The Manly Man
2009-04-19, 11:12 PM
We were in the final session of a long-running campaign (The Tremedous Tales Of The Silver Company), over two and a half years long, spanning from level 1-14. The cast of characters were:
Mouse - male half-elf marshal 14 - the fearless (for a given value of "fear") leader of the troupe and on-again off-again love interest of...
Eve - female human - rogue 14 (played by myself) - a charismatic, rapier & dagger-wielding ex-barmaid
Manny - male human - fighter 4/paladin 10 - more Hinjo than Miko - found religion 4 levels into the campaign when saved from certain death by...
Morag The Strong - female half-orc - cleric 14 - never shy to heal in battle, or throw herself between a fallen ally and a painful fate
Giblet - male gnome - sorcerer 8/wild mage 5 - unlucky in love, unlucky in... pretty much everything. Continually lustful gnome who constantly ended up on the edge of death due to poor dice rolls and awful coincidences.
Other party members came and went, including Bailey the drunken druid, Reacher the mad wizard and Cook the kobold scout, but didn't last due to premature deaths or players leaving for pastures new.
We had started off in our home village, investigated a dead dragon's horde (and fought the ogres who had claimed the cavern). We went to a far-off continent and fought the Red Hand Of Doom. We slew the vampire coven who terrorised a remote town. Then we encountered an evil Baron (with the capital B) who had allied with a mind-flayer and was selling his people into slavery & worse for the promise of power and wealth.
We defeated the mind-flayer, and chased the Baron back across the ocean (no teleportation magic in this campaign world). We got distracted by a small but powerful zombie horde besieging a farm as we pursued him, giving the baron enough of a headstart to reach our home village...
The story had come full-circle. The Baron used his mind-flayer-given power (to the best of our understanding, he was now some kind of fighter/psion gestalt - in a non-gestalt campaign) to enslave the village, and use his cleric minions to sacrifice the villagers and summon demons.
We fought past the demons, subdued the villagers and made our way to the town-hall where the Baron had holed-up.
We burst through the door (poor tactics, but we didn't have much choice at that time), and Manny was instantly fried by a blast of psychic energy (poor time to roll a 1 Manny...)
Morag and Mouse engaged the clerics, while Eve was cornered by some summoned skeletons. Giblet tried to beat the Baron on his own, but got too close and a lucky power-attacked crit from the Baron's bastard sword killed him soon after. Morag then got hit with a hold-person type effect and was coup-de-graced by the clerics.
Mouse killed the clerics, but a rather explosive power from the Baron finished him off, and would have done the same to Eve if it wasn't for Improved Evasion. The skeletons were destroyed by that blast too, so it was only the Baron and Eve remaining. The Baron had exhausted his psychic powers and a duel between the two commenced...
Without a flanking partner, Eve had difficulty causing damage, and was praying like crazy. Eve was jumping onto tables to get that precious +2 to hit, and the Baron was sundering them underneath her. Not exactly efficient tactics, but we like to go for cinematic combats.
After several rounds of combat, Eve was down to her last few hp, and the Baron was still looking quite healthy.
Eve feints successfully, and rolls her first attack - a crit. I rolled well on the sneak attack dice and all of a sudden the Baron's not looking too good. Baron also takes Str damage from Cripplig Strike.
Second attack - a disarm. The Baron's bastard sword goes flying.
Third attack - a natural 20, followed by another. The Baron is seriously wounded - also on single-digit hp.
The Baron uses his turn to slump to his knees and beg for his life - and palms a dagger. I now quote the exchange...
Baron: "I came so close, but now my life is in your hands. Spare me, and I promise you will have everything you ever dreamed of."
Eve: "Offer me gold."
Baron: "Yes, yes!"
Eve: "Offer me power."
Baron (with the DM catching on): "All that I have!"
Eve: "Offer me anything I want."
Baron: "Yes of course, anything!"
The Baron then stabs forward with the dagger, and misses Eve's AC by a single point. Eve retaliates with a single strike from her rapier. The Baron slumps onto the ground and stops moving.
Eve: "I want my friends back you son of a bitch!"
I looked it up afterwards, and didn't get the dialogue exactly right, but it was easily the best climax of any campaign I've been in. It's a complete shame that it has now ended, but the DM is moving away and he managed to finish it all of perfectly. I know he lurks here, so... thank you for the marvellous game.
