"Yo, Gingrich!" Chloe was pounding on the door to her friend's apartment, glad that it was late enough in the morning that she could be as boisterous as she wanted to be. "Nerd time!"

"Chloe, you don't need to shout," Max muttered, taking advantage of her raised arm to poke her in the stomach. She snickered as Chloe recoiled, pouting.

Paige's voice was the one that called out from behind the door. "It's open!" Chloe opened the door to find Paige sitting in the living room, setting her phone down on the end table as they entered. Steph was busy pacing back and forth in the hallway, quietly muttering to herself as she tugged at her beanie.

But Chloe's eyes were drawn to the table, and Max's muttered "damn" summed up her thoughts as well. Steph had her old DM screen set at the end of the table, where her back would be to the wall, but the more interesting table dressing was the detailed terrain, forming a city street scene.

"Holy fucking shit, Steph," she muttered, reaching out to poke the closest tile. Steph had used paper maps for the last few campaigns - this was a whole new level of dedication. She glanced up to look at Steph, who was counting on her fingers. "Is this foam?"

Paige had gotten up to join them, staring down at the table as well. "Yep, she had me help carve some of it. I thought glitter was bad - I'm still finding little balls of styrofoam all over the place."

Max had stopped staring wordlessly at the terrain and started watching Steph, smirking. "How long has she been doing that?" she asked Paige, pointing towards the hallway.

Paige shrugged, leaning against the back of one of the chairs. She had her glasses resting on top of her head, looking a little nervous. "Last hour, maybe two? She keeps running over here and scribbling more stuff down, so just be prepared for that."

"God, what I wouldn't give to see what's in her head right now," Chloe commented, watching Steph as well. She seemed to be blissfully unaware that she was the center of their conversation, too busy in her own little world.

Paige laughed, looking over her shoulder. "You and me both." She leaned forward a little bit over the table, focused again on Chloe. "You've played D&D with her before, right? What should I expect?"

Chloe thought about it for a moment - she had had quite a few sessions with Steph and Mikey back in the day, most of which she remembered fondly. "Way too much story detail for a one-shot, the two of us will probably start arguing about mechanics at some point, and I might flip the table if I roll poorly enough times."

"No you fucking won't!" Steph called, focusing on her for just a split second. There was an almost frantic look in her eyes that Chloe was positive had nothing to do with the table flipping comment. This was the same look that she had had before all the other sessions, too.

"I'm kidding, Steph, I would never do that to Paige. I don't want to scare her off." Steph sighed, flipping her off quickly before disappearing into a room at the end of the hallway.

"How was Utah?" Paige asked, pulling out the chair that she had been leaning against to sit down.

"It was good. Long drive," Max added, giggling as she heard Chloe groan at the reminder. "It was nice seeing Chloe's uncle again. It's been a few years for me, at least."

Paige hummed in response, squaring up the foam tiles. "It's gotta suck, having family so far away. Most of mine are in Washington, three hours tops."

"Yep, it sucks," Chloe agreed, pulling out the chair directly across from Paige before offering it to Max. She wanted to sit closer to the DM screen - mostly to mess with Steph, but she also wanted to be closer in case Steph needed her to do something. As the experienced player at the table, she felt obligated to make sure the newbies enjoyed themselves, too.

Steph finally came into the room, a small box in her hands. She ducked around the table on Paige's side before carefully setting it behind the DM screen, eyes flitting once over the table. She took a deep breath, a hand resting on her chest as she glanced at the people sitting there. "Okay, give me, like, two minutes. I still need to print off your character sheets."

This was the most disorganized she'd ever seen her DM, and she couldn't help but start smirking. "Damn, Gingrich, you're all over the place. You've gotten rusty," Chloe remarked, snickering as she was purposefully ignored.

Paige was watching her go, smiling fondly. "I didn't realize how into this she was going to get. It's like tech week all over again."

"Tech week's still worse!" Steph yelled from the other room.

Her girlfriend made a face in response, nose scrunching. "Fair, you haven't had to pull any all nighters for this," she called back. There was a loud groan, barely audible over the sound of a printer spitting out paper.

"Crazy that that'll be your actual job once you graduate," Chloe commented, resting her forearms against the edge of the table. "Obviously, someone has to do it, but still, it's wild."

Paige nodded, running her fingers through her dark hair absentmindedly. "My parents still aren't super happy with it, but oh well. They wanted me to do something in the medical field - I was accepted into UW and everything. If it wasn't for my scholarship, I probably wouldn't have gone to Cornish."

"Oh, I know what you mean," Max replied, nodding enthusiastically. "My scholarship is the big reason we're going to New York. Tuition's practically covered."

"Yeah, yeah, so you keep saying," Steph commented, having walked back into the room. She had a frown on her face as she finally sat down behind the DM screen, glancing quickly between Max and Chloe. "Jesus, I get some friends in Seattle, and then they all abandon me."

"What am I?" Paige commented, smirking as she crossed her arms.

"A- you don't count. In a good way," Steph added quickly, a slight panic flashing in her eyes. She shook her head sharply, passing out the character sheets she had been holding before doing a quick drum roll on the table. "Alright, everyone ready?" The frantic look from earlier was gone, replaced by a sudden air of confidence. She was almost smirking as the three of them nodded, entirely focused on her.

