Lore 24: Mijdaf, the paddler

One of the great parts of Dungeons & Dragons is the impromptu nature of it all. When you’re at the table, especially for a homebrew campaign, things just happen. The participants riff off of each other and a story is created that shouldn’t exist and can never exist again. It is a moment in time. Mijdaf was born in one such moment recently.

Mijdaf, the paddler

Mijdaf is an NPC in the current campaign. He started because the group needed transportation up the river from their neighborhood to one on the very edges of urbanity.

Me: There’s a barge pulled along the ropes on the side of the river.

The PCs: That seems slow.

Me: There’s also a paddleboat operated by a goliath.

The PCs: We take that.

That’s how a desert goliath living in the largest city of the region started to grow into relevance in the game. But at this point he’s just a ferryman in a boat. Sure, he’s huge and can paddle upriver faster than those humans can pull themselves, but he’s not yet unique.

PCs: What kind of birds does he have?

Me: Four seagulls that mostly rest on a branching perch above his head. He asks where your companions are.

PCs: We’re trying to get a new one for Lauray. Do you know a good breeder?

As Mijdaf I talk about two options and why he has one that he prefers. It’s one that doesn’t recognize the current government. Mijdaf starts talking about the history of the region that connects to an artisan that they’d met in the previous session.

They riff off of this, pulling more information from the goliath. It’s interactive at this point. They roll very well. I start playing into Mijdaf being willing to talk, constantly. Soon the PCs figure out that the reason that Mijdaf was available is because no locals will ride in his boat.

He’s not just a talker — he’s a conspiracy theorist.

Mijdaf pulls out a slate with tangential connections between various politicians, professors and military leaders. He keeps going.

At the table this was great. The players with me that day were smiling, nodding and laughing. The total scene may have been 10 minutes. There were some social dice rolls and a lot of me as the DM picking up on table clues to see what the group was enjoying and emphasizing that.

And then Mijdaf reached the destination, dropping them off. He and they never expected to see each other again.

A day later in game time the group needs to get back from the nearly rural neighborhood to their home base deep in the port city. They recognize a paddleboat, but don’t see Mijdaf. They steal the boat.

That’s how Mijdaf, the paddler, went from a simple single scene NPC into a character with purpose, gaming joy, and just possibly a problem for the future.