Ko, Katsuki, Emiko, Rin, and the outer space aliens described in this story are from the Science Fantasy novel, They Left Magic in Their Wake, by Marilyn Peake. The magical bomb items are also from this novel.
Get They Left Magic in Their Wake here:
Marilyn Peake’s website:
On the first day of RinthCon 2324 in Room #5 at Dave’s D&D Cavern & Watering Hole, not much had happened. Well, not much in terms of the game, anyway. In real life, a woman dressed as a faerie had accidentally dropped magical items onto the table. And everyone had discovered they’d be playing a campaign with beings from all over the universe, several quite alien to themselves.
The dungeon master, Max, was human. Tall, muscular, spiky red hair, intense brown eyes, silver bar through his nose. He looked more like a bouncer than a dungeon master, but that was probably required for a job like this. Things were already heating up with the wilder attendees at the con. Yesterday, Max had been dressed as a werewolf. Today, his outfit was that of a swashbuckling pirate. An actual sword hung from his belt, sharp and sturdy enough to lop a head off if necessary.
The players in Room #5 had purchased tickets to participate in a campaign that would last all five days of the convention. While Max set up his materials behind a screen featuring a snow-covered mountain ringed in clouds with dragons flying overhead, the players unpacked their dice and character sheets, arranging things in front of them.
The sounds of orcs getting raucous at the bar filtered in through the open door. One of the aliens, bluish-green tubes bobbing up and down on his head, got up, closed the door, and mumbled to himself as he sat back down. The alien sitting next to him, an obvious friend, leaned over and grumbled, “Orcs…”
Max looked over at the pair. “Thank you, Quinlan. It’s a lot better with the door closed.” Studying his notes, he continued, “So, let’s pick up where we left off yesterday. A snowstorm is brewing, winds are howling, and it’s bitterly cold outside. Your group has discovered an opening to a cave in the side of a mountain. You’ve entered the cave, turned on your portable lamps and started exploring. Suddenly, there’s a sound far off in the distance, but definitely from inside the cave. There’s an echo from something banging around.” Max pounded his fist on the table several times.
Adelina jumped, then gave a nervous laugh.
“Katsuki, I’m going to address you as your character. Vola…Half-Orc Vola, give us a perception check. What can you tell us about the origin of that sound?”
Katsuki attempted a joke. “From inside the cave, or the table-pounding from inside this room that made us all jump?” No one laughed. She immediately regretted her choice. Her cheeks turned bright red with the heat of shame. She was too new in this group to be cracking jokes at the DM’s expense.
Max took it in stride. One thing he’d learned about serving as a DM at RinthCon was that players were going to say all kinds of things. Katsuki’s comment was just a silly joke, no problem. “Well, since you already know the origin of the sound in this room…” He slammed his fist on the table, more forcefully and louder than before, causing even a rough-looking warlock dressed as a ghoul to tense. “…we must be talking about the sound inside the cave.” He smiled, revealing a temporary silver cap that glittered in the overhead light.
Katsuki couldn’t tell if he was trying to be funny or menacing or just playing up his role as a tough dungeon master guide leading a group of characters lost in a strange cave on an alien planet.
Well, two could play at that game. Inhabiting her badass character of Vola—Half-Orc soldier, seven feet tall, weighing two hundred and fifty pounds, decorated with battle and ornamental scars—she psyched herself up for battle. Picking up a gray D20 streaked with purple, she tossed it on the table in front of her. “Fifteen!”
Max leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. “All right. That’s promising. What’s your wisdom modifier?”
Katsuki looked at her character sheet. “Nine.”
Leaning back in his chair and stretching, Max said, “Total of twenty-four. Very nice. OK, you have a rather clear idea of what made the sound. What is it?”
Katsuki looked up from under long dark bangs. Her voice quavered. “A monster. A vicious monster.”
“Perfect.” He turned to Adelina who’d ditched her sparkly faerie outfit from the previous day for that of a brooding vampire with black makeup around her eyes and fake blood dripping down her chin. “And what do you sense about this monster?”
