Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“As you clutch Raygar close, he whispers a single name into your ear as if it were the most important thing in the world: ‘Doznak.’ The moment the word passes his lips, the light leaves his eyes.”

“No! Not my dude Raygar!” Nino wailed, his fist hitting the table, gently shaking the drinks that had been set on it.

“...And I think that’s where we’ll end this session. Thanks for coming out, you guys.” Uncle Hassan gave a hug to the other two party members as they left, leaving just him and Nino to pick up. “Thanks for the help, little man. How are you liking this campaign?”

“It’s totally awesome, uncle dude!” Nino raised his voice to be heard as he carried the glasses to the kitchen and left them in the sink. “Each story gets better than the last. And man! Tonight’s cliffhanger. I can’t wait to get the low down on who this Doznak dude is next week.”

When he returned, he saw his uncle smiling sheepishly and rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah… about that.”

“What?”

“I’m going to be visiting your grandpa in Tangier. So, uh, you might be waiting on that thrilling conclusion for a while.”

Giving his uncle a suspicious look, he asked, “How long is a ‘while’, exactly?”

“I won’t be back until New Year’s, kiddo.”

Nino gaped. “Dude!” He said, betrayed. “We’re only just at the end of summer! How am I supposed to wait that long?!”

Uncle Hassan chuckled. “Well, you’ll be starting school soon. That’ll help keep your mind off it, right?”

“Maybe a little.” Nino pouted and pulled his cap down, trying to hide his disappointment.

A large hand settled on his shoulder and Nino looked up into the hazel eyes of his uncle. “Kiddo, you’ve been doing great and it’s been fantastic having you around in the game. But sometimes groups have to take a break for a while. These things happen.”

Nino sagged. “But… I was just getting the hang of Dungeons and Dragons…”

“Well, you don’t have to stop.” Nino looked up, curiosity getting the better of him. “My books are just going to get dusty waiting for me here. Why don’t you take them and make a campaign of your own? Invite your friends. Trust me, it’ll be way more fun than playing with us geezers.” Uncle Hassan laughed, his eyes sparkling with mirth.

His friends? Nino thought of Adrien, with his impenetrably dense schedule. Alya and her lack of interest in games, whether they be board games or video games. Marinette and her tendency to always be juggling fifty projects at once. Although… they weren’t his only friends, right? It couldn’t be that hard to find two or three people willing to game with him like once a week.

“You know… you might be onto something.” A grin reached Nino’s face as he took the rulebooks that his uncle passed him. Outside, a car honked its horn - his dad was there to pick him up.

“Tell my brother-in-law I said hello. And good luck, kiddo!”

Nino waved and felt his mind light up with the possibilities of adventure.

--------------------

The last month of summer went by in a blur as Nino put his mind to work getting his campaign drafted. When school started, he took a few weeks to get back into the swing of things before he started the hunt for a new party.

That’s where he hit a snag.

There weren’t that many Dungeons and Dragons players in his class. Or, at least, not many that he knew of. He managed to corner all three of them during lunch and pitched his campaign to them.

“...So what’d ya think, dudes? Sound like a party or what?”

Max cleared his throat and pushed up his glasses. “I really am very sorry, Nino, but I’ve been kept adequately busy with my work on game design. While I’d love to join up, it would cut into my other projects. Regrettably, I’ll have to decline.”

“Alright, dude, no sweat.” Nino patted Max on the shoulder and turned toward the other two. “What about you guys?”

Juleka shook her head. “Sorry. I just started one with Rose. Can’t back out now, you know?”

“And I just got hooked on a new MMO with Ivan,” Mylene said with a wince. “If I stop now, I’ll lose my placing that I worked so hard for!”

“Major bummer.” Nino tugged at his cap as all four of them got up to return to their usual seats.

“According to my projections, I’ll have a greater likelihood of joining on the next adventure.”

“Maybe next campaign,” Mylene patted his arm as she walked past him.

“Yeah, we can try again next time.” Juleka paused. “Have you tried asking Adrien?”

Nino shook his head. “Nah, dude is always super busy.”

‘Sure, but he was asking me and Rose about D&D. I dunno, maybe just try it?”

“Really?” Nino perked up. His best friend had gone home for lunch, but he was still just a text away. “It might be worth a shot. Thanks, Juleka.”

“No problem. Good luck.”

Taking a seat at the table next to Alya, Nino shot a quick text to Adrien.

Nino: Heard you were asking about DnD. You game?

“What’s that about, babe?” Alya asked, looking over his shoulder.

“I’m trying to get a party together for Dungeons and Dragons.”

“Dang, and the first half of that sentence was so promising.”

“So is that a pass then?” Nino said with a faint smile. While sometimes he could get her to play games with him, he understood that it wasn’t her favorite. Just like how he didn’t share her love of rom coms, but indulged her every now and again.

“Yeah, babe. Although…” She looked at Marinette as she rushed into the building clutching a brown bag with the Dupain-Cheng bakery logo. “...there might be potential there.”

“Hey, guys!” Marinette sat down opposite them and opened the bag, passing some chocolatines to the two of them. “What’re we talking about?”

“Hey, M.” Alya leaned forward. “Do you ever play roleplaying games?”

“Um, sometimes? You know my favorite is fighting games, but I’m up for some adventure sometimes.” Marinette tilted her head to the side. “Why?”

“Well, Nino here was thinking about running a Dungeons and Dragons campaign…”

“I’m… not sure.” Marinette’s eyes widened. “Not that I’m not interested! It sounds like it’d be fun to do with friends. But I don’t know if I’ll be able to find the time. Plus-”

She was interrupted by the sound of Nino’s phone going off. He’d left it on the table, so everyone could see that it was from Adrien. A small smile crept across Nino’s face when he heard the little intake of breath when Marinette noticed.

“S-so, um, how’s- how’s Adrien?”

Poor dude. The guy isn’t even here and she is stuttering. Nino pulled up the text.

Adrien: Yes!!! I got all the rulebooks months ago and I’ve done my best to learn but no one plays. [sad cat emojii] Are you going to be a DM??

Chuckling, Nino sent him another message.

Nino: You bet! Would you be able to meet once a week?

The response was immediate.

Adrien: Maybe if I say I’m working on a group project? I could pull it off, yeah.

With a huge grin, he looked back up at the girls. “My boy is in!”

Marinette bounced up and down in place. “Then so am I!”

“Oh?” Alya leaned forward with a smirk. “What happened to not having the time?”

“I will find the time, I promise. But gaming with friends? And Adrien? Too good an opportunity to pass up.” She met Nino’s eyes and had the good graces to look sheepish.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. If this means I get more players, than I don’t mind.” He turned towards his girlfriend. “Speaking of more players… Now everybody else is in. How ‘bout you?”

Alya rolled her eyes with a smile. “I guess someone has to keep an eye on you hooligans.”

“Nice. This is going to be great!”

-------------------

Nino: And… we… are… LIVE!

We’ve been expecting you, Adrien Agreste

Marinette joined your party. Everyone look busy!

Alya is here, just as the prophecy foretold.

Nino: Say hello everybody

Adrien: Hello everybody

Nino: You’re hilarious

Marinette: hello! Hey guys!

Alya: Sup

Nino: We’ll be using this Discord server for all Dnd related things, k? Mostly for planning new sessions

Adrien: What about… spicy memes?

Nino: Know what, bro? I’ll make a channel that you can spam to your hearts content

Adrien: <3

Nino has changed his name to Lord DM

Alya: Seriously

Lord DM: Definitely

Adrien has changed his name to Adrien Regreste

Alya: Pffft

Adrien Regreste: Come on, Mari! Its what all the cool kids are doing!

Alya: Hey now

Marinette has changed her name to marinoodles

Marinoodles: ...How’s that?

Adrien Regreste: ;-; Its so cute. And also hilarious??

Marinoodles: I mena thank you!
*mean

Alya has changed her name to Alya’ll Beware

Alya’ll Beware: Sweetie you know you can just edit your comments right

Marinoodles: ...Now I do.

Lord DM: Lol
Anyway. How’s this weekend looking?

Alya’ll Beware: Just jumping right into it, arent you? But yeah I’m free

Marinoodles: I babysit Manon on sunday but saturday is clear!

Adrien Regreste: I can pull off saturday! Where are we meeting??

Lord DM: Whoever we meet at provides food. Since I am DM, I am exempt.
(Plus my place is always supes crowded)

Adrien Regreste: Uh I can probably manage it off. Father will be out of town with Nathalie. The Gorilla is much more lenient hwen it’s just us.

Marinoodles: Gret sounding!
*Thta sounds gerat!
**That sounds great!

Adrien Regreste: Haha, yeah! I’m pumped to have you guys over. :)

----------------

Despite Nino’s fear of a repeat from last time, none of them were thrown out or belittled on their way to Adrien’s room. The worst that any of them received was an uncertain glare from the Gorilla as they filed upstairs.

As it turned out, the most difficult problem they had to face was Adrien’s purchasing habits. Nino had to explain to him that even though they were teenagers playing D&D, there was no way they’d be able to get through five pizzas and all the drinks he’d ordered. After he’d extracted a promise not to go overboard again, Nino went straight into explaining the basics and had them roll for stats.

“You sure about this, dude?” Nino leaned over Adrien’s shoulder and frowned at his character sheet. “I get you’re gonna be a bard, but max Charisma and low Wisdom just sounds like a recipe for disaster.”

Nino could just barely overhear Alya whisper to Marinette, “Attractive but kinda dense? Doesn’t that sound like someone we know…?”

“ALYA,” Marinette whispered back in a scandalized tone.

“Maybe, but that just means it might be more memorable, right?” Adrien looked up at Nino and couldn’t hold out against the excitement he saw in his eyes.

“Sure, bro.” Nino walked over to the girls. “And how’re you two hanging?” He craned his neck to see where Marinette was sticking her highest stats. “Dexterity… and intelligence? Good choices for a rogue.”

Marinette smiled. “Thanks! I’ve been thinking about her background. Get this - the rebel daughter of an elven baron.” She nudged Alya. “Pretty neat, right?”

“Wow, that sounds way cool, Marinette!” Adrien beamed at her and she melted.

“Than- than- Thanks, Adrien! You’re cool too!” She winced, but Adrien’s smile didn’t dim.

Nino raised an eyebrow as he noticed her hit points. “But, uh, why’d you stick your lowest stat in Constitution? Your dude isn’t gonna be able to take a hit.”

A sly smirk spread across her face. “I won’t need to take a hit if I play my character right.”

“Heh. Fair enough.” Nino turned his attention to Alya’s sheet, only to see it blank. “Um, something wrong, babe?”

“I dunno.” Alya shrugged. “I’m not big into games like you guys are, so its all going in one ear and out the other.”

“Well…” Nino took a seat next to her and thumbed through the core rulebook. “Maybe we should just keep it simple, right? So you can get your bearings.”

“A fighter?” Alya raised an eyebrow. “Seems kinda boring.”

“Yeah? How about a knight errant, looking for glory to make her name in the world? Rushing forward to defend the weak from the strong? Still sound boring?”

A grin split her face. “Now you’re speaking my language, cappy.”

“That’s Lord DM Cappy to you, babe.”

“Don’t push it.”

“Okay, so let me see if I get where we’re standing.” Adrien pushed the hair out of his face and looked at the three of them. He pointed to himself. “I’m a half-elf bard.” The finger shifted to Marinette who blushed and frantically waved at him. “Elven rogue.” Alya fell under his digit next. “Human fighter. Where does that leave you, Lord DM Cappy?”

Alya groaned and Nino chuckled. “Since someone needs to watch out for you guys, I’m going to be playing a human cleric. A priest of the sun.”

“Sounds like we’re pretty well balanced? Well,” Adrien ducked his head. “Except for me. Maybe it’d be better if I just played a wizard…?”

“N-no!” Marinette quickly interjected. “Adrien, you can be what-whatever you want to be!”

“Dude has a point. There is more to having fun than being the most efficient party possible, bro.”

“Alright.” Adrien relaxed. “Awesome.”

“Now, let’s get everything else sorted for character creation. And while we do that, I can tell you a little about the world you find yourselves in…”

As Nino began by telling them of the Good King Hamon, he felt a spark light up from within. He could already tell this was going to be the best campaign.

Chapter Text

Adrien Regreste: Last session was awesome!
When can we do it again??

