Chapter 2

Sure enough, I got up the next morning at 5:45. Linda was curled up against me with her head on my shoulder. I laid there for about 15 minutes, just holding her, and realized I was not going back to sleep. So I gently slipped out of bed without waking her, then went to go take a shower.

I got out, then went into my game room. One of the things I did not pack up was my computer, and it was still under a sheet on the desk. I took the sheet off, then fired it up. I sat in front for a few minutes, thinking of what I had been going through the last three months, then fired up the word processor.

I was a bit clumsy at first, having not typed anything in months. But soon I was falling back into my groove, and typing away. I started writing, talking about the training I had gone through, and how in the Dungeon Master’s Guide it described very vaguely how once a character gained enough experience to level up, they needed to pay for training to learn how to use the experience they had gained.

Now in the game I had used that myself, in two ways. First, as a way to siphon off some of the gold characters gained. Then secondly as a way to balance levels, to prevent characters from gaining levels too fast. Most times the cost was so high, they could not afford it. And in these cases they sometimes had to donate a magical item, usually something they had gained that ended up being overpowered. This allowed me to remove it and restore game balance.

And as I wrote I described how I did this. I even wrote about the why this should be done, and ways to do implement it if they could not take the time. Have them roll their new hit points, but only allow them to gain half of the increase until after training. Showing that they had gained some improvement in avoiding damage, but they had not fully learned how to avoid all of it. For those that used spells, allow magic users to gain knowledge of new spells and increase the number known, but not yet actually gain the ability to cast higher level spells until after training. For clerics, it was the same. They gained the newer number of spells in keeping with their new level, but not spells of a higher level until they were trained in the rituals in how to gain those of higher levels.

Then I explained how this works in the real world. On how before I joined the military I knew how to shoot, and how to move quietly in the woods. But that is not the same as knowing how to shoot or move as the military wanted. I knew how to do these things, but had to be trained how to do them at a greater degree of efficiency, and as part of a team not just by myself. I was in good shape, but I had to be trained how to maximize my physical abilities. That even before I started conditioning myself, I could run a single mile in around 10 minutes. But now I could run a mile in just about just over 6 minutes. Or run a mile in around 8 minutes, and keep that up for at least six miles.

And how Body Armor was not difficult to learn how to use, but it took experience and training to move in it efficiently. I tied a lot into the lessons I learned in Boot Camp, and drew direct comparisons to how it was vaguely written in the rule books.

Then I described better ways to implement it. That the DM should set up various schools, one or more for each major discipline the player characters could follow. A Fighter Guild for fighters and subclasses. A Druid College for Druids. A Temple for Clerics. A Magic College for mages and Illusionists. And a Thieves Guild for Thieves and Assassins. And that some classes like Rangers and Paladins along with multi-class characters would have to attend two or more schools.

And that the DM should feel free to have characters move between them. Every other level require a Paladin to train as Cleric instead of as a Fighter, same with a Ranger occasionally getting training as a Druid. Maybe even create specialty trainers that would cover two or more disciplines. Say a martial monastery like the Knights Templar that taught both Clerical and Fighting abilities.

Then I closed it with a complete rebalance system. Require players to turn over all of their possessions for training, and at the end give them unique and special magical items at the end. Either more in balance with their level, or with items the might need for the next campaign they were going to play.

I finished that article off, then printed off a copy. Then I went immediately into another one about Magic Users. While I had always strictly tried to follow the Spell Book rules, I knew that many did not. I made a case that all DM’s should do that. Not just give new players all spells, but make them buy or constantly seek out new spells. Even long before they were ready to use them.

Take a 3third level character, throwing in a Scroll of Fireball for them to find. That forces a magic user to make a choice. Do they case the spell off of the scroll, and use it in a time of need at a lower level? Or do they destroy the scroll so they can inscribe it into their spell book? After all, a magic user can not cast Fireball until they reach 5th level. So when they find the scroll, do they use it? Or do they use the Write spell to put it into their spell book, thereby loosing the ability to cast it off of the scroll but then being able to cast it when they reach a high enough level?

I even included a basic value for various spells inside of a spell book, and stated why such books should be sought after by mages. Even entire adventures based around the idea of the magic user of a party needs a new spell, and why the party should go out in search of the rumor of one hidden away.

And in conclusion, I explained why this could change the dynamics of the game. And especially as they get of a higher and higher level. Such spells as Wish, Limited Wish, Wall of Fire, and the like should be very rare spells, and difficult or expensive to obtain. Maybe even require the party to go out and perform a quest for a mage if they want a spell such as Conjure Elemental.

