"Haven't you ever heard of showing up on time, America?" the blonde Englishman asked as he opened the door to his home and welcomed the final country to arrive in.

America, munching on a Big Mac contently, shrugged at him. "I got held up," he answered. England was only able to make out every other word that the country had said as he was speaking with a full mouth. Alfred stepped into the house and took a look around. He swallowed before saying, "So where are your imaginary friends?"

"They aren't imaginary!" the other country shouted in his defense.

"Yeah, whatever." Alfred led himself to the room in which they were meeting tonight. All four countries had assembled once more to continue their game of Dungeons and Dragons. Canada and France were already seated and had their character sheet, figurines, and dice. He took his spot in the empty seat between them, cutting off their conversation that France seemed to be leading.

England took his seat across from them. He propped up his newly bought Dungeon Master's screen before handing America his supplies. They took a moment to become situated before England began, recapping what had happened in their adventure thus far. "After noticing that the atmosphere was odd in the trading capital of Avarice, all three of you went to the tavern. The bard there told you how the mayor of the town had ordered for the gates to be barred until the sorcerer who had bewitched his son came to justice. He also gave you the helpful tip that there were several other children that had befallen the spell as well. So that you may leave the city, all three of you have joined forces...How do you wish to proceed?"

"Well, let's go find someone to talk to!" America shouted, fully prepared to take the lead. He had his character scan the streets to search for anyone who might stand out. He rolled his twenty-sided die and rolled a low teen number. Normally, it would have made something stand out, but it seemed that his search was in vain.

"Maybe we could...talk to someone else?" Canada suggested. His brother paused to think about this for a moment before he nodded in agreement.

"Great idea, Canada!"

England took over then, prepared to describe the area for them. Spinning his words like the tale of a story, he told them of their surroundings. They were at the far end of the city, closer to the housing of the farmers who managed to live within the grand protective walls. There were still a few venders this far out that were shouting about their wares. The products there were geared toward common folk, mainly cloth, knives, and produce. An attractive young lady with short blonde hair and abnormally large assets was rolling a cart up to one of the farmers to restock him with more of his crop. She seemed tired as she swiped her brow before heading back where she had come from.

"If she's...from around here...should we...go talk to her?" the shy nation asked.

"But of course," France chimed in with a coy smile. He had his character hurry after the young woman before offering to grab the cart and wheel it back for her. She took the offer with a light smile.

"Thank you very much," England spoke for her since she was a non-playable character.

"No problem at all. You just seem so tired...perhaps I could interest you in a place to stay."

England glared at Francis, not yet breaking the character he was speaking for. Unlike the other people there, the person who France's character was speaking to was a bit naïve. "I appreciate the offer, but I really have to head home and help a friend. She's been having a lot of trouble lately since her brother fell ill."

"Ill?"

"His brother found him in the field the other day...he seemed very dazed, but we aren't sure what's wrong..." England said, frowning for the character.

"Hey France, ask if we can go with her! I bet you that's one of the sick kids!" America shouted, despite the fact that they were all at the same table.

After a little more conversation between Francis and Arthur as their characters, the girl agreed to allow them to follow her to see if there was anything that they could do. She lead them to the outskirts of the city. Stopping around the back of a house, she set the cart down before running ahead of them. A bit faster than they had expected the girl darted into the next house nearby, not even bothering to knock on the door. France's character, still the next behind her, did the same.

From behind his Dungeon's Master screen, Britian rolled the twenty-sided die. He rolled a natural twenty. He lifted his head up from behind the screen to look up at France, a smirk of triumph on his face. "France...what's your fortitude save?."

The other country blinked a few times before half nodding. He looked over his paper before relaying the number, one much lower than twenty. "You've passed out," Arthur told him.

"What?" America and France asked at the same time.

The Dungeon Master snickered. "As you walked through the door, a frying pan collides with your face, knocking you senseless. The girl blonde girl you met from before shouts at the door 'no, they're with me', causing a woman with long light brown hair in a dress to look at your comrades sheepishly. She apologizes to them before welcoming Galinndan and Torinn in."

The house they found themselves in was small and roomy, but still fit for the family that lived in it. A young child sat in a chair at the table, a plate of food in front of him. His eyes seemed unfocused and he did not acknowledge the people who walked in. The first girl they meet excused herself to go tend to the garden outside. "Again...I am very sorry..." the woman of the house told them. "I've just been so worried that someone would come to harm my brother..." She motioned to the child before motioning for them to sit down.

