I’m back again with more DND stories to share. This time, I was playing Elric the Galant, a Cavalier build (basically) who had a rough childhood but was trying to do good. Beyond his backstory, I played him as a kooky guy, who doesn’t take himself too seriously but has a good heart, who sticks up for the weak and tries to make the world a better place.
I think I did a good job of it, because everyone seemed to like my character. One thing I forgot to mention: this was a solo session. Just me and Ralph, the DM. The rest of the gang were busy, and I wanted to level up Elric before our next combined adventure. Ralph, being Ralph, had readily agreed and told me to come over. Okay, now that you’re caught up, back to the story.
Elric is walking toward the mage’s tower. It should be an easy job. With anyone other than Ralph as the DM it would’ve been an easy mission. But no. Ralph. Bless him. He decided to throw a wrench in the works. A rather big, very heavy, metal wind wrench. This tower had a lich visiting. Yup. The low-level mage I’d been sent to take out just so had a high level lich visiting.
Yikes. To say the least. So there I am, walking into a tower which has a pair of undead dragons, a trio of dragon wyrmlings, a gargoyle, a mage, and his lich bodyguard. And me. Not a great scenario for me. But, I’m a fighter with a couple of levels of Knight, and I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.
I’ve come prepared: my sword, Orcrist, and my shield. I’ve got my Assassin’s Dagger, a set of +5 Dwarven Mithral Full Plate Armor (which was damn heavy, but was worth it), and a dragon-sized shield and sword. My horse was outside the tower, but I had a whistle to call it to me. I planned to get inside, then leave the horse outside to keep it safe. I knew I probably wouldn’t make it out of the tower alive, but I figured if I could keep the horse alive, I’d have a chance to be reincarnated. (Bless all mounts, am I right?)
So, I stalk up to the tower. I noticed the pure beam of arcane energy blasting out of the top of the tower, of course, and the additional tower oddly “parked” nearby, but I knew Ralph wouldn’t throw anything too serious at me quite yet. Again, wrong. Ralph had a notion to KILL Elric. I can’t prove it, of course, but let’s just say that I was feeling a bit under leveled.
Check out my DND Backstory Generator made with the latest, greatest AI...
But I was determined to do this. I was going to go in and bring out the mage, kicking and screaming if necessary. I thought of some interesting things to say to the lich, just to put a bit of a scare into him. I was feeling quite good about myself.
It’s hard to say exactly what happened next–I could try, but I’d probably get it wrong in some way. Somehow, though, I found myself in the dungeon with some of the “prisoners” in it. I was lying on the ground, seeing two of everything. I felt something in my pocket and realized it was the whistle. I used it to call my horse, and the horse came to me. Then Ralph’s damn lich showed up.
I stood up, straightened out my armor and sword, and started to speak. I was going to be funny, I was going to make the lich laugh, but suddenly, there were three new people in the room. One of them was a dwarf. One of them was a wolf. And one of them was the lich himself. I noticed the wolf actually had a collar, so I bent over to look at it, and when I did, it bit me. I think Ralph’s plan was to show me a bit of what he was capable of, and he was doing a fine job of it.
So off we go. Five undead dragons, three dragon wyrmlings, a mage, the lich, and me, the nameless knight, who’s not going to go down without a fight. I rolled. Fought. Listened. Reacted. Ralph got as excited as me as he threw everything that damn lich had at me. I out thought him at every corner and soon had him running scared. The lich was tied up in the basement (super-long story, but let’s just say it involves a trap a gnome friend of mine made. Portals, anyone)
Anyway, with the lich busy, I strode up to the low-level mage cowering in his workroom and cut him down.
This was quite satisfying. End of session. Not only did I kill the mage, but I tried to intimidate his lich and succeeded, too. I was exhausted, but I also felt great. I had this big goofy broad smile on my face. I was proud of myself, proud of Elric for doing such a good job.
Ralph, on the other hand, wasn’t as excited at the outcome. I’d foiled his dastardly DM plot to kill me. However, it’s his prerogative as the DM to get rid of whomever he wants, so I had to let it slide. Besides, a DM always has a backup plan. He did, too, and I saw it in his eyes. I thought it was just a “ha ha, I can still kill you if I want to” look, but I think he was thinking he could always kick Elric’s ass. If he ever wanted to.
So here’s my thanks to Ralph the DM for putting up with me, for letting me play my character with my own spin, and for letting me get a few levels ahead of the rest of the group. He was a good dm and I really enjoyed playing with him, even if it did get a bit hard on me sometimes.
Make life as a Gamemaster easier.... If you play Dungeon & Dragons, Pathfinder, or other fantasy tabletop role-playing games, this RPG random tables book is full of encounters, NPCs, and more. Available as an eBook or in a classic print format. Either way, you'll have a wealth of adventure ideas at your fingertips.
Oh, and if Ralph’s reading this, I’m hoping you’ll forgive me and let me play with your group again. I won’t try to act out of character anymore, I promise. I’m even willing to let you kill Elric if you want. I swear.
More DND Stories to come…
