The Story

Previously in our adventure, we encountered John, who has been working for the Drow because they took his wife hostage.  We entered a deal with John that we would rescue his wife from the Underdark if he told the drow that he had a way to infiltrate the restricted section of the library (we needed more info about the Drow and their plans for items from the library).  So after much wandering around in dark tunnels, taking those roads less traveled to avoid wandering parties of Drow, we found ourselves at a dead end: two Drow guarding the wife, Silvia.

For those of you who haven’t been following along, I’m currently playing Eaerenel, an Eladrin Wizard who specializes in fire spells.  And if you’re not familiar with the fire spells, they usually affect everyone in the area of effect, not just the bad guys.  So if Eaerenel cast a fire spell to affect the guards, she was going to be making life a little extra toasty for poor Silvia.  To make matters more urgent, the Drow decided to kill her instead of letting us try to rescue her and had cast a spell that enveloped her in web of spiders.

Things were looking desperate, and this is where I got creative.  With the DM’s permission, I invoked my ability to Twist the Arcane Fabric to move Silvia to safety before casting one of my fiery spells.  Twist the Arcane Fabric is a feat from Arcane Power (p 130), that allows an Eladrin to use her fey step ability to move an ally out of the way before casting an area or close arcane power.  Dante allowed that since “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Silvia could be counted as an ally.  It was a spectacular moment that made my whole night; I got to save the day!

Be Creative!

Creativity during game play is one of the cornerstones of roleplaying.  Without a touch of creativity, the game becomes mechanical.  To keep that spark of creativity burning,  you have to know your character’s capabilities; how can you plan an awesome course of action if you don’t know what you can do?

OMG!!! I had the best Gencon day ever!!

It started out with the very fun Queen of Geeks pageant. I flubbed up the trivia pretty bad, but I totally nailed my talent, and the audience really enjoyed it. I finished in the top three, not Queen this year, but maybe next year!

After a celebratory lunch, we headed to the sales floor, where Dante and I wandered around, finally making our way to the Wizards booth. I was talking to one of ladies working at the booth, asking if Shelly Mazzanoble would be signing anywhere (as I had other events during events I knew she was scheduled to attend). The very nice lady pointed out to me that Shelly was standing right next to us!

I introduced myself to Shelly and mentioned that we had emailed a few times in the past and that I was from stupidranger.com, and she knew exactly who I was! It was one of the greatest moments of my life!

Having loaned out my copy of Confessions, I quickly purchased a shiny new copy, and Shelly signed it for me with a very nice note. She then stood there and chatted with Dante and me for about 10 minutes. This will forever be one of the greatest events in my life!!

Shortly after that, Ed Greenwood was signing at the Wizards booth, and I got a chance to meet him as he signed my copy of The Annotated Elminster. Very funny man, and very nice too, he posed with me for a picture. Also, Steven Schend was signing with him for his new book, Blackstaff Tower (which isn’t out in stores yet…. we got free copies!!) and signed a copy for me. As promised, Mr Schend, I will read and post a review of your book, but based on the first couple of pages, I’m very excited about this book!!

I can happily say that even if the rest of the convention is a bust, I will always remember it as one of the best, simply based on today. It was this ranger’s dream come true!!