Adelina grabbed some dice, rattling them around in her hands. “Persheption sheck?” Realizing she was lisping, she dropped the dice on the table, then struggled to remove her vampire teeth, smudging the fake blood on her chin.
The DM drummed his fingers on the table. “Yes. Perception check.”
Quickly choosing a D20, Adelina tossed it on the table. It hopped a few paces, then bounced into a mug of beer in front of a young guy dressed as a Yeti. Adelina froze, her eyes widening in horror.
The young man offered her a pained smile. “No problem.” Dunking his fingers in the cool glass of beer, he fished out the die and handed it back to her. “It’s a little wet.” It was dripping with beer.
Taking the slippery die from the Yeti’s hand, Adelina tried to say thank you but ended up coughing nervously before she could get the words out. Recovering, she simply muttered, “Umm. OK then.” She clutched the die with both hands, then dropped it directly in front of her. “Two.” Her lower lip quivered. She looked like she was about to cry.
The DM shuffled papers in front of him, then looked around the table, studying each player in turn. “All right. I wasn’t sure when I was going to start this, but now seems the perfect time.” He glanced briefly at Adelina. “When each of you filled out the form to get your ticket for this game, you knew it would be a special experience. All of you agreed to bring at least two magical items with you that could be used in gameplay. That moment has arrived. Place your magical items in front of you.”
Katsuki, Emiko, Rin and Ko looked at each other, then placed their backpacks on their laps and pulled out the special dice they’d brought with them. Each had one bright yellow sunspot bomb and one bright red blooddrop bomb, all glowing from within.
Adelina stared at the items, then glanced at the players who owned them with furrowed brows, glowering in a way that made her vampire outfit seem more than masquerade. Rooting around in her backpack, she retrieved two objects with the same round shape and miniscule size as the bombs, all of them smaller than the end of a child’s pinky: one glowing lime green, the other glowing with rainbow-colored swirls.
When everyone had placed their magical items in front of them, the game resumed, amplified by magic.
The supernatural bombs changed the effect of the normal dice in a myriad of ways. It was like playing three-dimensional chess on a Jenga tower.
By the end of the session, everyone was quite animated, hanging around to chat with their fellow players and get to know them better.
After the group from Japan finally left, Adelina followed, catching up with them in the winding underground tunnels. “Hey. That’s wild, quite a surprise actually, that we all have the same kinds of…what did you call them...bombs?”
Rin looked at the faerie turned vampire with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah. Bombs. They’re powerful. Using them to influence gameplay is a bit like dropping a bomb on the map, so that’s how they got their name where we come from. What do you call them?”
Adelina ignored the question. Her voice deepened, resonating with intensity. “They come from the land of the faeries, you know.”
Emiko laughed, then immediately stopped when Adelina narrowed her eyes and glared at her. If looks could kill. “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you were joking. I mean, you had those giant faerie wings yesterday. I thought you were pretending to be a faerie just now, sharing some imaginary faerie lore with us.”
“Come here…” Adelina motioned for them to follow. She led them around a bend to a private alcove dimly lit by a cracked chandelier.
Facing the group, she stared at them with a look of defiance, then dropped her backpack on the ground. Undoing a top button, she slid the black woolen cape she’d been wearing from her shoulders, not caring where it landed. Pulling her shirt over her head, she stood there wearing a second shirt, this one backless and made of purple silk.
The group shuffled, looking uncomfortable. What was happening? Why was this strange young woman stripping off her clothes? Should they intervene?
Adelina turned around. “Look.” Fluttering at the top of her back were two small, stunted wings. “I’m not who I appear to be. I’m half-human, half-faerie. I’m probably mostly human. I didn’t exactly win the gene pool lottery. I’m clumsy as all get-out and I can’t do a whole lot of magic. But I know how to use faerie-made objects and I know where to get more.”
The group from post-apocalyptic Earth were speechless. It was like someone had thrown a handful of bombs across the stage of their existence. Like they were navigating three-dimensional chess on a life-sized Jenga tower.
Adelina wrapped her cloak around her shoulders and fastened the button. “Want to go get a cup of coffee or something?”
Rin glanced at his friends. “Make that a stiff drink and we’re in.”
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