Young Writers Society

When you open your eyes, you find yourself in an unfamiliar world. It may similar to your own, but there are little things that aren't the same - the songbirds sing different tunes, the trees and grass are a slightly different shade of green, and the clouds in the sky above are lighter and fluffier than those of your own.

But this isn't the only thing that is wrong. Some things have...changed. Your clothes, at least, are different. But other details may have also changed - you've gained features that weren't previously present, and abilities that you could have only dreamed of. It doesn't make any sense in the slightest.

You don't have much time to process your confusion, however. There are other people around. And, though you can't put your finger on why, you feel that the woods are filled with others as well. Whether they will turn out to be a threat or not is to be decided, but the most you can do right now is acquaint yourself with the ones you've ended up around. Something tells you that they'll be important.

And, maybe, they'll help you find a way home.

1. This is a roleplay with a lot of characters. If you're not okay with that style of roleplaying, this might not be the roleplay for you.

2. Your characters are put into parties. Each writer has one party that consists of 2-6 characters. Since this is styled after DND, try to fit some of the original roles! You can have duplicates if you want, but I highly recommend coming up with unique ones for each character.

3. Depending on the role your character receives, they may undergo physical and magical changes. The magical changes involve new abilities - like being able to cast magic if they were a regular person before - and the physical ones involve something like someone becoming an elf when they end up as an archer.

4. All the parties will meet up in the first few posts, but feel free to have your characters explore the forest together first! You're also free to throw in whatever threats you want.

5. When you do decide on everything about your characters, please let me know in a spoiler in your post! I'm keeping an official list of the parties down below so we can all keep track of who's in what party and what their respective roles are. Knowing their races would also be helpful!

6. Have fun! This roleplay might get serious at some points, but it's ultimately one big, fun adventure with a giant cast.

1. Magestorrow's Party
Lorcan Fuery II - Archer - Elf
Prince Nendros Exel Xenon - Cleric - Drakin*
Dresden - Necromancer - Human (?)
Shadow - Fighter - Tiefling
Adrian Black - Druid - Human

*Note: A drakin is a custom race that's like dragonborns, but are more humanoid than dragon in appearance.

2. TheSilverFox's Party - Cat o' Six Tails
Denebola Argentus - Archer - Lion
Thytes Aurelius - Barbarian - Lion
Mal Cinis - Necromancer - Lion
Zechariah - Cleric - (white) Tiger
Cysol 'Lunis' - Assassin - (black) Panther
Evion Hyusei - Druid - Tiger

3. zaminami's Party - Tesla Party

Flosmoke Garonia - Wizard - Half-dragon
Mellie - Spy - Demon
Valanthe Liadon - Thief - Elf
Fargrim Ironfist - Fighter - Dwarf
Ellil Jarreed - Assassin - Fairy
Rottoro Pedora - Cleric - Skeleton

4. Featherstone's Party

Ardeshir Ellonhav - Barbarian - Human
Jay - Swashbuckler - Human
Engel Jäger/Kratzer - Elven - Bard
Thana - Ranger (Beastmaster) - Human
Tasha - Paladin - Lycanthropic Human (Weredog)
Mattathias Jermaine/Nerezzar - Assassin - Draconian

When he opened his eyes, it was to the sound of screaming.

Everything was wrong. He should have been laying in a comfortable bed in the Black Dragon Inn, and shouldn't have been sitting perched in a tree in the middle of a forest.

(At least, he guessed it was a forest. It was a little hard to see with the leaves in front of his face.)

His hood began to slip back as he craned his head; he absentmindedly went to pull it down. It was only when he had completed the action that he realized that he hadn't been wearing a hood before, and that was when the screaming started back up again.

Okay, he really needed to see what was going on.

It was hard shifting his weight without breaking the branch, but he somehow managed to pull it off. Now he had a bird's eye view of the spectacle down below - even he, who had seen many, many things, couldn't help but stare.

There were four people in the forest floor below. All looked relatively tall and capable, but two out of the four were screaming. The two screaming looked the most human out of the group - minus the pointy ears on one of them, and the fangs he saw for the briefest of moments. The two were clinging each other as their screams ran out, eyes focused solely on the other two.

One of the second pair looked like he was the kid of a dragon and a human, if dragons even existed to begin with. He wouldn't have put it past the universe, but it was still a strange, unfamiliar thing to see. He didn't even know how to describe the other one. The closest way he could come was by describing her as a purple, less cute version of Mantis from Guardians of the Galaxy.

Dragon Man was in the middle of trying to comforting the two screaming, while Bug Lady was staring down at her hands with wide eyes. She was muttering something under her breath, but he couldn't pick up on it.

Elf Guy and Random Dude turned and stared at each other rather suddenly, and then Random Dude promptly pushed Elf Guy down to the ground, stuttering incoherently as he gestured at the fangs and the ears.

"Please don't scream," Dragon Man said, his tone frantic yet gentle. He tried to take a step towards Elf Guy, but the downed man scooted away the moment he approached. Random Dude just let out another scream - which was starting to get quite annoying. And Bug Lady just kept standing there, her face unreadable as she slowly reached up to touch the horns/antennae protruding from her forehead.

Something wasn't sitting right with him, and there was only one way to find out what.

