Work Text:
“Very well then. Roll for initiation.”
Everyone at the table froze at Byleth’s words at the realization of how fucked they were dawned. Shez looked down at his failed roll, knowing that if anyone would be the one to accidentally trigger the session’s next encounter, it would be him. He thought his dexterity would keep him safe too…
“Shez!” Constance scolded from across him. “How could you do this to us?!”
“I told you not to reach for the gold. This is what you get for naming your character after yourself.” Arval quipped with an amused grin as Linhardt and Yuri began to roll their dice.
“I like my name,” he defended, rolling his own die and noting the number he got. “At least I didn’t pick a name like Epimenides.” Arval stuck their tongue out at that.
“As Shez tried to reach for the gold, their hand slips, causing a golden goblet to clang loudly to the floor, waking up the slumbering dragon that lays just beyond it. Upon seeing the group of adventurers, it hisses loudly, rising to its full height.” Byleth straightens in their chair and clears their throat. “‘How naive to think a pack of thieves and liars can get the best of me,’” They said in a deep voice. “‘I have killed for less. For your ignorance, you will never see the light of day again.’ Yuri, since you rolled highest in initiation, you may have Merle take the first action.”
As soon as Yuri’s rogue made the first attack, the dragon struck next, everyone chuckling as the tail of the best struck Shez’s ranger. “That…did more damage than I wanted it to.” He mumbled as he crossed his arms. “You didn’t use Frightful Presence? I thought that was something dragons could do.”
“Oh, it is.” Byleth responded, smiling slightly. “But I thought Shez needed to be punished first.” The table burst out in snickers as Shez only groaned. It was true that his rolls were notoriously poor. They only seemed to be good in the most mundane of situations. At least it brought some humor to their sessions. Even if his character got the beat down of the century, it was fun getting to laugh around the table with his friends.
“ Nox can heal you when it’s my turn, you should be fine.” Linhardt said. Being the only cleric, his healing abilities were in high demand. Shez still remembered when they were only three or four sessions in and almost needed to start from scratch because the whole party thought it would be a good idea to take on a private militia together. If it wasn’t for Nox, they would probably be all dead. Yuri and Constance’s characters could also heal, but Linhardt was the only one who preferred to do it to fighting.
“Do not waste your energy on him,” Constance waved her hand dismissively. “He needs to learn a lesson in consequences. Wait for me or Arval to get hurt, we would need it more.”
“Evangeline is a wizard - she literally doesn’t need help from anyone.” Shez pointed out.
“Epimenides does! I thought we were partners!”
“I’ll help you if you promise to pay for lunch.”
“Deal.”
The battle against the dragon went on for what felt like eternity. As the rounds went on and on, Shez became honed on what needed to be done. He prayed to the dice gods to give him good rolls and for once, they seemed to be on his side. Doing the math in his head, he realized that at most, they just needed a few more hits to beat this dragon. Though Nox, Merle, and Evangeline were out of spell slots and they were all worse for wear, Shez knew they could do it. If not, then he would never live it down.
“Shez, your turn.” Byleth informed him as soon as Arval’s turn ended.
Shez took a deep breath as all eyes rested on him and went through the rolls. With a 18 which hits, he could hear both Constance and Arval hoping for the best under their breath. Finally, Shez rolled the damage calculator and stared at the result. “I got a nat 20.” He stated, shocked. The table erupted in cheers and shouts as Byleth went to work figuring out if Shez’s blow would kill.
“A critical hit! Get whatever you want for lunch, it’s on me after this.” Arval cheered.
“Looks like that was the tipping point. Okay, as Shez sinks his blade into the dragon, it finally collapses, taking its last haggard breaths as it looks at each of you with a dulled fury. Finally, the beast stills, and you know your home is freed.” Byleth explains as they’re soon drowned out with cheers.
“Our undoer and our savior!” Constance clapped as Arval laughed along.
“And look at that, I only had to give up one turn to healing someone this battle. I’d say that’s not too bad,” Yuri said.
“Definitely an improvement.” Linhardt agreed.
“I’ll end the session here for now. We can come back next week when everyone’s free to do a briefing on what happens in the aftermath of the dragon’s death.” Byleth suggested as they began to shut their books down. Shez nodded along in agreement. He really just wanted to revel in his victory for a while, at least while he had his late lunch with Arval.
As they all parted ways, Arval slung their arm over Shez’s shoulder. “So? What does the gallant hero want for lunch? Or dinner. Early dinner.”
“I was kinda thinking about ramen. Should fill us up for the rest of the day.”
“Yeah. I could go for some ramen.”
Shez was glad he could finally find a good group to mess around with. There wasn’t anything more entertaining than a great dnd session with them. He would need to text Byleth later to thank them for putting on such a great campaign. And Arval for continuing to buy him lunch afterwards.