Friendship is Dragons
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Page 513 - Metal Entrance
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Grand entrances huh?
You know its funny. In super powerful campaigns (like the 3.P level ONE HUNDRED Gestalt), where everyone are incredibly powerful. I tend to make one of two things.
1. A Dragon. Who can only make grand entrances.
2. A normal looking every day type of guy, who won't do grand entrances even if it killed him.
Though admittedly, for the level 50 Gestalt arena, I did make Kamina, so he'll be making grand entrances...
You know its funny. In super powerful campaigns (like the 3.P level ONE HUNDRED Gestalt), where everyone are incredibly powerful. I tend to make one of two things.
1. A Dragon. Who can only make grand entrances.
2. A normal looking every day type of guy, who won't do grand entrances even if it killed him.
Though admittedly, for the level 50 Gestalt arena, I did make Kamina, so he'll be making grand entrances...
When I played as The Great and Powerful Trixie in a Supers campaign, grand entrances were how she'd roll for initiative. :D
A group of us were playing a semi-long roleplaying is magic game for a friend of ours who was about to move away. We had like a month to play and complete the campaign, so we went over to our GM's house pretty much every weekend and on days where all of us had free time to beat it (heck, some of us went alone or in small groups se we could negotiate with the GM for things our characters would do off screen or to things to that nature).
Our group was made up of six adventurers;
-Solar Hooves the earth pony stallion who was pretty much a normal pony but could also get energy from the sun.
-Steal Wheels the unicorn mare who was our designated driver and thief (and commits a vehicular like theft whenever they see something they want).
-Streaking Flash the Pegasus stallion who was played our "that guy" who made every attempt to streak and flash in the name of good and to hinder our enemies (clothes are considered decent in the campaign, and he made this his last attempt to get our friend to smile and laugh before they left).
-Minty Breath the crystal unicorn mare who owned her own traveling shop and used her mint-like abilities to make freeze enemies, aided our efforts to stay concealed in even the most notorious of noxious spots, and make really good treats for children, customers, and the party (in that order).
-Midnight Remedy the (party known) changeling who holds considerable powers over the realm of medicine and surgery (which has been needed a few times).
and -Little Wings the bat-pony filly with a heart of gold, and a mind of ice-cold efficiency.
*long narrative of what happened* So we found the hideout of our nemesis, and were ready to strike the next day. Our enemy was paranoid as hell at this point, so we knew there was no reason to negotiate, and we knew his retainers were basically soldiers who joined him and made a deal with the spirit of Nightmare Moon, so they were going to be tough.
We actually sent him a crate (well, a metal box with magic rendering explosives, fire, and weight from harming the container and it's contents unharmed, but a crate nonetheless), containing the device he was looking for to complete his doomsday device (we even sent a note saying what the box contained, and the GM only opens the note if the crate is opened), but his paranoia got the best of him, and he just let it sit their on the floor of his main office, and let it be used as a coffee table. Our friend didn't really do anything after that, which was kind of confusing.
Sadly, that was when our friend had to move, and we had to put everything away :(
They said not to worry because they'll be back to visit for the holidays. Which they did.
We picked up the game right where we left off, the five of us storming the headquarters of our enemy, and taking an absolute beating from the boss and his best... yeah, his buffing was the most annoying thing ever. Ironically enough, he left us alive in his office to interrogate us on the location of the device and our little coward filly. In truth, WE didn't even know where she was, or the device (it was done out of character by our friend, and they disappeared a day before the raid). We were startled when our friend asked where he was standing (center of room), next to the crate? (yes?). He was then prompted to open the envelope, which said "You see the device, shining in all of brilliance and letting of a low hum... you also see a dark-blue bat-pony filly with a face of insane happiness holding a lit Molotov duct-taped to C4"...
The initial fire + explosive damage was not enough to kill the boss outright, but Little Wings was fine while inside the crate. I let out my best AoE heal spell I could before we got jumped (and started combat again with next to no HP).
We took out everyone, and even destroyed the device in the process (yay). In the end, we were talking to Celestia, Luna, and Twilight about the device, and they said it was a good thing he never got it, or he would have been able to control nearly every changeling in Equestria with it (high hooves for everyone!)... but without it, we won't be able to repel their next attack... "We all back up a few feet, then slide on our hind legs, fore legs in the air yelling NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo." (I secretly say "YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEeeeeessssssssss")
Sorry if this was long.
On behalf of changelings everywhere, thanks! :)
And hey, not being able to repel a future attack sounds like the best kind of plot hook for a sequel.
And hey, not being able to repel a future attack sounds like the best kind of plot hook for a sequel.
I recall one grand entrance I made recently in a Pathfinder organized play adventure.
I was playing a crazy, sociopathic half-demon ninja (CN - because CE is banned in organized play), and for some reason, my party allowed me to make up the plan for how we were going to bust into this one suite in a tavern.
Now, to be fair, the room belonged to a bounty hunter (a bounty hunter that had just captured an important contact that we had to save), so I was under the impression that said bounty hunter might be a threat...
That was all the reason I needed to come up with a mad plan.
Okay, so we agreed to have our wild-shaping druid & his baby Roc animal companion fly up the outside of the tavern and bust in through the room's skylight - the baby Roc hurling the party barbarian through the glass first to lead the charge.
Meanwhile, all the flightless members of the party (me included) had picked the lock to the front entrance to the room, and we would be waiting outside for the sound of broken glass. That would be our que to bust down the door and rush the bounty hunter from all sides.
