Jack Baker

@Bastian Raze and his spirit quietly dispatched the vines, slicing them up quickly and efficiently, their moves almost as one. More of them sprouted from the ground and quickly zoned in on the group. Thanatos flew back in front of Raze, prepared to defend him. "Agidyne!" Raze shouted, as Thanatos opened its metal jaws and let out a torrent of flames that quickly disintegrated the vines before they could touch him. It then dashed forward and quickly cut more vines that were out there.

@Bastian Raze looked at him, bewildered. "You IDIOT!" he shouted at the monk. "It's not a gun!!" He looked over his left. The blow knocked it over to the side where more plunderseeds were about to surround it. He quickly stood up, running and cutting any other vines approaching him. He slid to the ground and picked it up, once again pointing it to his head. "Focus..." he said quietly. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then opened them. "THANATOS!!!" He shouted, pulling the trigger. A sound like a gunshot followed by the light sounds of broken glass resounded through the air as blue flames surround the area around Raze. A large, menacing creature materialized itself in front of him. It drew its sword and let out a loud roar that resounded throughout the city, then flew around cutting the vines as they went. Raze stood up and began to follow the spirit's lead.

@Bastian @Windy Breeze @Samurai Equine As Raze was kicked back by the other fighter, three plunderseed vines began to approach him at terrifying speed. He spun around and swung his longsword at all three of them, chopping them in one clean strike. More vines began to surround the group, which he cut down one by one. The situation was looking dire. Along with the mare and family being held hostage he couldn't think of many other options. "So... it's come to this then," he said, as he un-holstered his Evoker from his right side. Gripping the pistol like object tightly, he held the barrel towards his head.

@Bastian "Sorry, friend; I took on this job and I plan on seeing it through," Raze responded to him. He brandished his longsword and took a flying leap at the evil spirit. "I haven't eaten in three days, I ain't about to pass up an opportunity like this!!"

@Bastian @Samurai Equine From the distance, Raze could hear some sort of shouting coming from another pony. From the sounds of it, it seemed like a battle was already going on. "Hold that thought," he said to Samurai before taking off in the direction of the sound. After a couple minutes, he found himself in the cemetery that was described in the riddle, where he saw someone punching what appeared to be Nightmare Moon. "The hell?!" Raze shouted before drawing his longsword and charging in. "Hey you! That's my mark and my money you're targeting!" he shouted at the other guy.

@Samurai Equine "...So it's a graveyard?" Raze said after looking at the riddle for about half a minute. "...Whoever did this really didn't make it very vague. And it didn't rhyme... this riddle is stupid." He turned to look at Samurai. "You got a cemetery or something around here?"

@Samurai Equine Raze's eyes narrowed at the sight of the damaged house. He slowly approached it, in case this "evil" or whatever it was happened to be lurking within the wreckage. Nothing. Verifying it was safe, he quickened his pace until he was right in front of the foot of the house. He began to inspect some of the damage along the outside walls. From the looks of things, this doesn't seem too recent... he thought while running his hoof along the wall. But man, did this house take one hell of a hit...

@Samurai Equine Raze lifted a brow at Samurai's request. "A job you say? Involving somethin' evil? Well you have my interest, friend... however I don't know how I feel about not getting paid up front. Ya see, I'm a bit strapped for cash at the moment..." He began to contemplate the otherwise vague details. From the sounds of it, this seemed like a big deal to him. And big deals usually meant big money. He looked carefully again at his potential client, analyzing him. If this was a trick of some sort... he supposed he could fight his way out of it. He shrugged. "Eh, whatever. As long as I get paid in the end... I'll take your job. Not really much into the whole concert thing either, the money has me more interested... though I might stop by once this is over." He adjusted his longsword on his back once more. "Sounds to me like you're already on the way of catching this 'evil'," he said to Samurai. "Lead the way then, friend."

@Samurai Equine Raze looked carefully at him. It didn't seem like he was lying to him. His suspicions began to ease up, as he took a deep breath. "Apologies, friend," he said to Samurai. "When you're in my line of work, you tend to ask a lot of questions." He smiled slightly. "Name's Raze. Travelin' blade for hire."

