Well, this was something I never expected at all.
The last time I heard from dad, he was with my mom on the other side of the country to see my Aunt. Now he had just gotten home to find both Gizmo and I in the dining room playing Dungeons and Dragons. I knew that he had a habit of being spontaneous at times, but I would’ve thought that he had given me some kind of heads up first if there was a change in plans. Though, his focus seemed to be less on what we were doing… and more on the unicorn who was sitting across from me.
“Well, this is… a bit of a surprise,” he said, setting a couple of his bags in his office before looking towards me, “Sam, who’s your friend here?”
“Uh, this is Gizmo. She’s the new neighbor I introduced to you yesterday.”
“Oh,” he now looked over to Gizmo for a moment, who looked rather embarrassed. Having a freakout in front of someone’s parents when they were on the phone was one thing. Though, meeting them in person? That was something else.
“Y-yeah, sorry about running off yesterday. I was getting settled in and… there were just a lot of things I didn’t know about at the time,” the unicorn apologized, “I-it’s nice to meet you, sir.”
Surprisingly though, my dad took all of this in stride. Which was weird since I honestly did not expect for him to be like this. If anything, he was a bit more cautious when it came to meeting new people. “There’s no need to apologize,” he insisted, before extending a hand for Gizmo to shake, “Or for formalities. I’m Robert and it’s nice to meet you as well. Would it be right to say that Sam’s helping you feel welcome?”
Given everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, I’d say-
“Oh definitely!” And Gizmo beat me to it. Though, on the bright side, at least that means it saves me a few explanations.
“That’s wonderful to hear,” Dad replied with a smile, before looking at me, “Out of curiosity, what exactly have you been doing? I tried to call you earlier on your cell phone, yet you didn’t pick up.”
Wait, he tried to call me? When? My phone has been upstairs in my room since this morning!
“Well, Sam helped teach me how to cook breakfast and then she told me about this very cool game that sounds like one of the games I know of back home,” the unicorn beat me to it, “So, Sam’s been helping me go through it.”
“Really now?” he asked, before looking back at me.
“Yeah, though we’re kind of taking it easy. Her first time playing and my first time doing anything DM related so, it’s a bit of a learning experience for both of us,” I replied back. “Not really doing any of the adventures that we have and more likely just coming up with places for her to visit and characters for her to interact with.”
“So homebrew then? I gotta say, that’s a bit of a bold choice to go with, but you do you,” Dad was about to head upstairs, “Hey, I’m going to put some of my stuff away first, but afterwards, are you alright with me watching you two?”
That had me at a bit of a crossroads. On one hand, we would have to catch him up to speed on everything that had transpired throughout the course of the campaign. Though, on the other hand, perhaps he could give us some advice for future campaigns and such. Then again, when it comes to my dad giving advice, it’s… hit and miss. Then again, I personally thought that it was Gizmo’s decision to make-.
“Sure! The more the merrier.”
Well, I guess there’s no turning back at this point.
Once dad had gotten himself situated, it took about more than half an hour to get back to where we were left off. Mainly because we had to bring him up to speed on what had already happened so far and he had to bring me up to speed on why he came back so soon. Apparently, he had this meeting with investors that was supposed to happen in the same city that mom was visiting my aunt, yet it got cancelled at the last minute since some of them got sick. So, he decided to return home as a way to surprise me, yet he ended up being surprised when he saw us instead.
Who would’ve thought?
After Dad joined us though, I was able to pick up where we left off and keep it going for another hour or so and he even volunteered to play as Kobalt so I could focus on being the DM. There were a couple close calls, but Gizmo was not only able to help him find where the goblins were keeping the two half elves that they were searching for, but also stand their ground against the Goblin’s chief. Said chief was under the assumption that the two half elves were actually royalty, even though they just used King and Queen as their stage names, and thought that by holding them hostage, they would get a king's ransom in gold.
Instead, they had two adventurers knocking on their doorstep.
By the time Gizmo’s party was going through the goblin’s lair, she was already level 3 and with it, was able to create an Eldritch Cannon to fight beside her. Which was useful since some of the enemies throughout the dungeon were a bit stronger than the average monster. Luckily, she happened to find a few rare finds in some of the other rooms that provided stronger alternatives to armor and a better crossbow for her.
