Kimihito picked up from behind his screen one of his old lead figurines, setting it down on the board in front of them. Technically, the figure was that of a medium-sized dragon, and a greenish-yellow one at that, but hopefully their imaginations could fill in the blanks and add to it some extra heads and a different coat. He couldn't exactly take the time to paint or buy a new one, after all. He was pretty sure they didn't even make ones like that anymore. And after all, a little imagination was part of the fantasy fun for a good game of C&C.
"This'll be the Chimera," he said. "Please add your figurines in the marching order they were in?"
They did so obediently, stretching them out by the entrance to the catacomb and preparing to take on their first big monster together. The excitement was palpable, half of them were leaning forward in their seats for a better look.
"And... let's roll for initiative," he said.
The girls picked up their ten-sided die and began shaking them, conferring amongst themselves as they prepared to roll.
"Okay, what do we do?" asked Cerea.
"Fireball! Fireball!" Papi cheered.
"Yeah, fireball! Fireball!" and of course Suu was cheering right alongside her.
We might need to get those two matching cheerleader outfits, complete with pom-poms, Miia mused. Aloud, she said, "We'll have to go on the attack," she said. "Cerea's Paladin and my Fighter in front, spellcasters in back."
"What, like every other fight we've had?" the centaur at her side said. "I think not. This is but one foe. We surround and take it out from all angles. Flanking is a time honored strategy for a reason."
"Yes and you know all about flanking, don't you, miss fat flank?" Rachnera said with a toothy grin.
"What was that?" Cerea demanded hotly.
Thankfully their dice results came in before they could trade further insults (or come to blows) and they settled back into the rhythm of the game. The Paladin went first, Fighter, Druid, Chimera, Bard, Wizard, and finally Cleric came next.
"When it's our turn, you can move left, Cerea," Miia said. "And I'll take right. That way we can..."
"Girls, no strategizing please, you can't call a time out with the monster to discuss what you're doing..."
"Sorry," his players all chorused.
"Okay, so who was first?"
Turns out it was Cerea, who charged her Paladin forward and past the Chimera, to take up a better position towards its rear, where it would be more vulnerable (she hoped). Miia went next and angled along its other side to give it even more difficulty, essentially splitting its attention between the two of them. They were following their strategy to give them the flanking advantage, which was very smart all things considered. A seasoned group of adventurers could not have done better.
Next came...
"Suu?"
The little slime girl moved her Druid forward and sideways, out of the way of the others, but near enough for what came next. "Cast barkskin spell on Rachnera's Cleric," she said. She even reached across the table to brush her tentacle against the spider lady's shoulder, simulating the touch requirement the spell had. "Now her skin is hard like bark."
"Bleck, why would I want something like that?" asked the arachnid woman.
"It gives improved armor," Kimihito explained. "+3 to AC. And good thing too, for it's the Chimera's turn."
He took a moment to determine just what to do, and ultimately settled on having his Chimera split its attention between Miia and Chimera. He could justify it because they were closets, but really he was doing it because they had the most hitpoints and could survive anything he threw at them. He hoped. Turning the figure around to face them, he grabbed up a pair of twenty-sided die. Two attack rolls later, he breathed out a sigh of relief. The one against Cerea had missed entirely, and the damage against Miia's Fighter was from the goat head. It's damage was negligible. Even so, he rolled the appropriate die and announced her damage. She took it reasonably well.
That was good. It was going to get worse before it got better. Much worse.
"... and the snake's tail can't reach anyone from where it is, so no attacks for that. Who was next?"
The fuschia mermaid, apparently. "I start up a rousing melody to embolden my comrades to gather all of their courage and strength and..."
"... S-O-W, great, we got it," Rachnera interrupted, using the acronym for the 'Song of War.' "Great. I'm next. I move into position... right about here should do."
Most of the others followed her example, spreading out around the Chimera, but leaving a clear line for their front line fighters to take it on. A new round of initiative started up, and Miia beat out the others with a rare quick initiative. One of the fastest she'd rolled yet. Unfortunately, she just as quickly missed with a roll of a two on her attack, which she glared down at for ruining her hit.
"Goddamn dice," she muttered. She glared at the multi-faceted stones.
Cerea went up to bat next, and seemed to have better luck than the lamia.
"Sixteen!" she declared triumphantly, almost rearing back and kicking her front legs in joy. "Plus two for strength, that's... eighteen. That's gotta be a hit! Right?!"
"... well, you do hit," Kimihito agreed. "Unfortunately, your weapon... uh... well... bounces off the armored hide of the Chimera.
Her expression fell almost comically fast, her pointed ears drooping as she looked down at the board in complete shock.
"I'm afraid only magical weapons can pierce its hide," he explained. He probably shouldn't have told them that, but they'd just look it up soon anyway, or else spend the time trying to figure out what weapons could and couldn't hurt a Chimera. This was a given. But it still came as a shock to some of them.
"WHAT?!"
"Oh no, that's right," Mero suddenly remembered. "It was covered in the manual. Chimeras aren't hurt by non-magical weapons."
"But none of us have..."
