Author's note : Hello everyone! It has been a while, but somehow finding time to write more than 3000 words is harder than I expected. This is more of a world-building chapter, I will add a map eventually, but meanwhile, I hope you like how the story is going. Feel free to comment or send me a message. Thanks for reading me!

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My mind still reeling after the shock that revelation caused, I started thinking… Could it be true? It had to be, no matter how impossible that was supposed to be, we were all supposed to meet together to play a new game of D&D. If my memories were correct, most of us had played before, although only me, Clément and Coline had played more than once. That might explain the fact that we were in different bodies than our original ones… I tried thinking about the character I was supposed to incarnate, Ahriman the Warmage, but hardly anything else about his abilities or background came back to me. However, as we were starting a new game, I could imagine that we were only at the first level, and that sounded perfectly right as I could only cast low-level spells… maybe I could check? Or maybe I wasn’t supposed to know, because that was meta-gaming? Maybe the Game Master knew?

I had started wondering about what happened with our Game Master when I was interrupted by the guards who told me to go and have lunch. I walked to the cantina as the other days, and I noticed there seemed to be more guards around us. I wondered if anything had happened, then joined the file before going to sit with Clément, who was eating alone at the end of the table. I tried to check discreetly whether the elves were sitting together too, but apparently the women had already left.

As we eat, we shared as much information as we could, trying to understand better our situation. Apparently Morgane had managed to transmit quite a few messages between Clément and the girls during the day. Thanks to her, we managed to make a better image of our situation. I was a [Warmage] human named Ahriman, Clément a dwarf [Cleric] of [Boccob] (the god of Magic) named Rokshar, Morgane was Agora, a half-elf [Rogue], Coline was a [Fighter] elf whose name was Luinil, and finally Lauriane was a [Warlock] elf, named Elenna.

Nobody had any idea of what we should do in this situation, and the biggest fear the group shared was that we would be separated at the slave auction, that Lauriane has managed to discover what being held tomorrow. We knew that we were apparently in a D&D world, and everything was corresponding to what we knew of it, be it our class or the characters whose body we were possessing. However, the fact that pain was apparently real (nobody had tested being stabbed yet, but we could still feel strong discomfort from our situation), and that meant that we could die… Without any guarantee of coming back. We knew reincarnation was possible in this world, but only if we managed to get to higher levels.

As we finished eating, we told each other to try to do whatever we could to stay together at the slave auction. If we couldn’t… well, we would try to find ourselves whenever.

The afternoon was another battery of tests, some the same as the other day, others on more… physical aspects. I can’t say I was very pleased, but two armed guards in the room are a pretty sure way to keep people obedient. I had a silent prayer for the girls, and hoped nothing happened. In the evening, we were allowed rest, so we would all be fresh for the auction.

Sadly, the rest was under a strict surveillance, so I didn’t manage to talk to Rokshar any further, nor did I see Morgane. She had probably hadn’t managed to sneak out under such heavy watch. The evening came and went, so did the night. We slowly got up in the morning, only to be greeted by a hanged corpse attached to a pillar right in front of the warehouse. The head guard let us all know that he had tried to escape yesterday, and that we better obey their orders and the ones of our new masters, as such was the fate of slaves who were caught while escaping.

This came for me as a reality check, I was in a strange world without any known possibility of escape or of resurrection. I had to go through this until I felt safe enough to try to do anything. I could only hope we wouldn’t be separated too much…

We left the complex, bound by rows of four, walking in the hot and sand-covered dried mud roads until we reached the central plaza. I was able to see more of the city while walking this time, being in a better shape than last time. The whole city was in white or light brown colors, typical of places near a desert, I guess, while the infrastructure reminded me strangely of Japanese buildings. Most people I saw around us were dressed in simple, commoners clothes, with only the occasional guard, mercenary, merchant or priests. As we walked to the center of the city, the wealth level seemed to increase a little, with the passage from simple warehouses or one-storied, mud and brick houses to multiples stories, stone and wood buildings. I could see a small citadel not too far away, however the central plaza was surrounded by more civilian buildings, like jewelry shops, magic shops or even an apothecary. I could see what seemed to be churches just a bit further, however (and obviously) none had the typical cross, or whatever other symbols I could recognize.

