Continuing the DnD campaign

Since my first foray into dungeon crawling table top games a few months ago we’ve met twice. The first meeting almost killed our party; half of our gamers were unable to attend and as a result, while I sat very happily enjoying the delicious food and drink on offer in Edinburgh’s Cafe Marlayne, my poor character and his compadres we’re beaten to a pulp.

This was followed by plans to meet that were thwarted by a sickness bug our dear DM contracted. This last weekend, though, we finally had a little success. Once again, only half our adventurers could make it but nevertheless we played on.

Akva, in Edinburgh, makes an excellent DnD-playing venue

Since our first meeting, I acquired a D&D starter set for Christmas, complete with my own set of dice, a starter set rule book and an adventure book (Lost Mine of Phandelver) as well as handy character sheets. Additionally, I’ve installed the Complete Reference for DND 5e app on my phone. This is absolutely ideal for me – while I’m clearly enjoying the game I lack the time to pour over rule books and guides when I’m not playing, so a hurried glance over my character sheet is forced to do the job. The app can handle all my knowledge gaps so I can get on with brutally murdering innocent kobolds.

When we’d last met we’d ended up in a dungeon where we had been sent by the mayor of a nearby town. He was worried some local cultists were trying to hatch dragon eggs in the caves, as you do. He asked us to check it out and destroy any eggs we found.

After a fairly unimpressive start in which we were nearly destroyed by a small horde of kobolds, we healed up and pressed on. Soon we were searching caves for treasures, destroying cultists and getting overly paranoid about traps. Eventually, we came to a cave containing a large monster and 3 large dragon eggs. With a little effort, we dispatched the monster and looked about.

Superior gamer snacks

One of our team noticed a stalagmite moving. It climbed down from the ceiling, revealing itself to be a “roper”. It decided we weren’t very interesting and, declaring, “One’s hungry,” lumbered over to our fresh kill and commenced with stuffing its face. Charming.

I think this is the first monster that’s demonstrated an aptitude for English. We decided to ask it questions.

Team: Has anyone come this way?

Roper: One’s seen nothing.

Team: Are there more of you?

Roper: One’s alone.

Team: What do you want?

Roper: One’s hungry.

Team: Do you have a family?

Roper: One’s alone.

So, by all accounts ropers are supposed to be terrifying, repulsive hell-beasts. I did not know that. In any case, here was a poor little hungry thing, all by itself, no friends, no family, alone in a dark cave. I made a request to our DM.

Me: The poor thing! All alone in the dark! Can we keep it?

DM: What?

Me: Can it be our pet?

Dear DM exploded. Apparently, this wasn’t exactly the plan, but after a few moments she declared it to be feasible, provided we keep it well-fed, although it would take a little home-brewing on her part. A lucky dice-roll later and the roper (we decided to call it Stal, since it looked like a stalagmite) was coming along for the ride. I’m to multiclass as a ranger and then I’m allowed to attempt to bond it to me over the next three games to make it officially my pet but with any luck, this bundle of fun is all mine.

What? You mean you don’t build leaning towers of chance with your dice?

We fed the dragon eggs to Stalin and exited the caves, successful in our quest and delighted with our new friend. I can’t wait for the next round.