Game Play Read Online Free PDF Page B

for the Sunday gaming session.
    Standing on the
doorstep, she watched a trail of her breath rise into the damp air. She tucked
the heavy map of Gamearth wrapped in an old blanket under her arm. It had begun
to drizzle outside, and she did not want the wood or the paint to get wet.
    Melanie was
surprised to find herself the last one to show up. Normally David came late
just to annoy them, but this time he appeared anxious, as if he knew exactly
what he wanted to do. That worried her.
    David's eyes were
bloodshot and he looked tired ― Melanie wondered if he had been sleeping
well, or if he had been plagued by nightmares.
    She greeted
everyone as Tyrone returned from the refrigerator carrying a round of sourdough
bread. The bread's center had been hollowed out and filled with a white and
green coagulated mass.
    "Leek, spinach,
and feta cheese dip," Tyrone said.
    Scott frowned at
the loaf and straightened his glasses. "I thought you were kidding when
you told us that."
    Tyrone set down a
plate of bread chunks he had cut from the middle of the loaf. "It's good ― try it. Have I ever let you down?"
    "Yes,"
Melanie and Scott said in unison.
    "Oh, just try
it."
    David sounded gloomy
when he spoke. "Are you sure we want to keep playing?" Melanie
caught an undercurrent of hesitation in his voice. She didn't even feel like
speaking to him. He made her frightened and angry at the same time.
    She uncovered the
map, draping the damp blanket on a chair. The blue line of the Barrier River
stood out like a scar, reminding them what had happened the week before.
    "What's going
to happen this week?" he asked. "Are you sure you're not afraid?"
    "I'm not
afraid," Melanie said.
    Scott could barely
keep his eyes off the blue line that had appeared by itself the week before.
"I'm not afraid really, either." He frowned. "But I'm very
curious to see if anything else happens."
    "We pretty
much finished up Mel's adventure last week, with the dragon being killed and
all," Tyrone said. "What are we going to start with?"
    "There's more
to the adventure than that," David said.
    "A lot
more." Melanie realized she had snapped at him.
    "Come on,
guys. Make nice." Scott kept his voice down, then caught himself.
    "I'm going to
send my characters on a quest to the east," Melanie said.
    "Delrael,
Vailret, and Bryl ― the usual bunch."
    "For what?
What are they going to do?" David asked.
    "They have to
find out about that Scartaris monster you sent against them. No better way than
to go there themselves."
    "I'll squash
them. I've got so much to put in their way."
    Melanie stiffened.
"Yes, but you can't know they're coming unless one of your characters encounters them. By the rules. Just because you know what's going on
yourself, David, doesn't mean your characters will know."
    She tapped her
fingers together. "And speaking of that, I want to introduce a new
character tonight. It's a golem." She looked at the map, but in the bright
light over the kitchen table she could not tell which hexagon she had
repainted. "I'm going to have him encounter my characters in Tyrone's section."
    "You can't
just do that!" David stood up.
    "Why not? She
hasn't introduced anybody new in a long time." Tyrone took a sip of his
soda. "And we've never played a golem character before."
    "I rolled all
the details already. Here's a printout of his statistics." Melanie passed
around a sheet of paper with numbers jotted down in columns. "His name is
going to be Journeyman."
    "You should do
that when we're around." David frowned at the paper, the numbers.
    Melanie made a
disgusted sound. "Come on, David. I'm just saving us time. You think I'm
trying to cheat or something? Look at the scores."
    "I think a
golem would be neat," Tyrone said.
    Apparently seeing
he wouldn't win any arguments on the subject, David shrugged. "Doesn't
matter you know. Not against Scartaris."
    "It
might," Melanie said with a slight smile and looked at the map in the
light, tracing the line of the Barrier River, the