Dice

“I’ve got a plan.” 

The table groaned. This wasn’t the first time Clint had a plan. It wouldn’t be the last, but everyone sitting around that table exaggerated their distress at these words. Claire grimaced, Todd shook his head, Jeff and Jenifer both looked away while Amber threw her arms up. Everyone was upset except for Clint and Pat, their Dungeon Master.

“What is the plan?” Pat said with a wicked grin.

“Well-”

“No…. Don’t say anything yet. Just stop,” Jennifer jumped in. “Don’t say a word.”

“But… I-”

“-Don’t. Not yet…” Amber butted in.

“Clint, it is your turn,” Pat reminded the table gently, grin still spreading as dice clacked behind the Dungeon Master’s screen. 

The reactions made sense. This group had been playing this game of D and D for years. Started in a dorm room, this game had moved across two states and survived the toils of life. Family and jobs, illness, births, and divorce couldn’t stop this game. Not even graduation had slowed it down. However, just because the game would continue, Clint’s friends didn’t want to miss their chance to defeat the Dungeon Master for the first time.

As all games of this nature do, this one had evolved and changed. Quests had come and gone, many nights spent in laughter and pain, and while the team had won battles, Pat always won the war. The complete campaign, the overarching goal, victory had always eluded them. For the first time in a long time there was a path, not perfect, but a path to victory.

Hands blurred and Pat smirked. Everyone at the table was signing to get around one of the game’s biggest challenges. A rule Pat created when Todd needed to learn ASL after his son lost his hearing. 

The rule was simple: vocalized actions happened. 

Initially some thought this rule would kill the game, in reality it transformed it. They played more, everyone stayed engaged, the game moved, no one dominated strategy, everyone had a voice, and it kept the players on their toes. What table talk was lost from planning was replaced by improvised storytelling where the friends helped cover each other’s mistakes. 

“Shit, that isn’t going to work,” said Todd.

“I get that, but…” Claire said

“-Move on… Move on,” Jennifer pushed them ahead.

Pat chuckled. Their plan had no chance of success. The one they were signing was solid, but didn’t consider the traps that the Dungeon Master knew about. Todd recognized that pitfall and was creating the most turmoil to make his friends see. Baring an unseen story, there was one path forward. Rolls be damned. Force wouldn’t work here. Pat knew that. It seemed Todd had an inkling. The question was did anyone actually see the way out? Their path to victory. 

“I am going to invoke limit within the next five,” Pat said.

Years of signing brought fluency and issues that slowed the game had crept back in. With limit the DM could go on the offensive as long as Pat could make the case that the monsters were aware of the team’s presence. Pat always could. 

“I walk into the room.”

The room gasped. Five words stopped all movement as audible groans and disappointment were relinquished. 

“Really?” Todd said

“Come on man,” Jeff chimed in.

“I mean,” Amber added.

All of Clint’s team spoke at once as his bard, their little bard, walked into the room.

Clint regretted it. Always the quiet one. More comfortable in front of code than people, even in this group, one Clint had known for years, he still felt exposed. Clint wasn’t one to take action, his story telling always came up short, and his bard, like him, was always support.

“Yes, our bard steps into the room and,” Clint said as the table glared at him. “And I bash my lute on the ground, creating a cacophonous sound waking anything inside.” 

Jennifer’s stare cut Clint deep, making him wince. Nervously, he continued.

“Roll for awareness?” Clint asked Pat.

“Of course.”

“12.”

“Your bard is aware of the sounds, but the light is too dim to see the enemies or the traps outright.”

“And therefore-”

“-I walk out of the room,” Clint cut off Todd.

Glares turned to anger as some of the quiet murmur and thoughts of how to save Clint from this move died into fury. 

“You what?” Amber said with raised eyebrows.

“I leave the room.”

“You leave the room? So what you go in there, wake all the enemies, and leave?!?!” Todd said angrily. “Are you insane? We had a chance to win. Our-”

“-When the bard leaves the room he uses his power of persuasion in conjunction with a singsong voice to convince his teammates to follow him.”

“We all roll for resistance,” Todd almost screamed. 

“Roll,” Pat said with a smile. Rolling her own dice for God knows what reason.

Dice rolled, clacked, and banged with punctuating sighs and groans.

“One.”

“Three.”

“Four.”

Jeff, Jennifer, and Todd said in order. 

“One.”

