Chapter 1

Packing up the minis, map, dice and all of my other bits and bobs that I used for DMing was like a ritual at the end of a gaming night. I’d been doing it for two decades, adding new tools and tricks here, dropping things there when I realized I hadn’t used them in months. Being a Dungeon Master for a regular group of players was probably the greatest pleasures I had in life.

“All good, Shane?” Melissa asked me as she came back into the dining room. She was readjusting her sweater, a pleasant glow on her face after the exciting game we’d played. Melissa’s elf fighter Meliana of the Autumn Veil had gotten into a bit of trouble early on in the session with a pair of the Dark Tyrant’s bodyguards, and the roleplaying that resulted had been a fun side-scene as most of the group rushed to try and save her.

“Yeah, for sure,” I said with a grin. “You good? Those ‘bodyguards’ were pretty demanding.”

Melissa laughed. “Well, it helped that you gave me a heads up that things might get prickly tonight. Thanks for that.”

“You know me, always looking out for my players,” I said.

“But never for their characters,” Melissa replied with a smirk. It was a longstanding joke in the group that I wasn’t afraid to kill a character if they got themselves in over their head. It didn’t happen that often, especially with a group that had been playing together for twenty-three years. “Look, I’ve got a favour to ask,” Melissa said as she came and sat down at the table.

“Sure, just ask,” I said. I had to assume it had something to do with the local theatre company. She’d been the official stage manager for the group since she’d left off teaching Drama at the community college to be a stay-at-home Mom. That had been years ago, and every once in a while she tapped into our D&D group for a little extra help since we’d all come up in the Theatre program at State together.

“Rhia is just starting her summer break next month,” Melissa said. “And she’s got some friends together from her program and was wondering if you’d run a D&D game for them over the summer. A little four-month campaign, weekly games. She was hoping you might do more than that but I told her weekly was already more than enough to ask of you.”

I raised my eyebrows, stopping my packing with just a few items left on the table. “Melissa, I don’t know...”

“Not like our games,” Melissa assured me. “A regular game, like you used to run at the Game Store.”

“Oh,” I said, exhaling and shaking my head. “Jesus, Mel. Be a little clearer next time.”

“Sorry,” she laughed. “I should have realised the implication.”

“Well, yeah, I’d be happy to help out,” I said. “Tell Rhia to text me. She could have done that to begin with.”

“I think she was feeling a little shy about it,” Melissa chuckled. “She’s only ever played TTRPGs at home with me and Dan, but she’s loved hearing the, um, edited versions of our adventures since she was a kid. I think she’s got a bit of hero worship for your storytelling skills.”

“And I’m sure you’ve told her that it’s all just improv at the end of the day,” I said.

“Of course,” Melissa smirked. “But that doesn’t stop her from asking for updates to your story every time we come home from our game nights.”

I snorted, thinking of how the college coed would react to the unredacted version of events that happened around our game table. “I’m flattered,” I said. “And I’ll start thinking up something that should fit the timeline. But I’m not setting things up through you as an intermediary. She’s an adult now, she can get off her butt and organize things.”

“Agreed,” Melissa said. She stood up from her chair and came over to me, and I quickly closed my notes binder so she didn’t see what I had planned for our campaign. That made her laugh and she leaned down and hugged me, kissing my cheek. “Thanks, Shane.”

“No problem,” I said, hugging her back one-armed. “It’s Rhia, how much trouble could some college kids be?”

That made Mel snort as she stood back up. “You say that now, but remember that we started our game going into our junior year and all the shit that we got up to.”

“I’m doomed,” I laughed. “Doomed!”