Author's Note
Here we go, RWBY: Derailed. A story based around a failed RWBY DnD session. What will happen? What will change?
I mean, a lot ends up changing, I mean a lot a lot. So without further ado let's get right into it.
-MisterStevenson
A man sat on a busy sidewalk in Vale. He was unkempt in appearance, messy grey hair, grey eyes and stubble. He was wearing a tattered brown duster coat with a dirty tan shirt under it, he also wore a pair of black pants, matching boots, and fingerless gloves. You probably wouldn't've guessed from his appearance that he's just 19, and was born with that grey hair. And that fact alone is why his parents named him-.
Suddenly the opening narration was cut off by another voice.
"Hey, Smokey!" Said another disheveled man coming his way. He had messy dark brown hair, his face was shaved, he was wearing a green headband, a dark red jacket, a white shirt with a black question mark on it, blue pants, and a pair of tan boots. He sat down next to Smokey.
"Oh, hey Cedric how's it going?" Smokey said, snapping back to the hat on the ground, which someone just dropped some lien in. "*sigh* Well, I'm just keeping on keeping on I guess. What've you been up to?" Cedric said.
"Well I got us a total of…15 lien today." Smokey pocketed the money in the hat and put it on. "I wish I could've gotten a little more money. Lizard's Explosion is in dire need of a tune up." Cedric solemnly said. "Yeah, same for me and Star Judgement." Smokey added.
"Ugh, hey do you know if Brock and Rusty got us that ride to Forever Fall?" Smokey asked. "Yeah but the drop point was changed, something about a class field trip in the same area." Cedric responded, getting up off the ground.
"What? Ah man really? Ugh, I just hope this whole thing's worth it, if there turns out to be no "Lost Treasure of Forever Fall" then we're practically bankrupt." Smokey said, getting up himself. "Well, as bankrupt as a team of drifters can be." Smokey added.
Smokey is the leader of team SRBC (Silverback). An unofficial team consisting of four friends from the same town. Their town was attacked by a horde of Grimm, but they managed to escape, they've been drifting from towns to cities. Only surviving due to having their Auras unlocked before the attack.
"Well, come on. We gotta get to the Bullhead before it takes off." Cedric motioned for Smokey to follow. Smokey followed Cedric down the streets of Vale, passing a multitude of people and shops as they made their way to where their ride was waiting.
After a while, they made it. And already there were two people dressed similarly to them. "Well what took you two so long?" A man with dark red hair, wearing a jacket like Cedric, except this one was black, he had a pair of beige pants, and grey boots. He walked up to them. "Sorry Brock, I had to get the captain first. He was just getting a little extra money before we left." Cedric covered.
"Yeah and who knows, this could be the last time we see Vale for a long time." Smokey said to Brock. "Oh and also, this is yours." Smokey gave the tattered hat to Brock. "Thanks bossman." Brock put the hat on.
"Look Brock we've gone over this, just because I'm the leader of our "Team" doesn't mean you gotta call me boss. I mean I don't know how they do it at the academies, but we're not Huntsmen, we made our own weapons and we didn't go to a fancy academy. So you don't have to call me boss" Smokey went on.
"Wait, but don't Huntsmen also make their own weapons?" Cedric piped up. "I don't know, we didn't go to a fancy academy!" Smokey responded.
"Hey, is everyone gonna keep talkin' or am I the only one going?" Said a noticeably larger and buff man, his skin was brown and jagged, as if it were made of copper. He was wearing a tan trench coat, dark brown pants, black boots, and gloves.
"Coming Rusty, don't leave without us!" Brock shouted. The three then joined their friend on the Bullhead, and made their way into Forever Fall.
"So, whaddya guys think this treasure's supposed to be?" Cedric said to the other three members of team SRBC who were sitting in the Bullhead. "I'm just hoping for something valuable, I mean, we all need our weapons repaired right?" Brock responded.
They all took out their weapons.
Smokey had Star Judgement, a purple and grey sword that turned into a rifle.
Rusty had Grace of Mind, a pair of tan colored maces that can combine to form a rocket launcher.
Cedric had Lizard's Explosion, two olive green pistols that could fire explosive rounds and turn into a pair of knife gauntlets.
Brock had Twin's Choice, a red and black axe that turned into a pump shotgun.
"Yeah well, hopefully we're fine until we actually CAN get them repaired. I don't just wanna rely solely on our Semblances forever." Smokey said.
Smokey's Semblance was Masquerade. Meaning he could disguise himself as anyone, but he has to make direct eye contact for a certain amount of time.
Rusty's Semblance was Thick Skin. As the name suggests, it makes his skin more durable. But something went wrong when first activating his Semblance, because now he's stuck in his Thick-Skinned form.
Brock's Semblance is Echo. Meaning he can "Echo" any attack whether it be Grimm or even a rogue Huntsman if they ever run into one.
