Entering the Game
Chapter Two
"Where Are We?"
"Somebody do something!" Linda yelled.
"Save us, Andy!" Penny sobbed.
"What do you mean save you?! I can't do anything!" Andy said, backing away from the creature that grinned at them with empty eye sockets and a smile from ear to ear, that is it would have smiled from ear to ear if it had had any ears.
"Sure you can," Linda said. "You have a sword and 18/78 strength! And David! You've got a sword and a lance and 17 strength!"
"But…I don't really…" Andy said, trying to draw his sword. It wouldn't come out of the scabbard. "It's stuck!"
"How do you work a lance?" David asked, looking at it like he had no idea what it was. As the skeleton got closer he dropped it and pulled out his sword. "Uh…there aren't any dice to roll!"
"Just hit it!" Linda screamed.
David swung his sword. It hit the skeleton. It shook and one of its arms fell off.
"Ewwwww!" Linda and Penny squealed.
The skeleton kept coming. "Hit it again!" Linda yelled.
David swung again. This time he hit it in the ribs. They broke and the upper half of the skeleton fell on the ground. The legs stayed standing for a second then fell over.
"Ewwwwwww!" Linda and Penny squealed.
"Calm down, everybody," David said, looking like he was about to freak out. "It's all over now! I think…"
Penny screamed. Two more skeletons were coming from where the first one came from! And one of them had a sword!
"Do something!" Linda cried.
"Why don't you do something?" Greg demanded, backing into a tree.
"I'm a druid!" Linda cried. "My powers don't work on the undead!"
Greg waved his weapon at one of the skeletons as it came towards him. It was like an axe on the end of a long pole. Whack! He chopped it in half! "Whoa…did I do that?"
The skeleton with the sword came after Andy, who'd finally gotten his sword out. "Get back!" he yelled, waving his sword desperately. The skeleton's sword hit his. Clang! The vibrations went up his arm and he dropped his sword. "Oh no!" Penny shrieked as the skeleton swung again and its sword hit her brother's shoulder. Blood poured out.
"You leave my brother alone!" Penny yelled, running at it without thinking what she'd do when she got to it. She screamed as the skeleton turned towards her and swung its sword. She jumped over the sword and kicked it in the head, forgetting she was barefoot. It felt really gross! As it swung again she cart wheeled out of the way like an Olympic gymnast. "Whoa! How'd I do that?" she wondered once she was out of sword range. She'd always been kind of clumsy.
"You have 19 dexterity now!" Linda reminded her.
"Hey! I have magic too!" Penny remembered. She jumped into a tree, hit a branch with her bare feet, then leaped over the skeleton's head, its sword missing her again. She landed behind it, spun around, and hit it in the back. What was the spell called? "Uh…Shocking Grasp!" Zap! Lightning shot through her hand and into the skeleton. The skeleton shook violently and fell apart. Penny grabbed her hand. "Ow! I got a shock!"
"You did great!" Linda said. "High five, sister!"
"Yup!" Penny said, high fiving her. "Girl power!"
Then she noticed her brother was sitting on the floor, holding his shoulder, and bleeding. She gasped and ran over to him. "Oh no! Are you okay, Bro?"
"No I'm not okay!" Andy said, looking like he was about to cry. "My sister kills a monster all by herself and all I do is get beat up by it!"
"Uh, actually it was already dead so she destroyed it, not killed it," Greg pointed out.
"Nobody likes a rules lawyer!" Linda said. "Who knows first aid? Darn it! I knew I should have been a cleric instead of a druid but I love nature and flowers!"
"I'd've been part cleric but the game said elves can't be clerics," Penny said.
"David!" Linda cried. "You're a paladin! You can heal, can't you?"
"Uh…I can "lay on hands"…I think," David said. "But I'm just first level so I can only heal two hit points a day."
"That's better than nothing," Linda said. "Maybe it's enough to make his cut stop bleeding. Try it!"
David looked at Andy's wound. "Uh…but then I'd have to touch the cut and get his blood all over my hands…" He looked a little green.
"You do it or I'll kick your butt!" Penny yelled, clenching her fists. As an elf she was shorter than ever, but the look on her pointier than normal face was still scary.
David made a face and looked away as he placed his hands on Andy's shoulder. He cringed as he felt something wet and knew it was blood. "Uh…now what?"
"Will him healed or something!" Linda ordered.
David concentrated. Suddenly his hands felt warm and tingly. When the feeling passed he pulled them away. Andy's shoulder now had a big ugly scab on it, but at least it wasn't bleeding anymore.
"Whatever you do, don't pick at that scab," Linda told him.
"Don't worry, I won't!" Andy said, staring at the scab like it was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen, even weirder than walking skeletons with swords.
Now it was David's turn to sit on the floor in shock. He looked at his hands. "I need some soap and water!" he said.
"I doubt we can find any soap here," Linda said. "As for water, you're the DM, where would we go to get some?"
"Uh…I don't know," David said, starting to wipe his forehead with his hand then stopping. "I don't have my notes with me."
