Caverns & Creatures - Part One
Paranormal Preteens AU: Episode Twenty-Two
A JSE Fanfic
Before things start getting serious in this AU, let's have a fun adventure! One where I get to be a real nerd XD Much like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, this adventure got longer than expected, so I had to split it in two. Jackie decides to teach the five younger kids how to play the tabletop game Caverns and Creatures. But Anti is upset that he got left out, and things go crazy from there. Hope I made this fun for people who don't know anything about DnD XD Enjoy! :D
More of this AU | From the Start | Read on AO3 at CrystalNinjaPhoenix
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“What do you mean it showed up again?!” Chase shouted.
“Shhh!” Marvin hushed him, then glanced around nervously. The cafeteria was always loud and crowded, but there was always a chance that some of the teachers might overhear—especially those who were part of the Circle, and who might be listening in intentionally. “Not so loud.”
“Sorry,” Chase said. “But it’s—it’s just freaky, right?”
“Is that doll with you right now?”
JJ nodded slowly. He opened up his bag, and slowly took out that same plush doll, now wearing a miniature version of their school uniform.
“It changed clothes again,” Marvin muttered, shuddering. “It really is mimicking you.”
JJ hurriedly put it back in his bag. I didn’t put it in my bookbag, but when I checked on it before coming to the cafeteria, it was there, he said.
“Omg,” Stacy gasped. “You’re right, Chase, that is really freaky.”
Chase nodded. “But, uh... what do we do?”
“I don’t know, that’s why we’re asking you!” Marvin insisted. “When it showed up in our room again, we were completely lost.”
“You threw it out the window, yes?” Schneep said. “Did that... do anything? To the doll, or to Jameson?”
The doll is fine, JJ said. As for me... I don’t know. I seem fine. But I don’t think a fall from our window would really hurt, you know? So it’s hard to tell.
“Hmm.” Schneep frowned. “I still do not think we can do much... if we cannot tell that JJ will be safe, it is not worth the risk.”
“Maybe Marvin can pull the greenlight out of the doll?” Chase suggested. “Like he could with the paperpillar?”
Marvin paused. Then he turned to JJ. “Hand it to me.” JJ nodded and took the doll out again, handing it over to him. Marvin screwed his eyes shut, concentrating. Then he shook his head. “I don’t... I don’t know. It’s hard for me to, uh... grab it? It’s like... slippery. If that makes sense.” He handed it back to JJ.
“We can ask Jackie about it,” Stacy said. “Are we, uh, still gonna do that thing on Saturday?”
“Yeah... the thing.” Chase nodded. “We’re gonna do that.”
“You can just say we’re playing Cavern and Creatures, y’know,” Marvin said. “There’s no reason to be scared of it.”
“Well I mean... y’know, I...” Chase stammered. “I have a... Um, that’s like... M-maybe some other time. I mean, I don’t even know if I’ll like the game.”
The group had agreed to meet at Jackie’s house on Saturday around two to try out a game of Caverns and Creatures. This would give Jackie enough time to borrow stuff for the game from his friend Ram, give the others time to think about what sort of characters they wanted to make, and also, conveniently, Stacy’s parents were attending a piano recital for her sister Roxy, and with enough pleading she’d managed to convince them to let Jackie “babysit” her instead of dragging her to the recital as well.
“I’m sure it will be fun, Chase,” Schneep said. “After all, we are doing it together. If you are not enjoying the game, at least you will enjoy us, right?”
Chase laughed. “Yeah. That sounds so cheesy but yeah.”
JJ smiled nervously. I’m excited too. I just... hope nothing happens before then.
Chase hesitated. “I-it’ll be fine, JJ,” he said. “Cheer up.”
JJ’s expression brightened. Alright, I’ll look forward to it.
“I’m sure nothing will happen,” Marvin said, hiding his uncertainty. “We’ll just keep a close eye on the doll in the meantime.”
It will be fine, JJ agreed. It will be fine.
++++++++++++++++++++
“That doesn’t sound fine,” Jackie said.
The next couple days had passed without incident, and now the group was gathered in the living room of Jackie’s house. The doll had once again followed JJ, tagging along in his bag even when he left it home. And it was once again wearing a miniature version of his clothes: today, a button-up yellow shirt and brown pants.
“Well, no, but at least nothing bad’s gone on!” Marvin said.
“Well, yeah, but that doesn’t mean it’s fine,” Jackie insisted. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? You have my phone number.”
JJ shrugged and didn’t answer, putting the doll back in his bag.
“D’you have any ideas, Jackie?” Chase asked, looking up to him.
Jackie sighed. “I dunno, little man. If Marvin can’t pull the greenlight out of it, I just don’t know. I don’t want to risk hurting JJ by destroying it. I mean... it might not work that way, but if it does... I-I guess we just wait and see? If it turns out that it’s hurting JJ more by keeping it around, we’ll try ways to get rid of it.” He paused. “Maybe we could try getting it far away and that teleporting things will stop? But how far away?”
