This is a work of fan fiction, created for entertainment purposes only and with no claim to the characters depicted. Ownership of RWBY characters and concepts belongs to Rooster Teeth. Dungeons and Dragons and the d20 System belong to Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast. The World of Ere setting belongs to Landon Porter and Paradox-Omni Entertainment.

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Chapter 38: Session 4 Part 5 – Not So Random Encounters

"Men have returned!" Jaune declared, making his voice deep, loud and dramatic. He was carrying a sushi container in one hand and the burgers in the other. "We hunt the mighty mammoth."

Ren followed him through the kitchen door, Nora's reheated meatball sub and his own Italian classic. "Or refrigerated fast food."

Jaune ignored him. "Travel many leagues for many moons."

"About six feet and ten minutes." Ren passed Nora her sandwich and sat his own down before heading over to where the drinks were. From the assortment set out, he selected two root beers – two caffeine-free root beers – before returning to his seat, passing one to Nora.

"We were victorious!" Jaune continued, taking a seat next to Pyrrha and sliding her food to her. "Cook meat with fire. Slay towering oak to eat fish with non-fish sticks."

Unwrapping his sub, Ren smirked. "That would be microwaved some hamburgers and raided the drawers for chopsticks."

Jaune interrupted his act to pull a face at Ren before putting on a stern expression and nodding toward Pyrrha's meal. "Me good provider though. Remember remove lettuce, pickle and tomato before microwave so no get mooshy and gross."

For her part, Pyrrha rewarded him with a quick kiss and a smile. "A hunter without peer and a master chef as well. I'm so lucky."

"Now that's a keeper," Yang mused. "P-Money, if you can get him to do that trick where you put the fries in the oven so they get crispy again, you never let him go."

"He had me at being the only other one here who uses chopsticks for something other to give themselves walrus tusks," Blake teased. "Speaking of which, did I ever tell you guys about the time Yang got a splinter up her nose?"

The blonde huffed, "And this suddenly stopped being fun. So, uh, pizza's gonna take like twenty minutes. You guys gonna get back to your game?"

Ruby cleared her throat. "You could go down there and play with them, you know?" She held up her bowl. "See? Soup's all done. And I even feel a little better." A her luck would have it, she picked that moment to sneeze. It wasn't just one sneeze either, but a dozen or so rapid-fire kitten sneezes that caused her to drop her bowl.

In a blink, Yang was there with a box of tissues. "Really? All better you say?"

The younger sister glared. "Never said all better," she said stubbornly. Yang just smirked, arms crossed.

"Yang is right, however," Penny piped up from the head of the table, "We should get back to the game. Just as a refresher: You just defeated two Beowulf-infected people. Darian managed to suppress the infection in one while Everlee shot and killed the other—after it bit and infected Lynn."

A spark of dark glee entered her eyes as she continued. "And as we return, the clockwork bullet's countdown finally reaches zero and it explodes. The dull thump of the explosive is muffled by the crack of ribs and sternum as, with only a small bullet wound to exit through his chest bursts open in a hail of bloody gobbets of viscera."

"Ruby, I thought you had an agreement concerning the level of gore," Ren said, cringing a bit.

Penny stopped immediately. "Oh. I'm sorry, Ren. After hearing Ruby describe some of your previous sessions—including one in which Lynn and Seripheid were –and here I will quote Ruby-'covered in so much blood, it was like an anime character got a paper cut'-I assumed this description would be appropriate."

At this Ren tipped his head, admitting he understood where she was coming from. "There's something to be said for delivery. You're very... matter of fact when describing gory. It's uncomfortably like hearing the Terminator telling you how he's going to kill you."

"Very well, I will limit my descriptions of gory violence." She looked back to Ruby on the screen. "Have you considered using the X-card, Ruby? Mr. Ozpin has required I always use them when running games at the Wizard's Tower after my Call of Cthulu game resulted in a very high carpet cleaning bill."

"We only just started having new players like last game," Ruby said, "And I'm usually pretty tame."

Blake smirked. "But your first new player was Yang. She's the reason X-cards exist."

"I feel like I'm being insulted, but I don't quite know why..." the blonde bruiser said grumpily.

"Basically it's a formal way for someone at the table to say 'can we not' when it comes to something that makes them uncomfortable without having to make a big 'thing' out of it." said Blake.

