Dungeons & Drag Queens: Quest for the Golden Wig of Enlightenment (2019)

Winner of the Phred Love Award for Best Narrative Short, this short film opens with five D&D players in a pitch-black room with a single cone of light beaming over the muted color world of D&D players. The players are focused on the game at hand, rolling dice, recording stats, discussing options, and patiently awaiting the dungeon master to begin the session. Suspense builds; the DM introduces the day's mission: recapture the golden wig of enlightenment the evil Queen Sira'marel stole from the Empress of Zemoloc. As players embark on the adventure, the fantasy world opens to Rees, a half-elf paladin daughter of the Empress; her two best friends Sun, a human druid and Fi, an elf fighter; and Divine, a human bard/thief. On the trail of the Queen's minions [Indy and Izzy], Rees and her companions defeat extraneous guards and receive guidance from the powerful wizard, Empress Labi'ya. They must vanquish foes of the realm in order to reach Indy and Izzy before they deliver the golden wig to the evil Queen. As Sun summons an earthquake to defeat their enemies, game mechanics return to the D&D players as they skillfully roll their way to victory. Upon winning, Rees's world is re-opened to reveal the capture of the guard. She uses the fabled lipstick of truth to force the guard to tell them where the minions went. Tarted up, the reluctantly cooperative guard divulges that Indy and Izzy are on their way to Mahu Falls, a fabled place of legends. While Rees is discovering secrets of the past, the minions are introduced as they seek the blue petals of illusion to guide their journey. Complications arise as the two groups confront one another in an epic battle of foes, leaving the conclusion of the campaign to be revealed in the second installment of the trilogy.