Is this the end of our brave heroes? [Tag Gaming Club] on Library

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September 13, 2020 12:31 PM

Game Conversation by System

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Gary Harper

September 13, 2020 12:31 PM

Is this the end of our brave heroes? [Tag Gaming Club] by Gary Harper

Gary sighed at he sat down at the library table. The end was nearly upon them... so many adventures here, so many stories. They had a few, very few weeks left before it was all over and he wouldn't sit here any more. He had considered carefully how to wrap up this year and thought he'd come up with an interesting and climactic way to conclude it all. Maybe it wouldn't go over all that well, but it might... he hoped they would have fun with it, even if they all ended up dead. Which, arguably had a very fair chance of happening.

This year had been an interesting one for the group. It had been fun to play in the other's games. Ness, Evelyn, Valentine had all done a terrific job running adventures for the group. He was proud of them all, the club would be in good hands once he was gone. Was this what he had pictured creating five years ago? Not really, he hadn't really thought about it then. He had just wanted to see real life wizards play made-up wizards. If he hadn't done that though, where would he be? Sitting alone at this table, just studying magic? Would he have made any friends? Not like the ones he had now. He probably wouldn't have looked into architecture, maybe not MENTAL. He wouldn't have gotten dragged into a drag show so he wouldn't have met Korraline. He wouldn't have a no-nonsense intellectual sounding board friend in Ness, a pseudo-adopted imaginary little sister in Evelyn, a... well, he still wasn't quite sure what sort of a relationship he had with Heinrich but it was good.

Funny how life works, ain't it? He began the ritual of setting up the table. It had transformed over the years, now it was more wand work than setting up maps and figures. When he was done the center of the table was covered in a thick fog that seemed to roll about, concealing unknown horrors. It kept to the center though, there was enough bare space around the edge of the table for people to have their character sheets, dice and whatever else they may want with them.

As the group members arrived, he solemnly handed them their sheets for this last adventure. They were the normal D&D sheets with their own name on top under both Player and Character name sections. A quick glance revealed a thirteenth level character of their favorite class, Paladin for Heinrich, Barbarian for Evelyn, Sorcerer for Gabriel, and so on...

"Welcome all to the beginning of our final adventure together," Gary began with some obvious sadness in his voice, "Before we get started however, there are a few items of business to take care of first." He surveyed the group before him, then his eyes stopped when they came to Ness. He smiled, "In as much as it is my power to do anything official with this group, I am proud to officially appoint Ness McLeod to the position of club president for next year. The paperwork has been filed and hopefully there will not be any problems on that front." He cast a quick glance towards the front of the library where Tarquin usually worked.

"I know you will all do your best to support Ness to the best of your abilities as you continue to tell great stories, go on excellent adventures and provide a welcoming environment for such things to happen." He started a quiet round of applause for Ness, they were still in the library after all. Once things on that front had died down he took his place behind the GM screen and waved his wand to seemingly dim the lights around the table.

The bookshelves around them seemed to fade away into the darkness around them, and it almost felt like a cool breeze blew past them.. but maybe that was just in their mind, none of the papers fluttered. A glow emanated from the center of the fog in the table, it illuminated them all in the way you'd use a flashlight to tell a ghost story.

"You find yourselves pulled once more through the wonders of the multiverse," Gary began in a low, quiet voice. "When you finally stop, you can't see anything but fog and your very nearby companions. Under your feet is simply dirt and a very few ugly weeds struggling to grow in sparse patches." He paused for a moment, "There is an.. unpleasant feeling in the air. Your gut tells you plainly that there is something very wrong about this place." He pulled in a breath and let it out slowly, as if calming himself from some unseen agitation. "As you look about you notice a few things immediately. You, and your companions look just like yourselves again in your normal clothes, and there are no strange thoughts muddling your mind. You seem to be simply... you."

He allowed a few moments pause if anyone wanted to converse at this point or had simple questions. Anything regarding their character sheet he responded to with a smile and a "We'll get to that" response. Also, no. Interestingly enough no one seemed to have their wand on them either.

