One Week Earlier

Sunview University, September 29

Cam put his phone down on the cafeteria table, placing his head in his arms atop the table with an enormous sigh. Across the table, his friend and roommate Jordan continued to eat his dinner unperturbed. “What did she say?” Jordan inquired.

“Cindi dumped me. Like I expected,” Cam bemoaned.

“Makes sense. You sort of had it coming.” Jordan took another bite of his salmon.

Cam looked up through his arms at his friend. By appearance, the two could barely be more different. Jordan was tall, trim, with dark skin and closely shorn hair. In contrast, Cam was of average height, pudgy, with sandy brown hair and skin made too pale from sitting inside too much.

Looking like that, Jordan could be infuriating, but it was hard to be mad when he was right. Cam had been a real jerk to Cindi on their date last night—their third ever. Their relationship had lasted no more than two weeks.

“How do you keep a steady relationship going?” Cam asked. That was another difference between them: Jordan had had a steady girlfriend for the past 6 months.

“Communication,” Jordan answered off-handedly. “Care about your partner. Not being a jerk helps.”

“Thanks,” Cam muttered. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jordan’s expression soften as he clapped Cam on the shoulder.

“Don’t get too down about it. Plenty of fish and all that. But maybe you should try for some non-romantic relationships. You don’t have to force it.” Jordan nodded like a wise master dispensing knowledge to an eager student.

Cam sat back up straight, eating a listless bite of his own salmon. It was the special at the Sunview University campus cafeteria tonight. Both chewy yet overcooked and smothered in entirely too much soy sauce, the meal was nevertheless mysteriously delicious, and the cafeteria was packed as a result. He had to admit, the fish did cheer him up some. “So what are you suggesting, exactly?”

“Find a hobby, join a club, something like that. It doesn’t have to be official or anything. Just somewhere to hang out with some friends who share your interest.” He gestured magnanimously at nothing in particular.

Cam took a moment to think, although it wasn’t hard. “My hobby is Dungeons and Magic. You know that.”

Jordan half-smiled, half-grimaced. “Believe me, I will never forget professor Cam’s lectures on the ever fascinating world of Dungeons and Magic.” He pitched his voice higher, somewhat imitating Cam. “The world’s premiere Table Top Roll Playing Game.” Back in his normal voice, he said “do some of that.”

“You need multiple people to play D&M, Jordan. You know that.”

“Then get multiple people.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Bet.” Jordan waved at another student walking by with a tray of food. “Hey, Bekah! How’s it going!”

“Hi, Jordan!” the student, Bekah, said, setting her tray down in an empty seat across from Jordan, next to Cam. She turned to Cam. “Hi to you to, Cam!”

“Hey,” Cam responded. He did know Bekah, sort of: they were in the same public speaking class. The class size was small, everyone in public speaking hated public speaking, and Bekah was a friendly person, so Cam had briefly talked to her a few times.

She was noticeably short with wavy brown hair. As she turned toward Cam, he noticed she wore a cross pendant on a thin necklace. “Do you know Jordan?” she asked Cam.

Before Cam could reply, Jordan jumped in. “We’re roommates. Cam, Bekah and I went to the same high school.” Bekah nodded.

Cam stayed silent as the pair chatted lightly about old high school memories. He was just about zoning out when Jordan said something that caught his attention. “By the way, Bekah, Cam is trying to start up a Dungeons and Magic group and is looking for player. Would you be interested?”

Bekah looked surprised. “I don’t really know anything about it other than the name.” She turned to Cam. Because they were on the same cafeteria bench, her face was only two feet away from Cam’s. “What does that entail?”

Over Bekah’s shoulder, Cam saw Jordan smirking. He internally cursed at the man, but he couldn’t be too upset. After all, this was his field of expertise.

