Cearbhail: A great chapter. Everyone will like this one. It has everything. Random humor, violent explosions. And some minor referencing. Enjoy.

[Nexa]

"So, you approach a door, a door that upon minor scanning is locked. The hallway is dark, barely lit. You can see shadows flickering through the crack in the door. What do you wish to do?" Lilly asked Erandur.

A few of us sat in a small circle, each of us holding a pad of paper and rolling dice. Yes, we were playing Ruins and Dwarves. Erandur was playing his favorite class: a rogue. And I was playing…a mage. Go figure right? Our roles were reversed. Only, he was playing as a Bosmer, I was playing as a Khajiit named J'vasti. Babette was playing a cleric Dwarf, and Oleeme was quietly watching us, playing as a Nord fighter. Lilly was the Ruin Master. She played all the villains and set up our world. She pretty much ran everything.

Lilly smiled at Erandur. "What's it going to be?"

Erandur smirked. "Well, I do still have that bottle of mead and that potion of alchemist flame. What if I were to just toss it in and watch them squirm?"

Lilly blinked in surprise. "What if they're just royalty dining? One could be the busy father, one the distressed mother, and the other the neglected child. You don't know what's on the other side."

Erandur seemed to nod. "Ok then. I'm going to pull out my mirror and angle it under the crack in the door and scan the room with it."

Lilly nodded. "Ok, make a roll for the mirror reflection detection, and a roll for search."

Erandur rolled two dice. One die landed on a 10, the other on 19.

Lilly smiled. She rolled some dice of her own and then looked up at Erandur. "When you attempt to pull out your mirror, you forget momentarily to compensate for the torch on the other side of the door. The initial flash of light penetrates the lead Orc sitting at the end of the table. But you can clearly see that this is in fact the Blood Bandits leader's war room. You can see six other nasty Orcs gathering around a map. In the corner of the room you can see the Breton woman you were contracted to find. She is beaten pretty badly and is tied up. She is unconscious. Your eyes are drawn to the bandit leader who is growling at your now reflecting mirror. He screams to his fighters to bust down the door. Please roll initiative."

Erandur cursed. He looked over at me and the others. "Guys, get ready. There are at least six baddies inside, all Orcs, all bandits."

We all cursed in response and started rolling dice to determine who got to go first. I rolled a 12, Oleeme rolled a 1, Erandur rolled a 16, and finally Babette rolled a 20. Lilly rolled something and wrote down her numbers. "Ok, Kavarken gets first move."

Babette smiled. "I'm going to turn around and run like hell." She said, throwing up a victorious fist pump.

Lilly nodded. "That's a movement. You still have an action."

"I'll use that when they catch up to me. I'm only a heavily armored dwarf. They'll catch up fast." Babette replied.

Lilly looked back at the rest of us and said, "Now, Orc leader is at the door. You guys wait as you're readying yourselves. Suddenly, the door shatters under the Orc leader's foot." She looked over at Erandur. "Erandur you have evasion. Roll to see if you evade."

Erandur rolled a 1.

Lilly almost shook her head. "Right…Rambo over here, instead of rolling away from the exploding door dives into it, not only receiving a nasty boot to the face, but has also sustained splinter damage, blinding his eyesight. If that wasn't bad enough, his bottle of mead shattered in his pack and the boot smashed his alchemist flame. Erandur, roll for uncanny rolling save throws."

Erandur became lucky, rolling a natural 20. He looked up at Lilly and said, "Can I also take an attack of opportunity?" She nodded. He rolled again, scoring another natural 20.

Lily nodded in reply. "Almost as fast as you catch flame, you fling your burning side pouch off. But you don't stop there. No, looking to the Orc's foot for a suggestion, you decide to throw your flaming pack at him. It sails from your hand, planting itself right onto the crotch of the Orc. He screams out in pain, falling back into his buddies. Suddenly the room explodes into flames, from all the liquor hanging from their pouches. You watch in silent appreciation as the room quickly catches fire, all the Orcs running around in circles trying to fight it off without even thinking of…I don't know…leaving the burning room."

Erandur looked relieved. "Oh thank Auriel that worked out alright." He looked back at us and said, "Nailed it.."

Lilly smirked. "As the room continues to burn you begin to hear the faint whimpering of the unconscious Breton in the corner of the room. As she becomes aware of the room's condition she is now crying out for help." She looked at Erandur. "What will you do?"

