The Affection Multiplier - Side Story 8: The second Dungeons and Dragons session. (Patreon)

Author's Note: Holy shit this took a long time to write. I want to blame the holiday season for keeping me busy, but it's also because I did a lot of unnecesary things while writing this. I made a map of the region to have a clear picture in my head, I made character sheets for every, well, character here and even let more than a few event be decided by real dice rolls. Again, it was really fun to write but a lot more stressing since I'm behind in a lot of things. No worries, though. There will be the usual Deus Terra update later and the usual TAM update on Friday.

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One day, during morning pillow talk with your older girlfriends, you end up telling them that you convinced Emily and Megan to play Dungeons and Dragons with you, Katherine and Sophia and that they really liked it. It was only supposed to be an anecdote. You didn’t expect their reaction.

“What?” Emma said, raising from your side. “And you didn’t invite us?”

“Ah?” you exclaimed. “You play?” you asked them all.

“A group of friends invited me to play in college,” Emma nodded. “But then our game master broke up with his girlfriend, who was also playing. It got really awkward.” She sighed.

“I’ve never played Dungeons and Dragons,” Mia said, sitting up on the bed, the covers only hiding her legs, “but I’ve played Call of Cthulhu a couple of times, so I’m not a complete stranger to tabletop RPGs.”

“I also played in college,” Anzu said, stretching her arms beside you, “but it was Pathfinder.”

“I’ve never played anything like that,” Julia said, also raising from besides Emma to look at you, “but that’s all the more reason to try in my book.”

“Okay, I didn’t know you’d be interested,” you said. “If you really want to, we can ask Sophia. Since she’s the DM, it’s up to her.”

And that’s what lead to this moment. Just like before, you’re sitting around the table in your room with Sophia at the head. This time, however, you’re sitting with Emma, Mia, Anzu and Julia.

“I don’t know if I can run a game with eight people,” Sophia says, “so it’ll just be you guys this time.”

You and Sophia already went through the character creation process with them. What’s great is that everyone naturally chose different classes, so every single person playing has a very different character.

Emma chose to be a bard, not because of her love for literature and lore, but because she wanted to pretend to be able to play an instrument. You couldn’t help bursting out with laughter at that. Mia went with a warlock because of her Call of Cthulhu background, but chose the infernal patron after some talks about the setting with Sophia. Anzu decided on a cleric of life domain, both because you’re currently the only healer, and because she likes playing more support roles. And finally, Julia went for a barbarian because she wanted to hit things with a big axe and because she liked the image of herself in bikini and being almost invulnerable to damage.

And yeah, you’ll be keeping the original idea of playing as yourselves in this fantasy setting Sophia has been working on. It’s true that at first you wanted to be a tough dragon man, but there’s something appealing to the idea of self-inserting into a world of swords and magic as, well, yourself. You’ll be keeping your paladin character, but with a small change to his background after a talk with your DM.

“Hey David,” Sophia said when you were working on Julia’s character, “I know you wanted to be a paladin of Bahamut, but I have an idea that might interest you.”

“Tell me.”

“How about being a paladin of a goddess of love, war and sex? We’ll be treating the last session as a one-shot and starting the campaign with this one, so there would be no inconsistencies.”

And after a through explanation of the kind of setting she had planned, she had you thoroughly convinced. Her idea really lit some of your own and it’s a better fit to you and the world.

You’re pretty excited to get this started.

And after Sophia asks if everyone’s ready, she begins the journey.

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It happened without warning. One day, in a matter of hours, the Kingdom of Lexeiros was destroyed.

The cloud-covered sky turned red. Demons flew down from above, razed villages, towns and big cities alike. The dead rose from their graves to seek vengeance on the living. Screams and cries filled every corner of the land along with fires of destruction.

Belial, one of the world’s most powerful archfiends, let loose a spell to take over the country. His minions did their work, killing and devastating everything in their path. No one was there to stop him. What’s more, it all seemed like a game to him. After the deed was done, the archfiend vanished, letting his subordinates do as they pleased with the land.