...
I came up with this entire plan all by myself in a matter of moments, and I got so animated when I was explaining things that the rest of the party was just sitting there grinning and nodding dumbfounded the whole time. We went through with the plan and it all went off just as planned, the only thing we hadn't planned for?
-Finding the bounty hunter naked and asleep in her bed (well, she woke up when the barbarian crashed through her skylight - but yeah).
Apparently, come to find out, the encounter wasn't even supposed to be a combat encounter. The GM talked to us about it afterwards, and part of the mission had been to keep a low profile. Apparently we were expected to do something subtle and stealthy like slipping the bounty hunter a mickey at the bar or sneaking into her room while she was asleep.
-Whelp. We definitely weren't subtle - and that's why we had to spend multiple in-game hours flying through the night, jumping rooftops and evading the local authorities.
We did save the contact though!
And we got a good story to tell too - so win-win!
I was playing a crazy, sociopathic half-demon ninja (CN - because CE is banned in organized play), and for some reason, my party allowed me to make up the plan for how we were going to bust into this one suite in a tavern.
Now, to be fair, the room belonged to a bounty hunter (a bounty hunter that had just captured an important contact that we had to save), so I was under the impression that said bounty hunter might be a threat...
That was all the reason I needed to come up with a mad plan.
Okay, so we agreed to have our wild-shaping druid & his baby Roc animal companion fly up the outside of the tavern and bust in through the room's skylight - the baby Roc hurling the party barbarian through the glass first to lead the charge.
Meanwhile, all the flightless members of the party (me included) had picked the lock to the front entrance to the room, and we would be waiting outside for the sound of broken glass. That would be our que to bust down the door and rush the bounty hunter from all sides.
...
I came up with this entire plan all by myself in a matter of moments, and I got so animated when I was explaining things that the rest of the party was just sitting there grinning and nodding dumbfounded the whole time. We went through with the plan and it all went off just as planned, the only thing we hadn't planned for?
-Finding the bounty hunter naked and asleep in her bed (well, she woke up when the barbarian crashed through her skylight - but yeah).
Apparently, come to find out, the encounter wasn't even supposed to be a combat encounter. The GM talked to us about it afterwards, and part of the mission had been to keep a low profile. Apparently we were expected to do something subtle and stealthy like slipping the bounty hunter a mickey at the bar or sneaking into her room while she was asleep.
-Whelp. We definitely weren't subtle - and that's why we had to spend multiple in-game hours flying through the night, jumping rooftops and evading the local authorities.
We did save the contact though!
And we got a good story to tell too - so win-win!
Whats the point of lv 100 gestault? At lv 21 full casters get epic spellcasting which allows them to pretty much take over as GM while melee guys don't advance at all past 20 (not like they got much since lv 6 except bigger numbers anyway)
Whilst it isn't as much a "grand entrance", one time me and my party walked into a maggot mage's tomb, looked at the carefully positioned coffins, and formulated a plan.
Flash forward about 3-5 turns and a party of around 5 lvl 3s and perhaps some more lower lvls had just rolfstomped a lvl 7-ish mage and his minions, with almost no injuries on our end.
Flash forward about 3-5 turns and a party of around 5 lvl 3s and perhaps some more lower lvls had just rolfstomped a lvl 7-ish mage and his minions, with almost no injuries on our end.
Addendum to prior comment:
Get roflstomped skrublord! Flanking bonus on all 8 sides!
Get roflstomped skrublord! Flanking bonus on all 8 sides!
In most of my parties, two words: Teleport Assault.
Probably the best example, though was in a Living Greyhawk mod, and surprisingly it did not involve teleporting (although there was summoning). For those who never played, because of the structure of the campaign these tended to be limited to three or four battles per module. To compensate, though, these encounters tended to be two or three ELs above the total party level.
We were looking to rescue... somebody. I can't remember who it was, now, but we'd located which house they were in, and our wizard had scried out the locations of everything of importance in the house. We knew the bad guy was an arcane spellcaster with the prisoner in a room on the second floor, there was an additional bad guy in the room, some guards near the stairs on the second floor, and some guards in a room next to the entrance on the bottom floor, although they weren't particularly alert. We had reason to believe that the kidnappers might respond to an attack by killing the prisoner, so we got to planning.
Our opening move involved the wizard (actually an alienist...) summoning a pair of big pseudonatural critters into the room with the prisoner, and immediately downing the BBEG with big True Striked hits. Simultaneously with the completion of the spell, one of the fighter-types smashed in the front door, while the REST of the melee characters, trusting that tanky-type to be able to hold the downstairs guards at bay, rushed up the stairs (hasted, of course). By the end of the first full round, the other badguy in the prisoner's room was backed up against the wall by a pair of horrors that man was not supposed to know wot of, the upstairs guards were effectively neutralised, and the mooks on the bottom floor decided they just weren't so eager to be next.
We basically triggered most of the encounters in the adventure in one go, and eliminated all opposition in the space of about fifteen seconds in-game. Being a convention slot, we then spent the next two hours of the four-hour slot waiting for everyone else to finish...
Probably the best example, though was in a Living Greyhawk mod, and surprisingly it did not involve teleporting (although there was summoning). For those who never played, because of the structure of the campaign these tended to be limited to three or four battles per module. To compensate, though, these encounters tended to be two or three ELs above the total party level.
