30 Day Challenge – Day 8 So Many Voices Echoing

Despite the name of the post I have almost always been behind the Dungeon Master’s screen and have rarely ever stepped away from it to roll some dice. Others may be able to recount limitless alter-egos, knights and wizards, heroes and superheroes … I, however, have very few to account for in both my mind and at the gaming table.

So, I shall speak of Ghim, Dawrven Fighter/Cleric of Moradin. A blacksmith, turned exile, turned slave, turned gladiator, turned hero. Ghim who fought the Red Dragon How’not and walked away wearing the dragon’s scales as armor. Ghim who in his dying breathes was saved by Moradin and tasked with find the Hammer of the All-Father. 

My youngest brother, Tony, at the age of 13 wanted to run a game. For the longest time, I had been the sole DM behind the screen, but Tony wanted to give it a try so I bowed out for six months and moved across the screen for the first time since I bought that box-set in ’99. At the time we were using the 3.5 edition of the rules, and the players consisted of “The Brothers Four” as we came to call ourselves (Me (26) and my three younger brothers of 17,15 and 13 at the time). The Monk, the Rogue, and the Fighter (who later multi-classed to Cleric) started as slaves to a Wizard king and soon found ourselves forced to fight in his slave arena. 

During this time, Ghim took a back seat as a character. He was silent, brooding and very anti-social. The tattoos on his face marked him an exile of his clan and the other slaves knew it. While Ghim brooded and fought another slave, a half-orc Monk named Monc (my brother was not all that imaginative) was working with the broken men and women of the arena, using his martial knowledge and outlook on life to heal them of their mental wounds. Ghim joined these sessions after awhile, learning to fight with more than just his weapon, but with his mind and body as well.  These two struck up a close friendship, despite the normal barriers that existed between Ghim and Monc’s people.

Both Ghim and Monc gained fame in the arenas of the Wizard-King and soon people were cheering them at every match. The Wizard-King (we never did learn his name now that I think about it) attempted to have them killed, but this backfired as the guards who tried to kill the two were stupid enough keep the gladiator warrens key on them. This lead to a mass “prison-break” and eventually lead to Ghim, Monc and a female wood-elf thief named Ailahd joining a resistance to topple the Wizard-King.

Ghim was my longest played character and I would have continued with him if not for my job at the time changing my hours. Ghim was killed but his devotion to Moradin lead the God to resurrect the dwarf (as an NPC) who was tasked with a Quest to locate and return to the God his forge-hammer.