Beyond Average Prequel [DiceRPG]

Exp Gained
3x Minotaur Skeleton
EXP: 170 -> 1370
Skeletal Beasts
EXP: 1370 -> 1570
Shared with Party
EXP: 1570 -> 1370
Otherworlder bonus!
EXP: 1370 -> 2570
Level up available!

"I can't heal," Adam said as he looked to Robert, who was shambling along beside him. 

They had dragged themselves a long way from the fight, though it seemed like the forest was returning to its former self. No longer was the light that peered through the foliage basked in purple, but now warming with Gale's presence. The slime had disappeared, turning to dust as the seconds passed by. 

"Belle has abandoned you?" Robert asked, panting for breath. His heavy armour may have given him great protection, but it also required quite some effort to move in when he was near unconsciousness. 

"No, I don't think so…" Adam had thought about it for a moment. Would Belle really abandon him after saving him from such a mass of darkness? No, Belle wouldn’t do so. Perhaps this was just to sow chaos? Adam recalled what it was like, not being whole with body and mind. He remembered fragments of things, though each time he picked a fragment, he lost another, as though it had been all a dream. In some ways it had been a dream, but… no, he didn’t dream.  

"I saw Jurot, I saw…" Adam whispered to himself, trying to recall his dream. The blade, the armour, the conversations, the promise. He had promised Jurot, or whoever that was, to look after his sister. He had been clearer of head then, and he wasn’t sure why he promised such a thing. 

He tried to recall more but that was it. He panted as they finally came to a rest, the minotaurs dropping down. They were charred and injured, most everyone was. Adam wondered what had happened when he was gone, for the fight had seemed dire. Then his eyes fell on Entaila.

Entalia, not an elf, but a silver dragon, silver dragons being those most likely to assist the smallfolk, like he and the Iyrmen. Yet… what was she doing here? Did she have something to do with that thing that he had seen, or rather, not seen? Yet he couldn’t be too suspicious, she had helped them out. He hadn’t seen what she had fought, but he did see her being tossed about in her giant dragon form, so it must have been quite the tough bout. Her armour was still gleaming, no doubt magical, but she was not. She was covered in bruises, and she didn’t look quite as lively as he was so used to. 

Entalia caught his gaze and smiled. “Did you have fun?” she asked.

“Not particularly,” Adam replied. He felt sore all over, as though he had rolled down a hill. He recalled what that felt like, and it wasn’t a great feeling. “It was quite awful.”

“You should have seen what it was like for us,” she said with a knowing smirk.

“What happened here?”

“That creature was a mightier foe than I expected, and there were other difficulties with its minions. I was barely able to keep it away from the fight.”

Entalia, a dragon, wasn’t able to face that creature? Adam’s eyes went wide, his skin a little paler. Adam wondered what kind of beast could manage to take on a dragon, which were some of the most powerful creatures in the world.

“It was not at its complete strength, luckily for me. It was…” her eyes flashed towards Adam’s once more, “distracted.”

Adam narrowed his eyes slightly and then nodded once, but the pair left it at that. Entalia knew more than she let on, even if she let on quite a bit, but they would be able to talk once they were in relative safety.

Tough Save
D20 + 6 = 24 (18)

Tough Save
D20 + 6 = 20 (14)

The group continued to march on, each step growing heavier for every member of the party. Entalia had offered to take Alten from Adam, but Adam had refused. Alten was light enough thanks to one of Adam’s well thought out abilities.

Big Boned active.

After a few hours of trekking through the forest, Alten awoke. He shook and Adam dropped him down. Alten scrambled away from Adam, screaming as he covered his face with an arm. Adam looked to Robert, who dropped down to a knee beside the terrified boy.

“It’s alright,” he said. “We’ve left it behind.”

“Am I dead?” Alten asked, looking at his hands, as though they were not his own.

“No.”

Alten’s refused to look near Adam, which Adam thought was quite rude of him. He had made sure Alten hadn’t bled to death, and he carried the man for hours on his back. This was how Alten was going to treat his saviour? Adam tutted within his mind.

Finally they reached an open area where they could rest. They were still deep within the forest, but the darkness had faded from here, though they could see the rot that remained. Trees had withered, a coat of dust lined the land as they made to rest. 

“Are you able to cast the spell?” Entalia asked. “I have heard you are unable to heal at this moment.”

“I’m not sure,” Adam replied as he then looked at his abilities. 

