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Unlikely Heroes

A 163-post collection

Challenge #02390-F200: Here There Be Dragon

"I will do it, but I will do it crying." -- Anon Guest

"You've had a bad day," said the Silver Dragon, currently disguised as an Elf, in an exhibition of galaxy-scale understatement. This, considering that Anthe had just been stepped on by an Ogre and thrown into a dragon-pit, only to be revived once in the Dragon's claws. She was now battling the instinct to genuflect in the Dragon's general direction and do whatever they bade her to do. The fact that she looked like an Elf had nothing at all to do with that. Kobolds just happened to have certain instinctual reactions to Dragons. It's a fact. "Are you going to be all right?"

Anthe fought her instincts to ask if the Dragon wanted her to be all right, to beg for her life, or otherwise simper and fawn. She was much more than just a kobold, now. Dragons were just another intelligent species, who, like the Elves, had taken many advantages in centuries past. They could be dealt with as any other intelligent being, racial memory or no racial memory. Nevertheless, Anthe felt compelled to be far more politer than she may usually be. "Yes, it's not been one of my favourites. That was most observant."

To any other being, those words would be sarcastic. To the Silver Dragon, they were almost obsequious praise. This amused the Dragon and that smile had Anthe fighting every compulsion to become their toady. "Indeed. We both have battles to fight, I see. Both with our natures... you see... I have taken a vow of peace and kindness. Those people above thought to capture me and turn me to their wills once I got hungry enough. Perhaps they threw you to me as a test of will."

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Challenge #02369-F179: A Big Choice

"You have a darkness in you, that’s all too clear. You can imagine yourself doing terrible things. But that's just your imagination. For all the looming intimidation factor, when you act, I can tell you still have standards... however few they may be... and there’s some lines I’m certain even you would refuse to cross."

"Hrmph... You can't know that for sure..."

"I feel it. I have faith in you. Maybe not to always do the right thing, but

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Challenge #02358-F168: Dramatis Personae

Reading a lot of these I noticed some recurring characters. Is there any kind of character bio for them, and if not would you possibly give us some? -- Anon Guest

[AN: Not exactly a story but this must be important so...]

Amalgam Universe

Rael

  • Species: Faiize, a gengineered version of the non-cogniscent, sluglike 'cleaners' with some massive feature creep and consequent legal battle in regards to their concealed-until-undeniable cogniscence. Each Faiize is named by a computer, using a random collection of
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Challenge #02341-F151: The Perils of Convenience

Imagine a Shop for Adventurers that sells nearly everything.

Including Scrolls to Talk to other Races and even with Animals and invokal Things.

Of course those Scrolls have a Price, however they can be found on Dead People or in the Dungeon. -- Anon Guest

The chain was called Infinite Needs, and catered exclusively to Adventurers. The secret was that each pokey little shop front lead to a pocket dimension of a warehouse that was, theoretically, endless[1]. The shop had already

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Challenge #02331-F141: One Quiet Evening a Long Time Ago

"I do not sleep. I Wait." -- AmberFox

Marvin didn't understand a lot of things. He certainly didn't understand how an Elf and a Kobold managed to sweet-talk him away from the gang. The gang who -they had said- he should be grateful to forever because they let him live. The Elf and the Kobold said he shouldn't have to be grateful for table scraps and daily beatings.

He was sixteen, and already taller than most grown men. Some folks whispered that

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Challenge #02328-F138: Recommended Serving Size

(I thought of this and didn't know what to do with it. My apologies if it is not your style.)

"If you got drunk ONCE by ACCIDENT then you CANNOT call yourself an alcoholic!" -- Anon Guest

Most intelligent creatures have something close enough to alcohol for Humans to drink it and find it close enough to get drunk on. Elves have a potent honey brew that, after a few beginning incidents, were served to the Humans in thimble-sized glasses. Elves drink

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Challenge #02283-F093: A Lie For the Lye

The human smiled wickedly. "You know what they say about a man with nothing to lose?" -- Anon Guest

His name was Marvin. He was a little bit hopeless, when it came to social interaction. He had started as a fighter in the sway of a bad gang, belittled for everything he said or did. Since he swapped teams, he had grown. Physically, mentally, emotionally. He was still pants at social interactions but the rest of his team were there to help.

