A Game

"Okay, what the hell?" Lucy asked. She was the most recent of several people to ask that when she came down the game room, and found a massive game board, taking up a good chunk of the space.

"Quite a sight, isn't it?" Erza said proudly, as she took a place next to Lucy.

"What is it?"

"Its a game."

"I can guess that, but what kind of game?"

"I got it as part of my reward in my last job, and I've been studying the rules non-stop since last night," Erza explained, "Basically, its like chess, only taken to a very violent level." If that was the case, then it was a game that probably thoroughly suited Fairy Tail. Her curiosity piqued, Lucy approached the table, where she saw a bunch of models of various warriors and people. Most of her guild mates were also gathered around the table, screwing around with the models.

"These models are really cool!" Natsu said, as he looked over some dragon models, passing one to Wendy, "Though Igneel wouldn't ever let anyone ride him."

"Neither would Grandeeney," Wendy piped up. Lucy then noticed that the dragons had small armored figures on their backs.

"Imagine if I was a dragon, I'd be the coolest cat ever!" Happy declared, as he held up a model dragon, "I'd be able to carry Natsu anywhere, and fight with him!"

"Then its a good thing I guess you aren't a dragon," Carla answered, floating next to Happy over the board.

"So, how is the game played?" Lucy asked.

"Well, you've got to choose a race, and then you make the armies fight," Erza answered.

"That's it?"

"Hell no," Gray answered, holding a model of his own, "There are tons of complicated rules to this, that I really have no idea how they work." The model he was wearing was some kind of soldier holding a rifle.

"We should be allies in this!" Juvia declared, holding up the model of her own, which was a model of some kind of armored skeleton or mummy.

"I'm not sure if you're two factions can be allies," Cana said, holding a model of some short statured, axe carrying figure. The blonde looked around, and noticed several of her guild mates doing similar things with other kinds of models. Mirajane was looking at some dark armored figures, while her siblings were both looking at what looked like minotaur figurines, while Gajeel was fooling around with some weird green things. Even the Thunder Legion were looking at weird rat creatures; well Bixlow was, Lucy, out of curiosity, looked over the model sets for herself. One group of models that quickly caught her eye were some upright lizards. Lucy had to admit, they were pretty cool. She then glanced up, sensing a presence, and noticed Mavis had made herself appear in the room, glaring at the game board.

"What's up, First Master?" Laxus asked, who was leaning on the wall next to her.

"This game makes me uneasy," Mavis answered, "I can place it, but something keeps sending a chill up and down my spine." Lucy wasn't sure what to think about Mavis' words there, but she didn't get that kind of chill.

"So are we going to play or not?" Gajeel asked, "I've got to prove that I'm the best here!"

"Hold your horses," Levy said, holding up a book, "We've got to know the rules." She then opened it, and started flipping through the book.

"So how does it look?" Lucy asked, standing next to her friend, looking over her shoulder.

"Complicated, really complicated," Levy answered, making a face, as she flipped through it using the magic reading glasses. This might take awhile for us to really grasp."

"Well, jobs are slow, so we've got the time," Erza said, "I know who I'm playing as." She held up a model of a knight on horseback. As Levy finished reading, she came to the back.

"There's some kind of writing here," Levy said, as she read,"It says 'Whomever finds this game shall face Change in all his madness'." Lucy noticed that the writing was in a weird, curved style, and were superimposed over twisted symbols that almost looked like warped feathers.

"Since when is change a 'he'?" Lisanna asked.

"There's more," Levy said, "'And Change shall give them a world of despair and terror, to either build upon, or crush'." Mavis looked over Levy's other shoulder, frowning.

"I don't like these symbols," she said, "They have dark air to them."

"Its just a game, First Master," Erza said, as she picked up the dice and tossed them to herself, "Now, let's play." With that, she rolled both dice in demonstration; both of them landed on ones.

"Damn, that's a bad roll," Cana said, leaning over, "Good thing…" Then both of the dots on the dice began to glow a deep blue.

"Why the hell are the dice glowing?" Bixlow asked.

"Is this part of the game?" Natsu asked. He got his answer, when the dice suddenly let out a massive ripple of magic, which knocked everyone offer their feet. The energy rippled then immediately collapsed back into itself, creating a massive blue vortex over the board. Erza, being the closest, was immediately sucked in, vanishing. Gray and Juvia followed sooner after, until eventually, everyone in the room save for Natsu, Lucy, and Happy. Natsu was holding onto Lucy's hand, and Happy onto Natsu's leg.

"Hold on!" Natsu cried to Lucy.

"I can't do anything else!" Lucy responded, "You just have to hold on!" Natsu was definitely intending on doing that, but right then, the post he was holding onto broke, and the three were sent tumbling into the vortex.

Right then, the noise suddenly cut off, as the room was now empty, save for a few stray models, and a pair of dice on snake eyes.

Note: This is a passion project, put simply. I've been playing tons of TW: Warhammer lately, so I've got Warhammer Fantasy on the mind. I'm going to be playing somewhat loosely with the Warhammer-verse and the characters, for the sake of concision, and not making this story too much of a downer. While it is a Warhammer crossover story, its still a Fairy Tail story as well, so it requires equal parts of both.

The introduction was exactly that, just an introduction. The story will definitely kick off in the next chapter.

While I've never played the tabletop game, I've logged over 100 hours with the Total War game, and I've read a lot of the lore. So I'm going to be basing the verse on all that collective info.

In terms of time, this story takes place roughly the same time as the Christmas omake, so its after the second time-skip.

Be sure to review.