butterflyslinky | The King of the Circlet Part Two (Reply)

Title: The King of the Circlet: The Company of the Circlet

Author: butterflyslinky

Characters: Justin, Behn, Brianna, Conner, Eric

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 3444

Warning(s): Canon character death in the game-universe, mostly written in script format

Summary: Justin decides to go back to basics, Eddard Stark gets a second chance, and Brianna is done being the smart one.

Notes: Basically the second half of Fellowship of the Ring as a tabletop game. I know it’s obvious, but I was running up on deadline. Also, the character sheets and rolls were written based on the Pathfinder system because that’s what I’m most familiar with. In Screen Crasher’s continuity, takes place somewhere between “The Goonies” and “Game of Thrones Season Two.”

BRIANNA: Thank you!

CONNER: Ugh. Bet it smells bad.

BRIANNA: Hey, we got to meet your people, now it’s time to see mine! And dwarves have way better hospitality than elves!

JUSTIN: You find the entrance of the mine. It’s a large stone door right next to a lake. The wizard reads an inscription over the door, which says “speak friend and enter.”

CONNER: Hey, Brianna, why don’t you use your dwarf powers to figure out how to go in?

BRIANNA: Can I do that?

JUSTIN: What languages do you have?

BRIANNA: Uh…Common and Dwarvish.

JUSTIN: No, you can’t do that. Anyone else?

BEHN: I give Merry and Pippin some rocks to throw.

JUSTIN: Everyone roll perception.

*Dice roll*

ERIC: Oh yeah! Nat twenty!

JUSTIN: You hear something in the water that isn’t the rocks.

ERIC: Hey! Do not disturb the water.

*Silence*

JUSTIN: Do any of you try to get through the door?

CONNER: This is a dwarf settlement. I don’t know how to get in. Thought that’s why we have a wizard.

ERIC: Yeah, I don’t know shit about dwarves.

BEHN: I sit with Merry and Pippin. They’re cool.

JUSTIN: All right… *rolls dice* Frodo figures out how to open the door. You all step inside.

BRIANNA: Oh yeah! Dwarf settlement!

JUSTIN:…only to find hundreds of skeletons of dead dwarves.

*beat*

ERIC: I say we leave.

CONNER: I agree. I run.

JUSTIN: *rolls dice* As you attempt to run out of the mine, a tentacle grabs Frodo.

BEHN: SERIOUSLY?!?!

JUSTIN: Roll initiative!

*Dice rolls, followed by a long series of combat throws*

JUSTIN: You manage to all get free and the wizard tells you all the go into the mine.

ERIC: Fine, we all run in.

JUSTIN: As you run in, a giant skeletal kraken comes out of the lake and collapses the entrance. You now have no choice but to go through the entire mine. *rolls dice* And Gandalf doesn’t know where you are.

BRIANNA: Of fucking course he doesn’t.

JUSTIN: You walk through the mine for three days. Just as you see daylight, Brianna, you spot a room that has an inscription over it.

BRIANNA: I run inside!

JUSTIN: Inside, you find the skeletons of all your kin, with goblin arrows still sticking out of them, and the tomb of your cousin Balin. You’re very distraught over this.

BRIANNA: Oh, fuck you!

JUSTIN: Gandalf picks up a book and tells you that the dwarves were all trapped. *rolls dice* Then Pippin knocks a skeleton into a well, alerting the goblins of your presence. Roll initiative!

ERIC: Already?

BEHN: I also roll perception to figure out what’s coming! *rolls* Nineteen!

JUSTIN: You hear several dozen goblins and a cave troll.

BEHN:…they’ve got a cave troll.

JUSTIN: Prepare for combat!

*Another series of combat rolls occurs.*

JUSTIN: You all live and kill the troll, but Frodo gets knocked down. *rolls dice* Don’t worry, he’s fine because he’s wearing super-awesome armor.

BRIANNA: Huh…can I get some of that?

JUSTIN: It’s made from an extremely rare mineral and the only shirt of it you have is too small for anyone but a Hobbit.