Spells Available
Wild Gem, Magic Arrows, Mirror Mage, Sleep, Shatter, Shield, Invisibility, Fireball, Tower of Adam

“I think I can,” Adam said. He then checked his other spells he had available, yet nothing popped up. He looked about his sheet and… nothing. Then he checked his Mana. 

Mana
8 / 19

Alarm spread through Adam like wildfire. He should have far more Mana than was currently available to him. He counted it out within his mind. ‘Oh…’ He had none of his Priest abilities available to him, nor the Mana which was granted from his Priest levels. He checked his Health.

Health

46 / 140

Adam almost gasped audibly, though kept his mouth shut. It would have been awkward to explain to everyone that he was gasping because he could see that his Health was currently so low. Why? How? Sure he had been bleeding a little, but there was no way he had lost that much blood. At the very least he still kept the Health from his Priest levels, but… why?

No, something must have happened between the time he had his… not-dream and then his return. When he returned, his blade had been inches from Robert’s throat, and Alten had been downed right beside him.

“Entalia,” Adam said as he looked at her. “Was I attacking Robert and Alten?”

“Not you,” she said. “Your body did.”

“I see…”

That would explain a lot, including how his Mana was already quite low. Adam remained silent for a moment, trying to think to himself. What had he cast that his Mana was so low? That was a lot of shields… He then forced the thought out of his mind as he began to cast his spell, letting the magic guide him. He didn’t think, for it was hard to think and cast spells simultaneously. 

Mana
5 / 19

Spell: Tower of Adam

Ahead of him appeared a tower made of thick stone, grey as British weather, and weathered as though it had been assaulted for centuries by British weather. It was two levels, of course, a dining room floor for the ground floor and then a bedroom for first floor, the typical configuration he summoned. He did not want to step into the dining room just yet, for he had much thinking to do. 

Not ten minutes later, he was soaking himself in the bath. He remained in the hot water for a long while. No one had joined him in the bath, not as of yet, though he didn’t mind that so much. So much had happened when he had left the world into that other place, and he still wasn’t sure about everything that was currently going on. 

He heard shouting from the other tower, but those thoughts were interrupted when Entalia appeared. Her slender form entered the bath opposite him, though Adam didn’t react to her. She was a dragon, and this was just a temporary form. She wasn’t a real elf, and knowing that, he didn’t sense that otherworldly beauty she once held. 

“Thinking?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Adam replied, quietly.

“You think a lot,” she said, teasing him with her silky voice. “Would you tell me what it is you’re thinking about?”

Adam looked up at her. He knew of the silver dragons and their tendencies to be decent folk, and with that, he spilt everything that had happened during his dream, save for some of his deeper secrets, and how he had returned. There was no point in putting more blame on Belle, she had already suspected the god, and Belle had done him quite the solid.

“You met it.” Entalia went into thought for a moment, which was no surprise since she was in the best spot to think, in a nice hot bath.  “You don’t know what it looked like?”

“No, I don’t…” Adam said. “I recall the breath though… I couldn’t smell it, but I could feel it…”

“It almost ate you.”

“It did.”

“It’s temporal form was not very fun to deal with.”

“What did it look like?”

“Like… if the night sky tore out your dreams.”

Adam stared at her for a long moment. “Yeah, sounds about right.” It was an apt description, for she probably couldn’t give him a concrete explanation, for there was probably more to what she saw than its appearance.

“Belle saved you, didn’t he?” she said.

Adam raised his brows in surprise. “How did you know?” His heart beat quickly, unsure of how she had figured such a thing out.

“Your Belle amulet is gone. It makes sense that your deity was the one to save you, among other reasons.” Entalia smirked.

The wisdom that came with age was scary. He wondered how old Entalia was, for she didn’t seem to be of the oldest of her kind, so perhaps she was only an adult as of yet, a dragon that had lived for a handful of centuries.

“You didn’t know I was a dragon?” Entalia asked, though in that teasing tone he was becoming used to.

“No,” Adam said. “I never would have imagine.”

Entalia smiled. “It seems as though fate has led us together,” she said as he slowly shifted her form, her features no longer quite so prominent. She became a half-elf, just like him. Her ears weren’t quite as pointed, her nose not quite so thin, her features far less refined, though she remained beautiful. 

“I wonder why…” Adam said. If he hadn’t accepted Paul’s proposal to remain at the Iyr, he may have been on the other side of the planet. He would never have met Entalia or this creature, this creature which Belle had invited into the land, the madman that he was. He wouldn’t have defeated the bone dragon either. The bone dragon, which was the skeleton of the silver dragon.

