The Trial Of: Act VI - The Mystic Forest

ACT VI: The Mystic Forest

After clearing the area of vampires, you have learned of a new adventure waiting to be claimed from the wizard who resides in the tower on the other end of the Mystic Forest, a wood shrouded in eternal night, and an eternal full moon. The vampires may be gone, but the werewolves and other creatures of the night remain.

>Take first step into the forest

You are immediately attacked by a werewolf.

>Politely ask for help

Deciding that this is less than ideal, you ask for help in a polite, understanding manner. Rocksworth grabs the werewolf and throws it out of the forest, which restores it to human form. The human runs back toward Selsig, and won't hurt anyone else until the next full moon.
You have no clue whether throwing the werewolves out of the forest or just killing them is the good karma option.

>Fuck it, kill every last one of them

You've already genocided the vampires, so genociding the werewolves seems logically consistent. You spend hours wandering through the forest, killing werewolves. Eventually, you run out of werewolves to kill.

>Look for something out of place

Not knowing exactly what to look for, you search and search and eventually find a cave.

>Examine cave

It's pitch-black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

>Pull out flashlight

You pull out your trusty flashlight, not remembering that you don't have any batteries for it, despite running into this same exact problem in the Kingdom of the Rats.

>Throw flashlight to the ground in disgust

Once again, you throw the flashlight to the ground, because that's never gotten you in trouble before. It bounces into the pitch-black cave. The rest of your Adventuresquad glares at you.

>Find a large hookèd stick and try to reel in the flashlight

Luckily, you are able to find a large hookèd stick within a few minutes, and manage to successfully reel in the flashlight without being eaten by a grue. Unluckily, the grues didn't see fit to put batteries in your flashlight, leaving you right back where you were before you lost your temper.

>Backtrack to Selsig to see if you can buy batteries

Rocksworth and Gwendolyn stay behind, and you and Sheriff Antony go back to Selsig's general store. Even after all the few hours you've been gone, their only stock is still beehives.

>Backtrack to Zerikzee to see if that store has batteries

You backtrack and backtrack and see that the shopkeeper has been brutally killed by a giant anchor. A big, goofy grin appears on your face without warning.

>Step over the corpse and head inside

You head inside, and find the place empty. The only other person in town is Sheriff Antony's wife.

>Ransack ransack ransack

You ransack the store. Inside the cash register, you find $1,125. It was your money to begin with, so you don't feel bad about taking it.
The shelves are remarkably barren, but behind the counter, the shopkeeper was hoarding batteries of every shape and size. You eyeball his stash, and determine that he must have exactly two of every kind of battery. It's like Noah's Ark, but with batteries. You take them all.

>Fit batteries into flashlight and turn it on

Success. The batteries did the trick, and now the flashlight works like a charm.

>Retrieve anchor and return to the Mystic Forest

You return to the Mystic Forest, dragging the heavy anchor behind you, as it is too heavy for Sheriff Antony's horse to carry. You immediately pass it off to Rocksworth. He is less annoyed this time, as he is now properly trained in its use as a weapon.

>Shine flashlight into the cave

The grues immediately shrink away from the light. However, the area behind the light is only big enough for one person to avoid being eaten. One person will have to go through the cave and try to find an alternate route for the others.

>That sounds scary; have Sheriff Antony do it

Sheriff Antony is delighted to be able to do something on his own and prove his worth as an Adventuresquad member. He charges into the cave, flashlight in hand, and you don't see him for over half an hour.
Eventually, a clicking noise is heard as the impassible trees slide away. It was yet another fake wall. Sheriff Antony gives you back your flashlight.

>Search for something strange

Skirting around the cave, you come across a large zig-zaggèd tower. You assume this is the wizard's tower, because objects don't become zig-zaggèd naturally.

>Approach tower entrance

You do not see an entrance.

>Walk confidently into the side of the tower

You walk confidently into the side of the tower, believing there to be a fake wall. You bump into the wall and hurt your nose. Sheriff Antony and Rocksworth stifle laughter. Gwendolyn checks to see if it's bleeding, not out of kindness, but rather because she is thirsty. She sees no blood and backs away, disappointed.

>Have Rocksworth smash in your own entrance to the tower

You're about to tell Rocksworth to break down the wall, but Sheriff Antony yells that he's found an entrance on the other side of the tower. You walked straight into a wall after seeing just one side of the tower.

>Have Rocksworth break down an entrance anyway

As soon as Rocksworth's rock hammer comes within an inch of the wall, your entire Adventuresquad is teleported into the wizard's study. Your actions have decreased your couth skill, lowering your skill level to "uncouth".
The wizard is pleased to see you, saying that you are just the uncouth set of rogues he has been looking for to help him with his experiments. He brags about how he brought the full moon to the Mystic Forest, as before, the forest was pitch-black and infested with grues. Now it's just infested with werewolves, which aren't even worth worrying about. (Especially now that you've killed them all.)
He grabs your hand and leads you over to a machine, telling you to hold onto a couple of wires.

