"How the hell did the closet get this full?" Stratus groaned, standing in front of the disaster that had once been a closet.

It was absolutely packed. Squishmallows were tumbling out, stacks of board games looked on the verge of collapsing, and he had no idea where the hell ninety percent of this disaster had come from. Well, the Squishmallows were definitely from Narwhale, the extra dog poop bags were from Jax, the portable karaoke set was Evan's, and- when the hell did the art materials appear in there?

"That's it," he grumbled to himself. He turned around and crossed his arms before saying, "I'm expecting you all to help me sort this out."

"...do we have to?" Tommie grimaced.

Stratus stared her down. "I'm sorry, is that my bin of faux flowers in the back?"

The young blonde backed off within a few seconds of being subject to his deep stare, approaching the closet and fishing through for her bin. "I could probably take some stuff home later."

To Stratus's relief, everyone else gradually approached and pulled a few things from the closet. Dawn even offered to help organize the remaining contents, but Stratus's OCD said otherwise. The second she tried positioning the karaoke set in the back left corner of the third shelf, he couldn't help but take over and politely dismiss her. The karaoke set clearly had to go on the second shelf and closer towards the center rather than in the corner, so more cube-shaped containers like board games could fill the space in a way that was more pleasing for the eye.

As he began to put everything back in a much neater fashion, a cardboard box caught his eye. Trying to rack his brain for what this may have been for, Stratus lifted it up and opened the top. Nestled inside were several small black velvet bags. Oh. He set the box down and opened one of the bags, letting a set of resin dice drop into his hand.

"So that's where they went!" Alister came up behind him, grinning at his find.

"What?" Ash approached as well, stopping when they saw the dice. "Hey, we haven't had a session in a long time!"

"What is this?" Dawn asked as she arrived as well.

"It's just a dice set from when we used to play D&D," Stratus answered, putting the dice back in the bag.

"Hey, I used to play D&D!" Evan jumped in, running over to see. "It was a fun improv exercise for me."

"What is D&D?" Dawn added.

Ash, Alister, and Evan exchanged glances. Stratus understood immediately what they were thinking.

"No," he said flatly.

"Just a one-shot, for Dawn!" Alister begged.

"Do it for her, man!" Ash pleaded.

"I have no idea what's going on," Dawn said.

Stratus let out a deep sigh. The things he did for this horrible group of terrible people who he couldn't help but care about.

"Fine," he agreed. "I will DM one session, so Dawn can learn about D&D. But that's it."

"YES!" Evan pumped a fist in the air.

"Alright, when should we meet up? Obviously we need the time to get our character sheets ready and have Dawn filled in on the basics," Ash said, thinking for a moment.

Stratus paused. "It's, what, 9AM? Be ready by noon. I'm going to go get a large cup of coffee and plan, then get out the fold-out table and chairs for us. I'm sure you four can be ready by then."

"Deal," Alister promised.

"Okay, so what is going on?" Dawn demanded, clearly lost.

Stratus smiled a little. "These three can get you all filled in, I promise. You're going to be fine."

What he did not say out loud was that she probably was not going to be all that fine.

Why had he agreed to this, again?

***

"So what do any of these spells do, again?" Dawn stared at Ash, puzzled.

"Don't worry, just go with it. I picked out the best spells for you that don't overlap with anyone else's, so we'll have a larger variety for different situations," they answered. "They're mostly very self-explanatory when you just read the name."

"Right. Um, Ash, I can't read," Dawn told them.

They seemed to process her words for a long moment before saying, "...I'll just help you."

"Alright, you all seem to be on time for once," Stratus grunted as he took his seat across the table from the party. A DM's screen prevented anyone from seeing what notes or dice rolls he could possibly have in front of him. Or how large the cup of coffee was, for that matter.

"Let's do this," Evan grinned.

Stratus rolled his eyes at Evan's default main character dialogue, but said nothing except, "Let's begin, then."

***

Amidst the grassy fields of Boschcaul, a lone human paladin treaded through the terrain, her cape and long golden hair blowing in the breeze. Her green eyes swept across this land, very new to her, as she continued forth towards the village in the distance. The sky was still blue and the sun was still high as she finally got to her destination. Exhausted and hungry, she decided to stop at the tavern for a meal. Inside of the cozy tavern, the townsfolk chattered away, paying no attention to the newcomer as she took a seat at the bar. The first thing she noticed was the elf, clad in worn leather armor and two sheathed longswords on their belt, sitting beside her with a half-full glass of a golden-brown drink.

