The Day Whimpy killed me.

Here Tim talks about Whimpy his lucky d20.

Among the three of us (Tim, Dwayne, and myself) Dwayne DMs the least. But when Dwayne does he uses a particular dungeon as his end game. I believe it is X5 Temple of Death. He knows this dungeons like the back of his hand and has perfected running it to a fine art. He is always fair, however but no character has survived it. It also been modified from the failed expeditions so you couldn't gain an advantage from reading the module on your own.

One season Tim and I were tired of DMing and decided to run in Dwayne's campaign. I played a mage name Thil the Cowled, and Tim played Slice Handler. We used AD&D with Unearthed Arcana. Tim angle was dagger specialization. And boy he could throw them. Combined with Wimpy he was a terror to all those he met.

Thil was my first AD&D Wizard in 6 years. It was a struggle at first, it was with character that I lost it with su-monsters one time (Tim can tell that story). But eventually I found my footing as the higher level I got. Eventually we started getting clues about this certain temple.

Now I have never experienced Dwayne's Temple of Death. But Tim picked up on the fact that where we were heading. I don't remember too much about how we got there. Only that it involved some undead rowing a boat. We had to trick them to row us out to the temple. Midway it seemed like they were about to turn on us when Slice (Time) picked up a skull from the bottom of the boat, and stuck his hand in it. He worked the jaw, while saying "Row the Boat!". After we finished laughing we picked up ourselves off the floor and Dwayne ruled that we made onto the island.

The temple was very hard. Tim and I had to use every bit of our character's abilities and our wits to get through. In the end we TRIMUPHED! The first people to have beaten Dwayne's Temple of Death. We were exhausted and just about everything we had was expended. In the room we found ourselves had an altar. On the altar was a severed hand, and an eye floating in a bowl of water.

Well it was obvious what they were. I was playing Thil as a neutral magic-user who was looking to be known as a great Archmage. I didn't have any grand plans other than just getting to high levels. But here was the Hand and Eye of Vecna! So Thil gave into the temptation. Thil picked up a sword. Tim saw this and immediately went "Oh no" and started readying Slice. Thil loped off his hand and stuck the hand of Vecna on after making a save to remain standing.

Understand that Tim played Slice Handler pretty well and that the situations that he escaped because of his dagger specialization and Whimpy was amazing. I was pretty sure that my moment of weakness would cause me my life. But I forgot that that Whimpy can't make a save worth a damn. So when Thile attacked Slice Handler, he just tore him into.

Since Thile's best spells were already expended, all Thil had was damage spells and what the hand gave. Thil tore up Slice pretty good. Finally it came down to the final round. Slice was out of daggers, as well as being down his last hit point. Thil had more spells to fire.

Initiative was rolled and Slice won. Tim sighed and then looks at his character sheet. All of the sudden he gets excited and points at a line and asks Dwayne "I still have this earring, right!". Dwayne nods yes. Tim goes on "I rip the earring from my ear and throw it at Thil." It turned into a full sized Dagger. Tim rolls Whimpy and rolls natural 20. Which in our game mean a critical hit. Tim rolls the critical and does triple damage or something like that. But the result was enough damage to take me down. What I could I do? Slice managed to take down Thil.

The aftermath was anticlimactic, Slice severed the Hand of Vecna and cast it away. He staggered out to a well deserved retirement being the only character to ever survive Dwayne's Temple of Death.

That was the day Whimpy killed me.