He hopped down from his tree branch, landing in the shadows of the tree with a soft thud. All were too preoccupied to notice him shifting about the shadows, eyeing each member of the strange group as he tried to figure out what was going on.

He looked down at himself.

He definitely wasn't wearing these clothes before. They did match his little performance - it had the classic tackiness all good magicians looked for in their outfits - but the presence of skulls and blatantly death-themed things confused him to no end. Wasn't that Raptor's gig-

He glanced back up at the others, then down at himself.

Oh, he got it now. It was a stupid one, and one that frankly didn't make the least bit of sense, but they were in a D&D-esque story. Bug Lady was a tiefling and a fighter. Dragon Man was definitely a cleric, and Random Dude was probably a human cleric. Elf Man was an archer.

And he was a human necromancer.

Oh, he could play this part very well.

Giving the most creepy smile he could muster - both ominous and cheerful, an off-putting combination - he stepped out of the shadows.

"Hello," he said.

The druid, archer, and, surprisingly enough, the cleric all screamed, while the fighter withdrew her sword and put it up towards his face. "Who are you?" she demanded.

British, huh?

"That's not nice," he replied.

"I don't care if it's nice or not," she shot back. "Answer my question. Who are you?"

"The name's Dresden," he said, giving a little theatrical bow. "I'm your friendly neighborhood magician and necromancer."

The druid stared at him for a moment, then promptly darted off into the strange and mysterious woods. He stifled a groan in response - why did he have to be so skittish? This was making the whole situation even more difficult than it already was. The archer looked he was seriously considering the same decision, but Dresden didn't give him a chance to act on it. Something told him it was important for their odd little group to stay together, even if half of the party was scared of the other. They must have ended up together for a reason.

"Don't go anywhere," he warned the group. "If you do, I'll send a horde of angry spirits to find you, and you do not want to see what they do when I sic them on someone."

The little bits of skin on the cleric that were visible turned a shade lighter, and the archer also paled. The fighter opened her mouth - likely to object - but he was already bounding off into the woods after the druid.

He finally found the druid gasping for air underneath a tree, clearly out of breath. The druid let out a startled cry when he tapped his shoulder, opening his mouth to let out another scream before Dresden slammed his hand down over his lips.

"Don't scream again," he said. "We're in the middle of the wilderness, and something tells me there's some not so friendly things lurking out here. Do you get what I'm saying?"

The druid gave a frantic nod.

He removed his hand. "Good. Now, before you panic, I think we're in Dungeons and Dragons."

The druid stared at him.

"I'm a necromancer, you're a druid, the dragon's a cleric, the bug lady's a tiefling fighter, and the elf with fangs is our archer," he elaborated.

"...And I'm not supposed to panic after you say that?" the druid replied.

He blinked. "So you can talk."

The druid's face grew red in embarrassment. "Of-Of course I can."

"Well, that makes things easier," Dresden said, letting out a sigh. He turned his back to the druid, grabbing onto the man's wrist and tugging him in the direction of the group. The druid surprisingly didn't resist. "I already gave you my name, so what's yours?"

"..Adrian Black," was the quiet, hesitant response.


Back in the clearing, the elf raised a hand and gave a nervous wave and laugh. "H-Hi," he managed to get out, eying the two that were left. Both easily towered over him, despite him usually being the tallest in the room. He took a couple steps back and bumped into the closest tree.

Where was he, and why were his ears so pointy?

It took him a few seconds for Mal to get his bearings, which he immediately regretted. The first thing that he noticed when he blinked his eyes open were the men and women in masks that wandered around the campground in front of him. Some of them cast glances in his direction, but most of them paid him no attention. Plenty huddled around campfires, while others climbed up ladders onto perches on the tops of trees.

Mal found himself glad about that, mostly because of his black eye and the bruises that littered his body when he looked down. Dressed in black robes, hands and waist bound to a post by a thick rope, he looked terrible. He felt terrible too. To say nothing of the rotting smell that suddenly flooded into his nose. Was that him, or-

Turning his head to the right, Mal’s eyes tried to shoot their way out of his skull. Bound to the post was a dead panther who looked quite a bit like Lunis, except with a spear sticking out of his chest. But, that couldn’t be Lunis, right? Lunis was supposed to be far away from Elchanan. Or, wherever this place was. At least the panther’s head tilted away, so Mal couldn’t get a good look at it.

And, strangely enough, Mal didn’t feel too panicked. Sure, a part of him wanted to claw at his ropes and try and free himself - his heart doubled its speed, his throat constricted, and it felt like something pressed on his chest. Yet, he couldn’t help but get the impression he could actually do something to help the dead panther.

But, there wasn’t any magic that could do that, right?

Some memory – a memory that wasn’t his – pulled Mal’s eyes over to the right. Sure enough, there was a staff not unlike his own resting on a box. And over it hung Thytes.

This had to be Thytes. Someone had swapped out his robes with brown shorts trimmed with white fur, and his sword with clubs, but it had to be him. Fortunately enough, the lion looked alive too, given the way that he was trying to bend his feet backwards to claw at the ropes that suspended him above the ground. Hanging next to him had to be Denebola, as Mal confirmed when her unconscious face swung into view. Some details were wrong – her ears were a little longer, and Mal was fairly sure that she was a bit smaller than usual – but that had to be the lioness. Dressed in a green outfit, complete with a hat that had fallen to the ground, she didn’t appear to have any visible wounds. Hopefully she was alive, because Mal guessed it’d be pain to have to use his staff twice.

