[Channel Teaser] Party Summons A Demon To Become Their Dungeon
Master Hi everyone. All Things DnD is back with another story. What would happen if you accidentally summoned
a demon while you were playing DnD? Well...this group is about to find out. All the candles in the room went out. Smoke boiled from the small pentagram carved
into the table, curling into an ever thickening serpent of fog. Scarlet lightning arced within the cloud,
and cast the shadowed faces of the various figures around the table in sharp relief. As the shadows of the room deepened and the
coiling mist stopped rising into the air, a voice spoke from within. "Which foul sorcerer has dared to pull me
into this mortal world from my slumber…," it rumbled. Red lightning licked the top of the table
as the cloud pulsed with power. Eyes seemed to stare out at the people around
the table, specifically at one particularly scrawny kid clutching some sort of book. The kid coughed slightly, and rose his hand
into the air. The spirals of smoke pulled inward and became
darker, as red eyes materialized out of the mist and peered at him. They looked slightly confused. "If you were the unholy sorcerer who summoned
me forth, speak your demands so I may be rid of this pathetic form…," it rumbled at him. "Do you wish for power over your enemies?"
it growled, and a massive sword materialized out of smoke and scarlet electricity. It hovered above the table, before melting
into a pair of pistols, before drifting down into the table to explode in the vague shape
of a mushroom cloud. "... Or perhaps riches untold…," and fountains
of rubies poured out of the dark smoke. They clattered loudly onto the wood in front
of the kid with the notebook, who looked thoroughly unseduced by the fortune. The voice paused for a moment and the rubies
dissolved into the shadow. It then spoke again, a slight entreaty in
its voice now: "... Or for immortality, and a life to best
death itself…," as a black skull formed around its blood red eyes, then cracked and
shattered into motes of darkness. The kid looked slightly amused. "No, not really," the kid said. He reached to his side, hefted a thick book
onto the table, and slid it towards the demon. Its form shrank slightly as it peered at the
title, then looked up at the kid in bewilderment. "You want me… to make the contents of the
book real?" it asked. The kid shrugged. "I suppose, in our imaginations, yeah." A girl sitting across the table from him piped
up: "We don't want ACTUAL minotaurs rampaging around, but definitely, like, in the story,
we do." The demon shook its form in disbelief. "No mortal has ever asked for this. To be clear, if I play a character in this…
game… you will release me?" "No, no, we don't want you to be a character,"
the kid said. He tossed a small object towards the cloud,
and a spectral hand formed instantly and caught it. The scarlet eyes gazed down at a roughly round
shape with numbers on it. A die, with twenty sides. The kid grinned. "We want you to DM our game." The demon rolled the die between its darkly
smoking knuckles, staring at it. Then it sighed, and dropped it to the table
where it dissolved into mist. One of the kids, a curly haired boy twirling
a pencil, made a disconcerted noise at the die's disappearance. "That was my favourite D20…" he murmured,
as if to himself. The demon distractedly twitched its spectral
hand, and the pencil the boy was fiddling with began to bend. It twisted as if made of clay, and started
weaving itself into a spherical braid, with tiny splinters breaking off and curling into
fine numbers. A heartbeat after the boy had dropped it,
an intricately carved wooden die hit the tabletop. As the curly haired boy picked it up with
a gleeful grin, the demon sighed resignedly and looked up at the scrawny kid who stared
at it, expectantly. "Fine… I will do this for you, oh summoner," it rumbled. "Then I will take my leave and move on to
more… ambitious ones…" The curling pillar of dark fog began to twist
upon itself more rapidly, until a spinning column of black mist rose from the pentagram
carved onto the table. Red lightning arced within, casting a bloody
glow on the faces of the kids sitting around the table. The column exploded. The room was flooded with smoke. Curls of it drifted lazily through the air,
and while the kids sitting around the table could see each other, the rest of the room
was shrouded in black. Voices faintly echoed from the darkness, and
red light shuddered in the shadow, until a figure suddenly emerged from the fog. A woman, wearing a ragged, stained apron,
approached the table and stopped. She pulled a pad of paper from her waist and
snatched a pencil from behind her ear. "Welcome to the Drunken Mermaid, would you
like drinks or food first?" she asked them roughly. The scrawny kid sat back in his chair. "So, we're in a tavern?" The scarlet light that had been softly glowing
suddenly blazed with brilliant intensity, and the fog seemed to melt away around them. The room they had been in was gone, and they
sat in the center of a loud, crowded medieval tavern. Serving women pushed between tightly crowded
tables, while bawdy men and women clashed mugs dripping with beer, and a fiddler danced
his fingers over strings in the corner. To the side, the bartender slid bottles across
to patrons and swept coins back behind the counter in a constant blur of motion. Wanted posters were plastered over each other
on the far wall, illuminated by the many hanging globes of scarlet light not unlike the demon's
eyes. "I'll take three beers, your strongest type!"
