Datura quietly followed after the impromptu heroes, lagging slightly behind, as she dragged her feet with less enthusiasm than her fellow companions. Where the heck they get all that energy will forever be shrouded in mystery. Even her energy drinks could contain only so much sugar. Staring down at the hill, she sighed and slide down the hill. [Rolled 11] On a particular rock, she felt something shifted beneath her and - before she should even scream - a large chunk of rock broke loose beneath her and began tearing down the hill, dragging the quack doctor along for the ride like some kind of surfer on a boogie board. Datura clung to the giant moving rock for dear life, the wind and locks of her hair smacking her in the face, until the boulder slowly came to a standstill. Shakily, she stumbled off the killer joyride, her hair a completely mess as she sat on the ground in complete daze. She was far ahead of the others thanks to that ride, just waiting at just a few feet inside the forest since that sharp incline lead straight into the trees.

Trying to catch up to the trio was a red-robbed man running towards them. "Wait! Wait!" he cried. He noticed them heading down a hill. Grumbling to himself, he looked down before traversing the incline. [ROLLED: 4] The man began to move, but tripped on a small pebble. His short self tumbled down the hill -- it would be a rather amusing sight. He continued to tumble until a tree stopped him. That is to say he hit it, hard. Rubbing his head, he stood up and waited for his vision to come back. He was a bit disoriented. "Ouch! Who put this tree here?!" He quickly turned to the others and shot them a death stare. "What the hell?! Didn't you hear me calling after you lot?!"

[Rolled 10]
The dark forest looms before your party, but rather than being ominous, it emanates a peaceful, tranquil aura, and a cool, refreshing breeze blows out from path's entrance into the dense trees. Birds can be heard singing peacefully, and the sun shines warmly, penetrating the forest's roof in such a way that the ground is speckled with flecks of white light. It's hard to believe that there had just been a monster attack on the city!
[Rolled 7]
As the four strangers venture inside, they find that, again, nothing out of the ordinary happens. Looking from side to side, they can see that the path is well-worn from travel and though there are some fallen trees, they have already been cleared off the road and quarantined to the edges of the path. A rabbit hops across the path, followed by another. They reach the other side and tumble over each other into a bush. Disgustingly adorable.

As they continue walking, they hear a crunch through the trees to their left as a stag emerges, with a full rack of antlers. They almost continue walking until they realize the stag is staring at them and that the stag has glowing, red eyes and a dark aura emanates around it the way steam on a cold day flares from a pot of hot water. The stag paws the ground and opens its mouth far wider than is natural, revealing many rows of sharp, jagged teeth and a tentacle-like tongue lashing about with a mind of its own. On the unhinged lower jaw, you also see an unsettling pair of snakelike eyes open wide, staring at you uncomfortably.

The devil-stag releases an unholy shrieking sound and begins to charge!

[ADDENDUM]
Sylvester shrieks and passes out, unable to be awoken, as if under a spell! His limp body falls out of the way into some foliage outside of the path.

"Heard it," Alphonse called back to the newcomer without turning his head, "Ignored it!" He continued down the path with his unusually feminine walk.

He stopped in his tracks when the demon stag appeared.

"Calm down, Squire," he said in a bored voice to Sylvester as he raised his gun and fired.

[Rolled 8]

The metal slug ripped through the deer's head at the top of the skull, tearing its righthand antler off.

"Half as dangerous!" Alphonse announced happily as the stag continued charging right at him.

"Sorry, I thought you were yellin' at the demons," Datura apologized in a very nonchalant manner that spoke out loud that she could care less to what the newcomer was complaining about.

At the sudden appearance of the demonic stag, she stared incredulously at the unmanly shriek that erupted from Sylvester. "Pipe it down! Are you try to mate call the thing?" She huffed in annoyance, not showing an ounce of concern when the explosion fanatic fainted and fell into the shrubbery.

"Not half. I would say about one-sixth less dangerous. It still got all those teeth," she pointed out as she quickly backed away from the charging stag. As soon as she saw that it was charging at the knight, she rolled her eyes and tackled Alphonse.

