Chapter Text
Things had been quiet at the hotel recently, what with everyone going off on their own and keeping to themselves. Alastor mostly strolled around the place, that creepy smile plastered on his face. Charlie and Vaggie were holed up in Charlie's office working on new redemption ideas. Niffty was off who knows where cleaning something. Sir Pentious was tinkering away in the lounge area. Leaving Husker and Angel Dust at the bar, one annoying the other. Angel took a sip of his fruity cocktail and checked his phone again. His brother and sister were due at the hotel any minute now. Angel couldn't wait to see Molly again after having been separated from his twin for so many years, and while his relationship with Arackniss was still bumpy he was still willing to try and make it work with his short big brother. Angel set his phone down when a flash of yellow caught his eye. Little Bea was skipping along, two long golden yellow braids bouncing with her, both sets of arms filled with random crap as she entered the library.
Angel couldn't help but smile. He'd been stuck in Hell for over eighty years, but Bea was a literal ray of sunshine in this place. The poor kid had been sent down here for whatever reason, but that didn't seem to slow her down in the least. The day she came to the hotel with hopes of being redeemed was the day Angel thought there may be a chance. If anyone deserved it, it was her. Angel also couldn't help but fawn over her. From one pink spider to a yellow spider, Angel had taken it upon himself to be a sort of big brother to her, much to Vaggie and Alastor's charade. 'A bad influence,' they called him, but Angel didn't fucking care. He was fabulous, and Bea deserved fabulous.
The door opened again and Bea appeared again, jogging to the bar.
“Husk, can I have a soda?” She asked. Husk rolled his eyes but handed her a can anyways. She shouted her thanks before returning to the library.
“What's she doin in there?” Angel asked.
“Fuck if I know. I don't care what she does, so long as I can drink in peace.” Husker replied. Angel rolled his eyes. He sauntered over to the library and opened the door to a mess. The library was a big space, two floors high and packed with books, with a large fireplace in the center wall. Normally, there was a large sofa and a few chairs to sit in, but those had been pushed against the walls of books leaving only the coffee table where it was. The poor table was loaded down with what Angel could only describe as game board vomit. Two checker boards laid out on the surface, the gingerbread game pieces from Candyland, white domino tokens, and Monopoly money. Bea was sat on the floor, scribbling on a notepad while a small pile of books sat next to her.
“Hey short stuff, what are ya doin in here?” Angel asked. Bea looked up and grinned at Angel.
“Setting up a D&D campaign.” She said. Angel blinked his eyes at her.
“Uh, what?”
“D&D? Dungeons and Dragons? Oh wait, you died in the 40s. My bad. It's a game I'm setting up.” Angel shrugged. He was use to it. He and Bea came from two completely different times, him from the Great Depression and she from more recently, 2021.
“Eh, no biggie. This like a board game or somethin?”
“It's a fantasy themed role-playing game where you and your party quest for money and adventure. You can create your own character, you roll dice for nearly every decision made, use magic, swords, and just have a lot of fun. My dad and I would play it sometimes. He got real into it at one point and 3D printed us little figures of us for the game.”
Angel scoffed, “Nerds.”
“You wanna play?”
“How long does this usually take?”
“Umm, a week. Maybe. Depends on the game you play.”
“A week!? How in the hell do you play one game for an entire week? That sounds like hell.”
“Well, like I said it depends on the game you want to play. And you don't have to play for a week straight. Sometimes I'd play for an hour or two one day and six hours the next. It just equals a week. If you want your party to just hang out at a tavern then that game can be a few hours long. Some campaigns take days because of all the dice rolls and the time it takes to accumulate weapons, powers and potions. I even read about a game that's been going for a few years now.”
“Sounds like a lot of trouble.” Angel saw Bea's shoulders deflate a little. He felt bad saying that, but it was true. He didn't think he could sit through a game for anything longer than an hour. But, it was his off day, and he was bored.
“You like this game, Bea?” Angel asked.
“Yeah, it reminds me of home, and I like making new characters so it's a good creative exercise.”
Angel sighed, “Eh what the heck. Deal me in kid.”
“Really!? You mean it?” Bea exclaimed.
“Yeah well, let's start with a character and go from there. At the very least, it'll kill some time before dinner.” He made himself comfortable on the floor beside her.
“Yay! Okay, first we'll start with your-” Bea was cut off by the library door slamming open. Angel's sister Molly entered with their brother Arackniss trudging along. Molly was donned in her usual pink attire and her massive blonde hair looked immaculate.
“Angel! We're here! What are you doing?” She asked seeing her brother on the floor.
