Jyger’s Journeys In Dungeons & Dragons – Beware The Fires Of Mekeninzo (WARNING – SPOILERS FOR ADVENTURERS LEAGUE)

So, since my party just completed Hoard of the Dragon Queen tonight, I thought I’d spend tonight highlighting one of the characters in the party: Our wizard, Mekeninzo. And, based on his character and the guy who plays him, there’s only one song that best sets the tone for this article. HIT IT!

Ah, where to start with Mekeninzo? Well, first off, he’s probably the most dedicated thief I’ve ever seen in D&D that wasn’t a rogue of any sort. He simply CANNOT pass up a chest, crate, pot, or anything that could potentially house loot of any kind. I’ve honestly lost track of the number of times he’s either gotten in trouble or almost gotten into trouble because he just couldn’t help but steal stuff while we were on a job. In fact, he recently obtained a Bag of Holding, but almost lost his shot at it out of what I can only term untainted and inexcusable greed, because he tried using it to steal some gold that was lying around and kinda made a bit too much noise doing it. He was almost eaten alive for that, and while his escape doesn’t necessarily surprise me, I’m SHOCKED he managed to get ahold of the bag again, AND the gold for that matter!

Probably the other major thing most of us playing think of when it comes to Mekeninzo, and the reason for the whole Fire and Flames intro, is his adoration for fire spells. The second he learned to throw fireballs, I was almost certain I saw tears of psychotic joy in his eyes. Granted, he knows how to divert his flames so that they don’t hit us, but there’s always that sense of terror that, one day, he may just forget, or not have that option. The worst was when he found some black powder. I stayed the hell away from him for the entire duration that he had that black powder.

One running gag with Mekeninzo is that the guy who plays as him is usually late for our game. It’s not really his fault, though, ‘cuz he works through the day, and then usually has to go pick up his girlfriend, our monk, so they can both show up. So I totally get why it happens. But what’s spawned from this was a moment that has led to what I term the Dragonzord Tactic. If you don’t get the reference, in the old Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, something that would happen a lot would be that the team would be fighting a monster and getting their butts whooped, at which point Tommy would show up to summon the Dragonzord and turn the tides of battle. So here, we were fighting off this horde of monsters in a cave, five of us playing at the time, doing decently I suppose, but nonetheless having trouble with the encounter. Then Mekeninzo shows up, launches a single fireball, and the whole field of battle is just CLEARED. It wouldn’t be the last time this happened, leading me to start referring to Mekeninzo’s player as ‘Tommy’ and whistling the following:

However, for all of his hi-jinks, Mekeninzo, or rather the person playing as him, is generally the smart one of the group. I’ve oftentimes deferred to him as our unofficial leader when things got hairy, or we needed someone to make tough choices. Also, despite his constant taunting that, should things get too bad that he’d turn invisible and run off, when the time came that he could’ve, he instead turned invisible and ran around healing the wounded however he could…although, he argued that he DID technically turn invisible and run. I dunno, maybe he just likes to act macho, or he can’t bring himself to acknowledge us as more than just his companions and/or meat shields, or something silly like that. Suppose I could always ask his girlfriend if she knows what that’s all about.

Anyway, that’s all I really wanted to say about my party’s wizard. Got any funny stories from your own D&D parties? Lemme know in the comments section below. Ja né!