The boy turned his head some, blue eyes meeting theirs. He muttered something unintelligible to them before turning to look ahead blankly again, still talking to himself. The girl set a hand on her brother's blonde hair before gazing at the people who had walked in. "How can we help you?"

"It's about you're little brother actually...how did he end up like this?" America asked, talking to the character in the story, but directing his statement at the person controlling her.

"I'm not sure. His older brother found him like this the other night in the garden. Babbling to himself...something...Perhaps you should ask Beleak."

As she spoke, the backdoor was said to have opened. Another person walked through it, having to duck down to make it through the doorway before standing at full height. He had the same blonde hair and blue eyes as his younger brother, but with thinner eyebrows. "'sk m' wh't? Beleak said as he entered.

"About Peter..." his sister answered.

"Hehe...England's talking to himself," America said with a half laugh.

"I'm holding a conversation for the characters!" the other nation growled at him before continuing to speak for Beleak. "Wh't do y' w'nt to know?"

"Did he...say anything that might...tell you what happened?" Canada asked.

"No...I saw it. S'm'n c'me 'n set 'im down...he w'ke up 'nd was t'lkin' 'n-s'ns."

"Uh...England...can you say it normally?" America asked.

"And when can I wake up?" France questioned as well.

"You're awake and he told you that someone set Peter down before he woke up and started talking nonsense," England answered.

"Any...light...or words that you could...m-make out?" Canada said, the only person having not broken character yet.

"No li't, b't Peter s'id "c'ld cha'ns"," the DM said for the character.

Seeing it as no help, the shy bespectacled nation slanted his lips. He stared at his character sheet for some time before finally muttering thank you to the person who had given him the information. It was not much help, but at least they knew it was a humanoid involved. If it had been anything else, it would not have been described as 'someone', but as something like gnome or goblin. Of course it had been night, so it could have been less human than it appeared. No one was sure what "cold chains" was supposed to mean though.

All three guests thanked the family for welcoming them into their home to question them. However, they had come up with more questions than they had answers. They exited the house to return to the streets again. France, Canada, and America bounced ideas back and forth on what they could do. Of course, it was mainly the more talkative nations whose words were heard as their voices trampled Matthew's.

They did not have to converse very long because there was a long whistle from England. He told them that someone had whistled at them before a group of five guards came over. "Roll for initiative everyone. Welcome to your first battle," England told them.

Everyone rolled their twenty-sided die, including the Dungeon Master. France rolled the highest so he would be going first. The order was then as follows: England, America, Canada. "Put your characters on the map."

England had drawn on a white board, several large squares and an outline of the actual area they were in. The area was about three squares wide and six squares long on the board. The guards were blocking off one of the three roads. Arthur told them of the general direction they had come from and said that they would still be around that area. They all set themselves up on the board in a line straight across so that they took up all the width of the area.

Now set up, it was time for them to begin the battle. France took up his twenty-sided die and rolled it. His number was just one higher over the guards 14 armor class, their defense, so he landed a hit. Using only a dagger, he had to roll a die four to deal damage. His rolling was not as lucky this time as he hit the guard for one point of damage.

Each person took their turn then, rolling the first die in the same fashion to see if the exceeded their opponents armor class. If they did, they proceeded to roll the next dice that matched the attack of the weapon they were using. America was using a Bastard Sword for a 1 die 8. Canada's character wielded a quarterstaff worth a 1d4 in attack while the guards used spears with a 1 die 6 in attack.

In the middle of their fighting, they all turned toward the kitchen. A loud alarm was going off as if someone was cooking something in there. America glanced at England confused. "I'm not cooking anything."

"Ve~ The pizza is done," a voice said from the kitchen. They all stood up and went into the kitchen as the oven door opened. Standing in front of the oven with a a large tray of pizza in his hand, Italy turned around with a smile and closed eyes. "Hey, you guys! The pizza is ready," he told them.

"Italy?" the shout went up. "Why are you here?"

"I invited him," France said with a slight smile as Italy set down the tray on the table to cool. He wrapped an arm around the brown haired nation. "I figured we would get hungry at some point."

"Yeah, big brother France asked me if I would come~"

"All right, pizza! Thanks, dude!" America said as he grabbed a piece. He jerked his hand back through almost immediately as it burned his hand.

