D&D sessions

The last few weeks I have been in and out of a series of friday night D&D sessions.  The group has been gaming together for 30 years, and technically, our extended group goes down to the grandchildren of some of the original players.  Lifelong GM Doug was running a campaign near the city of Cordegast on his Bead world which has been in the works for decades, and we started off at first level.  I am a big fan of the original few versions and the simplicity of it all, so here was my chance to see how weird and colorful the 5e rules really were. 

So ... I am a satyr artificer named Narvik.  It's fun being a starting adventurer who is still afraid of everything.  I am running my guy as a drama queen with chaotic principles, who also wants to look fabulous.  I seek out treasures and new flavors, then buy flashy things and get tired of all that material stuff so easily.  My mixed bag of abilities may not turn out to be useful, and with a Wisdom of 8 (I did not use it as my dump stat, I just kept what was rolled), I play it with frequent dumb moves and an inability to focus on important things.  My own people found me too serious and told me to leave.  I was the guy they would send out for beer so I would not drag down the revelry with my philosophical mumbo jumbo.   

The other PCs: Ayer, Alan's tiefling semi-fiend who I have since nicknamed "Mothman" ; Chandana, Leslie's human/draconic sorceror with her two devoted protectors Vaxxor and Darrix (both kobolds), and Kristielle, Cici's elf cleric party healer.

In the first session I sat in on, the PCs were running from the city guard after a huge commotion between various factions which I never did figure out.  I was only there because I came to town to sell some gems, got robbed, and was going to report it to the guard, only to find several mobs shouting at each other and trouble about to break out big-time.  Instead, I had to help Ayer escape through the marketplace.  Trying to make up some backstory without knowing a single place name in the entire world, I pulled him into a jewelry shop saying I had just been there the day before and I knew it had a back door.

But the shopkeeper said the back door was for paying customers only.

"Paying customers only??"  Fine.  I grabbed a handful of the crappiest costume jewelry he had.  "How much for this stuff?"  5 silver.   The guard will be here any moment.  "WhatEVER, here's 10 if you forget you ever saw us."  I threw a few necklaces over my head and stuffed the smaller stuff into pockets and we went through the back door.

I expected to be in a back alley, but no, we found ourselves in another shop where some weird hag tried to sell us hats.  "In a hurry here.  Anything purple?"  New character note: it turns out that I love purple.  She said yes, and moments later I was stuffing the purple hat down over my tiny horns and rushing out what I hoped was the front door.

Into an alley.  Alleys are good, at least as escape routes.  But there were two kobold NPCs stumbling down the street in an overcoat pretending to be a single human figure, and doing it so badly I tried to punch them because I thought they were some new kind of undead.  Character note: I really really hate the undead.  But we got our stories straight, got the PCs back together and shuffled out of town.

Most of the rest of that session was trying to figure out what was going on.  Though at one point I was looking through all the crap I had purchased, saying how gross it looked, and throwing it on the ground.  Making character notes about how that's my main thing: find money, waste it on bling (maybe an occasionally useful magic thing), and then throw it away when I'm tired of it.  Though I will give it to street urchins and needy people if they are around.

Two weeks later, we were raiding a house where Ayer had been kidnapped and tied-up in one of the upstairs rooms.  It's funny missing sessions, because you pop back into existence completely off guard and disoriented while the events make sense to everyone else.

Anyway, we had to get past one room where we definitely heard guards inside (but peeked in and did not see the captive), then past the stairs to the other room to see if Ayer was in there.  Passing the door launched a prolonged firefight that was a lot of chaotic fun. 

First magic user went past the door and tried some kind of freeze bolt, missed and blew up a lamp.  Next magic user tried some other spell that misfired: some kind of voice of command telling them they were in big trouble.  Then a kobold NPC who missed with a javelin.  The joys of being first level and missing 75% of the time.  I fired a crossbow bolt, missed, and pretended to continue down the hallway but actually waited at the top of the stairs.  The other kobold NPC hunkered down at the other side of the door.

One of my main skills is Persuasion, so I fall into empty intimidation every chance I get.  (Character note.)  I told the guards not to come out of that room if they knew what was good for them.

The other PCs found Ayer in the second room and were getting him untied.

Of course the thugs came out of the room.  Nobody ever listens.  So, crossbow vs the guy in the doorway, while the other thug came out and started pounding on the brave little kobold.  I hit my guy, 7 damage, he hit me for one, I hit him for 6, he missed, and why was this guy still standing?  I felt my luck wearing thin, but I rushed to head butt him and try to strip the weapon out of his hands.  Doug said I needed a 20-foot run to head butt properly, so scratch than plan.  I called to the other PCs that now would be a good time to pitch in.  I twirled the quarterstaff, again trying to strip his weapon.  I whacked him for two, and a crossbow bolt whizzed past my face and lodged in the ceiling.

The other PCs came running down the hall behind me, so I used my fey power of Misty Step to teleport 30 feet down the hall.  I checked myself to see that I was still in one piece, then saw that the other thug was still pounding on the kobold who was locked behind his own shield.  The thug was 20 feet away so, head butt.  The PCs fired a range of magical white noise, almost always missing.  But the thugs dove back into the room and slammed the door.

"And don't come out!" I shouted.  All very fun and crazy.  Sometimes you just have to roll with the dice.

There was a bit more.  They wanted to question these guys and find Ayer's gear, so the angry half-fiend burst through the door shouting how he was going to eat them alive ... only to find the thugs had gone out over the balcony to safety.

It would have been fun if the guy I injured had fallen off the balcony and was laying there in the dirt, so we could have asked him questions, and that's the fun ending to the story.  But I think we ended up in some library instead.