. Ren rolled a natural twenty and went first, followed by Nora, then Pyrrha, then Jaune. Ren merely announced he was holding to see what Nora was doing. Nora in turn went to the shack and tried the door.

"It is locked. Roll me Mechanics. To get it open," said Ruby.

Nora blinked owlishly. "Roll what now?"

"Mechanics. That's the skill you need to pick locks."

"We do?" This time it was Pyrrha asking. "It's not Legerdemain? All the other thief-type skills are Misdirection and Legerdemain."

Ruby nodded. "You're actually okay, because your Misspent Childhood background lets you treat Mechanics as trained for the purposes of picking locks., but Nora doesn't have that."

Nora glared and grit her teeth. "Y'know what I do have though? A Cut through anything sword! I'm gonna chop through the lock!" And because Random Number God still loved her or hated everyone around her, she of course rolled max damage.

Not even shocked anymore, Ruby just rolled her eyes. "Lynn cuts through the lock on the door in one slash, the adamantine blade sending out sparks as it demolishes the metal with ease. You open the door to find that this is a store house for the camp's food: bags of grain, wheels of cheese, roots vegetables, and barrels of pickles and salted meats and fish fill the space.

"And out comes my loot sack." Nora said, avarice dripping from her words. "Renny grab the cheese, it's worth the most. I'm filling up on salt!"

"Salt?" Ren asked.

Jaune raised his hand. "We were going through the equipment list earlier before you got here and salt is ridiculously expensive. Worth the same as gold by weight."

Ren sighed. "Right. So we're filling burlap bags with salt. Please find something more dignified in the main building."

"We'll try," Pyrrha promised. "Since it's my turn now, I'll got up to the door and listen first. Um... oh my, 8 for Perception."

"You hear your own breathing," Ruby reported happily.

Pyrrha shrugged. "Okay, so I'll try the door. Is it locked?" Ruby replied in the affirmative. "Seventeen to open it."

"The lock clicks open and the door swings inward on silent hinges." Ruby pulled the post-it notes off the central hall of the building, revealing a long hall. "Before you is a hall of smoothed stone with a vaulted ceiling supported by exposed arches and heavy wooden braces. There are doors long the way, two to the left and four to the right. The end of the hall opens into a large space where the man-sized statue of a winged creature with steer-like horns and a sharp, beaked face stands."

Pyrrha and Jaune shared a look. The latter spoke first. "Animating statue or gargoyle?"

"I imagine a statue. I'm going to try to keep out of its sight line and got to the first door here." Pyrrha pointed to the first door on the right. Picking up her steel die, she bit her lip. She'd have a couple of bad rolls in a row just recently. She liked to imagine she was due a better one, but she knew better. Squaring her shoulders, she threw the die.

It came up a 2. "...That would be a ten for Stealth."

From behind the screen came the sound of rolling dice. Ruby peeked over, completely failing to make eye contact with her. "I'm really sorry about this. I really didn't expect you guys to let the sorceress go in first." She took a deep breath. "Seri hears the sound of stone grinding on stone, cracking and popping as what once looked like solid rock becomes animate and the Guardian Golem becomes active and rolls into initiative... right now. It's going to charge you."

"I-it's okay,: Jaune said, "you can take the one hit and I can get some healing started."

Ruby shook her head. "It has Pounce. On a charge, it gets two claws and a bite. I'm gonna be nice and the first claw is a trip. It rolls a nineteen plus..."

"I'm down." Pyrrha interrupted. "Unless you say a negative number after that, I'm down."

"Sorry again." Ruby squeaked. "Claw, bite... those both hit." Her face actually looked pained. "For thirty-two damage."

Pyrrha's eyes widened and she checked her sheet in disbelief. "I'm at exactly 0 hit points."

"At least you're not dead?" Ruby offered.

"Until the golem's next turn, or I try an action, at which point I'm dying." Pyrrha pointed out. Her shoulders slumped. "It's too bad, I had a lot of ideas for this character."

Ren got up and leaned over the table, counting out squares under his breath. "I can double move and blow my action point on the turn you die to cast Recovery on you to bring you back... but you'll be at one hit point in front of that thing."

She waved him off. "It's okay. I mean, it's only the second session; I didn't have time to get that attached to Seripheid."

"You're not going to have to anyway." Jaune said suddenly, turning to offer Pyrrha a bright smile. "Don't worry, Pyrrha, Seri's not going to die this time because Darian has it covered." He looked to Ruby. "My turn?"

"Go for it." said Ruby, just as curious as the others.

Pyrrha gave her best friend a curious look. "Jaune, I'm pretty sure this is a very powerful monster. It's okay if you can't..."

