Chapter 1

I have never really given Goblins much thought over the years. They were not very powerful creatures, typically low in hit points, and generally more of an annoyance than anything else.

DMs used them to fill in the gaps between the larger, more dangerous foes that adventurers would run across. But I gained a huge amount of respect for them during The Gathering of 2012.

Though the excitement had been building for weeks, it bubbled over on the Friday morning of the weekend of “The Gathering” as we called it. Once a year a group of my friends would get together and rent a house for a long weekend of Dungeons & Dragons, the fantasy, role-playing game.

We’d been doing it for half a dozen years, and this year looked like it was going to be a winner. We’d located an old house in the wilds of upstate Maine, far away from civilization, one that had been on the market for quite some time with no takers. We got it for a steal, and everyone was looking forward to the reunion.

You’re probably not that familiar with D&D, so here’s a quick overview. A group of people gathers around a table with some special dice, character information, and their imaginations. There’s a group leader called the Dungeon Master, or DM for short, and his job is to create the adventure for the group.

He comes up with a setting, describes it to everyone, and then the players, or adventurers, as we’re called, describe what we’d do. So, we might get sent off on a quest to find some lost soul or to clear some monsters from an underground lair. The DM plays the part of the characters we meet up with, and takes the part of the monsters.

When we have combat, or look for treasure, or try and climb a building, we roll dice, and depending upon our rolls, we succeed, or fail. Each of us has a different persona or character.

Jamie, my girlfriend and life partner, played the part of a wizard. She could cast devastating spells against bad creatures that we’d run across. Guy was a barbarian, a very strong fighter, and his girlfriend Raina was a rogue, whose specialty was carrying out sneak attacks, and finding traps.

Sheila was a hybrid, a fighter, and a druid, and her specialties included working with nature and animals, and long-range weapons (bow and arrows). Ash was a new player this year, a younger gal, and a friend of Sheila. I didn’t know much about her or her character.

Jake, Sheila’s boyfriend, was the DM. And me? I was our cleric, so I was a divine spellcaster, a decent fighter, and our healer.