A Roll of the Die - 1. Inception
Copyright© 2026 by Michael Loucks
Day 1
Matthew Kincaid's eyes snapped open, and strange smells overtook him — smoke, candle wax, and a musty smell — none of which made any sense. After a few seconds, his mind screamed that something wasn't right. He blinked a few times, clearing the morning blurriness from his eyes. He was in a bed that wasn't his, in a room that wasn't his, and where his desk should have been, an oil lamp on a stand burned dimly.
He heard the distant sound of horses in the stable and the gentle clatter of pots from the kitchen. Oiled paper covering the window let in a diffuse, honey-colored light, and he could feel a cool draft sneaking in through a crack near the window. A chill hit him, but he was strangely warm.
A wool blanket rubbed roughly against his skin, but that was not the source of the warmth. In the bed, pressed against his side, under the same blanket, was the unmistakably feminine and entirely nude form of his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Miriam Simpson. Her familiar dark hair was splayed across his chest, her bare skin warm and smooth against him.
The intimacy of their tangled bodies sent a jolt of disbelief through Matthew's mind. Not only was she here, but she was with him in a way he hadn't ever experienced — their limbs entwined like true lovers. He had to be dreaming; he was sure of it. Was it possible to dream that you woke from a dream while still dreaming?
He didn't know, but that had to be the case. Nothing else made sense! If it wasn't a very vivid dream, and Miriam's mom found her in bed with him, he didn't like his chances of surviving to his nineteenth birthday.
Matthew closed his eyes, willed himself to wake, then opened his eyes to find nothing had changed. He felt awake, and no dream had ever been this vivid, nor had he ever been in bed with Miriam, and he certainly would have remembered if he had! Thoroughly confused and not knowing what else to do, he closed his eyes and allowed sleep to take him, though if it was real sleep or dream sleep, he couldn't be sure.
Sometime later, he woke again, this time absolutely certain that he was awake, not dreaming, but his situation had not changed — strange bed, strange room, naked girlfriend in bed with him, her warm, soft body pressed against his. What in the world had happened? And perhaps more importantly, where in the world were they?
As his head cleared from the fog of sleep, he understood they weren't in Miriam's bedroom, nor were they in his bedroom. In fact, they appeared to be in a room in a rustic inn of some kind, though he certainly had never been in one before. As he looked around, it also seemed eerily familiar. He couldn't explain why, but it felt as if he belonged; as if it were a place very familiar to him.
Miriam, who was still sleeping next to him, stirred, and he wondered how she would react to the intimate contact. As far as he could remember, they hadn't moved beyond kissing. The challenge was that he was so disoriented at the moment that he didn't trust his memory. Thankfully, Miriam didn't wake up, so he had more time to ponder the weird situation. She did, on the other hand, snuggle closer, and he felt hair he had never seen nor touched.
Matthew closed his eyes once again, trying not to focus on the parts of her body that were touching him, and thought about the last thing he remembered. They had been playing in a Wednesday evening session of their regular Dungeons & Dragons game, using the 3.5 rules, like any sane group, something he had done for the past two years, though Miriam had only joined their group a few months before.
Try as hard as he might, Matthew could not remember the end of the gaming session. Nor could he remember taking Miriam home, nor going home himself. His last clear memory was of a saving throw he and Miriam had both failed against a mind-control spell in the game. That memory triggered others, and he had a sudden realization.
The reason the room was familiar was that ... it was from the game!
Unfathomably, Matthew realized they were in the room at the Grinning Griffin Inn, precisely as described by Kevin, their Dungeon Master. As that realization hit him, he noticed the rough wooden beams overhead, darkened by years of smoke and soot, and the slightly musty scent of old straw in the mattress, exactly as Kevin had described them.
As the details assaulted every sense, the room's overwhelming reality became oppressive and almost suffocating. Matthew's mind reeled — how was that even possible? He had to be dreaming! There was simply no way that he and Miriam were in the Grinning Griffin Inn. It was just not possible, no matter how real it might seem.
"Matt?!" Miriam exclaimed, recoiling from their intimate contact. "What are you doing?! Why am I naked?! Why are YOU naked?!"