Schneep sighed. “This is a problem.”
“What’s a problem?” Mr. Mann walked into the living room, overhearing Schneep’s last statement.
“Just some school stuff, Dad,” Jackie lied. “Don’t worry, we’ll get it all sorted out.”
“Helping them with their homework?” Mr. Mann chuckled. “I thought you all were going to play a game.”
“We are! This was just, uh, small talk and stuff.”
“Alright, alright. Head on down to the basement whenever you want. If you guys need anything, just shout. And uh, try not to touch my camping supplies, okay?”
“We won’t, Mr. Mann,” Stacy promised.
“We’re going to the basement?” Marvin asked.
“Yep.” Jackie nodded. “C’mon, I’ll show you.”
Jackie led the way. There was a plain wooden door in the middle of the hallway, completely undecorated. He opened it up—giving it a good tug, seemed like it got a bit stuck in the frame—and flicked on a light switch, showing a set of stairs leading downwards, covered in shaggy brown carpet. The group headed down into a hallway, the walls painted a pale yellow. There was a door to the left, ajar, showing a laundry room of some kind. There was also a door to the right. Jackie opened that one up, turning on the light in there as well, and everyone piled in.
Right by the doorway was a bookshelf full of stuff: old board games and boxes for puzzles. Up against the opposite wall, underneath a high-up window, were a series of stacked plastic boxes full of what looked like old clothes. Outdoorsy equipment was stacked in the corners of the room. There’s a desk up against a spot by the wall, with two clunky computers on it. “I set things up already,” Jackie said, indicating the center of the room, where two folding card tables were pressed against each other, forming an island of sorts with some folding chairs around it.
The kids immediately crowded around. A lot of paper covered the surface of the tables. Most of it was a big folding map, sort of like a board for a board game, with a grid pattern overlaid on top of the drawings. At one end of the table was a folding screen of some kind, blocking off a section of the table from view. And in the middle of the island was a shoebox full of dice.
“Whooooa, wait, what?” Marvin reached into a box and picked up a handful of dice. “These are so pretty!”
Jackie laughed. “They better be—I spent a lot on them. But some of them are Ram’s, so try not to lose any. I-I wanted you all to have your own set.”
“Weird shapes,” Chase muttered, picking up one that looked like a pyramid.
“Yep. You’ll mostly be using this one, though.” Jackie grabbed one, holding it in two fingers. “The d20, as it’s called. Here, everyone sit down, I put a character sheet at each place.”
Everyone took their places. Jackie sat at the head of the table, behind the screen. Chase took the seat to his right, and Schneep sat on Chase’s other side. Stacy sat across from Chase, and JJ next to her, leaving Marvin at the other end of the table, bouncing in the chair excitedly.
“Okay, I texted you all a list of possible stuff your character can be, but it might not have been that clear,” Jackie said. “So, um... any questions?”
Stacy raised her hand—like she was in class. “Can I be a vampire?”
Jackie blinked. “Um—”
Chase burst into laughter.
“What’s so funny?!” Stacy said defensively.
“I just—wasn’t expecting that from you!” Chase said, smiling. “It’s kinda fun.”
“Vampires are cool. Are there vampires in Caverns and Creatures?”
“Yeah, there are, but uh... I don’t know if you can play as them.” Jackie picked up a book—looking like a thin textbook—and started flipping through it. “But, uh, if you really want, I can try to... adjust the monster stat block for you? You know you’ll have to be careful of sunlight, right?”
“I can have an umbrella or something,” Stacy said.
What’s the difference between a warrior and a knight? JJ asked.
“Well, a knight is more built around armor and defense, and a warrior is varied,” Jackie said. “And then there’s the martial artist if you want to be fast, the berserker if you want to be strong, and the rogue if you want to be sneaky.”
“That one!” Stacy raised her hand again. “I want to be sneaky. If I stay in the shadows, I can be a vampire.”
Jackie laughed. “That does make sense. Okay, give me a minute, Stacy, I’m gonna have to mess with some stuff for you.” He picked up a pencil and piece of paper and started to write. “Are the rest of you guys sorted?”
“I bet Marvin’s gonna be a witch,” Chase laughed.
“There’s no witch, actually,” Marvin said. “But there are lots of magic ones! Sorcerers, enchanters, wizards, pact-sworns... I like sorcerers best, I think, cause it’s like... the magic is part of you, you know? But wizards do have more spell options, hmm...”
“Can I be one of the bird people?” Schneep asked tentatively. “With the wings? Or will that make things too hard, Jackie?”
“Why would it make things hard?” Jackie asked.
“Well... flying could mean I could fly over things.”
“You do what’s fun to you,” Jackie said, looking up at him and smiling over the screen. “I can work with whatever.”
Schneep nodded slowly. “I, uh... I want to do that. And I want to be a potion master, too.”