"The city of Freelanding is in chaos. The swarm of undead that plagued the town has been vanquished by a mysterious group of heroes, ending the fight at Highnest Keep in some fantastic fashion. The heroes have disappeared northward to another city, leaving Freelanding in shambles.

"As the dust begins to settle, the true horrors of the Swarm are revealed. Families were separated, loved ones killed during the attacks, and homes and businesses ransacked and destroyed. The city guard, thinner than it has been in years, struggles to maintain some semblance of peace.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures, and a few well-to-dos have elected to hire able bodied citizens to protect parts of the town. The three of you have been trained sufficiently to be able to go out and begin defending the town from the countless criminals who seek to gain power in the ruined city."

"Holy shit, this is intense," Max whispered, looking over at her girlfriend with wide eyes. Chloe could only grin back - she knew Steph well enough to still be impressed, but not totally awestruck like Max. She glanced over at Paige, who only had eyes for Steph, mouth agape.

Steph seemed smug, well aware of her effect on the party. "Do you guys want to introduce yourselves?"

Chloe cleared her throat. "As the senior party member-" she ignored the scoffs going around the table, "-I'll go first. I'm Darina Narjun, dragonborn rogue." She had been tempted to stick with being an elf, but after some discussion with Steph, she decided to try something new. "Also, obligatory 'anarchy rules, fuck the police', all that. They're gonna regret hiring me."

"So, can dragonborns breathe fire?" Paige asked, eyes glancing between Chloe and Steph for confirmation.

Chloe shook her head, glancing at her character sheet. It had been a very disheartening conversation with Steph. "Technically, no...but I did start one," she added, waggling her eyebrows.

Steph had her arm extended over her screen, fingers pinching a mini, and Chloe eagerly snatched it from her. "Oh my fucking god, Steph, it's perfect," she whispered, turning the little dragonborn figurine around in her palm.

Max's eyes were wide as Steph passed over her mini as well, holding it up before she started speaking. "I'm Grazi Sormuzhik, half-orc cleric," she said, glancing over at Steph, who gave an approving nod.

Chloe gawked at her, reaching over to try to steal the figure. "No fair! I thought you were going to be a gnome, so you'd still be all little and cute." It did appear to be significantly taller than her own, and she might need to exact revenge against Steph for this. Maybe later, when I'm not at risk of getting my character killed.

Max's cheeks had flushed as she pulled her hand further away, protecting her character. "Well, I didn't. Paige?"

"Uh, yeah." She had pulled her glasses down as she read her sheet, waving her own mini in the air. "Penelope Zolli, I'm a human fighter." Her attention had turned back to the mini before looking back up at Steph, an eyebrow lifting. "Where were you hiding these?"

"Don't ask questions," Steph shot back, grinning, before clapping her hands. "Alright, the three of you are at Highnest Keep, fresh off your training."

They ended up playing for hours, only pausing to take a well-earned pizza break about halfway through. By the time Paige managed to land the final blow on the BBEG, the sun had set, not that they cared as they cheered loudly. There weren't any banging noises from the neighbors to complain about how loud they were being.

"Knight Brightwater shakes each of your hands in appreciation, wishes you a goodnight, and looks forward to seeing you bright and early tomorrow." Steph closed her notebook with a sense of finality, a satisfied smile on her face. The table was quiet for a moment, and she raised her eyebrows knowingly as she looked at them.

"Dude, that was awesome. Best game yet," Chloe declared first, reaching over for a high five as Steph grinned back at her.

"Yeah, that was amazing!" Paige exclaimed, hand against her forehead. She was staring at Steph incredulously, like she had for a large portion of the day. "How have we never done this before?"

"I mean, you guys are half of it," Steph commented, scratching the back of her neck. "It's not all me."

"Yeah, only half. You're the one that created the whole world," Max pointed out. She had been taking copious notes, and was flipping back through them now, finger jabbing against the paper. "Like, what would have happened if we hadn't convinced Josclyn to tell us how to get into the hideout? Or if Xar had spotted Chloe before she got the fire started?"

Steph shrugged, smirking as she finished her fourth energy drink of the day. "Guess you'll never know, will you?"

"It's the 'magic' of the game," Chloe commented. "For all we know, there was only one way to do everything, and Steph just railroaded us straight through."

"Tell yourself that if you want," Steph said cryptically, folding up her DM screen and setting it on top of her notes. "So, is the terrain a 'yay' or 'nay'? I've only ever done paper maps in the past."

"I mean, I liked it," Paige replied, pushing her mini around on the tiles. "And not just because I helped make them. It's cool to have something tactile."

Chloe had started laughing, pointing at the DM. "You know, Steph, now you have to go this in depth for every session you do." Steph laughed as well before giving a big shrug. "But really, I think either works. Whatever makes it easier for you."

Steph shrugged. "I mean, there's an online site now that we can use, got Kickstarted a few years ago. Mikey and I tried it out for a bit, it's pretty good."

"Online, as in we could do this again?" Max asked, a little excited tone in her voice. Chloe thought it was adorable how enthusiastic she had been about the whole thing.

Steph nodded, spreading her arms. "I can be your DM from across the country now," she said dramatically. "To be honest, though, I might just run a module, especially once school starts. This was a special occasion."

"Or, you let me DM, so you can play for once," Chloe offered, pointing at herself. "How hard can it be?" She didn't like that the only response she got back was a laugh.