Work Text:
In the Dungeon
by Tayla
tayla36@aol.com
http://www.geocities.com/tayla36/index.html
"Sandburg, what are you doing down here?"
Jim found his partner in the basement storage room furiously digging through boxes. "What are you looking for?"
"I can't find my Players Handbook."
"Players Handbook? You don't know enough ways to pick up girls, you need a handbook?"
"Not that kind of player...yes, yes there it is. And my monster manual...oh man, I forgot I had a DM Guide."
Blair had pulled three volumes out of the box he was looking in. as he opened the third one some papers fluttered to the floor. Jim picked them up and handed them back to Blair. One page looked like a hand drawn map, but it was to no where that Jim...or anybody...had ever been.
"Oh wow. I had forgotten about this too. I was trying to design a campaign. For when I got to be Dungeon Master. But we never got to it. I got early acceptance into Rainier and I never finished writing it. I had too much studying to do. I did keep playing for a while until I started going on expeditions."
"Sandburg, what the hell are you talking about?"
"D and D, and before you ask, I don't mean drunk and disorderly."
"Dungeons and Dragons? Why the urge to walk down memory lane, Chief?"
"This Saturday is National D and D Game Day. It's a big deal at Rainier. We have a lot of players on campus. I'm getting together with some people I used to play with in high school that are still in this area. We had this really cool faculty advisor. His name was David. He was just out of college, and had just gotten his teaching degree. He taught freshmen and sophomore English and some literature electives. Man he was the best DM. When we got to the advanced stage, he incorporated elements of a Sci Fi role playing game into the campaign. We had medieval characters using advanced alien technology. It was so cool..."
Jim listened in fascinated silence as Blair recounted his fond D and D memories while paging through the handbooks. Blair then reached back into the box and pulled out what looked to be a pencil case. Sandburg eagerly zipped it open and nearly spilled the contents.
"Oh man. My dice. And my figurine." He reverently held up the little painted lead figure for Jim to see."
"You were a monk?" Jim said, peering at the little robed figure.
"Look closer, Sentinel boy. Those are wizard's robes. I was a magic user. By the time I got to junior year, I had worked him up to 12th level, and he had so many cool spells..."
"Well Chief, this is a fascinating glimpse of your inner geek, but we do have that dinner date with Rafe and Conner."
Blair looked at his watch and nearly spilled the dice on the floor again. "Is it that late?" He put the little wizard back in the case and zipped it closed. "Let me just run this stuff up to the loft. I want to brush up on it a bit before I try to play on Saturday."
Jim's eyes fondly followed his partners form as he disappeared up the stairs. Then he looked at the mess that Blair had made of the storage room. He itched to put it back in some sort of order, but he settled for shoving the boxes out of the way, before he turned off the light and closed and locked the door. There would be time later to straighten up the mess.
But not this weekend.
************************
Saturday found Blair making his way through Rainier's gymnasium, looking for his friends. There were already a hundred people setting up at tables around the room.
He spotted David's tall frame across the room. As he got closer, the other man noticed him. "Here's our magic user, now."
The four other people at the table turned to great him.
"Wizard!" They all called out in chorus as he took his seat. He greeted his old friends warmly. Arthur, who usually played their cleric. And Robin, who was a Halfling thief. And Jeff, who loved playing chaotic evil characters. Looks like he had his half orc ready for today's campaign. Lori, good lord, Lori not only had her Amazon figurine on the table ready to play, she was actually in costume herself, looking like something out of Xena, with a sword strapped across her back.
Blair set his half elven wizard on the table and unpacked his dice. He noticed that there was one empty seat beside his, but there was a player set up. The figurine looked like a knight, and whoever the player was had the deluxe dice set, not the crappy plastic set like he had. Blair asked David about the mystery player.
"Oh, that's Paladin. A guy I used to play with when I was in college. He always plays lawful good and his characters always have a bit of a hero complex. Here he comes."
Blair turned to see the new player, and his mouth dropped open in shock. Paladin grinned at him, set one cup of coffee at his place and handed the second cup to Sandburg. The man continued to grin as he sat down next to Blair.
"Trying to catch flies there, Chief?"
Sandburg shut his mouth with a snap and glared at his partner. "You could have told me two days ago, man."
"Yeah, but it was much more fun this way. Ready to play, partner?"
Blair continued to glare at Jim as David began to lay out the campaign for them. As they started to play, Sandburg whispered low enough that only his Sentinel could hear him.
"Inner geek, huh. You better enjoy yourself today, man, because you are so not getting any tonight."
END
Authors End Notes: Some of the people I mention are based on people that I used to play with. And the search for the Players handbook is based on me looking for my Handbook before I started writing this. I still haven't found the thing. I did find my Monster Manual and my DM guide which did have a few pages and a map of a campaign that I was trying to put together. Gosh, this challenge and story brought back a lot of fond memories. I even dreamed about playing D and D the other night.