“Seven.” 

Amber and Claire added.

“I think the outcome is clear,” Pat said turning back to Clint. “You have control of the group.”

“Roll for movement.”

“Of course.”

Another clack. 

“19.”

“I continue to sing and weave my spell over them, convincing them we need to leave the cave all together, using the spell to increase their speed and movement.”

“Explain,” Pat asked.

“It was established two years ago in the inn, reinforced last year at the carnival, and again twice this year that this ability can be used on enemies to increase speed making them move uncontrollably and into traps. I use this same power on my team.”

“Fair.”

For the next ten minutes Clint weaves a story of daring before his dumbstruck team as they leave the dungeon they spent the better part of two sessions making their way through. Barely making it outside the creaky wooden shack door that was the entrance to this dungeon.

“With my song waning I use it upon our warrior to destroy the shack causing the entrance to this dungeon to cave in on itself.”

“Todd?” Pat asked turning to him.

“Who cares,” Todd said throwing his arms up in the air. “Why not? I use my mighty axe to cave in the entrance.”

“Roll.”

“20,” Todd says sarcastically. 

“And with that his mighty axe strikes the shack one more time, causing the place to cave in upon itself and with it you lose out on any chance to get the treasure inside…”

“Thanks Clint,” Amber said. 

“Yeah,” Jennifer added. 

“This is just-“ 

“-And you defeat the dungeon.” Pat interrupted the condemnation dousing Clint.

“What?” “Hmm..” “Say what?” Todd, Jen, and Jeff said together as all eyes turn to Pat in confusion.

“We won?” Clint asked sheepishly.

“You defeated the dungeon,” Pat corrected. “But yes… You won…”

The gazes turn back to Clint as Jennifer asked the question on all of their minds. 

“Did you know that would work?” 

Clint had no poker face and knew he couldn’t lie. The truth was Clint hadn’t been able to get a word in edge wise and knew Todd had a good point about the traps. Stepping into the room was done on a whim. Destroying his lute, also a whim, but running? It was the only plan that made sense after those two things were done. Running had been the only option after things had gone awry. 

“I thought Todd had a point, but couldn’t deal with the arguing, so before Pat could do something I moved. I made two moves and regretted it. So we ran. Going off of the lore and what we had discovered I thought a vampire was the most likely boss and from what we had been told I thought there was only one entrance to this place. When I ran I think I was just hoping it would be the middle of the day when we left. That would give us a chance to win or run.”

“Was it day?” Jennifer shot at Pat.

“No.”

“Was it a vampire?” Todd asked. 

“Yes.”

“Then how did we win?” Clint asked. “If it isn’t day we would have been exhausted and unless it was a random stake that took him down the boss would have broken through that little shack we caved in and took us out.”

“Retreat was your only way to win,” Pat said to the stunned group. “The boss would have destroyed you guys in the safety of his dungeon. Even if you guys had talked your way through his final traps, his strength underground would have been too much to overcome. So when you went in there and smashed your lute it perked his interest, something you had to do. He heard you running and followed foolishly on your heels. The traps Jennifer, Jeff, and Amber had set throughout your journey were sprung on him as you backtracked through the dungeon. It was enough to weaken him and yes you got a lucky roll at the end. A wooden stake took his beaten body out in the end.”

“What happened to all of those rolls?” Jennifer asked their DM making the uncomfortable implication that Pat had done this for Clint.

“I did them behind my screen.”

“Record check,” Todd immediately spoke up.

 Although everyone trusted Pat they could verify everything from the Dungeon Master’s rolls to the character sheets and the written story Pat was following.

For the next hour the seven friends reviewed the footage, went through the story and stat sheet for the bosses, traps, and everything else they had faced in the dungeon. Pat kept meticulous records and for the first time fate had lined up and the team had won the war. Clint’s moves, narrative, and rolls overcame Pat’s obstacles on their escape to victory. Their first victory. 

“Do you want to call it a night?” Pat asked as the review concluded. 

“No.” Jennifer said for the group. “No, definitely not.”

“Well then, are you heading back to town to collect your reward or are you going towards the kingdom in the distance?”

It was Jennifer’s turn, but for the first time Jennifer turned to Clint as the unspoken was asked and answered.

“Under our Bard’s suggestion we find a wandering traveler and give him a message to send back to the village. Before moving on together towards the castle as equal allies looking for a new adventure.”