And once I double checked it I printed off that article as well. The printing was just finishing when I heard Linda coming down the stairs. I looked at the clock, and saw it was almost 10. I went and gave her a kiss, then told her I would make us coffee and breakfast. I then handed her the sheets, and went to do just that.

Fifteen minutes later she came in and poured herself a cup, and asked when I had written those. She was amazed when I told her this morning, and she said they were great. And after I put the breakfast on the table, she went and brought in a copy of October’s Collective Wargames magazine. And sure enough, my article was prominently described on the cover. Even with an illustration of a fighter stabbing a female wizard with a sword, his face pulled up into a snarl.

I read through it, and saw that at most it was very lightly edited. “Expecting and Planning for the Unexpected” was what they called it, They had even had somebody create some drawings to accompany the article, each of them something I had described that had gone sideways during a game. I then looked closer, that was Mandy’s work!

“Babe, they had your sister do this?” I asked.

“Uh-huh. Mandy got $700 for them, and she was happy because those she can freely put her name to. Every drawing in that article was done by her, five of them so she got $100 for each sketch, another $200 for the cover. Deana just gave her your article, and she made them based off of things you wrote. Which was easier as she had been there for most of them. Deana thinks she will probably get three or four commissions like that a year.”

“That’s great, I’m happy for her. And I already promise that any future adventures I make I will have her do the illustrations, and send them in together. Hopefully that will help assure her work in the future.”

And with that done, I finally attacked the pile of mail on my desk. Most of them were already opened, as they were business matters my dad or Dee had to take care of. Some were offers to publish things, or even have me write adventures or articles on commission. I set those aside, I may have to revisit those later on.

Then there was a series of 4 paper-clipped together. It was the acceptance of my article for The General, and a photocopy of the check that apparently my dad deposited. And an offer to submit any other articles on games they publish. Finally the letters were put into four piles. Take care of next week, take care of before I leave for training, take care of sometime in the future, and ignore.

Then the final galley copy of Dildo, and my copy of the published adventure. And even a write-up in one of the lesser game magazines, praising the adventure for it’s daring take on sex in an RPG, as well as one of the few adventures published by a woman. I handed that to Linda, and she giggled hysterically.

“Well, it is not completely wrong babe. You girls had a huge amount of input into that, and you know that if you all had not liked it, I never would have had it published.”

“Yeah, I know Pete. And this week sometime I have something I want you to read, OK?”

“Of course, any time. We still have over a week, and weekends after that. But I promise we will sit down whenever you want, and I will read whatever you hand me.” I suspected she might have written an adventure of her own, but I would let her be the one to tell me that. I was not going to ruin her surprise by guessing.

I then pulled out my phone book, and called Mr. Cummings. He answered the phone, and said he was glad I had called. We chatted a bit, and he said that The Guild Wars was now their top selling adventure. It was in it’s fifth printing already, and had passed that of Chaos in just three months. Which was now in it’s tenth printing.

I told him I had some ideas, but it would likely be months before I actually sat down to write anything. But that I would do what I could when I had some time off. We chatted a bit longer, and I promised I would call him before I had to return to training.

I then called Kim, and I talked with her and her parents for about a half hour, Linda on the other line. They all said they were proud of me, and wished they could have gone to my graduation. I told them it was OK, and that I was going to send them some photos next week.

We cuddled up on the couch and kissed for about a half hour until my dad and Deana came in. I hugged both of them, kissing Deana’s cheek which caused her to blush, then she kissed my cheek in return. I then went into the office and brought her the two articles I had written.

She immediately read through them, then read through them again. She then shook her head, and asked me how I had done that if I had not played in months.

“Deana, just because I do not play, that does not mean I have stopped thinking of things. I already have several new ideas for adventures, and even a new expansion for Oubliette. But it is going to take me a while until I am ready to make them all. But I have a small notebook of things I had written down during boot camp. And I think I will be pulling things out of that for at least a year or so.”

“Well, I will pass this along, but I can guarantee these will be published. But hand them to me on disk, I rarely use fax anymore.”

“OK, I can do that. Do you mail disks now?”

“Nope, even better. Come with me Pete.”

She fired up her computer, and called out for nobody to use the phone. She then ran a program, and I heard a screaming noise coming from a small box next to the computer. “Pete, that’s a MODEM. It lets me connect my computer to a phone line, and call another computer. This is a kind of mainframe system called CompuServe. It lets me send electronic messages, files, and also get them. I now just use this to send my boss any articles, and he can read them in minutes. He sends copy for me to review the same way. No more faxing, or having to retype an article to make corrections.”

