The Lost (IC)

[Wiz]

Bill

Bill nods to Douglas, "And given the modifications about ressurection and such... your attitude makes perfect sense."

[Lochar]

Brandon

"I'm not saying don't use them, I'm just saying it's quite possibly better to allow for natural healing or one of us to heal if possible before just drinking a potion. Now granted, if Kate or I take Brew Potion eventually, it might get better, but a high caster level healing potion should be the method of last resort, not first."

Brandon shrugs. "Either way. I guess we'll figure out what we're going to do once we're actually playing. Who knows, the reason we're getting all this could also mean a really high magic environment, where the water fountains are actually cure minor wound fountains.

[Wiz]

Bill

Bill shrugs, "Or we could be in an extremely low magic environment and we need this stuff just to make it through because there are no other reliable sources." He frowns, "It's kind of pointless to second guess... but I still go with Doug, if you're in single digit hit points and the monster may not go down with your next blow, quaff away. Dying sounds like it's going to be really hard in this game."

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

The professor looks over Kate's sheet a second time. "No starting equipment means no starting equipment, Kate. I will, however, take your request into consideration when equipment becomes available." He passes the sheet back to Kate and says. "Well, then, shall we begin?" Seeing no objections, only eager faces he nods, and hunches down behind the briefcase, his voice echoing slightly off the hard back.

"Each of you start alone, going about your daily affairs. As night falls, you find a place to sleep, whether it be the comforts of your own bed, a wayside inn, or a bedroll in front of a warm fire." His voice starts to take on a lilting, almost hypnotic quality as he continues. "Your mind starts to drift, as you verge on sleep. That comfortable sort of sensation between feeling awake and drifting into unconsciousness when one's bed feels warm and soft, and the sounds of the world start to fade. You open your eyes in this dreamlike state, to see a well-lit tunnel ahead of you. Although you don't move from the comfort of your bed, the tunnel-- not just lit, but made of light-- drifts toward you, enveloping you in a warm, comforting glow. There's a flash of intensely bright light and--"

-- there's a soundless, blinding flash of light, and, instead of sitting around the table in the room in the library, you find yourself standing, in a cave, surrounded by ten strangers all dressed in white robes. The cave is dimly lit from one end, presumably the outside, and it illuminates a number of boxes stacked together in a corner the opposite direction.

(In case it wasn't obvious, the players are now in the bodies of the characters. Three are elves, and one a halfling. Feel free to react accordingly.)

[Lochar]

Brandon

Confused, Brandon looks around and then down at himself, noticing he is now wearing the same robes as the others in the room, and doesn't look the same as five minutes ago. "Okay, normally earthquakes tend to give tremors first before they dislodge ceiling tiles and drop them on my head..." He scratches his arm, not used to the feeling of whatever fabric on it is. "I wonder if I'm just unconscious, or in a coma now? Or dead, possibly, if the library was at ground zero. Although, I don't think this looks much like heaven or hell."

Spoiler

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It's so tempting to start making unconscious bardic knowledge checks now. :P

[McSherrie]

Kim, feeling a strange sense of vertigo, tries to stand steadily on much longer legs than she is used to. She looks around speechless in wonder at the rest of the group, not really noticing any changes in herself other than her height at this point.

There are, however, many changes. Her Asiatic coloration and facial structure has morphed into the Mediterranean flavor that she had chosen for Antiope. Anyone looking at her will notice that she is clearly more muscular than is standard and is missing her right breast. Even in the white robe, she is the perfect standard for an amazon.

[Wiz]

Diedre

A young, beautiful woman shakes her head and says, "Woah... that was... hey... what's wrong with my voice?" She raises her hands to her throat, then stops, staring at her hands. "What's going on... my hands!" Abruptly, with a horrified expression she grabs her chest, her hands grabbing hold of her ample bosom. "OH MY GOD!"

[Santanya]

The elf blinks his eyes a few times, almost sleepily. He looks about the cavern with a disbelieving look for a moment, then shakes his head. "You've always been good at describing things, I should have gotten something caffinated to drink obviously," he says reaching up and rubbing his eyes. The entire action felt somewhat wrong to him.

