"Rika! Wait!" Saori threw a purple hand in front of the Red Dragonborn Rogue before she could step onto shaking rope bridge.
"Oh, come on, Saori! These bridges are always sturdier than they look!" Rika cried confidently, not even bothering to look over her winged shoulder at the terrified Tiefling. Though she did stop with one, big, gold claw-toed foot hovering right over her first wood panel of the bridge.
"That may be true…" Saori wrung her hands and bit her lip. "But it could still be rigged or booby-trapped!"
"… Good point." Rika put her foot back down on the ground with a scaley-faced pout, crossing her big, beefy arms.
"Idiot," Tsubaki snorted under her breath, already inspecting the ropes of the bridge. Little, skeletal and zombified rodents and insects scuttled around and across the rope for the Gnome Necromancer. Better to test it on the already-deceased than herself or her companions.
"Hey, guys! I think I found something!" It was Yuka's excited cry that alerted them first. The Half-Elf Bard turned around with a massive grin on her sweet, playful face. She was holding a large stone with something etched onto the bottom…
To cross this bridge of wood and rope,
You must first refuse to lose hope.
Then you must look at the world a different way,
To see the answer as clear as a sunny day.
A picture of the bridge was carved beneath the little poem with the space beneath the bridge circled.
"Someone circled… the air?" Rika tilted her head in confusion.
"It's not saying we're supposed to jump, is it?!" Saori reared back.
"It better not!" Tsubaki snorted, crossing her arms.
"Honestly, why can't we just fly over?" Rika muttered at the same time, flapping her wings softly and looking over her hulking shoulder at them.
"I wouldn't try that if I were you." The quietest member of their team (no, it was not Tsubaki, surprisingly enough. Not anymore…) finally spoke up, crossing her arms and smirking slightly at the Red Dragonborn Rogue. "When instructions are that clear, obvious loopholes will have been accounted for. Do you really wish to test your luck against…?" She gestured to the thin bridge, and the vast, endless, foggy abyss below… Even if the bridge held, what if something suddenly shot from the abyss and snatched Rika clean out of the air?
Ordinarily, Rika would've insisted that she could make it, but when it came to this member of their party? She was a Human Blood Hunter known only as Neo, part of the Order of the Profane Soul. She self-corrupted in order to fight evil. She walked closer to the dark side than any of them! If she didn't think they could outsmart or outmuscle the bridge, then maybe, just maybe, Rika could give it one extrasecond of thought…
Neo had her own party and campaign, but with each of them in one of the four Orders of Blood Hunters, their missions sometimes took them in different directions. There was Weronika, the Half-Orc, part of the Order of the Lycan. From that Order, she obtained four amulets for herself and her three party members that allowed each of them to shapeshift into their spirit animal. For Weronika, this was a bear. For Neo, it was a golden eagle. The other two were a white snake and wolf respectively.
The white snake was Elsie, a High Elf and high-ranking member of the Order of the Mutant. She and her father both were interested in the dark arts of controlling the substances of life to bend them to do their bidding. Then last, and least, was the Lightfoot Halfling, Sophia, member of the Order of the Ghostslayer, and the wolf. Despite Halflings being known as friendly, cheerful, energetic, and lucky, Sophia was the exact opposite. That was why she felt such a strong connection to, and morbid fascination with, death, graves, and ghosts.
Neo met Yuka during a solo quest. On the outside, they looked similar, but on the inside, they couldn't have been more opposite. And yet, despite all the differences, they became a party of two, at least until they ran into Tsubaki, Rika, and Saori. Two and three were now five.
"I have seen this type of trap before. It is never what you expect." Then, without another word, Neo strode confidently to the bridge, and promptly flung herself over the side.
"NEO!" Everyone cried out in panic, and even Yuka's blue eyes flashed with worry, but unlike all the rest who went flying to the side of the bridge to peer over, fearing the worst, Yuka walked over as calmly as she could.
I know Neo, she wouldn't just jump off a bridge unless she REALLY knew what she was doing, and as a Blood Hunter of the Order of the Profane Soul… As Rika had thought to herself before, they could probably trust Neo to know all about tricks and traps and how to outwit them. Sure enough, despite the initial panic…
"Sh-she's not falling!" Saori's glowing eyes widened in disbelief and amazement. Neo was climbing across the underside of the bridge.
"Gee, Neo, how'd you figure that out?!" Yuka scratched the back of her head, blue eyes wide with admiration and awe (and admittedly, relief). Whew! I mean, I knew she would be all right, but… still! Whew!
"It said to look at things a different way, and that the answer would be as clear as a sunny day," Neo replied calmly. "To walk on the bridge like normal would be to invite certain death. No doubt, one of the boards would give way. As for flying over, well, I do not know what would occur, however, I do not think it advisable to test any hypotheses. Instead, it is better to be cautious and smart. This is the answer to the puzzle poem."
"Ohhh! I get it now!" Rika slapped a large, scaley thigh in delight. "That's why the underside of the bridge was circled! And the answer is as clear as a sunny sky because you're supposed to look up since you have to cross the bridge upside down! Seeing the world in a different way!"
"Gee. Thanks, Rika. Thanks for spelling it out for us." Tsubaki shot her a deadpanning look.
"You're welcome!" Rika flashed her a fanged smile and the Gnome Necromancer sighed and rolled her eyes before turning back to the bridge.
Standing beside them, their trembling Tiefling companion looked terrified at the thought of having to cross a bridge upside down…
Several minutes later, the last of them had successfully, safely made it across, including Saori. Speaking in her native, Infernal tongue, the Shadow Sorceress practically fell to her purple knees and kissed the ground on the other side of the swaying bridge.
"Well, good job, Neo!" Yuka panted and patted the Human Blood Hunter on the back as soon as everyone was across. "You must've rolled like a Nat 20 on Intelligence back there, huh?" The Half-Elf Bard laughed jovially, face and eyes shining. "You passed your Investigation check!"
Neo only smirked and winked at Yuka, continuing to lead the way, barely even breaking a sweat.
Wow, what a woman! Yuka was more than happy to race after Neo, taking her rightful place right beside the other blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty. Tsubaki, Rika, and Saori, meanwhile, thought the same thing, but with a much different tone. Oh, the allies one met on a campaign!
AN: Neo is basically, literally, one of my other OCs (who I made in 2016) both in looks and personality. As for the OC I often pair her with, her appearance matches Marika, but her personality is more Yuka. And that's even better since I captain the Neuka ship coughAmericanDreamcough.