A group of friends streams their gaming on Wednesday nights. But not all the action is on the dining room table.

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Chapter 33: Man Down

We'd screwed up.

Her buddy who had accompanied her wasn't.

#

"Lunea, roll me a reflex check."

I stared at my dice and tried not to cry. We were on stage in front of thousands, and I was wearing makeup: if I cried now, I'd never live it down.

Our movement room in front of the table had been cut down by a large model of the keep that had been brought out and placed in the center, cameras pointed down at it from above, showcasing the playfield on rolling screens at the back of the stage for the audience to see more clearly.

It was a fantastic model. Maria had cleared the funds to commission it as soon as we'd gotten the gig for the convention, and it was worth the money, with dry ice features billowing smoke around glowing lava-filled pools and stackable layers of playfield for our miniatures to explore.

Right now, things were configured to show only the southwest portion of the map, the rest hidden by fog-of-war panels, so we couldn't see things that were outside our characters' experience.

What it showed wasn't good for us.

The fire giants who caught us hadn't reacted well to doing so, and we had failed a few key checks to turn that around. Because of that, we'd been occupied by the one giantess while the other ran off and sounded the alarms, alerting the entire keep to our presence.

That had been an hour ago in real-time.

We fought the first fire giantess and handled her without too much trouble, but we knew that our goals of stealth and hopeful diplomacy were out the window. It was a battle now, and a long one, enough so that as soon as she'd had to bust out the map, Maria had sent a message to the con runners to let them know we'd be running over our time.

Some days the dice bless you. They make you look like an absolute badass, popping off spells left and right and being a big damn hero.

Some days you're cursed no matter what you do.

"Lunea?" Maria asked me, prompting me for the results of my roll. The numbers from the dice were on the screens behind her, but I needed to add my bonuses and give her the total.

"Eight."

#

I screamed as the wall to my right exploded, the spell I was preparing fizzling as I was knocked on my ass.

My vision blurred, and the world faded away.

#

The sound of the audience erupting in surprised and horrified outrage was almost too much for me as I watched Maria walk around the table, grimace, and tip the little figure representing me over.

"Lunea is down," she said, her voice calm but with an edge to it that betrayed her own nervousness. "Sunny, what do you do?"

"Shit!" Sidney cried, her eyes darting between my miniature and where hers stood, face to face with a fire giant opponent of her own. "Umm, ahh, do I see what happened to Lunea? Or hear it?"

"Roll and see."

"Fffff, three." Sunny, not the most aware of our characters at the best of times, had not been blessed by the dice gods either.

"Sunny is too preoccupied with her own situation to notice."

I gulped. I wasn't dead yet, but I was dying. Each time my turn came around, I would have a chance to stabilize, but if an enemy hit me again while I was down, then that was it. My only real hopes were for one of our party members to reach me before then and heal me, with a potion or a spell.

Sydney gave me an apologetic glance. "I guess I use my Stalwart Defense power, then hit the giant in front of me with my axe." She rolled her dice again and perked up a bit. "Does a twenty-two hit?"

"Yes."

"For... nineteen damage. Oh, can I do a Crippling Strike?"

"Sure."

"Eighteen?"

"The fire giant falls to one knee, leaning on its mace for support."

"Yes!!!" Sydney crowed, clapping her hands. "Can I see if I notice Lunea is down again?"

"Not until your next turn," Maria said, shaking her head. "Do you want to move?"

"I can't while using Stalwart Defense," Sydney grumped, frowning. "Sorry Luney!"

I did my best to smile, though I'm sure it came across as more of a grimace. "It's fine. That's how the game works, right?"

"Adrian, what are you doing?"

Aaron frowned, too, looking the board over closely. "Do I notice?" He asked, rolling his dice before Maria could answer and shaking his head. "I move over behind the giant Sunny just brought to its knees and use Holy Strike on it."

"That will take you through the zone for the giant fighting Burg," Maria pointed out.

"Yeah, but if we take that giant out, we can hold that doorway, and I don't know that the wall is broken in yet."

"Okay," Maria agreed, rolling some dice as Aaron moved his mini into position. "The giant swings at you as you pass, but you deftly dodge its strike. The giant you're circling would normally get a chance to attack because of the tight area, but because of its downed state, it doesn't. Make your attack."

"Twenty-eight," Aaron said, picking up his damage dice and rolling them. "For... dang. Nine regular damage, and five holy."

"The giant bellows in pain as you rip a wide gash in the armor across its back, sending bits of stone-like flesh and blistering hot blood spraying in the wake of your sword."

"Still alive?"

"Barely," Maria confirmed, shifting her attention back to the board. "As your group is dealing with the threats at hand...." She gulped, rolled some dice, then nodded to herself. Taking a deep breath, she continued. "Another wall caves in, and another giant steps through."

"Where does it-- oh no."

Maria gave me a pained look. "The new giant approaches where Lunea lies and raises its mace to finish her off." She rolled her dice again. "It hits."

Brian rapped on the table, getting Maria's attention. "Can I use a reaction to get over there and help her?"

"You used your reaction earlier to ward off a stunning strike," Maria reminded him. "Do you have any fate points?" Fate points would let him take an action outside his turn if he had any.

"No."

"Do you?" She asked me as well.

"Of course not," I said, more snippily than I'd intended to. If I'd had any, I would have already used them to stabilize.

Someone else rapped on the table. "I have a fate point."

I wasn't the only one to turn and look at Jonah in surprise.

The game had not been going well for any of us, and that included Jonah's character, John. He'd lost over half his hit points in the encounter with the first fire giant and was hanging on by a thread. Thieves weren't known for their resilience, but he'd been holding his own, using his abilities to deal bonus damage where he could.

He wasn't....

"You don't have any defensive abilities, do you?" Maria asked him.

"No," he said, acidly. "But I can take the hit, so breeder bitch doesn't die."

"Why?" I found myself asking without intending to.

Jonah barked a humorless laugh. "Fuck if I know. But much as your character sucks, John can't let a baby get killed if he can stop it."

There was silence on the stage and in the audience.

Finally, Maria shook her head and said, "All right then. Do you use your point to reach her and take the hit?"

"Fuck it. Yeah."

"All right then. I need to re-roll the attack, and... shit."

"What do you-- aww fuck."

Maria rolled some more dice, her expression souring even more as she looked up at the camera showing her dice. There would be no fudging of the rolls, not with the cameras showing them for everyone to see.

"Critical hit, double damage, maxxed. How many hit points did John have left?"

"Four."

I looked at Deidre, who was studying her character sheet with a look of quiet dread. Did she have any reviving magic prepared? When she noticed me, she looked back and shook her head, the question not needing to be asked aloud.

Maria sighed. "As the mace comes down toward Lunea's head, John dives from the shadows, shielding her body. With a sickening crunch, the mace shatters his chest. Jonah, please hand me your character sheet."

The crowd remained silent as Jonah pulled off his mic. Rather than handing his sheet to Maria he gathered his sheet and his dice, and without a word to anyone else -- without even a snide glance -- he walked off the stage.

###

NOTES:

I'd love to see comments and kudos. I know I didn't get around to responding to them on the last chapter, but to be fair, I DID end up writing two more chapters in the intervening time, so hopefully I can be forgiven for that :)