Yang chuckled fondly. "Yeah, I would totally give those things a work out."

"In any event," Penny cut in, "the noise of the fight and the explosion attract the attention of other patrons of the inn. People are starting to come out of their rooms to see what's happening—and finding everyone but Lynn and Everlee standing around Darian holding an unconscious woman."

"Somehow I don't think 'this isn't what it looks like' is gonna cut it," said Jaune. "I..."

"Before you can offer any explanation, there's a heavy tromping of boots coming up the stairs and a heavyset but muscular man with a neatly trimmed black beard. Seripheid—the real Seripheid—recognizes him as the owner of the in. 'What's going on here?' he demands only to then spot Darian and the woman. 'Gods be merciful! What's going on here?!"

Jaune, Blake and Ren all started to say something, but Penny continued. "From one of the doors, a man in a nice coat and trousers with a long, lean face and mustache shouts, "They attacked her! I saw the whole thing. That poor woman and her husband in their room!"

"How did..." Nora started, indignant.

"We're being framed." Blake said, with a suspicious glare. "Everyone run for it!"

Nora squawked. "What?! Is that the guy who set this up with the infectious monsters and stuff?" Brimming with righteous fury, she snatched up her dice. "I'll murderlize him! Roll for initiative, monkey boy!"

"Nora," Jaune help up a placating hand, "The guards will be here any minute and if we get into a fight with the guards, we'll either end up in jail, kicked out of the city or mobbed with guardsmen until someone crits and we die." He turned to Penny. "I'm going to grab the woman, toss her over my shoulder and book it back down the stairs."

"Um—and this is in character... as Seri, not Seripheid," Pyrrha piped up with an amused little smirk, "Why are we taking her with us?"

"I agree, she's dead weight," added Blake.

At this, Jaune gave a snort. "Great. Two token evil teammates. Anyway, Darian says, 'She's just a victim in all this. We need to cure her just as much as we do Lynn. Plus, it seems like she was infected to get at us, so she's our responsibility."

"Also, if we leave her here and she reverts, we end up with a whole inn full of infected monsters."

"So we leave her, but also leave this place forever." Pyrrha suggested. "Everybody wins."

Meanwhile, Nora's angry would not be assuaged. "Can I bite the guy that just ratted us out? Would that infect him?"

"Not the time," said Blake. "Penny, can I grab Lynn and pull her out the window with me?"

Penny gave a thoughtful look. "Well, Ruby said that this group has a no football tackles rule, so I can't just let you attack and grab her..."

'No football tackles' was a popular rule against attacking fellow players even if the attack was non-lethal. It had become increasingly necessary as Jaune played more and more paladins, Ren played more and more thieves and Nora occasionally got bored.

"It's okay," Nora chirped, "I'm not gonna fight getting out of here. It's just that Lynn's. So. Mad." She looked to the table as a whole. "Just promise we'll kill this horse-faced guy later, okay?" She got a chorus of agreement and nods at this. "Good. Let's go."

Satisfied that she had permission, Blake continued. "Okay then. No time to climb we're just going to jump the one story. DC 15 to reduce damage for jumping down, right?" Penny nodded and both Blake and Nora rolled. The results were 19 and 26 respectively.

"Alright, two of you are now outside on the street," declared Penny. "Just to be clear, is everyone running? You all get a surprise round for reacting as soon as things turned against you."

Jaune nodded. "I've got the woman and I'm running flat you. Four times speed. Letting my other spells drop."

Penny nodded and looked to Pyrrha. "You've got two characters to decide for. What are they doing?"

"Hmm," Pyrrha looked at the table thoughtfully. "Seriphied really isn't implicated in this yet. She could just pretend to have been up here because of the commotion. But... is she really that kind of person? I never planned on ever actually playing the real Seriphied."

All this time, Ren had been surveying the scene with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Actually, Pyrrha, don't worry about it. I have an idea that should prove very useful." Reaching across the table, he placed a finger atop his mini, sliding it past the Seriphied mini on its way to the stairs. "Talking's still a free action, so Penny, as I pass Seriphied, I whisper 'If you still care to help us, stay here. Find out everything you can about that guy.' And them I'm away."

