Friendship is Dragons
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Page 419 - Blood From Stone
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I'm afraid I kinda ran out of those, though if I remember one, I'll post it.
One character, a very devout worshiper of the sun god Pelor, was transported to a world where Lolth had destroyed all gods and reduced the sun to a scap of its formers self, barely enough to survive. He did not take it well. He ended up becoming a double agent on the thin promise that if he did well, the drow would bring the sun back. He ended getting half the party either killed or captured before he was dues ex machined back onto our side.
Minor, off-camera (between sessions) breakdown for a character of mine when he realized he wasn't the biggest fish in the pond anymore (again.) Stings a bit (for him, I thought it was rather funny) to've spent all that effort ascending to demonhood just to spend 50% of the first session in a new party at 1HP.
Mostly it just results in him wanting to get even more powerful, allies being one means to that. Strength in numbers: it ain't just for good guys!
Mostly it just results in him wanting to get even more powerful, allies being one means to that. Strength in numbers: it ain't just for good guys!
In one session I have the pleasure of playing a half-elf witch (pathfinder) he's annoyingly smart and comes off as arrogant to everyone around, however, he's the tactical genius of the group. No matter the situation, he always makes the best plan he can with what they know. However, due to lack of good knowledge gatherng skills, even at his most informed he's working half blind, so every plan he's made has lasted about 6 seconds into battle and then he's improvising on the fly. after half a year of this, when the boss looks like he'll escape, my character breaks, and just sprints up to hit him point blank. Followed by nuking him with every spell he had left. Because squishy caster with 11 AC charging the boss in frustration is always a good idea.
We were playing a "Romance" genre based D&D game. It got really weird, really fast.
We had to acquire dates to this giant ball or something, and it couldn't be eachother (Exspeccialy since 4/5 of the group was dudes.
P1, A H-orc Barbarian and a Changling.
P2, A Gnome Assassin and a Beholder Prince (I did not want to know how, or why)
P3, A Pyro-Warforged Crusader and a Church door (It had a spirit possesing it, we had "rescued" it from the church, because it was a evil spirit bound to the door by the church, and it was the only sentiat thing to say "yes", he actually had the best date.)
P4, A Vampire Ranger and his Mistress'
P5, (Me) A Human Monk and a Cleric of the Raven Queen.
I didn't know this, but we were there to kill the host of the party, (cause I was getting snacks at the time), and to do this, they needed to make a distraction. Their primary target was me as a distraction, and the DM knew this, and wanted to throw it in their faces.
Long story short, I was continualsy being harased by "Mystical" beings and what not, completley unfazed. What we did not know was that the drinks at the ball was tainted, and the Assassin was the only one who drank it, and failed her will save. She halucinated/ LOST HER FREAKING MIND the rest of the night. But that's a whole other story.
We had to acquire dates to this giant ball or something, and it couldn't be eachother (Exspeccialy since 4/5 of the group was dudes.
P1, A H-orc Barbarian and a Changling.
P2, A Gnome Assassin and a Beholder Prince (I did not want to know how, or why)
P3, A Pyro-Warforged Crusader and a Church door (It had a spirit possesing it, we had "rescued" it from the church, because it was a evil spirit bound to the door by the church, and it was the only sentiat thing to say "yes", he actually had the best date.)
P4, A Vampire Ranger and his Mistress'
P5, (Me) A Human Monk and a Cleric of the Raven Queen.
I didn't know this, but we were there to kill the host of the party, (cause I was getting snacks at the time), and to do this, they needed to make a distraction. Their primary target was me as a distraction, and the DM knew this, and wanted to throw it in their faces.
Long story short, I was continualsy being harased by "Mystical" beings and what not, completley unfazed. What we did not know was that the drinks at the ball was tainted, and the Assassin was the only one who drank it, and failed her will save. She halucinated/ LOST HER FREAKING MIND the rest of the night. But that's a whole other story.
*cough*cough*orphanvillemassacre*cough*
I've told that one before, right? I think it counts as having a psychological breakdown.
I've told that one before, right? I think it counts as having a psychological breakdown.
Having had a pact with devils as a warlock to begin with, he already wasn't the sanest individual. Being resurrected by alien creatures that hadn't even existed when he died (Ethergaunt lore, their incredibly advanced technology they'd actually been OUTSIDE the cosmology, having left it aeons ago, and just recently returned to the Ethereal Plane) was enough for him to snap.
The way the Ethergaunts brought him back to his body, after he'd been a devil in Baator for hundreds of years, somehow restored fragmented bits of his memories from his last life, but not enough to form anything coherent. He basically broke, and joined the Ethergaunts as a master tactician and powerful warrior. (Oh, did I mention this guy was both strong enough for melee combat and hyper-intelligent? He had an Int score of like 40-something.)
Long story short, rather than just trying to take back some form of sane life, he decided to help the Ethergaunts exterminate all life on the Material Plane so they could take it for themselves. He did this by joining one of three armies to fight against the other two, and insinuating himself into a powerful position within the one he joined. After he crushed the other armies, he would turn his own army against everything else he could, and then against itself, to kill as many of the humanoid species as possible.
According to the DM I had at the time, I'm apparently WAY too good at writing/building/roleplaying insane or psychopathic characters.
I mentioned this before, but here's the incident in more detail. Our PTU party had recently split, due to the twin threats of a ghost and a bug invasion, and my team was headed to Pewter to find a bug master the other two guys, Anza and Vern, knew from previous sessions. He informed us that Mt. Moon contained a legendary sword that was once wielded by the Swords of Justice, which include Terrakion, my character Nira's patron. So, she naturally wanted to retrieve it, with the assistance of an elderly Venonat. However, there were several guardians we'd have to face first. The first one was a Geodude...made out of multiple smaller Geodude. This means that it could basically use Explosion/Selfdestruct multiple times against us, each time only losing a little bit of its mass.