Of course, you and your allies didn’t sit still. You fought tooth and nail to protect everyone within reach. Yet your strength wasn’t enough. The fiends’ power overwhelmed you, and though you would’ve rather died fighting, your allies convinced you to escape and prepare for another fight.

You overlook from a hill how the town you’d come to call home burns before your very eyes, the families of your wives lay dead there, and all because of your weakness. You drive the blade of your sword into the ground, holding the grip tightly enough to turn you knuckles white. And through gritted teeth, you speak your oath.

“Hear me, o Freya, for from this moment onwards, I will not rest until I see the creatures who’ve hurt my family repent before my feet. I shall hunt them down to their homes if need be. Let the world hear that any who wishes and acts with ill intent towards my family will know my name, and fear it. This, o Goddess of Love, I swear to you on my life!”

“Then go and show me your resolve, my child.”

You hear Her voice speak directly in your mind. Soothing, yet firm.

“Fear not the emotions in your heart, for your fury is righteous. But let it not blind and destroy you. For Love we live, through Sex we demonstrate it, and through War we protect it. Yet the love in this land has been replaced by fear, and sex and war only spread further pain upon the people. Show me you have the resolve to see things through, and I shall give you my full blessing.”

Knowing the Goddess is watching over you, your resolve only grows stronger. Yet this is not the correct moment to act on it. You look back to your wives. All eight of them are exhausted from the battles, but you and Anzu already treated their injuries.

“We need to find a place to rest,” Julia says, “it’s too dangerous to stay here.” Her grip on her axe is as tight as yours is on your sword. Her legs are shaking, yet she’s trying her best to stay strong. “What’s more, Mia hasn’t been feeling well.”

Your eyes go to the woman in question, resting in Anzu’s arms. Mia is the only one of your group who has no fighting experience. Being a simple librarian, she’s very knowledgeable of many topics, even magic, though she’s not capable of using it. If anything, you’re at least glad you were able to save her.

Yet now she seems to be in a deep, nightmare-filled sleep. She won’t wake up no matter what you do, sweat covers her brow and she curls as if something hurt.

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“Talk about a dark intro,” Emma comments, “and it stays true to the rule of fantasy settings. Being a protagonist’s parents is the most dangerous job.”

“That and being a mentor,” you add with a nod.

“Shush, you two,” Mia scolds you, “don’t ruin the mood.”

“Where can we go now?” Anzu asks.

“There’s another city further north,” Sophia says, “and it isn’t difficult to guess that it’s also overrun with demons. To the far west you’ll get to a river coming from the mountains. There’s another town there, but it’d be a trip of several days. To the south there’s a forest, and though it’s usually home to a few monsters, you can presume that even those would pose less of a threat than fiends.”

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“Let’s head down south, into the forest,” Anzu suggests, still holding Mia in her arms, “We’d have a better chance fighting a couple of owlbears than going back to any city.”

“Agreed,” Emma nods. “We need to get Mia to safety.”

“I’ll carry Mia,” Emily says, “Megan and Katherine can cover our backs. You guys go up front.”

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“So you’ll be playing the other characters when they’re not here?” Mia asks.

“Yes, but I’ll only play them the minimum I have to. You still have the final say on what they do, and I’ll try to look for an excuse for them to not be present when we’re not all playing together.”

“Alright. I get it,” Julia says.

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You and Julia take point, weapons ready to take on anyone who tries anything. It’s dark already, but you avoid making any kind of light to prevent yourselves from being noticed. Emma and Anzu walk just in front of Emily, who’s carrying Mia on her back, while Katherine and Megan are go last, watching that nobody is following.

You reach the forest after about half an hour of walking. You keep to the cliff wall to the west as they walk, each one of you allies looking in a different direction. You decide to make use of your Divine Sense for extra caution, and you’re glad to make sure that there’s nothing of demonic or undead nature around.

You eventually come out of the forest, right next to the foot of a mountain. The salty air tells you the sea is close, right behind the mountains to the west, probably. You settle on a good spot, a small cave, and help the others get comfortable.

