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“Hey! Watch the doorframe. I got this for a good price and would like not to see it broken before I get to use it.” Gorin said, backing into the door of the guild hall while carrying a very fancy looking pool table made of what looked like mahogany with perfectly smooth grass green felt on top and had a large outcove topped with a metal plaque that read “ bagger,” on one of the sides for the balls to return into one place rather than have to walk around the table to reset for a new game. The lucario had just found it off the side of the road with a note saying” free!” in bold and “I ran out of friends to play with,” in small print. The ranger of course removed the note before going to get someone to help him carry it to the hall.
        
“Now, why did you ask me to help you?” Gridmeir inquired. “Everyone else in the hall and you interrupt my reading to drag this piece of junk half a mile back here,” The orange velociraptor grumbled, making his way into the hall with the other half of the table in his claws. “Ok, now where do you want us to put it?”


“Just follow me,”  Gorin replied, exasperated by the raptor’s constant whining. leading him into the center of an empty room the guild had been looking to do something with. Placing the table down, the ranger went back outside to grab the accessories that he found lying with the table.


Meanwhile, the paladin inspected the table for any damage that might have been caused by the elements when something caught his eye right above the ball return. ‘What is this?’ Gridmeir thought to himself. Upon looking closer he saw it was a dial with different notches marked one, three, four, six, twelve, twenty four, and a blank option which the knob was currently set to. “I’m just going to assume it wants the number of rounds we are playing, so I’ll set it to twelve because Gorin is going to want to play with his new toy with everyone in the guild.” He just finished his very brief inspection when the lucario walked back into the room with a box full of fifteen, smooth, stone balls marked with seven different sets of colors half completely covered, half only in one band and in the middle of them all was one solid black ball that looked to be made out of solid onyx. Nestled in Gorin’s arm were two sticks made of polished wood, one of oak and the other of birch, topped with red strikers. The ranger set the box on the table and revealed two small red cubes of chalk in his paw, placing them on opposite sides of the table. “So now that we have it all inside, want to play a quick match?” Gorin said, friendly, challenging the raptor.


“Why do I feel you won’t take no for an answer anyway? so sure,“ Gridmeir replied reluctantly while grabbing the oak stick. Inspecting it only to notice that the tip was splitting and rotten, likely from the rain that had happened the other day “looks like we can’t play after all this stick is broken and it would be too troublesome to trade the stick every shot. Guess I’ll just go back to my book .” the paladin exclaimed with clearly fake disappointment in his voice.  


As the raptor started to walk toward the door, he turned around to face Gorin as he exclaimed, “ Wel,l this stick looks fully intac,t so you can use this one,” right before tossing the stick across the room to Gridmeir. The ranger then placed his paws together, slowly pulling them apart to reveal a new stick made of cyan energy. “ I think I’ll do better using aura rather than wood,” he chuckled. The lucario reached under the ball return, pulling out an iron triangle and placing the balls inside alternating solid and striped balls, placing the black ball in the middle. Gorin moved the balls to the far side of the table before removing the triangle, leaving the balls in the same shape. “ You know how to play, right?” the ranger checked while putting the triangle back in its holder and grabbing a solid white ball from a groove in the table.


“Of course I know how to play. You hit one set of balls into the holes and then the black one to win. I might be a little rusty, but I still know the basic rules,” the paladin responded almost offendedly as if the question was an attack on his intelligence. Picking up the white ball in his claws, Gridmeir admired the smooth surface of the cue ball, devoid of any scratches whatsoever. Placing it down on the table, he hunched over the stick, lining the ball up to hit the middle of the triangle. In one swift motion, the raptor struck the white ball with the stick, sending it soaring across the table into the rest of the balls, sending them scattering all over the playfield. Unfortunately, no balls went into the holes, meaning that it was now Gorin’s turn to shoot.
The rangers had spotted a really good looking opportunity as the solid red ball was perched precariously on the hole teetering on the edge prime to be captured. Gorin hit the cue, knocking it directly into the red solid, sending it flying into the hole, and returning to the outcove for collection. “ Guess I’m going after the solid balls,” the Lucario stated, “and I also get another shot.”
Not seeing any really clear choices, Gorin went for the solid blue. As the ball was hit, it started bouncing off of the sides of the table before slowly coming to a stop.
“That first one was just a lucky shot,” Gridmeir scowled. “Watch this.” He took his stick aimed for the orange striped ball which landed directly between the white ball and the center hole, rearing back to strike, Gridmeir angled his shot before snapping forward like a snake sending the white ball flying into the orange stripe, the white ball stopping immediately, while causing the other ball to fall perfectly into the hole.  As his turn continued, the raptor took aim at the yellow stripe, which was partially obscured by the black ball.


