"As Odrik pulls on the chain, the dragon loses the competition, crashing to the ground as Odrik yanks the chain with all his might. The dust settles and the black dragon raises its head. You see blood dripping from its mouth and eyes. Its wings are broken and you can tell the dragon is losing strength.
"But is a dragon, and a proud one at that, you know it will never stop fighting until you die or it dies. Head raised, it opens its mouth toward Odrik. Blood dripping, you see from the back of its throat bubbling acid and you know it's about to use its breath weapon."
Charlie jumped to attention in her seat. This was he time. "I use my readied action!" She shouted, looking directly at the Dungeon Master.
The Dungeon Master smiled. Charlie knew he was used to this. She was always very enthusiastic, and when it came to Dungeons and Dragons, Charlie was in the zone. "Alright, Charlie, what does Danilynn the Battlemind do?"
This was her moment. Judging by the description her friend Zane, the Dungeon Master, had given them the dragon was near death. And about time too. The party had to go through a hundred different skill challenges and encounters to get to this point. And now, if everything worked as planned, she could kill this dragon and save the world… for a time of course.
Charlie bit her lower lip, eyes darting over her character sheet, her fingers rolled her twenty-sided die around her hand. She still had her most powerful daily attack that she'd saved for exactly this moment. "Closing my eyes, I clear my head and regain my focus. Opening my eyes again, I charge the dragon, weaving past Odrik."
"Roll an acrobatics check."
Charlie closed her eyes, holding back a sigh of exasperation. She should have seen this coming. If she failed this check, she would either ram straight into Odrik the dwarf or tumble to the ground, losing all her other actions. Opening her eyes again, Charlie began to shake her hand, preparing to roll the die. Just as she learned, Charlie rolled it hard against the table, allowing it to slam into the edge of a notebook, bouncing off and finally landing on the number six. Was it high enough? She hoped so. Zane looked at the die, looked at the reference sheet to his players skills, made a note, looked up at Charlie, and said: "You successfully weave by Odrik. Continue."
Despite having to make the skill check, she was still in the zone. "Weaving by Odrik, I shift the weight of my warhammer, preparing to swing. With my head clear, I use the power of my mind to begin to turn my arm then my hand then my hammer into stone. My charge leads me straight to the dragon's open mouth. Right before I step into its jaws, I swing my hammer upward putting the psionic force emanating from my mind into the swing." By now, Charlie was standing, hands on the table, looking straight into Zane's eyes. Afterward, she would reflect that perhaps she'd gone a little overboard but would later shrug it off because the rest of the party was as enthusiastic.
Zane was smiling. He straightened up, put his arms on the table and simply said: "Roll your attack." Charlie was ready before he'd even said anything. She snatched up her D20 and rolled it as violently as she had before. As the die flew out of her hand, she clenched her hand and prayed to science: Chaos Theory, don't fail me now…. All night she'd been rolling poorly, rolling three critical fails at key moments when she needed successes. If her luck had stopped existing, she'd likely roll another critical fail. But if she was lucky, and Chaos Theory was on her side the time, she would succeed her attack, even if it was just barely.
Charlie watched the die as it tumbled around the table. It began to roll more slowly until it finally stopped… landing on a twenty, a critical hit. She couldn't contain her excitement. She jumped up and down, jostling the table, knocking over miniatures, and causing dice of all kinds to jump and roll. No one minded though, the rest of her party was as excited.
Zane though, sat with his arms crossed, smiling. He was the kind of Dungeon Master that was proud of his players' achievements. Once the party had calmed down, he uncrossed his arms. "Max damage, so you would deal…?"
This was unexpected. Charlie had been prepared to roll damage so she had to do the math quickly in her head. "That would be… a hundred and four damage."
The party cheered. There was no way that the dragon could survive that blow. Zane raised his eyebrows, his smile disappearing. "Damn Charlie!" He looked down at the Monster Manual he was using as a reference and stifled a chuckle. "Well, you killed it." He settled down, composed himself, and continued as the Dungeon Master. "Your hammer, with it layer of stone, slams into the roof of the dragon's mouth. With all the strength you put behind the blow, your hammer explodes through the top of the dragon's skull. Before the dragon topples over, dead, you manage to pull yourself and the hammer out of the dragon's mouth." The party began to cheer again, but Zane continued before they got too loud. "As the dragon falls to the ground, you all begin to hear some cracking followed by tiny squeaks. Looking around, you realize where you are: a dragon's nest, and the eggs are hatching.
"And that is where we'll end tonight. We'll pick it up again next week."
As usual, the party lingered at Charlie's apartment for awhile after the session ended, discussing what had happened and what they might do next time, After the rest of the players had left, Zane stuck around. Charlie knew why, but she couldn't give him what he wanted. She already had a girlfriend… or something. And she could only love one man. Thinking about him made her sad. Was he still alive? She was too afraid to find out.
"It's still pretty early into the night. What are your plans? I was gonna get some dinner if you want to join me." Charlie had to smile at his attempt to ask her on a date. She knew that Zane knew she had a girlfriend, but that never stopped him from trying. At least he was nice.
"Thanks Zane, but D&D always wears me out. I think I'll just order Chinese and play some video games."
Zane simply smiled and looked down. "I understand. Maybe next time." Looking up again, he gave her a wink and stepped out into the hallway. Charlie was holding the door open to see him out. "See you next week."
"Next week," she smiled at his wink. Charlie watched him walk down the hallway to the exit. As he turned the corner, she closed the door.
It took a little while to clean up. All the players left their Dungeons and Dragons stuff with her because they all met at her place to play. After she put away all the books, dice, and miniatures, she sat down at her computer. After an intense session like that one had been, she had no wish to play a complicated videogame, but she had no desire to play a mind numbing shooter either. Charlie wanted to be creative, to build a world all her own. She wanted a game like Minecraft.
But all she did was continue staring at the desktop of her Macbook Air. She sighed. The world she'd put so much effort into on Minecraft had begun to bore her. Charlie was in the mood for something new, something fun. That's when she thought of the only man she could love, her best friend: Dean Winchester. Thinking of him made her sad again. She hadn't heard from the Winchesters in awhile. If only she could be with them, or at least feel close to them. Charlie had read all of Carver Edlund's books that had been practically a Sam and Dean Winchester biography. That had made her feel closer to them.
She sat back and thought about that for a moment. Perhaps…. Charlie sat up, a little happier after the idea she'd had. She pulled up her search engine she and Sam had programmed, and searched the world for a Minecraft Mod based off of Carver Edlund's Supernatural books. That would help her feel a little better… maybe.
It took hours for Charlie to find something due to how small of a fan base Supernatural had, but she did find something. This mod had no pictures, but great descriptions of monsters that she may face and the two non-player characters the mod provided: Sam and Dean.
After a little research, Charlie decided that this was not a false mod filled with viruses. It was coded somewhere in Kansas, which made her laugh since that is where Dean and Sam were born. She decided this mod was safe and clicked download. A window popped up indicating the download was taking place and gave an estimated download time of twenty minutes. So Charlie sat back and waited.