Dungeons & Stumps(Commission)

“I swear if this is another random encounter, I’m flipping the whole table,” growled Rowan with a grin, shifting forward. She was the barbarian both in game and in attitude. Her limbs ended in short, rounded stumps, soft and compact, but never still. She hovered over the map like she was ready to chew on it if necessary.

Juno, sitting across from her, arched a brow. The DM for this session, and the only one in the group with a single leg, she sat with her foot resting beside the table and a pencil between her toes. “You stroll into a suspiciously quiet village covered in bones, and I’m the one being accused?”

“I’m just saying, if skeletons pop out of the well again, I’m calling meta-bullshit,” Maddy muttered. She lay comfortably on her side, propped up on a pillow. Her archer character was known for threading arrows through impossible odds, and so was Maddy, despite being completely armless and missing both legs below the knee. “I’ve got trauma from the last skeleton ambush.”

“Anyway,” Juno said, brushing a chip crumb off the DM screen with her heel. “As you peer into the shadows of the village. A cold wind swirls in, and from the darkness-”

She paused.

Popcorn crunches filled the silence.

“-six skeletons rise from the ground!”

“Freakin’ knew it!” Rowan shouted, lurching forward and bumping her beer bottle with a stump. It wobbled but didn’t fall. Rowan gave a loud, guttural shout and rocked forward. “I RAGE.”

“Initiative first,” Juno said, raising her foot like a referee throwing a flag.

Rowan crossed her arms, or rather, her stumps besides her chest and narrowed her eyes.

Juno reached for the dice with her foot again and snagged three d20s from the tray, pinching one between her toes.

She turned to Rowan. “Want me to roll for you?”

Rowan’s head snapped toward her like she’d been insulted in a tavern.

“Don’t you dare,” she growled. Then, without warning, she pushed herself up onto her short leg stumps with a surprising burst of strength and balance, towering over the table like a drunk war goddess. “The last time you rolled for me, I ended up face-down in a goblin pit with my pants on fire.”

“That was one time...”

“You have the cursed toe of fate,” Rowan declared, dramatically pointing a stump in Juno’s direction. “You were definitely born on a Friday the 13th.”

“I said I was sorry!”

“Don’t touch my die.”

With a dramatic groan, Juno stretched her leg across the table and held the d20 out between her toes like an offering. Rowan leaned in and plucked it straight from her foot with her mouth.

“Mhff… thish is how you do it,” she mumbled, leaned forward and let it fall into her tray

It bounced, rolled and landed on a sixteen.

“I’ll take it!” she said, pumping a stump in the air.

Maddy rolled next—twelve. Juno rolled for the skeletons, eight.

“Alright,” said Juno, marking the order on her notes. “Rowan, Maddy, Skellies.”

Rowan sat up straighter, took a deep breath and dropped into character immediately, her voice a rough, feral growl:
“Thorga Bloodmaw doesn’t wait. She lunges forward, foam at the corners of her mouth and a half-broken tankard still hanging from her belt. She spots the biggest, ugliest skeleton, the one with the cracked crown.”

Maddy started clapping her thighs together. “Yes! Queen of chaos!

Juno flipped a page behind her screen. “That one’s the captain. He's got chainmail and a jagged longsword.”

“Perfect. Thorga launches herself, bonus action RAGE, greatsword in hand. She screams:
‘I’VE EATEN RIBS BIGGER THAN YOU!’”

Rowan leaned down, spat her attack die into the tray.

It spun.

The room went silent.

The d20 clattered once, then landed flat.

“Natural. Freaking. Twenty,” Maddy said in awe.

Rowan’s entire body vibrated with victory. "YES! THORGA IS CHOPPING FIREWOOD!"

Juno burst out laughing, writing furiously behind her screen. “Okay, okay! Double the dice. Add rage and GWM bonus.”

Rowan went wild with the math, nudging two more dice into the tray. “So that’s… seven, nine, plus four from rage, plus ten—thirty!” She grinned so wide it practically reached her ears. “What happens?”

Juno grinned. “Thorga charges like a blood-crazed goat. Your axe carves straight through the skeleton’s ribs. The top half goes flying, the legs crumple in place. The other five skeletons immediately hesitate. You can tell—they know they messed up.”

“In Thorga’s words,” Rowan growled, still deep in character, “THE ONLY THING LEFT OF YOU WILL BE FIREWOOD AND REGRET!”

Maddy fell into a fit of laughter. “God, I love her.”

Juno reached for her beer bottle with her foot and raised it. “To Thorga. May she always crit when it matters.”

They cheered, popcorn and chips crunched, and the next turn was already being rolled.

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Another short story! I really got inspired to write something while I was doing this commission. The main idea was to have them just drink and chat, but I decided to take it a step further haha.

Sorry for the mistakes with the rules.

I spent most of the day looking for models to fill out the scene. They might not be that visible, but I think they add to the realism. Also, I couldn't add any more or my computer wouldn't have been able to handle the scene.

I was feeling a bit burnt out, but after working on this image and story, my batteries are full again haha (i hope).