Challenge #03086-H178: What a Deal

If. The codicil to a lot of Life’s bargains, often toxic, usually starting in learning years, where you often learn more than what’s on the syllabus. – Nonny the Mouse

Sadi hadn’t known what they were getting into when they got into it. What they were used to getting into was Miss Tiven’s Crap List. This time, Sadi had accidentally wandered into the Feywilds. It wasn’t really Sadi’s fault, they were just following instructions as best they could remember… so they thought. And now? Now they were lost.

They tried reciting the instructions again. In a made-up rhyme that should have helped matters, but the words kept getting away from them. Sadi could not remember what they had forgotten. It was so annoying. Then Clever Hanz appeared out of nowhere. “What a marvelous poet you are,” she cooed, lounging on a tree branch that should never have held her weight. “What are you doing all the way out here?”

There is another rhyme, it begins, My mother said I never should… but Sadi didn’t have a mother to say such things and quickly forgot about it. They really should have remembered it. It could have saved so much trouble. There are things one should never do in fae spaces. Reciting poetry is one of them. Rehearsing plays is another. Engaging a fae in conversation is definitely going to be added to the list. Sadi said, “Well, if I could remember that, I wouldn’t be in so much trouble.” And, because they had just noticed, they added, “I like your wings. They’re very pretty.”

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #03067-H144: Conditional Invulnerability

I’ll defeat you with the power of friendships

And this gun I found – Anon Guest

“Look at you,” crowed the big bad. Sure of their win. Floating on the rising waves of their own ego. “Another puny mortal trying to best me. Do you not know I cannot be defeated by any weapon made by the hands of flesh?”

“Yeah, I knew,” said the hero. “I also knew that necromancy and skeletons doing the work. Bones are still flesh.”

“And yet you are here. Trying to defeat me. There is no such thing as a weapon not made by the hands of flesh. Even if you pick up a stone to throw, you have made it a weapon by throwing it. I cannot be defeated.”

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #03061-H138: Of Monstrous Men

Ardin, after being cared for by the very residents he would’ve once killed, despite his now monstrous appearance, was given a chance to break the curse. He must now protect those he once would’ve killed. Save the lands from the true evil that sometimes came to harm them. In doing so, he may redeem himself. In doing so, he may regain the humanity he once lost in his adventures. He may learn to have compassion once more.

Reference story: https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03008-h085-thing-in-the-mirror – Lessons

[AN: I have only just now realised that I changed the spelling of his name between tales. And even in tale. Yikes. Back to the original spelling in this one. Whoopsydoodle]

New Hope had a new guardian. He wore simple rags, and walked the borders of the haven for all of those with good alignment, but evil appearance. The outcast, the reviled, those who are frequently viewed as villains, or merely those who have been trying their hearts and souls away to be good and are tired of being viewed as evil anyway.

Some arrive under the escort of those who left to find others like them. Some arrive in the arms of others who just found them, and know where they will belong. Some flee there with whatever they could get along the way. Some come begging, not certain if the rumours are true. One came in a cage, carrying it all the way there because they could not break it or the lock. There is only one who looks like they belong there, but is certain they don’t.

His name used to be Arden the Protector. He is still trying to decide what to call himself now, besides monster. He has no weapon and will not touch one. He only eats when it hurts too much not to. He sleeps when exhaustion forces it on him. Most of the time, he weeps. His self-appointed task is to guard New Hope until his curse is broken. He has become a nightmarish amalgam of all the monsters he has slain without due cause. He views every weapon he touches as ‘soiled’ but no effect passes in that way from him to a blade.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #03050-H127: Fate, Destiny… a Basket…

They had been born, and abandoned. This small child, a babe in the woods, taken in by others who found their odd appearance undaunting. Who did not care about appearance, all they cared is that they were a child and needed someone to love them. They looked like a tiefling, but had the white, soft, wings of an angelic. One eye a beautiful sky blue, the other flaming red. They projected strength, and kindness at the same time. They had horns, and yet, at the same time, a golden halo, a ring of magic, drifted between the two horns upon the child’s head. – Teachers

There are those who hold that the product of a Tiefling and an Aasimar should be merely Human. Most of the time, they are correct in that assumption. Once… they were wrong. Well. They could have been wrong. Nobody knew whose hands put the babe in the basket, nor the basket in the river, but it and its passenger wound up in Merrivale, where Dellaise Baumkyn scooped them up and became a mother.

Halflings are renowned for their hospitality, and any otherwise unwelcome soul finds themselves a warm welcome in their lands. So it was that the infant with both horns and downy wings had a new home and a new family. Dellaise named him Amatu, and loved him as thoroughly as any of her more natural children. She taught him well, fed him well, cared for him and worried as any mother would… and it was not very long at all before the child realised how different they were.

