There's no board, no plastic pieces and no figurines. Instead, there are worksheets, bulk bags of Reny's candy, and there is Das Horn, which is a plastic drinking horn that is filled with cream soda and passed between players. There's a blackboard where diagrams of dungeons are scribbled.

And there are dice.

The famous 20-sided die of Dungeons and Dragons clatters across the table and the game begins.

But the campaign that features Lincoln Academy juniors Walter Hudson, Amanda Wilson, Cody Webster, Alex Enders, Ethan Lowe and senior Calum Phillips is almost nothing like the sword and shield romps of yesteryear: There are movie quotes, references to video games and TV shows, and sound effects.

The only thing that has been around longer are a few “Austin Powers” quotes and Hudson's dice, which belonged to his father when he played Dungeons and Dragons.

Like any epic tale, theirs is a journey that stretches back in time and space ... all the way to the Great Salt Bay Community School's library.

On Oct. 17 their Dungeon Master would be the animated Phillips, who had a special treat for the would-be adventurers who meet every Friday afternoon at Skidompha Library. Immediately the group has to decide if they will split up.

To that Webster cited an informal rule, first brought up by Wilson.

“What's the first rule? Never split up,” he said. “At least, not for the first five minutes.

“And never ask 'What can he (Phillips) do?'”

“Or say 'Things couldn't get any worse,'” Wilson said. “Or 'We're all going to die.'”

But the group has no idea what Phillips is scheming to do.

As dungeon master he controls the tempo of the game, and creates the setting, opponents and narrative.

Where most games feature a booklet, this one has Phillips, who thinks up jams, puzzles and riddles to keep the other players in the lurch.

Little do they know they have been baiting the invisible trap in which Phillips plans to snare them.

The original group met up to play during the afternoons with former librarian Anne Barber.

While the 40-year-old game has gone through numerous updates (the Skidompha group admitted to playing a slightly outdated version) the rules and premise are basically the same: Explorers take turns using their imaginations to battle through predetermined obstacles and dungeons.

The Skidompha group has been through some of its own journeys, in the game and out.

After the group graduated from Great Salt Bay, its members moved the battles to Skidompha, with help from students Alex Ray Webber and Sam Bailey.

Some players have bowed out, and others have joined in the quests over the years. Webster has been with the group for a year; Phillips was part of the founding group.

The characters change, too.

Hudson's Warforge character — a seven-foot, two-inch, 570-pound metal gollum with an on-again/off-again Russian accent and a hammer that can smash through anything — is a fairly recent creation. Previously Hudson rolled (used) an elf that made the mistake of drinking the wrong elixir.

But as is the case with their quest on Friday, there's more humor than horror.

As Webster finds himself in a bind, it's Hudson who comes to the rescue. He begins searching through his notes — reams of papers with stats, spells and items accumulated through years of raiding, hoarding and victories — and finds a spell to augment Webster's oncoming roundhouse kick.

“I'm going to imbue your foot with fire,” Hudson said.

“You're going to set my foot on fire?”

“No, I am going to imbue it with fire,” Hudson said. “I'm not going to physically get out a lighter and set your foot on fire.”

The dice is rolled. It's a 17 and the move deals 19 damage. The move is so successful that it's given the name “Hot Foot of Death,” and it's Webster's turn to roll again.
'I take it back'

On Oct. 17, the group finished one campaign and was starting another. All they know is that there's an initial marked on four corners of the map where each player has been tied up, a spiral staircase in the middle, and a lot of deflection from the Dungeon Master.

“Can the staircase go up or down?”

“Roll — one is critical failure, 20 being critical success,” Phillips said, referring to the dice, which dictate everything from the force behind attacks to whether or not a player will be able to look through a window.

Lowe starts off by querying the dungeon master, Phillips, as to what his character can see.

“You see a wall. You're facing a wall,” Phillips said.

“What if I turn my head?”

“You see the other walls.”

“Is it a wooden chair? Can I walk?” Lowe asked, and began trundling the office chair back and forth to demonstrate. “If I fall back can I break the chair?”

