Initializing character creation. Select a method (I, II, III, IV, V, VI).
"What the heck is going on? Character creation method? Oh no…" Liam couldn't feel his body. He didn't exist. He did, however, still have a Ziploc bag full of almond cookies. It was floating in the formless void with his presence. He just couldn't touch them.
No method selected. Defaulting to Method I.
Strength
8
Dexterity
16
Constitution
5
Intelligence
16
Wisdom
10
Charisma
12
Select race.
"I was going to play a deepling?" Liam couldn't quite get over the fact that he still didn't seem to have a physical existence.
Loading optional races… requirements met. Deepling table consulted. Increasing Intelligence and Charisma, decreasing Strength and Wisdom. Rolling deepling abilities and appearance…
Deepling abilities
Deepling appearance
Half damage from fire
Small feathers over 60% of body
Detect good / evil 2x per day
Scaly skin
+2 to save against acid
Body casts no shadow
Invisibility 2x per week
Infravision
"Oh yeah, fire resistance," Liam exclaimed as he materialized, looking at the blinking display. "Wait, feathers? Deeplings don't have feathers." He felt around his body. "I definitely have feathers. Why do I have feathers?"
Select class.
"Curseblade?" Liam
Curseblade is not a valid class. Valid class selections include: Mage, thief, mage / thief.
"Warlock?"
Warlock is not a valid class. Valid class selections include: Mage, thief, mage / thief.
"I have a Charisma score of 12, damnit."
Damnit is not a valid class. Valid class selections include: Mage, thief, mage / thief.
"Mage or thief?"
Parsing… mage/thief multiclass selected. Rolling multiclass hit points (1d4+1d6)/2-1… 2 hit points.
"I have two hit points???"
You have sixty points of discretionary thieving abilities. Where would you like to put them?
This was starting to make sense to Liam. "Uh… everything in stealth. I mean, move silently and hide in shadows."
Thief abilities
Pick Pockets
15%
Open Locks
15%
Find / Remove Traps
10%
Move Silently
50%
Hide in Shadows
45%
Detect Noise
15%
Climb Walls
60%
Read Languages
5%
Your initial learned spells are: Read Magic, Detect Magic, Cantrip, Friends, Find Familiar, Grease, Hold Portal, Armor, Color Spray. You may enter the world with one spell memorized. Please select a spell.
"Wait. Those are the spells I know?" Liam frowned. "No eldritch blast? No magic missile? This sucks. I'm pretty sure my friends always let me pick which spells I knew, what kind of rules are these?"
Friends spell selected. Character sheet finalized.
Core statistics:
STR
7
Class
Mage/thief
Saves
+2 vs acid
DEX
16
Level
1/1
Death
13
CON
5
THAC0
20
Wand
11
INT
17
XP (mage)
0/2500
Polymorph
12
WIS
9
XP (thief)
0/1250
Breath Weapon
15
CHA
13
Max hp:
2
Spell
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
12
Special abilities:
Thieving abilities
Spell slots
Other abilities
Pick Pockets
15%
1st: 1
Fire resistance
Open Locks
15%
Detect good/evil
Find/Remove Traps
10%
Invisibility
Move Silently
50%
Infravision
Hide in Shadows
45%
Shadowless
Detect Noise
15%
Climb Walls
60%
Read Languages
5%
Backstab
x2
Status:
Hit points:
2/2
Armor class:
8
XP (mage):
0/2500
XP (thief):
0/1250
Spells memorized:
Friends
Starting wealth is (2d6)x10… 20 silver pennies. Optionally, allocate some of this to starting equipment.
Liam swallowed as half a dozen stacks of clay tablets appeared in front of him, floating in the void. The first stack looked to be different in texture. "What's this?"
That is your spellbook.
"My spellbook consists of…" Liam silently counted. "Fifty clay tablets?"
Of finest clay, harvested from the exposed bed of the Wurm River near Fairfield Abbey during a time of deepest drought. They are double-sided, and the ones already inscribed with spells have been fired for archival stability.
Liam's mouth opened and closed. "My spellbook consists of fifty clay tablets."
Yes. Your starting wealth is 20 silver pennies. Enter starting equipment purchase menu? (Y / N)
"Uh… I guess that maybe lets me buy a backpack to carry my clay tablets in. And maybe a dagger. Twenty silver can't possibly buy any more than that." Liam shook his head.
