Prologue.

  “Is this necessary?” Samania said, looking over to Valerie and Judy on the opposite side of the table.

  “I agree. If we're going to waste time doing this, we may as well go out and actually complete contracts” Val said.

  “I think it'll be fun.” Judy said through gritted teeth.

  “Thank you Judy.” Gavin said, grateful that at least someone was showing some enthusiasm.

  “You're just agreeing because he made you that bow.” Sam said.

  “Hey, I worked hard on that”

  “Not as hard as you worked writing this book I bet?”

  “Ahh, no,” Gavin lied “look, you find me a more powerful level one bow and you don't have to play tonight.”

  “Deal” Sam said, her chair scraping the stone “I'll go out looking for one right now, in the training hall, with Val.”

  “Sit down, come on Sam. The longer you fuck about the longer it's going to take me to get you your new armour.” Gavin said enticingly.

  “Fine.” Sam harumphed, plopping herself back down in her chair.

  “All right, let's go around the table and introduce our characters.” Gavin said rubbing his hands together excitedly.

  “This is embarrassing.” Valerie moaned.

  “Val, I watched you get bodied by a level one slime monster. Embarrassing is right in your wheelhouse.” Gavin said.

  “They're slippery and it was hiding in a puddle.”

  “No, he's got a point, I'd be embarrassed by that.” Judy laughed.

  “You guys suck. Whatever. I'm playing Valerie Westhart, a level one human fighter.” Val said.

  “I'm playing Samania, a level one human fighter.” Sam said.

  “Guys, you can make characters that aren't just direct copies of yourself.” Gavin said exasperated.

  “What character did you used to play?” Sam asked, accusation in her voice.

  “A bard.”

  “And what do they do?” she said condescendingly, having spent the afternoon forcing herself to read through his book.

  “They're a support class that uses the power if their sheer awesomeness and charisma to aid their friends.” Gavin said proudly.

  “Okay, yeah, you've got a point, that's nothing like you.” Val said mockingly.

  “Rude. Judy, tell me you've got something different.”

  “Ahh, yeah, I’m playing Gromag, the unconquered.”

  “Nice name, what class are you?”

  “Human fighter.” Judy said quietly.

  “Oh God damn it.”

  “Can we just get this over with?” Sam asked.

  “Okay, so, to set the scene, you've all been tasked with guarding a caravan as it delivers trade goods to the town of Phandelver. You’ve been walking all day and you’re worn out, everyone take a con save or take one level of exhaustion, the DC is ten.”

  “What does that do?”

  “Gives you disadvantage on ability checks.” Judy chimed in.

  “Which are meaningless for combat right?” Val asked.

  “It's not useless, initiative is an ability check, and if you want to like, jump on a table I might ask for an athletics check, or if you want to try a feint to I might ask for a deception check.” Gavin said.

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  “Where's this in the rules?” Sam asked.

  “Ahh, in the section at the front titled ‘Rule of Cool’.”

  “What's disadvantage?” Val asked.

  “When you roll an attack roll, ability check or saving throw you roll two D20 and pick the lowest.” Gavin said.

  “And a D20 is the one with twenty sides right?” Sam asked, holding up a twelve sided dice trying to find the higher numbers.

  “Yes.” Gavin groaned, burying his face in his hands.

  “Is this what passes for fun in your world?” Sam asked.

  “Yes!” Gavin fumed “I can see you all aren't enjoying this, let's just shelve this idea.”

  “No.” Judy barked “you two are being right assholes. You're going to sit there and make an effort to enjoy yourselves. Gavin worked hard for us to have a fun evening and you two aren't going to ruin it. Got that?”

  “Yes mam.” Val said, chastised.

  “Sorry, Gavin” Sam said earnestly, pulling her chair back in and taking one of the thin sliced foods from a bowl that'd been laid out on the table. “What's this?” she asked, her mood abruptly changing to a friendlier tone.

  “Potato chip” Gavin said proudly “salt and vinegar flavour.”

  “I thought you said potatoes were only from your world?”

  “They were. I paid a guy who specialises in plant magic to genetically engineer me something that's nearly identical to one of the varieties of potato from my world.”

  “You paid a guy to invent a potato?”

  “Sure did. Worth every solar. Try one.”

  Sam tentatively placed the chip on the tip of her tongue, souring her face at the taste.

  “Just chuck it in your gob and give it a proper try.”

  Sam bit down, crunching the salty bitter treat. She took a swig of her beer to wash it down, savouring the flavours. “they're- not bad.” She said as she reached for another, thought better of it and grabbed a handful.

  Valerie shrugged, digging out a handful of her own, Judy followed suit. Gavin's grin returned as he watched his friends enjoying a little slice of his old life.

  “Okay, as I was saying” Gavin began again, as a fairly realistic carving of a rutted road filled the table, illusory grass and trees grew up out of it as he concentrated on using Judys borrowed spell. “Let's go round and describe our characters.”

  ***

  After the evening wound down, their gear packed away and they'd retired for the night, Gavin knocked on Judy's bedroom door.

  “Come in.” She called as she ducked under the thick covers of her fantastically comfortable bed.

  Gavin pushed the door open and stepped into the room, closing it behind him. He pulled out the chair at Judy's desk and sat on it, facing her directly.

  “Thanks for tonight.” Gavin said “I really wanted you guys to enjoy it.”

  “It was fun, the other two came around in the end.”

  “It wouldn't have happened if you didn't say something.”

  “Probably not.” Judy conceded “they were being assholes though.”

  “A little bit.” Gavin laughed.

  “They probably didn't consider how much tonight meant for you. It must be hard, just being ripped away from everything you know and plonked on some strange world.”

  “It's not so bad. This world is way cooler than my old one, aside from cat videos on the internet, that's as good as anything you could find in this world.”

  “I'm being serious, Gav. You don't talk about your old world other than when you're trying to confuse people or you're making a joke. You had friends and family back there that you haven't seen in what, six, seven months?”

  “I've got you guys. I don't have a way back to my old world, there's not much point worrying about something I can’t change, I'm not even sure I'd want to go back, given the chance.”

  “But you do miss your people back home. I've noticed how you’re starting to get us to like the things you used to do back on your world, dungeons and dragons, potato chips, that funny hand game you tried to get us to do yesterday, what was it? Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, something?”

  “Spock.”

  “You miss your old world” Judy stated. It wasn't a question. “I think it’d be a good idea if you shared your actual feelings once in a while. Sam and Val are just as block headed as you sometimes, they care about you, but unless you bludgeon them over the head with it they aren’t going to know anything’s wrong.”

  “Yeah, okay. It wasn't so bad when everything here was new and fresh and with all the stuff happening to us, it was easy to just not think about my old world. Now we're settled, everything's going okay, it's a lot harder to brush that stuff aside.”

  “Hey, if there's a way back to your old world I'm sure you'll get there. Some god has to at least come along and give you the power to get there right?”

  “Ha. Maybe.” Gavin said, melancholy in his voice.

  “Bet you you get there.”

  “I'm not sure I want to go back, this is my home now.” Gavin said, smiling wanly.

  There was an awkward silence for a moment before Judy said “Your locations tonight were really well done. You're getting really good with your fabricate ability.”

  “Actually, making illusory miniatures and concentrating on keeping the terrain in my mind is really good practice.”

  “I thought about helping with that, but I didn't want to impose on your night.”

  “Impose away, it’s good practice for you too, and it's a collaborative game where everyone makes the fun.”

  “Okay, will do.”

  “Goodnight Jude.”

  “Night Gav, get some rest, it's a big day tomorrow.”