“D-100,” Phillips said, referring to the die with as many sides and indicating that Lowe spin the round die.

“Oh no,” Lowe said.

“High or low?” Phillips said.

“Oh no.”

“High or low?” Phillips asked again.

“High,” Lowe said, and let go of the die. It clattered and five sets of eyes craned to see what number came up. “76?”

A fortuitous roll for Lowe.

“The chair breaks,” Phillips said, and began scribbling on the black board again. “You still have large chunks of it tied to your arms and legs.”

“Dude, you can use those as weapons,” Webster said.

“Yeah, like tonfas,” Lowe said and he showed off his imaginary ninja weapons.

“What you need to do is bring back that first campaign we played freshmen year, with the temple and the black apples,” Hudson said to Phillips. “You have to bring that one back for me, please.”

“That also means I'm bringing back my most hated opponents,” Phillips said.

“Wait. No, don't,” Hudson said as he put his hands over his head. “I take it back.”

But Phillips doesn't divulge what he's thinking, and the game moves along.

As Lowe chooses between two doors, Hudson begins whistling the Jeopardy theme song.

“I go right,” Lowe said.

“You can't,” Phillips said. “It's locked. I only give you the appearance of choice.”

Webster went next, and he didn't bother with the doors, instead opting to go quietly down the stairs. But a low roll meant his stealthy footsteps weren't so quiet.

“You're going to make a lot of noise,” Phillips said.

“Is it like stepping on a crunchy leaf on each step?” Wilson asked.

“No, more like stepping on a bike horn, then on a cat, and knocking over a boom box,” Phillips said.

“Great,” Webster said, and rolled the die again.

The saga continues

In addition to movie quotes, the game is peppered with references to video games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Dark Souls, which borrow from the original Dungeons and Dragons. But titles like Metal Gear Solid and Mortal Kombat are also mentioned.

While some of the adventurers play the video games, it can't compare the older fantasy game.

“I think that we determine the campaigns,” Webster said. “You have predetermined quests and goals in Skyrim and Dark Souls.

“In here, anything can happen, and it usually does. There are literally no limitations.”

With Phillips, he said there isn't enough computing power in the world to contain his randomness and quest selection.

“The limitation in D and D is what you want it to be,” he said. “You can say 'I do this completely ridiculous action' and in Skyrim it's like 'I want to wear this chicken as hat, but it's not letting me.'

“You can only do whatever the programmers put in, and here you can do anything.”

The Oct. 17 campaign was a perfect example of how the group changes in each play-through. As the day's quest neared its end, it became more and more obvious to the players that Phillips was putting a spin on an old yarn.

“At the beginning of freshmen year I was like 'You know what, let's start off the year with something completely, utterly and totally ridiculous, here we go,'” Phillips said. “When (Hudson) said 'Hey, you should bring back the apples,' I thought 'Hmm, maybe I will.'”

“That campaign was a year or two ago, and one of my character's brothers went on the original campaign,” Enders said. “It's sort of like parallels: I started with the original character, now I'm playing the same campaign with his brother. So it's like the two campaigns are the same, but there are so many differences in how you can play.”

While the quests might seem similar, the players have yet to figure out Phillips completely. Instead of robots on the island, this time they found a shrubbery with a cannon and living barbed wire.

“He's completely random,” Webster said.

“Every time I think someone is about to predict what I am going to do, I always turn in another direction,” Phillips said.

“I've been playing D and D with Calum since fifth grade, and I've learned to just not expect anything,” Enders said. “If he gives you a hint, take it.”

There is another mystery yet to be solved.

Next year, Phillips, who is the only senior (the rest of the players are juniors) will graduate from Lincoln Academy. But the adventurers aren't yet ready to let their dungeon master get away.

“Someone said 'Calum, even if it's through Skype, you need to come back,'” Phillips said. “We have to keep it going.'”

Because even though Phillips changes the game, the first rule remains the same.