A backpack, dagger, and belt pouch appeared; Liam had no sooner finished packing up the backpack when a dark wind began to swirl around the formless void. Liam screwed his eyes shut as the wind built to a roar; a minute later, he felt grass beneath his feet. Liam slowly breathed in and out.
----------------------------------------
"Hey! What's that?"
The voice sounded familiar. Liam opened his eyes to see his friend Jacob in a chain hauberk holding a shield in one hand and a sword in the other, the tip of the latter extended in his direction. An orange cloak covered his shoulders. Behind him were trees. "Jacob, is that you? It's me, Liam!"
"Prove it," Jacob said, wiggling the sword. "You look nothing like Liam."
"Oh, come on," Liam said, brushing the feathers away from his face with a scaled hand. "We were just sitting at the same table together. Am I really totally different-looking?"
Jacob lowered the blade. "Yeah. You do sound the same, though."
"Dude. You're a human fighter. Most boring thing ever," Liam said. "I'm a deepling."
"You have feathers and scales," Jacob said. "Everyone knows deeplings look like classic devils, red skin and horns and all that shit. The system must have glitched on you. I think it maybe glitched on me, too, though, I didn't get to pick feats or anything." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "And my hit points are crazy low. Like, I only have four hit points. That's why I got a shield instead of going for a two-handed sword."
Liam chuckled. "I have two hit points," he said, grunting heavily as he stood. "And I don't have any armor. I started with only twenty silver pennies."
"Jeez," Jacob said. "Did you go into the menu? The prices were a lot lower than I expected."
"I'm a mage, you doofus." Liam frowned. "Well, mage slash thief multiclass. I can't wear armor."
"You got to be multiclass already?" Jacob's eyes bugged out.
"Hey, boys," boomed a voice. "What's this about multiclassing?"
Jacob and Liam turned, looking up. And up. Both took a step back, a measure that Jacob firmly told himself was rooted in a desire to avoid craning his neck rather than in fear. An ogre with blue hair and a familiar collection of piercings was looking down at them. Next to her was a diminutive figure that closely resembled their friend Elijah, carrying a flanged mace and kite shield and wearing a tabard with a cross on it over a chain hauberk.
"For such a state of the art virtual reality sim, you'd think they'd get it right. I should be starting with twelve hit points, not eleven. Constitution score of 15 and a fighter?" Ava shook her head. "I can add that much up at least. And I said wanted to be a goliath, but it said I picked a parsing ogre, whatever that was. But Liam got the good glitch? That is Liam, right?"
Liam held up a hand. "Yes. But no. And no. I don't think this is a VR sim, this is clearly, like, real magic."
"Don't pull my leg, Liam." The Ava-ogre loomed closer, hands on hips. "Magic isn't real. This must be some kind of special VR setup that they set up for the anniversary."
Liam shook his head firmly. "I get nauseous when I wear VR goggles. This is not virtual reality. It's much too realistic. We've been magically thrown into the world of the game." As he said that sentence aloud, his stomach flipped. "That, or I've fallen, hit my head, and am having a very realistic dream."
The Ava-ogre's hand descended in a derisive headpat.
----------------------------------------
Status:
Hit points:
1/2
Armor class:
8
XP (mage):
0/2500
XP (thief):
0/1250
Spells memorized:
Friends
Liam awoke, seeing blue sky above him. The grass felt nice, but his head ached. "Ow," he said.
"Sorry," Ava said. "Guess I don't know my own strength. Except it's 18 slash 26, whatever that means, so I kind of do. Heh. You okay there?"
Liam groaned. "Not really," he said. "I think I'm down to one hit point."
"Sorry," Ava said. "By the way, you don't have a shadow. Like, major VR glitch."
"It's a special ability I got somehow," Liam said. "Listed on my character sheet and everything. But, seriously, not okay, one freaking hit point."
"Well, with two hit points, you weren't going to be tanking hits anyway," Jacob said. "Not much difference. So, on our way over to see us, Ava saw a palisaded village – it's over the next hill. We decided we're going to go explore and get some XP. You wanna come with, or you want to just lie here?"
"Uh," Liam said. "We don't have a healer."
"Elijah's a cleric," Jacob said. "He can totes heal if we go down. You can stand in back and lob ranged spells at them."
"But…" Liam didn't want to say that he didn't know any ranged damage spells, so he shut his mouth. "Okay, I'll do what I can."
----------------------------------------
"Now get back in there!" Elijah shouted.