Six lights went off above their heads... as Kimihito flicked the light switch beside his seat. It was starting to get dark out. And then five of those heads swiftly swung around, locking the Lamia in their sights.
"My +1 Sword!" Miia said, catching on instantly. "The one I got from the previous encounter! I can totally use it to take out the Chimera!"
"If you can hit it."
"What do the rest of us do in the meantime?" asked Mero. "We can't do any damage. And we can't just leave them to fight alone."
"Run interference," Cerea suggested, already prepared to do just that. "If we can keep its focus on us we can give Miia the best chance to kill it."
"No reason we all have to play at being decoy," Rachnera snapped. "I have a plan of my own, thank you."
"Care to share?"
"Not really, no."
"Alright, new round. Roll initiative."
Dice rolled and another round of combat commenced. With the fight now much more one-sided than before, it was forcing the characters to think on their feet and come up with creative ways to fight their triple-headed foe. Some were having better success than others.
"Papi casts magical missiles!" the excited harpy cried.
She'd been spending most of the previous rounds looking through her spellbooks for something useful, and finally settled on the perfect spell for the occasion. In the mind's eye, six magical glowing arrows appeared and unerringly slammed into the Chimera's hide, earning another roar of pain from the triple-headed beast. Sure, the damage was minimal even with Papi's Mage being a reasonable level, as the spell was only first level. But at least it was a way to cause damage. Her dagger certainly wouldn't work. And unlike last time, she'd taken into account the fallout of a fireball spell. She was thinking ahead, and more importantly, remembering.
That'll do, harpy, Kimihito thought. That'll do.
"Next?"
"Mine!" Miia declared, rolling her die twenty. A more reasonably number came up, but alas, it still counted as a miss.
"... just barely," the Catacombs Master assured her, even as she fumed angrily. "Okay, who was next... Suu, wasn't it?"
"Suu wants to cast a spell," the sweet slime girl said, holding up an open book. "But I don't know how to say it," she added, her central antennae forming a rough kanji of the word in question.
Fortunately, her CM recognized it. Glancing up from her spot nearby, the headless Dullahan Lala seemed to recognize it as well. "Oh yeah, I know that one. Never did find out how to say it myself. Okay, so you cast it... on your staff?"
"Mmhmm!" She nodded in agreement, though her choice of targets for the spell was rather limited.
"It glows briefly and then seemingly reverts to normal."
"What's this spell you're casting?" asked a puzzled Cerea.
Suu passed the book to her as she explained. "It makes non-magical staves and clubs into magical staves and clubs."
"Temporarily," Kimihito nodded. "But yeah, that's the jist of it."
"So next turn Suu can attack," Papi said. "Sweet!"
"Alright, but for now that spell ends her turn, and we move to... Mero. Mero?"
"Still singing a song to boost morale," she replied. "But I'll move my figure... here... and try to sing very loudly so I can get the Chimera's attention."
He nodded.
"Then on to..."
There was another round of initiative and mixed results before Kimihito called a quick break from his CM duties to get up and stretch. As well as refill his bowl of snacks and get another soda. To be honest he hadn't been quite sure the girls would get this far, but they were proving to be very quick learners of the game. A week ago most of them didn't even know what to make of a die that had more than six sides (or even less). Now they were slinging them around like they were going out of style. It was oddly heartwarming.
They'd come to the human world to learn about the humans ways, but this was one of the first times he'd felt they were truly having fun doing so. All of them, all together. And with him, no less. And a minimum (he figured it'd be a cold day in Hell when there was ZERO amount) of fighting between the girls. They had all come together.
And all over a silly C&C game.
Kimihito chuckled to himself as he took a swig of his drink and reclaimed his seat, ready to press on. The Chimera was going to be tough but the girls were tougher, and they just might have had what it took to take it down for good.
A few more rounds of combat followed, interrupted by the occasional refill of someone's drink or the pause for a bathroom break. The valiant adventurers worked to chip away at the Chimera's hitpoints and avoid the worst of its attacks, but sadly, they were badly outmatched by their lack of suitable weaponry. Miia and Suu were the only ones doing any substantial damage to the monster, leaving the others to simply take a beating, or in the case of Paladin and Cleric, patch them up for more of the same.
They were running out of options as they reached Miia's next strike, however. She'd only managed a few glancing blows against the Chimera, but she felt good about this one as she picked up her die twenty and employed a trick her Darling had taught her to focus all of her luck on it. Cupping it in her hands, she blew on it, like blowing a kiss to a lover... before rolling it across the table.
Result: nineteen.
"Oh that's gotta be a hit!" she said, overjoyed at her change in fortune.
Evidently he agreed, and she quickly rolled for damage.
"Five plus six. Eleven," Miia counted up the results. A damn good result, if not the best she could've done.
"Plus one," he reminded her. "Twelve total. Some damage, but still not enough to bring it down."
"Damnit, how many hitpoints does this damn thing have?!" she muttered.
"A lot," Papi said, missing the rhetorical nature of her question.
The lamia growled, nodding over to Rachnera. It was her turn, and she'd managed to barely scrape by the initiative before the Chimera. It attacked next, and some of them were in pretty dire straits if it did.