“Just go for another, there's now way you—” Gorin was interrupted by the sound of another ball going into one of the holes. “ —Oh damn you’re better than I thought! I’m in over my head a little bit huh?”


Gridmeir, still completely focused on his next target, the purple stripe, jokingly returned with” When you’ve spent as much time in taverns as I have, you pick up some good tips.” Gridmeir sent his target into the hole like the other balls mid-conversation. “ Like, don’t underestimate your opponent.”
“Man, you should join a league or something. You could probably make some serious gold with your skill,” the Lucario said in bewilderment.
He watched as Gridmeir aimed down the green stripe with more furocity than him when he is out hunting owlbears for their pelts. While Gorin was standing there, shocked at how much he was getting shown up the raptor had already sunk the green ball and was eyeing up the blue stripe, which was currently blocked in on all but one side by the solid balls, the short end of the table was the only opening for the ball. “I kind of want him to make this,.” the ranger thought to himself. Thankfully, his wish did not take long to come to fruition as Gridmeir sent the cue launching into the side of the table bouncing in such a way as to hit the blue ball off the long end of the table into the corner pocket.
With the ball free of its prison, the paladin set his sights on the red-striped ball. Gorin was genuinely not even mad to get beaten so hard at the game he challenged Gridmeir to. He was standing around the table when the room had fallen deafeningly silent, almost frozen in time and space. Then ,there was a big bang, a sound so monstrously loud and piercing that Gorin assumed that it shook the entire kingdom. He looked at the origin of such an earth-shattering sound to see the red ball spinning around the side pocket and Gridmeir already lining up his shot on the indigo ball, the last ball before the onyx ball.
“Are you ok over there, Gorin? you aren’t dead are you?” The paladin asked without looking up for his shot “ You looked a bit starstruck,” Gridmeir shot the last ball sending the cue ball careening toward the indigo ball, but the ball hit at a weird angle bouncing wildly around the table and somehow bumping into one of Gorin’s just right to land the ball on the very edge of the pocket without actually going in. “ oh well I was less rusty, but I think that’s a pretty good lead, right Gorin?”  
Gorin, not fully paying attention now, was in shock, sarcastically exclaiming,“ Wait, do I actually get to play? Now’s my chance for a comeback, you fossil. Watch this.” The ranger almost leaped to the table as he trash-talked Gridmeir. He quickly lined up a shot at the solid red ball, getting really close to the table to make sure that it was lined up correctly. As he went to send the ball a small cloud of dust came off the table where Gorin was causing him to sneeze and for his hand to slip sending the cue ball just off of course to end up sending the red ball off the wall of the table and nudging the indigo stripe into the pocket without going itself.
Gridmeir mockingly clapped at the lucario’s shot “ That was a great comeback there Gorin, maybe someday you will be able to sink the right ball,” With only one ball left until he wins, the raptor took aim at the very straight angle between the cue, the onyx, and the corner pocket over by Gorin. “ Looks like this match set better luck next time.” with one final decisive strike, the game was over as the onyx ball rolled gently into the corner pocket, ending the game with Gridmeir as the winner.  “Well, that was fun, but I'm going back to my reading. Thank you very much.”
          Moments after the game ended, the table began to shake violently. Gorin worriedly shouted, “Get down!” before a puff of gold colored dust shot out from the ball return slot and headed directly towards Gorin. Despite the
Lucario's attempted to jump out of the way, the dust changed direction after missing him. When the dust went back for a second sweep, it hit its target, flying into Gorin’s snout causing him to burst into a coughing fit. “What - cough- was - cough- that?”
        Gridmeir pulled out his shield in anticipation of another cloud ,which never came. “ I don’t know, but it seems to be over. Are you ok?” He asked, looking toward the ranger who is still in the middle of a coughing fit.
        Gorin replied, “ I think I’m fine, I just feel a little light headed is all.” As he looked to see if there was anything physically wrong, he felt his tail go numb and quickly change from fur to a softer material. As soon as his tail had completely gone numb, it swiftly inflated, growing ten times its size Though it wasn’t inflating like a balloon, it felt heavier. With closer inspection and a light squeeze, Gorin felt many small beads in his tail. “ Am I turning into a piece of furniture?” he asked, horrified as he felt his tail detach itself from the rest of his body and fall motionlessly to the floor with a dull thud.