"Nicely done," said Blake. "We're all out now, right?" Penny nodded. "Good. All of you, follow me!" She scooped up her d20 and rolled. The moment she saw the result, her face fell. "Oh. Um... so that's a natural one for Knowledge: Local to find a place to lay low."

Something dangerous flashed in Penny's eyes. "Natural 1?"

"Penny," Ruby chided from the TV screen. "Be nice."

The predatory gleam faded and Penny waved it off cheerfully. "Right. No critical failures in this game. But, all of you get out into the alley behind the inn. Someone upstairs is shouting for the watch, and... well you all have nowhere to go."

"Back to our inn?" Pyrrha suggested.

"They saw us," Blake pointed out. "They'll give the guards our descriptions."

Jaune rubbed his chin, looking from each of his friends and then to Penny and Ruby. "Actually... not Everlee or Lynn. You two were in the room and no one saw you. We... we can use this. But for right now, talking might be a free action, but we're not going to be able to stay here long. Please tell me some of those grenades are smoke."

Blake nodded. "Of course, but what's the point of giving us cover if we don't have a place to go?"

"Bardic Knowledge," Ren piped up. "Jaune, you get to roll Bardic Knowledge alongside any Knowledge check and it doesn't matter if you're trained or not." At some point, he'd picked up his phone and was flicking through the rule book. "See if you know where there's a temple to Dey." He noted a few askance looks from Jaune and Nora, who hadn't bothered reading all the setting information.

Luckily for him, Pyrrha took over the explanation for him. "She's the goddess of duty and pragmatism... and also criminals. They hide fugitives all the time. If we get to one of her temples, they'll give us a place where we can lay low. And... now that I think of it, Penny, can I make an untrained check to know where one is as well? Knowing where to hide after a crime is pretty much her thing."

Penny nodded. "Go right ahead. But remember, you only have so long before the watch arrives and finds you." One blue and one white dice rolled for Jaune, granting him a 15 total. Pyrrha on the other hand, rolled 19. "Okay. Well Seri has in fact made it a point to have located places to lie low as soon as you arrived. She knows where the Deyic temple is; a little over halfway across town."

"Then here's a plan," Jaune said, having put everything together in his mind's eye. "Everlee, fill the street outside the inn with smoke. You and Lynn should go back to our inn and get our stuff. The rest of us are going to make for the temple. We'll meet up there and think of our next move."

"So..." Blake said, looking to Penny. "Time cut?"

Everyone agreed to this course of action and to their surprise, Penny allowed them to carry off their escape at only the cost of two of Everlee's smoke grenades. In fact, she called for a short break while she convened upstairs with Ruby. It seemed that for all their planning, they hadn't expected the party to visit the Deyic temple.

Food was eaten, small talk was made and then Penny returned, passing a handful of index cards to Pyrrha and Blake. As the two young women read, she dove into the set dressing.

"The temple of Dey is a simple affair: a cinderblock longhouse adjacent to the warehouse district. There is a small, walled off bazaar attached to it on the north end, and other decorative walls adorned with carvings of the gray hand icon of Dey on them, blocking sight from the street to the various entrances. There are no windows. Written above the main entrance are the words 'To those their due which needs no eye to witness, no reward but in the doing. Find now solace. Find now comfort. Find now absolution.'."

An amused smile had grown on Pyrrha's face from reading the notes passed to her and it only grew bigger hearing the legend above the door. "I can see why Seri likes this place."

"I can see why a lot of people would like this place," agreed Ren. "Or be really concerned about anyone that comes here often."

"Assassins, con artists, murderers. Seri's home." Pyrrha chuckled.

Penny continued. "As you pass through the doors, you feel yourself moving through an invisible barrier. Soothing energy crackles over your bodies it doesn't heal you, but you magically know that any damage you do in here will be non-lethal and any dead effects you generate fail.

"Inside, a short set of stone steps go down into a long stone hall. In the middle are two rows of tables, each big enough for six people to sit comfortable. They each have an iron lantern on them lit with a dim magelight. A handful of people are here; scattered among the tables or sacked out on bedrolls between the pillars off to the side. At the far end of the room is an altar carved in the shape of a huge hand. A heap of coins and trinkets sit before it. At the table nearest to the altar, there's a cluster of people. The one at the head of the table spots you and stands up.

