day twelve: the start of a quest

ninjago au

PART ONE

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"Here comes the sun, and I say, it's all right"

— The Beatles

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As all adventures start, we begin with a tavern. A popular village bar called The Venomous Dragon was stuffed full of creatures of all kinds! Its warm interior echoed with boisterous laughter as strangers gambled and had a drink together after a long day of travelling.

Mysterious elves watched with mixed expressions, somewhere between amused and unimpressed. Humans cheered and bellowed to their heart's content while the little halflings watched with innocent eyes and naive souls. One of the bartenders, a human barbarian named Cole, listened intently to the guests' conversations as he spread their food and drinks out for them.

One guest particularly interested Cole. He was an old man, a wizard or sorcerer he speculated, who sat down alone in the corner of the bar beside the fireplace. His eyes closed serenely as he leaned back and let the glow of the flames graze over him. Cole brought over the tea he had ordered, his brow furrowing when he realized there was no table space for him to place the cup down, for the sorcerer had covered it in scrolls and parchment.

"Excuse me," Cole spoke up, glancing over at the customer. His brow furrowed when the man just laid there with his eyes closed. Was he...Was he asleep? "Uh... sir?"

"Hello, Cole." The sorcerer calmly opened his eyes and moved forward to clear the tabletop. "I'm sorry about the mess."

Cole's confusion grew at the mention of his name so he just plopped his tea down instead of asking any questions.

"Hm... you're Lou's son aren't you?" Cole fought his very hardest not to roll his eyes.

Lou Brookstone, the famous bard and complete fool of a father. He had dreamed of Cole becoming a Bard as well but when his son couldn't carry a tune he just pushed him harder. At last, Cole snapped and revealed that his interest in the musical magic was not there. Of course, that had not gone over too well. Cole sought adventure, yet all he found was this musty bar.

"...As well as Lillian's." Cole only just caught the end of the man's sentence as he turned away. The bartender's head snapped back to stare at him.

"How do you know my mother's name?" The raven-haired boy breathed.

The sorcerer smiled softly. "She was a friend of mine. Did she never mention me? Her old companion, Wu?" Cole shook his head wordlessly.

Wu hummed to himself. "I see." He said vaguely as he gathered up his ancient papers, delicate figures danced down each one. "She was a very talented woman, I had been hoping to find her so she could help me with a quest but then I learned of her passing." Wu's tone grew sad.

Cole blinked. "A quest?"

"Yes, I've been looking for something very important for a long time. Unfortunately, I'm too frail and wearied to carry out the task myself. I've been gathering some travellers who are willing to do the job." He said, a small smiling gracing his wrinkled features.

Cole felt his heart jump in his chest. This was his chance. This was his calling. It was what he had been waiting for. "I can do it!" Cole burst out while Wu was strapping on his bag. "I can join your quest."

Wu contemplated the idea and looked him over. "Are you sure, young man? It could get dangerous. It will test everything about you. Your values, your beliefs, your morals..." His eyes were wary.

Cole nodded frantically. "I am a good fighter and I work at a bar all day, my social skills are as well as they can be!"

"You have your mother's heart." The sorcerer chuckled as he stood to leave. "Meet me at the entrance of the village at sunrise. I will see if you are ready then."

Cole couldn't hold back a grin as he returned to the bar. His coworkers gave him odd looks but he couldn't bring himself to care. Cole glanced at the barkeeper and wiped the large keg clean.

"I may be gone for a little while."

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Their footsteps were slow and careful as they entered the ancient cavern. Kai was in the lead, the human wizard crept carefully, amber eyes narrowed as he scanned the area. He snapped his fingers and a small flame appeared. The tiny spell allowed them enough light to see around the ruins. His eyes narrowed as he caught sight of long scratch marks along the wall. Suddenly an arm shot out, blocking him from moving forward.

"Careful." A soft lyrical voice warned his companion. "I sense something very dark here."

"What? Zane! You said this place was abandoned!" A little gnome squeaked from atop Cole's shoulder.

Zanynor, a half-elf monk cast his eyes around the hidden temple. The tall pillars loomed over them like trees and an eerie atmosphere sent shivers down the traveller's spine. "I do believe it is abandoned, Jay, but the dark magic may still rest here."

"It'll be alright." Nya, Kai's sister, said to her friend. "We won't stay long, we'll go in, get the armour, then get out."

Cole shook his head in amusement as Jay reluctantly quieted. He assumed the ginger had a small crush on the dark-haired Druid. It was quite interesting to see the two dance around each other, their awkward and hesitant nature causing miscommunication to happen more than it should.

A small crash made everyone jump. Everyone was on edge, fingers slowly running along with their weapons. Jay shrank behind Cole's shoulder, the inventor aimed his taser around the room. A shadow danced across the ceiling, causing the group to spin around. Nya waved her hands, water falling from her flask at her hip and swirling dangerously through her fingers. The determined female warrior glared into the dark corners of the temple.

"What the-" Kai mumbled when a statue on the ceiling detached itself from the wall and leaped at him. The fire was snuffed out with a crash as the wizard grappled with its opponent.

Shouts erupted from the group as they fumbled to figure out what was happening in the darkness. At last, Jay activated his taser, a bolt of electricity blasted at the torches lining the hall, lighting the cavern so that they could see.

