Erif's Story: Part 5

I think that, by now, everyone reading this blog should know what Erif's Story is about (it's a session by session report of what has been happening in a Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition campaign that I am playing in, from My character, Erif Hcrocs's point of view, with the occasional "out of game" note. And you really should not start reading Erif's Story here -you should start at the very beginning, with my first blog post. However, If you have already read all of the big posts in Erif's story previous to this one, you really don't need all of this pre-story babble, so on with the story!

From the journal of Erif Hcrocs:

When I originally joined the freemen, I was filled with a sense of hope and confidence. I felt that joining the freemen was my best shot at trying to achieve my destiny, since being able to travel to a large number of islands would increase the chances of me figuring out what my destiny actually is.

However, In my time spent as a freemen, every single mission has proven to be, for the most part, unenjoyable. 
On our first mission, we are told it is better if we keep the thing that we are trying to defeat alive.
For our second mission, we aren't even told to fight anything, (although we did end up fighting things, and that was fun) instead, we had figure out how to deal with Acid Rain! (stupid acid rain)
And now, for our most recent "mission" I was infected with a potentially fatal disease (I got better) and was almost trapped in another dimension, both of which are things I am sure are not congruent with achieving a great destiny.

I'm going to keep working as a freemen, of course, because I still feel it's my best chance at actually achieving my destiny, and where I came from before joining the freemen was worse. But I would really, really, like a contract that says:

"Help! I require a freemen team that contains at least one fire genasi to deal with a (insert monster (that is not immune to fire damage) name here) threat. I would like you to kill all on the (same monster), preferably with fire, and take all of their treasure. If you do this, I will give you a giant chest of gold, and provide you with a cryptic clue that might give Eric Hrocs some idea to what has Destiney is, other then the fact that it involves fire, because everyone already knows that. Sincerely,
(some random name that isn't important)"

Chances are, I will never get a contract that looks like that. However, I can hope to get something close.

Returning to the topic of what has actually been recently happening during my time as a freemen, before we are able to return to freemen headquarters after the conclusion of our acid rain adventure, a group of much more experienced Freemen known as the BannerBrand (out of game note: statistics wise, our party is currently 4th level, while I believe it was said that the BannerBrand were equivalent to 12th level characters) have issued an emergency contract (because apparently veteran freemen members can receive and put out their own contracts). I, for once, did not want to immediately jump from one contact to another, and would have been actually fine with taking a few days off before finding out what other contracts there were to undertake. 

But NOPE! Apparently everyone else wants to take part is this mystery contract, which we have no clue what it will be about.

(out of game note: it is fairly important to note that this session, the only other players who were able to make it were Etcher and Rhaugox's players)

We are teleported to the island that the BannerBrand are on. the BannerBrand consist of:

Sana, a human cleric,
Varin, an elf rouge,
Cassilius, a teifling fighter,
Dornum, a half-elf warlock, and
Lodimmia, a halfing wizard.

Once we  arrive, it is revealed that they do not actually have a contract for us - they want us to help them with a personal problem. However, they are also willing to pay use a large amount of money to convince us to help, and to not tell anyone that they did not actually have a contract for us.

The problem is that they believe that Lodimmia has contacted the whispers. Since none of us have a clue what that is, so we are informed - the whispers is a kind of sickness of unknown origin, that seemingly affects people at random. the fist stage causes people to hear voices and whispers. this first stage lasts of a few days, after which patients progress to stage two - were they fall into a catatonic state. This stage also will last of a few days after which the infected will just disappeared. No matter how well guarded the infected are, something happens that distracts those guarding them long enough for the infected to disappear without a trace.

So the reason that we are here is to provide extra sets of eyes, so that we can potentially study what happens to those that are infected, and also see if we can prevent her from disappearing. Also, we cannot tell Lodimmia about this, and we cannot return to civilized lands just in case the whispers turns out to be contagious. Oh great, I might start herding voices, become catatonic, and disappear as well. SOUNDS LOVELY.

Over the next few days, a few things are happen:

1.  Lodimmia enters stage two the very next day, so we do not have to worry about not telling her. Hooray!

2.  Some of use start hearing whispers (including me) but luckily, in the early parts of phase one, healing magic is actually able to get rid of the infection. Hooray! 

3. Rhaugox manages to find out some clues about the origins of the sickness: it is being made "below", and someone is making it it for a reason, but the person who is making it isn't the person who thinks they're making it. What I got from it was that was someone is making this, so I can direct my anger and desire to burn things at a specific person, rather than a sickness (because being angry at a person seems like a more intelligent thing to do). Hooray!