>Grab the wires

As soon as you touch the wires, thousands of volts of electricity course through your body. This does not stop until the wizard turns off his machine, after what feels like hours. You fall to the floor and unconscious.

>Regain consciousness

You wake up and see Sheriff Antony and Rocksworth playing table tennis. Gwendolyn is reading a magazine. You're not sure which bothers you more: the fact that Sheriff Antony and Rocksworth decided to play ping pong without you, or the fact that the wizard got this month's issue of Big Titties Monthly before you did.
More importantly, however, the electric shock awakened within you a new secondary class: the electromancer, which will allow you to add electricity magic to any class. Seeing as it's your only secondary class, you equip it automatically.

>Ask the wizard what the fuck that was all about

The wizard tells you that your bridging his connection allowed him to open his portal to the village of Solsken. He then offers you your second true adventure: to head to the always-sunny village of Solsken and recover for him the local fruit, the banana. You have no idea what that is. He says it's long, curved, and yellow. You think that's really weird. He also wants you to pick up his drycleaning and his wetcleaning.
As a reward for completing the quest, the wizard offers up $1,000 and a magical umbrella that makes it nighttime for anyone who stands under it. This will allow Gwendolyn to move around during the daytime, and you will no longer be tied down to her schedule. You breathe a deep sigh of relief, as the whole single time you were mildly inconvenienced by it was almost too much for you to bear.
Unfortunately, he refuses to give the umbrella to you until after you complete the adventure. Gwendolyn doesn't mind, as she is engrossed in this month's issue of Big Titties Monthly, and hasn't even gotten to the new issue of Hammocks Quarterly.

>Assemble the rest of the Adventuresquad and head through the portal.

You, Sheriff Antony, and Rocksworth all head through the portal to Solsken. It's warm and sunny. You hate it instantly.
END OF ACT 6




















ACT VI STATS:
Adventuresquad Rank: 2
Members:
Jakey the human caligrapher/electromancer
Sheriff Antony the human gunslinger
Rocksworth the rock guy marauder
Gwendolyn the vampire vampire

Current adventure:
1. Obtain banana from the village of Solsken
2. Pick up the wizard's drycleaning and wetcleaning

Jakey's inventory:
⦁ RagSocks and Sandals
⦁ Selsig 1996 Potato Festival t-shirt
⦁ Bomber Jacket
⦁ Nice Khakis
⦁ Cufflinks
⦁ Upgraded Silver Ragpens (x2)
⦁
⦁ $3,725
⦁ +1 cloak of -1 everything
⦁ Rags (infinite)
⦁ Flashlight (with batteries)
⦁ Lockpicks
⦁ Dry handkerchief
⦁ False moustache (Hans disguise)
⦁ A Guide to Guys (an encyclopedia on various Guys)
⦁ Adventure Pet Papers - Scraps
⦁ Adventure Contract - Vampires in Selsig ($1,000 reward)
Jakey's abilities and equipment modifiers:
⦁ Class - Caligrapher (+30 damage with ragpen-type weapons; +15 Charisma, +15 Gumption)
⦁ Dual Wielding - Ragpens (allows two ragpens to be wielded at once)
⦁ Weapons Training - Ragpenmanship (+15 damage with ragpen-type weapons)
⦁ Adventure Pet - Scraps (binds Scraps to Jakey)
⦁ Expert - Rope Bridges (allows rope bridges to be inspected for safety before crossing)
⦁ Proficient - Aimless Wandering (increases aimlessness of wandering)
⦁ Basic French (+5 Charisma when dealing with French people)
⦁ Basic Lockpicking (allows picking of basic locks with a 100% success rate)
⦁ Remedial Bomb Arming (allows arming of remedial bombs with a 100% success rate)
⦁ Deathly Allergy - Swans (will expand upon contact with swan until either swan is removed, or you explode)
⦁ Disguise - Hans (can disguise self as Hans with a 100% success rate)
⦁ Amnesia (disables memory before a certain point)
⦁ Enemy of the Rat People (-1,000 reputation with rat people)
⦁ Whitened Teeth (+50 Dental Hygiene, +5 Charisma)
⦁ Good Karma (+50 reputation with "good" characters; -50 reputation with "evil" characters)
⦁ Canadian (+5 Charisma, +50 Cold Resistance, +50 Weakness to Heat, +25 Agility in snow)
⦁ Pudgy (cannot fit through certain spaces)
⦁
⦁ Nice Khakis (+5 Charisma, +10 Exuberance)
⦁ Bomber Jacket (+5 Charisma, +10 Defense)
⦁ HIGH FASHION (+15 Charisma, +15 Style, allows entry to fancy parties and fashion shows)
⦁ Holy Milk (being bitten by a vampire kills the vampire and does no damage to self)