Being the tallest in the house at age eight will do that to a person. So when Amatu asked, Dellaise told the story of the luckiest day of both their lives. How two lives were made better with a simple discovery.

There was no note, and his infant self had escaped his swaddling, which was so generic and impersonal that Dellaise sometimes had dark thoughts about the person who had initially set him adrift. There may have been no choice. It may have been an act of desperation. There was no way to tell, and it didn’t truly matter, as the important part was the love and family he had found.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #03025-H102: Illegal Tender

There is bad way to win and there is a good way to lose; what’s interesting while also being troubling is that it’s not always clear which is which. A flipped coin doesn’t always land on head or tail, sometimes it may never lands at all – grimsley

Kosh hadn’t expected to find a slice of home in the hoard. Precisely, an octagonal slice of gemstone engraved with the stylised castle chess piece that was Whitekeep’s sigil. It was not olivine, it was emerald. Illegal, but only if a Baron sold it off as a gemstone rather than a coin worth one hundred gold. Seeing it, holding it, watching the light glint off its minting marks, made him so homesick it rocked him.

It was the only reason why he didn’t notice the enemy catching up with them. He did notice the blade at his neck and said, “Please, I do that every morning. You’re not as threatening as you think.” He stood, turned, and noticed that there were two of them for each of them. “Wunderbar.”

“Drop it, Tief,” said their leader. Some asshole in fancy, shiny armour. Full plate and overloaded with embellishments. “That’s our booty you have your filthy hands on.”

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #03021-H098: The Lengths Gone Unto

A man walk down the crossroad late that night that when he ran into a beast in black. The beast spoke “Boy that’s a heavy load you have on your back, I can take care of your troubles and your worry woes, all you gotta is sign.” Man said “beast I do believe another devil beat you to it this time. I do wish I had something to give but ‘fraid I’m sold out. If you ain’t looking for the walking dead better find yourself another town. But if your still looking for my soul just wander down this road to a small house to the right. Cuz devil I’ve already lost my soul to devil with emerald eyes.“ – Anon Guest

[AN - ISTG those are lyrics for something but a quick search can’t find it. This has rhythm and meter… I can firkin hear Johnny Cash singing this.]

All the Tieflings were gone. So too were all those people who loved them anyway. This should have been a relief to the world because now they could tell the difference between a Fel fiend and someone who just happened to look a little bit like one. It should have been a relief for ordinary and decent folk, but one had become a statistical outlier. It wasn’t his fault. He fell in love with a Tiefling Bard just before the miracle they were calling the Fel Exile.

She had eyes of emerald green, and skin the colour of royal robes. Hair the colour of a raven’s wing that fell in luxurious curls. And her voice… he would never forget her voice. It didn’t belong in a devil’s throat. When Dan learned that all Tieflings and all unwanted peoples were sent away from decent folk by a concatenation of Wishes, he knew why she had gone. What he didn’t understand was how he had been left out of the phrasing, "and those who love them.” She was gone, and he was left sadder without her.

Dan sold everything he didn’t need and stocked up for a long journey. He didn’t care for a home without her in it. He didn’t want his family telling him it was just infatuation and he would get over her. The first part of his quest was finding out where the devils and all who were like them had been sent. And it was on that journey that he met a genuine fiend.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #03014-H091: To Find a Space

A: Get out, or things will get weird

B: Don’t threaten me with a good time – Anon Guest

Sap had screamed for five solid minutes because he thought he had lost Lachasse forever. The fact that there were babies and children screaming at the same time was almost lost to him. The instant he saw his favourite Cleric, he had almost collapsed from relief. Thereafter, he hadn’t left Lachasse’s side. Desperately helping more desperate souls than his own debatable one.

It took weeks for everything to be sorted to a point of stability. Lachasse took residence in the nearest temple, making it her own. Sap tagged along and stayed close. In those few first weeks, she was too exhausted to make note of where he slept. On the floor, at her feet, like any loyal pet.

They were both too exhausted to change anything during that first month after the Unwanted’s Exile. It was the second month, when things were achieving a state of normalcy that she noticed. They had done everything for the day and she was changing for bed behind the screen Sap had made for her modesty. She came out in her night shift, and noticed the lack of his bedding.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #03012-H089: With a Little Help From My…

Warrior: I swear I will have revenge for the death of my brother.

Elf: you have my bow.

Dwarf: and my axe.

Necromancer: and your brother! – Anon Guest

[AN: Heheheh, I remember when that first did the rounds on Tumblr. I think someone made a comic page out of it eventually. I wanna say Oglaf, but… probably not Oglaf[1].]