Mal coughed. Thytes glanced over at him, then put a finger to his lips. Taking the hint, Mal nodded his head in the general direction of the staff, then over at the dead panther.

Thytes got to work. Seconds turned to hours while the lion quietly hacked away at his rope, stopping whenever a masked person walked by. Mal’s heart kept skipping beats the longer he stayed next to the decaying body and watched the spectacle. His wrists screamed as he made his own efforts, all to no avail – the rope was too thick for him. Not for the dead panther, who was a bit too large, but the panther was dead.

One masked person stopped in between Thytes and Mal. Mal sucked in a breath as the masked person looked up at Thytes, and kept holding it in as the masked person pulled out a dagger and approached the larger lion.

To Mal’s surprise, though, the masked man swung his dagger into the rope. It snapped, sending Thytes crashing to the ground. As masked strangers whirled around and gave cries of alarm, the masked man’s morphed, replaced by that of a tiger.

“Come on, fight me!” the tiger yelled, flinging a dagger at one of the strangers. The stranger screamed and slumped to the ground.

Masked strangers on all sides yanked out their swords, trying to surround the tiger. But Thytes hauled himself onto his feet and roared. He snatched his staff and chucked it at Mal before pulling out his clubs and descending on the nearest stranger. A couple screams and blows later, Thytes rose up with a sword in hand.

In the meantime, the staff clattered onto the ground in front of Mal’s hand. Straining, Mal bit his lip and reached out, grabbing the tip of the staff. It was enough to point the other end of the staff at the dead panther. Concentrating, Mal squinted at the dead panther as the staff slipped its way out of the panther’s chest. Scabs shriveled away, cuts healed themselves, and the panther’s eyes shot open.

Letting out some intense coughs, the panther quickly pulled himself onto his feet. And, sure enough, it was Lunis, looking just as armed and dangerous as ever. Sprinting through the melee, Lunis slashed at the faces of the strangers before snatching the belt that held his daggers and poisons from the box the other weapons had been kept in. And then he joined the fray alongside the others, tearing through attackers and dodging arrows.

And Mal was still trapped. The lion groaned as he looked back up at the tree, where it turned out that Denebola hadn’t been unconscious after all. Denebola had already hauled herself onto the tree branch, using the bark to cut through the rope that bound her feet. Had she been waiting for the perfect moment to strike? In any case, the lioness quickly freed herself and scampered down the tree to the ground, picking up a bow and quiver from the box.

“Help!” Mal shouted, but Denebola was already busy taking out the snipers hiding in the trees. When she cleared out one perch, she grabbed onto the ladder and hauled herself up, vanishing from sight. Growling, Mal tried to struggle against and bite his ropes, but to no avail. Somehow, knowing that the others were alive and well made his situation so much worse. He was trapped; he was helpless; he couldn’t fight very well; it would be easy for someone to walk up and cut his throat.

Footsteps. Mal closed his eyes and grit his teeth as someone approached. If he died, there wasn’t going to be anyone to (somehow) heal him. So, this was the end. Far away from Lasan. Far away from his home. Far away from anything he –

“Are you alright?”

Mal blinked back tears as he stared up into Zech’s face. “I’m okay,” he choked out.

Zech used the sword in his paw to cut up the rope, then pulled Mal onto his feet. Before Mal had a chance to respond, Zech set his own staff on Mal’s shoulder. Warmth flooded through the lion, cuts and bruises disappearing. His wrists went from feeling raw to sore to perfectly fine, and his vision cleared up as the black eye faded away.

It was about then that Mal realized the noise had stopped. He looked all around him at the bodies that littered the ground, slumped against the tents, and sprawled out over tree branches.

“That was quick,” Mal said, after taking some deep breaths.

“And we think we’ve found who’s been leading them,” Zech said, grabbing Mal’s arm. “C’mon.”

Mal let Zech pull him around the mess of a campground until they stood beside a small tent littered with trinkets, gold pieces, and bloodied flags. Probably from the last few victims. Not that there would be any more.

A few of the others stood around the tent – Denebola by the entrance, Lunis and the tiger to the side. Mal swore he could place the tiger, but the particular name eluded him. And Denebola, bow drawn, sneaking up to the entrance to the tent, caught Mal’s attention more.

Denebola moved suddenly, nudging the tent flap open with a foot and pointing her bow inside. After a few seconds, she stepped back, fired an arrow into the air, and set a palm against her forehead. “Thytes,” she said. “Why?”

A muffled voice answered back from inside the tent.

Walking a short distance away, Denebola grabbed a pile of rope and tossed it into the tent. “Dunno if they’re going to be of any use as a hostage,” she said. “But might as well tie them up anyways.” She turned to everyone else. “And spread out. Check to make sure these bandits are dead. The last thing we need is reinforcements or anything else that might’ve heard us.”

Too late, Mal thought, but walked with Zech to the edge of the camp. They’d made too much noise and caused too much damage for anyone in the forest not to hear them. Hopefully whoever else was around would be friendlier than the bandits.

