text: “Welcome! To THE CHAOS GATE!” Nick put on his best booming dramatic voice. His friends around the table stared at him. He ignored the mix of sarcastic and amused looks and continued. “After a long journey, you have finally reached the central chamber of the Temple of Goth-Shinu” Ben spoke under his breath “I stand by that being a such a weird name for a temple.” Nick paused his dramatic speech. “Listen, when you write the campaign, you can come up with the name of the freaking temple okay? I’m not good at naming things.” “Yea, we are aware” Jess mumbled in a sarcastic voice. “Hey!” She blurts out as Kevin gently nudges her shoulder as he gives her a knowing look. The table was silent for a brief moment before a knowing laugh spread around the group of friends. Kevin looked over to Nick “Okay Nick, please continue.” “Thank you.” Nick smiled and looked back at his DM notes. He had spent the last week writing this grand finale for his friends, and he was eager to see their reactions to what he had planned for them. “Okay. In front of you is a large open stone room, bridges connect the center of the room above a deep pit below. At the center of the four bridges is an elevated platform, upon which sits the source of the evil that has been plaguing the land. A large black portal, with purple streaks emanating from the -edges.” Nick imagined the entire room in his mind, he knew this world like the back of his hand, but he knew better than to describe each bit of stonework on and around the bride, even if he could see it all clearly in his head. Ben was the first to speak up. “Well, we made it this far, let’s shut this thing down and go home.” “Sounds good to me, let's do it!” Jess reached over to the table and began moving the small party token across the rudimentary map Kevin had drawn up. A devious grin spread across Nick’s face, pleased with how well he knew what his friends would do. This led to a look of concern that spread around the table. Jess was first to notice. “Oh crap. I know that look. We totally missed something.” Nick ignored her and continued his speech “As you cautiously work your way across the bridge and onto the central platform, a large bang echoes through the room. You look to see each of the four bridges explode into rubble that falls into the black pit.” Nick grabbed his pen and scribbled a few lines on the map to indicate the bridges being out. “Welp, on the bright side, those goblins we avoided earlier aren’t gonna be sneaking up on us now” Kevin consults the notepad on the table in front of him, then continues.” Okay, so if I remember right, the freaky wizard dude we met before we came in here said we would have to...” Ben stands up and cuts her off with the best dramatic voice and arm movements he could muster. “Enter the void and defeat the monster that lies beyond!” Ben smiled, satisfied with the drama while the rest of the table seemed to ignore his performance. He sat back down into his seat, unphased by the mediocre reception and continued. “Question- I know we are SUPPOSED to go in there and I’m sure there is some dramatic monster on the other end that Nick wants us to fight, but like, have we considered trying maybe, turning off the portal?” Nick looked at him blankly, “You could try, I guess. Uhhhh, each of you roll an arcana check.” He scribbles a few notes behind his DM screen as each of his friends consult their character sheets and roll their dice. One by one they speak out the results. “I got a 5.” Ben shrugs. “I put my stats more into strength anyway. Kevin?” “I think I need to get my lucky dice out for this.” Kevin takes the dice set from in front of him and opens the backpack hanging off the back of his chair. He reaches in, shuffles around and pulls out a set of smooth silver dice. He shuffles them in his hands before gently setting them on the table next to his character sheet, before carefully picking up the D20 and shaking it between his hands. “Okay, here we go, nat 20, nat 20, come on natural 20!” He throws the dice with a flair. Everyone watches them roll before quickly settling in the middle of the table. “A 6? Really! Ugh, and that’s only a 7 with my plus 1 to arcana.” Ben retrieves his dice and slouches back into his seat. “You guys are lucky I'm here; I have a plus 5 on my arcana stats.” Jess says confidently as she cracks her knuckles before throwing her own dice. “I got this.” The die rolls on the table, Jess looks at Nick and Ben confidently as the others watch as it rolls around on the table. Then the other three burst out in laughter. “What? “Jess looks down and is shocked to see a 1 showing face up on the table. She sighs. “Dang it. Of course, the one time I get a bad magic roll, at least it’s a plus 5” “Shouldn’t have wasted your luck on that merchant last session.” Kevin joked. Jess quickly shot back “I’ll have you know that roll saved you from getting scammed into a buying a stick that you thought was magic.” “Touché” Jess grabs a pretzel from the large bowl and takes a bite. Nick smiles before getting himself back into character. “You each examine the swirling portal in front of you. You all feel a dark power emanating from it, but none of you can think of any way to turn it off from this side.” “Okay, and just hear me out here. We each have ranged weapons, sooo -maybe before we go in and fight what is sure to be some big scary monster; we just, you know, shoot it from this end for a bit? Maybe we will land a few lucky hits?” Ben gets a proud look on his face while the rest of the friends just stare. “Hey, you have had dumber ideas, remember the bog witch?” Kevin joked. “We agreed to never talk about that again Kevin!” Ben and Kevin laugh, Jess and Nick roll their eyes. Nick waits for the laughter to die down before flipping around a few pages in his notes. “You know what? I’ll allow it. All of you Roll for initiative.” He writes some things down on his notepad and rolls some dice. Jess looks across the table and Ben. “Why do I feel like this is a bad idea?” Kevin just laughs. “Jess, we are shooting arrows into a mysterious black portal that is the source of all evil in this land.” He takes on a sarcastic tone. “What could possibly go wrong?” The friends look around at each other and roll their dice. Nick takes a deep breath and mutters to himself, “Here we go.” So I may have gotten really into D&D and decided to write about it.