15897/D & D at the Candle

D & D at the Candle
Date of Scene:	26 September 2023
Location:	Candle, Booke and Belle
Synopsis:	Nettie runs a D&D Scene. It is ridiculous.
Cast of Characters:	Nettie Crowe, Joshua Foley, Billy Kaplan, Greer Grant, Patience Alperen, Belinda Gutierrez

---

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    WELCOME TO THE CANDLE, BOOKE & BELLE SHOPPE. Accompanying the usual smell of rose hips, Bengali spices and the occasional waft of brimstone tonight are the two pizzas Nettie has picked up, along with some sandwiches from Katz's Deli (now free of rats), along with bowls and plates for the snacks that others have deigned to bring with them into this foray into the classic fantasy role-playing game: DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.

    The round table near a crackling fireplace (for ambiance) is set up with five chairs -- Nettie's is the tallest, probably because she's the shortest at the table tonight. The Witch herself setting up a grid that looks like an extra-large chessboard made of crystal, and has a Dungeon Master's screen set up -- it's older, made of wood with little hinges on it, and has a note paperclipped to it -- 'N - RETURN WHEN FINISHED - G' that looks to be older than some seated at the table.

    The acid-green jukebox in the corner is currently playing music from the 1980's... altered to be Bardcore. (https://youtu.be/d47Wr2Gcpko?si=CSNbXCNX0z9K3728 )

    "All right, screen set up -- grid set up... pizza's here, sandwiches, sodas... *TEA*." she murmurs, and ducks down behind the counter so that she can set up tea cups. She'd gotten four hits on the invitation -- now it was just a question to see who would show up.

    Four tea cups are placed upside-down on matching saucers. Green and silver fluted with gold. Noble and unexpected. Red with black swirling patterns over an overlay of matte gray tree shapes. Blue and gold, refined but no-nonsense, and the last, a teacup with a rolling countryside print on it, and a hill with a familiar circular opening.

    Places are set that the traps -- er, adventure is laid out. Now, just for some players...

Joshua Foley has posed:
After talking with Gabby and postponing their date (Joshua'd totally forgotten about the game until his phone chimed a reminder!), Joshua spent the day doing chores to get the shop cleaned up. He swept, dusted counters, filed books, checked nooks and crannies.

Totally not a way to disguise that he was looking for the character sheets.

Until the jukebox ratted him out by playing 'Secret Agent Man' by Johnny Rivers. "Fine, fine!" he had muttered and left to go do his deliveries pre-game. After that was complete, he made a couple of stops. A game store to buy dice, he had to ask what to use from D&D and then the store.

Returning to the store to open the door and the shop after putting out a sign 'Private Event Tonight - Shop's Closed', he comes inside, carrying a box. "Mom!" he calls out for Nettie as he heads to the common area. "Check it!" He sets the box on the table and opens it.

Inside are twelve cupcakes, six chocolate, six vanilla, six fruit tarts and six lemon tarts. He grins up at Nettie, his golden skin reflecting the smile with a warm glow, his blue eyes alight with the hope of approval. After setting down the box and turning to Nettie, he comes close... is he going to try to hug her? Nope. He starts about a foot away and offers her an air hug, squeezing his arms to his midsection before releasing, closing the box and setting it with the other snacks. He pauses for a moment and takes a smaller box out of his pocket. "Corvax!" he opens up the box with a fruit tart just for the crow. "I still can't buy you a share of rum. But I did have them put rum flavor in the cream."

As he takes in the decorations. "Oh wow, you went all out, this looks dope! Good dope, not smoke dope." he points out.

Billy Kaplan has posed:
The bell above the door chimes to announce an arrival. In walks...a wizard? It's someone of moderate height and slender of build wearing a well-constructed wizard robe made from a gray gabardine fabrid with a matching wizard hat upon his head. Long black hair (obviously a wig) matches the (equally obviously fake) flowing mustache and beard. In one hand, the man carries a large plate with some sort of sweets wrapped in layers of plastic wrap. In the other hand, he carries a wooden staff. Someone is cosplaying as a wizard.