And Cedric's Semblance is Truth or Dare. It's mostly luck-based, and can only really be used on other people. It has a 50/50 chance of someone telling him the absolute truth about something, or to send them into a wild frenzy where they somehow are 5-10x stronger then they were.
Some time passed, and Rusty broke the silence. "So do any of you trust this guy? I mean, why didn't he just claim the treasure for himself?" He commented. "Okay yeah, he was kinda…sketchy. But he's kinda our only chance to get some REAL money." Brock responded.
After a little longer, the Bullhead had reached its destination, the four told the pilot when to pick them up, then got off, watching the Bullhead fly away in the distance. "Well team, what're we waitin' for? Let's go!" Smokey said, pulling out Star Judgement from his duster coat.
"Alright, right behind you!" Cedric grabbed Lizard's Explosion from the inner pockets of his jacket. "Hmph, let's go." Rusty took Grace of Mind out of his trench coat.
"Damn right, now let's get that treasure!" Brock got Twin's Chaos out of his jacket and cocked it, despite not having any ammo in it, then turned it into its axe form.
The four walked for a little bit before Smokey began to speak. "You know guys, apparently the sap from these trees is supposed to be some of the sweetest stuff you'll ever taste, or something like that." Smokey said.
"I once heard that they used Forever Fall sap to keep the Grimm at bay from cities." Brock added. "I thought the Grimm were attracted to negative emotions, not simple sweet things." Rusty said.
"If that was true, then we would've lost to the Grimm a long time ago. People just say they're attracted to negative emotions because it sounds cooler." Brock said, suddenly stopping. "Speaking of which, it looks like we got company." Brock pointed at a large herd of Grimm, guarding a destroyed temple.
"So is that the place?" Cedric asked. "Yep, looks like it." Smokey responded. "And the only choice is to fight our way through?" Rusty asked, readying Grace of Mind. "It seems that way." Said Brock, who was also readying Twin's Chaos.
"Alright guys…let's do this!" Smokey raised Star Judgement and charged forward with the other three members of team SRBC.
Smokey ran up to a Beowolf and slashed, immediately taking it out. Cedric ran up to a larger group of them with Lizard's Judgement in its knife gauntlet form, and went crazy. Rusty was dual wielding Grace of Mind and fighting two Ursas at once, and Brock was quickly swinging Twin's Chaos and using Echo to deal with a pack of Beowolves with their own attacks.
"Everything okay there Rusty!?" Smokey shouted, stabbing a Boarbatusk through its stomach. "No, I think I'm good!" Rusty said, smashing one of the Ursas in its skull so hard it shattered. A Boarbatusk rolled towards Brock, who dodged, but then a spinning ball of white energy went towards the Boarbatusk, wiping it out.
"Never mess with the Echo ability!" Brock shouted, not noticing the Beowolf behind him. "Brock, look out!" Smokey shouted. But the Beowolf hit Brock, sending him flying several feet.
Cedric went over, punched the Beowulf into oblivion, then helped Brock up off the ground. "You need to pay more attention buddy!" Cedric said. "*sigh* Yeah I know I know!" Brock said, jumping up and bringing Twin's Chaos down on a Beowulf's head.
"Alright everyone, we got an opening now!" Smokey yelled, pulling his sword out of an Ursa. "Right!" Rusty shouted, now choking two Beowulfs. The four began running to the temple, where no doubt their treasure would be waiting.
They made it to the run-down temple, where it was just a small building, with a large entrance leading down. They all looked at each other. "All right, stay close, everyone." Smokey said, activating his aura and walking down. The other three nodded to each other and activated their auras too, lighting up the darkness.
The scariest part to team SRBC about walking through this destroyed temple…was just how quiet the whole thing was. No Grimm, no animals, not even a trace that someone had stayed here before. Just silence, weird statues, and empty suits of strange armor.
After who knows how long, and checking who knows how many rooms, they made it to a door that looked different than the others. They opened it to reveal a room with a large table in the middle, there were various chairs surrounding it, and there was one bigger chair at the head of it.
"Whoa, I think this is some kind of war room?" Smokey said, walking closer and noticing an old, tattered map of Remnant. "With how all these chairs are aligned, and the one at the head of the table, plis the map…this is a war room!" Smokey called to everyone who was now staring at something with wide eyes.
"What is it guys?" Smokey looked back at the table to see what they were looking at. Apparently he missed something obvious when he was looking at the map. There was a giant suit of armor sitting in the chair at the head of the table, it was slouched over.
"I guess this was the guy in charge. Looks like he died while giving out orders?" Smokey deduced. "Well since this is the last room we haven't checked the treasure's gotta be in here." Brock said, walking forward.
The four proceeded to turn the war room upside down, looking up and down, double-checking and triple-checking every nook and cranny for something.
