//------------------------------// // Start of a journey // Story: Dungeons & Dorks // by AppleJTZ //------------------------------// It was Friday night. While the city was bursting with life, people from all age (though mainly teenager and students) strolling through the streets and entering the various places of entertainment, things were a lot calmer in the suburbs. In one of those calm single-family houses, there was a door in a coridor. That door lead down a staircase into the basement of the house, which consisted of a single room poorly equipped with furniture. The air down here was moist and cool - not so much one would freeze, but it didn’t make the atmosphere very comfortable either. Only a single ceiling lamp illuminated the small room, casting a circle of light on the table in its center. Most of the table's surface was covered by a large poster that looked like a map, displaying a forest on the left and a huge mountain alongside a scheme of its internal caves on the right side. On top of the map various sheets of paper as well as a handful of books were scattered over the table, alongside several dice with up to twenty sides. Around the table five teenage girls were sitting, their faces sparsely enlightened by the lamp. One of them was reading out from a rather thick book, while the others listened more or less interested to what she said. Occasionally one of them let out a yawn, none of them looking very excited (with the exception of one, who seemed to listen more to the music from her headphones however than to the girl reading). “…and that’s the basic rules” Sunny Flare finished, closing the book. “Did you all get everything?” she asked, looking in the round. With a lovely look on face Sour Sweet smiled gently at her. ”Just one question.” Sunny turned towards her. “Yes?” “WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?!” Sour yelled, making Sunny wince. “Yeah!” Indigo Zap exclaimed, elbows on the table and head resting on her hands. Her expression was not as furious as that of Sour, but she was radiating an aura of annoyance and boredom. “No one really wanted to play that dork game, especially on a Friday night! We only put it on the list as a joke!” Sugarcoat, who had her eyes cast on another book lying open in front of her, raised her glance. “You two insisted on everyone having a veto to cancel an entry from the list” she sharply reminded the two grumps with her fast dry voice. “By the end this was the only thing left.” “It's Indigo's fault!” Sour complained, waving angrily towards the blue-haired girl. “I wouldn't have used my veto on the climbing wall if she hadn't used hers on movie night!” “You wanted us to watch some sap about an architect falling in love with a country girl!” Indigo scoffed, looking even more annoyed than before. From a pouting little brat Sour abruptly turned into one of wistfully yearning lover. “It's so romantic, because they are from entirely different worlds♥” she sighed. “I still don't get why we couldn’t join a reading club” Sunny chimed in. Putting her headphones over her neck Lemon Zest glared at the short-haired girl. “Seriously?” she asked sarcastically. “You are surprised none of us wanted to spend their Friday night reading books?” “I'd still prefer a reading club over marching into stranger’s houses and crashing their parties” Sugarcoat sternly told the party-loving girl. Lemon put her hands on her hips. “Well nobody seemed upset when ‘Truth or Dare’ got cancelled!” she snapped back. “Especially since you wanted to play without dare!" The hand of Sour soundly slapped against her forehead. “Okay, you know what?” she stated in a mixture of fatigue and bad temper. “Let's just get this over with! Since we can't agree on anything anyway, we might as well all play this weird game and be equally annoyed by it.” Moaning Indigo dropped her head on the table. “I feel like a dork already...” “Come on girls!” Sunny tried to cheer them up. “Who knows, maybe this will be fun? Table-top adventures are all about fantasy and the imagination of the players. By playing this I'm sure we can learn a lot from each other!” With a big smile she confidently at everyone around the table. “Has anyone decided on what they want to play yet? Sour Sweet briefly went over the race and class list lying in front of her. “I'm gonna be a werewolf priestess” she said. Sunny’s head jerked back slightly. “A... werewolf priestess?” she repeated incredulously. “Yes!” Sour chirped with a kind face. “That way, I can heal and cure you all when you get injured – but still crush anyone who dares to cross me!” she suddenly shouted while clenching her fist, her friendly smile turning into a malicious smirk. Carefully Sunny pushed her chair away from the overly excited girl. “Ooookay...” She slowly turned her head towards Sugarcoat. “And did you make a choice already?” she asked her with a smile. “An orc brute” she flatly replied, still reading the book in front of her. The corners Sunny’s mouth dropped slightly. “That's… um, a very straightforward choice” she remarked. “Exactly” Sugarcoat agreed, pushing up her glasses. “No gimmicky game mechanics or complicated extra rules. Just a girl and