Chapter 1: Birthday Season Begins

"You'll just have to wait and see," Amy repeated herself, grinning.

"Okaaaaay..." Tommy said.

"Oh, Tommy," Ashley shouted excitedly, "tell them about your idea!"

"My what?" Tommy asked.

"Your idea. For the fair. About our characters." Ashley stammered, obviously trying to remind Tommy of something specific, "About staying in..."

"OH! RIGHT!" Tommy interrupted her, "We should all try to stay in character while we're in the fair. Role-play our characters. Pretend like they all somehow got to the kingdom in the festival, and join as a party."

"That's a great idea!" Amy shouted. Her cheeks turned slightly red as the biggest smile covered her face. She looked at me. I couldn't place the look in her eyes. I'd never seen it before. It wasn't just excitement. It was as if her eyes glistened with...

"Hey," Ashley waved her hand in front of my face, "You two okay?"

Amy and I broke our gaze.

"Yeah, sorry," Amy said, her face now a brilliant red, "Let's just start the game."

She turned away, looking into her bookbag, trying to hide her face, rummaging to find her gaming stuff as she regained her composure.

"Something up with you two?" Tommy asked as he pulled out his character sheet and dice from his bag.

"No," I replied.

"No, nothing," Amy agreed, still looking into her book bag.

I pulled out my laptop, DM screen, and Dice.

Once everyone was ready, I began the game.

"Having learned the location of the Ogre King's hidden fortress by interrogating his Half-Orcish Lieutenant, Tarog Longtooth, Our heroes have been tasked by the King's Army to infiltrate the fortress and attempt to capture or kill the Ogre King, while the rest of the King's Army fight their way through the Brutish Hordes, in an attempt to lay siege to the fortress itself.

"Traveling hastily along the forest path deep in the heart of the Stormhill Mountains, our heroes make camp for the night, as the sun quickly hides behind the mountain's hilly peak."

*

The session ended up being one of our most fun sessions. The players fought a goblin scouting party that attacked their camp at night, then an orcish warband with an Ogre in tow. By the time they reached the stronghold, they were at about half strength, fully healed, but with very little healing remaining, just as I'd planned. They fought through the Ogre King's Stronghold, and had an epic battle with the Ogre King and his four bodyguards. Brother Tomlin (Tommy's Monk Character) nearly died, but managed to pull through. When the King's Army finally arrived, the party had captured the Ogre King. Again, Sylvia wanted to execute him outright, but the rest of the party intervened.

Upon returning to the military headquarters in Haven Rock, the party was appropriately rewarded for their part in the victory over the Brutish Hordes, and celebrated in the tavern afterwards. Even the military officers and soldiers were given leave to partake, so the tavern was full of off duty soldiers, including Captain Arling. While the elves in the party (Jaden and Ashley's characters) decided to leave early (citing that humans "don't party right") and Brother Tomlin abstained from drinking, so also left early (soon after the toast, in which he had water), Sylvia stayed and shared a drink with Captain Arling.

"'I can't believe it's actually over,' Captain Arling muses into his drink, 'The war, I mean. I thought it would never end.'"

"Me too," Amy replied in character as Sylvia, taking a drink of her invisible ale, "I was sure that when we'd arrive at the stronghold, the Ogre King would have been elsewhere, and we'd have to keep chasing him forever."

"'I just wish I could have done more to help,' Arling stares into his untouched drink, 'I know my position in the army was vital, but all I actually did was sit at a desk while other people did all the work. I was little more than a glorified messenger, relaying orders from my superiors to the hired mercenaries, most of which were barely worth the cost of their armor, present company excluded, of course.'"

"Trust me," Amy replied as Sylvia, "I know what you mean," she took another imaginary drink of ale, "That's another reason I never joined the army, much to my father's disappointment."

"'You don't talk about your family often,' Captain Arling finally takes a drink of his ale, 'I know the Holderen family has a high standing amongst the nobles, but you never told me anything about your parents.'"

Amy pretended to finish off her ale, "I finish my ale and motion to the barkeep to refill it, then say to Arling, 'My father,'" she begins slurring her words as if slightly drunk, "'is the son of the great military general, his Lordship Everet Tyronious Holderen the Third, Earl of... some old swamp or marshland somewhere. To be honest, I never could remember. Anyway,'" Amy took a swig of her "new" invisible drink, "'my whole family's military: both parents, all three brothers, and even my older sister. Our home was run like a military installation. As soon as I was sixteen, I left to adventure and never looked back.'"