"Ugh, find anything yet?" Smokey asked. "Nothing yet." Rusty answered. "I'm still looking." Cedric responded. "I ain't found shit!" Brock shouted. "Let's face it…we were scammed, we were tricked, backstabbed, in fact I'd say we were bamboozled." Cedric said dejectedly.
"No! There's gotta be something here!" Smokey tore up the whole room, when he made it to the rug underneath the table, Rusty said something.
"Look, don't you think you're taking this a little too far?" Rusty asked, concerned. "We needed that money Rusty! You tell me!" Smokey threw the rug off the floor to reveal a hidden door. Everyone (even Smokey, just looked at it in awe).
"Huh…I guess having a breakdown actually paid off for once." Smokey opened the door, revealing a set of old stairs. "Well, no other choice to go but down I suppose." Smokey started descending, with Rusty following. Then Cedric pulled Brock aside.
"Hey uh, you know how he just completely went crazy out of nowhere back there?" Cedric whispered. "Uh, yeah why?" Brock asked. "I think I used Truth or Dare by mistake, and it made him go on a rampage." Cedric admitted.
"Damn, you really gotta get that under control." Brock pointed out. "Yeah I know, now come on, we gotta catch up!" Cedric started going down the stairs two at a time. The two eventually caught up to Smokey and Rusty, who were standing by a weird-looking door.
The door looked almost…demonic in appearance if that makes sense. But years of neglect have withered it down so the four can enter it. "This door is just screaming: don't open, keeping something dangerous inside!" Brock said.
"Or maybe the door is meant to keep everyone out instead of keeping something in." Smokey theorized. The four friends nodded at each other, and hesitantly stepped into the worn down door.
What they saw almost made their jaws drop. It was a room, with a decayed body of something, it was clutching in its bony hands, a heart that was faintly glowing blue. "So…is that supposed to be the treasure?" Cedric asked nervously. "I guess?" Rusty responded.
"Well there's nothing else like that in this place, so it has to be." Smokey said, slowly walking forward and carefully grabbing the heart. But the body wouldn't let go, so he had to shake the heart in order to loosen it, and when he eventually got it freed…it was glowing brighter.
"I think maybe we should get out of here before anything bad happens." Cedric suggested. Everyone agreed, and they started walking through the door, back up the stairs, and the whole way the heart just kept glowing brighter and brighter until eventually they reached the war room…it started beating.
"What the hell is up with this thing!" Brock said, confused. Then the heart started to float, then went towards the large set of armor that was now on the floor from Smokey's rampage. It seemed to fuse with the chestplate, then there was silence.
"Um…what was-" Rusty was interrupted by the armor shaking as the pieces started to come together, a skeleton started to form, it stood up and looked in the four's direction.
"RUN!" Smokey shouted. The four started running throughout the temple, running past the statues and suits of armor, who were now starting to awaken and come to life. The statues turned into some kind of humanoid-monsters, the armor started glowing purple throughout the joints and gained a pair of soulless purple eyes.
The four eventually made it out of the temple, when it suddenly disappeared in a huge beam of light that shot out of the ground. "I think I speak for all of us when I say, what the fuck were those things!" Cedric shouted. "I don't know, but whatever they were, those were not Grimm!" Smokey screamed.
Then if it couldn't get any worse, two figures emerged from the light. The first was a giant figure wearing the same armor that the heart went into. The second was a figure wearing a mask and clothes you'd see on royalty.
The first figure looked to be 10-12 feet tall, was obviously male, had jet black hair, and slightly pale. The armor was now English Violet (yeah that color) and was pulsating blue throughout any gaps. He was wearing a long cape, he had some sort of metal mask that covered his mouth, his boots were slightly pointed, and he had a sword longer than a human being at his side.
The second figure had a mask that covered it's whole face, it looked about 8 feet tall, was male in build, was dressed in a way a prince would be, with mostly purple and black clothes with bits of gold.
The first figure began to speak. "So, you four are the ones who revived me?" It spoke in a threatening tone. "I guess, but who are you?" Smokey asked. The figures laughed.
"I suppose we can introduce ourselves before your untimely deaths." The second figure said. "I am the Demon Lord Kolgarauth." The first figure, now known as Kolgarauth said. "And I am the Advisor to said Demon Lord, Bishop." The second figure, now known as Bishop said.
"And after I kill you, this world will feel my wrath once again!" Kolgarauth then drew his sword. "Well guys, I guess this is our true test!" Team SRBC prepared for battle, and then they charged forward.
Author's Note- Post Script
Ended it on a cliffhanger huh? A team of drifters fighting a Demon Lord?
I'm thinking of putting some occasional commentary about what happened irl to cause certain events in the story.
Well, in the meantime, look out for more chapters sometime soon, and goodbye...and good luck to anyone who's ever had a failed DnD campaign.
-MisterStevenson