Chapter 8
Dungeon Master

Long were the hours that John laboured to arrange a meeting for – let's drop the political correctness – thugs of the city. Most were far less reluctant than Big Trucks and Kei, and John had to call on more than a few favours owed to him. But whenever he doubted the worthiness of getting involved, he needed only to glance at the envelope containing the gruesome pictures still on his desk and his motivation would be renewed. However, even with such enthusiasm on John's part, it still took a few days to organize the meeting.

It was to be held in the conference rooms of the Rigby Hotel, a neutral, five-star establishment in a central location. John had arranged catering and paid an extra sum for the hotel to turn a blind eye in case there were people at the meeting that were wanted by police. He then arrived two hours early so the attendees would feel more comfortable with the presence of a familiar face.

There was about an eighty-percent turn out, which was more than John had imagined. As he entered the room where they were gathered, he realized that this was probably the largest organized crime gathering ever in the city. He felt a shiver of excitement tinged with fear. There were many familiar faces at the table.

John sat down at the head of the table and waited for the rabble and banter to die down. Again, he was surprised when he did not have to wait very long. As he sat and looked at them all expectantly, one by one, the representatives of each organization turned their attentions to him and fell silent.

When the room had quietened enough, he cleared his throat. "I am here today to facilitate discussion in regards to a serious threat to the city. If you have been invited to this forum, it is because I believe that your business goings will be affected by this threat. I urge you all to suspend any grievances that you may have with each other during this gathering, and focus purely on the issue at hand. It is definitely an issue deserving of everyone's full attention."

When no one interrupted John's short monologue, he continued to outline the information that he had gathered offhandedly in the past few days. It painted a disturbing picture of a new group that had moved into the city over the past two months.

They were an organization that did not seem to be connected with others, did not seem to have any regard for the established order of the criminal world, and were expanding rapidly. They had a drugs angle, though none of the other groups knew what they were pushing or had sampled their product. They recruited their numbers from the homeless and the young and misguided. They were low on most people's radars until now.

John passed around the photos that Kei had given him (with Kei's consent) and explained that there had been no trace of the Korean gang after this event. Further independent expeditions by other associates had found similar scenarios of slaughter of the Koreans.

"Our banking associate say funds are still being drawn from Korean account," disclosed Mikolov, a representative from the east European movement.

"Does the banking associate also know where the funds are going to?" John asked.

Mikolov shook his head. "Organization appeared on co-sign of all the Korean accounts. It thought it was money cleaning."

John sat forward in his chair and licked his lips. He had to be sparing with his questions. None of these guys liked to be interrogated, even if it was to help their own cause. The one thing they hated more than sharing information with one another is showing their ignorance.

"What about the name of organization?" John asked.

"Yes, it was something..." Mikolov said scratching his chin. "It was something Ara... Arad..."

"Arachnida?" another one offered. The one who spoke was Donny.

"Yes!" Mikolov said, clapping his hands together. "That is the one."

Attention turned to Donny.

"They outbid us on a building project," Donny said grimly. "I don't know how they did it; they must be operating below cost." He looked around the room to add poignancy to his words, to let them know that bidding below cost was a clear sign of danger in the mental health variety. No one wanted a mad dog in town. "It was to built the Gallery of Modern Arts, some fancy new gallery."

"Doesn't the city already have a museum? What's it called? The City Arts Museum?" another interrupted.

Donny gave the interrupter a dark look. "Yes, of course," he said. "But the city is trying to reinvent itself into something modern and hip. Cool, you know?"

This prompted some snickers and chuckles around the room.

"Coincidence, then, isn't it that the City Arts Museum burnt down last night?" Kei said. "Did any of your follow the news? Even Captain Serious was no match for the arsonists."

Captain Serious! The room erupted in fevered discussion. Like this new Arachnida group, the captain was another danger that each association faced. At first he was just a nuisance, a shallow media monkey dressed in a flashy costume to interrupt small crime, but he was a nuisance monkey who kept showing up. In the right place. At the right times. Small inconveniences added up into larger operational difficulties until the estimated cost to their collective operations ran into the billions.

John sat back in his chair and just watched them gossip like old ladies. There was no power in the world that could stop a hearty discussion of Captain Serious. Police could be bought, judges could be blackmailed, but Captain Serious had thus far been incorruptible which just added to everyone's frustration. He existed for a special kind of righteousness, and John's clients were on the wrong side of the line he drew between those he protected and those he brought to justice. He waited until the bulk of the conversation had died down, which was a good while, before he spoke again.

