ENTERING THE GAME
Chapter Eleven
"More Danger, More Troubles...and More Bugs!"
Andy caught Linda as she fell from his horse, so she didn't hit the ground. "Linda!" he yelled. "Are you okay? Can you hear me?"
"I can hear you, don't yell in my ear!" Linda said. She noticed Andy was holding her in his arms and blushed. "Um…you can…put me down now…"
"But…I saw the arrow hit you!" he said, also blushing, since her dress had flown up when she'd slid face first off his horse, and she hadn't put her new underwear on yet.
Linda squealed when she remembered this. She quickly pushed her skirt down as he set her on her feet. Had the others seen?
The others were some distance away. Tom didn't even seem to notice that she'd fallen off the horse. Penny's pony was still running amok with her holding on for dear life.
Another arrow just missed her. Andy grabbed her hand again. "Run!" he said. The guards were coming closer. There must have been more than a dozen of them, and from the shouts inside of the gates, it sounded like more were coming.
They started running. Andy's armor clanged and slowed them down, and Linda stepped on a rock that made her cry out and hobble for a bit, so they didn't move very fast.
"They're going to catch us!" Linda sobbed, wishing she still had those shoes.
"Go on!" Andy told her. "Get to my horse and get out of here!" The others, except for Penny, whose pony was still running wild, had stopped and seemed to be trying to decide whether to come help them or keep going.
"Stop trying to be a hero!" Linda yelled at him. "I'm not leaving you and that's final!"
More arrows flew about as they finally reached Andy's horse. Tom was waving his hands and muttering something that sounded really weird. Was he casting a spell? Then they saw what looked like mist or fog coming from his fingers. It spread out behind them. But what could a little bit of fog do? Then they looked back, and saw the fog was growing bigger. It grew to about the size of a big living room, higher than their heads even from horseback.
"It won't cover us much, they can just go around it," Tom said. "But it should confuse them long enough to get you back onboard." He jumped down and helped the Andy back onto the horse. "Dang, you're heavy!" He pulled himself back onto the horse behind Linda. "First thing we do when we get the money and find another town is get another horse!"
"They're trying to escape in the fog bank!" they heard a voice shout. "Surround them!"
"We can't hide in here," Tom said. "This'll disappear in a few minutes."
"Ride on through and keep going!" David said. "We'll just have to hope nobody's gotten around to block us by now!" He drew his sword. "If they have…we'll just have to go through them!"
Andy drew his own sword as they rode for the opposite edge of the fog bank. The wind was already beginning to blow small pieces away.
And it was beginning to rain…
…
As she felt her hammer being slowly but surely pulled from her hand, Russet whispered a prayer to Berronar Truesilver. The wife of Moradin, the king of the gods of the dwarves, to take her home to the Fourth Heaven. So, this was how it would end for her…
Without warning, she heard a yelp, and the force dragging her hammer from her suddenly cease. Through her tears she could just make out the wolf turning from her. She clutched her hammer tightly and moved away, wiping at her eyes with her free hand. She realized Copper had defeated the wolf he'd been fighting and come to her aid. The wolf leaped at him, but he swung his mace and knocked it away from him. Whimpering, the beast apparently decided to find easier prey and fled.
"Thank you, Brother!" Russet gasped, struggling to catch her breath and get her pounding heart to stop trying to leap out of her chest.
But Copper had already turned away and rushed to aid Bronze, who was having difficultly with the larger and stronger dire wolf. Scolding herself for acting like a silly female, Russet forced herself to join him. The dire wolf, now surrounded and alone, soon decided it had had enough and fled into the shadows.
"Will they come back?" Russet asked, mentally scolding her knees for shaking.
"If they do, we'll finish them!" Copper bragged.
"Are you injured, little sister?" Bronze demanded.
"No, elder brother," Russet said. So much for her hopes of adventure. Her first battle, and she had been useless! If Copper hadn't come to her rescue when he did, she'd be dead now! She expected him to crow over it, but to her surprise he only patted her shoulder. She would have hugged him if she hadn't known that dwarves don't show emotion.
No longer eager to run into adventure, and wondering if maybe she should just be a housewife after all, Russet followed her brothers more closely as they continued towards the so-called Midnight Mountain.
"Look up yonder!" Copper, whose eyes were very keen, cried suddenly some minutes later, causing Russet to jump.
"What is it?!" she asked, looking about for more trouble.
"Tis a cave," Copper proclaimed, hurrying towards it.
Bronze caught his arm. "Hold!" he cried. "It might already be occupied! Keep your weapon at the ready! Little sister, stay back!"
Russet sighed as her brothers moved towards the cave entrance. Why couldn't she be big and strong like her brothers? What good was being a girl if you couldn't do anything interesting?
