Poem: The Game

I - Dacoria, The Dragonborn Fighter

It all started in a tavern, one winter’s night

I had met three strangers, after a rotten fight

I didn’t have a penny to my name, but I had a sword and a dream

I looked at this group, and the last thing I saw was a team…

Miles we traveled, mostly by foot

Aching and bloody - covered in soot

Red dragon’s fire - it’s as hot as they say

I promise, don’t try it!

The casters ran out of spells that day

But the pay!

Who knew adventuring could bring in such fortunes!

Though the monsters are terrible in equal proportions...

The friendship that comes from the unlikeliest places…

Of all the people I’d ever known, who would have thought that I’d miss their faces?

In dungeons deep, we fought the Cube

Its stinging slime destroyed my sword

It swallowed Roscoe…

My gods, it ate him whole…

Till Olix’s missiles split it apart

Now Roscoe’s body… it’s all that we’ve got...

II - Olixanidorian, The Elven Wizard

Tavern fires are warm, especially in the dead of winter

Dacoria had fought, but not been the winner

Roscoe had stolen from some rich bastard’s coat

If not for me, I’m certain Tyssora would have slit Roscoe’s throat

The travel was frequently hard

Often I wished we had brought along a bard

Music would soothe my old soul

And having another arcane caster would be such a relief

Still, in this team, we each have our role

When we each play ours well, the parts become whole

Crawling through dungeons and killing the dragons is no easy feat

But doing it with them… it feels so complete

They started calling me “Olix” because it was easier

“Never thought we’d be here,” they say, and I say, “Me neither.”

A Gelatinous Cube eats everything in its path

Roscoe was reckless, but he always is

Tyssora placed a hand on my shoulder, closing my wounds

I fired Magic Missile, watched the Cube explode

Tyssora and Dacoria picked up the corpse

We had to find safety, so I swallowed my remorse

III - Roscoe, The Halfling Rogue

Taverns are great for robbing gullible drunks

I was small, I was the type that hung around with punks

Had my eyes on the gold in a coat and that was how I met Tyssora

I learned then to fear her and her divine aura

I ended up traveling with this lot because pay was good

But the more we traveled, the more I understood

We had our reasons for being here

Dacoria wanted glory

I needed to disappear

Tyssora was pursuing her missionary career

Olix had a disease and he was searching for a cure

I didn’t know these people all that long, but I could trust them for sure

“Friend” was a foreign word to me

Friends are what we will always be

I was hurt when we saw the Cube, and I didn’t care.

The jelly burns too easily through skin and bone...

It is a horrible way to die, drowning in acid

IV - Tyssora, The Dwarven Cleric

Dwarves may love a good tavern beer

But clerics are what greed should fear

When I met Roscoe while he was stealing, I didn’t want to travel with him

Still… with only three, our prospects looked grim

We had many grand adventures together

Even while traveling in terrible weather

Dacoria and I kept spirits high

Olix always seemed to know the answers to our riddles

Roscoe came around slow and his jokes were always dry

I never got the chance to find out why...

All of them, I cared about them so much

Even with all their troubles, trauma, and such

Dwarves always say, “Friendship is one of the strongest bonds.”

I believe it… I believe in it as I do the gods...

I wasn’t paying attention

I was worried about Olix, he could barely stand

I looked away, Olix killed the Gelatinous Cube

Our rogue was burning in my arms, not breathing

I wish I could have done more for Roscoe

I prayed for his life… and my goddess said no

V - The Game Master

To be honest, I didn’t think this was how this was going to go…

I told the players: “You come to a large empty room. There’s a double door leading out of it on the opposite side.”

Of course they checked every nook and cranny to make sure I wasn’t lying

There were no traps, no tricks...

They were supposed to rest here.

They’d just had three encounters (admittedly, I probably hadn’t balanced the encounters all that well)

They would rest, and the boss fight would happen next week

They were nearly out of potions and spell slots… but they knew it was almost over.

They thought they might be able to push it a little further, just a little

They’d fought worse than Gelatinous Cubes before, but never at such low health

Never without this many spells or abilities

Roscoe scouted ahead through that next door, but failed the check to see the Cube

It swallowed him before the other characters could get halfway to him.

His health was so low

Olix was about to go down

Tyssora had to heal him once Dacoria lost her sword to the Cube’s acid - he was their only offense at that point.

When the resurrection ritual failed…

I couldn’t breathe…

I sat, staring at my dice - the number 5 screaming at me

My heart hammered in my chest

My players’ eyes bore into my soul

“Tyssora… you wait… you wait for something to happen - 

Any sign that the ritual worked…

And Roscoe sits unbreathing, unmoving…

Gone.”

I closed the session.

My hands shook and I waited for the “what the hell” exclamations from my players

The anger

The grief

They were there, but… it all ended with resignation and acceptance

“Hey, I think I’m going to bring in a tabaxi monk next,” he told me the next day.

“You… You’re not mad?”

“Not mad, no. I… I’m upset, but I’ll be okay. So will Dacoria, Olix, and Tyssora one day, you know? So about that monk…”

The next week, we sit down laughing and excited to meet the new party member

Excited for the new developments

I sit, I begin the session

And I remember how much I love this goddamn game.