Part 1 (from earlier in this thread)
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The Dungeon Part 2: Assemble your Party
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Leah and Haley glance at each other, neither sure what to do but Abigail seems to have a plan. Leah speaks first.
"Sounds interesting, like the Spirit's Eve corn maze but we make it up as we go?"
"Haven't you played RPGs before?" Abigail asks mostly in the direction of Leah. There was little chance Haley had ever done tabletop or computer gaming but maybe Leah, yeah she could have had friends into it.
"Yeah a long while ago but ah, I'm a little out of practice," admits Leah, not quite making eye contact. In reality she'd sat in and watched and mostly stayed awake but people didn't really explain well what to do. It was all too much at once. She'd felt weirdly out of control with no frame of reference, being tossed in the deep end of your imagination but not shown how to tread thought processes.
"Did you bring extra swords for us?" Haley asks, not sure what it's all about but thinking there's some sort of cosplaying as she notices Abigail is wearing a leather vest-looking thing over her dress instead of the typical denim. It seems solid-looking especially around the waist, doing no favors for Abigail's shape. "That's a new leather vest, isn't it? Leather needs to be broken in sometimes before it gets all comfy."
"It's a
cuirass and yeah it's new and could be less stiff, but this is the time to break it in!," Abigail finishes on a high note. "I don't have any other swords and anyway you need training and practice to wield a sword and I have some of both. I should have way more of both but...," her face takes on a dark, annoyed visage as she looks down at the ground. "Dad."
"OK I could get a hammer or a big knife from my cottage," offers Leah brightly to break the mood. "Wait wait, my whittler's shaped like a small sword, that'll work out great!" Leah starts to walk last Abigail to get it but is held back firmly.
Abigail is all business as she looks up to Leah, "it's dangerous in there, we'll need to be cautious while seeking out your weapons cache." She looks into the vast endless warren of machines with narrowed eyes and still holding onto Leah's arm, turns back to her, saying closely, "valuables like those don't go unguarded." She lets Leah go and stands back, turning to Haley.
"And I'm not sure your camera will work as a good weapon," Abigail considers, absently pulling on an earring, "though I suppose the flash could blind onrushing serpents. No! That's defensive, we need offense. Got anything back at basecamp?"
Slightly wide-eyed and blank look from Haley, who glances to Leah looking for help. But Abigail is motivated to make this work, to mold this party into one she can proudly lead. She looks over Haley's shoulder, "back at your house, your base camp," she suggests softly. "D'you have anything that would make a good weapon?"
"Oh!" Quick Haley smile of realization. "Um..." she looks at the house as if the walls are invisible, considering its contents. "Yes, my iron! BRB!" And she rushes off to the house to exchange the camera for something more formidable in hand to hand combat.
Abigail turns to Leah, "I guess it could work as a cudgel? Bonk monsters on the head if they get too close?" She laughs with a thought, "maybe we can use the steam function as a fog bank to escape in a pinch!" She holds an invisible iron straight out, yelling, "pshsshsshsshshshshhshhshhhshhh!" waving the invisible fog machine around her.
Leah was trying to get a feel for this role playing again, not wanting to fall into that feeling of uneasiness about not understanding the "rules", if there even were any. But in a flash of inspiration realizes she could use Haley's very likely complete ignorance of this to ask more questions if needed. For Haley's benefit of course.
Haley returns quickly wearing a long leather overcoat, brandishing... not the iron Abigail was thinking of. "Oh, a
curling iron." I said that out loud, didn't I? thinks Abigail. C'mon you can do better than that. "That's perfect, it's long enough to keep the giant rats at a distance." She reaches out to examine it but Haley draws it back in a snap.
"
No! It's still hot, I just unplugged it!" Haley exclaims. "After running my ends through it for a few seconds." She absently fluffs the sides of her hair a bit, running her fingers through. "I always keep it at the ready 'cause you just never know, right?" Now turning directly towards Abigail. "And giant rats? Eww."
You did wha- never mind, Abigail thinks. Wait and you keep it turned on--. No stop it stop it, losing focus! "Keep hold of that pike then and the rats won't get you. And its heat should melt any gelatinous cubes we encounter." Abigail notices the faint smell of Haley's hair wafting over from the still-hot iron. I'm pretty sure pikes aren't supposed to be lightly perfumed.