When they returned to the other members of their little party, not much had changed. The tiefling looked just as intimidating as before, the dragon was still trying to comfort the elf, and the elf looked absolutely terrified and confused about the entire situation. Dresden cleared his throat as he and Adrian walked into the clearing; by this point, he no longer was leading him along by holding onto his wrist. Adrian thankfully hadn't tried running away again after their little conversation.

Heads turned.

"I've returned," Dresden said. "Did you miss me?"

"No," the tiefling replied.

His eyebrow twitched in annoyance - he couldn't tell if he was supposed to be entertained or irritated by her attitude. Whatever the case was, they needed to get this situation sorted out. He left Adrian on the edge of the group, heading towards its center to appoint himself as its leader. It wasn't like they had anyone else who could lead. The tiefling or the dragon might have been contenders, but they had done little to help with the situation when Adrian ran away.

"I'm sure some of you have already guessed this," he said, "but I think we're in Dungeons and Dragons."

The elf and dragon - apparently social recluses - both looked confused, but understanding seemed to dawn on the tiefling rather quickly. She looked down at her purple hands again and let out a frustrated swear when his words rang true.

"What's Dungeons and Dragons?" the dragon asked.

Adrian gave a little gasp from behind Dresden. "You've never heard of it before?" he whispered, his voice incredulous. "How could you not have? Dungeons and Dragons is amazing! You get to go on epic quests through treacherous lands, and encounter monsters of every kind! You and your party valiantly fight against the hordes of evil, winning hearts and money until you one day perish at the hands of the Dungeon Master and their most terrible of schemes."

They all stared at him.

Adrian faltered. "Not that I've, uh, played it before..." he said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "I've just heard people talk about it..."

"That sounds absolutely terrifying," the dragon said.

The tiefling shrugged. "It's a roleplaying game."

The elf nervously left his tree, eying the others with a surprisingly cool look to his eyes. Dresden was impressed - he had pegged the guy as a coward thanks to the screaming match with Adrian. "So we're stuck like this?"

"I think so," Adrian agreed. "Although, um...I'm guessing you all were changed to match your roles?"

"I don't even know the roles," the dragon said. Now he was the one who looked sheepish. "But, anyways. We probably should say who we are, shouldn't we? And then someone can help the few of us who aren't familiar with the game by telling us what exactly we are."

"I'm Dresden, as previously introduced," Dresden began. The lie easily slipped off of his lips; he should have been getting worried about how easily he could lie about his name, but it wasn't like he had been telling the complete truth before the incident. "Like I said before, I'm your friendly neighborhood necromancer - I can bring people back from the dead, control spirits, and talk with the dead. Or, at least, that's what I should be able to."

"I'm Adrian Black," Adrian said. He gave a shy little wave as he walked over to Dresden's side. "I'm a druid, I think."

"My name's Lorcan Fuery II," the elf said. Adrian started giving him a funny look after the introduction, but Lorcan didn't appear to pick up on it.

Dresden took the awkward pause that followed his name to inform the group what Lorcan had to be; he thought it would have been obvious, given the weapon and the ears, but apparently some of them (the dragon) were denser than he had thought was possibly. "Lorcan's our archer, and our resident elf," Dresden explained.

Lorcan's ears twitched. "An..elf?"

"I've never heard of an elf before," the dragon said.

Dresden ignored the dragon's comment and sent an imploring look in the tiefling's direction. She replied by sending him a glare and folding her arms. "You can call me Shadow. I'm a tiefling, and apparently a fighter."

"That's unnecessarily edgy," he replied.

"You're the necromancer, and the one dressed in all black," she retorted. "I think you have me back, Dresden."

He stared. Had she...? No, she couldn't have. She wasn't bringing it up with the rest of the group, and that was something that would have been brought to the attention of everyone else.

"My name's Prince Nendros Exel Xenon," the dragon said, and that promptly ended the impromptu staring match between Dresden and Shadow. Both turned to stare at him instead, as well as Adrian and Lorcan. The apparent member of royalty hurried added, "But you can just call me Nendros or Nen. I just thought I should get the truth out so I didn't regret it later. I've been there before, and it's not enjoyable."

When no one spoke, he turned to Adrian.

"What am I supposed to be, exactly?"

Adrian, who had been staring at him, blinked. "You're, uh, a cleric. You heal people - you're support."

"Oh," Nendros said. He straightened a little, looking himself and his staff over. "I like that."


Now that introductions had been made, the makeshift party decided to embark into the rest of the woods. They didn't really have any other choice. They could have lingered, but none of them were fond of staying in the eerie woods longer than they had to. Dresden craved the comfort of sleeping in a bed and filling his stomach with a warm meal - something he would have once thought was an impossible thing to desire.

It was as they completed the first hour of their awkwardly silent trek that he began to feel uneasy. A quick glance back at the others showed they felt the same way, if their uncomfortable and worried looks were anything to go off of. Even Shadow looked nervous, and the fighter didn't strike him as the type to be uncomfortable.

"I smell blood," Nendros murmured from behind him.

"That's ominous," Adrian said, a nervous laugh following the comment.

