Last night’s Dark Sun game was the type of game you live for
as a gamer. It was one that we will never forget. Red Wedding? Meh. We have
Dark Sun. So much happened, so here is a small recap.
BEGIN RECAP
Last night, several traitors appeared in our midst! Our main
enemy, Thaxos Vordon decided to crush the senior leadership of the House of the
Painted Eye and the player characters. Attacks were made on Barok, Zarnian,
Akkadian, and Cael was followed. Sadly, both Trinidas and Copper (our house
leader and our house telepath) were slaughtered by the returning villain Astinicus
and Torin D’ari (Trinidas’ eldest son) was revealed to be at least one of the
traitors. All the players telepathically watched Trinidas and Copper get
killed. Zarnian has no idea if her best friend, Denning, or his wife Talmeza
survived. C’aro D’ari was also killed by his long time on-again-off-again
girlfriend Meribel while he was trying to save her from Vordon’s clutches.
Zarnian held him while he died and he told her of a secret compartment in his
desk.
Zarnian, Akkadian and Zerian went back to the house only to
find it surrounded by 20 armed Vordon soldiers baring the way. After some
verbal sparring, Akkadian opened fire with his bow and the fight was on. After
Zarnian killed seven soldiers in a matter of a few moments, they broke and ran.
She went inside to see what was in the desk while Akkadian and Barok went after
the remaining soldiers. Zerian, Akkadian’s trainee was killed.
Meanwhile, Cael went after Bay but did not find him. Bay had
gone to his arch rival Esticles house. There, Bay’s daughter Kalifa was trying
to save her mother (Bay’s former wife) from the life of prostitution that her
second husband, Esticles had forced her into. This led to a fight where Kalifa
and her mother were slapped around by Esticles. Choosing a non-violent path,
Bay did not attack. He even stopped Kalifa from stabbing Esticles, causing her
to run away. Bay went into the other room to evict the noble who had come to
buy his wife’s sexual services, and then Esticles attacked him from behind,
trying to stab Bay in the back. Bay knocked out Esticles and helped his wife
up, offering her a life in the nunnery where their daughter was staying.
Instead, she went to her room, locked the door against Varius and drank a
poison. Only when he heard her body fall did he break down the door and try to
save her but could not. He then attacked Esticles’ face, permanently maiming
him. Then Cael found him, carrying his wife’s dead body. They returned to the
warehouse.
Back at the warehouse Zarnian discovered she had been
formally adopted and was now a D’ari, making her the only one left besides Mak’ti,
Trinidas’ daughter. Bay attempted to contact Mak’ti but discovered she was
under attack and someone was trying to kill her. Then the game ended.
End Recap
At the end, I actually broke down with tears in my eyes.
This is how much I cared about C’aro and how angry I was that I hadn’t been
able to save him. It was more than that, though. I told Jason a year and a half
ago that I wished I could be a D’ari and I knew I never would be. He listened
and gave me my wish. There were so many emotions I thought I would choke on
them all. I almost did, and almost ruined my eyeliner (which was awesome) but I
fought the tears back.
Though many of the other players had to work early the next
day, no one got up, no one left. There was a hush at the table from the sheer
gravity of it all, and a few thousand yard stares. We lost people we loved.
These are people that are real to us. I ‘see’ these people at least once a week
for 2 ½ years, and they become really damn real. I am going to miss C’aro and
the others will miss their friends.
That is the power of a great game. You care. There are not
NPCs or PCs or any of that BS. These are people and a story that you are
writing as a group. That is a beautiful and powerful thing.
So now Game of Thrones can’t hurt me – I’ve survived my own
gaming ‘Red Wedding’. But the Lannister’s always repay their debts and so does
Zarnian D’ari. It’s time for some payback, but that will have to wait for the
next game. This one was perfect as it stood.
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