I don't own D&D or Digimon.

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Izzy

"That could have gone smoother..." Orn mutters softly as they exited out of the tavern. He couldn't gather up much to say as his jaw ached, but then, getting punch in the jaw does have that effect after all.

Guess it is rather foolish to think that there would be word of the others so early in the game... It wasn't as though I was trying to offend anyone by inquiring about any local adventuring parties either.He thinks to himself while fingering the dagger on his belt with a scowl.

It's been a month since they arrived here in the game and they hadn't gotten around to entering into the local dungeon due to the fact they were more then a little preoccupied by gathering what information there could be on the others. "Well, I think we better pick up another job or we could look into gathering a few extras to hit the tower located within the Metal Forest." His partner says, as if predicting the next course of thoughts.

"I do believe I'm tired of rounding up farm beasts or running about a forest collecting some in need item. This game is about dungeon crawling and I think we're ready to do it." He says in spite of his aching jaw.

It didn't take long to locate a few down on their luck adventurers; a drunk of a human cleric, a ill-tempered gnome ranger plus bear companion, and two fighters who happen to be brothers who are dwarves. The brothers are always trying to out due each other and are so quarrelsome that they'd sooner get into a fist fight then to fight the enemy. He mentally called the two dwarves, Axe and Fist due to their armor featuring such symbols, the drunken cleric Waste, and the woman gnome as Sniper for more then just her skills with the bow.

The reason why any of them are coming are not all that surprising. Axe and Fist were here due to the number of bills of property damage hanging over their head, the drunk due to needing more drinking money, and the gnome because her previous party ditched her to enter into this dungeon. They almost had a satyr Bard join but some angry husband killed him for sharing his wife's bed.

They didn't bother to wait until dawn the next day, late afternoon, they could be found among the forest. Sniper is leading with her bear ranging back and forth from the sides of the path forged by previous adventure parties. Axe is walking with Orn and Fist is walking in the rear with Waste.

I wonder why this forest is called the Metal Forest...He wonders to himself, he keeps his fireball wand well in hand. "Is there a reason why this place is called the Metal Forest? I sure as heck don't see a scrape of metal!" Axe complains.

"It's called the Metal Forest cause of the tribe of Warforged that live here." Waste answers. "Could we freakin' speed this up? I hate being sober." The cleric murmurs.

He just sighs but none of the others, although he's rather glad he memorized a number of water and frost spells. He hopes that they'll be effective again the metal race when they encounter them. He just knew it would happen sooner or later.

The question is, will we encounter them before we enter into the tower or after...He can't help but wonder. He swallows, just being out here under the sun causes him to feel even more thirsty. The tower begins to loom over the tree tops as evening arrives.

They stop to eat supper, before they ate the others said prayers to McArron, the God of Cooking, which has to be a created god as he never came across a reference to this god. Sounds like Mimi got creative... Or maybe Matt.He think to himself as he eats his first helping.

Unsurprisingly, Waste seems to enjoy his portion of ale and Sniper's own as she prefers water. The cow's blood in his cup really hits the spot. Axe and Fist had brought their own rations of drink, but then, they did have their own, homegrown, portable brewery. Waste does try to get some more beer from the pair but they demanded money, money that Waste didn't have as of yet and they wouldn't take credit.

Orn and himself put a stop to any games of chance that Waste tried to tempt the Dwarf brothers in hopes of getting more to drink. Sniper's bear huffs and puffs while eating the berries. The bear's bowl of water has been emptied.

"If you have any other business, I suggest you take care of it now." Orn says, once more taking charge of the group. "We'll camp out in the tower, it'll be relatively safer in there." His partner adds and they repack their stuff, some lagging rather slowly but they do continue down the path, he casts a spell to allow them all to see in the darkness as though it were daylight, it was a rare spell he found hidden in a library.

He keeps his left hand on the hilt of his dagger while his right keeps a tight grip upon the wand. He's not the only one to feel the tension hanging about the group, everyone keeps a hand over their weapons. As they get to see the walls of the tower, they become under attack by four Warforged, each welding a massive, bladed weapon.

The group of Warforged advance quickly on them, though Sniper's bear charges head long into one of enemy. As they recover, the two dwarves move rather quickly to engage while Waste, Sniper, and Orn send off range attacks. He grabs what he needed to send off a frost attack.

