Saturday Night Imaginative Society
I've often been told that Imagination is power. Since I was a little child I have been carefully and wonderfully guided to widen my perspectives. I was encouraged to play pretend and make believe for as long as I can remember and that, I believe, is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. So when I moved away to Michigan I relied on it very heavily. While up there I was encouraged by friends to play games with them.
I can still see it clearly in my head as I hung around with my group one night. Half of us were waiting around and then all of the sudden we hear the other half of our group call out to us. Lewis dropped what he was doing with a paint brush and I straitened my robes. Flo jumped up from his seat and called out, "Holy Shit! It's the Lich!"
Then, as we ran out to our compatriots we realized the situation. We were Balls Deep in Zombies; and not just any zombies, specifically controlled zombies. At least they couldn’t think for themselves otherwise we would have been dead in an instant. Though the person controlling them wasn’t the best to have attacking you.
I was honestly terrified. It was the first lich sorcerer that I had ever come into contact with. His flesh hung rotting from the skeletal remains of his humanly form. He wore the robes of a cleric that he had been before his fall from grace and into the bowels of hell that you could see burning from the dark pits that were his eyes. He looked repulsive and disgusting.
The zombies slowly advanced on us as we pulled our weapons. I felt the familiar grip of the tonfa I had been trained with in my hand. I could feel the fear radiate from me in waves and held my weapons as tightly as I could to keep my hands from trembling. I was going to die here. I knew it. There were no possibilities of me getting out. I was the most inexperienced person in our group. I looked around, glancing at everyone momentarily. Lewis held his weapon excellently; there was no evidence of fear on his face. Flo was ready; a small grin touched the side of his mouth like he had just received the best present in the world. Patton, our cleric, was setting up behind all of us, ready for when anyone needed to be healed. Everyone seemed ready. I was the only one trembling. I was the only one that felt like their heart was about ready to burst through their chest. Then we charged into the battle.
My tonfa were twirling cyclones of death, their polished wooden handles the only familiar thing in this scene that I could grasp and hold onto. I remembered my training and stuck to it. Hitting heads instead of chests, and knocking the putrid flesh about me down was the only thing that I could conceivably do. I bludgeoned my way into the middle of the fray and stuck my back against one of my party members. The solid muscle that was our paladin made everything seem better as I felt him hack and slash his way through the zombie hoard to the powerful evil thing that lurked at the end of this gauntlet.
Then suddenly things felt funny. I was all tingly. I felt it more then saw when my feet began to change. I felt the bones stretch and extend. I felt the fur sprout from my skin and run the length of my body. I could feel the different sense of things as I changed. Then my spine was stretching and my skin started to sag. I grew taller and then fell. My head still reached the paladins shoulders, but I was different. I smelled the stink of death and rot all around me as a lifted my heavy head and stared at the plate-mail on the paladin’s back. I was a Bear, no… I was Bear!
My Heavy paws swept left and right causing massive damage. I felt the disgusting abominations crush and fall apart between my claws and paws. I roared in rage when they injured me. I decimated their numbers as we made our way up to the lich. We had to end his plan and save the unsuspecting people from his domineering plan.
I made my way from the Paladin and started to clear a path, bowling over the miniscule gnats that tried to rip through my thick pelt. They were insignificant. There was no way that they would stop me. I heard my companions running beside me, yelling war cries as they followed me, saving their strikes and energy for the real threat. I roared as we made our way to the stairs leading to his so called throne. He was a pathetic excuse for a creature when you looked at him, really. He could barely hold his head up! I huffed in his direction, challenging him to the fight of his un-dead life; and then I couldn’t move. I growled gruffly and looked on with rage filled eyes.
“You have made it this far, but know if you kill me that it won’t matter… I’ll just come back again!” The creature made a grotesque mock of a smile, “Death can’t hold me down any longer, as is obvious.” He said as he began his monologue.
I felt tired suddenly, and I could feel my wounds finally catching up with me. I took a shuddering breath and heard the thing laugh again at something that I hadn’t been listening too. I could feel my straining muscles begin to go limp as my blood spattered the ground below my feet. Again, I glanced at my companions as I had before, Lewis was furious, as he was always when ‘the baddies’ began to monologue and destroy our ears. Flo was listening, testing the unseen restraints that held us. I was going to die, just as I had predicted, but I wasn’t going to without one last attempt at killing the damned thing before us.
As his soliloquy came to an end I felt the unseen bonds loosen, I took that moment to lunge. My powerful jaws snapped around thin air as I fell to the stone floor and felt myself begin to die. I growled in a gurgled voice as blood spilled over my lips and onto the stained floor. I saw my compatriots launch themselves at the lich, not noticing me as they flung themselves at him unwary of their own wounds, still strong enough to go on.
“My Hit-points are gone, just to let everyone know!” I said out of character.
“Really?” our GM, or Game-Master, said questioningly. “Well, you all know what that mean’s right?”
Everyone blinked as he looked at us with a slight grin on his face. “It means that everyone wakes up! It was all a collective premonition. You’re still on the Ship.”
“You mean that whole thing was just…” Lewis began.
“You Dirty Bastard!” Flo laughed.
