Dungeons and Dragons and Quarantine

During the event of a global pandemic, local governments encouraged citizens to remain in their homes for the duration of a quarantine. While this posed a problem for in-person events, the modern age of technology allowed for socially-distanced friends and family to virtually come together in order to keep each other sane. On a Saturday night, five avatar icons glowed green as their owners joined the online call to arms. 

“Hey, everybody. How’s it going?” Josh asked, his voice coming through everyone’s headsets. 

“Well, I haven’t strangled anybody I live with yet, so that’s something,” Cass said, taking a sip from her mug and tucking her brown hair behind her ears. 

“I am so ready to play D&D! I set up a laundry list of lyrics to use for spells when the need arises!” Derek cheered excitedly. His music was quietly playing in the background, the tunes filling the quiet when there were breaks in the conversation. 

“It’s good that you’re prepared.” Lydia’s gentle voice chimed in. “I’m just ready for us to start combat soon so I can try out my new war hammer.” 

“I’m sure that’ll happen at some point.” Mark said quietly. 

“Well, if you’re all ready, let’s get started. Shall we?” Josh clapped his hands together and began giving a recap of their previous session from the week before. The group had been playing together for a few years, each person taking turns creating their own campaigns. Recently, Josh had finished writing his and they had thrown it into the rotation. Once Josh concluded his summary of how the party had rescued citizens from a collapsing dwarven mine and Lydia had acquired a war hammer, he set the scene for where they would begin that night’s venture. 

“It is the same day and you are in the dwarven city, having been thanked by the people you rescued and given food for your travels. After asking around, you find out that the mine was old and unstable in some parts which caused the collapse. What would you like to do first?”

“Since we didn’t get to this last session, I’d like to find a scholar at the library in town.” Mark said. 

“Does anyone want to go with Mark’s character to the library?” Josh asked. 

“We’ll tag along,” Lydia said, pulling her purple and silver dice set out of her bag and placing them on her desk.

On their computer screens, a grid map appeared with a basic layout of the dwarven city and mines. Character avatars moved around on the map as the players dragged them across the screen. 

“Alright. Well, you remember from walking through town earlier that you had passed a library. You walk into this very tall stone building with huge oaken doors. Inside, books line the shelves that extend to the ceiling. There are ladders everywhere to provide access to the large collection of texts. In the back of the room is a large desk and an elderly dwarf sits behind it reading a book. He looks up over his spectacles at you all. ‘Can I help you?’” Josh asked in his best elderly man voice.

Mark cleared his throat. “Um, hello, yes. I was wondering if maybe you have any books that can translate ancient runes?”

Josh replied, “The dwarf will ponder this for a second, glancing around at the shelves. ‘Yes, I believe we have quite a few books on rune translations. What language of runes are you looking for?’”

“Josh, would I know that?” Mark asked, fidgeting with his dice. 

“Roll me an intelligence check.”

The dice clattered on Mark’s desk as it rolled to a stop. “I rolled a 12.”

“You don’t know what language the runes are in. Does anyone else want to roll intelligence?”

Cass piped up. “I will.” Shaking her fist, she tossed her dice inside her wooden dice box. “I got 16.” 

“So, Cass, your character knows based on your studies as a cleric that these runes are Ancient Dwarven.” 

“I believe we are looking for a book on Ancient Dwarven,” Cass said, adding a British accent to her character’s voice.

“‘Ah yes, right this way.’ The dwarf will rise from his seat and climb a nearby ladder to fetch a book. He’ll hand Mark a thick tome before returning to his seat.”

“I will take it over to a table in the back and start flipping through it once I get the scroll from my bag.” Mark said.

“So, you start flipping through the book and you come across a guide that translates the runes from Ancient Dwarven into Common. After a few minutes, you get a translation that I will send.”

A few seconds later, a text came up in the chat. It read: 

When thunder erupts from the ground and a god presents the key, four heroes will walk a new Earth. A game of chance will determine their fate, and only by passing through one window and retrieving another can the world be set right.

The four of them read the passage aloud, and as the last word left their lips, a bright light glowed from the player’s computer screens. A blanket of mist settled upon them and their rooms turned cold as the light grew brighter and their bodies disappeared. 

When the four players opened their eyes, a great city spread out before them. They stood on the outskirts of this vast civilization. Tall stone buildings towered into the sky, short, round boulder-like houses popped out of the ground mimicking a rocky landscape. Further down the mountain range stood the mines, one of which was filled with rubble. The sky above the town was blue with clouds drifting sparsely overhead. 