(out of game note: Rhaugox obtained this information by contacting Dornum's patron, which was actually some thing Sana told us specifically not to do. the interaction between Rhaugox and the patron was interesting, but Erif has no clue about what specifically happened, so that is why this is an out of game note)

We continue to watch over Lodimmia, and nothing seems to happen - for a while. Then, one night, Rhaugox spots a bulette (out of game note: for this who are not aware: bulettes are a kind of burrowing monster, and as such, are a rare sight in the floating isles, since many of them dig too deep and end up falling into the mists). After reporting this sight to the rest of the party, the BannerBrand decide to go and attempt to capture the bulette, seeing as it is an endangered species, and it might be safer in captivity (personally, I don't see the reason in trying to preserve the bulette species, but the BannerBrand do, so they're going out to do it). Of course, it is when they leave when the bad stuff starts happening.

Lodimmia starts talking to someone, saying that she will come to them, with prompts Rhaugox to tie her up. After that, Lodimmia asks if "you can come to me" at which point, a dimensional rift opens up and a horde of small creepy monster things come bursting out of it.

A fight ensues!

I fight them with fire, Etcher fights them with lightning, and Rhaugox fights them with wolf (as in, he turns into a giant wolf and tears them into tiny pieces).

The creatures are not actually focused on us that much. Instead, they focus on trying to grab Lodimmia, and try to take her back through the portal. However, we stop them from doing so, and kill most of them, which is when a second creature, much larger, uglier, and more powerful than the others, also emerges from the portal. We also see, within the portal, an orange, robed, figure, who appears to be keeping the gate open.

The fight continues, but begins to turn against our favour. The new, larger creature manages to get a hold of Lodimmia, and gets her through the portal, at which point the orange-robed figure begins closing the gate. A race ensues to try and get lodimmia out before the gate clothes and we manage to do it (although the BannerBrand also arrive to help us at the last minute). Hooray!

I don't think that I actually worried about loosing Lodimmia, I feel that getting her back was more of an attempt for me to get back at whoever made this disease, by denying them one victim. It doesn't seem like much, but at least it's a start.

After that, we are finally given our (well-deserved) reward, and I even get to learn a magic trick from Dornum. (they were originally going to give us armour and weapons, but none us really wanted or needed them, so I got to learn a magic power instead!). Then we travel by airship back to Freemen headquarters, and it is BORING. I am okay with a day or two of quiet and rest (especially if the action that I was involved with previously was not particularly fun - for example, acid rain), but any period of time that contains no combat, excitement, of large fires that last longer than a week is a sheer nightmare.

Eventually, we arrive back at freemen headquarters, and decide to do some shopping (since we did just get a bunch of gold, and we have a bunch of money saved up from our previous missions). I by a magic orb which increases my magical power, and Rhaugox and Etcher both purchase armour.

Then, we check the mission board, and find that there is only one currently on it - the one where we are supposed to kill someone's imaginary friend. So the decision is wether or not we want to go on this mission, which will involve a long (and boring) journey, or wait a few days (which will also be boring) for other missions to arrive...

And that's where we ended that session, because it was decided it would be better if more players was around  to decide weather or not we wanted to take the only available contract or wait for more options to arrive.

So, with the end of this session, I came upon the realization that there is something secret gaining on, but Erif has no clue about it (either that or he doesn't care), which means I cannot talk about this "in the Journal of Erif Hcrocs".

A thing that Erif did not mention (because he was not aware of it) was that Etcher had, at one point tried to cast detect magic on Lodimmia - and saw nothing. It was not that he saw no magic, but that there was such a lack of magic affecting her that that he went temporarily blind. What makes that interesting is that one of the facts about this setting is that underneath all of the floating islands, there is a mist that absorbs magic, and cannot be effected ay magic in any way (which means that wizards cannot use magic to find out what is underneath the mist). 

So obviously, there is something going on underneath the mists, and one or more entities are using "the whispers" for some kind of... secret thing, that I have no idea what it is. And now I really want to find out what it is. Apparently the last few sessions before this one have also contained small reveals of potential things to come, it just happens to be that this is the first time I have noticed it. And all this means is that I am even more exited for this campaign!

That's all for now!

(wow, I am pretty sure this has been my longest blog post yet!)

Erif's Story: Part 4

This is the 4th part (technically, it is the 5th, but the first part is called part zero) of the continued story of the main D and D 5th edition campaign that I am in. For this session, only the players of Etcher and Sairon could make it, so instead of immediately carrying on with the adventure where we left off, we flashed backward a few days before we went on the current freemen mission that are undertaking, and instead played through a private adventure that, Erif, Etcher, and Sairon went on...

