chitona | open post: (stranger things) dnd + jumanji meme

open post: (stranger things) dnd + jumanji meme

What happens when a set of cursed dice makes their way into the hands of one unsuspecting Dungeon Master? Suddenly, Hellfire's campaign begins to come to life, but unlike the Cult of Vecna, this is not the Upside Down at work. Players become their characters, monsters that seem to match the description in the Monster Handbook start to spring up all over the place, but unlike the real campaign, Eddie no longer has control over the storyline.

Guess it's time for everyone to roll for initiative.

1. Post with your character and a starting prompt. Feel free to specify if it's open to anyone or closed.

2. Your character is now their D&D counterpart! Don't forget to include their race/class/anything else worth noting.

3. This is open to all Stranger Things muses, plus anyone who wants to AU their muse into the Stranger Things universe. The muse does not have to canonically be a part of Hellfire Club to participate!

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( It was an impulse purchase that kicked everything off. Not unlike a dragon with treasure, Eddie took one look at the treasure trove of dice at the flea market in Bloomington and knew he needed to add them to his collection. The price they were marked for was a damn steal as far as he was concerned. That should probably have been the first tip off.

It wasn't until he actually used them in the next meeting of Hellfire that anything happened. It was real subtle, too, and since Eddie wasn't expecting anything to happen, the session went on as usual with the whole crew none the wiser. It was a full table, even, with membership extending beyond the Cult of Vecna. Shit, even Steve Harrington had finally caved and decided to play, which was a miracle in and of itself.

Which, might not end up being a bad thing, all things considered, once Hawkins began to see an outpouring of monsters and other terrible evil-aligned beasts. Of course, when Eddie wakes up the next morning with horns upon his head, the last thing he's thinking about is trying to assemble an adventuring party. So while all hell breaks loose outside, Eddie has locked himself in the bedroom and hopes beyond hope that whatever dream it is he's been having would all be over soon, and that he would be able to wake up and face the day as usual.

But he never wakes up. And he can't hide out forever, for eventually instead of assembling an adventuring party, it would be the adventuring party that would seek him out.

Or, at least one of them, if the knock at the front door to the trailer is any indication. If it weren't for the fact that his van was still very much in the driveway, he would probably be able to get away with ignoring whoever was there and they would eventually go away. But he knows his friends, and he knows they won't stop until they make contact. )

Jesus H. Christ, alright give me a minute! ( At least it's still his voice, speaking in Common. That should be reassuring, right? Right. He stays in the shadows, keeping himself out of sight as he cracks open the door just enough for his visitor to come inside. ) You, too, huh? ( He both looks and sounds miserable as he finally lets the door shut and walks into the light. )

"What the hell Eddie? Obviously me too!" This was accompanied by a flailing gesture with one hand towards herself as she darted into the trailer, shouldering the door closed behind her. Not only was she considerably more tan than she had been the day before, but she was also freckled, across her nose and cheeks and probably all down her arms as well, though she was wearing a hoodie to hide that fact, as well as her hair, which was also a few shades darker and a few feet longer than it had been when she'd gone to bed.

She did, however, shove the hood down and her hair back to reveal an ear that came to a definite crest, not the sharp point of a full-on wood elf, but definitely a point that hadn't been there before, "If my mother was right about D&D I am never going to hear the end of it."

No, that wasn't what she was most concerned about, but it was on the list and it was the first thing to pop out of her mouth, though as her ire usually did it burned high and fast and burned out just as quickly, which was why that statement was closely followed by: "Are you okay?"

On the one hand, it was a relief to find out he wasn't alone in this strangeness. When Chrissy swooped into the trailer, Eddie felt himself relax for the first time since he woke up to find his pillow shredded from the blue horns he was now sporting. But although he had confirmation that he wasn't the only one affected by this -- whatever this was -- that didn't mean he was completely satisfied.

Because as was now apparent, the horns weren't the only change in appearance. His skin had turned a similarly blue hue and his eyes were darker, with a redder, unnatural-looking iris. His teeth were sharper, and there was a tail poking through his jeans that seemed to be flicking with annoyance at nothing in particular. His hair was still long (perhaps even longer than usual) and curly, but was black instead of the dark brown it had been before.