“Nice! Underrated class, if you ask me. Your potions work the same as spell slots, you’ll have a limited number of them and during a long rest we can assume you spend some time replacing them.”
Chase shook his head. “The spell slots thing confuses me.”
“Then don’t pick a class that uses them,” Jackie said.
“I’m not gonna. I want to be a hunter. With the bow and stuff.” Chase pantomimed drawing back a bow and arrow. “It’s kinda like my Nerf gun.”
“Alright.” Jackie nodded. “You did seem interested in that when I texted you. JJ? Got an idea for what you want?”
JJ blinked. He looked a bit embarrassed. Don’t laugh.
“None of us are gonna laugh, JJ,” Chase said.
I... want to be a berserker, JJ said, signs small.
“Huh?” Stacy looked surprised. “That doesn’t really seem like you.”
Exactly. I think it’ll be fun to play someone different than me. And I want to hit things.
Jackie grinned. “That’s totally great, Jays. Hitting things is pretty fun in C&C. And Marvin? You decided?”
Marvin had been looking over a handout from Jackie this whole time, listing out the basic differences between the different magic classes. “Uhhh... yeah, I’ll be a sorcerer. A fiend sorcerer.”
Oh! And I’ll be an elf, I forgot to mention that, JJ added.
“Awesome. We don’t get a lot of elf berserkers, that’s not a usual combination.”
Chase frowned. “I just want to be human. Is that boring?”
“Nothing’s boring if it’s fun for you guys,” Jackie assured him. “Really. I usually play a human warrior, that’s about as basic as it gets.” He chuckled. “Okay. Stacy, I think I got some stuff sorted out. With that, I’ll help you guys fill out the sheets. Take these dice, we’re going to roll for your stats. JJ, you’ll want your highest one to be strength, Stacy and Chase, yours should be agility, Marvin, focus on charm, and Schneep, focus on intelligence.”
Some time passed as Jackie helped the kids figure out all their stats and abilities. Marvin and Schneep took the longest, as he had to guide them through what possible spells and potions they wanted to use. Soon, though, they each had the whole sheet filled out.
“That took a while,” Chase said, looking at a clock on the wall. “Like... an hour. And that’s just getting ready?”
“This isn’t normally how it works out,” Jackie said. “But you guys are new. Once you learn more this becomes easier. And there’s also five of you at once.”
“Okay, so what are we playing, then?” Marvin asked excitedly. “What’s our quest?”
“I’m using a one-shot campaign from a kit,” Jackie said, picking up a booklet and showing the others. “Secrets of Suilara. It shouldn’t take too long... but if it does, we can come back to it some other day easily enough.”
Schneep reached into his backpack and pulls out a small notebook and pencil, writing something down. “How do you spell that? Sool...arr...uh?”
“Here, the lid of the box has the name.” Jackie handed it over to him.
“What’re you doing?” Chase asked.
“Taking notes. If we might come back to this later, we need to be sure we don’t forget.”
“Oh that’s a great idea!” Stacy gasped. “I should’ve brought my notebook.”
Jackie laughed. “Alright, everyone put your pieces on the board.” He’d mentioned that they didn’t have miniatures earlier, so everyone had grabbed parts from the board games on the shelves. “Before we get started, we should get snacks. C&C takes a surprising amount of energy.” He stood up. “I’ll go get some. Any requests?”
“D’you have Lassie Trail Mix?” Stacy asked. “My family is very specific about the sort of stuff we can eat and that’s my favorite.”
“I’ll go look,” Jackie promised. “Anything else for anyone?”
“Crisps?” Chase said.
“D’you have pretzels?” Marvin asked.
“Definitely crisps, not sure about pretzels,” Jackie said. “My dad’s probably gonna suggest fruit or something, too.” He stood up. “I’ll be right back. You guys talk about your characters and stuff in the meantime. How they know each other, if they know each other, stuff like that.” He waved at the others and headed out of the room. They could hear him head up the stairs.
“Well... this is going to be fun!” Schneep said cheerfully.
“You guys think so?” Chase asked.
JJ nodded. I’m sure it will be.
The lights overhead flickered. “You guys are having fun without me?”
All at once, the kids turned to look at the corner of the room... the corner where Anti was now standing, shadowy as ever.
“What the fuck?!” Marvin gasped. He whirled towards the doorway. “Jackie!”
“No no no no.” Anti disappeared and reappeared in front of the door, which slammed shut on its own behind him. “Don’t be like that! I can’t believe you all are playing a game without me!”
“Why wouldn’t we be playing a game without you?” Chase demanded. “We don’t really know you!”
Anti blinked. “But—but—you can’t do that without me!”
“Oh fuck off!” Marvin snapped.
“You eff off!” Anti shouted back. He suddenly appeared next to the table, right between Marvin and Schneep. “I heard alllll your explanations. I can play! In fact, I can make it even better.”
Stacy stared at him. “...what do you mean?” She asked, trepidation in her voice.
