Since it was Iowa Assessments week and seniors did not need to take them, I decided to run a D&D campaign. Or in my case, a story that I tell as the players make their decisions. For players, we have mostly novices: Marissa Meadowcroft, our editor, was an Elven Ranger; Kirsten Abbas was a Half-Elf Cleric; Sami Davis; our Dwarven Fighter; and Marek Wachendorf, The Human Mage. I was the Dungeon Master and also created the characters, to give a balanced feel to the campaign.

The First Day:

Day One was more baseline work than anything else. I spent half the time building the characters, and everyone was getting bored. But, as I started the story, with just dumping everyone outside an old rundown cottage, our fearless cleric, immediately tried to set the house on fire. At this point, I should probably explain that Kirsten Abbas is the only one in our party that is evil instead of neutral. She failed, of course; instead, setting a patch of grass on fire nearby. As we went through the initiatives, Sami Davis searched and received five Copper Coins. On Marek Wachendorf’s turn, he simply used “Detect Magic.” They went off to a town and stole a magic ship named “S.S Tiger Toe,” courtesy of Davis.

The Second Day:

With over an hour to play on the second day, we made much progress into this story, with very little input from me. Today, another player, Rebekah Blanchard, joined us as a Gnome Bard. As we resumed from yesterday, our fearless adventurers (besides Wachendorf) were attacked by pirates on the high seas. Abbas put an end to that quite fast with a summoned sea serpent. There was a second pirate ship that led to a confrontation, ending with Davis pushing a frozen boat onto its side with her brute dwarven strength. As the story progressed, Davis Married a Zombie-Dwarf-Pirate named Winston, Blanchard was playing some soft jazz on a summoned saxophone, and Wachendorf realized the rest of the party has been plotting to kill him. He decided to stay on the ship when they docked at a Magic Island named “Shwoopy-Loopy-Lande” by Meadowcrof. As the party marched up to Dragon Mountain, (yes, dragons already) they were ambushed by five goblins. Wilson and Davis quickly dispatched, with Boot and Axe. Although due to Wilson’s powerful kick, Wachendorf (still on the boat) was hit by a flying goblin. At the summit of Dragon Mountain, they found four dragons. Blanchard attempted to “seduce” said dragons with soft jazz. This, conversely, resulted in three annoyed dragons and one who fled. The fleeing dragon promptly flew down to murder Wachendorf, and the other three were successfully tamed and/or submitted to the players will. As they stood by and watched Wachendorf die, Abbas raised him from the dead… with one catch. He could not speak or hear. Then after, they went to Vegas to wind down and gamble their gold away.

Despite the abrupt ending, there may be more campaigns in the future.  This band of seniors who knew nothing about D&D before the campaign now appears to be hooked, with plans in progress for Friday evening episodes.