Delilah Gellar is one of the most popular girls in school. Beautiful, sarcastic, not overly mean, and even dates a top athlete. She even does well in many subjects, except for English. Nearly halfway through junior year, her parents hire a tutor, so...
"Well, this is a site I never expected to see. The infamous Delilah Gellar in my best buddy's room," Randy said with a giant smirk on his face. Ion and Delilah weren't sure how long he'd been standing there. He had a backpack around one shoulder. The two quickly stood up from the couch. "You didn't kidnap this poor girl, did you Ion?" "Oh my god, no!" Ion exclaimed, flipping Randy off. "Delilah needed a place to hang out, so I offered her one." "Relax, dude," chuckled Randy. "Guessing Wendy and your dad already made those jokes." "You know them so well," Ion sighed. "Um... Delilah, this is Randy Jennings." "Hi," Delilah waved shyly. "Pleasure," Randy replied enthusiastically. "Beaker here brings you up all the time." "Holy shit," Ion groaned. "Where's everyone else?" He was attempting to change the subject. "Gathering all the necessary shit from the trunk of my car," replied Randy. "They're probably gonna be as surprised by this as I am." "I can leave if this is gonna be a problem," Delilah said with a concerned look. "Relax," Randy retorted. "If anything, you'll just add to the fun." This remark gave Delilah a small smile.
The rest of Ion's friends soon followed down the stairs. All were surprised seeing Delilah there. "Ok, let's just get this out of the way," said Ion. "Delilah here was gonna be home alone tonight, so I offered her a chance to hang out here with us. I assume that's not an issue?" Nobody said anything. "Cool, glad to hear." He pointed and introduced each friend. "Mal Morrison. Benji Sanchez. Aldo Ricci." "Hey," each of them said. "Hi," Delilah replied. "Dude, we saw you kick Chaz Freeman in the balls," Mal smirked. "It was like poetry in fucking motion." "Oh... uh... thanks," Delilah chuckled. "Guess it's impossible not to bring that up. Especially when it happened not even a week ago..." "Let's try not to pester her too much about that," Ion groaned. "That's gotta be slightly embarrassing for her." "It's not a big deal," Delilah chuckled. "Apart from Bowen, I haven't gotten a lot of praise for that day. It feels fucking amazing!"
Ion and his group set up for the campaign, while Delilah picked out a book to read and sat on the couch. "Does she always dress like that when you tutor her?" Mal asked quietly with a smirk. "How the hell do you get shit done?" "Cool down there, Mal," chuckled Randy. "Like you guys didn't notice," Mal scoffed. Randy and Aldo blushed slightly. "I fucking knew it." "Seriously, enough with that," sighed Ion. "I don't want her feeling uncomfortable." "You're way too easy to fluster, dude," Mal chuckled. "Enough of this shit," Aldo chimed in. "I wanna start the campaign already!"
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Everyone took their positions at the table, with Ion at the end, acting as Dungeon Master like usual. "When we last left our intrepid band of misfit heroes, they had landed at the Sword Coast, one of the most dangerous regions in the continent of Faerûn," he began in a slightly serious tone. While Delilah had planned on just reading, she couldn't help take an interest in Ion's narration. "You will be facing many fearsome monsters and obstacles," he continued. "Shall ye go forth?" "I'm not afraid," Randy grinned. "I'll make those monsters my bitches!" Mal exclaimed. "Verily I shall go forth," Benji declared. "Sure," Aldo shrugged. "Very well," said Ion. "Prepare yourselves for a grand adventure!" The rest of the party cheered, Delilah was rather impressed by their enthusiasm.
An hour passed as the campaign went on. While Delilah spent much of her time reading, she would still find herself listening to the game. She'd never seen a D&D game in real life, she'd only seen people play in in stuff like Stranger Things. She'd heard other kids at school poke fun of it, and while she didn't see herself ever playing it, she could see the appeal. She and Ion would occasionally glance at each other, then immediately blush and look away. "As you wander through the caverns, you come across," Ion paused for dramatic effect, before pulling out a miniature. "A dreaded Umber Hulk!" "What the fuck!? Seriously!? No way! Shit!" various members of the party shouted. "Level 12!" Ion proclaimed. "Son of a bitch! Fuck! Cocksucker! Piece of shit!" they all shouted at this.
Delilah had a chuckle to herself as she looked up on her phone just what an Umber Hulk was.
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It was some kind of massive bug creature. She could see why anyone would wanna avoid it based on looks alone. She then looked up a description: An abominable horror from deep beneath the earth, an umber hulk burrows into cave complexes, dungeons, or Underdark settlements in search of food. Those lucky enough to survive an umber hulk attack often remember precious little of the incident, thanks to the umber hulk's mind-scrambling gaze. "That's some freaky shit," she said to herself.
"So, the question laid before you now is whether to run away, or risk trying to defeat it," Ion explained. The party got up to huddle a couple feet away from the table to decide. "So, what's everyone thinking?" Randy asked. "We bring down the massive boot on that bug bitch!" Mal exclaimed. "About what I expected from you," Randy smirked. "An Umber Hulk is no lightweight," Benji pointed out. "We've faced bigger monsters than that," Mal retorted. "Yeah, but not necessarily with those high stats," Aldo replied. "Given your individual stats, I think you guys have a chance," Delilah chimed in. The party turned to face her, all arching their brows. "You think so, outsider?" Mal asked.
Delilah looked nervous to continue sharing her thoughts, her eyes looking at their curious faces. When they landed on Ion, he had a look that said "go on, don't be afraid." She then closed her eyes, took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, reopening her eyes. "Two of you are at level 15, I think I overheard," she began. "While the others are around level 10 and 11, which leads to a fairly high combination. Doing a quick Google, I saw that to beat this Umber Hulk thing you need to either have a very high Charisma and proficiency in that saving throw, or keep your distance and attack it from range. Being in a cavern makes a long range attack difficult, but not impossible if three of you keep it distracted long enough for the one with a decent range attack that will either kill it or at least scare it off. I would say if you roll something around 17 to 20 you can kill it. The odds being around 19% in your favor. Which I know sounds low, but given your skill sets, I really think you have a chance."
The party huddled together to discuss. "What do y'all think?" Randy asked. "I feel like, after that little rant Lady Gellar gave, if we run now we look like chicken shits," Mal replied. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd rather not look like a chicken shit in front of such a fair maiden like that." "Wouldn't look very noble on our parts," agreed Aldo. "She seems really nice," said Benji. "I doubt she'd try to steer us wrong on purpose.
The party made their way back to the table, looking a bit confident in their decision. "So, what shall it be?" Ion asked with a smirk.
____ Notes: Another chapter completed! Been wanting to have Delilah interact with Ion's other friends for a while now. My knowledge of D&D is very limited, so I didn't attempt to go into a lot of detail of gameplay because I can't guarantee the accuracy. I mainly came up with this as a way to show off Ion being a storyteller and that Delilah is good at math. My math might also be off as it's not a strong subject for me. Hope it worked ok.
