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Juliette06 generated a random number between
1 and 3 ...
3!
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 Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:13 am
Quote:  If you roll a 3: You find out that tombs are never as airtight as they seem when the room you're in starts to fill with flesh-devouring scarabs.
Ofelia wanted the jewels that were hidden in the depths of this tomb. What Ofelia wanted, Ofelia got, even if she had to get it herself. She didn't always necessarily mind working hard, as long as what was at the end of all that hard work was worth it. Of course it was preferable for someone else to do the work and for Ofelia to be in a more supervisory position, but, well, when you wanted something done right..
Except that it was not being done right. It was being done very very very... scarab...ly.
Ofelia was frozen. She could not believe that these gross, disgusting little creatures were coming toward her. Her! Ofelia! What had she done to deserve this? Was robbing a dead person's big fancy grave illegal now?
Ofelia wanted the jewels. She did not want to be eaten alive by creepy little bugs.
"Nope!" Ofelia finally decided, just as the fist scarab reached the edge of her hoof. "Nope nope nope nope nope!" She turned and fled, running as fast as her feet had ever carried her.
She could get jewels elsewhere. She could get jewels anywhere else, and have far, far fewer scarabs to deal with. Maybe even no scarabs at all! That was the ideal number of scarabs, Ofelia decided as she raced through the tomb. Nope nope nope nope nope.
When she broke out of the tomb, she immediately took flight. Scarabs couldn't get her in the air, right? She would fly as far and as fast as she could and leave those tiny, terrifying monsters far behind.
((WC: 292))
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Juliette06 generated a random number between
1 and 6 ...
5!
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Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:41 am
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Juliette06 generated a random number between
1 and 3 ...
2!
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Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:46 am
Quote: If you roll a 2: You come face to face with a scorpion the size of a small horse (sorry if you're usidia!). What do you do to outrun it (because there's no way you can fight it)?
But not like this! This? This was unacceptable. His brain absolutely refused to process what it was seeing; it had to be impossible for a scorpion to get this big. Whatever scorpions eat, this one was obviously eating way too much of it, because it almost came up to Wink's shoulder.
His limited knowledge of scorpions essentially boiled down to two things: they were tiny, and they were not trustworthy passengers for frogs to carry across rivers, or something.
Wink did not think there was a frog alive who could carry this scorpion anywhere. It was definitely not tiny - so maybe Wink really only knew one thing about scorpions after all.
"Um," Wink said, slowly, slowly, slowly backing away. "I'm so...so sorry. I didn't realize, um, that you...clearly live here. I'm definitely intruding. I'll just...I gotta...bye!"
And so Wink took off, as fast as he had ever run in his entire life, not even slowing down to see if the scorpion chasing after him. He didn't stop running - some say he's still out there, running eternally throughout the desert, away from the biggest scorpion he or anyone had ever seen. The truth, though, is that Wink did keep running - until he left the entire desert behind him. He didn't slow down while sand was beneath him, lest the scorpion emerge from underground and swallow him whole.
If only someone had told him that the bigger the scorpion, the less deadly its venom.
((WC: 282))
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Juliette06 generated a random number between
1 and 6 ...
4!
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Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2024 11:20 am
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Juliette06 generated a random number between
1 and 3 ...
3!
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Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2024 11:22 am
Quote: If you roll a 3: The dagger is actually a draining dagger, which means your breed gifts are slowly being nullified (a flutter would be unable to shrink, a unicorn to heal). Only an unselfish act can neutralize it.
After the incident with the Shfiter, Ruby Maxine had thought it might be wise to invest in a weapon - for protection. other than the horn that was attached to her head. Had it always looked so dull and flat in her reflection? She couldn't remember. She'd thought she feel better, having the sword with her, within reach at all times.
But all she felt was tired.
When she slept, and she woke up, she somehow felt even more tired. She also noticed that some of the feathers that grew behind her ears had fully fallen out.
That couldn't be a good sign.
Walking through the day was like walking through mud, or quicksand, or something equally sluggish and draining. By the time the sun was setting, Ruby felt like she had aged ten years - and she couldn't be sure she hadn't, if she was being honest.
"Miss Unicorn, Miss Unicorn!" A frail voice called out to her. "Come, please!" Ruby lifted her head and blinked slowly in the direction of the voice - a few moments later, a filly appeared, looking frightened and upset. "Please, my mama needs some healing!"
Ruby followed obediently, trying and failing to follow the filly's explanation of her mother's illness or injury - it was all just noise, and every syllable hit her like a brick: incomprehensible and painful.