"I don't know," Matt replied, moving as far away from Miriam as the bed would allow. "I don't remember anything after you rolled the natural 1 on your saving throw."
"I remember that, too! But after that, my mind is blank!"
"Look around," Matthew suggested.
Miriam raised her head and gasped, "The room Matthias and Miri share at the Grinning Griffin Inn! But how?!"
"I have no idea," Matthew replied.
"Where are my clothes?" Miriam asked.
Matthew looked around and spotted them on a chair, but they weren't Miriam's clothes; they were Miri's sorceress robes! On the small table next to them weren't his clothes, but Matthias' garb, that of a swashbuckling rogue! Also on the table was his rapier. It made so little sense to him, he was certain it had to be some kind of trick, though he struggled to understand it.
"On the chair," he said. "But look!"
Miriam gasped, "Miri's robes? What's going on, Matt?"
"I have no idea! Matthias' clothes are here, too."
"Uhm, Matt, did we..."
"I think I'd remember that! Don't you?"
"But I don't remember anything after I rolled that natural 1!"
"Me neither," Matt replied. "We have to be dreaming!"
"Both of us?" Miri asked in disbelief. "At the same time?"
"Unless you believe we were actually transported to Nystria!"
"What do we do now?" Miri asked.
Matthew considered for a moment, and they really only had one option, at least until they figured out what was going on.
"What Matthias and Miri would do," he replied tentatively.
"They're lovers!" Miri exclaimed in astonishment.
"I didn't mean that!" Matthew nervously replied. "Let's get dressed, go down to the common room, get something to eat, then figure out what happened and how we can get home."
"What about money?" she asked.
"I suspect if you check Miri's pouch, you'll find silver and copper coins."
"I'm naked..." she said, allowing the sentence to hang in the air to see how Matthew would respond.
"I'll turn so you can get up," he offered.
Matthew — Matthias — turned on his side to face away from Miriam, and Miriam — Miri — quickly scrambled out of bed. She found her linen undergarments and pulled them on, then donned her robes and the heavy silver medallion all mages were required to wear.
"Your turn," she said as she slung her pack and tied her pouches to her cord belt.
Miri turned away as Matthias got out of bed. She was tempted to look, but he hadn't even tried to look at her, so she waited until he indicated he was dressed before she turned.
"Do you have your mana crystals?" Matthew asked.
"You don't think..." Miriam said skeptically.
"I don't know what to think!"
Miriam, now acting as Miri, her in-game persona, opened her special purple pouch and saw ten glowing red crystals that pulsed slightly in sync with her heartbeat. If they worked ... but they couldn't, could they?! She took one crystal from the pouch, closed her hand around it, concentrated, focused, and silently cast a simple protection spell.
The crystal pulsed in her closed hand, mana flowing from her body into the focus crystal, and to her complete surprise, a blue glow surrounded her. She opened her palm and saw that the mana crystal no longer glowed, indicating it had discharged.
Matthew, in complete disbelief, moved to her and tried to touch her, but the blue aura repulsed his hand with a slight tingle similar to static electricity. He tried throwing a punch, but his fist could not penetrate the blue glow, glancing off to the side.
"Oh, my gods!" Miriam exclaimed, using the phrase Miri would have used. "Magic works!"
They waited, and after a short time, the aura faded, and Matthew could touch Miriam's arm.
"What's happening?" she asked, confused.
"I have no idea," he replied. "I'm going to surmise I'm skilled with the rapier, sling, dagger, and light crossbow, as well as in stealth and lock-picking. But as I said, let's worry about that later. I'm famished, and I need to eat. Remember, we're Matthias and Miri, not Matthew and Miriam, at least until we figure out what's going on."
They gathered their things and left the room, heading down the stairs to the common room of the inn. As Matthew, now using his Matthias persona, had expected, he saw Tristan, Karla, and Milos, the other members of their adventuring party. He was not at all surprised to see that Tristan had Dari, the Innkeeper's daughter of just fifteen years, on his lap. Nor was he surprised by the disapproving look from Iosif, the Innkeeper.
Matthias and Miri, acting in character, took their usual spots — at least the ones Matthew and Miriam had chosen for their characters in their D&D game. Dari got up to get them their usual breakfast of porridge, bread, and cheese, along with dandelion tea. Miri was sitting next to Karla, who, in real life, was her close friend, Carol Forester, who had invited her to join the D&D group.
