A Beginning is a Very Delicate Time...

North and Kaleb crossed the parking lot behind their house as orange and golden leaves blew danced across their path. It was a cool, crisp Halloween afternoon, and North was psyched to be playing D&D again. Kaleb wasn't quite as enthused - he'd never played before and really couldn't see why North was so excited about. But he'd agreed to come along and watch. Leo and Gus were playing, so maybe there was something in it after all...

Having reached the back of the parking lot, North looked up at the back of Chris' house and noticed that his car was nowhere to be seen. Chris had already spaced their meeting time once today, and he'd be truly miffed if he wasn't around for the second time in one afternoon. He and Kaleb walked by the red Volkswagen bug in the parking lot (I've never seen *this* car before, he thought. Strange.) and headed up the steps to Chris' back porch. The porch was missing all the lawn chairs and sporting equipment and assorted junk that Chris stored back there. Instead the entire porch was covered in potted plants. 

Another strange thing. What's going on?

They went up the steps and North put down his cooler to knock on the back door, but before he could, the back door opened. Inside the screen door he could see not Chris, but an older woman with curly red hair. She was wearing a giant housecoat covered in a floral pattern. He'd never seen this woman before.

"Are you North?"

"Ummmm, yeah?" he said, slightly more confused than he was a minute ago."

"Last night I had a dream. In it, a man gave me this box. He told me I should give it to the two people who were going to knock on my back door at 2:11 this afternoon. When I woke up, the box was sitting on the end of my bed." The woman opened up the screen door and handed North a small, wooden box. "Take it and scram." North took the box with a puzzled look on his face. This day was really not working out like he thought it was going to . He looked at Kaleb, who looked back at him with an equally confused look. 

"What's going on, North?" North looked from the box to Kaleb, and back to the box again.

"I really have no clue."

As those words left his lips, all the plants on the porch started to move. Leaves shook, and vines wiggled, and for a moment, the entire back porch shimmered. Then, in a brief flash of light, all the plants were gone. In their place was the tub of sporting equipment, a handmade crossbow, and end table and some lawn chairs. The Volkswagen was gone as well. Chris' car was parked in the exact same spot.

"Hey guys, come on in!" It was Chris. He was standing behind the screen door where the woman had been. North looked to Kaleb, and then back to Chris. 

"What the heck is going on, man?" Chris smiled.

"I told you this was going to be weird."

A few minutes later, Chris led Leo, Gus, North and Kaleb out to the back yard to where a freshly-dug grave had appeared. North swore it wasn't there a couple minutes ago. 

"Dad, what is all this?" Leo asked, annoyed.

"DAAAAD! STOOOOOP!" yelled Gus, even more annoyed.

Kaleb and North looked at one another. This family was crazy. Maybe this wasn't a good idea...

Chris gathered everyone around the grave. A white styrofoam headstone sat at one end. And as they watched, the earth shimmered, and the gravestone changed. It was no longer styrofoam. It had turned to weathered white marble. The seven skulls on it sparkled in the afternoon sun. Kaleb looked around. Chris had disappeared. Leo and Gus looked confused. 

"What the hell, man?" said North.

"God, what is going on?" whined Leo.

"DAAAAD! STOOOOOP!" yelled Gus, even more annoyed.

Kaleb pointed at the wooden box in North's hand. 

"Maybe now would be a good time to open that up?"

North looked at the box in his hand. He had forgotten he was holding it. He opened it slowly, and was surprised to find four pieces of folded parchment inside. They each had something written on the outside, in what looked like dried blood. 

First Incantation. Second Incantation. Third Incantation. Fourth Incantation. 

"I don't really know what's going on, but there are four of these things, and there's four of us. I'm thinking that each of us should read what's inside?" Kaleb rolled his eyes as he took one from North. Gus groaned. He hated reading out loud in public. Leo noticed he'd taken the First Incantation. 