"Greetings, fellow adventurers!" the wizard with Billy Kaplan's voice calls out enthusiastically. He enters the shop and sets the plate down next to the other food. "A certain mom made a huge batch of rugelach to break the Yom Kippur fast...and she maybe-might-of made a bit too many."

Greer Grant has posed:
It's a very pleasant smell to Greer as she approaches the shop(pe). It's been a while since she last tried her hand at role playing games, probably since her college years if she thinks about it. She wouldn't normally have sought out a game, but came across an ad for this one and decided, hey, why the hell not? It might be fun. Since it's at a magic shop(pe) she's decided to show up in her normal form, that is to say with fur, tail and claws, though she's got on a loose blouse and blue jean shorts over her usual bikini. Remembering the etiquette of gaming groups, she's brought a 12pack of soda, going with the slightly less common variety of RC Cola over Coke or Pepsi, just because. She steps inside the store, nostrils flaring as she drinks in the scents all the better. "Oh, nice," she murmurs appreciatively at the ambience.

Patience Alperen has posed:
Patience Alperen arrives, pulling open the door to the shoppe and slips inside. She's wearing a black tee shirt that shows a D20 sitting on a Natural 1 with the saying printed around it: 'What doesn't kill you gives you XP'. Ripped jeans and hiking boots round out her attire - other than the fact she is wearing her 'work' cloak properly. Hood up and secured about the shoulders. If it's Tabletop Night it's important to show up in theme, right? At least she didn't come bearing Spear. She does bring a small container as well as a book bag with her own gaming suppliments that The Church would probably frown up. Spoilsports.

"Hello!" she offers quietly but cheerfully as she closes the door and forges deeper into the room. "How is everyone?"

Setting the container down near the food, she removes the top to reveal two dozen homemade deviled eggs. It's probably a more amusing inside joke to herself than to anyone else.

Moving to the last open seat at the table, she sets her book bag down before reaching up to pull back the hood of her cloak and removing it. Draping it over the back of her chair, she settles in. "Sorry I'm slowing up the works!"

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Ooh, an excellent selection, Joshua. Smart lad." Nettie states to her go-for, and gives a small laugh at the air-hug, but permits it, coming back to set a tea pot on the table.

    A large black crow comes down from the rafters, still decorated with gourds with grim grinning faces (because Nettie does so like Halloween), and alights on a stool at the tea bar.

    "Captial, Josh." he bird states, "Just set it to the side there so's I don't get feathers in the other food. An' once everyone gets a pick -- it's aaaall mine, ah ha ha ha har!" the pirate-voiced crow states, ruffling his feathers a bit and looking as Billy makes his way in, and eyeballs Greer with a certain sense of surprise and suspision -- and gets quieter.

    "Oooh, please recall me to your mum with a G'mar chatima tovah, Billy! And thank her for the goodies. Goodness." she twists her hand to check the time. "Should be sun down soon, if you need anything heated up, let me know." she states gently to the wizard, and then looks up as Greer comes in. And her eyebrows rise up.

    "You must be Greer Grant. Hullo, hullo--" the gray-haired woman states in a friendly, warm Lincolnshire accent "Come on in, have some food and a seat at the table. I'm Nettie, I'll be managing the adventure and I run the shop. This there is my son Joshua an' this is Billy Kaplan under this Gandalf the Greatest Set up." she gives a bright smile to Greer.

    "And this is Patience! Hullo Patience! Love the shirt, *very* thematic for the night." Nettie greets the Magdalena -- except tonight? They're not superheroes or dropouts, they're not patrons of churches and Avengers. Tonight? THey just get to be geeks.

    She crosses behind Patience and immediately plucks up a deviled egg and pops it into her mouth as she herself pulls a couple pieces of pizza and a sandwich, and mozies on over to her chair.

    "Now you'll have to pardon me, duckies, -- I haven't run a game since 1985, and apparently there's been one or two revisions of the game since then." Nettie states as she moves to take a seat, pulling out a pair of half-moon glasses from a pocket in her skirts, and applies them to her face. She certainly doesn't look like she's old enough to have been running games in the 80's.

