Jirou: Who would've thought that "However long it takes" would be "Like, two days, tops," lmao.
Izuku sat down at a chair in Nighteye's office, reading through his latest texts from Jirou in the hopes that hearing about his friends and how the campaign was going without him would help to unravel the knot of nervous tension that had been coiling around in his stomach ever since the incident that kickstarted his depressive spiral began. It wasn't helping, really, but it gave him something to do as he sat there in his hero costume, desperately trying to steady himself in preparation for when he and the others would get the signal to head out.
Izuku: Lol.
Izuku: How did you resolve that plot line so quickly?
Jirou: Well, part of it came from the fact that I decided to take the opportunity to introduce Yoko to the party, since I was worried that the fights I had planned would burn through their stuff too fast otherwise.
Izuku nodded. It was a reasonable precaution to make, given what she had told him about her plans the week before: a living portal to the Abyss lying in the basement of the town church, spewing out demons every single round until the party managed to kill it. Any DM who didn't play their cards right could easily wipe out their whole party with an encounter like that, but thankfully, it sounded as though Jirou had managed it just fine.
Izuku: How did it feel finally getting to play as Yoko?
Jirou: Eh, it was alright. She's a bit more peppy than Alision, but I think I did a good job pulling it off.
Jirou: On the other hand, I now realize that I have made a horrible mistake when it comes to her name.
At this, Izuku cocked his head in confusion.
Izuku: Why do you say that?
Jirou: Because as soon as the name "Yoko" came out of my mouth, everyone at the table all started grinning at me like the fucking Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.
Jirou: Next thing I know, Yoko has irrevocably been dubbed "Yo Yo" by the ENTIRE PARTY!
Jirou: Even Koda, the little traitor. Toru and Mina are proving to be terrible influences on him. =/
Izuku: And this is bad...why, exactly? It sounds kind of cute to me, honestly.
Jirou: Dude, I told y'all how much I hate being called Yo Yo, and now I have to deal with that all the time!
Jirou: I couldn't even get the others to knock it off with my authority as the DM because as soon as I tried, both Kaminari and Momo hit me with the goddamn puppy eyes!
Jirou: Do you know how hard it is to resist two sets of puppy eyes? Goddamn impossible, that's how hard!
Izuku: This is the first I'm hearing of you even being called "Yo Yo" to begin with, tbh.
Jirou: Huh, really? It came up in the group chat, I'm surprised you didn't read through it.
Izuku: By the time I finally checked my phone the day you set that up, there were over 200 notifications. =/
Izuku: I just rapidly scrolled through to the most recent ones, said my piece, and shut down my phone.
Jirou: Fair.
Jirou: But anyway, aside from that recurring nuisance, the session turned out fine. Party managed to get through the demon portal fight without losing anybody, the town held a feast in their honor, and they're ready to leave.
Jirou: We even ended up attracting a bit of an audience.
At this, Izuku couldn't help but be intrigued.
Izuku: Oh? Do tell.
Jirou: Well, it started when Sato came down to the common area with Iida, Ojiro, Sero, and Shoji. Apparently they had been planning on studying down in the common area while snacking on some treats Sato was gonna make for the occasion and hadn't realized we were doing our thing at the same time, but instead of going somewhere else to study, they decided to stick around and watch when Kaminari, Mina, and Toru told them that they were about to go fight an army of demons.
Jirou: They were so busy asking questions about how the game works and all that that they almost didn't get any studying done. Even Iida got into it, which is kinda funny since apparently the study session was his idea to begin with. Eventually, Mina offered to DM a one-shot for them today so that they could try the game out for themselves, and they spent the rest of our session coming up with their characters for that, their books completely abandoned.
Jirou: Having seen the kind of fuckery that Mina can get up to as a player from both sides of the screen...I pity those poor, unfortunate souls.
Izuku chuckled to himself, that familiar fuzzy feeling in his chest helping to dispel the nervousness that had been plaguing him for countless hours at this point. He was looking forward to hearing all about whatever wacky one-shot Mina had come up with.
Izuku: Oh, I'm sure it will be fine.
Jirou: I doubt that very much, but whatever.
Jirou: Oh, actually, while I've got you here, do you think you'll be ready to take over next session?
Izuku paused, thinking over Jirou's question for a moment before responding as optimistically as he could manage under the current circumstances.
Izuku: Yeah, I should be good to take over next Friday. Looking forward to playing with you all again!
No sooner had he sent the text than he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, Deku," Ochaco said softly. "They're expecting us outside in five minutes." She paused for a couple of seconds, weighing her words carefully before simply asking, "Are you ready?"
Izuku looked up at her, startled at first before quickly relaxing and settling into a determined expression. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm ready," he replied as he got up from his chair and walked down the hall with Ochaco, Tsuyu and Kirishima joining them soon after as they headed off towards the most important mission of their lives. This time, things would be different.
This time, he was going to save her.
"Greetings, gentlemen. I trust you are all prepared?"
As Mina spoke from behind a custom-made DM screen that she had Momo make for the occasion, she glanced around the familiar table of the common area to look into the eyes of her party for this afternoon. Sitting in her usual seat was Sero, who looked particularly excited to finally try this game out after hearing about it so much from Kaminari over the past few weeks. Next to him in Toru's usual spot was Ojiro, whom Mina could only assume had heard as much about the game from his somewhat frequent chats with Toru in between classes. On either side of her own seat were Sato and Shoji, the former mostly just looking happy to be trying out something new with his friends while the latter kept his expression guarded with the help of his face mask. Finally, in the seat which Kaminari typically occupied next to Toru's was Iida, not looking quite as excited as the others around him, yet still listening intently as Mina began her pre-session spiel. One by one, each of them gave their responses to her question.
"Yup, I'm ready to roll!" Sero quipped, causing Ojiro and Sato to chuckle good-naturedly.
"Same here," Ojiro and Sato remarked one after the other, while Shoji simply nodded.
