A fictional account by George

You are a little strung out from the 3.5 hour drive to get to the campsite combined with the nervousness of doing something a bit out of your comfort zone. You’ve got a costume of sorts. It isn’t great, but it does make you feel a bit like a different person. Someone has loaned you a sword prop and a handful of birdseed packets, and to be perfectly honest they look just a little bit ridiculous. But you are willing to give this a try.

You attend the opening ceremonies of the game which is kind of like a meeting with a bunch of announcements. You are in a room with around 60 people, most of whom you have never seen before, and they all are wearing a bewildering array of costumes and props. Everything looks crazy to you, but everyone else seems completely at ease and are socializing and making jokes the whole time.

When things finish up the game begins. You furiously try to run through the rules and your character skills in your head and you are terrified you are going to mess something up and look like an idiot. Several characters come over and introduce themselves to you, and you find yourself stumbling through telling some version of your backstory that you wrote. You worry that it sounds kind of silly once you say it out loud, but people seem to be taking it seriously.

But before you know it someone new comes into the dining hall to gather up the “new adventurers” and everyone tells you that you need to go with this person. The guy looks a little sinister to you, but everyone tells you he is legit so you go along with him. Pretty soon you and a handful of other new and ill at ease players are following this guy off into the woods to a small clearing. Once you leave the bright lights of the dining hall you start having second thoughts. “What am I doing here?” you start to think.

Once you get to the clearing Mister Sinister explains that we need to find some kind of magic crystal. Everyone spreads out, but suddenly a bunch of guys with masks and swords come out of nowhere and attack you. You momentarily panic, but you swing your sword around and hit a few of them, and everyone else seems to be doing the same. Two folks fall over on the ground, but one of the other people in your group runs over and casts a spell on them and they jump back up and get back in the fight.

Pretty soon it is all over. These bad guys are all defeated, and the people who were playing them are gone. It is just you, the other new players, and Mister Sinister standing alone in the clearing. Someone in the group shows everyone a big glowing rock she says that one of the bad guys was carrying. Mister Sinister says that everyone has to hurry to bring this back to everyone else in the town.

As you start to leave, you start to tell yourself “Yeah, okay. I got this. This isn’t so hard. I can do this.” You are a little surprised to see that you aren’t going back the way you came. Mister Sinister is taking you in a completely different direction. Where in the world is he taking everyone?

Pretty soon you start to hear a bunch of distant yelling. You come out of the woods and stand at the edge of a clearing and try to figure out what is going on in front of you. It is obviously a battle of some sort. You can see all of the people you saw earlier in the game are kind of bunched up in a big group in the middle of the field. Surrounding them is a large pack of people dressed up as monsters, and they are constantly running around and attacking the other players from all sides.

You start to try to make sense of what is going on, but Mister Sinister is telling you and everyone else that you have to get the crystal to the rest of the players. The lady with the crystal shouts “Let’s go!” and starts running toward the fight. You and everyone else start to follow.

When you get about halfway there a couple of the monsters spot you and run over to confront you. Any confidence you got from your last fight evaporates immediately. These monsters are not playing around. One of them is yelling, and another one keeps making this weird noise that gives you the creeps. They hit your little group of players like a ton of bricks and almost immediately everyone gets dropped. You look around for Mister Sinister, but he is gone. Fuuuuuck.

Almost immediately it is down to just you and the lady with the crystal. She fumbles around for spell packets and drops the rock, and then she falls over after getting hit by someone with a polearm. Next thing you know something thumps you in the back. You turn around and see the guy who keeps making that weird noise and he is getting ready to hit you with his sword again.

You panic. Skills, rules, stats and numbers go completely out of your head. You reach down and grab the rock and run, run, run. The guy with the sword is chasing you, and you quickly realize you are running away from players and not towards them. The guy behind you catches up a little and starts hitting you repeatedly in the back.

Belatedly you realize he has hit you something like 5 times, and you only have two health points. You stop running and fall down on the ground in what you hope looks like a suitably dramatic and tragic performance. You close your eyes and wonder what is supposed to happen next. The game has hardly even started, and here you are about to be dead. Not the greatest beginning.