    "If everyone takes a seat?" she asks, and hands out the character sheets, face down. "You get to determine your own names. Names have a special power."

Belinda Gutierrez has posed:
Belinda is here! She has always been here. She will always BE here.

....mostly upstairs, punting a cheap alarm clock that *refuses to keep time*.

"Sorry, sorry," she sings, practically vaulting the railing as she thunders down towards the table. "The clock did not chime and I was mixing experiment samples and got caught up in all the things and Cascada was playing--"

Racing up to the vacant chair, she settles in with barely a glance back to the pizz--

Pepperoni. Sausage. Anchovie.

SHe slides back, up again to acquire a paper plate, ladelling the first of several slices aboard before returning to her place.

"...ahem. Am here, now. Rarrh."

Joshua Foley has posed:
As she's passing out the sheets, Joshua raises his hand in greetings to Greer when Nettie introduces her. He's met mutants with fur before, but Greer is a whole other level of cool. He is distracted when Nettie hands him his character sheet and he perks up.

He takes the sheet, looking it over and his eyes cross a little.

Patience's arrival earns her a wave. "Hi Miss Patience." he greets as Belinda arrives.

There's a snicker from Joshua and a little nudge of his shoulder against her hip when she passes by. "The other sheets were claimed because you o-o-over-slept." He mimes a pillow with his hands and fake snores. Then he gets out his phone. Taptaptap.

>> D&D Character Name Generator.

"I'm sorry if I'm a little behind everyone else. I've never played." he admits sheepishly. "My parents, before Nettie, were soooo against games like this. Said it invited the devil."

Greer Grant has posed:
A friendly nod from Greer to the various gathered, starting with the DM and then her son, while pretending to not notice his admiration. Not that she blames him. "Nice to meet everyone," she says with a quick grin. "Ooh," she says softly as Nettie mentions how long it had been since she played. "What edition are we playing, then? I've dabbled in some of the older ones." She sets out some dice, brand new and yet to have declared themselves lucky or otherwise. She looks over her sheet and takes some brief mental notes. "Irony of that is that I've heard Gygax was fairly devout, himself, though I've never tried to confirm it one way or another."

Patience Alperen has posed:
Patience Alperen smiles around the table at everyone. "Hello Josh, Belinda." Greer gets a more welcoming smile as she is the new one yet to be met. "Hello Greer. It's nice ot meet you. Welcome to the shop and the group."

Looking at her sheet she considers thoughtfully. "Well don't you have a warped sense of humor, Nettie" she says with a laugh showing she is hardly bothered by the less than holy character she's been assigned.

Thinking a moment she writes down a name in simple script. 'Styx'. A good band. And river. Probably.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Fifth and a quarter." Nettie answers Greer, with a mischevious smile. "I imagine the Devil would have been delighted to play at the table with Gary. He could spin a yarn." Nettie states, though it's not clear whether she's talking about Gary or the Devil, and she's purposefully leaving that up in the air. She couldn't possibly know THE Devil, could she?

    Nettie sets her own dice out. THey are ocean blue acrylic dice -- with rubber duckies encased inside. "Humour nothing, Patience. They match your teacups, that way there's no crying about who is what and we're not spending three weeks rolling up characters." Nettie gives a fierce grin at that.
    "So, to begin --"

     Nettie clears her throat.

    "Welcome to the village of Woolsyde. The quaint village has an inn and a ferrier and blacksmith, a handfull of cottages and a few farms."

    It's almost as if the players can see it through the haze of the woodfire smoke behind Nettie, hear the ringing of hammer against iron. The swell of the bellows. The clopping of a farm horse and the feeling of the wood against their backs as they're conveyed via wagon over a stone and wood bridge, with the creaking of a mill wheel behind them.

    "The world you inhabit is one where magic is strong, and seeps into every pore of a person's body. The gods not only listen, but are active in the lives of those who call upon them. You four are bound -- by contract, by pay, and by oath -- to a recruiter in the capital city of Sylkk, since Woolsyde's village guard have been less-than-easy about a cave that was discovered last spring in the woods. Kobolds had moved into the cave, and have stolen a candle from the small village temple to An'nett, a local goddess who is particularly active in the lives of those in the region. Some would even say... meddlesome. The candle was a gift to the last cleric who managed the temple, who has also gone missing."