"OK" Abigail starts, "I'll be the dungeon master, guiding our progress and explaining what we're up against. Seb usually does that when we play," Haley's eyebrows raise a hint, "when Sam and I are at his place and we're playing Solarion Chronicles. But finally it's my turn." I swear it looks like Haley's eyebrows went up a bit more, thinks Abigail. Stop focusing on Haley.
"Leah," Abigail addresses Leah as she starts towards the dungeon, "we need to defend you as you're weaponless--"
Leah brings up a pair of fists, "I have these and they've been tested on my Ex recently."
"Ah, ok good!" Abigail recovers quickly from the unexpected display. "That's the kind of morale that guarantees success. But you still don't have armor so you might want to stay behind us and defend from the rear in case we get flanked."
"Let's go in. Haley next to me, Leah following." They take their positions and enter the Dungeon maze, Abigail with sword drawn now, realizing that even though it's not sharp, she might need to be careful with the sword around Haley. Haley seems to be enjoying the whole thing, strapped into her leather coat, brandishing her iron more like a flashlight than anything else.
Leah is less sure but trying to take it easy. No weapon and wearing a simple crop top and pants make her less immersed than the other two but that should soon be remedied, she thinks.
A bewildered squirrel seeking any kind of tree or at least a tall wooden sculpture emerges from around a withered stump ahead on their right and Abby springs into action, "A bugbear appears with huge fangs, threatening your party! Abigail takes initiative and slashes at it for 4 damage!" Abigail swings her sword mostly in the direction of the squirrel but more mostly not in the general direction of Haley.
The squirrel is already long gone to their left having found its long lost tree. "It retreats, licking its wounds and will think twice about attacking an adventuring party again!," Abigail declares.
"This is fun! You're good at this," Haley says with wide eyes as they proceed, turning the corner to the left. "I wanna try the next one!"
"Did anyone pack adventuring rations?" Abigail asks suddenly. "A party can't travel on an empty stomach!"
"No..." answers Leah slowly, "but I just realized we can still forage for food as it's Salmonberry seaso--"
Abby cut Leah off. "There's no foraging seasons in dungeons! These are the carcasses of slain enemies we must nourish ourselves on."
"OK. More gross." Haley states flatly.
Abigail gets in Haley's face a bit and nods with a knowing grin. "Yep that's the idea, but we didn't pack anything so it's goblin entrails or nothing." She walks purposefully over to the bush, grabbed a handful of salmonberries and shoves some of them into her mouth, making a spectacle of chewing them.
They were... not great. Abby's face reflects this as Haley watches with a mixture of curiosity and fascination. And a bit of revulsion. In contrast, Leah is popping the berries into her mouth one by one, finally enjoying herself. This time of year is always a treat, she considers while munching. Goblin Entrail season, who knew?
Inspiration flashing, Abby crunches the berries, letting pieces and juice fall from her mouth down to the ground, avoiding the need to eat the rest. But not before hitting her cuirass, leaving...
Leah's eyes bug as she says through a mouthful, "Noff you'll shtain th' leather!" She loses a berry or two to the dungeon floor.
Abby flinches for a second, realizing her new cosplay outfit was getting...
Broken in with her enemies' blood. As it should be. A clean suit of armor has seen no adventuring, an embarassment to the true warrior.
"Oopth," Abby says, letting the last of the entrails fall from her mouth to her chest and the ground, leaving more stains in the leather. This cuirass is starting to look
good.
Haley is subconsciously backing away from this spectacle as none of that will be touching her overcoat. She started regretting bringing it but didn't want to risk an Abby overreaction so offers, "I'll grab some for the road," and stuffs a few berries into a plastic bag she'd stashed in a coat pocket with a compact, lipstick and other necessities. Pockets are wasted if you leave them empty.
"Shall we continue?" Leah offers and starts around the corner to her front door but Abby quickly grabs her sword and leaps ahead.
"Haley, guard the rear!" Abby barks as she gestures with her sword down the narrowing dungeon hall to the east past the house. Haley hops into place, waving her iron around straightarmed. "There could be anything down that hall of darkness, Leah! We need you in one piece for the rest of this campaign."
