No Hero is Complete Without a Weakness...

Ok, so this was my first D&D adventure with the guys (we're playing 3.5e with a few elements of 4th edition. No lightsabers or modern technology have been permitted though...at least not thus far...) and we were all a bit unfamiliar with how to play (I had NO idea what I was doing but the guys had a bit of experience reading the rules from what I gathered.) We had about six guys total that first night with one of us, Jeff, acting as the Dungeon Master (DM). We all created our characters that night and immediately hopped into a campaign. I chose to be a Half-Elf Paladin named Valcrith Fletcher. The full party consisted of two Dragonbornes (If I recall correctly. That's Alex & Matthew), a Drow named Delgryn (That's my buddy Tom. More on him in a minute...), and a Half-Orc named Orent (Steve, Tom's younger brother). We had been sent to explore a mysterious dungeon and draw a map for our client while clearing it out, so that it would be safe for exploration. As we were all level one characters, I figured that it wasn't going to be too difficult to complete the mission and save the day. Well, I was in for a surprise...