"You mean except from the fact that I look like this?" he hissed, gesturing at himself. "I can't go out looking like this, I look like...fuck." He looked miserable as his gaze dropped to the floor. "Guess I really am a freak now."

He forced himself to look back at her, managing a small smile. "Hey, at least you look badass, Chrysanthemum."

"Okay I'm pretty sure horns are automatically more badass than a couple levels of tan." She replied, hands on her hips, though she lifted one to gesture at him, "And this whole look actually works for you..." She trailed off, only finally realizing now that they were both standing still just what the movement she'd been seeing in her peripheral vision was, "Oh my god is that a tail?" She sounded amazed and delighted by this fact more than anything else, though she did manage to rein herself in a little, because this was all, frankly, insane.

"Okay. Okay, what do we actually know? We can figure this out." She wasn't pacing yet, but the feeling that she should be was there, shoving both hands into the pocket of her hoodie, "Anything? I mean, obviously we know we both woke up... looking like we do, and I can say that the neighborhood between my house and here is the same, at least I'm pretty sure I would have noticed anything definitely out of the ordinary. But I don't know if that actually rules anything out or not."

Chrissy's reaction took Eddie by surprise. He thought he would inspire fear, but instead apparently she was fascinated. It did wonders for calming him down and turning off his fight or flight that had been going haywire since waking up that morning.

"Yeah, I think this is, uh, you remember Malechai Wintermere? He posed at a tavern as a bard but was really undercover for the rebellion against the Empire, and somehow you all managed to convince him to join the party, at least for a little while?" He winced as he rubbed the back of his neck, still not quite used to the flash of blue he got every time he moved one of his limbs into his line of sight. "Which means if you woke up as, well, your character..." Shit, the rest of Hellfire was going to be pissed. Or some of them might think it was cool. Honestly, knowing that Chrissy was also afflicted, he was surprised his phone hadn't been ringing off the hook. But maybe the rest of the party hadn't figured out just how far reaching this strange transformation had gone.

After everything, Chrissy's opinions on what was actually scary were far different than they had been before everything. Besides that, Eddie was still Eddie even though he looked... okay considerably different, but that didn't change facts.

She nodded at the explanation, because it made sense if nothing else, given her own appearance, "You think it's more than just us." Was the conclusion she came to at that trailed-off sentence. She hadn't fully thought that far out herself, but it made a certain kind of sense, "Has anyone contacted you?" Her brow creased, checking the time, "Do you think anyone else is maybe still asleep? Or if they are awake they're maybe still freaking out?"

Some kind of realization dawned a moment later and she just asked: "You think I should try verify a conspiracy?" 'Conspiracy of Ravens' was her favorite collective noun for them, though 'Unkindness' wasn't far behind, and while she didn't recall just who had referred to her summoning the swarm 'verifying a conspiracy' but it had stuck, "If it works we can send them off as messengers."

"Well, there's only one way to find out, right?" Eddie agreed. Besides, he couldn't help feeling a little bit curious as to whether it was just their appearances that changed, or if they had their spells and cantrips as well. "We've just gotta hope that whatever magic made us like this didn't bring anything else from that world into ours."

And of course now that he spoke that out loud, he regretted it immediately. Because it was very likely that the transformation wasn't the only thing that happened. It just wouldn't make sense for their whole group to become their characters and not have any other adverse effects.

"Otherwise your birds are gonna draw a lot of attention to us, and to whomever we send them to," he added, wincing at the thought of possibly screwing one of their friends over. "I could try Sending first? Then we'll at least know for sure our magic works without putting anyone in danger in the process."

"That's probably a better idea, yeah." She agreed, nodding, "Wouldn't want to cause a stir if we don't have to, it isn't like ravens can be mistaken for grackles, not unless someone's really far away, or maybe just very very stupid."

Her brow creased a moment later, "And just... logistically speaking, splintering my perception might not be the best idea until I know how that's actually going to work." It was one thing to read about being able to tell what her animal companions were perceiving, but she could reason that it would be quite a bit different in practice, and it was probably best to actually practice before sending a half dozen ravens off to find their friends.

