Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Serric Ral 08-06-03, 12:16 PM	I have a character named Ally Silan. She was once a very happy, optimistic, outgoing young woman… Now it is depressing just to think about her. Over the last three to four in-game days, she has (in no particular order): Lost her fiancé. Lost her favorite dress to make bandages for her fiancé, who had been impailed by ice produced by some freak that fell from the ceiling after Ally had Andy (someone she travels with) put her hand in a hand print, because no one in the party would offer her anything else. Had to dig a grave for her dead fiancé with her bare hands, because she had nothing else to dig with, for an entire day. This was after throwing up from the stench of the decomposing corps (which was retrieved by her several days later) and missing a night of sleep. Inadvertently caused some random lady to be trapped in an alternate plane controlled by an entity known as “Me” for all eternity as one of his slave townspeople. Presumably lost her big sister to the same fate. Lost all of her money to a greedy elf (who is a PC) who left Ally and Andy alone with no food or horses. Ally disappeared before his eyes and Andy could not be found. He searched for a few hours then left, after freeing their horses. Lost all of her equipment except her leather armor, a pine cone, a rock, a sack, a hidious purple dress, a pot crown, and a single ballerina shoe. (on a brighter note she did manage to get her weapons back…). *After meeting back with Andy, they managed to get back to a town. Keep in mind they had to walk for two days with only a single ration between them for food. Spent all of the money the girl she was traveling with gave to her because of her poor judgment to get her weapons back (Ally had gave her 5 platinum and she was being nice by giving it back) so now she is flat broke again. Right now she believes that everything is her fault, as everything bad that has happened has been an indirect result of something that she did. Luckily for her she has Andy to keep her from killing herself right now… Hopefully nothing will happen to her or Ally may just not live much longer. The sad thing is, if something good does happen to her, she will probably make it become something bad when she tries to do something good with it. Keep in mind that all of this happened within about three in-game days, we are on day four now. My question is… Can she be saved? I mean, she might have a chance if all of this stuff happened over a longer time-span, but all of it has happened in under a week!
Tzalice Minoladir 08-06-03, 12:25 PM	She may change, but she can survive. I'd consider an AL change maybe some madness for a while. change classes. She could completely black it all out. :D maybe she could go mad, evil and become a bbeg that the party's job is to calm her down and reason with her :)
Serric Ral 08-06-03, 12:28 PM	She was chaotic good, but right now she is more chaotic neutral. Despite how bad things are, she is still inherently good. She would rather die than cause evil on propose, at least at this point.
Tzalice Minoladir 08-06-03, 03:06 PM	however, when she realises her party betrayed her as well as everyone else, that her sister has died, she may spurn fate, madness doesn't take inherent goodness into account. Maybe it's just I DM ravenloft, but a charrie in ravenloft would make a pretty hefty madness check in said circumstance. I'd see her initially tormented by nightmares. That would lead to perhaps delusions of her fiance as an undead demanding vengeance for his death. perhaps some sort of eating problem. I could see her, dressing in the dress, pot crown, and ballet slipper, creating a wand out of a pine cone and going completely off the deep end with her delusions, if she doesn't go evil. If something happens to andy, she'd prolly go evil though. edit: sorry, maybe I've been doing ravenloft too long. Hope I've been of some help though. :)
krunzi 08-06-03, 03:24 PM	commit suicide, on a erally dramatic way, in a shiny dress :rolleyes:
Serric Ral 08-06-03, 05:00 PM	Ironically enough, she was once the Queen of Order (more like chaos) in the land of "Us," and the dress, pot, and slipper was her 'royal attire.' If she had been feeling better she would have probably had a lot of fun with that. I was thinking that she would be haunted by nightmares constantly, which is why I had her constantly fatigued due to lack of sleep. You have been helpful, Tzalice, and I like your ideas... It is unfortunate that it looks like Ally is going to be going insane, I really don't see any way out of it. Far too much has happened to her. So long as Andy stays alive she at least has a chance, though. One thing is for sure, I won't force Ally to do something out of character just because I want to keep her around (ie no magical cures). It's just difficult to figure out how to roleplay her without some bias, which is why I came here. krunzi: If she does do that, she will make sure to stay away from an outhouse :D.