"Of course!" Iida replied in his typically booming voice. "I have naturally sought to prepare as much as possible in advance so as to ease the burden on you! I look forward to sharing this communal bonding experience with you all!"
"Aww, that's sweet of you, Ii...da..." Mina began before her eyes widened along with the rest of the table as Iida brought out an additional stack of papers alongside his meticulously organized character sheet. Failing to notice the stunned silence of the rest of the group, Iida continued on with his planned introduction blissfully unaware of how much he had gone overboard.
"To that end, I have prepared a detailed twenty-five page backstory document for my character, Sir Alric Ironshield, complete with a detailed history of his hometown of Dragon's Keep and the role that his family played within it, notable events of his own life prior to becoming an adventurer, and brief descriptions of the various characters who played a significant role in his personal journey to greatness for later reference. I trust that this is all satisfactory?" As he waited for a response while the others continued to look on in awe, Mina was left struggling to figure out how to tell him that he had gone overboard as nicely as she possibly could. Unfortunately for her, someone else at the table beat her to the punch.
"Uh, dude, you know we're only gonna be playing the one adventure with these guys, right?" Sero interjected. "You didn't need to write out a whole novel." Mina winced at the bluntness of Sero's response while Iida flushed red with embarrassment.
"Yeah, man, my backstory is, like, two sentences," Sato added before proceeding to read off of his own character sheet. "'Grol was born as the son of Durzoll the Fierce, a mighty warrior in the Many Arrows orc tribe. However, rather than follow in his father's footsteps, he left the tribe with ambitions of becoming the greatest chef the world had ever known.' That's all you really need." Although Sato was somewhat kinder about it than Sero had been, both of their responses only served to make Iida even more embarrassed than he had been previously.
"I-I see," he remarked plainly as he held his head in shame, with Ojiro offering him a couple of pats on the back in consolation. Mina knew she had to get the party back on track, and fast.
"For what it's worth, Iida, I really appreciate the enthusiasm, and I promise I'll read through what you wrote after the session is over, okay?" Mina's words seemed to brighten the class president's feelings somewhat, and he nodded more readily as Mina continued. "Now, then, why don't we go around the table and introduce our characters? Just basic stuff: names, pronouns, class, race, a little bit of their backstory, that kind of thing. Also, when the group I'm in did this, we all did it in-character, so if you wanna do it that way too, feel free. That all sound like a plan to you guys?" As the rest of the table gave their assent, Mina looked towards Iida in particular. "Iida, did you wanna go first? You do seem to be the most prepared of us by far, after all."
Iida sat there silently for a couple of seconds before eventually nodding his head. "Very well," he remarked as he cleared his throat and got into character, puffing up his chest a bit as he spoke in the deepest voice he could muster. "Greetings! I am Sir Alric Ironshield of Dragon's Keep, a Paladin of Bahamut the Platinum Dragon who has sworn an Oath of Devotion to the ideals of justice and order! It is my sacred duty to defend the helpless and smite the forces of evil wherever they may be found! Having been inspired by the legacy of my beloved elder brother, the legendary knight Sir Andrew, I will not rest until those who would threaten the innocent are put to the sword and dispatched by my hand!" By the end of his speech, Iida had gone into one of his trademark karate chop poses, to the amusement of the rest of the table.
"Yeah, that's about what I expected," Sato remarked good-naturedly.
"Mhm, definitely," Sero added, causing Iida to flush red with embarrassment once more.
"Am I really that predictable?" he asked no one in particular, causing Mina to chuckle.
"Eh, a little bit, but we like you anyway. Great job!" As Mina once again brightened Iida's spirits, she turned to Ojiro next. "Alright, Ojiro, you're up," she said, smirking to herself as she prepared to mess with him just a little bit.
Ojiro nodded and cleared his throat, speaking in the same voice that he usually would to make things easier on himself. "Hey, everyone, my name's Kai. I'm a-"
"Human Monk?" Mina interjected with a mischievous grin on her face, throwing Ojiro off his game for a moment before he continued.
"From the-"
"Way of the Open Hand?" Mina interjected again, her grin growing wider.
"Who decided to-"
"Leave his village and his people behind on a quest to grow stronger?" Mina asked, already having guessed the answer and having it confirmed when Ojiro cried out in frustration.
"How is she doing that?!" he asked the others, prompting Sero to laugh uproariously.
"Iida isn't the only one who's predictable, man!" he replied before continuing to laugh while Sato and Mina chuckled along with him. This time it was Iida's turn to offer Ojiro consolation.
"Anyway," Ojiro began rather pointedly, causing the rest of them to quiet down as he finished his introduction in a huff. "I'm fairly laid back most of the time, but I can get pretty fired up when in the heat of battle. Also, I hate it when smartasses finish my sentences. That's it." As Sero and Sato continued to chuckle at his expense, Mina eventually held up a hand.
"Alright, guys, that's enough. Glad to have you here, Kai," Mina remarked before turning to Sero and giving him a look that shut him up quickly. "Sero, you're up next."
Sero simply nodded, clearing his throat before adopting his best imitation of an Australian accent. "G'day, mates! My name's Alec Irwin, and I'm a human Ranger who specializes as a Hunter of the creepy crawlies and supernatural nasties that roam around the woods. The natural world is sacred to me, mate, and I'll be damned if any malicious monsters and the like come in and muck it up. I'm a pretty swell guy once ya get to know me, but I'll admit I can come off as a wee bit intimidating. Still, one thing's for sure: if ya wind up on the menu of a cranky old carrion crawler, it would be real smart of ya to keep me around if ya don't wanna get torn to pieces. You got that, mates?" By the end of his introduction, it took everything Mina and Sato had to keep from bursting into laughter, and even Shoji found it hard to resist chuckling underneath his mask. Iida and Ojiro simply smiled, feeling a little bit better now that the spotlight wasn't on them for the moment.
"That was hilarious, Sero! Great job!" Mina remarked happily before turning over to look at Shoji, who had managed to regain his composure. "Shoji, you're up."