She chewed the corner of her lip just briefly before adding, "Do you think, and I hate to even say it, but do you think something else might have happened? Appeared?" She didn't want to use the phrase 'come through' because that was a little too close to what they'd already survived and she definitely didn't want a repeat of that.

The thought that Eddie could have caused something just as bad (if not worse) than the whole Vecna affair to happen, all because he had gotten lured in by the promise of something shiny left him feeling guilty. He hoped that wasn't the case, but it was starting to sound more likely by the second. Why would they be transformed into their characters if not to do something heroic?

What good was being a hero if there was nothing to prove yourself against? That was the whole reason why they played, to be heroes. But just because they wanted to have adventures on paper didn't mean they wanted to put themselves through life and death situations.

Hell, Dustin's bard came so close to dying, if it weren't for Will's cleric successfully casting Revivify...Eddie didn't even want to think about it.

"Let's fucking hope not. Just because I know the handbooks inside and out does not mean I can just...know what to do as a character. Besides, what do we do if none of us are the one controlling the narrative?"

"Well that's easy." She replied, smile emerging again, "We do the same thing we did last time. We re-write the ending." Granted, they'd still have to figure out who was controlling the narrative -as Eddie had phrased it- because there had to be someone doing so. There was no way, after everything that had happened, that this was just chance.

"And maybe don't overthink it?" Which she knew was always easier said than done, but especially when it came to Eddie, "You're the character now, apparently, and so am I, which means that we know what they know, which also means that however we do it, it's going to be right." Which was maybe faulty logic, or circular in some way, but it made sense to her and so she was going to stick with it.

Of course Chrissy was optimistic. That was just how she rolled, but it was very much needed before Eddie thought himself into a downward spiral that he wouldn't be able to get himself yanked out of. Maybe it didn't make complete sense, but it was better than anything he could have come up with.

"Okay. Then we're definitely going to need help. Two characters does not an adventuring party make." There was only one way to find out if this would work, and that was by trusting his instincts and hoping that he could, in fact, cast Sending. He would only have twenty-five words to get his point across, but it was the best he had. "Well...here goes nothing."

He concentrated the spell on Steve, because if anyone could wrangle the party together (not to mention, he would have been the most skeptical, so convincing him by freaking him the fuck out seemed to be the most surefire way to go about this) it would be him. He kept it simple: if you can hear this, come by the trailer with the rest of the party. I'll explain everything when you're here.

Now all they could do...was wait.

To say that Steve was freaking out a little bit would be a vast understatement. He was, in fact, freaking out a lot while trying to keep himself from doing so.

He'd gone to bed after yet another argument with his parents over dinner, once again about what he'd started doing in his spare time, and who with and how he really should be looking for a 'real job' while he still had the chance, and so he'd gone to bed frustrated. He'd dreamed of someone talking to him, a voice he knew but didn't entirely recognize, or recognized but didn't know, not that it much mattered either way, but it had left him disoriented when he finally woke up. The fact that the house was completely silent and there was a damn shield propped up against the wall beside the nail bat just left him further confused.

He made it as far as the kitchen before he heard Eddie's voice practically right in his ear, which was startling but just further confirmed that something wasn't right. 'The rest of the party' could mean anyone, but he figured he should start with Dustin, except that when he called, Mrs. Henderson informed him that Dustin was already on his way to Eddie's, and she laughed saying that it must have been a heckuva session if they hadn't managed to wrap it up the day before, and he just agreed and said that they hoped to finish it up before lunch, though they never could be sure how it would go.

He was relieved to find that the Beemer was, in fact, still a car and not -as he'd been half-expecting- a horse. Nailbat and shield both got dumped into the back seat before he made his way over to Forest Hills, further unnerved by how normal everything still seemed. For all intents and purposes, it was just like any other Saturday morning in Hawkins.

He pulled in next to Eddie's van, actually taking a moment to look around before he got out of the car, Dustin's 'Perception check, Steve, Jesus!' from the day before simmering across the surface of his mind. He was not expecting Chrissy to be the one to answer the door, though he accepted the one-armed hug of greeting even as he explained: "Mrs. Henderson says Dustin's already on his way over, I didn't see him on the way in though so maybe he went to collect the rest of the kids first. Is this... like, this isn't something because of the Upside Down again, is it?"