the girl exclaimed dramatically, then gestured to the rest of the kids. "What about the rest of you?" The curly haired boy chuckled at her joke,
but the serving woman took it in stride. "Of course, although we have a bit of a shortage
lately. These bandits have been really running our
stock dry. Now that I mention it-" the scrawny kid interrupted
her. "What about the backstories?" The entire room froze. The bartender stopped pouring drinks, the
serving woman's pencil paused above the notepad, and the drunken man falling off the bench
near the wall hung silently in midair. The table warped in front of the scrawny kid,
and pushed upwards as if someone was pressing their face into it from beneath. A face like a laughing mask. Except somehow, it was scowling. The demon's voice groaned through the room. "Backstories? I didn't know I had to come up with your backstories…"
it rumbled in displeasure. The scrawny kid shook his head, and the curly
haired boy spoke up. "Actually, I have a pretty neat one for my
character, who is a dwarf named Hvulder Rockbreaker." At this an audible pop was heard, and the
boy dropped down to a significantly shorter height in his chair. He shrieked at the change, and shouted, "No! I meant elf!" Another pop, and he was a tall, willowy version
of himself. "I lived in the foothills - sorry - forests,
near the Sleeping Mountains, for most of my life." The fireplace in the corner sputtered to life
with crimson flames, and wretched forth ashy smoke. That smoke rose in front of the mantel, and
formed a wavering mountain range with flickers of flame moving beneath them, vaguely humanoid
in shape. "Our town lived peacefully, and I was employed
as a blacksmith. I was," the curly haired boy said somewhat
proudly, "rather good at it." The fire crackled and sent up a shower of
sparks, disturbing the smoke and sending it swirling violently. A coin that had been frozen in midair suddenly
dropped to the ground, and the sound of it striking the stone was the peal of iron against
steel. "Until a necromancer arrived! It wasn't like the stories - he just wanted
more skeletons for his army." The fire blazed against the wall. The flames traced the barest outlines of dozens
of faces that drifted up out of the fireplace, before the sparks blew out and only skulls
of smoke rose to the ceiling and dissipated. "I had been at the quarry, examining a new
vein of iron, when the necromancer razed the town. So I survived, and I'm sworn on revenge,"
the curly haired boy finished suddenly. The fire died down and resumed crackling fitfully,
smoke rising out of sight into the chimney. "I'm a human sorcerer," said the scrawny boy
to fill the silence. The curly-haired boy and girl both looked
at him, along with the laughing mask pressing up out of the table. "I don't have as good a backstory as that
- that was pretty awesome - but I trained with my master for a long time until I was
almost as good as him." One of the beers on a nearby serving woman's
motionless tray tipped over and spilled in a growing puddle across the kids' table. The puddle began shivering, and formed into
two figures striding along the perimeter of the table, shimmering and amber. "My master had a spell go wrong, and he's
now terminally ill. I managed to put him in a state of suspension,"
at this, the beer on the table swirled into an oval, cocoon-like shape, with a figure
walking away determinedly, "and I now search for the cure to save him." The beer dissolved into a formless puddle
in the center of the table as all faces turned to look at the girl. She shuffled her feet slightly and looked
around. "I'm a human rogue, but my backstory is…
kinda secret for now. I guess it will come out with the rest of
the game, ok, Mr. DM?" she said towards the face in the table. It stared at her impassively for a moment,
as if disappointed that she wanted to wait, then nodded. As it retreated back into the table, the room
began to move again, and the serving woman moved away to fetch a rag for the beer spilling
along with their drinks. At that moment, the door to the tavern thundered
open to reveal a huge man wrapped in thick woollen robes, outlined against the howling
snow and wind echoing in the darkness outside. An immense broadsword was strapped to his
back, and underneath his fur lined hood was a massively scarred face. The curly-haired boy squealed in excitement,
and the girl clapped her hands eagerly. The scrawny boy grinned and said, "So our
adventure starts? Man, I am so excited for this - I bet you'll
be the best DM ever!" to the suddenly quiet tavern. No customers looked at him, but all the scarlet
