Lethal Reword 3: Lost Dice!

B

Boss Frost

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Load Complete! Welcome to Lethal Reword!

-Whirring Disk Sounds-

You are immediately heralded by music, the sight before you taking your breath away a your stomach lurches - you glide through the sky as if truly flying. The wind blows through your hair as you're lowered down from the clouds - you take a lap around a small island, until you're taken in - dodging trees, you quickly pull up to avoid an incoming rock face - you follow the mountain to it's top, and land there... where you have the odd, prickling sensation all over your body, and your feet press down upon ground once again.

You've landed in a plain carved out of a massive extinct volcano. Steep rock walls cover all but a single path, and a voice calls out through your mind.

GM: Hello! My name is Beekin! You're new to Lethal Reword, but that's alright! I'd like to explain some things to you!

The voice is bright, childlike, even.

GM: I hope you have a great time in this Beta version of Lethal Reword. You're our first testers! The entire world is shaped already. What you do in it is determined by our imagination! Did you know that?

A wonderful laugh cascades over you.

GM: Don't worry! You're perfectly save here on the newbie island! Try walking around... if you'll notice, there's some test dummies nearby! Try to attack them. When you're comfortable and said hello to each other, just say 'Beekin, we're ready to move on!' Hehe... Bye!

Suddenly, the voice is gone - leaving you alone with your allies. Nearby, a few mean-looking stuffed dolls pop out of the ground and shamble around without direction or sentience.
 
"This is awesome!"

The first voice to speak came from one very tiny girl. She looked about the size of a twelve year old, barely four foot three, with platinum blond strands and form fitting clothing suggesting that she was a bit older. On her back was strapped a large sword almost taller than she was. Her attention had immediately turned to the shuffling dummies, of which she cast the most wicked of gleams at.

Athena, in all of her eagerness, hopped forward towards them, grabbing the hilt of the sword at her back and unsheathed! Unsheathed! ...Un-Damnit! She couldn't pull it out high enough to unsheathe the thing! The sudden struggle of trying to do so sent the girl face planting in the dirt before one of the dummies.

"I'm not going to be defeated so easily!" she grabbed a dummy by the leg and held on.

Athena was clearly in full character.
 
Something hit the ground and bounced. Trailing green robes and flew several feet and hit the ground again this time sliding several inches and stopping in a cloud of dust.

“Bloody bleeding bonkers!” the mound on the ground shouted at the top of its slightly squeaky voice. “What kind of mapmaker would put the bloody spawn point with a starting velocity pointing at the ground. Bloody hell, if this weren't a beta I would …..” he paused in his rant as he got up. Gesturing wildly he shouted: “OPEN MENU” he stopped and blinked, “I SAID OPEN MENU DAMN YOU!” he scowled, “HEY! GAME DEVS THE MENU ISN'T WORKING, CAN I GET A GAME GUIDE”

He stood there looking foolish for a several seconds before a voice below him called up. “OI MATE! Wot ya shou'in fer. No one cun 'ear ya 'sept dat girl over dere.” the blade of grass shouted. “Girl? What girl?” he said looking at the training dummies. “Gor you should have gone fer more INT buddy. Utha way.”

“Oh!” he said turning around and seeing Athena. “That girl....” he stood and watched as she took on the dummies. “Since when did little girls get so big?”
 
All of a sudden, a shot was heard from somewhere in the trees, and one of the dummies dropped. A few moments later, another shot was heard, and the one that Athena had ahold of also dropped. Both dummies had a hole in their head. Then another shot and a third dummie dropped. This time, after the dummie dropped, a figure emerged from the trees, covered in foliage. "So, you two must be beta testers as well. From the looks of ya, ya probably shoulda read the manual." The ghillied-up figure said.
 
GM: Hey there my little friend! This is GM Beekin again! As you may have noticed, you have no inventory screen! This is because, of course, we wanted to make this game as realistic as possible... you can only cart around what you can fit on your own person!

A soft laugh comes after this.

