In A Grimm Manor Chapter 4: Of Dice and Men, a rwby fanfic

"Alright, Sky. Roll a D20."

"Which one's that again?"

"It's got twenty numbers on it, spiky thing."

"Ah, got it! Here goes..."

The sound of a dice roll slightly disturbed some forest vermin below.

"Fifteen!" Sky Lark exclaimed excitedly, "That means I hit, right?"

"Well uh, um...let me just…" Russel muttered, rustling through page after page of ineptly-organised notes, "It should be in here somewhere…"

"Your DM skills leave something to be desired, Russ." Dove commented dryly.

"Hey, it's not like I volunteered for this, okay? Cardin's supposed to be the Dungeon Master here, not me!"

Meanwhile, vaguely hidden behind a couple of convenient bushes, two pairs of confused eyes peered onto the scene before them. Russel Thrush, Sky Lark and Dove Bronzewing were sitting in a clump beneath a thick tree cover, bickering between themselves...not that this was the unusual thing, of course. Amongst the three members of CRDL were large quantities of paper, several dozen varieties of dice and a veritable cornucopia of snack food.

"...are you seeing this?" Jaune whispered, gesturing slightly towards the odd scene. They'd been in the forest for about ten minutes now, and already they were bumping into weird stuff. Figures.

"I am." Weiss replied curtly, "Although I'm not entirely sure what I'm seeing. What are they doing, exactly?"

"They're playing Dungeons and Dragons, Weiss! It's, like, the nerdiest game ever! And they're CRDL!" Jaune answered, barely containing his amusement.

"..."

"...i-it's funny because bullies are usually jocks? And...jocks hate D&D? Get it?"

"Shut up, Jaune."

"Okay…"

A short pause in the conversation ensued, but of course, it was far too good to last.

"Having fun?" a mischievous voice quipped from above.

"Gah!" Jaune exclaimed, turning his head upwards to try and confront the eavesdropper. Hung from the tree like a Christmas decoration was none other than Sun Wukong, a wolfish grin spread right across his face.

"Oh, hey Jaune! How's my favourite ladykiller doing today, huh?" Sun asked with a friendly tone.

"I-I'm fine, Sun." Jaune mumbled, letting his eyes stray to Weiss' unamused expression, "What are you doing out here?"

"Could ask you the same question, but I guess I'll let it slide for now. As it happens, I came here to help CRDL get a bit of teamwork mojo going on."

"With a petty board game?" Weiss shot back skeptically.

"Not my idea, princess! It was Cardin's, actually. Said he used to play it as a kid, and it made him super best buds with the guys he grew up with back then. Gotta admit I'd never played it before myself, but hey, there's a first time for everything, am I right?"

"Is that you, Sun?" Sky's voice echoed out from the clearing.

"Yup, I'll be there in a minute, guys!" Sun replied happily, "Why don't you two come along? I reckon it'll do you good to see how far they've come lately, if you haven't already."

"Sounds like a waste of time to me." Weiss commented dismissively, "We didn't travel out into the wilderness to play this 'Dungeons and Dragons', you know. Some of us have work to do!"

"Come on, princess, don't be such a killjoy! What about you, Jaune?"

Jaune looked between Weiss and Sun helplessly, realising that he would have to disappoint one of them regardless.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt-"

"Alrighty then, ladykiller. Heads up!"

Without another word, Sun grabbed Jaune by the hand, effortlessly flinging him straight out of the bushes. Through either sheer luck or skillful aiming, Jaune somehow managed to not land on anything important, not even all of the random paper strewn about. Groaning, the blonde boy began picking himself up, only to be offered a hand by Sky.

"Hey, Jaune! Nice entrance, there. Very dynamic. Want some help?" Sky asked genuinely.

Normally Jaune would have thought this was a cruel trick of some sort, but there was something in Sky's voice that persuaded him otherwise. Perhaps foolishly, he took Sky's hand with little hesitation, feeling himself being lifted up with no further consequence.

Huh.

"Thanks, Sky."

"Hey, don't mention it! It's the least I can do after all that bullying stuff we did before. Sorry about that, by the way. No hard feelings, right?"

Jaune blinked.

"Uh..."

"Don't mind him, Jaune. Ever since what happened in Forever Fall, he's been feeling really bad about what we did to you. Not that the rest of aren't sorry or anything, but…" Russel paused, looking over to Dove, "We wouldn't all be so open about it, would we?"

