the honest price

Once a week, I get together with some friends and play a stirring round of Dungeons & Dragons.  Let me relate to you the latest tale.

It was a bright spring morning outside Rabanastre, the capital of the Kingdom of Dalmasca.  My character, L'ppy the Bard, a rabbit girl who could play a mean ukulele, had just embarked on the grandest adventure of her short leporid life.

L'ppy

L'ppy was a cheerful, boisterous girl, fond of a good insult no matter who was the target.  She prized honesty above all else, though she always had a weakness for handsome men.  She was on a personal quest to recover her family's prized ocarina, which had been stolen by some nefarious rascal.  In the meantime, she had made a few friends, and together they agreed to adventure together, earning gold, gaining strength, and coming to understand the meaning of teamwork.

As they set off into the wilderness in search of a killer tomato, something terrible happened.

Tomato

In the distance, L'ppy and her friends spotted a saurian, a great dinosaur of the plains.  Her Seeq companion, Vin the Virtuous, recognized a potential threat to his status as the most frightening, overmuscled powerhouse in the land, and attacked.

Vin

L'ppy and her friends watched in horror as the saurian ripped into Vin, but the proud Seeq refused to back down.  He fought back valiantly, but L'ppy could see that he stood little chance on his own.  She didn't feel like she could do much to help against a 20-foot-tall lizard with teeth as long as her arm, but she couldn't leave her friend to die.  At the very least, she might be able to pull him away with all the speed her long legs could muster.

She approached the terrible lizard, and arrived just in time to see Vin ripped in two by its awful mandibles.  She tried to retreat, but realized her mistake too late, as its powerful tail swept her feet out from under her.  Before she could rise, the beast was upon her, tearing her body apart in one fell bite.  Her friends watched from a safe distance, dismayed but not surprised.  They had warned her against trying to help, and they were right, but it was too late for L'ppy.

My next character was Felbroz the Barbarian, a Moogle from the good country.

Felbroz (Kupo!)

Felbroz was a furious fellow, often given to collapsing into apoplectic rages the moment it seemed things might not go his way.  He was famed among the country people for having stood up to a brutal local lord in defense of his people, but he had a tendency to act without thinking, and it got him into trouble more often than not.  In spite of his pretensions to justice, deep down he believed that the only real measure of someone's character was his strength.  He dreamed of protecting his homeland, but constantly felt the call of destiny pulling him away, as though he were meant for greater things.  Because of this, he had trouble staying in one place for very long, and his migratory lifestyle prevented him from forming many meaningful social bonds or connections.  His own people came to view him as a stranger.

He arrived in Rabanastre filled with determination to find his own way, and soon fell in with L'ppy's earnest companions, now looking for a new friend to journey with them.  Although they found Felbroz's gruff demeanor off-putting, he soon became a treasured member of the team, and they went on several successful quests together.  Felbroz never lost sight of his goal, though, and reached out to more and more Moogles on the way, hoping to finally understand where he'd come from.

On the way back from a dangerous quest, however, the party once again came face to face with a saurian.  Felbroz, who'd heard the tale of Vin and L'ppy, knew better than to attack.  However, coming from a background where communing with nature was considered one of the highest virtues, he believed he might have the gumption to soothe the savage beast.

Felbroz approached the dinosaur calmly, with some trepidation, but a lot of belief in himself.  He had been trained from an early age to calm animals, and the size shouldn't matter to someone of his great personal charm.  When the creature noticed him, it paused, and he began to do an adorable little dance with the intent of befriending it.

The saurian watched quizzically for a few moments.  When the dance finished, it tilted its head, clearly confused.  Felbroz drew himself up to his full height (3 feet, 2 inches), took a deep breath, and started dancing again, with all his heart this time.

The saurian roared, and charged him.  It was over in seconds.  The companions, watching once more, sighed and shook their heads.  It needn't have ended that way.  It's not smart to mess with saurians, no matter your intentions.  Wild animals are unpredictable.

And that's how I lost two characters in very short order.  I regret nothing.  I played truly to myself, and to them.