I have to admit, I was impressed. I asked her what all would it take for me to do that with my computer. “Oh, just a few hundred dollars for the MODEM. Then a CompuServe account is around $100. But then it costs from $5 an hour in the evening and weekends to almost $25 an hour during normal business hours.”

I whistled. “That’s a lot of money! Just for mail and messages?”

“Oh, it does a lot more. There is real time news, stock reports, programs you can download, even magazines and a few games. But yes, the cost is what keeps most people from using the service. I only do because the company pays for it. But I also have to limit what I do on it and how long I remain online. One moment, I need to call and tell him to check his mail.”

Deana called her boss, and I had to admit it was a cool service. But yeah, at $5-25 an hour, not many would ever use it. Maybe someday somebody will come out with something similar for a flat rate.

We were talking with my dad when a call came in, and handed me the phone. “Pete, this is Bob Fletcher. First off, welcome back. Second, we have a stack of mail for you I am going to forward to Deana now that you are back. People loved your cover article. Third, I am going to publish both of these, are you ready to take that monthly column spot?”

I thanked him, and said that would still be on hold until all my training was done. So far I had only finished basic, and I still had almost six months of training left to do. But once that was done and I was assigned to my first permanent duty and got a more regular schedule I would take it if the offer was still open. We talked for about 15 minutes, and when he ran some editorial changes by me I told him that I trusted him, and if there was any question to run them by my dad and Deana. I would approve anything they agreed to.

He thanked me again for my submission, and said the checks would be on the way next week. I thanked him and after I hung up Linda crawled into my lap. We talked for about 30 minutes, and dad and Deana told me the plans for the next week. They already had the license, catering, flowers, chairs, and everything else already arranged. Friday would be setting up and rehearsals, and the wedding would be Saturday at noon.

“Thankfully the forecast is for clear weather, so there is no worry there. Then just over a week later we are flying to Florida for two weeks. Thankfully I have saved up a lot of vacation time, and Deana can work almost anywhere there is a fax machine and a phone.”

We then talked about their honeymoon, and all the things they planned on seeing. They were planning a few days in Orlando, then driving to the Everglades, and even the Keys. All in all a wonderful trip. Deana said she wishes they could have done a cruise, but they might do that in a year or so when the weather was better.

We all had dinner, and right afterwards Holly came over and Linda and I sat in the game room chatting about what all I had missed. It seems that Kimmie had broken up with her boyfriend, and her and Linda had been spending some time together lately. I grinned at Linda, knowing exactly what that meant. Mandy had dated a guy from school for about two weeks, then dumped him when he would not take the hint that she did not appreciate his trying to feel her up every time they were together.

“Oh, and Keith is doing good. He’s still with Jan, the girl he brought to the prom. He made me promise to say hello to you, and he was glad you were doing what you wanted to do. He actually seems happy, and has changed a lot in the last year. Jack and I have even done a double date with them a few weeks ago. Jan is a nice girl, and seems to be keeping him straight. She said that even after six months, she has only allowed him ‘limited third base privileges’. And those are her words.”

I admitted I was impressed. Of course, she was still 17 and he was getting close to 19. So obviously he had learned from past mistakes, and was playing things smart. I told her I would try to get ahold of him this next week, and if not to say I was glad for him. I then had her read through the articles I wrote, and she said they were good. “Oh, and so you know, the game group is still going.”

“Wow, really Holly? I thought that ended when I left.”

“Nope, Mike took it over. We still meet Wednesday night, but now at his house. And he is really good, but very different than you are. He is nowhere near as much fun, as in funny. You always mixed a lot of jokes and serious stuff, he is almost always serious. But it’s been good so far. So the group lives on, even if the founding DM is no longer with us.”

“Well, you know I was not the founder, JD was. I just took over when he went to college.”

“Nope, not really Pete. That group ended because over half of it left for college. You created a new group with only two of the old members not counting yourself. The Wednesday Night group was really yours. Oh, and Keith is a member.”

“Wow, yet another surprise. And I’m glad, if I was still running the group he would have been welcome after prom to rejoin. But we just did not play enough after that, with my vacation, Origins, and then my leaving.”

“Yeah, I thought so. And Jan has come to a few games, but she has not played and I don’t think it interests her because she has not been in two weeks.”

I then looked at Holly, and asked her why she was not in Long Beach. “I mean, I thought your classes started in August.”

“Well, yes and no. There was a fire in one of the dorms, the one I was going to stay in. We talked it over with CSLB, and they said they would start me in January instead. They already extended my scholarship, and I am doing a few General Education classes at Valley College until then. They already approved them for transfer credits, and are covering all costs.”

