Untitled D&D Group Story; Part 5 (Patreon)

Still working on the title. A full collection of this week's chapters will be posted shortly with PDF and Epub.

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Chapter 11

“She knows about The Game,” I said.

Dan had joined Melissa and they were both on speaker. I could imagine them sitting in their living room, side-by-side. Part of me felt like I should have just driven over there to have this conversation, but the other part of me knew being face-to-face would make this a lot harder.

Now, the way I opened the conversation seemed innocuous, by my intonation was everything. The Game. Capital T. Capital G. Our group of friends had called it that for twenty-three years. It was a way of talking about the sexual encounters we had with each other during the course of our D&D games specifically. We could talk about ‘the game’ all day and know we were talking about the combat, or the storyline, or who was bringing the snacks. But ‘The Game’ was a different matter.

“Fuck,” Dan said.

Melissa was silent.

“She just told me before she left,” I said. “She’s apparently known for a couple of years. Caught us the night of the Masquerade Orgy.”

“The one with Count Whats-his-face?” Dan asked.

“Count Fiorenzi,” Melissa corrected him, somehow still keeping her head on straight and correcting her husband about proper names and places like always.

“That’s the one,” I said. “She says she hasn’t told anyone, and I believe her.”

“God, this is going to be awkward,” Dan groaned. “We can’t just… ignore this, right? Like, pretend everything is normal and we’ll just… get on with our lives?”

“She told him for a reason, Dan,” Melissa said. “She told you for a reason, right Shane?”

I swallowed and nodded, then remembered they couldn’t see me. “Yeah,” I croaked out.

“God damn it,” Melissa said.

“What?” Dan asked.

“She’s trying to replicate the situation,” Melissa guessed. She always was quick to catch on to any mysteries or plots I put in front of the party. “She wants to have a Game like ours, not just a game.”

“Oh,” Dan said. “Well, that’s not- I mean, she’s twenty. Same age as we were when we started things, right? And you had the whole talk with her about birth control and stuff.”

I was not surprised that Dan had left that talk to his wife to have. He was one of my best friends, but the reason he and Mel got along so well was that he was laid back and happy to put his nose to the grindstone and provide for his family while she took charge of pretty much everything to do with the home and family dynamic.

“I don’t think we could stop her if we tried,” Melissa said. “And we’d be gigantic hypocrites if we tried to punish her or something. Even if it is a bad idea.”

“We haven’t even hit the big one yet,” I said.

There was a moment of silence on the phone.

“Oh, fucking come on,” Melissa said. “Really?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Wait, what else?” Dan asked.

“She wants her Game to be the one Shane is running for her, not just tips to run it herself or something,” Melissa groaned.

“Jesus Christ,” Dan said heavily. And then he snorted.

“What’s so funny?” Melissa asked.

“I- Nothing,” Dan said.

“I’m missing the punchline here too, buddy,” I said.

“OK. I just - it was a momentary, errant thought - but I thought ‘Like mother, like daughter,’” Dan admitted.

“Dan!” Melissa scoffed, and I could hear her slapping his arm.

“What?” he asked. “You have to admit, babe, you were the one to start things off way back then. The first one to flash some skin, the first one to make us all get naked when we got into the city baths. The first one to give a celebratory blowjob - still one of the best I’ve ever gotten.”

“Well, I wasn’t the first one to actually have sex,” Melissa said, her argument a little weak. That had been Jack and Veronica, but they’d already been in a relationship and been fucking for a couple of years prior to The Game.

“Either way, she put it out there to me, blunt as can be,” I said.

“What are the boys like?” Melissa asked. “Trustworthy? Is she interested in a specific one?”

I sighed heavily. “The guys bailed on the girls,” I said. “One got dragged back to his home state or something by his parents, and two of them didn’t want to dress up in character like the girls. So it was just me, Rhia, and her two friends.”

There was another long moment of silence, and then they both spoke at once.

“She wants to do it with just you and two other girls?” Melissa asked.

“You saw that Tori girl in costume?” Dan asked. Then corrected himself, “Wait, Mel is right - just you and the three of them?”