"If the reports are true, and if Arachnida is behind the fire at the museum, then this is a further caution. Guns and knives have not been enough to deter Captain Serious. Arachnida must be packing something bigger," John pointed out. "Furthermore, if they are willing to conduct their business with brutality publically and indiscriminately, then I anticipate that they will be a great threat to your way of business, and indeed the way of life we have become accustomed to."

A hush fell over the group. Some people looked deeply troubled, others nodded in agreement.

"I called the meeting today so that everyone could be presented with the information that I have gathered thus far," John continued. "Whether you choose to work together against the Arachnida is up to each of you. To assist with whatever you decide, my trusted associate has set up a secure line of communication through an internet forum-like system. You can access the forum instantly though your phone, computer or any portable device. In the folder before each of you are instructions on how to set up an account and access the forum. I leave its use to you."

"Thank you, John," Big Trucks said heartily. "You're always looking out for us."

A murmur of agreements and nods ran through the group. As the meeting finished, John received a few more compliments. Personally, he was just relieved that no one had been shot. A he gathered his notes and finished off the last of the water in his glass (it was a sacrifice John had to make for the greater good of the meeting – everyone knew that you mixed alcohol and mob boss meeting at your own peril), he was approached by Kei, Kei's son Taki and a young Asian women that John deducted to be Chidori Tamoichi, Kei's lawyer daughter.

"Thank you for attending, Tamoichi-dono," John said with a courtesy bow.

"We are to be thanking you, John," Kei said with a tight smile. "Without you, the Arachnida would have picked us off one by one. But now that we stand united, we have a better chance of survival."

John bowed again. Kei gestured for his daughter to come forward. She was a tiny thing, her head barely reached John's shoulders. She had short hair held at bay with black hair pins and she wore a plain cotton shirt and high waisted shirt patterned with lavender illustrations.

"This is Chidori, my daughter whom I mentioned at our last meeting," Kei said.

John extended his hand and Chidori took it. Her grip was surprisingly strong.

"No doubt you've heard much about me, little of it true," Chidori said. "Timid, eager to please, dating skills of a soggy biscuit – all unfounded I'm afraid."

John was caught off balance by her forward greeting and evidently, so was Kei for he barked his daughter's name followed by a string of angry words in a foreign language.

John laughed, which surprised Kei again.

"Well, I hope one thing your father told me is true," he said, eyes twinkling with amusement.

"What's that?"

"That you're looking to get some experience in being an attorney who takes on my types of cases," John said.

Chidori smiled. "Ah, well, I suppose that is true."

Kei looked from John to Chidori, then to John again. What he saw seemed to make him relieved. He took a step back.

"Perhaps if John is not too busy this evening, the two of your can talk a bit more about lawyer work," Kei prompted from the sidelines.

John raised an eyebrow at Chidori. "What do you say to that?" he asked, still smiling.

Chidori looked down at her watch which earned another scowl from Kei.

"Very well, as long as we go somewhere that serves more than water," she said with a cheeky glance at the water pitches on the table.

John chuckled.

"I'm sorry, John-san. My daughter has her faults, and she may drink many times more than a woman should, but I assure you, she is not a smoker," Kei said.

"I'll come too," Taki said enthusiastically.

"No!" Kei barked. Then, he drew a deep breath and calmed himself before explaining, "you are not... a lawyer."

"Maybe next time then," John said diplomatically.

"Yeah, sure," Taki said, clearly disappointed.

So Kei and Taki left together, joining their men who had been waiting like the men of the other associations in the car park, and John suddenly found himself in the company of Chidori, a petite firecracker with a wicked sense of humour. It was hard not to fall for her, especially since John had been lonely for a very long time, but he thought of the feasibility of such a relationship, especially if Chidori was to come and work at the firm, and quickly discarded the notion of romance. He needed another lawyer more than he needed a girlfriend. Still... he would have to be careful on this matter.

They stopped for drinks and a casual dinner at Table Top, a pub with an over-the-top nerdish role-play theme. The whole bar was decorated like a medieval courtyard with a wooden bar and long, wooden tables complimented by mismatching stools. Table Top encouraged patrons to bring board games or role play games to the bar where they would be served food and drink to their heart's content as they played with friends. On a weeknight, there might be a few table top role play games happening in the corners of the bar, but otherwise it was empty.

