L is for Lekon

( I was going to reproduce the character sheet for the one character I've had to survive the tests of time, Lekon, but since I'm away for an inservice, and I forgot to put it in the laptop bag, that will not be happening. Instead, I will simply talk about him in geenral terms, and his genesis, or at least, what I can remember. 8)

Lekon Bodgarn, 16th level arch-mage (under 1st edition AD&D rules)
STR 10
INT 18
WIS 12
DEX 16
CON 12
CHR 10(-ish)

Lekon was, and remains, the only long-term character I ever played. He survived NUMEROUS adventures, between a large variety of campaigns. At first, I simply played him like an average guy, who was a little bewildered at his ability to use magic. Over time, however, I started to play him smarter. He was never afraid to take part in combat, but would usually fire off a few offensive volleys of spells first, wade into combat for a round or two (even when he was only weilding a Dagger +1), then drop back to provide cover support for the cleanup. As he got to higher and higher a level, he adventured more and more. He was never the "pointy-hat" kind of mage. He was the "dressed like everyone else" kind of mage, wearing Cloaks of Protection and Boots of Speed to get him out of tight situations. While he doesn't have a TON of magic items, he does have everything a good mage would need... high-level Ring of Protection, Staff of the Magi, Ring of Wizardry, Boccob's spell component pouch and spellbook, and a half-decent dagger. [At one point, he also possessed Queen Ehlissa's Marvelous Nightingale. On one hand, this was acquired at the tail end of my gaming days, in a one-on-one Monty Haul campaign, who's sole goal was the get ahold of this artifact. While I don't claim on the last character sheet I had to possess this anymore (I changed it to a Prison of Zagyg instead), he still bears the ill results of his encounter with it (aged 10 years, hair turned white] Lekon cut his teeth as a low-level mage with some high-level friends, going through the Isle of Dread as a first level mage. He was later put through the varuious Against the Giants modules, as well as the Secret of Bone Hill. I remember he was actually killed during the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (a mishap tryiing to figure out how to work one of the fire arms), but was in the company of a cleric of high enough level to cast Raise Dead. Later on, an encounter with the kuo-toa in D1-2 left him at death's door with one hit point, after a critical hit to the left thigh svered his hamstring (damn DM made critical hit tables). He survived, but still bears a limp to this day.

Towards the end, Lekon finally settled down. I paid out the vast amounts of gold to have hium build a stronghold, a tower, in the mountains surrounding the Duchy of Geoff. In hsi last cmapaign, we figured out that a small settlement had arisen around hsi tower, with Lekon acting as a kind of unlanded gentry to the peole and demi-humans of the area. He also has some giants as friends, as we ran through a heavily-modified LIBERATION OF GEOFF as his last adventure, and he befriended some giants (stone, I think) that lived in the area (it involved helping get rid of a dragon). He also had a memorable adventure that made a permanent enemy of Set, the Egyptian God of Serpents (don't ask).

Now, Lekon sits in blissful retirement. If I ever get another Greyhawk campaign running, I guarantee that near the borders of Geoff is the tower of a powerful mage, that the party may one day find itself working for....