Blue Raspberry walked through the streets of Darkveil feeling a bit out of place. The knight in a full suit of heavy metal armor just didn't really fit in with the crowd. Everyone else had outfits far more suited to the den of crime and villainy that the city was. They'd just gone out on another one of their own adventures, just headed wherever they felt like and had found themself in the Ashlands again. This time though they had enough sense to avoid going too close to the volcano and its heat that had made them get a bit melty the last time they were there. Instead, they'd tried visiting the city.

As they walked along they suddenly saw someone else who didn't really seem to fit in here. A very familiar, cheerful Moon Elf! They walked a bit more quickly and raised an arm in the air, waving it in a big, friendly greeting.

"Cirice! Is that you? What are you doing here?" Blue shouted cheerfully as they happily approached Cirice. "It's Wolfe! I mean Blue. I mean, Blue Wolfie!" They added as they realized she might not be able to recognize them in their new suit of armor. It definitely looked a lot different than their old one which was for the best. If it looked exactly like their old one, there wouldn't have really been any point to getting a new suit after all.

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Hell Unleashed
Participants: Two or more
Location: Ash Lands
Post Requirements: 6 post per person, 200 words per post
Reward: +1 Renown, +1 Claws, +1 Fire Catalyst
Description Mount Drakolt has been acting up lately, with smoke rising from its summit and tremors vibrating the ground. This has stirred a large, old pack of Hellhounds who had been slumbering inside the tunnels around the volcano. Now awake and furious, several dozen fiery dogs have been let loose on the Ash Lands, attacking travelers and local villages. They are very dangerous and have been leaving a trail of destruction in their path. Please subdue or eliminate the pack of 6 hounds before they get to Darkveil.

Long it had been since the day Cirice had first met Zarius back in Starlight City and though they’d exchanged many letters she’d figured it was about time to visit. Unfortunately she had not spent too much time in Darkveil City and she stood out far too much for anyone to stop and give her directions. She wandered the streets in her wagon, lost until she heard a familiar voice calling her name.

Head jerking towards the sound, she sees an unfamiliar suit of armor waving an arm at her. She looks confused until she hears the voice. “Blue Wolfie! Hey! Long time no see!”

She hops down from the wagon and comes over to hug them, looking at the new duds with appreciation. “Look at you! You got new armor! It’s quite shiny and nice! I’m here to try to see Zarius, but I haven’t managed to find his bar, what about you?”

It had been some months since the two of them had found one another in the woods of Moonglade and fought a swarm of bugs together. She’s glad that this time she met them as a man and not as a massive goopy wolf.

“This is my wagon, would you like to have tea inside? I have a new spell I’ve been saving for the next time I saw you! Come in, come in!”

She runs to the side of the wagon and opens the door wide for them, ushering them inside. A wave of pleasant cherry blossom smell pours out of the doorway and within they can see a cozy, elaborately decorated library with comfortable looking seating and a table. She clears the table and snaps her fingers and a massive feast manifests before the knight¹.

“You’re always hungry, eat up! Tell me how you've been!”

---

1 Grand Feast

Blue Raspberry was happy to show off the new armor, turning around a few times with their arms out to let Cirice see it all and then standing with their fists on their hips. They were glad she thought it looked nice too. It was just about their most treasured possession and they were very proud of it.

"Thanks! Astrid made it special just for me! It's the best armor ever. Even better than my old suit! Way better!" Blue announced matter-of-factly. This wasn't an opinion, this was an objective fact in their eyes. No suit of armor was better than this one or ever would be.

"Sure, I'd love some tea. I was just travelling around a bit and ended up in this place. I didn't even know Mister Zarius lived around here. You're looking for his bar? Did he drop it or something? Did you see if someone else picked it up?" Blue made some idle conversation as they followed Cirice back to her wagon. They could understand why it might be hard to find a single bar in a whole city. How would she even know it belonged to Zarius? Did he label it or something?

Blue was shocked when a massive feast suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of them. They'd seen things be magically conjured before, like Astrid's replicants, but who knew it could be done with food? They didn't need persuading as they sat down and dug in happily, talking between mouthfuls.

"This is really good! I've been good. Fought stuff. Ate stuff. Good times. How about you?"

