Friday: Rupert and True Dungeon Part 1.

"I can go to seminars and bet on the ponies."

The Gen Con gods were smiling when they scheduled the Killer Breakfast for 9:00 instead of 8:00 a.m. the next morning, so I managed to be up, dressed, and over at the Hyatt ballroom only twenty minutes late to meet Jeff and Todd for the event. When I got there, the killing had already begun. Tracy and Laura were hilarious as always, with the highlight of the event being the t-shirt giveaways and the death and repeated resurrection of a man in Connor Macleod of the Clan Mcleod costume.

Tracy: "An enormous dragon is coming at you...what do you do?"
1st level female PC: "I perform an interpretive dance to try to distract it."
Tracy: "The dragon has never seen interpretive dance, and is mesmerized..."

Two hours later, after the bodies had been carted away, the three of us split up to shop or attend seminars. Todd headed off for his annual dose of crunchy wickedness at the Chaosium seminar, and I opted for Starbucks (my second caramel mocha of the weekend, and nowhere near my last) and the oh-so-popular lemon pound cake on my way to search for the Secrets of the Forgotten Realms seminar at the Embassy Suites. With good directions from a Gen Con volunteer and the help of Urban Ranger Tim, I found it easily. This seminar also marked the first of several failed attempts to hook up with author Ed Gentry and his company...more on that later. As for secrets, most of them will already be known to fans, but I did find it interesting (and so did the crowd) that we're going to be seeing more FR adventures in the future.

A quick cel phone call to Tim after the seminar confirmed that we were all starving, so I met up with him, Todd, and the newly arrived Joe and Jake (completing..almost..our True Dungeon master assault team out to save or doom the world of Greyhawk) for lunch at Champs in the mall. If you love a good cheeseburger and waffle fries, this is the spot.

The pattern of seminar-Friday continued with Jeff attending a mapping seminar and then meeting me for a trip through the art show in the afternoon. I also got to say hi to Rick from Cloud Kingdom Games. I'd missed him on Thursday but managed to pick up a Riddlemaster ribbon out of the deal. I also picked up my copy of City of Splendors from the book publishing end of the Wizards church and had it signed by one of the two authors. I managed to get an Elminster D&D miniature out of that deal.

Unlike the previous day, at 6:00 p.m. we met in the box in high seriousnss (for us translating to about an eighth the seriousness level of the average person) to sort our treasure tokens and prepare for our 7:34 True Dungeon Assault on Castle Greyhawk. Jeff had his army belt with its assorted pouches in true militant wizard fashion, and the rest of us were stuffing tokens into every pocket we could find--cargo pants being very popular this year. In keeping with our roles of last year, we had an almost complete party: Jeff = Wizard; Todd = Cleric; Me = Bard, Tim = Ranger, Joe = Rogue, and Jake = Paladin. Our Fighter, we learned at registration, was to be Rupert, a Mechwarrior player who'd won his trip to Gen Con in a tournament and had come all the way from Australia to help us save (or doom) Greyhawk. Nice of him. =)

I'll skip the intense self-congratulations and bragging of last year, but let's just say that after the event, Greyhawk was still standing, and every single member of our team walked out of the Dungeon alive and well with a survivor badge. It was a tough, tough dungeon though, and we still had our second, hardcore run, Battle Beneath Castle Greyhawk, the following night. More on that later...

In the tavern, we had a round of celebratory beers and discussed the dungeon, and Rupert agreed to return the following night to join us in our second mission. After that it was off to The RAM for a late dinner and more celebrating. We introduced Jake to Cthulu calamari (the only time the Great Old One lets you eat first) and soaked up the gaming atmosphere. On the way back to the room, Jeff and I stopped in the miniature-gaming room to see what was going on late at night, then returned to the box for another big crash before Saturday.

Go to Saturday