“We defeated a boned dragon,” Adam said. “Did you know them?”

Entalia smiled. “Many years ago, yes. They were my… uncle in a sense.”

“I’m sorry to hear about their death.”

“As long as they had been defeated, that is all that matters. Whether by my hand or yours. I couldn’t have allowed such a beast to roam, the shadow of my uncle, crying out in shame.”

“Is that why you came?” Adam asked. To help a family member was always a noble cause.

Entalia shook her head. “Partly. I came to deal with the latest threat on this land, but when I had felt my uncle’s spirit was disturbed, I came to seek him. I found the rest of you have defeated him, a blessing.”

“Fate works in mysterious ways,” Adam said. 

Entalia smirked in a way that revealed that she knew more than she let on, but she didn’t say any more. They remained in the baths, soaking, before Adam eventually excused himself. He stepped out awkwardly, though Entalia let him leave in peace, even if her eyes were glued to his body as though he were a fine steak. He wondered if dragons ate people.

He made his way to the dining room he had summoned. The minotaur glanced his way, though kept to themselves. Alten’s eyes flashed with horror, his eyes darting back to his meal. Robert just nodded. Adam sat down near Asomin and then grabbed a bowl for himself.

“What happened when I was out?” Adam asked. “When I wasn’t… you know?”

“Nothing,” Asomin said. “The story is buried.”

“What?” Adam asked.

“The story is buried, for no one will speak of it.”

“Right, but… what happened? What did I do?”

“You did nothing,” Asomin said.

“I’m talking about my body, what did it do?” Adam said, growing a little more frustrated.

“It fought.”

“What else?”

Asomin sipped on his soup. “That is all,” he said.

The room remained quiet as the others continued to eat, and Adam realised that no one was going to tell him what happened. Well… maybe not no one. He peered towards Alten.

“What happened?” Adam asked as he confronted Robert and Alten outside when they had finished their meals.

“You lost your mind,” Robert said, “and we had to face you. That is all there is to it.”

“I want to know what happened, I don’t like being left out of the loop.” Adam’s eyes darted towards Alten, who shrunk under the half-elf’s gaze.

“Out of the loop?” Robert asked.

“Don’t worry about it, just tell me what happened.”

“You lost your mind and you attacked us. Alten and I tried to fight you, though your magic was too much for us to handle. We didn’t know you could cast Fireball.” Robert stared hard into Alten’s eyes.

“Oh,” Adam said, turning a little peach in the face. Did he… did he burn everyone with Fireball? It was both equally horrifying and embarrassing. “Did I… did I Fireball all of us?”

“Yes,” Robert said.

“The…” Adam thought about the minotaur who had lain on the ground, dead. “Did I kill the minotaur?”

“You did.”

Adam sighed, his heart sinking in his chest. “Thanks for telling me.”

With that, Adam returned to the sleeping quarters in his tower. Well, he along with Heinov and Asomin. 

“Hi,” Adam said to the pair of them. “I’m sorry about getting mind controlled and Fireballing everyone.”

“So, the story has been told?” Asomin said.

“A little. I heard that I Fireballed people, and that I made things rather difficult.”

“We weren’t surprised you could cast that,” Heinov said. “After all, you knew of this spell.” Heinov tapped the stone around them. “We were surprised that you were caught by the tentacles. Entalia and I were both targeted as well, but my rage assisted me, and being a dragon, it was more difficult for Entalia to be ensnared.”

“I assumed that would have been the case,” Adam said. Dragons were known for their great fortitude, which was even the more worrying when he thought about that dark creature, the creature in the nothingness, which was stronger than Entalia.

“You fought well, even if it was against us,” Heinov said with a chuckle. “I’d like to see what you are able to do when you aren’t being controlled and decide to rid of your politeness.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever rid of my politeness,” Adam said. “My mother would b appalled.”

“If that is the case, then I will die never knowing such ferocity,” Heinov said, a sprinkling of sadness in his voice. “The story will not be told.”

“Well,” Adam said. “One day we may come to blow, whose to say?”

Heinov smiled. 

“Well, I’d rather we not,” Adam urged, not liking how the Iyrmen smiled at such a thought. “I’ll need to apologise to the minotaurs tomorrow morning.”

“Not now?” Heinov asked.

“No. They should mourn today.”

Heinov let out a low growl of acceptance. “It is so.”

“Could I… Could I speak with the Iyrmen tonight?” Adam asked.

“I will call them,” Asomin said as he left, leaving he and Heinov alone.

“Are third gate spells the highest you can cast?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm. What of your divine spells? Are they gone?”