"Sorry for dozing there," he says as he drops his hands down oddly, like he expected them to land on something in front of him. The motion sends him stumbling forward a few steps before he catches himself, feet sliding in the dirt as he sets them solidly underneath him. He blinks and looks around to the other people again. "Um... yea... this is the part where I was supposed to wake up..."

[Alicorn]

Annika/Persis

"Aaaugh!" says Annika, flinging her miniature arms in front of her face in a belated attempt to shield her arms from the flash. She lowers them slowly, looking at her white sleeves in puzzlement. Then she notices everyone else. "Ack! Who are you people and why are you all so gigantic?"

[mdsoze]

Alastair

As he appears in the white robe, Douglas is puzzled for a moment.

What is going on? We were all in the library... gaming, a flash. Except you guys are here too and speculating about it. Which either means this is a really detailed hallucination, or something really weird is going on.

Alastair stands a few inches taller than Douglas, and is more muscular, but otherwise, they were cut largely from the same cloth. His eyes were now a bright green though, in comparison with the darker variation of hazel he sported. He does notice that Alastair's voice appears to be deeper than his own, and that his hands, calloused in he places that they would be from golfing almost every weekend, are thicker, and changed.

After a few moments of recollection, Alastair posits.

Okay... I don't know what's going on, but is everybody here? I have no idea what happened, or where we are, or if we are alive... but I have a strong feeling we're going to want to stick together. This is Douglas. Except I appear to have spiked my diet pepsi with anabolic steroids.

[wxdruid]

Gwen

Gwen starts, Why are we in a cave? Where'd the table go? Where's the Professor? and most important, Where'd my chocolate go? She looks down at herself, Why am I dressed in white? I was wearing black, I know I was wearing black. Her long hair swings around, she grabs it, Since when did my hair reach my feet? She picks up her feet to look at them, the cavern floor feels cool and comfortable against the hard soles of her feet and Gwen suddenly sits down with a thump. Things start to click in her mind, she feels her ears? Oh.. my.. goodness Hey! I have elf ears... and You! who are you? and you? Suddenly she points towards the others and the call lightning spell comes to the fore of her mind. Her hands go to her head and she turns away struggling to get a hold of her own mind. Somewhere inside she knows she doesn't want to cast that.

[Lochar]

Brandon

"Douglas? Damn it all. I'm Brandon. Alright, everyone, I don't care who you are. Names, now. Sound off." he shouts at everyone, a slight panic beginning in him. "Brandon Smith" he says in a firm voice, looking to himself more closely now, seeing he's lost a good deal of his college student weight and toned up quite a bit as well.

[dauphinous]

Hannah

Hannah's first, natural instinct is to rub her eyes. What she is seeing can't possibly be real. A woman's voice calling out cuts through her brain, though, and she realizes exactly what she's doing. She's rubbing her eyes with both hands. She pulls them away from her face slowly and looks at them. They are both perfectly normal, real, ordinary hands with lightly tanned skin. She turns them over, her face a study in wonder and awe. There are callouses on them, in places that she cannot imagine what they might be from.

She feels something brushing her neck and reaches up to grasp hair. Not the short, straight sandy-blonde of her own head, but a brown with a reddish undertone, and curls. And she can see that. It is long enough that she can hold a lock where she can see it.

When she looks down and it clicks that she's standing up on her own two legs, she collapses to the ground, almost like a puppet whose strings have been cut. And she starts to cry into her hands. Her perfect, whole, functioning hands.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

(Incidentally, noone is wearing anything but their robe-- no shoes, no jewelry, no hairties, no nothing.)

[Wiz]

Diedre

The brown-haired woman snaps her gaze over to Brandon, and she blinks. She abruptly releases her breasts and crosses her arms over them looking down. "Bill Downer..." her voice is nearly a whisper.

[wxdruid]

Gwen

A strangled whisper comes from her, Gwen, my name is Gwen Deschain. I will have control, I will, as she slowly shoves the spell down to the back of her mind.

[mdsoze]

Douglas

Hearing Bill's name come out in an obviously female voice shocks Doug.

Bill, you get kicked in the pills? Finally manage to get Kate's goat?

