Nibbled to death by ducks!

The title’s definitely a Phil creation, and it’s one of the most game-metaphorical of our titles: it primarily means the dreaded worst possible outcome of a single move in a D&D-style RPG. Only at the very end of the story does another, slightly strained meaning for “natural one” emerge, as we’re reminded that ONE of our characters is particularly close to NATURE.

I’m kind of amazed that dice-rolling terms like this continue to be familiar enough in geek culture to be usable; I figured we’d all be electronic-game-exclusive by now and the term would be like the word “dialing,” slowly falling into disuse as it was untethered from our present technological reality. I guess twenty-siders and being in the same room are more of the fun than I realized.