“It sounded like Rhia had been hoping the boys would be down, and the experience would bind them tighter, so her original plan wasn’t just with four people. She was… pretty blunt, like I said. She said both Tori and Elyse are bisexual, and that she’d be interested in sex with me in the Game. I gave her some reasons why it was a bad idea, and I probably could have given more now that I think about it, but I was a little stunned.”

Melissa sighed heavily. “Where did you leave it?” she asked.

“I told her I had to tell you guys all of this,” I said. “And she knew that was coming. She wasn’t trying to hide it or anything. Then she asked, if you guys said yes, would I be willing to move the game in that direction. I told her I couldn’t see you guys saying yes - I mean, it’s Rhia. And me. But she pressed and gave me that puppy dog look she does, and I mean, Tori and Elyse are very pretty and looked hot in their character costumes, so…”

“So you put it on us,” Melissa said flatly. “Instead of being the big meany yourself.”

“Hey,” I said. “I’ve always been the FunUnUncle. She’s your kid.” ‘FunUnUncle’ had been my official title for Rhia when she was younger, and then later for Jack and Veronica’s three kids, and stood for ‘Fun Unrelated Uncle.’ I was officially Aaron and Rachel’s son Archer’s Godfather, so I’d gotten an upgrade there.

“Great,” Melissa sighed. “You’ve given her an inch, now we have to fight her for the mile.”

“Hey,” I said. “You were the one who asked me to do this game for her and her friends

“He isn’t wrong, babe,” Dan said. “You didn’t see this coming?”

“No, I didn’t see this coming!” Melissa said. “Seriously, Dan?”

“You’ve been able to read her mind since she was six,” Dan said. “She’s literally complained to me that she can’t ever get away with anything because you know what she’s going to do before she does it.”

“That’s because she’s just a mini-me,” Melissa sighed. “But I never had parents who had The Game. I definitely fucking missed this one.”

“So what do you want to do?” I asked.

“Let us talk about it,” Dan said. “And it sounds like we’ve got a really fucking awkward family conversation to have.”

“Want to come DM it, Shane?” Melissa asked, managing to crack a joke.

“Not a fucking chance,” I said. “Look. I wish you amazing rolls on insight and diplomacy, OK? And you know I’ll back you one hundred per cent. If you want this game squashed, you tell me and I’ll come up with a reason. If you’re OK with it going, but it’s just a normal game, she already promised me she’d never bring it up again and I’ll try to forget this ever happened.”

“And if we give the green light?” Melissa asked.

I swallowed the spit in my mouth. “Is that really even on the table?”

“We’ll let you know how it goes and what we decide, Shane,” Dan said. “Thanks for telling us right away.”

“Of course,” I said. “And… I’m sorry, you guys. I didn’t see it coming either.”

“OK, we’ll chat,” Melissa said, sounding tired. “I guess it’s a good thing this is an off-week for our game. Wouldn’t this be a great conversation to have with everyone?”

“Bye, guys,” I said.

They signed off as well and we hung up. I set my phone down and shook my head.

Everything had been going great with the new game, even with the bailing players, and then Rhia went and pulled this.

And I knew, despite my best efforts, it was going to be hard not thinking of Elyse or Tori when I was alone at night trying to get to sleep. Or Rhia.

“Shit,” I sighed.

Chapter 12

I opened the door and Mel stepped into my house.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” Mel said, looking a little tired.

“Long night?” I asked.

She nodded, and I gestured for us to head to the kitchen. Dan worked a sales job in tech, and I worked from home, so it wasn’t uncommon for Mel to drop by for a coffee some mornings to shoot the shit before I got to work on my graphic design gigs. She was always interested in hearing what brand I was designing the packaging for and cared less about my recurring gigs with the local sports teams.

I put a new pod in the Keurig machine, starting up a second cup, and sliding the first one that I’d just made over to her. She took it black and after a long sniff of the dark roast, she took a sip and groaned softly. She gave me time to get my own coffee in front of me, and to sit down across from her at my breakfast table, before we spoke.

“Last night was stupid,” she finally said.

“OK,” I said. “Gonna need a little more detail than that.”