We were looking to rescue... somebody. I can't remember who it was, now, but we'd located which house they were in, and our wizard had scried out the locations of everything of importance in the house. We knew the bad guy was an arcane spellcaster with the prisoner in a room on the second floor, there was an additional bad guy in the room, some guards near the stairs on the second floor, and some guards in a room next to the entrance on the bottom floor, although they weren't particularly alert. We had reason to believe that the kidnappers might respond to an attack by killing the prisoner, so we got to planning.
Our opening move involved the wizard (actually an alienist...) summoning a pair of big pseudonatural critters into the room with the prisoner, and immediately downing the BBEG with big True Striked hits. Simultaneously with the completion of the spell, one of the fighter-types smashed in the front door, while the REST of the melee characters, trusting that tanky-type to be able to hold the downstairs guards at bay, rushed up the stairs (hasted, of course). By the end of the first full round, the other badguy in the prisoner's room was backed up against the wall by a pair of horrors that man was not supposed to know wot of, the upstairs guards were effectively neutralised, and the mooks on the bottom floor decided they just weren't so eager to be next.
We basically triggered most of the encounters in the adventure in one go, and eliminated all opposition in the space of about fifteen seconds in-game. Being a convention slot, we then spent the next two hours of the four-hour slot waiting for everyone else to finish...
If there was one team that could make a grande entrance, it was the 'Majestic 12'-- the group of runners from my Shadowrun 4e game.
The team was hired to recover a silver tea kettle from the mafia. Should have been a straight-forward job requiring stealth, bribery, and talking to connections for information on the mafia's daily schedule. Instead, the team drives up to the office building carrying enough firepower to occupy a small country.
The heaviest hitters: Snowfire, a dragon who was wielding a minigun and drilling the mafia cubicle farm on the 2nd floor. From the lobby. Super Joe, the demo expert who managed to blow up enough cars in the parking lot to make a flaming outline of the middle finger, and Greywolf the sniper on the adjacent office building who blew up the mafia helicopter on the roof.
It really looked a lot like the lobby scene in The Matrix. I even broke out that music just for them. So yeah, with cars on fire, 80% of the body guards and security killed within 3 rounds of combat, and the mafia leaders cowering in their offices, the social rogue picks up the PA system and asks if the mafia 'would like to negotiate' for the kettle.
The team was hired to recover a silver tea kettle from the mafia. Should have been a straight-forward job requiring stealth, bribery, and talking to connections for information on the mafia's daily schedule. Instead, the team drives up to the office building carrying enough firepower to occupy a small country.
The heaviest hitters: Snowfire, a dragon who was wielding a minigun and drilling the mafia cubicle farm on the 2nd floor. From the lobby. Super Joe, the demo expert who managed to blow up enough cars in the parking lot to make a flaming outline of the middle finger, and Greywolf the sniper on the adjacent office building who blew up the mafia helicopter on the roof.
It really looked a lot like the lobby scene in The Matrix. I even broke out that music just for them. So yeah, with cars on fire, 80% of the body guards and security killed within 3 rounds of combat, and the mafia leaders cowering in their offices, the social rogue picks up the PA system and asks if the mafia 'would like to negotiate' for the kettle.
Was the dragon as a PC race homebrew or in te rules?
Either way do you have any links? (maniac grin)
Either way do you have any links? (maniac grin)
Dragon was a tweaked version of the Drake race in the Runner's Companion. Sadly, no links to the old game. :/
It is the ten year class reunion for the class of '82 at the academy of heros. To everyone's shock, everything goes black, and all sounds fade. Soon, they can hear faint flapping sounds, and in the distance, they see a dragon, flying straight towards them. The gale force of the mighty beating wings nearly topples them over. The dragon lands with a deafening crash, and in a thundering voice, says, "We have arrived, Master."
A lone figure leaps form the dragon's head, and lands in front of them, striking the ground with his fist. The ground splits, and amidst gouts of flame an enormous visage of Raxon appears. The blackened sky turns shimmering and crimson, and begins to drip with blood. A bright flash of light causes everyone to blink. When they open their eyes, all of it was gone, and Raxon stands before them. "Sorry I'm late. What'd I miss?
Little did they know he had been sitting in the back the whole time, and nobody noticed.
Don't really have an appropriate Story Time story, but I just wanted to say that Luna is a tricky character to depict in fan works.
A lot of the fan works I've seen tend to take the extreme of either 'Shy Luna', or in the case of everything for a year or two after Luna Eclipsed, taking 'PRINCESS CAPSLOCK' to its full extent and making her a bombastic warrior.
The thing that makes the latter interpretation not entirely work for me is the tendency to ignore other aspects of her personality. Putting her at the head of an army of batponies who adore her, or even joined her in trying to overthrow Celestia. Some even make her extremely romantic and sexual (because that's what adult ponies do at night). This always bugs me a little, because while I can totally understand the desire to throw her a bone (Ugh, that pun was NOT intended when I wrote it) it makes me wonder why, if she had so many admirers, she would ever get jealous enough to launch a coup.
A lot of the fan works I've seen tend to take the extreme of either 'Shy Luna', or in the case of everything for a year or two after Luna Eclipsed, taking 'PRINCESS CAPSLOCK' to its full extent and making her a bombastic warrior.