Shoji simply nodded, clearing his throat and speaking in the most gravelly voice that any of the others had ever heard from a mouth he created on his shoulder. "My name is Honduren, and I'm a human Warlock of the Great Old One known as the All-Seeing Eye. My life as a mere mortal ended the day that my arcane research led me to his ancient, forgotten temple, and now I stand before you as his humble servant. There was a time when his name was spoken with reverence befitting a being of his awesome power, and I have been tasked with doing all that I possibly can to ensure that that day will come again." The rest of the table was silent for a moment, all of them rendered somewhat uncomfortable by the voice that Shoji had adopted for his character while he simply looked on in confusion for a moment. "Sorry, too much?" he asked in his normal voice, prompting Mina to blink before shaking her head.
"Nah, nah, it's fine, just, ah...maybe dial it back a bit? It was a bit intense," Mina replied, to which Shoji simply nodded as Mina turned to Sato. "Alright, Sato, you're up last, big guy!"
Sato nodded eagerly as he brought his hands together, speaking in a somewhat deeper voice nonetheless meant to be as endearing as he could make it. "Hello, everyone, my name's Grol. I'm a Berserker Barbarian from the Many Arrows orc tribe. My father, Durzoll the Fierce, wanted me to become a great warrior like him, but I know that my true calling is to become a world famous chef with my very own restaurant! Still, becoming a world famous chef costs money, so I decided that working as an adventurer would be a good way to get the money for my restaurant and meet plenty of people to make food for in the interim. I'm a pretty jovial and kind-hearted person by nature, but if you ruin my food, you better run as fast as you can, because I'm quite the crack shot with a rolling pin, I'll have you know. Anyway, time to get this show on the road!"
"Well said, Sato!" Mina said, bringing her hands together as the rest of the table fell silent. With a quick clearing of her throat, she was ready to go. "Are you all ready to get started?" she asked the others gathered around the table, only to be met with a chorus of approval. "Alrighty, let's get into it then," she remarked before shifting into her best impression of Izuku's Serious Narrator Voice. "For one reason or another, your journeys have all brought you to the town of Dragon's Keep, where you have heard tales of a dungeon nearby which is said to have claimed the lives of many adventurers lured into the demiplane in which the dungeon resides. Those who manage to best the deadly puzzle traps of the dungeon's unseen ruler will have their pick of the treasures that he has accumulated from adventurers who could not survive the dungeon's perils, not to mention ensure that no one else will suffer the same gruesome fate. Whether motivated by a desire to bring the evil ruler of the dungeon to justice, a desire to lay claim to the spoils of these past adventurers, or simply the desire to make a name for yourself as an adventurer, fate has nonetheless brought you all to the cavern in which the entryway to the demiplane is located with one common goal: to conquer the Deadly Dungeon of Zax the Almighty." With her opening narration finished, all that was left for Mina to do now is ask her players a simple question. "Do you go inside?" she asked with an eager grin on her face. Whether her party won or lost, this was going to be fun.
"Indeed! Zax the Almighty shall rue the day he chose the path of villainy!" Iida replied.
"Yup, I'm in. Let's go!" Sato replied as well, bringing his fists together.
"'Time to put this Zax bloke six feet undah!'" Sero replied in-character, while Ojiro and Shoji simply nodded in agreement with the rest of the party.
"Alrighty then. You all step through the gateway and delve into the dungeon," Mina said, taking a moment to look over the basic description of the place which she had written up beforehand in an effort to figure out how to describe the place once they entered. "You find yourself in a room that's about sixty feet wide and sixty feet long with a ten foot ceiling. The room is brightly lit from what looks to you like some kind of glowing panels embedded into the ceiling tiles, and the room seems to be pretty well ventilated, although the air feels a bit stale compared to the air you're used to walking around outside. The doors, floors, walls, and ceiling are all various shades of gray, and appear to be crafted out of a strange metal that none of you have ever seen before. The door doesn't have a handle and appears to be locked in place, so you're not really sure how to open it." With her opening description finished, Mina looked around at the others. "Now, I've got a bit of dialogue that I was going to do to give y'all a sense of how this is gonna work, but is there anything you guys wanna do before I do that?" In response to her question, most of the players simply shook their heads, but Sero thought the question over a bit longer and came to a decision.
"Can I look around to see if there's anything else of note about this room?" he asked.
"Sure thing! Go ahead and make me a Perception check," Mina replied, watching as Sero rolled the black and yellow dice that Momo had kindly supplied to the group along with their character sheets during the main game's session the previous night.
"17?" Sero said upon looking at the result, unsure whether he succeeded or not.
"Okay, with a 17, you don't really notice much beyond what you've already seen, but you eventually find something curious tucked into a corner out of sight: what would appear to your characters to simply be some strange device, but what y'all in the real world would recognize as a P.A. speaker." As the others murmured among themselves regarding this development, Mina brought her hands together in order to get their attention. "Before y'all can think about what exactly this thing is for much longer, you hear a voice coming from the weird device at a volume loud enough to disrupt your trains of thought."
"Oh, this is gonna be good," Sero remarked off-handedly as Mina began to speak.
"'Greetings, adventurers!'" Mina said, speaking in her best impression of a cartoonishly evil villain. "'I am Zax the Almighty, and I welcome you to my dungeon! Many adventurers like you have tried to best its dangers and failed miserably, but perhaps you all will fare better, hm? In any event, step forward and enter the dungeon proper if you dare, or leave now while you still have your lives! You will not get another opportunity to turn back! I wish you the best of luck, heroes! May you die well!'" As Sero and Sato snickered in response to Mina's antics, she returned to her normal voice. "With that, the speaker shuts off and the door unlocks, opening upwards into the ceiling. As Zax said, this is the last chance you've got to turn back. Are y'all ready for this?" Mina sat patiently waiting for her group's responses, which rolled in after a moment of silence.
"'Of course! Zax will pay for causing the deaths of so many great heroes!'" Iida remarked in the same boisterous voice he had used in his introduction.