Lord DM: Lol dude. Its only been a day ya know
We can figure it out a little later

Marinoodles: id love to do this weekend with you adrien!
For dnd i mean
And with everyone else
Not just adrien

Adrien Regreste: Your character was so cool, Mari! I can’t wait to see how you play her :D

Marinoodles: Thank you! <3
Oh um whoops
I didn’t mean to send a heart, haha

Adrien Regreste: ?? what did you mean to send?

Marinoodles: Um…
this? :3

Adrien Regreste: :O
That’s so cute!
Can I use it??

Marinoodles: Sure! Your’e fine!
*That’s fine!
Not that you’re NOT fine I just
askdjfasdlkfjadf

Alya’ll Beware: Omg u 2 get a room

Marinoodles: ALYA

Adrien Regreste: ?????

Nino chuckled as he read the string of messages. It made him glad to know that his friends were enjoying the campaign - especially Adrien. They didn’t get a chance to hang out nearly as much as he liked and this was a perfect excuse to get them all together. Besides, watching him and Marinette interact was always good for the soul. Very adorable stuff.

Speaking of adorable, Alya had sent him a private message on Discord. He opened up the chat.

Alya: Just so u know, I’ve got ulterior motives here

Nino: About marinette, Im guessing?

Alya: Yeah
Don’t you see?
This is a great chance to get these two dweebs togethre!

Nino: Alya…
Can’t we just let them enjoy the game?
Grow closer on their own terms?

Alya: If we do that, then they’ll still be blushng at each other when we’re in university
Mama Alya’s got to do some interventions.
I want my nieces and nephews at some point!

Nino: …
Sigh
Fine.

Alya: 💖

Nino: But!

Alya: 💔

Nino: Only if you stay in character, okay? At least that will keep oyu invested in the game.

Alya: ...I accept your conditions, Lord DM Cappy.

------------

“Anything you’re willing to spill about today’s session, bro?” Adrien grinned as he asked, excitement sparkling in his eyes. They were both strapped into the backseat of the Gorilla’s car as they made their way to Marinette’s house. It was late, but between Marinette babysitting and Adrien’s photoshoot, it was the best they could do.

Nino shook his head. “Sorry, dude. Most of it probs won’t be too interesting, though, since we have to get the introductions out of the way.” Adrien phone went off and he pulled it out. “Who’s texting you, dude?”

“Alya,” Adrien replied absently as he read the text. The tips of his ears turned red and his eyes widened.

Suspicion settled onto Nino as he tried to crane his neck to see the text. “Yeah? And what’s she telling you?”

“Nothing much. Just some tips about how to play a bard.”

Alarms were sounding in Nino’s head. “Really? What kind of tips.”

“Just… tips. About how charismatic bards should act. That kind of thing.”

Nino pinched the bridge of his nose. “Of course she is…”

Before either of them could ask any more questions, the car came to a halt and the Gorilla grunted at them. They had reached their destination.

“Ready for your first real session, dude?” Nino punched Adrien on the shoulder as he climbed out and they headed inside.

“You know I am!” Adrien opened the door and both of them were immediately buffeted by the scent of fresh pastries. They were guided by their noses to the kitchen. “Mmm! That smells delicious!”

Marinette froze, her pupils shrinking to pinpoints as they entered the room. “That’s- thanks! I- We made it for you. I mean! For all of us. For today’s session. So we could eat it. Y-yeah.”

“That’s very cool of you two!” Adrien he took a chocolate croissant off the platter and took a bite. “It tastes even better than it smells!”

“You really think so? Well,” Alya put her hands on Marinette’s shoulders and pushed her a little closer to Adrien, “those were made by hand. Marinette’s hands, as a matter of fact. I mostly just provided commentary.”

“Sorry dudes,” Nino cut in. “But can we start soon? We got a lot I wanna cover today.”

Marinette sagged in relief. “Y-yeah! Let’s get started!”

When Adrien and Marinette had squeezed past and headed towards the living room, Alya narrowed her eyes at Nino. He mouthed the word ‘roleplay’ to her and went to follow the others.

Nino took his seat and set up his DM screen around his notes and dice. Clearing his throat, he got started. “Marinette, you and Alya are sitting at a booth inside the tavern when in walks two men. The half-elf is wearing brightly colored clothes and is holding a…” He squinted at the paper in front of him. “Dude, what’s your instrument?”

“A lyre! Oh, and he’s blonde with green eyes - like me!” Adrien beamed, practically vibrating in place with excitement as he looked between the girls and him.

“Right, right, I getcha. And standing next to him is a human in chainmail armor, the symbol of the sun worn proudly around his neck.”

“Sounds like a cutie,” Alya said with a waggle of her eyebrow.

Nino’s cheeks heated up, but he pressed on valiantly. “So, uh, what do you do?”

“W-well, do they, um, do they match the descriptions we were given?” Marinette meekly replied.

“Yup! The description the monks gave you was right on. These are the dudes you are supposed to meet up with, no doubt about it.”

“R-right. Then I’ll wave them over then.”

“Right on. Adrien, what do you want to-”

“I walk over. Can I roll to seduce?”

Nino blinked in confusion and noticed the shock written plain on Marinette’s face. Alya, however, seemed on the verge of maniacal laughter.

“I… You want to seduce someone? Why?”

“Well, that’s what bards do, right?” He looked between his friends with an excited look on his face. “So what do I do? Roll this twenty sided die, right?”

“Yeah, but,” Nino struggled to get a hold of the situation, “who are you going to seduce?”

“Marinette, of course!” Adrien said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. If Marinette had been one of Adrien’s anime characters, there would have been a gush of blood erupting from her nose. As is, it just looked like she was about to pass out. “You and Alya are… you know, so it makes sense!”

While that was definitely airtight reasoning, Nino couldn’t help but groan. “Alright, let’s see what the dice have to say about it. Roll the die and add your charisma to this.”

Poor Marinette, wide eyed and blushing from cheek to neck, watched in bated anticipation as Adrien shook the die with gusto and let it loose. The first real roll of the game, Nino reflected. And it was being used to flirt with a party member. Was this a sign of what was to come?

He watched to see what the die will land on and what it might say about the rest of the campaign…

It rolled across the table, propelled by an overeager Adrien.

It came to a stop, directly in front of Marinette.

It showed…

...A one.

There was a stunned silence before Nino began laughing uncontrollably.

“Alright, bro. This is what happens - you walk up to them, put your hand on the table, and forget your own name as they look up at you expectantly. I follow behind and introduce ourselves.”

Adrien pouted, but a small smile poked through when Marinette giggled. Some color besides red was returning to her face.

“Maybe next time, sunshine,” Alya said through a grin. “So, are we ready to talk about adventure?”

After the party’s rocky opening moments, they hit their stride as they talked over the details of their first quest together. The locals had been dealing with a band of kobold raiders who were stealing their live stock. After a farmer was found dead, they decided the raiders had gone too far, and sent out a call for adventurers. A wandering bard, a local cleric, a noble runaway, and a knight errant answered.

“You spot the kobold den. The entrance just seems to be a hastily carved slab of wood covering a cave mouth.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask…” Marinette wrung her hands. “What’s a kobold?”

“Good question!” Nino folded his hands and looked between his friends. “Has anyone here seen a kobold before? Or know something about the arcane?”

The sound of ruffled papers greeted him as the party shuffled through their character sheets. Adrien’s eyes lit up. “Oh! I’ve got bardic knowledge.” He smiled and nudged Marinette, who joltd. “I guess I’ve seen some stuff on the road, huh?”

“Sure, bro, but let’s see if you know anything about them.” Nino watched as Adrien rolled. “Nice. Much better than your last one.” There were giggles around the table and Adrien playfully rolled his eyes. “Anyway, you know that kobolds are short, lizard dudes who like to build traps. Very community based, team efforts are their gig.”

“Cool! I tell the rest of the party that. So are we going in then?”

“W-wait.” Marinette narrowed her eyes in thought. “It seems too obvious, right? We didn’t even really look that hard for the way in, we just stumbled across it.”

“Right…? Oh!” Adrien caught on. “You think it might be a trap? So how are we going to get in then?”

“Well… they have to have a way in, right? So let’s look around. Maybe there is a secret passage.”

“Okay, I’ll make a perception roll for all of you.” Nino made some quick checks behind his screen. “So - Babe, you find a small boulder that seems out of place.”

“I’ll move it.”

“You got anything on you to do that with?”

“My big, beefy, lady knight muscles.”

Nino chuckled. “Alright, dude. Roll a d20 and add your strength modifier.” He watched the die land - more than enough to heft the thing. “Nice! You don’t have any trouble shifting it on your own, but there is no way anyone smaller than you could have pulled it off.”

“Huh. Guess they really don’t want kobolds going out alone.”

“So you go down into a side passage in the cave before eventually emerging into a small room with a table and chair. There is a lever against the wall, a string that runs into the darkness, and a sleeping kobold in the chair. What do you do?”

“Well we gotta take out the kobold first, right?” Alya glanced over at the other two. “We can’t have them raising an alarm or anything. I’ll nudge Marinette towards the kobold.”

“Does it count as, um… Flat footed? Do I get sneak attack?”

“You bet, dude. You’ll hit, no sweat, but roll for stealth.” She did. “Ooo, barely. After stumbling, you manage to get over there and silence the sentry for good. Now what?”

“Um… I’ll look around. What’s the lever for?”

“Got any knowledge of engineering?”

“Yup!”

Alya made an X with her arms. “Woah woah woah. Hold up, girl. Why do you know about engineering?”

Marinette shrugged. “You never know when understanding how buildings stay standing will help. In character, my family is known for their castles. Seemed like a good choice, you know?”

“Anyway,” Nino continued. “You can tell the lever activates a trap. A boulder trap, by the looks of it. Stepping into the hallway, you notice the entire thing is on an incline and your room is well hidden.”

“Oh, wow.” Adrien tapped at his chin. “We would’ve walked right by and been crushed by the boulder.”

“Wait…” Marinette’s eyes lit up. “I have an idea!”

A few minutes later and her plan was set into motion. Adrien stood by the hidden side passage and began to play his lyre as loudly as he could while Alya struck a stick against her shield repeatedly. Before long, their characters heard clawed feet rushing up the passageway in large numbers. The first to spot them was Adrien, who ducked back inside the passage.

“Now! They can’t retreat!”

Marinette’s character pulled the lever and a loud rumbling was heard. A giant boulder rushed past the room and the brief squawks of the enemy turned to silence.

“You enter the passageway to find one heck of a mess… and no survivors.” Nino let them cheer for a moment before adding, “At least, from this group. There’s anywhere from five to eight squished kobolds out here, and you remember that the villagers were sure there was about twenty.”

They were about to continue when Adrien’s phone went off. His face fell when he looked at it. “Sorry, guys. Looks like I need to head home now.’

“What?!” Marinette exclaimed before immediately blushing at her own outburst. “I mean- it’s just- Been here haven’t long- Going now?”

“I’m really sorry. You guys can go on without me.”

Nino shook his head and stood. “No way, dude. We’re in this together.”

“...Really?” Adrien said, looking hopeful.

“You bet, sunshine! This party doesn’t split.”

“Y-yeah! We’ll wait for you!”

“Thanks,” Adrien said with a smile. “I promise, I’ll make next week work and I’ll make sure we can stay for longer. Somehow.”

After saying their goodbyes, Nino hitched a ride home with Adrien. Nino hadn’t even thought about the traps being used against the kobolds, but they managed it. As he listened to Adrien chatter about the campaign, Nino could feel that this was going to be a campaign to remember.

Chapter Text

Nino yawned, the lingering effects of staying up all night working on his campaign. Plus a few breaks to get his homework done. He’d been hit by a sudden wave of inspiration and knew where he wanted to go with this campaign. Now that he had the plot mapped out, all he needed to do was keep them meeting consistently. There was room for missed days, but not a lot of it. If everything went according to plan then they would be done just before December.

One step into the classroom and he saw that he wasn’t the first of his friend group to arrive. Adrien and Marinette had beaten him there. To his immense surprise, the two of them were holding a conversation. By themselves. With neither him or Alya to supervise. Naturally, he went back around the corner to watch from afar. He’d done it without thinking and shook his head after he realized it - Alya was getting to him.

“That was a really cool plan you came up with, Marinette!”

“R-really? Oh! Th-thanks, I made it myself!”

Nino winced, but Adrien just laughed. “And you’re hilarious?! I wish we had done this way sooner.”