The girl's mother was indeed ill; not fatally so, from Ruby's unprofessional opinion, but when she leaned down to touch her unicorn horn to the mare...nothing happened. Nothing sparked. There was no soft, warm light that always made Ruby feel like she was home, no matter where she was.
There was just...nothing.
Another feather fell from behind her ear.
"Miss Unicorn...are you okay?"
No, she didn't think she was.
"I... will return," Ruby said, the words coming out slow and difficult. "With someone who can help. Stay here. I will be back..." Ruby hesitated, "as soon as I can."
So Ruby set off at a walk, even though her eyes burned with exhaustion and her hooves ached. She just wanted to lay down. She just wanted to lay down forever.
But there was a filly counting on her, not to mention the filly's mother - they hadn't done anything to deserve being abandoned when they needed help, just because Ruby's own help was presently... unavailable.
So she walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. And walked and walked and walked and walked and walked.
Finally, after what felt like half a lifetime, even though she'd much rather have given up many times over, she came to civilization.
"I need a healer," she managed. "Not-- not for me. For... just come."
It took the other half a lifetime to return to where the filly and her mother waited, but they did eventually arrive. She'd brushed off all of the healer's concerns about her own condition; she couldn't begin to explain the strangeness that had overtaken her. She just needed this mare to be healed, and then she would be on her way to die in whatever hole would have her, probably.
It was the strangest thing. As the mare was healed... Ruby herself felt lighter. Freer. More... herself, somehow.
The sword, stripped of its evil gift, shone dully at her side. It was inert now, she could tell.
"Take this," Ruby blurted, as the exhaustion ebbed away from her. "It-- it won't hurt you now. Take it, as payment. As thanks." The healer looked at her a bit strangely, but shrugged and took it without question.
Ruby Maxine knew now - any protection she needed, she would just have to provide herself.
((WC: 648 ))
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Juliette06 generated a random number between
1 and 6 ...
1!
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Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2024 8:01 pm
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Juliette06 generated a random number between
1 and 3 ...
2!
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Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2024 8:08 pm
Quote: If you roll a 2: The cat is somewhere between complacent to mostly tolerable to you.
Koa blinked and shook his head, watching as the little leaf as it fell to the ground. He looked around - he didn't see the source of this little leaf. It didn't look like any of the leaves that were growing from the trees around his little cave of a home. Most people may have just moved on with their day - but Koa loved a mystery.
"Where did you come from?" Koa asked it, and then it meowed in response.
...What the heck kind of leaf was this? It meowed at him?
It meowed again. Koa's ears swiveled and he looked around - the leaf hadn't meowed, but something had definitely meowed at him. His eyes lit upon the source - a small, weirdly-pokey-looking cat that was nestled in the bushes a few feet away. Clearly it had been playing with the leaf; its eyes were focused on the leaf, but intimidated by Koa's size.
Cautiously, Koa blew the little leaf back in the cat's direction. The cat immediately pounced upon the leaf, chewing at it and pawing at it as it darted away from him, toward Koa. It blew to him again. Koa blew it back. The cat continued to play with it. They were playing a back-and-forth kind of game, Koa realized, watching the way the cat's tail twitched before it jumped and leapt and the leaf.
Koa stood up when the leaf left both their range. He blew it back...and then blew another leaf toward the cat. Momentarily diverted, the cat darted after one and then the other, stepping out of the shadows of the bushes. It did appear to Koa that it was covered in spikes, which was unlike any cat Koa had ever seen in his life - but there were new and strange things in the world all the time, who was he to object.
Koa didn't know how long he spent playing with the cat, but finally, the cat grew tired. Koa watched the little cat scoop up the leaf he'd come with, and heard a loud purr of appreciation, before the cat turned and left Koa's home. He felt a pang of sadness as the cat disappeared, but a smile came to his face all the same - if nothing else, maybe he'd made a new little friend.
((WC: 409))
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Juliette06 generated a random number between
1 and 6 ...
5!
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Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2024 9:31 pm
Which prompt for Sneffels...
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Juliette06 generated a random number between
1 and 3 ...
2!
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Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2024 9:34 pm
Quote: If you roll a 2: You come face to face with a scorpion the size of a small horse (sorry if you're usidia!). What do you do to outrun it (because there's no way you can fight it)?
But he'd never come across an enemy like this before. It was huge, for one thing, with angry, dripping pincers and keen, alien eyes that twitched and darted. Its body was made of a thick carapace, like armor, and Sneffels had no idea if it would puncture under the force of his antlers, or if he was better off trying to crush it under his hooves.
