She Kills Monsters

Scene 4 returns to the real-world setting of the high school that Tilly attended in life and where Agnes currently works as an English teacher. Her colleague, Vera Martin, is a caustic high school guidance counselor who has little patience for her students. Vera abrasively dismisses a student with scare tactics about sexually transmitted diseases and shoos away Steve, (the student who plays Mage Steve in the D&D fantasy world), admonishing him not to bother her unless he is flunking. Vera is also not fond of Miles, Agnes’s boyfriend, and openly expresses her disdain for him. Because it has taken Miles three years to ask Agnes to move in with him, and because he has yet to propose, Vera believes that Miles lacks commitment to Agnes. Agnes, on the other hand, feels that she isn’t ready for marriage and changes the subject.

When Agnes admits to Vera that she has been playing Dungeons and Dragons with a high school boy, Vera mocks the game as “weird” (24) and “dorky” (25). Agnes agrees with the sentiment and wonders why Tilly would be interested in such a dull game. As she complains about how uneventful the module has been so far, the stage turns dark and Vera freezes in place, and Agnes is involuntarily transported to New Landia, where she is immediately beset by monsters.