"This hallway is stone, with water and moss dripping down the walls. Blue torched flicker in the shadows. you come to another door. This one is made of iron."
"Is it locked?" Ziva asked.
"Nope."
They exchanged an uneasy look.
"I guess we should just open it," Jimmy said.
Ziva nodded, "Let's go."
"You open the door to reveal a large circular room. Blue torches line the walls, illuminating a figure in the center," Tim slammed a figurine down in the middle of the table, "The skeleton king."
"We're dead."
"Jimmy, don't say that."
"We almost died because of bugs. There is absolutely no way we'll beat the skeleton king."
"The King rushes towards you. Roll for initiative!"
Abby got to go first, trying to capture the king with vines, but her spell failed. Ziva was next, shooting the King in the eye, while Jimmy stabbed him. Tony attacked with his sword. Then the skeleton got to attack. It went for Abby first, taking off a quarter of her hit points with a single blow before moving on to the rest of them. The next several minutes were filled with panicked yelling, frantic searching through spells, scattering dice, and way too much math for Tony's liking.
"I don't think we're gonna make it guys," Abby said, "We keep hitting him but it's not slowing him down at all."
"I'm already almost dead," Jimmy groaned, "Tim how many hit points does this guy have?"
"A lot," Tim said, "I may have overestimated how good you guys would be at level one."
"Well, it's been an honor serving with you all," Abby said dramatically.
"Hang on a second," Tony said, "We don't have to defeat him."
"Uh yeah tony we kind of do," Jimmy said, "That's the point."
"No, we don't."
"Tony's right," Ziva said, "Remember what the man at the beginning said? He's paying us to figure out what's in the house, not to defeat it."
'You're right," Abby said, growing excited, "And we did find out what was in the house."
"A creepy-ass skeleton dude."
"Exactly."
"So, all we have to do is run, trap the skeleton to stop it from following us, and go back to the village and get paid," Tony said.
"Sounds like a plan," Abby said getting ready to roll the dice. "Me and Ziva will slow him down, you guys get the door ready."
While Ziva and Abby attacked him, Tony and Jimmy ran back through the door.
"If you guys can close the door on him, I can use Thunderwave and cause the hallway to collapse and trap him in there." Jimmy said.
"Won't that crush us too?"
"Not if I use my shield spell," Abby said.
"Alright, Abby and Ziva lead him through the door, I'll hold it closed while Jimmy performs the spell," Tony said.
"The Skeleton King roars and chases after you. Abby and Ziva roll for dexterity."
"13."
"15."
"You make it through the door in the nick of time, and it closes before the King can grab you. Tony, make a strength check to hold the door closed."
Tony held his breath as he picked up the di, "Here goes nothing."
The di clattered to the table rolling to reveal an 18.
"Plus my modifier that's a 21" Tony said.
"You succeed!" Tim said, "Now Jimmy it's your turn."
Jimmy managed to seal up the tunnel while Abby got them out of the house safely.
"Well," Tony said, stretching, "That was a close one."
"Now we get paid," Jimmy said, grinning and giving Abby a high five.
"You walk back to the village and into the Tavern. You see the same old man who offered you the job. He comes up to you, 'You're back. What did you find?'"
"A bunch of bugs, some skeletons we killed, and a giant monster in the basement." Tony said, "Now give us our money."
"Tony there's no need to be rude," Abby teased.
"Anthony Junior almost died, I will be as rude as I want."
"The old man nods and hands you a sack of gold coins, 'Thank you.'"
After that Tim paused.
"What happens next Tim?" Abby asked.
"That's up to you guys," Tim said, "I only wrote the first part of the campaign since Tony and Ziva had never really played before, so we can end it here or we can keep going. It's up to you."
"Well, I want to keep going," Jimmy said, "What about you guys?"
"I'm in," Abby said.
"Me too," Ziva added, "Tony?"
They all turned to him. Tony hesitated. On the one hand, this game was way too nerdy and full of math, on the other... "What the heck. I'm in."
"Great!" Tim said, grinning from ear to ear, "The man turns to you and offers you another mission..."
Tony leaned back in his chair as Tim began describing the next part of his campaign. Abby leaned forward excitedly, while Jimmy was calculating the experience points he had gotten. Ziva was idly rolling the dice back and forth. She noticed him looking at her and smiled. There were some good things about playing this game after all.
And there we have it, the end to my first fanfic. Only took me two years to write. Thanks to everyone who commented or followed this story. I lost motivation for it so many times, but the comments helped me to finally finish it.