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Challenge #02280-F090: Take My Hand

The tomboyish girl is actually not a tomboy. She has more dresses than you can imagine, she just understands that a dress is not suitable for her line of work -- Anon Guest

In every village with a dressmaker, Lady Anthe would order a dress. The rest of their group would hear nothing more about it and honestly believed that they would never see them again. Even Wraithvine was mystified and ze had hundreds of years of experience with almost everything. The

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Challenge #02265-F075: Realised Set-up

A character rips up some paper -- writingprompts365

[AN: My hub site is down and therefore so is my prompts queue. In the meantime, I'm making do with the tag #writing-prompts on Tumblr. Normal services will resume as soon as we establish what 'normal' is]

In retrospect, maybe they shouldn't have taken the job from Lee R. "Slick" DeSchonko. In retrospect, letting Marvin do the negotiations was a bad idea. The Human fighter and trainee wizard was the most open and trusting

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Challenge #02246-F056: Before You Can Fly

Hope may be the wings,

but courage is the belief

you were born to fly.

~Tyler Knott Gregson -- Anon Guest

Is there any greater motivation to the heart, mind, and soul than the words, you can't? The tinkerer known as Steelfoot didn't think so. She lost her feet to the cruelest winter that had ever cursed the northlands, and her legs below the knee with them. She was told she would never walk, she would never run.

She studied the metalworkers

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Challenge #02237-F047: Could Be Worse

So, the big dangerous creature you were supposed to be fighting is now bawling it's eyes out. Worse still, a few of your crewmates/party keep giving it empathetic looks. What are you supposed to do? -- Anon Guest

The gigantic beast sat in the middle of the chamber and howled like an infant. Marvin, Wraithvine, and Lady Anthe all glared at Rumtum.

"You idiot," said Lady Anthe. "Why would you claw a baby inside its nose?"

"Now it's mother's going to

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Challenge #02231-F041: Workarounds

"You're being stingy."

"Yes, I know." -- Anon Guest

"I warned you," said Lady Anthe. "These caverns are not as friendly as the rest of the Underdark. You won't find luminous mushrooms or special glowing crystals here, and most of the fungus among us is either deadly poison or just plain carnivorous. I used to survive in places like this."

"You mean you used to live--"

Anthe cut Marvin's well-meaning correction off. "I wouldn't call it living. After three more days, neither

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Challenge #02213-F023: Prepared Countermeasures

A villain always mind-controls the same person to do their bidding because everyone knows that person is a goofy sweetheart who nobody wants to hurt, especially the hero. -- Anon Guest

"Oh shit," said Wraithvine.

Lady Anthe looked. Swore. Damnit. Marvin was possessed. Again. "Damnit, Marvin," she sighed.

Rumtum volunteered, "I could stab him until he's unconscious," and didn't even notice that the other two were glaring at him.

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Challenge #02199-F009: Much Mightier

"The pen is mightier than the Sword."

--insert knife in the Shape of a writing-Feather here-- -- Anon Guest

[AN: The word combo you were looking for is "writing quill" btw]

It was a beautiful blade. Someone had made it look like the wing-feather of a goose, only three times the size. Every detail was there. The rachis, the vanes, even the fine detail of the interlocking barbs. Whoever forged it had even made the crossguard look like a cluster of long,

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Challenge #02193-E364: Baby Steps Please

Welcome to wizardry, where people with awful ideas and no social skills invoke supernatural forces to gain power and respect. Almost makes you want to tap out and start a little shop selling healing potions, huh? -- Anon Guest

They say that anyone could be a wizard. They never say whether or not anyone should be a wizard. This was zipping through Lady Anthe's mind as she raced after Melvin and the phantasm he had conjured. She was the fastest of the

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