Last night, my party and I rushed to help my hometown from an invasion from a weird upside-down horseshoe-shaped portal, with a pink-ish light coming from the middle and growing bigger as the battle continued. There were five of us—Nekoluga Darkstorm, tabaxi monk; Big One, furbolg druid; Margay, the gnome ranger and his wild boar Brumble (the newest members of our party), and myself, Allayah, a human monk.

Tonight Margay, Nek, and Brumble died. Brumble shoved me out of the fight as a constrictor snake wrapped Margay to death. Nek gave Big One one of his health potions and then tried to book-it off the battle-field. He was overtaken by goblins and a ghoul.

Allayah’s hometown is dissolving before her eyes. She was dropped off at the temple of Selunê in Moon’s Landfall as a baby. She was raised to be a monk by the odd, but awkwardly lovable Master Kempult. Yebbey, an elderly dark elf, befriended her early on. Allayah spent much of her free time with Yebbey at her apothecary.

Allayah left home for the first time just a few weeks ago (in-game timeline). She’s book smart, not street smart, and she was restless. However, upon meeting Big One and Nek in Ice Break, circumstances brought her back to Moon’s Landfall, where a discovery of a certain illness led them to The Underdark to fight a drow elf and free the gnomes and xorn from slavery. We met Margay and Brumble on the way down there.

Resurfacing just a few days before this battle, we tried to brave The Mystified Forest. We made it out of there alive, but barely. And then today, after Margay and Allayah had recovered, we decided to help defend the city from a sudden attack.

Allayah watched Brumble die, trying to save Margay from the constrictor snake, and Margay met the same fate. She realized the healers of the city were breaking their defenses and Yebbey enters her mind–locked in the basement of her apothecary until someone tells her otherwise. She takes off running toward Moon’s Landfall, for Yebbey. Big One had been fighting across the battlefield and luckily rolled high on her perception roll and sees Allayah booking it toward Moon’s Landfall. They’re heading toward Yebbey’s together. And that’s where we ended last night’s session.

And this is how I know DnD is Story. I have loved stories my entire life—mainly in the form of books, then movies and TV shows, then songs. But more recently, in the form of the role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons, thanks to playing semi-regularly for the past like 4 years now and thanks to Critical Role.

My first character was an elf cleric named Isana. My second character was a elf ranger named Rill. (Both names inspired by Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series.) My favorite character is my 295-year old gnome fighter, Agabus. She has a llama and is every bit the spit-fire you’d expect me to play. There’s really no line where Tracy ends and Agabus begins. It’s gotten to the point where I joke that I only know how to play small creatures. (A goblin and a dwabaxi–a miniature tabaxi–are the next characters in my head.)

But today, as my human monk watched her comrades fall and her hometown be destroyed, I know I love this character too and that DnD is more than just a role-playing game. It brings the same love and excitement, happiness, fear, and worry that a book brings, just in a different form.

Thank you DnD, for showing me that Story exists in many different forms.

Love, Tracy

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Writing Notes:

// 1-25-20: 11:55pm (17 mins). Pink rocking chair. The Hobbit Hole. 493 words. OG draft typed in Notes App.

1-26-20:

// Revision 1: 5 mins. Some word changes, emailed pictures to myself for this post.

// Revision 2: some more editing. added pictures. had Ant double-check it, since he’s the DM. total post words: 656. actual content word count: 650. 30 mins. Writing Desk. “Write” Spotify playlist.