Erandur nodded and looked over at me. "J'vasti, you're a mage. Fire protect yourself and go get her. I'll assume the door will collapse behind you so we'll meet you outside. Just jump out the window or something. Be dramatic about it too."

I nodded. "I cast Fire Protection on myself." I said as I rolled my dice. I rolled a 14. Not bad. "And then I bulrush through the door." I rolled again, throwing a 12.

Lilly rolled as well. "One of the Orcs has regained his senses and sees you rushing into the room. He takes this time to grapple you."

I tossed the dice. "I roll my Khajiit reflexes." 14.

"He tries to grapple you but trips over a discarded morning star." She replied. "You push him off and rush for the now frantic woman. Roll for rescue operation."

I rolled an 11.

…

[Nakuma]

"Ok, rescue team in position." Huir called through his transmitter. He glanced over at me and the team gathering up behind me. It was just the five of us: Huir, Vatu, Primrose, Davilia, and Meesei. There was a separate team on the other side of the woods, preparing the strike. My job was simple. I would cast one spell…one. That one spell was going to be Flare. And that one flare was not only going to set off a giant drum of wine, but it was going to ignite into a giant explosion. When was I going to do this? When the Aedra were right over top of the kill-zone. Why were they going to be there? Answer, a diversion.

{Roger. We're set up at as well. Shall I light a giant Magelight over us now?} Crassi called over her mike.

Huir nodded, mostly to himself but it seemed to carry over the transmitter through his speech. "Yes, go ahead and cast it. Then turn around and run like hell. I'll set myself up for the shot. Are the Daedric Churls ready to be sent back to Oblivion?"

{They understand their role. Get the Aedra close enough to die. When they get close enough, blow the top of the lid. You're firing in case they die before they can pull the top off. We know the Aedra are not the type to just run in and get killed. They've lost several massive battles now and they are beginning to thin out…but that comes at a price. They are beginning to figure out how we conduct warfare.}

Then a new voice called over as well. {Sounds like you guys have a solid plan. I'll wrap up saving the damsel and we'll meet you by the gate. Just tell us when it's clear for us all to leave.} Erandur said. Damsel? What the heck was he talking about?

I heard Vatu to the right of me snicker. He tapped the transmitter and said, "Ruins and Dwarves? You're playing without me?"

{Or me?} Crassi called over. {We all agreed; we were sitting down and playing a campaign as a group. That's it. I'm making this an order. We're all getting together and running a massive cooperative campaign. All of us…in separate games. No one will be left behind ever again!}

{Sounds good to me. We need four more players on my team to make it interesting anyway. Knowing Lilly over here, she can probably run twenty different campaigns without losing track.} Erandur called back.

{I'm still human; I cannot just 'keep track' of 20 different players running separate campaigns. No, we'll have to have at least one RM per game. And two or three universal RM to choose when separate campaigns will collide in quests and team-ups. I believe this can and will be the most awesome game of Ruins and Dwarves ever played.} Lilly started sounding frantic, like she could see the end result already. If she was a great seer like Oleeme told me, I think I could believe it. I could not wait to meet her personally.

{Sounds good to me. I'll light this birdy up and then we'll all play some R&D.} Crassi seemed to smile through her transmitter. Seconds later I heard a pop-hiss and a very bright light flew from the kill-zone. It soared up above the area and exploded into a brighter light that popped and slowly started to fall back to the ground. It was a good distraction spell, as well as an 'I need backup or rescuing here' spell.

I looked up to see all the Aedra stop flying around in circles. They all silently turned to look at the floating light, their bodies illuminated. They did look just like Orcs. A longer skinnier, bonier, shiny blue Orc, with longer teeth and hollowed out eyes. Large orange robes that were stained almost red from all the blood gathering covered their bony bodies. I found myself taking notes about their appearance in my shadow journal, so I'd always know what they looked like. I found myself wanting to…dissect one. Study its magical aura. I wanted to understand the beings floating only 50 feet above me. To know what an Aedra feels like (magically). But I knew that was never going to happen, not with a live one.