The bar keeper, a spirited man known as Lamington, dressed in the robes of a travelling bard, greeted John by name as he and Chidori slid onto high stools by the bar. It was Chidori's first time and she was impressed.

"Wow, my father never told me you were an old school gamer," Chidori said. "The way he talks about you makes you seen like a super-lawyer, like, the archetypal lawyer if there was such a thing. I thought you were old and boring!"

John didn't know what to say to that, so he just shrugged. He ordered one of the special drinks at Table Top, a cocktail called D-Twenty, which contained approximately twenty percent alcohol and was lightly shaken and served with a novelty twenty-sided dice. He also ordered some chilli with wedges and pickles. Chidori selected a deep fried banana and ice-cream with a shrug.

"Yolo," she said.

John nodded in agreement, though he had no idea what 'yolo' was. It was agreeable sounding enough.

"So was it your father's idea to broach working with me, or was it yours?" He asked Chidori as Lamington the 'Bardtender' made a show of preparing their drinks.

"Mine, believe it or not," she said. "I want to help my family. As you are aware, there is a lot of need for this kind of work, especially with my family. Also, I'm hoping that if I can be helpful in other ways, he'll get off my back about this marriage thing."

Lamington served the drinks.

"A special dice for the lady," Lamington said with a flourishing gesture.

John felt a pang of jealousy when he saw that Lamington had given Chidori a translucent, pearlescent, orange crystal dice. The dice differed from normal ones in that it was shaped as a long crystal. In contrast, his was a plain green dice.

"Marriage, huh?" John asked.

"Yeah. Can you keep a secret?" Chidori said, fishing for the dice with her fingers.

"From Kei?"

"Especially from him."

John was intrigued. "Go on," he said when he decided that there would be no gain for him to disclose Chidori's secrets to her father.

"I'm not that into men." Chidori took a sip of her drink and nodded in approval at the taste.

"You mean, like a lesbian?" John probed.

"Yeah, like a lesbian," Chidori cast him a searching look. She found John's reaction interesting – he seemed to struggle with the notation for a moment, then he must have resolved the conflict within and visibly relaxed. He upended the drink and ordered something else. A Barbarian's Sunrise.

"Well, I suppose that's for the best," John said, nursing this drink. He grinned goofily at Chidori. "I was worried about keeping our relationship professional when you came to the firm."

Chidori, in mid drink, had to cover her nose and mouth to stop herself from spraying alcohol across the bar. She rocked violently as she half choked, half laughed at John who shrugged. He had the feeling that they would make great friends.

"Oh, sorry John," she gasped when she could speak again, even if it was through suppressed giggles. "I don't mean to be a bitch about it. Thank you. Honestly. I'm flattered. My dad would be proud of me." She tried her best to look serious, but the corners of her mouth kept quivering.

"Nah, this is a lot better. It saves me from a lot of pent up sexual tension," John said, also laughing. "You're secret's safe with me."

The food arrived and they got talking about John's work for clientele like Chidori's father. It was not always the easiest work, or always in the strictest sense, legal. They spoke about what issues clients often faced, and how to remain objective and impartial.

"Always check that the paperwork is complete and correct," John said. It was his best piece of advice. "About sixty percent of the cases I take on fail to even qualify for the court process because some overenthusiastic cop has made a brilliant arrest, but stuffed up his paper work. Or something in the court process might not go right, which sometimes means that the defence attorney has to throw out their whole case and start again. Don't get me wrong, you need to fight hard for your client when needed, but you don't want to be fighting hard where you don't have to."

"Got it," Chidori said. Then, she shifted her gaze to look at something behind John. "Don't be alarmed, but there's some sort of monster behind you."

John spun around just in time to be bear hugged by an orc. Familiar eyes peered out from under the rubbery, tusked mask.

"Liam!" John exclaimed, wresting his friend back. Liam was strong. Stronger than John remembered. Did wearing an orc costume improve people strength? He laughed at the thought.

"How did you know it was me?" Liam asked, voice muffled by the mask. He let up the assault and took a seat next to John.

"No one except you are crazy enough to come dressed up each time," John explained.

"It could have been someone else in costume."

"No one else except you attacks me in costume," John pointed out.

