a new game

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((This is Jade))

Krista rolled, and they all watched the silvery die bounce across the table.
It was 3am, and the storm that had knocked the power out at 10 that evening showed no signs of letting up. Another flash of lightning lit up the room as thunder shook the dorm. Mitchell, the DM, grabbed a wine bottle that had been used as an impromptu candleholder as it threatened to bounce right off the table. His arm knocked over a half empty can of soda, and the fizzing brown liquid spread across the table, right in the path of Krista's favorite 20 sided die.
Her hand shot out to catch it before it was permanently gooed, knocking miniatures flying. She missed, and both the die and the tiny figure of the gnome came to rest in the spilled Dr Pepper.
"That's the 7th 20 you've rolled in a row!" complained the DM, whose army of undead was being burned to a crisp as Jade the Sorceress's arcane fire kept critting, round after round.
Krista was a grade-A nerd. She was overweight and dumpy, her face hidden behind stringy brown hair and great, thick glasses. She wore jeans and bulky sweaters that couldn't hide her figure, and was unable to look anyone in the eye. But every Saturday night, when the Dungeons and Dragons group met in Foster Hall's common room, she became Jade the Sorceress, sensual, powerful and confident.
She let out a whoop, and held up her hand for a high five, as she reached out for her d20. Daniel, who played the barbarian, smacked his hand into hers. At the same moment that his hand touched hers, and hers touched the die in the pool of spilled soda, there was another flash of lightning.

And Krista felt arcane power crackling at her fingertips as another brittle, dessicated mummy went up in flames. She was in the abandoned temple of Hradoth, taken over by the necromancer Foulface as the staging ground for his assault on the Peaceful Kingdom. Candles flickered on the altar, and she felt a cold stone floor under her bare feet. She whispered arcane words and pointed at another mummy that came crawling from the pit behind the altar, and it went up in flames.
She looked down at herself, but what she saw was not her. She was nude, except for a wisp of a silk skirt on a jeweled chain around her waist, and a gauzy shawl that was draped across her shoulders and left two perfect, round, firm breasts bare. She had a slender waist and full, round hips, and long, beautiful legs, just like Jade.
Somehow, it seemed, she had become her character.
There was a noise behind her, and she turned, the part of her that was Krista marvelling at how beautifully and easily this body moved, while the part of her that was Jade readied another spell to blast whatever might be coming from behind.
She held back at the last moment, seeing . . . .

The dim light of the makeshift candle reflected upon those coke-bottle glasses of Daniel’s. He watched in muted silence as Krista rolled the twenty-sided, listening it skitter and click across the table. Despite the lack of electricity the game had continued in all earnest; it wasn’t as if they had anything else to do!
It wasn’t until that thunderous flash of lightning did Daniel react, letting out a surprised gasp that was far from manly, his hands snatching up his own bottle of precious caffeinated drink without thought of anyone else. He watched as the can of Dr. Pepper was knocked over and before Krista could stop it her twenty rolled right in the collecting puddle of sticky sweet brown goo. Despite the commotion, her magic was not interrupted. The tiny white numbers, 20, seemed to shine on the dice; a bout of lewd laughter came past his dry lips as he jerked up in his chair and pointed at the dice as if confirming the roll.

“It still counts!” He said through his laughter, turning to the pudgy girl at his side with a wide grin. He was far from his healthy weight nor was hygiene obviously one of his primary concerns. His hair was long and brown, wild and uncombed along with a healthy growth of stubble upon his chin. He always wore jeans and slip-on shoes, as well as some type of T-shirt that had a game logo or “witty” comment in white letters; and of course he was never without his Doctor Who scarf (it was really comfortable, really).
“We totally rock!” He shouted, giving the table a fist bump before he set about for a riff of air-guitar. While he was horribly awkward, Daniel was able to lose himself in the game of Dungeons and Dragons, he became Rian the barbarian; strong, confident and charismatic. He did what he wanted, took what he wanted, killed what he wanted…
He raised his hand to meet Krista’s own in a resounding high-five just in time for another crash of thunder and flash of lightning.

Daniel felt his arms straining and tensing as he swung the massive sword and cleaved another shambling corpse in two, dust and sand scattering about in the wake of the wide arc of his blade. His body had never felt so alive, so full of vim and vigor! There was also that insatiable bloodlust that coursed through his veins, driving him onward. He moved forward, taking another step as he continued with the momentum of his swing, drawing the massive sword over his head and bringing it down upon the crown of another mummy. It wasn’t until he took a deep breath, taking in the musk of the abandoned temple of Hradoth that the realization dawned upon him. His thick boots scuffed against the ground as he moved, his gaze finally drifting down to himself. Yet he did not find the enlarged gut straining his black T-shirt, no; he found the powerfully cut, impressively built frame of Rian the Barbarian.