"Hmph. Just doing what I was told, Russ. It's Cardin who needs to apologise, not me."

"Uh huh, sure." Russel replied skeptically, "Oh, hey Sun! And...Weiss?"

After Jaune's grand entrance, Sun coming into the group with a forward roll seemed almost mundane by comparison. Weiss, of course, merely walked in while trying her best to retain some form of dignity.

"Good to see you again, Russ! How's the D&D going?"

Russel looked down to the marginally more organised stack of DM notes, a sweat drop visibly rolling down his forehead.

"I don't think I'm really cut out for the role of DM, to be honest, but I'm trying my best. Is Cardin still not back yet?"

Sun shook his head.

"You don't think he's in trouble, do you?" Sky asked worriedly.

"He'll be fine." Dove mumbled, "He told us to wait here for him, and that's what we'll do. If he wanted help, he'd have asked for it."

"So? He's our team leader, and we can't just let him get attacked by an Ursa again!"

Sun looked proudly at Jaune, pointing a thumb over to Sky. Progress, he mouthed.

"Sky's got a point, but we've got no idea where Cardin is right now. If we go out to comb the forest for him and he gets back here injured, what's he going to do? We've got to trust that he had the right idea, you know?"

"I guess…" Sky admitted grudgingly, "Anyway, what're you two doing here, Jaune? Off on a monster hunting quest?"

"Something like that, yeah." Jaune half-lied, "Just thought we'd pop in when we saw you guys were playing D&D. Do you like it?"

"Sure!" Sky replied enthusiastically, "I'm this totally kickass barbarian with this enchanted hammer who gets into bar fights all the time and kills dragons and-"

"I think he gets the point, Sky!" Russel said, chuckling, "But yeah, turns out Cardin's pretty good at being a DM and stuff. Who knew, right? Uh, not that he's bad at telling stories or anything…" he backpedaled rapidly, glancing around to make sure their leader hadn't popped up out of the blue.

"So where'd he go, anyway?" Jaune inquired curiously.

The three CRDL amigos shared a nervous look.

"We're not sure." Dove admitted, "Said he was going off for a while, but refused to tell us where to. Kinda ironic for the guy who keeps saying we should trust each other more."

Even Russel and Sky murmured their agreement.

"Don't worry about it, guys!" Sun exclaimed reassuredly, "Jaune's going to find Cardin and help him get back here, aren't you, Jaune?"

"Well uh...the thing with Weiss comes first, but I'll be sure to tell him to head back if I see him around."

"Ahem." Weiss cut in, "Perhaps we should be leaving these boys to it, Jaune? We've lost more than enough time already, after all." she commented sharply, pointing up to the noon sun that could just be glimpsed between the thick leaves above.

"I guess you're right. Catch you later then, guys!"

"Sure thing, Jaune! Now, back to finding that character sheet…" Russel muttered, leafing through his papers like a man possessed. Dove, meanwhile, simply made a subtle whipping sound effect.

"Wait a sec, ladykiller. Remember that thing you told me about before?" Sun asked mysteriously.

"I think so."

"Well, I took care of it for you, no problem. So, y'know, if your lady friend says anything about it…"

Jaune smiled softly.

"Thanks, Sun. I'll pay you back as soon as I can, I promise!"

"If you like, ladykiller. See you in a bit!"

And so, after much chatting, Jaune and Weiss left the little D&D group to their thing, setting off once again in whichever direction they were heading in previously. Not that it mattered, really. After all, they didn't have any clear idea where the manor was, so why bother heading in one direction in particular?

Of course, there was no making such an argument with Weiss. She knew exactly where she was going...

Apparently.

"Jaune."

"Huh?"

"How long have we been in the forest now?"

"As long as a piece of string?"

"Oh, hilarious. Perhaps you would also like to inform me of how many Grimm we have encountered thus far?"

"The square root of negative one?"

"That's...no, Jaune, just no. You get my point though, right?"

"Over this past hour or so, Weiss, I've received many points from you...some of them very literal ones. Ow."

"Oh, shush. Don't you think it's odd that we haven't been attacked yet, despite basically making more noise than Nora in the shower?"

The terrible twosome had indeed been travelling peacefully for a good while now and, for the moment at least, had stopped in a small glade featuring a very convenient seat-like tree stump. Weiss, of course, was the first to jump on the opportunity to have a rest.