globes of light winked softly. The demon, a slight smile edging the corners
of its ancient voice, rumbled "We begin in a tavern shrouded in nighttime, in a land
shrouded in winter, with a figure shrouded in mystery…" Narration Tone: Action, Horron, Thriller PART 2
"Julder, what's the matter?" a voice called out from the quiet tavern. Suddenly, the room was a flurry of motion
and noise as patrons jostled for a view of the fur wearing man, or tried to ask him a
question. The curly haired boy spoke up. "Hey mister - what are you doing outside at
this time of night?" he called out over the din. The noise abruptly quieted as the fur covered
man's hood swivelled towards the boy, and piercing blue eyes peered out at him. "Bandits in the woods - I found their encampment. They have the Baron's son held up there too
- I saw them drag him out of a tent,” the man said. The girl frowned at this and spoke up. "Why were you looking for the bandits?" she
asked. The man turned to her and growled, in a voice
oddly reminiscent of the demon's voice, "I'm a bounty hunter, little girl. I was hired by the king to track down the
bandits, not fight a small encampment! There are dozens of people there!” The scrawny kid looked skeptical. "Is this the plot hook?" he asked into thin
air. Every head in the bar, including the fur wearing
man's, nodded in unison. The kid shrugged, "Hey, the classics are never
bad," and began to stand up from the table. The room groaned. The people sitting around the kids sighed
softly, and dissolved into black fog. As the room melted away into smoke, it all
swept towards where the kids were sitting, then hesitated at the base of the table. With a sudden surge, the fog pounced onto
the top of the table and spread quick tendrils across its surface. The hanging globes of scarlet fire winked
once again, then withdrew far, far into the ceiling until they were twinkling dots in
a night sky that materialized above them. The kids sat in a densely wooded forest, towering
over the trees as if they were giants. In the distance, jagged mountain peaks loomed
tall over the forest. The girl reached out and brushed a patch of
evergreens, startling a group of jet black ravens into the sky. They wheeled around the group before dissolving
into the night. The table top writhed with smoke that seeped
into the wood grain, spreading an inky blot across the surface. Tiny splinters of wood erupted from the grain
and stretched upwards, sprouting minuscule green needles and leaves. Snow began swirling around the kids, layering
the treetops below and the surface of the table. Before ten seconds had passed from sitting
in the tavern, the table was a miniature of a snowy clearing, rising with the kids above
the pine forest, stretching to distant mountains. The curly haired boy grinned openly."Ok... THAT was cool.” The girl leaned forward and spoke into the
blizzard of snow whipping around them, "So, where are we now?", unaffected by the wind
and cold that only brought a light chill. The mountains around them suddenly rumbled
and cracked, the faces crumbling and caving into deep voids, looking like stilted volcanoes
or perhaps cowls of cloaks. Then the rock began sloughing away as the
mountains stood. A ring of hooded figures rose from where the
mountains had loomed, rock crumbling off their forms, and they walked forward to stand behind
the kids. The bottoms of their robes faded into dark
fog that twined with the miniature trees. Scarlet eyes bloomed within all the cowls,
identical and intense. "The fur covered man leads the three of you
deeper into the forest," the growling voice of the demon said. One of the cowled figures stretched out an
arm, and a skeletal hand of black onyx poked out of the sleeve. A single finger hovered above the forest clearing
for a moment, as a droplet of ink formed at its tip. The droplet quivered, then spattered onto
the snowy ground, twisting and gathering the snow into a pale figure. A man, wearing furs and a massive broadsword. Three more droplets of inky darkness, and
the snow formed into a tall elven man hefting a solid hammer, a human with an intricately
carved staff, and a woman strapped with countless knives and ropes. They walked through the clearing and the forest
moved with them, forming in front out of smoke and dissolving once they had passed. All three kids leaned over the miniature in
glee. "I ask the man his name," said the scrawny
kid. His miniature's mouth opened and mimicked
his words. "Julder…" the man's voice echoed through
the night. He didn't say anything else, as if content
