[3.5, Eberron] Daelkyr and Demons and Hippos - Oh My!

[Zerban]

Hello forums. I happen to be a first-time poster, and indeed a first-time player of D&D. For the longest time I was simply an observer of D&D - reading OOTS, Darths and Droids, reading all the cool little stories people had. Closest I'd ever been personally was a little Baldur's Gate.

Then I heard of a 3.5 Eberron campaign being run among people I knew on IRC. I thought, what the hell, time to stop watching and start doing. It began simply - a tiefling Knight, a Daelkyr half-blood Ranger and me, a human Cleric.

The tiefling is now a half-celestial Cardinal of the Silver Flame, the Daelkyr half-blood is his wife and the Cleric, my very first character ever, has become Cod-zilla. That's not even getting into the other characters that have joined the party, like a crossdressing rogue that's been stuffed with enough tech to make Adam Jensen blush and a Revenant Warblade that uses Lady Vol's spinal column as a weapon.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why D&D is awesome.

A more in-depth re-telling may be on the way.

[Kalmageddon]

Welcome! :smallbiggrin:

[Zerban]

Thanks!

Now, to begin our tale. We open in Xen'Drik four years after the Last War. The cast of characters; Lolsoss, a tiefling Knight of the Silver Flame. Aura, a Daelkyr half-blood Ranger with a throwing scarab and a massive riding dog named Fang. Later joined by my first character, a human Cleric (nominally of the Silver Flame) named Marcus. The first two meet in the outpost being hired to escort a Silver Flame missionary to try and convert some of the surrounding Drow tribes. Said missionary happened to be, well...

http://www.valikorlia.com/wiki/images/thumb/8/81/War-pimpforged.jpg/150px-War-pimpforged.jpg

A warforged named Missionary. Who happened to display his criminally low Wisdom score by proposing that he disguise them all as Drow. And the dog as a giant scorpion. Rather saddened that his plan was shot down, Missionary stomped over to the local inn to kick in the door and demand that Marcus come down and help. Marcus complied, somewhat annoyed, and showed up sans armour. This turned out rather badly, since at that moment a tiny golem appeared out of nowhere.

"Guess what I prepared this morning?" it said.

Marcus tried to get everyone back, but we were still hurt pretty badly. Fang was pretty much on death's door. The concentrated explosion would've been about 6d6, enough to seriously **** over a level 4 party. Marcus only just had time to heal Fang when a trio of men showed up to mop up.

Lolsoss took them out. Great Cleave mother****er.

At this point we break between sessions. A rather significant break, so it may as well have been my first session all over again. We open with the party frantically running away from a tribe of Drow. Gee, I wonder who could have pissed them off? Luckily we found an old ruin to hole up in and barricade, leaving us a handy-dandy chokepoint to use. While Lolsoss threw a barricade together Marcus threw all the buffs his weedy level 5 body could muster on the party and Missionary started a jam session.

All seemed to be going fairly well, though my 14 strength Cleric was hitting close to **** all. Then the Scorrow came in. It proceeded to beat several shades of **** out of Lolsoss and Marcus, poisoning the former and crunching the latter with a pincer. Also it threw out trash-talk not out-of-place on X-Box Live and introduced Marcus to the word 'catamite'. Look it up. Marcus got a lucky sword-hit off despite being grappled and Aura downed it with a headshot. Marcus was thankfully able to fix the poison and heal Lolsoss, but then the tiefling just charged off talking about something important.

We followed him to a room deep within the ruins wherein we met another tiefling, a Rogue named Rieta (another PC). She'd been hanging out there for a while putting up with a particularly lecherous angel sealed inside a statue. This angel happened to have called Lolsoss there.

It then proceeded to make Lolsoss grope the statue before possessing him. Yes, it is that sort of game.

Lolsoss then proceeded to make a tool of himself babbling about how good he felt (he'd acquired the half-Celestial template) and basically being energetic to the point of generating his own energy output. Also Rieta is his half-sister. He kind of just throws that out there.

Leaving the ruins we find a very dramatic trail of destruction heading in the direction of Stormreach (the main city on Xen'Drik for the uninitiated). After a similarly dramatic chase scene we reach the city to find...

That it's just fine. Bit of a let-down. Lolsoss and Aura get a bit lovey-dovey before the former straight-up falls asleep on his horse and falls off. Apparently being possessed by a Solar can really take it out of you. Marcus and Rieta agree unanimously to start drinking and not stop until all memory of this is gone.

[Greenish]

Disrespect not the great pimpforged!

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr123/jsstrn/ADnD/pimpforged.jpg

[dazric]

Well, let's see how well you do when the DM suddenly hands you your character's goal in life.

Also seriously. It's a solar!

They're one of the most powerful celestial beings in existence, all crammed into my puny little Tiefling frame.

[havocfett]

It then proceeded to make Lolsoss grope the statue before possessing him. Yes, it is that sort of game.

That changes though. :smallbiggrin:


(he'd acquired the half-Celestial template)

He got that as a monster class, technically.