Anti reached out to the side, and something appeared in his hand. He threw it out onto the table. Seven crystals, irregularly shaped—not like the dice, but clearly meant to serve the same purpose. They landed around the edges of the board and immediately started glowing green.
JJ got to his feet. Marvin shouted “What the fuck?!” Stacy turned towards the doorway.
But before any of them could do anything more than that, the green glow flared, filling the room and blinding them all. When it faded, all of them were gone. And the board was glowing green. Anti leaned over it. The whole thing had become a window, looking down at a forest floor. Anti grinned.
The door to the room opened again, and Jackie poked his head in. “Hey guys, do you want potato or corn cr—” He stopped, eyes going wide. “Wh-what?”
“Hi!” Anti smiled at him, waving.
“What’s going on?! Wh-what did you do to the others?!” Jackie demanded, feeling frozen in place.
“They’re in here!” Anti pointed at the window-like board.
Jackie rushed over, peering down into the window...
++++++++++++++++++++
Chase opened his eyes, and found himself no longer in Jackie’s basement room, but now in a forest. Gentle dappled sunlight coated the forest floor, and bright green moss covered the trunks of the trees. He looked around, confused. Then he looked down at himself, even more confused. His clothes were different. He still had the cap he was wearing, but everything else was different. What sort of costume was this? Dark browns and greens, thick leather armor, and... was that a real knife on his belt? And a real quiver full of arrows?
“What the fuck?”
Chase turned towards the voice and yelped. “Marvin, is that you?!”
“Huh? Yeah.” Marvin blinked at him. His head dipped a little, weighted down by the heavy horns that were now growing out of his head. “Whoa.” He reached up, feeling them. His eyes went wide. “Wait a—wait a minute!” His outfit had changed as well. His cape was still in place, but now he was wearing a pale purple tunic lined with gold. “Do I have—why do I have fucking horns?!”
“Help!” Schneep was lying on his back nearby, trying to get up. He was also wearing a tunic, though his was white and blue, and he had leather armor like Chase’s on over it.
“Oh, yeah, o-of course.” Chase hurried over and helped him up. It was more difficult than expected... because Schneep was not, as Chase first thought, lying on a pile of feathers. He instead had a pair of wings sprouting from his back, in shades of brown and creamy white. “...Schneep?! Are you an angel?!”
“Ah... thank you, Chase?” Schneep said, confused.
“You have fucking wings!” Marvin pointed and shouted.
“What?!”
“Uh... guys?” The voice came from above them that time. They all looked up into the trees, and saw Stacy there, looking white as a sheet—and not from shock. Her glasses were still in place, but her outfit had been replaced by another medieval-style outfit. This one was pink with black frills, and black leather armor. A belt around her chest had three sheathed knives. “H-how do I get down?”
“...climb down?” Chase suggested.
“Thanks, that’s very helpful.”
“Where’s JJ?” Marvin looked around. “Where is he?!”
A whistle came from behind a tree trunk. JJ peered around it, then came out and walked over. He was wearing some sort of loose short-sleeved red shirt with a cape made of some sort of fur pelt. His ears had become pointed at the top. And there was a giant freaking weapon strapped to his back. Is that... a flail? JJ had chosen that as his weapon for his character in Caverns and Creatures—oh.
“Are we in the game?!” Chase gasped.
Part of the sky above them seemed to open up, a green glowing circle forming. In the middle of it: Jackie’s worried face. “Guys?! Are you okay?!”
“We’re fine, Jackie!” Schneep shouted, looking up at it. “Are you okay?!”
Jackie laughed. “I-I’m fine! But Anti—”
Anti’s face suddenly appeared, shoving Jackie’s to the side. “C’mon c’mon! Go go go! Where are all the monsters? There’s supposed to be monsters!”
“You put us in the fucking game?!” Marvin shouted. “What is this?! I-is this some sort of weird pocket dimension?!”
“I dunno. I just made it happen.”
How do we get out of here?! JJ asked.
“Yeah, how do we get out of here?!”
“I-I don’t know!” Jackie shouted. “Um—Anti, how do they get out?!” he asked, desperately looking over at him.
“They finish the game, duh.”
“Do you even know how the game ends?!” Jackie asked.
Anti stared at him, blinking.
Jackie sighed, frustrated. “Okay. Looks like I’ll have to CM you guys out of there, then.” He briefly disappeared from sight. The others could hear the sound of him flipping through the book.
“Seriously, how do I get out of this tree?” Stacy asked.
“Just... try climbing down? I-I don’t know how to explain it,” Chase said.
“Okay, okay. Fine.” Stacy stared down at the ground, thinking. Then she pushed herself off the branch—
A series of numbers appeared next to her, pink and mist-like, flipping like they were on a rolling counter. It landed on 02, and then a +5 appeared next to it, bumping the number up to 07. Stacy immediately fell on her face. “Oof!”
“Holy shit!” Marvin gasped. JJ winced.
The guys immediately rushed over to her.
“A-are you okay?!” Chase asked.