GM: Well done on defeating a few of the training dummies! Actual monsters are a bit tougher than these enemies, as the monsters and evil NPC's will attack back! Scary! But for now, you can make your way down to the first town!

A red arrow floats in mid-air, directing them towards the mountain path. The dummies still shamble around, bumping into each other.

GM: Make your way down when you're ready. Feel free to beat up the training dummies a bit more, though!

The defeated dummies flash white, getting back up and shambling around again.
 
A small figure stood unnoticed, he was so short that you would need to lie on your stomach to get a good look at his face under the hood of his robe. “What!? If I wanted realism like that I'd be playing 'no more room in hell' and it would be a crapload more fun than being talked to by a piece of grass.”

“BLADE of gra.....”

“Then go chop wood”

“OI! I'm na the one talkin ta grass now am I?”

“Oh shut up! WAGH! GERROFF ME YA LUMMOX!

A large black bear had just grabbed him from behind and pulled him into a bear hug.

“You're crushing me, down, down. OW!” The bear dropped the gnome and proceeded to pull on his robes playfully before lying down on the ground allowing him to mount. 's more like it, MUSH! he tapped the bear with his staff and rode him up to Athena and the show-off. ”You! Mr. 'I got rifle and suck at melee but thats ok because you all suck anyway'. The job of beta testers is to break the game. Do things players normaly wouldn't. SO!”

Pulling of the bear's fur he managed to get it pointing at where the dummies where shuffling around.

“MUSH!"

The sound of something falling into the grass and a stench filled the air as the bear 'mushed'.

“NO NOT.... Just charge.”

“The riding fee is 50 gold per mile.....”

He bashed the bear's behind with the end of his staff causing it to stand up. “Just destroy those dummies.” Aronius said holding onto fistfulls of fur.

The bear went down of all fours and ran at the dummies, the gnome clinging to fur with one hand and with the other holding his staff like a lance at he bounced up and down on the bear's back. “FOR THE HOMESTEAD OR SOMETHING!”

The gnome's staff hit a dummy sending him flying from the bear's back ripping his staff from his grasp. “First town we get to I'm getting you a saddle.” he said as the bear wandered up, the dummy's head in its mouth.
 
"Actually, that's only one aspect of Beta Testing. The other is to do what the average player would do, so as to make sure all the basic stuff works the way it's supposed to. And as for being bad at melee combat, I assure you, I'm better than you think." Noise said matter-of-factly. Noise now took the opportunity to remove his ghillie suit and stow it in his pack. The removal of the ghillie revealed Noise to have shoulder length black hair pulled back, a pair of oval glasses, and olive green eyes. He wore long dark green pants with pads on the knees, an a turtle-neck style shirt of similar color, also with padding. On his feet he wore hunting boots, that, having just entered the game, were still fairly new-looking. His rifle resembled a Civil War era Winchester lever-action model, outfitted with a basic scope. He also had two hunting knives, one on his belt, the other on his right ankle.
 
Athena was pushing herself off the ground with some trouble, brushing the dust off her clothing as she cast the other people a scowl.

"Don't you guys know anything about staying in character?" with a huff and a roll of her eyes, she ran to kick one of those test dummies. When it fell over, Athena was satisfied that her training was complete. Now she was ready to take a step out in to the big wide world and be a great warrior!

She was glancing up, taking notice of the red arrow and smiling wide was already trotting in that direction. "I can't wait to see what the town is like! I really want to destroy some demons and save some damsels!"
 
Battling to climb back onto his bear Aronius sat astride his (comparatively) large mount. The bear then picked up his staff in in the effort to pass it back to druid knocked him off of his back.

“Watch it would you!” he shouted at several nearby plants sniggered. “Wait whats this? MUSHROOMS!” he said pushing himself up and dancing around the fungi that his face had almost landed in. “Great! I'll be able to test this game's feeling simulation! he grabbed fistfuls of the mushrooms and stuffed them into a small pouch meant for herbs. “Going to get wicked wasted. Arn't we boy.” The bear didn't respond.

