My jaw drops as the land around us heaves up and down, back and forth, like waves in the sea.

A 3D image appears above my forehead, much like a window would pop up on a computer. The image is a white die that has way too many sides for me to count.

I'm not alone. White dice appear above everyone else's foreheads. Above the dice, in white lettering, are the words: Acrobatics Check.

My die shows the number 3. Below the die, new words appear in red letters: Fail.

The shaking intensifies, and I lose my balance and fall to my hands and knees. I arch my neck to see green letters below Laura's die: Success.

She manages to stay on her feet.

I gasp as the earth splits between my hands. I roll to the right, just as a fissure opens a few feet wide.

My heart thumps and my eyes are wide. I've felt a minor earthquake once before in California, but never seen the earth open up like that.

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The rumbling subsides.

Fortunately, no one fell into the cracks. Four of them web out in different directions, each about ten feet long and three feet wide. Laura and I are on one side. Jesse, Sam, Gary, and Malcolm are on the other. "Are you guys okay?" I ask.

"Yeah," Sam says shakily. "That was freaky."

"Did you guys see the dice above out heads?" Jesse asks.

"Yeah," Gary says. "Looks like this world operates under the rules of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition."

Malcolm looks troubled. "How odd..."

"Quiet!" Laura says, placing her ear to the grass. I notice another white die appear above her forehead, saying: Perception: Success. "Can you hear that?" she asks.

I frown, unable to hear anything other than the gentle breeze. But then my ears pick up a strange scratching sound. And it seems to come from the newly formed crack in the earth.

"Somethings coming!" Laura climbs to her feet.

I watch in shock as eight spindly legs emerge out of the cracks. A spider, the size of a polar bear, turns toward Laura and me, staring at us with its eight black eyes, twitching its massive mandibles, looking hungry. Two more spiders crawl out of the cracks and face Jesse, Sam, Gary, and Malcolm.

A white die appears above each of our foreheads once again, this time saying: Initiative: 12.

I don't bother trying to remember what that means. My focus is squarely on the eight-legged monster ten feet in front of me, like something straight out of a nightmare.