D&D #1: ENDURE THE RING — PART 1Chapter 0: FIRST RANDOM DICE!
There are many ways to begin an adventure.
You could begin with a hero.
A prophecy.
A war.
A forgotten kingdom begging for somebody to save it.
Or—
You could roll a dice.
That was probably a terrible idea.
But it was already too late.
The first roll had been made.
ROLLING RANDOM FICTION UNIVERSE...
The invisible dice spun.
Anime.
Games.
Movies.
Books.
Cartoons.
Comics.
Entire universes passed through the wheel, each one carrying its own particular brand of danger.
Some would've been manageable.
Some would've been comfortable.
Some would've been—
Actually, no.
This was D&D.
Comfort was probably never an option.
The dice stopped.
RESULT: ELDEN RING.
...
Oh.
Well.
Wonderful.
Of every possible fictional universe, the dice had chosen The Lands Between.
A place of ruined kingdoms, monsters, demigods, sorcery, gigantic weapons, things living in places where things absolutely should not be living, and enough horrible deaths to make the word "safe" sound like an insult.
The adventure now had a name.
D&D #1: ENDURE THE RING.
Not conquer the ring.
Not destroy the ring.
Not become incredibly powerful and casually humiliate everything within a five-mile radius.
No.
Endure.
That word felt considerably more realistic.
But a universe wasn't enough.
A D&D campaign needed somebody unlucky enough to live in it.
Or die in it.
Possibly repeatedly.
Time for another roll.
ROLLING PROTAGONIST...
The dice struck the table.
88/100.
...
That was actually good.
Suspiciously good.
The kind of good roll that made you wonder whether all the horrible luck was simply waiting around the corner with a chair.
The character began taking shape.
NAME: NERIS
Male.
Thirty-three years old.
Human.
More specifically—
TARNISHED.
One of those called toward the Lands Between.
One of those who might rise.
One of those who might fight.
One of those who might eventually stand before powers far beyond anything a normal human being should reasonably challenge.
Assuming he survived approximately the first fifteen minutes.
Another dice rolled.
STARTING CLASS...
It bounced once.
Twice.
Stopped.
ASTROLOGER.
Neris would begin as a scholar of the stars and a practitioner of glintstone sorcery.
Not bad.
Magic was useful.
Range was useful.
Being able to attack something horrible without standing directly beside the horrible thing was extremely useful.
The dice apparently had mercy.
For now.
ROLLING BACKGROUND...
The result came quickly.
RUNAWAY TEMPLE ATTENDANT.
Accused of heresy.
...
Okay.
Maybe mercy had already left.
Neris hadn't simply wandered peacefully into his new life.
Somebody wanted him gone.
Maybe several somebodies.
He'd run.
Why?
What exactly had he done?
Had he actually committed heresy?
Had somebody framed him?
Had he learned something he wasn't supposed to know?
The dice didn't answer.
Not yet.
That was the problem with random adventures.
Sometimes the dice gave answers.
Sometimes they gave questions.
And sometimes they handed you a sword and told you to figure it out before something ate you.
Next.
PERSONALITY.
Three words appeared.
CURIOUS.
BLUNT.
DIFFICULT TO INTIMIDATE.
That combination was either going to make him incredibly effective—
—or get him murdered because a twelve-foot nightmare screamed directly into his face and Neris responded:
"Are you finished?"
The next roll determined his preferred weapon.
An Astrologer should probably use something light.
Something that complemented sorcery.
Something elegant.
Something—
GREATSWORD.
...
Excuse me?
The dice remained silent.
Apparently Neris looked at the concept of being a conventional wizard and rejected it personally.
Magic?
Yes.
Stars?
Certainly.
Glintstone sorcery?
Absolutely.
But if something survived all that—
BIG SWORD.
Fine.
Muscle wizard it was.
Now came something different.
Every protagonist in this campaign had a chance of beginning with one unusual trait.
