Happy Birthday to me!

The blinding light fades and I'm staring up at the canopy of trees. It takes me a moment to realize that I'm lying down. As my thoughts clear, the fading voice of Ashward whispers "Make me proud, Bro!"

I sit up and look around. I find myself sitting in a clearing in a thick forest. Looking at my hands, I see the signs of middle age creeping into my body. I say to nobody in particular, “You couldn’t give me a younger body?”

“You didn’t ask.” Ashward chuckles, “All requests have been certified and delivered. You’re on your own from here on out. Also, this will probably be our last chat. Don’t expect any more help from me. Devine Intervention is highly frowned upon. It ruins the story. Later!”

“Alright. Let’s get to it then.”

(Authors note: I’m still looking for a stats maker. I will try to edit it in later.)

“Let’s see what I’m working with. Uh, OPEN! (nothing happens) STATUS! (still nothing) Oh, right!” I hold my hand open in front of me, “Observe!”

“Awesome! Level 100! My stats are pretty much off the charts. Oh, there! Magic!”

I tap the button and a prompt pops up: For most magic users of this realm magic is performed by a series of incantations and hand gestures. Higher level magicians can simply call out their spell. Truly epic users can cast spells wordlessly. Magic is largely based on the caster’s intent and abilities. With enough control and practice a caster could use the same Fire spell to melt stone or light a cigarette.

I close the prompt and point at a stone, imagining a match lighting from my fingertip. I flick it and it hits the stone with a puff of smoke.

“Sweet! Now, let’s turn up the heat.” I close my eyes and picture a flame the size of a basketball. In my hand is a flaming ball. I throw it at the rock and it explodes into pebbles.

“Ha ha! This is so cool! Ok, let’s see if this works. Fireball, level 3!” A ball of flame, the size of a softball hits the smoldering rock.

“A guy could get to enjoy this. I wonder what else I can do.” I open my stat block and scroll through my abilities and find the tab for Biomancy. I tap it to see a blank page but before I can do anything else a voice comes out of the woods and 3 figures step into the clearing.

“Hand it over, old man!”