The cave proved to be empty, and, after starting a fire, Bronze instructed Russet to stay inside of the cave while he and Copper went hunting for food.
"Wolves fear fire," he told her. "Remain close to it and keep it burning and they won't trouble you while we're away." He glared into her eyes. "Do not leave the cave until we return," he repeated. "We can't be constantly worrying about you."
"I won't," Russet promised.
"Make us something to eat while we're away," Copper said, setting down some sticks he'd broken off of trees for her to feed the fire until they got back.
Russet watched them leave, then went to their food supplies and took out three potatoes. She drew the knife she wore at her belt and started to peel them, sighing as she worked. She'd hoped to run into adventure, and, maybe, even romance. What she hadn't expected was sore feet, dust in places she didn't know she had, rudeness by both humans and elves, and being completely outmatched in her first battle. And now she was being treated as a housekeeper, preparing supper for her brothers as they looked over the area and hunted game, things she would have preferred doing, to cooking, but after her shameful failure she could hardly have asked to hunt with them. Was that really all women were good for, cooking and cleaning and raising babies? She hadn't thought so before, but now she wasn't so certain.
She stifled a cry of pain as she cut her finger, for dwarves had been taught from infancy not to cry. She wasn't even that good at cooking! The cut didn't seem deep, but it bled all over the potatos. She tied a rag around her injured finger. She noticed it was raining again, and carried the potatoes outside to wash them off before cooking them.
Once the potatoes were on the fire, she stepped out into the rain and rubbed her face, hoping she was finally cleaning it. She pulled off her boots and cleaned them in the rain, then brought them inside and set them down to dry. She checked the potatoes, removed the rest of her soaked clothing and placed it near the fire to dry. After again making sure the potatoes weren't burning, she took a small piece of soap and stepped back into the pouring rain. The soap was rough, partly lye, and would have left most human skin red and itchy, but dwarf skin was tough and Russet felt refreshed to get the dirt and dead skin off. True, she'd left the cave, but only a few steps. Surely if there was any trouble she could race back to the fire within seconds. Some of her spunk was beginning to come back. No doubt her brothers hadn't done that well in their first battles either, after all.
She was enjoying her shower so much it took a minute for her to notice the smell. She dropped the soap and raced back into the cave. Luckily the potatoes weren't burned badly. She'd just make sure she got the charred part. Copper would tease her "Can't you even do women's work correctly?" but Bronze would be angry that she wasn't paying attention to her chores. "What man would want a woman that can't cook?"
She put the potatoes on three wooden plates. Picking up her knife again, she carefully sliced three large slices of bread and three thick wedges of cheese, making sure she didn't cut herself again. That left meat, which they were fresh out of unless her brothers brought back game. Which was unlikely since most animals
stayed in hiding when it rained. Wolves, her brothers had told her, were no good to eat. She was glad. She
didn't think she could eat a dog, even a wild killer.
She reached for a towel when she remembered she'd dropped her soap. It was an "unnecessary luxury" Bronze had insisted. She doubted he'd let her buy any more any time soon. She ran back out into the rain, stepped on something slippery, and squealed as she fell over backwards onto her rump.
It was, of course, just then that her brothers showed up.
"By Moradin, 'tis a wild nature fairy!" Copper quipped. "Have you come to grant us three wishes?"
"What in Nifleheim is wrong with you?!" Bronze demanded. "Didn't I tell you not to leave the cave?!"
"I only stepped out for a moment to…to find…my soap!" she said sheepishly, holding up the item she'd just slipped on, her face feeling very warm. "Found it!"
"Indeed?" Copper said, making no effort to hide his grin. "I did not even know it was lost! And how did it get out here all by itself? Went for a little walk, did it?"
Russet had no answer for that. At least, not one that wouldn't get her mouth washed out with her soap.
…
After miles of riding, our heroes' pursuers gave up chasing them. It had started raining not long after the fog had blown away, which had probably discouraged the guards, who were supposed to protect the village, from chasing them too far. They'd intended to go around the mountain, but Penny's pony had a mind of its own and had ran right towards it, so the others had followed. When it finally calmed down and stopped running, they were close enough that they decided to go on towards it and try to find some sort of shelter.
"Maybe there's a cave," Greg suggested.
"Yeah, full of bats," Tom said.
"Or more rats and spiders…" David said.
"Why is it everyplace I go, it's disgusting?!" Greg demanded.
"I'd say you just answered your own question," Andy quipped.
"Can we stop now?" Penny moaned. "My butt is killing me. Why didn't anybody tell me that riding makes your butt smart?"
"If it makes your butt smart then you should ride on your head for awhile," her brother told her.
"Oh shut up!" Penny yelled at him. She stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry at him. "Pbbbbbttttttt!"