her axe.” Indigo rolled her eyes. “I'm learning so much about you guys already” she murmured, glancing towards Lemon. “What about you, Lemon? Set on what kind of dork you wanna be?” A big grin plastered over her face Lemon jumped on her feet. “I'm gonna be a rockstar!” she shouted, playing on an air guitar. Everyone gave her an odd look. “Great idea” Sour praised her in friendly sarcasm, before adding in not so friendly sarcasm: “Buuuut I'm pretty sure there’s no rockstar-class in this game.” Stopping her solo Lemon gaped at her in surprise. “Really?” she asked, letting herself fall on her chair again. “Then count me out.” “Well, there is the bard” Sunny offered, pointing at the entry on her class list. Through the mess of sheets lying in front of her Lemon searched for a moment, then pulled out her own class list. Reading the entry about the bard she turned up her mouth slightly. “Sounds lame, but whatever” she mumbled, dropping the sheet back on the table. She then took a glance at the race list, and her lips curled up to a grin again. “Oh, and I'm gonna be a snake-woman!” Placing her elbow on the table Sunny put her chin on her hand. “Any particular reason why?” she asked. “CAUSE SNAKES ARE AWESOME!!!” Lemon replied loudly, raising both her fists into the air. Sunny shook her head. “How deep” she commented. Sitting up straight she raised her nose, smirking smugly as she put her hand on her chest. “I will play as a rouge” she declared grandly. “My character is gonna be the young heir of a noble family. In the eyes of the public, she is a beautiful and elegant young lady with hundreds of admirers sending her roses and love letters every day." She gestured with her arm as if she was pullign a cloak over her face. "But at night, she slips into the role of a devious femme fatale fighting for justice! Roaming the streets of her town she lives the life of a righteous thief, stealing from the arrogant upper-class to give her loot to the poor and suppressed citizens of-” “Just out of curiosity” Sugarcoat interrupted her without looking up from her book “Which character from what book are you ripping off here?” Sunny looked a little irritated at Sugarcoat for a moment, blinking several times. “Shade Valentine from ‘Night of the Daggers’” she eventually admitted, slumping her shoulders. From her unorganized pile Lemon pulled out her character sheet, at the same time grabbing a pen. “So, Gogo?" she asked Indigo while putting her pen on the paper. "Made up your mind yet?” Lazily Indigo glanced over her class list. “I'll take the paladin” she eventually decided, before dropping her head on the table again. “It sounds the least dorky.” Sugarcoat looked at her class list. “The paladin is capable of supporting the other members of the party as well as dealing out and receiving a respectable amount of damage” she read out loud. “Sounds like the perfect class for you” Sour remarked happily, then frowned. “First you yell at us to try harder and then throw yourself into the fray without thinking.” Dark glances were cast forth and back between Sour Sweet and Indigo Zap. Both girls suddenly turned their heads as Sunny clapped in her hands. “Okay ladies, I think that’s enough” she strictly told them. From her neat staple she took the sheet on top. “Since we’re all set on what we want to play as, I’d say we all start filling out our character sheets now.” After taking her pen she pointed at the book lying in front of Sugarcoat. “If you’re not certain about something, take a look into the advanced rule book. Everything is depicted in very minute detail there.” As if to approve of this Sugarcoat nodded. “Alright” Sour murmured, also taking her character sheet and pen. “Let’s get this over with…”Indigo grumped, reluctantly picking up her stuff as well. Quietly the Shadowbolts worked on their character sheets. Soon the only sounds that filled the gloomy basement were the rustling of paper and scribbling of pens, underlined by Lemon’s music. Sitting straight on her chair Sugarcoat calmly filled out the various fields on her sheet. Before every new entry she first took a look into the rule book or the various guides spread over the table, reading for a few minutes about the various aspects of the game. Rarely she picked up the eraser lying next to her, seeming very convinced about each of her choices. On the contrary Lemon seemed to spend most of her time making corrections and changes. Leaning over the table her pen was constantly writing, only for the letters and numbers to be erased again once she took another look into the guides and lists, finding an ability or item that excited her even more. Her spontaneous changes led to a few contradictions and mistakes, causing her to reset her to constantly make adjustments. She didn’t look into the rule book very often, and whenever she did Lemon mostly stared in confusion at the pages. Nevertheless she seemed quite enthusiastic, happily bopping her head to the rhythm from her headphones despite clearly being overwhelmed by the complex game. At first Indigo kept her bored and annoyed attitude, head resting on the table as she filled out her character sheet, weakly holding her pen between