The Crucial Bard
'Bards are useless', was the cry from the party as we moved on from a small skirmish. Nonsense, said I, it's just that I haven't found my milieu yet. It was clear I needed to take control of a situation to prove my usefulness to the party. It has been tricky up to this point, dealing with monstrous creatures that have no language, though. Even so, I see an opportunity after only a short while.
Finding the evil dwarves' place of worship, Garrick uses his keen Elven senses to find an evil dwarf, by being ambushed by it. The dwarf shouts out something that the others do not understand, but I am aware that he called out to his lord a warning of intruders, thanks to the Tongues spell I had cast a little while back. The evil dwarf is quickly despatched, being pinned to the stone wall by several of Garrick's arrows. As soon as he breathes his last I spring in to action: I call out, in my best evil dwarf impression, 'My lord, the intruders have been killed. All is safe.' From behind the door the sounds of reinforcements coming forward lessen, and a voice instructs someone to go outside to clean up the mess. This gives us time to get in place around the door and set up our own ambush.
The door is casually opened, and we get the jump on more of the dwarves. Thanks to my bluffing and impersonation skills the tide of battle is turned, and we are able to wreak havoc on our enemies, having the upper-hand for a change. Who is useless now?
Okay, sure, the Bardic Music I started was negated immediately by a Silence spell from the enemy Cleric, and as such I spent the rest of battle hiding under a rug at the end of the room, but my work was clearly done. It was the Fighters' job from then on.