"Oh pbbbbbtttttt yourself!" Andy said, blowing a raspberry back at her.
"Anybody know how to build a shelter?" Linda asked.
"Didn't you used to be a girl scout?" Tom asked.
"I quit after a few meetings," she said. "All we ever did was sell cookies or talk about selling cookies! I should have joined the campfire girls!"
"You sure you're okay?" Andy asked her for the third time. "That arrow must have hit you if it knocked you off the horse."
"It hurt, but it didn't cut me," Linda assured him, running her fingers through her hair. "No blood. I'd think I just fell off it I didn't have this pain in the back of my head. Wish I had some aspirin."
"Wish we could afford cure light wound potions," Andy said. "Are you dizzy? Should I stop so you can rest?"
"I'm okay," Linda insisted. "It hurt worse when I bent over a table at lunch awhile back to pick something up and banged my head getting up."
"I'm with the squirt," Greg said. "Let me down off this nag! I think I'm crippled!"
"I wish your mouth was crippled," Andy said.
"You want to try to do something about that?" Greg demanded.
"Hey! Settle down back there!" David said as Greg tried to stand up on his horse. David got it to stop but Greg was already way off balance.
"Whoa!" Greg yelled, waving his arms about. "Whoa! Whoa!"
"He's already whoaed!" David told Greg.
Greg reached out desperately for something, anything, to break his fall, and grabbed David. Yelling, they both tumbled off the horse onto the ground, David's armor making loud clanging noises. Clang! Bang! Rattle! Boing!
"I guess we stop here," Penny said, pulling on the reins of her pony. "Whoa! Whoa! I said whoa, doggone ya! How come you won't go when I want you to go and you won't stop when I want you to stop?!"
Andy had stopped his horse. Linda and Tom climbed down and went over to see if David and Greg were okay. Andy, getting pretty good at controlling his steed, urged it to catch up to Penny's pony. He grabbed at its reins. It stopped suddenly. Penny fell off. Luckily, unlike when she fell out of the tree, her 19 dexterity saved her from getting hurt this time. She turned a somersault then landed on her feet. "Ta-daaa!"
"Better put on that underwear you got," her brother told her quietly. "I don't want my friends seeing your butt. It's embarrassing for me!"
"It's embarrassing for you?!" Penny said, quickly digging through her backpack. She looked at the underwear she'd gotten, which was the only sort she'd been able to get. "What is this anyway?" she asked. "A leather bikini bottom?" There was no elastic. It had to be tied on.
"So play Tarzan," Andy said. "Just cover yourself!"
"Tarzan feel draft!" Penny said. She looked around. "Where am I supposed to put it on?" The trees nearby were too thin for her to hide behind. There was a big boulder in sight, but it was pretty far away, right by the foot of the mountain.
Andy sighed and stepped between her and the others, who were maybe thirty feet away and not paying any attention to them anyway. Penny turned her back on him and pulled the weird shorts on. She struggled with the leather ties for a bit. They were hard to tie, but at least they weren't just little strings so they wouldn't break suddenly.
"Aren't you done yet?" Andy demanded just as she finished.
"I'm done," she told him. "They don't feel very comfortable."
"Next time get linen," he said.
"Couldn't afford it," she complained. "Linda and me looked for cotton panties but we didn't have the money. How come cotton is so expensive in this world? It's cheap on Earth!"
"Probably new or they can't make it easily here," he said. "No machines. For leather, they just have to skin a goat. Now come on. We'd better get back to the others."
"Yeah," Penny said. "I better remind Linda to put her undies on, before you see her butt."
"Uh…yeah…" Andy said, feeling his face grow warm.
"Are you blushing?" Penny asked.
"No!" Andy said.
"Fibber!"
…
"Haven't you finished sweeping the floor yet, lazy?" Hepzibah demanded. "Ye're slower than molasses!"
"Almost," Prudence said with a sigh. If she was just going to do hard work then she might as well have stayed where she was! She wondered if the old woman was really going to teach her any magic.
"Hurry along and finish then make me my supper!" the old witch croaked. "And it better be good!"
"Of course," Prudence said. She didn't know why she was bothering to sweep this little broken down shack anyway. The floor was just dirt after all.
Prudence had been working ever since she'd reached the old woman's ancient shack, dusting and washing the filthy walls and the few dishes Hepzibah had, and picking weeds out of her garden until her hands were raw and her back was killing her. By the time she'd finished preparing the meal, Prudence was too exhausted to care that the witch after most of the food, leaving little for her, yet complained about how bad her cooking was. She ate what was left then, being directed to a corner of the shack with a threadbare old blanket that smelled somewhat like a horse, laid down with relief. The sound of the rain falling soon put her to sleep.