The thing that makes the latter interpretation not entirely work for me is the tendency to ignore other aspects of her personality. Putting her at the head of an army of batponies who adore her, or even joined her in trying to overthrow Celestia. Some even make her extremely romantic and sexual (because that's what adult ponies do at night). This always bugs me a little, because while I can totally understand the desire to throw her a bone (Ugh, that pun was NOT intended when I wrote it) it makes me wonder why, if she had so many admirers, she would ever get jealous enough to launch a coup.
In my fanfics, I've written Luna as a practical tactician. If Celestia is the Lawful Good princess, I write Luna as more Neutral Good. She upholds Equestrian laws and can be as gentle as her sister, but Luna will use advantages like stealth and surprise. She'll bend rules to get the most good out of her actions, but she won't break them.
And I never write her as having desires to overthrow Celestia. The jealousy she had where Ponies slept through the night and shunned it isn't a deal anymore as many cities now have a night life going on. :D
And I never write her as having desires to overthrow Celestia. The jealousy she had where Ponies slept through the night and shunned it isn't a deal anymore as many cities now have a night life going on. :D
I tend to envision Luna as moderately shy, but covering it up with bombastic mannerisms. Luna Eclipsed did show her getting much calmer around Twilight as she got to know her better and was more comfortable in her presence.
tl;dr Celestia's a NG who fights dirty when necessary and Luna is socially awkward around those she doesn't know yet.
I guess it could be argued how dirty Celestia would get. She's definitely not afraid to break out the lasers as seen in A Canterlot Wedding. Maybe she's able to keep a LG alignment because she delegates the dirtier work to those she knows can handle it. :)
As far as my personal interpretation, I do like that there are a variety of ways to treat her depending on the tone of the story, but I lean more toward Disloyal Subject's ideas.
Actually, my interpretation of Luna and Celestia both inform one another when thinking about the two of them growing up together. I picture Celestia as being an extremely social creature who is, for the most part, very comfortable with her station and being the center of attention. Not to an egotistical extent, but in the sense of being a natural leader. I've seen a lot of fanfics that have her feeling chained down by being the Princess, but I lean more toward the idea that on a day-to-day basis, she LOVES her job, and is well suited toward tackling the responsibilities that come with the crown.
By contrast, I see Luna as simultaneously being more introverted by nature and idolizing her big sister and the ease with which Celestia earns the affection of other ponies. But while Celly has a gift for reading ponies and addressing their needs, Luna has a habit of misreading subtle social cues, causing her attempts to emulate her big sister to come across as a bit 'off'.
Actually, my interpretation of Luna and Celestia both inform one another when thinking about the two of them growing up together. I picture Celestia as being an extremely social creature who is, for the most part, very comfortable with her station and being the center of attention. Not to an egotistical extent, but in the sense of being a natural leader. I've seen a lot of fanfics that have her feeling chained down by being the Princess, but I lean more toward the idea that on a day-to-day basis, she LOVES her job, and is well suited toward tackling the responsibilities that come with the crown.
By contrast, I see Luna as simultaneously being more introverted by nature and idolizing her big sister and the ease with which Celestia earns the affection of other ponies. But while Celly has a gift for reading ponies and addressing their needs, Luna has a habit of misreading subtle social cues, causing her attempts to emulate her big sister to come across as a bit 'off'.
Regarding her behavior in "Luna Eclipsed", Luna's entrance and use of the Royal Canterlot Voice are both confirmed to be rather antiquated. My personal explanation for the RCV is that it was an old Unicornian custom that started out simply as an amplification spell so that rulers could address large crowds (and alternatively as an intimidation tactic). Luna would have remembered Celestia using it frequently to speak to their subjects, but not quite pick up on the fact that she did so for large crowds from a castle balcony, and not in the center of town with ponies standing (or cowering) less than ten feet away.
It's weird to say (and think), but it's because I can sort of seeing it happen (and because I am a helpless victim of seeing the memes of characters). Celestia sort of trolls her enemies (launch boulders and dead cows? No, we'll send forth a barrage of milk and cookies!) While Luna (despite the age old tradition of singular combat, probably, I don't know too much Equestrian history) would use the cover of darkness and overwhelming numbers too their most efficient purpose.
Hey, I'm also willing to bet they'll let those who surrender be let go (person pending, some are better off with a different verdict...)
The first Natural 20 I ever rolled was for trying to open a door. I was quite underwhelmed. That's the closest I have.
Seems like the only times I roll Natural 20s are when I need them the least.
Seems like the only times I roll Natural 20s are when I need them the least.
Or the other way around. AD&D's d20 system apparently switches between 'roll under' and 'higher = better' depending on the roll's purpose.
Oddly enough, it doesn't happen so much in d100 systems, though I do tend to roll a 1 on initiative in those (and STILL go first, thanks to character build.)
In Shadowrun 4e, where you want to roll a 5+ on a d6, I once had a character that was really good at rolling 5s. Like, all the time. The GM made me switch out dice in case I was cheating.
Still kept rolling 5s. :D
Only with that one character though.
Still kept rolling 5s. :D
Only with that one character though.
"I roll for butler/cook skill!"
29, 38, Nat 20, 24, 31, 29, 34, 37, etc...
"I roll to jump kick him in the face!"
23.
that was pretty much it.
Played a necromancer in Iron Kingdom with a descent amount of undead under my control. Had them burst into the enemy base playing heavy metal as I fired hellfire from my caster. He screamed at the top of his voice shouting that their lives were forfeit and their souls were now mine as I had a continuous spell on him that granted terror.