“What the…?” Lydia looked down at her clothing, feeling the material with her hands to make sure it was real. She wore black pants, a purple shirt, and a bear skin hood covered her head and shoulders. In her hand, she held a great war hammer. Looking around at her friends, she saw that they were all dressed in fantasy costumes. Mark was donned all in black with a staff in his hand and a book tucked in a satchel across his shoulder. He had a thick cloak that draped over his shoulders and made him look less lanky. Derek wore a loud red ensemble, similar to an actor in a Shakespearean play, but with normal pants. He carried a mandolin on his back and had band names stitched randomly into his shirt. Cass’s white cloak flowed behind her and covered her green and black tunic and pants. A holy symbol hung around her neck on a chain and her belt had multiple loops and pouches for medicines.

Cass held up her mug, which she’d been holding when they had read the translation, shook the remaining drops of wine from it, and looked around bewildered. “Maybe I should stop drinking during campaign,” she muttered under her breath. She clipped the mug handle to a loop on her belt and ran her hands through her hair, which was now dark purple and fading into red at the ends. “Are we where I think we are?”

“If you’re thinking we’re in Josh’s D&D game, that sounds like a safe bet.” Mark said slowly, looking through his satchel and pulling out a scroll. 

“Where is Josh?” Lydia asked, looking around frantically. 

“Maybe he didn’t get pulled in with us,” said Mark, his finger tracing under the translation that was jotted down on the scroll.

Lydia gestured to the landscape. “Then how did we get here?” 

“I think the translation is what pulled us in.” Mark said, holding the scroll out for the others to see. “We were the only four who read it and we all ended up in the same place. Why and how, I don’t know.”

Cass looked over Mark’s shoulder at the runes. “There’s gotta be some way of getting out of here then.” 

In the distance, music played faintly, but it didn’t seem to be coming from one direction. It came from everywhere and the lyrics became clearer as the players stopped and listened. 

“Is that . . . Panic! at the Disco?” Mark asked, furrowing his brow. 

Derek sighed. “I must have left my D&D playlist playing on my computer. I was trying to think of song lyrics for charms while we were getting set up and forgot to turn it off.”

“Are you guys still there? Hello?” A voice sounded from above.

“Josh, is that you?” Cass called up to the skies. “Can you hear us?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Where are you? I think the site has a bug or something. Your avatars kept moving all over the place and I couldn’t hear anyone for a minute.”

“It’s not a bug. We seem to have gotten Zathura’d into the game. Whatever you do, don’t refresh the page or anything like that!” Derek yelled. 

Josh stared at the screen. “What do you mean you were Zathura’d into the game? You’re in your rooms on your laptops . . . right?”

“We were, but when the four of us read the runes translation we got sucked into the game. Where did you find those runes, by the way?” Mark asked.

“Uh . . . I think in a book my aunt had in her attic. That doesn’t make any sense, how could you possibly be in the computer?”

“Would it make more sense if we said Jumanji’d? The Dwayne Johnson version, not the Robin Williams one, though that one was definitely a classic-”

“Zoom in on our avatars. Does anything look different to you?” Mark yelled, cutting Derek off. 

Squinting at the screen, Josh zoomed in as far as the site would allow. It was like looking at his friends through a giant telescope. The land surrounding them was pixelated and stagnant, but the four characters looked real, almost as though they were standing in front of a green screen. Lydia waved up at him with her war hammer. 

“What the heck…? How are you . . .? Oh my God, I sent you into the computer!” Josh scrambled to grab his aunt’s book.

“Well, try looking through the book. Is there anything in there about reversing spells?” Mark asked. “What even is the book?”

“It’s just a journal of poems and drawings my aunt had. She said I could use it for D&D if I wanted. I’m looking through it now to see if there’s anything that could help.”

“Just don’t read any of them out loud!” Derek called. “The last thing we need is for you to get sucked in here too.”

Mark started pacing back and forth, reading the translation over and over and furrowing his brow. After a few minutes, they heard Josh sighing into his headset. 

“There’s nothing in here about undoing spells or returning things back to normal. Do you guys have any ideas?”

“Well, by re-reading the translation, it does say something about four heroes walking a new Earth. Assumedly, that refers to us being here.” Mark said.

