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Voyage’s D&D Adventure! ***WIP***
Note: Hi y’all! I’m submitting this as a work in progress in the hopes of it being put on the slideshow. Because of this, there are several unfinished paragraphs and time skips. I’ll put notes in to say how long the time skips are. Hopefully by the holidays I’ll have written the whole story!
Dedicated to everyone who’s excited for the Honor Among Thieves movie. If you haven’t watched the trailer, do that. Put this story down. Watch the trailer. Congratulations! This story is now dedicated to you :)))
Content Warning: Jeez. Last time I wrote a Writer’s Club story it had themes of discrimination and dysphoria, and this one covers trauma and PTSD??? Why do I keep covering heavy topics??????
Real Content Warning: Fantasy Alcohol, Drunkenness, D&D Taverns, Trauma, Traumatic D&D Backstory, Violence, Violence Against Frogs, Sorry Frog Lovers, Voyage Loves Their Skewered Frogs
Complementary Song List: Jimmy by Moriarty, Bardic Inspiration (From “1 for All”) by Deerstalker Pictures (Don’t listen to that one unless you’re 13 or older), Jake Nielsen and Ned McPhie, Be a Monk (Cover of “Be a Man” from Mulan) by Cami-Cat, any version of He’s A Pirate (From “Pirates of the Caribbean”) originally composed by Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer, Traveler’s Song by Aviators
D&D Translations - Sometimes in this story, characters speak little bits of different fantasy languages. I’ll translate them just before they appear in the story.
Most D&D characters can learn languages that “aren’t spoken” by their race. That’s how Voyage knows Elvish: their boyfriend (an eladrin elf) taught them.
Here are the translators I used!
Draconic (Spoken by Dragons, Half-Dragons, Dragonborn, Kobolds, etc) - https://draconic.twilightrealm.com/
Elvish (Spoken by Elves) - https://lingojam.com/CommontoElvish%28D%26D%29
“Oh, come oooon, let’s ask,” a voice said, piercing through the fog of Voyage’s brain like sunshine through thick clouds.
“Are you sure we should?” another answered, sceptical.
“We need another magic user,” a deep, gravelly voice argued, “And it’s not every day you find a whole adventuring party in a single tavern,”
“If you’re sure,” the second voice sighed.
Voyage’s tankard was slammed onto the table by a small, tanned hand and they shot up in their seat.
“I’MSORRYIDIDN’TMEANTOTAKeyour- oh,” Voyage blinked and rubbed their eyes. In front of them were four humanoids who looked the adventuring sort.
A halfling in a peacock blue tunic with little multicoloured pockets sewn onto it wherever there was room was holding the handle of Voyage’s tankard. They were smiling, pleased, so Voyage assumed that they were the one who woke them up. A yellow handkerchief poked out of a pocket near their left sleeve. Voyage themself had a yellow-saffron ribbon tied through a hole in their shirt that had nearly frayed apart.
A half-orc with the greyish skin of her non-human parent towered behind the halfling. She wore a pale dress embroidered with fruit and a green shawl over her shoulders.
An elf in a fine purple vest and leggings was idly tightening the bandages around her wrists. Voyage couldn’t see any blood, so they assumed the bandages were to prevent injury rather than to heal it.
The last humanoid towered above the rest, even the half-orc. Her skin was covered by gleaming scales. Each one looked like it was polished by hand until they shone and shimmered in the sun. The flickering firelight danced across them. Voyage was so mesmerised by them that they almost didn’t hear the dragonborn speak.
“We are on a quest to explore the Cloudcry Rainforest. Would you like to accompany us?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.
“What do I get?” Voyage quirked an eyebrow.
“One fifth of any treasure we find,” she answered, “and an adventure,”
Voyage nodded, biting their lip in thought.
“There’s just one thing…” Voyage said, “Why do you want me on this adventure? How do I know you didn’t just go up to the first drunk dwarf you could find and trick them into an ambush?”
“You’re paranoid,” the dragonborn observed.
Voyage shrugged. “It’s the kind of thing I’d do,”
“How about this,” the halfling butted in, “Let’s wait until midday to make a decision. You can go, sober up and think about it and we can pack and make arrangements or something. We’ll meet back here after,”
Voyage nodded, then frowned. “Midday tomorrow?”