We had bad luck, and it managed to hit everyone with the first two explosions. Everyone but the people with Endure/Detect got knocked out, including my character and her Mankey. The survivors managed to reduce it to almost the size of a normal Geodude, but then it decided to go out with a bang and one last Explosion. However, the Venonat intervened, jumping on top and using his fluff to absorb the entire explosion. But that also killed him.
Everyone was pretty shocked by that. Anza moreso, because he had sort of a connection with Bug-types, and the Venonat was teaching him how to commune with them. Nira was also pretty shaken up, since she got knocked out and wasn't even able to contribute to the last part of the fight. She ended up throwing away her walking stick, which was also a channel for the powers she got from Terrakion. She also tried to rip off the clothes she'd gotten in a Christmas special, which had Terrakion's holy symbol on them and which she considered a sign of his favor. But she did stop before then when she realized that she wasn't wearing anything underneath. Then she just broke down and sobbed. It took some comfort from her Absol, Aria, for her to get back up and determined.
Also, I had recently gained the Messiah Feature, which allows me to perform miracles associated with my legendary patron. The next session, I remembered that said feature existed, and used it to basically heal everyone fully, as well as give them all 20 temporary HP (which is a lot in this system). And so we managed to handle the next few challenges pretty well. Even the mass battle against a horde of Psychic and Poison types that loved status-effecting everyone.
We had bad luck, and it managed to hit everyone with the first two explosions. Everyone but the people with Endure/Detect got knocked out, including my character and her Mankey. The survivors managed to reduce it to almost the size of a normal Geodude, but then it decided to go out with a bang and one last Explosion. However, the Venonat intervened, jumping on top and using his fluff to absorb the entire explosion. But that also killed him.
Everyone was pretty shocked by that. Anza moreso, because he had sort of a connection with Bug-types, and the Venonat was teaching him how to commune with them. Nira was also pretty shaken up, since she got knocked out and wasn't even able to contribute to the last part of the fight. She ended up throwing away her walking stick, which was also a channel for the powers she got from Terrakion. She also tried to rip off the clothes she'd gotten in a Christmas special, which had Terrakion's holy symbol on them and which she considered a sign of his favor. But she did stop before then when she realized that she wasn't wearing anything underneath. Then she just broke down and sobbed. It took some comfort from her Absol, Aria, for her to get back up and determined.
Also, I had recently gained the Messiah Feature, which allows me to perform miracles associated with my legendary patron. The next session, I remembered that said feature existed, and used it to basically heal everyone fully, as well as give them all 20 temporary HP (which is a lot in this system). And so we managed to handle the next few challenges pretty well. Even the mass battle against a horde of Psychic and Poison types that loved status-effecting everyone.
Unfortunately, the final boss of the scenario was not as easy to beat. She turned out to be a ghostly undead Lapras who knew the secret of the True Perish Song, which kills anyone who hears it within ten minutes. Also, apparently all the previous guardians were also seekers of the sword who had been killed and transformed into her servants.
Now, Anza's player was leaving for military training for a month, so the DM had to have him leave the picture for a while. Anza also had a Lapras, Gura, who knew Perish Song (the normal version). So, he released her, and the undead Lapras apparently recognized something about her. She then commanded Anza to release all his Pokemon, and then began singing a duet with Gura. Anza and his Pokemon began dancing along with the music, everything went super-trippy, and then the undead Lapras, Anza, and all his Pokemon disappeared.
Now, Vern and Anza were part of the original group. As a matter of fact, they're the last two members of the original group. So Vern basically had a breakdown then, sobbing, screaming, and searching for Anza everywhere. Naturally, nothing turned up. However, we did get the sword, and Vern ended up channeling all his sorrow into a destructive rage. We'll see how that goes for him.
Now, Anza's player was leaving for military training for a month, so the DM had to have him leave the picture for a while. Anza also had a Lapras, Gura, who knew Perish Song (the normal version). So, he released her, and the undead Lapras apparently recognized something about her. She then commanded Anza to release all his Pokemon, and then began singing a duet with Gura. Anza and his Pokemon began dancing along with the music, everything went super-trippy, and then the undead Lapras, Anza, and all his Pokemon disappeared.
Now, Vern and Anza were part of the original group. As a matter of fact, they're the last two members of the original group. So Vern basically had a breakdown then, sobbing, screaming, and searching for Anza everywhere. Naturally, nothing turned up. However, we did get the sword, and Vern ended up channeling all his sorrow into a destructive rage. We'll see how that goes for him.
It didn't happen to me per say, but a fellow player of mine was kidnapped by succubi and taken to another plane inhabited by demons, mind you this all happen after our half-elf ranger burned a tavern down to the ground during the middle of a bar brawl he started. Anyway, the player who was kidnapped was playing as a race our DM created, a type of lizard folk who are considered to be a godly race and can live millions of years and they bow down to no deity, but little do they know is that their ancestor is really god in the form of a dragon that sleeps in the deep in the earth. He was kidnapped to he can be used for breeding purposes to help create a powerful demon army we are to go against while at the same time he's being tortured, stabbed, experimented on,etc. He recently joined back with our group and he suffers from hallucinations, extreme mood swings, and incredibly violent when he was only the soft-spoken, gentle and naive one of the group. A lot can happen in a week and half huh?
I never had a character suffer a breakdown, but I've mentally broken a few players over several genres. My fav was from a modern spy game where one of the surviving players found out that the org he was spyig on all this time was the org that hired him to begin with.
The player did an excellent IC breakdown. I mean just... awesome. Round of applause and pizza was on me.
