Felix looked up from double-checking his new pugilist abilities to see a middle-aged white man with glasses and graying red hair. He had an easy smile and was wearing a bolo tie over a collared shirt with a tiny checkerboard print in white and pale blue.
“My name’s Woody,” he continued in his Texas drawl, “and yes, I’m a cowboy named Woody. We’re here to play an adventure we call ‘Why Do They Have to Be Snakes?’ in tribute to Indiana Jones. Everyone in the right place?”
Felix, Jo, and the three other players at the table nodded. Woody handed out index cards for everyone to jot down their character details and prop them up on the table so everyone could remember who was who. Felix liked that idea, especially after the game he’d played the day before where the characters hardly interacted at all. He flipped over his character sheet and added a bullet point to his growing list of GMing ideas.
“You are taking notes,” Jo whispered beside him. At his curious look, she explained, “Aida thought she saw you taking notes yesterday. She thought it was cute.”
“And what do you think?” he asked.
“I think it’s cute too.” She bumped his shoulder with hers, and Felix grinned. She glanced down at his shirt. “You’re just very cute today.”
Cute wasn’t exactly the sense he’d gotten from her earlier that morning. When he’d emerged from the bathroom in his new shirt—a gray tee with the words “World’s Okayest Fighter” and a d20 showing the number ten—Jo had looked at him like she was about to pounce. He hadn’t even had to flash his abs at her. Definitely worth the money.
“You too,” Felix said, pointing with his chin at her shirt, the one he’d bought. She’d tied it up by knotting the hem at her ribs, right under her left boob. She’d also left her jacket in the hotel room. It was warm out, but Felix wondered if she’d done it to show off more of her midriff. Either way, he wasn’t complaining. “I think I might win, though,” he continued.
Jo’s eyebrows went up. “It’s a competition?”
“Yes. And I have one more surprise.” He reached into his backpack.
“All right, ready to take up your calling?” Woody said with an eager smile.
“Let’s do it,” responded a middle-aged Black man. The index card in front of him read “Mzuzi, halfling artificer, level 4.”
Felix decided to wait for a better moment to show Jo his surprise as Woody launched into the story: A village had been attacked by winged snakes that left several people injured and poisoned. The adventurers were tasked with finding out where they were coming from and putting a stop to it. Grax, the strongest character, had his work cut out for him as they headed into the jungle. He hacked through the bush, rescued Mzuzi when he fell into a pit trap, and boosted their half-elf hunter, Poppy, into a tree so she could keep them from getting lost.
When they tracked down the nest of snakes, it was time for combat. They rolled for initiative, and as Woody set up the turn order, Felix pulled his new dice out of his backpack. Jo caught his movement and watched him. Next to the yellow dice she had given him, he placed a green set with orange numbers, then he tapped the polished nail of her ring finger. The orange d20 on green. Indi-Con’s colors.
Jo’s eyes shone with delight. “You win,” she whispered.
Poppy acted first in combat. The young white woman playing her rolled a d20 for an attack. She hit and rolled her damage, and then Woody turned to Jo.
“Veena, you’re up,” he said. “Poppy has injured one snake, but there are four more about to take wing out of the nest.”
“I got this!” Jo said in Veena’s girlish voice, then switched to her normal one. “I’m going to run over to the nest and cast Shockwave at the cluster of them.”
A few rolls and calculations later, their GM declared that the snakes were agile enough to dodge the full brunt of her spell. They were hurt, but still alive. And pissed.
“And unfortunately,” Woody said, “the snakes take their turns next. The four you attacked, Veena, are all going to slither into the air and strike you.”
“This is fine,” Jo said with a nervous laugh, already picking up her pencil to mark down the damage she was about to take. Three out of the four attacks landed, and Felix watched Veena’s health drop into the single digits.
Woody pointed to Felix. “Grax, you are up next. What are you going to do to save your party?”
“I’m going to go help Veena,” Felix said without hesitation. “Grax is her friend. He isn’t going to let her down.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jo smile.
“All right,” Woody prompted. “Tell me how you’re going to help her.”
“I would like to punch one of the snakes.” There’s a sentence I never thought I’d say. Felix rolled his new green d20 and mentally added his pugilist attack bonus. “Nineteen to hit?”
“That hits!”
He rolled a second attack, which also hit, and then rolled the damage for both attacks. Woody took over narrating with a rich description of Grax rushing up and slamming his fists into first one snake, and then another. The other players at the table cheered as he killed them both, sending a rush of satisfaction through Felix.
But that was nothing compared to the feeling that followed it.
Because as Woody moved on to the next turn, Jo leaned over and whispered in Veena’s voice, “Thanks, Grax. You’re very good with your hands.”
Heat pooled in Felix’s gut, spread lower, made him squirm. Jo giggled and leaned away. Felix followed her with his body. Two could play at that game.
“Oh, Veena,” he murmured. “You have no idea.”
Under the table, he placed his palm on Jo’s knee and slowly curled his fingers until they draped against her inner thigh. With the lightest touch, he glided them back and forth across her leggings. Now Jo was the one squirming.
“That’s six points of health back to you, Veena,” said the young Indian man playing Hulvin, an orc cleric.
Jo scrambled for her pencil. “Six? Thanks, Hulvin.”
It didn’t take long for the last couple of snakes to be defeated. Then, after some investigation, the group discovered the entrance to an underground hideout hidden beneath the nest. They wound through dark, dirty tunnels until they stumbled across a sect of dragon-worshiping cultists conducting some sort of unholy ritual. The cultists immediately attacked.
Jo sent Veena into the thick of the fighting again, and Felix sent Grax in after her.
“Stop doing that. You’re squishy,” he said playfully, then addressed Woody. “Grax is going to breathe fire on the cultists.”
“Hell yeah!” Poppy’s player cheered. “Dragon versus dragon.”
Woody and Felix both rolled their dice, and Grax’s fire took out two of the cultists, leaving three for them to deal with.
