-Prologue-

-Save the Heroes-

It took me a long day of searching through all the bars in the vast city of Hallstead when I finally caught up to Sarah Greenbriar. She was sitting at a round table at the center of the Yellow Moon Inn playing Three Man's Gallows with a massive bald bulldog of a man in a open chested red vest and his thin partner who had a slick head of black hair coated by some repugnant oil. The stench of oil and alcohol on the thin man seemed to not bother the Elf as she picked a card from her hand, formulating her strategy.

"Third sword" the silver haired Elf confidently slammed the card down on the tabletop, causing the table to shake violently.

"Well I'll be damned, she got me" The slick haired man coughed as his hand dropped to the table. The clink of silver sliding across the table signaled his defeat.

"It's just you and me sweetheart. How about we raise the stakes?" The large man grinned, his gold tooth glinting in the lanternlight.

"I was just about to suggest that myself. You're on. Triple or nothing." The Elven woman grinned, the greed practically radiating off of her. However, I knew the truth, these two fellows were pulling the oldest trick in the book. Let her win for a bit, then let the greed take over and take her for all she had through sleight of hand.

The saddest thing was, she was falling for it hook line and sinker.

Let me explain.

When I woke up in this world after getting whacked by a serial killer, I quickly found out where I was. The world of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign I had recently played through with my two friends every Wednesday after University.

Me, I woke up to find myself as not a player character, nor an ally. Instead I found myself as the first human enemy that the players would come across and kill after he had tried to force himself on the Elf. Thankfully, I would not show up in the story for a few more sessions. Sadly, I wasn't a Noble. Instead, I was a local deliveryman who had gotten caught up with the wrong crowd.

I was given a system only I could see similar to the Gamer system in many fictional novels and given the task to save the player characters from meeting their untimely deaths that they had met in he campaign.

I was not looking forward to it. At least there were only two of them.

My name was Dan Carlyle, a twenty seven year old that grew up in the countryside and only moved to the city in the past five years, and right now, my only goal was to save Sarah from the hole she was digging herself. Since I was the first miniboss for the party of two level four adventurers, I had a decent stat sheet and a high health pool, but very low dexterity.

This meant that I could take a few hits and dish out some pain, but I couldn't really dodge or do anything with finesse. However, I wasn't stupid. The two men were career criminals, and their levels were much higher than mine. Not to mention that the surrounding four tables were filled with the large man's men. The Elf only made it out by a stroke of luck in the campaign.

My goal? Stop the card game before things got out of hand and then secure her escape all while not getting myself on the wrong end of a blade. The problem was that I knew how the player who created this Elven woman wrote her.

Chaotic, Stupid, Brash, Loud, Prideful, and most detrimentally, impulsive.

Right now I held a small burlap sack in my hands as I stood at the entryway to the bar. In my ears were thick cotton plugs disguised by my rough gray hair. Pulling two small stones from my bag, I was about to do the smartest, or stupidest thing of my life.

I threw the stones at the wall across from me.

CRACK BOOOOOOOOM

As if the room was in the center of a thunderstorm, everyone in the room fell to the ground from their seats holding their ears and even a few screamed. However, the thunderstones did their job. Next, I threw a few round thin hide pouches on the ground across from me that popped open.

The results were near instantaneous.

The recovering patrons did not know what hit them. In seconds the whole room was a mess of writhing bodies and multicolored smoke. Wow did this stink. Literally. They were stink smoke bombs.

This cost most of my savings, but it would be worth it if I could get Sarah out safely.

Making my way to where Sarah's table was, I found her rolling on the floor. Quickly grabbing her and running through the smoke as fast as I could, we made it out of the building. Dropping her before she could fully reorient herself, I ran off down the street.

Mission accomplished.

For now.