"Won't you get splinters from that thing?" Jaune asked, taking a somewhat less dignified seat on the floor.

"Ah yes, 'splinters'. The collections of irritating bits of wood that are allegedly waiting on tree stumps. We have dismissed that claim." Weiss replied haughtily.

"Just like you dismissed Ruby as a good leader..." Jaune muttered under his breath.

"In any case," Weiss began, crossing her legs, "We can't just keep wandering around aimlessly like this. All we've found so far is an uncomfortable amount of poison ivy, team bird theme minus the C, and the fact that money really could grow on trees if I just had access to gene manipulation technology."

"And none of that is bringing us any closer to finding the manor, right?"

"Mmhm."

Jaune began idly playing with the grass as Weiss put her brain to work.

"...Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't you think it was odd how Professor Ozpin knew exactly where we were going, despite the fact that there's plenty of other interesting landmarks we could have gone to instead?"

Jaune shrugged.

"Could've been just a lucky guess."

"Do you really think that?" Weiss asked skeptically.

"Well hey, what if he did know beforehand? Does it really matter that much?"

"Think about it, Jaune. We've been wandering this forest for an hour now, have come across absolutely no Grimm whatsoever, and neither have we found a single trace of the manor. Maybe the latter I can forgive, but the former just doesn't make any sense!"

"So...what? You think it's a set-up?"

"Maybe. Or maybe it's just- WHAT THE DUST?!"

A dark brown branch had stuck out of the tree stump and Weiss, in one of her many habits, had been lightly tugging at it as she spoke with Jaune. As the conversation continued, slowly but surely, the branch had been pulled further and further back, finally culminating with an enormous shaking as the stump began to shamble across the ground.

"T-that was a lever?!" Jaune exclaimed incredulously, scrambling to his feet, "But it looked so normal!"

Finally, after Weiss had kindly vacated herself from her position atop the stump, the mysterious machine revealed a small, incredibly dark hole leading deep into the earth. Maybe it was just his eyesight, but from what Jaune could see, there didn't seem to be a bottom.

"...do you think this is it?" Jaune asked quietly, somewhat fearing the answer.

"Hidden in the most ingenious ways known to man..." Weiss mused, glancing back to the tree stump, "In plain sight, it seems. How pedestrian."

Jaune gulped.

"So, uh...how exactly are we getting down there? If there even is a bottom..."

"Oh please, a bottomless pit? You know those don't exist, right?" Weiss said dismissively.

"Y-yeah, of course I do! It's just...that thing must go a fair way down. Even if it's not bottomless, I get the feeling we'd have a little trouble surviving the fall."

"Speak for yourself, Jaune. I have glyphs!"

"Maybe you do, but they're not going to help if you can't tell where the ground is, are they?"

"...have I ever told you that I hate it when you make sense?"

"Well if you haven't already, then- wait, what are you doing?"

In a matter of seconds, Weiss had pulled out her scroll, apparently doing some rapid-fire virtual keyboard work.

"None of your business, thank you very much! Anyway, why don't you set a marker on your scroll's map? That way, we can find this spot again if we want to come back later."

Jaune nodded, reaching into his pocket to retrieve his own scroll...but alas, it was not to be. After fiddling with some slightly wet grass for too long, Jaune's hands were somewhat slippery, causing his precious device to be flung out of his mitts-

"Oh no."

-right into the beckoning abyss.

"Oh nooooo-"

As if matters couldn't get any worse, in trying to catch the scroll as it fell, Jaune had managed to knock himself horribly off-balance. Suddenly, he had a lot more to worry about than a bit of lost tech.

"-ooooooooooooo!"

Having finally finished her typing, Weiss looked back up to see Jaune desperately clinging to the edge of the hole, screaming his heart out.

"Idon'twannadieIdon'twannadieIdon'twannadie-"

Weiss began rushing forward, preparing an attraction glyph to bring him back up.

"Jaune, just hang-"

Too late.

"...on."

Swearing quietly to herself, Weiss dove in after her incompetent temporary team-mate, gritting her teeth as the thick smell of earth and decay buffeted her lungs.

Idiot.

Those two, eh? Anyway, any and all reviews are appreciated but, as always, the next chapter will be available next Sunday regardless (or the 6th of April in date form). See you soon!

P.S - There might be an intermission available for Wednesday the 2nd of April, but please don't lynch me if there isn't. Haven't fully decided if it'd be a good idea yet ^^'.