Not really waiting for any of that conversation to die down, he flicked his wand and sent a quiet peel of his own laughter echoing from the fog cloud. As everyone's attention focused there, the fog began to form an empty bowl in the middle. Now revealed were the figures that Gary had made for his players, his friends. They were, he thought, decent enough likenesses of everyone, wearing appropriate gear for the class on their character sheet. He had a few simple movement actions charmed into them that could be activated or switched with a wand tap; attack, spell cast, play dead, and one or two others. Right now they were 'idly looking around'. Those had taken some work to make... hopefully he'd gotten that minor exploding problem worked out. Hopefully something to remember him by once he was gone.

Anyway, another ghostly figure flickered into existence in the middle of their circle. It was himself, wearing traditional red Dungeonmaster robes. He hadn't been able to resist. This one was only an image though. "I've done it!" Gary cheered, speaking for his image on the table. "This is it! I've found the one who's been doing all of this! He's here, below you now!" The image waved it's arms and the fog clear away entirely. Ten statues stood in a circle around the heroes. Each one made to represent the people they had saved in their previous adventures. The lost shadowrunner, the pair of lovers, Hera's daughter, a fox shaped outlaw, and all of the rest. Each of them held a large diamond. There was also a chest on the ground for each character. Farther out, a separate feature, there were some piles of black rocks in various locations... an insightful character, or observant player might notice that if they were viewed from above, they looked a bit like the eyes, nose and grin of a skull.

"Quickly now!" Gary spoke urgently, "Find your chest and claim your power. I don't know how much time I have, he's waking..." The image vanished. If the players wanted to investigate things, he told them that the statues were stone and the diamonds did not move from their grip. The chests would not react except to the one whose name was upon it. In which case it would burst open in a blaze of light. They would then find themselves still themselves, but in possession of the powers and equipment listed on their character sheet.

Once everyone had opened their chest, Gary waved his wand and mini-ghost Gary appeared again. "Good! Now hurry, the entrance is somewhere on the north side of this hill that you are on. You'll have to find it! Be careful thought this place is a horrible deathtrap. You're allies that you have helped have come to help you though." He gestured at the statues. "Those diamonds will fuel a true resurrection spell if someone dies. Hopefully..." he looked around at the circle. "You won't need more than ten of them..."

He shook his head, "Your target is a demi-litch named Acererak. He's been using this whole thing as a... Aahhh!" The Gary image was replaced by a floating skull for a moment before vanishing. There may have been the faint sounds of mirthless laughter that faded out to silence. Gary looked over his players with a impassive expression. "What do you do?"

OOC: I'm experimenting with the subthreads. We'll see how this format works.

2 Gary Harper Is this the end of our brave heroes? [Tag Gaming Club] 1404 1 5

System

September 13, 2020 12:31 PM

Opening Annoucements by System

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System

September 13, 2020 12:31 PM

Character Questions by System

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Evelyn Stones

September 13, 2020 1:15 PM

For you, and for you. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn hated that Gary kept calling this their "last game." That was simply not going to happen. Summer was coming and then the holidays and then eventually they'd all be graduated. Granted, Evelyn doubted that they would all keep in touch after graduation . . . she was pretty sure that neither Morgan nor Gabriel were particularly interested in hanging out with her, whatever she'd told Sadie about the former, but otherwise she couldn't imagine her life without these people. So no, she was simply not going to accept that this was their "last game." Sure, Gary's last game at Sonora. Even that made a thick knot well up in Evelyn's throat, and she had to work to swallow it away.

She'd thought long and hard about how she wanted to do what she wanted to do, and had recruited Heinrich's help for part of it, although she did the magic on her own. Well, mostly on her own. In the last few iterations of her project, Professor Wright had given it a final touch of his own, mostly with the things that Evelyn just couldn't quite accomplish. Heinrich was very helpful with knowing about different kinds of magic or ways to do magic or helping her brainstorm why something didn't work when she tried it though, and she was pleased with the results of their joint effort. She'd thought of recruiting Ness' help but didn't want Ness to be thinking too much about it because Evelyn was pretty sure she knew exactly who the new club president would be and she had another thing in mind for that celebration. Mostly it was a very large box of all the snacks and treats she had been able to sneak away and a fancy new dice bag.