Once the sound of her heavy breathing told Hepzibah that Prudence was asleep, the old woman got up quietly from her makeshift cot and walked over to where she lay. She held a candle near Prudence's face, careful not to let it drip on her and wake her up. Pretty little thing, she thought. The master would be pleased.
And just in time! It would be Samhain soon, and her coven needed to have a complete group of thirteen, counting herself. If not…well, she didn't want to think what her master would do if she failed him. If one of the low order witches hadn't suddenly decided to get married and leave, they wouldn't have needed any initiates, and she would have left Prudence to be torn to pieces by that wolf. The old woman grinned evilly as she thought about what they did to that girl and her betrothed. No one ever left her coven and lived to tell about it!
Hepzibah blew out the candle, set it down on an old table, and laid back down on her cot. It was raining again, and cold. She covered herself with her blankets. The pact she'd forged with her master had given her thirteen times thirteen extra years of life added to her natural human lifespan, but not extra years of youth. No, if she wanted to be young again, she'd have to find some young maiden and drain her youth from her. Well, if Prudence didn't work out as a low order witch, she could take her youth after Samhain. That would give her three months to find another replacement.
The old woman rolled over and was soon snoring away loudly. Prudence woke at the racket, moaned, and pulled the one thin blanket she'd been given over her head. Everything bad always happened to her! Perhaps she should flee from the old witch, but the hag probably knew spells to track her down, and then who knew what might happen to her? And besides, it was still raining outside, and there might be other wild animals besides the wolf. If she fled, the witch wouldn't save her again.
Well, the night after next was when other witches would gather together. If she was going to stay or leave, she'd need to make up her mind by then.
…
Since they were so close to the mountain our heroes decided to continue towards it. It was getting dark, and they needed to find some place to get out of the rain. At the bottom of the mountain they noticed a faint dirt trail that went as far up the mountain as they could see.
"Obviously somebody's been here before," Tom said.
"They might still be up there," David said. "And they probably aren't friendly."
"You're not sure?" Linda asked, shivering in the rain. "Didn't you plan out anything besides the village and that shack with the skeletons?"
"No," David admitted, shaking his head. "I was making things up as I went along. We didn't get to those places, so I didn't need to come up with anything else yet."
"Hey, look at this!" Greg yelled. He had started up the trail. "There's a cave up here!" He had already hurried inside to get out of the rain.
"Hey!" David called. "Don't go in there without checking for wandering monsters! Remember this is a dangerous world and…"
"AIEEE!" came from the cave.
"He just can't stay out of trouble, can he?" Andy said as they rushed towards the cave.
"Nope," Penny said, grinning. "He's just stupid that way."
The cave wasn't very big, maybe about thirty feet from the entrance to the back wall, and twenty or so feet wide. The ceiling was maybe two or three feet above their heads. Coming from the back of the cave towards the entrance which Greg was backing out of, were three huge ugly red creatures with long feelers.
"Oh no!" Tom cried. "More bugs!"
"Eww!" Penny yelled, making a face. "Giant cockroaches!"
"I think they're fire beetles," David suggested.
"They can breath fire?!" Andy asked.
"No, luckily," the former Dungeon Master explained. "They give off light but they can't shoot it at you or anything. Be careful, though. They've got a really mean bite!"
"Get them, Andy! Get them!" Penny yelled at her brother, hiding behind him.
"I don't want to get them!" Andy said, backing away until he bumped into her. He'd never liked bugs and now he really, really hated them.
Unfortunately the fire beetles definitely wanted to get them. They reached the entrance to the cave and kept coming, making disgusting clicking and hissing sounds.
"Look out!" Linda cried as the fire beetles raced towards them.
…
The alu-demon had heard a loud commotion and hurried towards it. People either ran and hid or formed crowds that she had difficulty getting through to see what was taking place. She could easily have risen above the throng by using her wings, but that would have made her the center of attention, and probably gotten her stoned and perhaps burned at the stake.
She asked several people what had happened. Most either didn't know or didn't bother to answer. How rude! They'd be punished for that in the Abyss!
"Thieves robbed the temple of the sun god!" one finally said, not looking at her. "Young people, children, really!
Ordinarily she would have laughed. The sun god was her enemy, after all. Well, actually the enemy of her master, and her master as well. But she had been sent to the temple of the sun god to observe some young strangers. Had the humans her master had told her about robbed the priests? Hardly good people, then. So why did her master want them? The souls of evil humans were easy enough to obtain. The souls of the neutral were more unusual. The souls of the good…ah, now those were valuable, because it was so rare and difficult to get them. Could thieves be good? Perhaps if they stole something from evil people. But the sun god was a force of good, so weren't his priests as well?