The elf seemed to sense her staring, for they turned to look at her as well.

"Hello," they greeted. "May I help you?"

...

***

"Dawn, you respond," Ash whispered to the she-cat.

"Oh, right, sorry," she apologized.

***

"No, I apologize for staring. Have you been to war recently? Your armor looks as if it has seen plenty of combat in its time," the paladin said.

The elf nodded. "That would be correct. I'm a fighter, and have served my country time and time again as a member of the military. I worked my way up to the title of commander, until I grew tired of the endless battles and decided to finally leave for a much tamer life."

"Thank you for your service."

"Oh, why, you're welcome." They extended a hand. "I am Thezeir Nightshade. And you?"

The paladin took it. "Gwendolyn Hawthorn."

"May I ask, Gwendolyn, what brings you here? I may not have been here for years quite yet, but I don't believe I've seen you around," Thezeir commented.

"I'm a drifter, but mainly an explorer," Gwendolyn explained. "I made a promise to travel the world to someone who walks amongst the stars, in exchange for my magic."

"Ah, a paladin, then?" Thezeir guessed, and she nodded. "I have been lucky to know a few paladins from my time at war, and have found that they stick true to their word."

"Why thank you, I too consider myself a keeper of promises."

A flicker of activity across the tavern caught her attention.  Sitting on a table and chatting with a few men was a young woman- a tiefling, judging by the curving horns protruding from her head and the arrowhead tail swaying behind her.  Her long brown hair added extra flair to her words as it swished with any dramatic head movements.  For a moment, she made eye contact with Gwendolyn, a striking set of yellow eyes meeting Gwendolyn's green.  She smiled softly before turning back towards the others at her table.

"Who's that?" Gwendolyn asked as she too looked away.

Thezeir lowered their glass before it could even reach their lips. "Anori.  She makes a bloody fortune off of giving others company.  Lovely, though."

The sound of a strings instrument then floated through the air.  Gwendolyn glanced in the other direction to see a young man- a half-elf, judging by the pointiness of the ears- sitting in the corner, his wide-brimmed hat shielding part of his face as he strummed the lute in his hands.

"That's Jon Cracidae," Thezeir said, following her gaze. "A bard.  Not a fan of those, they're usually a bit too arrogant for my liking."

***

"Alister, you are not seducing Dawn." Stratus rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Alister leaned back in their chair, blowing a strand of hair out of their face. "Worth a shot."

***

Suddenly, the tavern door swung open, and a swarm of people burst inside, yelling.  Outside, Gwendolyn could see people running around and screaming as a cloud of fire cut through the air.

"Dragon!" someone yelled. "It's come back for our livestock!"

"Nevermind that!" someone else shouted. "It's come for US!"

"Dragon?" Gwendolyn questioned, turning to Thezeir.

The elf nodded grimly. "A big white dragon.  The greedy levereter-"

***

"God damn it, Evan!" Ash glared at the theater kid, who had burst into laughter.

"Did you make that up or something?!" Evan cackled, leaning back in his chair for support. "That's gotta be made up!"

"Can we continue, please?" Stratus narrowed his eyes.

***

"There he goes again, the great ol' beast," the bard, Jon Cracidae, sang softly as he played the lute.  He whistled a brief melody as he tried to work out this new improvised song.  He knew he had the attention of the strange drifter, and as always, he felt the need to put on a show for any potential onlookers.

"Whatcha got now, Cracidae?" a familiar tiefling called from across the bar.  Anori- that was her name, he remembered now- sat perched on a table drinking what seemed to be beer from a tankard.

"That's what I'm tryna figure out!" he responded with a laugh. 

Anori excused herself from the crowd of men at her table to approach him. "Let me hear it."

"I told ya, I got basically nothing," Jon shrugged.

"Then make it up like you normally do."

"Fine, fine." He let out a deep sigh before finding a simple tune on his guitar that he could sing to. However, before he could start his impromptu performance, the building was set ablaze.

Jumping to his feet, Jon slung his lute over his shoulder and ran to try to weave his way through the crowd frantically trying to escape the flaming tavern. On the way, though, he tripped over an abandoned tankard and faceplanted on the floor.

***

"God damn it," Evan groaned, staring at the 2 he rolled in disappointment.

"That's what you get for having a +0 as your Dexterity modifier," Ash snickered.

"Alright, Alister, what did you want to do?" Stratus turned to the next player.