My body’s memory made me recognize a temple for Pelor, the god of the Sun, and another for St Cuthbert, god of Vengeance.

We were all placed in a corral, and after enough interested people arrived (curse them), the head slaver made a sign to his auctioneer to go do his job. The sale began, and the other slaves began being sent up one by one. There were quite a few people around the stage, now, and not all of them merchants or aristocrats. Different people with different tastes, as some bought the pretty women, some the strong men, others whatever they could get their hands on. I saw a certain merchant, not as fat as the others, and not as pretentiously dressed as the nobles, who was collecting himself quite a few slaves. He looked like he favored all those that had anything special.

Strangely enough, whenever he started bidding, he never had to bid too much, as most other bidders seemed to recognize him and leave him get who he wanted. Even the nobles, surprisingly, I wondered if he was some kind of shady businessman with blackmail on everyone…

He seemed like he had seen me looking at me, and he turned his gaze to me, which made me shudder. There was something really cold in his eyes… But then he smiled, and it was as nothing had happened. Slightly confused, I snapped out of it as I saw Rokshar getting brought up. There was a little bit of excitement, as he was the first non-human to be brought up, but only to be shaken down straight away as many in the audience turned to the strange merchant, who indeed bid on him and bought him. As I was wondering how I would try to get bought by the same person, he sent an aide to the announcer, who jumped in surprise before going back to the head slaver, which caused quite a lot of noise in the audience, which only doubled when the announcer headed straight to him with all three elves and the lizardman that was also on sale.

It was then that I started panicking. I was only a human, would I be the only one left behind? Flustered, I barely registered when the announcer told the audience they were now going to start the category of pleasure slaves…

As the announcer called most of the pretty women that had been kept for later, I slowly realized that most of the slaves that were left only had one thing in common: rather good looks. By the time it dawned on me, I was being brought up to the stage, while a huge embarrassment came up. I heard quite a few whistles, and saw a few ladies checking me out rather aggressively, which just about made me die from shame. The bidding started, but then there was a small silence, as the same merchant as before bid on me. I was startled, and apparently most of the public was too. They were a few jeers, then I was brought before him, and I started to have all sorts of horrible visions going in my head while I was attached to the other slaves and started following the merchant... no, my new master, home.

What did I ever do to anyone to deserve this...

A few hours later…

I guess that even the direst circumstances can bring their amount of laughter... if the one I received is from the group is anything to judge buy. Apparently the master (Master Donaia) has absolutely no interest in men. He just took me in because the others mentioned that we were comrades. Apparently, he also has a certain sense of humor, as he forbid the group or the guards to tell me before the next morning. I hardly slept…

But yes, before that, as we followed him and his guards to his house… I mean, his manor, we discovered that not only he was rich, but he was filthy rich. He had quite the palace around, with a small rampart around his private property on the edge of the town which covered quite a big space. As we were brought in, we were sent to put on the slave collar, an enchanted metal ring that went around the ankle. We were told that as long as we had it, we were considered property and could be legally hunted if found without authorization by their master. Furthermore, they had a localization enchantment, so unless we found a really powerful magician that agreed to help us, we could forget any silly ideas of escaping for a while.

However, the guards added that we were lucky, as Master Donaia was one of the most merciful slave masters of the city, and he would give a chance to all slaves to prove their worth, even eventually freeing them if he had considered they had done enough services for him. Although, a lot of those he sent on missions died, so we had to be careful if we considered trying that. But of course, whatever we did, we had to obey his orders straight away and correctly, otherwise punishment would be severe.