Adam checked his status to see that they were still missing, or rather, not missing, but now greyed out. “They’re still gone.”

“Ill news,” Heinov said. “You have caused the ire of your deity, the god of Chaos.”

“Well,” Adam said, “that sucks.”

Heinov nodded his head, for even if he did not know what that meant, he could hear the tone in Adam’s voice well enough. 

Soon the Iyrmen were all grouped, and for a moment a dark thought flashed through Adam’s mind, for if they so wished, these Iyrmen could be the end of him. ‘I should be more careful about these kinds of things… pretty sure they won’t, but…’

When the Iyrmen, so familiar were their faces now, appeared and gathered about, Adam began to speak of what had transpired within his dream. This time he mentioned how Belle had saved him. 

"I tell you this because I am uncertain what it means, and Entaila didn't have much to say on the topic, but I wondered if perhaps you may have known more?"

Adam looked about the group. They had tired faces, though tired in the way that Iyrmen looked tired, with angry looks as though someone had stolen their last biscuit. 

"We do not know of such omens," Asomin said. "Perhaps this creature had shown you another world, or another time when you had saved Jurot. Perhaps it was your own guilt which manifested your mind."

"Mistress Fate," Heinov began, "may have had a part to play, or the god of Chaos, in his infinite wisdom, had sent you such a dream."

"There are too many actors which could be at play," Oshgar said. "There is no need to think so much on it, for such knowledge is never worth it."

"Dreams are funny," Rendor said. "They can lead you to your future path, or hold you to the past.” Rendor then caught Adam’s gaze. “You're held to the past by Jurot's death."

"Yeah," Adam said. It was so stupid. He hadn't known Jurot long, and yet… Adam looked up to the group, eyeing their faces once more. He swallowed his nerves.

"I… I have a request to make of you." The Iyrmen leaned in to listen. "I know many of you knew Surot, and I'm sure you know that he died to some manticores. He had with him the Shield of Rot, which Sonarot suspects is keeping him away. I'd like to retrieve it, but I'm no good with directions. I don't know how much it'll cost, but I'll be willing to pay if any of you could assist me in dealing with the manticores and returning the shield home."

The Iyrmen glanced at one another. They all looked to Asomin, who went deep into thought. Asomin shook his head. 

"We cannot help you in this matter, Adam of the Bronze."

Adam frowned. He hadn't expected a complete rejection. Asomin had been close, presumably, with the dead Surot, and Oshgar had once been returned by Surot's hand. 

"Surot remained with purpose," Asomin said. "Only a child of Rot may return the shield."

"Jurot's dead," Adam said. 

"A child of Rot with the rank of Silver must retrieve the shield,” Asomin said. “That is what he had wished for. We will not disrespect his wishes."

"How many children of Rot are there? Three?" Adam asked. 

"Three," Asomin said with a nod. 

Three. One of them a baby, another a charming, but very young boy, and someone Adam didn't particularly know. 

Adam sighed, unsure of what he wanted to do. He wanted to retrieve the shield for Lanarot, as though it would keep her safe. If he couldn’t do that, what could he do?

“There is no need to rush,” Heinov said. “You have years ahead of you.”

Adam nodded. “I noticed that people brought Sonarot gifts. What kind of gift would be nice to give?”

“A weapon, pots, blankets, materials,” Asomin said. “Any such items are useful.”

“What about…” Adam thought for a moment. “I assume it would need to be an axe, if I wanted Lanarot to use it?”

“It is their way, yes,” Asomin said with a nod.

“Each family typical has a type of weapon they prefer, it is not something set in stone, but it is a preference that most adhere to.” Heinov revealed his short-swords. “Short swords are weapons of my family, and these I found on my journey. I had to seek them out, in respect of my family.”

“I see,” Adam thought about whether or not Lanarot would follow the same path. He assumed she would, for she was the heir of the main family, and would probably pick the weapon. In which case he’d need to make an axe.

How poetic that the first weapon he made was an axe, and now he would make another.

 “Well, uh, I suppose that’s all I really had to say.” Adam looked at the Iyrmen and then bowed his head. “Is there anything you need from me?”

“We thank you for speaking of your dreams to us,” Asomin said, “and we are sorry about your request.”

“No,” Adam said as he shook his head. “Your words have given me much to think about.” With that the other Iyrmen left, leaving Asomin, Heinov and Adam to rest. 

Adam pulled over his black blanket, which had been summoned with the tower, and then closed his eyes, ready to see if he dreamed.