From the journal of Erif Hcrocs:

Olivia is trying to help other freemen scholars determine what has happened to Enigma, and Rhaugox is inspecting injured freemen, to determine if he can help them, (and if they have character, and if so, if it has been injured), but that doesn't stop the rest of us from going on our own adventure!

We found a cave, and we decided to explore it!      

Inside of the cave, we found a hidden room, with a shrine and stone tablets covered in self-contradictory gibberish, but most importantly there were zombies in there, and they BURN!

Then, we find a another room, in which I get blinded with a blast of radiant light! And then we get attacked by something! I'm not certain what they were, but I have the sneaking suspicion that they were angels. I don't know why they were after me, and frankly I don't care, but I made sure to inform them before I burnt them to death (because we did kill them all) that I did nothing to provoke them into attacking me, so what I was doing was SELF DEFENCE (just to make sure other angels don't come after me for killing these angels!).

(out of game note: Erif and the others were not actually attacked by angels, they were attacked by undead shadows. However, Erif has refused to believe this, and so now he thinks that he may have done something to anger some angels. And it seems fairly logical to him - he has probably done things that angels, being beings of pure law and good, would not approve of) 

The final notable fact about this little trip is that we found some valuable items that we can sell - and we don't have to split it with the others at all!

After this side trek was finished, we returned to the time in the adventure that we had left off last session, and we just continued to play, without deciding to explain the lack of two of the members of our group.

Returning to the present day journal of Eric Hcrocs:

Alright, so as it turns out, the bugbears that were running at us were not happy - they were scared. And they were not running at us - they were running away from yet another storm of acid rain. I can't blame them for that, acid rain sucks. What I do blame them for is that they still attacked us while they continued to run away from the acid rain, and they got away before I could burn them all to death!

Then, the acid rain hits us (acid rain is just the wort!). This acid rain is different, though - it's much more thick and sticky, and when it hits the ground, it forms into two black ooze monsters, which attack us.

A fight ensues!

And we destroy the both of them, and then manage to find shelter from the acid rain until it passes. I actually felt really good about that fight - I was finally given the chance to get back at the ABSOLUTELY STUPID ACID RAIN, by burning the ooze monsters that it made to death.

Once the acid rain passes, we continue our journey for a while longer until we finally reach the source of the (absolutely horrible) acid rain problem - the tower that rose from the lake (out of game note: when it was described in this session, it did not sound like a tower. So I either misheard the description of what the "tower" looked like for this session, or I misheard what the structure looked like in the previous section. I am not sure which though) 

The main challenge in getting to this tower is the fact that the lake surrounding it is filled with black, semi-acidic liquid.  There is a boat, but it looks to be in a very bad condition. Sairon tries to fix it up - and it manages to get us to the island with the tower, but not before it collapses and is wrecked beyond repair.

Inside the tower, we find one sole occupant - a lich (or other similar undead spellcasting creature) named Kalumadin Al-amad. Apparently, he was imprisoned here long ago by a god when he questioned the god's right to use their power. He created the acid rains in the attempt to lure a team of adventurers (such as ourselves) to his prison/tomb, so that we could free him, and says that if we do, he will put a stop to the acid rains (It is admittedly a really clever plan, although if there is a next time, could he at least try to make it rain something other than acid? Like fire rain? Fire rain is better than acid rain in every possible way!).

(out of game note: I am not certain that Kalumadin Al-amad is what the character's name is. I have been taking less actual game notes in many of the roleplaying games that I have been playing in. I reserve the right to change this character's name if it turns out that this is not actually this character's name, and my notes are mistaken)

In fact, freeing him is surprisingly easy - all that is needed to be done is to destroy four runes inside of the tower, which I do - each one only needs one small blast of fire! After he is freed, Kalumadin Al-amad ends the acid rain (finally!) and leaves with his undead army (because apparently, all around the edge of the lake, there is a whole lot more undead buried there).

(out of game note: wow, Erif. You just released a lich (or a being with a similar power level) and his undead army free from their prison. I'm sure that won't have any negative consequences for the world at large. I'M SO VERY SURE.)

Once he leaves it becomes apparent while the acid rains are gone, the poison death lake still remains - and will not clear itself out of the poison for several weeks. And the boat that we used to get there is now wrecked beyond repair. I try to swim it figuring "what's a little bit of poison going to do?". And then I almost drown. Luckily, my traveling companions are less selfish then I am, and manage to rescue me out of the lake.

