We were playing a DnD session, lead by Mattiaz, in some sort of visualisation engine. I was a dragomborn Fighter/Wizard and kept forgetting to put on my headphones, so I didn't hear Mattiaz narrate anything but instead focused on the visual game. The first round we already faced about 20 enemies in our party of three.
Me and Craig had picked up a third player, some Eastern European girl that had convinced me (but not him) that she was quite capable and worthy for the podcast. Her English was great but Craig found her expression a bit lackluster and asked her to retake lines with a bit more gusto. I was embarrassed as I didn't think she was that bad, as we rode a carriage on our way to the session. Before that, I had gone into Craig's house, where he was having dinner with his parents, and got to take a look at his room and his recording set-up.
It all looked very small and temporary and I remember navigating on some sort of map in there, taking photos of at least his room. When I told him about it, he did ask why I had taken photos of the place.
I was going through my spellbook, feeling I was taking far too long time for the podcast listeners, and Mattiaz mentioned that I could cast a spell called erratic wisp, though he described it, with gestures, as being quite chaotic and just buzzing off between the enemies. It was my highest spell, though, so I tried to read its description, thinking it must at least do some damage. It was hard to read and after having gone back and forth in my spellbook, seeing that I could also summon a golem, I chose a spell called Golem Skin, to try and last as long as possible in the fight. It seemed to do something completely useless, like giving me extra vision, and neither Craig's nor the girl's characters did anything to put a scratch in the enemy population that now doubled.
I moved to protect them and we kept pushing each other away in this clumsy interface and the next round the enemy had tripled. They came through different portals, firing at us, and seemed to represent different universes, planes or Disney films. We were all down at 1 hp.
Then we were in a room high above the city, probably Baldur's Gate, jumping about and being silly. I was wondering if I should take some levels in Barbarian but maybe the rage would be useless and I didn't have enough hp. We got the quest to smash up the baddies in the town Square and I soared out the window like I was hanggliding, trying to activate some sort of ground smash down on the plaza. It didn't want to work but I still despatched the little black kittens that had gathered there.
I looked over my spells, as things were a bit more quiet, and I realised that I had a lot of slots and tried to diversify them. A lot of them were centered around druidry and I picked one called Spring's Dawn, which would clear the sky and let the sun rise. We were told that the people on the part of the square where I had killed the kittens would fall asleep come day and that our quest was to have them wake up confident by entering their dreams.
I announced proudly that my Spring's Dawn spell would indeed let the sun rise and everybody approved of me and my spells. I cast it, a gorgeous big fiery sun rose, and the creatures fell asleep. We went over to them and I got drawn into the dream. Mattiaz needed to end the session but wanted to give us a go at this quest.
I was in a game full of slot machines, people, casino-like games and prizes. Madness. A counter was ticking down for me and I needed to find out what would make the dreamer feel happy and confident. I went from machine to machine and kept winning grander and grander prizes as my avatar gained new outfits; shoes, sweets, clothes, accessories, et cetera.
Craig and Mattiaz were observing and thought I was doing great. I, however, felt like losing it all was just around the corner and there had to be some bigger meaning to the game and how this dreaming teenager would gain her confidence. I kept looking around as the timer kept going down, though anytime I won something new, which I did wherever I went, it went up by a little and I got a chance to explore more.
Deep into the game I found an entrance to something that wasn't a casino machine. Other players went there as well and as I entered, the timer froze. Apparently this is where you go once you've accumulated your stuff. First was a shoe area and I figured out that this was the birthday party of the most popular kid.
This is what we had to do; get all the right stuff, in order to impress and fit in at the party. Our shoes just didn't cut it, so I went back out again, trying to figure out what else we needed. I got new, awesome, big and booming shoes, some random wands, snacks and stuff we might be able to use.
Back at the party I now got past the shoe and snack area and it seemed the place in here was a bit shorter, you could spend all the time in the world outside, winning useless stuff, but all you really needed in order to proceed were the right things for the party. The third check was, of course, the gift for the birthday boy. He was a bit like Christian Frej and the people around him like other teenage boys from that time in my life. I felt insecure but was suddenly forced out of the avatar as the girl started asking herself. They approved of her style and things seemed to go well.
Until they didn't. I was standing on the side as they started to ridicule her gift. I couldn't to anything as her newly gained confidence started to slowly shrink again. I tried poking a silly extendable wand rod with something attached to it (it kind of looked like a sausage holder that one of my High Chaparral colleagues had) in the birthday boy's eyes, but I couldn't affect the dream so I just stepped aside. It turned out that was exactly what was needed. The girl, who had had enough, stormed up and beat him up herself.
She had gained her confidence and it turned out that the last bit was her own to do, not mine. I could only help her build it up, not put it into reality. My mission was accomplished.
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