The player did an excellent IC breakdown. I mean just... awesome. Round of applause and pizza was on me.
I played a bard, Kai, in a 4e campaign who took as many multi class feats that provided healing as possible. It started out because he was a squire/medic at medieval style tournaments, but once the campaign got underway he continued to become an incredibly good healer for a different reason. He journaled everything the party did and became obsessed with telling the epic quest the party was on. Healing became a way of keeping people alive just so he didn't lose his main characters. Eventually he started making rasher and more dramatic choices just because he thought it would make for a more exciting story (convince the party to take the much longer sea route because epic sea voyages are great material! *twitch*). Kai was still a good enough leader for the party, but he certainly lost it, laughing gleefully when another party member was hurt in a dramatic way. It made for a very fun game
Can tell two breakdowns, both from the same game, though one was going to happen no matter what, since it was an NPC... so, the Air Gears game, over the course, pretty much every character, both players and NPCs, got hospitalized, since Air Treks are brutal, especially Fang Road, at one point, most of the now adult anime main characters were in the hospital because our big bad decided to challenge them to prove his superiority, and my character, Kazu and Emily's daughter, spent the entire time they were at the hospital with them, and, well, had a big breakdown because, while she loved Air Treks since they helped her learn to run faster (side story: She was the school team's Track Captain and frequently raced cars on foot and won) but she just didn't understand why all the fighting over what amounts to inline skates with engines. Along the way, she had a massive character moment thanks to a lot of luck, and fund out she could heal people in the hospital, and went from being the Ash Queen of the Flame Road to the Phoenix Queen of the Ash Road, so, much more up spirit than I had intended with the early story. And the other breakdown happened when our group went to compete in a Devil's 30/30, which is where your team has thirty of your team members lay down at the end of a ramp, side by side, and so many of your major members have to jump them, supposedly to clear 30 feet, I think? Our group watched our cousin's group (the guys who had beat down our parents, mind)as they only marginally succeeded, then our group got up, and all four of us not only cleared the challenge, we all beat the tar out of our cousin's record-making jump and he got pissy because we weren't 'gravity children' which is a thing in that show... genetically engineered to be perfect riders of Air Treks... until we found out a couple games later that two of our members actually WERE gravity children... which is beside the point, the DM insinuated that off screen, our cousin threw a massive temper tantrum, and the rest of his team came by later that night to rough us up. So, back to the hospital we go.
My DM had diabolique from the far plane interpreted as cartoon characters in a live action world. They still operated on cartoon physics and were feared for their antics would cause people to go insane.
My character met a trio like similar to the animaniacs, but years earlier. Not knowing the rules on sanity and genuinely finding them amusing, I decided to play along with their jokes.
I ended up not only losing my sanity, but in the process of bending reality to perform a cartoonish stunt, my character became one of them!
My character met a trio like similar to the animaniacs, but years earlier. Not knowing the rules on sanity and genuinely finding them amusing, I decided to play along with their jokes.
I ended up not only losing my sanity, but in the process of bending reality to perform a cartoonish stunt, my character became one of them!
All I can think of off the top of my head was a Heroes Unlimited Campaign where we were actually split into two groups, half of us were villains, the other half heroes(I was on the villain side, more fun).
We broke the Superman wannabe leader (Mega Hero Experiment with Invulnerability, Flight Wingless, Extraordinary Physical Strength, Endurance and Energy expulsion) of the other group when he faced off against us, our leader was as super powered 11 year old girl and he was of the scrupulous alignment and he couldn't attack children. We stood back and let her rampage around down town(She was a Mega Villain Super Solider With tremendous physical strenght, the super solider options of Attempted Invulnerability, Physical Transformation, Attempt to increase agility and dexterity, with the minor super power of energy expulsion.) while he tried to convince her verbally to stop. His team finally tried to intervene, but we intercepted them and kept them busy, it was too funny to see the strongest member of their team just stand there because he couldn't do anything outside his alignment and she knew it!
It was even funnier when she turned and attacked him. All he would do was defend. We finnally decided he had had enough and called her off. My PC, a partial cyborg who was her primary minion, reminded her that we had a job to pull, leaving the other team still confused by what had just happened.
The other group complained about it and planned to wipe us out by trashing our base. When they eventually did, but litterally dropping a nuke on us, we presented our new character sheets, all super powered little girls...the other team threw up their arms and gave in, the GM made us stop and switched us back to playing as one group. Funniest thing ever to make the good guys hate being good.
We broke the Superman wannabe leader (Mega Hero Experiment with Invulnerability, Flight Wingless, Extraordinary Physical Strength, Endurance and Energy expulsion) of the other group when he faced off against us, our leader was as super powered 11 year old girl and he was of the scrupulous alignment and he couldn't attack children. We stood back and let her rampage around down town(She was a Mega Villain Super Solider With tremendous physical strenght, the super solider options of Attempted Invulnerability, Physical Transformation, Attempt to increase agility and dexterity, with the minor super power of energy expulsion.) while he tried to convince her verbally to stop. His team finally tried to intervene, but we intercepted them and kept them busy, it was too funny to see the strongest member of their team just stand there because he couldn't do anything outside his alignment and she knew it!
It was even funnier when she turned and attacked him. All he would do was defend. We finnally decided he had had enough and called her off. My PC, a partial cyborg who was her primary minion, reminded her that we had a job to pull, leaving the other team still confused by what had just happened.
The other group complained about it and planned to wipe us out by trashing our base. When they eventually did, but litterally dropping a nuke on us, we presented our new character sheets, all super powered little girls...the other team threw up their arms and gave in, the GM made us stop and switched us back to playing as one group. Funniest thing ever to make the good guys hate being good.
On a side note...