It was in the heartbeat between Gary's announcements and the beginning of the game then that Evelyn interrupted. "Hold up, dungeon master," she said, speaking loudly so the whole group knew for sure that this was meant for all of them to hear, not just Gary. But not too loudly because she liked being alive and the librarian would undoubtedly end that for her if she was excessive. With a flourish that was as Gary-esque as she could manage, she drew a box from her bag and opened it for him. Inside, a shiny silver badge like a prefect badge shimmered. It was not real silver because that was the kind of thing that Evelyn definitely couldn't afford, but the effect was near enough. It shimmered with the words "Best DM, best friend." She paused to let him look at it before tapping it with the end of her wand, activating the much more complicated transfiguration she had pulled off. Folding itself up into a tiny silver figurine, the badge pushed itself out of the box, looked up at Gary with a faceless face, and ran across that able to him, embracing the available part of his arm in a snuggly hug.

"You are so loved!" it chirped before folding itself back into a badge. There were five or six little phrases like that it could pull off. She'd shown the work to Professor Wright to make sure it wasn't likely to explode or begin insulting Gary anytime soon and it had passed inspection.

"We are going to miss you a stupid amount," she told him, tearing up despite herself and leaning over to give him as big a hug as she could manage - there was a reason she'd chosen a seat next to him tonight.

When the moment was concluding, Evelyn grinned her best, most yolo Evelyn grin she could. "Now let's play!" she told him.

22 Evelyn Stones For you, and for you. 1422 0 5

Ness McLeod

September 13, 2020 10:30 PM

What about..... by Ness McLeod

It wasn’t like Ness was expecting anything other than Gary going all out for the final session, but the fifth year had to admit that the table with a pool of smoke in the middle was a pretty dramatic beginning. Gary had been leaning more and more into effects as the years went on, and once Ness was done studying for CATS, it felt like the next big project was going to be studying how to magically DM. Characters sheets, maths (so much maths), plotlines… Ness had most of those more or less down, but it felt like Gary had a spellbook as well as a rulebook that anyone filling his shoes needed to take a look at. Maybe they could meet up over summer for that. Ness wouldn’t be able to practise the spells then, of course, but they could talk through the theory. That was what Aladrens did best, after all. It would also give them a good excuse to hang out even though that wasn’t going to be happening at school any more.

That was assuming that Ness got to DM again next year. It felt like that had been going well. At least, Ness hadn’t been failing miserably, and it felt like there was no reason why getting to DM shouldn’t continue. Everything Gary had said had seemed positive. Just, with everything that had gone on at the start of term, Ness didn’t want to count any dragons before they were hatched. Valentine was also annoyingly/awesomely kind of good at the stuff too. Ness was pretty sure that Gary had learnt enough that he didn’t think springing a surprise whereby Ness was overlooked and ignored was a good thing, and that in itself reassured Ness that things were on the right track.

Gary didn’t waste much time getting to that, and Ness visibly beamed as he declared the new club leadership. It even came with official paperwork that got filed with the librarian? Or maybe that was a Gary thing. It sounded cool either way. Ness gave a little seated bow, enjoying the library-appropriate round of applause.

“I won’t let you down,” the fifth year vowed, “Though you have set many a mighty quest, and are a tough act to follow,” Ness acknowledged.

It was then gaming time. Or, it should have been, except Evelyn jumped in. Ness had wondered about whether they ought to do something for Gary, but had got so bogged down in revision that that hadn’t happened yet. The Aladren had made a card for him, and was planning to get everyone to sign it and write in character messages. That was probably something that was going to have to happen at the end of the meeting, due to the aforementioned revision avalanche, which meant Ness hadn’t got around to seeing any of the players outside game time. Evelyn had, apparently, been more organised. Which was fine and cool, there was room for multiple surprises.

