Never Underestimate the Power of Ernie Keebler - Part 2

Last week, you tuned in to hear Vanir tell The Adventures of Batloaf and Lovin' on the Back of the Tarrasque. While none of us were terribly surprised, handling this kind of departure from the norm can be a challenge as another PC at the table.

Take It In Stride

The toughest part of being the "Other PC" at the table is watching the action unfold without you. The good part about this is that nothing really important happens to the plot development. Now, the character in the spotlight will argue this last point because s/he thinks that whatever is happening is critical to the story. Just smile. It'll be over soon.

Have Faith in Your DM

Remember, you're all in this together, and your DM knows that. Have faith that while s/he may allow some crazy spotlight stealing, s/he will also bring things back to the group so that everyone has a good time. Of course, if you feel like it's happening too often, talk to your DM; this game should be fun for everyone.

Plot Your Revenge...

Uh, I mean, plot your own spotlighting. Just because Batloaf took over the story for this week doesn't mean that Ari can't take over that spotlight for her own story. Just keep in mind a few recommendations for making your story experience enjoyable for everyone:

1. Plan ahead - decide what you want to accomplish with your character and what kind of story you want to tell


2. Talk it Over - discuss your thoughts with the DM about what you want to achieve story-wise with your character. If you spring that kind of surprise on the DM, s/he might not make the experience as exciting for you.


3. Don't Go Overboard - remember that other people have stories to tell too. Don't take up all the time with your own story.

Never Underestimate The Power of Ernie Keebler

When we play D&D, I really love it when I get a chance to step outside the box. I love it more when I can do it in character. And I really love it when I can do it without derailing the plot that our intrepid DMs have set before us.

(Not that it usually stops me.)

Class Is Now In Session

In our group's current campaign, we now possess, through a series of strange events, a magical item that allows us to control the legendary Tarrasque. We weren't exactly sure what we were supposed to do with it, just that we needed it to combat the forces of a dark goddess who was angry at us. So we were riding it back home so it could eat a couple armies.

As it happened, I had been hitting the E.L. Fudge cookies pretty hard before we started playing Saturday night and I was very thoroughly sugared up. I had reached a state of being Dante refers to as "Professor Vanir", in which insanity starts to pour out of my mouth but I speak with confidence about it as if I was a college professor teaching a class. (I am told he imagines a graham cracker mortarboard on my head when I am like this, but that sounds like the ravings of a madman to me.)

The Inevitable Conclusion of Rock

In the throes of my delicious chocolaty berserkergang on Saturday night, I was possessed by the urge to roleplay. And by "roleplay", I mean "let Bat Loaf's freak flag fly". For those who don't know, Bat Loaf is my rock-and-roll bard. He has settled down (after a fashion), and gotten himself married. He and his wife are both epic-level rock bards, totally metal and totally in love. We had a legendary monster at our disposal with only moderate risk of being torn apart and eaten. We had been afforded the opportunity to do things you never get to do in the span of a normal character's lifetime.

Thusly, the only logical conclusion for me to arrive at was to do the single most metal thing that has ever been done: conceive their first child on top of the Tarrasque.

You Want To Do What?

When I announced my intentions to the group, Dante got that glassy-eyed stare that he gets when he simultaneously thinks something is intensely funny and still wants to kill me. Several players (and my wife) simply put their head in their hands and sighed. But we were escorting the Tarrasque for hundreds of miles at a movement rate of 30 and it was literally swallowing every random encounter we had whole, so it's not like we had much better to do.

Initially, I did not know how I was going to get Bat's wife to our location, and I suggested to Dante that he and his wife had a thing that's called "radar love". I also submitted to him the fact that they had both "a wave in the air" and "a line in the sky", and thusly she would know he needed him and would travel to him as quickly as possible. Incredibly, these arguments fell on deaf ears, and I was forced to come up with a more realistic alternative. (Like magic!)

Eventually, I asked the wizard of the party to use Limited Wish to teleport Bat Loaf's wife to our location, and so they took care of the very serious matter at hand for the next 48 hours as we moved. The rest of the party assumed positions and cast the appropriate spells such that they would not be exposed to any adverse sights, sounds, or fluids, and thusly attempted to pretend all of this never happened. Many steps were taken to assure that the union would bear metal fruit, not the least of which was the use of the spines on the tarrasque's back as a Liberator sex wedge to elevate his wife's pelvis. Our paladin also cast Divine Favor to increase our chances of success and realized he should devote part of his life's work to encouraging people to have babies. At the time of this writing, we do not yet know if the Bardic Torpedoes successfully entered the appropriate exhaust port or whether they just impacted on the surface. However, the attempt was pretty goddamned metal, and thusly worth it regardless of the results.

Our paladin, however, was moved to perform rituals of atonement because of the "wicked thoughts" he was having about how one might mate a human and a Tarrasque -- and consequently that got us all thinking about one might harvest a Tarrasque's genetic material. That conversation will haunt all of our dreams forevermore.

Making The Most of a Unique Situation

Having a psychic link to the Tarrasque making him your ally (sort of) affords you some interesting opportunities you might not normally have. One is to cast Haste on the Tarrasque. I wanted to do this for two reasons. One was to make him eat our enemies faster. The other far more important reason was so that I could imagine the Benny Hill theme song playing as he did so. There was some debate as to whether the Tarrasque was intelligent enough to understand that we were allies and thusly could drop his spell resistance, but in the end I have to think that Dante let it happen because it was just too funny not to.

Somehow, the baddies managed to make the Tarrasque fall over and roll on its back. Which was good for us, since we weren't underneath it like about 500 of the bad guys were. Seeing this inspired me to use the psychic link via Bat Loaf remembering the last time he had the bedspins from too much ale, causing our gigantic monstrous legendary indentured servant to lose his balance and do a barrel roll on command. Gotta be careful with that one.

Just Smile and Nod

You may be wondering if there is a point to all of this. Not really! I just wanted to share some of the delightful retardation we had last weekend. D&D is what you make it . Even if you never get anything done, as long as everybody has fun you did it right. I'm pretty sure everybody had fun (after the initial shock), and somehow we actually DID stay on track for what Dante had in mind to happen during the adventure despite the box lying broken and burned by the side of the road, never to be stepped inside ever again.

And if Bat's wife is pregnant, they're naming it "Tarrasque Loaf". Here's hoping!