Alfarell

Challenge #04721-L337: Den of the Unwelcome

Where can someone go when the world is on the hunt and there seems to be no safe harbor? -- Deathshead419

The thing with running was... you had to keep running. Stop and relax, and they would catch up with you. You learned a thousand ways to stay out of sight. You learned a hundred ways to avoid notice. And you had to learn what was safe to eat more than once. Especially if you wanted to survive for one more meal.

When the world truly is out to get you, paranoia is a survival skill. The only ones you can trust are those like yourself.

The Unwelcome find their way to havens that other Unwelcome have made. Ghettoes in the cities. Hovels in the outskirts. Forgotten places so far out of the way that others would have to work very hard to find them. And occasionally, some venture back to leave signs for others.

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Challenge #04719-L335: Newfound Family

Come to find out, this a new kind of fae. Magic, it seems, can sometimes spontaneously poof life into existence when there's a sudden buildup, like this youngster. Choosing a name was one thing, but learning how to care for them was another. There was going to be a learning curve for both. First, clothes, then, food, maybe? This very young one was going to be their foundling, but they were also going to be quite an education.

https://peakd.com/fiction/

Challenge #04717-L333: Sweet Justice

One of the waitstaff, technically they were still just a trainee at the Drunken Horns, when the adventurers returned a few nights later to, once again, enjoy a party, yes they DID make reservations first, asked softly. "So.. what happened to the watchmen bullies?"

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04627-l243-money-with-menaces -- Anon Guest

Mudita, as a young adoptee of the Drunken Horn, had been on cart service when the corrupt Watch squad came in. Watching a bunch of evil-minded goons get comeuppance

Challenge #04715-L331: Lossless Operation

Oakroot showed them the place where he came from. A place where kids were all but farmed out, or tossed out of thought of as worthless. The ones who owned that place... disappeared. The adventurers had their base of operations now, and lots of new sons and daughters to help. The first time the sound of honest laughter from a child was heard, some in the party wept, for they were healing.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04643-l259-found-family-free-fuddlement -- Anon Guest

Oakroot

Challenge #04714-L330: A Simple Misunderstanding

The dragon had so much gold in their cave that their hoard, built up over many generations, had gotten way out of hand. So they began to melt the gold into jewelry, though that did tarnish it. But it was not to give to the rich. Each piece was carefully crafted and handed out to poor travelers in the forms of bracelets or necklaces. And in each one a dragon's blessing. Vicious animals, and cruel opportunists, would feel the need to be.

Challenge #04711-L327: Patience of the Doctor

They called me freak and fled. I realized, it was not prejudice, it was fear. They constantly had bloody noses, and not from being struck. I had no choice, I gently sedated them and checked them. It's good I did, they were not long for this world. Now, they will be able to grow up into an adult. -- Anon Guest

[AN: This prompt was rearranged from being freeform poetry for space reasons.]

Life should never have settled in this place, but

Challenge #04710-L326: Pray Responsibly

The last, aged priest of a God is searching for an apprentice to take on the scriptures and learn the proper rites before it becomes nothing but a curiosity for scholars rather than a living, breathing practice linking people over millennia. -- Deathshead419

Karkaul, High Priest of the Volcano God, was looking for an orphan, an unwanted child, or one in bad circumstances to take under her wing. The greys of age were already showing on her temples. She needed the time

Challenge #04709-L325: Difficult History

Vholno, son of a traveling bard, always thought he was a normal human boy born to a wandering man. But when patches of green appeared on his skin, his father told him that he was born of a liaison with a dryad. Now Vholno ventures deep into the wilds in search of his mother and what fate awaits the son of the forest. -- Deathshead419

[AN: I see what you did there :) ]

Dad had taught the goat to dance for their traveling

Challenge #04706-L322: Impediment Remedy

Their stutter was so bad they could only call the being "teuf". They would get to the f and the stutter would stop them from saying the full word Teufel. The being allowed the normally rude partial word because they understand the person couldn't help it, and helped them get their farm cleaned up and fixed regardless. At least the person was trying. -- Anon Guest

The woman in the straw hat and too-big boots had a jerky way of walking and

Challenge #04704-L320: Midwinterfeast Tale

Two children, one human, one hellkin, were awake in their cold box-shelter when Greatfather Langeven arrived. They asked, please, to be taken in by him. "Let us help deliver gifts and help us find somewhere warm with love?" That is all they wish. -- Anon Guest

Traffic in cities flows like a river. All rivers have eddies and places were flotsam washes up. Some form something like a tosheroon. Others... hardly have a form at all. Dawn found Scrap on a midden

Challenge #04698-L314: Emperor's Folly

“The Haters said I was daft to build a castle in a swamp. And they were right. Honestly, great call from the Haters.” -- Deathshead419

Determination can make miracles. Well. Determination, a lot of money, and special powers. When you can pay for anything, you can make anything happen. Including the castle of the moor.

Behold, the magnificence. The work of so much earth shaping, stone shaping, and a veritable mountain of gold. A work of magnificence years in the making.

The

Challenge #04695-L311: Remedied Choice

A traveling hellkin was a highly skilled medic who knew how to make most medicines, use magic to heal, and was an accomplished surgeon. They did not discriminate with their treatments, and only charged as much as a person was capable of paying. Even if it meant just asking for a simple meal, or, not asking for anything more, than a thank you. -- Anon Guest

If someone looked no further than first impressions, he looked like a wandering vagabond carrying a

Challenge #04694-L310: A Better Solution

They were born the only child in a family of immense wealth that had gained the ire of the local populace, and was taken from that place while still young and impressionable. The family were not killed, the local populace didn't want them to be able to have THAT much of an escape. Worse, the child, raised in a humble, poor, community with love, kindness, and knowing the values of a family that cared, was sent back to them older, and created

Challenge #04693-L309: Combat Hypocrisy

If war is diplomacy by violence, then the currency of exchange is in the bodies of the youth. And so a General must make his bitter calculus, choosing which men to hurl at the enemy defenses in the grim hope that the righteous side is victorious. -- Deathshead419

The best kind of war, say many philosophers, is the one you don't have to fight. Many war hawks have ignored this wisdom and prefer to throw fighting youth at the enemy until one

Challenge #04691-L307: In the Hour of Greatest Need

An apprentice healer saves a mysterious stranger from a fever. The thankful stranger gives the healer a box, promising that when the time comes, the box will open and the debt will be repaid. -- Deathshead419

Devryq never knew the stranger's name. They were just a fellow traveler at the waystation-house. One in need, because they were deep in a fever. Deveryq hadn't thought of rewards, just of the need ze could see to.

It didn't matter that the stranger was a

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A 296-post collection

Challenge #04721-L337: Den of the Unwelcome

Challenge #04719-L335: Newfound Family

Challenge #04717-L333: Sweet Justice

Challenge #04715-L331: Lossless Operation

Challenge #04714-L330: A Simple Misunderstanding

Challenge #04711-L327: Patience of the Doctor

Challenge #04710-L326: Pray Responsibly

Challenge #04709-L325: Difficult History

Challenge #04706-L322: Impediment Remedy

Challenge #04704-L320: Midwinterfeast Tale

Challenge #04698-L314: Emperor's Folly

Challenge #04695-L311: Remedied Choice

Challenge #04694-L310: A Better Solution

Challenge #04693-L309: Combat Hypocrisy

Challenge #04691-L307: In the Hour of Greatest Need