We did eventually use our preteen supervillains in a campaign, were we had to balance villainy and going to school to keep up our secret identities. I played a Master Psychic who was a bit unhinged as she was an escaped experiment. The GM wanted me to roll on the insanity table, but I wanted to play her as a viscous little psychopath who loved to tear her opponents apart with her powers. The only one who could rain her in was the team leader, who she all but worshiped as a god(leader of last villain party, GM let her survive the attack). She was fun as hell to play(Think Pinkamina with psychic powers and a shit ton of knives on her)! Might resurrect her in another system. Oh, and her best friend on the team was an equally violent and unhinged super solider loli with a knife fetish and a death motif. They would actually (we role played this in one session) have tea parties in graveyards.
We did eventually use our preteen supervillains in a campaign, were we had to balance villainy and going to school to keep up our secret identities. I played a Master Psychic who was a bit unhinged as she was an escaped experiment. The GM wanted me to roll on the insanity table, but I wanted to play her as a viscous little psychopath who loved to tear her opponents apart with her powers. The only one who could rain her in was the team leader, who she all but worshiped as a god(leader of last villain party, GM let her survive the attack). She was fun as hell to play(Think Pinkamina with psychic powers and a shit ton of knives on her)! Might resurrect her in another system. Oh, and her best friend on the team was an equally violent and unhinged super solider loli with a knife fetish and a death motif. They would actually (we role played this in one session) have tea parties in graveyards.
Sounds like some people REALLY didn't understand how alignments work... or the alignment in Heroes Unlimited is stupid.
A villain is a villain, no matter their age.
A villain is a villain, no matter their age.
They kind of are. There are a list of 13 rules for each alignment. And I was incorrect, he was Principled, the highest level of good. Principled are the superman boy scout type and stick to the rules, so he couldn't be seen attacking a little girl, even if she was superpowered. He never thought to try to restrain her though, the good guys were idiots.
So, one of those 13 rules is 'never hurt a child' or something?
Principled, #4 Never harm an innocent.
And Specter, try the Aberrant Alignment in most Palladium games.
1 Always keeps word of honor
2 Lie and cheat those unworthy of your respect
3 may or may not kill an unarmed foe
4 never kill an innocent, particularly a child, but may harm harass or kidnap
5 never torture for pleasure, but will use it to extract information
6 never kill for pleasure, will always have a reason
7 may or may not help someone in need
8 rarely attempt to work within the law
9 break the law without hesitation
10 have no use for law or bureaucracy, but respects honor, self-discipline and the 'concept' of law and order
11 work with others to attain your goal
12 may take 'dirty' money
13 never betray a freind
I love playing aberrant characters because they are soo much fun. We ran a one shot campaign were I got to be the Bond Villain and the others were my top henchmen. GM sent 005 and 006 after me to test me. I sent their heads back to MI6 in pretty hat boxes with nicely done up bows. My Character's Niece was of aberrant alignment as well and wanted to grow up to be just like him, she did the boxes. When he sent 007 after me...oh boy. Tiny air vents, competent guards, we caught him quick, extracted all the info we needed and killed him, sending his head back in a pink box with the note, "Send more, the last one was fun." (And no, it wasn't the Sean Connery Bond.)
And Specter, try the Aberrant Alignment in most Palladium games.
1 Always keeps word of honor
2 Lie and cheat those unworthy of your respect
3 may or may not kill an unarmed foe
4 never kill an innocent, particularly a child, but may harm harass or kidnap
5 never torture for pleasure, but will use it to extract information
6 never kill for pleasure, will always have a reason
7 may or may not help someone in need
8 rarely attempt to work within the law
9 break the law without hesitation
10 have no use for law or bureaucracy, but respects honor, self-discipline and the 'concept' of law and order
11 work with others to attain your goal
12 may take 'dirty' money
13 never betray a freind
I love playing aberrant characters because they are soo much fun. We ran a one shot campaign were I got to be the Bond Villain and the others were my top henchmen. GM sent 005 and 006 after me to test me. I sent their heads back to MI6 in pretty hat boxes with nicely done up bows. My Character's Niece was of aberrant alignment as well and wanted to grow up to be just like him, she did the boxes. When he sent 007 after me...oh boy. Tiny air vents, competent guards, we caught him quick, extracted all the info we needed and killed him, sending his head back in a pink box with the note, "Send more, the last one was fun." (And no, it wasn't the Sean Connery Bond.)
... I am beyond Speachless, this actually sounds EXACTLY like my play style. HOW MANY PSHYCICS CAN READ MY LIFE?!?
All of them.
All of them.
Yeah, either your Ultramensch Supreme was an awesome Roleplayer (with a psychological hangup), or an idiot.
When someone is actively causing harm, particularly to innocent bystanders, they are no longer 'innocent'. When one 'protected' individual is harming other 'protected' individuals (women, children, busloads of orphan nuns with puppies, etc.), checking, or harming them (or killing, if unavoidable) is the lesser evil. Seriously, does nobody read the classics anymore? (By which I mean the TMNT Adventures! supplement, of course)
When someone is actively causing harm, particularly to innocent bystanders, they are no longer 'innocent'. When one 'protected' individual is harming other 'protected' individuals (women, children, busloads of orphan nuns with puppies, etc.), checking, or harming them (or killing, if unavoidable) is the lesser evil. Seriously, does nobody read the classics anymore? (By which I mean the TMNT Adventures! supplement, of course)
I was playing a good character in Ravenloft...first mistake. He was a storm-oriented sorcerer mashup at level 6, a doctor, and an all around nice guy. The rest of the party is either evil or chaotic neutral. One of them is a displacer beast lycanthrope (don't ask) who hated arcane magic-users, one is a battlemage played by an idiot, and one is a ninja with odd rage triggers.
