Nestled at the edge of the forest, beside a well trodden road was sizeable three floor tavern.
The establishment was abuzz with activity as more and more patrons entered, preparing to rest and drink away the rapidly approaching evening before moving on in the morning.
The clientele was varied, and very rowdy, but one particular group sat in the the far corner, grateful for the respite from their journey, as well as the drinks and promise of a warm bed for the night.
Mari, could you please describe who you’ll be playing
Seated in the corner, in the process of draining her third tankard of ale, was a ridiculously tall, curvaceous and muscular elven woman. Her deeply tanned skin and dark brunette hair contrasted greatly with the fair complexion and white-blonde hair generally associated with others of her kind.
Gulping down the last of her beverage, Marianne of the House Telleni let out an unladylike belch that was unfitting of a princess, not that she was trying to advertise that fact about herself, appearing much more “rough and ready” than one would expect from foreign royalty.
Cool, and Ashley, who are you playing?
Giggling adorably at her companion’s mighty belch was a young, blue skinned woman with fiery red hair, which was parted by two small, cute horns protruding from her temples. Her eyes, two orbs of bright yellow light, darted in the direction of a nearby window every so often, and she listened for any sounds that would indicate that her canine companion, Fang, was in trouble outside.
Sipping on her own drink, the young half-devil, named Ash, glanced towards the third woman seated at the table.
Nice! And Jenna?
The last woman at the table stood out from the crowd significantly less than her companions, though her angular face, brilliant blonde hair and subdued, but still prominent curves that strained against her dark blue robes (more prominent than those belonging to her creator, she was fairly insistent on that) ensured that she was no less stunning than them.
Jaina Elvina’s nose was buried deep in a dusty tome that she was in the process of trying to absorb all of the knowledge from, and was irately trying to ignore the din of the surrounding crowd so she could focus on adding it’s knowledge to her current repertoire of spells and incantations.
The three heroines glanced across the room, grinning at the sight of the fourth member of their group approaching.
His dirty blonde hair messed up from the long day on the road, a small halfling man weaved through the crowd, holding four large tankards of ale tightly to ensure that they were not knocked from his grasp by a wayward elbow.
Matthias Proudfoot, the halfling paladin-
”Wait, his name is Matthias?” An immense, booming voice cackled from outside. The sheer volume of it caused Matthias to spill his drinks all over the tavern floor, the halfling groaning in frustration as he realised he’d have to weave back through the crowd for another round.
Yes, Piper, his name is Matthias. Is that a problem
“You gotta admit, Matt, it is a bit of a silly name,” Marianne turned to her halfling companion, barely concealing a laugh.
”It’s so dumb!” The raucous, booming laughter from outside got even louder as the woman producing it fell into a fit of laughter, each giggle causing the rear wall of the tavern to vibrate slightly due to the sheer volume.
This building-shaking laughter was coming from the group’s most recent member, having only joined them two days prior.
Seated around the back of the tavern, but no less visible despite this fact, was a sight that no passer-by would have seen within the realm of Therondia for at least the last hundred years, a giantess. She was sixty feet tall when stood at her full height, but even seated she was large enough for her entire upper torso to appear from behind the roof of the comparatively tiny building.
Her bright pink hair was pulled back into a long braid which had been fed through a colossal animal skull, which was affixed into her hair at the back of her head.
She was wearing an incredibly ill-fitting loincloth made from the hide of the same animal that adorned her hair. It strained against her titanic curves, having been fashioned to fit her when she was only fifty-five feet tall, and now seemed fit to burst with every movement she made.
Laugher subsiding, Phoebe Titania drained the remainder of the fourth cask of ale that she had been provided by the tavern keeper, and smiled as she used one finger of her free hand to pet Fang, Ash’s enormous (although utterly tiny when compared to Phoebe) black-furred wolf companion, who was dozing off to sleep nuzzled into the soft bare flesh of her thigh.
After retrieving another round of drinks, Matthias rejoined his companions, taking the remaining seat between Jaina and Marianne. The comparatively tiny holy warrior’s head was only barely peeking above the edge of the table, so he clambered up on top of the table to sit there.
