The passing of the torch

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My son Joaquin had just moved back to the UIW dorms a week back but he came back last Thursday night to do some laundry, eat dinner, update his new XBOX S1(?) and just catch up with Liz and I on his first week of school. After hooking up his XBox S1 to our TV and Wifi to update it, he began to tell us of his school week and classes. Then he told me, “Oh and we’re gonna start our D&D game tomorrow night at John’s place.”

Wait Wut?! Did he say, Dungeons and Dragons?

He and his buddies wanted to start playing the official D&D role playing game (sans the computer) – old school.

He meant me…

See most of you know how nerdy I was back then and I have fond memories of spending countless hours with my buddies playing this incredible role playing game. We’d gather on a Saturday afternoon, in a back room, lay out the books, figurines (they had to be painted to be used) graph paper and dice. We’d crank up the battle music (Conan Soundtrack, Carmina Burana, O Fortuna) and any other music that suited our needs. Hours would fly by until we noticed it was morning. We were exhausted from battle…ur…role playing.

I loved those days. 

So then he asks if I still had my dice. “hmmm, lemme check” I said as I scratched my goatee THEN bolted to the garage and found them (along with my figurines) in a box I stored. Liz just smiled and shook her head as I placed both boxes on the table. It was as if I had found a chest full of gold as I feverishly began to dig thought the box. I don’t know how much time elapsed before I noticed the look on everyone’s faces as they watched me dig with both hands. I wiped the stupid grin from my face and then proudly showed (presented) my dice to my son.

But I was missing the most crucial of all dice – the 20 sided one! I couldn’t find it anywhere! But then Joaquin smiled and showed me something amazing. He went to his room and brought out some old D&D packets I had gotten him when  he was about 11 years old? He’s going on 21. Inside the packet was a 20 sided die. And no, that’s not a typo – “The singular of dice—a plural noun referring to the small cubes used in games of chance—is die. Because the irregular plural is more common than the singular, many writers forget to use the singular at all.” Look it up

“Dad, I remember you bought me this along time ago when you wanted to get me into D&D.”

I almost lost it…but I kept it together. 

He placed the 20 sided die into his little bag but then I told him, “Wait, take the character figurine I used, my hafling thief, his name is Thumbs. Maybe he’ll bring you luck.”

He gave me that toothy grin of his and we walked him out.

Here’s hoping the spirt of Thumbs (hafling thief), Nagul (human berserker warrior), Derek (the Knight) and Aldamir (our Magican) brings you luck Mijo.

Beto

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