Chapter 20: Roll For Damage

         "So how many D6's so I roll again?" Robin looking over their character sheet trying to flip to their spell's page. Rowan points to the description section in the spell, "Since we are level 12, you already hit the max level of the spell, so it will be ten D6's." While excited Robin pick out a set of six sided dice and roll them in a clear plastic tray with a pink felt bottom. They arranged the dice to tally up the numbers. "39 fire, difficulty check, 23 reflex save." The man behind the cardboard barrier rolls a series of dice, then points to a few miniatures on the table mat.

"This one fails, that guy is just gone, does not matter if they saved or not, and that guy is burnt up but still kicking." As the other players at the table remove some of the miniatures from the mat and give them to the man behind the screen. "Alright next up is, Liam. What does Radagast do?" Liam counts the number of spaces between his miniature compared to some of the others, "Well this guy is within my first ranged increment, and did he get hit with Zuko's fireball?" The group at the table say no, as Liam claps his hands, "Great! Then, I'm gonna shoot that guy!" A series of rolls are made with a twenty sided die while Liam takes the number from the dice then adds another number marked on his character sheet.

"Okay Eli, my lowest is 23 verses touch armor class." Elijah blinks and makes a, what do you think? face at Liam. "Yeah, that'll do it." Liam takes a singular twelve sided dice and rolls it multiple times then refers to his character sheet again, "66 damage to that one guy!" With an impressed nod, Elijah describes the impact and death description as he removes the miniature from the table. "Nick, your up."

Nick motions like he just woke up from a nap, then unlocks his phone screen. "Finally, let see here... I got two guys on me, so I am gonna light up my great sword and see what I can do." Nick begins rolling a twenty sided dice a few times, "shoot, that's gonna miss." Rolls another time and motions like he got shot in the head. "Come on..." Glares at Elijah, "does a 24 hit?" Reluctantly Elijah responds, "Base armor class? No..." Rowan chimes in as he points at the mat, "Did you account for flanking with the NPC?"

Rejuvenated, Nick looks at the numbers on his phone screen again, "A 26, would a 26 hit?" Elijah confirms with a nod. Nick grabs a few six sided dice and roll them and tallies the numbers up, "30 damage and 5 fire damage." Elijah nods in approval, "With a mighty swing from Ulric's great sword, this guy's head rolls to the floor." Another miniature is removed from the mat. "Alright Rowan, what does Jean do?" Rowan already planning ahead but waiting to see how the following turns play out. He misses working together with his friends in building a narrative story. "Well what Jean is going to do is..."

Rowan wakes up, cold, laying in the field of the practice grounds, seeing a bright starry night sky. He is unable to move any limbs, he shifts his body but everything is heavy. His head feeling like a 20 pound weight, he lifts for a bit to look around. There is no one around, the gentle breeze of the night time wind blows. Finally getting the clue that Rowan's body has been hinting at for the day starts to sink in. "Can I at least spe-, Oh hey I can talk!" Surprised Rowan can at least give himself company by speaking his thoughts out loud.

"That felt way more as a memory than a dream, man what did I dream about last time, that was weird!" Rowan thinks back to the dream, and can frighteningly recall the dream in perfect detail. "That's amazing, but holy crap that is wild." He looks for the silver lining in this situation, "At least if I come up with an idea I don't need to hurry to write it down." He looks up and sees the stars that are from this world, the greater detail that he can only see if he went out of the city.

Being able to see the nebula's from space, the most dim star here, would be the brightest from his world, he loses his breath gazing upwards. "Eribella would kill to see this, Kiri must take this for granted. "He thinks deeper, I would love for Robin to see this too." Then thinks back to all he has endured in just this week alone, "Not at this cost though..." Rowan thinks about what him and Eribella talked about regarding stars and what constellations they knew, and the supposed distances that each other worlds are from to each other.

In some stories there will be a set of lovers who are separated due to circumstances, but will always be connected by looking at the same moon, star, or celestial body in the sky. Rowan does not have that, at least nothing that close, but he does have the space and the many universes as a greater hold. "Guys! Everyone... Robin, I'm gonna get back." He chokes on the words because of the drastic level of uncertainty he knows he will face. "I will come home, just wait for me please." He sheds a tear, tilts his head back, and closes his eyes.

With another span of nonsensical dreams and memories blurring together, the sun rises and the cool air dew washes over Rowan. He wakes up again this time restoring function to his arms and legs. He stands up, everything is sore and sluggish, he returns to the dorm. Rowan sees some people in robes leaving the dorm entrance, he tries not to make eye contact with the strangers as he enters. Once he reaches his room he is greeted with a dark enclosed room, "Ah, the rock's light ran out." Rowan closes the door to complete the darkness, grabs the top sheet from his pet rock.

Then rolls to bed to try and get more rest, he can feel his stomach finally desiring substance. "Oh, I was wondering when I was going to get hungry..." Rowan touches the rune on his abdomen, "But shouldn't this prevent that?" The thought of an easy late morning snack hits him, "Maaaaaan, toast sounds amazing right now." An idea springs to mind, "That's right I could conjure food with a spell!" Rowan flips out of bed and enlightens his pet rock once more.

He reaches for one of the books trying to find a rune as a reference, "Maybe the reason I use so much mana is that I am not using enough limits for my spells?" He flips the pages over and over, "Like adding more than just keywords, incantations, hand movements, material components, can't really do that last one I don't have any money, nor can I leave this site." Cross referencing the rune on his abdomen he sees the root rune in the book. "Perfect, alright, I don't need a large meal so lets make up a spell so to speak."

Rowan lays the book on the table, holds his hands out in two L shapes to make a square in the air, aiming at the table. Then envisions the rune from the book and thinks for a minuet, "Hmm its normally a 3rd level spell, but that's for a meal... 1st level spell slot." He breathes and exhales.

"Create toast."