Chapter 1

Roden woke up, his forehead pressed into the crook of his arm. As he sat up, the sounds of the tavern around him invaded his ears. The smell of old beer, timber, and acrid smoke accosted his senses. Looking around, he recognized the familiarity of the setting, but couldn’t remember just how he got there.

'What the hell is going on?' He thought.

Roden scoured his mind for the last clear memory. He could remember sitting in his friend's basement at the table. They had just finished their latest session of Adventures and Antics.

He remembered standing in Lee's backyard as Lee smoked his cigarette. They talked about the session from that night. The actual words were fuzzy in his mind, but he remembered the gist. The session had gone good. They were excited with how the party was moving forward.

As his mind groped for the next part of the conversation it struck him. It had changed from the current campaign to wishing that for once he could actually be a player in a real campaign. Lee had been apprehensive about starting up another campaign while this one was currently going.

Roden loved Lee like a brother and he was the only other Game Master he knew. That night Roden left his friend’s house saddened. Missing the thrill of being a player, it had been years since he had the opportunity to be a member of a party. Roden remembered in a moment of self-pity. While he sat in his car driving home he had wished to finally be able to play.

Shaking his head, Roden pushed away those thoughts and took stock of what was going on around him. He looked down and saw that he was wearing simple pants of a durable construction. Not quite denim and definitely not jeans, but sturdy. He had high top boots of rugged leather. On top, he wore a rather sharp doublet with a soft silk shirt beneath. Looking around, Roden saw that the other denizens of this tavern were dressed similarly.

'Had he stumbled drunkenly into a Renaissance fair and not remembered? He hadn’t been anywhere near that drunk when he had left Lee’s.'

While deep in thought, one of the women working this strange establishment approached Roden’s table.

“Hello, love. Can I get you anything?” The woman said with a lilting accent.

Dumbly, Roden looked at the woman. He opened his mouth to speak, but the only thing that came out was a dull

"Uhhhhhhhh," full of uncertainty.

Seeing his pathetic attempt. The woman took pity on him.

"You must be new here. We have ale. I could get you a spot of food. Is there anything you'd like?"

Roden gathered his wits.

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"Ummm yeah, where am I exactly?"

"Why you're at the famous Adventurer's Outpost. The last sanctuary among the Timber Wilds." She rattled off as if by rote. "A little strange that you made it here if you don't know where you are, but I’ve seen stranger yet, so I ask again Love. Is there anything I can get for you?"

"Water would be wonderful, for now." His parched lips and tongue reminded him of his great thirst.

"Okay, I'll have someone bring it over."

As the woman walked away, things started to fall into place. 'The Adventurer's Outpost, the Timber Wilds. Those were both locations on his Adventures and Antics World Map. His clothes, the look of this place, even the speech of the barmaid. There was no way, but all evidence pointed to one conclusion.'

This was Mir, his Adventures and Antics world. This tavern was the Outpost he created so long ago.

'What the hell was he doing here? He was just a guy and that was just a game that he played with his friends while they drank, smoked, and most of all cracked terrible jokes until tears came from their eyes.'

'What the hell was he supposed to do by himself in this strange place?'

Just then he heard a soft voice in his mind that said,

"You have arrived at the Outpost after a few days of travel. Exhausted, you found yourself at a table and in the waiting for service. You fell asleep with your head in your arms. You awaken, take in your surroundings, now, what do you do?"

'No, no, no, no, no.' he thought.

The voice in his head sounded suspiciously like himself, but slightly different, more feminine. The language and syntax of it all felt so familiar, yet there was something procedural about it.

With everything going on around him, Roden resigned to try and take this world seriously, but the question of who he was plagued him Those weren't his clothes. He didn't walk there. In that brief moment of uncertainty and confusion, all of the sounds and movement around him came to an abrupt halt. And then he heard that same voice again.

“Are you ready to create a character?”

'Go fuck yourself,' he thought at the voice. 'Oh great. I'm arguing with myself,' he thought, but with nothing else better to do. He said loud and clear "Yes."

His mind swam and he got incredibly tired and was forced to put his head back in his arms on the table. In the blackness, he must have lost consciousness. As he found himself in a dark space, the only light came from above and created a small circle around himself. If he had to guess, it looked to be approximately five feet in diameter. It was then that various objects became visible as they received their own spotlights.

At first glance, many of the objects seemed uncannily familiar as they floated in the air. The first light on the left revealed a set of clothing made of some kind of animal furs and a large ax with a stone blade. The next beam of light illuminated, a beautiful stringed instrument of cherry wood. Undoubtedly, this was a lute.

Floating next to it was a thin sword, presumably a rapier. Moving down-the-line, the next item was a little perplexing, as it held a little trinket. It wasn't until he approached it and looked closely that he saw and recognized it as the symbol of his world's pantheon. The idea struck him like a brick to the face. 'These were Character classes!'

"You have got to be kidding me." He said out loud to no one in particular.

He threw his hands into the air.

"Great, just great. I finally get to create a character for real and I have to be them, not just play as them."

"Hey GM!I don't usually choose my class until I know my stats. How the hell am I suppo..." His words cut off as a table appeared in the middle of the dark space. As he approached the table he saw that there was in fact, a set of four six sided dice and a blank sheet of paper.

"So what kind of method are we using?"

He waited a moment, but of course, there was no sound and he was indeed talking to himself. With nothing better to do Roden picked up the dice, gave them a shake and rolled.