Charisse awoke to the feeling of grass or something touching the side of her face. Instead of waking up during the day in the clearing, this time, it was the middle of the night. Clothing touched her skin, not grass as the dozen other times. Why was she wearing the starter outfit? She searched her memory and couldn’t remember any other time they had respawned at night.

She remembered countless times waking up after dying some gruesome death either from her stupidity or poor luck. Dozens of deaths and moments of horror and terror washed over her. Tears came to her eyes, and sobs shook her as she started to work through these memories.

Sounds of other people sobbing and crying joined hers in a misery choir.

As the grass soaked up her tears, Charisse’s brain tried to work out the logic, as grass doesn’t absorb water. She felt around, and the uniformity and familiar yarn-like feeling evoked a conclusion that brought her much joy.

“I’m back at home,” Charisse said. She sniffed and tried wiping her face with her shirt. “Guys, we did it!” She felt along the floor and found the wall near the stairs. Slowly rising, she felt the light switch and flipped it.

Darkness was banished, exposing two teenage men lying on the floor of a basement den. One was tall with tanned skin and light brown hair, the other darker, like a rich mahogany brown. Between them was a large table covered with paper, books, and dice. One wall was lined with bookshelves stuffed with books and board games.

Charisse walked over to the darker-skinned man and knelt next to him. “Reggie, it's ok; we made it out.” The young man opened his eyes and looked at Charisse.

“No, we didn’t. You're still Charisse,” Reggie said.

Charisse remembered she was born male. She closed her eyes and tried to pull up the combat log or rulebook. Nothing happened, and after a few tries with no results, she gave up and looked at her friends. “I can't pull up a log or rule book. You guys see Jax or Mark?”

The taller fellow was looking over the table and gathering up some sheets.

“I don’t think they made it out.” The young man said.

“I’ll check upstairs,” Charisse said. She was halfway up the stairs before Reggie spoke.

“They aren’t upstairs,” Reggie said as he looked at the table, staring at a character sheet with Todd. “Their character sheets are here and are being updated,” Reggie said.

“Why are they still trapped?” Charisse asked as she looked at the character sheets on the table. The mana section kept updating, jumping from as low as five back to a max of 39. A few seconds later, the hit points dropped to 0, and then the page magically erased itself until only the bare character sheet existed. “Crap, I think he died.”

“Jax doesn’t seem to be in combat, or at least his info doesn’t appear to be changing,” Todd said.

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“Fuck, I hate to say it, but we gotta go back in somehow and work out how to get all of us out.” Charisse met Todd’s gaze and then looked at Reggie.

Reggie mumbled something as he looked down at the table. He ran a finger over the many scratches and gouges that had marked the old wood.

“What was that, Reggie?” Charisse said as she moved over to look at what he was looking at.

“Shedding of blood, sweat, tears, and fears. You called my name and then asked to start the game.” Reggie said. He looked up at Charisse. “It’s what he said.”

Charisse nodded, then walked around the table and picked up all the scattered Skills, Archetypes, and Demons books. She also picked up every blank character sheet. Walking over to a bookshelf, she stuffed in the books and pulled out a different game system.

“What are you doing?” Todd said.

“If we go back in, maybe we can improve our odds. Maybe go with a game system that is weighed a little more in favor of the players. A system we all know how to abuse the fuck out of it.” Charisse said as she brought over some Dungeons and Dragons books.

“But 3.5 sucks,” Todd said as he looked at the books she’d brought over.

“Yeah, but because of the OGL, there is a ton of overpowered crap,” Charisse said.

“That will work against us, too,” Todd reached for one of the books.

A sigh of resignment echoed as Reggie, Todd, and Charisse started building characters.

Minutes later, they had three level 4 characters ready to go. Each looked at the others and made sure they covered the bases.

“Are you sure you want to play a caster, Charisse? You never seemed to play them in the past.” Todd said as he read up on spells for his Warforged Cleric.

“That’s because Mark always played, and having two arcane casters was redundant. Reggie, how does your Bard character go?”

“Looks good, so far; still need to choose an instrument to complete the look,” Reggie said.

“Just no bagpipes,” Charisse said.

“Steel drum it is,” Todd said.

A moment later, all three stood around the table; Charisse cut her finger with a pocketknife and let a drop fall onto the table.

“Furcas, we wish to start the game to rescue our two friends,” Charisse said. Silence held the room for a minute until Todd let out an audible gasp.

“Sorry,” Todd moved over to some of the scratchings on the table that looked more deliberate. “Maybe here.”

Charisse moved over to that side and squeezed a drop of blood out of her finger. After the drop hit the table, she said, “Furcas, we wish to start a game to rescue our friends.”

The room went utterly black, and then Charisse saw herself, Todd, and Reggie standing in a void. Even the table was gone, and she could not feel the carpet beneath her feet. An old man dressed in worn leather pants and a jacket walked out of the black to them. No shirt was visible under the jacket, while the little white hairs on his chest tried to escape.

“We completed the quest, but our friends were not freed,” Charisse said, not waiting for some singsong soliloquy from the demon.

“You already know why,” Furcas said, meeting each of their eyes but staying on Charisse’s.

“Then let’s play again,” Charisse said. “We have our characters ready this time.”

“I’m sorry, but the table requires a minimum of four players,” Furcas said.

“You fucking…” Todd stepped forward but cut himself off. “We have five players.”

“No, you are three,” Furcas counted to three on his right hand. “Find another, and we shall begin. Unless you have any other questions.”

Todd shook his head angrily, and Reggie just sighed. It looked like he was trying to come up with a workaround.

“I have a question,” Charisse stepped forward. “Why am I still a woman in the real world?”

“I may be a demon, but I’m not that evil.” Furcas faded into the dark, his parting words coming from the void. “Consider it a gift for the entertainment you have brought us.”

Charisse, Todd, and Reggie were back in the basement. Each is sweating profusely and feeling tired. In the back of her mind, she could hear Mark’s string of Fucks as she tried to come up with the next step.

“Well, I guess we got to find another player,” Todd said.

“Yeah, the question is, do we warn them, and will they even believe us?” Reggie said.