"'I guess I can't blame you,' Arling smiles at you, 'I put in my request for discharge when I went off duty today. Now that the war is over, they should approve it by the end of the week.'"

"That's great. Have you decided what you're going to do once they do?" Amy was staring at me, smiling.

"'Well, I was hoping to take you up on your offer to adventure together, if that's still on the table.'"

"Of course," Amy's face lit up, "I would be glad for your company."

"Arling finishes his drink then stands up and says, 'Well, I should be heading back to the barracks.'"

"Actually, Captain," Amy paused for a second.

"'Call me Alric.'"

"Okay, Alric," Amy smiled, but her cheeks turned slightly red, "I'd be glad for your company tonight, too."

Up to this point, the rest of the group had been quietly listening as we role-played the scene. However, at Amy's brazen request, Ashley began giggling, "Why do you always try to sleep with the main friendly NPCs in your brother's campaigns?"

"I do not!" Amy retorted.

"Do so," Ashley replied.

"You kind of do," Tommy agreed.

"The Tower Wizard in his first campaign," Jaden joined in.

"The Dwarven Prince in the Underdark campaign," Ashley continued.

"Both the Noble Twins in his last campaign," Tommy added.

"I... I just play my characters as they would be. It's not my fault you two almost always have your characters be a couple, and You," she looked at Tommy, "either play the same Dwarven character who also sleeps with just about anyone he can, or a character who, for one reason or another, has taken a vow of Chastity."

One by one, they all went silent and looked at me. I had on my "very serious" DM face. Once they were all silent, I looked at Amy and said, "Arling accepts your offer."

After that we broke character, and simply said that Arling and Sylvia spent the night together. In the morning, the party attended an official award ceremony where they all received metals. They decided to go their separate ways after that. Jaden and Ashley's elves returned to their elven settlement, Brother Tomlin decided to stay at the monastery in town, and Sylvia and Arling went off looking for adventure together.

After the conclusion of the campaign, we all decided we would take a couple weeks off before we start a new one. Jaden volunteered to DM the next one, telling us he had an idea of what he wanted to do next. It would be the first campaign Jaden had been DM, so he wanted to take a few weeks to plan the first session.

At the end of the night, we all bade each other goodnight and went home. As we drove home, Amy talked about how much she enjoyed the campaign, and how excited she was for the Renaissance Festival the next day. Her excitement was infectious, so we were both smiling and laughing the whole way home.

When we got home, after we'd said goodnight to our parents, we went upstairs. Before I could open the door to my room, Amy stopped in front of it. She gave me a big hug.

"Thank you for agreeing to go to the Renaissance Festival with me, Gabe. I know you weren't originally planning to, so thank you."

She let go, and smiled.

"What makes you think I wasn't going to go?" I asked.

She gave me a dirty look, "I know you, Gabe. You don't like change, and the festival will be different than before. So you weren't going to go. So again, thank you."

She smiled again, then half-skipped off down the hall to her room.

*

Saturday morning, I woke up earlier than usual, at six a.m. The fair grounds were a good forty minute drive from our house, so I figured if we left at seven, we'd be there by eight, like we'd planned. It only took me a few minutes to get most of my outfit on, but I ended up spending about thirty minutes applying the green and grey costuming makeup in a way I liked. Since Grogan was only Half-Orc, I didn't have to do any other cosmetics than color, which was good, since some cosplay cosmetics can take hours to apply. In the end, I looked like a pale green version of myself with small-ish tusks protruding from the sides of my mouth. Fortunately, the tusks were easy to put in, and were designed so it didn't make it too hard to talk normally.

Once I was in costume. I went down stairs to grab a quick bite to eat. Our parents were normally still asleep at this time, but Mamma Janie had woken up early to make us breakfast before she went to work.

"Good morning, sweetie," she said with a smile, sitting a plate of eggs, bacon, and grits on the table, "Your sister already ate. She got up a couple hours ago to make sure she had enough time to get ready."

I sat down and took my tusks out to eat.

"Did she tell you anything about what character she decided to go as?" I asked. Since our parents had been the ones to introduce us to Dungeons & Dragons when we were younger, we often discussed the events of our campaigns with them.