"'We've come this far. No sense in turning back now,'" Ojiro remarked in the voice he was using for Kai, which was basically his own voice with a slightly huskier tone.
"'Agreed,'" both Sato and Shoji remarked in their own way.
"'Aww, this bloke ain't so tough! Let's go, mates!'" Sero said in the questionable Australian accented voice he was using for Alec. With that, Mina nodded in affirmation and the group made their way into the next room, which Mina described as being essentially identical to the last one save for one key difference: where there was one locked door, there are now three, each one labeled with a word hinting towards the nature of the trial ahead.
"'Any given trip through my dungeon is composed of five trials,' Zax says, speaking from another speaker hidden somewhere in the room. 'For the first four trials, you must overcome a fiendish puzzle that I have designed around a particular theme. Once you overcome a trial, you will be rewarded with ever-increasing amounts of gold. For the final trial, assuming you have not perished by then, you will face me in combat. To date, no one has been able to defeat me, but should you somehow manage it, great fortune awaits you! Now, pick a door and seal your fate, adventurers!'" Mina once again returned to her normal voice as she finished her description of the dungeon. "Alright, so, there are three trials you can choose from here: the 'Earth' trial, the 'Wind' trial, and the 'Fire' trial. Which one are you gonna go for?" With that, Mina left the group to their own devices as they talked amongst themselves regarding their options.
"Grol's just gonna rub the back of his neck and say, 'Eh, I dunno about you guys, but I'd rather not get burned to death. I feel like we should avoid that one,'" Sato remarked, to which the other characters nodded in agreement.
"'Indeed. I am predisposed towards the 'Earth' trial, myself,'" Iida replied, prompting several of the others to echo Alric's sentiment until they were left with a majority in favor of the Earth trial.
"Alright, sounds like the 'Earth' trial it is," Mina said, to which the group nodded as they waited for her to describe what would happen next. "Okay, so you guys go into the 'Earth' trial room and the door locks shut behind you. A hidden speaker somewhere in the room kicks on and you hear Zax talking to y'all again." With a brief cough, Mina got back into character. "'So, as you adventurers may have noticed, the first series of trials are based on the classical elements. I had planned to install a water trial, but, ah...we ran out of funding.'" At this, Mina paused for a second or two while the group simply waited patiently for her to finish. "'Anyway! Have fun getting crushed!' The speaker clicks off, and you all watch as two panels in the ceiling open up to release two large boulders that slam down onto both of the doors leading into and out of the trial room, trapping you all within. I'm gonna need y'all to roll initiative."
Before long, the players assembled had all rolled for their own initiatives with their respective d20s while Shoji cocked his head in confusion, noticing that Mina had not rolled any dice herself.
"I would appear to have gotten an 18," Iida remarked.
"16," Shoji said simply, still pondering why Mina had not rolled for any initiatives.
"15!" Sato called out.
"Same here, 15, but I'll go after him," Ojiro remarked while gesturing towards Sato.
"Oof, only got a 10," Sero remarked, somewhat dejected at being the last one in line, as it were. Mina simply brought her hands together, a devilish smirk on her face.
"Alrighty then, quick question: how would you guys say you came into the room? Like, in terms of where you guys are in the room upon walking through the door, where are you at?" After a few seconds of silence, Iida spoke up while some of the others began to grow nervous.
"Well, I suspect that we would have entered fairly close together, with Alric being inclined to lead the charge, as it were. So, at the moment, he would be in the center of the room while the others are flanking him on either side," Iida said, turning to the others as his unspoken question was answered with a series of nods; the arrangement made sense to them. With that, Mina grinned.
"Okie-dokie! You all watch as more boulders are released from more opening panels in the ceiling, creating a line of fallen boulders that is going to cut the room in two and slam right onto Alric's head in the process. Alric, I'm gonna need you to make me a Dex save!"
"Oh, this is rather troublesome, my Dexterity is not high," Iida remarked mostly to himself as he rolled, then winced at the outcome. "9?" he asked hopefully, yet knowing in his heart that it would not be enough to avoid his fate. Mina winced in sympathy.
"Oof, you just missed it. You're gonna take...6 bludgeoning damage," Mina remarked as she rolled a d10 behind the screen, to which Iida dutifully subtracted the amount from his hit points. "After you get hit with the boulder, it cracks apart into rubble from the force of the impact, and it is now your turn. Whatcha gonna do, Alric?"
Iida thought for a moment before responding. "I am going to heal myself for 5 hit points with my Lay on Hands ability, restoring myself back to 11 hit points. After that, I am going to move as close as I can get to one of the corners of the room in hopes of avoiding further boulders."
"Alrighty. Honduren, you're up."
"Hm...I'll move as close to one of the corners as well, then cast Eldritch Blast on the boulder blocking the exit to see whether we can destroy them," Shoji remarked before rolling a d20 and consulting his sheet. "Got an 18," he added, to which Mina nodded.
"Okay, roll damage," Mina said, prompting Shoji to roll his d10 and wait for the result.
"Hm. Only 2 damage," he said, somewhat disappointed.
"You all watch as Honduren's Eldritch Blast slams into the boulder and breaks off part of it, sending the pebbles that result scattering along the ground. Grol's up next."
"Hm, I'm gonna move up next to Honduren and chuck a handaxe at the boulder he fired at," Sato remarked before rolling a d20 in turn. "17!"
"That hits, roll your damage," Mina said as Sato rolled a d6 and glanced towards his sheet.
"8 damage!" Sato called out, doing a slight fist pump after getting such a good roll.
"Yup, you all watch as Grol just hucks a handaxe at the boulder and cuts fairly deep into it, but it still seems to be holding itself together," Mina said, chuckling to herself before glancing over at Sero. "Kai is up next, what are you doing?"
Ojiro smirked. "Just for the hell of it, I'm gonna get up to where I can hit the boulder that fell on Alric, then go all out with my quarterstaff in both hands and a bonus action unarmed strike with my left leg." With that, he rolled a d20 several times and mentally logged the result of each. "18, and...huh. Yeah, okay," he said nonchalantly as he glanced down at the natural 20 sitting on the table before all of them, prompting Sato and Sero to become excited while Mina grinned.