“Owww.” Stacy got to her feet. Another number appeared above her head. 10... which then rolled down to a 09.
“Uh... I think you just failed your agility saving throw,” Jackie said. “And you lost a health point because of that.”
Is that just going to happen whenever we try to do anything? JJ said, eyes wide.
“Probably,” Jackie said. “Okay, uh... we’re playing Secrets of Suilara. There’s this opening paragraph of exposition, I-I think you guys need to hear this so you can understand what the hell is going on right now. So, you guys were hired by Dalrun the dwarf to carry a satchel of precious gems to the city of Suilara, through the Kanrrol Forest. One of you should have that.”
“I think I do?” Marvin said, pushing back his cape. He did indeed have a leather satchel on his back.
“Okay, good. I don’t remember, who has the highest navigation skill? Probably Chase, right?”
“I think mine was really high, yeah.” Chase nodded. “I, uh... filled in the little dot next to it. That means I’m really good at it. So... I’ll lead the way, then?”
“Exactly,” Jackie said.
“Alright, uh...” Chase looked around. A set of yellow misty numbers appeared next to his head, rolling, and landing on a 15, and then a +3 made it into an 18. Suddenly, Chase saw it. The way the grass and undergrowth was trampled down, creating a winding trail through the forest. “This way. Let’s go.”
They walked for a while. Stacy found out that the staff strapped to her back was actually an umbrella, which turned out to be needed as the bits of sunlight coming through the trees burned her as she passed by. “I didn’t think I’d actually be a vampire,” she muttered. “Or I would’ve chosen something else.”
Meanwhile, Marvin started immediately trying out magic. He was able to conjure up sparkles, make the smell of freshly-cut grass, and cause a rock he picked up to start glowing. He seemed absolutely delighted by all this, grinning the whole way. Schneep was similarly delighted by all his potions, small glass bottles in various shapes, filled with brightly-colored liquids, all strapped to the belts he had around his waist and chest.
“This is boooring!” Anti suddenly said, chiming in through the window of the sky.
“Well this is how the game goes,” Jackie said, glaring at him.
“No, it’s not! It’s supposed to be more exciting!” Anti leaned forward. “Suddenly—monsters! They appear from the shadows and attack!”
Chase looked up at the window in the sky. “You can’t just make stuff happen by yelling—”
But then growls come from the trees around them.
The group stopped walking all at once. Yellow eyes glowed in the shadows, and five creatures slowly stepped forward. Blue lizard-like creatures, as big as wolves, with clear insectile wings sprouting from their backs. “Are these dragons?!” Stacy said, her voice squeaking.
“Oh shit!” Jackie gasped. “Th-those are fly-dragons! You’re supposed to find them later in the game, if you come back into the forest to find the—okay, um—h-hang on, let me find their stats—”
Numbers appeared over each of the fly-dragons’ heads, rolling through until they landed on different amounts. 09, 04, 13, 15, 18. Then the same thing happened with the kids—Chase: 12, Schneep: 07, Marvin: 17, JJ: 16, and Stacy: 10. “What’s that?” Marvin asked. “Oh! Wait, that’s the turn order, righ—”
One of the fly-dragons lunged forward, teeth snapping. More numbers rolled by its head, landing on a 09 that was deflected as a 17 appeared in front of JJ. The fly-dragon bit onto JJ’s arm but JJ managed to pull it out, and looked down at his unharmed skin in surprise.
“What’s the turn order, again?” Chase asked.
“It’s exactly what it sounds like,” Jackie explained. “You take turns doing things in combat. Looks like it’s Marvin’s turn next, he was the next highest.”
“Oooo.” Marvin grinned excitedly. He cupped his hands together, and a ball of fire formed in them. He threw it towards the fly-dragons. Numbers flew through the air, and the fireball exploded, knocking back three of the dragons. One of them stopped moving, while the other two got back up.
“Marvin, did you just use a fireball spell on these dragons?” Jackie asked.
“Yep, I think so!”
“That... was maybe a bit overkill.” Jackie shook his head. “Anyway, who’s next?”
JJ raised his hand. What do I do?
“Uh... hit people with your big weapon???” Chase said.
Right. JJ reached over his shoulder and grabbed the flail. He adjusted his grip on it a couple times, looking nervous. Then he started to raise it, but lowered it again. Then he walked forward, slowly, towards one of the fly-dragons, which growled—
“Oh just fucking hit it JJ!” Marvin shouted.
JJ jumped in surprise and swung the flail. More numbers appeared in midair, made of blue mist, and they landed on 20—accompanied by a few sparkling fireworks. The spiky ball at the end of the flail hit the fly-dragon right in the face, the number 7 flying out from the impact—which then turned into a 14.
“Huh?! Why’d it turn into something else?” Stacy asked.
“I remember this actually!” Schneep said. “If you land a critical hit then you double the damage of an attack!”
“Ohh so those numbers are us rolling!” Chase nodded. “Good job, Jays!”