"Can you tell if it's human or not?" Lorcan asked. Now Dresden was really getting thrown off - he sounded surprisingly collected for someone who had been cowering at the sight of Nendros and Shadow earlier.

"It's human," Nendros confirmed.

"Oh," Dresden said, "wonderful."

Despite this revelation, none of them objected to heading towards its source. Hands lingered over weapons, and Dresden prepared to tap into a reserve of magic he hadn't touched for some time. When they finally reached its source, Dresden was astonished to see a bandit camp littered with dead bodies.

In response to the sight, their cleric promptly retched into the nearest bush.

Dresden sighed, then turned back to the situation on hand. He gestured for the others to follow him as he approached a line of bushes dividing the forest from the camp. None protested the decision. They all silently followed. Even Nendros, who looked sick to his stomach, came along. The group crouched behind the thankfully tall bushes and eyed the few living people that remained in the camp.

And those people, apparently, were cats.

...Dresden wasn't really sure how he was supposed to feel about that.

"We need to find out what happened," Shadow hissed into his ear.

"I know we do," Dresden hissed back. "I'm just trying to figure out the strategy."

"You're a necromancer!" Shadow whispered. "You can talk to the dead, remember?"

She did have a point, now that he thought about it. "But how am I supposed to get to one of the dead bandits-"

As he spoke, the bushes rustled from nearby. Dresden froze and slowly turned his head to see the source of the noise. A wolf had casually strolled out from the treeline and was in the middle of grabbing one of the dead bandits by the collar of his shirt, the fabric in its mouth as it gave a strong tug in the group's direction.

He didn't even have to look to see if Adrian was missing to know that it was their druid; the wolf was...unique. It could only be someone from the real world and not the world of DnD - that much he was sure of.

Adrian finished dragging the corpse into the woods, plopping it down a little ways past the group before frantically trying to spit out the little bits of fiber that clung to his tongue.

"...Why are you wolf!Link from Twilight Princess?" Dresden whispered, crawling over to the corpse. The stench was horrendous, and it sent Nendros once again retching into the bushes.

If a wolf could look embarrassed, Adrian did. "Because I was playing it before I ended up here," the druid admitted, ducking his canine head down and staring at a spot on the ground.

Shadow and Lorcan crawled over to him while Nendros continued to barf into the bush. "Can you do your thing now?" Shadow asked. "I don't like how open we are."

"I'm working on it," Dresden whispered. "Just give me a minute."

He could feel unfamiliar magic surging up from within him. He didn't like the feeling of it in the slightest, but he had a job he needed to perform. He tried to imagine the corpse springing to life again. His magic was eager to help. The bandit's chest swelled as he took in a large breath of fresh air...

...and promptly let out a moan as it shot up.

"...Is he supposed to do that?" Lorcan asked.

"No," Shadow hissed. She turned and shot Dresden a glare.

"On the downside, our recon was a fail," Dresden said. He hesitantly reached out a hand to touch the bandit. When nothing bad happened, he gave it an affectionate pat on the shoulder. "On the upside, we now have a pet zombie."

"How is that an upside?" Nendros said, groaning as he averted his gaze from the still bloody and clearly dead zombie.

Mal sat on a box, swinging his legs back and forth. He sighed and propped his fists against his chin. On one hand, he was relieved his job was boring - as far as he could tell, despite the strange creatures he had heard in the woods, nothing had dared to approach the camp. And at least he wasn't in Denebola's position. He could still hear her bow as she made quick work of the survivors. On the other hand, he wished that this wasn't his job in the first place. He wished he wasn't here at all. Mal needed to be back with Lasan, to feel the lizard's embrace and plan the next day's speeches and train the troops and be each other's bodyguards. The lion felt so vulnerable without him.

Soft footprints. Looking to his right, Mal shuffled out of the way as Thytes sat down.

"Ah, hello," Thytes said with a surprising amount of restraint. He adjusted his clubs and gave Mal an awkward smile.

Mal rolled his eyes. "Could you have saved me instead of, y'know, sleeping with the bandit leader?" he said.

Thytes's smile grew even more forced. "Aheh," he said, lowering his head and rubbing his neck. "He was surprisingly amenable. And one must imagine the bandits did not know what to do when their leader was so preoccupied."

"Hmm," Mal said. "I'm sure."

In the silence that settled over them, Mal started to become aware of some quiet noises past a line of bushes to his left. It sounded like...whispers? And the growling of a wolf?

When they heard the moan, both Mal and Thytes stiffened. It took a few second for the larger lion to react, but Thytes stood up. "Get Denebola," he said to Mal. "I must see that these intruders dare not approach."

Not one to turn down the option of running away, Mal turned around and sped through camp.

As their group devolved into chaos, Lorcan's ears twitched. His hearing had always been better than most, but now it was exceptional - he could hear movement within the camp, and could hear the sound of someone approaching. He went to inform the others, but paused when he caught a glimpse of the person approaching. Whoever he was, he certainly didn't look friendly; the club and expression on his face made Lorcan sure of that.

His hand itched for the comfort of his sword. He even held his hand out for a moment, only to realize that the weapon would never appear if Hero wasn't in the near vicinity. The only weapon he had was a bow, and a bow wasn't as easy to use as a sword.

"Someone's coming," he said.