Miri recalled the backstory Carol had developed for Karla. Her father was a retired Army scout; her mother spun wool yarn, brewed ale, and kept the hearth. Life had been hard but stable until brigands — most likely Razor Claws — had raided their farm for some unknown reason. The attack had been swift and merciless, and Karla, then having only fifteen years, had watched from the hayloft where she had hidden with her father's old bow as her parents and younger brother were killed.
In the chaos, she had nocked her first arrow — not out of training, but raw terror. She killed two raiders from the shadows before the rest set the barn ablaze. She had barely escaped the flame and smoke and had sought refuge in the woods, where she had only ever foraged. She learned tracking, trapping, and hunting skills from necessity, drawing on stories her father had told, surviving by her wits alone, until she felt it was safe to return to Langford, where she had met Milos.
Miri wondered how to talk to her, unsure whether the weird experience had affected all of them. Given she had no idea, she decided to be subtle.
Miriam's own memories surfaced unbidden — her father vanishing for cigarettes when she was four, leaving her and her mother to scrape by in Newtown. Life as Miri offered escape from that ache, from Turpin High School's drudgery, and the chance to truly be with Matthew. She pushed the guilt down; staying felt like the first real choice she'd ever had.
"Did anything out of the ordinary happen last night?" Miri asked.
"No!" Karla replied mirthfully. "Milos lasted about thirty heartbeats, then fell asleep immediately afterwards!"
Everyone in the adventuring party laughed at the 'in' joke. That response made Miriam think the effect — or whatever it was — only affected herself and Matthew. That made some level of sense, as their characters — Matthias and Miri — had been away from the others in the party when she'd failed her saving throw.
While he waited for his breakfast, Matthew wondered how to break the spell, or geis, or wake from the dream, or whatever it was that had them in Nystria. Perhaps all that was necessary was to sleep another night, and they'd wake up in their own beds in Newtown, Ohio. If that didn't work, they'd need to figure out a way to get home. Not being able to do that would require them to adapt to a reality in which they were lovers who adventured together along the Nystrian Coast. Matthew pushed that thought aside, as he wasn't about to succumb to defeatist thinking.
He thought back to the new campaign they'd begun the previous week — Matthias and Miri had been waylaid on their way to meet their companions on a quest to rescue a kidnapped merchant, Isaac of Southham. A wizard, Kranos the Arcane, had cast a mind-control spell on them, and Miriam had rolled a natural 1 for her character, Miri. The next thing Matthew remembered was waking up with his naked girlfriend snuggled next to him as if they were Matthias and Miri.
Matthew realized the food was not anything like he'd imagined — the porridge was bland, the bread hard, and the cheese hard and odd tasting. In all the four years he'd been playing D&D, it had never crossed his mind how the food might actually taste. But it wasn't just that; the inn had an odor, something he was certain was a result of the old rushes on the floor and the bodies of the travelers who had slept at the inn.
The quintet ate their breakfast, paid Iosif for the meal, and rose to leave. Tristan kissed Dari, drawing an evil look from Iosif, then the adventuring party left the inn. Matthew took stock of the surroundings, recognizing them from the game, and weirdly, from his memories as well. He had, strangely, not just his own memories, but memories from Matthias, his in-game persona.
His traveling companions all matched the descriptions his friends had given when they'd created them. Milos, a budding knight who was wearing a chainmail shirt, was brawny and stood just over six feet, with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. Tristan, a fighter wearing leather armor, was about an inch taller than Milos and was muscular, with bright blue eyes and shoulder-length, wavy golden-blond hair that fell around his face rather than being bound back. Both Milos and Tristan sported neatly trimmed beards — full on Milos, lighter stubble on Tristan.
Karla, the ranger, stood a lithe five feet eight, and had long jet-black hair parted in the middle and dark brown eyes. Then there was his girlfriend, Miriam — Miri in the game — who was an inch shorter than Karla, with long black hair flowing over her shoulders, dark eyes, and a soft, rather than toned, build, befitting a sorceress.
Matthew didn't have a mirror, but he was certain he looked like Matthias — six-one, dark-brown-haired, dark-brown-eyed, and medium build with a neatly trimmed beard.
