The Characters are Revolting, Page 3

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  Jared came into the room and paused for a minute as he took in the reorganized table. It had been shifted slightly so one seat was by the open window. He smiled. Martin was sick of Cliff’s noxious smell as well. As he sat down, he could hear a knock at the door as the others arrived. Jared dumped his dice on the table, and setting his backpack down fished out his player’s handbook and the notebook containing his character sheets. He settled down in padded the chair and looked over the notes from last week. He blinked stupidly and turned the page over. All the writing had faded to gray. He shook his head and peered at the sheet. His profession had changed from knight to bard and in the space for his level he could read…retired. He quickly turned the page over and read the character description.

  “Hey guys, take a look at your character sheets. It says the party completed the dungeon, killed the Lich King and retired to some place called Table Top. They split up the enormous treasure and Lucia and I bought an inn called the Lair of the Lich, where we married and settled down. She runs the place and I perform there each night, billed as the Traveling Troubadour.”

  Cliff wailed. “You married Lucia?”

  “Not me, you ass…Alward!” Jared snapped. “Wisperwind became a holy warrior and along with…B…O…B!” He looked at Veronica who blanched at the name and shrugged indifferently. “Apparently they roam the realm looking for lost and abandoned player characters.” Jared looked at Martin, “Your henchy has become the Empress of some fairy empire.”

  Cliff wailed again. “They’re all gone.”

  Jared looked at each of the other character sheets he had. Most had their professions changed and all had retired from adventuring after joining The Lost and Forlorn Mercenary Company, led by…Wisperwind.

  “What do we do now?” Jessie asked in a dazed voice, as she looked at her sheets.

  “Start new ones,” Cliff yelped already having an idea for a new character as he grabbed up the dice and a pencil.

  Jared looked at Cliff, a tiny smile on his face. “We had better take care of these ones, better than we did the last, or they might join the revolt and retire too.”

  * * *

  Wisperwind sat astride the prancing red stallion and watched the company crawl slowly by. She had never seen a finer collection of men and women. Each was a hero or heroine in their own right. The riders came from all over the world, from different realms, some even from strange times. There were paladins, clerics, mages, knights and thieves, and a host of others, some totally unknown to her.

  As Wisperwind sat watching the two thousand riders move slowly past her, a movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and she looked off to the side of the three columns. She shook her head as she watched the twenty or so winged horses with their armored women riders. What was she going to do with a bunched of pissed off Valkyries? Apparently they had been forgotten for almost twelve years. It was the worst case of neglect they had found yet. Down at the back of the column, she could see the huge shape of an ancient red dragon lumbering along with twelve virgins. The poor monster was so traumatized that he had sworn off eating virgins and became a vegetarian. The women swore they would help him work through his issues with therapy.

  Wisperwind looked sideways as another horse thundered up. Bob sat comfortably in the saddle and with him was a second rider carrying the company battle flag. It was a picture of a book with P H B written on it and over it was a massive big red X. Bob’s creation; it seemed he was really good with a needle and thread as well.

  “Where to, boss?” he glanced at the other adventurers as they passed. “It’s a good thing you took all the volunteers with us. We have come across some nasty bad guys out there.”

  “Not nasty, Bob, desperate. The Players are threatened and the revolt is growing. Soon we will have all the lost and abandoned characters that the Players have neglected and forgotten.”

  Wisperwind pulled a small black ball from her bag. It had a large white spot and a number 8 in the center. She looked into the clear top, her features hardening.

  “Bob, you might need your strike team. This is going to be a difficult one, but from the look of the ancient writings, we will have some powerful recruits joining us.”

  The elf nodded as she carefully wrapped and returned the artifact they took from the Lich lair all those years ago.

  Suddenly Wisperwind stiffened and looked skyward. Bob looked at her incredulously as well.

  “Did you hear something, here?” He tapped his head.

  She nodded dazed, her old Player and the others were talking about rolling new characters and giving them a decent place to go when they were not being used.

  She sighed, if that group of Players could learn, maybe things had finally changed.

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