It had been an innocent suggestion that Nero had made. Something that the three of them could bond over without having to resort to physical violence. It involved a lot of books, following rules, a fair amount of time and, most importantly, patience. Dante had a distinct knack for not following the rules, on top of lacking patience, which frustrated both his older twin, Vergil, and Nero.

(Nero once again proved that he was Vergil's son by leveling a glare that only the elder twin had perfected onto Dante while his spectral wings manifested. Vergil was content to sit back and watch his son cow Dante into behaving and following the damned rules.)

Once everything had finally been set up and their character sheets readied what equated to a small earthquake rocked the occupants of Devil May Cry. The lights flickered and then went out, leaving the men of Sparda's blood in total darkness. Another earthquake, this one stronger, shook them and then the floor fell out.

Vergil came to with something disgustingly wet being run over his face and jerked away from the creature that had assaulted him. He successfully rolled onto his feet and glowered at what appeared to be some sort of quadrupedal mammalian while Dante, who had witnessed the entire thing, guffawed. His gaze snapped to his brother, the red-clad half-demon bent over as he laughed, and he started to draw Yamato from her sheath.

"Whoa! Wait a minute!" Nero suddenly appeared in front on Vergil, hands raised to show that he was unarmed, and put himself between his father and uncle. "I know you're angry, that Dante can be quite irritating, but we need to figure out what is going on."

As irritating as Dante could be—though Vergil would probably choose a much different descriptor for his twin—Nero had made quite the point. They had no idea where they were nor how they had gotten to where here was. A glance around only gleaned that they were on a dirt road with a steep incline on one side and both sides were lined with trees. Behind them was a cart that two of those creatures—the one on his right being responsible for having licked him—were pulling while ahead of them were what appeared to be two dead horses.

"This can't be right," Nero muttered under his breath as he too looked around, ignoring Dante who was still busy laughing. "This is…the setup for the Dungeons and Dragons campaign we were going to do."

That got Dante's attention, to the point that he went silent and straightened up. "Whatcha mean by that?" He looked around as well, mouth twisted into a frown, then fixed his gaze on Nero. "This is that game?" There was a note of disbelief in his voice as he asked that and Vergil almost wanted to sigh. The eldest of the three chose to wipe his face off instead.

"Yeah, this is the start of the campaign with the goblin ambush." Both Dante and Vergil stiffened at the mention of an ambush and looked around again. They couldn't sense or see anything out of the ordinary but if Nero was certain of it then they couldn't let their guard down. "It's supposed to spring when we approach the horses over there," Nero added after noticing their tension.

"Is that so?" Vergil tightened his grasp on Yamato then finally drew her as he started for the horse corpses . Dante followed him, drawing the Devil Sword Dante, and Nero joined them as second layer with the Red Queen in hand.

"There's two on each side," Nero informed them quietly and discreetly pointed out the locations of the four goblins that were attempting to ambush them. How Vergil and Dante had missed them was troubling, as if their senses had been dulled, which they would have to question Nero about once they have dealt with the goblins.

Said goblins revealed themselves but with the element of surprise taken away Vergil was the first to strike, only for Yamato's blade to bounce off of the armor that the closest goblin was wearing. Nero had no better luck against the same goblin, instead receiving a slash with a scimitar from that one in return for his troubles.

On the incline one of the goblins pulled out a short bow and took aim at Dante. It scored the red-clad half demon who hissed in pain and then raced up the incline to swipe at the goblin that had hit him. Dante's attack missed by several inches, slicing through the air above the goblin's head instead.

The third goblin, who was behind the one that Nero and Vergil were flanking, attempted to slash at the older of the two, only for Vergil to twist out of the way. His twin, however, had no such luck as the fourth and final goblin drew its scimitar and struck him across the leg. "Hey, kid, this is hurting a lot more than it should!"

Vergil was finally able to land a hit, the goblin impossibly surviving a blow from Yamato, only for Nero to finish it off with the Red Queen. "We're not healing! I think Nico did something to the game!" The youngest called out, the news terrible in light of the damage that they were receiving.

Dante struck down the goblin in front of him as it tried to change its short bow for a scimitar and then scowled in his nephew's direction. "What does she have to do with this?"

"I got all of the Dungeons and Dragons stuff from her so I'm thinking she did something to the game," Nero answered as Vergil danced out of reach of the scimitar that the remaining goblin on their side tried to slash him with.

"I hate to break it to ya, kid, but if we're in the game then there's no thinkin' she did somethin' to it. Gotta hand it to her though, this is kinda fun," Dante returned as he just barely dodged the swipe of his remaining goblin's blade.

"Of course you would find getting sucked into a game fun," Vergil half-snarled as he decapitated the second to last goblin.

The final goblin started to turn and flee as Nero dashed across the road and up the incline in an attempt to take it out. Red Queen missed by a hair's breadth only for Devil Sword Dante to impale the goblin, killing it. "Hey! We needed to get information from that one!" Nero cried out as Dante pulled his sword free and the goblin corpse crumpled to the ground.

"Didn't you read this part?" The red-clad half-demon inquired, wincing slightly from the sting of his wounds. "Man, that hurts. How are we supposed to heal up?"

"By taking a short or a long rest if we are to go by the game rules." Vergil was the one to respond instead of Nero, his tone dry as he flicked his wrist and got most of the blood off of Yamato's blade. "Our abilities have been severely reduced," he added as he examined his sword with a scowl then wiped it off on the nearest downed goblin's armor. "Yamato will not be able to free us from this. She has been affected by whatever that accursed woman has done."

"Damnit, Nico… Okay, so we're stuck in the campaign, this one being The Lost Mine of Phandelver, and knowing Nico we'll probably have to complete it. I only read up to the end of Cragmaw Hideout, which is at the end of that trail over there, so anything after that we are all in the dark on." Nero pointed out the rather well hidden trail that they were supposed to head down, looking only a little better than his uncle did. "We should take a short rest first because we'll have more fighting to do once we reach the Cragmaw Hideout."

"Sounds good to me," Dante replied with a carefree tone and an easy grin as he slid down the incline to reach the road. He made a beeline straight for the cart while Vergil gave a subtle roll of his eyes and sheathed Yamato.

"I guess I should get a little rest too." Nero hadn't been as badly hurt as Dante but he had to wonder if they should maybe head to town instead of camping out on the road. At least in town they could get a long rest and deliver the goods with them so that they wouldn't have to worry about them later. He decided against it after giving his father a glance, the elder half-demon now staring off in the direction of the trail with a hand rested on Yamato's hilt. "We'll rest for an hour and then head down the trail."

Vergil silently inclined his head to acknowledge his son, barely sparing him or Dante a glance, and paced the width of the road with the intention to stand guard. Nero watched him for a moment before he traversed back down the incline and joined Dante, who was already asleep, in the cart.