"For the last time, Charlotte," Aidan sighed, setting his beer down harder than he meant to. "My name is Ironside."
She gave him a cheeky grin as she reached for her dice. "Well, Ron, do you have a higher strength stat than me or don't you?"
Aidan rolled his eyes and checked his sheet. "No, I don't."
Her grin grew. "All right, then I guess I'm going to try to kick in the door."
Carson flipped a page behind his cardboard barrier. "What's your strength again? Sixteen? Okay, go ahead. Roll your D20."
Charlotte scooped up the hot pink, glittery dice and rolled them around in her hands for a moment. "Okay ... oh, shit."
Sam oohed and Ada burst out laughing.
"What? What's a twenty do? Isn't that good?" asked Noah, frowning at the pages as though they might hold the answer.
"You want to roll under your stat. A twenty is a critical fail. Usually it's something horrible, but sometimes, if you roll a six on your fate die, it usually goes wrong but works in your favour somehow. That's what Charlotte got. Let's see what happens." Shelly's grin disappeared behind her glass; the tip of her nose and cheekbones were growing ruddy from suppressed nervous laughter.
"Precisely." Carson was barely containing himself as he scanned the ceiling. "Let's see ... as you go in for your kick, a loose brick under your foot makes you stumble. You put your foot right through the door, spraining your ankle in the process. You take ... one damage."
"Fuck!" Charlotte cried, leaning back so far she nearly fell off her stool. "Oh, man, I am so close to dead."
"Stop taking such big risks then," Shelly suggested with a grin.
"Someone has to! And how is kicking a door down dangerous?"
"I think you already know why kicking down a door is dangerous."
Sam laughed, reaching for her drink. Charlotte glowered at the models before her depicting their exploration through the dungeon. They were all level one, no one had healing yet. If she wasn't careful she'd be dead before level two.
"While Malou has a meltdown, it's Ron's turn." Carson turned his focus on Aidan.
Aidan groaned. "Ironside. Iron-side."
"Yes, yes; what do you want to do?"
"Can I reach through the hole to unlock the door?"
"Can you move that far? Let's see." Carson counted the tiles on the model to measure distance. "Yes, you can try. Give me a dex roll."
"Great, here we- wait, no, I peek through the hole first to make sure nothing is going to attack me." Aidan paused and turned to Carson, eyebrows raised.
"You don't see anything at a glance."
"Then I reach in and feel for the lock."
"Dex roll," Carson repeated.
This he failed, and Ada stepped in to try her hand. Even with a worse roll, she succeeded. Aidan's paladin was strong, but none too dexterous. Rolling under it was difficult.
They ended the game for the night shortly after when they had fought their way to the room where they would find Thaler, a supposed scholar who robbed them of their artifacts a few weeks prior. They were undecided still on how to handle him and it was way later than they usually played.
"Anyone staying over?" Sam asked on a yawn, then murmured an apology.
"We have room, I can drive you guys home if you want." Noah hadn't been drinking; after the last incident, he did only rarely.
YOU ARE READING
Magic Tricks 🔮 Book 2 || gxg
Mystery / Thriller« WAM book two » Ada was tired of running. Yes, she was the one with the lockpicks who helped Sam the winter prior with her little key issue. It's one of the many bizarre, frankly illegal things she's good at. It would take a long time to explain it...