Those in close quarters with the Warforged got hit by blunt attacks by the enemy ranks. Not that they didn't do damage on the four Warforged, just didn't seem to do as much as they received. His frost spell did manage to take the fourth out, leaving only three to attack while Orn manages to knock one off its feet.

Axe does get sent flying by one while Fist takes a blow to his head. Waste does manage to get in close to cast a healing spell upon Fist while Axe gets up from his landing. With a bellow, Axe comes charging back to the fray.

He manages to get a clear shot and causes them to slow down. Frost seems to cover the three Warforged. With them slowed down, it turned the table and within the next ten minutes, they downed the four. They each are breathing slightly heavily but Orn and Waste do help up those that had taken the blunt of the damage who are Axe, Fist, and Sniper's bear as Orn had already healed up himself.

They each got a share of whatever it was that the four Warforged had on themselves. Although, both Axe and Fist took their sweet time examining the bodies to be sure they didn't possess anything in the way of certain types of metal that had been used in their construction. Waste had also quickly used his share of the loot to have a empty water skin filled with the brother's ale.

There's got to be a spell or a curse involving keeping the victim from ever getting drunk from drinking that. If not, I might just begin researching in crafting that spell...Yair thinks to himself as they find the obvious doorway.

He sighs as they enter into the entrance everyone has used. Glancing over to Orn, he could only wonder what they could find if they had managed to located a rogue. Looking away, he pauses by the doorway and takes out his dagger. It takes a bit but he manages to chisel the symbol of Knowledge into the stone so that any other teams arrive, they'll know they have been here.

He looks at his dagger and shakes his head. Putting the dagger away, he enters into the tower. Reaching in, he brings out the stones he prepared to set up one night magical wards. He spent most of the last two weeks creating them once he learnt the 'art' of them. With their camp warded, he's just glad to get a good night's sleep.

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As they wake, they eat their rations, although Waste proved to be a grouch and got into a verbal fight with Sniper. It came close to coming to blows. Before leaving their camping area, he's sure to read from his spell book, refreshing his one spell to allow them to see in the darkness and to switch out daggers.

The others had used the time to sharpen or change their outfits. Although Waste seems to have finished communing with his god as he crosses the barrier, with him passing through, the barrier falls. The more combat oriented members of the party take up the point with Snipe and Orn taking up the middle and while Waste and him take up the rear.

"This place looks rather picked over." Axe comments as they pass by dead bodies of humans. "We might encounter rats though." The dwarf fighter murmurs as a few rats dart along the edge of the hall.

"At least we don't have ta worry about a necro taking up residence here." Fist remarks and he could only imagine what's waiting for them, particularly after so many parties have visited this place before them. Rather depressing really...

They didn't find much opposition, they did get attack by rat swarms like Axe had predicted. They did have a few run ins with beetles as well, but nothing as dangerous as those Warforged they fought the day before.

Each room they searched showed signs of previous parties. Both Orn and himself would check the walls, pulling out discard paper from the cracks. Some were wills while others were farewells. Likely left behind during times when this tower had been much more dangerous. The magic inherit in the tower likely helped to preserve the various papers, not that any of them likely mean much in their search.

They then ascend up. They become under attack by Homunculus from the stairs. Instead of attacking the tiny fake beings, they just exit out onto the second floor. "Well, it seems there is still something to be had here in this dump." Sniper states while flickering a tiny arrow away.

"Well of course, few parties make it pass the fifth floor. Even those that take and hold this tower has never been able to tame the higher levels. The most powerful of the tower's defenses seem centered at the higher levels, leaving most of the lower levels lightly defended, but then, these floors were the areas servants and guests typically had access too." Waste explains, giving them a better understanding of the tower's history.

While promising, I doubt we're going to be the party that does tame the sixth floor. Likely would need a much larger group with a lot wider skill range.He thinks to himself as they come under attack by a group of ghost animals, mostly rats and beetles.

They did come across the stuff none of the others thought worthwhile to take or were left behind for something better. They continued to encounter ghosts of small animals, some of them they began to encounter use to be companion animals to previous parties. Which added to the challenge as they clearly were powerful beasts in life and it seemed large cats have always been a popular choice.

