Dungeons and Dragons

A note for those who don’t know about D&D:  In this game, there are many players who must decide the fate of the world. To save it, condemn it, or just stay out of the whole business is your choice. As players of D&D, people must have their character live, adventure, and misadventure through the different storylines created by the Dungeon Masters. With different skills, feats, classes, and races, this game can be for just about anybody. This game is about magic, combat, puzzles, riddles, and -most importantly- chance.  Almost every move is determined by the roll of a die (the higher the roll, the better chances of success.), and who knows?  Your character may even be the one to become ruler over the world….or its condemner… or your character will be the one that just wants to live in the world.  Only by playing can you truly find out. The dungeon is calling you...

A note for all readers: the encounters and quotes in this portion of the story may have been modified from the original account.
Story: Troll Trouble
    Three adventurers, a gnome wizard, a half-vampire rogue, and a human ranger, slowly trudge through the boggy ground and humid, smelly air of a swamp. Their weapons are at their sides. The rogue and the wizard suddenly stop dead in their tracks; they smelled something more foul and even more dangerous than the swamp itself: a troll was nearby. The ranger hadn’t noticed because she had pulled her hood over her mouth and nose to try and keep out the stench of the swamp.
    “Wait,” the rogue whispered harshly to her, getting her attention. “There’s a troll nearby.  We don’t know where it is, but it’s close.”  The ranger nodded back to them.
    “I’ll climb this tree and check if I can see it,” she said back, clambering up the closest tree.  She slowly scanned the surrounding swampland, but she didn’t notice anything.  She looked down at her waiting companions and was about to tell them that she didn’t see it, but then she did see it. It was standing right behind them.
    The troll hit the wizard, sending him flying through the air and landing several yards away in a pool of swamp muck.
    “There’s the troll!” the ranger yelled, jumping to the ground with her swords in her hands.
    “It’s a good thing you noticed that!” the gnome yelled at her, spitting some swamp grass out of his mouth. He got out of the mess, wiping off his muddy robes without success. The troll began approaching the short wizard, raising its fists for another blow. The rogue ran up behind it and swung his sword at it, and his weapon deflected harmlessly off its thick skin. The troll brought down its fists, barely missing the gnome. In return, the gnome sent a spell of fire that hit it in the chest, burning its flesh and making it reel back.
    Once the troll gained its footing again, it struck the gnome, knocking him against the tree and making him fall unconscious. The ranger was almost to the troll as the rogue attacked it for the second time, making a long cut on its back. In response, the troll turned around and knocked the wind out of its attacker. By this time, the ranger was by the troll, and she swung both of her swords, both of them impaling its skin.
    The half-vampire slowly got onto his feet again and feebly swung his sword only to be hit and knocked out against a tree.
    “Just great!” the ranger groaned. She saw that the troll was already turning towards her, its claws reaching out to her. She struck one of its hands with her sword, and she ducked as the other swept over her head. She struck one more time before the troll knocked her to the ground.  Before her vision blacked out, she saw the troll’s hand reach out and begin to drag her away.
    “No…” she said, falling unconscious.
                                                                                                                       *    *    *    *
    The three companions woke up in a dark cave, sore from their failed skirmish with the troll.  It was almost impossible to see.
    “How come we’re not dead?” the rogue asked, rubbing his bruised head.
    “We’re in the troll’s den,” the gnome said, pointing through the dark. At the mouth of the cave, the troll stood guard facing out towards the night’s sky. “He must think that we’re dead and is saving us for a later meal.”
    “Well, I’m not staying around to see how that turns out,” the ranger said. She slowly stood up and lifted her hands, calling on what little nature magic she knew to heal the other two.  The gnome quickly grabbed her hands, stopping the magic from happening.
    “If he saw you doing that,” he whispered, “it’ll kill us all for sure.”
    “Let’s use these,” the rogue said, pulling out three vials filled with red liquid.  “Minor healing potions.”  They each drank one potion vial each, recovering most of their strength, but not all of it.
    “Now how do we escape?” the ranger asked.  The rogue looked at the size of the cave, the wall to the troll’s right, and flung the vial in that direction.  When it shattered, the troll turned and took a couple steps towards the sound.  The rogue then got up and snuck around the left of the troll.  He was almost out when he kicked a pebble, alerting the troll.  It whirled around, grabbed him, and rammed him into the wall.
    “Oh…” the rogue moaned as every vertebrae in his body cracked.  The troll dropped him lifeless to the floor. He was dead. The ranger was shocked, but wasn’t ready to die as a troll’s snack. She took out a little surprise she had in her quiver: an alchemist’s fire arrow. It’s capable of doing some damage to the troll. She crept up close to the troll, but out of its reach. She began sawing the end off, planning to lob the explosive end down the troll’s gullet.
    She had almost finished cutting it when her hand slipped, hitting the tip and setting off the explosion  The fire hit the troll, the gnome, and herself. Although she was closest to the arrow, she only got slightly burned and barely harmed. The gnome, however, immediately caught fire. He ran around screaming, bumping into the troll and setting it on fire. As the troll tromped around trying to extinguish the flames, the ranger ran out of the cave, dragging the flaming gnome behind her. They barely escaped and fled into the swamp in search of better shelter.
                                                                                                          The End of this part of the story

                                          (You may see these characters later in other short excerpts, but it may not continue where it left off.)