Thus, they were a bit puzzled when she picked up a die twenty and began to shake it in her grip. "Move one square closer to the Chimera, and attack."
"Attack? Lady Arachnera, are you mad?" asked Mero, glancing at her in alarm. "Your mace can't harm the Chimera, we already established..."
"I'm not trying to hit it with my mace," Rachnera explained with a devilish grin that Lala would have been proud of. "I try to touch it with my bare hand."
She rolled her die before they could stop her... and it rolled on a favorable number as the lilac-haired spider gave a wicked grin.
"Ah," Kimihito said, catching on. "In that case... you succeed."
The other girls were glancing back and forth between CM and player now, like they were watching a tennis match, glued to the action and unable to quite follow it, but sure they didn't want to miss a minute.
They were right. "And with that touch, my Cleric casts the HARM spell!" she crowed.
Kimihito nodded. "Instantly dealing..." he rolled some dice behind his screen. "... whew... more than a fair bit of damage."
"Enough to kill it?"
"... just barely. Thus, the Chimera gives an ungodly chorus of triple roars, then collapses onto the ground as its body seems to almost be ripped to pieces by Rachnera's Cleric. The spell finished it off."
"Woohoo!" cheered Miia.
"YES!" Cerea cheered.
"Loot the body!" Papi suggested.
"Loot! Loot!" Suu agreed.
Smiling at their enthusiasm, Kimihito had to burst their bubble. "Girls, it's a wild animal... mon-... mythological creature... beast... thingie. It doesn't have any pockets to pick or rummage through."
The two small girls seemed to deflate at this news.
"However, it did have a small treasure trove stashed in the corner you can get in on... all of you," he added.
A number of gold and silver coins they did their best to divide evenly, a few gemstones they had more trouble with. And one magical wand which Papi immediately claimed. No one fought her for it, none of them could use magical items like that except for her Wizard. She couldn't quite identify what it did or how to trigger it, but considering that her primary hope was a wand of fireballs, the others hoped she never found out until they were back in town.
"And that's that," Kimihito said. "So, pressing on?"
The others conferred with each other as he sat back and sipped at his soda.
"Maybe we should make camp," Miia suggested. "We're all hurting pretty bad, and low on spells."
"Just a bit further," Cerea said. "We can press on a little further, surely."
"Agreed," nodded the mermaid across the table from her. "Surely the worst of our opposition is behind us with the Chimera defeated. Let us press on and see if we cannot find our Prince before taking the chance to rest our weary cartilage."
"... bones. Its weary bones."
"Those too."
The others glanced amongst one another. It seemed they were all in agreement.
"Alright. A bit further," Miia agreed, turning to the gamemaster. "Same marching order."
Their continued search yielded empty results for the most part, a few corridors explored, a couple of rooms opened up. No more signs of the Black Knights but they did run across that one razor trap that chipped away at a few more of Rachnera's hitpoints, costing her one of her last 'cure light' spells. They were indeed about to give up when they started down the final tunnel in the Catacombs that finally opened up into the castle dungeons.
"Oh man, this is it!" Miia said in an excited whisper.
Mero nervously wringed her hands. "Our Prince... we're almost there!"
Their Catacombs Master narrated as they slipped into the dungeon. "The walls are dank and dark, and only the occasional torch lights the way. Most of the cells are empty, the iron doors stand open, but the one at the far end of the hall lies closed."
"Knock spell!" Papi said.
"Yeah, knock knock, motherfu-"
Kimihito cut off Rachnera before she could finish her phrase. "The barred door is unlocked by the spell. Not exactly knocked clean off its hinges, but it does swing open a quarter inch or so."
"I take point," Miia said immediately. "Open it all the way so we can get our Prince out."
"After you," Mero said diplomatically. Though it was because she half-suspected another trap.
"I'll guard the rear just in case," Cerea replied. "We might have more guards incoming."
Their Catacombs Master narrated. "The door swings open," he declared. "And inside you find..."
He paused, and they all leaned forward with baited breath...
"... an empty cell. Some rats are chewing on an old bone that's been left there from ages ago," he finished. He tried not to grin too openly, but damned if it wasn't difficult. He'd been wanting to spring this particular development on them almost from the beginning. And just in case someone tried to call foul on him, he had it in his notes hidden behind the CM screen. Circled in red.
"W-wha?!" said Miia, unable to wrap her brain around what he was saying.
"The Prince isn't here?!" they all seemed to exclaim at once.
"Oh no!" Mero proclaimed.
Kimihito smirked as he spelled out the little twist in their adventure:
"Sorry girls but... your Prince is in another castle..."
Authors Notes:
Cliché'd, perhaps, but I just had to pull that particular twist. Besides, with a story title like the one I picked, how could I not insert it into the story at some point?
Once more, I feel a need to defend that I know regular Chimeras, or even ones commonly found in most games (tabletop or otherwise) rarely act in the same manner as the one portrayed above. This was a storytelling decision, made to help move the plot along and provide maximum entertainment value.
Also, the spell Suu cast, that neither she nor Kimihito can pronounce, is Shillelagh. Like a dullahan, its part of celtic folklore, hence Lala recognizing it.