Difficult Terrain

So here I am, part of an adventuring party. Our quest is to slay monsters and be a hero to the fine people of the land. I’m a fighter, meaning I get up close and personal and do a lot of the monster slaying. Its hard work, but very satisfying for me. It plays to many of my strengths. My party is a solid team, everyone is strong in their own role. Well, almost everyone.

Our leader is a wizard, and they pay the bills in the group, as well as collect all the bounties. Its really their group, even though we all contribute. There is no doubting that the wizard casts some powerful spells, and just like everyone else, they work hard in their role. That said, they are rather accident prone. Their fireballs and stinking clouds don’t always land exactly where they should. Over time, this has given the group a controversial reputation.

We all know the leader isn’t trying to do this, they believe in slaying monsters, but they also have a love of collecting ever more powerful artifacts, researching immortality, and other grand ambitions that seem to distract from the day to day dungeon crawling. While they do often acknowledge their mistakes, and try to learn from them, they keep finding new ways to make a mess of things.

As a result of all this, its been harder and harder for the group to find patrons willing to sponser the kinds of quests the team loves. Sure, the group has its fans, and it’s largely been a success, but with each mishap the grand visions of the wizard seem to slip farther away, and the needs of just keeping their team fed and equipped is slipping. It’s been hardship all around. We even lost someone to the darkness recently, though that was simply due to the hardships of life and not the difficulties of our quest.

So for some time, I’ve been struggling with the question of whether I can continue with the party. I can’t just take over leadership, it squarely belongs to the wizard and I simply don’t have the means to keep all the other heroes equipped by my own power. I can’t summon food and drink or charm people into giving us quests. Maybe I could learn some magic, but it will take time.

I can try to find another party, but honestly, its hard going for fighter’s out there. Everyone’s got one already, or knows a dozen more better than they know me. I can get a one time mission here and there, but its not going to keep my family fed. I can go back to living on the farm, working the fields, but this life of adventuring was my dream, and I love doing it. And in all of these cases, I lose the team, the wonderful folks I’ve fought along side all this time. Even the wizard, as frustrating as they can be, has been an ally and supporter. And what of the villagers we have protected? Who will they call on when the next band of monsters appears?

There is so much binding me here, but I’ve lost faith and I feel we are doomed in our present course. It is not a matter of it, it is a matter of when. All things pass in time, but there is much more work to be done, and this chapter of the story is fading just as it should be in full bloom.

So, what will I do? I’ve made the decision to level up on my own. I’ll fight alone for a time, and no doubt I’ll need to bend my back on the farm for a while, but I plan to multiclass into wizard and gather allies once I can offer them the support they deserve. I’ll find out, for better or worse, if I have what it takes to be a good leader and to offer the villagers first class protection. It may ammount to nothing, but at least I will have tried. I’ll always have fondness for the party, the wizard included, and the villagers, but all things have their season.