"Ah sorry," Leah pauses for a second. "I... have pretty good night vision so it seemed mostly clear." Not a lie, she often turned off the lights to her house and went out to look at the stars at night, and was now quite used to seeing with the faint background light leaking westward from town on dark evenings. Getting used to the dark was not about somehow seeing more, rather it was trusting what you
can see and familiarity with your surroundings.
"Infravision! Your special ability, you must be an Elf!" Abby cries excitedly, turning back to look at Leah, who was startled back to the present from her thoughts. "You'll need to scout once we get you outfitted. Speaking of which, can you cast the spell to open this locked dungeon room?"
They had arrived at Leah's house. With a quick incantation and using her personal set of lockpicks, Leah unlocked it but Abby quickly grabbed her hand away from the door and slowly opened it with sword drawn.
"Could be anything in there." A smile curled from the corners of Abby's mouth as she took a couple of careful steps inside, continuing, "giant rats, gelatinous cubes, decaying zombies, piles of rotting meat, ghosts of old girlfrien--"
"Alright! Enough!" Leah cut Abby off and shoved her aside to go in. "Har har, you've had your fun just don't drip any blood on my floor from those teensy mosquitoes you killed!" Haley was snorting at the whole scene but still waving her curling iron lazily about, backing into the cottage dungeon.
"OK ok." Abby agreed, assuming her all-business face again. "Gear up, you have a sword hidden in this cache somewhere." Leah was already grabbing her whittler which was barely bigger than a dagger. "Hm that's good, we can use that! A dagger or shortsword will make quick meatcubes of our enemies!"
Leah also found her leather bib apron and put it on. Abby considers their party. Looking at Leah, she commented, "that's good, the bare midriff was giving me vibes of fantasy book cover women with completely useless 'armor' that covers nothing and advertises everything."
"So instead we're 3 women in leather?" asks Haley with a smirk as she hangs her now cool iron from a belt loop on her coat.
"Leather
armor." Abby emphasizes, not rising to the bait. "OK it would be better if we had chain. Or even plate but yeah not much chance of finding that just laying about in some moldy old dungeon," she finishes, looking around in vain.
Leah attempts to ignore Abby while following Haley who broke from the group to head to the kitchenette. "Like these plates?" Haley grabs 2 dinner plates from the drying rack. She looks at them and holds them out facing Abby strategically, saying, "to protect certain areas?"
Abby purses her lips, annoyance creeping in again. "Well, yes but also everywhere," Abby responds. "And not dinner plates! Usually solid metal shaped to fit."
"Oh, ok that makes sense," Haley starts, "plates looked uncomfortable, I was thinking I'd need bowls or something," she adds, turning back to replace the dishes. Behind Haley's back Abby curls her lip, tilting her head side to side and mouthing silent words in a mocking fashion while turning to Leah, who just shakes her head.
Abby takes a deep breath, clearing her head as Haley returns and they walk to the door. Her focus has slipped a bit but Leah and especially Haley don't have much experience and they do look interested. They all have weapons and armor. That is a surprisingly good start.
"OK ladies, it's time for us to kick butt." Abby announces. "More butt! We're well equipped. We can see our way ahead and can find food," nodding to Leah. "We can melt enemies from a distance with weapons or looks," nodding to Haley. "We can poke numerous holes in their pathetic hides," she tapped her sword on the floor as quarters were on the tight side for dramatic swings.
"Let's boogie!"
Abby swings the door open and they re-enter the dungeon with purpose in search of fame, wealth, and if all goes well, the evil Wizard.
I'm sry but i'm not done with all my projects, but pls don't feel inferior! maybe there's some inspiration you can use for ur farm
. and thank's for ur nice comment!
! great job and keep up the good work! another question (i know i can google that) when and why do you use cursive?
) to try to find more but it ends with maybe the middle of Farmer Bobbi and I think you were with Haley for a brief spell then. That’s as far back as it goes and it skips some of the in between that and now content. Bummer. 
I'd love to write/collab with modders or people who draw but they likely have their own stories and the story itself isn't the limitation, it's the time taken to make the mod or storyboard & draw. That seems very time-consuming. Some things I've found out are: