"Luz, Luz, Luz!"
Luz leaned up from the living room couch, she had finally managed to doze off after spending the entire afternoon researching for an exam she had tomorrow... Only to be interrupted by Gus running excitedly into the room, holding a book.
"There's this entire book downstairs in the basement with a bunch of monster descriptions in it! Why didn't you tell me you had this?! It lists their strength levels, their attacks..." Gus said, flipping through the book as he listed off more things he found in it.
That got Luz curious, a book with monster descriptions in it? Wait...
She snatched the book from Gus ("Hey!" he yelped), and looked at the cover closely.
She chuckled, realizing what it was.
"Oh Gus, this isn't a book of real monster descriptions. This is my old Monster Manual for Dungeons and Dragons!" Luz realized, looking over the cover once more.
Ah man, it had been a LONG time since she had even seen this thing... She had tried to get into the game a couple years ago, but nobody else at her school really was interested in the game like she was.
So the rulebooks and stuff for it were stored down in the basement, she reckoned the books had just been collecting dust down there since then.
"Dungeons and... Dragons?" Gus tilted his head curiously, "What's that?".
"Oh! It's a tabletop roleplaying game that's based around fantasy elements... Or I guess for your case, reality elements.' Luz explained, putting the book down on a nearby end table.
"Where'd you find that thing anyhow?" Luz asked, curious herself how Gus even managed to dig it up from the piles of things they had stored away down in the basement.
"Oh, I found it in this box called "TRPG Stuff' that was underneath these other boxes called 'Fragile', so I tossed them off and took the bottom box out."
Gus explained, and Luz winced. Yeah, whatever was in those top boxes were definitely smashed now.
"Well, since it's a game... Can we play it? It sounds fun!" Gus asked. "I don't know... It's been years since I've even touched the game, I wouldn't even know the first thing about DMing-"
"I'll help you."
Luz and Gus jumped as they turned to see Vee in her Basilisk form on the couch, looking up from her curled position.
"Vee?! Wha- How long have you been laying there?!" Luz exclaimed, taken aback by Vee's sudden appearance.
"Oh, I've been here the entire time. You were using me as a pillow while you napped." Vee explained.
Luz chuckled sheepishly, had she really dozed off that much?
"Whoops, sorry... Wait, you know how to play Dungeons and Dragons?" Luz asked, surprised.
"Oh yeah, Masha taught me how to play. They were really patient when teaching me too." Vee replied, getting up off the couch.
"I'm more of a forever player rather than a forever DM though, but I can still give you tips and everything on how to run the game correctly." Vee offered.
"There we go! And hey, we can get the others to play too!" Gus suggested, "I'm sure they'd love the game as well!".
Luz thought for a moment, she had always wanted to get into the game, but just didn't have the people to play it with... But now, that wasn't a problem.
"Alright, let's do it!" Luz said, "Gus, get everyone down in the basement, get the rest of the stuff in that box, and set up a table. Vee, go get some snacks and drinks". The Witch and Basilisk nodded, and rushed off to do their tasks.
Luz let out a sigh, this was either going to be really fun...
Or a chaotic mess.
7:25 PM
"Alright, so you choose a Class, Race, and then a Background?" Hunter asked, looking at a copy of the Player's Handbook.
The kids were all sat at a circular table Gus had found tucked away. Luz was sat behind a makeshift DM screen that had a couple folds in it, but was otherwise still usable.
"Yeah, you choose one of each, but you can choose multiple classes later and be a multiclass character." Vee explained further.
"Can you choose multiple backgrounds?" Willow asked, looking at the same copy over Hunter's shoulder.
"No, but you can-" Vee began, but was cut off by Willow.
"But what if I want to be both an Outlander and Hermit? They would fit together..." Willow reasoned, "Because they both give different skills, proficiences, and equipment. It would be against the handbook rules to do it." Vee explained.
"But they're the same thing, can't I be both?" Willow reasoned again, and Vee sighed internally.
"No, you can't... It would be against the handbook's rules." She repeated.
As Vee and Willow continued to go back and forth in their small argument over backgrounds, Gus was writing down his character in one of the many sheets that were provided.
Luz leaned over to glance at his sheet.
"You're gonna be a Half-Elf Bard?" Luz asked, noticing his Race and Class choice.
"Yeah! They seem to be like the Bard coven, playing music allows them to use magic." Gus explained, "So I figure it could be fun!".
Luz nodded, and then glanced over at her girlfriend's character sheet... Who was in the midst of writing a Backstory that was filling two notebook pages already.
"Sweet Potato, you don't have to make a multi-page Backstory for your character-" Luz began to explain.
"No Luz, I don't have to... I WANT to." Amity quickly declared, and continued to write to her heart sac's content.
Luz shrugged, and couldn't help but smile at how everyone seemed to be getting the hang of creating their characters without the need of much help from her... Until a couple dice flew past the top of her head, courtesy of a misfire by Willow, who was trying to pry her character sheet back from Vee.
"GIVE ME IT! I NEED TO WRITE DOWN MY SKILLS!" Willow shrieked.
"IT'S AN ILLEGAL CHARACTER, NO!" Vee argued back, trying to keep the character sheet in her hands.
Willow almost leaped on top of her for it. "GIVE IT BACK-"
8:02 PM
Luz had finally decided to step in when Willow was about to smash a wooden chair over Vee's head. Everyone had finally finished their character sheets, and presented them to Luz:
Vee was a Halfling Cleric named Yoora Applesun.
Willow was a Wood Elf Druid named Enralei Magvyre.
Gus was a Half-Elf Bard named Harkon Havana.
Hunter was a Human Wild Magic Sorcerer named Kaleb Bane. (Luz gave him a quick look after reading the name)
Amity was a High Elf Warlock named Shaphine Iarrora... A beautiful, lovely, truly irresistible-
"Luz? You good?" Vee interrupted Luz's daydream, and she shook her head to regain focus.
"Oh, yeah, yeah! I'm good! Fine, just dandy..." Luz said, handing the character sheets back to their respective creators.
"Great, does this mean we can begin to play now?" Gus asked, putting his character sheet on the table's surface.
"Yes, all Luz has to do now is set the first scene of the adventure she wrote." Vee explained. Luz paled.
Oh... Oh. She knew she forgot to do something. As she looked down at her empty notes, her mind began to panic, she did her best not to show it.
"Oh god, this is going to be like the 4th grade talent show all over again..." Luz thought to herself.
She remembered when she completely forgot to practice her script for the one-woman play she did for her talent, she had just stood on stage like a frozen statue until her Mom had to come up and get her off. Nobody in that school had let her forget it.
Luz took a deep breath, and decided to do what most DMs these days were known to do if they didn't have enough time to write:
Completely wing it and make stuff up as she went.
"Okay, so your adventure starts in a tavern in a far off town, a small storm had rolled in and forced you to stop your travels..." Luz began.
8:34 PM
"I roll to intimidate the wagon driver!" Hunter proclaims, preparing to roll a D20.
"Hunter, your character has a constitution state level of 9, Kaleb could be comparable to a twig." Vee stated, digging into one of the bowls of chips.
"Yeah, I have to agree you wouldn't look too intimidating on your own." Amity added.
Hunter was quiet for a moment.
"What if I lit his wagon on fire to intimidate him?"
9:02 PM
After roleplaying a VERY intense chase involving the town guard, and a quick fight in the street... The rest of the table unanimously agreed Hunter should be banned from trying to intimidate people.
As the Grimwalker pouted, Luz set the current scene "After you all finally escaped your pursuers, you find yourselves entering the nearby woods. These woods are rumored to contain various tribes of goblins that terrorize travelers of the road that runs through it".
"Oh, that might be bad. Vee, does your character have any more healing spells?" Gus asked, looking at the Basilisk player.
"Well, I DID have more healing spells... But somebody, who will remain nameless, decided to set a wagon on fire and in consequence; turn an entire town's army of guards against us! So I had to use them to heal Shaphine!" Vee explained, giving a side glare at Hunter.
"Hey, my intimidation strategy worked!" He said in defense. "Yeah, the driver sure was intimidated as he BURNT TO DEATH!" Amity exclaimed exasperated.
"He should have gotten out of the wagon!" Hunter argued back, "He DID, you just casted fireball on him again!" Gus pointed out.
"Guys, guys! Calm down, maybe we can just take a long rest or something and get our spell slots back..." Willow suggested, as she tried to calm the group down.
Luz moaned quietly, reaching for a handful of chips... Only for the bowl to be empty, and a certain Basilisk's stomach full.
"Oh by the way, we need more chips." Vee said, letting out a belch to empathize her claim.
9:41 PM
"Okay, I'm going to let you roll one more time... But if you roll low again, I'm not letting you do another perception check." Luz stated, finally fed up with Gus rerolling for the last 5 minutes.
"Alright, fine." Gus relented, and rolled one last time. He rolled a 14. "What do I see?" Gus soon asked.
"Through the trees, Harkon swears he sees something move through the darkness." Luz said back.
"My character immediately goes to wake the others!" Gus exclaimed.
"In response, my character smacks his hand away." Amity says. "I'll allow it." Luz quickly dictated.
"Wha- Why?!" Gus asked, taken aback.
"It's what my character would do." Amity simply replied (Vee mimicking her answer with her own mouth).
"And also what you would do it real life." Hunter smirked at Amity.
Luz simply shook her head as Amity threw her cup of soda at Hunter's smug face.
9:53 PM
"A rustling is heard in the treeline, and after a moment... Six small figures jump out from it, weapons drawn. "Your loot is ours travelers! Hand it over!" One of the goblins demanded, pointing a dagger in your direction. Roll initiative." Luz said, as everyone began to roll.
"Do we still get our long rest bonuses?" Willow asked, as she rolled a 13.
"Well, technically we all were interrupted mid-rest. So I'd say no, we don't." Vee explained before Luz could even open her mouth.
The rest of the players let out moans.
"Great... So we don't even have any healing spells for this fight?" Hunter deadpanned.
"Oh, I wonder who's fault that is?" Amity asked rhetorically.
"LET IT GO!" Hunter exclaimed with a hint of irritation, rolling a 12.
"We are so screwed." Gus bluntly said.
10:22 PM
"Okay, that's it. I'm calling you out." Vee declared, shooting a glare at Luz.
"What are you talking about?" Luz asked.
"How have WE be getting hit almost every turn by the goblins, but somehow Shaphine over there hasn't so much been scratched?" Vee inquired, hardening her glare.
"Yeah, that's a good point. I've lost like 12 hit points over the course of this fight, and Shaphine hasn't been hit once!" Hunter added.
"Oh uh, guess you're just really unlucky...?" Luz answered, smiling nervously.
"You're fudging rolls, aren't you?" Vee deadpanned.
"Whaattt? No, I would never tarnish the sanctity of this tabletop roleplaying game just to get brownie points with my girlfriend! Never!" Luz exclaimed, quickly putting her rigged dice subtly back into it's container.
11:03 PM
"Hey Hunter? I'm just now looking over your backstory and I have some questions..." Luz said, looking over Hunter's sheet.
"Yeah, what?" Hunter replied, awaiting the human's questions.
"So, your character is a clone..." Luz began, "Yep" Hunter confirmed.
"Who was used as a soldier for a good chunk of his life..." Luz continued, "Yep" Hunter confirmed again.
"But eventually discovered he was a clone, so defected from his position and now works against said person who cloned you...?" Luz finished, giving Hunter a look.
"Yep, that's my backstory." Hunter nodded.
"Could I talk to you in the bathroom alone for a minute?" Luz deadpanned.
11:32 PM
After Hunter and Luz returned to the table, the party had made the group decision to head to the lair of the goblins that had attacked them in hopes of finding treasure to loot.
Their first hurdle was a hobgoblin that was guarding the entrance of the cave the goblin's lair resided in.
"Alright guys, we need a carefully thought out plan so we don't alert the entire cave to our presence." Vee explained, "So we just have to think for a moment-"
"I roll to seduce the hobgoblin!" Gus declares, preparing to roll a d20.
"Wha- Gus what do you mean you're going to seduce the hobgoblin?!" Amity exclaimed, very taken aback by Gus' plan of action.
Luz sighed, "Yep, I knew this was coming as SOON as he picked the Bard class...".
"I have a high charisma score! I can totally seduce this guy and convince him to let us pass!" Gus explained, the dice in his hand still being shaken.
"Well, it'll take a very good roll in order to-"
"Nat 20!" Gus exclaimed, smiling wide as he looked at Luz expectantly.
The human sighed. She should have known this would have turned out to be a long night.