Honesty’s Courage

(Approximate story word count: 1500 words. Estimated reading time: 15 minutes.)

Honesty did not know the intricacies of the realm of steam.

Honesty did not know the details of whether they were alive or dead right now.

Honesty could not actually bring themselves to care much about either of these points. To him, his friend was in danger somehow, and that meant he had to be strong to bring her back from the brink. Seeing Marieya shoot by above the party when they first awoke had filled him with a determination to move forward.

The first challenge presented by the realm pushed some of the party to their limits, with Grem having a fair few issues with getting their attacks to land properly, potentially adjusting to the fact they genuinely did die before appearing in this realm. With the help of a steam shade in the shape of Marieya’s old friend Izumi, the group of undead phoenix knights were dispatched.

As the party advanced past the manifestation of Donnermark, the landscape began to change. From the forests and city-like buildings slowly shifted to a more open feel, the surrounding buildings appearing suitable for a village and the environment becoming more like coastland. For all the party minus Grem, they knew what they were approaching.

The Beach of Thorns was on the horizon.

Various painful memories resurfaced for Jørgen, Fauna, and in particular Honesty. For the former two, this was the place where a quest ended in futility as their efforts to bring back their companion failed due to circumstances out of their control. For the latter, it was a painful reminder of a life left behind, a message sent from a long-time rival, and a final farewell with no chance to say what was left unspoken.

Fauna came close to Honesty, kneeling down slightly to be able to rub him on the back. “Are you doing okay?”, she said, her tone aiming to try to reassure her friend, “it must be hard coming back here, even if it isn’t really real.”

“It’s real to me,” Honesty said, nervously fiddling with one of the rings on his hand, “but I can’t stop. Marieya needs me.”

The town had taken on an appearance almost akin to having a tsunami hit. Houses looked damp and water-logged, with doors and windows ripped off their hinges, significant rotting on the wooden frames, and furniture either tipped over or annihilated completely. True to the mind that created it, everything was in a state of disrepair.

This was especially true for the foe that party had fought in this area, an apparatus of the crab. Used by Honesty’s rival Cunning to try to take the unanimated body of Vantar back to Zobeck in exchange for a generous bounty, the fearsome war machine laid in various pieces but everyone was still on edge of what this realm could produce.

Everyone approached it with caution, ready for any attack it might launch. A loud bang rung out through the deserted town, but it did not come from the apparatus, it instead came from the distance. A glowing, diant projectile had been sent flying through the air and landed right into the middle of the apparatus’s remains, immolating it completely.

“Well, well, well,” a malicious, booming voice said, a metallic twang echoing with each syllable, “looks like the cowardly kobold came back to the scene of his friend’s failure.”

A figure appeared from the steam, and the entire party gasped. Honesty came close to dropping his weapons in sheer shock at what he was seeing.

It seemed to be… Vantar? But they were not the same as they were before. The influence of the phoenix had seemed to corrupt their image, more steam-powered pistons seemed to make up their body, some of them burning red hot with malicious energy. Additionally, two large mortars had been attached to their back, capable of firing projectiles infused with divine energy.

“Honesty… you always chased a cause long after it had been lost,” Vantar said, facing down their former travelling companion, “why do you follow a girl who failed to save me? Why do you choose being a coward over standing for yourself?”

“I… you… see…”, Honesty said, stuttering over their words before sighing deeply, looking down at the ground, “it wasn’t her fault you died, she tried her best… it was mine… I could have done more…”.

A clattering of steam pistons attempted to form a sound of disgust in Vantar’s throat, almost sounding like a scoff, saying, “even now you try to defend her. If I have to force you to face me, I will.”

With those words Honesty felt himself being dragged forwards towards Vantar, an almost irresistible force of magic compelling him to fight this twisted apparition of their former friend despite every ounce of his body telling him not to… this was until Jørgen slashed their palm through the air with vigour, dispelling the magic with a Northern curse.

“How cute,” the steamforged illusion said, “even here you put your friends at risk because of your own failings – witness what happens to those who interfere!”.

The firing cylinders on the mortars rotated and then locked into place, a steam piston launching the round into the air with the intent of nailing Jørgen with a direct hit. However, the phoenix had made a slight oversight when creating this challenge from Marieya’s mind: Vantar did not have the skills required to operate such a weapon, and when aiming at a nonstationary target such as a wizard, the shot went completely wide.

With their focus drawn elsewhere, Grem charged the illusion, inflicting some serious damage with his greatsword, whilst Fauna and Izumi ran close to Honesty to offer comfort.