Sheriff Antony's inventory:
⦁ Sheriff costume
⦁ Silver revolvers (x2)
⦁
⦁ Adventure Pet Papers - Sheriff Antony's horse
⦁ Hip flask (empty)
⦁ Wooden cross
⦁ Saltwater taffy
⦁ Vampire costume (x13)
⦁ Puppy bed
Sheriff Antony's abilities and equipment modifiers:
⦁ Class - Gunslinger (+30 damage with gun-type weapons; +10 Charisma, +10 Gumption, +10 Vision)
⦁ Dual Wielding - Revolvers (allows two revolvers to be wielded at once)
⦁ Weapons Training - Revolvers (+15 damage with revolver-type weapons)
⦁ Adventure Pet - Sheriff Antony's Horse (binds Sheriff Antony's horse to Sheriff Antony)
⦁ Animal Training - Horse (allows horses to be ridden)
⦁ Sheriff Antony's Horse - Saddlebags (allows for storage of excess items) [INACTIVE]
⦁ Appraisal - Rocks (allows accurate appraisal of rocks)
⦁ Basic Lockpicking (allows picking of basic locks with a 100% success rate)
⦁ Remedial Bomb Arming (allows arming of remedial bombs with a 100% success rate)
⦁ Enemy of the Rat People (-1,000 reputation with rat people)
⦁ British (+25 Charisma, -20 Dental Hygiene, +25 Agility in rain)
⦁ Svelte (can fit through certain spaces)
⦁
⦁ Police Uniform (+5 Style, allows entry to restricted areas)



Rocksworth's inventory:
⦁ Tuxedo
⦁ Pompadour wig
⦁ Cloak of -2 Sadness
⦁ Rockington's rock hammer
⦁
⦁ Wooden cross
⦁ Large anchor
Rocksworth's abilities and equipment modifiers:
⦁ Class - Marauder (+30 damage with blunt weapons; +20 Strength, +10 Defense)
⦁ Weapons Training - Rock Hammers (+15 damage with rock hammer-type weapons)
⦁ Weapons Training - Anchors (+15 damage with anchor-type weapons)
⦁ Made of Rock or Maybe Some Cleverly-Disguised Wood (+50 Strength, +50 Defense, immunity to disease and poison)
⦁ Basic Lockpicking (allows picking of basic locks with a 100% success rate)
⦁ Remedial Bomb Arming (allows arming of remedial bombs with a 100% success rate)
⦁ Neutral Karma (able to communicate with characters regardless of alignment)
⦁ Distrustful Toward Women (unable to take anything female characters say at face value)
⦁ Rock Guy (+50 Charisma when dealing with Rock Guys, -50 Charisma when dealing with other Guys)
⦁ Hulking (cannot fit through the majority of spaces)
⦁
⦁ In Memoriam (+20 damage when using Rockington's hammer)
⦁ Formal Attire (+10 Style, allows entry to fancy parties)
⦁ -2 Sadness (-2 Sadness)



Gwendolyn's inventory:
⦁ Fangs (bound)
⦁ White frilly shirt
⦁ Skirt
⦁ Socks and sandals
⦁
⦁ Half-empty jar of blood
⦁ Jar of blood (x750)
Gwendolyn's abilities and equipment modifiers:
⦁ Class - Vampire (+10 Charisma, +10 Gumption, +10 Strength, +10 Health, +10 Dexterity, +10 Agility)
⦁ Weapons Training - Fangs (+15 damage with fang-type weapons)
⦁ Vampirism (+50 to all stats at night; -50 to all stats during the day; Fangs (bound); fatal weakness to sunlight, holy water, garlic, religious symbols, churches, Christian Rock, light magic)
⦁ Bloodlust (must drink blood to survive)
⦁ Basic Lockpicking (allows picking of basic locks with a 100% success rate)
⦁ Remedial Bomb Arming (allows arming of remedial bombs with a 100% success rate)
⦁ Neutral Karma (able to communicate with characters regardless of alignment)
⦁ Distrustful Toward Vampires (unable to take anything vampires say at face value)
⦁ Vampire (+50 Charisma when dealing with other vampires, -50 Charisma when dealing with ghosts or mummies)
⦁ Ample Bust (+50 Charisma, can no longer fit through certain spaces)




In the saddlebags:
⦁ Ordinary Ragpens (x2)
⦁ RagShirt
⦁ RagPants
⦁ Revolvers (x2)
⦁ Beginner's Guide to Lockpicking
⦁ An Idiot's Guide to Arming Bombs
⦁ Bottom bunk note
⦁ Top bunk note
⦁ Two of every kind of battery