"You have to remember!" Linda insisted. "You're the only one that knows anything about this place!"
"At least tell us what other monsters you put around here!" Tom said. "I don't want any more surprises!"
"Yeah, why didn't you tell us about those three skeletons?" Penny demanded, hugging her brother.
"Three skeletons?" David repeated, sounding confused.
"That's what I said," Penny told him. She pointed to where they lay. "One…two…three skeletons."
"Oh, David, no…" Linda said, looking back where they had come from.
"Oh, David, no what?" Greg demanded, looking in the same direction.
"I put four skeletons in that place…" David said in a very small voice.
"Well…we beat three already," Tom said. "One more shouldn't be too tough."
"Wait a minute," Greg said. "You didn't just put skeletons in this encounter, did you?"
"Uh, not exactly…" David admitted.
Linda groaned. "What else?"
"Nothing too tough," David assured them. "Some giant rats, a giant ant, a fire beetle, a badger…"
"How many giant rats?" Greg said.
"Uh…twenty all together," David admitted.
"Twenty?!" the others all yelled.
"They were wandering monsters," David added quickly. "They're only supposed to show up one or two or three at a time. No more than four at once."
"Four at once?" Greg yelled. "What are you trying to do to us?"
"They're all first level monsters for first level campaigns," David said. "Our characters had a good chance of beating them."
"And a good chance of getting killed by them!" Greg pointed out. "Only they knew what they were doing cause they had practice and we don't!"
"At least all of the monsters are first level," Linda said. "That's something."
"Uh…" David said.
"Why is it I get sick every time you say uh?" Linda asked him. "What else did you put in here?"
"Well…since we had a party of six, I thought there'd be enough for a couple of second level monsters…"
"You mean like giant centipedes?" Tom asked.
"Giant centipedes?" Penny cried, sticking out her tongue. "Ewww!"
"Um, a few," David admitted. "And a few stirges. And a rot grub. And a giant toad. And a zombie. And…"
"And what?" Greg said. "Finish that sentence!"
"The evil cleric that made the skeletons and zombie," David said. "He's, um…level five…"
"We have to fight a fifth level evil cleric?!" Greg yelled. He grabbed David's shoulders. "How the heck are we supposed to do that?!"
"If you keep yelling, he's going to hear you and come after us!" Linda said, trying to pull him away from David. "Tom! Help me here!"
Tom, a nerdy guy, seemed scared of Greg. He didn't try to help until Greg had already let go of David.
"Fighting each other isn't going to get us out of here!" Linda pointed out. "We've got to work together or we're gonna get killed in this place!"
"How are we going to get home?" Greg demanded. "We don't even know how we got here!"
"If there's a way to get here there has to be a way to get back," Linda insisted.
"You don't know that for sure!" Greg said.
"Neither do you!" Linda said. "So you can either keep hoping we'll get out of here and go home like I am or you can give up and go say poor me someplace else because I don't want to hear you going on and on about feeling sorry for yourself because I'm scared too! All of us are! But none of us are losing it like you are! So knock it off!"
Linda walked over to Andy and Penny and sat down on the ground too. She was breathing heavy and her face was red. She held her hand out towards Andy's shoulder and saw it was shaking. She put her hand down and started counting to ten.
"What are you doing?" Penny asked her.
"Four…counting to ten…five…to try to…six…calm down…seven…" Linda said. When she got to ten she made a face. "I'm still mad," she muttered.
"Me too," Penny said. "I'm ten years old and I'm not crying so what's his problem?"
"Why don't we just get out of here?" Andy said. "Before any more of those monsters show up."
"Good idea," Linda said. "Come on, guys, we're getting out of here!"
"But this is where we're supposed to be," David said. "I haven't planned out the rest of the area yet. What if we leave here and there's nothing else?"
"Then we'll come back and fight your stupid monsters," Greg said.
"What if we go someplace else and there are more monsters?" Tom asked. "Maybe higher level ones. Man, I wish I could switch classes."
"Oh great, now it's getting dark again," Greg complained.
"Clouds are covering the moon again," Linda said. "Everybody stay together! We don't want to get separated and wander off in different directions."
"You heard her, Penny," Andy said. "Stay put. I don't want to have to go looking for you in the dark."
Penny looked from Linda to her brother. "What are you guys talking about?" she asked. "I can still see all of you fine!"
"You can?" Andy said, sounding surprised.
"She's an elf now," Linda pointed out. "She can see in the dark."
"She's supposed to have infravision," Tom said. "She should see things by heat signatures, hot things red, cold things blue, and like that."
"I never did think seeing infrared light sounded right," David said. "I think Mr. Gygax was just trying to give seeing in the dark a logical scientific explanation and knew most people wouldn't think about it too carefully."
"All I know is I can see you guys and you can't see me," Penny said, crossing her eyes and sticking out her tongue to see if anybody reacted. Nobody said anything, not even Andy, who always complained when she did something silly. Hey, this could be fun!