“Don’t listen to him,” Fauna said, casting a simple spell of defence around the kobold as she crouched down next to him, “we all know you loved Vantar deeply, and did everything you could to save him. None of us think you’re a coward, in fact we all think you are incredibly strong for making it this far.”

“I’d put a fucking sock in this twat’s mouth if I could,” Izumi said, taking a much more blunt approach to the situation, “I know that you know that’s bullshit, but I also know how Marieya felt after this. She was torn up inside that she couldn’t do more, and she wanted nothing more than to comfort you after it happened.”

Honesty was still trembling with fear, but had managed to retain a grip on their weapons. The words of this conjured foe had come close to breaking him, but he heard the words of his allies louder, and images of the true Marieya passed through in his mind.

Her sheepish smile whenever she said something silly.

Her determination in the face of adversity.

How she would have done anything to make sure Honesty was okay.

He stood up from the embrace of his friends, and walked forward with rapier in hand. “You’re lying to me,” he said, reaching his opponent and staring him down, “I am not a coward. Marieya is my friend. And I’m saving her from this hellhole even if I have to strike you down!”.

The kobold lunged forward with their rapier, the world around its tip seeming to distort slightly as if an almost cosmic force was helping to propel it forward. Vantar’s heavy armour plating around their chest was torn asunder, reinforced metal being turned into shards and shavings as the blade kept going. Piercing through internal systems before stabbing all the way through the corrupted soul gem that was powering them.

Systems and springs exploded as the source of their locomotion was destroyed, parts of their body falling off until they were reduced to their base skeleton, falling to their knees to bring them eye level with Honesty. 

With the phoenix’s influence severed and their strength weakening, they only managed to say a short phrase, “Hon.. es… ty… proud… of… you…”, before collapsing to the ground entirely, quickly dissipating back into steam from which it was created.

The trial completed, the path to the next area revealed itself. Izumi stated they could go no further, mentioning about how they were the first one to go. In typical fashion she wished the party well, urging them to save Marieya and asking them to remind her she has a lot else she is good at.

In the distance the phoenix in control of Marieya’s body watched over these events, feeling their grip on her weakening as her meddlesome friends kept trying to prove why they were coming to save her. They could not keep this up through other challenges, eventually their will would be broken.

The phoenix was about to receive several rude awakenings.

Inspiration

Little bit of a different take on the usual Midgard campaign, now taking on the viewpoint of our Kobold Rogue, Honesty.

When this campaign first started, Honesty had a travelling companion in the form of a Gearforged Kobold Paladin named Vantar. Due to some unfortunate luck they died early on in the campaign, forming the focus of the party as we worked to revive them, which was a successful endeavour. Their player decided to leave the group shortly after this point, leading to a change of direction and Vantar staying dead for…

…no, you sent a message to your boyfriend to get a silly picture for an article.

However, as I was sitting down with my DM for this game plotting out the various stations of the realm of steam, a vicious and diabolical idea came to me. The Beach of Thorns was a plot critical moment for Honesty, but it also carried mental consequences for Marieya, as she realised she had lost yet another person associated with her, and took that quite heavily.

So, when mixed with the warping influence of the uncaged phoenix soul, this incident took the shape of a steam-twisted Vantar, hell bent on attempting to break Honesty’s will and perception of Marieya.

Unsurprisingly, this failed completely.

Out of the three areas I had responsibility for running in the realm of steam, this one was probably the one I doubted myself the most on in the moment. Especially as I feel I severely underestimated how quick the party would be able to dispatch Vantar with several methods of attack.

However, this underestimation lead to quite an amazing moment which I feel translated well into the story. Honesty had locked up for a round because of the taunts from Vantar, the compelled duel being counterspelled. Vantar was bloodied at the start of Honesty’s turn but a critical hit followed by a critical sneak attack put them on somewhere in the region of ten hitpoints, so I decided to end the fight there on a climatic moment like that.

A personal aside… revisiting the realm of steam for another story, even from the perspective of another, still puts me into a very emotional frame of mind to write in. 

As part of scrolling back through Discord chat logs as research, I encountered the inciting incident that set this all off, Marieya’s death at the hands of a breath weapon. In that moment everything came flooding back to how I felt that night, vivid memories of what was done and said as real as the day they were created. 

Even with having Marieya back now, I can safely say this changed my outlook on the game completely, and I’m somewhat curious to explore this frame of mind more in one or two more realm of steam stories.