to walk in silence. The girl turned to the curly-haired boy. "So, why do you think the bandits are attacking
the town?" The boy shrugged. He turned to look down at Julder, and his
miniature walked forward to stand beside him. "How far away was the encampment?" Julder shook his head. "Not far. We're getting close." He turned and looked stonily at the elven,
curly haired figure. "I still claim half the reward, as is fair. I found them." The curly haired boy began protesting, but
the scrawny kid shushed him at a noise. A twig snapped in the forest. Then the snow froze motionless in the air,
and the demon's voice sounded out. "I'm... not sure how to do this," it rumbled. The girl smiled lightly and said, "Are we
about to get into a fight?" One of the hooded figures looming behind them
inclined its head slightly. The girl gestured slightly. "We have to roll perception then, to see if
we spot the enemies coming. With a 20 sided die." The scrawny kid pulled a simple white die
from a pocket and tossed it into the clearing. It puffed lightly into the snow, but still
rolled unhindered. A 16. The girl tossed her die; a 14. The curly haired boy dropped his intricately
carved wooden dice into the clearing, and a 19 peered up at him. The hooded figures watched this intently,
then turned their scarlet gaze on the small Julder. The figure grew transparent for a moment,
and an ebony die materialized inside and dropped to the ground. A two. The demon's voice cried out in glee. "A two is the second highest I can roll, correct?!" The scrawny boy coughed slightly and shook
his head. "No… 20 is the highest. One is the lowest, so two is pretty bad." An audible scowl echoed over the forest, as
Julder hardened back into a solid figure and was promptly shot by an arrow. The man fell screaming to one knee, pulling
free his massive broadsword. The human gripped his staff slightly and stepped
lightly out of the path of the arrow that whistled by him. The rogue girl pulled free a pair of daggers
and lowered into the brush, seeming to disappear amidst the snowy branches. The elven, curly haired boy shouted a cry
and hefted his hammer. Two hooded figures outstretched their hands,
and inky droplets formed at the finger tips before dropping out of sight behind the trees
ringing the clearing. Seven droplets in total. A moment later, five bandits burst into the
clearing accompanied by two smoky grey wolves. The curly haired boy cried out, "I charge
them!", and the elven man began running towards the nearest bandits, hammer raised dangerously. The scrawny boy spoke up, "I cast Magic Missile
at the wolves." An intensely bright crimson flash erupted
from the sorcerer, and a bolt of red lightning streaked across the clearing to strike the
wolves, splitting in two. Before it hit, the wolves faded and tiny dice
rolled inside it, before the wolves became opaque again and were hit by the brunt of
the attack. They both fell to the ground, whimpering and
smoking slightly. "I sneak around behind them, to try and sneak
attack them," said the girl. A faint rustle of brush could be seen making
its way along the edge of the clearing. One of the bandits grew transparent for a
moment as a dice rolled inside it, then it grew solid and raised a short sword to meet
the hammer bearing into it. The bandit pushed the elven man aside and
swung at him. The demon's voice muttered in the background,
"..so they make a dexterity save, by rolling a d20…", then grew louder as the hooded
figures looked at the curly haired boy. "Roll a D20" it rumbled. A five. The elven man stumbled from the cut of the
sword into his arm, then retaliated with a crushing swing to the bandit's side. They dropped instantly, moaning in pain. Meanwhile, the two bandits ran towards the
sorcerer. One nocked an arrow and let it fly while the
scrawny kid rolled his die. "A 15, that's a miss!" he cried excitedly,
the other raised a spear. "I cast Burning Hands on the two bandits!"
said the kid dramatically. The bandits briefly turned transparent as
dice rolled, then grew solid. One dove out of the way, the other stumbled
into the flames roaring from the sorcerer, and fell to the ground desperately rolling. The other raised his sword, before getting
tackled by Julder. The girl rose from the brush silently behind
the remaining two bandits, who were frantically trying to nock arrows. They turned transparent as dice rolled, but
didn't notice her as the 3 and 7 faded back into their bodies. Knives were whipped to their throats, and
they froze. "Look, listen, we didn't want to do this!"
