"Tony and Jimmy, your characters walk down the hallway. The house creaks around you, the only light coming from the flickering torch you carry. You come to a door that looks like it leads outside the house. What do you do?"

"Has it stopped raining?" Tony asked.

"Seriously. That's what you care about?"

"I'm just saying, I don't want Anthony Junior to get caught in the storm."

"Tony he's a fictional character." Tim glared at him, but Tony refused to budge. Tim sighed, "Ok fine, it's stopped raining."

"Cool, then let's go outside."

"You open the door to reveal a courtyard with a garden. There are dying flowers and trees around the perimeter and an empty fountain in the middle."

"I want to roll perception on the fountain," Jimmy said immediately.

"What'd you get?"

"A 12," Jimmy said looking at Tim nervously.

Tim double-checked his notes, "You don't notice anything odd about the fountain, but you notice that one of the benches near it has something buried beneath it."

"Shall we?" Jimmy asked Tony.

"Let's check it out."

Tim cleared his throat and began narrating again, "As you walk through the garden, you pass beneath the limbs of a tree. Three tree bugs jump out at you and attack!"

"Of course they do."

"Because you didn't see them coming, they get an advantage and attack first," Tim rolled some dice and winced, "Looks like you each take 3 damage."

"Ok that's not so bad."

"I roll to attack," Jimmy said. He threw the dice and groaned as he rolled a three. "I take it that doesn't hit?"

"Nope," Tim said. Tony was starting to get the feeling that he was enjoying this. "Your turn Tony."

Tony rolled the dice and grinned when he got a 16, "Hell yeah, take that, bugs!"

"Alright now roll again for damage."

Tony crossed his fingers and threw the dice, "Oh come on!"

"Only one?"

"You manage to nick one of the bugs, but it just makes them angry."

"Great job Tony."

"Like you did any better."

"Out of curiosity how many hit points do you guys have?" Tim asked.

"I have 13"

"What are hit points?"

"They're your health Tony," Abby explained, "If you lose all of them you die. It's in that square on your character sheet."

"I have 12."

Abby and Tim looked at each other.

"What's that look for?" Jimmy said nervously.

"It's nothing, I just forget how few hit points you have at first level." Abby said.

"As long as you beat them quickly, you guys should be fine," Tim added.

They were not fine.

After a series of progressively worse rolls Tony was left with only three hit points and two of the creatures still alive. Jimmy on the other hand had lost all his hit points and was currently trying to not fail his saving throws.

Tony had decided that he did not like this game. They were literally fighting bugs, how were they this close to dying?

"Come on Jimmy, you can do it!"

"We believe in you!"

"Here goes nothing," Jimmy said, shaking the dice before rolling them on the table. They all leaned forward, watching with bated breath as the dice slowly came to a stop.

"14."

"Oh thank god," Jimmy said, slumping back in his chair.

"Awesome! Now you only have to do that three more times," Abby said, patting Jimmy on the back.

Jimmy groaned, "Don't remind me."

"Tony it's your turn," Tim said, "What are you gonna do?"

"You can call us for help anytime Tony," Ziva reminded him.

"It's two bugs Ziva, I think I can handle it."

"That's what you said five turns ago," Abby pointed out, "And look at what happened."

"It's just a streak of bad luck," Tony insisted, grabbing the dice, "I got this."

"Famous last words."

Tony threw the dice and had to stop himself from cheering when he rolled a 16.

"Heck yes!"

"Roll for damage!" Abby said, excitedly tapping him o the shoulder.

Thankfully he got enough to kill one of the bugs, leaving one left. Jimmy made another saving throw, leaving Tony to finally destroy the other bug.

"And you survive!" Tim said, "Barely."

"Good job Tony," Abby said.

"And the moral of the story is to never walk under a tree again," Jimmy said, smiling.

"Well that's probably all we should do for tonight," Tim said, "It's getting pretty late, and Boss will kill us if we're late tomorrow."

"What do you think we would have to do to get Gibbs to play Dungeons and Dragons?" Tony wondered aloud as they began cleaning up.

"We would have to go into an alternate universe," Tim said with a straight face.

"I don't know, I think Abby could convince him," Jimmy said,

"No way, he won't even read the fantasy books I recommend to him. There's no way we could get him to play."

"Maybe if we tricked him into thinking it was some kind of training exercise," Ziva mused, "And turned the campaign into a murder mystery..."

"Alright it's settled," Abby said, "First person to get Gibbs to play DnD wins fifty dollars and eternal bragging rights."

Tony laughed, "Good luck with that."

"Who knows?" Tim said, gently bumping Tony, "We turned Tony into a nerd, maybe Gibbs is next. Maybe we could even get him to dress up as a wizard."

Tony smiled as he watched the team laugh at the idea of their boss playing DnD. This game might be dumb, but he couldn't help but enjoy the time they spent playing it. Not that he would ever admit that to Tim. He had a reputation to maintain.