A young man, in his late teens, entered the basement. He flipped on the two switches next to the staircase and idly scanned the room: In the center, an oak table with chairs, the kind seen in so many dining rooms. A simple computer desk with a small moniter and phone in the far corner. Off to the side, a well-used pool table with a dust cover. A smaller coffee table on the other side. A bookcase alongside the far wall with a chess board and several books of varying sizes, among other oddities. The ceiling hung low, and two small lights positioned near the two side walls clearly illuminated everything. The walls were a slightly faded white, and the carpet blue.

The man had combed brown hair and a calm demeanor. He wore round glasses behind which his brown eyes seemed well accustomed to the well-lit basement. He wore a blue dress-shirt and khakis. He walked over to the bookcase and pulled out a thick binder simply marked "Scenarios", and a small box similarly labeled "Dice." The rest were used primarily for reference and wouldn't be used unless there was a need to. The man took them to one end of the table, sat down, and started leafing through the binder.

A while later, another man came down the stairs into the basement. He was wearing a t-shirt which proudly displayed "3vil l33t" in big black letters, and black jeans. He had a crew cut of his brown hair, and a pierced eyebrow with a simple ring with a green bead on it. He called to the only occupant, "Hey Scott!"

Scott closed the binder, "Hey Tony. You're early. How's life been?"

Tony shrugged, "Same ol', same ol'. I suppose I should be thankful, but it'd be nice to have a change of pace once in a while."

Scott motioned to the binder, "Well, that's why we have our little fantasies. Care for a game of pool while we wait for the rest of our merry band of adventurers?"

"Sure."

A break and several shots later, a young lady came down the steps. She had long blond hair, a dark green sweatshirt, and jeans. She glanced over at Scott and Tony, "Hey guys. I'm early, aren't I?"

Tony leaned on his cue stick while Scott lined up another shot. Tony waved, "Hey Kate. Yeah, you're early." Kate sat at the table and pulled a book out of her black purse.

A chapter or so later, a larger man lumbered down the stairs into the basement. His chubby face showed a wide grin, with spiky red hair topping his head. The t-shirt he wore bore a yellow frowning face, with X's for eyes and a bullet hole in its forehead, with the word "0verclocked" written in red and black.

Kate briefly glanced up from her reading, "Hey Adam."

Adam grinned again, "Hey Kate, Scott, Tony. So is everyone here?"

The phone next to the computer rang. Scott picked it up, "Hello? Hey Josh. No? S'okay. No, I wasn't going to start another campaign, not without... Mm-hmm. Right. See ya next week." Scott hung up the phone and addressed the other three, "Seems Josh can't make it today, but that isn't going to change our plans for right now." Scott sat down at the head of the table, "So is everyone ready to play?"

Tony, Adam, and Kate all took seats at the table. Scott pulled out two ten-sided dice from the box beside him and laid them on the table. One die had multiples of ten marked on it, indicating it was the tens digit of the two percentile dice. Tony picked them up, briefly shook them in his hand, and cast them onto the table. Scott glanced at the result, "37, eh? Alright..." He started leafing through his binder again, "37, 37, 37... Ah, here we go. Use new characters." Scott took out some blank forms and handed them to the three players.

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Three figures approached a wood door embedded into the side of a cliff. One, an elf wearing thin leather armor with daggers at his sides, quickly pulled out a lockpick and skillfully picked the lock on the door. His attempt to open the door failed, however, as the door was already unlocked before he went and locked it. One of his companions, a burly half-orc with chainmail and a large two-handed axe on his shoulder, simply kicked the door, which crumpled under the force. The third figure, a woman wearing a robe with dozens of pockets who wielded a quarterstaff, peered inside the doorway and started down the stairs in front of her as her companions followed.

The room at the bottom of the stairs was small, barely enough to hold the table in the center and the four goblins playing poker. The poker game was interrupted, however, when one of the players had his skull split open with an axe, and was spilling blood all over the table, ruining the cards. The other goblins would have leapt up and drew their swords to avenge the bloody cards, but one had been stabbed in the eye with a dagger and another knocked unconcious by a blast of magical energy. The remaining goblin sweatdropped, then ran down the hallway across from the adventurers.

The woman nudged her orc companion, "Hey Thokk," and pointed down the hallway, "Fetch." The half-orc then leapt over the table and sprinted down the hallway at amazing speeds, quickly catching up to the retreating goblin. The orc grabbed the goblin by the back of the neck and flung him back into the room, where he landed on the table, shattering it. Thokk jogged back to the room where his companions still were.

The half-orc grinned, "Thokk fetch goblin for pretty lady."

The woman fumed, "I told you! My name is Lyndia! And while I would normally appreciate you calling me pretty, you called HIM a pretty lady!" Indicating the very male elf, who was being highly amused.

Said elf in question chuckled, "You're right. I don't think he was in the right in calling either of us a lady. Especially you."

Lyndia glared at the elf, "Aramil..."

Thokk blinked, "Many big words. No can think. What Thokk do for Lindy?"

"Lyndia!"

Thokk blinked in confusion again, "Lindy?"

Lyndia sighed, "Just check the next room for more goblins."

"Okie-dokie." Thokk wandered off into the hallway, with Aramil and Lyndia trailing behind.

The goblins in the next room were much more competent than the previous ones: For one thing, they were actually wearing armor, even if it was just leather. Secondly, they noticed when the seven-foot tall orc with the very noisy chainmail entered, and stopped their own poker game.

