It started with a stupid comment, that's the way it always started. And it always started the day after a romantic evening. Seven years of stupid comments that ruined the mood for weeks and sometimes months later. But this time would be the last, this time I decided to leave. She would beg me to come back, like she always did. But I'm done. I called Sam this morning, he offered me a place to stay until I could find something more permanent. He agreed to pick me up in about an hour. I have already packed my things. Martina is out jogging this morning keeping her body in tip top condition. A body she always says I'm so lucky to have.

The guys warned me about her ages ago, but I didn't listen. I guess it was that foreign appeal that sucked me in, those golden spanish eyes and raven hair, supple lips and body to die for. What guy wouldn't have jumped at the opportunity to date a little minx like her. I should have known from the beginning she was bad for me. Early in our relationship she kept me from meeting Sam and the guys for game night, saying our relationship was more important than some stupid imaginary world. A world we had created and explored each Wednesday night together since middle school. The Band of Four became the Band of Three, The magic broken by a Minxy Masquerade.

I felt the familiar vibration of my phone in my jean pocket. On the screen Tyler Fry's name shown in back lit blue lettering.

" Hey Ty Fry, how's it going?" I said, pressing the speaker phone icon.

" I heard about you and Martina, you ok? Are you coming to the game tonight?" Tyler responded.

" I've never been better. No worries. Actually I'm relieved, and yeah I'm staying with Sam until I find my own place so I will be there tonight."

"Great, Hang in there buddy. See you tonight," Tyler said just before he hung up.

***

The Lavoy's slate blue mid-century home looked exactly as I remembered it. I knocked on the heavy oak door with it's brass dragon door knocker and waited. After a short pause the door flew open to reveal my best friend Sam LaVoy. Sam was tall and lanky with unruly brown hair that seemed to stick out in odd angles, Now in his mid thirties Sam seemed not to have aged much in the last seven years. He still dressed college casual. Always in his vintage science fiction themed t-shirts, cargo shorts and canvas converse sneakers. His eyes lit up when he saw me standing at the door.

"Carter, we have been waiting for you, Tyler and Clifford are in the gaming room." Sam said, and after a long pause he added. " We have a guest game master tonight. Clifford found him online and is paying by the hour for him. He is supposed to be the best in the Puget Sound."

" Really," I said drawing the word out. " This should be interesting, Have I heard of him?"

"I'm sure you have. He runs the podcast Rain City Roleplay," Sam added.

" Not Magnus Midas? His skill will command premium bank" I said.

"Yep. You got that right, C'mon the guys are waiting," Sam waved me inside with a flourish.

I followed him down the hallway to the back of his home. There I heard laughter and the sound of rolling dice through the game room door. When Sam opened the door to the den the scent of leather, wood and old books enveloped me bringing back a flood of happy memories. The first thing that caught my eye was the appearance of a wall of windows overlooking the backyard. The windows were a new addition to the den. Heavy damask curtains in forest green hung from sturdy iron curtain rods partially covering the windows. In the center of the room a large table dominated the space under an iron chandelier sporting LED candles. The table was covered with charts, rulebooks, character sheets, pens and tankards filled with ale. High back leather armchairs circled the table, worn soft with use and years of game playing. To the right were floor to ceiling wood bookshelves housing a collection of fantasy novels, patterned globes, star charts, stone gargoyles and a dragons skull fashioned from cut crystal. Its hollow eyes seemingly watched over the adventure brewing at the table.

The wall to the left featured framed maps of imagined lands, sketches of unexplored vistas and charcoal drawings of exotic monsters. A mane of imagined goblin hair hung in pride of place between an amulet engraved with celtic symbols and a shining replica of Excalibur. An enormous river rock fireplace anchored the far wall. Flames crackled under a handcrafted iron pot, filled no doubt with Clifford's legendary dungeon stew. My stomach rumbled anticipating a full bowl of savory beef and veg as soon as the adventure started.

This den had been our haven for dream weaving, it stood as a monument to years of our imagination. A place where roads went on forever and new legends were born each time we met around our scarred wooden table, over our tankards filled with ale. And under the chandeliers candlelight we chased shadows and monsters from secret places onto unexplored lands. I was so glad to be back.

Stolen story; please report.

At the head of the table illuminated by the flickering candle light sat Magnus Midas, dressed in a frock coat that looked straight out of a summer renaissance faire, he poured over notes in a leather bound book. His shoulder length silver hair was pulled back to reveal slightly oversized ears, his eyes gleamed green like the gems of a dragons hoard as he peered through reading glasses perched low on his nose.