one desperately said. The other was nodding as frantically as he
could without slitting his own throat."We need supplies, we need food! Our families are starving in this infernal
winter!" The curly haired elf straightened as the boy
spoke. "Why do you have no supplies already?" The bandit shook his head. "Our village was attacked, we had no other
options! The people were terrified - skeletons come
to life in stories, not real life!" The curly haired boy's face grew taunt for
a moment in unexpected emotion. The girl whispered loudly, "Was it a necromancer
with a skeletal army?" The bandit swallowed carefully and nodded. The three kids looked at each other for a
moment, while the hooded figures loomed above. The scrawny kid smiled, and said, "Well, why
don't we dish that necromancer some nice, cold revenge for all those towns?" The scarlet eyes in the shadowed cowls gleamed
eagerly, and the demon began speaking again. "… An hour later, you arrive in the hollowed
valley. It murmurs with motion, as dozens of people
look up from their daily tasks to see your arrival," the fell voice rumbled. The four figures, accompanied by five much
more bruised figures and two singed wolves, made their way carefully down the snowy slope. Far above them, the kids looked down upon
the scene like ancient gods, shadowed by spectral hooded figures with achingly bright red eyes. "… They lead you to the largest tent in
the valley, which despite being the nicest, is still roughly made…" the demon rumbled. Onyx hands twirled above the kids’ heads,
dripping a steady pattern of inky droplets onto the snow, which curled and twisted into
little figures that stepped forward anxiously, weapons half drawn. Tents unfurled from the snowy ground as the
most armoured figure stepped forward. "Why did you bring these people here, Euric? You know our rules about outsiders - it's
to keep us safe," the armoured figure said in a high voice. They removed their helmet to reveal a woman's
strong angled face. "I tell them that we're here to slay the necromancer,
and I use some cantrips to create little sparks, and levitations, and stuff,” spoke up the
scrawny kid. Tiny weapons shuddered and flew out of scabbards
of their own volition, and the snow swirled around the sparking sorcerer. The woman faded for a moment as a die tumbled
within her, then regained opacity. She nodded curtly to the group, and motioned
them into her tent. Suddenly, the snow blew backwards, the stars
winked out, and the hooded figures stepped backwards until their cloaks merged together
in an unbreakable wall that stretched to the ceiling. A moment passed, then a crimson bonfire sputtered
to life beside the table, casting a glow on the various bandits sitting inside the patchwork
cloth tent. Julder sat on a splintered stool at the table
too. "She speaks with you about your plans to defeat
the necromancer, and seems emboldened by your easy defeat of the bandits and clear magical
abilities," says the demon. "She will give you what you need to fight
them." The bandit leader opened a heavy oaken chest
against the canvas wall, then began pulling out items and weapons and setting them on
the table. "She says that you may each take one." The scrawny kid bent down over them and began
poking through them as Julder reached immediately for a bejewelled ring, tucking it carefully
into a pocket. The curly haired boy caught his eye, and he
shrugged. "For my wife. I'm not home much with this business, so…"
he said, shrugging again. He was interrupted by a cry of delight from
the girl as she pulled free a knife seemingly chiselled from a single ruby. It glittered darkly in the firelight as the
demon spoke, "It will always return when thrown, oh rogue…" The curly haired boy pocketed a bag of coins. "That… has no magical properties…" the
demon said, confused, while the curly haired boy just grinned and winked. The scrawny kid pulled a glowing glove from
the pile. The demon muttered softly, "It casts powerful
fireballs once a day, oh summoner…" as he slid it on. The kid began writing all this down excitedly
on a heavily creased sheet he pulled from his pocket. He ripped it. The kid rolled his eyes in annoyance, and
reached into his bag to pull out a thick stack of papers, thumping them on the table. The two other kids and Julder looked at the
papers in bemusement while the scrawny kid took one off the top, titled it "ITEMS", and
began writing. The girl swiped a page from the pile and scribbled
a small note on it, folded it, and held it in the air. "Mr. DM, could you, maybe, like, work this
into the story somehow? I think it would be cool for my character." The bandit leader plucked it out of the air
with a smile, and with eyes reflecting the crimson light of the fire, popped it into
her mouth and swallowed without chewing. The fire flared brighter, for a moment. A scream broke the silence. Narration Tone: Action, Horron, Thriller PART 3 The tent walls dissolved around them, and
the scene flowed as black smoke back onto the tabletop, where the snowy valley took
form. The valley glowed a soft white from the snow,
but the rest of the room was a void. One of the papers on the pile floated off
