“Tonight’s the Legendary,” David said.
Felix glanced between him and Jo. “What’s the Legendary?”
“All of the tables play the same adventure at the same time,” he explained, “with different objectives depending on character level. What happens at one table might impact another, and everyone wins or loses collectively. It’s completely bananas.”
That overwhelmed feeling rose up, and Felix’s stomach started to churn. “That sounds like the perfect time to check out the exhibit hall with Trey.”
Jo nudged him with her elbow. “You could watch for a little bit?” she suggested. “Any event with at least five tables can host a SWOP Legendary. If the library event grows enough, who knows?”
“Plus, Jo’s GMing for it,” David added. “She’s great at Legendaries.”
“Aw, thanks,” she said.
“I’ll come check it out,” Felix promised. Jo smiled up at him, and he steeled himself as the three of them entered the gaming hall.
“I’m going to stand up on the dragon’s back,” Max said, hopping up and straddling his chair. He opened his hand and slowly drove his palm forward as if pushing against a heavy weight. “I reach through its razor-sharp scales to the thick hide underneath. I say, ‘I’ve killed greater beings than you, Longfang. You’re nothing but an oversized bird.’ And as I touch it, I cast Bite of the Vampire at level ten.”
“Ten?!” Kim yelled.
“You better fuckin’ hit,” said Young.
Jo bounced in her seat and cried, “Get its ass!” God, how she’d missed this. She’d almost forgotten how much Max came alive as Lyric, his bard persona.
Still on his feet, Max picked up a d20. Then he set it back down and chose a different one. He exhaled. And rolled. The die traveled to the center of the table. Everyone, even Felix and Trey, even their GM Richard, leaned in.
“Yes!” Max crowed as the entire group cheered. “That’s a roll of eighteen, plus my spell bonus. Twenty-nine!”
“The dragon is hit!” cried Richard. “Roll your damage.” As Max picked up a massive handful of dice, the GM narrated, “The ancient creature writhes and twists, attempting to throw the bard off its back. It’s injured, badly, and it knows it.” The dice clattered onto the table in front of Max, and he began to add up the total. “You see Longfang look to the skies, about to make a break for it, hoping to live to fight another day.”
Heather muttered under her breath. “Don’t you dare, you mother—”
“But the bard’s spell strikes true,” Richard gestured at Max right as Max looked up from his dice.
Max’s grin was as luminous as the life-giving magic wielded by the strongest cleric. “Sixty-nine points of damage,” he said.
Everyone started talking at once.
“Nice!”
“Nice.”
“What, really? That’s hilarious.”
“Damn, son.”
“That’s got to be enough to kill it, right?”
“Shhh!”
Richard smiled and said, “Longfang, The Scourge of the North, The Wingèd Death, begins to screech. The Bite of the Vampire spell pierces its flesh, and its life force is drained before your eyes. Lyric, you feel the power of the dragon surge up your arm, transferring its health to you. You gain sixty-nine health.”
“Nice,” multiple people said.
Max nodded. “I now have seventy.”
“You were at one?” Aida cried.
“It’s fine,” he quipped.
“Longfang’s eyes go white and milky,” Richard said. “Its jaw goes slack, and its screech dies on the wind. The wings go limp, and it is falling. Its corpse is crashing to earth, with the bard on its back.”
“Teleport away!” Jo cried, unable to keep the laughter out of her voice.
“I’m out of spells!” Max shouted back.
“So am I,” said Young, their cleric and healer. “So don’t die.”
Richard rolled a handful of dice. “Lyric takes… thirty-eight points of damage from the fall.”
“I’m alive!” Max roared. The entire table applauded, and Jo’s cheers were the loudest of all.
Heather, though, was still in character as Rosalis, Lyric’s snarky cousin. “Every time I’m about to inherit your share of the family tavern, cuz, you ruin everything.”
“Hey,” Max shot back as Lyric, “if you hadn’t run away when the dragon came down on us, I wouldn’t have been alone to take all of its attacks. It was your fault I almost died in the first place.”
“I didn’t run away. I fell back to a more advantageous position,” Heather-as-Rosalis argued.