People always think necromancy is the ultimate evil. They think that necromancers don’t respect the dead, the gods, the feelings of those still breathing. They think wrong. Remember such magics as Revivify? Or True Resurrection? They’re necromantic. Clerics talk to the dead all the time, but the instant you wear a black robe and start using necrotic damage… Yeah.

Death is a part of life. Helping someone pass peaceably from life into death is just as important as helping both mother and child survive the process of birth. Trust me, there’s things that can go wrong. Unfinished business makes ghosts. Put a ghost too near a magical construct, and it causes all sorts of problems. Unstoppable creature with one purpose melded with an unkillable spirit with a different purpose? Bad noise. And don’t get me started on the undead. Yeah, necromancers can hate those shits. Bringing dead meat to life has its own perils and undead is in the top three.

Forget black robes and skeletal minions. It’s only the edgelords that go there. Edgelords with a lot of money. Black is a very expensive hue for clothing[2]. Not great when you’re a starving student of the dark arts. Honestly, I look like any other student - hard-wearing worker’s clothes so I don’t have to keep buying new clothes. A long-lasting pair of shoes headed for their last breath… And at least one stupid accessory because it had a practical application and no student ever had the coin to spare for style.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #03008-H085: Thing in the Mirror

Ok, you left this one on a cliff hanger. Please, PLEASE let Ardin see a mirror, or still pond, or SOMETHING that forces him to see himself as everyone else is seeing him? Pretty, pretty please with sugar on top?? PLEASE??

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02949-h026-when-you-assume – DaniAndShali

[AN: You are petty and vicious and I love it]

Ardin had spent a solid minute scouring his body free of the offal he had seen himself as wearing. To his eyes and ears, it splattered messily on the floor. His hands were stained with rotting blood. His clothing was similarly besmirched, but more so with the ichor of evil. Now, more than ever, he had an overwhelming desire to find his reflection.

He had dropped his sword, which seemed nothing more than rotten intestines, mixed with putrid effluvium. His armour was covered with pieces of rotted flesh where it was not sprayed with anything else disgusting. Ardin wanted to strip nude and bathe, scrubbing himself raw… but he noticed his hands. They were no longer human hands, but a demon’s claws…

The Clerics of Lathander shone gloriously inside an aura of blessed flames. They were as close to angels as mortal flesh could reach. The Elven wizard Wraithvine was unchanged, though the sense of their years weighed heavily in the air. The monster Wraithvine had with them was a monster no more, but a young individual of a small race. He couldn’t quite tell if they were Gnome or Halfling… yet he swore it had been a Kobold mere moments ago.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #03005-H082: Land of the Loveless

From around the world, tieflings were vanishing. Sometimes just fading away, sometimes disappearing in a gout of flame, but they were not dying. The spell was cast, though the summoners had to work very hard on it. A kingdom, a beautiful one where people, all people, were treated with dignity and kindness. The rulers, the queen and king, both tieflings. They were calling for the outcasts, the unwanted. “Come here, come home, please, let our lands shelter you.” Twin brothers, one tiefling, one not, would likely be summoned together. And those that tried to harm the innocent of these lands learned a painful lesson. – DaniAndShali

[AN: Hurmmmm… I gave them a happy-ever-after already and I have to play with this in my head for a bit… Whether ‘tis better to have the twins arrive with fiancees or before they meet…. How many hearts can I break or warm?]

They called them… the loveless lands. It was a realm of monsters. A pit of despair. Travellers refused to go near them. Those who shipwrecked on its shores never came back. The brothers Merrimine were lucky they were together with both loved ones when the ritual hit them. There had been warnings. Rumours. Gossip. Tieflings and other unwanted monsters all over the land were vanishing. Some in fire. Some in smoke. Some vanishing slowly, some disappearing between one pace and the next, as if they walked into another reality. When the wave of the distant spell hit a Tiefling courtier in the same room, both reached out. One arm clinging to his brother, the other desperately grabbing his lady love.

Whatever happened next, they were going to face it together. They clenched their grips and gritted their teeth… and opened their eyes in another land. They were surrounded by a lot of very confused Tieflings and a very few equally confused Humans. The only ones not confused were the ones too young to understand. Far too many of the howling infant Tieflings were covered in midden muck instead of swaddling clothes. As one, the Merrimine brothers and their fiancees cried out and dove for the most helpless and needing of the infants. All four of them had a baby in each arm and no idea of what to do next.

Others around them were similarly galvinised. The panic of the grown and the need of the small almost overwhelmed them. Tieflings from all walks of life and their rare Human companions did their best to help. The children capable of looking after themselves formed into clusters. Trusting a stranger who looked like them more than a stranger twice their size. Many of them had met ill fates from adults and were shy of trusting them.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)