***

Anori took a deep breath, then moved her hands and mumbled incantations under her breath as water suddenly rained down from the ceiling. To her dismay, it had very little impact on the flames.

***

"WHAT?" Alister exclaimed, slamming their hand on the table. "I rolled a 14!"

"Yeah, but you're also a level one," Stratus reminded them. "Roll higher next time, what else can I say?"

"Oh f*ck you."

***

Gwendolyn knew that she was too far back in the crowd to get out before the tavern was completely ablaze. But maybe she had other options. For instance, the window seemed big enough to break open and climb out of. Yes, that was the best option she could see.

"This way," she said to Thezeir, grabbing their arm and pulling them towards the window.

"Are you sure?" they asked, puzzled by whatever she was doing.

"I'm certain."

***

"Roll Strength."

"What?" Dawn stared at her DM, puzzled by what he was asking her to do.

"To break down the window, you need to roll to see how well you can do it. And since you're breaking the window, that requires strength, so you need to roll a d20 for Strength," Stratus explained slowly. "Does that make sense?"

Ash handed her a twenty-sided die. Ah, that made sense.

Dawn rolled the die onto the table, watching as it settled on the number 13.

"Okay, now add your Strength modifier," Ash said, glancing at her character sheet. "Okay, plus two is fifteen."

Stratus nodded in approval. "That'll do it."

***

With a loud SMASH, Gwendolyn shattered the window and climbed out, Thezeir right behind her. To her surprise, Jon the bard and the tiefling Anori followed. She didn't have time for formalities, though, because a bellowing roar cut through the air as a massive red dragon soared overhead. It dove towards the tavern, snatching up a halfling before swallowing it whole.

"Yikes," Anori muttered.

Gwendolyn couldn't take her eyes off of the dragon. This was it, the reason why she had come here. Her gaze remained on it until it disappeared on the horizon.

"I'm going after it," she decided.

"Not by yourself, you aren't. I'll come with you, then," Thezeir insisted.

"But what if you get hurt, or worse, die?" she pointed out.

The elf fighter shrugged. "I will have died a noble death, and that's enough for me."

"Yeah, I'll come, I got nothin' better to do," Jon said.

"...If you really want to, then I won't stop you," Gwendolyn sighed.

Anori stood there for a moment, looking at each of the team members before finally grumbling, "Guess I'm in, but only because Jon still owes me a song and I want to hear it before he dies."

Jon snickered. "Alright, sure, fine. If you really want one so badly."

"Well, any ideas where the dragon resides?" Gwendolyn asked Thezeir. "Of course, it's understandable if you haven't the slightest clue, but I figured that since you seem to be so smart-"

"Oh, don't waste your time flattering me," they laughed. "The dragon-"

***

"That's a twelve on your history roll?" Stratus squinted to see the die on the other side of the table. When Ash nodded in confirmation, he added, "Then you know that the dragon-"

***

"-Lives quite south from here, deep inside the treacherous cliffs of the volcanic Agnamar Mountains."

"That's at least a day's journey from here," Anori said, her tail twitching irritably at the thought of such a long journey.

"Well, then we better start walking," Gwendolyn suggested. She pulled a compass from her explorer's pack and checked to see what direction they needed to travel in. After a moment, she managed to find south and began to lead the party in said direction.

It didn't take too long before Jon swung the lute back around so he could play it as they walked, the strap ensuring that it couldn't possibly stray far from his body.

"Whatcha playing?" Anori perked up upon realizing that she might get to hear the new song she had been talking about.

The bard looked down at his fingers positioned along the fingerboard. "Nothin' new, you would've heard it before. I figured that we've enough time that I could go back to the oldies first."

"I've yet to hear anything from you," Gwendolyn said, glancing over her shoulder to look at him.

"Alright, well, here's one, I s'pose." Jon cleared his throat before beginning to sing as he strummed his lute. "Wait... for me-"

***

"Evan, what is the ONE rule I gave you before the session?!" Stratus glared at the dark brunette.

Evan smiled guiltily. "Don't use being a bard as an excuse to sing musical numbers?"

"Exactly. Now, what did you just do?"

"...use being a bard as an excuse to sing a musical number?"

Stratus nodded. "Damn right you did."

***

"Nevermind, that's, erm, one I didn't finish," Jon admitted.

"Oh, I understand. It must be hard to come up with original songs," Gwendolyn said.

