I finally got into D&D when I landed my current job; found out they had a D&D club and jumped aboard. It's pretty fun, they turned me towards a bunch of D&D podcasts and it's opened a lot in terms of the world and possibilities. I never thought I'd be able to DM because of all the on-your-feet thinking that's involved in these campaigns but I'm quickly picking it up, hopefully in the next year or so I'll be able to run my own campaign with the club
I created a Paladin. It's the cross between a White Mage and a Warrior and I just love it. If balanced properly it can carry an entire team. Being able to cover for the white mage and take the heat off the main tank can be handy; being able to provoke an opponent off your dying tank and then heal that same tank can turn the tide of battle. I'm sure Black Mages, Red Mages, White Mages and even other warrior/brawl classes can do that to but I've always loved the Paladin class ever since I unlocked it in Final Fantasy XI: Online. I don't play that anymore but the Paladin will forever carry a special place in my RPG playing heart because of that game.
The world our DM created was this desolate town in the middle of a savannah. Everyone was having nightmares when they slept inside the town. No matter how hard people fought to stay awake they always fell asleep at the same time. So we did some quests and got ingredients and shrines to make a bubble of protection, which thankfully shielded us from the magic that put everyone to sleep. We saw these gray orbs come into the town a few hours after everyone had gone to sleep and when they left a couple hours later they were yellow and seemed to contain a series of images.
One of my party members decided to leave the bubble to pursue, we advised him not to because he may fall victim to the magic. He didn't so we all followed suit and went to the edge of town. By then the orbs were a distance away on the horizon so we decided to remain in town and do more quests. Another one of my party members did an awareness check or something to see if she could see the images in one of the spheres, her roll was successful and they happened to be the memories of that day.
We were able to recognize the memory and were able to ask the cow salesman that morning. We asked about the memory in the sphere and he did not have a fond recollection of that specific memory. Which was weird because the memory she witnessed was happy and blissful, but he was adamant it was a terrible day. We eventually discovered that the whole town was living blissfully everyday but when they reflected on previous days they never had anything good to say. We saw someone get married, and the memories that night were all happy and of celebrations, but when we talked to the townsfolk the next morning they were all upset that she married him, how little cake there was, etc etc.
Despite that, they were always optimistic that everything would turn out okay. However, a few days later the couple broke up. Something with having to do with the nightmares getting stronger during that period. They ended up hating each other and split up, coincidently the nightmares lessened after that fact.
Once we thought we had the right equipment and the source of the orbs tracked down we went in and discovered a wizard. He was feeding off the happiness of the town and leaving them with hate and contempt, the nightmares were just a wonderful side affect. He usually left after a few days as towns usually collapsed under chaos but this town was different, just something about their optimism enabled him to perpetually drain them night after night, week after week, year after year.
We're not sure why he's doing it, hopefully we'll find out and wrap up with this campaign on the next meeting so the next person can DM. This has been a 4-6 month campaign? Pretty impressive for me but I know some have been going on for years and even for decades. I'm not sure what my campaign will be yet but I'm excited for it.