JJ blinked, then grinned, excited.
One of the fly-dragons roared and opened its mouth, a column of blue fire pouring out of its mouth and hitting Chase and Schneep. Chase yelped—but the fire didn’t actually hurt. It was very hot, but it didn’t hurt. A little number appeared next to his head: a 12 that rolled down to an 08. He saw more numbers appear next to Schneep: a light blue 09 that became a 05.
“Wait a second—that’s our health, isn’t it?!” Chase gasped. “What happens if it reaches zero?!”
“...oh no.” Jackie turned to stare at Anti. “What happens if their health reaches zero?”
Anti shrugged. “They lose.”
“Do they—”
Another one of the fly-dragons leaped forward, claws extended, and attacked Marvin. He yelped, going down, and a green number by his head went from 07 to 04.
“Shit!” Jackie cursed. “You weren’t supposed to fight the fly-dragons yet! You’re under-leveled, you don’t have enough health! Get out of there, guys!”
“Can we get out of here?!” Chase asked. “What if we’re locked into the level?!”
“This isn’t a video game, you can do whatever you want! And you should want to get out of there right now!”
“Okay!” Chase broke into a run, darting across the ground. But he didn’t get too far before his legs suddenly stopped on their own. “What the heck?!”
“Shit, right, you have limited movement on each turn,” Jackie cursed.
“Uh—this is fine!” Chase reached over his back and grabbed the heavy weight he’d felt there earlier. As he suspected, it was a bow. He notched an arrow, hands moving on their own like he’d been doing this forever. He aimed at one of the burned fly-dragons and fired the arrow. Numbers followed it as it shot towards the dragon. They landed on a 13, only for a 14 to show up above the dragon as the arrow bounced off its scales. “...what?”
“Ah, you didn’t break its armor!” Schneep said, nodding decisively.
“Greaaaat.”
“I think it’s my turn now?” Stacy said. “Hang on, Marvin, I’ll get that dragon off you!” She pulled one of her daggers free and ran over to the dragon pinning Marvin down, stabbing it—the number reading a 16 as she did—and using the force of the motion to push it away. She reached down and grabbed Marvin by the hand, pulling him up and running away, dragging him behind her.
“What the—?!” Chase gasped. “You—you moved so much farther than me!”
“Oh, I remember this! I can use a bonus action to dash!” Stacy said, delighted.
“No fair!”
Another of the fly-dragons breathed fire towards Jameson. He stumbled back, a 16 above his head going down to 14. Then it was Schneep’s turn. He unhooked a potion from his belt and drank from it. A 05 above his head rolled up to a 09.
“What?!” Chase gaped. “What was that?!”
“Healing potion! I have many of them,” Schneep said, running towards him.
“Did I choose the wrong class?!”
A fly-dragon lunged for Stacy, trying to bite her, but she managed to dodge. Another one—the first one who’d attacked—breathed out a column of fire, only for an 01 to appear above its head as the fire just barely missed Schneep.
“Fucking hell!” Marvin gasped. “Just run! Everyone run!”
It took a while, and they had to keep dodging the attacks from the fly-dragons, but eventually they pulled away from them and the dragons disappeared into the distance.
“Oh come on!” Anti leaned up close to the window in the sky. “Boooo! Boooooo!”
“Hey shut the fuck up!” Marvin shouted. “You sprung those fucking dragons on us! You heard what Jackie just said, we weren’t supposed to fight them yet!”
“But you were just walking through the woods! That’s no fun!”
“Get out of the way!” Jackie tried to shove Anti back, but found his hands went right through him. “I’m the CM here! Not you! Okay, uh—so the trees clear up and you see the city of Suilara on the horizon.”
As he said that, the five kids rounded a big tree trunk, and saw it just as described. Buildings made of stone and highlighted with dark wood. Behind the town, a rocky slope rose into the air. A mountain of some kind, maybe? Though it would be a small mountain.
“Okay, let’s hurry over there before more fucking monsters appear,” Marvin said, speeding up a little.
I hope they can help us gain more health back, JJ added.
“What’re you so concerned about?! You got a little burned, I lost like half my hp!” Marvin pointed out.
Maybe you should have picked a class with more health, then.
Marvin shoved him.
The group found their way over to a little road and followed that into the town. Some people walked about, wearing tunics and dresses in the same style that they’d found themselves wearing—though these people’s outfits were less elaborate. “Alright... so this is the town, then,” Chase said, looking around. “What’re we supposed to do, again?”
“Deliver that thing Marvin had, right?” Stacy recalled. “Uh... to who, though?”
“Oh!” That window in the sky was still there, so the group could see Jackie reach over and pick up the booklet he’d shown them earlier. “You’re supposed to find a dwarf named Helga Wolffighter to give that to.”
“Okay... where is she?” Chase asked.
“That is sort of ruining the fun to just ask, is it not?” Schneep pointed out.