    The wagon pulls up to the village square, where the well stands and a few women have their washing tubs set up. A baker's shop has the heavy smell of fresh baked bread wafting through.

    "Welp. This is Woolsyde." the merchant who agreed to carry the group states, motioning with a stick. "O'er there's the Inn an' tavern. Yonder's the old shrine. Might be best to talk to the innkeeper 'bout the local happenings. Likely they're the one who's sent for help, since their cleric's likely dead." he sniffs.

    The Candle, Booke and Belle is no longer surrounding the players. It's as if they're caught in some sort of... Multi-User... Shared... Hallucination of some sort.

Greer Grant has posed:
Tigra snorts lightly at the identifying of the edition they're going to play. She decides not to comment on Gygax and the Devil. "Skipping the session 0 thing," she observes, when Nettie mentions avoiding rolling up characters. Her tail flicks lightly as Nettie begins to spin the tale, glancing from her sheet to keep it fresh in mind and back to Nettie.

The shop(pe) begins to fade from awareness and the new world fades into being. She, as an elf, flips lightly out of the wagon, grateful they're not prisoners ala Skyrim at least. "Well, this is a somewhat unusual happenstance for a role-playing session, though not entirely unexpected, one supposes, all things considered." She looks around the village, taking it all in, mentally testing the boundary between illusion and reality.

Belinda Gutierrez has posed:
Belinda sticks her out in retaliation to Joshua, eyes glittering with wicked mirth before-- true to form --she assails a wedge of the pizza, pausing only to roll it up into a proper New York pizza tube before ravenously devouring. No time for words; food to be eaten! She leans over the sheet before her, brow furrowed as she studies carefully, munching away with fervor. And grin, widening with a twinkle of merriment! "Better than that Virtual Reality thing I keep hearing about," she states with a cheerful grin. "..Temoni," she remarks to herself, half-aloud as she swallows with a quick splash of tea to follow.

Then the illusion, the story, the world!

"....Temoni Goromir," comes the rough, vaguely feminine reply from the cowled half-orc woman. Chainmail just visible beneath the homespun of her cloak, several long-handled weapons wrapped in a tarp along her leg, she absently runs calloused fingers across the neck of the mastiff beside her. His focus is firm and proper-- gnawing with savage gusto at a thick soup bone. As happy as his mistress is glowering!

"..it is somewhere to start," Temoni sighs, grimacing as she gives a last good rustle.

Joshua Foley has posed:
Turning to get a couple of pizza slices and an RC Cola, Joshua suddenly realizes that the snacks are gone. Nertz. And as the little halfling hopes out of the cart, he pulls his cloak around him dramatically. "And I am..." What awesome name did he pull from the name generator?

"Varial Noseblunt." He just ended up slapping together two skateboarding tricks and made them into a name. He immediatley looks around for the Wanted posters and not seeing a badly drawn version of him, finds relief.

"I need to get some height, huh, huh, hmmmm!" And then he springs, doing a little flip before landing on Temoni's back! And hup, hup, hup, he climbs upwards, before settling on the half-orc's shoulder. "Much better, and I'm no longer downwind!"

Patience Alperen has posed:
Patience Alperen sips at her cup of tea as Nettie begins the setting details. She hops up quickly to grab two deviled eggs. Because they fit her character. She gets back to her seat just before things begin to get interesting.

After eating the first egg half, she looks up and mmms to herself. Sadly her snacks and drink have disappeared. There is no in-wagon meal to be had. Disappointing.

The short-er of stature Tiefling female wears a cloak (though it is black on the inside and crimson on the outside, the reverse of that which she wore into the real shoppe) to keep her violet hued skin (and those horns) hidden in shadow.

Stepping from the wagon, Styx uses her walking staff to steady her descent.

Looking to the halfling and orc, the sound of her eyes rolling can be heard even if it isn't seen in the shadow of her cloak. It is a more in character reaction than anything her player would do to the others of the group.

