Page 87 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

Rory just grinned at this threat.

They headed downstairs, Nōwē weaving between their ankles, which was actually more dangerous in the robes they weren’t used to wearing. Max had hold of the banister in a white-knuckled grasp.

“Please let us survive another night,” Rory told her. “We have to open the door for our other friends, and you’ll get lots of pets.”

Nōwē bounded down the stairs to skitter out into the bookshop. Max and Rory therefore made it without tripping to their deaths, and they were soon letting everyone else in and exclaiming over their costumes. Each person looked amazing, and Rory was glad to see that they looked as healthy as they had when he’d seen them a little over a week ago.

“We have to take some photos in the bookshop!” Rory exclaimed. “It’ll be great promotion on social media.”

“We have social media?” Max asked.

“I’ve been showing him,” Alex said.

“Oh,” Max said, a bit blankly. “Well, as long as I don’t have to do it.”

Rory leaned in to kiss his cheek. “You totally don’t, you big grump.”

Max looked very satisfied with this.

Alex had also taught Rory how to set the timer on his phone for photos, so they were able to get all of them in a variety of shots around the shop.

Edward, their human rogue, was dressed in a velvet cloak, tan pants, and a flowing white shirt with a brocade vest. Tom’s dwarf cleric had a full-on wig and beard, robes similar but a little bit fancier than Rory’s, a large medallion necklace, and an axe for fighting. Sam’s fairy barbarian was dressed like an old-school fighter with a variety of weapons strapped on over pants and a tight top. Her wings were at least four feet wide and made of glittering mesh. She had battle make-up painted across her face and generally posed with her teeth bared and a sword in each hand.

David had gone all-in on his dragonborn bard. He’d found a hand-held harp somewhere that was slung over his shoulder (or pulled off to play during their photos), and his full costume make-up had been meticulously done to emulate bronze scales across his entire face and hands. He also had a cloak, a billowing shirt, and dark pants and boots.

Their newest addition was a subtly green-skinned tiefling. Like David, Alex had gone full make-up, but what really set them apart were the huge curling horns that projected out of the side of their head, their tail, and the boots that had been built up so that they looked like they ended in hooves. They also had a quiver of arrows over their shoulder and a sword and dagger at their belt.

And finally, their dungeon master had gone full-on, well, dungeon master. Stella had slicked back her hair and was wearing leather pants and a leather corset that was crisscrossed with all sorts of leather straps. She had a whip and a riding crop.

Nōwē even graced them with her presence a few times, making her officially their mascot in the photos (and obviously the scariest member of their party).

After they’d exclaimed at length over one another’s costumes—Alex had made the horns with chicken wire and papier-mâché, apparently—and taken pictures upstairs, they trooped down to the basement, set up, and took more photos as they rolled dice and moved mini-figs. They looked fantastic against the Halloween backdrop, and honestly, even if they never used any of the photos for promotion—though Rory intended to do that—just having the memories made him happy.

He could see why it might be a bit much for every session, but it was a lot of fun for a special occasion.

Once they settled down to play, they seemed to be in character for a lot more of this session, perhaps because they were literally sitting there in character. Even Tom and Max, who normally did the least in-character acting, got into it a little more. (It made the flirting between David and Tom way more obvious, Tom blushed even more—even with the beard—and Rory really hoped they were going to figure out or admit they liked one another in real life and do something about it.)

Rory wasn’t even sure how Edward had convinced the group that their bard and their cleric needed to dance as a distraction. (As the bard, shouldn’t David be playing the music?) But somehow, he’d pulled it off, and even more impressively, he’d somehow conned David and Tom into actually dancing. There was room in the basement, and it was probably a terrible distraction for people who weren’t as invested in this romance as their group was, but Stella was rolling with it, proving that she was invested in them as much as their story. (And maybe the guards they were trying to distract were romantics at heart. Rory shouldn’t stereotype the NPCs.)

Collectively, they were trying not to be too obvious about their glee about the whole thing, like that might scare off the two of them. Rory had originally planned to wild shape to try to distract the guards, but this was clearly way better.

Stella seemed to think so, too, because the guards were distracted enough for the rest of the group to sneak past while David and Tom chatted with them and gave dance step suggestions.

Rory liked it better when they were all together in the campaign, but sometimes, that wasn’t possible, and Stella split the turns between the two groups. Sam, Max, Edward, Rory, and Alex snuck deeper into the castle as David pulled out his harp and started to play music for the guards while Tom engaged in a very serious discussion of how they should reconcile joy with their duty to their gods.

“Are they still going to be giving live demos out there when we try to leave?” Rory asked.

Max shrugged. “It looks like it.”

Only then Edward tried to steal a small vase in a hallway that he was sure no one would notice, and suddenly, magical alarms were going off, and the entire castle was on high alert. Those inside the castle ran for their lives—while outside, Tom calmly bid the guards perform their duty and please their gods.

Everyone else exchanged glances as the guards ran off to see what was going on, leaving David and Tom unharmed.

David grinned at Tom. “And I thought I had a smooth tongue.”

Tom flushed to the roots of his hair, but he looked pleased.

“I—” Edward started.