notes from the Jack of Diamonds: Hey Everyone, second post. This took longer than I was hoping, some issues came up that caused it to take a while. Good news is I have a new editor. Hope you all enjoy

I’ve heard people say you never forget your first character, this is certainly true for me. While this is not the story of my first character I ever made, but this was my first Dungeons and Dragons character,which is one I’ll never forget.

This story happened during a good friends first dungeons and dragons campaign using the 3.5 edition ruleset. I decided to bring a character from the old horrible fantasy stories, I used to write, as my first character. A character who can be summed up in a simple introduction, often accompanied by a horrible accent somewhere between scottish and irish, yet resembling neither.

When it came to my turn, with a bellow I announced “My name is Maximillious The Mad, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” He was an insane half drow sorcerer, always ready for a prank or a joke and with little to no concept of reality. He wore a set of robes made of two individual robes (cut in half and sewn together in to strange half and half clothes). I could tell a few stories of his life, but my time playing him was short lived. Anyway, the most important part of his life was his death.

You see, Max had lived a long life, longer than most people. So what he truly wished for most was to die, but he wanted more than a simple death. He believed in the idea of a good death. Some have asked me if he was suicidal, technically yes, but Max never thought of it that way. You see, I wasn’t lying when I said he lived a long life. Before the start of the campaign Max had lived centuries longer than the oldest elf. He was an old half-elf until the result of an offhand comment he made to a stranger, wishing for more time to experience everything in life. This stranger happened to be Lokir, the god of madness ( in my DMs world). Lokir granted Max’s “wish” by making him immortal.

In time Max became to believe immortality was a curse. Watching all he loved wither and fade made his heart pain. Growing bored with the world Max started finding ways to die. Being immortal makes it a little hard to die, even though he could die, it was only for a time. Subjecting himself to torment after torment, pain after pain his mind slowly shattered, earning him the title of Mad. He ceased to curse the God who cursed him, instead finding himself becoming one of the mad god’s greatest worshipers( in a way). This lasted for years until finally someone finally freed him from life and allowed him to die.

Couple hundred years had passed when mages interfered with Max’s death sleep. There was a group of mages, from the arcane university. They were using the dead provided by a tomb, as practice for necromancy. They did so under the careful eye of the archmage who told them which bodies where safe to use. Due to a mistake of the archmage Max’s body was added to the list. The archmage, a good ancient red dragon who had known Max in the past, didn’t notice until the spell was cast. Before he could stop them Max rose from the dead in a rage and punched the nearest thing to him, a zombie quietly minding his own business.

Being back from the dead Max realized he could die. With a devilish smile he said to himself, this would be his last time. So he needed his death to be a good one. He had lived a long and eventful life, so he needed a quick and equally eventful death.

So no, I don’t believe he was suicidal. He had lived his life and died naturally, only to have it taken from him.So he didn’t want another full life, but he preferred to go out with a bang. In time, he got the death he deserved.

In this campaign we were attempting to stop the evil high priest, who had become the dreaded “Worm That Walks.” The Worm was attempting to summon an even greater evil, the evil god Xivalli the Soul Eater (which his demon lord generals each based on one of the seven deadly sins). Up until this point we had foiled the Worms plans and we believed we were in the lead.

We were at the palace of the emperor who had tasked us to stop the worm (after an assassination attempt first session). Our party had just found legendary gear that could grow with us in power, which made us feel invincible. We were planning our attack in the emperor’s throne room, when the doors flew open and the Worm That Walks entered. We leapt to action, but at our levels we’re no match for him. He stopped every one of our attacks in their place, despite our legendary artefacts we had just gotten. He had come to gloat and we quickly realized why. As he walked away you can see the earth (in the distance) was torn asunder. His demons and devils swarmed the playing field, as hell’s Seven Sins marched forth from the Abyss.

The emperor had known of his death and knew this was his time, but his son and the party needed to escape as the army of fiends overwhelmed the castle guard. We were told of a secret portal that we could evacuate the castle through. Max knew better, like the emperor he knew it was time. The only thing needed was for someone to hold off the Seven Sins deadly attacks, besides the emperor didn’t deserve to die alone.