The floating Aedra seemed to watch the falling ball of light with quickening interest. One of them screeched something out and they all took off like ghouls for that light. The speed of which they moved was frightening. It was like watching bats soar through a cave entrance, only these bats were blue and orange and taller than I was. They all flew off towards the light, circling around it. One of the Aedra spotted our retreating comrades and started blasting away with a giant fireball. All the other Aedra turned to see the explosion. After that, we could all see the engrossing battle.

I saw Huir pull his bow back. "Erandur. City's all clear. Taking the shot now. We could use some help out here, they spotted our combat force. Taking heavy fire."

As his arrow came all the way back, I poured some oil on a cloth and wrapped it around the tip of the arrow. I lit it on a small Flare and then, when my hands were back, Huir released the arrow. The now flaming arrow flew across the sky, becoming a small dot. Well, until it struck the wine. Then there was a large flash of the wine barrels igniting. Then…a massive purple/blood-red explosion that ripped through the ground. With the magical attachment to the already launched arrow, as well as the Flare spell already in use…the explosion that followed was enhanced by the pressure of built up Daedric energy. A large mushroom cloud of dark purple and blood-red energy skyrocketed from the ground. The ground shook from where I was. I could only guess at what was happening down there.

…

[Crassi]

"Keep pushing them forward, but continue to fall back!" I screamed to everyone as I pulled my bow back. I released my oil-tipped fire-enchanted arrow at the face of an Aedra right in front of me. My arrow planted itself in its skull. That alone would have been enough to kill him, but as he reached up to pluck it out, I thought better. Then the arrow exploded into a giant burning flame that consumed his body. I watched as his body started burning to ash, melting grossly in front me. The screech that ripped through the air was enough to deafen me; giving me a splitting head-ache that threatened to send me to my knees.

The ground beside me exploded as silent Restoration-based spells impacted heavily all around me. Dirt flew up, my soldiers screamed out orders and suggestions as they launched spells, wards, anything they could think of to keep themselves alive a second longer. That was when I saw the small ball of blue flying from the town's gate. That was my signal. "Ok, everyone! Massive Fire spells now, then wards up and run like hell!"

I pulled out a scroll of Fire Storm, we all had one. I muttered an incantation and aimed the scroll out, just like everyone else. Almost all at once large streams of fire erupted from our scrolls, lacing the air above us in a consuming fireball that could match the sun in strength. When our scrolls vanished into a magical puff of smoke and dust, I threw myself back, running as fast as I could. Everyone followed my lead, running up the hilltop. We only had to make it over the hill and we'd be safe.

I started thinking about my past. How my father used to run R&D campaigns in the Imperial City. I used to play as a Witchhunter, a magical archer. Actually, it reminded me of Huir; he was a lot like a Witchhunter. Anyway, my father used to play as the RM and it was a family thing, something that brought all the neighbors together on Sundas afternoons. It was our thing. It brought us all together to relax and play games. I missed days like that. It all changed when the Mythic Dawn attacked. Then the whole stomping giant Daedric Prince, Mehrunes Dagon, and all my neighbors were basically killed. All but Vatu. Bet he doesn't even remember me at all. Not that far back.

A sudden push against my shoulders and the hot bone-shaking explosion told me that the kill-zone was now lit. I was lifted off my feet and I covered myself in a Stone-skin spell. I instantly locked up and I stopped feeling much of anything (part of the spell). Flashes of trees, fire, other people, and dirt filled my vision. I spun around a lot while crashing through trees. Never felt a thing. Stone-skin: a spell that covers your body in a magical unbreakable stone. The downside, you can't move, period. Not until the spell is released at least. When I finally came to a rest, I allowed the spell to unlock. I had flown a good distance and even had knocked over a few trees. Everything else was consumed inside a giant mushroom cloud of Daedric magic. The giant swarming cloud of Aedra was now almost gone, only a few still floating around, some of them caught in trees. They were already dying. The ones up in the air circled around like rampant flies, trying to figure out what to do next. Good, we still had time to recover.

I looked around the rest of the army. I think we all survived. They flew as far as I did. And even if I did hear a lot of painful crying and people grabbing separate limbs that had broken or dislocated, we were just fine. I let out a disgruntled laugh. Good, I still had a chance to play a Witchhunter after all. That is, if we survived the remaining…14 Aedra flying up in the sky.

Cearbhail: Ruins and Dwarves. That's going to be a common theme for this story. So every once in a while, you'll see them sitting down for a couple minutes and playing. This will be an interesting story when I'm done with it. Always evolving.