You take the first turn of watch, simply not feeling like you could sleep even if you wanted to. You look at the still sleeping Mia, putting the back of two fingers on her forehead. She’s feverish, but Anzu has done everything she can already, and you senses didn’t get anything from her. You can only hope it’s nothing more than a nightmare.

When day breaks, Megan steps up to the group with resolute eyes.

“We can’t just stand here and do nothing, can we? Even if these things are stronger than us, there must be something we can do!”

“She’s right! There’s nine of us! I’m sure we can do something!” Katherine agrees.

“I say you guys stay here, try to rest and gather supplies. Meanwhile, Katherine, Megan and I will go scout the surrounding cities, look for survivors or at least see how bad things are,” Emily suggests.

“It’s too dangerous,” you tell her with narrowed eyes.

“Everywhere is dangerous now, David,” Megan tells you. “We can move quickly and we won’t get in any fights. I promise.”

After some discussion about the best ways to approach this, the three girls take what little supplies you could run off with and leave, walking east. Meanwhile your group decides to rest and recover their strength in the improvised camp you’ve set up.

And while you hunt, fish and explore the surroundings, you quickly notice how the land itself is changing. A dark magic is poisoning the country; the trees start withering; the water flowing from the rivers becomes polluted with a dark, poisonous mud; the soil dries up; the animals look frightened and disoriented. It’s only a matter of two days that the green forest you traversed turns a reddish brown, all leaves completely gone from their branches.

“It’s like the apocalypse has come,” Emma grimaces, yet a hopeful smile appears in her face as she looks at you. “But how many tales have we heard of heroes rising up to the occasion when the world needs it most?”

“Are you saying we’re the heroes the world needs?” you ask her, clenching you fist in frustration.

“Anyone willing to defend what they deem precious can be a hero.”

It’s her smile that gives you the confidence you need. But only an idiot confuses confidence with recklessness. You know you’re not strong enough to make everything right. But everything starts somewhere.

You need to find out where that is for you and your family.

“Guys! Mia’s awake!” Anzu comes out of the cave with the only good news you’ve had in days. Everyone rushes inside where you find her resting, covered by a pelt Julia got from a dead wolf she found.

“How are you doing?” Julia asks her.

“I feel like my head’s gonna split,” Mia groans, holding her forehead.

“Do you have any idea what happened? You’ve been out for about three days!” Emma says.

“Regrettably… I think I do,” Mia grimaces.

She hold her palm in front of herself as if she were going to hold a ball. And without warning, something appears there. It’s like a wavering sphere of arcane energy, black of color and with red energy surrounding it.

“W-What’s that?” Emma asks nervously. “You’ve never been able to use magic before.”

“While I was asleep… something spoke to me,” Mia swallows. “An archfiend by the name of Mephistopheles.”

There’s a collective gasp around her.

“Wait, but I thought the name the demons spoke as their boss was Belial,” Julia points out.

Mia nods. “This one is different. He claims to love watching the natural struggles of the human world, and that Belial is messing with his fun by intervening. He… chose me to end Belial, or he’ll curse me forever.”

Again, you grit your teeth and clench your fists until they turn white. You immediately add Mephistopheles to the list.

Anzu uses her divine powers to see if there’s something possessing Mia, yet she finds nothing. “Whatever it is, it’s not controlling her,” she says, “rather, it’s only granting her power.”

“And if she doesn’t do as she’s told…” Emma mutters, biting her lip.

“Dammit!” Julia punches the rocky, jagged wall of the cave, yet it seems to do nothing to her fist.

“They do whatever they want with us,” you say.

“Let’s look at the bright side of this,” Mia says, smiling wryly. “I now have the power to fight alongside you. You were already planning to go after Belial, weren’t you?” She looks at you directly, her eyes reading you like a book.

You nod.

“Then we can worry about my new acquaintance at a later date. For now, I need to get used to these powers.”

And that’s what you do. Though a couple of extra days of inaction have you feeling restless, you know it’s necessary to recover your strength. Julia goes into the forests to procure food while you make use of the Goddess’ power to purify water for drinking.

But one day, a scream from not far away from your camp calls you to action. The terrified shriek of a young girl comes from deeper inside the forest. It only takes a single look to your companions to know they’re right behind you.