the pile as if blown by a slight breeze. It twirled and spun slowly above the table,
fading into a deep black color. Abruptly, the paper stiffened and began folding
upon itself, incredibly quickly. A black figure of papery angles dropped out
of the air a second later, landing in the valley. The origami man, folded of black paper and
wearing a black suit, stood silently in the snow. The pile of paper suddenly blew apart, and
dozens of sheets went tumbling through the air. They began stiffening and folding as well,
dropping into the clearing to form origami tents, carefully folded bandits running for
safety and shelter… and hundreds of immensely detailed paper skeletons emerging from the
forest. The dark man walked silently around the figures,
unseen. Four sheets of paper twirled and twisted into:
an elf with a hammer, a human carrying a staff,
a thick man with a broadsword, and a small knife wielding woman. They dropped into the clearing, facing the
approaching horde. The curly haired boy shouted loudly, "I CHARGE!",
and the origami elf began running heedlessly towards the skeletons. "No we need a - ...and he's off," said the
scrawny boy in dismay. The sorcerer hefted his paper staff, and pointed
it towards the army. "I suppose this is as good a time as any - I
cast fireball!" Several papers floating around the table suddenly
shredded into tiny strips and streaked into the valley, forming tiny flames and curls
of smoke that blasted towards the horde. Every skeleton outstretched their hands as
one, and tiny bits of paper ripped free and folded into hundreds of tiny dice. Hundreds of tiny paper dice were tossed to
the ground, then picked back up by the skeletons just as the fireball hit. About a third dissolved into strips of paper. The other two thirds dove out of the way or
raised folded shields. The man of black paper walked through the
paper flames without pause, eyeing the dissolving skeletons with something approaching excitement. Without pause, the curly haired elf smashed
into the front line, hammer swinging. Every few seconds, the boy would drop his
dice into the valley and peer at the number showing, and all the skeletons would pull
tiny paper dice from their palms and roll them quickly. Meanwhile, the rogue woman swung her knife
into the air, letting it boomerang through paper skulls before returning to her grip. A skeleton lunged as she caught it and swung
a blade into her side. "... You take damage from this sword… but
you do have an opportunity to react…," the demon's voice rumbled. "I slash at its ribcage!" the girl shouted. Her little paper figure swung its tiny blade
out, carving away some of the skeleton's folded ribs and causing it to stumble back. The origami woman straightened, and drove
her blade directly into the skeleton's forehead. It dissipated into tiny shreds of paper that
floated away on an unseen breeze, joining the slowly churning maelstrom of paper around
the table. The scrawny kid fired magic missile after
magic missile into the skeletal crowd, blasting them to oblivion. "Can you do this as much as you want…?"
the demon asked curiously. The scrawny kid paused, then nodded to the
tiny black man prowling through the battlefield. "You're right, I'll run out of spell slots. I cast -" and was cut off by a massive white
shape charging out of the horde and slamming into him. A skeletal minotaur. The girl shrieked and clapped her hands together. "YES!" It plowed into the human sorcerer, who dropped
his staff and scrabbled helplessly against the snow. The scrawny kid rolled his dice frantically,
but watched as the minotaur punched his figure and clawed him viciously across the face. An arm raised - "And Julder crashed into the
minotaur, broadsword slicing deeply into its chest…" the demon thundered. Its voice betrayed a childish glee at the
action. Julder's origami figure went tumbling into
the snow, the minotaur underneath him. It hacked ferociously at the beast, then paused
and rolled a dice. The minotaur did not roll a dice. The dozen skeletons creeping up behind him
did. They all grinned empty smiles and took a step
forward. Then another, until they could have touched
Julder. Then they leapt, knives and swords jabbing
deeply into him. "Julder grunted in surprise, but was helpless
to resist the surprise attacks of so many foes…" the demon whispered into the night
air. The little black man dove in front of Julder,
but was sliced to ribbons instantly and thoughtlessly. Julder's figure struggled for a moment, then
fell limp. The scrawny kid, face stricken and pale, turned
to the others. "I didn't mean for him to die - he didn't
need to do that!" He turned back to the scene as his figure
picked himself up. "I cast magic missile at the jerks!" Bolts of paper spun out from his hands and
blew the skeletons apart, leaving only spinning curls of paper behind. As the curly haired elf slammed his hammer
into a particularly large skeleton, and the rogue woman plucked her red paper knife out
of the air, a wave of force rippled out across the valley, reverberated past the kids and
into the void. The demon spoke, its voice like the fell tolling
of a bell striking midnight. "You feel that dark energy twist through the
