Horizon Odyssey, Chapter 1, A hopeful fresh start

[sponge7325]

Meanwhile...

Isaac rushed towards the entrance of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. He'd never been in very much of a hurry before in Horizon, but now was different. Running, Isaac looked up at the sky. "I'm probably much to late now," Issac mused, "but it wouldn't hurt to at least try and make it." Eventually, Isaac found his way to the entrance. Noticing a couple of guards protecting the entrance, Isaac went up to one and asked him, "Hey, did you notice a couple of adventurers come passed here?"

The guard laughed, "Well a lot of adventurers come by here, as you probably know. I think you'll need to describe them a bit better."

"Oh, I've never met any of them before, so I don't know how they really look, but I think there was a Ronin, Protector, Gunner, and... Uhh..." Isaac paused in thought for a moment, then said, "I don't remember the other two, though I wouldn't be surprised if one was an Alchemist."

The guard quickly responded, "Oh, you mean those rookies. They went in not too long ago."

Isaac grinned, "Heh, I'm not too late then. Alright then, see ya." Isaac began to walk passed the two guards, until he was quickly stopped.

"Sorry, nobody gets in without their guild badge." The guard said solemnly. Isaac grunted at this and began to root around in his bag. "What a stupid rule..." he muttered to himself quietly. He pulled out his guild insignia and showed it to the guard. "There. Now can you let me in?"

The guard stepped aside and allowed Isaac to pass. Isaac checked that he was ready, and began to walk into the forest. "Meh," he said to himself, "this place doesn't look so dangerous." Isaac stopped for a moment to look at the little map that he, ahem, 'borrowed' from an adventurer at the local tavern. Looking at it for a while, Isaac observed that there would be a path both forwards and the the east, the east path having a clearing. "This is gonna be easy," said Isaac, somewhat happily.

Continuing forth, Issac heard the faint yet recognizable sound of a wolves howl. Isaac, hearing the noise, sprinted towards the source, fearing the worst. There, at the eastern clearing, Isaac saw the wolf clamping down on the shield of a protector, most likely one from Isaac's guild. Isaac watched for a moment, and saw the protector stab the wolf, then saw the wolf single-handedly bat the weapon from his hands! Scared for the protectors life, Isaac unsheathed his sword. 'The wolves too focused on him to notice me," Isaac thought to himself, 'The time to strike is now!' Isaac took a breath, and charged towards the ferocious beast, sword in hand!

GM Note: Seeing as Isaac's trying to keep some element of surprise, he'll be trying to jab his sword as far as he can into the wolf's back.

[Straybow]

Focused on its prey the Protector and it's lack of peripheral vision the mother wolf doesn't see Isaac coming until he had made his attack. With a howl of immense pain as a sword entered it's back, the wolf's feeling of victory faded and it finally dropped the Protector's shield and turned it's head towards its new attacker as the newly freed man scrambled for his spear. It's one red eye locked onto the Landsknecht the wolf, with a mighty swipe of it's paw knocked the newcomer away, his sword still embedded in it's back being far to deep to simply come loose as it's owner was batted aside.

[sponge7325]

Sorry if I'm posting to much, haha.

Isaac clambered back onto his feet, not taking his eyes off of the now quite injured wolf. Now without his sword, Isaac felt somewhat powerless. As quickly as he could, Isaac reached into his bag, still not taking his eyes of the beast, hoping that he would find something useful to aid him. Groping around his his bag, Isaac felt something cylindrical and immediately took it out of the bag. Quickly taking a second to look a see what he found, Isaac found a label on it which read 'Blind Gas'. Finding this perfect for the predicament that he was in, Isaac threw the jar of Blind Gas at the wolf, hoping that it would work.

[Straybow]

Fortunately for Isaac it turned out he was a natural thrower, or more likely he was lucky the wolf had disregarded him as a threat now that his sword was lodged in it's back, for the bottle connected with the wolf's snout. The Blind Gas worked, though not as intended. Instead of the gas enveloping the wolf as it was meant to, some of the glass of bottle as it shattered embedded itself into the wolf's remaining eye, rendering the wolf permanently blind. Now missing its sight entirely the wolf began to blindly thrash about, making it highly dangerous for any of the melee combatants to get close though it would still be possible if one was agile enough.

[CD-Man2021]

Aaron watched the fight unfold in front of him. He had originally planned to ready another flame formula to assist the new fighter, but seeing the sudden turn of events he was worried the wolf would charge in a random direction if it had burst into flames, which could damage the rest of the group or even the forest around them. He studied the wolf for a second and almost smiled: the sword was still sticking onto the beast's back. At this point it might have been trashing around, but the sword remained in the same position, barring a few inches of room for error.

The alchemist quickly loaded a Volt formula into his glove and aimed his wand at the sword. Realizing the hilt would be harder to hit than the wolf's actual back, he brought his aim a bit lower near the base of the blade. Letting loosing a single jagged volt of electricity, the boy watched as the spell made its way to the target.

