AberrantKapro | Simon

Simon, the pale cream courser, was unfortunately not too well acquainted with the other three coursers in his current party, but he was a team player, so he did not mind who he was venturing out with. He would be as helpful as he could regardless and do his best to stay on course and get through the campaign together, and hopefully even come out stronger than before.

He tried looking up at his head, where his snake had nested in his forelock, but all he could manage to see was his snake’s little tail. He still had not thought of a good name for this little critter who had one day just appeared and declared Simon his ride.

Simon looked back ahead and observed their surroundings, they had slowly been approaching a room for a little while, and as their hoof sounds echoed against the stone floor, they finally made it there. The room seemed old, and Simon had no idea what it could have potentially been used for originally, but he was intrigued and started to look around at all the dusty and cobwebbed clutter. There were plenty of books, tools, and many to him unknown trinkets lying around all over the place. He did not want to touch anything just yet, but would rather observe and speculate what everything was. 

Simon’s green little companion snake dropped down onto a bench and slithered around for a bit, sticking his tongue out to smell every little thing he could, and eventually he ended up crawling into a little glass jar, where he sat for a little bit to observe the four coursers.

Simon smiled as he observed his little pet who seemed just as curious as him, he felt like they were a good match. Maybe Jimmil could be a fitting name, Simon thought to himself, before he decided it was best to regroup and talk to the others about how to proceed. They couldn’t stay here for forever, despite Simon’s eagerness to study things.

336 words

Ari | Jack / Cirrus

Cirrus and Jack knew each other. It wasn’t a strong relationship, but Jack delivered stuff to Deerlings’ Goodies and Cirrus often bought stuff in Deerling’s shop, so they were bound to see each other pretty often. They knew each other's names and looks, and that was pretty much it. But when they were offered to go to the dungeon, both agreed. Jack took Lil’ Helper with him, his Giant Beetle, hoping it would find some loot for them too. But for now, the insect was sitting on top of Jack’s head, chilling. 

When they encountered the abandoned and dusty room, Jack’s eyes opened wide with excitement, while Cirrus looked around her fearfully, with attention and caution. Dark courser looked at dusty shelves, torn diagrams and old wooden workbench. It was fascinating for him! Everything here could be of use for him, that’s for sure. With his little leather bag around his waist, he wanted to take everything there was to study it when they get home. Jack looked around, thinking what he could snatch back home. He spotted Simon’s little guy snake slither inside a jar and chuckled.

“What’s his name?” asked, looking at the cream adventurer. 

Meanwhile Cirrus was exploring the room too. Her attention was brought not by old diagrams, workbench or rusty tools, but by wooden, almost collapsing shelves and dusty, stained books. She was amazed by this sight and felt a little shiver of excitement running down her spine. Her blue coat almost stood up, as she started to reach for one of the books. Some of the book's names were silly, like: “Dungeon Guide 101”, “How not to die from fire elemental”, “Shadows in the dungeon: we don’t trust”. Cirrus smiled and chuckled with a closed mouth. These books sure are useful, especially if you’re already in the dungeon. But the book that caught Cirrus' attention was called “Brave New World”. She squinted for a moment, weighing her options and costs. Well, surely, nothing bad will happen if she pulls it, right? She just wanted to see if she could understand the content inside. And so she began to pull it to her. She slowly started to pull a book from the shelf, immediately coughing because of the dust it raised.

376 words

AberrantKapro | Simon

Simon was a little taken aback when Jack had asked the name of his snake. He did have to pause for a bit, but confirmed his thought by speaking it out loud. 

“His name is Jimmil, it means he's curious to learn and adapt.” Simon replied and smiled. He also couldn't help but chuckle when Cirrus inhaled dust as she tried to pull out an old book. “What about your little fella?” he asked him back, referring to Jack's beetle. 

Seeing the beetle reminded him of Söl, who he now looked back at. He was a bit closer to the entrance as he had been preoccupied with some bugs, surely. That was something the cream courser learned fast about the dun, he had a very intense fascination with the little bugs and insects scuttling about. He didn't judge though, seeing as he himself had found himself in company of a snake, who many might find equally weird. 