battlefield, and a dreadful emptiness fills you.” The kids simultaneously shivered as the chill
of the wind and snow finally drove through them, and a small figure emerged from the
trees. The only one not folded of paper. A small man in a purple cloak. The demon's voice sounded both eager and anxious
as it rumbled through the void: "The necromancer arrives on the battlefield." A pop sounded, and all the paper spinning
around them dissolved into smoke. The origami shapes seemed to clench, then
expand rapidly into normal looking objects and people, leaving no paper behind. The small figure in violet raised their hand,
and the tiny bones across the field shivered to life and spun towards the rogue, interlocking
around her. Moments later, a ball of tightly knit bones
hovered in the air, with the rogue trapped inside. "Damn it! Can I roll to escape?" The demon's voice rumbled, "No... you must
wait for your turn... it is the sorcerer's turn I believe…" The scrawny kid pointed down at the purple
clad man. "I cast Scorching Ray at the necromancer!" A bolt of searing light shot out of the sorcerer
towards the necromancer. The purple clad man calmly reached into a
pocket, withdrew a small die, and rolled it as the beam burned towards him. Then a minuscule grin appeared on his face
as he dissolved into a flock of ravens. "He casts Dark Transport…" the demon grumbled. The necromancer reformed a short distance
away and swept his hand through the air, with a spray of dark rays shooting away from him. Two struck bandits trying to grapple with
remaining skeletons, the other narrowly missed the charging elf as the curly haired boy's
die stopped tumbling to face a '17' upwards. "I raise my hammer and prepare to crash it
into the necromancer!" shouted the boy. The miniature elf hefted the hammer, while
the necromancer snatched a bone off the ground and shouted an incantation lost to the howling
winter gale. As the hammer was brought down, the bone cracked
and elongated into a massive white greatsword that the necromancer raised to block the blow. "He casts Bonesword…" the demon whispered
darkly. The sword cracked and shattered, and the necromancer
brought his palm up to shoot a wave of violet energy into the elf's chest. The boy let out a sympathetic cry as the elf
was flung backwards and landed heavily in the snow. Once more, the bones lying around the field
shivered to life and swirled towards the elf as he gathered himself. Except they didn't form a cage as they latched
together into an intricate skeleton. They formed a dragon. "I cast lightning bolt on the necromancer
to disrupt him!" the scrawny kid shouted. Crackling crimson electricity formed above
the sorcerer's palms, but the necromancer simply plucked a black die from thin air,
rolled it, then pointed at one of the bandit corpses nearby. As the bolt of lightning streaked from the
sorcerer, the demon said, "He casts Guardian…" and the corpse lurched to life, flinging itself
into the lightning. "Can I PLEASE roll to escape?" the girl said
exasperatedly, scrabbling for her dice. "A 2?!" she cried, as the skeletal dragon
roared a dusty howl. The elf hoisted himself to his feet and lifted
his hammer from the snow. "I attack the ridiculously cool dragon!" the
curly haired boy shouted defiantly. The dragon hissed and curled backwards as
the hammer narrowly missed it, then swept its tail around and smashed it into the elf. As the elf landed once more into the snow,
black fire began dribbling from the skeletal dragon's maw. Without asking, he tossed his wooden die to
the table, and whooped as it halted on a 19. The elf rolled to the side and narrowly avoided
the gout of necromantic flame that whistled through the air. Meanwhile, the necromancer dodged another
ray of light and conjured a wall of screaming spectral faces that raced towards the sorcerer. The scrawny kid was furiously muttering and
rolling his die - "I cast Shield, now I respond with Thunder Wave-" as a green square rotated
out of nothingness in front of him to catch the spectral faces, then disappeared as the
air vibrated away from the sorcerer. The necromancer gestured, and a shimmering
purple dome flashed briefly into existence as the air rippled with force. The kid scowled, saying "I cast Scorching
Ray again!" in frustration. The ray blistered towards the necromancer
as he rolled a die, but for the first time, the small man didn't smile at the result. For the first time, he was just too slow getting
out of the way, and the ray carved a thin strip away from his side. The necromancer cried out in pain and pulled
a glass orb from his pocket, bringing it to his face. Then all three kids saw the slice on his side
close up and vanish, as the necromancer lowered the orb with a smile and took a step forward. "I roll to break free!!" the girl yelled. She let out an angry shout at the resulting
'3', while the scrawny boy spoke into the air. "I roll perception on what that object was,
and I get an… 18!" The demon rumbled in response, "... it is
a Blood Blossom in a glass orb, symbol of growth… inhale its fragrance from the holes
in the glass and be healed of any injury, but touch even a petal and the growth will
be too strong to handle…” The scrawny kid stopped to process this as