“Hey, Mols. Bea roped me into making something or another person for a game she wants to play.”
“A game? Can I play?”
“Sure! The more the merrier.” Bea cheered. “Want to join too, Niss?”
“Nah, I don't wanna be a part of some kids game. Just came to see if Pent's got that new weapon ready for me.”
“I do, and what thisss I hear about a game?” Sir Pentious slithered up beside Arackniss, gun case in hand.
“I dunno,” Niss shrugged, “Bea's gone and roped my sibs into some game, but I ain't playin.”
“We're playing Dungeons and Dragon Pent.” Bea explained, “You wanna join in?”
“Dungeonss and Dragonss? Sounds like it might be an interesssting game. I suppose I could stay and participate for the moment. I have been meaning to take a break from my work.”
“Well, you guys have fun. I'll be out back. See ya.” Niss turned back, headed for the garden at the back of the hotel when his path crossed with Charlie and Vaggie's.
“Hey Arackniss!” Charlie greeted. “When did you get here?”
“Just now, I'm headed out to test Pent's weapon he built me.”
“Is Molly here too?”
“Yeah, she stopped by to greet Husker and now she, Angel and Pent are in the library with Bea playing some dragon game. Told them I wasn't interested.”
Charlie was practically bouncing with excitement.
“Omg, I want to play!” Charlie gushed before bolting to the library. Vaggie couldn't help but laugh at her girlfriend's enthusiasm.
“Never thought Charlie would be a D&D fan,” Vaggie chuckled.
“D&D?” Niss asked.
“Dungeons and Dragons. Get with the times old man.” Vaggie threw out as she headed back to the office. She'd take care of the last bit of paperwork while Charlie relaxed and had fun. After all, playing a board game was the simplest thing they could do. It's not like anything bad would happen.
“Alright! Now before we start, we have to come up with player characters. There are a ton to choose from so the sky's the limit.” Bea explained.
“Like what?”
“You have Paladins, which are fighting types, Clerics are magic based, Bards are musicians, pretty self explanatory, Rangers, Orcs, pretty much any fantasy character you can think of.”
“Eh just pick something for me, kid.” Angel said, sipping on his drink.
Bea laughed, “Angel you would totally be a Bard.” She jotted it down on her notepad.
“What!? No, I don't wanna be some fuckin musician. Make me cooler.”
“What if I told you the Bard can roll to fuck anything.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
“Alright bitches I'm a fucking Bard!”
“Ranger sounds interesting. Do we get weapons?” Molly asked.
“Yep, but no guns. In this fantasy world, there are only combat weapons. Daggers, swords, axe, a mace, etc. But there is a crossbow you could have Molly. Same thing. And you can have more than one weapon. Like, my character she carries a dagger and a magic staff.”
“Alright then, crossbow for me.”
Bea added to her notes before looking at the others.
“Pent, Charlie, have you two chosen yet?”
“I choose White Paladin.” Charlie declared proudly.
Angel howled with laughter, “Ain't that fuckin' ironic. The Princess of Hell a white knight.”
“I think that's a good pick for you Charlie.” Bea quickly scribbled it down, “Pent?”
“Hmm, what ssort of being is there that is worthy of my status as a powerful Overlord?”
“Berserker.”
“Pardon?”
“A Berserker character gets extra damage points at the start of a battle. Basically, you'd be the one to jump head first into a fight.”
“A strong leader? Excellent.”
“What's your character Bea?” Molly asked, “You said you already have one.”
“Yep, I've played her for a while with my dad. She's a Druid, basically a nature-magic user.” Bea dug out her sketchbook from her bag, flipping through the pages until she came across a drawing of a young looking girl with short curly red hair, dressed head to toe in green clothes. Angel could only describe the outfit like layering a bunch of rags together and then cinching it all together with a large belt. A long staff with a glowing green point was held out in front of her.
“I'll draw each of your characters later, for now we can do a test run to see if you like it.”
Everyone nodded in agreement. Bea's smile was as wide as Alastor's. Angel couldn't remember ever seeing someone so genuinely happy, and he had to admit Bea was a really good story teller. She started them off in some tavern, “adventures getting drinks,” she called it, and they worked on telling their stories of who they were. Even though it was all bullshit, some of it was hilarious. Seeing Pent try to be a big tough guy was worth Angel degrading himself to be a nerd for a bit. When Angel asked if he could persuade the bar tender to bend him over the bar, Bea merely rolled her eyes and handed him a handful of dice.
“The fuck's with all da dice?”
