Navero 02

From: dparsons@jarthur.claremont.edu (Daniel Parsons)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: More Humerous Situations: Navero II
Reply-To: dparsons@jarthur.UUCP (Daniel Parsons)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
Keywords: The adventures of Navero, of the Correct and Unalterable Way

I believe that the last time I posted, I had just reached the point where Navero and Dania joined the party, which is now comprised of five people: Navero, Dania, Rizudo (a fighter), the Cavalier (whose name I do not recall) and an Assassin. They set out on horseback (our DM was kind enough to let starting characters have horses :-) for a small keep to the north, in the middle of a swamp, which was rumored to be having troubles with Orcs. Of course, getting there was half the fun...

From the very first, we all hit it off like Nitro and Glycerin. Ever since that time, I have always felt that intra-party fighting should be normal at first. People who go out adventuring tend to be confident in themselves, and as such do not work well with others, at first, if they feel they can do it better alone. There are, of course, exceptions, and this strongly individual streak should wear out in time as the party members get to know and trust each other. But at first, for the party members to work together well is not realistic, and our party was no exception to this. The first day we were together, there were three actual fights between members - weapons drawn, and once blows exchanged. We hurt ourselves more than the monsters would for a week.

Anyway, we were traveling North to the keep, and found our first "real" combat. This is the first time Navero got to strut his stuff in a fight, and it's not a coincidence that it is the first time he nearly died. We had passed through a very poor hamlet, which an old woman told us was poor because of a ravenous beast that would periodically descend from the sky, and slay and eat and carry off children.

The Cavalier: "A DRAGON! It must be! At last, a foe worthy of my mettle! We must leave at once; these impoverished people's lives depend upon the aid we can give them. The beast must be slain, and its treasure looted."

Navero: "Well, we should help, of course. Do you think we can just convince it not to eat the villagers? I read that Dragons can talk. That would be a much better way to take care of the problem, and then maybe it could eat fish or something and everyone would be much happier."

(A short pause ensued.)

Rizudo: "I don't know about this, kids. Dragons are dangerous, ya know. Why don't we all just go away and let them sort things out?"

Dania: "Because Dragons have lots of money."

Rizudo: "Well, I guess that settles it. We should get to know each other better, babe. You're a chick after my own heart."

The Assassin: "With a large knife..."

And so our heroes bravely rode forth to do battle. Of course, they first had to find their opponent, which proved somewhat difficult as they were in a swamp. Time passed, and evening came, and the Cavalier waxed sorely pissed.

The Cavalier: "Where is the beast? One might almost think it afraid of me."

Rizudo: "Maybe it's female. Women run away from you, ya know."

At this point, we all heard a great flapping of wings, and looked up to see the evening sky blotted out by a great leathery shape... It was a dragon, or something very closely akin, although it had only 2 legs and was lumpy about the head. Whatever it was, Navero was quite horrified, his arms felt weak, his heart failed, and he began uttering prayers to the Lords of the Correct and Unalterable Way. It was an instinctual reaction, one born of the years of his cloistered life, and of course he made his prayers as long and as loud as he could...

Dania: "NAVERO, SHUT UP!! IT'LL HEAR YOU... oh shit."

One beady red eye cocked in our direction. Slowly, with ancient grace, the thing turned in midair, and came shrieking into the middle of the party like a bat out of hell. The Cavalier charged forward to meet it; Rizudo ran away; Dania popped off a magic missile and ran away; The Assassin was long gone. Navero remained; his horse had thrown him and run, leaving him on his butt in a puddle staring at the monster coming right at him. He suddenly remembered that today was St. Kilgurian's Day, and he had forgotten to say the proper prayers that morning.

The great Beast slammed to the ground, by some miracle not landing on anyone, it's leathery wings about it, covering the road in smelly shadow. With a mighty shout that sounded pitifully small to Navero, the Cavailier charged the beast with his lance; it broke. A crossbow bolt came out of the bushes, and struck it in the flank; it seemed annoyed. Realizing that the beast was the implacable embodiment of all that was evil in the world, Navero roused himself and took out the flanged mace Father Gilliam gave him, and aimed such a mighty blow at its ridged back that when it bounced off, it hit Navero square in the face for 1 point of damage. (Critical fumble.) The beast tried to bite the Cavalier, but it missed; it's tail strike did not miss, but killed his horse and stunned him. The thing then looked around at Navero.

Rizudo: "We can't let it kill the medic! Wizard-bitch! Zap it again! And you, whats-her-face, do something or get your ass out of here."

Dania: "Fuck you, asshole. Get in there and do something with that sword."

Rizudo: "You want to see my sword in action? Now is hardly the time, but I'll take you up on it later. What do you use that staff for, anyway?"

The Assassin: Considers killing Rizudo, decides against it.

The Cavalier roused himself, and once again valiantly took to the fray. He struck twice, with two longswords, and miraculously both found soft spots in the thing's scarred scales, wounding it! Navero struck again, and this time merely hit the ground beside it. The beast then tried to bite Navero; it succeeded beyond its wildest dreams, inflicting 13 points of damage to an otherwise inoffensive young priest. Navero dropped with a thump and heard no more of the mighty battle. He woke several hours later, to the sweet voices of his comrades in arms.

Rizudo: "Look, kid. Don't ever go charging in like that again. You're supposed to be healing US. Or do you have a thing about swinging your stick around?"

Dania: "Yeah. Leave the fights to the experts."

The Cavalier: "Good advice under any circumstances. While your presence may have served as a possibly useful distraction, I really did not require your aid to defeat the monster. After my first strokes, all the fight seemed to leave it, so powerful was my thrust."

Rizudo: "Yep. There was also that poisoned dart we found in it mouth, too."

The Cavalier: "Tut. Dragons are immune to poison."

* * *

Our "dragon" was actually a very old Wyvern, that had lost an eye and its poison tail barb in past fights. It was preying on the villagers because it was to decrepit to catch anything else. But to a first level party, such beasts would seem as dragons indeed. We found no treasure, and soon went on our merry way.

Dan Parsons

"I didn't know Dragons were that rubbery."