Liam pulled off his mask to reveal a sheepish grin.

John gestured to Chidori.

"This is Chidori," he introduced. "She's considering an offer to join my firm in the near future. Chidori, this is Liam, a lousy architect but a good friend."

Liam and Chidori shook hands.

"You don't want to work for this man," Liam whispered loudly. "All his clients are criminals."

John gave Chidori an apologetic look, but she only smiled.

"Actually, that the main reason I want to work there," she said. Then with a glance at John, added, "aside from being completely smitten by Mr. Landsborough's dashing looks and honourable reputation, that is."

Liam fell back in surprise.

"What?" he said, eyes wide with disbelief. "This cannot be! Has thou noble bachelor fallen from thy castle down into the cesspit of love?"

"We're not dating," John said laughing.

"Good. Sorry, Chidori, but Zach, our other friend, was ensnarled by the snare of romance and the three musketeers fell to just two. If you had taken my dear John as well, my heart would surely shatter into a thousand tiny slivers that would disperse around the world and pierce into people's eyes so that all they could see was negativity and suffering."

"I think you plagiarized that last part from story of the Snow Queen," John piped in.

Chidori laughed. "Well, I cannot in good conscience steal him from you then, Liam."

"Oh, please steal me from him," John begged jokingly.

Liam settled in and ordered some food and drink. He noticed Chidori's fancy dice.

"Preferential treatment for girls, eh?" Liam said loudly, shaking a fist at Lamington. "I for one will not stand for it! I demand my own pink glittery crystal dice!"

Chidori laughed and asked John, "Are all your friends this funny?"

John smiled. "Just about. Every weekend we get together at one of the player's house and play a game. It's been going for how many years now, Liam?"

"Three and a half, I think," he said. "John is currently playing Rikballs, a human paladin."

"Paladin?"

"Kind of like a noble crusader who is compelled to do good," Liam explained. His drink arrived with a plain dice and he gave Lamington a glare as he took the drink.

"Sounds like John is just playing an aspect of himself," Chidori said.

Liam stroked his imaginary beard. "I never thought of it like that. But if we all lived in a fantasy land with a medieval backdrop, he just might be some sort of crusader."

"I'd probably be some commoner," John said nonchalantly.

"Are you kidding? Lawyers get mad points in fantasy land. They're part of the trifecta," Liam said, his words confirmed by Chidori's nodding.

"Doctor, Lawyer, Dentist," they chanted together as though it was a well known fact.

"What do you play?" Chidori asked Liam.

"I DM the game, or GM, which sounds less opulent," Liam said.

"Dungeon Master," John explained. "He makes up the world in which the character plays in. He writes the story and plays all the non player characters such as the people we fight or the people we talk to in random towns."

Chidori seemed genuinely interested. "So what's happening in the story now?"

"I'll let you get that one," John said, throwing an imaginary ball at Liam.

Liam continued the mime by catching it.

"The heroes have just found a significant ritualistic dagger of an evil spider goddess used in the sacrificial ceremonies of the clerics of that goddess," Liam summarized succinctly. "They're only about a quarter of the way through the adventure that I've written."

"Liam writes epic storylines," John added. "It takes months, sometimes years to play through them. We've been playing this one for about six months now."

"Yup. Speaking of, do you have any idea about what you're going to do with the dagger?" Liam asked.

John shook his head and explained to Chidori, "He does this all the time. Liam will try and get details from the players so that he can make things difficult for us. If he knows we're going down a certain road, he'll put ogres on it to slow us down so that the big bad stays ahead of us until the end. It's better if he doesn't know what we're going to do."

"What's stopping him from flooding a path or stopping your with ogres regardless of with path you take?" Chidori asked.

John thought for a moment. "Nothing," he admitted.

"They do this out of spite," Liam said. "Human can be so petty. All I want to know is if my darlings are ok, whether they're enjoying the game, whether they need to be prompted in the right direction..."

"I'm interested in this spider goddess given the difficulties that we seem have with dealing with a spider-themed opponent too," said Chidori with a glance to John.

"What?" he looked puzzled.

"Arachnida," Chidori said. "It's just the word Arachnid with an 'a' on the end. Arachnid is an eight legged insect, most commonly associated with spiders. It's in their scientific name! Come on, I can't have been the only one to realize this?"

"I didn't realize," John said, slightly miffed.