Mouse - male half-elf marshal 14 - the fearless (for a given value of "fear") leader of the troupe and on-again off-again love interest of...
Eve - female human - rogue 14 (played by myself) - a charismatic, rapier & dagger-wielding ex-barmaid
Manny - male human - fighter 4/paladin 10 - more Hinjo than Miko - found religion 4 levels into the campaign when saved from certain death by...
Morag The Strong - female half-orc - cleric 14 - never shy to heal in battle, or throw herself between a fallen ally and a painful fate
Giblet - male gnome - sorcerer 8/wild mage 5 - unlucky in love, unlucky in... pretty much everything. Continually lustful gnome who constantly ended up on the edge of death due to poor dice rolls and awful coincidences.
Other party members came and went, including Bailey the drunken druid, Reacher the mad wizard and Cook the kobold scout, but didn't last due to premature deaths or players leaving for pastures new.
We had started off in our home village, investigated a dead dragon's horde (and fought the ogres who had claimed the cavern). We went to a far-off continent and fought the Red Hand Of Doom. We slew the vampire coven who terrorised a remote town. Then we encountered an evil Baron (with the capital B) who had allied with a mind-flayer and was selling his people into slavery & worse for the promise of power and wealth.
We defeated the mind-flayer, and chased the Baron back across the ocean (no teleportation magic in this campaign world). We got distracted by a small but powerful zombie horde besieging a farm as we pursued him, giving the baron enough of a headstart to reach our home village...
The story had come full-circle. The Baron used his mind-flayer-given power (to the best of our understanding, he was now some kind of fighter/psion gestalt - in a non-gestalt campaign) to enslave the village, and use his cleric minions to sacrifice the villagers and summon demons.
We fought past the demons, subdued the villagers and made our way to the town-hall where the Baron had holed-up.
We burst through the door (poor tactics, but we didn't have much choice at that time), and Manny was instantly fried by a blast of psychic energy (poor time to roll a 1 Manny...)
Morag and Mouse engaged the clerics, while Eve was cornered by some summoned skeletons. Giblet tried to beat the Baron on his own, but got too close and a lucky power-attacked crit from the Baron's bastard sword killed him soon after. Morag then got hit with a hold-person type effect and was coup-de-graced by the clerics.
Mouse killed the clerics, but a rather explosive power from the Baron finished him off, and would have done the same to Eve if it wasn't for Improved Evasion. The skeletons were destroyed by that blast too, so it was only the Baron and Eve remaining. The Baron had exhausted his psychic powers and a duel between the two commenced...
Without a flanking partner, Eve had difficulty causing damage, and was praying like crazy. Eve was jumping onto tables to get that precious +2 to hit, and the Baron was sundering them underneath her. Not exactly efficient tactics, but we like to go for cinematic combats.
After several rounds of combat, Eve was down to her last few hp, and the Baron was still looking quite healthy.
Eve feints successfully, and rolls her first attack - a crit. I rolled well on the sneak attack dice and all of a sudden the Baron's not looking too good. Baron also takes Str damage from Cripplig Strike.
Second attack - a disarm. The Baron's bastard sword goes flying.
Third attack - a natural 20, followed by another. The Baron is seriously wounded - also on single-digit hp.
The Baron uses his turn to slump to his knees and beg for his life - and palms a dagger. I now quote the exchange...
Baron: "I came so close, but now my life is in your hands. Spare me, and I promise you will have everything you ever dreamed of."
Eve: "Offer me gold."
Baron: "Yes, yes!"
Eve: "Offer me power."
Baron (with the DM catching on): "All that I have!"
Eve: "Offer me anything I want."
Baron: "Yes of course, anything!"
The Baron then stabs forward with the dagger, and misses Eve's AC by a single point. Eve retaliates with a single strike from her rapier. The Baron slumps onto the ground and stops moving.
Eve: "I want my friends back you son of a bitch!"
I looked it up afterwards, and didn't get the dialogue exactly right, but it was easily the best climax of any campaign I've been in. It's a complete shame that it has now ended, but the DM is moving away and he managed to finish it all of perfectly. I know he lurks here, so... thank you for the marvellous game.