“Phew, it’s busy here!” Matthias sighed. “Although it beats camping, and in here I’m significantly less likely to get sat on by Phoebe.”
“Hey! I already apologised for that!” Phoebe groaned, her enormous mint green eye appearing in front of the window.
“And I accepted your apology, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to tease you about it,” Matthias smirked. “Anyway, we’ve got another few days travel until we reach the abandoned outpost where baron told us the bandits would be, we might encounter them any day now as we get closer, so after we leave this tavern in the morning we need to be on high alert. I think we should leave as early as possible so we reduce our chances of being caught out on the road.”
“Sorry Matthias, but who died and made you the leader?” Jaina raised her eyes from behind her tome with a smirk.
“M-my apologies, I was simply throwing out ideas. If you’d prefer another approach, I’m all ears,” Matthias apologised profusely, sorry for having seemingly offended his travelling companion.
“I actually do have a better idea,” Jaina smirked, before she waved a hand in the air and her eyes flashed a vibrant green green, causing Matthias began to feel a tingling sensation flood his entire system.
You’re casting something on him? Why?
“Because he’s being such a goody two shoes, plus I can’t concentrate on my book with him prattling on like that,” Jaina explained nonchalantly.
Fine. I’m guessing he needs to make a saving throw? Alright… damn, I only rolled a two. Alright then, what did you cast on him?
Matthias feels his perspective begin to shift, as if the room is rapidly growing larger and larger… no, wait, it’s him who is getting smaller!
Before anyone could really process what was going on, Matthias stood before them on the table, no larger than an ant!
*****
“Jenna, you have definitely made a mistake when you made your character,” you said matter-of-factly to her from behind your GM screen as you flipped through your rulebook. “You can’t get that spell until you’re, like… ninth level!”
“Nope! It’s all perfectly legal, Matt,” Jenna replied smugly. “You see, I get most of this stuff early because I picked the Incrementomancer subclass for mage, which is in the “Expanded Magic Options” supplement book, but even then I normally wouldn’t be able to get them at level one unless I took some character options provided in the “Masters of Magic” book as well. It’s really neat! It gives me lots of abilities really early. Not only can I shrink people, I can also grow them, I can make people I’ve altered in size stretchy like tinies are in real life, or I can choose not to do that, and they’ll just die when we step on them. It seems so fun!”
“Jenna, both of those books are easily twenty years old! How did you find out about them?” You whined, and also winced slightly at Jenna’s suggestion that killing shrunken NPC’s could be fun. “I thought you said that you were playing the mage from the starter box?”
“No, I said that I was playing a pre-made mage character,” Jenna smirked. “The people online who told me about it said it was really easy to play as, and it seems like it‘s really easy! I put Matthias in his place with almost no effort!”
“Jenna, you can’t play such a powerful character!” You groaned, pinching the bridge of your nose in frustration.
“Why not?” Jenna feigned offence. “It’s all perfectly legal, I’m not using any overpowered homebrew rules that I didn’t run past you. Which is more than can be said for what you’ve let Piper do with her character.”
Jenna and Piper shared a satisfied snicker, knowing that they had successfully backed you into a corner. You couldn’t refuse Jenna’s character without seeming like a hypocrite.
“Anyway Matt, I really think we should get back to the game,” Jenna looked to barely be suppressing laughter over your frustration. “All this out of character talk is really ruining my immersion.”
*****
Matthias took in his newfound surroundings, taken aback by the sudden change in perspective. He was taken out of his dumfoundedness as he felt his leg pinched between two colossal, slender fingers, and he was swiftly lifted until he was dangling upside down in front of the smug face of Jaina now inflated to monumental proportions.
“So, do you like my suggested approach, Matthias?” Jaina teased, as she pondered what to do with him.
1) Jaina restores Matthias to his normal size, she was just showing off… this time.
2) Before Jaina can decide what to do, she hears Phoebe yell that they’ve got company, the bandits were expecting them, and they’ve decided to attack the tavern while the girls are resting.
3) Jaina decides to leave Matthias small for now. She retires to her room, instructing either Ash or Marianne to take Matthias to one of their rooms (or Writer’s Choice).
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author