“Midday today…?” the halfling mirrored their expression.
“But it’s-” Voyage looked out the window, “MORADIN’S INEXPRESSIBLES! It’s morning already!?”
Voyage stumbled off their chair and started shoving everything into their bag with shaking hands that they glared at, futilely commanding them to be still. Then they stopped and looked up.
“Why me?” they asked again.
“We could do with another magic user,” the dragonborn explained.
“How’d you know that I…?”
“Your Arcane Focus is sticking out of your pocket,” she nodded at it.
Voyage attempted to subtly nudge their crystal back in. The adventurers kindly didn’t mention the weird spasm the movement turned into.
“We’ll leave you be for now,” the halfling grinned, “See you at midday!”
The adventurers left Voyage to grumble at their bag underneath the table. They scooped up Kindling the stick insect and put him on their shoulder. Kindling brushed Voyage’s neck soothingly with his antennae as they yawned and got up.
{ I passed out because I drank too much Silver’s Ale. Have you ever done that, Feelia? Drank till you dropped? Maybe if you stayed on the Material Plane as a humanoid more often you would’ve.
I was woken by a bunch of adventurers who wanted me to explore the Cloudcry Rainforest with them. I have until midday to decide whether to go or not. Is that even a decision? I’d worry that the ale is stopping me from thinking properly, but my hands are steady enough to write and I’m pretty sure I’d choose to go anyway.
I’ve got my questing pack and daggers, so I’m prepared. If I need to eat I’m sure I can scrounge something.
You can thank Kindling for getting me away from town. I probably would’ve stumbled into a thieves’ den and you would’ve lost your favourite disciple. For that, I’ve once more decided not to burn him this week.
Send my love to Qinqan!
All the best,
Voyage }
A few hours later, Voyage ambled toward the tavern. The sign swinging from the roof was painted with five dragon heads of different colours, proudly (and controversially) proclaiming the name of the establishment: THE TIAMAT TAVERN.
They leaned on the door to push it open and walked inside.
The adventurers weren’t there, so Voyage walked up to the bar. The gnome waiting behind it looked at them through narrowed eyes.
“I hope you aren’t planning to drink more. I know how much you ordered last night,” she scolded, “That Hair of the Dog ‘cure’ doesn’t work at all. The best thing for hangovers is a glass o’ water and food,”
“I’ll have that, please,” Voyage said.
The gnome gave them a hard stare and passed them a menu. Voyage glanced down the selection of meals before settling on an old favourite that they had cooked themself many times.
“Skewered frogs, please,” they ordered.
“Good choice,” the gnome nodded, “Zeliya went hunting yesterday and brought back a whole army,”
“A whole WHAT?” Voyage hissed, freezing.
“An army of frogs,” the gnome explained, amused, “That’s what a group of them are called.”
“Oh,” Voyage relaxed and smiled, “You learn something new every day,”
“You sure do. How many skewered frogs would you like?”
Voyage scanned the menu for the price. 2 copper pieces each.
“Two,” Voyage answered.
“And some water?”
“Yeah,”
The gnome turned toward the kitchen and handed a smock-wearing satyr a piece of paper. She poured some water into a glass before passing it to Voyage. Their fingers were chilled by it and the icy freshness of the drink cleared Voyage’s head when they sipped at it. When the skewered frogs arrived, Voyage almost cried because they knew that they probably couldn’t keep anything down.
“Takeaway, please?” Voyage whimpered.
The gnome turned back around and wrapped the frogs in oiled paper.
“That’ll be another copper piece,” she says.
Voyage hands one over and walks over to the table that they passed out at. Amusingly, there was a dink in the table where their tankard had been.
“I’m billing the halfling for that if they come back!” the gnome called.
“Oops,” the halfling in question said, smiling, walking through the door with the rest of the adventuring party.
“One electrum piece,” the gnome demanded, glaring at them.
The halfling sauntered up and dropped a handful of clinking silver pieces on the bar, which the gnome scooped up.
“Can I get you anything?” she asked.
The halfling paused, leaning their head on their propped up arm.
