The leaves are beginning to turn here in Lexington. The trees are still mostly green, though, and there is still summer heat, but it’s different. There is a definitive feeling of its fading in the not-so-distant future. For the first time in many, many, many years, I’m OK with the change of season. So much has gone on in the past year I believe I am finally adjusting to feeling safe without fear of having to move at a moment’s notice. It has taken me quite a while to feel secure: an entire year almost.
Sniffles and Cheyenne really played the biggest role in helping me and The Husband regain a sense of being, safety. I don’t know where we would be without them. The thought makes my insides shiver, so I make sure and not dwell on that fact. So, instead, let’s talk about the pick-up Labor Day D&D game held here.
I was the GM and the players were having to face a city being attacked my a blue dragon and a host of skeletons commanded by death knights, and dragon cultists looking for a dragon mask within the city they were in. First of all, the players discovered there was one of the masks they were looking for when the dragon attacked.
The battle was mighty. One death knight was taken care of and his surrounding skeletons. There was a second death knight was walking in mid-air across a huge hole opened up by an explosion to begin an attack on two players who were on the magic carpet when one player, the Minotaur, sent an eldritch blast at the blue dragon who was really just hanging out in the air watching the heroes battle. He was really just enjoying watching the fight. Until the eldritch blast hit him.
For those of you who don’t play Dungeons and Dragons, a blue dragon’s alignment is lawful evil. They live by their own code. There is a 50-50 chance you can reason with them. Yes, they’re going to do whatever it is they want to do, but they respect certain things. This blue dragon actually was beginning to admire the mortals fighting below. Then he was attacked without reason. How dare they!
So, said blue dragon swooped down out of the sky and opened his mouth to swallow the Minotaur and the Minotaur jumped simultaneously. The Minotaur’s intent was to do like Tommy Lee Jones’ character in Men In Black where he is jumping up and down and screaming, “Eat me!” Unfortunately, this was a dragon and not a cockroach from space. The heroic Minotaur didn’t make it long enough to cut his way out of the dragon.
The dragon (he had to swallow twice to get the Minotaur fully down) swept back up into the sky and leveled his gaze upon the flying carpet and said occupants: a young adventurer and a tiefling ranger.
The young adventurer saw the dragon inhaling, preparing to unleash his lightning breath weapon and gauged how far he was from the ground. Thinking his chances would be better in surviving the fall, he jumped, landing 30 feet later. The tiefling who was on the carpet took 70 points of lightning damage. He was no more. Surprisingly, the magic carpet was still a magical carpet, just charred around the edges and his tassels, which is also his name (Tassels), brought the burned corpse down from the sky to the temple of Lethander, where the heroes left to help save the city.
With heavy hearts, the priests of Lethander, along with the remaining heroes, brought the heroic tiefling into the temple and were placing his remains in a burial jar when a beautiful beam of sunlight broke out from the ceiling and centered on the burial jar. It was not an avatar of the god Lethander, it was Lethander! The orc monk reached out and reverently touched the sunbeam and was flung back to a far wall in loving playfulness by the god.
Lethander lifted the tiefling from the jar, restoring his form just as he was, yet different. Some would say even better than before. And the Minotaur? Lethander was willing to bring him back as well, but Deepwater decided it was time to rest for an eternity or two before returning.
This is when the GM said, “Now we’re on hiatus until January. The GM needs a break and another book to continue forward with the campaign. Congratulations! Most of you survived!”
Mouths dropped open and stunned eyes looked about to each other for confirmation.
I love being GM, especially when I can tell the players are happy with the game they’re playing.
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