I just realized that while my daughter Julie and I have been playing D&D for the last year, I haven't written up anything that's been happening to her for almost a year now. This is not good as I have to keep track of the story in order to ensure continuity for Julie. And just for the fun of it, I have been posting the write ups here on my blog with my comments on the story so far. The previous entries are here:
Dungeons and Dragons: Ethnic Cleansing 101 or Thought Experiments in Living?
The Ruby and the Ghost entry was the last one chronicling her story, so what happened after that? What follows I have pieced together from my scattered notes:
The next day, Ruby rides her horse Cloud to the village of Cottle where Mile’s home is. On the way, Mile’s son Jerrick and his friends race past her on horseback and Ruby has to calm her horse from panicking. She then arrives at the home and is greeted by the servants who bring her in to see Mile’s wife and mother. Helain, Mile’s wife, reads the letter and finally she and Mile’s mother learn of his fate. Jerrick returns and is at first angry at Ruby for upsetting his mother and grandmother, but then he learns that the letter is from his late father. who had written it as a goodby letter to his family as he lay dying of pneumonia while being held for ransom by pirates.
Then they call for a priest of Rao, the god of peace, reason, and serenity who was Mile’s patron deity (as is true of many in the country of Veluna). The priest performs a memorial service, and then at the end the ghost of Mile’s appears (he had been following Ruby back from the pirate's den as his spirit was linked to the last letter he had written) to them all to tell them that he loves them and to say goodbye. But he also warns Jerrick not to seek vengeance as the pirates did not intend that he should get sick and die. Mile’s then fades into a heavenly light.
Jerrick, however, is too angry and swears vengeance on the pirate’s anyway. In the early morning he puts on his armor and weapons and rides to Quiet Cove. When Helaine awakens the next morning she finds him gone and guesses that he has gone to fight the pirate’s against his father’s wishes. She begs Ruby to bring him back, so Ruby swiftly rides to Quiet Cove. She catches up with Jerrick just outside the pirate village and tries to talk him into obeying his father and returning home. But Jerrick refuses and asks Ruby to help. Ruby tells him that she will go and scout around in the village. It is now late morning.
Ruby sneaks around the village but unfortunately is spotted, and she tries to run away out of the village but about a half dozen pirates are right behind her. Jerrick rides them down and manages to hit one as he passes them. This gives Ruby enough time to turn around and use the Burning Hands spell, which sends a sheet of flame out from her hands which turns all but two of them into crispy critters. One jumps away in time but gets too close to Jerrick’s horse and is struck down. Another jumped away from the flames and tried to run back and sound the alarm but Jerrick rode him down as well. Then Captain Cadwyn and dozens of pirates come charging up the street firing crossbows. Jerrick is hit and forced to recognize that this battle is too much for him. To stop the pirates Ruby uses her web spell to trap them all between the cottages. Captain Cadwyn recognizes her as the elven wizard who burned his ships and was probably the one who stole his treasure. Now, stuck in the web as Ruby and Jerrick ride back to Cottle he swears to someday have his revenge.
The way I remember it, Jerrick swore that he would not go after the pirates anymore. Ruby returned to the White Goose and the rest of the voyage to the elven city of Highfolk was fairly uneventful.
And that's was the end of Ruby's adventure with the pirates and the ghost. I should note here that while Ruby did kill three of the pirates in a rather harsh way, the majority of them were nonviolently captured (temporarily) in a web. I almost always congratulate Julie whenever she is able to accomplish something in the game as Ruby without having to kill or hurt anyone.
The way D&D was originally set up, it could basically be played like a video game - just wander around vanquishing everything in site. This makes sense as it was originally a spin-off of a tabletop tactical war game. However, D&D, esp. the new 3.5 version, also provides many alternative and nonviolent solutions to problems. Wizards, esp. it seems have the means to overcome their foes without always having to kill them.