The enemy fled as the rest of my allies waited at the opposite side of the building incase my plan worked... or if it failed letting all their attention be focused on me while they attacked from behind. All in all it was a good fight.
The enemy fled as the rest of my allies waited at the opposite side of the building incase my plan worked... or if it failed letting all their attention be focused on me while they attacked from behind. All in all it was a good fight.
Luna's entrance in that episode is completely and utterly Metal. \m/ So freakin' awesome.
Power Metal Luna is Best Luna.
Power Metal Luna is Best Luna.
One of the only better animated entrances I can think of off-hand is when Megamind made a robot-swarm representation of his face to Guns and Roses
Now off to play some Robot Unicorn Attack, since I don't have a hard copy of that Blind Guardian album yet.
(Hmm... Fluttershy lead vocals, Luna rhythm guitar/backup vocals, Dashie lead guitar, Applejack bass, Pinkie drums, Trixie? synthboard/backup vocals, Derpy triangle, Rarity harpsichord, maybe Octavia and Lyra with their instruments of choice... I should probably watch Rainbow Rocks already and see how they played it.)
In Pathfinder, there is a spell called Telekinetic Charge, where a wizard picks up an ally and flings them into the midst of the enemies. Needless to say, in conjunction with a barbarian, that spell becomes 'dynamic entry the spell.'
The best example of the use of this spell was in one campaign where the party was to infiltrated a castle and rescue a captured maiden from the tallest tower. The DM had set up the entire castle's encounters and prepared for almost every contingency. Except he forgot the party's favourite spell. At level 10, the spell could launch someone 75 feet in the air, just barely enough to get to the floor below the maiden's in the tower and, due to a homebrew rule on spells (that later became the arcanist class spellcasting) the wizard was able to just fling the entire party through the window, kill the guards quickly and quietly, and then just use a rope to make a quick getaway. The DM was somewhat peeved.
That story wasn't really a dynamic entry story, now that I think of it, so instead I will tell you about L'Roy Jinkies, a barbarian with very little in the way of mental faculties. He entered through every door, every single door, by kicking it in and shouting "L'Roooooooy Jiiiinkiieees!" The player would actually shout it out every time despite it getting old very quickly.
The best example of the use of this spell was in one campaign where the party was to infiltrated a castle and rescue a captured maiden from the tallest tower. The DM had set up the entire castle's encounters and prepared for almost every contingency. Except he forgot the party's favourite spell. At level 10, the spell could launch someone 75 feet in the air, just barely enough to get to the floor below the maiden's in the tower and, due to a homebrew rule on spells (that later became the arcanist class spellcasting) the wizard was able to just fling the entire party through the window, kill the guards quickly and quietly, and then just use a rope to make a quick getaway. The DM was somewhat peeved.
That story wasn't really a dynamic entry story, now that I think of it, so instead I will tell you about L'Roy Jinkies, a barbarian with very little in the way of mental faculties. He entered through every door, every single door, by kicking it in and shouting "L'Roooooooy Jiiiinkiieees!" The player would actually shout it out every time despite it getting old very quickly.
The battle-barge was wreathed in flame as it entered the atmosphere. Somewhat battered by an Chaos Hellbringer Cruiser's lucky shot, it had nonetheless weathered its first battle in ten millennia with minimal effort, and was ready for more.
As the ground came into sight, the massive spacecraft slowed, and a battlefield came into sensor range below. Daemon Engines of Nurgle and Khorne advanced on a fortified castle wall, from which the Imperial Guard desperately called for help on multiple frequencies.
The bridge crew rushed to the hangar, and suited up.
The Knights of House Excelsus, gleaming titans of steel and ceramite, leaped from the craft, and all around them, Mechanicum Taghmata battle automata joined the righteous rain of death onto the battlefield. Reinforcements were here, and the battle was all but over.
In practice, the battle took a while, since we were up against Daemon Engines of Nurgle, which can take a beating.
In a weapons of the Gods game I was in (based around Bleach for reasons) our characters tend to be desperately scrabbling for advantage, so it's hard to make a dramatic entrance.
That said, given all the points I had put into brawling, good old bare handed fighting, we sure as hell tried. This meant every door in our path tot he villains tended to get punched down as our characters attempted to look cool.
Naturally there were a few instances of this not working, or taking several tries. In one instance we recieved a description of the boss waiting on the otherside as they could hear me pounding away at the door to try and get it to give way.
That said, given all the points I had put into brawling, good old bare handed fighting, we sure as hell tried. This meant every door in our path tot he villains tended to get punched down as our characters attempted to look cool.
Naturally there were a few instances of this not working, or taking several tries. In one instance we recieved a description of the boss waiting on the otherside as they could hear me pounding away at the door to try and get it to give way.
Our party at this point had saved the villagers of Greenest, made it into the keep, beat back the blue dragon attacking in one turn, and just managed to clear out an old tunnel in order for more refugees to make it into the keep when we spotted a large group of dragon cultists attacking the entrance were just at a few hours ago. So, like any good aligned party with a perchant for slaughter, we attacked. After the cultists and their little kobold entourage were dealt with, we walked through the door they just barely knocked down before they were
However, just when they got the door back up, it was immediately kicked down again by a large armored figure with a giant maul who simply demanded that we all die before unleashing his army of cultists and kobolds at us. Our barbarian (a short Hungarian woman by the name of Khao Kao) immediately accepted the challenge and thus an epic battle of 3 turns happened while they battled on the door (that had the two guards that were trying to fix it still under it.) Everything else...well they went after me. Because fate has a special hatred for my particular Half-Elf Cleric and yet luck refuses to let fate win for some odd reason. It's like being favored of Discord but I digress.
