I felt someone kick the bed and harshly command get up!

This is NOT a way I like to be waken up...I remember back in boot camp some big guy (another recruit, not a DI) kicking me out of bed for firewatch, and claiming that I had went back to sleep after he woke me the first time. Out of a bit of hurt feelings, (as I hate being called a liar), I threw a punch at him. So I have always hated being woke up in this fashion.

Groggy and angry, I got ready to launch at this intruder...

I came to a full, fear based halt as I recognized my visitor. oh shiiiiiit

I play D&D (REAL D&D, not this Hasbro crap of a new edition every three years to sell more books)...

My intruder was a character I created...an extremely powerful necromancer (most would say munchkin, if your'e familiar with the gaming term).

It's a little disconcerting to see a fictional being you made up in your head sitting by your bed, and looking at you in contempt, to say the least.

He repeated Get up!, and I found myself being floated into a sitting position. He waved at my walls...What is this junk? My posters and artwork? Fantasy related, dark magic, evil themed. Hey, I play D&D, right? Also, a lot of Halloween oriented material in the same vein.

You are a grown man indulging in this nonsense? I will show you spooky and evil

And just like that we were in his world...or was it my world...hell, it could be called TSR's (or Hasbro's /derp) world...or even Gary Gygax's's world. There was no kaleidoscope effect, or twist in my guts. It was like a movie cut, slight cut to black, quick fade in at the new location.

I recognized the Keep of Adlerweg , first seen by me in a adventure book by TSR, then expanded by me, as the base of my character. Telek Ren was the name of this wizard...if there was a power rule I could use to make this guy more bad-ass, I did. And even where there wan't a rule, I wrote him up as almost unbeatable. Even by gods...except for his own goddess, Wee Jas, goddess of death and magic.

And right now, we were in the center of his power. He looked at me with judgement burning in his eyes.

You have told my story. It is past time that you were told the scariest story.

With that we floated into the air...and something materialized under us. Before I could recognize it, a wave of terror broke over me, and I started screaming. Telek calmed me with a word of magic...

Dragonfear...I had read about in fantasy fiction, but until I felt it, the sensation was just a few lines in a story.

Telek began to lecture me as the dragon, composed of night and shadows, soared through the dark skies.

You made me, but you don't understand what you wrote up. I think you remember the words of the Lady of The Dark Eyes, as you made these part of my story, as well

Order before all. Knowledge brings power, power brings strength, strength brings order. The rules of magic are the rules that govern the universe; understand them, and nothing is beyond reach.

Here you are, a grown man, playing a child's game and playing with concepts you don't think through. Your mind is full of the symbols and images of "dark power", but you don't see what that actually entails. I am "evil" because I make the world a better place for my Goddess and my people. it is time to see the difference in this story you tell.

You want to SEE spooky and scary...witches...goblins...ghosts? You will be shown.

With that, the dragon banked over a mountain valley that turned into a small glade as we descended. We closed in on a fire, and as we closed, I could see the fire was a wrong, even greenish color. There were 3 hideous old women surrounding a cauldron. The women were hideous not from age but from their malformed faces and hands...but most of all from the objectively malevolent look of their eyes. In the cauldron they danced around, a young woman struggled to keep her head above the smoking, bubbling water.

Telek swooped the dragon over and chanted. He stalled the dragon over the hags, and I could see fire consume them, starting from inside. As they burned, he waved his hand and the young lady was lifted by hand unseen from the cauldron. He spoke another strange word, and an ugly purple glow surrounded her, mostly from where she had been submerged. He began chanting again, and as he did, the purple light slowly died out.

He asked her, You are Cally the baker's daughter? As she nodded, Telek told her she would wake up the next morning in her own bed, safe and sound. He said this in a hypnotic fashion, and as she closed her eyes to sleep, she vanished from my sight!

Telek looked at me, Those were hags, or what you might call witches. They were going to poison the girl's soul and turn her into one of them. The most efficient way to destroy their evil is to be stronger than they are...as you saw.

With that, the dragon launched itself into the night again, and the wind rushed over us as we sped to the next part of Telek's "story".

Soon, he pointed down. Goblins

The dragon stooped and winged over. A belch of night air that stunk of death erupted from the dragon's mouth. Telek strafed the earth in a circular pattern around what I could barely make out as a small cabin. I heard nothing from the ground, but as Telek wheeled the dragon into another passover, I began to see slightly phosphorus glows rising from the ground around the little house.

Telek grinned a little grimly...

The souls of the goblins...they were about to raid the trapper and his family. That means they would have killed them and eaten them. Tomorrow, the trapper will have to dig a few graves, but he will sleep soundly tonight

The dragon began swooping over and...eating, perhaps...the whisps coming from the ground, but after those were gone it sped yet again through the dark of the night. We turned away from the frontier and it's mountain ridges and as we rushed through the sky, I could begin to see the lights of a large town become larger in my sight. We soon landed on the outskirts of the town, and the dragon faded out of my sight as dissolving shadows.

Telek warned me to be quiet and stay close as we walked through the sleeping town. He approached one of the larger houses, actually a mansion, and the door opened as he climbed the steps. It closed soundlessly behind us. He strode into the study and pointed at the clock. Past two in the morning. We waited for a few more minutes and then IT came through the wall. Perhaps it was the ghostly outline of a man, but what I remember is the cold and the hate that poured off of it, that I could feel even through Telek's magical protections. Telek stepped out and grabbed the thing. I could see ice form up his arms as he began to pack it up like an snowball made of shadows. Once it was compacted in his hands, he chanted over it until I felt the cold hate disappear from the room.

Telek looked at me...

A spectre. It arose from a merchant who tried to cheat the man who lives here. The spectre died before he could finish the deal, but his hate for this man brought him back from the grave to claim his supposed "vengeance". I could not have defeated it by the usual means without burning down this house.

By this time I could not stop shaking. The constant alternation of fear and adrenaline had drained me. I could not help but recall Telek's hypnotic manner as he had spoken to Cally earlier that evening as he spoke now of sleep and safety.

I woke up in my own bed the next morning. It looked like my posters of dark magicians and Halloween ghoulies had been burned off the walls by some fire that did not touch the walls themselves. There was one new "poster", however. It was made of parchment, and it simply said...

If you are going to tell a story, then tell it RIGHT. I'll be back to discuss this.

I sleep with a baseball bat in my bed now, even though I'm not sure it will do any good.

This post has been entered in Tell A Story To Me, And Win 5 SBD! Writing Contest #11 - The Scariest Story Ever Told & Winners of #10. If you write, take a stab at entering!

And don't forget my own Halloween Contest!, with 20 shares of SBI to win!

Notes

D&D is copyrighted by TSr, or Wizards of the Coast, or Hasbro, or whoever bought them out in turn...
Samey-same as the World of Greyhawk in which this story is set
The Wee Jas quote came out of Oerth Journal #7

I haven't played the game for years, but I never really like any of the new rules. However, this thought often crosses my mind...
What happened if when we created characters, we ACTUALLY created characters?
Better hope you rolled up GOOD ones ;>