“That’s great, and I’m glad because I get a little more time with you before I go again.” We decided to go hit The Castle, and Holly called Jack and he said he would be waiting for us to pick him up. We said goodbye to dad and Deana, and got in Blue Whale to head over. And of course once we got there I spent a lot of time catching up with friends I had not seen in months. Some had not even known I had joined the Marines, and were surprised at the change in the last few months.

Finally after an hour or so playing games and a round of golf, we decided we had enough and the girls suggested we take off. I did not even need to be told where to go, we headed over to the Japanese Garden. Linda looked at me and giggled, and then nodded. Holly asked where we were, and I laughed.

“Holly, remember how we always said we had our own place to go to? Well, this is it. For some reason, we had been parking here for two years, and never once been interrupted by cops or anybody else. Don’t ask me why, we could park way out in the middle of nowhere and cops showed up all the time. But here, we were never bothered with. And since Linda has carte blanche to stay at my house now, we might as well let you in on our secret spot.”

We all got out, and walked around the gardens, hand in hand with our girlfriends. Holly and Jack marveled at it, and said that not only was it lovely, it was amazing that they had never known about it. Holly was even amazed that it was so close to the Runway.

Soon we were back at Blue Whale, and we all crawled into the back seat. And we spent about an hour kissing and caressing our girlfriends. None of us were trying to get each other excited, we were just enjoying being together. We were all having fun, and spent the last half our just cuddling and talking. Then I drove home and with hugs Holly and Jack left for her house where she would drive him back to his car. Linda joined me in my room and we spent the next hour making love.

The next morning I woke up, and it was an amazing dream I was coming out of. Then I realized it was real. Linda was sucking my cock, and it felt heavenly. I looked down at her face, and let my fingers reach and run through her hair. She looked up into my eyes, and started to speed up. I have no idea how long she had been sucking on me, but I was already very close. I whispered that I was almost there, and that I loved her very much.

With that she moved her lips to just under the head and started to pump her hand even faster. And with a low moan I let myself go, cumming inside my little lover’s mouth. Finally I was spent and limp, and she came up and gave me a deep kiss.

Telling me I should take my shower first, she shooed me out and I did that. When I finished I knocked on the door and said it was her turn, and headed downstairs. Dad and Deana were finishing their breakfast, and said that ours was in the microwave. I poured myself come coffee, then some OJ for Linda and heated it up as I heard her come downstairs.

Deana asked me how we were going to handle things when I was in school, and I said that should not be a problem. “I talked with one of my Drill Instructors, and he filled me in a bit on what to expect. He said for most of training, it would be from around 6 in the morning to 6 in the evening, Monday through Friday. Unless I have duty or something I should have every weekend off from Friday night until Sunday night. He said most schools tend to have a curfew on Sunday of around 8PM. So I figure that Linda can drive out there on Friday, and we can be together on the weekends.”

“Where will you stay Pete? I know that unless things have changed a lot from when I was in, she will not be able to stay in the barracks with you.” We all laughed at that.

“Naw, I’m going to check into the guest lodging on base, it’s kind of a motel for military and their families. There’s also a small town about 10 miles away according to the map. And it is only about three hours from here, so at least once a month or so I will come here for the weekend. But I’m going to plan on a motel or something whenever she is there. I can afford that, and since my car will not be there they can not complain about me driving on weekends.”

“What, you can’t have your car Pete?” Deana asked.

“Nope, no initial entry students can have a car, is in the orders I got. But my DI said that it did not forbid me from driving, just that I could not have a car there. And I figure that at least once a month or so Linda and I may go somewhere else for a weekend. Las Vegas is also about three hours away, as is Anaheim. I figure that we can spend one weekend a month here, one weekend a month there, then two in different places like Vegas or Disneyland. Heck, I can even help out some of my buddies by giving them rides.”

“Pete’s Taxi Service, you are going to be very popular on weekend there son, you know that? A hot girlfriend, your own car on weekends, and going to places most had probably never been to before.”

“Yeah, would not surprise me. But one thing I’m going to insist, they follow our time schedule. When Linda and I are ready to go, be there or be left. And if she wants a weekend with just the two of us, then that is it.”

Linda agreed, but also said she did not have a problem with driving others around. “Just remember though, no more than three or four people Pete. They can all sit in the back seat, I am not going to have one in the front with us unless it is an emergency.” I laughed, and said it was not a problem.

“Baby, I do not have a problem if we bring some of your buddies along somewhere. But know that I only want to spend weekends with you, and I hope you with me. Maybe dinner with a special friend, but not doing things all weekend with a bunch of guys.”