“Menu?” they finally asked.
As the halfling scoured the menu, the rest of the party walked over to Voyage’s table.
“So,” the dragonborn said, “None of us have introduced ourselves,”
She rose up to her full two or so metre height, craning her head down to look at Voyage, who felt like a very small dwarf at that moment. The dragonborn wore a dark tunic that wrapped around her body and trailed into an almost-skirt beneath a gem-studded leather belt. Dark bejewelled bracelets glowed on her wrists, but every jewel was outshone by her glinting scales and ruby eyes.
“My name is Emrir Perra. I am the leader of this quest,” she said, “Who are you?”
“I’m Voyage,” they said, blinking, “Hi,”
“Hello,” the half-orc smiled, “I’m Seraphina,”
“My name’s Mialee,” the elf said, twisting a lock of green hair around a finger.
“And I’m Orthi!” the halfling cheered, coming up to the table.
“Have you made your decision, Voyage?” Perra tilted her head.
Voyage nodded.
“I’m coming,” they smiled, “If you’ll take me,”
As Voyage walked through town they noticed that they were noticed a lot more, now that they were travelling with adventurers. Their slightly raggedy black coat, short tousled hair, scuffed boots and many-pocketed backpack wasn’t much to look at, though they did get the occasional curious look for being a beardless dwarf or having streaks of luminescent aquamarine in their hair.
No, they are not natural. You can find all kinds of dyes in the Feywild.
They marched through the town of - - - unfinished :(
- - - Time skip: They’re out of the town and in the Cloudcry Forest - - -
The leaves CRUNCHed under Voyage’s boots as they tried to keep up with their taller party members. Brie the halfling was cheating by hitching a ride on Seraphina the half-orc. Voyage also had to keep looking at their feet so they didn’t trip on a gnarled root, a mossy rock or worse yet, into a ring of mushrooms. Voyage knew the dangers of stepping into one too well. It had been in another forest, where the trees weren’t quite as tall but equally as gnarled. Sunlight had streamed through the leaves there too, dawn light rather than midday sun, but Voyage hadn’t been walking, they - no, he then - had been carried by loving, desperate arms, trembling and watching over dada’s shoulder for fire and lightning lighting up the sky, brighter than the sunrise, shooting through the bloodred sunrise. He hadn’t expected the JOLT of dada tripping so he SHRIIIIEEEKED as they fell, fell into HELL and mama was there too but then she was r i p p e d away it was too dark he couldn’t see, they couldn’t see, he and his dada couldn’t see and then he couldn’t see his dada DADA DADA WHERE ARE YOUUU and then he was walking running stumbling
Voyage stumbled on a small root and squeaked. The rest of the party looked back at them and Voyage flushed.
“I’m fine,” they called, resting a hand on the rough bark of the tree they tripped over.
Were they?
Voyage hurriedly hopped to the rest of the party. Once they caught up, they all started walking again. This time, Voyage tried not to get caught in memories as dark and twisted as the feyd- tried not to get caught in memories. They looked up every so often to see birds of all colours and sizes flitting through the treetops, small mammals slinking along branches or a particularly vibrant flower. One blooming vine of yellow-orange flowers reminded Voyage of some flower crowns that they had woven with their boyfriend. That memory was a reminder that most memories made in the Feywild were happy ones.
Memories!
Darn it, Voyage needed to FOCUS.
- - - Time skip: the whole adventure, to the very end - - -
Voyage ambled into the Tiamat Tavern and sunk into the same seat that Perra and the rest of the exploring party woke them up in. They thumbed a dink in the table with a trembling hand and felt the sides of their mouth rise.
“What happened to you?” the gnome behind the bar tilted her head.
The shoulders of Voyage’s coat had frayed at the seams and one of its coattails had been torn off, making Voyage look like a short lopsided crow. Their brown hair was tangled and matted, with only dim streaks of the dyed aqua left at the tips. Their boots were scuffed, covered in indescribable gunk and the left shoe’s sole was flapping a little. Their hands were grimy and grazed, and they guessed that their face didn’t look too good either.
“Rough week,” Voyage shrugged.
The gnome nodded in understanding and went back to polishing the bar table.