“Y-yeah! And you, um, you’re pretty too- I mean, pretty cool! You’re just so excited about everything. It’s… it’s really inspiring. Even when you don’t succeed.”

“Oh?” Adrien practically purred. “Did you wish I got better results with my first roll?”

“Wuh- I, um, that’s- well…”

“Don’t worry, I’m just kidding.” Adrien chuckled and Marinette joined him after a sigh of relief.

Nino took that as his opportunity to enter the room nonchalantly. “Hey, dudes. Were you talking about the session? We still on for this Saturday?”

Adrien shared a fistbump with him. “You know it! Hey, did you get today’s science homework done?”

Remembering the rushed work he did last night, he pulled out his scrawled notes. “Uh… sorta. Mind lending some help before class starts, bro?”

----------------------------

“Hey hey, little dudes!” Nino smiled as Etta and Ella ran towards him. “How’s it hangin’?”

After getting caught up with them, he set his backpack full of rulebooks on the living room table and walked into the kitchen. He leaned against the counter as he watched his girlfriend put the finishing touches on dinner.

“Right on time, babe. Tonight’s meal comes straight from my mom’s cookbook. You’d better get ready for a treat to remember.” Alya gave him a peck on the cheek as she passed him on the way to the dishes.

“Your mom’s recipe? And you cooking? That’s gotta be good, no doubt about it.”

“Sweet talk like that will get you everywhere, cappy.”

Nino stepped over to the pot of soup and took a deep breath. It was every bit as delicious smelling as he had hoped. Maybe it wasn’t the ideal food for a D&D session, but he wasn’t about to complain.

“So how long do we have the place to ourselves?” The twins started shouting from their room. “Well, uh, not exactly to ourselves, but, um… you know.”

Alya leaned against the counter and shrugged. “Who knows? Mom and Dad tend to get carried away on their dates, so we’ll at least have a few hours. Maybe they won’t show up until way late. Nora’s out of town, though, so at least there is that.”

“Right on. The less interruptions we have, the better.” He grinned. “And the less people I’ve got to share dinner with.”

“Any clue when the other two are supposed to arrive?”

“Dunno. My boy Adrien said he’d take a bit longer than he’d thought. What about Marinette?” Alya smiled and Nino pinched the bridge of his nose. “Babe… you didn’t.”

There was a knock at the door, which prompted Alya to flash another smirk at Nino before letting them in. Just as he’d suspected, Adrien entered and was followed by Marinette, her cheeks tinged pink by the time they’d spent alone together.

It didn’t take long for them to get settled in - at least, not after they found something to distract the twins with. A few minutes of set up and Nino was right back to where they had been last week.

“The caves are open for exploring. You can bet there are tons more enemies where those first few came from, but you guys haven’t even drawn a weapon yet or taken any hits. What do you do?”

“...What do you mean?” Adrien scrunched his eyebrows together. “We still need to clear out the rest of them. Do we have options besides leaving or fighting?”

“Well, um, I think what he means is we could, ah, scout?” Marinette replied. “My character should be stealthy enough to find out where there are more kobolds. Without running into more traps.”

“Ohhh!” Adrien’s eyes went wide. “Yeah, that might be a smart idea. I’ll give you my signal horn in case you run into trouble.”

“Th-thanks! I hope I won’t need it.”

A brief exploration later lead to other one sided battles as the party ambushed the kobolds in their own den.

“You’ve scoured this level of the cave, but can’t find any more raiders. What you did find was a tunnel leading deeper into the cave system. From what Marinette can tell, it looks like an old mine.”

Alya narrowed her eyes. “No way that was all the kobolds. We’ve only killed like twelve of them, which is still a ways off from the twenty that the villagers were so sure about. Something doesn’t add up, and I bet we’ll find our answers down there.”

“Well, maybe they are just down in the mine? Would that be so strange?” Adrien tapped a finger to his chin. “Or… they could be out on a raid.”

“No way, sunshine. The raids were barely big enough to kill cattle. Half their numbers just for a raid isn’t in their MO. Besides, you heard how Cappy described the entrance to the mine - ‘silent like a tomb.’”

“Actually,” Nino helpfully cut in, “now that you’re closer, you can hear something moving down there. Sounds a little bigger than a kobold though. Not by much, but still.”

The adventurers shared a look.

“I’m not about to leave a job half-finished,” Marinette said as she crossed her arms on the table. “And we’re still in pretty good shape.”

“Where you go, my song shall follow.”

“...Well, I guess someone has to keep you two safe,” Alya said.

“The tunnels wind deeper beneath the ground until you discover a grisly sight - the remaining kobolds, torn to shreds. Bones, nicked by the kobolds’ spears, lay scattered around them.”

Silence reigned over the party.

“Bones?” Marinette spoke first. “Are they carved with patterns or…?”

Nino shook his head. “Nope. It looks like random jabs and cuts from the spears. At least, as far as your untrained eye can tell.”

“Well… now I’m even more worried.” Marinette narrowed her eyes at her character sheet. “Something had to have killed these kobolds.”

“Yeah, girl. We don’t want to leave now, only for the village to get messed with by whatever did this.” Alya idly rolled her eight sided dice.

“So you’ll be pressing on then?” Nino looked between them, getting nods in return. “Sweet. You walk toward the other end of the room… and the bones reassemble into a band of dwarf sized skeletons. Roll for initiative.”

The battle ended up being longer than Nino had originally intended. None of the party members were equipped to deal with a skeletal enemy, excluding his cleric. They may have won the fight, but they were worse off for it. Maybe he should tone down the number of skeletons in the next few rooms.

Before he could make a decision, though, the twins burst from their room. Despite Alya’s best efforts, once released, they couldn’t be contained again. The session had been officially derailed and ended.

--------------------------

The following day, Nino opened discord to see how his party was handling their nearest brush with defeat.

Alya’ll Beware: Sorry it got cut short guys. Sometimes Etta and Ella are too much even for me
:(

Marinoodles: Don’t worry! It was fine, I’m just glad we got them to fall asleep before we started on our sleepover.

Adrien Regreste: It wasn’t any trouble. Although I’m wondering if it usually takes this long to get through a dungeon, or if we just have super bad luck…

Lord DM: Fights always take forever it feels like, and dungeons are packed with them. I was assuming it’d take a few sessions to finish, but yeah, our luck hasn’t been awesome lately. We’re almost done tho.

Alya’ll Beware: Thx guys! Makes me feel a little better
THo maybe we should stick to mari and adrien’s for a while
I get the feeling we’ll just get interrupted again if we go 2 my place
Ya know?

Adrien Regreste: yeah
We should be able to hang out at my place next session
After that is sort of a gamble though

Marinoodles: You’re always welcome at my place!
All of you i mean
Not just adrien
But you definitely are welcome to visit too adrien!
Whenever you want
If you want to

Lord DM: Anyway. This coming session will be at Adrien’s place then. Sound good?

Alya’ll Beware: Yup

Marinoodles: Can’t wait! :D

Adrien Regreste: :3

Chapter Text

“Yo, M!”

Marinette froze in the middle of reaching toward the intercom button on the Agreste mansion gate, but relaxed when she saw him approaching. “Oh! Hey, Nino. Great timing, I was just about to go in.”

“That so? And how long have you been ‘just about to go in’?” He smirked as he said it, already knowing what the answer would be.

Just as he suspected, Marinette’s shoulders slumped. “...A while.” She rubbed her arm. “I just… I don’t think I’m ready yet to be alone with him for that long. You know?”

“Yeah, I get you, but I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit, dude.” He pressed the button and waited for the gate to open. “You’ve been getting better around him. And I know he likes talking to you.”

“R-really?!” Her head whipped towards him, excitement plain on her face before she clumsily schooled it into a mask of indifference. “Ahem. That’s… great. I’m glad he does. If he asks, you can tell him the same is true for me.”

The gate opened up and they walked through. “So, hot party members aside, how are you liking the campaign?”

Powering through her blush, she replied, “I like it! It’s been a weird transition away from the games that I usually play, but its fun. There is a lot more interaction with you guys, which is great, and it’s also nice to be working together.”

“Since you get tired of curb stomping us at Ultimate Mecha Strike?”

“It does get pretty boring…” She glanced over to Nino and met his eyes. They both burst out laughing.

The main doors opened in front of them. A mop of blonde hair popped out from behind the comically large doors. Adrien grinned at them.

“Hey, guys! We’re waiting on Alya then?”

“Sounds like it, bro. How do you want us to wait? Foosball? Arcade games? Competitive rock climbing?” They filed in past Adrien. He closed the doors behind them. From his spot in the foyer, the Gorilla spared them a passing glance and a half-hearted growl.

“Actually…” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “I was hoping we could do some cooking?”

Nino shared a look with Marinette, but she only had eyes for Adrien. Eyes that were, at the moment, sparkling with unrestrained joy. He let out a long suffering sigh.

“Yeah, okay.” He finger gunned at Adrien. “You two start getting ready while I go set up in your room, ‘kay dudes?”

“That sounds awesome! See you there!”

Marinette flashed him a brief panicked look before Adrien snagged her wrist and rushed off into the kitchen. Nino gave an exaggerated wink in return. The door closed before he could see her reaction. Knowing he’d done Alya proud, he bounced up the stairs two at a time and slipped into Adrien’s room.

The process of setting up really wasn’t as intensive as he’d led his friends to believe. A grid unrolled onto the table, a DM screen set up, his dice laid out, and it was done. But the little ritual helped focus the party and gave him more time to get into the mindset of being the dungeon master. Or, in this case, let him lounge around for a little while to give Adrien and Marinette some alone time.

After a few more minutes had passed, Nino decided that he should probably go downstairs. No doubt, Marinette would appreciate the save. Whatever Alya thought, Nino was confident that just shoving them alone in a room for a while wouldn’t work. Just because their relationship started that way doesn’t mean it was foolproof.

Nino hesitated at the door when he heard laughing. An eyebrow raised - surely getting them to open up to each other hadn’t that easy? The door opened smoothly and Nino froze at the sight before him.

It would be an exaggeration to say that both of his friends were completely covered in flour, but it wouldn’t be a huge exaggeration. It had certainly covered most of their clothes… and their hair… some smudges on their faces… and streaks across the kitchen floor and counter. They at least had the presence of mind to look sheepish as they looked back at him. It was then that Nino noticed that in their clenched fists were clumps of flour. Suddenly it all clicked for him.

So he did the only thing that came to mind - he laughed.

“Seriously, dudes?”

“She started it!” Adrien said, pointing a powdery white finger towards Marinette.

“I- No! You popped up behind me and scared me into spilling flour on you.”

“Yes. A blatant act of war. So I responded in kind.”

“Y-you left a flour handprint on my shoulder...”

“Which was justice.”

“...So I did the same.”

“Which was too far.”

“And… well…” Marinette winced as she took in the room around them, ending with looking down at herself dejectedly. “...I don’t think I can play like this.”

Adrien shrugged. “You can borrow some of my clothes if you want. And we can wash your stuff while we play.”

“Now there’s an idea,” Nino said as he watched Marinette’s face turn beet red. That couldn’t be healthy. “Why don’t you two go figure that out while I sweep up the mess in here? If Nathalie sees this, I don’t think your old man will let us over any more.”

Adrien gulped. “You’ve got a point.” He turned towards Marinette. “Come on, I’m sure we can find something to fit you.”

Once the door closed behind them, Nino chuckled to himself. Those two were complete disasters.

-----------------------

An hour later and the four of them were assembled around Adrien’s bedroom table. Alya had raised an eyebrow at seeing Marinette in a pair of gym pants and a familiar black shirt, but surprisingly hadn’t commented on it.

Once he had their attention, Nino began to recap. “If you all remember, we had just gotten into the old mines when we were ambushed by a bunch of skeletons. Since the dead don’t just animate themselves, you can bet there’s some weirdo down here doing it.”

“Hopefully they haven’t had enough time to raise a bunch more than this,” Adrien said as he frowned at his character’s hit points.

“Then we’d better hurry up to make sure.” Alya rested her head in her hand. “Hey, babe. Can you give me a quick heal? I want to make sure I can still takes the hits for you softies.”

“‘Course, babe.”

A little healing all around and they were trudging through the darkness again. Taking the lesson from last session into account, Nino had thinned the numbers of skeletons around to just a couple here and there. It did wonders for making the party confident.