Luckily for us, we managed to acquire some magical items in our first adventure (the one with the goblins, the bugbear, and the manticore) and one of the items is an oil of etherealness, which would allow one of us to escape the island. It is eventually decided that Sairon should be the one to go (because she knows this region best, and is probably the most trustworthy and dependable among us), and so she goes.

She is gone for several hours, and so I have to wait with Etcher on the island, where there is literally nothing to do. I try to play eye spy, but that turns out to go terribly as well (out of game note: this has been mentioned in a previous part of Erif's story, but it will be mentioned again - Kenku (which is the kind of creature that Etcher is) can only produce sounds that they have previously heard)

Eventually, Sairon comes back with a shark person and his boat (out of game note: this island is inhabited by 3 different tribes, each of which consists of a different kind of animal people - there is a tribe of reptile people (which is the tribe that Rhaugox comes from), a tribe of mammal people (which is the tribe that Sairon, as well as the centaurs that hired our group come from), and a tribe of fish people (which is the tribe the shark person that Sairon managed to convince to help the group came from), and we are able to finally get of the island. 

Finally we return to the centaur camp - and we have to wait a few days for our reward, because they need to wait for actual proof that the acid rain has stopped. The wait is annoying (even with he acid rain gone, I have too many bad memories of this place to ever really like staying here) but eventually, we receive a huge chest of gold, and also a set of magic bracers.

The first two missions as part of the freemen have not been the best experiences I have ever had, but there will be many more in the future, and the future has more than unlikeable missions in store for me, I am sure of it!

Unlike Erif, both halves of this session (the flash backward adventure in the caves, and the finishing of the current mission) where really fun and interesting adventures. One of the "themes" of this campaign has been that every adventure involves some sort of choice:


(In the first adventure, we were given the option to not kill the bugbear and let him keep the freemen initiates as manticore food.)

(In the first freemen mission, we could have just as easily decided to kill the Girallon and his family.)

(And in this mission, we could have tried to figure out some other method for stopping the acid rain other than releasing a lich (or similar magical undead being) and his undead army into the world.)


and it has been interesting to see what my character - and the other characters decide to do ing each of these situations.


(in the first adventure, Erif really didn't care to much either way, it was other people who wanted to fight the bugbear - and he had no problem with that, since he got to burn things that way)

(in the first freemen mission, he was actually totally fine if he happened to kill any of the girallons - it just also happened to be that other people were able to non-lethaly defeated them first, and he isn't enough of a jerk to try to kill them while they were knocked out)

(and in this mission, Eric just didn't care enough to think about the consequences of freeing a powerful undead creature and it's army. It seemed like the quickest and easiest way of getting rid of the acid rain, and everything seemed to work out fine!)


Erif's Story: Part 5 will be coming soon!

Erif's Story - Part 3 (Alternative Title: I Hate Acid Rain)

Once again, we return to the D and D (5th edition) campaign that I am in, continuing the story form my character (Erif Hcrocs)'s point of view with the occasional extra "out of game note" from me.

Now, on with the story!

From the journal of Erif Hcrocs:

After we defeated the big ape-monster and took it's fangs, I suggested that we head back to town, claim our reward, and get out of here.

But for some reason, everyone else thought we should go investigate the monster's lair! Why?

What were they expecting to find in there? Ape poo? (I bet that Rhaugox was after ape poo. Druids are weird like that).

Anyway, while we're investigating the lair, we do not find anything of actual value, but instead, find the entrance blocked by another ape-monster and three smaller ones! Obviously, Ape monster #1 has a family. and that family does not seem to be happy that we knocked ape monster #1 out and then stole it's teeth.

(also, do I even really have to mention that this whole encounter would have just not happened if we had just left instead of heading into the lair to search for monkey poo?)

Anyway,

A Fight ensues!

And we win the fight, and actually manage to not kill all of them! It's kind of incredible how we are able to not kill people if we really try.

Another fairly important thing to mention about the fight is that during it, Enigma was hit really hard and just... shut down. Apparently she isn't dead (although I wasn't aware she was alive in the first place), she just isn't conscious, or functioning, and nothing seems to be able to wake her up. (out of game note: the reason this happened to enigma is that her player won't be able to come to the next few sessions, and this weird thing that happens to her is an in-game reason for why she will not be participating in the next few missions).

After winning the fight, we travel back to town (slowly, because we have to carry a shut-down warforged with us), claim our reward, and make our way back to the ship, and travel back to the Freemen headquarters.

