Page 6 of See You Sometime
“Yeah,” Grant said. “Get out of there.”
Susie snorted as she leaned in toward Eliza. One hand stroked her swelling baby bump. “This’ll be fun.”
She and Eliza fist-bumped.
“Dude,” Milo said. “Getoutof there.”
John and Kyle both shook their heads. “Can I duck?” Kyle asked.
“You’re still behind the stone wall, right?” Axel asked.
“Yeah.”
Axel rolled a D20, even while digging out four extra D6 from his zipper case on the table. “She doesn’t see you, only Rusty. In fact, she points at Rusty.”
Rusty grinned. “I start talking to her. ‘Hey, we’re new around here and—’”
“You see her mouth move and then you get hit by three bolts of Scorching Ray for…” He rolled the set of D6 once…twice…three times. He winced. “Oooh… You take forty-two points of fire damage.”
“Oooh,” everyone else around the table said.
“Three bolts of Scorching Ray means she’s at least eleventh level, probably a sorcerer or wizard,” Kyle said where he’d quickly looked up the spell in thePlayer’s Handbook. They played an older version, 3.5, and everyone had their own books.
“I turn around and haul ass toward the town,” Mike said. “Full withdrawal. I don’t even wait. Idamnsure don’t look back, and I don’t stop at the crossroads we just came from. Dead run toward town, fast as my freaking druidic dwarven legs will carry me.”
“Me, too,” everyone else said.
“You’re not even going to try tohealme, you rat bastards?” Rusty asked.
“Dude, you are afirst-level rogue,” Mike said. “You hadelevenhit points. That means you’re atnegativethirty-one. You’redead, and we don’t have nearly enough gold to resurrect your stupid ass. We don’t even have enough healing potions or spells between everyone in the party to restore that many hit points. Roll up a new character.”
Eliza cackled as Rusty reached for a folder tucked into the bookshelf behind him, which contained blank character sheets. “Twosessions into a new campaign. Not even a full two sessions, because we’re only ten minutes into the night. I think that’s the fastest you’ve ever gotten yourself killed off, my stubborn barbarian.”
Axel jotted a short note onto a piece of paper, folded it, and had it passed around to Rusty.
“Nastygram for Mongo,” Mike teased when he handed it to him.
Rusty sneered. “Very funny.” He read it.
Your long-lost identical twin can show up in the town in a little while, minus your masterwork crossbow and shield. Swap out for plain ones, and kick back the difference into your GP.
Axel watched Rusty bob his head side to side for a moment before finally nodding and refolding the note. “Okay,fine. Thank you.”
“Change his name, too,” Axel told him.
Truth be told, this would be less work forhim. He’d already inputted everyone’s base stats into a table he had printed out for quick reference for combat. It’d be a pain in the ass to have to change the whole thing right now just because Rusty was an idiot.
And he wouldn’t have to wait a whole week for Rusty to try to decide what else to be, as well as roll up skills and pick a matching figurine for the character.
“Dude,” Eliza said. “Axel’s letting you respawn? You’d better bring him beer next week.”
“Forget beer,” Susie said. “You’d better bring himsushi.”
“I can be bribed with brownies,” Axel said, smiling. “Okay, so you’re all rapidly heading toward town…”
* * * *
At ten o’clock, Axel’s phone started wheezing the sound of the TARDIS taking off.
