Dipshits & Dumbasses II: The War of the Fair Folk
Ch. 2
When their vision finally came back into focus, the adventuring party found themselves in a grassy field near a crossroads. While the members of the group who had played before busied themselves with gathering their gear, the newcomers were panicking. This was especially true for Tom and Zip, who were now Glim and Dibo, who found their line of sight to be significantly lower than it was a few moments before, even more so than Daniel.
"What the fuck, man!" Tom cried out. "What the fuck!" Zip remained silent, but no less panicked.
"We've been transported to the game world," explained Adam. "You two decided to play small races, so now you are those races."
"So you mean to tell me I'm actually a Gnome now?"
"That's right," Vernon affirmed.
"God damn…"
"So now what do we do?"
"We find civilization," said Allen. "Now let's see…the signs on this post say that east is 'The Sea', west leads to 'Margo Fen', south is 'The Mountains', and north leads to 'Seldan'." He paused for a moment. "Somehow I doubt we'll find anything at 'The Sea', and we're level one so we'll probably die in 'The Mountains'…Anyone know what a fen is?"
"Basically a marsh, swampland-type area," said Adam.
"So we probably don't want to go there," said Allen. "Not at this point, anyhow. So I guess we go north?" They agreed, and set out on the road north to Seldan.
The going was slow at first, since three of their number were still trying to adjust to their new, smaller bodies. Tom and Zip were especially slow, having to deal with the shock of what was happening around them as well as being so much smaller than everyone else. Eventually it was decided that, in order to make better time on their journey, the two small adventurers would have to be carried. The two strongest members of the party, Allen and Vernon, agreed to take on the burden of their small companions. Allen, being the largest member, took on Tom, who was slightly bigger than Zip, who was added to Vernon's load. After many long hours, with very few breaks, they could see the village off in the distance.
"Nearly there," said Blake, stating the obvious.
"Before anyone forgets to tell you," said Exq to the newcomers, "while you are in this world, you must remember your new name. Your friends may still call you by your outside name, but here you will be known by the names Glim, Dibo, and Þanor."
"Understood," said Zip, speaking for the three of them. Of the newcomers, he seemed to have adjusted most quickly over the course of the journey north.
When they finally reached the village, Vernon and Allen set their new companions back down on their feet.
"So now what do we do?" demanded Daniel. His gruff voice and bushy Dwarven eyebrows only added to his obvious irritability.
"We have a tradition for when we reach cities," said Adam. "Joe, would you care to lead us?"
"To the pub!" shouted Joe, thrusting his index finger into the air with authority. The rest then followed suit.
As they sat around a large round table, they began to discuss and debate. The seven who had adventured together before talked of what they might do next now that they had found a place to rest and get their bearings. The three new members still demanded more answers as to the nature of their situation.
"I think I may start spelling my name with that letter," said Doug, as he raised his tankard. "It looks Dwarfy. Hroþgar…yes, that's much better."
"Ok, great," said Tom, brushing off Doug's remark, "but what are we doing here? What's our plan?"
"Well, for one thing," said Adam, "we'll have to get used to using our character names. Last time we did this, after we ended Wayne told us he had a better campaign planned; I'm assuming this is the one he was talking about. So basically, we'll stay here for tonight, and then tomorrow we'll go around town and see what we can get into."
"So it really is just like if we were just at the table with dice, except we're actually in the game," Daniel surmised.
"Right," said Blake, "except last we did this, we found out the hard way that carrying capacity and armor check penalties count here. Normally Wayne doesn't bother with those, but this is different."
"You think?"
"So that's about it," Doug. "We'll hang around here, and then see what happens tomorrow."
"Wait a minute," said Allen. "Last time we did this, and we went to sleep, we woke up back in Joe's house. Won't that happen this time too?"
"No," said Exq, speaking for the first time in a while. "This magic only ends when Wayne decides it ends, which is when he gets tired. He's been preparing for this for a while, so he won't be getting tired soon."
"So no worries, then," said Vernon.
After several more hours, the adventurers were given cots in the common bedroom. They closed their eyes, and waited to see what the dawn would bring them.