She saw an old man in the robes of a priest push his way through the crowd. He was followed by four young men dressed the same way, only simpler. He seemed furious, while the younger priests looked confused. She had no idea what was going on, but decided to follow them .
She could hear the priests muttering to one another, but not what they were saying. She muttered a curse and tried to get closer to hear them.
"I still don't understand why it was important to hold onto them," one of the younger priests said to his companion. "I'm glad to see them go. They were strange and talked funny."
"And the females didn't know their place," the other agreed. "Especially the elf! She called me a 'turkey.' What's a 'turkey?'"
"I think that one was crazy," the first one said. "But then I've never seen a non-human that wasn't."
The alu-demon clenched her fists. All of her life, she'd been insulted and mocked and even stoned in the Abyss for being half-human. Now, finally in the world of mortals, would she be treated the same way for being half-demon?
As they came close to the temple, she held back. Seeing a temple of good made her skin crawl. But the thought of the punishments she'd receive if she failed her mistress drove her to follow right to the outer door, or at least what was left of it.
The old priest and two of the younger ones went inside. The two she'd overheard stopped at the shattered door and looked it over. "What was that thing, anyway?" one demanded. "Looked like a frog, but then it turned into a goat and smashed this door down!"
"Some kind of demon," the other said. "That proves they're no good. No decent sort would have anything to do with devils!"
The alu-demon let out a growl. How dare this simpleton confuse demons with those stinking devils?!
"Where did it go, anyway?" the first one wondered. "You don't suppose it's still lurking about somewhere, do you?"
"I don't understand how it could have gotten in in the first place," the second acolyte said. "This is a temple of good! Pelor wouldn't allow devils in his home!" He'd done it again! Called a demon a devil! Just a worthless little quasit, but still a demon!
"They know all sorts of tricks," the first said. "Maybe those children were able to bring it in because they'd been invited in. I hear you invite a vampire in your home you can't ever get it to leave!"
Now he was calling vampires demons?! She'd rip his throat out, but what if the quasit…what was his name? Trephog? What if he really had only been able to get in because they had brought him in, and something would happen to her if she tried to enter?
She turned and headed back towards the gates. If the quasit was still about the temple, that was his problem. She was supposed to contact him, but she was also supposed to watch those children and see what they did. Since they were definitely gone, she'd have to track them down. Follow them to wherever they were going.
She returned to the gates just as the guards were returning. They were heavily armed and looked angry and somewhat confused. Well, soldiers weren't very intelligent, or they'd find ways to avoid serving in the military. What fun was marching around in heavy armor?
She turned again and hurried in the opposite direction. If she tried flying out of the town gates now, they'd see her, and an arrow might just get lucky and knock her out of the sky. She'd have to find a secluded area of the wall encircling the town and escape that way. Hopefully no one would notice her. She grimaced at the thought of having to walk until she was out of arrow reach, then fly until she found them., then probably walk some more to follow them. Chaotic like all demons, work was repulsive to her. But so was being tortured.
She sighed as she willed herself a pair of slippers. She might need to walk or run for miles, and she wasn't about to do that in the wilderness barefoot. Finally reaching the wall, she looked about, then willed herself to her true form. She spread her wings than leaped into the air. As she flew over the wall, she heard a yell. She cursed. Someone had seen her! Well, nothing to do but fly like a bat out of the abyss. An arrow whizzed past her. She flapped her bat-like wings like crazy, waving her arms and kicking her legs to try to get more speed. Soon she was out of range, but she didn't slow down until she felt her lungs ache and her legs wobble. She landed, gasping for breath. She wasn't used to this sort of effort.
Once she'd caught her breath, she looked around. Where was the gate? She cursed again as she began walking, trying to find the kids' trail. Surely they couldn't have gotten too far.
She cursed once again as it began raining. She's better get a reward for all the trouble she was going through!
…
David, still having no idea how to use a lance, was waving his sword about at one of the fire beetles. The creature hissed as it came towards him. He struck at it, but it was quick, and avoided his attack. He leaped back as it tried to pounce on him. "Get away from me!" he cried. Instead of pounced at him again. He swung his sword wildly, hacking off an antenna. The beetle went wild, running about in circles. He swung again, hacking at its thick body. To his horror, when he tried to pull his blade free, he found that he couldn't! "Oh no!" he cried, as it turned towards him. He let go of his sword, which was still stuck in it, and tried to run to where he'd left his lance. It raced after him! "Hit it!" he yelled to Linda, who was the only one not already fighting a beetle.