Note: Hi y’all! I’m submitting this as a work in progress in the hopes of it being put on the slideshow. Because of this, there are several unfinished paragraphs and time skips. I’ll put notes in to say how long the time skips are. Hopefully by the holidays I’ll have written the whole story!
Dedicated to everyone who’s excited for the Honor Among Thieves movie. If you haven’t watched the trailer, do that. Put this story down. Watch the trailer. Congratulations! This story is now dedicated to you :)))
Content Warning: Jeez. Last time I wrote a Writer’s Club story it had themes of discrimination and dysphoria, and this one covers trauma and PTSD??? Why do I keep covering heavy topics??????
Real Content Warning: Fantasy Alcohol, Drunkenness, D&D Taverns, Trauma, Traumatic D&D Backstory, Violence, Violence Against Frogs, Sorry Frog Lovers, Voyage Loves Their Skewered Frogs
Complementary Song List: Jimmy by Moriarty, Bardic Inspiration (From “1 for All”) by Deerstalker Pictures (Don’t listen to that one unless you’re 13 or older), Jake Nielsen and Ned McPhie, Be a Monk (Cover of “Be a Man” from Mulan) by Cami-Cat, any version of He’s A Pirate (From “Pirates of the Caribbean”) originally composed by Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer, Traveler’s Song by Aviators
D&D Translations - Sometimes in this story, characters speak little bits of different fantasy languages. I’ll translate them just before they appear in the story.
Most D&D characters can learn languages that “aren’t spoken” by their race. That’s how Voyage knows Elvish: their boyfriend (an eladrin elf) taught them.
Here are the translators I used!
Draconic (Spoken by Dragons, Half-Dragons, Dragonborn, Kobolds, etc) - https://draconic.twilightrealm.com/
Elvish (Spoken by Elves) - https://lingojam.com/CommontoElvish%28D%26D%29
“Oh, come oooon, let’s ask,” a voice said, piercing through the fog of Voyage’s brain like sunshine through thick clouds.
“Are you sure we should?” another answered, sceptical.
“We need another magic user,” a deep, gravelly voice argued, “And it’s not every day you find a whole adventuring party in a single tavern,”
“If you’re sure,” the second voice sighed.
Voyage’s tankard was slammed onto the table by a small, tanned hand and they shot up in their seat.
“I’MSORRYIDIDN’TMEANTOTAKeyour- oh,” Voyage blinked and rubbed their eyes. In front of them were four humanoids who looked the adventuring sort.
A halfling in a peacock blue tunic with little multicoloured pockets sewn onto it wherever there was room was holding the handle of Voyage’s tankard. They were smiling, pleased, so Voyage assumed that they were the one who woke them up. A yellow handkerchief poked out of a pocket near their left sleeve. Voyage themself had a yellow-saffron ribbon tied through a hole in their shirt that had nearly frayed apart.
A half-orc with the greyish skin of her non-human parent towered behind the halfling. She wore a pale dress embroidered with fruit and a green shawl over her shoulders.
An elf in a fine purple vest and leggings was idly tightening the bandages around her wrists. Voyage couldn’t see any blood, so they assumed the bandages were to prevent injury rather than to heal it.
The last humanoid towered above the rest, even the half-orc. Her skin was covered by gleaming scales. Each one looked like it was polished by hand until they shone and shimmered in the sun. The flickering firelight danced across them. Voyage was so mesmerised by them that they almost didn’t hear the dragonborn speak.
“We are on a quest to explore the Cloudcry Rainforest. Would you like to accompany us?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.
“What do I get?” Voyage quirked an eyebrow.
“One fifth of any treasure we find,” she answered, “and an adventure,”
Voyage nodded, biting their lip in thought.
“There’s just one thing…” Voyage said, “Why do you want me on this adventure? How do I know you didn’t just go up to the first drunk dwarf you could find and trick them into an ambush?”
“You’re paranoid,” the dragonborn observed.
Voyage shrugged. “It’s the kind of thing I’d do,”
“How about this,” the halfling butted in, “Let’s wait until midday to make a decision. You can go, sober up and think about it and we can pack and make arrangements or something. We’ll meet back here after,”
Voyage nodded, then frowned. “Midday tomorrow?”
