Back in college we had a great Dungeon Master (DM) by the name of Carl. Carl had created a great adventure series for our Table-top D&D group, and was very good at including all options and opportunities brought forth by the players, despite the consequences. My character was a magic-user (or as the kids are calling it these days, a Wizard) by the name of Silence. I liked being a magic-user because I preferred the challenge of using my wits instead of my guts to solve problems we encountered.
One evening, our group of six adventurers decided to eat in the city tavern and ran into a dwarf by the name of Brumph. He was trying to find help for his king and kingdom against a dark enemy force. We listened to his tale and decided we would go and help his king if it were possible. We were all level 5 or 6, so of course we were ready to take on the world!
On our way to the dwarven kingdom, tragedy struck as a band of trolls attacked us one night and killed Brumph. As he was our only guide, we were desperate to do whatever was necessary to bring him back to life. As luck would have it, I had bought a scroll of reincarnation just before the start of this trip, so we decided to use it on Brumph. To our excitement, the scroll worked, and Brumph was reincarnated (per the role of the DM’s dice) as a FEMALE dwarf. She-Brumph was able to guide us to the dwarven kingdom where we were brought before the king.
The king explained the quest he wanted us to perform, and the treasure he would give us in return. We accepted the quest and were about to turn in for the night when the king asked us about his messenger, Brumph. We proudly brought forth She-Brumph and explained Brumph’s death at the hand of trolls and his reincarnation by a spell. The king was furious that we had stolen Brumph’s honor and valiant death in battle against trolls and had instead added insult by bringing their national hero back as a she-dwarf!
We were immediately cast into prison and told we would all be summarily executed the next morning. All our weapons and belongings were confiscated, along with my bag of magic components necessary to cast my spells.
It was at this point that I had to think fast, so I asked the king (through the Dungeon Master) if we could request a special meal since it would be our last. He agreed to any meal as long as it was within reason. I requested a turkey dinner, and a spice called “gum of Arabic” which was in my pouch if they did not have any available. The king agreed and ordered his staff to ensure the dinner was ready for our evening meal.
When the meal arrived, I inspected the cooked turkey and asked the DM if there was any chance that a single feather may have gone un-noticed by the dwarven cooks. He rolled some dice and said “yes, you are able to find one feather tucked under one of the wings”.
We all talked about our imminent deaths which would take place the next morning and tried our best to formulate a plan. Little did my party know I had already formulated my own escape plan for the morning.
Just before dawn we were taken at spear-point to be hanged. The entire kingdom had shown up for the event, and the crowd was thick around us until we approached the scaffolding with the nooses tied above the trap doors. At the point where the crowd was being held back, and some elbow room was available, I told the Dungeon Master that I wanted to caste two spells, one after the other. I further explained that I was counting on the element of surprise from my first spell to cause enough hesitation on the part of our guards to allow me to cast the second spell before they could attack or kill me. He rolled his dice to see if my initiative would allow it, and said I could get away with two spells if they were of short casting duration (thankfully they were). My first spell was ‘invisibility’, and I told the DM that as SOON as I cast the invisibility spell, I would take two steps to the side to avoid the spear thrusts I was sure the guards would be putting the air where my back was just a second ago. My second spell was ‘fly’, and I further told the DM that as soon as I finished casting that spell I would immediately fly straight up 15 feet to be out of range of any hand-held weapons. My fellow party members were hooting and hollering around the gaming table where we sat because of my ingenuity and creativity, but the noise was short lived as the Dungeon Master said “Wait one minute! All your magic spell components were taken from you…how can you cast spells without components!”
I handed him the player’s handbook opened up to the page where he could easily read the details for each spell. The spell components needed for the invisibility spell was one of my own eye-lashes wrapped in gum of Arabic (so kindly supplied by the dwarfen king’s own kitchen staff); and the spell components for the fly spell was a simple feather of any kind, which was found on the turkey before we started eating our last meal the night before.
The Dungeon Master couldn’t help but grin and laugh at the turn of events which even he couldn’t have foretold and definitely didn’t see coming from me. He congratulated me on a huge win so craftily put together in such short order and awarded me an automatic increase in experience points sufficient to take me to my next level (from level 6 to level 7).
Since the spells only lasted so long, I only had a short time to try and rescue the rest of my party who had been taken back to the prison cells. The paladin cut off one of his fingers and asked that I take it to his castle where his own wizard could resurrect him. I did so as that was the only means I had to save anyone else from the party….there simply wasn’t enough time and resources available to rescue anyone else from their plight.
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