Heads turned. Even Nen - who looked absolutely horrible - raised his head and stared at their oncoming foe. Shadow swore. Adrian looked incredibly nervous. And Dresden glanced between the threat and his zombie (who looked nothing like the zombies Lorcan knew) with a certain glint to his eye.

Lorcan's body went on autopilot. He went to raise his bow and equip it with an arrow, but he didn't know how - he had never learned. He fumbled with the arrow for several more seconds before Shadow swooped in and took both his quiver and bow away from him.

"I took archery lessons when I was a kid," she said, notching the arrow with ease as she aimed it at the oncoming opponent. "I've kept it up as a hobby."

Lorcan looked down at the unused sword at her side. When it seemed like she was perfectly content using his bow, he withdrew the sword. The weight felt off in his hand, but it was still better than a completely unfamiliar weapon.

Behind him, Dresden gave the zombie another pat on the shoulder. "Want to help me out with this?"

The zombie moaned in response.

"I'm going to take that as a yes," Dresden replied.

Lorcan glanced back at the remaining two members of their group as the zombie staggered up to the front of the bushes. Nen looked queasy, but he still watched the others despite his apparently bad digestive system. It was Adrian that made him pause - he had returned to his original form, and was walking past him with a determination that completely threw him off.

Oh, and an impulsiveness to rival Kartiel's.

"What are you doing!?" Dresden and Shadow simultaneously asked as Adrian stepped over the bushes and approached the person with the club. Lorcan wanted to ask the same question, but refrained from it - the others already had it covered.

"I'm exhausting all of our options," Adrian replied. He raised his hands above his head, stopping when he was a few feet away from the opponent. "Hi. I'm sorry if my party caused you and your group any alarm, but we were just a little worried by all of the death and destruction. But if you let us know why you did, and it's not because you just like killing people - not that I thought you would, because that would be a rude conclusion to jump to - we definitely won't attack."

Shadow sighed. "Nendros, get ready to heal Adrian."

"If that doesn't work, I'll just bring him back to life," Dresden helpfully suggested.

Shadow glanced back at the necromancer. "Yeah, no."

Lorcan turned his attention back to the exchange between Adrian and the opponent, desperately hoping that it didn't end horribly.

Thytes stopped, unsure of what to do next. The sound of weapons being drawn? Concerning. A blood-covered bandit rising out of the bushes and moaning at him? A problem. A young and nervous-looking man walking up to him and asking what had happened? He wasn't sure how to take that.

Hearing a pair of footsteps behind him - probably Denebola and Mal - Thytes raised a paw for them to stop. Looking down at the young man, Thytes nodded. "That is a perfectly appropriate conclusion," the lion said. "It is rather natural to wander into such a battlefield and suspect the survivors to be, in some way, malicious, particularly when those survivors do not conduct the rational act of leaving said battlefield. Fortunately enough, however, we take no enjoyment out of murder. Or, I should hope - I speak for myself here, and we do have an assassin or two among us. In any case, these bandits had trapped and/or killed us, so we had responded out of self-defense. I should hope you do not intend to do the same?"

Adrian let out a breath he hadn't realize he had been holding. Trying to passively end a conflict was better than taking the aggressive route, but he had been lying when he said he hadn't assumed they were killing for the sake of killing. Monsters tended to be mindless monsters where he came from, and he would have guessed Dungeons and Dragons to be the same way.

"We should ask if they have any quests," Dresden hissed. "Maybe they'll give us money."

"Is money really a concern right now?" Shadow hissed back.

"Money is always a concern in a situation like this," he replied. "You never know when some coins could come in handy."

Adrian gave the three former opponents an awkward, almost apologetic smile, scooting back in the direction of the rest of his party. If he could hear them talking with his normal, human hearing, these three could definitely as well. And Adrian really didn't want to think of the implications of three NPCs hearing them talk about something like this.

"If you won't harm us, we won't harm you," Adrian finally said, lips parting into a toothy, just as awkward smile.

He stepped back over the bush, nearly tripping in the process as he quickly got closer to Dresden and Shadow. "We can't talk about stuff like that when they're around."

"But they're just NPCs," Dresden replied. His zombie gave a confused groan in agreement.

"...What alignment did you write for?" Shadow asked.

"Chaotic neutral," Dresden proudly declared, only to receive a terrified, aghast look from Adrian when the druid heard how loud his voice was.

Nendros slowly joined the rest of the group, averting his gaze from the zombie when it started to slowly make its way over. Dresden affectionately threw his arm around its shoulder when it sat down beside him.

But Lorcan didn't go to join them. He was studying the trio with something in his blue eyes. Maybe it was recognition, or maybe it was curiosity. Adrian couldn't quite put his finger on what.

"Do you know Aegeas and Taber?" he asked the trio.

The names meant nothing to Adrian or the others. He would have thought the two were important NPCs used in multiple campaigns, but that didn’t make sense. Lorcan didn't know what Dungeons and Dragons was, so how could he have known its NPCs?

Oh dear, they were an awfully chatty bunch. Not hostile, but they had some strange ideas about Thytes and his friends - that they gave out 'missions' and were 'NPCs'. But the lion could provide some help anyways.

"We do have some gold," Thytes said. "The leader kept most of it in his tent, and we have no particular interest in it, so we can bring it out for you."