“Midday today…?” the halfling mirrored their expression.
“But it’s-” Voyage looked out the window, “MORADIN’S INEXPRESSIBLES! It’s morning already!?”
Voyage stumbled off their chair and started shoving everything into their bag with shaking hands that they glared at, futilely commanding them to be still. Then they stopped and looked up.
“Why me?” they asked again.
“We could do with another magic user,” the dragonborn explained.
“How’d you know that I…?”
“Your Arcane Focus is sticking out of your pocket,” she nodded at it.
Voyage attempted to subtly nudge their crystal back in. The adventurers kindly didn’t mention the weird spasm the movement turned into.
“We’ll leave you be for now,” the halfling grinned, “See you at midday!”
The adventurers left Voyage to grumble at their bag underneath the table. They scooped up Kindling the stick insect and put him on their shoulder. Kindling brushed Voyage’s neck soothingly with his antennae as they yawned and got up.
{ I passed out because I drank too much Silver’s Ale. Have you ever done that, Feelia? Drank till you dropped? Maybe if you stayed on the Material Plane as a humanoid more often you would’ve.
I was woken by a bunch of adventurers who wanted me to explore the Cloudcry Rainforest with them. I have until midday to decide whether to go or not. Is that even a decision? I’d worry that the ale is stopping me from thinking properly, but my hands are steady enough to write and I’m pretty sure I’d choose to go anyway.
I’ve got my questing pack and daggers, so I’m prepared. If I need to eat I’m sure I can scrounge something.
You can thank Kindling for getting me away from town. I probably would’ve stumbled into a thieves’ den and you would’ve lost your favourite disciple. For that, I’ve once more decided not to burn him this week.
Send my love to Qinqan!
All the best,
Voyage }
A few hours later, Voyage ambled toward the tavern. The sign swinging from the roof was painted with five dragon heads of different colours, proudly (and controversially) proclaiming the name of the establishment: THE TIAMAT TAVERN.
They leaned on the door to push it open and walked inside.
The adventurers weren’t there, so Voyage walked up to the bar. The gnome waiting behind it looked at them through narrowed eyes.
“I hope you aren’t planning to drink more. I know how much you ordered last night,” she scolded, “That Hair of the Dog ‘cure’ doesn’t work at all. The best thing for hangovers is a glass o’ water and food,”
“I’ll have that, please,” Voyage said.
The gnome gave them a hard stare and passed them a menu. Voyage glanced down the selection of meals before settling on an old favourite that they had cooked themself many times.
“Skewered frogs, please,” they ordered.
“Good choice,” the gnome nodded, “Zeliya went hunting yesterday and brought back a whole army,”
“A whole WHAT?” Voyage hissed, freezing.
“An army of frogs,” the gnome explained, amused, “That’s what a group of them are called.”
“Oh,” Voyage relaxed and smiled, “You learn something new every day,”
“You sure do. How many skewered frogs would you like?”
Voyage scanned the menu for the price. 2 copper pieces each.
“Two,” Voyage answered.
“And some water?”
“Yeah,”
The gnome turned toward the kitchen and handed a smock-wearing satyr a piece of paper. She poured some water into a glass before passing it to Voyage. Their fingers were chilled by it and the icy freshness of the drink cleared Voyage’s head when they sipped at it. When the skewered frogs arrived, Voyage almost cried because they knew that they probably couldn’t keep anything down.
“Takeaway, please?” Voyage whimpered.
The gnome turned back around and wrapped the frogs in oiled paper.
“That’ll be another copper piece,” she says.
Voyage hands one over and walks over to the table that they passed out at. Amusingly, there was a dink in the table where their tankard had been.
“I’m billing the halfling for that if they come back!” the gnome called.
“Oops,” the halfling in question said, smiling, walking through the door with the rest of the adventuring party.
“One electrum piece,” the gnome demanded, glaring at them.
The halfling sauntered up and dropped a handful of clinking silver pieces on the bar, which the gnome scooped up.
“Can I get you anything?” she asked.
The halfling paused, leaning their head on their propped up arm.