After receiving a speech form the master of the path (out of game note: the master and mistress of the path are the two co-leaders of the freemen) about how we have to be more careful and how we need to keep our allies safe, we go to find out what the available missions for people of our rank in the freemen. The options are:

1. something has been killing someone's livestock, and they think it is their kid's imaginary friend.

2. There is acid rain, and the centaurs want it to stop.

Now, I was much more in favour of option one, because the solution is much more simple - find the imaginary friend and kill them!

But for some reason, everyone else in the group seems in favour of solving the acid rain problem! Why! What makes Solving a problem that involves acid rain any more interesting the and imaginary friend who kills people!

However, all my arguments are in vain, so we have to go help some stupid centaurs with some stupid acid rain.

As it turns out, the next ship that is supposed to be headed to the island where the acid rain is is not due for almost a month.

Hey, maybe that means we could do something other than go to a place filled with acid rain!

Oh wait, the freemen has access to teleportation circles that connect to a teleportation circle on the island, so we can just go there right now!

So we arrive on the island, and then we set off to meet the stupid centaurs (I mean really, can't they deal with the acid rain themselves?).

AND THEN IT STARTS TO ACID RAIN ON US!

I hate this place so much! It's warm, but not the nice kind of dry, volcanic, warm. Instead, its the sweaty, swampy, watery warm. And it Acid rains! I don't know how we're expected to solve this problem. As far as I know, you cannot burn acid rain to death (unfortunately).

Eventually, the acid rain stops, but it does not do anything to make this adventure any less unpleasant.

We run into some angry sabre-toothed tigers, but we fight and kill them fairly easily.

Then, we finally arrive at the centaurs camp, and they give us their hospitality (you know what would have been really hospitable of them? If they never asked the freemen to help them with their acid rain problem!). They also tell us about this tower that rose out of a lake shortly before the acid rains began. Now this actually sounds promising! Maybe if we kill all of the people who live inside of this tower, the acid rain will just go away (that sounds way to easy to be true, but I can be hopeful!).

Lets go!

As we are headed in the direction of the tower that was provided to us by the centaurs, a group of bugbears comes running at us! But they look happy for some reason? Who cares! Time for some things to burn...

And that's where the session ended!

Who knows what lies in wait in the next session (which is coming up soon!)? What lurks within the tower? Is it causing the acid rain, and if not, who or what is? Why are these bugbears happy, and are they actually connected to anything important, or did they just happen to be in the area? What other things lie in store for the still unnamed team? All or none of the Questions may be answered.....

Erif's Story - Part 2

This is the 3rd instalment to Erif's story which tells the story of my character in the main D and D (5th edition) campaign that I am currently playing in, telling it from Erif (my character)'s  point of view, with me occasionally adding in out of game notes to help clear this up or add parts to the story that Erif himself was unaware of.

From the journal of Erif Hcrocs:

A freeman at last! Except this time, we actually are freemen, not just "initiates" like last time. It's official, and we even had a signed piece of paper to document it!

I mean, before all this, we had to listen to more of the same "these are the things you can't do" and "these are all of the rules that you have to follow" but I really wasn't listening that much, but I'm sure it will be fine (out of game note: Will it though Erif? Will it?)

Backing up a bit, we were able to successfully bring the initiates that had been taken prisoner by the bugbear, and it was explained to us that we had passed our test and all we had left to do to become Freemen is to listen to the big long list of important rules and then sign the paper that contains said rules. And we all did that!

Now that we are officially a group, there has been some discussion as to what our "team name" should be. Some of the names I have suggested are:

The fists of flame

The sons of stabbness

The undefeatables

The company of awesome

The destined champions (out of game note: this last name was mostly included because it is a reference to the previous D and D campaign I played with this same group. In that group my character really wanted the group to be called the destined champions but none of the other characters agreed. Even after the group did get it's official name (the Titanslayers) my character still maintained his belief that the destined champions was a better name)

Other members of the group have suggested names as well, but they aren't as good as mine. Sairon has suggested "the Daybreakers", Rhaugox suggested "rhaugsox's bitches", which prompted Enigma to suggest "Enigma's Bitches",  followed by Olivia suggesting"Rhaugox, Enigma, and Olivia's Bitches"
(I mean, sometimes I can get a bit arrogant, But I would never suggest a team name like that! (probably because I don't know how they would react: Rhaugox can turn into a wolf, and Enigma has a really vicious looking flail!))

