The moderator for todays journey, a pretty young woman named Leslie, takes the papers you just signed that include a long liability disclaimer in terse legalese and puts them in the filing cabinet next to her desk. You can see her through the large window in front of your chairs and her office is almost entirely in view.
You are all still a bit nervous. This is the first time any of you have experienced the new form of entertainment known as Reality Entertainment. It isn't virtual reality because you are actually attached to the device through your nervous system such that you are experiencing the new environment in your own reality rather than through pictures, sounds or videos. Leslie, the moderator for today's session, finishes attaching the device and then warns you one last time "Just relax, the transition into RE can be startling at first but you get used to it quickly. Take deep breaths and soon you will be enjoying the best entertainment experience the world has to offer. The experience will start in about 45 seconds after you listen to our rules you will then meet my assitant Jenny who will train you."

You feel your consciousness fade but not completely. You here the following recorded message as if it is both in your mind and in your ears at the same time.

"You are entering the fantastic reality entertainment world of Khazad Dooom Productions. We call it reality because you are here and nowhere else and we are excited to have you. You have chosen to take part in our vintage mountain excursion "Lake Siranon" to begin your adventures. If you chose to come back and continue your adventures in weeks to come you will be able to pick up where you left off as if no time had transpired.
Our reality world is set apart by the realistic artificial intelligence controlling its environment and non-player characters. We challenge you to tell the difference between those in game play who are players and those who are controlled by artificial intelligence.  We have 5 of the 12 annual grand prizes given to the virtual reality creators that are best able to pass the Turing reality tests.  They are proudly displayed in our corporate offices showing we are one of the best in the business!

So here is a reminder of the rules before we begin.
1. If at any time during game play you decide you are in distress or need to end the session just say "Knights in White Satin" and we will halt game play and open the communication channel to our on duty moderator to determine what the need is and how to proceed. The on duty personel are thoroughly trained in our equipment and also in first aid should anything happen that requires it.
2. Normal session times will end after two hours reguardless of the situation in game play. This is required by law and cannot be superseded no matter how important it is that you retreive the treasure that might be right in front of you. Don't worry, it will be there after you take the manditory 15 minute break or when you come back next time.
3. You are required to have a good time. IT'S A RULE and therefore must be obeyed. Now everyone get ready as we enter our classic adventure.
Sit back, think fun thoughts and prepare to have the time of your life!"

As the last of the rules were completed you felt yourself being pulled out of your known consciousness and just as you think you will dose off completely you feel a sharp POP and you start to see vague images.

 Excited to face a reality never seen before, Rob allows his consciousness to be overwhelmed by the machine. Nervous as to what may come, he knows that RE surely must have fail safes in case of emergency and that nervousness starts to fade away with his consciousness and is replaced with a new feeling.

Simon's heart is pounding - he's been wanting to do this for a long time, and he finally here. Unfortunately, Simon doesn't know if he's ready, and jolts as he feels his consciousness shift. Here's hoping things go well...

Amy is still convinced that this is some kind of gimmick and is therefore completely unprepared for the shock of feeling her her consciousness shift.  This is surreal...

Although he was first tentative about this experience, Caleb finds himself to be excited to see what will happen.

As each of you appear in a enclosed room you begin to see more clearly.  You realize you are standing about 5 feet apart and there is someone standing in front of you.  You try to figure out how to use your motor skills and ...  Graal Bonebreaker falls flat on his face  ... Simon feels himself tipping backwards and trying to catch himself he ends up shoving himself backwards into the wall with a big thud ... Nerithana stumbles to the right as Tenzen stumbles to his left and they crash hard into each other before falling to the floor ... Robert miraculously keeps his feet, looks around and starts grinning as the others look silly.

An energetic young woman standing in front of all of you smiles and says, "You will notice that even though several of you have fallen in ways that would normally cause pain you only feel a slight buzz where you would have felt pain.  We like to make the experience here painless as possible but unfortunately some embarrasements are unavoidable.  In a very few minutes our artificial intelligence will catch up to your brain wave commands and you will feel like you have never been more in control in your life.  Please continue to move around and try to stand up.  This gives the computers feedback so it can optimize it's interface to your brain signals and quickly you will be running and jumping with the strength and dexterity of the characters you have chosen to play.  From this point on we will be using your character names exclusively.  Please comply with this request as it enhances the reality you will soon experience and the artificial intelligence you will be working against or with depending on your situation, responds best when you stay in character.  Forgetting this can complicate your tasks, confuse the NPC's and make overcoming the enemy more difficult.  Ok slowly move around and try to regain your footing."

 Oh man, I feel kinda sick... This is the worst case of motion sickness I've ever had...

*Stares speechless into the distance*

”This is pretty cool!“ Robert says in an echoing rough booming voice, which catches him off guard. 

