Vaudevillain

Chapter 191: Games With Friends

"Grog the barbarian rushes at the last goblin, swinging his ax with reckless abandon and cleaving the monster's head right off! The headless torso of the goblin falls to the ground, dead. With that, the leader of the tribe steps forward. 'You have proven yourselves worthy!' He roars. 'Now, come, face the wrath of Gorespear!' You see the hobgoblin's spear glow an ominous red."

"I'd like to roll arcana on the spear to learn what it is."

"Alright, Jackie, make the roll."

Virtual dice clattered onto the screen, the sound of plastic on wood coming from Dylan's headphones, "Booya! Seventeen!"

"You remember tales of a spear, used by goblin tribes long ago. The Bloodspear heals its wielder when it strikes flesh, sapping the enemy's lifeforce."

"Well, shit," Jack said. "Guys, I think that's the Bloodspear."

"Good, I need a challenge," Dylan said in a growling voice.

Tonight was the first night of Dylan's tabletop game with Jack and her friends, and so far, things were going well. Jack's friends were more than willing to teach Dylan the ropes and helped him craft a barbarian half-orc that wanted nothing more than a good scrap.

Dylan named him Grog, coming up with a quick backstory for the character. The half-orc grew up in a tavern run by a rather drunk owner. Grog's name came from the terrible alcohol the man served to undesirable patrons. The half-orc got picked up in the tavern by his two new party members after breaking up a bar fight with three quick headbutts.

"I want to try and hide behind these dead bodies," Jack's friend Michael said. He was playing a rogue and was doing his best to hit every stereotype for the class. He'd almost forced a fight between him and Dylan early on when the man's character, Shadus, went to steal from the tavern.

"I need everyone to roll for initiative first," Ron said.

Ron was running the game, making sure that the players had adequate challenges. He was the one who directed the group on the quest against the goblins, using a local lord to hire the group and search for a missing guardsman with relations to the lord.

"We don't use the one from last combat?" Jack asked.

"You had a bit of time between the goblin dying and Gorespear showing up," The man explained.

"So I should be able to hide, right?" Michael pushed.

"Would you have hid behind the bodies despite the hobgoblin appearing?" Ron asked.

"I probably would have tried to hide if I saw him," Michael answered truthfully.

"You know what, roll me a perception check. If you succeed, you can hide."

More virtual dice clattered onto the computer screen, "A one! Fuuuuuuuuuck."

"You're too distracted by the shiny necklaces around the dead goblin's bodies," Ron said. "And so you don't see Gorespear until he shouts."

"Damn dice," Michael complained.

"I got a, sixteen? For initiative," Dylan said, clicking the button on his character sheet. The others did the same.

"I see it," Ron answered. "Alright, Jackie, you're up first."

Dylan could practically hear his friend smirking, "I'm going to cast hold person."

"Alright, Giselda the wizard waves her hands, conjuring up a spectral fist that wraps around Gorespear."

Virtual dice clattered, "And despite the hobgoblin's struggles, the fist holds! Gorespear is now incapacitated unless he can escape the fist next turn."

"Nice!" Michael exclaimed.

"That means you get advantage on attack rolls against him, Dylan," Jack explained.

"Oh awesome. Is it my turn then?"

"Not yet," Ron answered. "Michael rolled a bit higher. So, what does Shadus do?"

"I hide behind the dead goblins," Michael said.

"Roll stealth, and that'll take your action," Ron said.

"Thirteen," Michael said, a touch upset.

"Alright, you are now attempting to hide behind the dead goblins."

"I want to move over here," Michael said. Dylan watched as the man's character moved around the dead goblins and behind a small tent.

"You do so," Ron answered. "Grog, your turn."

Dylan moved his half-orc in front of the hobgoblin, "Grog hefts his ax and brings it swinging down on Gorespear, yelling a warcry."

"Roll to hit."

Dylan clicked the button to roll his attack, "Twenty-two!"

"That hits! Roll damage."

Dylan clicked the damage roll for his weapon, "Six!"

"Grog's ax cleaves downward, biting into the hobgoblin's armor and tearing off a chunk of the ringmail!" Ron narrated.