“Astrid made that? That’s amazing! That makes it even more special indeed!” She smiles. “I was at her house but she wasn’t fully moved in so I didn’t get to see her or the forge or anything. Just met Cantio, went on a quick adventure, nearly lost him in a mine and went back. More’s the pity.”

“Yeah Zarius lives in the bar. What do you mean dropped it? Its a building. You drink alcohol there and eat food.” She tilts her head at Blue’s questions, every time they see each other it seems like they’re speaking two different languages, even if they’re both speaking common. “Blue… I don’t understand.”

“I’m glad you’ve been doing well! I have as well! I’ve learned a lot more magic and met a lot more people! I’ve got friends all over the world now! I’m so glad you like the food and the spell. Its supposed to be able to feed many people but I figured it would be good for you.” She chatters happily, glad to have a chance to catch up. “Have you noticed all the strange things happening lately? All the earthquakes and things?”

"Wait, what? You nearly lost Cantio in a mine?" Blue looked back at Cirice with concern just after shoving an entire muffin in their mouth. When did that happen? Cantio never said anything about that. They didn't want their dad to be lost in a mine! "You got him back out, right?"

Blue just had no idea what Cirice was talking about. How do you eat or drink anything in a bar? It's just a piece of metal. Was she talking about a pipe? That'd be a little more understandable. They guessed you could pour something through a pipe. Did she mean eat a bar? Sure, the ooze could do that, but they didn't think most other people could. Cirice was just making no sense, so they just decided to drop it.

"It's a great spell! Thanks! It was all really tasty!" They replied happily after finishing the feast Cirice had conjured and patting the front of their cuirass. "I wish I could learn that spell. I did learn some new stuff too and met new people. OH! That's right! I met Gerhart! We fought a big ball in the sky together! Oh, Mister Zarius was there too. Maybe that's why he's not around here right now. Strange stuff happening.... You mean like-"

Blue's words were cut off as someone suddenly ran by outside, screaming. More panicked screams began to come in through the door of the wagon as people ran by. They could have swore someone said something about hellhounds.

“Yes of course! I wasn’t going to just leave him there!” Cirice responded quickly, suddenly remembering that Cantio is Blue’s daddy. “He’s safe! He’s fine! Don’t worry I didn’t let anything bad happen to him! I know he’s special to you. And Astrid would have killed me if I let anything happen to her father.”

She smiles as the knight eats every bit of the food she’d conjured, enough for a dozen or so normal people, “I’m glad you liked it! I could teach you maybe, if you wanted. You did meet Gerhart that’s wonderful! A ball in the sky?”

She blinks as the screaming interrupts Blue’s sentence. “Goddess what could be going on out there?” She goes over to the door and opens it to see several people running past as if fleeing from something. The smell of smoke lingers in the air and in the distance she can see the light of a fire. “Oh my…”

At the front of the wagon Hitia startles with a loud snort, making the whole wagon jostle violently as he leaps into the air, dragging them along with him as he runs into the sky¹. Cirice is nearly flung from the doorway of the wagon but instead falls backwards with a loud ‘oof’.

---

1 Hitia reindeer, takes flight

Blue Raspberry stood up and looked out the door over Cirice's shoulder. The people seemed to be really freaked out by whatever it was approaching in the distance. Was that fire? They couldn't see it that well from so far away, and they didn't have long to look as the front of the wagon suddenly jolted into the air.

Sticking slime seeped from the bottoms of their boots and glued them securely to the floor, but Cirice nearly tumbled out of the open door! Blue grabbed the back of her shirt and yanked her back into the wagon, making her fall back onto the floor of the wagon. Not very elegant, but at least she was safe from falling out and possibly getting a lot more hurt. After a moment, something seemed to trigger and the back of the wagon also rose into the air, stabilizing itself and allowing the reindeer to pull it higher into the sky as if it was going up a gentle hill.

"Are you okay? What's going on? Why is the wagon flying!?" Blue asked Cirice in surprise as they offered her a hand to get back to her feet. They didn't know wagons could fly! Could they all do that? No wagon they'd ever been in before had been able to, so probably not, right? Then how did this one do it? Oh wait, there was no time for this!

