Monster Manual

For the Misfidiots and our wonderful DM. 

The group I play with is more like family than anything else. We all have lives and work to be doing, but once a week, we get the chance to spend several hours together, solving mysteries and fighting the bad guys. Once a week we get to be whoever we want and roll the dice to save whoever it is that needs saving this time. And then after the game, we get drinks on main street and talk as ourselves.

We're close. They're my best friends. That is why, I'm not particularly happy that our faithful Dungeon Master decided to bring a new member to the table without so much as telling us about it first.

"He's cool," Al says as he explains the sudden appearance of his old friend from high school. "And he doesn't have a group, so I thought..."

"Say no more," Katie, who plays our barbarian, Olga, says. "The more the merrier."

She's always happy to make a new friend, but I'm not excited to see the group change. I had gotten used to the group as it was. We're level 6 now and whoever this new guy is, he's going to have to catch up to us. I don't say anything, though. I have to at least give the guy a chance.

That is about the time he walks in. He's a lanky looking guy with a thinning tuft of dark hair on his head. There's stubble on his chin, but I get the feeling he couldn't grow a beard if he tried. He smiles as he enters and Al gives him a wave over to the table. As he starts to set his stuff down and retrieve his hefty bag of dice, Al starts to introduce him.

"This is my friend from high school," he says. This strikes me as odd, because Al had already told us that his friend was joining. He doesn't give a name or any indication that he actually knows the man who just walked into his kitchen. It's just his friend from high school.

"Darceville," the man says as he takes his seat next to me. He offers me a hand and I shake it.

"Alex," I say. His name as strange as he is, and I'm about the make note of it, when Al begins his prologue.

"Lysander Grimm, Cordelia Lavender, and Olga the Great, you have all been invited to the King's ball as a reward for your last adventure in Neverwinter," he says. "Uh, you find Darceville Nightwalker in the tavern this morning. If you'll describe your character."

Al obviously isn't prepared for the new member of the party and starts shuffling through his notes as Darceville describes a dark elf warlock with purple skin and sharp pointy ears. I realize as he says all this, that Darceville isn't his name, but the character he's playing, and he still hasn't given me his real name.

The group introduces themselves as their characters and I introduce my wizard, Lysander. I think it odd that he chose to be another spellcaster, but I don't say anything to that either. A ranger or a rogue would have been more helpful in the coming arc of the campaign. Al had let us know that there would be a lot of politics and sneaking about in this next bit.

As we start to play, I ignore the deep anxiety growing in my stomach. I don't like new people and 'Darceville' is a sudden and unexpected surprise. I try not to think about how drinks will go afterward with him, given that I still don't know his name. But we play on anyway, and get to the King's ball, avoiding the assassins Al placed along the route.

The ball would have gone well and we would have gained a good reputation and some jobs from local nobility if it wasn't for the lute player dropping dead before dinner. It's a murder mystery, my favorite of Al's signature campaign styles. I immediately search the body and find our first clues.