"No," Mom replied, "But she was really excited about it. I think it's great that the two of you are having fun spending time together. It's important to appreciate the time you have with your family."

"I agree," I said, "And Amy's fun to hang out with."

"It's too bad Jenny's not able to come down from Grad School very often," Mom said, "I'm sure she would have loved to go to the festival with you two."

"Yeah," I replied, "Maybe. Although I doubt she'd be as keen on dressing up. She never dressed up on Halloween, even to go to parties. Not that she went to many parties."

I finished my breakfast and looked at the time. 6:58. I put my plate in the sink and thanked Mom for the breakfast, then put my tusks back in and went to the bottom of the quarter-turn stairs in the living room.

"Amy," I called up the stairs, "It's time to go. We don't want to be late or Tommy'll raise hell."

"I'm coming!" she called as I heard her door open and she trotted down the hallway. I was anxious to see what character she had decided to dress as.

I heard her coming down the stairs, and as she turned the corner at the bend in the stairs, I saw her, and my heart nearly stopped. She had decided to play the one character that I was afraid, and maybe a bit hopeful, that she would: Elyveria Flamewind, Elven Sorceress.

Within the campaign from which they originated, Elyveria and Grogan fell in love, got married, and even had a child together. At the time, if anyone thought it was weird that siblings would have their characters fall in love, nobody said anything. However, that both those siblings separately chose those as their favorite characters would probably at least raise a few eyebrows.

However, none of that occurred to me, even as Amy strutted down the stairs. What did occur to me, was just how gorgeous my baby sister actually was. Amy was quite a bit shorter than me, standing at just over five feet tall (compared to my six foot-one). Her sleeveless black dress revealed way more of her chest than I was usually privy to see. Usually covered by a modest T-shirt or sweater, Amy had a magnificent pair of grapefruit-sized breasts that were just barely larger than you'd expect with her otherwise lithe frame. While I'd never seen them bare, she often wore a two-piece bikini in the summer when we went swimming, so I was familiar with her shape. However, the dress she was now wearing was even more revealing, with the neckline proceeding well past her chest down to her cute navel, the fabric barely covering her nipples. With each step down the stairs that she took, her boobs jiggled, almost shaking off the thin fabric, and I could swear that they were bigger than they had been last I saw them. The dress was tight around her curvy hips, which were just the perfect width to match her torso. The dress came down to just above her knees, giving me a magnificent view of her freshly shaven legs. Her fair skin was nearly pink in color, and flawlessly smooth. She was wearing a pair of flat-healed black dress shoes. Her bare arms were covered in black marker drawn in the pattern of elven runes, to simulate the tattoos that her character had.

As gorgeous as her body was, Amy's face stole the show. Her cute round face was made up so that it was paler than normal, almost white with just a hint of pink shining through. She had on green lipstick, her eyebrows were thinner than normal, and her long, flowing brown hair was held back by an ornate golden circlet. Her ears were topped by small points. But the thing that sealed the deal was her eyes. Her normally hazel eyes were a verdant green.

"Wow..." I declared, staring at her.

"What do you think?" Amy asked with a smile.

"Amy... You look... Wow!" Was all I managed to say.

Amy smiled, obviously taking my inability to vocalize as a compliment.

"Speechless? That's not like you," she teased as she took one step after another, and I could swear she was swaying her hips intentionally, "And you're staring."

"Sorry," I said, shaking my head to unfreeze my gaze, "You just look... amazing."

"Thanks," she replied, "You don't look half-bad yourself."

"Are you flirting with me, dear sister?" I asked, only half serious.

Amy's cheeks turned bright red.

"Um... No... I mean..." she began stumbling as she fumbled her words.

I caught her gently, "I'm just teasing, Amy."

I was rewarded for my chivalry with a punch in the arm.

"You're so mean," Amy replied laughing.

I laughed along with her.

"Shall we go?" She smiled.

"Indeed," I replied, using the deeper-than-normal voice I would for my character, Grogan.

We said goodbye to Mamma Janie and headed out the door.

*

During the drive to the festival, Amy kept saying how awesome it was going to be to play our characters again, even though it would be just for one day. Since we'd decided to stay in-character as much as possible, Amy suggested that we figure out how we wanted to play our characters as a couple. We decided that we'd play them as we had during the game, pretty much continuing from where we'd left off. We decided that our child had been left with Elyveria's elven tribe while we were off adventuring, explaining her absence.