"What else can I do as an elf?" she asked David.
"Uh…you're mostly 90% immune to sleep and charm spells," David said. "And you can surprise others easily if you're not wearing metal armor. And you can find concealed or secret doors easily."
Penny looked around. "I don't see any now," she said, making a note to try to surprise Andy later.
"There have to be secret doors around for you to see them, dummy" her brother pointed out.
"Don't call me a dummy, dummy!" Penny said, stamping her foot. Unfortunately she stamped on a big pebble she hadn't noticed and since she was barefoot it really hurt. "Owie! Owie owie owie!" she cried, hopping on the other foot. By now the clouds had moved so everybody could see her hopping around. Well, so much for acting tough and cool…
"Told you to get boots," Andy said.
"Shut up!" Penny told him, rubbing her foot.
"You shut up," he told her. "You're going to attract monsters yelling like that."
"Let's just get out of here," Linda insisted. "There must be a village around here, right?" she demanded, glaring at David. "You did expect us to go somewhere to get supplies, didn't you?"
"Well…I sort of plotted there was going to be a village to the west," David said. "I didn't plan it out or anything. I didn't decide how big it was or who lived there or anything."
"Which way is west?" Greg asked.
"Which side does moss grow on a tree again?" David asked.
"Uh…the north side, isn't it?" Tom asked.
"It doesn't always grow on the north side," Linda said. "It can grow anywhere on a tree."
"I don't recognize any of the stars," Andy said. "And…hey! What's that coming up over there?"
"It looks like…another moon!" Linda said.
"The Dungeons and Dragons world has two moons," David told them.
"So we can't tell which way is west by the stars," Andy said, shaking his head. "Great. We'll probably go the wrong way and end up in quicksand or something."
"And I'll bet you planned on putting quicksand someplace, didn't you?" Linda asked David.
"Well…not right away," he said.
"You're a druid," Greg said to Linda. He turned to Penny. "And you're an elf. You should know which way is west."
"We didn't actually do any studying like real druids and elves would have, remember?" Linda said. "And I can't do things like identify plants or animals until I reach third level."
"So we either wander around blindly or stay put until something attacks us," Tom said.
"And even if we beat all of the monsters we'll still have to wander around blindly," Greg pointed out, smacking his palm with his fist. "That's just great."
"You're good at climbing trees," Andy told his sister. "You should be better now. Climb up one and see if you can spot the village."
"Why didn't I think of t hat?" Penny asked, looking around for a good tree to climb. She finally picked one that wasn't too skinny or too big around and started climbing it. She was surprised at how good she was at it now. "Wow!" she said, already about ten feet up. "Eat your heart out, Spider-Man!"
"Don't clown around, you'll fall and Mom will blame me!" Andy said.
"Yak yak yak," Penny said, now about twenty feet up. "Still don't see nothing."
"Don't climb too high, Penny," Linda called up. She gave Andy a dirty look. "You shouldn't have asked your little sister to do that! What if she falls and hurts herself?"
"Why didn't you climb up, you're supposed to be a nature priestess," Greg said.
"Druids don't get climbing abilities," Linda pointed out, putting her hands on her hips. "Why didn't you climb up? You're a monk."
"Monks don't get climbing skills until fourth level," Greg said.
"I knew we should have played high level characters," Tom said. "You can't do much of anything at first level."
"Be careful up there!" Andy called up to his sister. Penny must have been almost forty feet up by now. "Do you see anything?"
"I see something," Penny called down. "It looks like a wall or something."
"Didn't towns in medieval days often have walls around them?" Linda asked.
"Yes," David said. "To keep out invaders."
"Okay, that's enough," Andy yelled. "Come on down before you fall!"
"Okay," Penny said, putting her foot on a branch. "Here I…"
Crr-rack! The branch broke!
"Penny!" Andy and Linda shouted as the elf girl plummeted, screaming, four stories!
To be continued!
….
I didn't like the whole elf infravision being described as "noting varying degrees of heat radiation" and just decided "see in the dark means see in the dark." Can't be fun to walk around in the dark seeing like Predator. And wouldn't you walk into things that were cold because they wouldn't show up? And wouldn't that make you see everything kind of weird in the light too? Maybe that's why elves have glowing eyes in 4th edition.
….
Penny's high elf- 1st level fighter/magic-user/thief, hp6, S:12 I:13 W:9 D:19 C:10 CH:9 CM:14
Andy's fighter- 1st level fighter, hp12, S:18/ I:13 W:17 D:15 C:17 CH:13 CM:10
Linda's druid- 1st level druid, hp7, S:17 I:13 W:17 D:11 C:16 CH:17 CM:20
David's paladin- 1st level paladin, hp12, S:17 I:16 W:18 D:15 C:17 CH:17 CM:15
Greg's monk- 1st level monk, hp6, S:15 I:14 W:16 D:15 C:14 CH:13 CM:14
Tom's illusionist- 1st level illusionist, hp4, S:13 I:18 W:17 D:13 C:16 CH:14 CM:15