Ninjago Falls

Chapter 18

Sorry for not posting yesterday, it's officially summer break for me and my summer morning routine doesn't include turning on my tablet (where I'm posting from).

July 31st, 2012. 9:00 am. Dipper's POV

"Mabel!" I exclaim. "You'll never guess what I found at the store today!" I hold up a closed box.

"Dogs!" she guesses. "Dogs with hats!"

"No, it's my favorite fantasy-talking, level-counting, statistics and graph paper-involving game of all time: Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons! You wanna play it with me?" I pull it out of the box, showing her the cover.

"Well, I do like unicorns, and that hot elf looks promising." I roll my eyes. "How do you play?"

As I explain it to her, I see her losing interest. After I tell her we need graphs, she sighs.

"This is like Homework: The Game."

"Come on, Mabel, I need at least two people to play."

At that moment Soos walked in, but he left shortly afterwards for FCLORP. Some sort of roleplay thing. Then Grunkle Stan walks in, but he just makes fun of it.

"Laugh all you want. You guys just aren't smart enough to understand it," I sigh.

"Maybe, but you know who probably is?" Mabel asks. "Zane. He's a robot for crying out loud. Maybe Jay, too. He seems like a total nerd. And I think I remember Candy talking about how she wanted to get into role play games."

"Oh, yeah. Thanks Mabel!" I leave to go find the Bounty.

Time skip

Great Uncle Ford was on the Bounty, conveniently training with Candy, Zane, and Jay. I'm fairly certain Ford would want to play too. It seems right up his alley.

"Hey, Dipper!" Jay says. He points to the D, D, and More D box. "What's that?"

"Just a fun little board game I thought you'd might like to play." I show them the box, and Ford gasps.

"I- is that Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons? The most amazing board game ever created?"

"You- you've heard of it?"

"With pen and paper, shield and sword..."

"Our quest shall be our sweet reward!" I help him finish, then we laugh.

"That's my favorite game in the whole multiverse! I can't believe they still make it!"

Jay snapped his fingers. "Mind cluing us in at this wonderful looking game?"

As Ford and I explain the game to them, their eyes seem to light up.

"We're in," they say once we finish.

"Excellent, we can play in my lab." Ford suggests.

The ninja and Candy change out of their gis and follow us back to the Shack. They seem amazed by Ford's lab, which contains many things I'm sure they haven't seen before. There's a tarp over the window leading out to the Portal, but Ford has already opened the box before I can ask about it. I run to join them.

August 2nd, 2012. 6:00 pm. Ford's POV

Dipper, Jay, Zane, Candy, and I have been playing D, D, and More D for the past two days. The ninja don't seem to be concerned about missing training, and are some of the fastest learners I've ever met. Jay said that there had been a similar game in Ninjago, and I think I recall seeing it in my short time there; Towers, Trials and Tribulations.

We both agree D, D and More D is far better.

Our party has come remarkably far, and have entered a chamber. I move the die between my fingers expertly.

"Alright." I say. "You've entered the chamber. Princess Unatainabelle beckons you. But WAIT! IT'S A TRAP!"

The others gasp.

"An illusion cast by Probabilitor the Annoying."

"You know his weakness, right?" Dipper asks.

"Prime-statistical anomalies over 37 but not exceeding 51!" Jay states, earning a high five from Dipper.

"That is an extremely low chance." Zane states. "There are only three numbers that fall into that category, the probability of rolling any of those numbers is onl-"

The rest of us each roll 2 dice, the sum adding up to 43. Dipper and Jay cheer.

"You were saying?" I ask Zane. He shakes his head.

"In your face, you cardboard wizard!" Jay points at Probabilitor.

I pick the wizard up and look at him. "Hm. The old boy looks a bit different than he did back in my day."

"They change the art every few years," Candy says. "At least you have not seen the 1990's version, when they tried to make the game 'cooler'."

"Yeesh. Sounds like a good time to be stuck between dimensions."

The ninja nod.

"Great uncle Ford," Dipper starts, "I've been meaning to ask you: where were you before you came out of that machine, and what have you been doing down here? Are you working on something behind that curtain?" He points to the one obscuring the dismantled Portal from view. They all look at me expectantly.

I sigh. "It's best if you all stay away from that subject. Honestly, I'm not sure any of you could handle the real answer.

They all start to protest. I think fast.

"Ah-ah! But I can show you something I brought back with me." I reach into my pocket and grab a bag, emptying it on the floor. I pick up the plastic case and open it. "An infinity-sided die."

"Woah," Dipper said.

"That's so cool!" Jay exclaimed.

"And... impossible!" Zane pointed out.

"Then how do you explain it?" Candy retorts.

"It truly can't be explained," I say. "These things are outlawed in 9,000 dimensions. You wanna know why? Look at those symbols. Infinite sides means infinite outcomes. If I rolled it, anything could happen. Our faces could melt into jelly. The world could turn into an egg. Or you could just roll an eight. Who knows. That's why I have to keep it in this protective cheap plastic case. Now, back to the game! You've got Probabilitor on the ropes."