Although, who knew the next popular animal would be birds?He muses as they gather up the coins that are left behind in a chest. It does strike him as odd that none of the previous parties possessed bags of holdings. As he watches the rest of the party, it's clear that bags of holding are rather rare when it comes to adventuring equipment and he wonders why that is, although Yair decides that it's to their advantage as it means there is something left from all of those previous parties.

They break as certain members of the party require some time to get their energy back. He needed to reread his spell book as he used majority of his spells during the waves of attacking ghosts.

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Sora

"This isn't looking very good, is it?" She murmurs to Benio as they are frog marched down a hallway by Minotaurs. She tugs at her rope bindings about her arms. Benio is currently slung over the shoulder of one of the Minotaurs.

The Minotaurs had gone to great lengths to capture them alive and she dredges finding out why. It didn't help that she felt very responsible for all of this as it was her fault that she made Biyomon into a Harpy, a very frail being, and then put her as a barbarian where it's likely she would have done better as the priest.

They arrive at an underground arena filled with various beings, all here to watch the pit fights, which she glimpses before the crowd all surge to stand to cheer. Their captors stop before a booth and after a few minutes of speaking with the heavily scared human, Benio is set down and is examined by one of the men.

The conversation picks up its pace until the human sighs and nods. This signals one of the others to pull out a pouch. Some coins are taken out of it before its tossed to the Minotaur who is likely the leader of the group.

A pair of orcs move forward and Benio is taken away, not that she had much of a chance to think about it as she finds herself receiving the same treatment her partner had just a few minutes ago. She trembles with outrage at how she's being treated but none of the hands come close to his mouth so she can't inflict some damage on her soon to be captors.

Once more, a coin purse is brought out and this time, coins are added into the purse. With that, a metal ring is placed about her neck and she feels her connection to her magic become... distant, it's still there just she would need more time to reach into it and channel it. Which is likely the point of the collar.

Not good, not good at all...She thinks while she's lead down into a line up of newly purchase people. She refused to think of them or herself as a slave.

"Which group captured ya?" A dwarf woman asks a few slots before her. More then a few of those in the line turn to study her with a mixture of pity and consideration.

"A group of Minotaurs." She explains and a few nod. "I take it we're for the pit?" She asks in turn and though a whip snaps while they're being told no talking, she saw the answer in their eyes. She bends her head and prays for them all, especially for Benio, as she fears that the worst for her partner and friend.

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Mimi

The arrow enters into the throat of the incoming enemy, another two join it before the Drakkoth falls about four feet from Harsha's position. Those elves to her right and left also fire off their own arrow, each finding a home in the flesh of the enemy, some of their arrows killing the foe with one shot while others need a few more into them before they'd fall.

They press forward to achieve their objective of rescuing a few children who were stolen out of the village the day before. They regroup with those that prefer close quarter combat. Oakcalm leads them directly to the place where the children are being held captive. They agree that they are getting close as the Drakkoth are considered the elite guards, serving directly under the head of this army.

The rescue party consists of twenty people, Oakcalm and herself are counted in that count and so far, they're moving fairly quickly towards their objective. So far, her otherself hasn't moved to take control but then, she's not really hasting to kill her foes either, which makes her feel rather a mixture of relief and guilt over killing anybody, even if they were the enemy.

Then, suddenly, they are within the camp where the kids were held. They found the bodies of the children hanging upon a tree limb. With their attention on the dead, they are slow to react to the devils that rush out of the tents and underground holes.

For the first time since they entered into this world, she is glad to have something to take out her outrage on. The other within her helps to keep her limbs from trembling as she hacks into the material body of a spine devil using her sword as they had manage to get close to render using a bow next to useless. The devils are tough and have the element of surprise but they each had receive blessing again evil before leaving so they had some mystical protection against the devils.

With the last of the devils gone, they first attended to their wounds, mostly Oakcalm casting healing spells over those who received the most wounds. She just drinks a healing potion before slicing through the ropes holding the bodies up. Once they are down, she takes the noose from their necks, tears flowing down her face.

She can't help but sink down onto her knees next to the bodies. After a while, a hand rests on one of her shoulders. She looks up to find Zaspar standing there, a bandage wrapped about his forehead and his other arm done up in a splint. "We'll wrap them up in some blankets and put them on stretchers to be carried back to the settlement."

She nods, her throat done up tight. Her hands ball up as she turns to look at them. I will do my best so that this doesn't happen again, not when I could have prevent it. She vows to herself.

To Be Continued!