Confident enough that when they found a securely locked wooden door, their first instinct was to bash it down rather than listen carefully. Which meant that they walked right into a mechanical trap. Nothing special - just an arrow trap. But the health that it shaved off Alya’s knight was enough to make the following fight with the dark adept even more harrowing.

The battle went poorly at first, with Nino barely able to keep them up with his healing magics. Then, as always, things changed when Marinette came up with a plan.

“Wait! I’ve got it.” Marinette turned to Nino. “I need you to focus on killing the skeletons. We can’t hurt them, but you can.” She grabbed Alya’s arm. “You and me are charging straight towards the big baddie. He, at least, is stab-able.”

“What about me?” Adrien tilted his head at Marinette.

Her eyes widened and a faint blush darkened her cheeks, but Nino was proud to see that she managed to reply to him. And with barely a stutter!

“Y-you’ll be keeping us going with your bard song while flanking the skeletons. And don’t you still have a couple healing songs?”

Adrien gasped. “I do!”

“Awesome! Let’s see if this works…”

The plan nearly failed from the start when Marinette’s rogue was knocked out from a random strike of the adept’s staff, but thankfully Adrien was there with a song on his lips. Nino wasn’t sure when it started, but his best friend had taken to belting out a few lines of a random song whenever he was doing bard magic. Unfortunately, the singing didn’t help this time when he managed to get Marinette up with only one hit point.

Despite that, they managed to pull off the plan. The undead and their master was defeated.

“As you bury your sword into the evil mage, he hisses at Alya, ‘My master will make you pay for this. And I will be waiting…,’ before collapsing into a heap of black robes and a rapidly growing pool of blood.” He took a bite out of a cookie they had made earlier. “Nice going, dudes. The mines are silent again. What do you do now?”

Marinette was glaring at the table. “I don’t like what he said about a master. Does he have a journal or something lying around?”

“Sure. It’s written in code though.”

“Dang, that’s actually a good idea,” Marinette muttered to herself. “Well, I guess we’ll take it with us. I’m sure we can figure it out eventually.”

After taking the time to thoroughly plunder the dungeon, they made their way back to the village.

“It’s night when you get back, so the village elder is sleeping. In the morning, she tells you that they are grateful for you help, but want you to stay in town for a week to be sure the raids have stopped. They’ll pay for your food and lodgings in the meantime.”

The party nodded as they absorbed this.

“So what are we going to do for a week then?”

“Are we in the tavern?” At Nino’s nod, Adrien rubbed his hands together. “Time for me to use that Charisma and make my bardic ancestors proud. I roll to seduce the barmaid!”

Alya caught his wrist before he rolled. “Wait, shouldn’t there be a little more roleplay to this?”

Nino’s eyes flickered to Adrien and he felt some heat rush to his cheeks. “Um… I’m not sure I’m super comfortable flirting with my best bro, babe. Especially with you here.”

“Don’t worry!” A predatory smirk found its way onto her face. “Marinette can do it!”

Poor Marinette had been in the middle of taking a drink when Alya said that, and nearly coughed up a lung because of it. After a few minutes, she was able to reply.

“But- but I- And he! H-how?”

Not coherently, but she did reply.

Alya slid up beside her and draped her arm over her friend’s shoulders. “Don’t worry, Adrien will take it easy on you.” She shot a wink at him as she withdrew from Marinette’s side. “Go get her, tiger.”

Adrien swallowed heavily. “So, um… hey?”

“Strong opening,” Nino muttered, which earned him a glare from his girlfriend.

Marinette nervously bunched edge of her borrowed shirt in her hands. “H-hey! Did you, um, want something to drink, or…?”

“No, I, uh, I wanted to ask you something…”

“Oh…?”

“So…” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, face tomato red, refusing to look directly at Marinette, “I know this is, uh, pretty forward of me but… Ah… How about… you and me…?”

“Um… y-yes?”

“I…” Adrien wrung his hands together and somehow his blush became even redder, “Um… n-nevermind.” He hung his head and Nino patted his back.

“Good effort, bro.” Adrien gave him a weak smile. Taking in the expressions of his party - how Marinette and Adrien couldn’t meet each other’s eyes, how Alya was grinning - he decided that here was as good a place as any to end. “Right, so we’ll call it here, dudes.”

“I take it the week went by without anything happening?” Alya asked when it was clear the other two weren’t going to say anything.

“‘Course. They gave you your gold and some extra rations for the road as a bonus.” He started packing up. “I’ll send a message on the discord tomorrow about where you guys want to head next, so be thinking about that, alright?”

A few goodbyes later and Nino was on his way home. A smile slowly crept onto his face. It was a close call today, but they were shaping up to be true adventurers already.

Chapter Text

Lord DM: Alright dudes whatre we thinking.

Marinoodles: Did I ever get that journal decoded?

Lord DM: Yup! It basically just backs up what the dude was saying
He had a master. A true Necromancer
There are hints of a plot.
Like raising legions of the dead
Some harsh stuff, to be sure

Alya’ll Beware: I don’t like the sound of that
We need to get the truth out there

Marinoodles: Hm… i dunno
If everyone knows, that might bring panic
And gives the Necromancer warning

Adrien Regreste: We should do something though
Is there someone higher up that we can talk to?

Marinoodles: Right!
That’s a great idea!
If we’re in a kingdom… maybe we can talk to the king?

Lord DM: It’ll take a while.
Two weeks to reach the capital.

Adrien Regreste: That’s not great
Is there any shortcuts we can take?

Lord DM: If you go through the forest, sure
But its lawless
Tons of bandits
And worse
It’ll shave a week off the trip though

Alya’ll Beware: So we get there in double time AND we get to smash some baddies?
Sounds like only upsides, babe

Marinoodles: We say that now
Let’s see how we feel after an ambush

Adrien Regreste: With someone as clever as you with us, how can they ever catch us by surprise? :3

Marinoodles: Thank you! :D
<3

Lord DM: to be clear, you are choosing to go through the forest?

Marinoodles: Yuppers!

Adrien Regreste: Yes! >:3

Alya’ll Beware: Did I stutter?

Lord DM: Nice. I’ll see you guys at Marinette’s on Saturday then.

-----------------------

Nino entered the Dupain-Cheng home with his bag slung across his shoulder. Immediately, the delicious scent of baked goods hit him and he took a deep breath to enjoy it. The food was probably his favorite reason for them hanging out here. It was nice to know that he wouldn’t be leaving hungry.

As he walked into the living room, he saw Tom and Sabine playing Ultimate Mecha Strike. They were so into their game that they had failed to notice his arrival. At a passing glance, it looked like Tom was winning, but even as he watched that seemed less and less certain.

“Sup, dudes.”

Tom glanced toward him before returning his attention to the screen. A wide grin split his face. “Nino! Great to see you. How’s it hangin’, son?”

Chuckling, Nino replied, “S’alright. Wait, aren’t you two usually in the bakery this time of day?”

“We’re closed today,” Sabine chimed in. “Bakery holiday.”

“Yeah? What holiday is that?”

“Beating Tom’s butt at Ultimate Mecha Strike holiday.” She laughed as she delivered the final move on her husband’s character, winning her the game. “But more seriously, we’re just on a break. Marinette is using the kitchen right now.” She turned around to look at him now that the match was over. “I assume that has to do with why you’re here?”

“Yeah! I’m pretty pumped for another session of Dungeons and Dragons.”

“Oh! I remember playing that years ago. It was a fun way to spend time with friends back in the day. It’s nice to see you kids still playing it.”

Tom leaned back and crossed his arms. “I never got into roleplaying games, myself. I found my love in fighting games, and I never could stray.”

“Mhm, such a shame that love doesn’t translate to skill,” Sabine replied with a smirk. Tom shook his head with a chuckle.

“Well, I have to let you win every once in awhile. Otherwise you’d stop playing completely and I’d only have Marinette to fight.”

“Uh-huh.” Sabine rolled her eyes playfully as she stood, straightening her dress as she did so. “Let’s get back to the bakery, sweetheart. The kids need space for their game.” She gave Nino a wink as she returned to the shop, Tom in tow behind her.

Once he was alone, Nino got to work setting things up. He had high hopes for today’s session, and a few tricks up his sleeves to keep the party from getting complacent.

-------------

“The villagers gather in the town square to see you off. Your backpacks are full of supplies and your spirits are high as you go down the Old Road.” His friends listened intently as they munched on freshly baked macaroons. “By the time you’re ready to set up camp for the night, you’ve already entered the forest.”

“Oh, cool!” Alya nodded. “Plenty of firewood, at least. Who are we going to send out for that?”

Marinette tapped at her chin. “Well, since it’s pretty dangerous around here, I should go. I’m pretty good at avoiding danger.”

“Sounds like a great plan,” Adrien said. “I’ll start setting up the tents.”

“I guess I’ll sharpen my sword while I wait for the campfire.” Alya shrugged. “Can’t cook without it.”

“Right.” Nino made a quick perception roll. The bandits nearby were well hidden and always prepared to ambush travellers that set down this road. Marinette didn’t have much of a chance to spot them, but-

His eyes widened, his jaw drops, and he just barely resisted the urge to face palm.

She’d gotten a natural twenty.

“Okay - Marinette, as you are gathering firewood your keen elven eyes notice faint, barely noticeable marks in the trees. Your eyes widen as you recognize them as a crude thieves’ cant. Probably the work of bandits.”

She sucks in a sharp breath. “I see… Do I have any idea where they are at?”

“Do you want to look around?”

“...Sure.”

“Roll for stealth.” He nodded as she rolled high - because of course she did. “Right, you find their camp well positioned at the base of a hill. Even the glow of their fire and the smoke is easily hidden from most vantage points, but you’ve managed to find it. By your count, there is probably ten of them.”

“Gotcha. I’ll head back to camp and get the others.”

Adrien’s fingers drummed along the table as he watched Marinette. “How are we going to take them down?”

“Yeah, M. What’s your plan?”

“Wah- Why do I have to come up with the plan?”

“Well…” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re kind of the best at it? So far, none of them have failed yet.”

“We’re gonna need it too.” Alya stretched. “Otherwise, we don’t stand a chance against those numbers. Something tells me bandits are going to be tougher customers than kobolds.”

“Um…” Marinette furrowed her eyebrows. “Well, we could sneak into the camp. Take out a few of them unaware, maybe light some fires to cause panic. That’d at least even the odds.” She shrugged. “We’d have to get pretty lucky though.”

“With you in our team, we’ve got luck to spare!” Adrien shot her a winning grin.

Nino took a sip of hot chocolate. “Alright, so you approach the lip of the cliff where you can look down at the camp. From there you can make more plans, but first… roll for stealth.”

It wouldn’t be that difficult of a roll. Night was falling, there were plenty of trees, and the bandits expected them to still be at their roadside camp. With Marinette leading the way, there shouldn’t have been any difficulties. Everything seemed fine when Marinette and Alya rolled decent enough.

But they didn’t factor in Adrien’s consistently poor rolling. A dreaded natural one reared its ugly head and Nino couldn’t help but chuckle as Adrien stared, dumbfounded at the traitorous die.

Cracking his knuckles, Nino leaned forward. “Alright, so let me give you the deets about what just happened. You’re all walking along, right? Most of you being supes stealthy.” He turns toward Adrien, who was looking like a kicked puppy right about now. “Then there’s this guy. He’s doing his best. But there is only so much you can do when you trip on a root and cause a bunch of loose stones to go sliding down the cliff.”

Alya winced as Marinette patted Adrien on the back. “How bad is it, babe? Did they notice?”

“Yeah, they’re totally awake now. You can even see a few of them aiming bows in your direction.” He leaned back and took another sip. “What do you do?”

They all faced Marinette, who was still absentmindedly rubbing Adrien’s back. He didn’t seem to mind, though. She hummed as she thought. Then her eyes went wide. “Wait. You said a root knocked some rocks loose?”

Nino gave her a cautious look. “...Yeah?”

“So that means the cliff is unstable! We could cause a rockslide and bury their camp!”

Not for the first time that night, Nino’s jaw dropped as the party cheered. He held up his hands for silence. “Okay, so is that what you guys are going to spend your turns on?”

“You bet, babe!” Alya was grinning.

“Right, well, the bandits are going to start firing on you then.” He rolled, but with the darkness and the cover, the arrows went wide. “Okay, another turn of working then?” At their nod, he rolled again with no better luck. On the inside, he sighed. “Again?”