"Yeah, Pyrrha can play Lynn's twin sister Quinn and we can flank Sneak Attack all things forever!" Nora chimed in.

Jaune closed his eyes and smirked. "You guys have so much faith in me. Alright Rubes, first I'm going to split my movement and use ten feet to step up behind Pyrrha so I'm outside the door. Now I'm going to blow my Action Point. I have the feat Action Command, which means whenever I use an Action Point, I can either cause an ally that can see me to make a Basic Strike against an enemy they can attack, or reposition them a number of squares equal to my CHA modifier."

He reached out and picked up Pyrrha's mini, moving her three squares behind him. Turning toward her, he gave Pyrrha a cheeky wink. "Repositioning doesn't draw an attack of opportunity, so he can't do a damn thing about it."

"Isn't the golem just going to pounce you next turn?" Nora asked.

"Not if he's dead." Jaune responded immediately. "Ruby, casting Sound Lance."

Ruby snorted. "That' your badass kill spell? It only does a d8 plus your modifier and level. This thing has more HP than you do. I don't think you thought this through."

"Not aiming at the golem." Jaune said smugly. "I'm shooting at the braces holding the ceiling up. Sound Lance does sonic damage, which does double damage to objects and ignores hardness." He rolled his d8. "That's 7 plus 4 for my Charisma, plus 5 for my level. 16 times 2 is..."

"Thirty-two." Ren and Pyrrha supplied at the same time.

Jaune cocked his head at Ruby. "Is that enough to blow the roof supports?"

Ruby stared at him for a long moment before pulling out another transparency to consult. Then she sighed loudly. "Okay. So you step up, somehow convince an utterly mauled Seri to crawl twenty feet behind you, and then send a sonic boom into the rafters, which give out with a groan. The main beam cracks and collapses, bringing with it the stone tiles from the floor above... and the bed, wardrobe and desk that were on that floor. They hit the golem and crush it beneath them, dealing..."

She rolled some dice. "Forty-one damage! It's still alive with six hit points!"

"But it's prone under the rubble and will take crush damage before it can act next turn." Ren pointed out.

"I know." Ruby muttered, glaring at him for having knowledge from the GM's Guide.

Jaune still wasn't done yet. "I've still got movement I can use and that standard action from the Action Point. I'll move back ten feet and drop Soothe the Wounded on Seri. That's four hit points now and four on your turn for the next three turns, Pyr." He gave her his cheesiest grin. "Told you Darian could save Seri."

Pyrrha smiled back at him and out of nowhere a flash of inspiration hit her. And at the moment it seemed like a really grand idea too. "My hero." She said, then leaned over and pecked him on the cheek.

Aaaand just as suddenly, it felt like a really bad idea because all the chatter from the others, even Nora's needles clicking just stopped dead. Jaune looked like he'd frozen up completely and she was quick to grasp at whatever straws she could find to make the awkwardness stop. "Um... that was in-character, of course. Seri to Darian."

"R-right." Jaune muttered.

Nora glared at her so hard Pyrrha was afraid she might sprain something. "Wait a minute... isn't Darian a horrible man-spider right now?"

Feeling her natural confidence return, Pyrrha just waved that off. "Maybe Seri likes him like that. All things considered," And at this, she gave her fellow redhead a wicked look, "Maybe she prefers it."

"And while I go grab the brain bleach," Ruby interrupted, "Jaune just set off a sonic boom and collapsed the front room of a house in the middle of the camp. Stealth is now officially off the table as the alarm goes up."

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AN: And there's the scene that inspired this fic. The combination of Jaune getting to show off his tactical prowess in-game and Pyrrha using the game fiction as an excuse to make some romantic overtures were part of the idea the whole time.

Of course, Ruby and Jaune are the only ones that buy the 'in-character excuse for a second, but that itself can and will have repercussions down the road. Good-natured plus socially inept are not good combinations for avoiding hijinxs.

Also, this is a PSA: Never split the party and never let the freaking mage wander into anywhere first. Even if she needs to use the bathroom, you send in the armored dwarf in there first just in case. Of course in this party, the bard is the tank, so what can you expect.

Nora and the adamantine sword is a reference to The Ultimate Skeleton Key, an adamantine dagger that almost every high level character (at least in our games) carried. Since Adamantine ignores hardness, you can use ot it just hack open locks, doors, walls, what have you. This system sort of mitigates it by only ignoring a certain amount of hardness, but Lynn was made by Nora and is therefore beast.

Her stealing trade goods like cheese and salt is a nod to Knights of the Dinner Table.

Anyway, I'm sure people will have something to say about this chapter, so let's hear it folks!

Next Chapter: The Prisoner's Dilemma.