Thokk swung his axe horizontally at the closest goblin, who fell down backwards, dodging the first swing, and rolled backwards to dodge the backswing. The other three goblins advanced on the party. One was intercepted by Aramil, who quickly slashed with his daggers, leaving minor wounds on the goblin. Lyndia swung her quarterstaff at another's head, making a large cracking sound, but doing little damage to either the staff or the goblin's thick skull. Lyndia leapt back into the hallway to dodge an attack and give her some room to cast a spell. Thokk had the time of his life, swinging wildly at the two goblins in front of him, both of which were trying to get in a hit with their broadswords.

Lyndia took a handful of fine sand out of one of the pouches in her robe, and cast it into the middle of the room. She quickly chanted the words, "ahdan dra tuwehk" and all four goblins immediately fell asleep. Aramil sheathed his daggers, and Thokk looked confused. Thokk turned toward Lyndia, who drew her thumb across her neck. Thokk got the signal and started lopping off the heads of the sleeping goblins.

Afterwards, Lyndia surveyed the orc's work, "Wow, they had a lot of blood."

Aramil whistled in appreciation, "Well, not anymore, no."

Lyndia turned towards Thokk, "Well, let's get going."

Thokk grinned and walked through the next door, leaving it in splinters. The other two just shrugged and followed.

In the following room, Aramil took a quick glance around and saw some very suspicious looking holes in the wall. An arrow shot out of the wall at Thokk, who just kept on walking as the arrow bounced off his armor onto the floor. Aramil called to him, "Hey, hold up there..." Aramil then proceeded to pull out some daggers from his cloak, and started jamming them in the holes of the clay walls.

*Thunk*
*Thunk*
*Thunk*
"Ow!"

"Ow?" Aramil removed the offending dagger and looked through the hole, spotting an orc clutching his eye. Not willing to let an oppourtunity like this pass by, he pulled out the small crossbow at his side, lined it up with the hole, and fired. There was a loud bang on the wood door as other goblins tried to break it down to get in. Thokk walked over to the door and pushed it with a finger, ripping the hinges off and causing the goblins on the other side to scatter.

Lyndia sighed, "Don't you know how to open a door?"

Thokk turned toward her, confused, "Huh? Door? Wha?"

"HEY!" Aramil retracted his dagger from the skull of a goblin who was trying to take advantage of the half-orc's plentiful confusion. Aramil pointed angrily through the door, "Look! Goblins!" Thokk looked at the doorway, then his eyes suddenly turned red. The half-orc let out a blood-curdling scream and threw himself into the mob of goblins in front of him, swinging his axe with seemingly no concern for his saftey. Lyndia and Aramil decided to stay out of it for now.

Less than a minute later, Thokk came out victorious, though injured and fatigued, "Woo, was fun..." he took a small vial from the pouch at his side, opened it, drank the contents, and sat against the wall in order to regain his breath. Immediately his wounds started to close. Aramil and Lyndia took a peek at the room behind the half-orc.

"So this is how people who bathe in the blood of their enemies get their start..."

"The goblin stuck to the wall, impaled on his own sword was a nice touch."

"Hey, they had some pikes! We could stick their heads on 'em!"

"Well, the heads that are still in one piece, anyway..."

"How about skinning them?"

"Not enough left of them to skin."

"True." Aramil picked up a stray head, "Alas, poor goblin. I knew him... Well, actually, I didn't. Oh well." Aramil dropped the head back onto the blood-soaked ground and turned towards the resting half-orc, "Hey, ready to go?"

"Okies." Thokk clambered onto his feet and started towards the door, picking up and chewing on a goblin's leg along the way.

"By Nerull's scythe, who would put a treasure chest in the middle of a hallway?" Lyndia indicated the offending chest.

Aramil frowned, "Apparently, these goblins would. But then, they don't know how to open a door, either."

Thokk looked interested, "Shinies?"

"Let's open it and find out. There don't seem to be any traps or locks..." Aramil opened the chest, "And there's five gold coins in here. Oh well, let's just take 'em and move on." Aramil picked up the coins and put them in his pouch. Thokk frowned before walking through the next door, leaving it also in splinters.

The last room, the goblin chief's, held the goblin chief and two of his guards. The two guards, battle axes in hand, immediately rushed towards the three as soon as they had entered. Aramil sidestepped the attack of one, but was hit by a ball of magical energy the chief had cast, causing him to stagger a little bit. Lyndia responded by casting her own magic missile at the chief, who fell backwards from the blow. Thokk, meanwhile, had managed to give the other guard some light wounds, but not much more.

The two guards aimed their attacks on Thokk, allowing Aramil to manuever behind his foe and stab him in the back. The guard, though hurt by the attack, swings his axe around in retaliation. Aramil took a nasty gash on his left arm, causing him to drop one of his daggers. Thokk took advantage as the guard had his back turned towards him to attack Aramil, and cleaved his opponent in two, following up to leave another minor wound on the other guard. The goblin chief got back up on his feet and began to cast another spell. Lyndia, after making several arcane gestures and chants, thrust her hand towards the chief as a ray of cold energy sprang forth and struck the chief, causing him to lose his concentration on whatever spell he was preparing.

Thokk had finished off the second guard while Aramil ran over to the chief and slashed at him with his daggers, but missed. Lyndia fired a second ray of cold at the chief, killing him.