You dash at full speed, avoiding the withered trees in your path, every heavy step leaving cracks in the dried soil. You finally see them. An adult man is carrying a small, young girl in one arm, while his free hand is holding that of a young boy. They run as fast as their legs can carry them as they’re being chased by a group of fiends.

There’s four small ones, not taller than 1.40 meters. They have grey, rotting flesh, stubby legs and slender arms that end in sharp, black claws. Alongside them are two flying Imps, the classical picture of what people think fiends are. They’re red-skinned devils, slender and with tails resembling those of scorpions, with pointy wings, small horns and sharp teeth.

You don’t stop in your charge. You hold your sword with both hands, and with a clear battle cry meant to draw their attention to you, you swing your sword towards one of the flying creatures.

The speed of your dash, the fury of your swing, the weight of your blade and the precision of your strike cleave the small devil in two in a single hit.

“Keep running!” you yell to the man, who only acknowledges you with a firm nod before he does as told.

Julia catches up to you immediately, reaching your side with a mighty jump and driving her greataxe into the skull of one of the small, grey fiends as she falls, ending it in one blow as well.

“I’m in real need of some cathartic release,” she says with a wild, excited grin.

Another one of the smaller creatures jumps up to slash Julia with its claws. She’s not wearing any armor, only a set of thick black pants and a bra made of a wolf’s fur. Yet the claws of the small demon can barely scratch her bare skin. She looks down at the puzzled demon with a smug smirk.

“Gah! These can fight back!” the remaining imp exclaims in a panic. It takes to the sky as it trying to escape, but a bolt of holy light catches it on the back, shooting it down instantly.

Anzu looks at her target with cold fury in her eyes. She’s never been a fan of using violence to solve conflicts, but she now know where hesitance can lead to.

Emma dashes in swiftly, unsheathing a rapier from her waist and thrusting into one of the three remaining demons. The blade of her sword pierces into the rotting flesh, but she clicks her tongue when she sees it’s not enough to kill it. What’s more, as if it didn’t care about the blade stuck in its chest, it steps forward to swipe at her with its dirty claws.

Emma instinctively pulls back, both avoiding the attack and making way for Mia to try out her new powers. She shoots a beam of crackling energy that hits the demon in the face, nearly blowing its head off completely. Mia notices how little she cares about such a violent act. Really, she has no pity towards the beings who burned down her home.

You and Julia make quick work of the two remaining demons. To you, they don’t pose any threat.

“Manes and imps, if I remember correctly,” Mia says. “These are at the absolute bottom of the hierarchy.”

“If only all of them were this weak,” you mutter.

When everything has calmed down, you notice the man and the children running back to your group.

“Now I remember! You’re the Caminante family, aren’t you?”

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“Are we really going with that?” Anzu asks between giggles. “Are we just translating your surname into Spanish?”

“I think it sounds good,” you argue, crossing your arms. “It sounds like Caminades, which is a French surname.”

“Alright, alright. I still think it’s funny.”

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“You know us. Does that mean you come from Lampa City as well?” you ask with hope in your heart.

“That’s right,” he says with a small, wry smile before glancing at boy and the girl, who still look frightened and don’t look older than seven and five years old respectively. “They were holding us prisoner in one of the barns along with other people. When there was a guard shift, we all tried to escape, but I don’t know what happened to everyone else. I… I just took my children and ran.”

“Let’s go back to the camp,” Anzu says. “You all need some rest.”

“Hey kids,” Emma says, approaching the children with an easy smile “would you like to hear a song?” she offers, twirling the flute in her hand.

The moment she starts playing, the music helps soothe the soul. You all march back to camp with the sound of Emma’s music, the children sheltering themselves under the sweet tunes from the terrors of the real world.

Back at the cave, Anzu is cooking fish over a fire, Emma is entertaining the kids while the man, named Joshua, tells you, Julia and Mia the situation in the city.

“Everything’s in ruins. Last I saw there were demons everywhere, still looting everything they could find. They were keeping us survivors in a barn, I don’t know what for. Perhaps to eat us later or simply torture us for fun,” he shudders.