"Wow. You are really going to need me at your firm, aren't you?" she said, smiling.

John had to begrudgingly agree.

"Arachnida, that's a scary name," Liam commented. He looked distant for a moment as though trying to recall something. That something must have eluded him for he soon returned to the conversation. "Well, I don't know how much help I would be. I create evil and magical cults, not evil organizations."

"Sometimes they are the same thing," John said. He was curious to see whether Liam would be able to offer some new perspective. If Chidori was right and Arachnida was an organization that harboured similarities with spiders, then Liam, who pumped ample research into story creation, might have something meaningful to offer.

Liam stroked his imaginary beard again. "I don't pretend to be an expert on these things-"

"Yes you do." John said.

"-but if Arachnida was my cult organization, and I was powerful, and I had some sort of fanatic cause that I believed in, which is the basis of every good cult, I'd want to establish myself by taking out the powers in the city in the ugliest way possible, just to flex my muscles and announce my arrival. There would be no use working with similar and already established organizations, because I believe that their way of doing things would corrupt the purity of my cause. Of course, I may pretend to work with the big guns, but only so I can use my power to overthrow them one by one. Small time overlords are always looking for a reason to fight each other."

"I hope we have that base covered," John said.

"Me too," agreed Chidori. "But there's a lot of bad blood between the different groups. We're just as likely to turn on each other as band together to fight Arachnida. What next, Liam?"

"I would need a base of operations," Liam said. "Initially, I might make do with the places I've conquered, but that's no fitting way to carry out my grandiose cause! I would need a temple, a shrine, a beacon in this pagan land from which to spread terror and destruction! My goddess would be appeased and reveal herself in all her glory and power, and we would reign in her name!" Liam worked up to a crescendo, standing and pointing up to the sky as he delivered the last line.

"The new gallery!" John cried.

"What?" It was Chidori's turn to look confused.

"The one they outbid Tony to build! That's where they will build their temple," John said.

"You do know how crazy you sound right now, right?" Chidori said.

"Whatever Arachnida was working on, it was moved from the Korean warehouses," John spoke quickly from excitement. "They would need a place to store all that they were working on."

"Oi, oi, should I be hearing this? Is this some confidential information that I'm not supposed to be privy to?" Liam said, leaning away.

"Why the gallery? That's the only building project of theirs that we know of, but there could be others," said Chidori calmly.

"Good point," John said. "We'll need to check if they have any other projects going. You're linked in with real estate aren't you? Do you have access to that sort of information?"

"Yes, but John, no one's crazy enough to hijack a government project to build a base of operations!"

"They were crazy enough kill and leave the corpses to be found."

"Allegedly."

"They set fire to a museum!"

"Allegedly!"

"They were powerful enough to defeat Captain Serious!"

"Whoa! What?" Liam leant back in. "These guys took on Captain Serious and didn't go to jail? Oh my god, do you guys come up against the Captain? Have you seen him in real life?"

"It's at least worth investigating," John said, staring at Chidori, and ignoring Liam. "They're probably not some cult, but they do need a base of operations. They do need to store their goods somewhere."

"I suppose," Chidori conceded. "I'll do some research on that."

Then she grinned and said, "This is the most fun I've ever had on the job."

"You're welcome anytime," Liam said. His food had arrived unnoticed a while back and now it was already cold. When he saw this, he let out a tortured wail.

Q&A with Augie Toaste

Is Table Top a real place?

Wouldn't it be great if it was? Sigh. In Brisbane, the closest thing is a video game themed bar called Mana Bar in Fortitude Valley. It's a closet of a thing, but it's surprisingly lively on trivia nights. The concept of Table Top came up in discussions with my partner. Wouldn't it be cool to open up a restaurant with a gaming theme? This chapter, aside from setting up some elements of the story, was a way for me to flesh out that fantasy a little - I had a lot of fun naming the drinks. Gallery of Modern Arts (GoMA) is an actual place in Brisbane. I borrowed the name because... well, it's a cool name.

What is a Dungeon Master?

Dungeon Master (DM) is a term for someone who runs the story for Dungeons and Dragons games. But as you can imagine, there are way more role play games out there than Dungeons and Dragons, so more often than not, the person running the game is called the Game Master (GM). Liam is the DM of the game in this fictional world. As such, it gives him a kind of insight into how plotlines may unfold.