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Dungeons and DragonStars and the Wild: Game 6 in the Style of Nerd

(Long story short: Dallas Stars win 5-4 in a game that took about six years off my life, advance to the second round to play the winner of the Blues/Blackhawks series. Here’s how it all went down, more or less.)

You’re in a room. You’re wearing padded armor and the symbol of a star on your chest. Your friends are there, and they’re all wearing the same outfit. You’ve got a stick, skates on your feet, gloves on your hands, and a helmet on your head. A man in a suit stands in front of you and tells you to check your locker for player cards with your hit points, encounter powers, and dailies. You’re given a bag of dice.

You follow the man in the suit down a tunnel and into a much bigger room. You’re on a sheet of ice in front of a crowd of thousands, tens of thousands. They’re all screaming for your blood. Across the ice from you is a team of what look like demons in dark green.

Four men in stripes ask you to roll initiative.

You roll to attack because your initiative modifier is higher than anything the demons have. Your wizard, Fiddler, wants to try a spell. It takes five to attack but a sixth person rolls as well. He’s nervous and counting is hard, you guess. The Dungeon Masters (the men in stripes) knock you prone for two minutes, or save ends.

Thankfully, your goalie rolled to set up a force field and even with the man advantage, the Wild demons aren’t able to score on you.

Charlie Coyle, one of the Wild demons, rolls a catastrophic one to defend against one of your teammates, Jason Demers. After knocking himself prone for two minutes, Marco Scandella, another of the demons, rolls a one to defend an attack by Patrick Sharp. He is also knocked prone.

John Klingberg, the half elf ranger in your group, rolls to attack with his rebounding longbow. Devan Dubnyk rolls to defend but his AC is too low to modify the five he rolled. Klingberg hits and rolls his 2d8 of damage.

Your human ranger, Patrick Eaves, rolls to attack from the top of the offensive zone. Dubnyk rolls to save against that, but because Jason Spezza, a dwarf with a legendary mace, was in close proximity, he gets an attack of opportunity. His mace gives him radiant power against the demons and Dubnyk’s AC is no match. Spezza rolls his damage.

You trade attacks with the demons. Your attacks are good, but you don’t want to expend dailies when you haven’t even bloodied the goalie yet, and your attack rolls are only so-so.

Patrick Sharp, your charismatic fae, gets an immediate interrupt on two Wild demons in the neutral zone. On a quick breakaway he gets in close with his twin strike and Dubnyk rolls a six to defend. A six. Sharp rolls his damage and you head back down the tunnel to rest and recharge your encounter powers.

After a rest, you come back down the tunnel.

Fiddler tries for a spell early on in this encounter, but he rolls a one and the DM cackles gleefully as he tells Fiddler that instead of scoring a hit, he’s knocked prone. He tries to bring one of the Wild demons with him, but the demon’s will is too strong and he pops back up.

Thankfully, the Wild demons didn’t roll above a ten to attack while the wizard was down.

The Wild demons get the best chance to attack so far as Nino Niederreiter gets up close on Lehtonen. He’s so close that Lehtonen gets an immediate interrupt because of the greaves he’s wearing. He saves the shot and you carry the puck back up the ice.

Jamie Benn, your captain and dragonborn, runs out of moves before he gets all the way to the net. Instead of waiting for his next turn, he rolls to throw his spear from outside the key. He rolls to attack and it’s the first natural 20 of the encounter. Critical hit to Dubnyk, who is bloodied without even the opportunity to roll to save. Your team is up 4 goals to nothing over the Wild demons.

And then it’s back down the tunnel for another rest.

Your wild angry halfling, Antoine Roussel, rolls to attack, but an immediate interrupt from the Wild demon immobilizes him for two minutes. Jared Spurgeon rolls to attack and Lehtonen can’t save it with his modifier.

Lehtonen isn’t bloodied, but he’s knocked prone, giving Jonas Brodin combat advantage when he rolls on the next turn. It’s enough, and it was one of Brodin’s dailies. Lehtonen is bloodied for the encounter. Jason Demers, the team’s bard, plays a quick tune to give him a healing surge, and he gets back on his feet with the temporary hit points.

The Wild demons rolled to attack and Radek Faksa, an elvish warrior, used a daily to defend, but the move left him bloodied.

Stephen Johns, a young dragonborn on your team, rolls to defend the net, but rolled a one and ends up prone. Spurgeon rolls to attack straight over his prone body, and rolls a critical hit. The temporary hit points granted by Demers are blown through and Lehtonen is bloodied again.

Your young halfling Mattias Janmark rolls to hide for a sneak attack. He hides so well that Dubnyk doesn’t even see his attack and injures himself. The attack got an assist from mage Alex Goligoski who is granted the point.

Brodin rolls to attack but rolls a 10, which isn’t enough with his AC modifier to overcome Lehtonen’s will. But Jason Pominville picks up the bolt fired by Brodin and rolls a 20 to attack. The score is 5-4 and the fans in the arena are calling for your blood again.

The Wild demons pull their goalie to get an extra wandering attacker for the final minutes in an effort to tie the game and force overtime. A clump of the Wild demons have a flurry of activity in front of the net and roll an 18. It was blown by the DM on the ice but the Wild protest. The Wild coach’s modifier isn’t good enough to negate the DM’s call and the no-goal stands after review.

Your team doesn’t roll anything to attack the rest of the game, but the Wild don’t either, and your team emerges from the encounter victorious.

You line up to shake hands, then head back down the tunnel to take the portal home to your restful bedrolls. You’re told you’ll have to play another series next week. The enemy teams have leveled up, but so have you. The only question now is who you’ll be playing.

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