Thezeir had been walking alongside her up until this point, and finally looked at her, asking, "Why exactly do you want to go after this dragon?"

Gwendolyn paused. "...I was asked by someone to."

Although the elf looked like they wanted to question her further, they remained silent and focused their attention on the forest ahead.

"Hey, did you all hear something?" Anori suddenly asked, stopping to look around. "I swore I heard birds flying away somewhere nearby."

"I didn't hear anything," Jon offered.

"Well, you were playing the lute, so of course you wouldn't have heard anything," she countered.

Suddenly, a knife whizzed by her head, embedding itself in the tree trunk next to her. Thezeir immediately drew their longswords, Jon following up by wielding his lute dangerously. As the two of them did so, a gang of four black-cloaked figures wielding various blades burst out of the bushes that Anori had claimed to have heard noise from. Gwendolyn just stood there for a moment before removing a small spellbook from her explorer's pack and flipping through it.

***

"Which one do I use?" Dawn asked, her eyes scanning her spell sheet despite the fact that doing so didn't help her in the slightest.

"Here, I'll do it for you," Ash said, sliding her spell sheet over towards them.

***

"Use Thunderous Smite as a bonus action and then throw a dagger at the enemy closest to you!" Thezeir called to Gwendolyn.

"Yes, um, right. I'll do that." Gwendolyn pulled a dagger out of her pack and focused on it for a moment. As soon as the blade flickered with purple sparks, she flung it at a cloaked figure, only for it to narrowly miss and disappear into the forest.

After avoiding a figure's careless swing of a shortsword, Thezeir swung their two longswords in retaliation.  One sword left a decently-sized slice in the figure's cloak and cut into their skin beneath.

Unfortunately, that success came with the price of a newly acquired gash in Jon's arm soon after.  Anori dodged an attack from yet another figure before waving her hands at them and sending tremendous force in their direction that hit them with a thunderous BOOM, pushing them back several feet as well.  Gwendolyn stared at her tiefling ally in amazement before narrowly missing the blade that swung right next to her head.  She did as Thezeir told her to and repeated the action from last time, though now managing to get her dagger to pierce the leg of her target before sending purple sparks across the figure's body, the figure going down.  Feeling proud of herself, she ran to grab her dagger and then looked to see if there was more she could do, only to realize that her team had taken out all of the cloaked figures, and their opponents were all now unconscious on the ground.  That had been REALLY fast.

"Oh," she said, feeling slightly bad about how useless she'd been.

Thezeir bent down and observed a cloaked figure, removing the hood to reveal a middle-aged male dwarf before shaking their head. "They're just common thieves.  Check for any loot."

Jon whistled as he pulled a small pouch from one of the thieves' belts.  He opened it and grinned. "We got us some gold."

Thezeir shook their head as they checked the other cloaked figures. "Nothing from these guys."

"A couple silver and copper coins over here," Anori added, tossing a leather pouch in the air and catching it with one hand. "With what we've got, we should be set for the journey."

Jon looked at the sky. "It's getting dark soon.  Maybe we should make a little more progress and then call it a night?"

Thezeir nodded in agreement. "Sounds like a fantastic idea.  Let's keep it going." After glancing over at Gwendolyn's compass, they began to lead the charge further south.

The party managed to make it a few more miles before it became too dark for anyone but Anori, courtesy of her darkvision, to see a few inches in front of their noses.  Thezeir quickly got a fire up and running thanks to their survival skills, and they all began to wind down.

"You seem like you'd have an interesting story," Gwendolyn said to Jon as she tended to his arm wound, wrapping it in a bandage.

The bard sat up tall, grinning as he swung his lute back over his shoulder and began to strum it. "Of course I do, my dear.  You see, there was once a time where I was just a poor boy.  Born on an island far at sea, my mother cheated on her husband with my biological father, and further was abandoned by both.  Years later, when I was twelve, we both came down with the plague, and she passed away.  Knowing I had to fend for myself, I quickly took up songwriting and the art of performing, and became a success!  The people of the island scraped together enough money to help me get to the mainland, where I looked to study the arts further and make a name for myself.  I managed to find a friend in a man by the name of Aaron B-"

***

Stratus stared at Evan in dead silence.

***

"-Burnell.  By this time, of course, war was on the horizon, and with my newfound friends, I got into the army, strategically plotting how to rise to the top.  I managed to get a team with me to steal canons from the opposing side. However, as much as my craftiness set me apart from the rest, the general was especially intrigued by my performance as a bard and songwriter, encouraging me to write up songs for spells. With the help of allies to the east, we managed to win the war and gain freedom from our oppressors. I settled down with my wife, Eliza...beth, and we had a son named Ph... Phredrick."