Another team name name that has been suggested (and has become fairly popular) is that we use all of our first initials to create a name (those initials being E, E, E, S, O, and R) to create a name, but nothing specific has been made up yet.

And last thing to mention, but definitely not least in importance, we, the (Insert a totally cool team name here) have gone on our first official freemen mission!

We have been tasked with retrieving four fangs from a large, four-armed, white-furred ape monster that live on the island of splendour. (out of game note: this is a Girallon, which is exactly what Erif describes it to be). The only downside to this task is that we are supposed to attempt to keep this creature alive, so that when it's fangs grow back, they can be extracted again at a latter date. But whatever, At least it promised to be a somewhat interesting fight.

Actually getting to splendour took over a week, which turns out to be incredibly boring at best (because you can't set fire to anything without risking plummeting into the mists), to really disturbing and annoying (when Rhaugox tries to find out what having "character" means and starts asking me if I have it).

Eventually, we arrive on splendour, and we travel to the town where we are supposed to meet the person who hired us for the job. On the way, we encounter a baby bear, as well as an mother bear, which would have been fine, if Rhaugox hadn't also turned into a baby bear and left with the two other bears. He eventually came back, and I remain very confused about the whole thing (then again, Rhaugox is a very confusing individual, so at this point maybe I should expect these things from him). (out of game note: one Rhaugox's character traits is that before he joined the freemen, he was the doctor for his tribe, and is constantly trying to medically check on people and operate on them. The reason for him turning into a bear is that he was under the impression that the baby bear was suffering from an injury, and thought that turning into a bear would make it easier for him to medically examine the baby bear. However, this ends up being a lot more complicated than originally anticipated for him (due to the involvement of the mother bear), and leads to him going on a small adventure of his own before rejoining the group. However, Erif was not aware of most of this happening, so that is why it is an out of game note.)


Finally, we meet the contact, then set off to find the ape monster.

And we find it!

And we fight it!

And we defeat it! Really, for that incredibly long travel time, the actual action I got to partake in was surprisingly little. I only got to burn the ape-monster just a little bit!

On the plus side, the others were able to defeat it non lethally, so we should be getting a bonus reward for that.

Well, this first official job as part of the Freemen may not have Been the best experience I have ever had, I can always look forward to the future!

And that was Erif's perspective on the second session! Unlike him, I had a really great time (there was a lot of really great roleplaying in this session), and like him, I am really looking forward to the future (the next session will be coming up in the next few days!).

Erif's Story - Part 1

This is my second post, which continues Erif's story. This time, it will explain his point of view on what happened in the first session of the campaign. However, unlike the previous post, the majority of this post will be narrated in the first person, as if Erif was recounting it, although I will occasionally interject my own comments to help make the story more clear when Erif does not provide accurate information about it.

In addition: the pictures in this post are images of what I imagine the other player characters to look like. However, they are just my personal opinions and not necessarily how the player characters have envisioned them, and I apologize if my interpretations are inaccurate.

And now, onto the story!

From the journal of Erif Hcrocs:

A freeman at last! Okay, well, technically, I am not a Freeman just yet, but we've done everything required for to become Freemen, so I don't see how anything will come up that will make us not Freemen.

(out of game note: the Freemen is an "adventuring guild" which is essentially a group of mercenaries that hold no allegiance to any of the nations of the floating isles (hence the "free" part of their name))

Who is us, you may ask? Well, I am not the only one attempting to join the ranks of the Freemen, and the six of us have been grouped together into a team of sorts, and I suppose we will be working together with one another for the foreseeable future.

(out of game note: the reason for why all of our characters are working together is because we all decided to join the freemen at roughly the same time, and as such we have placed together as part of the same team)

They're and odd bunch, but none of them have done anything to annoy me yet, and, more importantly, none of them seem to dislike me!

They are:

 Etcher Stormblessed, a kenku. He is a spellcaster of some sort.

(out of game note: Kenku are small, raven like creatures who are not able to speak, but are only able to mimic sounds they have heard. Etcher is a multiclass sorcerer and cleric)

Enigma, a warforged. She seems to be really good at fighting, although she also seems to talk about "her god" a lot, so I think she's a cleric?

(out of game note: Warforged are essentially robots that exist inside of a fantasy setting. Enigma's class is actually a paladin)

Olivia, a human. I have no idea what she does.

(out of game note: humans are a very obscure fantasy creature, and little information is known about them. Olivia is a multiclass bard, and the reason Erif does not know what she does is because all of the magical effects and spells she has cast have been subtle in their effect, so erif has bio t been able to figure out she has been casting spells yet.)

