Intro to the Campaign

Note: this is the intro to the campaign that was originally published elsewhere. I'm including it here because it introduces the characters. For more info on what's going on in general with this site, check out the About page.

When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, much of the prevailing cultural wisdom dictated that "role playing games" were a dangerous activity that opened one up to Satan's influence, if not outright Satanism. If I could give this view a charitable philosophical reading, I imagine it would be something like this: Satan proposed the first counterfactual, therefore imagining oneself counterfactually (e.g., playing a demonstrably false imaginary role) is Satanic by association. Of course, this view, if anyone actually ever held it, is just bonkers, but the hysteria around games like Dungeons & Dragons was certainly frothy enough to keep childhood me well away from its many nefarious devices, such as "20-sided dice" or "spell lists" (Gasp of Puritanical Horror; can be cast as a Ritual; grants self -3 INT for 1 minute).

It is with a certain amount of relish in making up for lost time, therefore, that I have gathered with several friends to embark on an epic high-fantasy adventure in an imaginary world designed by our Dungeon Master ("DM"). Feeling relatively grounded in reality as a not-quite middle-aged person, and with a high degree of confidence that I will not suddenly start wearing cleric's robes to work or attempt to use incantations to alter my environment, I am unconcerned about Satanic influence (not least because we have agreed to leave our phones at the door and will thus, for a few blessed hours, be free of social media).

My alter ego in this adventurous campaign is a hard-bitten battle cleric by the name of Fennin Gilear ("Fenn" to his friends, which you all may now consider yourselves). According to his backstory (most of which must remain clouded in the secret past, for now), Fenn has seen a lot of the world, maybe too much. But in the game, he is a "level 1" character, which means he could lose half his life force if a particularly rancorous chicken looks at him sideways. There's a lot that I don't know about Fenn, and a lot more that I don't know about the world Fenn inhabits. The great thing is that he (via the omniscience of the DM) knows these things, and so I'll get to learn them along the way, and through crafting Fenn's story will (perchance, and devil chickens aside) make some kind of mark in the history of the world.

Fenn will not be alone in his quest. He doesn't know it yet, but I have it on good authority that he'll soon be thrown together with the rest of his adventuring party: Evendur, Rianne, and Orwin. Together they'll receive their first mission, and attempt to work together to survive and to grow. Assuming enough of that surviving and growing happens, one day they may be able to participate in a grander drama on a grander stage, and help advance the cause of scattered humanity in a world of multifarious gods and monsters, whose overwhelming power and underwhelming interest in humanity's existence require the raising up of epic heroes like ours!

Or, we could run into one of these nasty chickens on our first outing and have a total party wipe. Either way, stay tuned to this channel, and I'll share about our epic deeds or misdeeds as the heroes journey on.

(Also, just a note requesting your readerly patience: I'm sure I will be all over the place as a narrator, sometimes describing Fenn in the third person while sometimes talking about the party as a whole in first person plural, because, of course, I am participating in these sessions and narrating them simultaneously from the inside as well as the outside. It's a bit weird, but I trust you'll forgive me.)

Now, for a brief introduction to the world and setting of this campaign, head over to the campaign page itself and give it a read: Champions of the Kydemones