"We should see what that is!" Blue pointed out the still open door at the approaching figures in the distance.

---

Slimy Hands

“Oof!” Cirice exclaims as she falls onto the ground, her tailbone getting a little bruised. “I’m okay, thank you for that. I really wouldn’t like to fall out of my own wagon. It looks like there’s a fire out there and something spooked Hitia, he flies so he must have just decided that the best way to get away was in the air…”

As the wagon evens out she gets up and looks to see what Blue’s pointing at, “Are those… Hell hounds? Look! They’re spreading the fire! Oh no! Do you think we can stop them? I’ll go get Hitia under control and landed, I’ll try to put us as near the pack as possible. You’re great at fighting, we can handle this, right?”

She gives Blue Raspberry a worried thumbs up and blinks onto the front seat of the wagon, grabbing the reigns and getting Hitia in hand and calmed down¹. With some difficulty she manages to turn him towards the fire and the fire starters. “I know you’re scared but we can’t run away, we have to help before people get hurt!”

The reindeer snorts derisively but follows her command, heading towards the ground and the enemy.

“Blue!” She shouts, “I hope you’re ready, we’re coming in hot! Hope you're still hungry big guy!”

---

1 Blink

"Sure we can handle it, no problem!" Blue replied, returning Cirice's thumbs up confidently.

"That's my secret, Cirice. I'm always hungry!" Giving a salute while standing in the doorway on the back of the cart, Blue gave a salute and then let themself fall backward out of the wagon. While they fell through the air, the plates of their armor shifted and a long tail grew out of a hole in their armor that opened up at the base of their back while their gauntlets and boots adjusted to allow their hands and feet grew into sharp, wolf-like claws.

One of the hellhounds looked up just in time to see a flash of blue scales as Blue Raspberry's tail slammed down directly onto it from above with tremendous force added from their fall. With a whine, the hound was crushed into the ground as Blue landed surprisingly lightly on their feet, the force of their tail slamming down helping to lighten the impact of their fall and their gelatinous legs absorbing the remaining shock easily as they bent down with their arms out at their sides.

The hellhounds stopped running toward the town and turned angrily to see what had just dropped down onto one of them like a meteor.

---

Prehensile Tail
Eldritch Claws
Cat's Grace

Blue lands with a tremendous amount of force and sound but miraculously he’s fine. The knight never ceases to amaze. Cirice lands the wagon behind him and the raging pack of hellhounds and leaps off the wagon with her sword drawn.

“Oh man there are certainly a lot of them…” She says, surveying the sight before them. “We need to get all of them or they’ll burn down the city! But… Why are they here…?”

She doesn’t have too much time to consider that before one of the hellhounds snarls and leaps at her. Twisting the ring at the hilt of her blade, Cirice turns it into a whip of smaller blades that wrap around the creature’s torso, digging into its flesh¹. With a twirl, she flings the creature back towards her knight friend, not really realizing exactly where she’s aiming before the hound is sent flying towards the back of his head.

“Shit! Blue watch out!”

She flinches, not looking forward to the impact she’s initiated, when another hellhound charges at her. She doesn’t have time to really react before a gout of fire is in her face and she stumbles backwards trying to not get burned as her clothes catch fire.

---

1 Whip Sword Crestfallen - 15ft reach can grab and bring things closer, magic blocker

Blue was so surprised to hear a curse word come from Cirice's mouth that they didn't even notice the hellhound being tossed toward their back. They looked over their shoulder with wide eyes at the normally so sweet girl. They didn't even know she knew how to curse. Who taught her that?

"Did you just- ah!" Blue noticed the incoming canine projectile a little too late. They fell to the ground with a hellhound on top of them. Seeing this as a great opportunity to attack, the others ran in to start biting at the fallen knight and tear them apart. Unfortunately for them, Blue didn't let them get the chance.

The hellhound on top of them was thrown off, straight up into the air, as Blue Raspberry started to rapidly grow larger. The plates of their armor separated to make room for the expanding figure of the ooze inside. In a mere moment, Blue went from their usual six foot tall size to double that, standing twelve feet tall and a hulking six feet wide.

