:: Saturday, April 23, 2005 ::

And I rehearse in my room, or what I call the Dragon's Tomb, when I lie there with my girlfriend

Today I introduced my flickvän to the wide, wonderful world of roleplaying games, in this case, good ol' D&D. Last week we made up a character for her using the 3.5 edition rules. Now I'm a strict 3rd edition man myself (always have been, always will be), but as all my books are an ocean away, and the 3.5 SRD is available online, that's what we went with. Fortunately I had the foresight to bring one set of very tiny dice with me to Sweden, so we had to share, but it wasn't too bad. (Note to self: buy D&D dice for her next birthday present...) I also had a nifty little introductory adventure called A Dark and Stormy Knight that I also downloaded, and we were ready for a Saturday afternoon of fun.

Herein lies a short recap of her adventures:
The flickvän had her character all ready to go: Charmaine, the halfling rogue. She was suited up like all of that ilk: leather armor, short sword, a handful of daggers, a sling, and of course, thieves' tools. Charmaine was traveling through the local wilderness when a sudden and violent storm came upon her, so she sought shelter in the lee of a nearby rocky tor, whereupon she discovered a doorway leading into the hill's interior.

Inside, she met a few fellow travelers also seeking shlelter from the storm: Amaryllis Thorngage, halfling druid, and her wolf companion Shiralla, Elec Mournbringer, elven monk, and Gunilla, the half-orc barbarian/sorceress. Agreeing on a truce for the duration of the storm and the night, the four settled down to camp, when a huge peal of thunder and accompanying bolt of lightning not only destroyed three doors leading deeper into the tor, but frightened a horde of angry rats that rushed into the room!

Charmaine met them head on, and in her very first attack of her very first combat, scored a critical hit on the lead rat, killing it instantly! Quite an auspicious start to an adventuring career (although the other rats were slightly harder to defeat). With three gaping portals now presenting the way to untold adventure and riches (and the only other alternative being Gunilla's fresh rat stew), the four storm-tossed adventurers teamed to explore their surroundings.

The party found a vargouille hiding in a sarcophagus, and though Charmaine was paralyzed with fear from the vargouille's shriek, the rest of the party was able to dispatch the beast without much trouble. Coming upon a stone chest in a room soon after, Charmaine proved herself quite the rogue when she not only found, but also successfully disarmed her first trap, yielding the adventurers a tidy sum of treasure. A couple of hobgoblins, also seeking shelter from the storm, likewise proved no match for the four heroes.

Deeper into the tor, however, they came upon a burial room, for the tor was also a tomb for the Dark Knight, an undead bugbear zombie that rose to defend its tomb from its would-be robbers. Skipping nimbly to the side, Charmaine pelted him with daggers, while Gunilla attacked with her spiked chain and Elec with his fists of fury. Amaryllis cast a spell, while Shiralla the wolf leapt into the fray. Unfortunately, Elec found that his fists had little effect on their undead foe, and Shiralla succumbed to the monster's attacks soon after . Gunilla entered into a barbarian rage to drive the monstrosity back into its grave, but not before Elec fell when he failed to disarm the creature. As Amaryllis rushed to attend to Elec and Shiralla, Charmaine realized she had to do something. Drawing her short sword, she headed into battle.

It was a hard fight, but finally the Dark Knight was defeated. Amaryllis was able to heal Elec, and was even able to stabilize Shiralla before the noble animal died. But that was not the end of the story.

While the others nursed their wounds and searched the room for treasure, Charmaine headed off to explore a small corridor they had passed earlier. Unfortunately for her, it led to lair of a monstrous spider, and before she knew it, Charmaine was entangled in one of its webs. Screaming for help as the spider tried to make her its next meal, Charmaine struggled to escape the clinging webs. She was successful, but not before the spider's poison began coursing through her system, weakening her strength. Fortunately, the others heard her cries, and Gunilla, Elec, and Amaryllis ran to her rescue and killed the horrid arachnid.

Wounded, exhausted, and poisoned, the four heroes had defeated the tomb's last denizen, and so retreated to the front room to camp and rest. The next morning, Amaryllis's healing magic restored their health and they divided up their spoils, which included a few items of magic!

Thus ends the tale of the first adventure of Charmaine, the halfling rogue. What will happen next? Will Charmaine, Amaryllis, Elec, and Gunilla join forces for greater adventure? Who knows? But the flickvän assures me she had fun, and she's already half-way to second level, so she may feel the urge to head out into the unknown again.

As for me, I enjoyed myself as well (although I did miss all my books and dice and miniatures), and was very happy that my flickvän not only wanted to try this strange little hobby of mine, but actually enjoyed herself as well. I guess I should have known that she was a thief at heart.. ;)

Swedish word of the day: drakguld, which means "dragon's gold"

:: posted by Rob 8:11 PM [+] ::

1 Comments:

Stole your heart eh? She's a keeper! ;) --O.o

[That's more D&D action than I've had since The Legacy dissolved.]

By  Anonymous, at 10:46 PM  

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