House Rules by Xavier P. Hunter

Author:Xavier P. Hunter [Hunter, Xavier P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781643550015
Publisher: Magical Scrivener Press
Published: 2018-07-20T21:00:00+00:00

25

They put the matter to a vote. Would they divert from their path of delivering Gary for rest and recovery in Durrotek to chase wild claims of a mysterious form of magic accessible in Gelzhearth?

“Nay,” Beldrak said with a solemn shake of his bald black head. “’Tis folly and hubris wrapped in a delirious tale.”

“Aye,” Zeeto said flippantly. “Same reason. I’m all in on the folly and hubris, but I’ll take my sandwich on a sweet loot roll instead of a wrap.”

“I can’t condone this,” Sira said. When everyone stared, she added, “Nay.”

It all came down to Braeleigh. She stood with one hand idle scratching behind Caspian’s ears as she looked from one camp to the other. “I don’t know… On the one hand, Gary’s been through something awful and really seems like he could use some quiet time where nothing bad happens to him. On the other, I mean, there’s a lich who wants information from him.”

“That’s part of the delusion,” Sira said firmly. “He needs to believe there was some deeper reason for his suffering, that it wasn’t all for nothing.”

“But if he were lying, wouldn’t Beldrak—?”

Beldrak stopped her. “’Tis not the way of things. Mine divine gift detecteth deception. It doth not sift the wheat from the dross of misunderstanding.”

“But—”

This time Sira cut in. “He’s concocted a fantasy in which he’s the hero instead of the victim. We can’t feed into his delusions of grandeur.”

Gary kept silent. Even Zeeto had the sense for once to keep his mouth shut.

Braeleigh’s pale skin flushed. “At least he’s not trying to bully me into voting his way. Aye! And if the two of you don’t want to feed him, you can go sit back in Durrotek and eat out. I’m going with Gary and Zeeto. Come on, Caspie.”

With that, Braeleigh veered off the trail in the direction of the distant Cloudspire Mountains.

No rolls. No skill checks. This was interparty dynamics at work. As Dungeon Master, Gary would never have allowed simple Persuasion checks to force a player’s vote. This was all down to personal choice and the arguments made—or not made, in this case—on both sides.

And Braeleigh sided with me.

In his head, Gary’s plan to awaken the rest of his friends had focused on Darryl next. After Marty and Zane, Darryl was the one Gary had known longest. They’d met in middle school, when Gary had a broken arm and had to miss an end-of-year field trip to a local water park. Darryl had been kept behind because his mother wouldn’t sign off on the permission slip.

That had been the day that Gary had introduced Darryl to D&D, scribbling a quick adventure in a spiral-bound notebook and using playing cards as dice. The bored teachers’ aide watching them and two others who’d fallen by the wayside hadn’t bothered to stop them, even though it was against the rules.

As Gary hastened to catch up to the miffed elf, he wondered if he’d been on the wrong trail in more than just the journey to Durrotek.

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