Jon was bored that evening. He was trying to think of something really cool that he could wish for using the stone, but nothing sprang to mind. Karyn was busy tonight - someone had pressured her into trying out for the cheerleading team - and there was nothing good on TV. Jon was bored of all his video games, so he decided to wish one up. He couldn't decide if he should wish for money to buy one, just wish for a particular game, or wish for something that didn't even exist yet. Then, someone knocked on his bedroom door, interrupting his thoughts.
"Who is it?" Jon asked.
"It's me, Zoe," said his sister. "I need you to do me a favour."
Jon rolled his eyes. His twin sister Zoe liked to dress in gothic clothes and hung out with some of the biggest nerds in the school. He could hardly believe that they had shared a womb together.
"What favour?" Jon asked, with some trepidation. He owed Zoe a favour because she hadn't ratted on him when he came home drunk one night, but he didn't think it was going to be much fun paying it back.
"We need a fourth player for our W&W; game tonight. I want you to come play with us."
Jon sighed. W&W; was a roleplaying game, like Dungeons & Dragons, and his sister and her friends played them religiously. He had never tried them himself, but the idea of sitting around a table pretending to kill goblins had never really appealed to him. Still, it sounded like a less painful way to repay his favour than he had imagined, so he agreed.
Jon found himself sitting at a table in the basement with Zoe and three of her friends. Athena was another goth girl, and rumoured to be a lesbian. Jon thought she was secretly in love with Zoe, but as far as he knew Zoe was straight. Athena was a pretty girl with long, black hair, and she wore heavy mascara and black lipstick all the time.
Brent was a tall, gangly kid who looked uncannily like Shaggy from the old Scooby Doo cartoons. He had a scraggly goatee and unkempt straw-brown hair. He stuttered and was pretty shy, so Jon didn't know him very well.
Stan was the group's Game Master. He was a short kid who looked Chinese or Japanese or something - Jon didn't know which - and he wore thick glasses and had braces. He was supposed to be really bright but didn't do very well in school.
"Good evening, everyone," began Stan. "Thank you for joining us this evening, Jon."
Jon nodded, trying not to roll his eyes.
Stan continued. "I was going to continue our usual campaign tonight, but since Harpreet is missing tonight, Zoe's brother Jon is joining us. But, I think that there are some important decisions that Harpreet would have to make tonight, so I'm going to run a side quest with some of your character's apprentices instead."
Zoe looked like she was going to protest, but she kept her mouth shut as Stan continued.
"I also found something really cool at an old store this week," Stan said. "It's an old cassette tape that's supposed to make the game really immersive. The guy at this shop said his group used it back in the 1980s and that their games were totally unforgettable."
"R-really?" asked Brent, "what kind of music is on it?"
"I don't know," Stan replied, "but this guy is, like, the king of the old school gamers, so I bet it's going to be cool. It took me three days to track down a cassette tape player to play it!"
Stan slapped the old cassette into an old walkman that he had hooked up to some portable computer speakers. He pressed a button, and suddenly the room was filled with a weird, bass thrumming sound.
Jon tried to tell Stan to shut it off, but his voice didn't carry through the loud thrumming. He tried to get up to turn it off himself, but his body didn't seem to be responding to him. A strange darkness started to creep in around the edges of his vision, and within a few moments, everything went black.
When Jon's vision returned, the thrumming sound was gone. He was still seated at a table, surrounded by Zoe and her friends, but now everyone was wearing clothes that looked like they belonged in a Renaissance Faire. The boys were wearing leather boots, some kind of tight wool pants, and leather vests over beige shirts with loose sleeves. The girls were wearing long, brown dresses with low-cut bodices. Zoe was a bit flat-chested, so her dress seemed fairly modest, but Athena was much bustier, and the bodice showed off a lot of cleavage. Jon managed to pull his eyes away long enough to notice that Brent and Stan were staring at Athena's tits, too.
Jon looked around and saw that they were in some kind of medieval tavern. They were alone, except for a sinister-looking figure in a hood and cloak standing in a corner.
"What the fuck?" said Jon.
The sinister-looking stranger came over to them and began to speak. "You are strangers in this world," he said, "and it is not a safe place for you. You must enter the Morphic Dungeon to find your way back to your world."
Stan's eyes brightened. "Wow!" he said, "this is amazing! That tape must have some kind of hypnotic soundtrack or something."
The stranger shook his head. "It is not as you say. It has been many years, but in times past strangers like yourselves came into our world. They stayed for many months, but were only able to return to your world through the Morphic Dungeon. They spent many months learning its secrets, and were forever changed by it, but it allowed them to return home."
"Okay," said Jon, "where is this dungeon?"
"Its entrance is just beyond the town gates, but beware - it is more dangerous than it seems. I can show you the way." said the man.
"Sure thing, boss," said Jon, "lead on!"
The group took a short walk through what seemed like a bustling medieval town. The stranger led them to a tiny stone hut, with strange runic letters carved above the doorway. Inside the doorway was a set of spiral stairs, leading deep into the ground.
"I will go no further," said the stranger, "but take care. There are many things within that may help you, and many that may harm you, but the first room should supply you with all you need to survive."
Stan led the group down the stairs. The light from above faded, and they had to fumble along in the dark as they went. The staircase seemed to spiral down for ages before they saw a dim glow of light below.