When they confirmed, he set his dice down and leaned forward into storyteller mode. “Right, so after some quick thinking and quicker work, you manage to loosen the soil enough that a firm strike sends an earth slide towards the camp. Most of the bandits are crushed instantly, and the survivors are no match for all four of you.”

The three of them cheered and Nino couldn’t help but clap along with them. Adrien had pulled Marinette into a half hug, quickly followed by Alya. It was all very overwhelming for their de facto leader.

While they were distracted, Nino surreptitiously opened his notes and took out the sections about them getting captured by bandits and introduced to the bandit lord. He’d have to wing it for the rest of the session, but he couldn’t help but feel proud of them. They were even more clever than he had expected, Marinette especially.

With an evil grin, he realized that this meant he could be even more devious to match.

Chapter Text

--- October 15th ---

Lord DM: Hey dudes, we still on for today?
Since its been like two hours I’ll guess that was a no then

Adrien Regreste: sorry dude.
Got roped into a last minute photoshoot
:(

Marinoodles: same
Wait no
I mean- last minute bakery stuff
Sorry to bail like this! D:

Alya’ll Beware: Don’t worry about it girl
I was chasing that akuma that was running around
It kept giving lb n cn the slip
Got some good footage tho

Lord DM: Bummer dudes
Guess thats one of the perks of living in paris
We can try again next week, k?

--- October 18 ---

Direct Message From Alya

Alya: These akumas have been crazy, babe.
Rain check on dates?
At least until hawkbutt tires himself out

Nino: :(
Can’t you take a break or two?
You don’t have to be on the frontlines of EVERY akuma attack

Alya: …

Nino: [crying emojis, broken hearts, butterflies with red X’s over them]

Alya: alright, alright
But just two, okay?
People count on me for the latest news

Nino: totally, babe
Just hope lb+cn won’t need rr+cara
Cuz… you know
That’d be rough

Alya: [eye rolling emoji]
Yeah yeah
I feel bad for them tho
Their social life must be wack at this point

---October 22nd---

Lord DM: Hey, bro, we still meeting at your place or what?
???
Come on, dude!
Not again!
:(

Adrien Regreste: Sorry dude [sobbing emoji]

Alya’ll Beware: Akuma, babe. Can’t miss three in one week!

Lord DM: Yeah… guess so. Let’s just not miss the next sess, okay?
I dont want this campaign to end

Alya’ll Beware: We’ve only missed two weeks so far.
That’s not too bad
We got pretty lucky with getting five in a row
Esp considering how busy we usually are

Lord DM: Fair enough
Next week sound good?

Alya’ll Beware: Should for me

---October 31st---

Lord DM: Im scared to ask but…
DnD today?

Adrien Regreste: [thumbs up]
I’ll be going on 4 hours of sleep
But I can do it!

Marinoodles: Same here
Lack of sleep and all

Alya’ll Beware: Yeah
We good

Adrien Regreste: !!!
Wait its actually happening
Awesome!
...I should probably clean my room.

Marinoodles: XD
Probably! :P

Adrien Regreste: :3

------------

An hour later and Nino had made the trip over to Adrien’s house, Alya and Marinette in tow. Their chatting had been less energetic than usual, no doubt because there wasn’t a single person among them who didn’t feel exhausted. A fact that wasn’t at all helped by the late hours that they were arriving at. It may have only been nineteen hundred hours, but when you’d only had a few hours of sleep each night for the past week, it made all the difference in the world.

Despite all that, they were determined. The very thought that they were willing to go through all this just to go further in his campaign was thrilling for Nino, and he didn’t want to let them down.

A wicked grin, looking out of place on him, stretched across his face. With the events he had planned for tonight’s session, he was sure they’d be awake in no time.

They entered Adrien’s room and saw the bounty of sugary treats and caffeine that their host had prepared. After some brief chit-chat, Nino got set up quickly and rolled right into the session. The longer he delayed the more likely it was that his players would fall asleep.

“The forest at last thins as you crest the top of a hill. From your vantage point, you can see the capital city on the horizon.” There were sighs of relief around the room.

“Finally! My character could definitely go for a proper bed after a week of roughing it,” Marinette said after taking a drink of pop.

“You’ll have to hurry, then. The sun is going to start sinking below the horizon. Unless you want to be stuck outside the city until morning, you’d better get moving.”

“My bard starts one last travel song as we rush over.” Adrien opened his phone, no doubt to a lyrics site and cleared his throat.

Alya quickly covered his mouth. “I do not have the time or patience to listen to another of your renditions of Take Me Home, Country Roads, Sunshine. Let’s just get to the city, alright?” Adrien’s eyes darted to Nino in a silent plea, but he simply shrugged.

“Sorry, dude. Babe has a point.”

Pouting, he closed his phone. Beside him, Marinette giggled and patted his back consolingly.

“You reach the city gates without any issue - no bandit or monster is stupid enough to get within stones throw of the capital, not with all the guards on patrol. They were a little suspicious to see you guys so late at night, but… two noble sigils, a bardic license, and my holy symbol put those dudes right at ease. There are still a few rooms open at the inn - how are you guys going to divvy up?”

A trio of blank stares looked back at him. He sighed.

“Each room costs money to rent. You don’t have a lot, so while you could get a private room for each of you, it’s probably better to room with someone else. So who is spending the night with who?”

“Dibs on the cleric!” Alya cried. She tapped her chin theatrically, “I guess that leaves you two together, right?”

“I- I guess so?” Adrien blinked, surprised at Alya’s sudden outburst. Marinette paled a little but nodded.

“Since you guys arrived so late, most of the rooms were already filled up and you had to make do with what you can get. When you finally find your rooms, they are across the inn from each other… and there is only one bed in each room.”

A slight blush, but neither Adrien nor Marinette were freaked out. Alya slumped in defeat - there wasn’t any roleplaying involved in sleeping after all. Unless they decided to do some method acting and have a sleepover.

“The four of us drift off to sleep, which was a totally great change of pace from the creepy woods that you’ve been sleeping in for a week now.” Nino punctuated his words with a yawn that proved contagious. “It was way late at night when suddenly… M, Adrien. Roll for perception.”

Adrien, naturally, rolled a one. Just when Nino was scared he’d accidentally killed them off, Marinette pulled through with a high roll. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“With your keen elven hearing, the creaking of the wooden floor boards was enough to jolt you from sleep. There is a glint of metal above you, and you feel a presence in the darkness. You have just a few seconds to react - what do you do?”

“I roll over!” Marinette blurts out, her eyes wide.

Nino nods. “Right, that puts you right on top of Adrien, who is now totally awake too. It was a good move, though - a knife plunges into the mattress, right where your neck had just been.”

All business now, Marinette asks, “What can I see?”

“Not much. Loose cloaks with hoods pulled up. Knives. Two people. The other person has stumbled back, probs spooked by your sudden movement.”

She taps her chin before her eyes widen again. “Wait, what about the others?! We have to go get them! Or at least get their help.” She shuffles through her character sheet. “Okay, um… I whisper to Adrien in Elvish ‘close your eyes’ and then I toss a flash flare thing at the guy.”

Nino rolls some saves - without the warnings, neither of them stood a chance. He looks up to see Marinette watching him with hopeful eyes. “You got ‘em, M. Now what?”

“I roll off the bed and try to take the guy’s knife.”

“You’ve got it and your turn ends there. The dudes are blinded, but it won’t be long before they’ve recovered. Adrien?”

“Can I cast a spell?”

“Not without your lyre, bro.”

“Fine, fine. I grab it off the bedside table.”

“And why do you think it’d be there?”

“...I’m a bard. Gotta be ready to play, first thing in the morning.” Adrien smirked.

Chuckling, Nino replied. “Alright, fair. What do you cast?”

Adrien stuck out a tongue as he thumbed through his spell list. His eyes lit up as he looked at Nino. “I cast summon monster one, and I summon the Good Boy.”

“Right,” Nino said as the others giggled. “So you’ve got your celestial dog next to you. I figure you want it to attack one of the dudes?”

To his surprise, Adrien shook his head. “No, I command him to go wake up the other two. Probably to go sit by their door and bark in a commanding angelic voice.”

The fight didn’t last long from there - the two of them probably would have been enough to deal with the assassins after they lost the element of surprise. But four against two made it a landslide victory.

“Even though you try your hardest, you weren’t able to catch either alive. One got stabbed and bled out and the other, well… hopefully the innkeeper will understand that it wasn’t your fault that the window got broken.”

“Do they have anything on them?” Alya crossed her arms. “I get the feeling someone is after us.”

“You’re immediately proven right when you find a note in the dead guy’s pocket that reads, ‘Information about the Necromancer cannot reach the king. Dispose of the adventurers before they get their audience.’”

The party exchanged looks.

“Spooky,” Adrien said flatly. The others nodded in agreement.

“Do I recognize the handwriting or anything?” Marinette leaned forward, the gears in her head turning. “Remember, I am a court brat.”

“Nope. Looks like it was written deliberately poorly. You don’t know if you’d recognize it normally.”

“Time for the king?” Adrien perked up.

“Yup, it’s time for-” Nino was interrupted by a sharp knock at the door.

Adrien gulped. “Um… hello?”

Nathalie stepped into the room and narrowed her eyes at the dice and character sheets. Belatedly Nino remembered that Adrien usually claimed they were working on a project or homework during these sessions. “It is late. Your friends need to leave.”

Without a choice in the matter, they packed up and had the door shut behind them.

-------------

Nino’s fears were confirmed later that night during a discord chat.

Adrien Regreste: Sorry guys.
Looks like we won’t be able to play at my house again
Not for a while at least.
:(

Lord DM: Don’t worry about it bro
Had to happen eventually

Marinoodles: I’m so sorry! :(
I hope you didn’t get in trouble because of us

Adrien Regreste: Nothing more than usual
They aren’t threatening to keep me locked up at home
So, you know
Better than usual

Alya’ll Beware: That’s something at least
R they going to let u hang out again?

Adrien Regreste: *shrugs*
Probably.
Anyway…
Sorry to be a bummer.
Night, everybody!

Marinoodles: Sweet dreams!

Alya’ll Beware: Night, kiddos.

Lord DM: Don’t let the assassins bite! ;)
[Three thumbs down, one angry emoji]

Chapter Text

Direct Message From Alya

Alya: babe.
Have you noticed anything…
...weird?
With the babies

Nino: Our babies? Yeah
M’s back to her usual with my bro
And adrien is a blushy mess around her
Crazy

Alya: Is this progress?
It feels like a side step
Or taking a step forward…
...and tripping on their face.

Nino: Well, if they could get comfortable around each other before…

Alya: Babe its WAY worse now than what it was before
Now NEITHER of them are talking to each other
God they’re frustrating

Nino: Did it have something to do with that last akuma?
You said you saw them heading toward it before things got crazy

Alya: Maybe?
BUT OMG THAT BATTLE

Nino: ???
What happened??

Alya: After they beat the akuma
They got the hell away from each other
Super pale
No fist bump
I posted pics on the ldb

Nino: Lemme check
Wait
Are they blushing?

Alya: gr8
Now i’m even more confused

Nino: lmao
Your fleet of ships!
It is sinking, babe

Alya: Don’t even JOKE about that!
Ladynoir WILL set sail
Marinette WILL get her hamsters with Adrien

Nino: lol
Just teasin
Let em figure stuff out on their own
They’ll get there

Alya: I hope youre right…

Nino: Trust me, babe.
I AM a master of romance

Alya: Yeah?
Where’d you get those credentials, huh?

Nino: I got you, didn’t I?

Alya: …
Smooth, cappy
Very smooth

-------

Lord DM: Alright, my dudes, we have agreed that there WILL be dnd this weekend.
The question is now…
...where the heck is it going to be.

Adrien Regreste: Definitely not at my place
They are barely letting me out
No way are they going to let me have friends over
[crying cat face]

Alya’ll Beware: yeah and its not going to be any better at my place
Esp with Nora back in town

Lord DM: What bout u, M?