Combat continued for some time, Gorespear the hobgoblin bringing out a trio of archers when it seemed like he would be defeated. Dylan, Jack, and Michael continued their assault, Michael sneaking up to the goblins and taking them out one by one while Jack kept tripping up Gorespear. Dylan had the easiest job, his barbarian swinging his ax again and again.

"And with a final swing of your ax, Gorespear falls, his weapon rolling out of his hands and clattering to the ground," Ron narrated.

"Grog looks down at his defeated foe and gravels out, 'good fight, small creature.'"

"Who cares about the fight," Michael said, trying to speak in the smooth voice he imagined for Shadus. "What about the loot? Grog's obviously getting the spear, but what about the rest of us?"

"Shadus rifles around the area, looting the camp of all the valuables. You find" Ron trailed off for a moment as he looked up a loot table. "Six gold, ten silver, and sixty-six copper."

"That's it?" Michael complained.

"I'm not done," Ron continued. "Two sapphire gems, an opal, and an ornate crown with a quartz embedded into it."

"Sweet," Michael said.

"I'd like to see if we can find the guardsmen we were looking for," Jack said.

"Roll investigation."

Jack's search brought the party to a small cave, grey smoke billowing out into the sky.

"I think this is a good place to call it for the night," Ron said. "I hope you all had fun."

"It was a blast, Ron," Michael said.

"Yeah, that was awesome," Dylan said. "Makes me want to make a hero similar to Grog in World of Supers."

"Oh, god," Jack said. "Now that would be a sight."

"Yeah, a fantasy half-orc in a world of superheroes," Ron chuckled. "It sounds like a goofy light novel."

"I was reincarnated as a half-orc in a fantasy world, but now I'm in a world of superheroes!" Michael said. "I got your title."

"Why's it so long?" Dylan asked.

"Dunno. A lot of titles are like that, though."

"I read that it makes your book stand out," Jack said. "But I bet it's because people are lazy and can't think of a good title."

"You would think that miss, 'I need to make a unique name for every character,'" Michael teased.

"Better than using the same name a few times over," Jack countered jokingly.

"Alright, I'm going to get going, y'all," Ron said. "Same time next week?"

"Yeah man," Michael answered. "See you later."

Ron hung up, Michael leaving shortly after, leaving Jack and Dylan in the call.

"So, what did you think of your first session?" Jack asked.

"I had a lot of fun," Dylan admitted. "To be honest, I thought all of this was diving into impossible dungeons and fighting insane monsters."

"It's a lot of that," Jack admitted. "Mainly because that's easy to do. But Ron likes to homebrew whole worlds, so he's got a bit more narrative to things."

"But enough about that," Jack said. "You see that someone leaked patch note changes? We're getting a hotfix to the money problem, and a respawn fix. People might be able to have wars now."

"Great," Dylan said. "Though I'm guessing we're still using our money exchanger?"

"Yeah," Jack answered. "You can't counterfeit the special materials, meaning we won't have to worry about inflation and the like."

"It should fix the mercenary hiring issue at least," Dylan said. He remembered Dextra talking about how someone with infinite money bought out all the mercenaries.

"That it will," Jack answered. "And your race is going to be during the new expansion. So that'll be fun. You should make the race near one of the temples that are supposed to appear!"

"I was going to make the race in Skyline," Dylan said. "Let the people in Menagerie get front row seats."

"Not a problem," Jack answered. "Just thought it would be a good idea for publicity."

"I think I have enough of that," Dylan answered. "What with all these players interfering with my crimes."

"We're getting more players every day," Jack replied. "World of Supers is really growing."

"By how much?" Dylan asked.

"Over a million players now," Jack answered. "Which means you're bound to find one or two other players nearby at any point."

"I guess I better start accounting for that," Dylan grumbled. "It's too bad the game doesn't have specific servers for different playstyles."

"Maybe the game will get instanced servers or something later," Jack said. "Maybe go the Trail of Exile route with a hardcore server or something. But I doubt it. A lot of the game is based on player interaction. Splitting them up into different servers isn't a good idea there."

"Yeah, I see your point," Dylan answered. "Well, I gotta get going. I'm going to get some actual sleep tonight instead of gaming."

"Alright, see you later," Jack said. "Oh, and let me know if you need something for your race. I've got an idea for some camera drones to record the whole thing."

"Sweet Dream was going to use the hatbots, but I won't say no to more publicity," Dylan answered.