TBG Forums

[Same rules as last time, MAS stands for Multi Authored Story or something, so it's like a GMless RPG where you also get to play every character, or whatever. Basically, just continue telling the story from where the last person leaves off.]

RULES:
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[li]Try to keep it serious, because unless one of the following rules is broken, your post is considered a permanent addition to the narrative.[/li]
[li]Your post should be from 1 to 5 paragraphs in length, each paragraph being around 5 sentences in length, though that length is lenient. Just try not to make a post that's too long or too short.[/li]
[li]In order to post again, either two other people must post before you, or one other person must post and 4 hours must have passed since your last post.[/li]
[li]Stick to the current log line in order to keep things from going off the rails. Also stick to the genre, but that shouldn't be too hard since the genre is fantasy this time. You can have some fun with it.[/li]
[li]No self inserts and avoid Mary Sues. [/li]
[li]Any obvious trolling or spamming is automatically redacted from the narrative.[/li]
[li]Don't argue over whether or not a post should or shouldn't happen. For now, I'll be the judge of whether or not a post should be removed, but I may get others on to moderate the story if this becomes long running. If posts are made after the rulebreaking post, I'll just refer to the last valid post and we continue from that instead.[/li]
[li]Any thoughts that aren't meant to be considered part of the narrative portion of your post should preferably be in [brackets].[/li]
[li]Feel free to ask questions regarding the current rules at any time for explanation or changes if I overlooked something. Questions regarding this should also be in [brackets].[/li]
[/list]

LOG LINE: A young adventurer goes on magical a quest to kill an evil king.

CHAPTER ONE

Phillip did not have many goals. Most people would agree to that, and even more would agree to that if you were only considering those who, like Phillip, live in a village of peasants who will almost certainly will always be peasants, left to continue their lives farming and smithing and all the other things peasants do. This is because there isn't really much to aspire to, as a peasant. Still, Phillip had goals, and the highest among these goals was a really simple one. He wanted to kill King Winthrop, who lived a thousand miles away in a castle on top of a mountain.

Now why, some would ask, would Phillip want to do something like that?

The answer, really, was simple. King Winthrop was infamous. He pillaged and looted, he marched into inns asking for free inns, he held public executions of innocent people to "set an example", he was a drunkard. But worst of all, he had killed everyone in Phillip's country. Everyone but one man - Phillip himself. It hadn't been like Atreoria was a small country either. It had had a population of just about 2 million.

Unfortunately, King Winthrop's army had counted around 400,000 while Atreoria had none. Atreoria had been a trading country with absolutely no focus on armies - unless they needed to defend. Then they had a huge levy. But King Winthrop had attacked the capital under the guise of a trade. He had killed the King of Atreoria before anyone could react and as soon as he gave the word, his entire 400,000 man army had marched through the land killing every single man - farmer, tradesman, blacksmith, innkeeper. There was no limit to their evil act. Everyone attempting to escape the country had been met by a small army all around the country's borders, killing them.

His motive?

Well, Philip might of had one motive. He lost his sister and family awhile back because of King Winthrop. His parents told him and his sister to hide, and of course they went to different spots. The parents... they were killed on sight. The soldiers cut down his parents with merciless, cold eyes, right in front of him. He desperately kept quiet to avoid getting caught, but his sister made a noise upon seeing the death of her parents. The guards, not wanting to cut down a child though, took her away in front of Philip.

Ever since then he wanted to get stronger... to avenge his parents and someday find his sister. With this new resolve, he decided to begin his trek to get stronger. Not knowing what to do Philip began wandering the land, searching for a mentor. He trudged through forests, mountains, and plains, learning different things from different travelers he met along the way. Even if he was tired, he still had some determination to keep him pushing forward.

Eventually, he found something that might aid him on his quest.

That "thing", of course, was one of the at least probably three thousand, four hundred and eighty-five Round Disc Things in the universe.  Of course, all of the known Round Disc Things are on earth, so there are probably some decillions out there.  However, the 3,485 on earth are still extremely special.  The Round Disc Things were items carrying a relatively high amount of power, and are connected to all the other Round Disc Things in the entire universe.

So the day after Phillip found it merely lying on the grass, a man came to him one noon.

The man was oddly tall, towering over Phillip as he approached. Phillip, at the time, was sitting on a bench in the now empty town of Atreoria, turning the strange disc over in his hands.

"Do you even know how to use that thing?" The man asked, startling Phillip with his sudden appearance.

Phillip looked the man over, trying to take in what he was seeing. As stated before, the man was very tall, seemingly around nine feet in hight. However, he was very thin, and his skin was remarkably pale. Resting on his nose were a pair of tiny eyeglasses, covering small, sharp eyes. Most notably, his teeth were very sharp.