“Well—I wasn’t expecting to actually go into the game! And like... have to walk around and stuff. Not to mention if Anti’s right we’ll have to actually ‘beat’ the game to get out of here, so... seems important to do that quickly.”
“You can’t ask!” Anti shouted suddenly. “That’s cheating! It won’t count!”
Jackie looked at him and frowned. Then he turned back to the window. “Sorry guys. Uh... I’ll do everything I can to help without just telling you. And I’ll try to make this fun, like a good CM does.” He laughed nervously. “Okay, um... ask around. Normally this would be a search skill check, I don’t know how you, uh, do that... while in game.”
“If it was like how I climbed out of the tree, then you just like... do it,” Stacy said. “And it either works or doesn’t. D’you guys remember who had the highest search skill? I think mine was a +4 or something.”
“I had a +6,” Schneep says, raising his hand.
Stacy laughed. “Alright. Uh... you take the lead, then?”
Schneep nodded. He wandered out to the front of the group. More of the numbers appeared by his head, landing on a 12 and then getting an additional +6 to make an 18. “Ah yes, that weapon shop over there. It says ‘Wolffighter’, see?” He pointed at a low stone building, which did indeed have the world ‘Wolffighter’ on its sign, along with some other weird symbols. “I think it says it in dwarvish, too. And there is also an inn over there, if we want to find somewhere to stay for the night, first.” He pointed in the opposite direction.
“Hmm. Coooool,” Marvin said. “I think we can go to the inn after we drop off this bag thing. Do we know what’s inside?”
JJ shrugged. He looked up at the window in the sky. Do we know what’s inside?
“Uh—the booklet just says that you know it’s valuable and that you were promised a lot of money to deliver it,” Jackie said. “But if you want to know more, you can... do a recall skill check? Which uh... means just trying to remember? I think?”
JJ nodded. His face screwed up in concentration. The numbers by his head rolled, landing on a 10... but then a -2 appeared, making it an 08. I vaguely remember that it’s... heavy? JJ said.
Marvin laughed. “Your memory is shit! It’s usually better than that!”
Well, it’s not really my memory, is it? JJ said. Right now, we’re all in the place of our characters. And I remember putting a really low number for my intelligence and all its skills.
“Why would you put a low number for your intelligence?” Stacy asked, shocked.
If I was going to be mostly hitting things, it didn’t seem necessary!
“Let’s just, uh... go to that weapons shop,” Chase said slowly.
The five of them headed over there. It looked like they were attracting a few looks from the locals of Suilara. Chase waved at them cheerfully. Some waved back, some didn’t.
When they arrived in the shop, a bell let out a low dingdong sound, announcing their arrival. The shop was filled with, of course, weapons of all types. Mostly swords and axes, which hung on the walls in proud display rows. There were also long spears, some hammers, daggers, staffs, bows and arrows, sticks with spikes on the end—just about any weapon imaginable. There was a counter at the back of the shop, and behind it—a short, stocky woman about four feet tall, with curly brown hair and a curly brown beard to match.
“...beard?” Stacy whispered.
“Yeah, all dwarves have beards,” Jackie said from the window in the sky.
“Well, what can I do you for, travelers?” the woman asked—apparently not hearing Jackie’s comment.
“Hi!” Chase said. “I’m, um... oh, we should probably use our characters’ names, huh? I’m Fahl Trailblazer.”
“And I am Morgana Ebony Rose,” Stacy added, making her voice higher and whispery.
“Why’re you talking like that?” Chase muttered.
“This is how Morgana talks!” Stacy whispered back.
“And my name is Axitios, perhaps you’ve heard of me,” Marvin said, making his voice hoarser and rougher.
“And I am Rhess Zachter!” Schneep added, speaking in a higher, slightly screechier register.
Chase frowned. He turned to JJ. “Should I start talking differently or is that lame?”
JJ shrugged. He turned back to the dwarf woman and signed, spelling it out, And my name is Ion Esinna. Somehow, his signing seemed different than usual. Why was Chase the only one who hadn’t been able to come up with a new voice?
“Great job, guys!” Jackie said encouragingly.
“An unusual group, I see,” said the dwarf woman. “Here to buy?”
“No, we’re actually here to, uh... sell?” Chase said.
“Sell? What d’you have to sell?”
“No, wait, we’re not selling anything!” Marvin quickly added. “We’re looking for Helga Wolffighter, we have a delivery for her from, uh... Dalrun the dwarf. Are you her?”
The dwarf woman seemed to stand to attention. “Aye, that’s me.”
Marvin narrowed his eyes slightly. “Are you really?” More numbers appeared by his head. 16+3. 19. “Oh. I guess you are.” He took the pack off his back. “Now, uh... we were told that we’d receive payment for this.”
“Of course. How much?”
The group paused. Chase looked up at Jackie. “How much are we gonna get?”
“Dalrun promised, uh...” Jackie checked the booklet. “Fifty gold pieces for each of you.”