There was little covering those rippling muscles save a furred loincloth, a pair of thick boots, leather bracers, and his sword’s sheath strapped to his back. He faltered for a moment, one hand raising infront of his dumbfounded gaze. His hand slowly turned over as his gaze roamed over it and himself. It wasn’t until he heard movement behind him that those honed instincts took over. His large hands grasp the hilt of his sword and hefted it over his head as he turned upon the balls of his feet. He lunged forward with a battle cry, his broad muscles cording and tensing with his movements. Yet the barbarian faltered once more at what stood before him. He knew all too well who this beautiful woman was; how many nights had he pleased himself to the thoughts of Jade? He nearly stumbled and fell as he tried to stop himself, the tip of the blade hitting the ground to the far left of the Sorceress and sending a shower of sparks into the air.

“What the hell?” Rian spoke, finding not the familiar slightly off-kilter voice that was his but a low, deep rumbling voice all too fitting for the large barbarian frame.

Jade's eyes looked, but it was Krista that saw the huge, muscled mass of man that stood before her, a sword as long as she was held in a two-handed grip, ready to strike for a moment. Then it lowered, and the shock that she felt was mirrored in his eyes. This was Rian, Daniel's barbarian. She recognized the bracers, and the scars across the beautiful chest and arms that looked as if they'd been carved from stone. The part of her that was Jade remembered the fights where he got almost every scar, except the oldest, that he had never spoken of.

"What the hell?" Strange as it was, there was something of Daniel in the face, still. In the shocked expression, though not in the voice, a deep baritone that seemed to rumble low inside her. She forced herself to look away, but not before her nipples stood up from her perfect breasts. Any longer, and she'd have started literally drooling at the sight of that perfect male body so close to hers.

Krista might have been captivated with lust, but Jade was an experienced adventurer, down to the bone, and one didn't survive the things she had survive by letting herself get distracted. Her eyes, as green as her namesake, swept across the room, wisps of flame drifting off of her fingertips as she held another blast of flame at the ready. Nothing moved. With a thought, she opened her other sight. It was the difference between focusing on something close rather than far away, but instead of looking at something else, she was looking at the same things with a different kind of vision. In her vision, the room was dark, except for the enchanted bracers Rian wore that glowed a hot, bloody red and her own mystical jewelry that had a more fiery orange color. The altar, too, glowed, but it was the sickly yellow green of rotten meat.

"I think that's all of them for now," she said, her vision snapping back to normal. She took a breath before she turned back to Rian, but even prepared for the sight of his body, it still made her thighs tremble with a hot surge of desire. She had to take another breath before she spoke, but where Krista would have stammered and mumbled almost inaudibly, Jade's soft voice remained satiny smooth, and almost unconsciously alluring. "Stay away from the altar. It's got the necromancer's taint all over it."

Those dark, gleaming orbs of polished stone locked intently upon the form before him. The image of Daniel’s dreams, it was both intoxicating and yet oddly familiar. At least, familiar to Rian; he was more than accustomed to that tempting frame of exotic beauty and simmering power. It was an odd combination of emotions that coursed through that frame for those brief moments.

The barbarian felt his loins stirring at the very thought of Jade’s body; the fact flames licked at her fingertips threatening to burst forth at her command made her all the more alluring. Rian couldn’t deny he liked a woman that could gut a man without flinching, or in Jade’s case burn them to a crisp. He allowed the dark eyes to wander where they may, that skimpy attire doing nothing to shield any part of her frame from view.

It wasn’t until she spoke that Rian snapped from the adolescent daze that Daniel had induced upon the powerfully built barbarian. Within that moment he took control, offering a shake of his head sending the dark brown hair spilling about his broad shoulders. His strong jaw tensed as those dark eyes fell upon the altar. To his gaze, it was nothing but a large block of adorned stone; yet he did not have the gift of magic. To the sword totting barbarian it was a mystery and for the most part something not to be trusted. He grunted softly, pursing his lips before spitting at it, if only to remove the dust from his mouth.

“Hmph,” He grunted more than spoke, casting a sidelong glance to Jade. “What are we suppose to do now?”

The thought crossed Rian’s mind that he should have known exactly what to do and exactly what the aura was that surrounded this altar. It was an unconscious thought as Daniel resurfaced for but a moment; the boy could have easily rattled off exactly what was going on and how to thwart such. Yet to Rian, it was a ominous altar…and he awaited the brains of this operation on how to proceed.

Jade turned back to the altar and frowned. The trouble was that, while Jade was good at burning things up and manipulating unsuspecting males into puppets, dealing with corrupted altars and such was not really her field. If the cleric had been there, he'd have known what to do, but Jade was having a hard time keeping her focus on the task at hand. The part of her that was Krista kept stealing glances at the massive hunk standing next to her, and it was very hard for her to think.

Finally, Krista had to speak.

"Daniel?" she said. It was still Jade's honey-sweet voice, but there was the hesitance that was pure Krista. "Can you remember what we were supposed to do when we got here?"

The trouble was that it was hard to remember that world clearly. It was like a TV show that had been on when she was working on something else. They had made a plan, she was sure. She forced herself to think of it, but something else was worrying her. She looked at Rian. His face was calm and sure, always ready to handle whatever might come at them.

"We have to destroy it," she said, softly. "But ... where are the others?"

Rian stared at the altar stoically, digging the tip of his massive sword into the stone before him and resting his hands upon the pommel. It wasn't the barbarian's place to think, no, he simply killed.

