New campaign with 3.5 rules.

Well, I have begun playing in a campaign (as yet unnamed), it is 3.5 rules mainly straight from the book, no house rules at the moment. There are 3 of us and the DM had us start at 5th level. So we all started getting our characters together with weapons, equipment, a couple of magical items. coming up with backgrounds. As we began the game the Dm threw us a curve ball telling us we had no idea who, what, where, or why we woke up inside a large cell.

I will tell the exploits of the game as seen through the eyes of my character Pandar Silversmith a Dwarven 3rd level fighter/2nd level cleric of Moradin.

I awoke confused not knowing what day, night, time it was or even who I was, confused and trying to get my bearings I looked at my surroundings seeing a medium sized cell about 20' by 20', there where two others in the cell with me a gnome and elf, no bedding and one bucket holding stale water. I went to the bucket and drank my fill, looking outside the cell I saw a gnoll guard as he said we were going to be well taken care of, as a 2nd guard walked by every so many minutes keeping a eye on all of us. I then walked over to the elf as he called myself and the gnome over to him, upon approaching him he said his name was Phalenor and that the gnome and myself and elf had been captured by dark elves (drow) who had used some sort of magic on us that wiped our memories from us, he (the elf) had a gem that kept his memories till he was alone to call them back to his mind. At first I was not sure what to make of this, but his argument was persuasive and the gnome and myself agreed to help him escape as long as we were included also.

The first problem was not having any weapons of any sort and to top it off the gnome did not know if he could fight and neither did I, but to get myself out of this cell I was willing to help at any and all costs as I agreed to go after the 1st gnoll as I was obviously the strongest, the gnoll was facing partly away from us in a chair, he held a battle axe against the chair and we waited for what seemed an eternity till he began to fall asleep, as the 2nd guard passed by the cell we acted, Phalenor was able to open the lock and sneaking up on the guard I was able to grapple him in a choke hold while the gnome grabbed for the battle axe as Phalenor tried to hit him with his fists, missing with each blow, the gnome swung the battle axe almost hitting me instead of the gnoll, still we struggled against the gnoll beginning to make more noise than was intended, finally Phalenor was able to strike the gnoll stunning him as the gnome handed me the battle axe, instinct plus years of training took over and I was able to swing and hit the gnoll hurting him, (I at least knew I was some sort of fighter then) when suddenly the 2nd gnoll charged into the fray, he swung his battle axe hitting me soundly, I shrugged off the hit and swung my weapon into the 1st gnoll striking him and followed through into the 2nd gnoll with the battle axe striking him just as badly as he hit me. The 1st gnoll dropped to the floor and the 2nd gnoll escaping the attacks of Phalenor and the gnome, proceeded to run away farther into the cavern, not even taking time to dispatch the downed gnoll we went running the opposite direction hoping this led to the outside, just as we spied a way out ahead of us two large figures stepped into the tunnel they were ogres.

Smiling I was running up to them when the gnome came flying by me and rolled under the legs of the 1st ogre and then hit the brute with his fists, bringing a smile to my face as I watched him. Not to be outdone Phalenor also outraced me to the big brute blocking the tunnel and hit him with his fists, all before I even had made it up to the ugly monster. The beast swung at the gnome with a giant club, but missed him as the gnome deftly dodged the blow, the elf Phalenor hit him again with his fists and I finally swung the battle axe hitting the brute slicing him a long gash down his stomach, the monster falling to the ground. Turning towards the 2nd advancing ogre, the gnome again struck first, but his blows bounced off the hide of the monster as did Phalenor's, I was able to guide the battle axe into the leg of the monster, as it brought it's club down on my exposed head, I was just able to move in time as the club grazed my head causing me to see stars, the gnome again worked wonders as he created sounds from down the tunnel saying "Hurry, hurry they need our help!" The ogre wasted little time as it turned tail running out of the cavern, this time I did not forget and completed the job of making sure that the 1st downed ogre would never trouble us again, burying the axe head into it's chest.

As we went out of the cavern it was night time, Phalenor telling us to hurry, as we went running blindly down a mountain, Phalenor called a moments respite as he explained about the gem saying he was captured on purpose so he could try out this gem that was invented by the elves at Athlamor? the name having no meaning for myself or the gnome. He told us how to make it back to the elvish land by following the river east towards the great forest, in case anything happened to him he made us swear to bring the gem back to his people so they would know that this gem did work as designed, but the gem would not restore our memories as it held only Phalenor's at the time as we were captured after him. Swearing to Phalenor we began going down the mountain sliding and slipping our way down, just as we began to break though the pine trees onto a lower part of the mountain, the gnome and myself turned just as we heard a thwiip of a bow string sound and arrows began falling all around us, turning we made for the trees, but I saw Pahlenor get hit by a arrow in the back, by the time he made the trees he was foaming blood from his mouth. Phalenor could barely stand but he pressed the gem into the gnome's hand and looking us both in the eyes said "Do not fail me in this, get the gem to my people, you will be rewarded, you can help keep the dark elves from taking our races as prisoners, hurry, hurry I will (coughing up more blood)delay them as long as I can." Grabbing a stick on the ground, Phalenor gave some sort of Elven battle cry as he ran back up the slope of the mountain, the gnome and I ran as fast as our legs would carry us, stumbling and slipping the rest of the way down the slope till at last we made the river.

Throwing ourselves down at the river's edge we both gulped down as much water as we could and hearing no more sounds of pursuit, we moved a little further down the river's edge and collapsed on the ground, I volunteered to take first watch and as the gnome fell fast asleep the sun was just beginning to come up when I also slipped into a deep sleep. Some hours later when the sun was high I woke up as the gnome touched my shoulder telling me we needed to be moving on towards Athlamor.

end of act-1