"Okay, roll your damage for the first one and then roll two of the damage die for the kick." With these instructions given out, Ojiro promptly rolled his dice and whistled at the results.
"Looks like about...12 bludgeoning damage between the two attacks."
"Nice! You all watch as Kai just hammers the heck out of this boulder and leaves it almost on the verge of breaking apart through brute force alone. Finally, Alec, you're up."
Sero mulled over his options for a couple of seconds before deciding on a course of action. "Alright, I'm gonna just go ahead and use my action to Dash so that I can actually get to one of the corners. That's it; I'll wait and see what happens from there."
"Okay, after that more boulders are gonna drop, this time falling in a line perpadi-perpenda-perpendicular to the last one," Mina said, somewhat annoyed at being initially unable to pronounce the word she had intended to use for whatever reason. "None of you are in the line, so you guys just watch as the boulders cut the room into quarters, leaving...Kai in the southwest quarter, Alric in the northeast quarter, and everyone else in the southeast quarter, if I've followed along with where you guys have been going. Alric, you're up next."
And so it went for several more rounds, as the boulders continued to fall from the ceiling in one diagonal line and then another, leaving almost no tile in the room safe from the onslaught of falling rocks. Fortunately, the party managed to catch on to the pattern of the boulders dividing the room each time they fell, and thus were able to maneuver themselves in such a way that they avoided the rest of the falling boulders. As the door opened, the group pressed on confidently and were faced with a new choice of two trials: the "Radiant" trial and the "Necrotic" trial. Deciding that a trial themed around radiant damage would generally be preferable to necrotic damage for a number of different reasons, the group chose the door on the left and found themselves within a room identical to the others they had passed through so far, save for the presence of what appeared to be a giant lamp whose diameter covered the entire room. The hidden speaker turned on once again.
"'To pass through this trial, you must defeat me in a battle of wits, but be warned; each time you lose, that lamp above you glows ever brighter until the light itself will burn you to cinders! Now, then, adventurers, select one of your own to face me...if you dare! Mwahahaha!'"
Sato and Sero couldn't help but chuckle to themselves as Mina threw herself into the role of Zax the Almighty in all of his corny glory, and after some deliberation, it was decided that Iida would be the best person to win whatever "battle of wits" that the dungeon's mysterious master had planned. After confirming that Alric accepted the challenge, he stepped forward towards a panel set up next to the locked exit out of the trial chamber, only to find himself greeted with a puzzling sight:
A tic-tac-toe board.
The group was left blinking in disbelief, with Sato and Sero barely restraining themselves from laughing out loud while Iida looked at Mina incredulously as she took out a tic-tac-toe board she had drawn up on a piece of paper and placed it in front of him.
"Are you serious?" Iida asked, momentarily losing his usual formal mannerisms aa Mina simply grinned at him from across the table.
"100% serious, my guy. Bring it!" Mina challenged eagerly, prompting Iida to sigh as he took out his pencil and took a deep breath in preparation for this particular puzzle.
"Very well," he remarked before proceeding to crush her in tic-tac-toe in just under a minute. With a begrudging sigh, Mina ushered the party through yet another unlocked door and into the next selection of trials they had to make: the "Dragon" trial or the "Banshee" trial. Selecting the "Dragon" trial, the group proceeded onwards into a room with a pedestal in the center and what appeared to be a golden statuette placed onto a pressure plate on top of it. Left puzzling over this, the group watched as the speaker crackled on yet again.
"'If there's one thing that dragons are known for, it's their love of treasure, treasure which they are not willing to part with without a fierce struggle. If you want to pass through this trial, you must succeed in taking a treasure right from under a dragon's nose and replace it with a facsimile that I have provided for you, but be quick about it! If you take too long to swipe the treasure from the pedestal and replace it with the facsimile, the dragon will notice your attempt to abscond with their treasure, and they will not hesitate to burn you all to a crisp. Best of luck, heroes!'"
With that, the players were left to deliberate over just what to do to solve this latest puzzle, while Mina took the liberty of rolling a d6 behind the DM screen and silently counting off the people at the table in a clockwise fashion before landing on Ojiro, causing him to cock his head.
"Uh, is something up, Mina?" he asked, drawing the others' attention to their Dungeon Master as she nodded in response to his question.
"Kai, while the rest of your party is busy arguing over how to go about this, you suddenly find yourself scrambling to catch what appears to be a golden statuette that has materialized out of thin air. Holding it up to the statuette on the pedestal, they appear to be identical. This must be the facsimile that good old Zax was talking about."
Ojiro nodded, looking over to the rest of the group before deciding what to do. "Alright, here's what I'm thinking: it'll probably be easier to pull this off with multiple people, so one of you can snatch the statuette while I replace it at the same time. Does that work with you all?" The others quickly expressed their agreement with Ojiro's plan, with Iida volunteering to assist him and prompting a chuckle from the martial artist. "'Oh? The paladin is offering to help someone steal something, huh? Doesn't seem very noble and righteous of you'," he quipped. Iida pondered over how to respond to this for a moment before having Alric answer Kai's joking challenge.
"'Perhaps, but since this treasure may well have been stolen by a fallen adventurer to begin with, relieving it from the clutches of the one responsible for their death and returning it to their next of kin seems like the most honorable course of action,'" Iida said, prompting the rest of the table to chuckle in response before Mina narrated what would happen next.
"Okay, so, the two of you walk on up and you two are able to time it just right to where Kai places the facsimile onto the pressure plate almost as soon as Alric lifts the original off of it. The door unlocks, and you guys are free to leave...with the statuette, of course." The group cheered as they were ushered through yet another successfully completed trial, confidently striding through the single unlabeled trial door that they faced on the other side while taking note of the numerous other doors that they could only assume would lead back to the other trial rooms which they had not selected in the course of their expedition. Curiously, however, there didn't seem to be anything in this trial room as far as the party could tell...that is, at least, until they heard a hissing sound coming from the air vents positioned where the ceiling met the four walls of the chamber.