It wasn't until that unfamiliar name was murmured by Jade that the barbarian once more took notice of his surroundings. Slowly he blinked, as if coming out of a daze. For some reason, he knew what to do, or at least he felt as if he should know what to do. Doubt came to that ruggedly handsome visage, which he shook as if trying to clear it.

"Something," He muttered lowly, casting a glance at Jade though he found his eyes lingering all too intently upon that lush, lurid frame. He licked his lips, feeling the familiar stirring within his loins. "Holy water...some of that vile chanting and hand waving..." Yes Daniel knew what to do, but it seemed Rian had a stronger grasp upon this body. He did not like to over think situations, already his fingers twitched upon his weapon, wanting nothing more than to heft it into the air and cleave that altar in two.

"We do seem to be missing the sneaky one," Rian commented lowly, his obsidian gaze drifting about as the realization it was just he and Jade slowly settled in.

Jade raised an eyebrow at the barbarian's observations. Aside from recounting exploits on the battlefield when he was halfway through a barrel of ale, she'd never heard him say more than a few words in a row. The priest had carried the holy water. And there had been a sneaky one. The one who had always been finding the way into things. She walked slowly around the room, and there, in the corner, was a dusty bottle. The only writing on the bottle was the mark of Hradoth, and she smiled.

"Holy water," she said, sauntering back to where the barbarian stood before the altar. With her mage vision, she studied the energies emanating from the altar, and then sprinkled a few drops on it. It was as if ordinary water had fallen on glowing embers. It sizzled and burned off, but there was a spot where the power had weakened, though temporarily.

"We can use this to disrupt the necromantic power," she said, thinking out loud. It was a habit that belonged to Krista, and she was startled by how different it sounded coming from Jade's soft, sensual lips. "But we'll need to break the altar itself, or it will be temporary at best."

She looked at the massive muscles of the man standing beside her and licked her lips, imagining what it would feel like to be held in those arms. The part of her that was Jade shook her head and seemed to take the reins.

"Do you think you're up to it?" she asked. "You might only have a few seconds."

To hear his own voice reverberating off the stone walls of this ancient temple felt strangely odd. Still Daniel was trying to to wrap his mind around these turn of events, how he ended up here and how he was now the character he had imagined in his mind so vividly. Yet to retain such a thought was stressful in itself, it was far easier to let the dominant, brutal personality of Rian the barbarian to simply take control.

With a snort those nostrils flared and the barbarian simply grunted. He offered a stout nod to Jade, before the muscles of his shoulders and biceps tensed and flexed. He lifted that impressive sword from the ground and over his head. Those dark, steely orbs narrowed upon the altar, seemingly radiating an intense hatred for the block of stone. His breathing slowly began to quicken, those broad and bulging muscles tensing and quivering with anticipation.

"Let's do this," He almost growled the words, such intensity, such focus upon that inanimate object. Rian gathered his thoughts, drawing the desire for that female frame and focusing it into his easily tapped anger; his rage...

She stared at him as he raised the massive weapon over his head. Had it just been Krista, she would have stared forever. The blade had to weigh almost as much as she did, and he lifted it like it was nothing. Jade was accustomed to Rian, though. She admired his strength and his physique, to be sure, but there wasn't much to Rian but muscle, and so it was Jade that opened the bottle, whispered a little prayer and poured the holy water over the altar.

She didn't need any mystical vision to see the effect that it had. The altar seemed to squirm like a living thing in agony, and strands of black energy whipped out blindly. A scream came echoing down from far away, and she knew that the necromancer had felt it. She leapt back, out of reach of the black lashes.

"NOW!" she shouted, though Rian knew what to do.

Rian let that rage build as he stared intently at the altar, focusing that anger into a tangible effect. His gaze narrowed as he heard the hiss, a scream resonating from far off. The altar moved and shifted as if it were alive, writhing in agony and lashing out with black tendrils at its assailant.

As Jade leapt back, Rian easily closed the distance between himself and the altar. That massive sword flashed as if its blade were caught in the mid-day sun before in a wide arc it was brought down over his head onto the altar proper. The contact caused the ground to shudder and crimson sparks to flicker and fly about. Rian felt the painful vibration rippling up through his arms, numbing them and trying to sap his strength. With a feral growl, the barbarian resisted, unrelenting hacking at the writhing altar with all the strength that impressive frame could muster. Another blow was delivered, this time a shower of red sparks exploding about the barbarian as his blade met the altar and cleaved it in two. Those snaking black tendrils of energy gaze a twitch before evaporating into nothingness, leaving behind only the faint smell of brimstone. An acrid smoke billowed from the altar itself, though Rian's blows had ensured whatever vile magic once corrupted it was gone for good.

The euphoric surge of the moment pulsated through Rian's veins, causing an almost giddy feeling within his breast. The barbarian was accustomed to such acts and deeds, but Daniel had yet to feel such a rush in his lifetime. For a moment the boy's enthusiasm took over and the barbarian glanced back at Jade with an expecting look.

"Did you see that?" He muttered lowly, his brows furrowing in confusion even as the words fell past his lips.