The party tried to convince Max to come, but Max wouldn’t budge. The party’s gunslinging Red (a kinder) tried his best to beg Max to run, but he refused. They had become friends over the course of the campaign, but Max knew this was his chance at a good death. As the party evacuated the castle, the emperor and Max stood side by side in front of the throne. The Emperor turn to Max and asked me “are you sure about this?”

Max only smiled and responded with “Mad God bless me, I am.” As the doors broke and the demons flooded in Max stepped forward. In the best (worst) accent I could muster I announced “WAIT… allow me to introduce myself, my name is Maximillious The Mad, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” as he rose into the air! He rose to the top of the throne room before allowing himself to fall. As he fell he cast fireball, throwing the small bead of explosive fire above him so it would fall with him. Falling with arms outstretched he pleaded for someone to watch his death, his sacrifice. “Witness me” he whispered quietly. Then louder “witness me!” and again louder still. Finally before hitting the ground he shouted the words again, hoping the gods themselves would take notice “WITNESS ME!”

One god in particular took notice. Lokir, the Mad God. as Max hit the ground and the fireball exploded, the Mad God blessed his death, granting him martyrdom. The magic of the fireball sundered the artefacts on him, causing them to release magic in an explosion that shook the world. The blast was infused by holy power from the blessing of a god adding more fuel to the flame. The DM compared the force of the blast to that of a nuclear bomb confined to the palace which remained unscathed. All of the fiends where reduced to magical ash hardened into garish statues. The emperor previously destined to die was safely encased in crystal waiting to be saved. The party had safely evacuated the castle through the portal. They arrived on a pirate ship in the elemental plane of water, which belonged to an old friend of the emperor. They mourned the losses as they realized they were no longer holding evil at bay. Evil had come, the Soul Eater walked the world, and they where now a resistance. The parties gun mage crafted a handful of runic bullets each carved with the name of their fallen friend, bullets he later used in the fight with Xivalli, but that is a story for another day

Max wasn’t done yet! As he along a golden path, he came across a beautiful oak table. Upon the table laid a feast fit for a king. On the other side sat the Mad God himself, Lokir. The god sat strangely quiet as Max looked at him and said “been a while. So what’s next, another boring afterlife? Been there done that. Is this all for me? You should nae have!”

Lokir smiled and nodded “enjoy, you’ve earned it. You were always my favorite. For you need not go to the afterlife if you wish not, there are always other options.”

As Max tore through the meal he looked at him with a grin “aye, would nae mind skipping the afterlife and going straight to oblivion.”

“Then enjoy your last night of existence, see you in the morning madman.” replied Lokir.

Come morning Max stood before Lokir. They said their last goodbyes and for the first time, the jovial trickster god shed tears as he unwove the soul of Maximillious The Mad from the weave. From that point on, Max existed solely as a whispered “witness me” in the mind of anyone mad enough to hear. A statue was put up in the mages college in a wing devoted to wild magic, though no one can quite remember who the statue belonged to, only the legend behind it. Finally, Max was at peace.

Max always was my favorite character, but one I promised I would never play Max again after this, less a promise to myself and more to him. I put him through terrible things and due to the amazing DM i got to put him to rest. I will tell his story, but I will never roll another die for him. His sacrifice saved the party and the emperor, allowing them to save the world. Perhaps they could have escaped without the sacrifice, but the blow he struck to the army of the damned crippled the enemy temporarily. In the end, it was a worthy sacrifice and a good death.

Thank you all for witnessing the Martyrdom of Maximillious The Mad.

I want to dedicate this story to the DM of this campaign David Markoto, you allowed me to give Max an end I never could before. I also want to thank My new editor Jamey Johnson (Red is his character), thank you for helping me with this story. If this story is a little better written than my last one it’s because of him.

For anyone reading please consider telling your friends if you enjoyed the story, the more people that check out the blog, the more stories I can tell. And consider leaving a comment, I love hearing other people’s stories. Tell me about either your first character or the favorite character you have played. And with that, i”m the Jack of Diamonds, thank you all for your time.