She sighed and set her mug down, burying her head in her hands for a moment and working her fingers through her curly brown hair. Rhia had gotten her colouration but Dan’s smoother, straighter hair type, but I knew from plenty of experience that Mel’s hair was fun to play with and grab onto in the middle of sex in a way that Veronica and Rachel didn’t like as much, and they had hair more akin to Dan and Rhia.

“Well, let me just tell you, having a talk with your adult kid about how you and your husband have been pretty-much-swingers since before she was born isn’t the fun you might think it is,” she said. “I wasn’t thrilled at hearing what she’d seen. I feel like a shit mother for not having noticed anything changed after she caught us the first time.”

“Maybe nothing did,” I said. “I mean, Rhia’s always been a quick-thinking kid, Mel. Just like her mother. She saw it, processed it, and didn’t let it affect her relationships with either of you.”

“Yeah, well, the fact that she saw Dan in a threesome with Aaron and Veronica, and heard me taking it in the ass from you, still makes me feel like she should be traumatised even if she was already eighteen,” Melissa said. “Not to mention the fact that she apparently spied on us a few more times. Thanks for not including that in your warning call, by the way.”

“Hey, I was dumping a lot on you guys,” I said. “If I missed a few details, I feel like I did pretty well giving you the gist of things.”

She sighed again and took another swig of her coffee. “That’s fair, I guess,” she mumbled and then shook her head.

“She argued her case pretty hard, didn’t she?” I guessed.

“Until the wee fucking hours of the morning,” Mel said. “I should have made her join the debate team in high school, she’d have won some awards.”

“And then she would have been even more dangerous arguing with you,” I smirked a little.

“Hey, I’m not wrapped around her finger like you or Dan,” Mel said. “That puppy dog look doesn’t work on me.”

"Which is why I left it to you to tell her no,” I said. “How disappointed was she?”

Mel shook her head, looking into her coffee. “She used every fucking trick in the book. Dan gave up arguing after a couple of hours - honestly, I’m proud of him for lasting that long. Usually, he would have given in or given up with her in twenty minutes. In the end, it really just came down to whether we were hypocrites or not on her side, and whether I could get over the idea of you and her together on mine.” She looked up from her coffee at me. “This wasn’t somehow your idea, right? Like, I love you, Shane, and I don’t think this is what it sounds like it is, but as a mother I have to ask - you didn’t put this idea in her head, right? You weren’t grooming my daughter?”

“God, Mel,” I said, immediately feeling disgusted and betrayed that she would think that, but I wrestled that feeling down enough to acknowledge that I would be asking that question of any other man in Rhia’s life that might have fit into the spot I was in. I took a breath and looked back at her meaningfully. “No. I never talked to her about anything like this, ever. I’ve only ever tried to be a positive person in her life. Hell, I hadn’t even seen or talked to her since her fall performance.”

Melissa looked into my eyes for another long moment before nodding. “OK,” she said, releasing a breath. “I knew it, I’m sorry I had to ask.”

“I’d be asking the same thing of Jack or Aaron if they were where I’m at right now,” I said. “It stung, but I understand.”

“Thank you,” she said, then drained her cup. “I told her OK, she can do it.”

I blinked a few times. “I’m… sorry, what? You said yes?”

“I said yes, Shane,” Mel said. “To her getting to play the Game the same way we do. And I told her all the bloody fucking risks involved with that. About how it almost broke up Jack and Veronica early on, and how Aaron and Rachel had such a hard relationship for a while even if they ended up happy. And I told her the truth about how Dan and I weren’t dating when I got pregnant.”

“You didn’t tell her about the DNA test though, did you?” I asked.

“No,” Mel shook her head. “That would have been… maybe too much. She did an ancestry DNA test last year anyway - at the time she said she was just curious, but now I realise she was probably checking if Dan wasn’t her father. Obviously, he was, but we knew that already.”

I nodded. The question at the time Mel had gotten pregnant was whether it was Dan, me or Jack. That had been a tough few months before we could confirm it. Mel had made it clear she wasn’t getting an abortion. That was the incident that almost broke up Jack and Veronica. When the paternity test came back as Dan, they’d gotten together and stayed together and I’d been thrilled for them.

