Brann and I were on pretty good terms last season where he played the part of my drunk Australian uncle who had great execution powers. We laughed, we cried, he would offer advice and comfort when I wasn’t feeling so well and needed to recover. He would tell me to get out of the way, then I’d playfully fade and send the group of mobs his way, while he bounced around the room with them. Or when my hold over my minion would disappear, he was there to take the beating while I put the beast back under my spell.
Then the first week of the season, he was my super powered drunk Australian uncle. I did start to have feelings of inadequacy, that my dear uncle Brann didn’t need me so much anymore. He required a lot more of my attention, but it was a one way street. He made it so that dominating the mind of another creature was a distraction. He would get full of himself and start to pull whole rooms, jealous that I might have time to smite anyone and not funnel all of my attention to him. I had a suspicion he was taking performance enhancing drugs, as I was finding he was being a lot more liberal at throwing down a campfire, heck even as you walked into the door, there he was ingesting a substance that would boost my power by a fair amount. I only ate ten seconds worth, but he finishes off the pot.
The week after I met uncle Brann inside of the Underkeep and he was in rough shape. Apparently he was caught in a freak last minute Blizzard that Tuesday morning/afternoon and came down with something nasty. No matter how much he ate, he was getting beaten down and no amount resting by the fire would stop him from taking the occasional 30 second dirt nap. Not only that, he was still bounding around the room, getting aggressive with everything in his path. I started to panic, did his supply get cut off? I looked for alternatives, I had him pick up his trusty rifle and traps, focus on a victim for mind control and hope his execute would still ring true. Either way, what was usually a fun romp through a cave with Uncle Brann turned into a tedious slog.
I felt powerless as a healer to help my uncle overcome this affliction. I scheduled an appointment for my dear uncle with the Explorer’s Guild VA and he was slated to see Dr. Ion on Tuesday at 7AM. Apparently, they were getting bombarded with reports about everyone’s uncle coming down with a case of the nerfs. Well, everyone but our tank friends who have always just ignored their uncles.
He returned from the doctor Tuesday morning and had good news. He was going to be okay, even better than he was during our first season together, but he has to lay off the sauce from now on.
That said, our relationship has strained a little since his fall from grace. I mostly use him as a meat shield while I search for the biggest bad to do my bidding. I get sassy when he throws out footballs when combat just ended. I toss him heals here and there, but we don’t share my power infusion anymore. I don’t want him to relapse. He can drink as much as he wants, but I don’t want to be an enabler.