"Are you from Boschcaul, then?" Thezeir asked, and when Jon shook his head, added, "What brings you here?"

Jon smiled. "Oh, just running away for the summer and going upstate. Elizabeth and Phredrick are still back in town."

"Then why did you say you had nothing better to do than come with us?" Gwendolyn pointed out.

"A man can crave a little adventure once in a while, can't he?"

Thezeir sighed. "I suppose he can."

Jon then shivered as a gust of wind tugged at his hair, leaning closer to the fire for warmth. "It's quite cold for a forest so close to volcanic lands."

"And we should be rather close to said volcanic lands," Thezeir remarked. "It is surprising how frigid it is."

"I can help with that," Anori offered.  She made her way around the fire towards the bard, and as she did so, her form suddenly began to shift, and then she was a leopard. 

Gwendolyn stared in awe as the former tiefling curled up next to Jon, who gratefully snuggled into the soft fur. "You're a druid?"

Anori acknowledged her with a small nod before shutting her eyes and drifting off to sleep.  Gwendolyn herself yawned, and before she knew it, she had drifted off into a world of sweet, sweet slumber.

***

"Well, these are the Agnamar Mountains," Thezeir announced, staring at the towering cliffs of dark rock before them. 

Decorated in glowing veins of molten lava, the mountains stood out against the barren lands that could only be glimpsed due to the immense size of the towering rock formations.

"The cave should be somewhere up there," the elf continued. "Anori, could you shift into a bird and fly up there to scope it out?"

Anori shook her head. "Sorry, I can only do land animals."

Thezeir sighed. "I suppose we can do it the difficult way, then."

The party then began their long trek up into the mountains.  As they walked, Thezeir engaged them in battle strategies. "It would be wise to attack from multiple sides, making it difficult for the dragon to not only see all of us but also not be able to easily harm multiple of us at once.  On top of that, Anori, seeing as you're a spellcaster, avoid any spells involving fire, because those will not have much effect on a Red Dragon."

Jon ended up spacing out rather quickly and thinking about his family.  He missed Elizabeth and little Phredrick dearly, but he couldn't wait to share his adventure with them.  It was the excitement he had been waiting for ever since the war ended!  Not only that, but it gave him the opportunity to take his mind off of the tragic passing of his friend James Laurel, who had passed so young in a skirmish that never would have happened if word had spread faster that the war was over.  James had been his best of friends, the man he could share a beer with and laugh with, the man who he had raised a glass to freedom with.  Jon missed him so much.

"Mountain roads," he mumbled, strumming his lute. "Take me home~"

"Jon, you weren't paying attention, were you?" Thezeir interrupted. "Maybe you're better off being the distraction, since you're so good at doing so to yourself."

Anori snickered, and Jon shot her a glare.  It wasn't long after that the four found themselves standing at the entrance of a massive, dark cave.  The only light came from the dripping lava.

"This is it, team," Thezeir said, turning and looking each party member in the eye as they spoke. "Whatever happens, we did this together.  Just follow my lead, and everything will be fine.  Oh, and Jon, please avoid giving away our presence before we want the dragon to know we're here."

Jon rolled his eyes and slung his lute back over his shoulder. At least Thezeir had been polite about telling him to shut up. They continued further into the cave, everyone but Anori squinting to see the rocky caverns ahead of them. This thankfully did not last long, for they soon stumbled across a large cavern illuminated by waterfalls of glowing lava that made the reflective surface of a large mound of treasure sparkle.

"Wow," Anori said, eyeing the heap of wealth.

"Wow indeed," a booming voice grunted. The ground began to shake as a massive dragon with gleaming crimson scales emerged from the darkness to the left.

Thezeir, on instinct, drew their longswords. Jon, once again, wielded his lute like a bludgeoning weapon. The two girls prepared to cast whatever spells were necessary. Jon went to make the first move, but then froze in place, lowering his lute and pointing up at the dragon.

"You, uh, you suck and you're ugly!" he exclaimed.

The dragon seemed to take a small amount of emotional damage from that. As it was processing, Gwendolyn did as Thezeir instructed her to do and repeated the same attack that she had done with the thieves. The dagger completely missed its mark, though, clattering to the cave floor across the room. Anori cast a successful spell and Thezeir landed a longsword hit on the dragon, and now the beast itself made a move. It opened its jaws and breathed a massive wave of fire in Jon's direction. The bard was able to dodge most of the flames, but still received a nasty burn to the shoulder.