[Santanya]

Jason looks to the others, blinking a few more times. He smirks slightly towards the woman yelling. "I'm Jason," he says, shaking his head a few times to go along with the blinking. He runs his hand through his hair after seeing the others, his palm quickly moving to the tips of his ears. "Whoa," he says, feeling them for a moment. "Wow, this isn't a dream is it," he says quietly.

He moves slowly next to Hannah, his footsteps becoming quickly less shaky. "Are you alright?" he asks, laying a hand on her shoulder, then looks to the others. "What the hell is going on here?" he asks.

[McSherrie]

"I'm Kim." The voice sounds richer and throatier than Kim is used to. She runs her fingers through her short hair, then looks at her scarred hands.

[Alicorn]

Annika/Persis

"I-I'm Annika Treadwell. Oh my god, you're not giant, I'm just tiny..." says the halfling waveringly.

[Wiz]

Diedre

The former Bill looks at Douglas, her eyes flashing with anger, blue as a summer sky, "I've got no pills to get kicked in... thanks to Mr. Merlin!" She does a very poor version of Bill's usually very good mimicry of the Professor's voice, "'Sure you wouldn't rather play Maurice? It's your choice!' Like, he couldn't have said, 'For this campaign you might prefer to do a male version of this character... I'll let you know why later.' No, that would have been too much trouble!"

[wxdruid]

Gwen

Gwen remains facing away from the group, still on her hands and knees, her hair falling around her and hiding her face. She listens as she gains control of her circumstances. Lots of thoughts go through her mind, mostly about what exactly she put on her character sheet and what she seems to be now. I'm an elf, I have really long hair, I'm 5 foot 5 inches, two inches shorter with longer hair and longer ears. I can feel my spells, I can feel the cave floor beneath my hands, it's cool, I can almost feel a connection with it. I'm still me, still Gwen, yet I'm also my character.

[dauphinous]

Hannah

Unable to choke even a tiny noise out through the sobs, Hannah nods. She pulls her hands away from her face and shows them to the elf standing there, an insanely giddy smile on her face, and tears streaming down from both bright green eyes. She is lovely, as all of Hannah's characters are, but in a cold, remote sort of way. There is something in those eyes telegraphing that, despite the unbridled joy flashing in them now, they normally host very little light.

She holds the hands out and up, displaying them and ignoring everything around her except the elf, who she has no idea is Jason. "They work," she manages to say in a quiet, breathy, halting voice, brimming with shock and wonder and awe.

[Wiz]

Diedre

In the middle of her rant, the former Bill glances over at the woman on the ground, staring at her own hands. A flash of realization cross the blue-eyed woman's face and she kneels down abruptly by the crying figure, "Hannah? Oh my god, Hannah... you're okay!"

[TwoCents]

Kate/Emmerli

"Holy F------ C-----! Get down!" shouted the Marine, as she dove for cover. Kate had no idea what had just happened, but blinding flashes of light followed by complete disorientation equaled Bad Things Happening, and she reacted instinctively. It was only after she twisted to the side to get her back against the cave wall that she began to panic.

On the good side, nothing hurt; she had lived with chronic pain for so long that its absence made her feel lightheaded. On the other hand, her arms and legs were longer than she expected; in her enthusiastic dive for cover she smashed into the cave floor and scraped skin from several fingers of her right hand. Fingers she had not had thirty seconds ago. Fingers that were now bleeding. Pain was good; pain was real; this was real. No, no, this was another drug-induced hallucination. She was under anesthesia. Any minute now the surgeons would start. This much anesthesia was a Bad Thing. Thoughts ricocheted around her head as she looked at the robed figures, trying to decide if they were figments of her delusions or her mind's attempts to interpret the surgical team.

Like a beacon of normality, Kate heard the phrase, "sound off" and looked to see who had spoken. "Kate M. Jones, Staff Sergeant, USMC, 089-44-6312!," she barked, in reflex. "Situation nominal, no weapons available," she added.

She rolled to her feet, stumbling a little as she became used to the extra leg length, and stared at the others. "Oh, damn. Well, this is what I see," she added, pointing around the circle at each one in turn. "Female halfling, male elf, male elf, female human, male human, female human, male human, female human, male human, female elf, and I appear to be a female human. And except for one mammary gland, we seem to have all our body parts," she added gleefully thumbing her right hand at all and sundry.

