<br /><br />The Role-Playing Game Years

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Monday, February 23

The Role-Playing Game Years

By the time Talien was actually given the opportunity to be used in a genuine role-playing game, he was 12th level. Since Temple of Apshai didn't have classes, I was faced with the challenge of making him as versatile as possible (because in Temple of Apshai, you read scrolls, fought, cast spells, and basically did it all). He ended up a dual-classed Thief/Ranger, able to read scrolls and cast spells, but still capable of going toe-to-toe with a monster or three.

Talien finally got to play in a role-playing game. The details are fuzzy, but in his first adventure, Talien and his party were required to return a artifact of incredible power to a king. When the party found out that the king was not going to pay them for the return of this powerful, soul-capturing gem, they decided to teleport a rust monster into his palace and teleport themselves out. Considering his earlier career was a member of the king's guard (a position carried over from his novel of origination), this branded him something of a criminal for awhile.

It sounds decidedly unheroic, but this was Talien's high point in his career.

Then Talien died.

This was usually the way things went in role-playing games where I wasn't the Game Master. Back then, we didn't understand the concept of character continuity. Would-be heroes died a lot.

It was "Land Beyond the Magic Mirror":

As the doors swing open and frog-like footmen in green velvet livery snap to attention, you see a huge hall lighted by hundreds, possibly thousands, of candles. The place is at least 150' long, possibly longer! It is 70' or more wide. Wooden columns support the ceiling 30' or so overhead. The floor is of polished stone squares--pink and white marble, with rugs scattered here and there. The walls are paneled to waist height, painted above that level, as are the pillars, in white and gold. Dozens of wall sconces hold various sorts of candles: slender, thick, long, short--of red or white color. These, and the floor candelabra of red and white lacquered metal, seem to be everywhere. The room is hot, but it is very well illuminated. Some of the candle holders have tapers as tall as a man and nearly a foot in diameter! A vast table takes up a huge amount of space in the center of the room. It is draped with white-bordered red cloth. However, what wrests your immediate attention is the rosewood and ivory table just before you. The two crowned women are now beside the table, and on it you see (Insert the number of people in the party) crowns of gold. The red-clad woman speaks:

"Welcome! As you have reached the Eighth Square, you are entitled to wear these magical crowns, receive royal treatment hereafter, and have safe passage anywhere in Whitfield Kingdom or the Realm of Rosewood. Honor us now by joining us at high revel!"

It gets better:

You see the double doors across the hall being opened by the liveried footmen there. Arm in arm, in slow and stately procession, come a score of couples. Each handsome man is arrayed in doublet and hose suiting the station of a noble. Each beautiful woman is clad as befitting a knight's lady. It is therefore odd to see them accompanied by roly-poly teddybear creatures, skipping monkeys, and even several creatures that look like huge mice but hop on hind legs and tail. Although all these strange animals are dressed in the fashion of the noble couples amidst whom they frolic, none receive the slightest attention from knight or lady. This multitude, perhaps 50 or so diners, are shown to their seats by great birdmen servants clad in red and white tabards. It is amusing to watch these avians trying to move chairs in and out with their clumsy beaks. Others hop around trying to bring dishes and platters and cups in bill, on wing, or with neck and wing in combination. Now the Red and White Queens beckon you to the chairs between them--the places of honor.

By the time we got to this point, the very last part of the module, our party was more than a little distrustful of anything this bizarre. And of course, whenever you're playing in a module written by Gary Gygax, EVERYTHING is a trap. I was not disappointed.

This much madness was simply too much for Talien. He also has an astounding capacity for self-destruction that far exceeds his enemies capabilities. The battle devolved into immediate chaos, and Talien decided to move to the most sheltered part of the room -- a very large soup tureen. In an act of derring-do, he swung from a chandelier and dove straight into the innocent-looking tureen...

Meanwhile, the other footmen will have placed nearby an enormous tureen lined with a bag of devouring. If the adventurers hesitate in serving the supposed food, the night hags will pretend to be offended and ask the "owl" (the barbed devil) to assist in serving. It, in turn, will suggest that the adventurers do as asked by the "Queens." Things will now break down into chaos, regardless of whether or not the characters comply.

The giant wolverines and carnivorous apes will attempt to rise and attack the party at the same time, thus creating confusion at the west end of the table. The mimic and the black pudding will attack the party. If possible, the barbed devil will charm characters and make them turn on their comrades. It will also use pyrotechnics as previously noted. As the two "Queens" scream that the place is "under attack," the larvae will leap up and prepare to attack the adventurers. An illusion of candles shooting billows of flames, sparks, and meteoric balls of fire while they grow in size will be cast by the barbed devil immediately after suggesting that the party member nearest to the tureen with the bag of devouring in it leap inside to save himself or herself.

It was not an innocent-looking soup tureen.

It was a Bag of Devouring. If you're not aware of precisely what a Bag of Devouring is, it's a nasty imitator of a Bag of Holding, and it...well, you probably guessed it devours things instead of holding them. So Talien ended up being lunch for a soup tureen that acted like a bag that acted like a big hungry T-Rex. All without the help of the barbed devil telling Talien to hop into it.

Bags of Devouring do nasty things like make your character "disappear forever." Gary Gygax was, as usual, merciless in his assessment of my foolish fate.

The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror is a scenario designed for fun. It is different from the usual adventure--be it in the wilderness or beneath the ground. Beyond mere level of experience, the scenario calls for rational thinking, quick decision making, active imagination, and skillful play. If it is properly DMed, I am certain that all players with nominal skill will lose their characters--even with an overabundance of magical items to aid them.

No joke! The Game Master was fortunately much kinder than Mr. Gygax, and he let Talien be literally devoured -- all that was left was a few pieces of him floating around in the tureen, but that meant Talien could, at some point, be resurrected. So armed with Talien's finger, the adventuring party (who did survive that last battle despite Gary's best efforts) went on their way...

And promptly forgot about the finger sitting on Claven Mastherik's, an infamous necromancer, mantelpiece.

Years passed in game time and real life, and Talien was forgotten by most players and adventurers. Since I was Dungeon Master, nobody was really inclined to start me playing Talien again. So Talien languished and was sure to give everyone the finger who noticed him in a little glass case on the mantelpiece, because frankly, that's all he had to give.

Time passed, and Claven ascended in power as well as megalomania. He discovered nasty things like Defiler magic, and suddenly his advancement increased at high speeds. Then Claven realized he had the power to clone living beings from flesh, and all he needed was a small amount.

Like say, a finger.

So Claven decided to start regrowing Talien. Since his apprentice had died in an unfortunate lightning bolt accident on Welstar's moon, Claven also began cloning a new apprentice, Gabrielle Baker.

Imagine Talien's surprise when he woke up, months later, to find himself reintegrated and naked, next to a woman who looked equally bewildered. Claven wasn't very good about watching his petri dishes, and the cloning process just continued naturally, unattended, while the Gray Necromancer was away.

So Talien and Gabrielle decided to get the hell out of there, as quickly as possible. Claven didn't see either of them for quite some time, but he wasn't happy to discover his apprentice had abandoned him for another man.

Labels: history