I didn’t have much time to talk with the others that night, as I was shown around and permitted to finally shower properly. And sleep on something resembling a proper mattress, too. Well, not really, but at least in was better than the straw we had at the slave house. I think just that made me appreciate all the more the comfort I was in before I came here…

After we had all slept and eaten properly, we were given chores, menial work mostly, while getting used to the way around the house and our new condition. We luckily did have time to talk a little bit between ourselves, and try to decide what we would do. Morgane was really letting herself be inspired by her [Rogue] upbringing, as she was quite adamant that we should escape as soon as possible. However, Coline and Clément managed to convince her that it was better to keep doing whatever we could, as we could not take risks without knowing if the results would be permanent or not. I was also quite firmly opposed to taking risks, but the joke that had been played at my expense at the slave auction had firmly reminded me that in this form, we had no rights, so we should strive to get free as quickly as possible.

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We tried finding out more details about this world of ours, but only little could we remember about the rules of D&D, and the world itself was a creation of our Game Master, so the only things we knew were what our hosts knew. Luckily, we came from quite diverse backgrounds, so we could gather quite a few things on the world we were living in. We told each other some things about or bodies past, but we all felt that we were not telling each other everything.. Maybe the host still had some influence on what we could do? I kept for myself the fact that just before my capture by the pirates, I had lost control of my magic and killed quite a few comrades, which I could feel my host regretted strongly. I wonder what the others kept for themselves…

As for what we learned, well, first of all, we were living in the world of Jel’Ebar, which was apparently an old elvish way of saying “Our home”, as the Elves were the first inhabitants of the continent. The continent (of the same name) was divided in two halves (Lulandil the northern half and Lashima the southern), joined in the middle by a huge chain of dragon-inhabited mountains, where lay underneath them the Thousand Jewels Kingdom of dwarves, where Rokshar hailed from. The South was mostly covered by the Eight Blades Empire and its dependencies, all human, but also had a strong Centaur (a half-human half-horse specie) Kingdom and a lot of land covered by savage races of bloodthirsty beasts, such as Hobgoblins or Gnolls. The Far Western part of the south semi-continent was the home of the Lizardfolk, who were isolated by an ancient forest and a monster filled plain. The North semi-continent had lot of human kingdoms (apparently also an evil Magocracy and even a democratic Republic?) and even an Empire straight north from the mountains in the middle, but also Elven Kingdoms, Gnome and Halfling lands, huge prairies filled by giant Saaurs (who had taken control of over half the Kingdom of Estenfold, where my body was born), desolate moors populated by aggressive giants ant-like invaders from another plane (which are apparently the equivalent of planets, from what I understood), deadly swamps full of undead, and in the frozen North, the Red Land was filled with Goblins, Orcs, Minotaurs and other monsters we knew from our fantasy-filled background. I somehow recognized in the description of that world the touch of our Game Master, who loved complex backgrounds with the potential for an infinity of geopolitical excuses for quests and leads.

A few islands were scattered around the northern half of the continent, one containing the second dwarven kingdom and the other being called the Endless War Island for the near-thousand year old fight between descendants of the now lost throne to the whole island. We knew of the existence of at least three water-based species, the aggressive and murderous Sahuagins who populated the near-entirety of the surroundings of the continent, the peaceful aquatic elves of the far north-east, and the neutral Locathahs, who extort money from any ship that comes through their territory. We knew nothing of other continents, and not much about other worlds. Clément knew through his clerical education that they were thousands of Prime Planes like ours, all linked together by the Astral Plane (space, I guess?), while being surrounded by the Six Elemental Planes (Light, Darkness, Fire, Earth, Air and Water) and the Great Ring of the Outer Planes, who were all separated by different degrees of their closeness to Good versus Evil, and Chaos versus Law. Those planes were the birthplace of demons and angels, and were generally completely separated from ours, although it was possible to summon some of their inhabitants through magic.

We also talked about the idea of strength, or leveling up, as it was supposed to happen in D&D, however no insight came to us on these first weeks or slavery. We had guessed we were level one, but had no details on our actual power and abilities. We tried asking subtly to the other slaves and guards, but what we could gather was only that all guards were simply trained in the art of combat, while the head guards had been soldiers or mercenaries before, and where definitely stronger. There were also rumors of elite groups under the command of the Master, but we couldn’t find anything definite without taking any risks.

