Sunday is traditionally the day of rest. It’s the last remaining hours before you return to the drudgery of filing or the mind-numbing rambling of weird teachers who want to stress the importance of Holden Caulfield’s adolescence just one more time. Gah. It’s a bittersweet feeling, counting down those few remaining moments of freedom. So I say use the time to save the world by slaying some zombies devoted to the undead and vile ways of Orcus, Demon Prince of the Undead.
Today, I’d like to share with you the many adventures and exploits of Team C, a ragtag party of heroes (and anti-heroes) reluctantly bent on saving the world, one burning village at a time. Out-of-game, you might hear them referred to as Rett, Az, Justin, Mark, Ryan, James and Chris. But to those of you in the know, you damn well understand that on Sunday nights from about 7:30 until midnight, it’s Rettanous Battlehammer, Barakas, Thom, Batrahko, Gannitts, Kharshk, and Dr. Penasaurus Beardstorm. Out-of-game, I’ve known these fellas for several years; all of us are in some way connected to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. You’ll recognize three of the guys also as staff writers here at pixelatedgeek, so we all understand the cruel tutelage of taskmastership of the tyrannical Nelson the Neverseen (in that he’s never seen any movie ever).
I started the campaign with these guys back in December, after we all got cozy during the first installment of the UNCG chapter of Humans vs. Zombies. I jammed with them in a Mutants and Masterminds game being run by Jusitn and used my RPG barometer to determine these gents were itchin’ to explore their gaming roots. Of course, I wanted to run a 4th-edition campaign, but it’s always nice to play a version of the game that started it all. Sit tight and get comfy, dear readers, as I relate to you the tale of the valiant Team C.
Part I: The Child
It all started with a child. The Dark Child in fact: a young Goliath-raised human by the tribal name of “Thom.” Justin of pixelatedgeek plays the sixteen year-old upstart with a heavy Goliath accent (which, in our circle, we’ve decided sounds a lot like Russian/gypsy Ukrainian). He has no memory of his true family; he only knows of Thomtham, his tribe father and warchief of the Stonecrush tribe of the northern Cairngorn Peaks. As the story unfolds, Thom realizes that he is actually of noble blood, of the noble blood in fact: he is the lost bastard child of Edgar De Marco, Baron of the De Marco Barony (those nobles and their redundant titles). Story goes that the Baron slept around with prostitutes and actually impregnated one, whom he excommunicated immediately to the northern Cairngorn Peaks. There, the mother birthed Thom and was unfortunately eviscerated by a roaming group of fiesty owlbears. The warriors of Thomtham’s tribe slaughtered the vicious creatures and saved the infant. Thomtham raised young Thom (his namesake) as his own; his darker, olive skin earned Thom the name “The Dark Child” amongst Goliath lore and legend.
At age sixteen, it is customary for male Goliaths to go on a “spirit quest,” in which they enter the wilderness alone and test their prowess and endurance. Thom wished to have one himself and found himself wandering farther south than originally intended; he strayed into the Keep on the Shadowfell in fact, where he was captured and tied up by a nasty group of goblins an bugbears. A week later, Thom was rescued by a group of adventurers (whose story you will get next week!) and then helped this group slay Kalarel, the evil deathpriest of Orcus, bent on returning the Demon Prince to the mortal realm.
Following this victory, Thom joined the group and sojourned with them back to Winterhaven (their outset village). Unfortunately, by this point, the Baron had gone insane and had started to burn cities that had evidence of the undead rising amongst their city walls. The group immediately turned on their heels and fled to Fallcrest, the military capital of the Barony. There, General Vaan De Marco (second oldest brother of the De Marco brotherhood, between Edgar and Edwin) met with the group and told them of evil happenings in The Seven Pillared Hall deep within Thunderspire Mountain. However, the General had a different plan for Thom, a plan to assassinate the Baron and place Thom on the throne as the rightful heir to the De Marco Barony (since Thom’s eventful birth, the Baron was unable to conceive another child with his wife; some say this is the Curse of the Dark Child).
However, it’s dangerous out there alone (according to the General and an old man in a cave in Hyrule), so the General gathered a group of four outlaws, mercenaries, and friends whose existence didn’t matter any more. They would accompany Thom through the Underdark to the barony capital city of Porto Champlaign. The team included: Rettanous Battlehammer, a devout paladin of Moradin and dear old friend of General Vaan; Gannitts, a Shadar-Kai wizard and assassin whose worship of the Raven Queen borders on zealotry; Ryeleth Du’hanin, an Eladrin warlord and former general of the Legions of the Silver Hills in Evermeet, who was betrayed by his own men; and Barakas Obamias, a Tiefling rogue, former spy, best friend to the General, and current chief of police of Fallcrest. Thus was the formation of Team C. The Underdark awaited…
The rousing second part of Team C’s adventure is coming soon! Stay tuned for the next episode of Dungeons and Dragons, brought to you by Red Dead Redemption. Good gods, that game is going to be so sweet. Goodbye productivity.
The post [Dr. DM] Introducing Team C: A Spotlight on Dr. DM's Sunday Night Campaign Part I first appeared on Pixelated Geek.