Kai's eyes widened when he was met with two narrowed green eyes, claws digging into his shoulder as it hissed at him. Kai kicked the creature in the abdomen and it landed neatly on the ground like a cat. The wizard finally recognized it as a tiefling, its green skin, tall horns, and prongs tail all pointed to the evil species.

"Leave!" The teifling demanded calmly, drawing a katana from the sheath on its back.

Two can play that game, Kai thought, and he brought out his sword. "You don't want to get in a fight with me." Kai masked any fear with a flippant tone. "It's like playing with fire, you'll only get burned."

"I'll take my chances." His adversary replied.

Kai lunged first, there was a musical clang as the metal blades struck. The teifling was quick and agile so Kai soon brought out his spells, the flame igniting in his palms like children of the sun. To his surprise, the teifling brought out blazing green magic of his own.

"Should we be helping him?" Cole asked tentatively as they watched them go at each other.

"I am unsure." Zane tilted his head in thought. "For personal battles, it is preferred that the opponents' companions stay out of the fight. But I do not think Kai has any grudge with this teifling."

"This is stupid." Nya rolled her eyes when the green creature hooked his tail around Kai's leg and began throwing him repeatedly on the floor. "Tieflings are resistant to fire, Kai's attacks won't do much damage. Let's stop messing around and get the damn armour!"

The clear liquid elongated into a long stream before it whipped around, slapping the teifling in the face and sending him flying. There was a clatter as his katana went skidding across the floor.

"Use Wu's sleep spell!" Jay yelled at Kai who went staggering to his feet.

The tiefling's brow furrowed as Kai began an incantation. His eyes widened in realization. "WAIT! I'm Wu's-"

He was broken off by a swirl of golden magic wafting around his head. His words were swallowed with a snore as his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed onto the floor.

They all stared in shock at the limp body.

Jay was the first to break the silence. "I feel like he was about to say something important."

authors note****

Oops. I was going to add the "spring-themed" aspect in but it didn't make it into part one. 😭 Crumb cookies. If I place it in part two is it still qualified to be semi-spring inspired?

You must be tired of hearing spring by now 😂

After doing my Intertwined inspired one-shot I investigated who Beau and Yasha were. I learned that they were characters in a dnd web series called Critical Role and I have started watching it on YouTube. It's a bunch of voice actors playing the fantasy-themed role-playing game and it's so fun to see the character come to life! So far I'm absolutely in love with Jester! I love accents!

Anyways, this inspired me to do a Dungeons and Dragons AU! I've only played dnd once and I did some light research for this story (I bent a few things so that I could have a green, blonde, tiefling) but I haven't become a dnd expert. There's A TON of information in dungeons and dragons and unfortunately I don't have time to do all that research in one day.

To those unfamiliar with DnD, it's a fun game usually in a fantasy setting where people create their own character with intricate backstories and all the players' characters come together for a huge journey! It's very fun and super in depth! The word can get so complicated and it's absolutely amazing! Lord of the Rings quality world building!

For each character you choose their race, which can be various things from halflings to half-orcs, and then choose their class! Their class mostly displays what they can do. So they can be things like a bard, a magic wielded who uses music to cast their spells, or a monk who is a martial artist that usually uses hand-to-hand combat. (There is way more classes and it's way more in depth than this but I'm just doing a summary)

Anyways, here are the races and classes I chose for each of the ninja team!

Kai- human wizard

I wanted him to be able to wield fire and I discovered that the wizards have the ability to casts the fire spells.

Nya - Human Druid

Druids use nature to do their magic. I learned that some Druid's are able to use water powers so I chose this class for Nya!

Cole - human barbarian

Cole has the stereotypical Barbarian look to him with his big muscles and since he has super strength in ninjago I chose this class for him. A barbarian is someone who fights using a large weapon and is quite strong. (Again very vague summary)

Zane - half-elf monk

I thought Zane would make a wonderful half-elf. Elves are very regal and I felt his former way of speech worked with that. But half-elves struggle with fitting into the world since they are not fully elf or fully human. I thought this could work well with Zane's backstory. I also gave him an elven name! Zanynor to explain why his name wasn't exactly elfy. That way it's more of nickname.

Jay - gnome fighter

A fighter is one of the most loose of the classes and since I wasn't sure what to do for Jay I used it! I thought it would so adorable to have Jay as a little gnome! He's a rock gnome so that he could have the "tinker trait" that allowed him to invent the electrical weapon I gave him! I still needed to give our Jay his lightning powers!

Lloyd - tiefling warlock

I decided that Lloyd would be a tiefling since it sort of related to his oni side. A dragon born was another race I couldn't chosen but I wanted to keep that more human-ish face.

Dnd beyond use this to explain what warlocks do:

"A warlock is defined by a pact with an otherworldly being. ... The magic bestowed on a warlock ranges from minor but lasting alterations to the warlock's being (such as the ability to see in darkness or to read any language) to access to powerful spells."

Maybe Lloyd used to be apart of Garmadon's group of teiflings, humans who made deals with demons to become the hybrid creature. Tieflings often praise to gods. Maybe Garmadon worshiped The Overlord?

I'll explain Lloyd's past more later but I just wanted to explain the classes and races for each of our ninja!

I'll try and get part two out soon! Hope you enjoyed this one-shot!

LuckyBugBooks 🐞

Gif at the top of the page is from the animated music video for Critical Role's theme Your Turn to Roll

The video at the top of the page is Annapantu singing Tavern Crawl for dnd.

Title from Your Turn to Roll