”Alright here he go.” using his staff this time he got onto the bear's back and they trotted off after Athena.
 
The mountain path only goes for a short distance - a town is easily seen from here sticking out of the side of the mountain. Looking out into the distance, one can gaze for miles over the forests below, and to other, nearby mountains. Strange birds float calmly through the sky, and a multitude of brightly-colored insects try their best to avoid them.The red arrow vanishes from sight.

GM: Hey! it's Beekin again! The town over there is a mining town, and supplies most of this island's bronze! Iron and such is rare here, so most of the things you'll be coming across are made of primitive materials... or magic! Vhoosh, magic! Unfortunately, we don't yet have a name for the town yet, so right now, it's 'The Town That Mines Bronze on the Mountain'. It's long, but it'll do. If you're looking for a quest, look for someone who talks in purple text! Trust me! Ta for now!
 
Vincenek
The haze of log-in cleared and Vincenek flew to the ground in the starting area, hitting with knees bent. He listened to the opening dialogue and checked out his equipment briefly before taking a few pot-shots at the dummies. He wound up getting five of six hits - admittedly not that hard with the shuffling dummies - and four dummies into the bargain. He nodded, satisfied. "Huh. Single action," he mumbled as he started to reload the pistol. And pulling every spent shell out individually was indeed a pain, but he got it reloaded and looked around.

GM Beekin's red arrow came up, and he started in the direction indicated. Then he saw a group of three other players ahead of him. "Oi!" He shouted, "Wait up!" and tore off down...er, up...the road after them.
 
Yaegrshak was still in the beginning spot where the dummies were stumbling about. He was looking around the area for anything that he could use for trap materials later on, but found nothing, as it was just the beginners area.

He pulled out the one dagger he was spawned with and quickly went into stealth mode. Even though they were just dummies to get the plays familiar with the combat system, Yaegr snuck up on all of the dummies and performed a vicious back stab on them, even so far as leaping on to the last one in his sights, and stabbing it in the head repeatedly even as it fell down.

After he stabbing lust was satisfied he muttered "Beekin" and followed the red arrow that was flashing over his head. "Goddamned tutorials levels..." His voice was more high pitched that he would have liked it, which made his already unhappy looking mug even less happy. "You can never skip these things..." He makes his way to path, slashing carelessly as any dummies in his path.

"Hmmm..." Other players seemed to be near him as he saw them out on the path already. "I wonder if this is PvP..."
 
Eileen had been walking around "The town that mines bronze on the mountain" for a while now. She hadn't encountered any other players so far, so it seemed this beta test had a fairly limited number of participants. Being the first was becoming fairly annoying, as this supposed quest giver was nowhere to be found.

The catgirl hadn't seen ANY purple text what-so-ever in any case. Her pickpocketing seemed to be rather useless around this place as well. Her loot so far had been limited to one wooden coin (or perhaps it was a button, 'twas hard to tell), a piece of string, some sort of herb, and several small components usually used in traps.

The furry persona was pondering this and other things (like "do I want to keep playing this game, or do I wait for the next gen?") when from the corner of her eye she noticed a little girl walking through the main street. Hopefully, she hadn't seen Eileen yet.

Slipping into stealth mode, (or rather starting to sneak rather than walk) Eileen crept closer to the player character, and slipped a hand into her backpack. Hopefully, players carried around better things than the npc's around here.
 
GM: Hello again! This is a good point to say that this is a PvP-enabled area, which is why you have the ability to steal from other NPC's, and even players! Now, lets see here! We have the target!

A red arrow points down from the sky at Athena.

GM: We also have the thief!

A red arrow points down from the sky at Eileen.

GM: Now, the point of this activity is to take things that don't belong to you! Yay! You sneak up, unnoticed, and you just reach in and take from the bags of others! This has a greatly limited ability to work in towns or against your fellow players, on account of the other players that tend to team up with them! I hope this is helpful to your ability to steal things! Farewell!
 
"Huh?"

