About a year ago, Jeff asked if I wanted to join in his Thursday night D&D campaign with some other fellows I knew, even though I would be the only one not related to another player or the DM, which I found amusing. I agreed and rolled up a Paladin who was also a legitimate knight - Sir Gabriel Griffonheart. Thus began my association with Sword Coast Solutions, the name for our merry band.
Yesterday we all got together to game in person for the first and last time in the campaign for a knock-down, drag-out tabletop session with real dice and miniatures in a basement, the way it was always intended, as Jeff's son quipped.
It was a great time, and through a stroke of luck, Sir Gabriel was able to deal the killing blow to Iymrith, the blue dragon who was the villain of the entire campaign. This was not due to good planning so much as sheer bloody-mindedness, and my reluctance to spend a turn healing when I could step up and keep rolling hit and praying to Tyr for a neutral 20 and a devastating smite. It turned out our cleric had left the beast with only a single hit point, which he was quite devastated to discover.
But it wasn't my favourite moment.
That had come one encounter earlier, when one if Iymrith's spawn, Cyzuran the Hungry, stood before the entrance to her matron's lair. For our aid in uncovering the draconic conspiracy, we had all been given powerful magic potions that increased our stature to that of giants, with additional damage, reach, and twice as many hit points. Two of my comrades drank theirs immediately and suggested I do the same.
"For sure I will," I said, but with my Boots of Speed and Charger skill, I can get in there right now and strike the first blow before the wyrm takes to the air."
"But then what?" they countered. "You aren't going to end the fight in one turn." And I was truly conflicted.
I looked at my sheet, then at the wonderful expanse of miniatures and scenery set before us and made my decision.
"It is simpler than I thought," I said. "Sir Gabriel is a knight, and that is a dragon. And that's that."
And charged in.
Sir Gabriel got his licks in, but then got beat up pretty good, but the group prevailed.
And for a moment, I felt close to that Jeff Dee illustration in the old D&D Rogue's Gallery of a paladin, and let me tell you: it was pretty good.
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