Page 43 of Cosplay & Consequences

Crayden sighed. “I put Cricket on my shoulders and carry her through the bog Master-Blaster style.”

“Yay! I put my spurs into Crayden to make him go faster!” Cricket cried out.

“You have one boot and have never ridden a horse in this entire campaign! How can you have spurs?” Crayden complained.

“I’ll allow it,” Brayonna announced to the laughter of the crowd and Cricket’s glee.

“Oh, so it’s going to be one of those episodes,” Crayden groaned.

“Shut it, Dough Boy,” Bray said and then launched back into the narrative. “As you settle into a long rest-”

“That was a joke!” Grover complained.

“Too late! We’re in too deep!” Pippin laughed.

Bray continued not dropping a beat. “From the depths of the dark night you hear the sound of a struggle-”

“I unroll my blanket and go to sleep,” Cricket said, getting a laugh from the crowd.

“I pick up Cricket and put her on my shoulders, so we can investigate,” Crayden declared.

Cricket wasted no time and threw her arms into the air. “Spurs!”

“Damn it!” Crayden groaned.

“As you creep forward into the bog, you eventually find the source of the racket that sucked you into my plot… which was in no way railroading on my part,” Bray continued with some light laughter from the crowd. “In front of you is the Hag of Deneeb. The holder of the MacGuffin I just forgot the name of.”

“Orb of Mekalia,” Crayden provided.

“Thank you. In front of her you see a wee halfling man with his rapier drawn, and they are doing battle.”

“Hail and well met, halfling male!” Grover shouted. “Are you in need of assistance?”

Bray smiled and stood up. “And now I would like to welcome my surprise celebrity guests for the evening. And I say ‘surprise’ because they didn’t even know they would be my guests!”

Watching the show and seeing my friends interact with each other, I had forgotten about the set-up Bray had done. I thought she was trying to set us up on another date, but now… goosebumps appeared on my arms. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” I muttered to Daniel.

“So do I,” he whispered back, eyeing everyone on the stage suspiciously. On cue, a spotlight hit our faces, making us wince from the bright light.

“You’ve seen them verbally spar earlier this week and now you get to see them fictionally fight! Everyone welcome our Queen of the Valley, Jessica Richards, and the next Tyrst’an of Glen Orrin, Daniel Finnegan!”

We both forced a smile as the crowd erupted into cheers.

“Well, I suppose it would be embarrassing to say no,” Daniel said, standing up and offering me his arm.

“Are you sure about this? You don’t know how to play,” I asked as I took his arm and made our way to the stage.

“I’ve watched enough. I think I can figure it out,” Daniel shrugged. “I know how to improvise if need be.”

We got to the stage, and I waved as Daniel gave a small flourish and bowed. Chairs appeared at other sides of the tables and Bray ran over to give us character sheets and microphones. “Now, Daniel, you will be playing a halfling bard, and Jess, you will be acting as our BBEG for the evening.”

The crowd let out a long “Ohhhhhhh!” in appreciation of the twist.

I groaned. Of course, she would put us at odds with each other. I checked my character sheet and saw that I had been cast as an evil hag with homebrewed abilities. Bray obviously wanted me to have fun and tailored the character to fit my role-playing style.

“What’s a BBEG?” Daniel asked.

“Oh, you sweet child of summer,” Bray said, shaking her head in amusement. “Big Bad Evil Guy. Or Gal in this case. I forgot you were an RPG virgin. Think you can handle it?”