Story Time! Not SR related, rather D&D and Deck of Many Things related (and my favorite D&D story to tell). Grab your favorite beverage and strap yourselves in, this one's going to take a while.
Background:Many many (many^?) moons ago, in high school a friend loaned me copies of the
Dragonlance books (the first 3). I read (and thoroughly enjoyed) them and I told him as such, so he loaned me more while also inviting me to play D&D with his group. Planned? Probably.
As the most complicated and nuanced character in the books to me, my first D&D character was going to be a "red mage" inspired by
Raistlin. I rolled stats, filled out the character sheet, and started my first game as a level 1 mage with a red robe, 2-3 spells, and a dagger.
This was AD&D 2nd Edition, and my very first time ever playing any type of tabletop RPG. My first
quest was to join an adventuring party (existing characters/players) and investigate a cave filled with goblins. We entered the cave and began the first round of combat where (not wanting to waste my decrepit spell list on goblins) I proceeded to
critically fail swinging my dagger around. While I managed to avoid stabbing myself, I didn't manage to avoid falling on my face . Begin combat round 2 and I decide to roll to the edge of that first cave room as to remove myself from combat. Ending combat round 2 I look up to see a goblin grin and stab me in the face rolling 4 damage. Since I was a mage with only 4 HP this means my in my first 20 minutes of D&D I managed to successfully roll for initiative then critically fail a roll to attack and proceeded to get murdered with prejudice!
The DM was ruthless but fair, dice rolls happened in the open and they always stood whether they were good or bad. His approach would shape my approach to GM'ing SR in the future... but that's another story for another time.Sitting down to roll stats for my 2nd character, among the scores I got a single 17. One of my friends recommends that I play a Paladin. After explaining it to me I thought it sounded cool so 15 year old me decided that would be my next character (still my first D&D session of my first tabletop RPG experience) and he "helps" me put the stats down where I ended up having an Intelligence of 8 since "warrior classes don't need intelligence". Thus was born Uther Pendragon the Paladin of War
I was not very creative back then. The other mage of the group, a semi-psychotic whose gimmick was to paint his shaven head yellow while calling himself "The Mighty Lemonhead" (inspired by the candy he was eating at the time) convinced me that the God of War would want me to protect him so we could run around killing people and instigating conflict. I struggle getting through the rest of the session and I managed to survive while not being very Paladin-like.
A week later and we start my second D&D session. The DM hands me my character sheet and I notice next to "Class" what once was "Paladin" was now written as "Fighter" in very crude handwriting. He explained that I wasn't role playing a Paladin of the God of War appropriately and lost the god's blessing. Having gotten a little better understanding of the concepts of role playing during the week, we agree that since I hadn't used a single Paladin ability and my character's Intelligence was on the low side, the character probably didn't notice. We adventured for months as "
Paladin Boy" and "
Lemonhead" until ultimately the DM graduates high school and I moved onto other games.
Relevant Story (Finally!!)Fast forward about 7-8 years where I spend weekends hanging out at a comic shop with mostly the same circle of friends. A new guy starts DMing D&D there and my same friend and former "Mightly Lemonhead" and I decide to recreate those same 2 characters for the sake of giggles. The DM took his games seriously and gave us a strange look at the description of "a semi-psychotic mage with a bald head painted yellow travelling with a dim-witted paladin of war as his personal bodyguard." We proceed to cause trouble and mayhem while creating conflict wherever we went, being true to the intentions of the characters we created. Needless to say this wasn't sitting right with a serious DM who didn't enjoy having his narrative disrupted by random and unnecessary battles.
The DreamAfter several sessions we've established our roles in the party and the other players know what to expect from Paladin Boy. At this point in the adventure we're at a tavern in some town and Paladin Boy downs some mead and starts a bar fight, which is all standard fare for him. Afterwards he retires to his room to hang his chainmail and sleep off the alcohol. During his intoxicated slumber he dreams of a beautiful woman with flowing white robes who speaks to him...
Woman: "Greetings Uther."Uther: "Uhh.. hi."Woman: "Your travels will bring you to a place where the consequences of your actions will affect all those in the land. I offer you a quest. If you complete this quest, you will save the lives of many and be considered a hero."Uther: "Does it involve fighting?"Woman: "...uhh... yes?"Uther: "Count me in."Woman: "...oh.. okay...After this the DM asks me what Uther does as he wakes up in the morning, to which I reply
"don my armor and head down to the tavern for breakfast." The DM describes my entrance:
The paladin walks down the stairs in his shining plate mail. His holy symbol somehow glimmers off of an unknown light source in the dark tavern. He seems vastly more intelligent, and there is a sense of nobility emanating from him causing some peasants to feel they should kneel or curtsy as he passes.
This of course causes the other players to exclaim things like "what?!?", "plate mail?!?", "holy symbol?!?", "nobility?!?"
The DM then explains that one of the characters recognizes the symbol as belonging to the Goddess of Righteousness, which causes Lemonhead to exclaim
"Oh crap, Paladin Boy became Paladin Man!" to much laughter.
In this new capacity, Uther lead the group on a series of quests. Some events of note:
- While the group was on a ship travelling across a sea, they were approached by a sea dragon. The dragon threatened to eat the crew, showering them with a semi-acidic stench of its breath while bearing its teeth. Uther parleyed with the wyrm, offering to remove the bones stuck between its teeth in exchange for free passage of the ship and crew. The wyrm accepted, so Uther climbed into its mouth and proceeded to brush its teeth with a broom. The dragon was delighted, and let the ship and crew go free.
- The same ship and crew landed in a port town on an island. The lord of the town insisted they turn back, and not heeding his command would create a political faux pas. Uther challenged the lord to duel asking for free passage for the party. Uther promptly won the bout.
- While solving a quest to stop an undead menace, Uther found a small horse statue in the dungeon and took it as his only reward. His goddess granted it Paladin's Mount abilities when summoned.
- While trying to destroy a "demon" threatening a kingdom, the party comes across a Deck of Many Things. Uther pulls 2 cards: Jack of Diamonds and King of Clubs. Uther's Constitution gets increased to 20 (granting natural regeneration and a HP increase) while his soul is sucked out of him. His goddess protected him (as well as 2 others in the party that pulled the same card) enough that he did not become catatonic, but nevertheless he felt 'empty' having lost his soul.
- After defeating the "demon" the party discovered more of the demon plot, which involved an more powerful evil entity attempting to cause a war between the two local kingdoms. The party also discovered that this entity may know how to reclaim their souls. The party attacked the evil entity's fortress and in the final battle (which took 2 different gaming sessions to complete), the party defeated the even being, returned peace to the land, reclaimed their lost souls, and were proclaimed heroes.
And that my friends is the story of how my 2nd ever D&D character from my 1st ever D&D gaming session became one of my favorite D&D characters I've ever played. Hope you enjoyed living vicariously through my past!
Those last 2 points literally took 2 months of gaming every Saturday to complete. After those last 2 points we essentially completed the story the DM had written and at that point the DM had been running that game for well over a year and needed a break. We went on to play Shadowrun and more D&D, and even some obscure games like BESM and Feng Shui. Ah the days of my youth, where freedom was high, responsibility was small, and money was non-existent.