Eddie had to admit - he didn't actually expect that to work. He thought maybe they were just cursed with whatever form their characters took, but without their powers. So when he heard Steve's BMW pull up, Eddie flashed Chrissy and excited and nervous look.

And just because he didn't want to frighten Steve right off the bat, he let Chrissy answer the door, sticking to the shadows. Besides, he wasn't sure he wanted their neighbors to see him just yet. The last thing he needed was for rumors of that cult leader shit cropping back up.

"No, I don't think this has anything to do with the Upside Down," Eddie replied, finally emerging from the shadows once the door was closed. He looked slumped over, nervous as to how Steve's reaction would be to seeing him as a tiefling for the first time. It was one thing to flirt in character with a non-human when it was really just a thinly veiled attempt for the two of them -- as humans -- to flirt with each other. But to see the reality of what Eddie looked like, with horns, fangs, and a tail? Well, he wouldn't exactly blame Steve for recoiling in response.

"Guess that's our answer, then, it's not just just us, Chris."

Well that definitely explained why Eddie hadn't answered the door himself.

Steve straightened a little, giving Eddie a once-over, one of the drawbacks of Steve playing a human was that he didn't actually look any different, and it hadn't even occurred to him until he'd seen Eddie -even despite remembering Dustin's warning from the night before only a moment ago- that Chrissy looked different as well, turning again to give her a similar once-over, even as he said: "Definitely not the Upside Down."

He turned back to Eddie again, brow creasing, "Any idea what it is?"
Chrissy shook her head, "That's why we thought gathering everyone was a good place to start."

Eddie let out a breath he didn't even realize he had been holding when Steve didn't seem particularly disgusted by his appearance. And damn if that didn't have his heart skipping a beat, at the thought, suddenly glad that his skin wasn't quite as pale as it might usually be. There was no need to hide behind his hair to disguise his blush.

"Well, it's tied to the campaign I was running," Eddie replied with a shrug. "Beyond that, though, no ideas. As much as I'm loathed to admit it, having the whole party together does help the ol' noggin. Those kids are way too smart for their own good."

It was good that Dustin was already on his way, even if a part of him did want Steve all to himself, if for no other reason than to see if all that in-game flirting was just an act. But the sooner they were back to their normal forms, the better. Or, if they were stuck like this, then at least they should figure out the why's. If there was a reason -- if there was something they had to work together to defeat, then they had better figure that out -- as well as how to control their spells and abilities -- and fast.

"They really are a bunch of tiny criminal masterminds." Not that any of them were really that tiny anymore, which was why he didn't say it to anyone's face. He did, however, lean against the kitchen counter, arms folding, "Whatever it is, I think it started last night."

Chrissy's brow creased a little, "Weird dreams?" She hadn't been going to mention it herself, because her dreams were weird a lot of the time lately, but these had been a different kind of weird.

Steve nodded, "Yeah, not the usual weird, either. But also, uh..." His brow furrowed, "My house is empty, like, my folks are gone. Gone. They were there last night, got into an argument at dinner, but this morning? Nothing. No car, no note, no breakfast dishes in the sink. Just... nothing."

"Wait, really?" Eddie asked, straightening upright, his tail accidentally thwacking into a chair in the process. He winced, pulling his tail closer to himself so that he wouldn't end up injuring himself in his inability to keep that thing in check. It would take some getting used to this new form, though he hoped that came sooner rather than later, if they had any hope of surviving whatever it was that was happening here.

"Wayne would've been at work," he explained, rubbing a hand at his face. "Chris, were your parents around before you came over?"

Chrissy nodded, brow furrowing, already concerned, "Yes? I mean, I think so. My brother definitely was, he caught me leaving." She shrugged, "He does that a lot, but he knows not to say anything if our parents are home."

Steve nodded in turn, "And Mrs. Henderson was, I talked to her. I've got an idea why, but I don't know if it makes sense." He tilted his head towards Chrissy, gesturing with one hand as if to indicate the whole of the new look, "This, Chrysanthemum, she's still in contact with her family, right?"