Ness leaned over, curious to see what Evelyn had got, though that turned out not to be necessary, as the present was quite capable of showing off for itself. Ness watched, wondering whether the badge had come with those spells, or whether someone had helped Evelyn customise it. She spent a lot of time with Professor Wright, so he probably could have helped her. But then, she also had a sixth year boyfriend she could ask. Plenty of other people to ask for help other than Ness. That bugged the Aladren a little bit, but the rational part (which was quite sizable) did know that a teacher and a sixth year were going to be better at magic. And it wasn’t like Ness could say they should have done something as a group when Ness hadn’t consulted anyone about the (now very pitiful-looking) card. Maybe all that wouldn’t have been a problem if it hadn’t been for the words under ‘Best DM.’

Best friend?!

Ness knew Evelyn was spending more time with Gary but that was like… a bold declaration. Especially when your actual, alleged best friend of five freaking years was also at the table. So, now Gary was Evelyn’s best friend? That went both ways most of the time. So, if it was true, it also meant he was closer to her than to Ness, even though Evelyn had started later - Evelyn was only in D&D because of Ness, and now not only wanted to demote Ness but steal someone else the Aladren had always been close to?

“Yeah, we will,” Ness echoed Evelyn’s statement, also with a thick voice, hoping that the very obvious display of emotion that was going on right now would be read as sadness at Gary leaving. It wasn’t like Ness could hide it completely. Still, the Aladren blinked firmly, forcing back the tears, even as it felt like everything on the inside was collapsing in on itself into big black nothingness.

“Mm,” Ness agreed, regarding playing, “I bet this thing’s full of horrible traps.” The Aladren’s voice was still shaking, but maybe if Ness pretended not to be on the verge of tears, everyone else would be polite and pretend that was the case too. This was Gary’s last game, and Ness didn’t want to ruin it. Ness, after all, was a good friend.

Just not a best one.

13 Ness McLeod What about..... 1419 0 5

Gary Harper

September 14, 2020 7:45 PM

Don't look at me... by Gary Harper

Gary looked over at Evelyn as she spoke up. What was she doing? Oh bugger, she was going to do 'something'. She, and perhaps the group was going to do some sort of emotional type 'something'. This wasn't good, emotional 'something's weren't good, he didn't know how to handle emotional 'somethings' and she darn well knew it. He could deal with it... he should have foreseen something coming. Now she was getting something out. He looked around helplessly at the rest of the people at the table, would any of them rescue him? If he was good at ready expressions, and he wasn't really sure that he was, they were just as in the dark as him.

With a familiar enough looking flourish, Evelyn pulled out a box and opened it. He saw it and his stomach sank while everything else in his chest and torso danced about uncontrollably. It was a mushy badge. That was such an Evelyn thing. He could handle it, it was fine. "Best DM, best friend," he read of a bit quietly. That wasn't true, there were much better DMs out there in the world. He felt his face begin to redden, and quickly tried to put a stop to it. It was just like those '#1 Dad' mugs or something along those lines. That made it better, she'd just found it on a rack at the souvenir shop in Tumbleweed, right? That's a thing they have there... then she went and tapped it with her wand.

Gary watched in amazement as the badge transformed before his eyes. He couldn't help but notice some distinct similarities in the method, much like the little trinkets he had given her before going off to her father's funeral. Had she made it? Before he could react the figure moved! It hopped out of the box and hugged him? It chirped out it's phrase and then changed back. He looked at it for a moment in astonishment and also to see if it was done doing things. It seemed to be finished. As utterly uncomfortable as it and Evelyn's heartfelt emotions made him feel, that all took a backseat as his brain went to work analyzing the little marvel.

"That's amazing Evelyn." He looked up at her from his inspection in awe, "Did you do that all?" The last thing he clearly remembered her doing with magic was her book color changing spell. This was... so far beyond that. Then he found himself in a hug, and those cursed emotions finally overrode his brain. Gary returned the squeeze and pulled back, "I'm going to miss you all as well." He responded with a slight hitch in his voice as he looked around the table. Something about Ness seemed a bit more emotional than normal... something almost reminded him of that first conversation they had had at the opening feast.