"Who... Who are you?" Phillip asked the man.

"My name is none of your concern at the moment." The man says, "However, I see you are searching for something... power maybe?"

"Erm.... yes." Phillip replied with a bit of unease, "I need to get stronger, so I began searching for a way to acquire strength."

"Hmm.... I see. Well, these discs might be beneficial to you, assuming you know how to use them."

"What do they do?" Phillip asked, wondering how he knew he saw the discs from the other day. They were weird looking, but they do seem to emanate some sort of power.

"You are familiar with certain trades, right? For instance, one person might be a skilled swords man, while others might be more.... sneaky."

"Erm... yeah."

"Well, these discs contain certain assets that will grant those trades and skills a trained person has. For instance, a disc might contain the sheer prowess of a fighter, or the intelligence of a scholar."

Phillip was looking at the man, wondering how he knew all about this, and was a bit shocked about what he really found.

"...How do you know this is true?" Phillip asked the man.

"Because it was one of these Discs that let me be this tall without any of the side effects.  ...I was tall before.  So the disc pretty much saved my life," said the man in reply.
Phillip shrugged and paused for a second to collect his thoughts.  He then said, "So, how exactly do you use it?  And how is being so tall lethal, anyways?"

"When you're tall, you have to spread all your food and water around your body. This means that you have to eat almost double what you normally eat. Not to mention the fact that I have to stoop for every doorway. My back aches ev- anyway, moving on. Any more questions?"

"What are you?"

"Me, I'm just a tall human with a disc."

"No, I mean, why do you know so much about it?"

"Ah, well you see, I am a member of the Astrada. We research such discs and look for rare discs. Here, let me demonstrate." He says, motioning for Phillip to hand him his disc.

Phillip hesitantly handed it over.

The man stared at it for a second before his eyes widened. "Oh. I think you better find out for yourself. If you need me, I'm at the Astrada base building in the capital. Ask for Roberts. Good day."

Stooping to clear the doorway, Roberts quickly made his departure.

Phillip looked at the disc in his hands. It was cold, even after he had been holding it for a while. Roberts had failed to answer any of his bigger questions, and left him more bitter than he was before the tall man even arrived. But that was all well enough. Phillip had nothing in this town left anyways, so he may as well begin his path towards the mountain in the distance.

As he stood to leave the town, though, the disc seemed to have an odd effect on him...

It has brought a lot of attention from passerbies.  Everyone's mostly like "What is that" or "That seems important" or "I'm gonna steal that"
That part was interesting...

Feeling their stares burn through him, Phillip hugged the disc closer to his chest and quickened his pace. Going through the gate however, he realized he wasn't perfectly sure where he was headed.

     Philip slowed a moment to think but his was soon interrupted as he noticed a group of of tough looking thugs surround him. They parted to let an even bigger one into the circle. "What's that you got boy?" He asked with a sick grin. Phillip began to tremble. As he did however, the disc began to grow warmer...

What was he going to do? More interesting though, what was the disc doing?

bump

Bump

Finally, like a switch going off, it all clicked. Immediately, a feeling of capability surged through his mind, as though someone had placed an instruction manual over his ear and started pounding it in with a hammer. "Uh..." Phillip said.

"Well?" The rather brutish looking man asked again. "What is it?" His words didn't denote any actual need to know what it was, since he'd attempt to take it anyways. The question was simply out there to see if Phillip would be too intimidated to even attempt answering it. It was the kind of question Phillip had been asked many times before.

It was the kind of question he despised.

His eyes closed for a fraction of a second, and when he had opened them, it became immediately apparent that he had somehow broken the largest man's arm in an absent minded gesture. That's not what I expected. Phillip thought, as the leader clutched his arm and shouted in pain.

The other men standing around him were, to say the least, not pleased at all.

[Yes, I am going to bump a topic that's been dead for a year. No one can stop me.]

Phillip gaped. What had just happened? He'd just closed his eyes, and on opening it, the man had had a fractured arm.

"Hey, what are you trying to pull, friend?!" The thug to his right screamed, before charging at him. Phillip turned away, screwing his eyes shut tightly in anticipation of the blow.

It never arrived. After a few seconds, he looked back at his attacker - his attacker who was sprawled out on the floor a few metres away, many of his joints twisted at unnatural positions. After a few seconds of shock, the rest of the thugs seemed to recover from their shock. With an angry shout, they charged at him.

Again, Phillip closed his eyes. Again, the blows never arrived. But this time, when he opened his eyes, he was back at his small house at the edge of the village, dusty bookshelves and all.