"I guess I'll start." He stepped forward, and read. "O full moon, that we may borrow your silvery light... Guide us through the darkest night!'

Kaleb was next. "O Halloween, when the veil between the world is thin... Pull it aside, and let the spirit world in!"

Gus opened his parchment. A breeze picked up and blew leaves over the grave. "O Death, who conquers both the strong and the weak... Release to us the One we seek!"

North stepped forward. The breeze was getting stronger, and leaves were now swirling directly over the grave. He had to raise his voice to be heard over the wind. "Aum, aum, aum... Mananan verbum fohat. Kali yug! Rise from the grave, Christopher Michael Joseph, the greatest Dungeonmaster that ever lived!"

Suddenly, a hand thrust up from the dirt of the grave. It flexed its fingers, and was then followed by an arm, a head, and eventually Chris' entire torso as he sat up. He looked at his hands and flexed the fingers. He laughed. He looked up at the four surrounding him. His mood changed from jubilation to utter panic. He hopped up out of the ground, and without even bothering to brush himself off he grabbed North by the shoulders.

"WHAT YEAR IS IT? WHO IS PRESIDENT?!?!?"

North rolled his eyes in disgust. "Donald Trump." 

Chris looked around in exasperation. "Dear gods! We've messed up the timeline! It's all my fault... maybe I can fix this..." He suddenly noticed the other people standing around the grave. He looked at Leo, and is madness melted away. A smile came to his lips, and his eyes grew damp.

"Leo? You've grown so BIG!" He grabbed Leo and hugged him, but it only served to make Leo more tense and annoyed. "And you must be Gus! My goodness! You're HUGE!" Chris leaned in to hug him, but Gus backed away.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?!?" Chris laughed, but then the panicked look returned to his face. He told everyone to follow him inside the house. He told them they didn't have a moment to lose.

"I case you hadn't already figured it out," Chris said the the four of them as they sat around his square, padded coffee table. "I'm the most powerful creature in the universe." North smiled, while the three boys just rolled their eyes. This was so much lamer than Minecraft. "If you don't believe me, just look outside. There's an ancient red dragon sitting on the Rescue Squad building." Leo craned his neck to look out the window.

"Holy shit!"

A large red dragon was in fact perched atop the Rescue Squad. It belched a great plume of smoke as it reached down with one massive claw to grab an ambulance. The driver dove out of her door as the dragon hauled the ambulance up and started to chew on it. Flames erupted from it as the dragon's teeth pierced the gas tank. The dragon screeched in annoyance.

"And just like that..." Chris snapped his fingers. "I can make it disappear." Chris snapped his fingers. The dragon disappeared.

"That was pretty cool," laughed North. Gus was only mildly impressed. Leo shrugged. Kaleb was playing on his phone. "I'm the Imposter!" he cried, pumping his fist into the air.

"Now, I'm going to send you into another world, another dimension. It's a place where I've run a D&D campaign before - many years ago. It was a good, but crazy world. Many improbable things happened. So improbable, in fact, that I believe we broke the multiverse." The three players looked at him with a mix of confusion and mild interest. They just came to play. They weren't interested in backstory. "I need to send you in to figure out how to fix things. There are certain things I can't do, and only players can fix them."

Everyone looked at Chris skeptically, but they were itching to play. They pulled out their pencils and dice, as Chris set up dual DM screens. He asked everyone to roll a d20. The game began. 

Gowron looked down at his hands. They were small and brown. "Holy shit," he thought. "I'm an elf!" He looked around at the others. Gus, er, Tezor was a wee halfling (though not much shorter than he was) and Onen, North's haf-elf druid, stood gazing up at the sky. It was twilight, and they were on a grassy hill that overlooked a bustling coastal village. Smoke from a dozen chimneys floated up, only to be swept away by the wind coming in over the water. Far out at the horizon, a sliver of silvery moon could be seen poking up where the water met the sky.

"Well here we are," whispered Onen. "Any idea what we do next?"