“Still,” I said. “This is…”

“Her choice,” Mel said. “I know she’s been sexually active. Hell, at her age, so was I even before The Game. We all were. And she thinks that she, Elyse and Tori will only get closer if it happens, and she admits that she was only hoping and guessing about the guys being the right fit, but had figured it might just be a summer fling sort of situation.”

“But what about me and her, Mel?” I asked. “That’s a line that can’t be uncrossed.”

Melissa pushed her coffee mug aside and reached across the table, taking my hands in hers. “You’re a fantastic lover, probably my dearest friend, and someone she trusts implicitly to the point of feeling safe wanting you part of this fantasy she’s built up. You’re also single, so there isn’t any complication like that, and I feel like I’d be robbing you of what can only be one fucking wild experience if all three of them actually do want to fuck. And I’d be robbing her of doing this with you as a safety net because I know if she panics or decides to back out you won’t pressure her or judge her.”

“Shit,” I said. “Mel, I- You’re sure? For real? Because any hesitation for you and Dan means I want to pull the fucking ripcord here.”

“No hesitation,” Mel shook her head. “Well, I mean, lots of hesitation getting to this point, but not after. Dan keeps reminding me what we were like at her age, and how we raised her to think for herself and trust her gut judgement.”

I took a breath. “Fuck,” I said.

“Fuck,” she replied, nodding.

“I’m going to need to talk to her,” I said. “I don’t know what she’s expecting, but you know it’s not just an on-off switch.”

“I told her, but it’ll help for her to hear it from you,” Mel said. “This is her choice, and if she doesn’t listen to you and rushes it and makes things weird with her friends? Well, she’s been warned of the risks.”

“OK,” I said, leaning back in my chair and taking a big, long breath. “Fuck,” I said again.

“Yep,” Mel smirked. “You will be.”

Chapter 13

Game Day. It felt a lot different than the previous week. In the run-up to the first game session, I’d had a little bit of the New Campaign Jitters; just a bit of excitement to start something new, and with a new group.

In session 2 of a campaign I was usually still getting a feel for the characters, and looking for a way to really kick things into gear while giving the players the chance to flex their muscles a little bit to establish the new personalities and how they interacted with the world. I’d have a stack of notes to give each player a personal hook or two in the next few sessions, and by session 5 we’d be deeper into the plot and things would unravel naturally as I managed the world and the minds of the antagonists more than a specific plot.

I had two scribbled notes and a vague plan. I felt woefully underprepared compared to normal and would be improvising a lot for the session. It wasn’t even that I wasn’t used to trying to plan potentially sexy moments - sometimes they happened impromptu in the regular group, and sometimes I had something set up ahead of time just like a set piece boss battle.

No, sex didn’t scare me at all.

The college coeds did.

The doorbell rang, about fifteen minutes before game time, and I went and let Rhia in.

“Hey, Shane,” she said, stepping in and giving me a big hug just like usual. Nothing weird about it, except I was a little more… aware of her chest pressing against me.

“Hey, Snorey,” I said. “Come on, we need to talk quickly.”

“That’s why I’m here early,” she said, following me into the game room. She’d brought her backpack again, probably holding her costume and gaming accessories, and was wearing a simple crop top T-shirt that hugged her bust enough that I could see the outline of her bra and showed off her thin stomach. Simple black yoga leggings covered her from the waist down.

We gestured for her to sit in the seat she’d picked for the game, and I pulled out the chair that Elyse would occupy next to her rather than going to my DMing chair at the head of the table. I didn’t want this to feel like it was necessarily an Authority vs Player conversation.

“So what’s up?” she asked. “Is this about what Mom agreed to?”

I gave her a deadpan look. “Rhia, what else would this be about?”

“Well, you did say you would go along with it if my parents said yes, and they did,” Rhia said.

“I know,” I said. “But we still need to talk about it.”

“Shane,” she said, looking a little hurt. “You promised! Don’t fucking back out now.”

“I’m not- God, Rhia. I’m not backing out, stop looking like you’re going to pout,” I said, and she looked a little abashed and set up a little taller, wiping the worry from her face. “We need to talk about how what you want could actually happen. I know your Mom told you it’s a process, and doesn’t just happen, but did she tell you anything else?”