Marinoodles: There is a big order at the bakery
They don’t need my help BUT
They DO need the extra space
My place is out

Lord DM: Well dang
Looks like i’ll have to bring out the big guns
You guys can come over to my place

Adrien Regreste: [shocked emoji]
I never thought I’d see the day…

Alya’ll Beware: lol, chill sunshine.
Stay focused on the dnd

Lord DM: No no
Let him bask
Few mortals get this honor

Alya’ll Beware: [eye roll emoji]

-------------

Saturday arrived at long last, and Nino took stock of his preparations for the day. His little bro out with their parents. A stack of chip bags and pop and all the things that would make Adrien’s nutritionist twitch. Bean bag chairs for him and all his friends. Ambiance from tabletop audio. Everything had to be right - they were meeting with the Good King Haman, after all. It was one of the climaxes of the campaign.

Which was why he was worried when everyone finally got there.

Adrien had picked up everyone, of course, which might explain why he and Marinette were already a blushing mess. Nino glanced to Alya for clues, but all she had for him was a frown and a shrug.

The two of them sat opposite each other, with Alya opposite Nino. There was a pregnant silence where usually they would have their pre-session chat.

Nino considered himself a pretty empathetic kinda guy. It wasn’t that hard for him to get a feel for the room, or put himself in other people’s shoes. But even for him, his two friends were a stone wall. The only thing he could say for sure is that they weren’t angry with each other. Maybe just… scared. Which was weird, but hey - Dungeons and Dragons hadn’t let him down yet. Maybe it could help them now.

With that in mind, Nino started the session. “After spending the morning making yourselves look like you totally belong at court - with different amounts of success - you make your way to the royal castle. Looks like someone’s looking out for you, since the usually long line to see the king is super short today.”

“Finally, some kind of break,” Alya grumbled. “After bandits and assassins, at least we don’t have to wait in line.”

“After an hour, you finally find yourselves face to face with the King himself. While it is clear that he is no longer the adventuring knight of his youth, he’s still got the broad shoulders and strong arms of a fighter. His jeweled, golden crown rests easily atop his head. He watches you intently as you approach, a well groomed eyebrow raised as he takes in your martial appearance.”

Adrien furrowed his eyebrows. “Wait, we’re in armor and stuff?”

“Well,” Marinette responded, “we are adventurers. We should never be too far from our gear.”

Bowing his head in acquiescence, Adrien returned his attention to Nino.

“After you are declared, the King seems even more curious about you. He speaks with a clear, booming voice, one used to commanding armies in the field. ‘I recognize your names. There was a wretched matter afoot last night - one that you were the center of. I admit, I had wondered what would force someone’s hand in such a way as to send assassins. What business do you have with me?’”

When it became clear that both Marinette and Adrien weren’t going to speak up - each seemed to be stuck in a cycle of catching the other’s eye, blushing, and looking somewhere else - Alya sighed and responded.

She cleared her throat. “During our travels, we uncovered something that we felt you ought to know. There was a…” Her eyes widened and she glanced between her flustered friends. “Um… What was he called? An evil sorcerer?”

Marinette mumbled something that might have been, “Dark adept.”

“Thanks, M.” Straightening her back, Alya looked toward Nino again. “There was a dark adept raising the dead to fight for him.”

“A flurry of murmuring erupts around you. The royal guard flanking the King tighten their grips on their halberds. The King himself has his lips tighten into a thin line before saying, ‘That is a bold claim, young knight. I trust that you brought justice to this renegade, in accordance with the laws of our land?’”

Alya nodded. “Of course! But there is more to it than that.” She checks her character sheet. “Who has the decrypted journal of the dark adept? It looks like it isn’t on me.”

There was a rustling of papers.

“Oh, right,” Adrien said, “I forgot that I was checking it for other clues.”

“Is that when you rolled another one and forgot how to read for a few hours?”

“Hush.”

“Anyway,” Alya said, returning to her character voice, “My ally has a decrypted journal we took from the adepts quarters. There were repeated references to the adept’s master, and hints of a larger plot against the kingdom.”

“The King frowns. ‘Let me see this journal.’”

“I’ll take it up to him.”

“He takes it from Adrien’s character and quickly skims through it, his eyes narrowing as he reaches the end. ‘I must thank you for your work in ending this threat, but it seems a larger one has made itself known. While I am sure you must want to rest, I must ask you to meet this threat to the kingdom.’ He gestures to an advisor nearby. ‘Pay these heroes five hundred gold pieces for each of them.’ His eyes land on you once again. ‘I’ll pay double that once you bring me proof that the Necromancer is dead, and his plot has died with him. Do you accept?’”

The other three exchanged looks between them.

“I’m all for earning a name for myself. And a quest from King Haman himself is about as good as it gets. I’m in.”

“I don’t have anything else planned,” Marinette shrugged, her eyes pointedly on the table in front of her. “I’m sure fighting evil will be its own kind of fun.”

“And where she goes,” Adrien nodded towards Marinette and met her eye. His voice lowered to almost a whisper. “...I’ll follow. Always.”

Something passed between them and it felt almost as if Nino were intruding. The moment passed, and the two of them broke out into furious blushes again.

“Right… so. The king nods, a faint smile on his lips. ‘Excellent. May the gods be with you in your quest.’” Nino took a sip of his drink. “Well, now you’re a little richer, and its time to level up your characters.”

For the rest of the session, Nino walked them through their first time leveling up and taught them the time honored art of spending their hard-earned gold. A new rapier for Adrien. Alchemist’s fire for Marinette. That sort of thing. They were feeling more confident now that they had more than their starting array of equipment, and Nino smiled as he watched them work. It was good to be the dungeon master.

--------

Later, after Adrien had taken Marinette home, Alya and Nino cuddled on the couch. With how big both their families were, it wasn’t often that they got a chance to hang out alone.

For a while, Nino was comfortable with the silence. But then curiosity got the better of him.

“So… how are you liking Dungeons and Dragons now? Still think it’s just for nerds?” He smirked at her as she rolled her eyes.

“Okay, I admit… I’m having loads of fun. It’s always nice to spend more time with you guys. And you especially,” Alya said, reaching up to kiss his cheek. “I’ve gotten surprisingly invested in this story. It almost feels like being Rena Rouge again, fighting evil and all that.”

“Not as likely to end up getting thrashed by a super villain, though.”

“Fair. And it’s nice to act like someone else for a while. Although,” she stretched, “it’s also nice when I don’t have to be the one taking the lead. I hope the babies get their act together soon. Being the leader is exhausting.”

“Poor babe,” Nino cooed, earning himself a gentle punch in the shoulder from his girlfriend. “Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll figure things out sooner or later.”

“It’s the later part I’m worried about. I just hope they’ll get their act together by next session.”

“I’m sure they will.” Nino wrapped his arms around Alya. “What’s the worst that could have happened? It’s not like they have big secrets that they are sitting on.”

They considered this for a few moments before Nino added,

“Besides the obvious crush thing, at least.”

Chapter Text

Nino knocked at the door to the familiar apartment and heard his girlfriend’s voice call, “Come in!”

Stepping inside, the first thing he noticed - after Alya, of course - was the bags of groceries on the table. A warm smile lit up his face as he recognized them as the ingredients for one of his favorite meals that he’d ever had at the Cesaire household.

“Is all this for me, babe?”

Alya quirked an eyebrow and put a hand on her hip. “Well, I was hoping that you’d share with the rest of the party…”

“Hm…” He tapped at his cheek, pretending to give it some thought. “I guess that’s a fair deal. Need a hand cooking it up?”

She scoffed. “No, but I wouldn’t turn down help if you’re offering.”

The sound of chopping vegetables and the sizzle of the meat on the stove was all the noise that passed between them for a few minutes. The two of them worked well together, especially when it came to the kitchen. As Nino was busy cutting the carrots, he finally broke the silence.

“So where is everyone today?”

“You probably guessed Nora is at a tournament. If you did, congrats - you were right.” Alya leaned back against the counter and crossed her arms. “Took awhile but she’s finally in a league that she doesn’t just completely wreck instantly.”

Nino nodded along. “That’s totally sweet. She needs to be challenged if she’s gonna get any better.”

“Her point exactly. Ella and Etta are with mom and dad. They were going to the park, then to a movie. We should be clear for the next few hours, at least.”

“That’s not far off from what our last couple dates have been like.” Nino chuckled. “Park, movies, although we did go out for dinner a few days ago…”

“It’s good exercise. Can’t be too out of shape when Ladybug calls us back into the fight.”

“Right on. And if we are already out and about, it's way easier for you to go charging into an akuma battle phone-first, yeah?”

Alya had the decency to blush at that. “So, ah, you noticed that, huh?”

“Mhm. Don’t worry, babe. It’s all good to me, so long as we’re chillin’ together.”

“Aw, thanks babe.” She turned around to stir the rice some more. Still stirring, she asked over her shoulder, “By the way, have you seen the footage of the last akuma battle?”

He snorted. “Babe you say that as if you don’t have me read all your posts to edit them.”

“Okay, fair. So you’ve noticed that Ladybug and Chat Noir have been acting… kinda weird lately?”

“Understatement of the year. Stealing glances at each other, stutters when they actually manage to talk to each other, all those blushes. They’re the second biggest mess of all the couples in Paris.”

“And the biggest mess is our babies, right?”

“Yup.” Nino dumped the carrots in with what Alya was stirring. “All props to Ladybug and Chat Noir though - they’re giving our kids a run for their money, even though Marinette has had way more practice being awkward. And my boy Adrien is right there with the best of ‘em.”

Alya sighed. “It’s a mess. But I bet we can fix-”

“Babe.”

“What? I’m just saying if we-” Nino put a finger on her lips, silencing her despite the glare she shot his way.

“You gotta let them figure it out on their own. They’ll get there eventually.”

“Yeah? Well, let’s see how you feel after this session. You haven’t had to see them together nearly as much as I have.”

“Yeah, I really wish Ms. Bustier would start letting us do groups of four.” He paused. “Is it seriously that bad?”

Her eyes widened for a moment, remembered exasperation crossing her face. “You’ll see, cappy.”

Her phone went off. “Well, that’s them. Just in time for lunch, too.”

---------------------

As he’d expected, Marinette and Adrien were quiet and blushy as ever. This ultimately left the leadership of the party in Alya’s hands - a task that she was uniquely qualified for as they sought out leads for the Necromancer’s lair.

“Alright, dudes. We’ve all leveled up. You’ve just finished shopping in the marketplace and you’re ready to leave town on a moment’s notice. But you’ve got no clue on where to head out. What’re you going to do about it?”

Silence greeted him as Alya looked between their friends and the way they very deliberately avoided each other’s eyes while surreptitiously staring as much at each other as possible.

“Right, well…” Her eyes sparked as an idea occurred to her. “So we’re basically drumming up leads, right? Doing research, chasing down rumors of this bad guy?”

“Yeah, babe, you got it.”

She rubbed her hands together in excitement. “Now that is something I can do. What’s the marketplace look like? What sort of people do I see there?”

“Besides the locals? Rough mercenary types, travellers dusty from the road, wandering merchants, that sort of thing.”

There was a pause as she narrowed her eyes in thought. “Tell me more about the travellers. What do they look like?”

He rolled a perception check behind his DM screen. “You notice that a bunch of ‘em are sticking together and they’ve got kids with them. Their threads are pretty similar too, like they got ‘em from the same place. They seem pretty uneasy, casting suspicious looks around them.”

“It’s not normal for wanderers to take their children with them, yeah?”

“Not usually, no. Unless they’re nomads.”

She shook her head. “Nah. Nomads wouldn’t be that freaked out by new people. It sounds like they’re country folk that were driven into the city. Which means…”

“...Refugees?” Adrien supplied, frowning at the table.

“Only one way to find out. I’ll walk up to them.” Alya cleared her throat and adopted her character’s voice. “Excuse me, can I ask you where you’re from?”

Nino dropped his voice an octave. “Doesn’t matter much anymore, does it? Nothing left to go back to now.”

“What do you mean?”

“‘Strange happenings up in the mountains, lass. Smoke billowing out. Scared me to my bones, it did. We picked up and headed out.’ The dude gets a distant look, like he’s remembering the sight. ‘Been on that farm for six generations. But I hear we were the lucky ones.’”

“I thank him for his time. What do you guys think?”

Marinette and Adrien seemed to have forgotten their embarrassment for the moment. Adrien shuffled his character sheets again. “Do I know any legends about the mountains? Like, monsters that lived up there, or old forts? Maybe it’s not the Necromancer at all but something else.”

Nino took a long sip of his pop. “Roll it.”

A grin split Adrien’s face as the die landed high. “What’ve you got for me, bro?”