“You say everyone scattered in different direction?” Mia asks.

“Yeah,” Joshua nods. “One of the imps made a mistake and didn’t tie us up. We took the opportunity and ran. But since they were about to catch us, I dread to think what they’ll do the others.”

Both Julia and Mia look to you, their eyes speaking more than words ever could. You nod in response.

“We need to scout the area, first,” you say. “If the place is still so full of demons, retaking the city is beyond us. However, we might be able to rescue the people.”

“And bring them here, to this camp?” Julia asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Until we have a better place, yes,” Mia nods. “And we need to act fast. I bet they’ll try to make an example out of more than a few.”

You click your tongue. “Then we don’t have time to lose.” You stand up, check your gear, you chainmail, your sword and your bag. “Joshua, stay in the cave with your children. Don’t come out for anything and don’t light up a fire at night until we come back.”

The camp is about an hour’s walk from Lampa City. It’s still morning, but waiting for nightfall would be a waste of time. These monsters can see perfectly in the dark.

You and your group march towards Lampa. Once more, it seems as though the normal monsters one would find in the area have gone into hiding or have been killed by the demons, for there’s not one in sight.

However, you stop well before you arrive at your destination. Lampa city is located on top of a hill with a single path of entrance. Steep cliffs to the west and south and big mountains to the east and north make said path the only option for easy access. But it also makes it the only path that needs to be watched.

You turn towards the rocky and difficult to cross mountains, making the trip take twice as long. In total, it takes you about two hours to reach the city. But in return, you have a wide view of the whole area from 50 meters up on one of the southern mountains.

At Mia’s suggestion, you stay there for a while longer, observing the movements of the demons below.

“Is it just me, or are there less than there were during the attack?” Emma asks.

“Perhaps they’re inside the houses?” Julia suggests.

“Even if they were, there’s not much movement at all,” Anzu points out.

“Look there!” Emma points with her finger towards the path normally used to enter the city. What you see is one of the stronger devils that assaulted the town that night. It’s a male, humanoid looking devil with purple skin and muscled frame, wearing little more than a cloth around waist. His most notable feature is his beard of barbed tentacles, each moving as if with a will of its own. On his left hand he’s holding a pole arm, a glaive. And on his right shoulder he’s carrying a person, a woman. You can’t hear what they’re saying, but you do see him carry the woman to the same barn you were told the prisoners were being held and exit soon after.

“I guess that confirms they’re still keeping them there,” Julia says.

“How do we rescue them?” Anzu asks.

“…what if Julia and I draw their attention and the do a fighting retreat while Emma, Mia and Anzu sneak the people out?”

“That’s stupid,” Mia says.

“That’s dangerous,” Anzu adds.

“And it’s the only way I see,” Julia shrugs. “It’s not like we have any fancy magic that can make us invisible, right?”

“Dammit,” Emma groans.

“From what I see, it’s mostly weaker monsters. The strongest one is that bearded guy,” you say. “We won’t try to win. We just need you to get the people out while we distract everyone else.”

“Gods dammit, fine! But just focus on running away!” Emma tells you and Julia.

“That’s the plan,” The blonde barbarian grins.

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“I can’t believe you two are actually doing this,” Anzu groans, holding her forehead and shaking her head in utter disapproval.

“Hey, it’s crazy enough to work!” Julia laughs.

“You two are gonna get yourselves killed,” Mia says.

“You’ve been watching the town for an hour at most,” Sophia laughs. “You have no idea what else might be in there!”

“Hey, people are suffering in there!” you argue. “I wish we had a more sneaky solution, but we don’t have a rogue and all our casters are level 2.”

“I’m level 1, actually,” Mia sighs.

“I just want to point out,” Emma says, pointing a finger at you, “that if your character dies and you make a new one, I’m not gonna let him touch me.”

“Eh?”

“Oh yeah,” Sophia nods, understanding where Emma’s coming from. “It WOULD be a different person, from a role playing standpoint.”

“We are married in this fantasy world, right? I won’t stand for being made a widow on the first session, David,” Mia frowns at you.