As Raze walked past the main gate, the wilderness began to give way to civilization, as more and more buildings began to appear. There was something else, something he could hear in the distance... "...Is that music?" he asked himself. From the sound, it appeared to be straight ahead. Adjusting the longsword on his back and his Evoker on his right side, he slowly made his way towards the sounds... until he came face to face with a stranger, who greeted him very politely. "Hello there..." Raze said, a bit suspicious. "...You the mayor of these parts? How do you know I'm new and not just some shut in who never leaves his house all day?" @Samurai Equine

Seven days. That was how long Raze had been on the road for. Seven long days of nothing but walking, resting, eating whatever food he had left, and walking some more. Now he found himself somewhere in the Equestrian wilderness, walking down a dirt path he had no idea where it would lead. His supplies were low, and his money, lower than that. He sighed. "...This sucks," he muttered to himself. His last job was protecting a cargo train going to Dodge Junction, and since then, he hadn't been able to find any jobs that required a mercenary. Not only that, but during his search to find new work, it appeared he seemed to have gotten himself lost somehow. A heavy fog had surrounded the path he was traveling on, and now here he was. That's the last time I ever decide to go down a road I've never taken before, he thought to himself, lightly kicking a rock out of the way. Whoever wrote that poem about taking the road less traveled by should be banned from writing. Makes all the difference, my hoof... His stomach began to rumble. The thought of a warm meal immediately entered his mind, and he sighed once more. As he continued to sulk, he suddenly spotted something in the distance. It looked like a berry bush of some kind. He quickly ran towards it, and began to carefully examine it. They were bright red and spherical. Nothing else of note. Don't look like any berries I've ever seen... As he started to contemplate the toxicity of them, he then noticed a peculiar object right in front of the berry bush. It was a wooden sign. With the name of a town, it looked like. "Welcome to Friendshire..." he read out loud. "...Huh?" He looked around. A town in the middle of this heavy forest? When there weren't any others for miles around? "...Is this what it's like to hallucinate from hunger?" he asked himself. He touched the sign. It was... well, a sign. As real as it could feel. "...Screw it," he said, as he walked forward. If it ends up as a hallucination somehow and I end up walking into a den of Timberwolves... well, that doesn't seem like the worst way to go out.

Alright then, thanks for letting me join! Oh btw, would you mind giving me a summary of all the events happening so far?

If you could summarize, I'd be ok with that. I'm using a character called Raze, a traveling mercenary for hire with a guardian spirit.

This still open to newcomers? I'd like to join.

@Driz ((OOC: Terribly sorry again for the long wait, I had been very busy over the past couple of weeks)) Raze gave her a confused look, then shook his head. "Really...?" he said. He looked back at the painting. It looked like he needed to form the silhouette of a spider using the projector, but he couldn't find anything in the room that looked remotely close to it. "Well, there's nothing here..." he said. "Maybe we should backtrack..." He walked out of the room, all the way back to the place where he shot the hornet nest. He saw a fireplace... with an eerie glow coming out of it. He ducked under and saw that there was a tunnel leading deeper into the house. "Hey, I think I found something!" he called out to Lory, before crawling inside. He found himself in a long, concrete hallway with a door at the end.

@Driz "Yeah," Raze said, taking the sketch from her and opening the door, heading outside again. He walked back to the kitchen of the old house, finding another door that led to a small hallway. Another door was in front of him a few inches away, and he opened it. He found himself in a small room, filled with various junk. Nothing really caught his attention, save for a small projector flashing light in front of a small painting. "Oh, great... another one of these weird devices..." he said. Next to the projector was an entrance leading to a brightly lit porch overlooking the swamp. Heading out, he looked to his right. There was a familiar looking piece of metal on top of some trash bags. He looked at the flamethrower sketch and saw that it was part of the flamethrower, the trigger handle. He picked it up. "Alright, that's one piece..." he said. He walked back to the projector room, observing it. "Hmm... what if the other piece is behind here?" he asked Lory. "See if you can find something to cast a shadow on this thing."