Jacob wobbled, lifting his sword off the ground. "I… uh…" He staggered forward.
"Shit!" Liam said. "Look, he's in no state to fight, we have to retreat."
"Fucking lazy ass," Elijah said. "Ow, fuck!"
Ava's club descended on the small orange humanoid as Elijah chanted, holding his hand to his own side. Ava shook her head. "Damn, I could use some of that," she said.
"Let's move away from the village," Liam said. "We just almost got wiped out by six of these things, even if they're small. If they were green, I'd call them goblins."
"Yeah," Ava said, rubbing her wounded thigh. "Let's get out of sight and take a short rest, at least."
A few minutes later, the four of them were sitting by a stream. Jacob was still in no condition to walk without assistance. While that was bad enough, Liam was more concerned with his status.
Status:
Hit points:
1/2
Armor class:
8
Spells memorized:
Friends
XP (mage):
10/2500
XP (thief):
15/1250
Core statistics:
STR
7
Class
Mage/thief
Saves
+2 vs acid
DEX
16
Level
1/1
Death
13
CON
5
THAC0
20
Wand
11
INT
17
XP (mage)
10/2500
Polymorph
12
WIS
9
XP (thief)
15/1250
Breath Weapon
15
CHA
13
Max hp:
2
Spell
12
"We almost died and got, like, nothing for XP," Liam said. "I am literally one percent of the way to second level in thief."
Ava snorted. "Well, you have two levels already. I got … a hundred thirty two," she said. "Out of two thousand. That's… uh… more than one percent."
"Almost seven percent," Liam said. "Ava, you used to be pretty quick with mental arithmetic."
"So, how many times do we gotta do that for me to level up?" Ava sloshed some stream water over her bloody arm.
"Fifteen," Liam said.
"Shit," Ava said.
Elijah nodded. "Indeed."
Jacob groaned, feebly lifting his head up from the rock he'd propped it on. "I feel like crap," he said, before easing his head back down. "And I only got a hundred twenty, not a hundred thirty two. That doesn't seem fair. Liam, I'm still thirsty."
Liam dipped a tin cup in the stream, bringing it up to Jacob's lips. Then he cocked his head. "Is someone coming?"
"Oh, yeah, I hear hoofbeats," Ava said, putting her hands to her massive knees and pushing herself to a standing position. "Hopefully they're friendly," she added, walking toward the noise. "I'll go say hello."
"Sure," Liam said, dipping the cup in the stream again. Elijah pushed himself to his feet to follow the blue-haired ogre.
Then a horse whinnied. "An ogre!" shouted an unfamiliar voice. There was a muddle of shouting voices and then a loud crash and a scream, then a muddle of quieter voices. Concerned, Liam sprang to his feet, tip-toeing forward.
Ava was lying on the ground in a growing puddle of blood, her chest rising and falling weakly. Elijah had drawn his mace. An angry-looking elf with a two handed sword and a familiar-looking face that Liam couldn't quite put a name to was shouting at Elijah; behind him were a halfling, a dwarf, two humans, and three mules laden with saddlebags.
Realizing his own appearance was every bit as monstrous as Ava's, Liam flinched back behind the cover of the tree, and then almost jumped when his arms faded from view. Invisibility, twice per week, he reminded himself. Guess that's how it works.
He crept forward to Ava's side, putting his hand on her shoulder. Could he bandage her wound? He tried, and she stirred, eyes fluttering.
"Bastard did fourteen damage to me with one hit of a two-handed sword," she whispered under her breath. "Fuck. Not fair at all." She gurgled, and was still.
Liam looked up. Elijah had started fighting the elf. The halfling was holding up both his hands empty and shouting, trying to convince the two of them to stop; the dwarf and humans had their weapons out, ready to join in but held back by some combination of uncertainty and honor. Liam's stomach turned over as he considered his options.
He could maybe sneak behind the elf and take the elf down, but he and Elijah would still be outnumbered, and Liam was keenly aware that it wouldn't take much to put him out. Liam shook his head. Nothing I can do, he thought. Except get out of here before my invisibility wears off. As he tiptoed away, he felt guilty.
Sorry, Jacob, they probably won't murder you in cold blood, you look human and you're too weak to fight right now… I have to look after myself now. Speaking of which, I'm hungry. Liam felt around in his backpack for the Ziploc bag, retrieving an almond cookie and popping it in his mouth.