Confused, Linda pulled the club she'd bought what seemed like years ago from her belt. She'd gotten it because it was one of the few weapons available to druids, and Tom had already bought a quarterstaff, so having different weapons had sounded like a cool idea to her. But that was when it was just a harmless game! She didn't really want to hurt anyone or anything! But…but this was a big, ugly bug! She swung the club. To her shock it flew out of her hand, completely missing the beetle, and nearly hitting David! "Sorry!" she cried. "Sorry sorry sorry!"
Dodging her club caused him to zig when he should have zagged, and the beetle knocked him down just inches from his lance! He stretched his arm out until it hurt, but couldn't quite reach it. He yelled as he felt it start to crawl over him! "Get my sword!" he yelled.
Linda moved forward slowly, afraid to get close enough to touch the thing. She reached out to pull the sword free, but found she couldn't.
"It's stuck!" she cried. "It won't budge!"
…
"Go way!" Penny cried, backing away from one of the ugly creatures. "You're a beetle, you should go live in a yellow submarine! Or an octopus' garden! Not here!" It snapped at her. "Gross!" she cried. "It looks so gross!"
"Get away from my sister!" Andy cried, swinging his sword at the bug. He missed, and it leaped at him, knocking him down and making him drop his sword. It opened its big ugly mouth to bite him.
Penny hit it in the back. "Shocking grasp!" she cried. Zap! The insect squealed like a lost soul, spinning around so suddenly that it knocked her over before she could get out of its way. It jumped on her, hurt badly but not critically. Penny started screaming her head off as it bent down to bite her, its grotesque mouth making loud clicking sounds as it opened and closed. It was so ugly Penny felt like she was going to throw up on it.
Andy struggled to his feet. He grabbed his sword and hit the bug. Snap! The beetle fell apart in two uneven pieces.
Penny was still screaming. Andy dropped his sword. Without thinking, he put his arms around his sister, forgetting how much she usually annoyed him. She hugged him back, shaking violently.
"Hey," he said. "Come on, Sis. Don't cry. You're gonna embarrass me in front of the guys."
"I'm not scared," Penny said. "I'm freezing my butt off!"
"You'd look weird without a butt," Andy said. He looked around. He could see Greg and Tom, looking like they were doing some kind of weird Keystone Cops silent film comedy. He looked in the opposite direction and saw Linda swinging a sword. Why did she have a sword? She was a druid!
"Come on!" he yelled at Penny, running towards the girl of his dreams.
…
"Get it off me!" David screamed.
Cringing at the feeling of the nasty thing, Linda put one bare foot on the beetle's back, and pulled backwards, putting all her weight into it. It suddenly came free, knocking her over backwards. "Oof! I got it!" she cried. She realized her skirt had flown up and quickly pushed it down, very relieved she'd put that underwear on. "Now what?"
"Hit it!" he yelled.
Linda struggled to her feet. "But druids can't use swords!" she said.
"Try it anyway!" he cried. "Try something!"
She swung the sword, spun all the way around, and dropped it on her bare big toe! "Ow! Ow! Ow!" She grabbed her foot and fell over backwards again.
"You're so useless!" David yelled.
"I'm doing the best I can!" Linda sobbed.
"Owoooo!" David shrieked as the beetle bit him, fangs getting between pieces of his armor.
Linda swung at it again with his sword. Again she missed. This time it turned and came at her. Linda screamed and ran. She tripped over something and fell forward this time. "Oof!" What had she tripped over? Her club! She picked it up and threw it at the thing. To her surprise she hit it! Not enough to kill it, but it did stop chasing her. It started acting like a roach that had been stomped on but wasn't dead yet.
"Oww…" David moaned. "That really hurt…"
"I'm sorry," Linda said, getting up. She started to swing the sword again.
David hurried over, careful to avoid getting hacked by her. "Give me that before you kill somebody!" he said. This time she dropped it on his foot. "Ow! You're dangerous!" he told her.
"I'm sorry!" she said. "I hate this game!"
David picked up his sword and struck the beetle as it was starting to move again. Ker-runch! Finally! It stopped moving. Exhausted and hurting like the dickens, David dropped down to his knees.
"Hey," Andy called, hurrying over to Linda. "Are you okay?"
"I'm in pain, thanks for asking!" David said sarcastically. "Your girlfriend is the worst fighter I've ever seen!"
"I'm not his girlfriend!" Linda cried, feeling her face grow hot. But deep down, she found herself wondering, "Do I want to be?"
…
Greg tried to hack at the third beetle with his polearm. Again he missed. Darn it! Why'd he have to pick monk? They weren't fighter characters. He couldn't even use a sword! The creature snapped at him and he jumped away from it. "Do something!" he yelled at Tom.
"Do what?!" Tom said as he waved his quarterstaff at it. It snapped at it. "Ahh!" he yelled, shaking his staff. "Let go! Let go!" It held on like a bulldog, hissing loudly at him.