That was when the question about Aegeas and Taber registered. However, Denebola walked past him before he could begin to answer.

"Yeah," she said slowly, looking down at another archer. "What do you want with my stepnephew and his friend?"

She also pointed a paw to behind the other group. "Get out of there, Lunis," she said. "They're weird, but I don't think they're out to get us."

A few seconds later, the panther sulked out of the underbrush, followed by Zech. That left everyone but the tiger, who Thytes could see was trying to quietly walk his way over.

Everyone was here. The lion breathed a sigh of relief.

"I've met them before," Lorcan said. When he glanced back at the rest of the party, three out of the four looked downright shocked, while the last one - Nendros - had a grin on his face as he got to his feet. Apparently Lorcan wasn't the only one who had met them before.

"I've met Aegeas, too," he said.

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Dresden exclaimed. Now he was hopping up to his feet, dragging his zombie along with him as he approached the group. He cast the briefest of glances in the direction of the panther and tiger that had appeared out of nowhere before turning back to Lorcan and Nendros. "They're NPCs. How can NPCs be-"

He stopped mid-sentence, then let out a groan that was promptly imitated by his zombie.

"They're not NPCs, are they?"

"...What's an NPC?" Nendros hesitantly asked.

"A non-playable character," Shadow explained, joining the group up front. It took nothing more than a look with Lorcan for the two to come to the silent conclusion that they needed to switch their weapons, and soon Lorcan had the familiar weight of a sword on his side. "They give you quests, and often give you a reward for completing the quests."

"They could also be the source of a problem, too," Adrian added. He popped up between Nendros and Lorcan. "It depends on what's going on in the campaign - uh, that's the story."

"So we're all in the same situation?" Lorcan asked.

The three members of the party familiar with Dungeons and Dragons glanced at each other, then all nodded in agreement. Lorcan turned back to the group before them - and to the tiger trying to stealthily sneak over. Since they did know Taber and Aegeas, something told him that the group would be just as clueless about what was going as he was. They weren't from Earth.

"I know this is going to sound a little strange," Lorcan said, "but we're in a game called Dungeons and Dragons right now."

"It's a roleplaying game," Nendros clarified. "I don't know much about it, either, but each character has a role and a different race. Some of us underwent...changes before we woke up, and I'm guessing you might have, too?"

Denebola narrowed her eyes. Knowing their names didn't mean too much - anyone could memorize a pair of names. And there were probably plenty of people who'd met both of them in passing, or even just heard about them. The odds that those names would be ones Denebola and the others would recognize were admittedly low, but she couldn't quite trust people who believed they were "characters" in a "game."

"What do you know about them?" Denebola said, crossing her arms.

Meanwhile, her nephew took care of the other questions. "Not necessarily?" Thytes said with a shrug. "I look about the same as I always do, except the game decided I needed fewer clothes. Most of us just had outfit changes. I can imagine that even the tiger to my left normally looks like one."

The tiger, who was now behind Thytes, scowled and glanced around, but nodded.

Flo opened her eyes to face a sky framed with deciduous trees. Her vision was unnaturally sharp - usually, she would need glasses. However, it felt like she could see every detail in the trees, and each individual wisp of cloud. She closed her eyes, as she became dizzy and disoriented by this change of pace. She touched her face, but felt no glasses, but something sharp.

Flo’s eyes opened with a start as her hand began to bleed. It was her worst nightmare - something like needles in her skin! Fuzzy memories of a chiropractor flashed through her head, but she couldn’t remember much of his or her face, but just of needles being shoved into her face until she bled all over the table.

She sat up, but she sat up too quickly and blackness overcame her eyes. When it finally cleared, she was face-to-face to Scarlett Johansson’s look-alike (but a boy, Flo noticed). They studied each other for a moment and began to scream at the same time, waking up someone with a mask covering their face. The person blinked their only eye showing a bunch of times and, as soon as he saw Flo and the Johansson copycat, he began to scream as well.

One by one, the group woke up to the screaming and individually joined in. Flo found a little humor in what appeared to be a bunch of humanoids screaming at the same time, but she didn’t know what was going on.

The one that appeared to be a skeleton closed its (mouth? Teeth?) with a clatter and shook his head, motioning for everyone to shut up. Opening its mouth, it shouted in a high male voice: “We can’t know what’s going on if we’re xenophobic and scream at each other’s faces!”


Flo was so confused that she stopped screaming. “How in the he-” she started, but was interrupted by a glare from the Kakashi-Sensei-looking dude. “-heck is screaming at the faces xenophobic? In case you didn’t notice, we’re not human! At least,” she amended, looking at ‘Johansson’, “Most of us aren’t.”

“I don’t think I’m human either,” Johansson said with a bland tone. “I have a tail. It’s tucked into my pants and is extremely uncomfortable. Maybe that dude is?” She pointed towards Kakashi.

“Nope.” Kakashi fluttered his wings and flew about a foot into the air before dropping back down. “Not human.”

“So none of us are human then,” Flo deducted, earning a glance from the Legolas-looking girl. “Fine. I’m Flosmoke, but you can call me Flo. I don’t know what I am.” She was confused. Her name wasn’t Flo, but she had no idea what her real name was.