Not necessarily something overwhelmingly powerful.
Not something that guaranteed survival.
Just something that made them different.
The dice rolled again.
SPECIAL TRAIT: HOSTILITY SENSE.
Interesting.
Neris could sometimes feel nearby hostile intent.
Not thoughts.
Not exact positions.
Not the future.
He couldn't magically identify enemies.
He couldn't know what someone was planning.
He couldn't determine their strength.
It was more primitive than that.
A warning.
A feeling.
That sensation crawling along the back of your neck when something nearby had already decided that it wouldn't mind seeing you dead.
Useful.
Especially here.
Maybe extremely useful.
Because this was the Lands Between.
If his hostility sense ever stopped activating, that might actually be more concerning.
Now came the attributes.
Six rolls.
No changing them.
No rerolls because something looked inconvenient.
Whatever the dice gave him—
Neris kept.
The first dice rolled.
STRENGTH: 15.
...
For an Astrologer?
Okay.
That explained the greatsword.
Second roll.
DEXTERITY: 11.
Average enough.
Third.
CONSTITUTION: 14.
Good.
Neris wasn't merely strong.
He could take punishment better than expected.
Which was fantastic news considering where he'd been dropped.
Fourth.
The important one.
The dice rolled.
INTELLIGENCE: 17.
There it was.
Neris wasn't someone swinging a huge weapon because thinking had failed him.
He was genuinely intelligent.
Strong body.
Exceptional mind.
Magic potential.
Maybe the dice were building something terrifying.
Fifth roll.
WISDOM: 10.
Average.
So he was smart.
That didn't necessarily mean he always made smart decisions.
There was an important difference.
Final attribute.
CHARISMA.
The dice moved.
Slowed.
Stopped.
8.
...
There it was.
There was always something.
Neris could study sorcery.
Analyze problems.
Fight.
Survive.
Possibly sense that somebody wanted to kill him.
Convincing them not to?
That might be the difficult part.
Someone could threaten him.
Neris might stare at them.
They'd stare back.
He'd probably say the least diplomatic sentence available.
Wonderful.
Character generation was nearly complete.
NERIS
Tarnished.
Astrologer.
Runaway.
Heresy hanging somewhere in his past.
Strong enough to comfortably consider a greatsword.
Intelligent enough to wield sorcery.
Tough enough to survive more than most scholars.
Curious enough to walk toward things he probably shouldn't.
Blunt enough to make enemies.
And possessing an instinct that might warn him when those enemies were about to become a problem.
Honestly?
The rolls had been surprisingly kind.
Too kind.
One roll remained.
The smallest roll.
And perhaps the most important.
It wouldn't determine Neris.
It would determine how his adventure began.
STARTING LUCK.
A twenty-sided dice appeared.
This one didn't need modifiers.
No strength.
No intelligence.
No special trait.
No background.
Just luck.
The dice rolled.
Once.
Twice.
It struck the edge.
Spun.
Slowed.
And landed.
4.
...
Oh.
There it was.
The universe had been saving it.
Character generation?
Great.
Starting conditions?
Absolutely horrible.
Somewhere within the Lands Between, a man named Neris opened his eyes.
His head hurt.
His clothing was damaged.
Cold stone pressed against his back.
Something wet covered one hand.
Blood.
His?
Maybe.
Not all of it.
His Astrologer's staff lay several feet away.
His greatsword—
Gone.
Darkness surrounded him.
He couldn't immediately remember how he'd gotten there.
Then his special trait activated for the first time.
Hostility.
Close.
Very close.
Neris stopped moving.
From somewhere beyond the darkness came a sound.
SCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRCH.
Metal dragged slowly across stone.
Then stopped.
Silence.
Neris stared into the black.
The dice had finished rolling.
And apparently—
they hated him.
END OF CHAPTER 0
NEXT CHAPTER:
CHAPTER 1: UNLUCKY