Silent Mountain was, as his name suggests, a mute. This was in part due to the flavor he was trying to obtain. His goal was to become a literal Silent Mountain, tanking the blunt of the enemy damage without saying a word. In his head, the end goal would be worth it. For now, however, he was little more than a pebble along the side of the road. All of his stats were still at beginner level, and he still didn't have the money for some real equipment. Hopefully that would change soon, but for now, he would just take any quest he could get that didn't require too much combat. While looking through today's quest postings, he came across one such quest. A new region had appeared recently, and the king wanted it scouted. He was even willing to pay adventurers to wander around this decrepit region and report their findings. It had a minimum party count of 2, so Silent would be matched with someone to accompany him on this journey. He was thankful that the game had an auto matchup system, because trying to find a partner would be a quest in itself with his handicap. Not long after, a notification appeared on his HUD. ~You've been Matched!~ Silent found himself on a docked boat, overlooking a land wrought with destruction and chaos. Next to him was a fellow he'd never met before. Silent send him a party invite, offering little to no explanation of his handicap besides his very name. With that, he walked off the boat and down the dock, awaiting his travelling companion. @Valther Thrown die: 35
Although Valther was new to the game, like fresh meat straight from the slaughterhouse, he couldn't help but take an immediate interest in the going-ons of the world, and quickly came across a quest from the 'king' of this game world to explore the most recently discovered land, Norfova. To his despair, however, he couldn't lone-wolf the quest; it had a minimum party count of two. On the bright side, hopefully he'd be matched with an experienced player who could teach him a thing or two, and not a newbie like himself. He quickly activated the party matchmaking system and headed out to the chosen meeting location by the system; a docked boat at the edge of the continent. As he waited, Val began to experiment with the blade he'd been given by the game to start with, along with the fire magic - or pyromancy - he'd claimed during character creation. Valther sat on a barrel, rolling back and forth idly with the shortsword in his lap, one palm extended out towards it. He focused on his palm, visualizing the heat from his body flowing through to it, willing a flame to erupt from his flesh and engulf the blade. What came instead, however, was an anticlimactic spark of light and warmth, like the fizzing of sparklers at a birthday party. Suddenly depressed from his lack of mastery of his magic, he bowed his head low over the dusty, blackish-grey blade in his lap, sighing quietly. Before long, his attention was snagged by a ringing sound in his ear. Raising his hand and looking at his palm, his menu opened up and he tapped on the alert that popper up with it; ~You've been Matched!~ With a grin, Val swung his blade out wide to his right, before sliding it into the sheath at the back of his waist, the sharp sound of metal against leather soothing his nerves. He was rather excited to meet this player. Val gulped when faced with faced with his 'companion'; sure he was only a few inches or so taller than Val, but those muscles only made him look bigger. Valther couldn't help shuddering subtly upon first laying eyes on him. "H-hey," Val greeted the man, somewhat intimidated by his stature. With familiar dexterity, the player swept through his menu and a menu popped up in front of Val, requesting a party. With a smile, he jabbed his finger against the 'Accept' button, and the player's name popped up for him to see. "Silent..." he muttered quietly. If he truly was 'silent'... that would make communication difficult. The 'Silent' man strode down to the wharf again and Val quickly followed, his thin coat billowing out behind him. "So... do you know where we're supposed to go?" he asked his 'partner', hoping he'd receive a response of some form, even a 'this way' gesture would suffice. Thrown die: 67
Silent looked at his partner. Scrawny was the first thing that came to mind, and he wondered if he was in the presence of some form of mage. However, the blade on his hip proved that he at least had some Close Quarters Combat ability. Looking out over the barren wasteland, Silent wasn't entirely sure what direction to go. All around him was desecration, yet they were supposed to explore. In that case, wouldn't the best bet be to pick a direction and just... start walking? As Valther asked him if he knew which way to go, Silent scanned the horizon. He lifted his hammer, pointing the heavy end of it in a direction, and began walking. He wasn't entirely sure what lied in wait out there, but his partner seemed intimidated by him, so Silent justified that perhaps he could intimidate whatever came their way? Perhaps there would be no need to fight? As they walked, it became relatively apparent that Silent Mountain was true to his name. Not a word was uttered from him as they walked, though he didn't seem to be against communicating. He tried to answer whatever questions thrown his way to the best of his ability, but there was only so much a silent man could do without sign language. The path that Silent had started them on suddenly broke, forking off into two poorly kept paths. To the right, it seemed to approach some large crystalline structures, barely visible from their current location but not impossible to reach. On the left, the path seemed to descend into a kind of ravine, though it was hard to imagine water ever running in a land like this. Silent dropped the heavy end of his hammer to the ground, looking both directions and weighing the pros and cons of both before looking to his partner and raising an eyebrow. ( @Valther ) (Sorry, i forgot to add my roll to the first post. You should add yours too. the code is [*dice] d100 [/*dice] without the asterisk) Thrown die: 78