“Dungeons and Magic, commonly known as D&M, is the first and best known tabletop role playing game. In it the players take on roles of heroes in a fantasy setting and engage in a collaborative storytelling experience structured and moderated by the host, who is known as the Game Master, or GM.” He felt himself slipping into the familiar groove; he had explained this millions of times before. “The GM sets the scene. Based on that the players make choices for their characters, roleplaying their decisions. It’s not just freeform, though—there are rules, especially during combat with enemies and monsters. The players use their unique abilities, and the battles are resolved with a series of dice rolls to determine what attacks hit and how much damage is delt. But don’t get lost in the weeds of dice, though. The heart of the game is experiencing what it would be like to go on great quests a fantastical world with friends.”

Jordan smirked again. “We call him ‘professor Cam,’” he snidely told Bekah.

Only then did Cam realize he had been monologuing for over two minutes. “Sorry, I got sort of carried away…”

“No, it’s fine!” Bekah said. There was a sparkle of interest in her eyes. “I can tell how much you love it. Your enthusiasm is infectious.”

“Sorry,” Cam apologized again.

“No, now I’m interested!” Bekah pumped her fist in midair. “I love the Lord of the Rings, and this just sounds kind of like it.” She smiled widely. “I don’t really know the rules, but if you’re willing to teach me, I’d be happy to try it out!”

“Um…yeah! Great to have you.” It was impossible to be embarrassed; Bekah’s interest just seemed so genuine. “We’ll need to find a few other players. Ideally around four players, plus a GM—that’s me.”

She nodded hard. They exchanged numbers, Cam promising to text her when they made more definitive D&M plans. As she took her phone, she let out a little squeak. “I’m so sorry, I need to go! Bye Jordan, bye Cam!” She took her empty tray and strode off to the exit of the cafeteria.

Jordan smiled, but this time it was genuine. “See? Just that easy.”

“Will you play, too?” Cam asked.

Jordan shook his head ruefully. “I’m starting a new job in the evenings soon, and the hours are gonna be irregular. Plus I want to spend more time with my girlfriend. I might be able to join here and there, but I can’t be a regular player. Sorry.” He drank the last drop of his soda and stood up. “Speaking of which, I was gonna go hang and do homework with her and her friends tonight. See you later.”

“Bye,” Cam said. His food was still unfinished and half-cold. He didn’t mind, though, because his mind was racing with ideas for this new D&M campaign.

As soon as he got back to his dorm room, he opened his laptop and navigated to a website he hadn’t used in years, a message board dedicated to finding Dungeons and Magic players in your area. Cam had halfheartedly used the page last year, his first year, but he hadn’t found any players nearby and his schedule had been too busy to accommodate D&M anyways.

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Now, though…well, he had to admit to himself that he wasn’t any less busy. Still, being honest, he knew he could afford the time. “Sleep is for the weak, anyway,” he muttered to himself as he navigated the message board and entered his information. California. Sunview University. Looking for 3-4 players for weekly campaign. Remembering that he already had a confirmed yes in Bekah, he revised his request to 2-3 players. His message stood alone in the section; no other Sunview student had previously used this page to look for players.

After submitting the message, Cam knew he really aught to do some homework, but he felt so fired up about D&M that he couldn’t concentrate. After failing to make any progress in Calculus for half an hour, he pushed away his notebook and opened a fresh page on his computer. At the top, he put the header ‘Notes for my Awesome D&M Campaign (name tbd).’ Pressing enter, he began with the first line “You all meet in a tavern.”

Cam worked on this project for over four hours nonstop before exhaustion claimed him. He wanted to keep going, but at that point he was making so many spelling and grammatical errors that he couldn’t even understand his own notes, so he pushed the computer away and crawled into bed.

Cam had public speaking the next day. After class, he briefly chatted with Bekah who again confirmed her interest. “Oh! Also, I mentioned it to another friend. She seemed super interested when I described it as ‘collaborative storytelling experience.’” Cam was embarrassed to hear his words spit back at him—they sounded extra cringy like that—but Bekah didn’t notice. “Her name’s Ella. Can she join too?”

