Ara, the Rogue

Hey guys.

I have a little D&D story for you today.

This one is very close to my heart.

Ara is a character that is very close to my heart. She is my alter-ego (that's why she is also my online name).

I have played her a few times, and unfortunately she is a bit of a jinx. I say this because every session that I play her has ended prematurely.

This is the story of my very first D&D session...

Ara is (as you may have figured) a rogue.

She was supposed to be a sleek cat like thief, and that is probably what she saw herself as.

She entered a strange new town, along with a Tiefling name Jewel who had saved her life.

Ara normally traveled alone, so she wasn't really accustom to dealing with a companion, so she just dragged the girl along.

The first thing that Ara did upon arriving in the town was to case the largest house she could find.

She found the house, but her apparent clumsiness got the better of her. She tripped and fell into a topiary at the front entrance making her the laughing stock of the guards posted at the front door.

Thoroughly embarrassed, Ara fled and dragged Jewel on the 'tour' of town.

They headed off to check the town jail. The two women slipped by the sleeping guardsman and headed down to the cells.

Here something was strange. The few prisoners here were mad, off their rocker, dying or simply dead. There was a large unnatural opening in the wall at the end of the cells, and the edges of the hole had animal like claw marks.

Ara and Jewel managed to find one prisoner who was still sane. An Orc named Grell. Ara pumped him for information.

Apparently the Orc hadn't been lock up here for long, but he had noticed that the others here had been getting worse. According to Grell, something came in the night. Something terrifying.

Ara picked the cell lock and released Grell. He had a bad wound over one eye, that could risk him loosing his sight. They slipped past the still sleeping guard and went in search of a healer.

Ara reluctantly paid alms to a cleric of Paylor, a halfling and player character. She healed the Orc's eye.

They went to a bar and met with the rest of the party, a mysterious sorcerer (who I don't believe ever told us his name) and his current topic of interest a Dwelf, a man who was half Dwarf, half elf.

As the other players pushed the Orc, Grell now had an infatuation with Ara. She ignored him for the most part.

We had a lot more general fussing about in town, apparently there was something strange going on. The party was offered rooms at the local temple.

Ara snuck out that night and broke into the mansion that she had seen earlier that day. She stole a couple of statues and some other bits and pieces, before having to bail before the guards noticed.

She managed to get back out and to the town slums, where she shared the gold she had stolen among the poorest people. Only keeping a small portion for herself.

Ara was tired. So she mostly ignored the mornings proceedings. The temple personal explained that there were odd rumors of a creature in the sewers.

There was only one party dumb enough to take this mission. Unfortunately it was ours.

We charged into the sewers. Ara rode on Grell's shoulders, so she didn't get her feet wet.

We fought some small fry, mostly rats.

However my Ara found something interesting on the roof of the cavern. It looked like some odd bits of treasure suspended in a translucent sack. She pulled out her crowbar and tried to detach it.

My DM face palmed, and we were made to roll for initiative. We weren't really supposed to fight this.

It was a Ooze. It almost destroyed our party. We also had a string of natural 1's where a player got trapped in the Ooze, another set our Druid, Jewel's clothes on fire, pretty sure I stabbed myself and our fighter, the Dwelf got his sword frozen. It was a chaotic battle, but we came out on top (somehow).

No one was happy with, but she hardly seemed to care as she rushed to loot the Ooze. She found some coins and a key.

They later found the door, and Ara refused to use the key. Instead she wanted to practice her lock-picking. She set off a trap that stained her hands orange.

That's how my first character became the clumsy, Robin Hood-like weirdo.

She was a woman of few words. I don't think the party actually trusted her, well aside from Grell and maybe Jewel.

I tried to play Ara a couple more times in D&D, with similar results. But, ever since this first campaign she has had a affinity for Orcs.

The first picture on the Purgatorium homepage is actually of Ara and Grell.

I will, perhaps write up a little about Ara's backstory later. However in my next D&D post I will begin the tale of my luck/unlucky bard and his friends.

I'll leave you with some more pictures of Ara.