BRIANNA: Where’d he even get that, anyway?

JUSTIN: From his eccentric uncle, who got it as a gift from another one of your distant cousins who was a king.

BRIANNA: Why didn’t he give me one?!?!

JUSTIN: He’s also dead.

BRIANNA: WHY ARE ALL MY RELATIVES DEAD?!?!

ERIC: Hey, we’re kind of still in a really dangerous mine?

JUSTIN: Oh, right…the wizard tells you to run. *rolls dice* You make it to another room but are then surrounded by thousands of goblins.

CONNER: Well, this sucks.

BEHN: Can we have a miracle?

JUSTIN: Sure. *rolls dice* Huh. *beat* There’s a sudden loud rumbling noise. All the goblins look around in fear.

BRIANNA: I don’t like this.

JUSTIN: The noise comes again and the goblins all run off.

CONNER: I really don’t like this.

JUSTIN: *rolls dice* Gandalf tells you it’s a balrog.

CONNER: CRAP!

BEHN: RUN!

JUSTIN: You all run, but the bridge you need to cross is broken! Roll to jump!

*Dice roll*

CONNER: Nat twenty!

BEHN: I take Merry and Pippin with me!

JUSTIN: You’ll take a penalty.

BEHN: I can’t leave them to die! *rolls dice*

JUSTIN: You make it across, but more of the bridge crumbles.

ERIC: I throw one of the other two Hobbits over!

JUSTIN: Frodo or Sam?

ERIC: Um…Sam! Wait, no…!

JUSTIN: Too late! *rolls dice* A rock falls and smashes the bridge behind you. You are now standing on very unstable ledge. Roll acrobatics.

ERIC: *rolls dice* Sixteen?

JUSTIN: You manage to get the ledge to fall forward into the other side. All of you have made it across and are now on the last bridge. *rolls dice* Just as you get to the other side, the balrog shows up.

BRIANNA: I vote we let Gandalf deal with this one.

CONNER: Yeah, seems legit.

JUSTIN: You guys aren’t even going to try to help?

CONNER: It’s a fucking balrog. It would be a total party kill!

JUSTIN: Okay…as you run away, you hear the wizard fall to his death.

ERIC: Do we get out?

JUSTIN: Yes, you get out, but the Hobbits are all really distraught about the wizard.

ERIC: Too bad. We’ve gotta keep moving before the goblins catch up.

BEHN: Dude!

ERIC: Move it!

JUSTIN: You all run and get to the forest, which is another elf kingdom.

CONNER: Oh yeah! Civilization!...wait, are they dead, too?

JUSTIN: No. In fact, you are almost immediately captured by the guards, who take you to see their queen. Everyone roll a will save!

*Dice rolls*

BRIANNA: Crap.

JUSTIN: Brianna. You are entranced by the elf queen’s beauty and now think she is the hottest thing on the planet. The rest of you are fine. She asks you what happened to the wizard.

CONNER: Um…balrog.

JUSTIN:…that’s a shame. She offers you food and rest and the next morning, she gives you boats and each of you get a gift. Conner, you get a new bow…here are the stats on that. Eric, you get a knife from Galadriel’s husband, but she can’t think of anything to give you since you’ve already banged the elf king’s daughter…who’s also her granddaughter.

ERIC: And she’s not mad?

JUSTIN: Nah, she’s cool with it…here are the stats on the knife. Behn, you’re given a solid gold belt. Brianna…she doesn’t know what to give you.

BRIANNA: I ask for one of her hairs.

*beat*

CONNER: That’s kind of creepy.

BRIANNA: But I’m smitten! This chick is dynamite!

JUSTIN: What would you do with it?

BRIANNA: I don’t know, turn it into jewelry.

JUSTIN: *rolls dice* She thinks you’re cute and gives you three.

BRIANNA: Boom!

JUSTIN: All of you also get cloaks that add a plus ten to your stealth checks.

ERIC: Awesome. We leave in the boats.

*Dice roll*

JUSTIN: Nothing happens the first day.