“Of course.” He did have slight trepidation about a person he’d never met, but then again, he barely even knew Bekah.

“Great! Here’s her number.”

Cam didn’t have any other classes and didn’t have anything to do, so he returned to his dorm. First thing he did was check the message board. To his pleasant surprise, he had a message already. Clicking on it revealed a short message.

Saw your post. I’m interested. Got another friend who’s maybe in too. Meet up in cafeteria on 30th to talk?

He hastily sent a message back confirming a meeting in the cafeteria for dinner the next day. He really wanted to work more on the D&M campaign, but calculus desperately needed doing. Still, even has he solved differential equations, his mind was far away in a fantasy land he was constructing moment by moment. The more he thought about it, the more he couldn’t wait to share it with Bekah, this online person, and whoever else could join.

The next day, at the arranged upon meeting time, Cam sat alone awkwardly sipping from a soda can that was already empty, the remnants of his meal spread before him. Belatedly, he realized he had never coordinated with this online person how they would know each other. He looked around the cafeteria in worry. Sunview had an undergraduate population of several thousand, and many of them ate at the on-campus cafeteria. If you were looking for someone you didn’t know, you might never find them—

His train of thought was interrupted by a girl pulling up the chair across from him at his table. “Hi—” he turned to say when his breath caught. This woman was beautiful. She had shoulder-length black hair and deep green eyes that demanded attention. She wore artfully ripped jeans and a simple yet stylish white blouse; clothing that gave the impression that she didn’t try to look amazing but did anyway. Cam got the impression that that was a look she intentionally cultivated.

“Hi,” she said, winking. “We’re here about the game thing?”

“Who’s we?” was the only thing he could think to say. Oh, great, really smooth, Cam! he berated himself.

The girl seemed surprised but she pointed to another girl who had sat down next to her. Somehow, this second girl had slipped Cam’s attention the first time, but upon closer look, he wasn’t surprised that he had missed her. She was a short, mousey girl with curly auburn hair and freckles, wearing shapeless jeans and a baggy grey hoodie. She was also lugging a backpack that made a muted crunch when she set it on the ground, but that somehow served to make her even less noticeable. Cam thought, perhaps unkindly, that he could walk past her in the halls a dozen times and never notice her.

The first girl, the especially attractive one, spoke. “I’m Annette. This is Dinah. Her account was the one that responded to your message.”

There was something odd about that phrasing, but Cam decided to press on. “Uh, yeah, great! Glad to have you guys.” He thought for a moment. “How much have you two played D&M before? It’s fine if you don’t have much experience,” he hastened to add, “but it helps me to know.”

Annette responded “Dinah’s played a ton. I’ve never played, but I looked up the rules so I’ve got a pretty good grasp on the game.”

The other girl, Dinah, muttered something. It was too quiet for Cam to hear the details, but the gist seemed to be that Annette’s idea of ‘looking up the rules’ actually meant getting Dinah to teach her. Again, sort of weird, Cam thought, but again, he decided to move past it.

“Great,” he said again lamely. “Well, can I get you two’s numbers? We’ve got at least one other player. I can set up a group chat.”

Annette looked at him with an mysterious expression halfway between mocking and encouraging. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Suddenly panicking, Cam hesitantly said “am I?”

“Name?”

It took him a moment, but he realized. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry! My name’s Cameron. But call me Cam.” He felt his face heat up. Annette chuckled a little at his reaction, making his face grow even warmer, but she handed over her phone with her number in it.

Cam turned to Dinah. She looked very uncomfortable, shrinking away from his attention. “You…don’t have to give me your number, if you’re uncomfortable,” Cam said lamely.

Her face reddened. “No, it’s fine,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper, handing it over. He entered his contact information into her phone, noticing that her contact list was awfully short.