Greg chopped at it, but only nicked it. It let go and ran at him. Its eyes lit up bright red, blinding him. He waved about wildly.
Tom jumped out of the way. "Watch it!" he yelled. "You almost hit me with that!"
"Where is it?" Greg demanded, still swinging about blindly. "Am I close! Is it about to get me?" As if in answer, it leaped, knocking him down. "Ahh! Get it off me! Get it off me!"
Tom, not knowing what else to do, whacked it a couple of times with his staff. "Uh…bad! Bad,,,bug! Go play in traffic!"
This didn't seem to hurt it very much, but it did cause it to climb off of Greg and race at Tom, who started backing away.
"Gross!" Greg yelled, shivering. "It felt so…gross!"
"Get sick later!" Tom said, starting to run from the bug. "Get it! Get it!"
Still cringing at the feel of the thing crawling on him, Greg brought his weapon down on its back. There was a loud, sickening crunch. It spun around and pounced at him again. Shrieking, Greg swung again. About a third of it went flying towards David, who yelled as he jumped away. He lost his balance and fell over with a loud clang.
"We all sure seem to do a lot of falling down," Penny said.
"Yeah, tell me about it," David said, struggling to get up. "But you're not weighed down by armor." He looked over at Linda. "Or somebody that can't fight worth a darn!"
"I said I was sorry!" Linda told him.
"Yeah, leave her alone!" Andy told David.
"Fine," David told Andy. "Next time you can team up with her!"
"Fine! I will!" Andy yelled.
"I want a new fighting partner too!" Greg said, glaring at Tom.
"Same here!" Tom said, glaring back.
"Now, now, boys," Penny said, lacing her fingers together and placing her hands behind her head. "I know I'm awesome, but you can't all have me!"
"Stop fighting, everybody!" Linda cried. "We almost got killed by three bugs! What happens if we run into something really dangerous?"
"Then it's every man for himself!" Greg told her.
"Or woman for herself!" Penny added.
"Where do we go from here?" Andy broke in. "We can't go back to that town, but we can't just wander around in the wilderness."
"Tell us there's at least another town or village somewhere around here," Linda told David.
"Well, there was," David admitted. "But I never detailed it, and it was west of the one we just left."
"And we still don't know which way is west," Greg said. "You're a lousy DM!"
"Hey, what the heck was that thing that knocked the door down?" Andy asked his sister. "Where the heck did you find it?"
"I already told you," Penny complained. "He was my familiar." She looked around. "I wonder what happened to him?"
"Just hope we lost him," David told her. "We don't want that thing around here!"
Penny turned towards David. "Huh? Why not? He's my familiar! And he got us out of there when none of you guys could!"
"You shouldn't have gotten a familiar like that," David insisted. "Most familiars are ordinary animals, cats, owls, frogs, like that."
"I thought he was a frog," Penny said. "I didn't know he could turn into a goat!"
"There are four special kinds of familiar," David told her seriously. "Good magic-users might get a brownie or a pseudo-dragon. Evil ones might get an imp or a quasit. They all have special powers. Imps and quasits can take on the forms of more than one type of animal. Including toads…and goats!"
Penny had sat down while he was talking to her. Now she sat up straight. "You mean he was a devil?!"
"Actually, I think he was a demon," David said, "but definitely evil!"
"My sister's a creep sometimes, but she's not evil!" Andy insisted. "Why would she get an evil familiar?"
"We didn't study how to do the things we're supposed to be able to do," Linda said. "I don't know how to be a druid. And you guys were terrible fighters at first. Maybe she cast the familiar spell wrong."
"So instead of a normal familiar she got a monster?" Tom said. "Don't spells usually just not work at all if you do them wrong?"
David nodded. "Sometimes magic items don't work right, but spells either work or don't work. So it's really weird she'd cast one wrong. Nothing should have happened at all."
"What's that sound?" Penny asked.
"There's something in your backpack!" Linda cried. Penny had put it down after the battle to rest.
Andy and David drew their swords. "If it's that imp or whatever the other one was," Andy said, "we can beat it, right?"
"I don't know," David said nervously. "I think they're like fourth or fifth level monsters!"
"Say what?!" Greg yelled.
"Wait!" Penny cried. "Hear that?"
"It sounded like a meow," Linda said.
"Greptog always turned into a toad," Penny said. "Except when he turned into that smelly old goat. He never turned into a kitty cat." She reached for her backpack.
"Don't open it!" everybody yelled.
But Penny rarely did what anyone told her to do. She opened the backpack, then, very carefully, peeked inside. She gasped.
"What is it?" her brother demanded.
"It's a kitty!" Penny said, pulling the little black cat out of her bag.