"'Oh, crikey, that bettah not be what I think it be!'" Sero remarked in character, echoing the thoughts of the rest of the party as the hidden speaker came on yet again.
"'Oh, but it is, my poorly accented friend!' Zax chimes in from the speaker," Mina remarked, earning an indignant "Oi!" from Sero before she continued. "'As we speak, those vents there are draining all of the oxygen from this chamber! There is no escape-that is, unless one of you is willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of your companions! Simply stand on this pressure plate,' and you all watch as the tile in the center of the room raises up from the floor slightly, 'and your friends will be able to proceed to my chamber. Should you ever step off of the pressure plate, the doors will lock and the air will drain once more, and you will be left with no other option than to stay on that plate forever...or die! Mwahahahaha!' The speaker clicks off, and y'all have got one round to figure out how you're gonna handle this. What do you do?"
Although most of the group was left in a minor panic regarding what to do, Iida made his decision rather quickly. "Alric is going to step towards the pressure plate."
Sero's response to this was immediate. "Alec is gonna chime in 'Oi, mate, think about whatcha doing for a second!' and move to stop him. 'We shouldn't go splitting ourselves up right when we're about to fight the bastard!'"
"'I concur, hunter, but I don't see another alternative. If one of us does not stay behind, then we will all die, and that is something that I cannot permit.'" Without warning, Iida paused, falling into a contemplative mood before he eventually decided on what to say next. "'To be willing to sacrifice oneself for the greater good...that is the essence of what it means to be a hero.'" The group fell silent in the face of Iida's words, and for a moment, it seemed like this was to be Alric's fate; voluntarily trapping himself forever so that his companions could vanquish this evil once and for all. However, one player's quick thinking managed to save him from this fate.
"'Pardon me,'" Shoji spoke up, using a somewhat mellower version of the voice he had used in his introduction. "'Before you go and throw your life away at the first opportunity, would you be willing to hand me that statuette for a moment?'" As the other players looked on in confusion, none of them caught Mina's pleased smirk in response to Shoji's plan.
"'I suppose,' Alric remarks, and he'll hand the statuette over to Honduren," Iida said, prompting Shoji to nod while Sato voiced the group's confusion in-character.
"'Hang on, Honduren, what are you planning to do with the statuette?'"
"'Simply testing a hypothesis, that's all,' Honduren replies. 'Our adversary does not seem to be quite as cunning as he no doubt believes himself to be, and it is possible and quite probable that he has not considered how all of the various trials that he designed for his dungeon could potentially interact with each other.' With that, he's going to place the statuette onto the pressure plate."
The group fell silent as they finally noticed Mina grinning at Shoji's ingenuity, then waited with bated breath as she nodded her head before telling them what would happen next.
"You all watch as the statuette is placed onto the pressure plate...and it sinks back into the floor. The air stops hissing out of the vents, and the doors unlock, allowing you to move forward to the final trial room and the lair of Zax the Almighty."
"Yeah, we're getting out of there immediately," Sero chimed in, to the agreement of the other party members. Iida cleared his throat and looked towards Shoji.
"'I...appreciate your quick thinking, Honduren,' Alric remarks before pressing on," Iida said, to which Shoji simply nodded in response.
"Honduren replies, 'Somebody has to be the voice of reason in this group.'" Mina snickered as she prepared to describe the fifth and final trial room for the party.
"Alright, y'all find yourselves in a room identical to all of the other rooms that you've been in so far, save for one addition: in the place of an exit door, there sits a throne sized for a small humanoid creature, such as a gnome or a halfling. Sitting upon that throne is what almost looks like a humanoid of that size with somewhat slimy purple skin and beady black eyes, dressed in a breastplate and wearing a hella dramatic cape. Where their mouth would be, there is instead a series of four small tentacles that wiggle slightly as y'all enter the room, sniffing the air like they have just detected a scrumptious meal. This is none other than the master of the dungeon, Zax the Almighty." Mina paused, giving the group a chance to process the description before Sero snickered.
"I'm sorry, the master of the dungeon is a three foot squid manlet?" he asked with amusement, prompting everyone but Iida and Shoji to crack up and hardly contain their laughter.
"'Three foot squid manlet,' I'm never gonna get that out of my head. Yes!" Mina responded, struggling to maintain her composure before clearing her throat and getting into character. "'Agh, I could have sworn that I calibrated that pressure plate to accept greater weight than that statuette. Very clever, adventurers! However, if you think that the addition of one more party member will save you against me, I am afraid that you are sorely mistaken. Now, prepare to meet your demise!' So, Zax is gonna step off of his throne and move about ten feet towards y'all, and I'm gonna go ahead and roll his initiative while leaving y'all's the same, just to save us some time so that we can wrap this up fast." With a quick d20 roll behind the DM screen, combat was ready to begin, with Zax going after everyone else in the party with the exception of Alec.
"Alright, I will charge towards Zax in order to swing at the fiend with my longsword. En garde!" With this battle cry, Iida rolled his trusty d20 and blinked at the result. "Oh my," he remarked as the rest of the table glanced at the natural 20 sitting on the table.
"...Is Alric about to one-shot the boss?" Sato asked, to which Mina giggled.
"He's not that weak, don't worry. Still, roll twice the damage die on that longsword swing," Mina said, to which Iida responded by rolling two d8s and quickly doing the math.
"13 slashing damage," Iida remarked, eliciting a cheer from the rest of the table as it moved on to Honduren's turn right afterwards, whose response was similarly straightforward.
"Eldritch Blast," Shoji remarked simply, rolling a d20 and contemplating the result. "17."
"Yup, just hit, roll your damage!" Mina remarked as Shoji rolled his d10.
"8 force damage. How is he at this point?" Shoji asked, to which Mina pondered how exactly to describe Zax's current condition without giving away his hit point total.
