The lamp illuminated the basement, creating a sparse sheen of light. The Shadowbolts quietly stared at the table with all the guides, dices, character sheets and the map, the girls bearing a somewhat dumbfounded expression.
“Um, what just happened?” Sour eventually asked, not quite comprehending the situation.
Being the first to compose herself again Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses. “We were all eliminated by the dragon’s fire breath” she replied.
Lemon tilted her head to the side. “Sooo… game over?” she asked.
“I guess” Sunny mumbled, scratching her head.
“Is there some kind of checkpoint?” Indigo asked, looking in desperate hope at the others. “Or do we have to start over?”
Opening the last page of the story book Sunny briefly read over it. “I’m afraid so” she sighed, closing the book again.
Lemon let her arms hang down, turning up her mouth. “This sucks” she mumbled.
“You’re the one who sucks!” Indigo snapped at her, scowling. “Getting goblins to join a flash mob is one thing, but a dragon?!”
“Come on Gogo, don’t be so hard on our little punk rebel” Sour gently tried to calm Indigo. A lot grumpier she mourned: “At least she didn’t waste her one-time invincibility on blocking a regular attack.”
“I only defended Sunny because her stealth check failed!” Indigo told her. “AGAIN!”
“Only because Sugarcoat keeps insisting on weird maluses for everything!” Sunny protested, angrily glaring at Sugarcoat. “I mean the lighting of the cave? Seriously?!
Sugarcoat crossed her arms. “I didn’t make the rules, I just follow them” she explained dryly, but in a slightly sharp tone. “And if any of you were doing the same you would have noticed the dragon was weak against archery attacks because he was on lower ground.”
“Why that’s very helpful, Sugarcoat” Sour complimented her, then mourned: “Especially because no one of us was an archer.”
With narrow eyes Sunny glanced towards Lemon. “Bards are usually archers…”
“Hey, you told me to get the dagger instead of the bow!” the green-haired girl yelled, pointing her finger at her.
“That’s a very interesting interpretation of changing your weapons so you can backstab me better!” Sunny responded resentfully.
“Excuse me, but rouges can be archers too” Sugarcoat chimed in.
Indigo rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, everyone here could have gotten way more out of their classes – except for Miss ‘I’ve picked the most boring and useless class ever’.”
“I defeated the most monsters, and a lot more than you!” Sugarcoat reminded Indigo.
“I was the tank!” she blared at Sugarcoat.
”A great tank, who never protected the healer” Sour chirped, giving her a sarcastic thumbs-up.
“And a great healer who rather shreds golems than heal her teammates” Sunny remarked, putting her chin on her hand.
“That’s rich coming from the rogue who doesn’t know how to sneak” Sugarcoat stated.
Chuckling Lemon put an arm over her chair. “Yeah, you guys really sucked.”
“YOU WERE THE WORST!” everybody shouted in unison, making her wince.
Groaning Sour leaned back. “That’s it! I’ve had enough of this stupid nerd game for one Friday night! And on that matter, for every Friday night, or ANY OTHER kind of night ever!”
“Yeah!”
“Absolutely.”
“Agreed.”
“Let’s never do this again.”
The five girls sat around the table, arms folded as they silently stared at it. Pouting Sour looked over her character sheet, then at the map, before slowly moving her gaze towards the story book in front of Sunny.
“…One more go.”
“Yeah.”
“Absolutely.”
“Agreed.”
“Let’s do this!”
Standing up Sunny collected the character sheets. “I’ll go print new ones” she said, heading for the stairs.
“Bring some lemonade and chips while you’re at it!” Indigo called after her, rubbing her belly.
“Hey Sugar, can you help me set up my char this time?” Lemon asked as she grabbed the rule book from under her nose.
“If you help me come up with some interesting quirks for mine” she replied, looking over the class and race list again.
The girls busily prepared everything. Once they had sorted the sheets and guides, gotten some refreshments and filled out their new character sheets Sunny opened the story book on the first page again. “Is everybody ready?” she asked. As the others nodded in agreement she looked down on the book, clearing her throat.
“The moon shines down on you from the clear night sky…”