"Watch it!" David said. "It might be that imp or quasit. I think quasits turn into goats and imps turn into something else, so it's probably a quasit."
"It's a kitty!" Penny insisted, hugging it to her. "Don't you hurt her! I thought it was funny when Greptog talked to me but told me not to tell you guys he could talk. The spell in my book didn't say anything about them talking or keeping secrets."
"But if that's your familiar, then…then where did that quasit come from?" David asked. "What did it want?"
"And where is it now?" Andy asked, looking around.
"Do we really want to know?" Tom asked.
"If it followed us and is just waiting to slaughter us all in our sleep, then yeah, we do!" Greg pointed out.
"Don't say that, you'll scare Penny!" Linda said.
"Wait a minute," Tom said. "How'd it get in her backpack?"
"I must have left it open," Penny said.
"But cats aren't smart enough to climb into backpacks!" Greg said. "So maybe it's that monster only it turned into a cat now!"
"It's a kitty, and it's mine!" Penny insisted. "Go get your own familiar!"
"I don't want one!" Greg said, making a face at the cat. The cat hissed at him.
"She don't like you neither," Penny told him. "So it's anonymous!"
"You mean unanimous," David corrected.
"Don't correct me," Penny said. "I get enough of that at school!" She grinned. "Hey! As long as we're here, no school!"
"Yeah, and no hamburgers or tv either!" Greg said.
"You don't need no more hamburgers," Penny told him. "You're fat enough now!"
"I'm not fat!" Greg yelled at her. "I just got big bones!"
"Yeah," Penny said, "and they're covered with big meat!"
"Listen, squirt…"
"Stop calling me a squirt!" Penny yelled. The cat hissed at him again.
"Shut up, you stupid cat!" Greg said.
"Leave the cat alone!" Linda told him. "Penny, stop picking fights!" She took the younger girl's arm. "Let's make sure there aren't any more surprises in this cave, then try to get some rest," she added. "We don't know what we might have to go through tomorrow."
They looked around the cave cautiously but didn't find any other creatures. Linda pointed towards a large rock in the back of the cave, which would cover them if they were sitting or lying down. "Penny and I will sleep here, behind this rock," she said. "You guys sleep near the entrance."
"And no peeking at us!" Penny said.
"Nobody would want to peek at you, squirt!" Greg told her. He looked at Linda. "But if you get scared in the night, let me know."
"If she gets scared in the night, it'll be because she saw your face!" Penny said, sticking her tongue out at him. "You stay away from her or I'll kick you where it'll really hurt!"
"You brat!" Greg yelled.
"You stay away from both of the girls!" Andy told him.
The two boys glared at each other.
"Come on, you guys," Tom said. "This is getting really old."
"Maybe we should take turns standing watch," David suggested. "In case of wandering monsters?"
"Wandering monsters?!" Greg demanded. "You never said anything about wandering monsters!"
"There are always wandering monsters," David told him.
"Do you know what they are, or didn't you plan that yet?" Andy asked.
"Let's see…" David said. "There were wolves and weasels and giant ants…"
"More bugs?!" Andy, Greg, and Tom all moaned.
"I doubt anything will show up," David said. "Animals usually don't wander around in the rain."
"Unless they're caught in the rain and decide to find shelter-like right here!" Greg pointed out.
It was decided that Greg, who insisted he was wide away, would sit up for awhile then wake David when he got tired. David would wake Tom and Tom would wake Andy. Normally the girls would want to join in, but Linda still felt a bit weird from playing that organ, and Penny had already fallen asleep, her black cat curled up in a ball beside her.
One by one they fell asleep, until only Greg was awake. He soon found himself getting very sleepy, though. He closed his eyes, just for a second, and was soon asleep.
Because of this no one was awake when a dim figure moved slowly and quietly towards the cave's entrance…
…
HP is Hit Points, S is Strength, I is Intelligence, W is Wisdom, D is Dexterity, C is Constitution, and CH is Charisma. 18 Strength meant a character could lift 180 pounds. Fighter characters only could get exceptional strength, shown by percentages, 18/01 to 18/00 (or 100.) Later editions dropped that and allowed stats up to 20. CO is short for Comeliness, a dropped attribute that said how attractive or unattractive someone was and was affected by Charisma. 10-13 is average looking. 14-17 is good looking. 18-21 is beautiful.
Assume everybody listed has the same stats no matter which edition you use, except Bronze, the older of the dwarf brothers, now has 19 Strength. Penny has 19 Dexterity, which was the highest possible originally, but under new rules she has the potential to reach 20. I'll post any changes to our heroes (like when they go up a level) when it happens. So far none of them are even close to level two. But that might change depending on what they might face on Midnight Mountain, especially since now it's only two days before Halloween!