“Menu?” they finally asked.
As the halfling scoured the menu, the rest of the party walked over to Voyage’s table.
“So,” the dragonborn said, “None of us have introduced ourselves,”
She rose up to her full two or so metre height, craning her head down to look at Voyage, who felt like a very small dwarf at that moment. The dragonborn wore a dark tunic that wrapped around her body and trailed into an almost-skirt beneath a gem-studded leather belt. Dark bejewelled bracelets glowed on her wrists, but every jewel was outshone by her glinting scales and ruby eyes.
“My name is Emrir Perra. I am the leader of this quest,” she said, “Who are you?”
“I’m Voyage,” they said, blinking, “Hi,”
“Hello,” the half-orc smiled, “I’m Seraphina,”
“My name’s Mialee,” the elf said, twisting a lock of green hair around a finger.
“And I’m Orthi!” the halfling cheered, coming up to the table.
“Have you made your decision, Voyage?” Perra tilted her head.
Voyage nodded.
“I’m coming,” they smiled, “If you’ll take me,”
As Voyage walked through town they noticed that they were noticed a lot more, now that they were travelling with adventurers. Their slightly raggedy black coat, short tousled hair, scuffed boots and many-pocketed backpack wasn’t much to look at, though they did get the occasional curious look for being a beardless dwarf or having streaks of luminescent aquamarine in their hair.
No, they are not natural. You can find all kinds of dyes in the Feywild.
They marched through the town of - - - unfinished :(
- - - Time skip: They’re out of the town and in the Cloudcry Forest - - -
The leaves CRUNCHed under Voyage’s boots as they tried to keep up with their taller party members. Brie the halfling was cheating by hitching a ride on Seraphina the half-orc. Voyage also had to keep looking at their feet so they didn’t trip on a gnarled root, a mossy rock or worse yet, into a ring of mushrooms. Voyage knew the dangers of stepping into one too well. It had been in another forest, where the trees weren’t quite as tall but equally as gnarled. Sunlight had streamed through the leaves there too, dawn light rather than midday sun, but Voyage hadn’t been walking, they - no, he then - had been carried by loving, desperate arms, trembling and watching over dada’s shoulder for fire and lightning lighting up the sky, brighter than the sunrise, shooting through the bloodred sunrise. He hadn’t expected the JOLT of dada tripping so he SHRIIIIEEEKED as they fell, fell into HELL and mama was there too but then she was r i p p e d away it was too dark he couldn’t see, they couldn’t see, he and his dada couldn’t see and then he couldn’t see his dada DADA DADA WHERE ARE YOUUU and then he was walking running stumbling
Voyage stumbled on a small root and squeaked. The rest of the party looked back at them and Voyage flushed.
“I’m fine,” they called, resting a hand on the rough bark of the tree they tripped over.
Were they?
Voyage hurriedly hopped to the rest of the party. Once they caught up, they all started walking again. This time, Voyage tried not to get caught in memories as dark and twisted as the feyd- tried not to get caught in memories. They looked up every so often to see birds of all colours and sizes flitting through the treetops, small mammals slinking along branches or a particularly vibrant flower. One blooming vine of yellow-orange flowers reminded Voyage of some flower crowns that they had woven with their boyfriend. That memory was a reminder that most memories made in the Feywild were happy ones.
Memories!
Darn it, Voyage needed to FOCUS.
- - - Time skip: the whole adventure, to the very end - - -
Voyage ambled into the Tiamat Tavern and sunk into the same seat that Perra and the rest of the exploring party woke them up in. They thumbed a dink in the table with a trembling hand and felt the sides of their mouth rise.
“What happened to you?” the gnome behind the bar tilted her head.
The shoulders of Voyage’s coat had frayed at the seams and one of its coattails had been torn off, making Voyage look like a short lopsided crow. Their brown hair was tangled and matted, with only dim streaks of the dyed aqua left at the tips. Their boots were scuffed, covered in indescribable gunk and the left shoe’s sole was flapping a little. Their hands were grimy and grazed, and they guessed that their face didn’t look too good either.
“Rough week,” Voyage shrugged.
The gnome nodded in understanding and went back to polishing the bar table.