BEHN: Seriously, Eric, who made you the leader?

ERIC: I’m the king!

BEHN: So why aren’t you ruling your country?

ERIC: Because…destiny and stuff.

BEHN: It’s because you don’t care, isn’t it? You just want to be able to say you’re king and not take responsibility.

ERIC: I don’t see you complaining that you get to be the acting king!

BEHN: My dad’s the acting king and he’s better at it than you!

ERIC: You’re just trying to get me to lead the ring into your city!

BEHN: SO WHAT IF I AM? I’m sick of always trying to play the hero! I’m tired of being the good guy! Maybe I want to do the selfish thing for once!

ERIC: We’re not going to your city.

BEHN: Fuck you.

ERIC: Fuck you!

JUSTIN: ANYWAY, you get downstream and make camp.

BEHN: I go to get some firewood. And I don’t tell anyone where I am.

BRIANNA: Can I see the map again?

JUSTIN: Sure.

*BRIANNA looks over the map*

BRIANNA: Oh, great. Just this huge forest, then some wastelands, then a swamp, then more fucking wastelands!

ERIC: Yeah…that’s where we’re going all right.

JUSTIN: Perception rolls, Brianna, Conner, Eric.

*Dice rolls*

JUSTIN: Eric, you notice that both Behn and Frodo are missing.

ERIC: I go to find them.

JUSTIN: All right…Behn! You come across Frodo out in the forest.

BEHN: I tell him he shouldn’t be alone.

JUSTIN: Roll a will save.

BEHN: *rolls dice* DAMMIT!

JUSTIN: Oh…you feel the pull of the ring stronger than ever. And there’s not Aragorn here to stop you.

BEHN: I ask Frodo for the ring.

JUSTIN: *rolls dice* He refuses and tells you you’re unwell.

BEHN: It should be mine! I try to tackle Frodo. *rolls dice* OH COME ON!

JUSTIN: You fail to catch the Hobbit. *rolls dice* He puts on the ring and disappears.

BEHN: *rolls dice* He’s going to hand it over to the dark overlord, isn’t he?

JUSTIN: You don’t know. And you can’t see him. *rolls dice* He manages to trip you and you fall. Roll another will save.

BEHN: *rolls dice* Fifteen?

JUSTIN: Noted. Eric, roll perception.

*Dice roll*

ERIC: Sixteen.

JUSTIN: Frodo takes the ring off and you find him. He tells you that Behn has been affected by the ring.

ERIC: Where’s the ring?

JUSTIN: He tells you to fuck off.

ERIC: I swore to protect him.

JUSTIN: Can you protect him from yourself?

*Beat*

ERIC: I would go with him to the end.

JUSTIN: He tells you he’s planning to go on alone so no one else falls prey to the ring.

ERIC: I let him go.

JUSTIN: Roll perception.

*Dice rolls*

JUSTIN: You notice that the Hobbit’s magic sword is glowing, which means there are orcs nearby.

ERIC: I draw my sword and tell him to run!

JUSTIN: Everyone roll initiative!

*Dice roll*

BEHN: *sigh* I go find Merry and Pippin.

JUSTIN: They are absolutely surrounded by orcs and will probably be captured.

*Dice rolls, shouting*

JUSTIN: You get hit by an arrow for eight hit points.

*More dice rolls*

JUSTIN: You’re hit by two more arrows. You are now bleeding out. *rolls again* The orcs grab Merry and Pippin and carry them out while you’re on the ground dying.

BEHN: I blow my horn to summon help!

JUSTIN: Roll perception, you three!

*Dice roll*

JUSTIN: You all hear the horn.

ERIC: I go to help him!

*More dice rolls*

JUSTIN: You successfully kill the main orc, but Behn is dying fast.

BEHN: Seriously?!?! Again?!?!

JUSTIN: Sorry.

ERIC: I roll a heal check!

BEHN: Don’t bother. *He puts down his character sheet* They took the littles ones…where is Frodo?

ERIC: I let him go.