"With those two good hits, he's injured, but still going strong. Grol's up," Mina answered, prompting Sato to grin as he prepared to start his turn.
"I would like to Rage," Sato remarked in a rather polite tone of voice before continuing. "After that, I'm gonna go ahead and swing my greataxe at Zax." With that, Sato rolled and glanced down at the dice. "16?" he asked hopefully, to which Mina chuckled.
"You just barely get him, yeah. Roll damage," Mina said, to which Sato promptly rolled.
"Another 8 slashing damage," Sato said, wearing Zax down even further as Kai moved next, going for the classic quarterstaff swing and roundhouse kick combo that had served him well against the boulder at the start of the dungeon. "That's an 18 and...another natural 20, what the hell?" Ojiro remarked off-handedly, prompting the table to look towards the DM screen with anticipation.
"Roll double the damage die again, Kai," Mina remarked as Ojiro complied with her instructions and looked down at the dice with a pleased expression.
"13 bludgeoning damage total between the two attacks. How is he now?"
"He's looking pretty messed up at this point, but not quite within one-shot range yet, and now it's his turn. I can't help but notice that most of y'all got into melee range with this guy. Interesting," Mina remarked, earning her looks of apprehension from the players before she laid out just what Zax was going to do. "You all watch as his head begins to glow with a faint violent light before he lets out a massive blast of psionic energy that covers the entire room, and all y'all are gonna need to make me Intelligence saving throws."
The group rolled their dice before most of them winced at the results.
"12," Iida remarked with trepidation.
"9," Sato said, while Shoji nodded along with him, indicating that he got the same result.
"11," Ojiro said, looking towards Sero with a look of quiet hope in his eyes.
"Uh...15?" Sero said, unsure whether he has been spared or not from Zax's wrath.
Mina looked over the results and rolled some dice behind her screen before her eyes widened and she looked at the party with trepidation in her own expression.
"Okay y'all, I found the stat block online and thought he looked funny, but I may have underestimated how tough he'd be. Uh, for starters, Alec, you made the save, you're totally fine; everyone else failed and is going to take...25 psychic damage," Mina said apologetically, causing the party to fall into silence for a moment while Iida looked at his phone to answer a question he had.
"If I am understanding the rules for how being reduced to 0 hit points works in this game, I believe that if you have taken damage equal to or greater than double your hit point maximum...your character is killed instantly, as Alric apparently is."
"Agh, crap, that's more than 20, Kai's dead too," Ojiro said with a wince, while Shoji nodded to indicate that he was in a similar boat.
"Double Grol's is 30, so he's fine, thankfully, but he is dying, so, you know, not out of the woods yet," Sato remarked. "Sero, it's all down to you, man. Good luck, try not to die!" Sero gulped nervously as he realized the situation the party was now in.
"No pressure or anything," Sero remarked as he took his turn. "Okay, I'm gonna take a bonus action to use my Hunter's Mark ability, marking Zax as my enemy so I get an extra d6 damage on him, then I'm gonna take a shot with my longbow."
"Alrighty, roll it!" Mina said, waiting with bated breath along with the rest of the table as Sero rolled his dice and looked down at the result.
"19," he remarked, already preparing to roll his damage dice since it had already been established what Zax's armor class was. "That's a total of 10 piercing damage."
"Agh, so close! However, he's still up, and it'll be his turn again as soon as I go ahead and roll a death save for Sato," Mina remarked in turn before rolling a d20 behind the screen and blinking. "Uh, okay, Sato, you're up with 1 hit point," Mina said, causing half of the table to cheer while Iida was distracted from the revelry by a notification on his phone.
"Haha! Yes!" Sato cried before clearing his throat and getting into character. "Grol's gonna open up his eyes and, as soon as he realizes that he isn't dead and remembers what's going on, he's gonna look over at Zax and be like, 'You...you almost killed me before I could open my restaurant! And just for that...I'm going to turn you into calamari! Rrraaaggghhh!' And with that scream of, just, absolute fury, I'm going to rage again and charge at him, greataxe in hand, aimed right for the squishy little tentacles on his face." He paused to roll his dice and glanced down at the result. "16," he said, breathing a sigh of relief as he realized that he just barely managed to hit the troublesome foe who had put his party through so much anguish in the last couple of minutes.
"Yup, you got him, and...actually, between your Strength mod and your Rage, I don't even think you have to roll damage for this; you got him. How do you want to take him out?" Mina asked, now grabbing the attention of the entire table as they cried out in jubilation. Iida, however, seemed to be somewhat out of it, busy reading something on his phone and growing increasingly concerned. Sato and the others failed to notice for a time, too caught up in Sato's triumph.
"Well, I was aiming for the squishy tentacles, so I imagine that Grol would manage to cut off all of them in one swing, pausing to catch his breath and stumble slightly from his lingering injuries while Zax bleeds out from his four tentacle stumps," Sato explained, to which Mina nodded.
"Alright, yup, you lop off all of his tentacles, and he isn't even able to get out anything more than a scream of agony before falling to the ground and letting out a great deal of dark purple blood. You guys have won; Zax is dead, and with his death, the throne that he had been sitting on retracts into the floor and disappears, revealing an exit door that leads into a room filled with more treasure than any of you guys have seen in your whole lives." Those who were still in the game at this point grinned at the prospect of obtaining a massive heap of treasure for their efforts, while Mina grinned in response to their enthusiasm as she kept on going with her narration. "Of course, the victory doesn't come without...cost..." she continued before pausing, taking note of Iida's expression and thereby drawing the rest of the table's attention to him as well.
"Yo, dude, you good?" Ojiro asked. When he received no response from Iida, he took the initiative to glance over the taller boy's shoulder, eyes widening as he took in what was on the screen. "Oh shit," he muttered. The fact that Iida didn't even have the presence of mind to get on Ojiro's case for cursing in front of him was an especially bad sign.