His blood went cold for a moment. Now what had he done? Should he not have hugged Evelyn back? Ness liked Lyssa.... Evelyn liked Heinrich.. there wasn't some sort of... no. That would be weird. Right? They were friends, had been friends for ages... nothing more. Right? Maybe it was nothing, if something bothered Ness, you knew about it. Ness let you know, that was how Ness worked. Instead, Ness moved on with the game... but still, something wasn't right. What had he messed up this time?

"Yeah," he replied to Ness a bit slowly, "It really is. Maybe I'd better wait until we're done here before putting this on." His traditional GMing grin came back as he indicated the badge, "You may want it back before we are done." He scooted it off to the side to make some room and accidentally tapped it with his wand in the process. The little figure unfolded itself again and raced forward to Ness, giving the younger Aladren a small hug and chirping out "You're great to have around!"

2 Gary Harper Don't look at me... 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

September 14, 2020 10:02 PM

I want to look at you both! by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn smiled, happy with the compliment and feeling like she solidly deserved it this time. It felt so good to have done something with magic that was worth being proud of. "Most of it," she told him. "Professor Wright helped, and Heinrich helped me figure out how to do it." She glanced at Ness who looked like the emotions were not just hitting Evelyn tonight. She wanted it to be a surprise but couldn't quite manage it. "I was going to ask you, but I didn't want to ruin your surprise," she said quietly. "Not quite the same. You're not going away - I hope - so you don't need a badge to remind you that you're my best friend - I hope!" she added playfully, although her eyes searched Ness' just to make sure that was true. She wasn't sure why English hadn't come up with better words yet. Best friend, by virtue, was an exclusionary term, but also the best she had at her disposal. Gary was her best friend, and Heinrich was her best friend, and Ness was her best friend, but Ness was different somehow. Like her super extra best friend. She wasn't about to start ranking people at the table, but she couldn't help feeling warm when she looked at her partner in crime, even if said partner in crime seemed to have been hit by the contagion going around too. If she'd been sitting next to the younger Aladren, she would have turned the moment into a big hug. As it was, she just wrinkled her nose into a smile as Gary set the badge aside.

She laughed (which felt good considering the tears that were threatening her and which seemed contagious if Gary's voice was anything to judge by) when the little thingy ran over to Ness next. "I couldn't quite get it to be sentient enough to recognize you individually," she admitted to Gary, feeling silly now for having so much attention on her work. "But it's right when it's aimed at you too," she told Ness with another smile.

22 Evelyn Stones I want to look at you both! 1422 0 5

Ness McLeod

September 18, 2020 3:55 AM

Greedy by Ness McLeod

It was a pretty naive question coming from Evelyn’s apparently ‘best friend’ to ask whether she had done all that herself. Wow, did Gary even know anything about her? Evelyn managed to save face by being able to claim partial involvement, whilst getting heavy amounts of help. From people who weren’t Ness.

The Aladren was slightly confused as Evelyn talked about not wanting to ruin Ness’ surprise. Surprise at what? Seeing someone else labelled Evelyn’s best friend? Yeah, that was a great one, and the absolute lack of forewarning was making it even better.

“I didn’t say anything,” Ness mumbled defensively, as Evelyn came far too close to hitting on the truth. Ness was not going to cause a scene and ruin Gary’s evening, and really didn’t appreciate being called out. If this escalated, Ness was obviously going to be considered at fault for ‘ruining things’ and ‘being selfish’ - no matter that Ness had suggested they all just get on with gaming. No matter that, for Ness, it was already ruined because how could this game be any fun now? “The rest of us are allowed to be sad that Gary’s leaving too,” Ness covered, aware that the first comment probably hadn’t helped much, silently and bitterly adding ‘Especially those of us who’ve known him longer.’

