Friday, January 15, 2010
No Saving Throw
Last night with all my packing and prep for Arisia completed I headed down to the bar for well deserved break. Shortly after I arrived there I was informed by one of the bartenders that a fellow regular and friend of mine had died early that morning. This was not the first time my friend had been hospitalized and being a private person he had let little word out onto the street as to the gravity of his condition. It was the kind of news you hoped not to receive yet knew in the back of your mind was always at least a remote possibility. That said it was still a shock.
Nigel was the most ardent D&D player I have ever known participating in as many at five active campaigns at any given time. He was the other, and funny to say bigger, RPG geek at our local bar. It was often that he would excitedly regale me and sometimes Blanche with his characters’ latest adventures especially the beguiler – a class that did not exist in the older editions of the game with which I was familiar. I enjoyed the stories nonetheless. For years I had been trying to convince him to attend Arisia. “These are your people”, I told him. “Maybe next year,” he’d say. I guess we just ran out of years.
I will miss his rich laugh, his broad smile and his boyishly exited recounting of tabletop triumphs and near disasters. We were not the closest of friends, that was always difficult with him, but the shared years of laughter and stories and outright geeking had certainly bonded us far beyond mere acquaintance.
In the end like all his imagined alter egos Nigel faced death bravely. I don’t know where he is now, but wherever it is I hope that he is finding all the adventure, excitement and glory that he had to imagine here in this world… and I hope he’s still slaying dragons.
Nigel was the most ardent D&D player I have ever known participating in as many at five active campaigns at any given time. He was the other, and funny to say bigger, RPG geek at our local bar. It was often that he would excitedly regale me and sometimes Blanche with his characters’ latest adventures especially the beguiler – a class that did not exist in the older editions of the game with which I was familiar. I enjoyed the stories nonetheless. For years I had been trying to convince him to attend Arisia. “These are your people”, I told him. “Maybe next year,” he’d say. I guess we just ran out of years.
I will miss his rich laugh, his broad smile and his boyishly exited recounting of tabletop triumphs and near disasters. We were not the closest of friends, that was always difficult with him, but the shared years of laughter and stories and outright geeking had certainly bonded us far beyond mere acquaintance.
In the end like all his imagined alter egos Nigel faced death bravely. I don’t know where he is now, but wherever it is I hope that he is finding all the adventure, excitement and glory that he had to imagine here in this world… and I hope he’s still slaying dragons.