We entered this town with lycanthropes that attacked and after clearing them out a little elf girl tries to hit the displacer-beast with Ray of Frost. The bastard crushed her with a tentacle. I ran over and used a defibrillator-technique to bring her back and the dumbass battlemage hit her with a magic missile. I saved her again, and he hit her again.
I killed the battlemage with one maximized lightning bolt because his save failed. I turned on the displacer-dude and fired on him and the ninja took my side. Due to some crappy DM judgment, the displacer was huge and horribly OP, so it outclassed us both. However, an item I'd grabbed on a whim earlier activated and summoned Thor, who punched a hole through the displacer beast and stole the ninja's sword.
The ninja was enraged and tried to kill me, so I knocked him out but he chose to let himself die because he was useless without the sword.
DM judgment: I went from Neutral Good to Lawful Good for wiping half the party.
We entered this town with lycanthropes that attacked and after clearing them out a little elf girl tries to hit the displacer-beast with Ray of Frost. The bastard crushed her with a tentacle. I ran over and used a defibrillator-technique to bring her back and the dumbass battlemage hit her with a magic missile. I saved her again, and he hit her again.
I killed the battlemage with one maximized lightning bolt because his save failed. I turned on the displacer-dude and fired on him and the ninja took my side. Due to some crappy DM judgment, the displacer was huge and horribly OP, so it outclassed us both. However, an item I'd grabbed on a whim earlier activated and summoned Thor, who punched a hole through the displacer beast and stole the ninja's sword.
The ninja was enraged and tried to kill me, so I knocked him out but he chose to let himself die because he was useless without the sword.
DM judgment: I went from Neutral Good to Lawful Good for wiping half the party.
Isaac was a pathfinder alchemist in Jade Regent. He was a noble, arrogant, self-important genius and socially aloof. Even so, he was fairly good-natured to his party despite his sociopathic tendencies. He only occasionally caught them in his splash radius.
So we fought off a giant frost spider, killed it, and it had a nasty paralyzing venom, huge dexterity damage with a decent DC. Isaac failed his check to know where the gland was, so he took his adamantine morningstar and attacked the tooth, expecting a huge-sized mandible to be rather durable.
DM ruled the tooth shattered, and venom gushed out all over Isaac. Being 1 level away from poison immunity and highly resistant, it was unlikely to faze him. Several 1's, 2's, and 3's later, completely immobile, our druid summoned a team of monkeys to strip him and our priest created water to clean the poison. While he was naked. In the Arctic North.
He finally made the save and went to retrieve a healing potion to cure the cold damage he'd just suffered and failed another save. The group, in its infinite wisdom, threw the poison-coated gear into the wagon with all his alchemical supplies, coating it with poison. Then, they decided the cart was too dangerous and rather than let Isaac deal with it, they dragged it off and turned it into a mushroom cloud several miles away.
It's a good thing Isaac was decapitated in the next battle, or several players would have gotten crossbow bolts to the face when they slept.
So we fought off a giant frost spider, killed it, and it had a nasty paralyzing venom, huge dexterity damage with a decent DC. Isaac failed his check to know where the gland was, so he took his adamantine morningstar and attacked the tooth, expecting a huge-sized mandible to be rather durable.
DM ruled the tooth shattered, and venom gushed out all over Isaac. Being 1 level away from poison immunity and highly resistant, it was unlikely to faze him. Several 1's, 2's, and 3's later, completely immobile, our druid summoned a team of monkeys to strip him and our priest created water to clean the poison. While he was naked. In the Arctic North.
He finally made the save and went to retrieve a healing potion to cure the cold damage he'd just suffered and failed another save. The group, in its infinite wisdom, threw the poison-coated gear into the wagon with all his alchemical supplies, coating it with poison. Then, they decided the cart was too dangerous and rather than let Isaac deal with it, they dragged it off and turned it into a mushroom cloud several miles away.
It's a good thing Isaac was decapitated in the next battle, or several players would have gotten crossbow bolts to the face when they slept.
Ok, I lied, I have something to say. They either should have gotten smart sooner and clean the poisoned gear, helped you more, or got more merciless and let you keep the stuff/deal with it. I feel pretty bad saying this, but it is probably more sympathetic then a crossbow bolt.
"There's a lesson here, but dammed if I'm going to learn it."
I want to say this to your DM - venom. That word, I do not think it means what you think it means.
Venom is only dangerous when injected. If you milked enough rattlesnakes to have a bathtub full of venom, you could lie down in it. It'd be gross, but not dangerous unless you had an open wound that it could get into. Or if you decided it'd be a good time to use a hair-dryer.
Venom is only dangerous when injected. If you milked enough rattlesnakes to have a bathtub full of venom, you could lie down in it. It'd be gross, but not dangerous unless you had an open wound that it could get into. Or if you decided it'd be a good time to use a hair-dryer.
Two and a half hours, Newbiespud? It sounds like an interesting group and an interesting game with participants having fun. I'll have to give session zero a try to see if that makes it any more engaging from the listener's point of view.
Dang, I totally forgot today was a FiD day. Arg, curse my non-engaging desk job!!
Think happy thoughts, or you'll become me.
*Looks at avatar* Become a changeling? Uhh... actually I already am. ;) Helps with running an RPG. I can suck the love right out of the players. Mwahahaha...
...and then I'll say a bad pun and be taken down in a barrage of dice throwing. :p :)
...and then I'll say a bad pun and be taken down in a barrage of dice throwing. :p :)
Actually Digo, I was looking through pics on the internet and coudn't find any that would work. I planned on a lonely soul forced to wander the world, watching the mistakes of others (and yourself), thus you self proving just how degenerated we are.