After handing the phone over and exchanging a few more pleasantries with Annette (Dinah, to no surprise from Cam, stayed out of the conversation), Cam bid goodbye. “I’ll get the world set up and the first few scenarios done by the end of the week,” he promised. As he walked off, he turned back for one last glance. Annette waved, and Dinah made a nearly imperceptible motion with her right hand. After a moment, Cam realized she was giving him a thumbs up.

Scheduling their first session proved a challenge. Who would have thought, trying to find a time when five different people are all free for 4+ hours at a time is hard, he thought after nearly a day of attempted coordination on their newly created group chat. Between classes, study time, work, and Bekah’s volunteering, the only time they could meet up was Saturday at 10am.

Present Day

Sunview University, October 5th

On the morning of Saturday, Cam was up and ready by 9:40am. He usually slept past noon on Saturdays, but when his alarm went off he was wide awake in a blink of an eye. Cam had a suite-style dorm room, with a large common room containing a table and enough chairs for them all, so after some discussion among the five, they had agreed to meet there. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now he was having second thoughts.

Cam checked his phone. 9:42. Too late to find a different place. Nervously, he checked everything again. Computer, DM screen, dice, speaker to play sound effects and music during the game.

A knock at the door almost gave him a heart attack. He answered it to see Bekah beaming at him, accompanied by a tall blonde girl in a tanktop and athletic shorts. “Hi Cam!” Bekah beamed. “Sorry if we’re early” She presented him with a box. Upon opening it, he discovered it was full of homemade cookies. “I read online it’s good habit to bring snacks to a D&M game. I hope you like cinnamon.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Cam said, embarrassed at how embarrassed he was over the gesture. To distract himself, he turned to the tall girl. “You must be Ella.”

“In the flesh,” she said, offering a hand for a handshake. Cam accepted, noting how strong her grip was. “I’m pumped,” Ella continued. “I used to be a super nerd back in middle school, but I haven’t had the time since.”

“I see,” Cam noncommittally replied, letting the two girls in. They chatted with each other, allowing Cam to fade into the background until a second knock came on the door. He opened it once again to see Dinah. Once again, she was carrying a massive backpack full to bursting. “Hi,” Cam said. “Glad you could make it.”

“Yeah,” she said quietly, slipping past him and sitting down at one of prepared chairs. After taking out a sheet of paper and placing on the table before her, she produced a thick calculus textbook from her backpack and began pouring over the pages. Bekah and Ella made an effort to include Dinah in their conversation, but she answered only in monosyllables if she answered at all.

At precisely 10am came the third knock on the door. Outside was Annette. She waved, a piece of printed paper clutched in her hand. “Is this where the nerds are congregating?” she said. Cam must have reacted, because she laughed. “I’m kidding. Plus even if I weren’t, I’d count as a nerd here too, right?”

“I guess,” was Cam’s ever eloquent response.

Annette pushed past him and settled at the one remaining spot at the table. Cam followed, sitting down beside his chair. When he did, the conversation between Ella and Bekah died down, Dinah looked up from her book, and Annette watched with rapt attention. He cleared his throat.

“Uh.” Great start. “I’m glad you guys—girls—could make it. Looking forward to this.” His words sounded lame even by his standards. “I thought, maybe, why don’t you each say your character’s names? So we can keep track.”

Bekah spoke first. “My character is named Beatrice.”

Ella said with a faux-pompous voice “Behold, I am Erenata Vallanodauter! Hero of the Great Tree.” In her normal voice, she added “there’s a lot more backstory, but we can get to that later in character.”

Dinah just said “Descartes” in her small voice.

Finally, Annette said “my character is known as Appraiser. Not her real name, obviously.”

When all of them had spoken, the four looked at him expectantly. Cam shook his head, clearing his head. Best not to keep them waiting. He cleared his throat once, then again. He took one final glance at his notes and confirmed once again that they were in order. Nervously, he rolled his twenty-sided die. It came up a 14.

He shouldn’t keep them waiting. With a deep breath, he began the game’s narration. “You all meet in a tavern…”