the curly haired boy shouted, "I grapple the dragon!" The demon's voice hesitated, then groaned
in despair as it said, "... it throws you free and turns towards the bandits… there
is a child abandoned in the battlefield, and the dragon…" A die dropped out of its ribcage to spin to
the ground, revealing a 17 - "... sees her." The curly haired boy roared in sudden anger. "Not the kid, you monster! I attack its leg with my hammer!" The dragon began dribbling black fire, eyeing
the terrified child malevolently before it screeched in pain and toppled over as its
leg shattered. The elf limped over to its skull as it tried
to right itself. "I pulverize it." the curly haired boy said with finality. And the elf did so. "Can I PUH-LEASE ESCAPE!!!" the girl almost
screamed. She looked to be about to fall out of her
chair with pent-up excitement as she tossed the dice onto the table. A 16. "YEESSSSS! I hurl my ruby dagger at the necromancer!" She tossed her die to the table excitedly,
then cried out as it bounced away off the edge and out of sight. The curly haired boy quickly grabbed her shoulder
as she bent to search for it. "Here, use mine - we can't stop now!" The girl took the elaborately carved wooden
D20, and tossed it to the table as the ruby knife left her hand and swung towards the
necromancer. As the die bounced, the necromancer stepped
easily out of the way, then turned to look at her in amusement. And the die rolled to a stop beside his small
figure. A 20. The knife whistled back from behind to return
to the rogue's hand, and smashed into the glass orb clutched in the necromancer's grip,
shattering it. "He snatches at the blossom unconsciously…"
the demon whispered as the purple clad man caught the blossom in his hand. "Too much growth..." The die exploded. The wooden lattice erupted outwards and drove
deeply into the ground below, anchoring it immediately. Other tendrils whipped around the necromancer,
ensnaring him in dozens of branches. They continued to sprout more as the wood
wrapped itself around the necromancer like a python, tightening and curling faster than
he could scream. Tiny leaves popped into life along the ruthless
branches, and his form disappeared into the trunk until only an outstretched hand holding
a single pink blossom remained poking out of the massive tree. "Then all is still, and the necromancer is
dead." The demon rumbled with a quiet glee. As the kids whooped in relieved excitement,
the voice interrupted. "But we have not finished yet…" The scene on the tabletop faded away into
smoke, then the void burst alight from the fires of hundreds of candles and lanterns
arrayed around a great hall. "In celebration of your defeat of the necromancer,
you are invited to meet with the King." Dozens of retainers wearing silvery masks,
as if at a masquerade, filled the room. As they stared at the kids, the scrawny boy
piped up. "Could I heal my master with that blossom?" All the retainers nodded in unison, and the
kid sighed in relief. "Then I do that, before coming to meet with
the King." "Your master is safe, thanks to your efforts,
oh sorcerer," said a stately voice. A man with an ornate crown pushed out of the
throng of retainers and inclined his head at the scrawny kid. "And so is this land. And thanks to you, oh warrior. We have elected to grant you a small fortune
-" At this, a large sack materialized and dropped in front of the curly haired boy with
a satisfying clink - "and madame rogue, we have -" The King stopped and peered closer at the
girl, who beamed in her seat. Then his mouth dropped open and tears welled
up in his eyes as he spoke. "My dear, my little princess… you're alive!" The two boys turned, stunned, to look at the
girl. She winked. "It is her backstory… she is the lost princess,"
the demon rumbled. The king reached forward and plucked the ruby
knife from her, tossing it aside. "You shall never leave my side again, do you
hear me? You could have died!" The girl grinned, and stretched out her hand. The king stumbled aside as she plucked the
returning knife out of the air. "No, Father, I'm going to do what I want to,
and will only rule if the kingdom requires it. I can protect myself!" The two boys clapped enthusiastically at the
gesture, and the entire crowd of masked retainers began loudly applauding. The king hesitated, then clapped slowly as
well as with a reluctant smile, before dissolving into dark smoke. The rest of the attendees and the great hall
melted away into shadow, leaving only a plainly dressed man wearing the simple mask of a laughing
face. The figure walked forward, as scarlet globes
lit inside the mask's eyes, and the void around them brightened to reveal their room. Unchanged, except for a large pile of hastily
rifled through and overturned D&D guidebooks and rules. The masked figure stopped beside the pile
and looked at the three kids with scarlet eyes. An edge of excitement and nervousness tinged
its ancient voice as the demon spoke. "... So how did I do?” Amazing. That’s how you did. Who wants a demon to be their DM now? Me. That’s who. Please let us know what you think and comment
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