You don’t really know how to answer, but at least it’s good to see they’re getting into it and having fun, right?

“Let’s… Let’s just fight some demons, alright?”

“Alright. David, Julia, both of you roll Athletics and Stealth checks,” Sophia tells you. “Athletics first.”

“That’s a… 19,” you say with a satisfied smile.

“14 for me,” Julia says. “And yes, I added the modifier.”

“Okay. Stealth now. David, you have disadvantage for wearing chainmail.”

“Shit,” you groan but roll the dice anyway. The first roll is an 18 and the second… “Fuck! A natural 1!”

“And I got a 6,” Julia laughs it up.

“Yup. You guys are dead,” Anzu nods.

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You and Julia go down the mountain carefully. It’s not a problem of going down, but doing so without drawing attention. And you don’t know if it’s the fact you’re using chainmail while trying to be sneaky, that you’re coming down from high up where no buildings obstruct the view, or if this was just an outright terrible idea, but the screech of a demon alerts everyone of your presence.

“Well, step one done, I guess,” Julia shrugs and jumps the rest of the way down, landing gracefully. You follow her, and though your landing is rougher, you’re not hurt in any way.

“Run!” you yell. You make your way through the buildings and as far away as you can from the barn and towards the town’s main entrance. You see imps, manes and other monsters that look like molten masses of flesh chasing after you and Julia.

As you run, you take the opportunity to kill any weak monsters that stand in your path, swinging your sword and axe at them with full might. Thinning their numbers is never a bad thing.

“What is all this commotion!?” a rough voice speaks in annoyance, coming out of a house along the main street, right in front of you. “Mm? Who are you people?”

It’s the Bearded Devil. He looks at you with a hot glare and snarls. The tentacles in his chin flail around as if each of them was separately angry.

“Path’s blocked, David,” Julia says, clicking her tongue.

“How many are behind us?”

Julia looks back. “Seven.”

“Can you hold them off for me?” you ask with a regretful smile, not liking having to ask this of her.

“You’re going to take on that thing alone?” She looks at you incredulously.

“We can buy more time if I do,” you nod, then turn to the fiend with a taunting grin. “It doesn’t look that strong, anyway.”

“What!? You human trash, I’ll gut you and use you as feed for the prisoners!” The Bearded Devil says, pointing the tip of his glaive at you.

“You make me sick,” you spit. Then you focus the divine energy grated to you by Freya and cast a spell on your enemy. You look him dead in the eye, and you can tell by his body language it has taken effect.

Compelled Duel. By divine demand, this devil is now compelled to fight you and only you. It will completely ignore Julia, so long as she doesn’t interfere in the fight.

“I see,” Julia nods. “Alright, I’ll take care of the trash behind us. Just don’t die.”

“Same to you,” you smile.

“I’m gonna fuck your brains out if we survive. You know that, right?” she smirks.

“All the more reason to make it out alive,” you smirk back.

You draw your sword, plant your feet firm on the ground and stand with a defensive stance. You don’t need to win this fight. You just need to buy time. And on that account…

“What is your name, devil?” you ask.

“What’s it to you? You’ll be dead in a second,” he snarls, taking a hunched stance with his glaive at the ready. You need to be weary of his beard, too, but the blade of that weapon looks particularly ominous.

“My name is David Caminante, paladin of the Goddess Freya. If you will not introduce yourself, you will die here nameless.”

“You arrogant piece of shit!” The devil lunges at you. The tentacles stretch trying to pierce your face, but you pull back, managing to also parry the blade of his weapon. His attacks are relentless and you see no opening for attacking. All your focus is going to keeping yourself out of harm’s way.

Behind you, Julia has gone into a wild rage. She growls and screams as her axe cleaves through her enemies. They all attack her, but she brushes the pain aside without a care. The punches of the masses of flesh barely bruise her and the claws of the manes can’t even scratch her. The biggest danger is the poison from tails of the two imps.

But you don’t have the luxury of looking back at her. You swat down the thrust of your opponent’s glaive and try to counterattack. You manage to slash at its chest, but notice how your blade seems as dull as a butter knife against his skin.