This is as close as I got. (just look at the pic)
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/85408/just-a-changeling
This is as close as I got. (just look at the pic)
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/85408/just-a-changeling
Well I do like an audience watching me when I make a mistake (I'm a ham for attention).
My main OC (named Zeeps) is a changeling that doesn't live with a hive. Travels with some ponies on adventures in the wild west instead. What I liked about Zeeps is that she's still loyal to the hive concept and doesn't feel changelings by nature are wrong. She's only opposed to folks like Queen Chrysalis that would take cities by force. Zeeps is learning instead that friendships are a muchmore efficient way at getting fed. :3
My main OC (named Zeeps) is a changeling that doesn't live with a hive. Travels with some ponies on adventures in the wild west instead. What I liked about Zeeps is that she's still loyal to the hive concept and doesn't feel changelings by nature are wrong. She's only opposed to folks like Queen Chrysalis that would take cities by force. Zeeps is learning instead that friendships are a muchmore efficient way at getting fed. :3
I completely forgot too - or more accurately, I was a day behind reality - but fortunately, my fingers typed the URL anyway when I was doing the webcomic update rounds. And then I posted a crappy comment out of habit.
Hi guys!
I haven't shared a story in a while (just been lurking like a good net ninja), but today's topic made me remember a recent episode I had in Pathfinder Society play...
Well, for those who aren't knowledgeable about PFS, it's organized roleplaying in a nutshell - kind of an RPG club that sets up dates to get together and play a number of 4-6 hour, mostly stand-alone adventures set in the PF world. You're working for the Pathfinder Society, a group of Indiana Jones-types that explore and catalog their findings throughout the world. I just got into PFS in January with my little brother and it's been a lot of fun so far - but it's also been very trying on one of my characters' psyche - and here's where my story comes in.
So I have two characters in PFS currently that I switch between for different missions.
One is my Chaotic Neutral Tiefling Ninja Ex-Serial Killer turned Pathfinder Niklaas who's already insane (he's hilarious - but this story isn't about him BTW).
The other character, however, is a little, cute, innocent seven year old girl by the name of Ashlynn, or "Ash" for short.
I haven't shared a story in a while (just been lurking like a good net ninja), but today's topic made me remember a recent episode I had in Pathfinder Society play...
Well, for those who aren't knowledgeable about PFS, it's organized roleplaying in a nutshell - kind of an RPG club that sets up dates to get together and play a number of 4-6 hour, mostly stand-alone adventures set in the PF world. You're working for the Pathfinder Society, a group of Indiana Jones-types that explore and catalog their findings throughout the world. I just got into PFS in January with my little brother and it's been a lot of fun so far - but it's also been very trying on one of my characters' psyche - and here's where my story comes in.
So I have two characters in PFS currently that I switch between for different missions.
One is my Chaotic Neutral Tiefling Ninja Ex-Serial Killer turned Pathfinder Niklaas who's already insane (he's hilarious - but this story isn't about him BTW).
The other character, however, is a little, cute, innocent seven year old girl by the name of Ashlynn, or "Ash" for short.
Now Ash is a Summoner. In PF, a Summoner is a magic user specialized in summoning monsters, especially one really strong outsider in-particular. This outsider is called an Eidolon, and the Eidolon always takes on a form from the Summoner's subconscious (and has a very strong psychic link to the Summoner too).
Ash's Eidolon's name is Coal, and the concept is that while Ash is physically weak but spiritually strong (all of her mental stats are good, all her physical stats are terrible - she's a diplomancer), Coal is the other way around (basically he's a warrior - taking the form of a big, black armored knight beat stick. He's mute too - so he leaves all the talking to Ash).
Okay, so I already mentioned that Ash was a cute, innocent little 7 year old girl right? Well, as far as I imagine her, she's always lived a charmed life (because Coal was their to protect and watch over her as a silent, Batman-esque guardian). She's really never seen any true hardship before, and she's a very kind and loving child.
Soooooooo... during a recent adventure, Ash and Coal were in a party exploring this ancient underground tomb. While in said tomb, the party found what appeared to be a gnome, stuck in some kind of arcane trap circle.
Now, Ash talked with the Gnome, and he seemed nice enough. Apparently, he'd been stuck in that trap for thousands of years, sustained indefinitely by the magic within the trap - but he really, really wanted to be free...
Hmmmm...
Random gnome pops up in ancient dungeon, asking to be freed from his magical prison...
Again I say - HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...
Ash's Eidolon's name is Coal, and the concept is that while Ash is physically weak but spiritually strong (all of her mental stats are good, all her physical stats are terrible - she's a diplomancer), Coal is the other way around (basically he's a warrior - taking the form of a big, black armored knight beat stick. He's mute too - so he leaves all the talking to Ash).
Okay, so I already mentioned that Ash was a cute, innocent little 7 year old girl right? Well, as far as I imagine her, she's always lived a charmed life (because Coal was their to protect and watch over her as a silent, Batman-esque guardian). She's really never seen any true hardship before, and she's a very kind and loving child.
Soooooooo... during a recent adventure, Ash and Coal were in a party exploring this ancient underground tomb. While in said tomb, the party found what appeared to be a gnome, stuck in some kind of arcane trap circle.
Now, Ash talked with the Gnome, and he seemed nice enough. Apparently, he'd been stuck in that trap for thousands of years, sustained indefinitely by the magic within the trap - but he really, really wanted to be free...
Hmmmm...
Random gnome pops up in ancient dungeon, asking to be freed from his magical prison...
Again I say - HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...
I had my doubts about this gnome's good intentions - but then again, our party failed every check the GM asked us to make to find some clues as to the gnome's true nature.