“How are things going? Found anything interesting?” he asked Söl as he swooped up Jimmil, who had been smacking some clutter to get Simon's attention, he wanted his mighty steed back. 

188 words

Dillyweed | Söl

Söl had now been in three different team-ups. He most definitely preferred some companions over the others. While he didn’t prefer to mention names, he couldn’t really think of the bad ones without at least thinking of Solas. The hothead. However it wasn’t that he didn’t like him. He was nice. But he was all over the place. There were times he was frightened of what the yellow puck could do by accident. This new team seemed at the very least less destructive.
They had entered what seemed to be a workshop. An old workshop. There was dust and debris everywhere in the old room. Surely it had been searched before. However Söl couldn’t really help but to remember how the yellow puck Solas had accidentally tripped a trap in another room that was eerily similar to this one. Though, he hadn’t really had much of a chance to check around. Solas had managed to activate the trap quite quickly. 

As he was thinking about the yellow puck he spotted a yellow-spotted red-legged beetle. He had seen one of these beetles before. They weren’t rare but they were hard to spot as they rarely left the comfort of cracks unless they were on the hunt for a mate. Or simply confused. Söl had to collect the beetle. He began shuffling to grab the smaller cage that hung steadily on his side. It was smaller, but it had only one open side that let in light and he could easily cover it by a cloth of some sort. This was a fantastic chance to study the insect more in depth. Coleoptera Auruvm. Last time he saw one it was being sold for a lot of coins, and at that point he barely even got to glance at it. This one was so much more vibrant. He wondered where the colour came from and how it became so strong, was it the feed or perhaps the sign of their mating season. He hoped to find out in his inbetween time.
Söl slowly urged it into the small cage. It didn’t require much convincing. It eagerly crawled into the dark space and to make it slightly more comforting he made sure to put in some of the moist moss that was on the nearby wall.

How are things going? Found anything interesting?

Söl lifted his head as Simon spoke to him.
“Oh yes.” He nodded eagerly as he made sure to secure the cage. He didn’t want it to accidentally fall off or let the beetle escape. “It’s a bug. But it’s interesting.” He clarified so that no one of them accidentally thought he had taken some treasure and hidden it for himself. He was eager to try and explain it to them. He wanted to tell them how amazing it was and he wanted them to share in his amazement. But he kept himself from it. He understood that his interest was commonly seen as weird. There was an entire room filled with unexplored treasures and he was hunting bugs that most Coursers believed you could find anywhere, even on the surface. They dndd’ät know that most of the insects had evolved to live constantly in the caves and tunnels of old. That there were bugs that never even reached the surface in their entire lifetime.
“I won't bore you with the details-” He had begun saying when suddenly it seemed as if the walls and the floor started to shake. He jumped and steadied himself as he cast around his head to look around the room. Someone had done something to trigger something. His eyes fell on the Courser dragging out a book out of a bookcase. Could it be a trap? 

621 words

AberrantKapro | Simon

Out of nowhere, the room started spinning, Simon looked around frantically to see what might've been the trigger, and seeing as most things were untouched, it was most likely one of the many dusty books that Cirrus had pulled out. It seemed to be too late to stop the process now, so they would just have to accept it. 

Once the room stopped, there were new exits presented in front of the group of coursers, and Simon looked between them, wondering which one would be best to take. 

“Any ideas..?” he asked the others, hoping one of them would take the lead in this situation. 

105 words

Ari | Jack / Cirrus

Ground trembled. After that walls and floor started to spin, making Jack and Cirrus dizzy. Cirrus with panic spread out her legs, holding on to her dear life to not fall over and destroy everything in the room, while Jack was looking around frantically. After some time, the room stopped. Cirrus fell on her knees. She mumbled something, so Jack just patted her on her head. She needed a moment. He looked at the cream Courser, when he asked a simple question. Yet there was nothing in his brain. He looked around and sighed. 

“I mean… we could activate the mechanism again and again, to find our path we came here from or just explore further?”

116 words