The monster that killed you stands over top of you and puts his sword lightly on your back. What is he doing? Then he starts to chant out “Infliction one! Infliction two…” You have no idea what this means, but you know it can’t be good.

But then you hear the sound of running feet. The monster lifts his sword off your back and starts making his weird noise. You really wish he wouldn’t do that. There is a shuffle of feet, some shouting, a couple of loud “WHAP” sounds and then it gets quiet again. Someone puts a hand on your back and you hear a woman’s voice sing a short phrase, and you recognize the name of one of the gods in the lyrics. You open your eyes and look up and there is a smiling woman kneeling beside you. She is carrying a staff and she has some sort of symbol on her face that you can’t quite make out in the dark. She tells you that you are fine and that you are healed now. Standing just behind her is a big bulky dude with horns poking out of his face and armor that looks like it came out of a video game.

You get up on your feet, and try to get you bearings. But now Horn Face guy is pointing his sword behind you and yells “We have got to GO!” You turn around and see that someone else has just shown up on the field. About 50 feet away is a guy in elaborate armor with a glowing shield and a black spikey crown and a couple of minions at his side. All your video game instincts immediately tell you “Boss Monster.” And he points right at you and screams “Get me that crystal!”

You look around and it seems like everyone on the field is looking at you. About half of the monsters stop what they are doing and start heading over in your direction. Horn Face guy says a four-letter word and then walks past you to stand between your little group and the Boss Monster. The healer lady leans her staff on her shoulder and starts methodically arranging spell packets in her left hand. She is humming a song softly, and you can’t tell if she is casting a spell or just nervous.

You look back over to the main group of players and think about trying to make a run for it. But you quickly see that you would never make it through all the monsters. About half a dozen are between you and safety, and they are moving towards you with a purpose. A small group of players detach themselves from the main group and start running in your direction, but you can tell the monsters are going to get to you first.

You hear your name, well, your character’s name, and you turn around to see the healer lady is trying to get your attention. You think she may have already said your name two or three times already. “I need you to hold them off for me, okay? Can you do that for me?” That is a good question. Can you do that? You raise up your sword and turn around.

Time momentarily seems to slow down and you notice everything around you at once. The pack of monsters are almost on top of you. The lady behind you is singing again. Without turning around you can hear Boss Monster crashing into Horn Face.

And then suddenly all of that is gone. There is a monster standing right in front of you, and he is swinging a sword.

Hours later, you are sitting in the tavern. It is well into the early hours of the morning but things are only just now starting to slow down. You are warmly wrapped in a huge woolen cloak that someone has loaned you and you are drinking a bowl of soup from a crockpot someone has set up in the corner.

A lot has happened since the battle with the general with the iron crown. You survived that battle, and even took part in the ritual that was performed on the crystal you helped retrieve. From where you are sitting you can see several of the wizards gathered at a table making plans for the second part of the ritual that is taking place tomorrow.

Looking further around the room you see a few folks loudly playing some kind of dice game. From outside on the porch you can hear a group of bards practicing a song. The door opens and a group of around six people come in having just returned from some sort of fight and they all grab a table and start sorting through a pile of money and papers. One of them notices you and walks over and asks if you are good, and you sleepily nod yes. He grunts and goes back to the table.

Was that first fight really just 3 hours ago? Since then, in addition to the ritual you have fought a bunch of brigands and taken part in a mission to retrieve a cryptic scroll from a cursed tomb. You reach into your pocket and pull out the handful of coins you’ve already earned, along with a small gem with a rune on it.

You think to yourself that you really should head off to bed, but you are still buzzing a little from the last fight in the cursed tomb. But you get to your feet and collect your sword and start heading out to find your cabin. You want to be up in time for breakfast, and you are eager to face whatever challenges come up tomorrow.

Funny. A little more than three hours ago you were stumbling off into the woods after Mister Sinister wondering if coming here was really a good idea. Now you can hardly wait to see what comes next. You slip out the door, say goodnight to the bards on the porch, and walk out into the night.