None of the three seem to remember exactly when exactly Jess, Jerry and Hugo became friends. What was certain however, was that all of the three first met at the "Dragons' Archive" comic shop. A place that soon became their favorite meeting place to discuss the newest trends in comics, fantasy films, and board games.
Jess and Jeff were massively into the fantasy setting. Hugo on the other hand may have been adjacent to the theme, but he was far more interested in stories of science fiction. And while that difference in interests sometimes presented a barrier, it was always a welcome opportunity for each party member to gush about their favorite topics and explain everything to each other in detail whenever one of the trio expressed confusion about a new concept.
Today was a little different however. While Jess and Hugo were already present, the otherwise punctual Jerry took a lot longer than usual. When finally the door chimed and Jerry entered, the two noticed an odd spark in his eyes.
"Guys! Guys! Have you seen this advert they put up at the door?"
"Advert? you mean that High School Poetry Club thing from a week ago?", Jess asked, not remembering anything else.
"No, the other one! come take a look" Jerry enthusiastically motioned the rest of the trio out to the door.
"Red Dragon Seeks Daring Band of Adventures!” Hugo read out loud "I didn't know the red dragon living on Magpie Drive had a thing for pen-and-paper RPGs."
Somehow it struck none of the three humans as odd that an honest-to-god dragon had his lair in a suburb of their city. But why should it? He's always been there and mostly kept to himself - He always paid his taxes and never threatened to burn the city down.
"It's been a while since I've played a campaign. I'm on board!" Jess was already making plans for her character. Hugo on the other hand was a little undecided: "I dunno.. I've never played one of those. don't they have super complex rulesets?"
"There's a first time for anything.", Jerry interjected "We can help you create your character sheet if you like. And if the dragon turns out to be a horrible game master, we can still just leave."
Hugo was easily swayed by his two friends as the trio sat down at the board game table and started working on their party. Instead of the usual fantasy discussions, today would be a workshop day!
Jess's character sheet ended up describing a female badger ranger called Iridel. The roughed up Mustelid grew up as the daughter of the chief of a badger Clan, who fully intended her to take his place when her time was right. Unfortunately this would never happen as her clan was wiped out by a pack of bandit-wolves when she was just 16.
Today, 10 years later she was still marked with a scar across her snout. A constant reminder for what the wolves had done. She was, without a doubt to any onlooker, the strongest of the entire party. But outside of her strength and knowledge about the Forest she didn't have a lot more to offer. She neither had a formal education nor a lot of knowledge about the manners and lifestyle of life outside the forest. Thusly, her area of work is restricted to the dark woods, where she would act as a guide-for-hire for anyone smart enough not to go alone.
Hugo ended up creating a character to complement Jess' - Copper, a female squirrel rogue, who met Iridel after she ran into one of the Badger's traps. After swiftly and effectively fending off a group of wild boars, Iridel saw her worth and the Squirrel joined the Badger's side. Over time, Copper fell in love with the Badger, but the Squirrel was never sure if her feelings were mutual. What she knew was that the Badger was fond of her for her cheerful nature, her climbing skills, and her knowledge on medicinal herbs. even if the latter was fairly limited.
Jerry decided to recycle an existing character of his. Janus, a human wizard just shy of 23 years old. Jerry was sure the Dragon wouldn't mind a human character if the other two were already Anthros. it was easier for him to imagine himself as a Human.
Janus was in the last year of his apprenticeship. He was only one quest away from becoming a true Wizard: His master had instructed him to survey a yet unknown part of the deep forest, taking note of the flora and fauna of the area. This sort of busywork was common for scholars to put onto their apprentices while cashing in all the academic credit for it. But this was the way of a young wizards education. If he ever managed to get an apprentice for himself, Janus would fully deserve to do the same. After all, they would all have to go through this at some point..
Before setting out on his adventure, Janus found the Badger and the squirrel on the towns message board. They were one of the only 2 guides available that the young apprentice could afford (The limited grant that he had received from his master didn't give him much room for spending). The other guide was a single bear Hunter, and the young wizard didn't trust the way that the Ursine was looking him up with hunger in his eyes when he was interviewing him.
He met the pair of forest critters in their advertised Tavern and after some haggling they came to an agreement. For a good amount of Janus' silver and five magic scrolls, they agreed to guide him for 2 weeks.
The party would soon embark on a survey mission that would have much more in store for them than the trio could have possibly anticipated.
Jerry took one last look at the three filled out sheets. Stats, histories and descriptions were all neatly filled out. "This looks pretty great! Nice job Hugo!" although it was his opinion that Copper's Backstory was a little lacking in detail and her motivations were a little unclear, he was sure the game master would understand and give an inexperienced player the needed leeway.
"So what do you say? We pay the dragon a visit tomorrow? Say 4pm?"
"I'm off work at 4pm. Let me grab something to eat and i can be there at 5" replied Jess. Hugo just nodded. Working from home he always had a very flexible schedule. "I'll be there when you need me"