DF Novices, Team-A, Sessions 47 & 48 - Doran's Perspective

          Here is a report from the player of Doran, covering both the previous session and the recent game this week.

Session Dates:    Tuesday 19 September and Tuesday 10 October 2023

Party roster:

Ben, half-ogre barbarian, 132 points (PC)
Doran Longbeard, dwarf knight, 159 points (PC)
Eleanor Bayley, human thief, 174 points (PC)
- Dagne, human cleric, 125 points (NPC Hireling)
Erizax Ofaris, human wizard, 178 points (PC)
Merrill Tangled Tail, cat-folk martial artist, 92 points (PC)
Randall, human warrior, 135 points (NPC)

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With my axe arm crippled, it was clear I was going to mainly be defending the rest of this battle. And then of course an extra stupid hobgoblin, or was it an orc, my memory is a bit wobbly, decided to slash me right in the stomach. 

Now I’m used to getting beat up, after all I do have 4 older brothers, but holy Katror did that one hurt. It was like getting sucker punched by a kickboxing champion whilst being rammed by a ram all at the same time (goats are bloody bastards). I don't like to moan, but I could barely stand after that, I felt like I was going to vomit out my entire insides. So I had no choice but to retreat alongside Eleanor and Erizax in order to stay alive, I’m not immortal after all and what use is a dwarf on the frontline who can’t even attack? 

As I hobbled backwards I focused all my energy on just standing up and making sure my shield was ready if I needed to use it. I felt hopeless watching my friends attempting to fight off all these orcs and goblins. It was like being back at home only worse. I felt so small and useless. 

I don’t really know what happened once I started retreating back into the tunnel as Erizax made everything dark. At least I assume it was him. He learnt some really cool new spells whilst we were training. 

Eventually people starting retreating out of the darkness, according to Merrill the enemies were letting us go, not that I really believe such ghastly creatures would ever do such a thing. Unfortunately I passed out after that I don’t know what happened once we all got out into the tunnel. 

Once I woke up I was feeling a bit better. Instead of my whole body throbbing it was just my midriff. We decided to keep going back the way we came, but of course, waiting for us was another horde of monsters. 

At this point I couldn’t deal with the uselessness anymore. With my shield strapped onto my left arm all I could do was defend or bash. And based on my pain level my defence was seeming pretty shoddy anyway. So I held back and asked Dagne to help me remove the shield. I figured, even if I used my wrong arm, I was more use to the party with an axe in hand than without. 

By the time I’d managed to get my shield off and drawn my hatchet the rest of the party had already defeated all the enemies*. So we rushed out of the mine as quickly as we could and headed back to town. 

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* In fact the enemies were not all defeated, but rather held at bay by the wizard's conjured fire blocking the passageway behind them and buying the PCs enough time to escape.