Rhia screwed up her face a little. “Vaguely? I mean, she didn’t want to get into any details really, which I guess is fair. But I just assumed that you’d be able to guide it.”

“I can’t,” I said. “I mean, I can provide opportunities for things to escalate, and nudge things to be more comfortable, but…” I stopped to take a breath. “What do you think the reaction would be if you guys went to meet with a shopkeeper and he said, ‘I’ll sell you this sword for ten gold, or I’ll give you a 20% discount for a blowjob?’”

“He’d sound like a creep,” Rhia said.

“And, if it came out of nowhere?” I asked.

Rhia’s eyes opened wider and she sighed. “You would sound like a creep, too,” she said.

“Right. And I definitely don’t want to be known as the creepy old guy to your friends,” I said. “For a whole host of reasons, that would be very bad. So I can’t ask, or demand, anything from you guys. With your parent’s group, we know each other’s lines and turn-ons and turn-offs so sometimes I can be forward to the right people and it leads to stuff, where in any other setting it would be seen as creepy as hell.”

“So I guess me just offering a blowjob to the theoretical shopkeeper would be a bit of a harsh starting point too, even if it is just a game,” Rhia frowned.

“Probably,” I said. “You know Tory and Elyse better than me, but they seem like they can take a joke. Comfortability, and making things feel normal at the table, is a process.”

“So what you’re saying is that I need to be the one to start things,” Rhia said. “And it needs to be slow.”

“Correct,” I said. “You need to… you need to seduce the table.”

Rhia snorted softly and smirked. “I don’t think I’ve ever seduced anyone. I’ve always been the one getting seduced, or chased.”

“Well, think of it as practice for when you find the guy or girl you really do think is worth it,” I said.

“OK,” Rhia nodded. “I can do that. Um, do you have any suggestions on how to start?”

“Flirty stuff between you and the others,” I said. “I realised after we talked that you must have picked Revelry as Olivia's deity of choice so that it wasn’t an obvious ‘Lust’ thing but gave you some freedom to be sexy. I think that will help. You can flirt with NPCs too to normalise that.”

“Just flirting?” she asked. “That feels… pretty slow.”

“Well, what would be the next step to seducing someone after flirting?” I asked.

“Kissing,” she said. “Or physical touch over the clothes. Or - well, I guess dirty pictures wouldn’t work in fantasy land, but… flashing?”

“If you think the situation is right,” I said. “A lot of it will be about vibes in the room.”

“OK,” Rhia nodded, then took a breath. “Thanks, Shane. For taking this seriously. For taking me seriously. I know this is a big, weird thing I dropped on you and my parents. It means a lot that you’re willing to do this.”

I sighed and shook my head slightly. “I’m still a little in shock, honestly. But the hypocrisy element is real. I can’t tell you not to want it.”

“Well, you’re not a hypocrite, and you’re a fantastic, mature, real person in my life,” Olivia said. “And I appreciate you so much.”

Now I nodded and smirked a little. “Thanks, Rhia. That’s- Well, I guess that’s what I always wanted, but I never thought it would be like this. Come on, help me grab some sodas from the beer fridge in the garage.”

We stood, and she followed me through the house. “Do you think we could maybe go for more than sodas?” she asked. “A little alcohol would help with the vibe, probably.”

“None of you are twenty-one, Rhia,” I said. “That whole reputation thing? Adding ‘he got us drunk’ to the start of those bad stories does not help.”

“OK, but we all drink. We’re college students,” she countered. “What if we bring our own booze?”

I hesitated. We were in the garage and I had my hand on the beer fridge handle. I blew out a heavy breath - booze had always been at The Game table. Beer, shots, it had been a general social lubricant at first, then it helped with nerves early on as things got wild, and then the drinking lessened but we all still enjoyed a drink or two on game night.

“One each,” I finally said. “If you want to buy in bulk, you can keep a case here to last a few weeks.”

“Thanks,” she said and stepped forward and kissed me. On the mouth. It was just a peck, but it was the first time she’d ever done that. She pulled back, looking into my eyes, judging how I reacted. A peck like that wasn’t something that made me uncomfortable - I’d had hundreds, if not thousands, of kisses over the years during The Game and while dating. A peck was just a sign of affection. Still, coming from her, it was a line that was getting crossed.