"Guys, what's going on?" Mina asked, jolting Iida out of his stupor enough to turn the phone away from him and towards Mina and the rest of the group, allowing them to look at it and finally understand just what had gotten Iida so out of sorts: an article concerning a recent raid on a Yakuza organization referred to in the article as the Shie Hassaikai, one involving several well-known heroes and their sidekicks and student interns working alongside local law enforcement. Of particular interest to the article was the dramatic conclusion to the raid, in which the surrounding area was devastated by an incredibly destructive battle between an individual later revealed to be the leader of the criminal organization and a student intern with an incredibly powerful Quirk.
A student only later identified as the hero "Deku."
It wouldn't be some time before the students who participated in the raid would be allowed to return to the U.A. dorms, owing to the severe injuries that Izuku and Kirishima sustained over the course of the raid alongside the extensive debriefing that followed the raid's conclusion. By the time all of it was over and done with, the four students stepped awkwardly into the common area, where they were greeted by their fellow classmates as they anxiously fussed over their well-being and sought to make sure that they were all okay after everything that had happened. Kirishima, Ochaco, and Tsuyu did their best to assuage these concerns as they were wrapped up in hugs by Mina and Toru, respectively, while Izuku tried to maintain a tired smile as he fended off the concerned questioning of the rest of his Dungeons and Dragons group. From across the room, his eyes met Iida's and registered the silent question that the class president asked him.
"Are you okay?"
With a nod and that same tired smile on his face, Izuku hoped to convey the best answer that he could give to one of his closest friends at the moment, knowing how important it was to him that he be honest about his feelings after all that the two of them had been through together.
"Not really, but...I will be. Eventually."
Once the fussing and fretting was over and done with, it was deemed best that the four students retire to their dorms or else take it easy for the rest of the night, which Izuku was more than willing to agree with; after almost dying for what must have been the sixth or seventh time in over a year at this point, he needed a nap. The others seemed to have the same idea, as Ochaco and Tsuyu trudged up to Ochaco's dorm room for an extra long edition of Midnight Movie Night while Kirishima laid down on the couch and rested his head on Bakugo's shoulder, the only person allowed to do anything like that with the explosive boy without getting their face blown off. For Izuku's part, he was content to be escorted to his dorm room by Mina, who regaled him with a summary of the one shot that she had run and the harrowing trials of the Deadly Dungeon that she had designed. In spite of his overall dour mood, Izuku's spirits brightened somewhat as he listened to the dramatic retelling of his companion, and he was looking forward to getting to play with her and the rest of the group the following Friday more than he had been earlier that day.
However, his good mood found itself shattered rather quickly when he opened the door to his dorm room. He was already in the midst of bidding Mina good night when he caught sight of something in the corner of his eye: a poster of All Might, one of many plastered across all four walls of his dorm room, with half of the poster obscured by a bookshelf that he had moved in front of it. Within this shadowy half of the poster, only viewable from a certain angle, was a figure standing alongside All Might with a determined look in his eyes, one whose presence Izuku had often forgotten about given how it was obscured. In this moment, however, he knew that he would never forget the figure that could be seen amidst the shadow of his bookshelf:
Nighteye.
Almost immediately, tears began to spring to Izuku's eyes, startling Mina and prompting her to take a few steps into the room to ascertain what was wrong. A few seconds later, Mina followed Izuku's gaze and caught sight of the poster and the figure depicted within it, putting two and two together from what she had read of the article Iida had shared with her and the others. Without a word, Mina looked at Izuku with a gentle expression and held out her arms in front of him, silently asking him whether or not he wanted a hug. Under other circumstances, Izuku might have awkwardly refused this offer, making some excuse or another so as to avoid the prospect of coming into physical contact with the girl that he had unknowingly found himself crushing on for weeks or possibly months at this point. However, in his current state of mind, Izuku reached out to her without hesitation, and the two would stay like that longer than either of them cared to count.
Ooh boy, plot stuff!
The resolution of the whole thing with Overhaul and Eri has been kinda simmering for a hot second at this point. I had originally figured it would be timed in such a way that the big dramatic reveal would coincide with the end of one of the sessions Jirou ran for the main group, but then I decided to pivot to another idea that's been simmering in the back of my head for as long as this fic has existed: having Mina serve as the DM of a whole new group for a one-shot. Taking from the ranks of those few who had never been invited to the original D&D game, my main mission with this one-shot group was to polish off the remaining classes that the characters in the main D&D group hadn't tried out yet (with the exception of artificer, which I'm saving for if/when a certain inventor we all know and love dearly ever decides to grace the main D&D group with her presence). Iida as a paladin and Ojiro as a monk (and incidentally the most basic, garden-variety kind of monk) were fairly straightforward, and I figured that a barbarian with a talent for the culinary arts would fit Sato perfectly. Making Sero play a ranger was mostly due to the fact that I knew he would be down to play a tree climbing hunter character with a silly Australian accent, and as for Shoji, I think we can all agree that the guy who speaks through a tiny head that he can grow from his shoulders is the perfect fit to play a warlock.
As for the dungeon itself, that was actually something that I lifted straight from my own homebrew campaign, albeit in a somewhat weakened form due to the fact that these guys were only level 1. I came up with the idea roughly around the start of this year, I want to say, with the intention of having the dungeon serve as the destination of a portal opened up by the Donjon card of the Deck of Many Things (yeah, my party had a homebrewed version of the deck in their possession for a while, stuff got crazy). The central tenets of the original dungeon were that it would have branching paths that rewarded the players with money for each trial they finished, encouraging them to loop back around and do all of them, and that it would be run by a guy who's just barely competent enough to be an actual threat as a villain. Making Zax the Almighty this tiny little gnome ceremorph guy (which are a real 5e creature, look them up, they're adorable) was mostly based on my love of the cartoon The Owl House; this whole dungeon was pretty much just "What if King was the master of a dungeon?" lmao.
Anywho, with all that being said, let me know what y'all think in the reviews below. Thank you all for reading, have yourselves a fantastic night, stay safe, wear a mask and get vaccinated if possible, and take care.