“Hehehe,” the devil laughs. “Turns out you can’t even hurt me, o mighty paladin!”

You click your tongue and resume your defensive stance. You dodge away of harm’s way by the skin of your teeth for what it feels like hours, but you’re sure is nowhere near enough time yet.

______________________________________________________________

“Holy crap, I’m rolling terribly!” Sophia exclaims, looking down at the dice behind her screen.

“How on earth are you getting away with this!?” Emma asks through her laughing fit.

“I DON’T KNOW!” you answer.

You compelled the devil to a duel and are doing nothing but taking the dodge action to make it have disadvantage on attacks against you. And somehow all his attacks are missing! The thought that Sophia could be fudging her rolls behind the screen crosses your mind, but you don’t think she’d be the type to do that.

Meanwhile, since all the monsters Julia is fighting are very low level and her rage makes her take half damage, the hits she’s taking only do like 1 or 2 points of damage, which is nothing considering she has the most HP in the party.

“I can’t believe this is working,” Anzu laughs.

“Either Sophia is a more merciful DM than I thought, or you’re getting extremely lucky,” Mia says.

“He’s extremely lucky, I swear!” Sophia insists.

“Hey, this isn’t gonna last so you three get the people out quickly!” you tell them.

Sophia makes a pause on your and Julia’s fight to focus on how Emma, Mia and Anzu are getting the people out, completely free of any danger thanks to your distraction. However, there’s only like four people in the barn.

“The others were taken to away or killed,” Sophia says, speaking for a young male NPC. She really sells the fear in the man’s voice.

After that’s settled, the focus switches over back to you and Julia.

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Sweat flows down your brow. Not only is dodging and blocking the devil’s attacks taxing on the body, but it’s also extremely stressing. As such, it’s only a matter of time until you slip up. Besides, for every demon Julia kills, it’s like one or two more appear.

You’re just waiting for the girls’ signal to tell you the job’s done and you can start making your escape. But it’s during that moment of distraction that the blade of the devil’s glaive finds your shoulder.

You groan at the sharp pain, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. The most difficult part is keeping the effect of your spell in place, but you do it successfully. Yet when you try to move, an ever sharper pain assaults you just in the place the wounds is. What’s more, it’s bleeding more than would be normal for such a cut of that size.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” The devil says with an annoying grin and a twirl of his glaive. “And guess what? It’ll only get worse.”

You click your tongue and put a hand over the wound. You channel healing energy from the pool within your soul and close the injury immediately. You planned on giving your opponent another taunting grin, but the sound of thunder booming behind you stops you.

You see the bodies of imps, manes and masses of flesh flying past you. You turn your head and see Emma standing there, some leftover energy from her spell crackling around her.

“Yeah! It worked!” she laughs. “We made it in time!”

What’s she doing here!? She should’ve escaped!

From slightly behind her, Anzu points her opened palm at the fiend in front of you and shoots a bolt of radiant energy towards it, hitting it directly in the chest. The monster recoils in pain, the spell having obviously done heavy damage as well as leaving a glowing spot right on the point of impact.

“David! Hit him!” Anzu shouts.

Having been attacked by another person, your spell is broken, but it doesn’t matter. You kick off the ground, and with your sword raised high, aim at the fiend’s chest.

______________________________________________________________

With Anzu’s Guiding Bolt giving you advantage on your attack roll, you throw the dice twice and take the bigger number.

“…” You remain quiet as you stare directly the result.

“What did you roll?” Sophia asks.

Without saying a word, you point your finger to is and motion for the Dungeon Master herself to look.

“A natural 20!? You lucky bastard!” Sophia groans throwing her head back and covering her face with her hands.

You and the other burst out laughing. This whole plan is the kind of stuff people write or make videos about, but you never thought it would happen to you!

“Come on! Kill it in one hit!” Emma encourages.

“Holy crap, I’m gonna roll a lot of dice,” you say with excitement.

You decide to use your last remaining spell slot to use Smite on the attack, which is a critical hit. This means you roll double the dice you use for damage, and thanks to your fighting style being Great Weapon Fighting, you can re-roll the 1s and 2s. And even if the devil is resistant to physical damage, your Smite will do Radiant damage plus one extra d8 because he’s a fiend.