“You remember hearing stories about a lost dwarven city out there. It went quiet decades ago, though.”

“Dwarves…” Marinette cupped her chin, her eyebrows creased with worry. “Like, big forges, deep mines, strong doors? Enough space to arm and equip and army? That sort of dwarves?”

Nino finger gunned at her. “One and the same, my dude!”

Alya buried her face in her hands. “Fantastic. If the Necromancer isn’t there, I bet he wished he was. Let’s go.”

“Don’t we want to look for other clues?” Marinette asked.

“Y-yeah.” Adrien swallowed heavily, dragging his eyes away from Marinette to Alya. “He could be somewhere else.”

“Doubt it. And even if he isn’t, someone is driving honest people away from their homes. Necromancer or no, we’ve got to do something about it.”

Steely determination dawned on their faces. “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil…” Marinette began.

“...Is that good people do nothing,” Adrien finished. “Guess it’s settled then.”

With their goal in mind, the rest of the session was spent on travel. They met more people on the road - battered survivors and the usual wanderers alike. It put a strain on their supplies, but they helped out as best they could while approaching their destination. After a couple hours of social encounters and skill checks to help the displaced, they were close.

“Looming on the horizon are the great western mountains. While they’re usually supes gorgeous, something about ‘em feels off. Just like the farmer dude said, there are smoke plums coming from somewhere in the mountain range. And that…” Nino said as he closed his DM notebook, “Is where we’ll end today’s session. If you chose right, next session might totally be the end of the Necromancer, and this adventure.”

The tapping of Adrien’s pen came to a stop, Marinette’s packing finished, and even Alya looked up from her character sheet. All of them wore similar expressions of surprise.

“Wow, really? It doesn’t feel like its been that long…” Alya muttered.

Marinette frowned. “It can’t be almost over already, can it?”

“No way!” Adrien brushed the thought aside. “I’m sure we’ve got plenty of adventures still in us.”

“That’s up to you, my dudes. This campaign might be almost over, but there could be more.” Nino shrugged and chugged the last of his pop. “If you want to, I mean. But anyway, that’s a question for later.”

Slightly more somber, they finished packing up. Adrien took Marinette and Nino home

----------------

Direct Message to Adrien

Nino: So
Bro
Wanna tell me whats goin on between you and M?

Adrien: There isn’t anything
Which is half the problem
But don’t worry about it

Nino: No can do
We’re best buds
Its my job to worry about you

Adrien: And I get that
I really do!
But you’ve gotta trust me
There isn’t anything you can do
Sorry :(

Nino: Well… okay.
I’m here if you need me dude

Adrien: I know
[heart emoji]

-----

Direct Message From Alya

Alya: Did he tell you anything?

Nino: Nah, babe
Clammed up
U?

Alya: dang
No
Mari is hiding something
Not sure if it is a BAD something
But def something

Nino: Not much we can do about it I guess
Just let ‘em figure it out

Alya: Speak for yourself, cappy
Theyre almost there
They just need…
...a little push

Nino: Alya...

Alya: What?
It won’t be much
Just a gentle nudge
Really

Nino: [eye roll emoji]
Alright fine
What did you have in mind?

Alya: heh heh heh
Okay so!
We get them into class early
Like SUPER early
Maybe like an hour

Nino: Alright…
Tough to pull off
Esp for Mari
But doable

Alya: ...and then we lock the door behind them
And we leave them alone
We don’t open it until either they’re dating
Or class starts
Preferably the former

Nino: That’s
What
No
Stop

Alya: Why not?
It worked for us
And it smells a whole lot nicer too

Nino: point
You know what?
Sure
We’ll do it
Otherwise we might be waiting on them for
a g e s

Alya: I knew you’d see it my way. ;)

Chapter Text

The wind was howling as Nino and Alya approached the bakery. Winter was well and truly here, but that wasn’t too surprising. It was the last week of November, after all. Nino looked up at the grey skies and frowned as a few stray snowflakes danced to the ground. They had gotten lucky so far with very little snow, but something in his gut was telling him that wasn’t going to last much longer. Just in case, Nino had brought a change of clothes. Who knows if they were going to get snowed in? Especially given how long this session was going to last.

It wasn’t every day they marched into the halls of the Necromancer, after all.

For now, though, they marched into the bakery.

“So… how’d it work out yesterday? I didn’t see much of them after we let ‘em out,” Nino whispered to Alya as they waved at the Dupain-Cheng parents.

She poked her head into the living room and turned to look at him with a wide grin. “See for yourself, babe.”

The two of them were sitting on the couch playing Ultimate Mecha Strike. Despite the fact that the entire couch was open to them, Marinette was practically sitting in Adrien’s lap. His arms were wrapped around her and his chin rested on her head. For a few solid moments Nino was left stunned at the threshold of the room, staring in awe. At least until Alya jabbed him in the back with her elbow.

His startled yelp caught Adrien’s attention. A bright smile lit up his face. “Awesome timing, guys! We were just about to decide who was the absolute master of Mecha Strike.”

“It was me,” came Marinette’s reply as the victory screen played.

“As if there was any doubt,” Adrien murmured. Closing his eyes, he nuzzled his nose into the crown of her head.

“Hey! That tickles.”

“Too bad.”

“Well,” Alya cut in, “if you two are done being sickeningly cute, we’ve got a Necromancer to stop. In case you forgot?”

“I know, I know. Fighting evil, saving lives - the usual.” Adrien didn’t open his eyes or loosen his hold on Marinette, but Nino could see the knowing smirk on his face.

“Speaking of the usual…” Marinette said as she extracted herself from Adrien. “How does croissants for everyone sound?”

Alya followed after Marinette, leaving Nino to start getting set up. It wasn’t hard to miss the dopey smile that his best bud wore, or how he was almost melted into the couch. Even though that had been the plan all along, Nino was still surprised it actually worked.

“So… you and M, huh?”

“Mhm…” The smile grew wider.

“Dude, you’ve got it bad. I’m just glad you guys finally figured it all out.”

“Yeah…”

“Mind telling me what happened?”

Adrien shrugged. “We just needed to talk things through. That’s all.”

“Sure, dude.” Nino softly punched Adrien on the arm. “Just took a locked door and a bunch of time to make you do that.”

A blush spread across Adrien’s face. “We got there eventually..”

As much as Nino wanted to pry or tease a little more, he was just glad to see his friend so happy. Those two definitely deserved each other.

Just as he finished setting up, the girls returned with a plate of fresh croissants. The perfect food for planning an invasion.

“Alright, my dudes. You’ve discovered the great entrance to the ruined dwarven city. The gates are big and strong. You can hear something moving, can catch glimpses of something marching back there. But whatever it is, it’s not alive.” Nino tugged on his cap. “Well, uh, not in the usual sense, anyway.”

“We can probably take them,” Alya said as she cracked her knuckles. “We’ve trounced worse baddies.”

“I’m not so sure about that. Skeletons gave us a lot of problems back in the mines.” Marinette was tapping a finger to her cheek.

“I know that look, Mari.” Adrien grinned. “What are you thinking?”

“Well, what if we don’t use the main entrance? If it really is a city under there, then there’s no way the Necromancer can have the entire place guarded.”

Alya crossed her arms. “That sounds great and all, M, but do we know of any other entrances?”

“I don’t know.” Marinette locked eyes with Adrien. “Do we?”

Adrien seemed to catch on quickly and scrambled through his notes. “Oh! There’s got to be some legends or stories about this place, right?”

“Hm…” Nino made a quick roll and nodded. “Yeah, you’ve heard a few tales. And between the four of you and all those years of neglect, you could prolly find it. But what are you gonna do once you’re there?”

“That’s where I come in,” Marinette wore a serious expression, her eyes distant as she imagined their mission. “With my super high stealth, I can steer us clear of patrols. And if I find a good place to stash the rest of you, I could even do some scouting on my own.”

Alya narrowed her eyes and cupped her chin. “If we pull this off, then we might just avoid the Necromancer’s entire army…”

“...AND we’ll have the element of surprise.” A vicious grin split Marinette’s face. “He won’t have a clue that we’re coming.”

“Right, okay.” Nino took a deep breath. This… wasn’t exactly what he expected them to do, but being DM meant being able to improvise. Nino rolled a perception check for the four of them, more for show than anything. They’d have to roll pretty high to spot a secret passage. “After a few hours of following your half-remembered story, you don’t find anything. Do you want to keep looking?”

They all nodded resolutely.

“Right.” Nino rolled another round of perception checks. Nothing. “More hours pass. The sun is starting to set. Do you still want to keep looking?

Alya was looking a bit less certain, but Marinette remained confident and that was enough for Adrien. With majority in favor, they kept searching.

“So the moon is out now. It’s full and half of us are some kinda elf, so we could keep searching, but-”

“We keep going.”

“M, what if we can’t find anything? Maybe we should make camp, figure out a new plan.”

“Alya, trust me. I’ve got this.”

“But M-”

“If this plan doesn’t work, then we just aren’t equipped to open the gates and fight the baddies. We’d have to go back anyway. Besides - I’ve got a good feeling about this.”

Alya sighed. “Alright… We stay at it.”

Nodding, Nino rolled a perception check for them. His character failed, as did Alya and Marinette’s. All that was left was Adrien’s character.

Who, naturally, rolled a twenty. His first of the entire campaign. Shocked, it took a minute for Nino to recover. “So, um… With the moonlight coming down, Adrien spots some glowing runes on a rock. He plays the song that he has been following and sure enough, the stone totally vanishes, revealing a stairwell that leads deep underground.”

“Sweet.” Alya says as they all tear into celebratory croissants. “What do we see down there, babe?”

“You’re walking for a while, but eventually the tunnel opens up into a dusty, abandoned quarter of the city. You pass through long abandoned checkpoints and guard posts. When you step into the main cavern, you realize why the city went quiet.” Nino paused to down his pop, leaving the party enraptured. “The ceiling had collapsed, tons of mountain stone crushing the city. Even now, a massive ramp of rock squats in the middle of the city.”

Adrien, his hands folded in front of his face, narrowed his eyes. He spoke in his bard’s voice. “Who knows what lies beneath?”

“Soon enough, the Necromancer.” At their confused looks, Nino added, “Even though you feel death all around you, the air is filled with the sounds of picks hitting stone… And the rattle of bones.”

“Is there somewhere nearby that I can hide these guys?” Marinette jerked a thumb towards the other two.

“Sure. There are plenty of abandoned buildings around here. Most of ‘em prolly won’t collapse ontop of them.”

“Yeah, well, thankfully I have all that training in engineering, remember? I pick the most structurally sound one and try to sneak over to the cave in.”

“Oh, dang. Forgot about that.” Nino cleared his throat. “With the other dudes safely tucked away, you can sneak over to the landslide. Roll for stealth.”

“What am I hiding from?” She asked as she searched for her d20.

“Human zombies in rusty metal armor.”

“Huh. Rusty because of being really old or because zombies don’t take gear of their stuff?”

Nino thought about it for a moment. “The second one.” He glanced at the die roll. “Okay, that’ll be good enough. You get a clear view of the rocks and, well… there are tons of short, stocky skeletons in tattered rags. Probably dwarven, most of them are only armed with picks, but there are a few dozen of ‘em crawling over it. As you watch, one tumbles off and shatters as it falls down the cliff… and right into a huge hole. Whatever they’re digging for, you get the feeling they’re close.”

Marinette tapped at her chin. “Alright, I get a good look around to see if I can guess where the Necromancer might be.”

“There’s a battered but sturdy guard tower that sometimes flashes a sickly green light. Other than that, its shambling undead everywhere.”

“Can I get there easily?”

“Uhh… maybe. There are guards out front, but the tower is kinda out of the way, away from the throng of undead.”

Adrien make a confused face. “Why would he set up there…?”

“Not a lot of intact buildings, I bet.” Marinette nodded. “And he wants some quiet too. Maybe we can use that in our favor?”

The session devolved into making plots and figuring out how best to ambush the dark wizard. They were so engaged in their conversation that they didn’t notice Sabine’s arrival until she put her hands on Marinette’s shoulders.

“Gah!” Marinette started and tilted her head straight up. “Oh, hi maman. What’s up?”

“I just wanted to let you kids know that Tom and I are going to bed. The snow is coming down pretty hard now, so we’d rather you all stay the night.”