"Yeah." Chrissy's brow furrowed, "She sends adventuring money and artifacts back home sometimes, why?" Realization seemed to dawn a moment later and her entire expression flattened, "Oh. Oh no."

Eddie's eyes widened as realization hit him hard. Steve had leaned into the angsty background at Eddie's suggestion since that would give his character a good reason to go adventuring. Eddie felt his heart speed up as he considered the background of the NPC that he had become.

"Malehcai...his whole family..." he trailed off. He had a feeling he didn't need to remind them both. It was the whole reason the character banded together with the rest of the party - for revenge. That was until Steve's character convinced him that revenge wouldn't solve anything. "We need to fix this."

Steve just nodded once, "We do. We will." He had to believe that or he was going to start questioning everything, "And I hate to say it, but I feel like the kids should have been here by now, right?" His brow furrowed, trying to calculate, "Mrs. Henderson said Dustin left about twenty minutes before I called, so maybe a half hour before I got here. I ...don't actually know how fast they can ride or how fast they'd be getting ready, especially if they're having, you know, the same problems we are."

Chrissy smiled, reaching over to clasp his arm gently, "They're resourceful, and... okay I was going to say smart, but I've also seen Dustin convince Mike to eat the wrappers on the peanut butter cups more than once, which means it was going on even before I came along, so maybe clever is a better word. They'll be alright."

Eddie didn't like the sound of that. If the kids weren't here yet...Chrissy had a point that they would probably be okay, but for how long? Besides, if things from the campaign were bleeding into the real world? Eddie knew what was on the horizon while the rest of the group didn't.

"Yeah, uh, maybe we should try to track them down, though, just to be on the safe side," Eddie suggested, the color fading from his face - or at least as much as could drain from a tiefling's complexion. "We didn't get to the introduction of the big bad yet. Spoilers, but if they're going to be making an appearance here eventually? It's going to be very, very bad. For all of us."

They both turned to look at him, not exactly in unison, but with matched expressions. They both knew that if Eddie was openly admitting to how bad it could be -and two 'very's was up there on the scale- that meant that it was probably one of those things that they would barely survive on paper, if they were lucky and if everyone actually worked together.

But now? With things apparently becoming far too real, it wasn't something either of them wanted to test.

Steve nodded, "Then we should definitely head for the Wheelers', pretty sure they'd convene there, especially if they already figured out what's going on." And he was pretty sure there was no way they wouldn't, not if it was as obvious for the kids as it was for the three of them.

Chrissy's brow creased a little, "Once we're outside I can summon the birds, then we'll at least have a perimeter, be able to tell if something's incoming before we'd be able to tell on our own." That additional passive perception had been a boon more than once, and while she still wasn't entirely sure how it would work in reality instead of as a storytelling element, she wasn't going to shy away from finding out, either.

She knew she shouldn't be, she knew this was dangerous, but for maybe the first time in her life, and definitely for the first time in a few years, Chrissy was having a great time.

When first putting together a character, she'd picked a Ranger so that she'd have an in-character reason for skipping a session or two if she had to, Chrysanthemum Cloverbone would just be patrolling another area of the forest, or somewhere in deep cover where no one would be able to contact her. She'd been planning on just playing a human, but then someone, Jeff she was pretty sure, had suggested a half-elf, because if she was going to be a Ranger to make use of her real-world knowledge of archery, she should have a race to be able to use some of her own agility but better.

It was a choice she appreciated now, because while she had become an expert at climbing up and down the trellis along the side of the house, trees were another matter, until... well until whatever was happening now had started. Because right at the moment she was perched on a branch of one of the trees near the lake, she'd been assigned as a lookout, a job that she was taking seriously. Something that was evidenced by the raven perched on another branch near her head. The rest of the swarm was scattered in the nearby trees, adding to her perception by acting as additional eyes, ears and early warning system.

Edited (eta: aminal companion(s)) 2023-06-04 04:35 (UTC)

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open post: (stranger things) dnd + jumanji meme

eddie munson (ota)

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Chrissy | OTA