That typed, roleplaying Ash as the naive little girl that she was, she agreed (along with the rest of the party) to free this gnome. I mean, after all, Ash felt really sorry for the poor little guy. Trapped in a circle for thousands of years - and with no one to play with? He didn't even have a single toy for goodness sake. That poor gnome must have been bored out of his mind.
So Coal walked up and destroyed the trap circle...
And then that nice little gnome?
-He turned into a CR 13 demon.
...
Come to find out - that trap circle? It was a demon summoning circle...
Yep.
And just to clarify - but Ash and Coal were Lvl 2 at this point.
That typed, roleplaying Ash as the naive little girl that she was, she agreed (along with the rest of the party) to free this gnome. I mean, after all, Ash felt really sorry for the poor little guy. Trapped in a circle for thousands of years - and with no one to play with? He didn't even have a single toy for goodness sake. That poor gnome must have been bored out of his mind.
So Coal walked up and destroyed the trap circle...
And then that nice little gnome?
-He turned into a CR 13 demon.
...
Come to find out - that trap circle? It was a demon summoning circle...
Yep.
And just to clarify - but Ash and Coal were Lvl 2 at this point.
Sooooo...
Thankfully the demon was happy enough to be freed that he didn't wipe the party out right then and there (goodness knows he could have).
Unfortunately for us however, after he was freed, said demon decided to tromp further down the dungeon (we followed him of course. There wasn't much else to do, what with being stunned stupid that we'd just inadvertently unleashed an ancient evil upon the world) - but said demon tromped a bit further down the dungeon, where we watched as he opened a door to reveal an unconscious angel trapped in yet another summoning circle. He tore apart the summoning circle, ripped the poor angel to shreds, then laughed maniacally, thanked us for our help - "Couldn't have done it without ya!" - and left Ash staring at a dead angel's corpse.
There were some story reasons for why the angel and demon were there - but that's not really important. What is important is that after that epic fiasco, Ash went home and cried herself to sleep. This wasn't actually an in-game moment, but I imagine she would've been seriously traumatized to have witnessed something that horrible happen (and to have been partly the cause of it). She'd lock herself up in her room and probably not want to come out ever again. Even if Coal covered her eyes during the angel slaughter (as I imagine he did), she would've still been haunted by the demon's laughter and the sounds of shredding angel.
The only reason she didn't go insane would have been Coal. He would've had to make her realize that mistakes happen, and yes, sometimes they're even really big ones - the biggest in fact (like unleashing an ancient evil upon the world -AND- inadvertently murdering an ancient force of good). But what good is it to simply give up after something like that? That demon won the battle, but would Ash let him win the war? Coal would've had to tell Ash that we make mistakes - but when we make those mistakes we have to learn and grow stronger - so we can not make those same mistakes again. He'd understand her pain, but Ash would have to recover and she'd have to mature fast. The world was a dark place, and Coal couldn't protect her from it forever. She needed to be prepared when she faced evil like that demon again in the future.
^This was all me imagining how Ash could ever justify going on a PFS mission again. Once more I'll admit that it didn't actually happen in-character, but after this adventure Ash bought mulitple potions of Bless Weapon, as well as a Cold Iron and Silver blade for Coal. She'd go on to be a sweet little girl, but she'd also become a little bit more careful of just who-or what-she trusted.
Thankfully the demon was happy enough to be freed that he didn't wipe the party out right then and there (goodness knows he could have).
Unfortunately for us however, after he was freed, said demon decided to tromp further down the dungeon (we followed him of course. There wasn't much else to do, what with being stunned stupid that we'd just inadvertently unleashed an ancient evil upon the world) - but said demon tromped a bit further down the dungeon, where we watched as he opened a door to reveal an unconscious angel trapped in yet another summoning circle. He tore apart the summoning circle, ripped the poor angel to shreds, then laughed maniacally, thanked us for our help - "Couldn't have done it without ya!" - and left Ash staring at a dead angel's corpse.
There were some story reasons for why the angel and demon were there - but that's not really important. What is important is that after that epic fiasco, Ash went home and cried herself to sleep. This wasn't actually an in-game moment, but I imagine she would've been seriously traumatized to have witnessed something that horrible happen (and to have been partly the cause of it). She'd lock herself up in her room and probably not want to come out ever again. Even if Coal covered her eyes during the angel slaughter (as I imagine he did), she would've still been haunted by the demon's laughter and the sounds of shredding angel.
The only reason she didn't go insane would have been Coal. He would've had to make her realize that mistakes happen, and yes, sometimes they're even really big ones - the biggest in fact (like unleashing an ancient evil upon the world -AND- inadvertently murdering an ancient force of good). But what good is it to simply give up after something like that? That demon won the battle, but would Ash let him win the war? Coal would've had to tell Ash that we make mistakes - but when we make those mistakes we have to learn and grow stronger - so we can not make those same mistakes again. He'd understand her pain, but Ash would have to recover and she'd have to mature fast. The world was a dark place, and Coal couldn't protect her from it forever. She needed to be prepared when she faced evil like that demon again in the future.
^This was all me imagining how Ash could ever justify going on a PFS mission again. Once more I'll admit that it didn't actually happen in-character, but after this adventure Ash bought mulitple potions of Bless Weapon, as well as a Cold Iron and Silver blade for Coal. She'd go on to be a sweet little girl, but she'd also become a little bit more careful of just who-or what-she trusted.
Sorry for the long post, but it was too much fun to reminisce.
BTW - Blessed Weapons, Cold Iron, and Silver weapons? Just in case you're not aware, most nasty, evil things have Damage Reduction to anything that's not Good aligned or Cold Iron/Silver.
So Ash and Coal have been tooled up to become demon hunters - and I really, REALLY want to find that stupid CR 13 demon some day so they can rectify their past mistake (hopefully they won't find him until they're at least level 7 or so - but yeah).