[Rolled 9]

Datura managed to get both of them out of the charging path of the stag and the demon ran right past them. They fell into a nice patch of grass and daisies that cushioned their fall.

The red-robed man had no time to stop and stare at the forest that loomed before him. It wasn't before he began walking behind the trio. He was some distance away. "These are the clowns I was assigned to adventure with? How-" The man cut himself off as he took in the sight before him. Some kind of demon reindeer . . . thing, just stood there. It began to charge after a few moments passed. Archie took a moment to think.

He had three "allies". One was so scared they passed out, the other can't shoot for shit, and one thinks they're playing some kind of sport game. Did she really tackle the guy out of the way? Whatever. It appeared the newcomer had to save the day. Which was sad. If Archie had to be the hero, you done fucked up.

"Hm", he mused to himself, revealing a big book. He scrolled through some pages before stopping on one he liked. "Ah. This seems formidable." He shot his hand in front of him and took a breath. "I summon Azral to the real plane!"

[ROLLED: 2] (Aw!)

. . . But nothing happened. Having no defence against this demon, Archie was snatched up by its powerful jaws. It didn't keep him there for long. Instead, it bit him a couple times before tossing him aside. Having a large wound in the lower stomach, he was losing a lot of blood. Likely to pass out in mere minutes if help didn't come in the form of a healer summon or a healing ally.

The devil-stag's antler thudded to the ground, dissolving into a pile of fine, black ash. An inky black liquid oozed from where the stag's antler had been, and the liquid started bulging out and growing a new antler to replace the one Alphonse had blown off. It continued its charge, missing Alphonse and Datura as they flew aside but picking up Archie in its fearsome jaws. In the moments that he was in the beast's jaws, Archie could see the snake eyes inside the jaws staring at him just inches from him.

The beast cast Archie aside, leaving him with sickly puncture wounds all around his torso, and pawed the ground again. It may have been the party's imagination, but Archie's blood seemed to have some kind of strange effect on the beast, because its dark aura looked weaker... Lowering its head and brandishing its newly grown antler, the devil-stag opened its mouth wider than anything could possibly open its mouth and revealed that the two snake eyes inside its mouth had fused into one giant, glowing eye, bloodshot and unblinking. But the beast did not move. It stood there panting and letting the leftover blood drain from its mouth. Apparently the herbivorous animal was fighting the corruption to recover from the unexpected taste of the animal summoner's blood...

"An opening!" Alphonse shouted as he shoved Datura roughly off of him. "Squire Gerald, my sword!" Gerald bustled forward and offered the sword, which Alphonse drew from the scabbard as the carpenter held it. He charged forward, holding the sword at a ready stance and thrust into the deer's mouth eye.

[Rolled an 8!]

The sword pierced the eye, oozing more of the black liquid and...

The sword pierced the eye, oozing more of the black liquid and...

The monster reared back with a deafening screech! The sword passed through the eye and out of the bottom of the mouth. It jerked itself away, removing the sword from its mouth, and the eye split into two eyes again, both eyes still glowing.

Datura shot a glare at Alphonse before she brushed the crushed daisies and blades of grass from her already-soiled outfit.

"My, oh my. What a mess. Tell me, newcomer, are you a jester?" She taunted with a slight frown as she lengthened her stride and crouched over the bloody prone form of the newcomer, What's-His-Name. Her eyes glanced over his body. Obviously, this guy was going to die if something isn't done soon. There was already a pool of blood beneath her feet.

She brushed locks of her black hair over her shoulders before she reached into her bag. A large assortments of brightly colored concoctions were piled inside. Teal, maroon, pink, cyan, lime. Her finger over each one before settling on a bright purple jar. She opened it and forced the summoner to chug it down.

[Rolled 7]

As the potion jar was drained dry, the effects were immediate. The blood stopped pouring from the patient's massive wound and the injury slowly, very very slowly, started to close.

"Ha! It worked! Lucky bet!" Datura said with her head held high; although, her words didn't exactly inspire much confidence, hope, or anything else for that matter. She took out a roll of bandages and started to cover the remainder of his wounds. She put on her business smile - one that glinted in the darkness - as she does so. "Thank you so much for using my services. That'll be 50 gold pieces."