"He is tall and well dressed in a long white leather coat with black embellishments. A black bowler hat sits jauntily atop his head and he wields a cane with panache. 'Well look who finally found their way this far west. Not sure if I'm happy to see you or not after what you pulled last time, Red.' his expression sours though when he sees Everlee. 'And I see you found worse company than yourself to our safe little hideaway.'"

Everyone else was looking back and forth between Pyrrha and Blake with a variety of 'what did you do' expressions.

Penny, however, kept it up. "At the man's subtle direction, a number of people around you at the tables draw weapons and start to stand up, but they aren't attacking just yet."

Blake and Pyrrha shared a look and by unspoken consensus, Pyrrha took point. "Well, well, well. Greco Blaise; I'm going to be honest—I'm shocked you survived. Good for you."

Affecting the attitude and demeanor she'd seen around school from Roman Torchwick (one that both she and Ruby agreed was perfect for a charismatic gangster type), Penny slumped languidly back in her seat. "Not helping your case, Red. Now we're in Dey's house and you won't die... but that doesn't mean being shanked doesn't hurt, ya know?"

Blithely, Pyrrha let loose a short laugh. "Are you really anxious to see if the same applies to third degree burns over the majority of your body?" She cocked her head and gave a musing expression. "And we both know Dey's protection doesn't extend to your... very fine hat." Then she tossed a glance in Blake's direction. "But I am interested in hearing how you think she's worse than me. I've found her to be delightful."

"Everlee glares back at Seri and takes over," said Blake. "'Oh, I know why. But you ought to know... Greco was it? That whatever you've heard, things have changed. The game's not about muscling you out, it's gotten a lot more dangerous. Ever heard of Arthur Watts? He's here, in town. I saw him at an inn tonight. And towns he shows up in? They don't last long."

Confusion ran wild among the others who looked between each other, then at Blake and Penny.

Every one except Nora of course. Instead, she hopped out of her seat and began a victory dance. "I knew it! She was a bad guy!"

At this, everyone paused.

"Well... yeah," said Jaune.

"We knew that," added Ren.

Pyrrha nodded in agreement. "That part was pretty obvious."

For her part, Blake definitely did not pout.

Nora's victory dance slowed until she was standing dumbfounded at the table. "Huh? Then why was every one all 'shock' and 'ooh' then?"

"Nora..." Ren started, "Did you miss the part about this Watts killing towns?"

She shurgged. "Well duh. We're us and we're in a town. PCs plus town equals doomed. This place might as well be wearing a red shirt unless we decide it's going to be out base of operations." Then her eyes lit up. "Ooh, so that's the plot. We get to fight this Watts guy and his army of Klyntar/Wolf hybrids!"

At this point, Jaune raised his hand. "Actually, if we do this right, we won't have to fight?" He waved off the disappointed expression from Nora. "Wait, you'll like this. Hey Blake, when Everlee says she saw Watts tonight... was that the guy that accused us?"

Blake brandished one of the index cards she'd been given. "Yeah, why?"

Jaune's confidence grew visibly. "So I'm guessing this is usually the way he does his 'town destroying' thing: infects people with something awful, then let nature take its course. Well, he doesn't want to get infected himself right? So he'll have a cure or a vaccine or something on him in case one of his monsters bites him." He nodded to himself as his resolve solidified. "Not only that, but we need to find out why he framed us. Plus, well we promised Nora we'd kill him."

He might have expected the others to rally around his choice, but instead, Penny picked up the dice.

Ren cleared his throat. "Right after we keep this room full of scum and villainy from kicking our asses. You do have a plan for that, right?"

"Right. That. Um..."

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I have returned!

Sorry for being away for so long, but I have been hard at work forging the tabletop roleplaying game from this very fic into something fun and playable. With the help of the playtesters who started out as commenters right here, the time have finally came to Kickstart said game. If you're interested in playing the same game as the gang are, check our Worldofere DOT com for more information.

But this isn't all about shameless plugs. No, this is about my return to writing now that life isn't beating me to death anymore. Look for more of both my original fiction and the fics I left unfinished last year coming in the new year!

Fun fact: I almost forgot Roman was a character in this universe and had him just be Roman in-game as well. None of Salem's crew (Cinder's clique doesn't count) except maybe Salem herself is though, so they're fair game for minions of the Queen of Thorns.