Sairon Breakskull, a minotaur. She is very good at fighting.

(out of game note: minotaurs are large bull-headed creatures that have a reputation for savagery. Sairon's class is a barbarian)

And finally there is Rhaugox, a Lizardfolk. He can cast spells, but he can also turn into a wolf!

(out of game note: lizard folk are exactly what they sound like - they are humans sized lizards that walk and talk like people. Rhaugox's class is Druid.)

Continuing with my tale, the six of us have all decided to join the Freemen, and have been grouped together.

There seem to be two steps to joining the Freemen. First of all, we share this meal together, and are asked a bunch of questions about why we have decide to join the Freemen, and then we are told all of the things we are not allowed to do. It was all quite boring, and I hope this is not what the most of my time with the Freemen is going to be like!

The second part of our initiation is that we have to go on a simple mission to... I don't know, prove our worth or something? The mission is to find 5 other initiates like ourselves, who had been sent to clear out a den of goblins, but did not return. In addition, we have been asked to find a magic crystal which the previous initiates were also looking for.

The mission turns out to not be particularly interesting either, although it was at least more exciting then listening to my superiors talk about all of the things that I can't do. It proceeded as follows:

We encounter some goblins, as well as a very large gong, by the entrance to a cave. Rhaugox suggests that we sneak up on them, but once it becomes apparent that none of us are at all good at being stealthy, we instead just go for an all out attack. It really didn't end up mattering at all, since we were able to kill them all before there could get to the gong.

We then enter the cave that the goblins were guarding, and are attacked by giant spiders, and we kill them all.

Then we encounter a pair of goblins riding giant spiders, and we kill them all as well.

Then we meet a bugbear (out of game note: Bugbears are larger, hairier, and more vicious versions of goblins), his "pet" manticore, and the five initiates we were looking for, which the bugbear has been keeping as his prisoners, and that he plans to use as food for his"pet". Oddly enough, the bugbear was actually completely fine with not fighting us, and instead offered us a deal. He would be willing to give us the magic crystal (which was also there), and give us the patches that all of the initiates had which identified them as initiates of the freemen (which is what we were supposed to bring back in the place of the initiates if we were unable to find them or their bodies), and in return, we would leave and not bother him again.

As much as leaving the initiates to die seemed a bit.. not right, I do not have any peronal investment in them, so I really didn't care if we left them or not. However, some of the others seemed to care about keeping the initiates alive, so we ended up fighting the bugbear and his manticore.. and we killed them both, and fairly easily too! Now all we have to do is bring the initiates back to the other Freemen, and I will be a Freemen too!

And that is Erif's perspective on the first session! Unlike him, I found both the mission and all the talking before it interesting, and I can't wait to find out what lies in store for Erif and the others next session!

Erif's Story - Part 0

This is is the backstory for my character for a Dungeons and Dragon (5th edition) campaign that I will be joining. I will also be adding to this story in the form of more posts after every session, which I plan to narrate in the first person, but for this one, I will be recounting it in the third.

The first thing I should do is explain who Erif is, statistics wise. He is a fire genasi dragon sorcerer (specifically, red dragon sorcerer). when I came up with this character, my only idea was that he was everything fire - his species was fire-themed, his class was fire themed, and his name was "fire" and "scorch" spelt backwards! Of course, any good character for dungeons and dragons needs to have some kind of backstory, so using the "everything is fire" as a starting point, I decided make him backstory to fit the setting the campaign was to be taking place in.

 

Erif Hcrocs had a surprisingly "normal" childhood. His family (which consisted of his mother, and 3 siblings) were simple farmers the most "special" thing about his life was that he lived on the island of splendour (at least that is what I think it is called) which increases all magical power used on it.

This very normal life (as normal as you can get in a fantasy world that consists of floating islands) continued all the way into Erif's teen years, when a very... explosive event occurred.

Nearby the small village where Erif lived, there was a wizard. the wizard mostly kept to themselves, although occasionally the villagers would wake in the middle of the night to the sounds of strange arcane experiments going on.

Then, one day, with no reason or explanation, the wizards tower exploded, sending chunks of tower and destructive arcane energy every where. Several buildings were wrecked, and people who injured from chunks of debris or blasts of engird. Luckily, there were no fatalities, except for presumably the wizard, for no body was found, and it was hard to believe that any one could have survived being that close to the blast. Despite this unexpected event, all of the villagers generally recovered, and carried on with their lives.

However from that day, Erif would never be the same.

