I thought in this first part of the post I’d talk about playing Dram.

It wouldn’t surprise some of you to know that I’m a fan of the Dragonlance books, in particularly the Chronicles trilogy that tell the story of the War of the Lance. The actual story itself is told through the eyes of a bunch of adventurers led by Tanis Half-Elven. One of his companions is a Kender named Tasslehoff Burrfoot. Tasslehoff or Tass embodies his race, he’s curious, out on a wanderlust, light fingered or borrowing/looking after the object until it’s rightful owner turns up.

Kenders are the halflings of the Dragonlance universe. Which as we know are the D&D name for Hobbits. From when I first read The Hobbit back in the early Eighties, followed by Lord of the Rings, I’ve been a hobbit fan over other races. So it will come as no surprise that when I read the Chronicles trilogy books that Tass was my favourite character. I loved the childlike innocence of the character, the humour and his affection for his close friends like Flint the dwarf and Tanis.

So when it came to Dram how was I going to play him?

A major influence has to be hobbits and kender from the books and movies I’ve read and seen.

The whole second breakfast, and making sure he eats well comes from hobbits. When they make camp Dram is the first with his cook set out, fire started and cooking his meal.

I wanted to capture a bit of Tass in Dram as well. I didn’t want that “looking after it” side of things. After all Dram was a wizard. So I decided on that curiousness, bored easily, gets into trouble but always somehow lands on his feet element of Tass. He knows no fear. Although Tass unusually did know fear, fear for what would happen to his close friends.

So you see that in how I play Dram. He gets bored easily, goes wondering off by himself. Gets into trouble.

Naturally the character of Dram will grow, especially as I introduce new elements to his character. But having this basic template will make it easier to add them, and make sure that they are consistent.

After this weeks session I did have to research what the beliefs of halflings were. And I’ve fed that into the appropriate spot of this posts dramatic retelling of Dram’s adventures. Maybe I’ll go into all that and other halfling stuff in a future post.

Now for your reading delight I bring you the further adventures of the little wizard himself Dram…

“Typical that tree hugging Ace walks off to look at the building him and Grull saw before the fight. Doesn’t he know we have an important decision to make about where to eat? Ok the others seem to think it might be about something else. But come on casting spells makes me hungry.” Muttered Dram to himself as he started to wander off from the rest of the group.

But before Dram could get too far away from the group Ace returned talking them all into following him back to the building he’d explored.

They all arrive at the building. It looks in pretty good nick considering the surrounding derelict buildings. Obviously this has been looked after by some-one.

Inside it was getting a bit crowded with everyone there. But there was a strange old man in the room also. Funny everyone seemed quite happy to talk with him, and stuff without being introduced! Who was this old white haired guy?

During the boring conversation Drams attention started to wander. Suddenly the decor of the room seemed interesting and worth investigating. Then Drams ears pricked up when the stranger started talking about a green dragon being in Thundertree. There was also mention of some other strangers in the village, but Dram ignored that part of the conversation. There was a green dragon. Here. Dram had never seen a dragon before. He really wanted to see the dragon.

The conversation once again started to get boring. Grull seems to have developed a fixation for tea. And was pestering the old guy about whether he had any? Sarmyar was looking healthier after the old guy had looked over her. Ace had disappeared from the room. “Had he gone to see the dragon without me?” Thought Dram to himself. “That’s not fair, I want to see the dragon too”

So Dram left the room too.

Dram made his way towards the tower. It was easy to spot, it was on a small hill, and taller than anything else in the village.

Ahead of Dram between the wall of a building and some trees were some big cobwebs blocking his way. This was an interesting problem, obviously a big spider made these, and it would be cool to see one. But Dram wanted to see the dragon first. There would be time for spiders afterwards.

As Dram was contemplating the dilemma, and deciding if he should Misty Step pass the cobwebs, the gnome turned up with a possible solution. Apparently Ace knew a way round them. Dram decided to follow the gnome, maybe his problem would look differently from the other side.
As the group made there way round the village Dram saw more of the moving bush/tree things that they had killed earlier. This time they didn’t attack, they just stood there rustling like a light breeze had moved them. For some reason their very presence was sending the gnome into a “sap” rage. He wanted to turn them into kindling. For a fellow vertically challenged person he sure had a big chip on his shoulder about something.

The group eventually get to the other side of the path that was blocked by the cobwebs. It did indeed look a little different to Dram. Ace looked like he too was interested in the cobwebs.

Unusual for Dram he was more focused on seeing the dragon, and continued up the hill to the tower with the rest of the group, leaving Ace behind.

The path led to a small cottage on the side of the base of the tower. Which had the corpses of two large spiders decaying away next to it. Obviously something bigger had eaten them. Like a dragon.

As they stand at the closed door of the cottage Ace appears and pushes his way to the front. The group argues a little about Ace going in first. Dram wants to be the first to see the dragon. But eventually Ace wins, and enters the cottage first. The time between Ace entering and hearing back from him was too long for Drams liking. So he entered the cottage. The gnome joined him. Ace was standing by the door that connected to the tower. Grull shoved past both of the small folk.

Ace disappears into the tower, followed by Grull. “Hey not fair. I want to see the dragon.” said Dram. And followed them in.

Inside the tower stood Ace, Grull, the gnome and Dram. Above them was a young green dragon.

“Wow! You are amazing, so beautiful.” a gobsmacked and amazed Dram said. He was finally seeing a dragon.

The dragon told them to leave. But the gnome in what was now becoming a recent bloodlust shouted words of defiance and what was like a challenge to the dragon.

Suddenly a green poisonous gas filled the room.

All of a sudden Dram was standing in bright sunshine, in the middle of a field full of ripe corn, with a small farmhouse in the distance, smoke drifting out of it’s chimney. He started to walk towards the farmhouse, he could make out an old halfling sitting on it’s porch with a dog sleeping by his feet. As Dram got nearer the old halfling looked strangely familiar. The sun was shining in Drams eyes, he had to squint to see.

Dram opened his eyes. He was back in the old mans room. Dram was not feeling good. He felt like he was going to be sick any moment.

Dram overheard the old man tell the others in the group that Dram had actually been dead for a while, and he had exhausted all of his powers to bring him back.

The dragon was on the move. Something in the South of the village had disturbed it. It was now heading towards the old mans room.

It was time for everyone to make a quick escape and hide in the woods.

As the dragon got closer the majority of the group managed to hide successfully under the cover of the foliage of the trees. A couple were less successful in their attempts to be stealthy, and their clumsiness attracted the attention of the dragon. It was then a game of cat and mouse as the dragon tried to locate the “mice”. Luckily for them the dragon got bored and flew back to his tower.

Dram and he could only assume the others were also doing the same, worked his way through the forest.

The defeated group made their way back to their previous nights camp spot after cleaning themselves up as best they could in the Neverwinter river.

At the camp Dram started to make supper. As folks started to process the events of the day, Grull suggested that Dram May have been dropped on his head, and talked about returning to Phandalin to become an innkeeper. Did he not appreciate how cool it had been to see a dragon, die, and live to tell the tale? This had been an amazing day for Dram.

And that’s where we leave our adventurers for the Christmas break, licking their wounds and getting a good nights sleep.