The charging hellhounds suddenly panicked, their ears drooping and tails tucking between their legs in fear as their would-be lunch became a monster. The hellhound that had been tossed skyward came back down, directly into the ooze below. With a whine and a gurgle, the hellhound was gone and Blue looked around at the others excited for seconds.

---

Torso Hit Prevention- (1/2)
Red Rogue's Coat- (1/2 posts)

For a long, tense moment Cirice is too stunned to speak. Her friend just sort of grew into a massive man-shaped blue monster. 

She screams at the top of her lungs.

"OH MY GODDESS ITS GOOZILLA!" 

"What? Where!?" Blue Giantberry turned to Cirice, looking around frantically in every direction. Goozilla? What was that? With a name like that, it sounded strong, and Cirice was standing there screaming about it! Whatever it was, they'd fight it and protect her. But... where was it? There was nothing around except more hellhounds and them. Wait, Cirice was looking directly at them....

Blue pointed a finger at themself while staring at Cirice. "Me?"

"Yes, you! What in Charon is going on!?"

Cirice was talking about them! And she was screaming! They had to think of some kind of excuse! While they were busy trying to think, one of the hellhounds finally gathered enough courage to run up to the giant ooze and bite them on the tail. Blue didn't even look as they raised their tail up with the hound still attached and slammed it down on top of it. When the tail lifted back up, the hellhound was gone. Think of an excuse, think of an excuse...

"Uhh. Puberty?" They said with a giant shrug.

"I don't think that's human puberty... I'm dating a human you know... I feel like I'd know it if he could become a giant gooey thing..."

"This is a totally normal knight thing!" Blue lied unconvincingly as their arm stretched and slammed a fist down on one of the hellhounds which had turned and begun to run away. The ground cracked from the impact, but when their fist lifted up again the hound was nowhere to be seen.

Blue took a stern pose, putting both fists on their hips as they looked at Cirice.

"This is a normal knight thing. Every knight goes through puberty sometimes, and we don't like to talk about it."

The last two hellhounds backed away slowly, not wanting to draw the attention of the giant ooze. Unfortunately for them, Blue felt a familiar sensation as if they were being stretched too thin that meant they couldn't stay this size for much longer. Suddenly, they swung their stretched out limb toward the two hounds and swept them both up, pulling them in and shoving them both into the front of their torso.

With all of the hellhounds dealt with, they shrank back down, the plates of their armor clanking together as they fitted back into place around them. Now there was just one last thing to deal with.

Trying to convince Cirice that none of that had been weird.

---

Soft Body

Cirice watches the display of Blue’s gooey might in an odd mixture of rapt confusion, concern, and awe. They’re massive, twelve foot tall and half as wide, eating the hellhounds through their ooze like it s nothing. If they had bothered eating the hellhounds through their mouth it might have been less obvious, but them just disappearing into their tail and arms and things makes it rather blatant. It was easy to tell they were lying, even without the Insight Rune confirming it. They might be a knight, but they’re totally not normal. The more time she's spent with Gerhart the more she's seen the holes forming in Blue's story.

“Blue… You don’t have to lie to me, it doesn’t really work anyway¹. Just tell me what’s going on, buddy. I was scared, I was just… Surprised…” She gives him an awkward smile, looking a little lost. “You just grew super big and blue and gooey… I got a little spooked. You aren’t human, are you?”

She looks around at the minimal damage done to the city around them thanks to the quick work Blue made of the pack. “The damage was minimal thanks to you. Good job.”

---

1 Insight Rune

Welp, their plan to convince Cirice that none of that had been weird was already off to a terrible start and it didn't sound like it would be able to go any better. She definitely knew something was weird about them and they weren't human. They'd been just as surprised as she was. Hearing her curse and then getting a face full of hellhound thrown at them, they'd just lost their cool for a second and went all out. It was pretty much an accident that they'd revealed themself in such a big way, but now it was too late to take it back. Part of them also didn't think she'd be that scared though.

"You surprised me too. You threw a hellhound at me! And then all the other hellhounds came at me and I just panicked. I didn't think you'd be so scared of me just because I got bigger. You've seen me turn into really big animals before. Was it just because of the... the goopiness? Do you hate goop? Do you hate me now just because I'm an ooze?" Blue asked, looking and sounding more and more downcast before just plopping down and sitting cross-legged on the ground.