BTW - Blessed Weapons, Cold Iron, and Silver weapons? Just in case you're not aware, most nasty, evil things have Damage Reduction to anything that's not Good aligned or Cold Iron/Silver.
So Ash and Coal have been tooled up to become demon hunters - and I really, REALLY want to find that stupid CR 13 demon some day so they can rectify their past mistake (hopefully they won't find him until they're at least level 7 or so - but yeah).
May your quest be riddled with the answers you seek, and may your spirit go unbroken.
Ash, your choices may have unleashed evil, and slain good, but don't let that be what you see yourself. Redeme for your mistakes, but don't let your kindness leave.
Coal, I wish you luck with your task. Never let the one you protect down, never give up trying to do your best.
May you both go on your true path, and rid the world of your past mistakes.
-Specter, Dark Lord of the Hollow-Forest.
Ash, your choices may have unleashed evil, and slain good, but don't let that be what you see yourself. Redeme for your mistakes, but don't let your kindness leave.
Coal, I wish you luck with your task. Never let the one you protect down, never give up trying to do your best.
May you both go on your true path, and rid the world of your past mistakes.
-Specter, Dark Lord of the Hollow-Forest.
I have a tale of a characters mental breakdown which boiled down to 'why you shouldn't play epic level d&d'.
We started a campaign at level 21 as a continuation of the previous campaign that ended at level 20 (same world, but new characters). I created a sorcerer descended from my Duskblade character originally called 'Max Power', I wanted to call my character Moore Power, but everyone groaned and said no :(
The adventure after a few fights getting the party settled (it had a bard, fighter, druid, cleric and myself) and the plot rolling, we moved to the astral plane where there was a cartoghrapher we needed help from. We didn't know much about the astral plane so we did a bit of research to figure out what's different.
The key difference was there's no time on the astral plane.
After a bit of investigating later we manage to find the cartoghraphers house, although it was closer with a manor, with a butler who answered the door. Since we didn't make an appointment the blutler asked us to relax in the waiting room while he talked to the cartoghrapher.
A waiting room, in a plane with no time.
So naturally my character freaked out.
Me: 'Why is there a waiting room IN A PLANE WITH NO TIME?'
Fighter: 'Relax, I'm sure he'll be here soon'
Me: 'HOW DO WE KNOW? WE COULD HAVE ALREADY BEEN WAITING FOR AN ETERNITY! OR NO TIME'
Bard: 'We've only been here a few seconds and already you're making a scene'
Me: 'AAAAAAHHHHHH!'
Cleric: *sigh* (Casts calm emotions on me), 'Better'
Me: '... Better'
We eventually talked to the cartographer and were told to go to the fringe of the region we were in and find some astral diamonds. What looked like a small planet floating turned out to be a giant monster head (which we were mining for diamonds), we quickly make a retreat after realising this.
DM: 'The planet head chases you'
Fighter: 'I move away' (everyone had some form of flight)
DM: 'The planet is faster than you, it starts to catch up'
Fighter: 'How? There's no velocity in a plane with no time, there's no way an object can move closer to me if I move away from it since there's no rate of change, only displacement'
DM: 'well, it's displacement in relation to you is getting smaller'
Fighter: 'This makes no sense!!'
Me: 'You should try one of those calm emotions'
We started a campaign at level 21 as a continuation of the previous campaign that ended at level 20 (same world, but new characters). I created a sorcerer descended from my Duskblade character originally called 'Max Power', I wanted to call my character Moore Power, but everyone groaned and said no :(
The adventure after a few fights getting the party settled (it had a bard, fighter, druid, cleric and myself) and the plot rolling, we moved to the astral plane where there was a cartoghrapher we needed help from. We didn't know much about the astral plane so we did a bit of research to figure out what's different.
The key difference was there's no time on the astral plane.
After a bit of investigating later we manage to find the cartoghraphers house, although it was closer with a manor, with a butler who answered the door. Since we didn't make an appointment the blutler asked us to relax in the waiting room while he talked to the cartoghrapher.
A waiting room, in a plane with no time.
So naturally my character freaked out.
Me: 'Why is there a waiting room IN A PLANE WITH NO TIME?'
Fighter: 'Relax, I'm sure he'll be here soon'
Me: 'HOW DO WE KNOW? WE COULD HAVE ALREADY BEEN WAITING FOR AN ETERNITY! OR NO TIME'
Bard: 'We've only been here a few seconds and already you're making a scene'
Me: 'AAAAAAHHHHHH!'
Cleric: *sigh* (Casts calm emotions on me), 'Better'
Me: '... Better'
We eventually talked to the cartographer and were told to go to the fringe of the region we were in and find some astral diamonds. What looked like a small planet floating turned out to be a giant monster head (which we were mining for diamonds), we quickly make a retreat after realising this.
DM: 'The planet head chases you'
Fighter: 'I move away' (everyone had some form of flight)
DM: 'The planet is faster than you, it starts to catch up'
Fighter: 'How? There's no velocity in a plane with no time, there's no way an object can move closer to me if I move away from it since there's no rate of change, only displacement'
DM: 'well, it's displacement in relation to you is getting smaller'
Fighter: 'This makes no sense!!'
Me: 'You should try one of those calm emotions'
Played a homebrew game, where mystical creatures tried to live in 1950s US. We got so much in character that when our local GM told us of the news of Gagarin, the vampire and I freaked out that soviet space paratroopers will conquer our town.
...Yeah, we had fun upping each other's crazy paranoid claims.
...Yeah, we had fun upping each other's crazy paranoid claims.
Also, if you missed the last Fallout is Dragons update, here's the link.