Athena blinked at the sudden speechiness, looking up to see the big red arrow over her head. SHE wasn't a thief. Spotting another of the arrows in the sky her gaze followed down, down, until she spotted... someone trying to dig their hands in to her satchel! She had special things in there!

"Hey! Get back you knave! Before I chop your hands from your arm and serve them up for tea!" Athena tried pulling out her sword again, (at least this time the result didn't have her falling over) but finding the did impossible, she defaulted to kicking the thief in the shin.
 
Inwardly groaning at the tutorial voice Eileen clickly pulled her hand out of the satchel, taking along what she just happened to hold in her hand at that moment while she tried to step back from her most recent victim. That blasted tutorial voice needed some work before launch, because this was horrid! Of course, having been caught in a compromising position, she could not pull her hand out AND get out of the way in time to dodge the kick.

"Ow! you bitch! that was my shin!" She 'yelped' out in a rather masculine voice. "what did I ever do to you for you to kick me?"

After a moment of silence and rubbing over her shin with one hand, she looked up to see the girl staring at the object in her other hand. "oh...right." She said, and quickly high tailed it into the relative safety of the towns back-alleys. "You'll never catch me!"
 
Seeing a figure running away the black bear gave chase, bounding along much like a small, fat puppy, only much bigger and the playful yelps where replaced with vicious growls.

“This isn't part of the the tutorial ya lummox. What you running after the thief fer?” he was clinking top fur with one hand and to his staff with the other, barely able to stay on the bear's back. “Just.... stop... or..... I …. swear... I'll..... buy... a....... muzzle.....” he said his body being slammed repeatedly into the bear by its loliping gate.

“I feel it is my duty to teach the player that stealing is bad.”

“Can't you let the NPCs do that?”

“Do I even answer that?”

“But you're MY NPC you bloody....”

“Oh I see where this relationship is going LITTLE man.”

That ran along in silence for a few seconds.

“Fine but his loot is mine.”
 
Horrified! Athena was horrified! Looking at her poor fox plushie in the hands of that thief. Worse, the wicked thing ran away with it!

Staring dumbfounded for a moment, Athena finally came to her senses, letting out a very loud high pitched scream. "THAAAAAAAAAT'S MIIIIIIIIIIIINE!" She had taken off to give chase, but the awkward weight on her back from the sword had her stumbling a bit.

Suddenly, the gnome riding a bear went running past her and chasing after the thief too.

"No, no, no! She's got MY stuff!" Athena scrambled to keep up!
 
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Esper swayed on her feet, her body still seeming to spin and turn and she thought se might be ill. She wanted to cram something into that voice already but instead she just looked blearily around, trying to regain herself.

Esper spotted a small child running after.... she blinked and rubbed her eyes, trying to focus instead on the dummy. She was supposed to... fight them? She realized suddenly that a bow of beautiful pale wood lay again her back, stung with black.

A quiver of arrows, all tipped in gleaming silver on one end with black feathers on the other end, also seemed to be on her back. She pulled out one, marveling at its light-weight lethality.

She wanted to shoot the dummy, but she was having difficulties nocking the arrow. Esper frowned, scowling slightly in her embarrassment as she finally managed to get one done and aimed at a dummy.

With a small gasp of surprise, Esper hit the dummy exactly where she had wanted the arrow to go, though the technique could use work as the arrow had wobbled in the air.
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GM: What a good shot you are? Oh, but the sun seems to be hurting your eyes! The next town is a mining one, maybe a nice trip into the caves would be a good idea?

Another red arrow appears, pointing towards the town.

Meanwhile in this town, as a few people run like maniacs through the street, the feline-woman bumps past a dirty young man without even loosing her stride. He appeared to be a miner of some sort. "Hey! Watch where you're going, jerk!"

GM: That's some nice loot you have there, little thief. Be sure to keep running! Those heroes don't look like they take kindly to thieves! If only you'd have been a better sneak!

One can notice that the red arrow above Athena has vanished, but not the one over Eileen's head, making her much easier to track.