As they waited for the pizza to cool, England went to prepare some tea. While he started that, America shifted through his fridge for something else to drink. He frowned some, but eventually found soda in the fridge. The other nation never stocked his house with the beverage, making this a rare occasion. Alfred handed a soda out to everyone else who was there before receiving a paper plate with pizza on it from an excited Italy.

"So what are you guys doing?" Italy asked, tilting his head a bit to the side as he sat down.

"Playing a roleplay game," England explained as he took a sip of his tea.

"That sounds like fun! Can I play?"

"Well...we have already started, but I should be able to fit you in...what did you plan on playing, Italy?"

"I don't know..." he muttered with a frown.

"Don't...worry about it," England told him. "I'll give you the things you'll need before you leave..."

"Yay! Thank you so much!" Italy cheered before beginning to eat his own pizza.

Once they devoured the pizza, the other nations returned to their game, leaving Italy to clean up the mess. England looked over the stats that he had on his paper to see where it was that they had been in the battle. The other nations were low on hit points, but the guards were not. After a few more hits and the near death of America, Canada spoke, "Can we...stop fighting and just...talk to them?"

"No way, Jose!" America said with a shake of his head. "We've almost won."

"I...step in between the fighting," the other nation said, rather confident about it.

"The guards stop fighting to look at you, obviously annoyed by the meaningless battle. They demand that you come to see the mayor for your sentence or be killed," England told him.

"I'll go with them..."

"Canada! No!" America shouted at him, trying to convince him otherwise. "They'll kill you!"

"We don't know what they want..."

"Yeah, but..."

"Come on..."

"All right...we go with them," the 'hero' said with a sigh.

With that surrender, the guards tied them up and took them toward the castle. It was a winding way there, but they eventually find themselves at the heart of Avarice in front of the large wooden gate of the castle-like fort.

Gazing up at the clock, England halted his story telling. "That's the end for today."

"Aw...we just got to fight and everything. I wanna know what happens next," America whined.

"Well, then you can wait until next time to see what happens to you."

The four nations cleaned up their papers and grabbed their figures as they were released from the world of Dungeons and Dragons. They would have to wait until next week before they could continue. France headed out first with Canada leaving a few minutes after him.

Not forgetting about the other nation that was with them, America and England entered the kitchen to find Italy sleeping at the table. The elder nation nudge him awake some before offering him two character sheets and a book to look through as well as some dice. Waking almost instantly, the other nation took the book and dice from him after the character sheets were slipped inside. "Thank you!" he said again to the other two nations. He beamed before hurrying home to start making his character.

"Admit it," America said with a grin as he walked back into England's living room.

"Admit what, you git?" England asked with a raise of a brow.

"You know you love this game."

"Sit down and be quiet or go home, America. I don't need you around all day," Britain answered, snippy.

"Come on!" America shouted again.

"If I say, yes, will you go home?"

"Yes."

"All right then. I enjoy the game."

"Ha! I knew it," the hero shouted before heading for the door with another soda that he had swiped from the fridge in his hand. "Thanks for the soda, Britain."

"Git," the nation muttered as he slammed the door in Alfred's face.

Non-Player Character Identities:

*drumroll*

There were four countries as NPCs this time around. I would like to thank Ukraine for being my farm girl and Hungary for hitting France's character in the face with a frying pan. The afflicted child was portrayed by Sealand and his older brother was played by Sweden. ((I really wish I could have thrown in Finland with Sweden, but it would have been too much.))

Author's Notes:

All right, made it to Chapter 2. It took forever, but I did it. For all of you who are actually following this fanfiction, sorry it took so long. I am really working on my writing style between "D&D world" and "real-life", but it might be a bit awkward like this until everyone who is joining in real life does. I think I've gotten pretty used to the characters personalities, which is good. It won't be hard until I throw in my other players. I want to apologize though if there seems to be too much dialog or too many technical terms. I'm trying to add what I think is important and take out what might seem too boring as I try to give everyone a feel of how Dungeons and Dragons works before I focus more on the campaign storyline ((which is my own creation and not taken from a book)). I will say though that the game generally involves a lot of talking between players.

So, Italy is going to play now too! Ve~ :3 I'm excited to write out his part in all of this.

((If this chapter is not what you expected...England came up with the storyline! Cheers!))