Looking around, the Tiefling considers. "The tavern would be a good start" she offers quietly to the others. To agree or not.

Joshua Foley has posed:
"Everyone goes to the tavern!" Varial protests. "Is there an adventurers guild??" Someone has watched way too much fantasy anime and not enough tabletop gaming.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    TO THE TAVERN.

    The tavern and inn is almost exactly as they would invision a rustic tavern. There's several long tables with stools and benches for people to take up sitting and eating at. There's a stairway to go upstairs, adnd a long counter with all of the snacks set to one side. There is a sign that says 'WELCOME ADVENTURERS - Gifts of An'nett'

    Nettie wouldn't stop them from snacking during game, that's so mean.

    Be inkeeper behind the bar is washing glasses, and is a tall,s tocky fellow with a trim beard.

    "Hail, Adventurers." he states, and leans forward.

    "Are you the ones they sent from Sylkk? The situation with the kobolds is getting worse. They come into town at night now and are taking anything that isn't nailed down -- and some things that are! They took my boots last night!" he complains, looking to the assembled group.

    There is one more thing that unites the group... none are Human.

Greer Grant has posed:
Greer the elf does a quick inventory of her possessions, confirming they match what she remembers on her character sheet. "In a settlement of this level of development," she begins elfsplaining to Josh, "the local tavern is likely to be the nearest equivalent of an 'adventurers' guild,'" Only an elf can make air quotes that audible. She'll go along with the others into the tavern, and upon seeing the snacks makes directly for them. At the mention of the innkeeper's boots, she rises up on toetips a bit to try to see past the counter at his feet.

Belinda Gutierrez has posed:
Temoni growls warningly, casting Varial (...well, his legs) a sharp-eyed glare. "We bathed already!" she mutters darkly. "Spent at least a full mark crossing the river at the ferry, and you'd be cleaner too if ya hi'd followed me in when that rail burst!" She mutters as she rises, easily carrying the simple weight of the halfling, following elf and tiefling with a snarl. "...honestly, one bath a week is more'n enough," she mutters, grasping her satchel with its bundled weapons. She steps off the wagon with a groan, calling her mastiff to heel with a whistle. Stretching with a crick, she follows the Tiefling, settling back and to the right of Styx.

Unspoken bodyguard!

Patience Alperen has posed:
Patience Alperen as Styx nods. "It makes sense..." she agrees quietly. And so on toward the tavern and inn. She does cast a look around, particularly into the shadows, as they cross to the building. If anyone is in those shadows she wants to know..

Casting a look at the bickering Half -Ogre and -Ling.. Styx just sighs. ".. Shar give me strength.."

Oh look. She does still have the other deviled egg. Score!

Joshua Foley has posed:
"Pfft, we're in a starter village? Laaaame." Varial rolls his eyes before he looks at Greer and considers her. "Nice ears." And then Temoni speaks up. "It wasn't a co-ed bath and I wasn't about to do that!" another protest, before the Halfling hops down. "If kobolds are robbing this place, it really must be." The Halfling rubs his hands together in mischevious thought.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    The bartender points at Varial. "Is he part kobold?" he questions, and then looks around to the adventurers. "I'm going to assume you lot are the ones they sent from Sylkk. We don't get many... uh... non... humans around here." he states awkwardly, looking to the adventurers.

    "So you must have questions... spit 'em out. I'll answer what I can. Too bad Stor'min is no longer around. That was the cleric. She's been missing for days now."

Greer Grant has posed:
Tigriel eyes the innkeeper a bit at how he puts it about non-humans. She also resists the urge to comment about 'starter villages,' instead trying to ignore the bickering ones. "Would it pose a problem if he were? If so, should he prove to have a kobold part is there one part or another that, in particular, would be more objectionable?" It's said with a straight face, though if her tail were visible, it would give away her impishness. "I would surmise that it's to your benefit to have non-humans here, as any human-only efforts seem to have achieved insufficient progress. To whit, where and when have the kobolds been most recently seen?"