"Dari said the bandits frequent the woods about a half-hour's walk northwest," Tristan said.
"You're going to need to join the bandits and become an outlaw if you don't figure out how to convince Iosif you're a good guy before you pluck that rose!" Karla teased.
"Let's focus on the task at hand," Milos suggested firmly. "We can save the jests for when we're drinking ale later!"
Everyone agreed, and they set off, walking northwest along the road leading from Langford, where the inn was located, to Fulham, a port city.
"Do you have a plan, Tristan?" Matthew, speaking as Matthias, asked.
"Dari says according to her friend, there are only five members of the band in the woods, and they don't have any mages," Tristan replied. "We scout and take down their sentry or sentries by stealth, putting the odds heavily in our favor. The way I see it, you and Karla can manage that with magic support from Miri."
Miri fretted because she didn't know how to tell the others she only had nine crystals until she'd have a chance to sleep for eight hours, as she couldn't explain why she had needed to test her magic without her friends asking difficult questions she would be unable to answer. Even if she could get another stone, it wouldn't help, as the mere presence of more than ten stones meant none of them would charge, and she could only use stones she charged. Spare stones wouldn't help, either, because any stone further than about five paces from the mage would lose its charge.
All of that meant she wasn't quite as prepared as Tristan assumed she was.
"That sounds like a good plan," Karla agreed. "Matthias and I take down the sentry or sentries; then the group attacks the remaining bandits."
"If it's just one, with no others in range, I'll go for a stealth kill," Matthias offered. "Miri can cast a muffle spell to enhance my stealth."
That would require the use of another crystal, which meant Miri had to be extremely careful, as her offensive spells each required the power of two or three crystals to cast. Her best spell, which conferred forty-five seconds of invisibility, required five crystals. There were even more potent spells, but so far, she hadn't found anyone who would teach them to her.
The road was only lightly traveled, and any merchant who dared follow it would need at least one man-at-arms to guard him or risk being robbed by brigands or outlaws. The small band of adventurers was at little risk from the blackguards, as the martial skills of both Milos and Tristan were obvious to even a casual observer. Miri was dressed in the robes of a sorceress and displayed her medallion, which would give any attackers even more pause, as the few who possessed the skill were notoriously dangerous.
The journey gave Matthew more time to think about what had happened, but his mind constantly turned to the sensation of Miriam's naked body pressed against his. In the Real World, they hadn't progressed beyond kissing, and Matthew hadn't even tried to put his hand on Miriam's breast over the fuzzy sweaters she usually wore.
In the Game World, her small, pert breasts had been pressed against his body, and she'd had one arm and one leg thrown across him, and her head had been on his chest. He struggled to put those thoughts aside and focus on the actual problem — how to return to the Real World. He had too promising a future to abandon it, not to mention that he had no desire to live without all the technology available.
Miriam had similar thoughts, but her goal was precisely the opposite. In the Real World, she and her mom had struggled since her father had gone out for a pack of cigarettes and simply disappeared about a week before Miriam turned four. She had dreamed of a life like Miri's, and that had influenced her roleplaying. Was it really possible she could live the fantasy life she'd invented for her D&D character? In a sense, it would be a dream come true.
In the Game World, Miri had seduced Matthias, hoping that Matthew would follow suit in the Real World. That hadn't happened as he was as inexperienced as Miriam, and his self-consciousness and nervousness were evident when they shared simple kisses. Miriam had asked him that morning if they'd made love, hoping it might encourage him if he thought they had — something their characters had regularly done in the Game World.
Miriam wanted to be Miri so much that she would be happy to never return to her life in Newtown, Ohio. She wondered what her mom and friends would think about her disappearance, but considered she might be in a coma, trance, or something similar. Whatever it was, Miriam wanted to stay in Nystria as Miri and live the life of a teenage sorceress and, more importantly, to make love with Matthew as Matthias.
Matthew, on the other hand, had been champing at the bit to leave Newtown, just east of Cincinnati, to start at Harvard in the Fall. He'd taken up swordplay for the SCA — the Society for Creative Anachronism — and had turned his skill with the rapier into a full fencing scholarship, using a fencing foil.
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