Leaving the ruins we find a very dramatic trail of destruction heading in the direction of Stormreach (the main city on Xen'Drik for the uninitiated). After a similarly dramatic chase scene we reach the city to find...

This was my bad completely, I was supposed to follow up on that more.

[Zerban]

@dazric: EXCUSES, NOTHING BUT DAMNED EXCUSES

@havocfett: Oh don't we all know it :P And it's not really your bad. You more than made up for it later...

SO.

We find our heroes in Stormreach, in the tavern drinking themselves stupid to try and forget what just happened. Not that that's very likely what with the seven-foot tiefling with wings and a halo sitting at the table with them. Then we're asked to roll Listen checks, which Marcus and Rieta make (iirc). Someone's talking about them outside the window.

Being a total prat, I say "I sneak up and listen in on them!" This being a cleric in fullplate with 10 Dex. Despite my massive -7 check penalty I roll anyway. Natural twenty. The DM makes the opposed Listen check at +5. He rolls a three.

"You sneak up on them completely silently. Not that I'm bitter or anything."

Momentarily confused by the guy in full plate vanishing, the speaker went on discussing with his partner how they were poised to crash into the tavern and murder the lot of us. Naturally Marcus saw something wrong with this and whipped out his sword, to the consternation of the party and the majority of the tavern patrons. Of course then about seven Daelkyric cultists blew their way through the wall with another five coming downstairs into the taproom. Meep.

Here we were introduced to the first of many villains in this campaign, a Daelkyr half-blood named Matthias. He did a little taunting of Aura in Daelkyric then rammed his ridiculously huge sword through the back of one of his own men. Said victim enjoyed this to a greatly disturbing degree. And joy of joys, it essentially summoned the essence of a Daelkyr into the tavern! All the nonhumans in the joint had to roll Will saves to avoid being driven mad by the presence, leaving Marcus to wonder 'wtf' as his friends were psychically assaulted. Aura and Lolsoss managed to shake it off, the latter just getting pissed, but Rieta...

Let's just say that Rieta's player makes the most of successful hit/crit descriptions. To the tune of ripping a cultist's throat out with her teeth and threatening to do it again. The group still managed to mop up the cultists and, most of his spells gone, Marcus successfully made a Heal check or two to stabilize what civilian survivors there were. Aura had a mini emo-fit upon realizing that the truth was out about her Daelkyr blood. She received a massive wave of 'who the hell cares?' from the rest of the party and received a group-hug from the tavern survivors for helping them.

Rieta unfortunately had to have a self-hating half-brother, as Lolsoss 'comforted' her by telling her that her freak-out was perfectly natural for a tiefling. It may be worth pointing out that Rieta is a 5'1 eighteen-year-old girl.

The tale splits briefly as Rieta ran out of the tavern in tears at roughly the same time the Cardinal of Stormreach came in to debrief the party. Marcus, somewhat miffed at Lolsoss' reaction despite him being his superior, runs off after Rieta. Much WAAF ensued as Marcus gave her a hug and comforted her as best she could. Good Guy Greg to the rescue. Then she fell asleep in Marcus' arms and, as a joke, I rolled Reflex to pick her up without waking her.

Natural 20.

Taking her back into the tavern Marcus discovered that he had been promoted to Templar and that Lolsoss was now Prefect. The Cardinal then proceeded to troll the hell out of Marcus by telling him to take his girlfriend off to bed. Marcus pretty much went bright red and fled the tavern as quick as possible. Of course once he did set Rieta down in her rented bedroom the sleeping tiefling grabbed his arm and refused to let go.

The session ended as Marcus was forced to sleep in Rieta's bed. Successful troll was successful.

[dazric]

As I recall, we didn't actually have to make the saves, as it was entirely psychosomatic. And it only applied to people with extraordinary heritage (Lolsoss and that half-dragon, for example). It was entirely at our discretion whether or not we "gave in" as it were, and I played with it a bit by having Lolsoss lose it when his fiendish ancestor was a manipulative bastard.

[Zerban]

As I recall, we didn't actually have to make the saves, as it was entirely psychosomatic. And it only applied to people with extraordinary heritage (Lolsoss and that half-dragon, for example). It was entirely at our discretion whether or not we "gave in" as it were, and I played with it a bit by having Lolsoss lose it when his fiendish ancestor was a manipulative bastard.

... oh.

Well damn.

THIS CAMPAIGN JOURNAL - 100% ACCURATE

[havocfett]

As I recall, we didn't actually have to make the saves, as it was entirely psychosomatic. And it only applied to people with extraordinary heritage (Lolsoss and that half-dragon, for example). It was entirely at our discretion whether or not we "gave in" as it were, and I played with it a bit by having Lolsoss lose it when his fiendish ancestor was a manipulative bastard.

Yup.

You also missed the bit where the promotion happened because the people above you in rank were all being murdered. There are a couple of in and between session assassination attempts that cover that.

[Zerban]

Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff fffffffffffffffff

Like I said, 100% accurate

[havocfett]

Oh, and yo cut down the magnificent, magnificent trolling by a lot. Which saddens me.

[dazric]

That's just you.