“Got it.” Stacy nodded, and looked at Helga. “Dalrun promised us a hundred gold pieces for each of us.”
JJ and Marvin burst into laughter. “Stacy!” Schneep said, shocked.
“What? Morgana loves gold and treasure! This is totally in character!”
Helga narrowed her eyes. “That seems an absurd amount, even for this.”
“Well it’s true,” Stacy lied.
“Okay, you’re definitely going to have to do a persuasion skill check for this,” Jackie muttered.
The numbers appeared next to Stacy’s head, landing on an 11+4 to make a 15. “I’ll give you seventy-five each, but I’ll go no higher than that,” Helga said.
“That’s fair,” Stacy said.
Helga reached beneath the counter and, after a bit of rummaging, pulled out five small pouches. “Now... the package, if you’ll please.”
Marvin took the satchel off his back and set it on the counter. Helga picked it up and turned around, looking inside. All at once, the five of them leaned to the sides, trying to catch a glimpse of what was in the satchel. Numbers rolled beside their heads, resulting in a 07, 05, 09, 11, and 17—with Chase having the 17. He was able to see something round and golden, like a volleyball made out of gold. It seemed to be glowing slightly. Then Helga closed the satchel and turned back around, nodding. “Thank you very much. Now, anything else I can do for you?”
I don’t think so? JJ said.
“Very well, then. Pleasure doing business with you.”
After a moment of silence, Schneep said, “I suppose we just... leave?”
And so, they did.
The five of them stood on the street outside the weapon’s shop, watching the city. And all of them... waiting. “Um... we did beat the game, didn’t we?” Chase said, looking up into the window in the sky. “So... why aren’t we... going home?”
“Um... nnnno,” Jackie said slowly. “You... didn’t beat the game.”
“What?!” Stacy shouted.
“Even a short one-shot isn’t just a simple delivery quest like that!” Jackie said. “There’s—at least one more thing you can do.”
Behind him, Anti laughed. “Yeah!” Jackie looked back over his shoulder and glared at him, but Anti didn’t even notice. “That would be laaaame.”
Can’t you do anything, Jackie?! JJ asked.
“I-I don’t know! I don’t know how this happened! And I don’t have any powers or anything. All I can do is help you guys out from up here.” Jackie flipped through the booklet. “Look, uh... Schneep noticed that inn, right? Maybe you should go there for the night.”
The five of them looked around. “We’re not... gonna have to sleep in here, are we?” Chase asked anxiously. “I mean... what would Mom say? I-if we don’t come home?”
“I’m going to get you guys out of there before anyone notices, I promise,” Jackie said fiercely. “The campaign doesn’t last that long, I swear. It... it’ll be fine.” His voice cracked a little.
“W-we have a couple hours before things start getting worrying, i-in any case,” Schneep pointed out. “They will not be expecting us back before then.”
“Look, just go to the inn, I’m going to do everything I can to move this along,” Jackie said.
“Alright, alright.” Chase sighed. “Let’s go, guys.”
The group trickled down the street, heading towards the inn that Schneep had pointed out earlier. It’s called the Unicorn’s Crown. A tall man with a thick beard sells them rooms for twenty gold each—apparently the five of them all had money in their pockets even beforehand. Together they bought three rooms. Stacy insisted on getting one to herself, which none of the guys disagreed with, and from there they split up into Chase and Schneep in one room and Marvin and JJ in the other.
The rooms were on the second floor. Before splitting up, they all gathered in the hallway. The window in the sky remained, Jackie and Anti visible in it. “Uh... start... getting some rest, guys,” Jackie suggested slowly. “You just went through a lot. Rest recovers your health.”
“I have health potions,” Schneep said, taking bottles off his belt. “Who is hurt the most? Marvin, yes?”
“Yeah, I think it’s me, thanks.” Marvin took the offered potion and drank it. “...huh. I expected it to taste like cherry, but it’s basically just water.”
“Strange, yes?” Schneep said. “Now... we rest.”
“Don’t rest for too long!” Anti shouted. “That’ll be boring!”
JJ looked up towards the window and made a very rude gesture.
Anti laughed. “Maybe you’re not so bad after all!”
“Okay, let’s all lie down, then,” Stacy said. “Hopefully soon we’ll be able to get out of here.” And she turned and left the room.
JJ and Marvin left soon after, leaving Schneep and Chase in the room. “Chase...?” Schneep whispered. “We are going to get out of here, yes? I mean... that fight back there was sort of fun, but I do not want to worry Aunt Jess.”
Chase put his arm around him, pulling him close. He brushed against the new wings growing out of Schneep’s back in the process. “It’s going to be fine,” he said. “This is... just another adventure! It’s a pretty crazy one, but we’ve gone through worse. Remember the hospital?”
Schneep nodded slowly. “Well, that was worse for Marvin than the rest of us. But I get your point.”
“Exactly. It will be fine.” Chase smiled.
This was going to be a big adventure. But they’d handle it like all the others.
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