“You appear to be some sort of dragon hybrid,” Dwarf Chris Evans remarked. “I am Fargrim. I appear to be a dwarf with a big hammer.” He took a golden hammer that was slung on his back and put it in his hands, swinging it around a few times. The skeleton stepped backwards, obviously nervous.

“C-Can you not? I don’t know whether my bones can stand it. I wasn’t like this for very long,” the skeleton stammered. “I-I’m Rottoro, by the way. I appear to be a skeleton and -” he looked at his ring. “A cleric?”

“A skeleton as a cleric,” Johansson laughed. “I am Erevan, but call me Mellie. I’m trans, so I don’t like going by my deadname. If you can, please don’t call me that. I believe, that I’m a demon.”

“Ellil,” the Kakashi-like dude mumbled under his mask. “Pleased to work with you.” His eyes looked confused. “I apologize. I don’t usually talk like this. I think that I’m a fairy of some sort.”

“I don’t either,” Legolas said. “I’m Valanthe, and I guess I’m cosplaying the Lord of the Rings,” she said, looking at her outfit and touching her ears. Flo grinned, glad that Valanthe knew her movies.

~~

The group tore their way through the forest, not worrying about noise. That is, except for Valanthe and Ellil, who were virtually silent while making their way through the forest. Fargrim swung his hammer around and smashed everything in his path. However, Rottoro, who was in the lead, suddenly fell down a hill. The rest of the group soon followed, all landing on their faces except for Valanthe and Ellil. When everyone scrambled upwards, they saw what appeared to be two other groups and a zombie.

Nendros and Lorcan exchanged a look. The two of them barely knew each other, but it was enough of a connection for them to both worry about the woman's doubt.

"Taber has a bubbly personality," Lorcan said. He was trying to recall all the notable details, but it was hard when they had only met a handful of times in multiple stressful situations. "He's dating Eremia, and he's a-"

He suddenly stopped and stared at the two who had emerged from the bushes earlier. Their clothing was different, but he knew he had seen them somewhere before. It had been some time ago - before the incident with the world war, and before the incident with the masquerade.

"Zech? Lunis?" he managed to get out.

Nendros stared at him. "You know them?"

He nodded. "We've met before." He took a hesitant step forward, suddenly very conscious of how different he looked from the last time they met. His hair was a different color and was down, and his ears were longer. "I know I don't look the same as I did then," he said, "but I'm Lorcan."


Dresden watched the exchange unfold before him. Shadow and Adrian had forgotten him in lieu of keeping their eyes on Nendros and Lorcan - a wise choice, given how chatty they were being with people who could still pose a threat - but Dresden didn't mind. He almost took solace in that fact. It was nice not having to act, even if it was for a handful of moments.

He glanced over at his zombie and wiggled his fingers. The dead man stared at him with the blank expression he had expected. "Well, Ru," he said; the name just seemed to fit him, "it looks like the change is happening a bit sooner than expected."

He tried digging his fingers into the soft, bloody fabric, but he couldn't feel a thing. Knowing that he was no longer the focus of attention, Dresden slipped back into the forest and circled around the bandit camp with Ru in tow. He entered it from a point none of the cats were guarding and immediately encountered some of his zombie's former companions.

He kicked one of them with his foot, trying to clear the path the bandits had made.

Stop it, a voice hissed into his ear.

He turned.

A transparent, exact copy of the corpse he had just kicked hovered a few feet off of the ground beside. The woman looked very cross, despite the mask covering part of her face.

"Hi," he said. And then, a moment later, "You're not looking so hot."

The woman managed to looked even more irritated. You've been touched by death.

He folded his arms, unfeeling fingers draping over their sides. "Well, I am a necromancer."

She narrowed her eyes.

You lie, she said.

He shrugged. "Last time I checked, you're the ghost of a dead bandit, and I'm talking to you. I'd say that makes me count as one." He glanced down at his outfit. "Besides, I have a skull and I'm wearing all black. What more do you want?"

There's more than one explanation for why one can speak to ghosts.

"Uh huh," he replied. He tilted his head ever so slightly to the side. "So, Miss Bandit, what exactly were you doing before you got killed? There must have been something out here that caught your eye."

The ghost stared at him for a moment, then slowly turned to face the forest. We were waiting for a small group of ours to return, she said. We were once adventurers, and we never forgot our ways. They went to raid the Slime King's dungeon.

She let out a ghostly sigh.

But we were beginning to doubt that they would return, she admitted. She looked tired and defeated. It's been many days since we saw them last. The Slime King is ruthless. If his slimes didn't kill him on sight, or he didn't kill them the moment he discovered their intrusion, they would likely be rotting away in their cells.

He thought over the story for a moment. "Would it be rude if I said that was karma?"

She gave him a dead-eyed look.

He let his arms drop down to his side. "So where exactly is this Slime King? I don't have any intentions of helping out greedy people like you and your friends, but something tells me he's exactly the type of person I need to meet."

Go north, she said. You're honestly insufferable, "necromancer", but I suppose I'll give you a warning - after all, we are the same. The trek will be filled with beasts. Dire wolves are especially present in that section - we lost many men to them when we first were scouting the area.

And then she was gone, leaving Dresden and his zombie alone in a camp full of dead bodies.