In the end, the cultists burned, the kobolds were massacred, the armored knight was literally cut down, and I learned never to use a melee weapon with a strength score of 8 when I used the wrong end of my mace to deal a whooping 1 damage before going back to shooting rays of light.
So yea, the closest I ever get to a grand entrance is when we do one and get showed up by the bad guys. And then we go ahead and deflate their egos.
EDIT: I apparently ate a sentence and some words as I was writing this up. Its been remedied now.
Grand entrances, huh? I'm not sure I have anything that fits just right.
Imagine you are a poor little monster, waiting to kill any inhabitants of the pyramid, when slowly you hear rumbling, and it getting closer. All of a sudden 3 Rhinoceros are stampeding through your room, making sure to stomp on any creatures they see and then head to the next door! If you were still an alive monster, you might notice a flying eyeball thing carefully sneaking behind, watching the entire thing.
AKA We needed some reconnaissance done and didn't want our spying spell to have to deal with doors or monsters, so I summoned some rhinos.
Well, there was also the time we broke down the door to the BigBad of the dungeon, and summoned some tigers that then had fun quartering him best they could. This all happened very fast. That fight was simultaneously awesome and a letdown.
Imagine you are a poor little monster, waiting to kill any inhabitants of the pyramid, when slowly you hear rumbling, and it getting closer. All of a sudden 3 Rhinoceros are stampeding through your room, making sure to stomp on any creatures they see and then head to the next door! If you were still an alive monster, you might notice a flying eyeball thing carefully sneaking behind, watching the entire thing.
AKA We needed some reconnaissance done and didn't want our spying spell to have to deal with doors or monsters, so I summoned some rhinos.
Well, there was also the time we broke down the door to the BigBad of the dungeon, and summoned some tigers that then had fun quartering him best they could. This all happened very fast. That fight was simultaneously awesome and a letdown.
So, grand entrances. I was playing this old viking druid guy who had control over mystical trees, and one of my abilities was a Tree-apult, a catapult made form a tree I could grow in an instant.
So my party needs to get up to this flying fortress. My clan was crazy; crazy enough that it just might work. The big tanky dude in our party was large enough where he could carry this big potted plant on his back as a way to carry my tree buffs around in battle, since normally they're stationary and only work if you stay under them.
I use one Treeapult to launch our party into the air, I then grow another smaller one from the pot on the guy's back, launching everyone but the tank guy again in midair, vaulting us through the window of the bridge of the flying fortress. The tank guy had these hookshot grappling things in his gauntlets which he used to climb up after us.
So my party needs to get up to this flying fortress. My clan was crazy; crazy enough that it just might work. The big tanky dude in our party was large enough where he could carry this big potted plant on his back as a way to carry my tree buffs around in battle, since normally they're stationary and only work if you stay under them.
I use one Treeapult to launch our party into the air, I then grow another smaller one from the pot on the guy's back, launching everyone but the tank guy again in midair, vaulting us through the window of the bridge of the flying fortress. The tank guy had these hookshot grappling things in his gauntlets which he used to climb up after us.
Moral of this story: Don't roll that well to do that unless I've got points in Strength as well as maxed-out Dexterity.
I once played a skald in pathfinder who was a battle singer type, and I also had with me a swashbuckler and a fighter for party members. Our current task was to get into a pirate-infested bay and retrieve some valuables they'd stolen from a nearby town. So we rented a dinghy and rowed ourselves into the cove at night.
Upon arriving, we spotted their ship, a large war vessel, and noticed that most of the Pirates had gone to shore for a drunken celebration. So, we rowed up to the side of the ship in the cover of darkness and climbed up without alerting any of the guards still on board. Killing them was a bit tougher than expected, but we did it, and we hijacked their ship. We were about to sail away when we found some prisoners in the hold who had been mistreated by the pirates, so we decided to take some revenge after we gave them our boat to take back to town..
We began to sail the ship towards the small section of beach they were partying on, and got a little more than halfway there before they noticed. The started firing flaming crossbow bolts at us, but since they were drunk they couldn't hit us even while we were all standing on the prow looking proud with swords held high. They hit the ship though, and it caught on fire, and started sinking after some gunpowder in the hold blew up. We were getting into close range though, so we stayed our course and all started chanting the Skyrim theme in and out of character as our burning, sinking ship bore down on them. They couldn't really go anywhere either, as the beach they were on was surrounded by cliffs that walled in the cove, so we crashed the ship into their ranks and leapt off, just as the main gunpowder stores in the ship exploded. We all landed surrounding the few remaining pirates, and cleaned them up easily, the combination of our intimidating entrance and their drunkenness making their numerical superiority useless.
Best story that skald ever had!
Upon arriving, we spotted their ship, a large war vessel, and noticed that most of the Pirates had gone to shore for a drunken celebration. So, we rowed up to the side of the ship in the cover of darkness and climbed up without alerting any of the guards still on board. Killing them was a bit tougher than expected, but we did it, and we hijacked their ship. We were about to sail away when we found some prisoners in the hold who had been mistreated by the pirates, so we decided to take some revenge after we gave them our boat to take back to town..