Hm. Hooves or paws? He was more comfortable in his other form, lumbering closer to the ground, but he was also slower that way - a stalker, not a defender. He could always change if he needed to, he decided, but for now, he just bared his equine teeth - and charged.
This seemed to be the last thing the giant bug was expecting. Sneffels lowered his head and aimed for goring it with his antlers; he did make contact, ricocheting off what Sneffels thought was its shoulder. It didn't break the shell, but it did throw the giant creature off-balance, sending its attempt at pinching Sneffels wide.
Now it was mad. It clicked and snapped at Sneffels, who just grinned in response - finally, a worthy adversary. He did allow himself to shift now, deciding that the soft underbelly of his equine form was more at risk from a jagged cut than the thick skin of his bear hide. Plus, paws and claws might be more effective in disabling this monster, even if hooves were required to mash it out of existence later.
Sneffels let out a great roar, and the monster hesitated. Sneffels smirked and roared again, getting up on his hind legs to underline his point: he would not go quietly.
The scorpion...considered.
Sneffels lowered back down and dropped the front of his body close to the sand, and took a couple of slow, measured steps toward the beast, his teeth bared and glinting in the warm desert sun.
The scorpion...reconsidered. A moment later, it burrowed back under the sand from whence it had appeared, and Sneffels pawed after it, encouraging it against trying a sneak attack later. He caught it by the tail and yanked with all his might, snapping the end off and earning a pained howl from the creature below - but it did not return.
Once he was sure it was gone, Sneffels spat the tail out of his mouth and, transforming back, stomped it into a fine powder beneath his hooves. It mixed with the blood and the sand, and Sneffels smirked.
Let that be a lesson to any other giant beast that traveled the desert: there was only one king monster, and it was he himself.
((WC: 507))
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Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:38 pm
Quote: After you walk a few feet into the tomb, you fall through the floor to find a secret room.
Which he did. A lot.
The trouble was not usually quite as immediate as it was that day, though - usually, Helio had to put in some work to find the trouble he would get into. This time, though, he was barely all the way into the tomb before he heard a low rumble, a loud crunch, and the world turned upside down on him.
No, wait, he'd turned upside down on the world. The ground had caved in and he'd wound up on his back - not injured, just confused, he was pretty sure. He rolled over and righted himself, slowly, being careful not to exert too much energy too quickly in case something was injured, but other than being slightly dazed, he felt...pretty much fine. Upon examination, he was even pretty sure he could fly back out the way he'd come in, if it came to needing to make a quick escape.
Which just left him with figuring out where he was. The light was dim and dusty, trickling in from the hole Helio himself had fallen through a moment before. But it would do - it was enough for him to notice the dull glint of a treasure chest in the corner.
A real, actual, treasure chest! No way! Helio almost couldn't really believe it - surely he was dreaming! But no, it was cool to the touch, and clearly had been there for many years; he almost had to admire the builders of this place for making a whole tomb and hiding the goods right near the entrance, just beneath where anyone would ever think to look.
The chest was, unfortunately, quite locked. Which meant that he would have to bring it out with him...somehow. It was too cumbersome to lift in his mouth and fly out of the hole - so he'd have to think of a different way out.
There were other boxes in the anteroom; rotted boxes, mostly, but some were made of stone or brick. These he was able to nudge the lid off - he immediately regretted it, because they had been used for food storage and were not air tight - whatever had been placed in them had gone over to the dark side possibly several thousand years ago.
But they would do as a ladder, if nothing else.
It took him the better part of the afternoon to lug everything into place, and it took every muscle in his neck and head to heave the treasure chest from the ground onto each consecutive step of the makeshift staircase he'd made. Finally, he decided he was close enough to the top, wrapped his front legs around the box, squatted with his back legs, and leapt into the air.
He didn't quite make it - but the treasure chest did. He chucked it onto the solid ground above, wincing when he heard a clatter. Empty-hooved, he followed it, and winced again when he saw the thing had cracked open. Why hadn't he just broken it down there and saved himself the trouble?
Helio squinted at the contents that had tumbled out of the wreckage.
...Books? Books? That was his big treasure? Books?!
Helio actually stamped his hoof in irritation. Where was his treasure?? UGH. Sometimes, adventuring just wasn't even worth it. He turned away from the pile and left the tomb immediately, disappointed and disgusted - and, most importantly, oblivious to the real treasure contained in all the 'boring' books: knowledge...and a real-life treasure map.
But mostly knowledge.
((WC: 642))
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