The little badge thing attacked, chirping at Ness because it was too stupid not to go around gibbering at everyone. Evelyn tried to back it up and say it still counted when it was directed at Ness too. Right, everyone was special and important. That was great. Evelyn could enchant a whole bunch of badges to spout fridge magnet sentiments at Gary, Heinrich, Nathaniel, the rest of the D&D group, any random stray person she thought looked sad… Everyone mattered.

“All yours,” Ness stated, waiting for it to fold itself back into badge form and then skimming it back across the table to Gary.

“I’d be disappointed if it wasn’t hideous and perilous,” the Aladren assured him, trying to get the focus back on the game.

13 Ness McLeod Greedy 1419 0 5

Morgan Garrett

September 30, 2020 1:28 PM

...but I don't know my lines for this part. by Morgan Garrett

Morgan had always had a knack for directing her thoughts where she wanted them to go, for avoiding the unpleasant bits of reality. Long before she had learned to do magic, she had known how to look at a tablecloth strung across two chairs and turn it into an elegant tent where she had been invited to have tea with a queen, or to pin cheap plastic fruits and flowers to an even cheaper sunhat and become a socialite watching the Kentucky Derby in person instead of just a random kid watching television. She had learned that skill from her aunt, who had had an unparalleled gift for fantasy; even Morgan hadn’t believed in the idea that she might someday live the life she and Anna had pretended they had as strongly as Anna had, and Morgan hadn’t given up on it yet, despite all the sensible remarks from various relatives about it not being realistic.

Her talent for fantasy had lent itself well to the DnD club. She had been a little awkward, a little too restrained, with her first character, both because she had been surprised to find herself in the middle of a group of much older children and partially because she had abruptly realized that playing a character was much harder in front of people who were both ‘not family’ and ‘people she could individually see and knew the names of’, but she thought she had developed some skill for slipping quickly into the different characters that were presented to her. Or at least, doing so enough that the others didn’t seem to notice when she broke character when she didn’t mean to very often – an advantage, she had realized, to them knowing her, but not really knowing her. The fact they only really saw her at DnD and probably all thought of her as the Tagalong Kid meant she could slip into the role of gaudy ham and do basically anything she wanted, within the rules of the game.

She, though, did know that she broke character sometimes, that she started being too much Morgan and not enough Whoever. She wasn’t good enough at acting yet, she thought – she had always had moments when reality would break through what she wanted to think about. Since Christmas, there had been a nagging, uncomfortable awareness of some bit of reality trying to get through, though she had successfully ignored it so far – until now.

It was silly, she thought, for her to feel sad about Gary graduating. It wasn’t as if they were really given to hanging out or anything. Still, she was glad they had just a brief round of applause for Ness before getting to business…and finding that she was just supposed to be…her?

This did, at least, allow her to clap her hands in delight at the sight of the figurines and the projection-Gary. Morgan Garrett thought magic was epic cool still, and never ceased to be impressed by the effects people could come up with with it, so therefore, it was perfectly in character for her to clap and make a sort of quiet squeaky-squeal noise under her breath, the latter mostly drowned out by the clinking of costume bracelets. She leaned forward in interest at the sight of the figures of those they had saved before, and jumped with a slight gasp, her hands rising to her mouth, when a skull suddenly appeared in the air. Magic. Was. So. Cool! Sometimes, anyway. She was dying to get old enough to learn how to do some of this cool stuff herself….

…There were directions amid the special effects, and after. What did they do?

The real Morgan Garrett would, most likely, hide behind either Gary or Heinrich and stay firmly within inches of him until the game was over. That, however, would be kind of lame, which meant quickly adjusting the parameters of Morgan the character she played.

“I…suggest we get out wands out and head north together?” she proposed. In real life, if she hadn’t just gone silent and hidden behind one of the big guys for protection, she would have suggested trying to figure out what their ‘power’ did and whether projection-Gary had been trustworthy and then sending a scout or two ahead, but those weren’t really the greatest moves for gameplay.

16 Morgan Garrett ...but I don't know my lines for this part. 1470 0 5