While Marinette tried to gently brush off her mom’s hands as they messed with her hair, Nino got up to look out the window. Sure enough, a layer of snow blanketed Paris with no signs of stopping. The darkening skies also reminded him of how early he’d had to wake up the last couple days.

Fighting down a yawn, he turned back towards his party. “What do you say we call it here and pick it up in the morning? Maybe we can watch a movie or something.”

Marinette tilted her head up to look at her mother. “Can my friends spend the night in my room? Then we can be out of the way when you guys wake up in the morning.”

Sabine seemed to consider this for a few moments before replying, “Of course dear, but remember our talk…”

A fierce blush spread across Marinette’s face. “Maman!”

“I’m just saying!” Laughing, Sabine left the room.

An awkward silence stretched before Adrien naively asked, “What talk?”

-------------

After a few movies, they were exhausted. Nino was looking down from Marinette’s bed at the unfolding drama of who would get the chaise.

“Adrien please - I’m fine sleeping on the floor. I’ve got plenty of pillows and blankets. It isn’t that bad.”

“If it isn’t that bad then I can be on the floor. You already gave up your bed to Alya and Nino. At least take the chaise.”

“I’m the host!” She hissed in irritation. “I have to make sure all my guests are comfortable!”

“And I will only be comfortable once I know you’re sleeping on something nice and soft!”

In a huff, Marinette threw her pillows and blankets on the floor of her room. For a hot second Nino was worried that she was about to jump him, but no, she was just angrily building a nest on the floor. Adrien gaped at her for a moment before dropping his stuff on the ground and doing the same.

“I mean it, hot stuff,” Marinette growled through a faint blush. “I’m sleeping on the floor no matter what you do. You may as well just take the chaise.”

Adrien took a deep breath as if winding up for a long spiel. “No.”

Both of them stubbornly get into their blanket nests and glared at each other, but from his spot from above, Nino could see them slowly inching together. He shook his head and ducked under the covers, where Alya had already tucked herself in. Her eyes were closed as she nuzzled against the pillows.

As he was taking off his glasses, she mumbled, “The babies still being ridiculous?”

“You know it.”

“Good. Can’t have everything change all at once.”

“Right as usual, babe.” Nino leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Night.”

A serene smile graced her face as she whispered back, “Night.”

Chapter Text

The sunlight filtered in sharply from the skylight above and Nino was suddenly very aware of why Marinette was not a morning person. If he had a room practically forcing him to be one, he’d be a night person out of spite too.

He blinked to clear his eyes. When he tried to sit up, he was suddenly aware of a weight on his chest. Looking down, a tangle of red hair was sprawled over his chest. Alya slept soundly, undisturbed by Nino’s attempts to rise. As much as she was an adorable angel while sleeping, he definitely needed to get up now.

It was hard to pull himself away from Alya without waking her up, and not just because of her tenacious grip on his shirt. These quiet moments of being close together were surprisingly rare and he wanted to cherish them as much as he could…

...but he really did need to get up.

He climbed down to the floor and a smile crept onto his face as he noticed Marinette and Adrien. They had, inevitably, been drawn together until their limbs were tangled and Adrien’s head was tucked under Marinette’s chin. After taking a quick second to feel pride in this shipping victory that they had been striving for, Nino tiptoed around them and descended down the stairs.

After narrowly avoiding a conversation with the early rising Dupain-Chengs (seriously, how is Marinette not a morning person at this point?), Nino found what he was looking for and slipped inside the bathroom.

---------------

A couple hours later and all four of them were varying degrees of awake. From bright and perky Adrien down to foot-dragging Marinette, they had all come downstairs to scavenge some breakfast. A breakfast which was turning out to be larger than what Nino was used to. Which probably wasn’t that surprising since ‘dinner’ yesterday consisted of a bunch of croissants.

Between the food and the company, it didn’t take long for even Marinette to become more animated. It brought a smile to Nino’s face to listen to them gush over the campaign so far. Even more so when that gushing turned to plotting - the best ways to sneak into the tower, how they’d face down the Necromancer. But there was one gap in their plans that they seemed to be skipping...

“So, dudes. How’re you going to get out?”

The others gave him a blank look. Marinette pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Either killing the Necromancer destroys the undead he’s created… or it doesn’t. No matter what, we’ve got to stop him.”

Alya nodded. “M’s right. If we try to get help, he might find whatever he’s looking for. For the sake of the kingdom, he’s got to go down here and now.”

“Alas,” Adrien sighed, adopting the voice of his bard. “The greatest story ever set to song… and there will be no one left to sing it.”

“Aw, don’t worry!” Marinette patted him on the back. “There’s a good chance we can make it out of here. With all of us together, there’s nothing we can’t do.”

“And on that note,” Nino said as he slid out his chair. “Ready to get started, dudes?”

After some cheering and agreement, they stormed the living room. Their things remained where they had left them the night before and all that they needed to do was settle into their spots. A few minutes of checking to make sure everything was where it ought to be, and they all turned toward Nino. Their faces were masks of determination as they began to put their plan into motion.

“Okay, step one - I’ll use my lyre to summon a visual illusion within sight of the zombies.” Adrien squinted at his spells list. “It will be in the opposite direction of us, so the plan is that they’ll be drawn away by it.” He looked at Nino with hopeful eyes. “...But does it work?”

Nino considered this for a moment. The zombies were ordered to be hyper aggressive, so them going after something that fleeting wouldn’t be out of the question. But he couldn’t remember if the undead were actually affected by illusions or not.

After giving it a fair amount of thought and doing some meaningless rolling - they were mindless, so they wouldn’t get a save anyway - he came to a decision.

“It works like a charm, bro. You pied piper-ed those dead dudes like a pro. That leaves the tower tots exposed.”

“Go go go!” Marinette yells at them. “We rush the door and close it behind us.”

Nino waggled his fingers with a smirk. “Not so fast! The door is barred. Or maybe just stuck. Either way, your stringy elven rogue muscles ain’t enough to bust it down, dude.”

“Well,” Alya said as she flexed her muscles. “Let’s see it try to stop me.” She rolled a strength check and, sure enough, passed with flying colors.

“Alright then. The wooden bar they were using to keep it closed is splinters now, but the door is intact. Mostly, at least.”

“Cool beans.” Adrien chimed in. “We slam it shut and find something to block it with. We don’t want the Necromancer getting any back up during this fight.”

“Yeah, about that…” Nino checked his notes. “There are a couple zombies in this room.”

“Don’t worry, sunshine,” Alya said, already rolling. “Marinette and I will hold them off while you get it shut.”

“Um…” Adrien skimmed over his spell list. “Maybe I should have gotten the hold portal scroll back in town… Is there anything in the room I can use?”

“There’s a big ol’ boulder, but it is too big for you to push.”

“Is it too big for me and you?”

Nino grinned. “Not a chance. While the ladies put down the walking dead, we roll the rock in front of the door. It’ll take some beating down to move it now.”

“Awesome. Let’s hurry and get up there!”

The dash up the tower had perils all its own - rickety stairwell, the odd zombie guardsmen, a few traps - but none of them were enough to slow them down. It was inspiring to watch. The party had come such a long way. Nino almost felt bad about what happened next. Almost.

“Okay, dudes. It takes some ramming by Alya, but you bash down the door at the top of the tower. The moment you do, a wave of fire washes over you. Everybody make a reflex save.”

Naturally, Marinette passed. But she was the only lucky one out of the group. To Nino’s surprise, no one went down… but it was close.

Alya sucked in a breath as she adjusted her hit points, “Ooooh that hurts. Hopefully you’ve got some magic hands ready, cappy.”

“Ow ow ow ow ow,” Adrien muttered as he made a note on his character sheet. “Guess who has two thumbs and that same amount of health.” He pointed two thumbs at himself, a pained expression on his face. “This guy!”

Marinette rolled her eyes at his joke, but there was a ghost of a smile on her lips. “I guess I’ll be taking the lead on this one.” She leaned forward on her elbows. “So what’s our mortal enemy look like?”

“Super pale, like he hasn’t seen the sun in… I dunno. Months. Years, even. Big old gnarly staff with an antlered skull on it. Some rusty looking amulet around his neck you can’t really see that well. Ragged black robes dirty with dust and cobwebs. That sort of thing. Purple lightning crackles around his fingers as he sneers at you.” Nino cleared his throat and dropped a few octaves to get the voice right. “‘Pitiful. You barely cling to the falsehood of life. It would almost be a waste of time to raise your corpses, but… I have need of extra hands. You will do.’”

A couple rounds later and things had only gotten worse. Nino’s cleric was doing his best, but it was hard to keep up with the dark wizard’s onslaught. It was plain luck that they were all still standing, but that wasn’t going to last for a whole lot longer.

In short, they needed something miraculous to happen if they were going to win this fight.

Their comeback started, as it often did, with a crazy move by Adrien.

“He’s still hovering, right?” Adrien glanced up at Nino as he nodded. “Alright, I’m going to throw my rapier at him.”

“Are you sure? That’ll leave you without a weapon.”

“It isn’t doing me much good anyway. Might as well try to do some damage.”

“Alright. Roll it.”

Putting as much flair into the roll as possible, Adrien tossed the die across the board. It came to a halt next to Nino… as a natural one. Nino winced.

“Sorry, bro. The sword sails right past his head and lodges itself in the ceiling. Some dust and a couple pebbles land on his robes, adding to his dirtiness.”

Marinette’s eyes lit up. “That’s it!” The rest of the party sent her confused looks. “We’ll bring the ceiling down on top of him!”

“M, what are you talking about?” Alya eyed her friend with concern, but not a little hope. She’d gained a reputation for crazy plans that worked after all.

“If the rapier can get stuck, that means the stone is loose, which is backed up by the pebbles and dust falling. The whole city is on the verge of collapse - what’s one more roof?” Marinette turned to Nino. “I roll an engineering check.” Naturally, it was a high roll. “Can I see a structural weak point?”

Nino puffed out his cheeks and let out a deep breath as he thought. “Uh… yeah, sure. There’s a rotting wooden support beam. Take that out, and it should be enough to bring down the ceiling.”

Marinette considered this, her fingers steepled in front of her. Eventually she asked, “What sort of rot?”

“Huh?”

“On the wood. Like, wet rot or dry rot?”

“Well… There isn’t a lot of water in the air so I guess dry rot...?”

“Is it still my turn?” At Nino’s nod, Marinette smiled mirthlessly. “I pull out my vial of alchemist’s fire and toss it at the support beam.”

Nino blinked, stunned. “Um… roll it?”

But she was already doing it.

The die rolled across the table, just like Adrien’s had.

She was further away and didn’t put nearly as much flair in, so it stopped in front of Adrien…

...on a natural twenty.

The table erupted into cheers. Adrien pressed a big kiss against Marinette’s cheek, Alya shook her arm, and Nino applauded from across the table. While they were still tittering with excitement, he began describing what happened.

“The glass of the vial shatters against the old, crumbling wood. The air immediately bursts into flame and hungrily devours the whole dang beam. While the Necromancer blinks stupidly at the sudden noise and light, the ceiling rumbles. Before he can respond, it collapses ontop of him, crushing him instantly. His amulet rolls out and hits your boot, Marinette.”

“I’ll pick it up. Maybe it’ll make a good trophy.”

“My cleric dude pipes up, ‘By the Sun! That’s the missing relic of my temple!’”

“Oh no.”

“‘But… it has been cursed. By a totally awful power.’”

Adrien was shaking his die in his hand. “I’m going to make a bardic knowledge check to see what I can remember about any unholy symbols or stuff like that.”

Deciding that he’d rolled high enough, Nino said, “It’s not good, bro. The mark is the personal symbol of a big man from down below. This is some serious stuff.”

Once again, the three of them looked at each other. Then Marinette’s eyes widened. “Wait! I look out the window - are the undead still walking around?”

Nino shook his head. “Nah, dude. They’ve crumbled back into corpses - the non-animated kind. You guys should be smooth sailing from here.”

“Kids!” Sabine called them from a few rooms over. “Lunch time!”

The game was left where it was and the four of them followed the scent of freshly cooked lunch to the kitchen. As they chatted away about their most recent victory and where they would go from here, Nino listened in and smiled.

He’d probably have to leave Uncle Hassan’s campaign to focus on running this one. But as he watched his friends’ faces lit up as they reenacted parts of the battle, he couldn’t find it in himself to regret it. There were plenty more adventures for these four to come, more stories to tell, and Nino wanted to be the one to tell them.