Still, he managed to muster up enough strength to yell to Thezeir, "You got this, man!"

It seemed to be just a bit inspiring to the fighter. Satisfied, Jon took a lunge forward and swung his lute at the dragon, striking its leg. Gwendolyn threw another dagger, Thezeir landed both sword swings, and Anori messed up her incantation.

***

The fight seemed to be going well, and Stratus had a feeling that the team could pull it off. As he went to roll for the dragon's actions, he glanced across the table at his party and stopped. Ash looked very into it and was whispering a plan to Evan and Alister, who both looked excited. And then there was Dawn.

Oh.

Stratus's heart sank as he realized that she didn't look as excited as her teammates. In fact, she looked left out. Now that he thought about it, she had been just following along with whatever she was told during combat. Even outside of it, he now recalled her slowly being able to talk less and less. He felt like he had failed her. The entire point of this had been to give her a chance to play D&D, but that was exactly what wasn't happening.

"Stratus? What did you roll?" Ash asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

He looked down at the seven he had rolled, shielded by the screen. He had to make a decision. Stratus took a deep breath and looked up.

"Nat20," he said.

Evan's jaw dropped. Alister screamed. Ash's eyes widened. And Dawn looked confused.

Stratus thought for a moment. He knew exactly what needed to be done.

"The dragon spins around, its tail sending Jon, Anori, and Thezeir flying and rendering all three unconscious."

He let his words sink in before turning to address Dawn. "What would you like to do?"

Dawn looked towards her teammates. "Ash-"

"No," Stratus interrupted. He looked her dead in the eyes. "What would you like to do?"

***

The dragon looked slightly caught off guard as Gwendolyn held up a hand and took a step closer.

"I would like to say a word," she called up to it.

It hesitated briefly, narrowing its orange eyes. "Proceed."

Gwendolyn took a deep breath before managing to maintain steady eye contact as she spoke. "I am Gwendolyn Hawthorn. I made an oath to seek you out and punish you for your misdeeds."

The dragon boomed with laughter. "You really think so, little one? What could possibly make you believe that?"

Her fingers moved to the star-shaped crystal hanging around her neck, its clear surface tinged yellow and orange from the glow of the lava all around her. She removed it from her neck and extended it out towards the dragon. "My patron."

As she said this, small glowing particles like mini stars began to lift up from the ground and swirl around her. The dragon seemed unfazed by this small display of magic until from the ground rose up a larger, faster swirl of stars. In a heartbeat and a flash of literal fabrics of time and space, the god of the stars themself emerged, their constellation-clad cloak and scarf sewn from shreds of the galaxy itself flowing like water around them.

Only at this did the dragon's eyes flicker with fear for the first time. That was all it could react with before it was broken down to nothing more than atoms and vanished right before Gwendolyn's eyes. She could feel her party stirring and staring in awe at what was happening, but she didn't bother turning around to explain. She didn't need to. She looked up at Libros and bowed her head respectfully. And in the blink of an eye, everything was as it was, although the dragon was gone.

"So, uh, treasure time, then?" Jon asked awkwardly, shakily getting to his feet.

Gwendolyn smiled at him. "I think that looting is the right option here, right, Thezeir?"

She looked towards the elf, who was brushing themself off. They looked at her, seemed to understand the hint of authority in her tone, and smiled.

"Alright, you tell us how to go about it, then," they agreed.

***

"And that's a wrap," Stratus said, collecting his things and beginning to clean up.

Dawn looked utterly bummed out. "That's it?"

He laughed. "That's what a one-shot is."

"Oh."

Ash turned to Dawn and gave her a pat on the back. "Hey, you did a good job making decisions.  That ending was epic."

She smiled. "Thanks, and I'm grateful that you helped me along the way." She looked towards Evan and Alister and added, "And you guys too."

"I volunteer to DM the next one shot," Ash offered, winking at her.

"Good, because I'm not going to do another," Stratus grunted.

"...but Stratus has to join as a bard," they finished.

"For fu-"

***

(5331 words!!)

This was definitely my favorite one to write (you can probably tell because it's so long ;0;) and I hope you guys enjoyed it!

Also my goal was to make it understandable for non D&D players but also accurate for D&D players so hopefully I didn't screw that up