“Didn’t the passage open with thunder erupting from the ground?” Lydia asked. “That’s similar to how loud a mine collapse or earthquake is.”

“And the mine collapse happened in the story before we arrived here.” Cass chimed in. “What did the next section say?”

“A game of chance will determine their fate, and only by passing through one window and retrieving another can the world be set right.” Mark read.

“A game of chance . . .” Cass reached into the pouch on her belt and pulled out a white 20 sided die. “Hey Josh, it seems like our dice traveled into the game with us. Maybe we’re supposed to roll our stats and play through the game?”

“It could take months to complete his entire story line, though.” Derek said. “Sure it’s a great way to pass the quarantine, but I think after a few hours, our parents will be wondering where we are. And our computers aren’t going to stay on that long.”

“Well, what does it say about windows? Maybe there’s another portal in a window that we have to find?” Lydia asked. 

“Or maybe . . . maybe it means you just have to defeat a monster.” Josh said, a bit of hope rising in his voice. “Everyone roll initiative.”

“What?!” All four of them chorused at the sky. 

“Trust me, I have an idea.” He took out a d20 and rolled it on his desk. One by one, each of the four players rolled their dice. “Okay, so from behind you hear this loud thudding sound. Out of the trees comes this large black horse that looks like it’s made of smoke. It’s rider is donned in black armor and carries it’s detached head in its hand. You know this creature is called a Dullahan. It rolled highest so it’s going to go first.” 

Just as Josh described, a headless rider on a black horse came charging out of the woods. It’s cloak was torn and as black as Mark’s, it’s decapitated head was expressionless, all except for a blue gem that was fixed in its left eye socket. It swung a large sword at Mark, narrowly missing his arm as it rode past.

“What do you want to bet that last line meant how eyes are windows to the soul?” Lydia asked, swinging at the Dullahan with her hammer and missing.

“Do you know what happens to people who try to take a Dullahan’s head?” Derek called. “They suffer a death worse than anything.” He tossed his dice into the air and rolled a 15. “If you’re going to take the gem, be careful and quick,” he said as he strummed his instrument and encouraged his group musically. 

Mark raised his staff, tossed ingredients from his bag towards the Dullahan, and cried, “Fey!” Runes glowed in the grass and a 10 foot circle trapped the creature in a cylinder of magical energy. “He can’t hurt us as long as we stay out of the circle.”

Cass touched Lydia’s arm and cast a protection spell against the trapped Fey creature. “You’re the quickest of us in this game. It’ll be easier for you to steal the gem if you can.”

On the Dullahan’s turn, it swung its bone whip at the party, grazing Derek’s leg. The rhythmic strumming of Tonight We Are Victorious faltered as Derek hobbled on one leg and cried out in pain. The horse’s nostrils flared as it reared in its magical corral. 

Then it was Lydia’s turn. “Josh!” she called up at the sky. “Can I roll stealth and sleight of hand in one turn to get the gem?”

“Since I want you guys out of there as soon as possible, I’ll allow it.”

Lydia tossed her die into the air and caught it. “16." "You’re able to sneak up to the Dullahan without him noticing you’re there.” She crept up beside the fey horse, keeping outside the magic circle, and rolled her dice again. “14." "So, you’re able to grab the gem, but as you pull your hand back, the monster notices you’re there and grabs your wrist.”

Cold, gauntlet covered hands gripped Lydia’s wrist tightly. She tried pulling herself free, but his grip was too strong. “If one of you guys can get him to release me, that’d be great,” she said over her shoulder. Thanks to Cass’s spell she wasn’t scared of the reaper that stood before her.

Derek quickly started strumming Freedom and rolled a 10. The Dullahan’s grip loosened slightly. Mark cast a charm spell on the creature. “Let her go.”  

Lydia breathed a sigh of relief as she felt her hand slip out of the creature’s grasp. Cass came forward and pulled Lydia back to the group before the Dullahan could take his turn.

All four players reached to touch the gem as the runes of the magic circle disappeared. The monster charged at the party with its whip raised as a flash of light glowed from the gem. This time, a warm heat emitted from the light and all four opened their eyes to their computer screens in their bedrooms.

“Guys? Guys? Are you there? Did it work?” Josh asked frantically over the headsets. There was a moment of silence before four voices chorused into their mics.

“We're here!”

“You may want to put that book back in your aunt’s attic.”

Josh breathed a sigh of relief and pushed the book aside. “I’ll have to come up with new riddles then for next time.”