“In normal D&D, you roll for your actions, and the Dungeon Master, that's me, reads out the results of the roll. If you roll a 1, you fail the task at my discretion and humor, but if you roll a 20, you succeed. Normally, we'd roll a twenty sided die, but I couldn't find one in any of the games, so I grabbed 5 of them for a total of 30 and I'll just math our way through it.”
Angel shrugged and tossed the dice to the table.
“23.” Bea annouced, “I'll allow it.”
“Hell yeah!” Angel cheered. Molly and Charlie laughed while Pentious mumbled something about Bea encouraging poor behavior.
“The dice determines all, Sir Pentious.” Bea answered happily. “Do we want to go on a small adventure? Test out our weapons and magic?”
“What did you have in mind?” Charlie asked.
“A treasure hunt.” Bea gathered up a handful of plastic tokens and placed them on the board. “We can use these as gold coins since this is all I could find.”
“You really went all out, Bea. Why'd you go digging out other games for this?” Molly asked.
Bea shrugged, “There wasn't a starter kit here, and I really missed playing this. Dad had a ton of stuff. Dice towers, maps and boards, bags of gems and gold, dice sets in just about every color you could imagine. He even made models of me and him to play along. Digging all of this out. . .it's the closest I can get to what he had.”
There was a quiet silence then. Angel couldn't relate personally. His own father was a real bastard after having him beaten and thrown out for being gay. Bea talked about her family nearly constantly, anyone could see that she really loved them. She'd talk about cooking with her mom while they sang musical show tunes. Her and her dad were close as can be, sharing similar interests to the point Angel would think Bea was just a mini version of her old man. He was almost envious of her, until he remembered that at least he had Molly, and now Niss back in his life.
“Hey Bea,” said Charlie, “I just want to say thank you for letting us be a part of this. It means a lot to you, and I think this could be a great way to team build towards redemption. In fact,” Charlie reached into her shirt, pulling out a necklace with a large ruby attached. “We can use this as the treasure.”
Angel whistled, “Nice rock Cha-Cha.”
“My mom gave it to me. Said it would be helpful for my project here at the hotel.” Charlie placed it in the center of the board. Bea could feel the excitement bubbling inside her. She hadn't felt this excited for a campaign since her first one freshman year of high school.
“Alright adventurers! Let us quest!” She proclaimed. Her enthusiasm was met with cheers when the air in the library changed. It felt hotter, a static tingle in the air like lightning was about to hit. The gem began to glow, throwing sparks across the board.
“Iss it ssuppose to do that?” Pent questioned, backing away from the table.
“No!” Charlie exclaimed. Bea scrambled back, knocking over books and her bag. Her braids fluttered in front of her eyes, gravitating towards the table. She looked down to see the plastic coins clacking and jumping along the board before zipping towards the gem and vanishing within it. The whistling of wind reached her ears, growing louder by the second. A book flew past Pentious' head, then another, both vanishing into the red stone.
“It's pulling us in!” Bea shouted, digging her claws into the hardwood. Charlie grabbed onto the fireplace, while Pentious gripped a column with both arms, tail wrapped around Bea. Angel and Molly managed to make it to the doors before the wind picked up, lifting their feet off the ground. Angel held onto Molly, while Molly held an iron grip on the door handle. Papers swirled around them in a tornado of chaos, books crashed into each other, tearing at their spines on impact. Pentious could feel his grip slipping from the column, his claws tearing into the marble.
“Pent look out!” Bea shouted. Pentious looked up just in time for a book to hit him head on, surprising him enough to release his hold and send Bea and him hurtling towards the table. Both vanished in a flash of red.
“Sir Pentious!”
“Bea!”
“Princess! Can't you stop it?”
“I. . .I don't know how!” She shouted over the wind. Her own grip was hanging on by a nail. She looked at Angel and Molly.
“Call for Alastor! He'll know how to help!” Charlie shouted before her claws slipped and she too vanished. Panic rose in Angel's chest. What had happened to them!? And how in the hell were they going to explain this to Lucifer, if the big man ever found out. Angel looked up at Molly.
“Mols pull me up. We gotta get the door open.”
Molly grunted as she and Angel worked to get him closer to the door. Angel's fingers brushed the handle when the storm picked up again. He made one final reach, turning the latch and letting the door fly open. Angel could just see the bar, and Husker slumped over it, possibly passed out drunk.
“HUSKER!!” Angel shouted. He saw the cat demon's head shoot up and look around, spotting him and Molly. His mouth moved but Angel couldn't hear him through the roar of the storm behind them.
“Get Alastor!!” Was all he could say before Molly's grip gave out and they both hurtled towards the red light.