Joshua Foley has posed:
Varial shoots a look at the bartender and smiles. "I'm too pretty to be a kobold!" he responds, as the halfling goes to take a seat at a table. He's just holding a spot for the others as they ask their questions.

As he does so, he asks, "Hey, uhm, An'nett?" A small swallow, a curious expression on his face. "I want to do this. Can I?"

He jots down a note. << Contact my contacts, see if anyone has any idea why Stor'ming was kidnapped? >>

He flips the note upside down and waits.

He may be waiting for a while. Oooh. Slice of tavern pie. (Pizza!)

Belinda Gutierrez has posed:
Temoni stares at the bartedner with vague jaundice, eyes faintly narrowing briefly. Setting her pack down, she turns to cast the insides a quick glance-- sparing a swift moment to ensure the dog's rugged presence.

Naturally nearby; equally naturally, one corner of the soupbone still sticks from its mouth. No longer moving, it settles once again, gnawing with a rumble. Priorities.

"Rather go back to the City?" she asks Varial non-comittally, a twitch of tusked lips casting a nasty grin. Not that the half-orc seems to have many variations on 'nasty', 'mean', 'vicious', or 'ravenously eating' grins. She clams up, rumbling as she folds her arms before her, exhaling a forced, calming sigh.

Patience Alperen has posed:
Styx looks around as the others talk to (torment) the bar tender. At the mention of the cleric, her expression twitches just once.

"Have there been any incidents within your lovely.. little.. village?"

Moving over, she lifts her chin enough to let the bar tender glimpse the violet hue of her skin. Another non-human. What of it?

"There is a reasonbehind these events. Finding the common threads will be helpful." Not that she puts faith in the bar tender offering a lot of useful information.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    There is a tinkling of a bell and a warmth under Varial's hand. The note has changed <It will take three days to send and receive a reply.>

    An'nett is at least an attentive goddess.

    The abrtender looks mildly taken aback from all of this, and tries his best to retain some dignity and warmth. Innkeepers need a certain warmth to them after all.

    "Well, kobolds kind of just... steal things, mostly at night. We don't see them but our watch tries to chase them off when they do. It's just that there's so many of them. We think they moved into an old cave north of the town -- used to be a mine, but the vein dried up so now I guess it's theirs." he pauses to give a chuckle at his own stupid joke.

    "Some folks think Stor'min might have sent themselves off after the Candle that was stolen from the shrine, but the old girl can't handle a stiff breeze some days. No telling what the Kobolds did to her."

    He pauses.

    "Probably ate her."

Greer Grant has posed:
A flat look from Greer the elf at the innkeeper's 'joke.' If she's aware that it was supposed to be one, she's not reacting to it accordingly. A slow blink as he continues, talking about a candle having been stolen. "The kobolds took the candle?" she asks, with the least use of syllables to date. Hopefully there's no one named Hogger involved in all of this.

Joshua Foley has posed:
Glancing at the note, Varial winces a little and puts it away. He takes a bite of his pie and turns his attention to Temoni. "Not a matter of wanting to go back to the city." He closes his eyes, forcing himself to stay in character. Which is something he's not done so great at so far.

"Wouldn't want to lose the companionship of such wonderful friends. I'm just getting used to my first adventure. You see, I've never been here before and I'm a little out of my element."

A cleansing breath. "But you need'nt worry, I'll do my bit."

Another note. This one kept face down.

Belinda Gutierrez has posed:
Temoni's scathing glance returns to the barkeeper, any further words held in check behind a soft growl. Decidedly not exhibiting any warmth, the half-orc finally returns to her gazing survey, complete with a grunt before she moves from Varial's table, pausing briefly to intercept a platter of the tavern pie.

Lessons of life: eat where you can. Priorities!

"...anything?" she asks softly of the halfling when she returns, the interplay and banter on show for the villagers utterly gone. Focused now, she pushes the platter to the table's center, retrieving a slice of it for herself before digging in with a rumble. "..old mine, north of town," she adds after chewing thoughtfully, swallowing with a low cough. "Near the river. Fresh water. Good fish, if the old mine didn't wreck it. Can't believe for a second 'bolds would eat an old woman. Too stringy."