John sits in silence for quite some time. He’s excited to start but doubt almost overwhelms him.

finally he drops in.

a halfling drops unsermoniously on the ground.

wierd center of gravity- he mumbles to himself

surprised at the highpitched lilting of his own voice - amazing

he hops up and down experimentally

Nerithana mumbles an apology to the man she bumped into and tries to stand up again.  She is still reeling and shocked about how real  this feels.  "This is amazing!"

One of the first things you have to get used to in this new environment is how weird your friends look. There is no mirror so your appearance doesn't become obvious until you start looking at your hands and touch your face (WOW!) That is weird.

Jenny, the energetic young assistant to Leslie, start demonstrating movements and, clearly just to show off, shows that she has been programmed to jump higher, run faster and hit harder than any of you. Still you fell nothing as she easily shoves you around. Quickly, as the computer syncs with your inputs, you are able to control your new forms (bodies?) with the ease and agility required for your characters.

Jenny halts the group and begins a new training set. "Ok now it is time to turn on your overhead display. It isn't necssary because once you get used to your abilites you can cast spells and make choices by just thinking about them, but until you are used to how it all works you will need some help." She pushes a few buttons on a device on her wrist and you all suddenly see a big overhead display on your minds. You see your health, your skills, your weapons (you don't have any currently) and everything that normally shows up on character sheets in Dungeons and Dragons.

Having acclimated to the sensation of manipulating a body that isn't his own, Simon begins taking note of his statistics. It's an odd feeling to having numbers tied to abilities.

Cooooool... I wonder what my real life stats are...

watching the theatrics, i watch in awe as Jenny jumps clear over my head causing me to fall over on my rump. i laugh and then laugh harder as i realize that it sounds more like a giggle in my new voice.

this is so cool!

Nerithana suddenly remembers that she's a half-elf and immediately checks to see if her ears are pointy.  There is definitely a noticeable difference.  

Does anyone have a mirror?  

Oh man, no I don't. Look at my ears though, and you can see what it looks like. We're both half-elves!

Kilseth looks down at his hands. What were once long thin fingers are now as white as snow covered in scales and are a little more plump. He reaches up to rub his face and feels how much it has been elongated, with a few spines running along the top of his head like hair. 

"9 Intelligence.... Not the sharpest tool in the shed. But I suppose I can make it work!" His voice echoing again and again startles him. he begins laughing a hearty laugh.

Jenny then pushes a few more buttons, "Ok, now we get to have some real fun! I'm going to turn all of you, temporarily, into 10th level wizards." You notice that your display shows many spells and spell slots. "Now I want you to try and cast fireball."  She waits and enjoys the confusion as most of you seem to be staring at nothingness trying to figure out what is going on. She has an expectant look on her face and sure enough all of a sudden Merry's hands make several motions in the air and then WHAM a fireball shoots out in the direction he was looking and hits the wall in front of him with an impressive display of pyrotechnics! All of you jump back a step or two with shock and the most shocked seems to be Merry.
Jenny asks "So, Merry, how did you do that?" He stammers and then says "I just thought of the fireball and it was highlighted in my mind and then I just ... sort of threw it ... in my mind. After that I did the hand movement without even thinking about it. It just happened." "Exactly" Jenny responds. "Now at the risk of complete chaos, the rest of you try ..."
Soon Graarl starts making the hand motions and another fireball flies into the wall. Some notice that Jenny is making hand motions and is pointed right at Kilseth. A fireball engulfs Kilseth turning him into ash. Everyone is stunned and stares at Jenny until Kilseth reappears unharmed. "Woooooo, that was soooo weird" Jenny asks Kilseth, "So tell the others what happened to you." Kilseth says "Well I just felt that slight vibration and then flashed out and back. Sooooo Weird!"
Jenny says "As we talked about earlier you don't really feel what is happening but your new virtual body might become slower or sluggish depending on what spell or such it is under. So everyone try some spells."
You all start fireballing each other and freezing each other and it becomes a free-for-all. Everyone stops to watch Tenzin as he climbs the rope after casting rope trick. He dissappears into another dimension. Several of you follow him up the rope to see what it is like.
Jenny finally gets everyones attention, "So you will soon learn to control your skills and spells without the overhead display but we encourage you to keep it up for the first few levels. After that you will still find it useful from time to time but it is not necessary." She shows you how to turn it on and off by touching her forehead with two fingers of your non-dominate hand. "I'll give you a few more minutes to get ready and then we can start the adventure." She pops and disappears.  Even after all that has happened it is still weird to see someone just disappear.  All of your overheads return to the correct characters and you start practicing your new skills.

Merry runs behind the tall orc and attemps to hide behind his legs.