"Hey, Hannah. Time to stand up. Don't know what happened, don't know when we'll wake up, but let's dance while we can," Kate walked over to Hannah and held out her hand to the girl. "Bill, I am more sorry than I can say, but I'll watch your back until you get used to the ovarian subset."

[McSherrie]

Kim/Antiope takes a deep, calming breath and looks around. Her heart goes out to Bill and Hannah, but she says and does nothing. She's always had a hard time dealing with her own emotions, and even more so with those of others. Her thought process slowly returns to normal. She mentally matches each face she now sees to the ones that she knew before, then begins to look around at the cave. Seeing the boxes, she proceeds over to them. "I wonder if these are for us."

[mdsoze]

Alastair

So... we're... our characters..... Really? Interesting. I wonder if that means there's some portal between our world and this one.

He ponders for a moment, scratches his head, leans against the cave wall, and then scratches his head again, a combination of understanding and raw shock.

Well.... I hate to be the first to suggest this, especially given the dramatic changes, but does anyone have any interest in looking around this cavern for the way back?

He pauses, and thinks for a moment.

I know the professor said rules may not be as written, but it looks like we're in our game. I suppose that means if we're looking for a passage, we should have the elves do it....

His voice trails off as he begins to contemplate the rules implications of the current predicament.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Kim's cursory inspection of the boxes reveals them to be about 3 feet on a side, hinged on the top, and padlocked. Attached prominently to one of the boxes is an envelope.

[Alicorn]

Annika/Persis

"Let's read this first," says Annika, scurrying up to the box with the envelope, "before we decide what to do next." She opens up the letter and reads it aloud.

[Loghren the Barbarian]

Peter

Finally snapping out of his self-imposed silence, Peter speaks up. He looks like an idealized version of himself - but his facial structure is more symmetrical, he wears no glasses, his beard fits his face perfectly and is not as scraggly as before. Additionally, his deep rich bass voice, while it projects loudly as it did before, sounds even richer and fuller than before. "You know, I had thought that a professor of mythology by the name of Merlin was nothing more than a mere coincidence. It would seem, however, that I was quite wrong.

Second, like most of you, I had originally imagined that this was some sort of dream, or hallucination, or the afterlife. However, I then realized that my mind would have neither remembered to include everyone nor would it have remembered who had made what characters. Which comes to only one conclusion:

This is real. Completely real. All of it. Every last bit. And that scares the hell out of me. Because we do not know what this reality means. We all know the rules of D&D - some better than others. But how those will actually play out, I do not know.

Also, I am now much more terrified of the professor's house rules. The wish and miracle spells are limited to replication of other spells. Which means we cannot simply wish or pray our way out of here. Also, raising of the dead and such are now much higher spells. Which means there are fewer people in this world that can cast it than there would be in any other D&D world. How many fewer, I do not know, as I don't know the amount of magic in the world. But, however much it is, the percentage is lower than it would be. Which means this: more than any other times in our lives - although perhaps equal to Kate's time in the Marines - and more than any other game of D&D - we need to watch out for each other. And, this time, there is no way to ask "how many hit points do you have left."

Unfortunately, I don't know what more to say. Although, as a side note, I don't know if I should call myself "Peter" or "Meredzul of the Golden Flame." While being a wizard named "Peter" seems to invoke no amount of fear, even I will have a hard time not laughing if people start calling me Meredzul.

And, yes, Kim - those very well may be for us. However, as this is D&D and things may be trapped, I would ask that whoever amongst us can search for traps do so. While it would be cruel to trap the first items laid before us, I really don't know who laid them there.

That being said - I'm really wishing the pizza had showed up BEFORE this happened, rather than afterward. I am quite hungry."

At the end of his rambling speech, Peter tries to grin to the others. Clearly, however, he is just as lost and confused as anyone else.

Spoiler

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Sorry - there were a number of postings in between my long monologue. Not sure where exactly this fits in, but the long winded rambling seemed appropriate for Peter.