We began to sail the ship towards the small section of beach they were partying on, and got a little more than halfway there before they noticed. The started firing flaming crossbow bolts at us, but since they were drunk they couldn't hit us even while we were all standing on the prow looking proud with swords held high. They hit the ship though, and it caught on fire, and started sinking after some gunpowder in the hold blew up. We were getting into close range though, so we stayed our course and all started chanting the Skyrim theme in and out of character as our burning, sinking ship bore down on them. They couldn't really go anywhere either, as the beach they were on was surrounded by cliffs that walled in the cove, so we crashed the ship into their ranks and leapt off, just as the main gunpowder stores in the ship exploded. We all landed surrounding the few remaining pirates, and cleaned them up easily, the combination of our intimidating entrance and their drunkenness making their numerical superiority useless.
Best story that skald ever had!
Not sure if I should call it a grande entrance, but it surely was a shocking entrance. On second thought, yes, it was quite a grand entrance.
It had been a rough season for the party. It had been the traditional "dead king with nobody else but us to blame, and we can't defend ourselves because we had been rendered unconscious when it happened". That had of course led to exile, and the stripping of all honors... and items.
They eventually survived the tempestuous place they were sent in exile to and managed to return to the capital of another kingdom, and didn't take long to get involved in trying to figure out some shady things happening in said city. Everything was going well until they ran into a host of guards. Not just any host of guards, but the very royal mounted peace force, no less than a few dozen knights and clerics, lead by the knight lieutenant of one of the kingdom's most decorated generals, all clad in white armor with gilded inlays, and mounted in a fearsome black palfrey...
...Bottom line, they were sent to prision, only this time it wasn't just a random NPC that dispatched them, but my own newly itroduced character. Yes, the aforementioned lieutenant. Of course they were quickly released and helped solve the mystery and all that, but it took far longer for most of those players to stop resenting my character. I utterly loved it.
It had been a rough season for the party. It had been the traditional "dead king with nobody else but us to blame, and we can't defend ourselves because we had been rendered unconscious when it happened". That had of course led to exile, and the stripping of all honors... and items.
They eventually survived the tempestuous place they were sent in exile to and managed to return to the capital of another kingdom, and didn't take long to get involved in trying to figure out some shady things happening in said city. Everything was going well until they ran into a host of guards. Not just any host of guards, but the very royal mounted peace force, no less than a few dozen knights and clerics, lead by the knight lieutenant of one of the kingdom's most decorated generals, all clad in white armor with gilded inlays, and mounted in a fearsome black palfrey...
...Bottom line, they were sent to prision, only this time it wasn't just a random NPC that dispatched them, but my own newly itroduced character. Yes, the aforementioned lieutenant. Of course they were quickly released and helped solve the mystery and all that, but it took far longer for most of those players to stop resenting my character. I utterly loved it.
I play a barbarian in a first edition AD&D campaign, and he has hit the mystical 10th level where barbarians are finally allowed to use miscellaneous magic items. (yeah, that was a thing back then) so, the plot hook was a quest from istus, goddess of fate, to do something for a worshipper of hers as a test or something. me and 4 other stealthy people went into a lawful good city at night to do some graverobbing.
the priestess of istus had a friend whose soul couldn't go to istus unless he was given proper burial rites that the city wouldn't provide. now, being a quest by the goddess of fate, things happened on the way. we "happened" to bump into a 16 year old girl who would fall in love with the first one of us she ran into. before we found this out, or DM told us that we could choose who she bumped into, and I was happy to volunteer. needless to say, this lead to something much worse
I helped her back to her home, it was late at night and she was carrying a lot of things to her father. when we reached her home, her father was not happy, he assumed I was after his daughter and scolded her badly for being late. he disregarded me, ran inside, and probably hit her. I could not let this stand
now's probably a god time to explain what i had. I was wearing no armor, but I had a ring of spell turning, a belt of giant strength, and a rod of lordly might; I was in no way defenseless.
I knocked on his door, and when he answered, I challenged him to a duel for disrespecting me, and for mistreating his daughter. I was not an imposing figure to him, in his mind i was out of place and could be easily dealt with. he was a cleric/fighter, he commanded me to kneel in the name of his god, with the spell command. now, that ring of spell turning was a new addition, it had never been used before. it reflected half of the spell back at him, I made my saving throw, and he… rolled a one.
so there I stood, a normal man with a rod, a cane practically, having not only resisted his spell, but enforced it on him. it was awesome. now, he responded by calling guards and forcing me to run out of the city and hide, but it was a wonderful moment.
the priestess of istus had a friend whose soul couldn't go to istus unless he was given proper burial rites that the city wouldn't provide. now, being a quest by the goddess of fate, things happened on the way. we "happened" to bump into a 16 year old girl who would fall in love with the first one of us she ran into. before we found this out, or DM told us that we could choose who she bumped into, and I was happy to volunteer. needless to say, this lead to something much worse
I helped her back to her home, it was late at night and she was carrying a lot of things to her father. when we reached her home, her father was not happy, he assumed I was after his daughter and scolded her badly for being late. he disregarded me, ran inside, and probably hit her. I could not let this stand
now's probably a god time to explain what i had. I was wearing no armor, but I had a ring of spell turning, a belt of giant strength, and a rod of lordly might; I was in no way defenseless.
