I printed my character sheets and background, packed up my new miniature and dice, and headed in to the small huddle room that we reserved on the 2nd floor of the building I work in.
There were already 4 people in the party (not including the DM) and they were neck deep in dungeon crawling. They were in the middle of a Duergar citadel, had just rescued....some important female figure, and had an illithid tagging along for....god knows why. This doesn't make for the easiest of introductions. I did everything I could to keep from shaking nervously in anticipation, wondering where the DM would take things.
Everyone was weak from a recent battle, and were recovering from a short rest. Duergar patrols could be heard overhead, and the party was trying to recover some gear for the prisoner they recently released. A short battle broke out with some guards, and as one ran away to get backup he was promptly incinerated by the group's wizard who took to the air on a magic carpet and eradicated the dark dwarf's torso with an incredibly powerful chromatic orb.
The party got slightly broken up as the prisoner started sneaking around guards to try to find the room with her heirloom gear in it. As she faded from sight in the heat of battle, the druid and monk both took poison bolts to the chest why trying to navigate a room defended by a sorcerer whose ritual had just been interrupted.
A great clamor could be heard down the hall as another battle broke out. The prisoner ran into an armory with two more guards in it, and as the group's other wizard, a Tiefling, ran to investigate. The illithid sat back and watched, seemingly uninterested in the group's distress, while behind the slave, a statue in the armory began to glow. With an explosive shattering of mortar and stone, the statue ruptured, showering the slave and the two guards with dust and rock. Where the statue once stood, a glowing construct appeared.
The rest of the group, dispatching the lone sorcerer and barely dodging the poison traps on their exit, rushed to join the fray, and to investigate the explosive sound down the hall. My character stood there, taken aback at being gated to another plane in a place in the midst of battle, and tried to assess his surroundings. Noting the dwarven marks on the wall, he noted that the dark dwarves here were under attack and chose to side with them, lunging for the slave with his sword drawn. However, the effects of a hasty and ill-practiced gate spell performed by the ruffians of his own plane was not without its own myriad of side effects, as I effectively rolled a 1 on my investigate checks to identify the good guys, as well as a 1 to hit the slave. Blinded by the magical mist and muddled mind of being thrust through the gate directly into the center of the statue, I missed my attack and injured myself trying to stumble and navigate the course of the room.
A vine whip snagged one of the dark dwarves and pulled him back to the druid, who had just entered the room from the other side. I stumbled again as I targeted the dwarf, now not caring who I had to kill to leave the room and escape with my life. I missed again, stumbling and shouting at how I just wanted to leave this place.
The druid took notice. Dispatching the guard with his staff, he stepped out of the door and let me though. His knowledge of history proved that I had no markings of dwarven runes and looked nothing like any kind of golem he had encountered before. Noticing that I was disoriented and confused, he let me past as the battle raged in the armory.
The Tiefling was not as wary, and took a more direct approach to the situation, casting a powerful magical sleeping spell on my character to hold him in place while the scuffle in the armory came to a close. Worried that more guards may come to investigate, the party circled around to investigate the strange construct that stood before them...
I didn't get quite as much playing in as I'd like since I had to wait to be found, and my introduction was rough with terrible dice rolls, but I did the best I could to go with it and play it off as best I could. It was still great getting to see a competent DM work his magic, and all in all it was a blast!
I had plenty of fun getting to know my new compatriots. I'm eager to play again soon!