So life continued, with our slow repetitive work in the manor, be it helping to clean or cook, or move heavy loads (I essentially exchanged my spot as a worker with Coline, whose incarnation was apparently really strong, and went to help with the cooking, where my (well, by body’s) natural charisma made it actually a not so unenjoyable experience, considering my unsociability in the normal world.

However, after a couple weeks, we were told to be ready to meet the Master at any time the next day, as he had something important to ask us. Of course, that made us speculate quite wildly, as we were wondering why he had especially bought us for quite some time, and with the rumors of people dying in his missions, there was an understandable amount of concern coming from us. The next day, we were woken up at dawn by other slaves, who brought us to the main building.

From there, accompanied by 4 guards, we were brought to the Master’s office, which was in an aisle of the manor we had never been granted access to before. It was even more richly decorated than the rest of the house, and I guess that we could find the typical guest’s rooms and VIP dining rooms that I had failed to find before. Agora’s eyes glittered as we passed through the hallways, as her instincts started kicking again. I remember her bragging she had already been taking stuff away secretly, but come on, why would you risk punishment for soap and spice? I didn’t even want to know where she hid it, either…

As we arrived to his office, I felt Coline tugging at my sleeve. I paused, turning towards her with an interrogating stare. She hesitated, then whispered into my ear:

“Whatever happens, we stay together, right?”

I hardly hesitated before answering with a short nod. Somehow, I was absolutely sure that us not being together would only lead to disaster. Something about a cardinal rule came into my mind, but I dismissed it, not being able to make any sense about it.

We entered the office, and Master Donaia turned his black leather-clad chair while saying:

“Greetings. I was expecting you.”

As we all waited for whatever would follow this, he chuckled, then said:

“Quite careful, I see. That’s a good point. In that case, I will cut through the

pleasantries, not that there would be much for people in your situation, to tell you

exactly why I’ve bought you.

I am a man of many talents, you see, and one of them is knowing how to find

talent, even in the most unexpected places. Therefore, I often go to slave auctions,

as I know that I can find sometimes unexpected discoveries. When I saw you lot,

my instincts told me that I would be probably happy with you in my employ, and

it is now time for you to prove me I was right.

I shall be brief. I own quite a few farms in the countryside, who provide me with

fresh food of the highest quality whenever I need to. However, one of the farms

in question has recently had problems in its quality and security. Therefore, your

first task will be to go there, find out what is wrong, help the farmers however you

may, and then report. I will provide a minimal equipment and a letter of passage,

and I trust you will not be stupid enough to force me to send slave hunters on your

trail. You will be leaving in an hour. If you work well, I will provide an appropriate

reward. Now go, and I hope I shall see you soon bearing good news.”

Before we could answer anything, we were sent out and on our way to the equipment reserve, where we were fitted with decent second hand equipment the Master owned. While me, Elenna and Agora were clad in light leather armor and given spears and daggers, Rokshar and Luinil received heavier scale mail, assorted with wooden shields and even iron morningstars to complete the set. Somehow, it looked like he knew what kinds of weapons and armors we could use better than the slavers themselves, which made us wonder if he had used some kind of magic to analyze us while we weren’t aware…

Within an hour, we were fitted, provided with directions and food, and sent on our way. While we were still a little under shock from the precipitated events, we could always count on Clément to lighten the mood. We had hardly left the outskirts of the town that he stopped, gave us a naughty grin, then started running, heavy armor and all, while shouting :

“I’m going on an adventure!”

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Spoiler :

YanNAMEAhrimanRaceHumanClassWarmage

ClémentNAMERoksharRaceDwarfClassCleric of Boccob

MorganeNAMEAgoraRaceHalf-elfClassRogue

ColineNAMELuinilRaceElfClassFighter

LaurianeNAMEElennaRaceElfClassWarlock