“You're welcome,” I said, smiling softly and meeting her eyes without panicking or getting agitated.

She grinned. “I’ll call the girls, see if they can pick something up for us on the way.”

We carried in a few cans of Sprite and Coke and she made the call to Elyse since Tori would be driving, passing on the news. The two roommates were already on the way but readily agreed to make a stop at a liquor store and pick up a case of something.

I didn’t ask how they were going to do that without being twenty-one, deciding it was in my best interest not to know things that I might need to pass on to Mel and Dan.

“OK,” Rhia said as she put down her phone. “Anything else we need to do to get ready? They’ll be here in maybe ten minutes.”

I tutted lightly, thinking, and then nodded. “We don’t need to have the conversation this week, but just as a head’s up - at some point the four of us are going to have to have a frank talk about consent,” I said. “And sexual health. I trust you’ve all been safe before, but it’s a ‘trust and verify’ situation. I have multiple sexual partners to consider, and they have their partners too. If Tori or Elyse have anything that could get passed on, that’s a major problem. And I need to know about birth control - I’m not afraid of a condom if things get that far, but knowing we’re being safe helps everyone stay relaxed.”

“That sounds awkward as fuck,” Rhia said. “But… I guess it makes sense.”

“That includes you three all getting tested for STDs,” I said. “And sharing the results, not just telling us them. I’ll do the same.” Rhia made a face, obviously feeling even more awkward about needing to do that. “You’re asking to participate in what is basically going to be group sex, Rhia,” I said. “These are the consequences of your desires.”

“OK,” she sighed. “That makes sense. God, I can’t imagine what that conversation would have been like if the guys had been involved too. At least I know it won’t be as bad with just Elyse and Tori. They’ll get it.”

I shook my head, still sort of floating through grappling with Rhia’s initial plan and the big holes it suffered from. But, I thought to myself, You don’t know what you don’t know. It was tough to blame her because she’d been working from a fantasy understanding and glimpsed moments of The Game.

“I think that’s everything, then,” I said. “Any questions for me?”

Rhia pursed her lips, tapping her foot lightly on the ground. We were both standing in the game room, leaning against the backs of the high-backed chairs. “Can I get something out of the way?”

“What’s that?” I asked.

Rhia stepped up to me and lifted her arms to circle around my neck. She was somewhere just short of six feet, and I was just a little over six feet, so she didn’t need to pull me down very far at all to pull me into a kiss. This one wasn’t a peck, it was deep and full, and I kissed her back as my hands went to her hip and side. She wasn’t as experienced a kisser as I might have guessed, and I could tell she was exploring a bit. Then she teased her tongue forward, and I allowed it and teased her back.

I broke away first, both of us a little breathless.

“Sorry,” she said. “I just didn’t want our first real kiss to be awkward and scary in the game. Now I’ll be a lot more confident if Olivia decides to make out with a cute NPC.”

“No problem,” I said. “And if that’s how Olivia kisses, that NPC might just be a little stunned.”

She grinned a little impishly, taking the compliment well, and then bit her lower lip and looked at mine again. I squeezed her hip slightly, but then let go, and she took the cue and stepped back just a little.

“Alright,” I said. “Why don’t you go get changed, and you should be ready for when the girls get here?”

“Sounds good,” she smiled, not perturbed that I hadn’t pushed for more kissing. She turned and grabbed her backpack from the floor, bending at the waist to do so, and made a point of looking over her shoulder at me as she did it. She grinned and wiggled her tights-clad butt - it wasn’t big or juicy, just a normal butt, but what man couldn’t resist at least a glance at an attractive ass clad in tight pants?

“Go,” I sighed and rolled my eyes dramatically.

She stood up with her backpack and headed out of the room to get changed.

I sat down, shaking my head. I’d kissed, and been kissed, plenty of times, but me and Mel, Veronica and Rachel never kissed before The Game started. After, when The Game had been particularly intense, sometimes. But never without it being initiated by a character and NPC interacting. Rhiannon was already changing the rules on me and we hadn’t even gotten started.

It had been a pretty good kiss, though.