Dungeons & Despair

Chapter 2: how to play

   Folas opened his eyes, only to find out.. they weren't in his house anymore. Instead, they were in the forest he had just described to the others. ..the others? Folas looked over at them, but instead of seeing their normal selves, he saw them the way they described their characters earlier.. Nova and Takumi still looked relatively like themselves, with just their outfits a little altered.. Shin and Kaoru, however..

   "Can we open our eyes again?" Takumi asked, snapping Folas out of his thoughts.

   "Hm? Oh, yes, you can.." He watched as the others opened their eyes too and slowly came to the realization that they weren't at his house anymore. They looked confused but amused at the same time.

   "Uhm, Fol..?" Kaoru, who had turned into a human-sized bird, asked. "What happened..?"

   "Did you use magic to make it feel more realistic?" Shin, who was now standing at about three feet tall, said enthusiastically.

   "As much as I'd like to say yes.. I don't know what happened either.." Folas answered.

   "Shin... how did you get even shorter?" Nova laughed.

   "Shut up! It's not my fault you're a fucking giraffe!"

   Right as Shin said that, time seemed to freeze for everyone except Nova and Folas, who couldn't move off of their spot. They could only move their arms and heads.

   A black, twenty-sided die appeared in Nova's hand. They looked at Folas, confused. "What's going on..?" They asked

   "Shin just used Vicious Mockery.." Folas mumbled to himself. "Meaning you have to succeed on a wisdom saving throw..!"

   "What?" Nova asked. "What does any of that mean?"

   "Shin is a bard, meaning he can cause damage by insulting people. You need to roll the dice to see if Shin managed to.. hurt your feelings, basically."

   "This game thinks my feelings get hurt if he calls me a giraffe?" Nova asked.

   Folas nodded. "Yes. You need to roll higher than Shin's ability to cast spells. After your wisdom saving throw, Shin will need to roll for damage."

   Nova nodded and rolled the dice onto the ground. As it came to a stop, the number on the dice glowed a bright white light. 7. Then the dice disappeared.

   "Seven? What does that mean?" Nova asked, but before Folas could respond, they got frozen in time too.

   Shin, however, was able to move again. Three four-sided dice had appeared in his hand. He looked up at Nova, then at Kaoru and Takumi. He slowly began to realize they weren't able to move. "Uh, Fol..?"

   "Don't worry," Folas said quickly. "This happened to Nova too! Do you realize you just cast Vicious Mockery?"

   "That spell where I can hurt enemies with insults?" Shin asked. "I did that to Nova?"

   Folas nodded. "Nova rolled a seven on his wisdom save.. if we add their wisdom modifier," he looked at Nova's character sheet, "it adds up to twelve."

   "What does that mean?" Shin asked, looking at the space-themed dice in his hand.

   Folas looked at Shin's character sheet next. "It means that your spell's effects have worked. You need to roll those dice to determine the damage your spell does."

   "Alright!" Shin said, and rolled the dice on the ground too. A total of nine had been rolled. The numbers on the dice glowed a bright purple, then disappeared too. "Nine? Is that a lot?" Shin asked.

   Folas shook his head, and at the same time, Nova, Kaoru, and Takumi unfroze again. Nova just stared at Shin, making him laugh awkwardly.

   "What happened..?" Kaoru asked, confused. It seemed like neither they nor Takumi noticed they had been frozen for a little while.

    "Shin decided it would be fun to cast vicious mockery on me," Nova said, rolling their eyes.

   "It was an accident!" Shin yelled in return. "I didn't know I was casting it!"

   "Vicious mockery?" Takumi asked. "What does that do?"

   "Basically, the insult Shin used to offend Nova, would make them take psychological damage," Folas explained. "Shin did 23 damage to Nova."

   "Nineteen!?" Shin asked. "But I rolled nine!"

   Folas nodded. "Yes, but your spell attack bonus is ten, so that will be added onto your roll. Nova has 138 hit points, so right now they're down to.. 119."

   Nova just glared at Shin, but he was already distracted. "Wait.." he said quietly. "Did you guys hear that?"