[Rothene]

The bolt of electricity struck through, whether it was by excellent aim from the caster or because the wolf twitched in the right direction at the right time, no one has enough mastery over alchemy in the group to know.

Having lost so much blood from the well struck blow by the landsknecht, the volt was a nail in its coffin as the beast shuddered while electricity coursed through its heart, stilling it, before collapsing dead.

Due to the brutality of its death and a few singed furs, the beast's hide was too damaged to be salvaged for luxury clothing. Now that it lay dead, it can be seen that it had far more stab wounds and injuries that were not inflicted by the group. Clearly it had encountered some adventurers and as monsters were not known to retreat it can only imply something...

In the distance, you notice the various pups huddled together, whimpering and performing, what you can only deduce as calling for their now dead mother.

The way forward towards the east entrance of the clearing near the pups and the south path where the mother came from are both clear. So is the exit that lie west of the group.

[sponge7325]

Isaac, after making certain the beast was truly dead, laughed in triumph. "That wasn't as simple as I thought it would be!" he said with a cocky tone. Isaac, still chuckling, pulled his sword from the now dead wolf's back, then produced a rag from his pocket to clean the blood from it. "I've seen plenty of wolves before, but that one was definitely something different.", he said. "I don't know how well that would have went for you guys if I hadn't showed up." After cleaning the sword, Isaac resheathed it, then looked at the party and said, "If everyone's still pretty much okay, I say we should continue on. I have a good feeling that i'm gonna have a pretty good time in this place." Before anyone could say anything, Isaac turned around and continued into the Labyrinth with a smile on his face.

Notice that Isaac still hasn't introduced himself. Ha-ha, that funny little Isaac.

[Rothene]

As Isaac ventures southward, the surrounding briefly changed. A moment ago, when the landsknecht joined the fray, the trees seemed to cluster and the lighting darkened slightly, a feature lost to those too preoccupied with battle. No doubt the more attentive explorers might have picked up on this peculiar event, that in this moment of peace, the labyrinth suddenly became brighter and more cheery, ignoring the weeping pups.

The southern path seems to stretch quite far down, but to the left(Eastwards) there seems to be a path branching off.

[Dangerus]

Meanwhile in Etria...

"Grrr! I'm going to be late! All because I overslept!"

A female Troubadour was carrying a couple of notebooks with her as well as smaller instruments like a flute or castanets, even a tambourine out of a boat. She was running towards the Explorer's Guild.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

Little did anyone else notice that one book filled with particular details on her events before entering the Horizon dropped onto the ground, luckily on dry stone tiled ground and not in the mud.

Selendis turned.

"No! My first completed book!!" Selendis gasped.

She ran to pick it up but only for people to kick it around. Selendis was getting scared now.

[sponge7325]

Seem's like were going to have two things going on at once! I'm sure our super-amazing GMs can handle it, though.

Isaac stopped for a moment to contemplate his choices. Thinking for awhile, Isaac suddenly remembered his map. Isaac looked into his bag, but alas, the map must have fallen out at some point. Isaac shrugged at this and said, "Well, it wasn't that good of a map anyways." Eventually, Isaac decided to go with his gut and continue southwards. After a little while of walking, Isaac turned his head towards the alchemist. "I don't think I got your name, kid." Isaac said, warmly. "That was actually some pretty quick thinking, hitting my sword with your formula, there. I have a good feeling that you and I will do pretty well in this place.". Isaac laughed before the alchemist could say anything, and turned his head back towards the trail.

[Dangerus]

Selendis soon finally found her book. Luckily there was no severe damage to it, but it was at the steps of the Explorer's Guild that she finally found it.

"Perfect. Just... Perfect.", She sighed, "And the best part is that my last two pages on Ms. Cykes and Mr. Blackquill still remain clean."

She looked to the other books in her bag.

"Now, to use this second book to draw out the Explorer's Guild. Yeah..."

She then started to hum a tune as she began to sketch.

[Rothene]

In Etria...

A patrolling soldier noticed Selendis sketching at the front steps of Etria's Explorer's Guild. Wasting no time, the man shouted at Selendis, "Oi! What do you think you're doing woman? Obstructing traffic is an offense!"

[Dangerus]

[Rothene]

In Etria...

"Well, well, well. I never expected to see anymore new explorers these days," said a large scarred man in the Explorer's guild approaching Selendis, smiling as if something had finally come and dispelled boredom from him. "All the young ones, and a lot of the veterans have moved to this new place called Horizon, says that a new labyrinth has opened there, and everyone wants to be the first to plunder it."

Crossing his arms, the Etrian Explorer's Guildmaster asked, "So what brings you here? Or just passing by? Well forgive my intrusion for I hardly get visitors these days."

[Dangerus]