“I think it’s closer to a beanbag Gorin,” the raptor said while investigating the sign on the table, wiping away a small stain of mud with his claw revealed the true name of the table and the nature of its enchantment. “ Yup, looks like it is turning you into a beanbag. I guess whoever enchanted the table liked to play high stakes.”
        “ That would have explained the weird wording of the note attached to it when I found it,” the Lucario said, panicking slightly as he watched his hand paws swell just as his tail did continue the climb up his arm spreading numbness along the way. Gorin tried to run into the main living quarters of the guild hall to maybe get some help against his condition but fell onto his back only a few steps later as not only had his feet grown massively but had gone numb and caved in under his legs falling off as his tail had on the way down. Despite the fall to the stone floor of the guild hall the ranger didn’t feel a thing as he fell onto his now majorly swollen tail the size of a small couch. Unable to get back due to only being a torso and a head at this point, the duo could only watch Gorin continue blowing up at an ever-increasing rate, his arms and legs falling off and unrolling into cotton blankets around him.
“Wait, what note? There was no note attached to the table for the half a mile we dragged it,” Gridmeir said, trying to get some clue about what the ranger was hiding that might help reverse the curse.Allwhile Gorin’s neck was swallowed by the size of the mattress fit for a king , his body taking up almost half the room on its own.
“I had found a note on the table that said that…” as the last of the curse took hold Gorin’s head just stopped moving and fell to the floor as a mask completely hollow and lifeless. The room felt cold not only because of the giant beanbag in the center of the room that was just struggling and crying for help, but it was almost like that very bed was absorbing the warmth from the room, enticing the paladin to come closer to it to investigate.
“Oh, I sure hope this works!” the raptor cried out as he placed his claws on Gorin and used the power of his oath to help the weak to conjure gold light out from under his claws in an attempt to reverse the curse. “ Come on, please. Work damn it. I CAN’T LOSE YOU! FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING GOOD IN THIS PLAIN OF EXISTENCE, COME BACK! ” But no matter how hard he tried, it wasn’t working. The curse was stronger than what his magical abilities could break. “ I won’t leave you Gorin not until I come up with a way to change you back, maybe my book will give me some ideas,” he ran out off the room thankfully to return holding a leather bound book in his claws titled “ devotion, the ten steps of becoming a defender of the commonwealth,”
“ Let’s see here,” the raptor said, taking a seat on his former guildmate while frantically flipping to the page he had left off on. “ This is really comfortable, it’s like sitting on a cloud. I’m practically floating; maybe a small *yawn*nap could *yawn* help come up with someth- zzz…”
The raptor woke with a jolt. looking around, he saw very little with how dark it was. All he could tell is it was night."Man, I was more tired than I thought. My bed never is this comfy. I wonder why it feels so different?’ Looking down answered his question immediately  “ Right, this isn’t my bed, it’s Gorin, or at least a bean bag that looks like him. Where was I? Right finding a cure,” after getting up and lighting a couple of lanterns around the room, he once again flipped through the book while laying on the ranger.
Half an hour had passed with nothing coming from the search for an answer, and Gridmeir had almost given up hope when from beneath him he felt something stir.” Oh, great. What now? Is there something inside Gorin?” As quickly as the stirring started, it stopped only to be immediately replaced with the sound of crunching beads and the feeling of the bag shrinking under the paladin, causing him to fall on the floor.
Looking back at Gorin, Gridmeir saw the different parts that was his friend a few hours ago start floating and sticking back together before the lucario exploded in a flash of the same gold dust that transformed him. As the dust cloud settled, it revealed Gorin standing in the middle of the room back to his normal size and shape, only still made of the same material as the bean bag.
        “ Oh my gods! Gorin, are you alright!?” walking over to the ranger, Gridmeir could see that he was actually breathing instead of being just a mindless pile of fleece and beads. As soon as the raptor saw him breathing, he lifted up the lucario into a hug, overjoyed to see that he wasn’t dead.
“ What happened? And why do I feel so well rested?” Gorin moaned. “ And why do I look like a stuffed doll?” Looking over at himself, Gorin was confused as he had forgotten everything that had happened.
“It’s a long story, but are you up for a rematch? I’ll go easy on you this time,” Gridmeir chuckled while clutching the cue ball.