I knocked on his door, and when he answered, I challenged him to a duel for disrespecting me, and for mistreating his daughter. I was not an imposing figure to him, in his mind i was out of place and could be easily dealt with. he was a cleric/fighter, he commanded me to kneel in the name of his god, with the spell command. now, that ring of spell turning was a new addition, it had never been used before. it reflected half of the spell back at him, I made my saving throw, and he… rolled a one.
so there I stood, a normal man with a rod, a cane practically, having not only resisted his spell, but enforced it on him. it was awesome. now, he responded by calling guards and forcing me to run out of the city and hide, but it was a wonderful moment.
Sure! Does trying and failing count?
Basically I had to go on hiatus for a few weeks from my RP group because of RL. When I came back, the party was in pretty dire straits fighting one of the main villains of the campaign.
Cue my character crashing through solid stone ceiling with new sidekick.
"I'm here to save ya from the villanous knave!"
I then promptly tripped and fell on my face.
A minor one, but I think it qualifies. A campaign I'm currently in only had two players for the first two sessions, but now we're being joined by a Wizard (which I would have played myself, had I not wanted to try a Paladin). The DM wisely had him RP his introduction to the party. Cue a plethora of magical fireworks that would make the Great and Powerful Trixie jealous, a ring of fire big enough to gouge a crater into the rolling plains of the Dwarven lands, and a man on the back of a demonic, enormous dragon rising from within it.
This was quickly dismissed as non-canon, but damn if it wasn't awesome.
This was quickly dismissed as non-canon, but damn if it wasn't awesome.
It all sounds pretty feasible for a highish level wizard, or a lower level one wreaking an illusion.
So the other PCs are meeting with the king, getting praised for their recent successes in their epic multi-piece McGuffin quest, and informing them that he's decided to assign one of his most trusted agents to help them out, as the quest was proving more vital and dangerous than he had first assumed (which, from what I got of the games backstory, was true). Anyway he should be finishing up a minor task soon and should be here shortly.
That's when my character kicked open the door and walked in, covered in mub, blood, and scratches. I drag a load up to the throne and drop it before the king, the severed head of a manticore. "So yeah, turns out it wasn't a dire lion. So...did I interupt something?"
Best intro I've ever made.
The whole thing started with our characters' town being raided by orcs, who were netting and dragging off people for reasons unknown.
We were at the scene, doing what we could to fend off the orcs and rescue people. When I was asked what I was going to do, I decided to shoot one of the orcs who was dragging someone off. I was a good distance away, but I had good dexterity so I figured it was worth a shot.
I rolled a natural 20. I rolled again to see if I would get a critical hit. Another natural 20.
So my first act of the campaign was to shoot an orc from several feet away and TAKE HIS HEAD OFF with an arrow.
The other orcs immediately dropped their prisoners and ran. It was the luckiest start to a campaign I ever had.
... the only "grand entrance" I can think of was for one of my characters for the Heroes Unlimited game a friend of mine is running: toppling off of a skyscraper after a bad guy tricked her into coming to New Olympus and ran her through with his sword, to be rescued by a flying ice dragon. (Needless to say, dude's on my list.)
Yeah, our group's not the most conventional bunch. XD
Yeah, our group's not the most conventional bunch. XD
Once, in a Shadowrun game, the team was hired to kill some guy. The mage and adept snuck into his office building and waited just outside his office. Then the rigger flew a heavy drone up and fired four salvos of rockets into the office, utterly destroying it. Once that was done, the mage and adept went in and cut the head off of the charred corpse, just to be sure. And then they threw it and the body out of the (very high) window.
The job was to make it look like an accident.
The job was to make it look like an accident.
I turned up into the campaign... really all you need to know.
In a campaign we are playing at the moment I made a druid but I had set my sight on making him one bad ass mofo so I devised an opening scene with the DM.
So the rest of the group is gathered up and told to go to a seedy little bar on the edge of town to find Draveen (My character). When they arrive the windows are wide open and they see the portly bar owner arguing with a man draped in a cloak made of black leaves.
The conversations id kinda unimportant just simply put the bar owner was having animal fights at night and my druid was not going to have that. Draveen takes the bar owners head and slams it down on the counter dazing him. He then reaches behind the counter picking up several bottle of booze. He tosses a few around the bar, pours one of the count and the rest on the owner. He light's a match and says "Last call" before turning around and flicking the match over his shoulder.
The whole bar bursts into flames and as the dieing screams of the owner are heard he kicks open the door drenched in flames, looks over at the rest of the group and says "Sup." needless to say they were stunned. Sadly I was betrayed soon after but that's a story for another time.
So the rest of the group is gathered up and told to go to a seedy little bar on the edge of town to find Draveen (My character). When they arrive the windows are wide open and they see the portly bar owner arguing with a man draped in a cloak made of black leaves.
The conversations id kinda unimportant just simply put the bar owner was having animal fights at night and my druid was not going to have that. Draveen takes the bar owners head and slams it down on the counter dazing him. He then reaches behind the counter picking up several bottle of booze. He tosses a few around the bar, pours one of the count and the rest on the owner. He light's a match and says "Last call" before turning around and flicking the match over his shoulder.
The whole bar bursts into flames and as the dieing screams of the owner are heard he kicks open the door drenched in flames, looks over at the rest of the group and says "Sup." needless to say they were stunned. Sadly I was betrayed soon after but that's a story for another time.
Although, if there's one thing PCs can also do, it's make a grand entrance. Got any Story Time for that?