The end roll is a whopping 22 points of Slashing damage divided by half, so 11, plus 26 points of Radiant damage, totaling 37 damage total as a level 2 character against an enemy with a resistance.

Paladins are cool.

______________________________________________________________

With a loud battle cry you bring your sword down along the length of the fiend’s chest, forcing your blade to cut through his skin and letting his insides burn with the holy energy surrounding your weapon.

The Bearded Devil recoils in pain, an agonizing wail escaping him along with the smoke coming out of his chest. He kneels, his legs losing the strength to support him, and looks at you with hot, raging fury in his eyes. That look remains even as his head is severed from his body in one clean cut.

You freeze, and you know the rest of your party feels the same. You watch the head of the enemy who gave you so much trouble roll on the ground and his body drop limply. The sound of chains sends shudders down your body, and the figure walking calmly from the entrance nearly makes your heart stop.

It looks like a tall muscled man with red skin, wearing a black mask that covers nearly the entirety of its face save for those unsettling yellow eyes. Chains are wrapped around its body and hanging from its arms, not as restrainers, but as weapons, as demonstrated by the hook blades at their ends decapitating the Bearded Devil.

“Thank you for your assistance, adventurers,” the new fiend speaks in an annoyingly polite and warm voice. “You see, this weakling sized control of this city I had my eyes on and sent his strongest minions against me. Having already taken care of them, I decided to come pay him a visit, yet found him on his knees. Truly, a pleasant surprise. I can take this city and turn it into my own base without any more effort. I am truly thankful to you.”

You and your party take fighting stances, even though your bodies are trembling.

“Please, fear not. I mean what I say. And as proof, I promise to let you go,” it bows. “Do note, however, that is courtesy will only be extended once. Should we meet again, it shall be as natural enemies.”

You want to reject his pity and charge directly at him, but you swallow your rage. Your wives are behind you, all your resources spent. Mia’s not here. She’s probably leading the prisoners back to camp.

“May I know your name, o polite devil?” you ask with your own forced politeness.

“I am Alzar, sir paladin.”

“My name is David Caminante,” you answer by honor, “and though I dislike it, we will accept your thanks this time.”

“I’m pleased to hear that. And I do hope we meet again eventually. Your group seems like they’d be perfect of a long session of skinning.”

Again, you swallow your anger and keep your mouth shut through gritted teeth. You and your group walk out of the city uninterrupted, keeping your heads down. The frustration in your chest will have to wait some time to be alleviated. For now you can only hope Mia and the people are safe.

Once you’re a relatively good distance away from the city, you address the others.

“Let’s camp west tonight. I want to make sure we aren’t being followed.”

With a nod of agreement, your group heads east, while Mia makes it back to camp safely with the rest of the ex-prisoners.

______________________________________________________________

“Motherfucker stole our kill!” Julia groans, throwing her head back.

“I didn’t have more smites, though,” you tell her, “and I don’t think Anzu had more spells either.”

“Yeah, I had to use one on an injured person,” she says.

“Ugh! I was feeling so useless until I jumped in the middle of all those demons and blew them away with thunderwave!” Emma gushes. “I’d almost forget how fun tabletop RPGs can be!”

“I’m amazed how much you guys are committed to roleplaying,” Sophia praises. “We didn’t do it much when we played with Emily and Megan because they didn’t really get it.”

“If you’re gonna do something, do it right,” Mia nods.

“I admit I never pictured you as one to role-play, Mia,” you admit.

“Oh? But I am. I took a few acting classes in college because they were part of the curriculum, believe it or not. They were fun.”

“We are doing this again, right?” Anzu asks with an excited smile. “We’re not gonna let that fiend walk all over us, are we?”

“So long as you’re willing to play,” Sophia says, “I’m willing to write more of this.”

“Great, because that was really fun!” Julia grins. “Now, since we actually survived, I have a little promise to keep.”

Julia stands from her seat, takes you by the hand and leads you to your bed. The others laugh as it happens and hurry in cleaning up to join you.