It was the one thing in Michigan that helped me bond with a select group of special people. I play pretend, just as I did when playing Dungeons and Dragons with that gaming group. It helped when I was young and needed distraction, it helped when I moved to meet people, and it still helps when trying to figure out assignments for class everyday. That’s why imagination was, and still is, key.
I can still see it clearly in my head as I hung around with my group one night. Half of us were waiting around and then all of the sudden we hear the other half of our group call out to us. Lewis dropped what he was doing with a paint brush and I straitened my robes. Flo jumped up from his seat and called out, "Holy Shit! It's the Lich!"
Then, as we ran out to our compatriots we realized the situation. We were Balls Deep in Zombies; and not just any zombies, specifically controlled zombies. At least they couldn’t think for themselves otherwise we would have been dead in an instant. Though the person controlling them wasn’t the best to have attacking you.
I was honestly terrified. It was the first lich sorcerer that I had ever come into contact with. His flesh hung rotting from the skeletal remains of his humanly form. He wore the robes of a cleric that he had been before his fall from grace and into the bowels of hell that you could see burning from the dark pits that were his eyes. He looked repulsive and disgusting.
The zombies slowly advanced on us as we pulled our weapons. I felt the familiar grip of the tonfa I had been trained with in my hand. I could feel the fear radiate from me in waves and held my weapons as tightly as I could to keep my hands from trembling. I was going to die here. I knew it. There were no possibilities of me getting out. I was the most inexperienced person in our group. I looked around, glancing at everyone momentarily. Lewis held his weapon excellently; there was no evidence of fear on his face. Flo was ready; a small grin touched the side of his mouth like he had just received the best present in the world. Patton, our cleric, was setting up behind all of us, ready for when anyone needed to be healed. Everyone seemed ready. I was the only one trembling. I was the only one that felt like their heart was about ready to burst through their chest. Then we charged into the battle.
My tonfa were twirling cyclones of death, their polished wooden handles the only familiar thing in this scene that I could grasp and hold onto. I remembered my training and stuck to it. Hitting heads instead of chests, and knocking the putrid flesh about me down was the only thing that I could conceivably do. I bludgeoned my way into the middle of the fray and stuck my back against one of my party members. The solid muscle that was our paladin made everything seem better as I felt him hack and slash his way through the zombie hoard to the powerful evil thing that lurked at the end of this gauntlet.
Then suddenly things felt funny. I was all tingly. I felt it more then saw when my feet began to change. I felt the bones stretch and extend. I felt the fur sprout from my skin and run the length of my body. I could feel the different sense of things as I changed. Then my spine was stretching and my skin started to sag. I grew taller and then fell. My head still reached the paladins shoulders, but I was different. I smelled the stink of death and rot all around me as a lifted my heavy head and stared at the plate-mail on the paladin’s back. I was a Bear, no… I was Bear!
My Heavy paws swept left and right causing massive damage. I felt the disgusting abominations crush and fall apart between my claws and paws. I roared in rage when they injured me. I decimated their numbers as we made our way up to the lich. We had to end his plan and save the unsuspecting people from his domineering plan.
I made my way from the Paladin and started to clear a path, bowling over the miniscule gnats that tried to rip through my thick pelt. They were insignificant. There was no way that they would stop me. I heard my companions running beside me, yelling war cries as they followed me, saving their strikes and energy for the real threat. I roared as we made our way to the stairs leading to his so called throne. He was a pathetic excuse for a creature when you looked at him, really. He could barely hold his head up! I huffed in his direction, challenging him to the fight of his un-dead life; and then I couldn’t move. I growled gruffly and looked on with rage filled eyes.
“You have made it this far, but know if you kill me that it won’t matter… I’ll just come back again!” The creature made a grotesque mock of a smile, “Death can’t hold me down any longer, as is obvious.” He said as he began his monologue.
I felt tired suddenly, and I could feel my wounds finally catching up with me. I took a shuddering breath and heard the thing laugh again at something that I hadn’t been listening too. I could feel my straining muscles begin to go limp as my blood spattered the ground below my feet. Again, I glanced at my companions as I had before, Lewis was furious, as he was always when ‘the baddies’ began to monologue and destroy our ears. Flo was listening, testing the unseen restraints that held us. I was going to die, just as I had predicted, but I wasn’t going to without one last attempt at killing the damned thing before us.
As his soliloquy came to an end I felt the unseen bonds loosen, I took that moment to lunge. My powerful jaws snapped around thin air as I fell to the stone floor and felt myself begin to die. I growled in a gurgled voice as blood spilled over my lips and onto the stained floor. I saw my compatriots launch themselves at the lich, not noticing me as they flung themselves at him unwary of their own wounds, still strong enough to go on.
“My Hit-points are gone, just to let everyone know!” I said out of character.
“Really?” our GM, or Game-Master, said questioningly. “Well, you all know what that mean’s right?”
Everyone blinked as he looked at us with a slight grin on his face. “It means that everyone wakes up! It was all a collective premonition. You’re still on the Ship.”
“You mean that whole thing was just…” Lewis began.
“You Dirty Bastard!” Flo laughed.
It was the one thing in Michigan that helped me bond with a select group of special people. I play pretend, just as I did when playing Dungeons and Dragons with that gaming group. It helped when I was young and needed distraction, it helped when I moved to meet people, and it still helps when trying to figure out assignments for class everyday. That’s why imagination was, and still is, key.