The three of them looked around for a moment, took stock of their supplies and equipment. When everyone was satisfied they had everything they needed, they looked at one another and said in unison, "Head into town?"

At that moment, a wolf howled in the distance. Tezor immediately rapier and looked wildly about. Onen brought his staff out in front of himself and crouched, a thorny shield protecting his backside. Gowron turned and sniffed the air. He sniffed again, just to be sure, and then turned, slowly, to the south, where a lone white wolf was trotting towards them. 

"I think I can take him," said Onen, "and I'll have his kidneys for a pie!"

"I'll take his coat! He looks my size!" squeaked Tezor. Gowron brushed the halfling's rapier aside as he walked past him and towards the wolf. He offered his hand to the creature as he kneeled. he then noticed the wolf had not one, nor two, but three bright blue eyes.

"Hey there little fella," he whispered in his mind. "You're a friendly guy, aren't you?"

The wolf nuzzled Gowron's hand and sat, as calm as you like, right at his feet. He panted calmly and let the elf scratch behind his ears. Gowron could tell the creature was without anxiety or fear.

Moonbreath.

The word startled Gowron, as he'd never heard the word before. It startled him more that he had heard it inside his head.

Moonbreath.

The three-eyed wolf panted and looked deep into Gowron's eyes. They blinked, one after another, and the elf finally understood.

"His name is Moonbreath," he smiled. He patted the wolf on the head once more and turned to the party. "So shall we?" He gestured to the town. Everyone nodded in agreement.

It wasn't long after they started their trek into town that they met their first drunken reveler of the evening. The massive, bearded man named Mundo stumbled out of the woods at them, wielding an enormous beer stein. After some garbled conversation, they learned that there was a festival in town, and that's where he not only got his beer - it was also where he lost his pants. 

Onen paid Mundo little heed; he was too busy getting really spooky vibes from the foliage surrounding them. Every leaf, branch or tree he touched hummed with a weird energy he'd never felt before - almost like all the living material had been irradiated somehow. 

With what, however, he could not surmise.

It was while he was contemplating this phenomenon that a yelp snapped him out of it - a vine of some sort had descended from a tree and snatched Moonbreath around his midsection and was hauling him up. Onen immediately leapt onto Moonbreath's back and kept the tree from hoisting him any higher. The group tried to get him down, and eventually succeeded.

That was when another disturbance was heard up ahead. Three drunken brothers were sitting on a log at a turn in the path, singing songs and passing a jug amongst themselves. Athos, Porthos and Aramis were jovial and shared their drink. They seemed too far gone to be of any assistance to the party, until a loud CRACK! brought everyone to attention.

Deep in the woods, a large white jack o' lantern-headed golem made its way towards them, wielding a massive oak branch. The three brothers sprang into defensive positions with catlike agility, while Tezor pulled out his bow and slung an arrow past him into the gloom. Gowron was luckier, though, sinking a couple throwing daggers into the creature's head. The thing trembled wordlessly, before raising its left arm and shooting woody vines out and ensnaring Tezor's foot. Tez fell to the ground with a cry, and while the creature reeled him in, Onen cast a rot spell on the vines, weakening their grip on Tez. Mundo decided he'd try to help, but in his drunken state, he almost brought his sword down on poor Tez' foot! Only by the nimbleness of a halfling was he able to pull his foot away just as Mundo's blade cut the branches.

Athos quickly sunk two throwing dagger's into the creature's head. With a cry, Gowron charged the golem, ducked under the oaken branch, and sliced him in half with his drakon sword. The golem fell forward onto the knives, and its head split open. Gowron crept up carefully and discovered a curious blue-green stone inside. He carefully pocketed it.

The party, now numbering seven, wondered about the curious circumstances that had brought them all together. As they contemplated their next step, a large, bright full moon rose up over the sea and illuminated the darkening gloom. The newly-formed company picked up their weapons, and headed into town.