@Driz "No problem," Raze said to her, standing up and slinging his shotgun over his shoulder. "So, anyway... what are we gonna do about these bugs...?" he asked, staring at the desk. Suddenly, something caught his eye. On top of it was a small sheet of paper, with a very detailed sketch of some sort of device. From what he could gather, it looked like some sort of homemade flamethrower. There was a note attached to it. "Misplaced the parts around here. Need to find them..." he read aloud. "Huh..."

@Driz Raze sat there in silence, contemplating what Lory had just told him. He scooted closer toward her and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "...He got what he deserved," he said to her. "And that's all that matters. No need to take it any farther than that. You're not a coward; you're anything but. The fact that you even allowed him to live after that takes a lot of guts, and a lot of self control. You've got nothing to regret." He smiled slightly, moving his hand under her chin, raising it so that she was looking at him. "C'mon, no need to beat yourself up over it. It's all in the past now, and you'll never see him again. Just focus on the things in front of you, you know?"

@Driz Raze was checking how much ammo he had when he heard Lory bring up the topic. He stopped and slowly turned around, brow raised. "...No?" he said, confused. "No, I... don't think you ever did." He grabbed one of the chairs and sat down. "What happened?"

@Driz When they made it through the room, Raze opened the door to see they were now in a small kitchen of some sort. He turned to his immediate right. There was a large metal container with chain link doors. Inside, he could see some useful supplies: shotgun shells and a first aid med. However, the doors were covered in large, dangerous looking spiders. "Ugh... looks like there's more than just hornets we're dealing with..." he said. He looked around and found a door a few feet in front of the cabinet. He opened it, finding himself outside. Ahead, there was a small drawbridge of some sort above swampy water, leading to a small shack ahead. The crank was missing, though, and the crank mechanism was also covered in another hornet nest. To his left, there was another, small dimly lit shack a few feet ahead. He quickly made his way over, inspecting the inside. It looked safe, nothing but a small desk and a couple of chairs, along with some shelves lined with trinkets. He closed the door behind them. "I say we take another break," he said to Lory. "Figure out how we're gonna approach this..."

@Driz Raze sighed. "Wait for it..." He leaned against the wall as he heard the hornets' angry buzzing died down as they dissipated and spread out. The room was now clear to enter. "See? They calm down eventually, and they won't bother us anymore with their nest gone," he said to Lory. "Now come on. We need to keep looking for that serum..." He walked back inside the room.

@Driz Raze looked at the hive, then shivered. There was only one way they were going to get through this room, and it was through that nest. Suddenly, however, he had an idea. "Hold up," he said to Lory. "I just thought of something." He equipped the shotgun and pumped it once. "When I say run... book it back out the way we came, alright?" He took a deep breath, aimed the shotgun at the nest, and fired. It exploded into a million pieces, but also angered the hornets surrounding it. "SHIT!!" he exclaimed. "Run for it!!!" He quickly turned around and opened the door leading back to the entrance of the house, quickly shutting it behind him when they were both through. He was gasping for breath as he listened to the hornets rage in the other room. "Holy hell... Celestia above..." he cursed under his breath.

@Driz Raze looked back at the nest. "Yeah, maybe... if this path even leads to an upstairs," he said. "Let's... backtrack, go to the other door I saw." He went back to the room they were in before and entered the door to the right of the main entrance. He stopped in his tracks. "Oh you've gotta be kidding me..." he said as he saw another hornet nest stuck to the ceiling of the room. There was furniture scattered everywhere as well, making the simple room feel more like a winding maze.

@Driz Raze looked at Lory with slight disbelief. "...What? Are you--? Seriously?" He shook his head, then continued walking. "Fucking hell..." He found a slightly narrow path next to the broken down part of the room, leading to a door. He entered inside, and the first thing he saw was a message written in red paint. "She's upstairs. Don't go up..." he read aloud. He scratched his head. "Hmm..." He turned to his immediate right, and almost jumped back. "Holy shit!!" he yelled as he saw what looked like a giant hornet's nest. Dozens of small hornets were flying around it, protecting their home.