Erif was fairly close to the blast and was struck with a large amount of arcane energy. while most people who were similarly struck either received a burn, or electrocution, Erif was completely changed. his skin was now coal black and his eyes glowed, and seemed to have flames flicker all around them. His hair was completely gone, and was replaced by "flames" that did not burn. When he was injured, his blood glowed bright red. Most notably was that he was now able to cast magical spells - though most of them were fire- related in origin.

Erif also changed in personality as well. before that explosion he was quiet, calm, liked to follow the rules, and never tried to be a bother. After the explosion he wash rash, impulsive, did not seem to care for the rules, and liked to make his opinions known rather loudly.

His family and friends urged him to be more calm, act "normal" and so on and so forth, and for a time, he did try, because at the time he still felt it was his purpose to be a simple peasant like everyone else.

Then he started having the dreams.

First only occasionally, bit then more and more until he eventually had them (and continues to have them) every night.

The dreams mostly consist of fire - lots and lots of fire. And he is in the fire, either trying to control it or attempting to unleash it, but he does not know which. He knows that whatever he is doing, he will be making an important decision, with potentially world - wide consequences, but he is never certain what this decision is.

Receiving these dreams led Eric to the conclusion that he has a great and important destiny, and living the life of a simple farmer would not be how he would achieve it. and with a semi-inspirational speech to his village, he set off to become an adventurer.

after going on a couple of adventures (which I will discuss in just a bit), Eric came upon the realization that until he discovers his destiny, it may be good to have some sort of driving force for himself, and more importantly, a way to make money. This is his reason for joining the freemen (an "adventuring guild" which all of the players will be joining at the start of the campaign), because it provides him with the ability to travel the world and see new sights, which will, in his mind give him more insight into his destiny...

Additional Adventures

Between when he left his village and him joining the freemen, Eric had two "adventures"

1. In one town, Erif agreed to help a knight by the name of sir Justin Goodpants bring a group of bandits to justice.

However. when the pair of the reached the bandits lair, it was clear that the two of them had very different ideas about what "bringing the bandits to justice" meant. For Erif, it meant setting them all on fire, while for Justin, it meant to convince the the error of their ways and have them turn themselves in to the proper authorities. This led to conflict between the two of them. They did not come to blows, but Justin did give Eric a very stern talking to about morality and unprecedented violence, even though both of them knew that Erif did not care at all. After this adventure, the two of them parted ways, the hostility remains to this day.

(important note: Erif constantly mocks Justin for his last name, while Justin insists that his name is a perfectly reasonable one, since his parents were tailors)

2. Erif's second "adventure" was less of an adventure and more of an event - in one town he stayed at at some point during his travels, he was accused of and briefly imprisoned for the theft of a very large amount of gold and jewels. eventually, it was discovered that is was a different fire genasi that stole the money, and he was released, but this event did little to improve Erif's opinion of the law.

The source of his power

I have decided why Erif is a sorcerer and is able to cast magic spells and is a fire genasi, but this information is not something that he or any of the other people within his backstory know about.

Erifs ancestors, on both his mothers and fathers side, are descended from powerful magical creatures. one side is descended from red dragons, while the other is descended from efreet (a type of fire elemental). However, that alone is not enough for him to become what he is now. instead, His latent power has to be jumpstarted through a completely unique set of events. This means that it a combination of his unique heritage, the magical explosion, and probably even the time of day that was able to unlock the dragon magic and fire elemental heritage within him. (I am trying to make this as unique as possible so it explains why it has no happened to any of his siblings or ancestors)

Unknown factors 

There are several facts about my Erif's past and future that I am leaving for my Game master to decide, or for me to decide to add when I have decided something, including:

1. Erif's father.

Several parts of Erif's backstory that I have added were actually rolled (this is the case for Erif's two "adventures") one of the things that was rolled was that Erif's father abandoned his family. I decided that he did so when Erif was very young, and that his mother did not ever talk about him that much, so Eric's father has been left as an unknown element in his backstory, either to possibly never show up again, or perhaps to reappear again as a plot-critical character. Either way, I (and Erif) don't care.

2. Erif's destiny.

As I have mentioned, Erif has been having some very strange dreams for quite some time, and has become convinced that he has some sort of important, world-altering destiny. Weather or not this is the case, and if this destiny is real, what form it will take will also be determined by the GM.

3. probably some other stuff  

I am certain that I probably forgot to include some parts of Erif's backstory in this post. If that is the case, I will probably just add it in as a note in a latter post, if it turns out to be an important enough part of his backstory.