Multifandom Oneshot Book

A Storyteller's Power

"Strix you're racked with mental pain as Paultin's cursed insults fill your ears and mind, taking four points of psychic damage."

As the words left Chris' lips, Holly's mind was filled with pain. Words in ancient and arcane languages ringing in her skull as she felt Nate's glare drilling into her soul. She clasped her head and cried out in pain, resting her head on the table.

Anna became concerned. Holly was just acting, right? "Hey, Holly? You okay?"

Holly nodded, trying to play it off as an act, but the pain wouldn't go away. She gritted her teeth and made the appropriate deduction on her sheet, returning her, almost fearful, gaze to Nate's unwavering one. She tried to speak, to formulate a plan of attack, but she could barely think.

Seeing her pain, Jared immediately spoke up. "We need to stop, Chris, someone needs to get Holly some help."

The DM waved it off. "Not yet. She'll be fine. However, if no one is going to act then Strahd will."

"Chris?"

Chris' eyes seemed to flash with some kind of unreadable emotion. "Act. Or Strahd shall make his play."

Something was wrong, that much was clear. Jared glared at the man he knew couldn't be their DM. "Very well. Evelyn! Get Strix outta here, I've got a bad feeling. And then I'm gonna throw a dagger at Paultin to try to snap him outta this."

Chris gave a cruel smirk, "good. Make your roll."

Jared's glare hardened, he could feel it. Could feel that this man before them was an impostor--he just had to prove it. Had to make sure Holly was okay. He rolled his d20 and sagged as he did the math. "8..."

"Your dagger goes sailing across the room and misses Paultin by several feet. Strahd laughs and rises from his throne..." As he spoke, Chris stood, his voice beginning to slip to Strahd's sinister hiss. "Come to me, bard~"

To everyone's surprise, Nate stood, eyes moving to Chris, and began to approach the DM.

Jared quickly got to his feet and got between Nate and Chris, his green eyes boring into the other with a glare as sharp as daggers. "Stop this now Chris. No... you're not Chris Perkins. Chris would never ignore a player's obvious distress. Who are you?"

Chris' eyes flashed again, this time with a chillingly clear malice. As Jared and everyone else in the hall watched, the DM's form began to waver. His shape changed slowly, like a glamour dropping. His round and cheerful face became thin and pallid, cheeks sinking and skin going white. Thin, black hair sprouted from his scalp and he grew taller and thinner.

"Strahd..." Jared didn't even seem surprised, his face, instead, showing a grim determination.

The room exploded in panicked screaming, the assembled crowd fleeing as the vampire lord revealed himself to those assembled.

"Very good. You are perceptive, human, I'll give you that. It took countless souls to journey to this plane. But it will be well worth it to finally get to kill you." He darted forward at Jared, turning into a cloud of mist and vanishing, only to appear behind him. Behind Nate.

Jared turned, hand going to his belt, instincts he never knew he had making him reach for one of his daggers. He could feel something awaken within him, a strength and cunning he'd never possessed. The fog of fear cleared from his mind, his costume suddenly feeling like an outfit that he'd worn for ages, though lacking the familiar wear and tear he recalled as the line between player and character blurred.

Diath Woodrow launched a dagger at Strahd, but it missed and the rouge felt a familiar sinking feeling, a plummeting dread in the pit of his stomach as the weapon flew past its target. He darted forward, trying to grab the unknown man and save him from his fate. But he was too late, the vampire's fangs plunged into the man's neck and Strahd began to feed. Diath could see the decay of the necrotic damage begin to spread. Fearing for the lives of his friends, he turned to them, urgency etched into every line of his expression. "Evelyn, Strix, get out of here. I'm not about to have you die at the hands of this monster."