Valther blinked in surprise as his hulking partner raised the hammer like it were a laser pointer and gestured off into the distance, which to Val seemed a random one. "So you don't exactly no where we're going... makes two of us," he sighed and followed, placing his hands against the back of his head casually as he tagged along like a lost puppy. "You know, I could barely hurt a fly with this sword and my magic, so... please don't rely on me to help kill things, I'll probably get my arm bitten off," he warned loudly as he kept following in the direction Silent had picked. It was somewhat irritating that the player wouldn't speak, even when faced with various questions and idle comments... but at the same time it was somewhat calming. Having a less talkative companion brought peace to Valther, as he'd spent time with a few rather mouthy players recently, so Silent's... well, silence was a welcome atmosphere for the violet haired player. Soon enough, Val and Silent came upon a crossroads, one path leading to what seemed to be a cavern or ravine of some kind, and the other to structures that looked like diamond towers or the like. When the large man beside Val tossed a look in his direction, he couldn't help but grin and and whirl around to face Silent completely, striding backwards down the path towards the crystal towers. "Those crystals caught my eye, I'd like to explore it a little," he explained as he headed off slowly down the path, before turning back around, facing away from Silent. As they approached the structures, a subtle sense of caution washed over Val, and he gripped the hilt of his blade in a shaking fist, sliding it slowly out of the sheath and holding it up in front of him defensively. "Okaaaaaay, I feel like I made a bad choice, but it's too late now I guess," he sighed as he felt Silent approach his side. Val's hand shook and rattled the sword he held, and he took a couple calming breaths. @Silent Mountain Thrown die: 11
Silent followed his travelling companion's choice, feeling sorry for the kid. He seemed inexperienced, even new to the game. Perhaps he had been looking to practice/learn some tips and tricks to the game? Silent pitied him, but there wasn't much else he could do. He'd never experienced the game's swordplay mechanics, and he was pretty sure that his hammer would function differently on a fundamental level. Valther mentioned something interesting. He was a magic user. Magic was one aspect of the game that, while he wasn't particularly skilled in it, he had a basic understanding of how it worked. Perhaps he would break his vow this once, just to give the kid some assistance. But how much did Valther know already? He hadn't even mentioned what kind of magic he knew, let alone how trained he was in it. There was really only one way to find out. As the Crystalline structures drew near, Silent noticed his partner suddenly appear on-edge. Assuming he saw something that Silent did not, Silent struck a defensive posture, grabbing his hammer with both hands and putting his back to Valther so they were covered on all sides. Thrown die: 63
Valther watched the forest on both sides of the path, his blade pointing at the graveled path at his feet, and he felt Silent's back against his own, and Val's hand stopped shaking with the knowledge he had some backup. Valther could hear rocky scuttling sounds in the forest as they continued on down the path, and he shook his head from side to side, trying to track the source of the sounds. The path opened up into a wide clearing at the foot of one of the large crystal structures, and Valther looked up towards the peak, glinting with rainbow brilliance. The crack of a branch brought Valther's attention back to earth, and a purple form dashed through the air towards his chest, chittering wildly. Panicking, Val swung his blade upwards, catching the strange, rocky creature in the center of its skull, chipping a large gash into it. The monster skittered away and seemed to hiss at Val. The creature was small and crab-like, with a carapace the colour of amethyst, and six stony legs, coupled with a pair of small, scissor-like pincers. "Damn, you're ugly," Val hissed at the creature, and it leaped at him once more. He swung his blade into a more comfortable, offensive grip and swung the blade from his left shoulder, cleaving into the skull of the crystal crab once more and this time severing it into two rocky pieces, shards of its body scattered across the path at Valther's feet. The chittering in the forest began to rise higher and higher, and Val's eyes widened. "We need to haul ass, otherwise they're gonna be crawling across our corpses," Val explained in a panicked manner and started to jog along the path, beckoning Silent along. Thrown die: 38
Silent clicked his tongue, disappointed by the fact that they wouldn't get a chance to look around much more thoroughly but understanding their situation. He motioned for Valther to go in front of him, heaving his hammer onto his shoulder and breaking into a light jog. The creatures didn't appear to be very threatening, based on how easily Val disposed of the first, but Silent worried that their strength lay in numbers, and neither he nor his comrade were prepared to deal with numbers. As they ran, Silent turned around to see the creatures coming from the forest revealed themselves. What seemed like hundreds of the little crab creatures emerged from the treeline, swarming the area that they were standing in recently, and gaining on them fast. Silent and Val made it to the crossroads again, with the crab-like creatures hot on their tails. A majority of the creatures apparently stayed behind, likely guarding the giant crystal that they'd encountered earlier. Why that was, Silent wasn't sure. But he knew that so long as they didn't try to approach the crystal again, they wouldn't have to deal with the blunt of the pack. Few of the creatures actually gave chase to Val and Silent, and he was confident that if they led them far enough away, they too would eventually stop and return to their crystalline home. To speed up the process, Silent suddenly grabbed Val and dove behind some rocks, hiding from the creatures. He put a hand over Val's mouth to stifle the initial cry of surprize, then put a finger up to his own mouth, motioning to be quiet. From their hiding spot, Silent saw the creatures approach, look around confusedly, and eventually wander off back towards their pack. Silent had released Val, but still held the finger over his mouth to keep him quiet in case there were still more around. Thrown die: 13 (OOC: Sorry i thought I posted this, but it was just sitting there as a draft. My bad)
