Herein, among other things, we write the continuance of Pyjama’s suspended “If I Were There”. https://storium.com/game/if-i-was-really-there/act-1/scene-1 is cannon.

LitRpg is a sub genre of fantasy that focuses on the ‘what if’ of players being pulled into their role playing game and the hijinks the ensue from the cognitive dissonance of a contemporary mind being trapped in a fantasy adventurer’s body and circumstance. It’s a Romp because while your humble narrator enjoy’s dipping into the gritty and tragic this narration is intended to be more about the fun that can be found and shared.

Toe Biting is akin to self contemplation exercise somewhat beneath that of navel gazing.

The Story So Far:

The opening scene had the Players (each having a name and a paragraph or two of back story) playing a fantasy role playing game on a virtual tabletop provider (e.g. Roll20) called FROST. Their characters (also with a name and a couple paragraphs of back story) were putting the finishing touches of a demon hunting campaign that had them chanting some arcane sounding nonsense to trap their imaginary foe. The Game Master, a shady digital presence that called himself Questor, insisted that the players chant the words together. Poof, the players wake up in their character’s heads in a forest glade far from anything familiar. They are not alone though.They only share the minds of their characters. Player and character both inhabit the same headspace and while there is no sense that this is a wrong or evil circumstance it was anything but comfortable.

Since then they have learned that hey were brought to this world to aid Questor in following them, in person. They are told that time works differently in the world of their characters. They have two weeks of game time before the night they were playing in the real world passes and their comatose bodies are discovered. In that time Questor hopes the Player’s will convince their character’s to follow his instructions, find a priest in a nearby town, and help him join them. If they manage this he promises to return the players home in time for their morning ablutions.

The second scene began with the party mostly recovered from the trauma of being forced to share a head space with a thoroughly alien if somehow complementary mind. They begin their trek to the nearby town and are met on the road by a patrol of light calvary returning from anti-orc action beyond the nearby frontier. One of the character’s is a half-orc and racist harassment, exacerbated by a twitchy crossbow trigger finger, quickly escalated into battle.

This first battle could be considered a comedy of errors for the players and characters if it wasn’t so startlingly bloody and traumatic. The characters are, you see, good at being murder hobos. The violent ends of what were storytelling delights to the Players prior to this battle are just one of the many uncomfortable realities of this new shared existence. In short the Characters made short and dramatic work of killing the patrol and the horses they road in on while the players wailed and gnashed their mental teeth at the horror of it.

In the third scene the Characters and their chastened Players leave the battle field on the road behind them. Before evening falls they find a roadhouse in which to shelter. While negotiating the price of bed and baths they learn that the patrol they met were not only beloved of the local people but expected. While word hadn’t yet gotten out that the patrol had met a bloody end the Landlady of the Roadhouse is obviously no fool.

The night at Bex’s roadhouse went masterfully. The bard spun a tale that entertained the mostly Guard clientele while simultaneously relieving the Toe Biters of any responsibility for the horse patrol’s massacre. The companions mingled, drank and even their injured member left his sick bed for a pint in the common room. If a few purses were lighter the next morn it was surely due to the many cups that were lifted or perhaps light fingers of the orphans’ Bex employed. It most certainly had nothing to do with a friendly wager between the Toe Biter’s rogues.

In the fourth scene we found our intrepid adventurers on the road again. Doubt assailed the companions as they entered the fringes of the Fey Wild. When a horse guard passed them on the road from Bex’s some of the darker minds began to plan an ambush for the next, just in case they bore news of the Toe Biter’s troubles with the horse guard the day before. Gentler and more honorable voices prevailed though and the Toe Biters chose not to willfully murder more Horse Guards. Night came and camp was made. The watch was set and thankfully nothing disturbed their rest.

The next morning they started their last leg on the road to Bellingford. The Ranger discovered that a set of orphan twins from Bex’s road house were stalking them. The twins asked the Ranger to keep their stalking a secret and she did, for a short time. Later that day the Toe Biter’s came upon a small clan of Dwarven folk on the road. They had the feel of refugees about them and they were beset by Fey brigands.

The Toe Biters rushed to the rescue and took the day. They dispatched the Fey and their summoned monstrosity but took heave casualties. Both the Rogues were badly wounded. The Elementalist was afflicted with a deep magical sleep. The Bloody Bard was killed. The stalking twins leapt into the fray as well. They aided the Rogues in battle and subterfuge but when the fighting was done the Ranger called them out and upbraided them publicly for following in their footsteps. Mindful of their past indiscretions the darker minds among the Toe Biters grew suspicious of the Twins and their stalking of the adventuring party.

The rogue with the lesser of the wounds conscripted the camp following twins into building travois for the Toe Biters who could not walk the rest of the way to Bellingsford. Flustered the Ranger goes ranging and finds the dry bed of the Bellings river. The body of the Bard is sent with the dwarves to the temples of the interior with hopes and promises of an attempt at resurrection. Battered and pulling the wounded on travois the Toe Biters continue on and make Bellingsford before night fall.

And the story continues…

Hosted by: Loup-de-Lou Valentine (Valloup)

Rotating narration

Completed 11/14/18. Scenes played: 7

License: Host License