"As if, you crackpot!" Archie stood up and shoved away from Datura, without even so much as a thank you. "Perhaps that wouldn't have happened if you weren't busy playing sports!" Did he really blame her for this? It's not as though she called the demon-thing here. Well, whatever. Nothing could be done about it now.

Dusting himself off and keeping an eye on his wound, Archie prepared to summon a beast again. "I summon Azral to the dream plane!"

[ROLLED: 8]

A black sphere appeared out of nowhere. Seconds later, it expanded then disappeared, with a hooded figure having glowing, red eyes standing in front of Archie. "I come from the shadows", it hissed.

"You. Familiar. I command you to do away with that foul creature!"

Azral, the hooded figure, looked at Archie, then at the demon-stag, then back at Archie. "You're lucky I'm bored, human. It's been a while since I've been out of the dreamscape. I figure I could stretch my limbs."

"Enough incessant prattle! Slay it!" Archie spat, jerking his pointer finger at the demon-stag. "Now! While it is weakened!"

Azral nodded and calmly walked towards the demon-stag. As it did this, it snapped its fingers and a sword appeared in its hand. The sword was as black as the night and possessed a strange aura -- the same aura that attached itself to the demon-stag, it seemed. Strange. Once Azral reached the demon-stag who was still reeling from the nice sword plunge from earlier, it blinked.

"You're big", it said cooly. "Fought bigger." And with that, its black-as-night sword was thrust into one of the glowing eyes inside the creature's mouth. Azral continued to stab both eyes multiple times as blood and other goo splattered everywhere.

[Rolled 8]

The devil-stag again cried out with an ungodly screech as blood and black liquid splattered around. The dark aura retreated into the body of the stag, turning it pitch black as it staggered backward. Finally, after several agonizing moments, the blackness left the stag's body like a spectre leaving its host and dispersed into the air, vanishing into nothing. A completely ordinary stag remained where the beast had lain, motionless, with no more awful physical deformities except its missing antler and some gruesome holes in its lower jaw both spilling blood. The fight was over.

[Rolled 6]

The road ahead curved, so the party of incredibly reluctant partners could not see what was coming, and densely-packed trees surrounded them on either side of the road.

[Rolled 7]

But the chirping of birds made it seem clear that there would be no danger immediately ahead, so the party decided to press on...

And the mad bomber was nowhere to be seen, living out his pyromaniac fantasies in the forests, eventually bumping into the party again. "Why hello there. How nice to see you all again. How long was I gone making happiness and sunshine and rainbows?" As he says this, he takes out a metal canister and some gunpowder and various other items.

(Rolled a 9)

Sylvester put the grenade into his bag after creating it for later use. "ONWARDS!"

"Oh," Alphonse said, seeing Sylvester return. "It's you. And here we were hoping the demon deer had frightened you to death. I suppose you can't have everything in life, eh Gerald?"
"Er, no sir," The squire said, "I s'pose you can't."

[Rolled 7]

Al was busy reloading his gun as they walked, but he stumbled on a stone and tipped the gun forward before he was done, spilling the black powder onto the ground. "Blast," he said, restarting.

Datura raised an eyebrow at the sudden appearance of Sylvester. She was nearly attempted to shade her eyes as the explosion-obsessed maniac almost seemed to sparkle at the mention of rainbows and happiness. With a quiet scoff, she brushed past her male companions and carefully tread the path deeper into the forest. She wasn’t quite eager to become chow for more demonic deers, but there was no point goofing with these fools.

[Rolled 6. Power roll!]

The quack doctor turned at the curve of the path and gasped. In front of her was a ruined wagon with broken boxes and junk scatter all about. Quickly, she ignored the giant claw marks on the ground and some of the blood splatters neared the mess, and made her way to an ox that was lazing nearby.

“Oh, you poor thing! Who dare abandoned you?” She cooed and hugged it around its neck. The ox just stared dully at the trees, not giving a crap.

“I’m taking him with me! No one eats him!” Datura declared and hopped onto its back which took a bit of effort. Smoothing out her clothes, she crossed her arms. “I was getting tired of walking anyways.”