When we arrived at the festival grounds it was nearly eight o'clock. The parking lot was little more than a large grassy field with orange cones designating parking lanes. There were quite a few people already there, as nearly a quarter of the lot was already filled. We were ushered to the next empty spot by a parking attendant. Once we'd parked, we got out and headed to the front gate to meet the rest of our group.

There were at least twenty other people already there, and nearly all of them were dressed in fantasy garb. Elves, Dwarves, Mages, Knights, and even halflings mingled around the front of the gate.

The first of our group that I noticed was Jaden. Somehow, he had increased his height by at least seven inches, so that his normally six foot tall frame towered over the small, but growing, crowd. He was dressed in a chain shirt, over top Faux-Leather leather armor, wearing a metal helmet topped with purple plumage, which pushed his overall stature to near seven feet. On his back, a large metal shield and a long bastard sword, sheathed in a purple scabbard were affixed with leather straps. As we approached, I could make out his shoes, which were larger leather boots than he normally wore. Knowing his normal shoe size, I could tell he obviously had on platforms, and maybe lifts inside as well, but they were subtle enough that anyone else would overlook them.

"Holy Crap, Jaden!" Amy exclaimed as we got within earshot.

"I know, Right?!" Ashley responded.

Suddenly I realized that both Tommy and Ashley were standing next to Jaden. I had just been too focused on Jaden to notice

Ashley was the spitting image of what I had imagined Adora would look like: She was dressed in a dark cloak, with a light red tunic underneath. Her eyes had been made to look bigger, somehow, using makeup I guess, which made her face appear smaller than it actually was. Her cheeks were a bright pink, with slight red accent. She had a short bow on her back and a sheathed dagger at her hip. All her gear was slightly larger than you would expect, making her seem even smaller. Finally, whenever she was standing still, she'd intentionally bend her knees, imperceptibly under the robe, and lower herself by another couple inches.

"He makes me feel like a real Dwarf with those shoes on!" Tommy exclaimed.

Like the rest of us, Tommy had gone all out. His normally clean shaven face sported a very convincing braided brown dwarven beard. A metal helmet covered his normally short hair, which he'd let grow out over the last couple weeks. He was clad in a full suit of chainmail, had a heavy shield on his back, and a battleaxe affixed underneath it, visible only from the back. On the shield was painted the holy symbol of Kordek's (homebrew) deity; an Axe across a Diamond.

As we got closer, I heard Ashley squeal as she saw us, "OhMyGodYou'reElyveria ! That's so cool! And you're Grogan! That's awesome! Jaden, we should have come as our elves from the current campaign, then we could have two couples!"

Tommy stared at Ashley for a moment, then simply said, "And miss out on seeing your adorable ass? I mean, 'Adora Bla'as'"

Everyone except Ashley burst into laughter. As he laughed, Jaden put his hand on Ashley's shoulder, the closest thing he could do to wrapping his arm around her, "Maybe next year."

"Alright," Tommy announced, suddenly serious, "So we've got a Barbarian'" he pointed at me, "a Paladin, a Ranger, a Sorcerer, and a Cleric." He moved his finger to point at Jaden, Ashley, Amy, and himself as he called out our classes, "Sounds like a good mix.

Despite being from three different campaigns, our favorite characters made a surprisingly balanced party. In general, when creating characters for a D&D campaign, players try to create characters that fill certain roles within the party. Melee Combat, Ranged Combat, Arcane Spellcasting, Healing, and Skillfulness are the main roles that are considered. In our group, the Barbarian and Paladin covered Melee Combat, the Ranger covered Ranged Combat and skillfulness, the Sorceress was our Arcane Caster, and the Cleric could (usually) provide healing.

"Oh, here," Jaden said, pulling several pamphlets out of a pocket he had hidden somewhere, "They were handing these out when we got here. They have a full description of the major areas and events going on today."

I took a pamphlet from Jaden and began skimming through it. The old Renaissance Festival had been designed to replicate a single small hamlet nearby a medieval castle. However, the new owners had bought some of the surrounding land, and reimagined the area as more of a fantasy kingdom called "Metolac", than a historically accurate village.