her fingers. But the deeper her pen moved down the sheet, towards the fields responsible for battle, the more intrigued she seemed to become. Bit by bit she lifted her head, while she tightened the grip on her pen. She then put it aside for a moment to take a look into the combat guides, growing more and more curious. Soon she was working on her character with the vigor the sporty girl was usually known for, sucking up every information from the numerous guides around her to create the best possible warrior. While Indigo’s main focus clearly rested on the abilities for battle Sunny only took a few minutes until she had all the combat data written down on her sheet. Just as quickly she had also filled out most other fields, from non-combat abilities to the general information about her character like name and age. However, as she reached the last two fields on her sheet, the pace of her progression abruptly dropped: While she had quickly decided what weapons to add to her gear list, it took her a long time to depict the outfit of her character. Even after she had decided on what to wear she kept changing the colour of the clothes over and over. Once she was finally done she put her pen on the last open field on her sheet, the biography of her character. With a glint in Sunny's eyes her pen seemed to be flying over the paper, her passion evident in every word she wrote. Soon she had filled out the entire field, despite writing in very little letters. Nonchalant she took one of the sheets around her, and continued to write on its backside. While everyone else was busily creating their character, Sour at first only stared at her own empty sheet. She tapped her pen on the field for the name, pondering. While the combination of a support class with a physically powerful race seemed to make sense, enabling her to both heal and deal damage at the same time, she had to be careful not to end up half-hearted in both disciplines. Hesitantly she began to set her stats, putting her focus on strength and wisdom. After a while however she erased them and started over again. And again. And again. Still unhappy she turned towards the skills, but found she was just as unable to make up her mind how to split the limited numbers of abilities between healing spells and werewolf attacks. Becoming increasingly frustrated she juggled forth and back, unsure where to settle: Should she become a magnificent medic capable of rejecting nearly all kinds damage from her allies and friends? Or should her focus on turning into a ferocious beast that could slice all enemies into tiny pieces? The medic sounded the more useful choice in a group of course, but the ferocious beast tempted her as well… Filling out their character sheets none of them noticed how much time passed in the basement. Eventually they one by one put down their pens, waiting more or less patiently for the others to finish. “Alright” Sunny declared once everybody was done. Contently she looked down on the four sheets of paper in front of her, cramped with the backstory of her character, before gazing around the table. “Is everyone ready?” “Doesn’t one of us have to be game master and play against the others?” Indigo asked. Interlacing her fingers in front of her Sour fluttered her eye-lashes towards Indigo. ”For someone who thinks this game is for dorks you know quite a lot about this nerd stuff” she remarked. Indigo scowled. “Shut up.” “There is no need for a game master in this version” Sugarcoat stated, glancing at the book in front of Sunny. “This is a more or less a fixed scenario for beginners. We can make our own characters, but the events are all described in the story book over there, including the corresponding dice checks in field and combat situations. Depending on the outcomes and decisions we make the book jumps to different pages, like in an interactive story. There is no need for one of us playing against the others.” “But we could like, backstab each other, right?” Lemon asked, trying not to glance towards Sunny. “Not that I intend to do that of cooouuurse.” Sunny rubbed her temple, sighing. “Yes, darling, if you feel like sabotaging the game and ruining it for the rest, you could theoretically stab a dagger in everyone’s back.” Picking up her eraser Lemon rubbed it over her sheet. “What are you doing?” Indigo asked. “Changing my weapon from bow to dagger” she replied. Groaning Sunny opened the story book. “Okay then, is everybody ready? Then let’s begin.” Placing a fist in front of her mouth she cleared her throat, before taking the book in both her hands. “The moon shines down on you from the clear night sky, illuminating the forest ahead in a cold sheen of white light” she began to read out loud, all eyes set on her. “Behind you the warm lights of the villlage you just left are giving of a cozy gleam. You look around, seeing into the faces of your companions that you have met in the local tavern earlier this night.” As she spoke everybody was slowly leaning towards her over the table in fascination, while Sunny herself bent closer towards the book. “You may have set on this quest for different reasons, but fate brought all of you together to this place...”