Magnus seemed somehow other worldly, as if he stepped through a portal from one of the realms in his roleplaying adventures. I guessed he was some years past fifty but he possessed an ageless quality that was balanced equally by wisdom and mischief. Behind his chair stood a carved wooden staff and what looked like a traveling cloak. It seemed to me he had plucked it away from an unsuspecting wizard. There was a subtle power to Magnus that caused the hairs on my arms to tingle, something I couldn't quite explain. I glanced at him and a fleeting vision of magic flickered around Magnus's hands. Shadows twisted into creatures bounding forward from his hands. His lips moved silently over the pages before him when he looked up from the parchment the tiny creatures melted back into the dark. I chuckled to myself and shook off the nonsense. I knew he was simply a grand storyteller, hired for his talent and flare for theatrics, not for magely magic.

I took my seat to the right of Magnus. Tyler, Clifford and Sam also settled in around the table, a hush fell over the room. Magnus rose with a rustle, standing before a massive hand drawn map of the Ezas.

"This eve, My friends, our quest begins anew. Disturbing rumors have reached the coastal cities of Tidani of strange magic awakening in the Underchasm, in the vast networks of caverns beneath the Wexlor Mountains." Magnus traced a path through the treacherous peaks and onto a subterranean realm. "Evil stirs in the deepest dark, and the call has come once more. I ask you now, Who will take up the mantle of heroes this hour?"

All of us together again, The Band of Four, felt the excitement of a new game. We cheered and a roar rumbled around the table. Ale splashed into the air. Swords and spells were ours to command again. I felt the thrill of adventure igniting in my blood, something that had been lost with Martina. Exploration and conquest were mine to have once more.

Magnus turned to face me, his gaze piercing through me. "The first roll is yours, What path do you choose to descend into the Underchasm?"

I held the dice in my hand for a moment, my fingers tracing the etched surfaces. I lifted the dice to my lips and gently blew onto them " bring me good fortune." I whispered. I tossed them onto the table, and rolled a 20 as if by Magnus's bidding. A ripple of magic seemed to pass through the room, the candles flickered and dimmed. A deafening crack of thunder shook the foundation of the house and then everything went dark. A wind that seemed to come from the map itself twisted around each player and a bright flash lit the game room.

"What was that?" I heard Clifford say.

"Lightning, I think there must be a storm." I heard Ty answer back.

A second flash lit the room, this time in its wake the walls of the game room vanished. Instantly we found ourselves perched on a narrow out cropping of rock, our table balancing above an endless chasm. Far above us a fiery orange sky was visible through a rough crack in a ceiling of stone. The sun appeared blistered and misshapen, casting an eerie glow over us and the visible tunnels that lead into the depths. An earthy smell tainted with sulfur rose from the newly disturbed rocks around us.

Magnus stood unchanged at the head of the table, his cloak billowing around him in the hot wind. "The end times are upon us it seems. A portal has opened between realms not meant to meet. Creatures of terror climb even now to the surface lands, freed by Him to feast on the life above the Underchasm." He cast a grim look at the adventurers. "Dark magic has ushered in an apocalypse too soon, Your task stands clear. The portal must be found and sealed. The denizens of the Underchasm must be banished to their own domain."

Magnus looked at each adventure in the eye and then said. "Can there still be heroes in this dying age?" his words hung in the air.

I had rolled the dice to embark on this adventure but nothing could have prepared us for this. The worlds ending was ours to face if we dared. If we accepted Magnus's challenge our quest was no longer for gold or glory but for the fate of all life in the Realm of Ezas and the world above.

Our quest was clear, seal the portal and stop the monsters. Magnus turned to face the crack in the ceiling, his staff raised as if to gauge the widening tear. His eyes gleamed with the reflection of the angry sun, he mouthed something, calculations maybe, words known only to wizards or madman.

Without warning the earth shuddered beneath my boots. A deafening groan spiraled up from the depths as stones around me shifted. The narrow out cropping that supported our gaming table began to tip precariously over the abyss.

Clifford, Sam and Ty scrambled to safety, the table and game pieces clattered into the chasm below. I lunged for the open space ahead of me but stumbled as the last of the solid stone beneath my feet started to fall away. I fell against the chasm wall and clung desperately to its edge plying all my strength, I felt the effect of gravity pulling at me. A massive chunk of stone smashed into the depths below me, I wondered if there was any hope of my salvation. I felt my grip slipping as the length of my torso dangled over nothingness. I knew there would be no surviving a plunge into the void below me.

I looked up to the rock ceiling, hoping this was not my end. As if in response to my dubious thoughts electric blue text appeared in my field of vision.

" Though you find yourself in a precarious position, don't give up now. Ezas needs it's heroes and you are one."