Tearing The Shroud by JM Bray Page B

bits.
    Mike’s heavily armored dwarf stomped to the center of the road and planted his huge shield in front of him. A stylized sun emblazoned his tabard. ‘For Thenos,’ he shouted as the line of attackers broke around him, falling to his mace with crushed limbs and skulls.
    The battle raged and the big Warrior cut a swath through the enemy near the side of the road. His sword sliced and chopped cleanly through every target, decimating the horde of dark elves. The little party worked in harmony and soon the number of attackers dwindled. The Warrior faced a foe, an elf his equal in size and wielding a battle-axe. The elf was faster and its first attack nearly gutted him. As the elf spun to strike, the Warrior swung at him again, missing but causing the dark elf to leap back.
    The battle seemed to pause at the sound of a loud crack. The Warrior looked up as a tree he had inadvertently cut through fell toward him. Trying to avoid it, he caught his foot on a corpse and toppled to the ground. The tree landed on his helmeted head with a sickening crunch. The big elf, seeing his opportunity, jumped forward with battle-axe raised, screaming his war cry. An arrow whistled through the air entering his mouth and exploded out the back of his neck. He stood for a moment as his head flopped backward, before crumbling in a heap.
    With the fall of their champion, the remainder of the dark elves turned and ran. ‘No, let them go,’ Mike’s dwarf cleric called to Emily’s thief.
    Fiona rushed to the Warrior. ‘Help me get it off.’
    ‘It’s no use,’ the cleric said as he leaned on his shield. ‘Even if we could get him to a temple, a crushed skull is beyond the means of any Healer.’
    ‘He’s dead?’ another voice asked. ‘Can’t you resurrect him or something?’
    ‘There’s no coming back from that kind of brain injury,’ Knife’s words floated across the scene.
    ‘Dead?’ he recognized the voice now — it was his own. ‘He’s dead — ’
    A hand clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Hey, buddy. You okay?’ Flea asked.
    The forest and battle dissipated before him and Vincent squinted at the harsh lights. He looked around. ‘Yeah...it’s just...man, that was a good story.’
    ‘By the way, nice kill, Julie,’ Mike said, as the rest, even E.T., nodded and smiled.
    Knife said, ‘E.T., you can roll up a new character with Vincent tonight.’
    ‘Why don’t they do it now,’ Mike suggested.
    ‘Yeah,’ Emily said. ‘It’s almost 10:30, and I have an early class tomorrow.’
    Knife looked around. ‘Is that what everyone wants?’
    Julie glanced at Vincent with a half-smile. ‘Well, I’d like to see Vincent’s character before I leave.’
    Flea nodded.
    ‘Okay. I’ll figure your experience points later, and we’ll pick up the scenario here next time.’ He opened one of the thick notebooks, took out several sheets of printed paper and handed them to E.T. and Vincent. ‘E.T., do you want to go first?’
    ‘Nah, let him. That way, we can all enjoy breaking him in.’
    Knife nodded. ‘Vincent, here’s how it works. You get four d6’s and roll them all at once; then you use the three highest for each of your character’s traits. So there is a possible eighteen points on each one; the higher the number, the better the stat. Simple enough?’
    ‘I think I understand. So, if I rolled a seventeen on,’ he said looking at the character sheet, ‘let’s say Dexterity. Then he’d be nimble fingered?’
    ‘He wouldn’t have the skills yet, but he would be able to learn them, or any dexterity-based skill if he wanted, and he’d be a natural.’ Knife turned to the box and removed a leather pouch, shaking it. ‘I brought some dice for you to use until you get your own.’
    Flea smiled. ‘Oh, he has his own. Wait ’til you see ’em.’
    Mr Brown had given Vincent a purple velvet bag, saying that such unique dice didn’t belong in just any pouch. He reached into his coat pocket, brought it out, and let the