Of course, the craziest thing that happened was before actually fighting the boss, Gizmo decided that it was a good time to test her infusion ability. Not on any of her equipment, but on Kobalt’s axe. At first, I thought she just wanted to enhance the weapon, yet that was when she said that she wanted to infuse Returning Weapon on it for anytime that Kobalt just decided to throw his axe and have it come back to him.
Without knowing it at the time, Gizmo basically turned my barbarian’s axe into Stormbreaker from the MCU. And I’m pretty sure she hasn’t even seen any of those movies.
Then there was the fight. Which, right off the bat, got to a chaotic start. The chief they came to fight, which I named Brags because pretty much any goblin I’ve encountered in these games likes to brag about their stuff, was elevated on a platform that was high above this box-like arena I called ‘The Pits’. While he had other goblins try to overwhelm the party with numbers, Brags would be casting magic down on us to try and limit how much space the two of them had to navigate. My intention was to try and have Gizmo and dad try to fight off the goblins coming in first before facing the BBEG (Big bad evil guy).
Unfortunately, that was not what happened. “GET DOWN HERE!!!”
While Gizmo wanted to try and narrow down how many enemies they had to fight through the use of her crossbow and Eldritch Cannon, Dad immediately went to try and take down the support pillar like a maniacal lumberjack that was eager to chop down a tree. At first, I thought he was just being a bit too much in character, but he ended up rolling a Nat 20 on a strength check and somehow rolled a rather high number on his attack bonus. Which meant that not only was he able to bring down the pillar, but did it with enough force to nearly kill them.
And this was all on the first turn.
Because of that, I was forced to have to change up how the rest of the actual fight went to the point that I didn’t even have time to think it through. Though, that did not last particularly long because after two more turns in combat, the boss was defeated and both of them rescued the two they came to save. Though, the only upside was that Dad did not have Kobalt murder Brags right away and instead begrudgingly agreed to turn him over to the guards back at Port Lunaris.
When all was said and done though, that was when I asked a simple question. “So… what do you think?”
“I enjoyed it a lot. It was quite fun and you were rather creative with the characters.” Gizmo was the first to speak.
“For your first time at trying to be a DM, you did well,” Dad replied, “Though, I have a bit of a suggestion for both of you, if you don’t mind.”
A suggestion? “Is something wrong?”
“Not necessarily, though when I was watching the two of you play, it felt a bit like you were doing things a bit too much by the book,” he said, before looking at Gizmo, “Like, how did you come up with Primrose?”
“Well, Sam told me that the Artificer was a lot like a class I used to play back home so I went with that. As for some of the other things like personality and such, Sam had me roll-”
“Yeah, uh,” As he spoke to her, Dad was also looking at me, “We don’t really do that here.”
Okay, first Stormbreaker and now Dad almost quoted T’Challa? I have a feeling that an MCU movie marathon might be in the future.
Before Gizmo and I could say anything, Dad took the initiative on the conversation, “Let me try to explain a bit better. When watching you two play, it looked like you were either reading your character sheet or the DM guide like it’s a script to have to follow. This is Dungeons and Dragons. Part of the fun sometimes is doing things out of character or letting things go not the way you planned for it to be.”
“Well, it kind of was our first time and I think Sam was trying to make sure I enjoyed it.”
“I get that, totally,” he insisted, “Though, what I’m saying is that you two would probably have even more fun if you don’t try to do things strictly by the book. Part of the fun in D&D is being creative and that works both ways.”
That gave me a lot to think about. Yet, around then was when I noticed him thinking to himself and scratching his chin. Which immediately, I took as a sign that an idea came into his head. Whether or not it was a good idea or a bad one remained to be seen, though given what he was talking about… No, don’t tell me.
“How about next time we do a campaign for D&D with the group, we have Gizmo come along for the ride? I mean, having an extra party member can’t hurt and perhaps she can learn a few things too.”
I… had a feeling he was going to say that. Though, he did make a valid point on having Gizmo learn a few things. Especially since most of the group he’s referring to have been playing Tabletop RPG’s for years.
“Y-you mean it?” Gizmo asked, “You would be okay with… having me play?”
“Don’t sweat it. I’m pretty sure everyone else would be more than open minded to have some new people join,” Dad told her, before getting up out of his seat, “We’ll be finishing the current campaign we’re doing in a couple of weeks, so you got some time to think on it.”
With that, he excused himself and went into the kitchen as I looked back at Gizmo. For now at least, we don’t have to worry about anything unexpected-
“Hey Sam, why is part of the ceiling in the kitchen discolored?”
… Ah shit, here we go again.