WarriorElf240 08-06-03, 05:16 PM	Poor Ally is right, but my character, Ellia is having a hard time fitting in. Besides from being laughed at the first day with her band for shooting seagulls as dinner, she has been turned down by the Rogue in the group, and had her arm bitten off by a goblin. Even though having your fiance die, Ellia has had a pretty tuff time. :twitch:
Tzalice Minoladir 08-06-03, 06:40 PM	you could maybe have a quest to restore her sanity through some interesting herb or something.
Serric Ral 08-06-03, 09:12 PM	I should have mentioned earlier that Ally was an aasamar. I play her ignorant to her heritage so I think of her as just a human more often than not. The next place I hope to visit with her is her hometown. Though there is bound to be a lot of trouble there, there is at least one person who might be able to help her - a tavern owner whom she has always been able to talk to about her problems. She is also a deeply religious person, and returning to her home town will allow her to get back into contact with her spirituality for some extra help - the place she's in right now would not be able to facilitate her needs to the fullest. One thing I can say about Ally is that she is very resilient. I think that she has a better chance at getting through this with less psychological damage than a normal person. As for the herb, it is interesting that you should mention that as her mother is an herbalist. Maybe she can come up with a sort of anti-depressant to help her out as well, or going along with what you suggested, maybe the group would have to find the right ingredients for a remedy. WarriorElf240: It's funny, when I was posting this one of my thoughts was "well, at least she still has all of her limbs." Really and truly, I don’t see what happened to her as too bad when compared to everything that could go wrong. The problem is how several very traumatic events happened in rapid succession. I just want to add on a thanks for all the replies, they have been very helpful.
Serric Ral 08-11-03, 12:03 AM	<Deleted by Serric due to overreacting>
Trydan 08-22-03, 02:28 AM	Hmm... a different slant on this would be to press on, but under some kind of depression. If you have ever played "Xan" in the computer game Baldur's Gate, you'll know what I mean. Constantly putting quotes like: "Life is so hollow", "Our quest's in vain". "We're all doomed". I personally think Xan is great, but others may not share this opinion. Anyway, you ould try adopting this sort of approach. Sort of pushing on, as there is no other reasonable choice, and it is easy just to keep at it... sort of takes your mind of the recent events. *sigh* Poor lass. If my Fighter/Sorcerer was about, he'd shell out whatever it took just to get her a new wardrobe of clothes.
Savras 08-22-03, 01:10 PM	If you play in FR, and take the Xan approach, think of making her a Jergalite. The Lord of the End of Everything is *the* deity for the "nothings matters\we're all doomed" approach. Savras
Serric Ral 08-23-03, 10:04 AM	Sounds like a good idea, Trydan, Xan was one of my favorite characters from Baulders Gate. It would sure be nice if Ally would meet someone like your Fighter/Sorcerer to help her out, but it seems unlikely. The Lord of the End of Everything sounds like the perfect god for Ally to follow, Savras, but she is very devoted to her current goddess. Right now she very strongly believes that she is cursed and isn’t quite as energetic as she used to be, but she is starting to recover slowly. She is still down on her luck, so it seems that the Ally Curse is still strong in her. When approached by someone offering a quest, he mentioned that it was rumored that where they are going is cursed. Her response was “maybe my curse and it’s curse will cancel out.” Maybe I should give a short update. Well, she’s back in her hometown. In the beginning everything was fine, but things started to go down hill when Jamie’s father (Jamie being her dead fiancé) accused her of killing him. She met a bard which joined the party. He is an elf but a lot better than the last one. He seems to be the only party member that she can rely on. Because she was being accused, there would be a pre-trial where they would determine if there was enough evidence to make her go to jail before a real trial. If they found her innocent, then not only would she not need to go to jail she would also not need to have a trial. Going to jail would be bad enough in itself, but if she did she would also miss the Festival of the Second Month. It happens once a year and she would hate to have to miss it. On a brighter note, she bought a new dress to replace her old one, spending 80gp on it. She wanted to indulge herself in something to try and feel better. Mevlon offered to testify for her innocence if Ally would go to a dance with him. The problem was, Ally hates Mevlon more than anything. He is the most annoying person she has ever known, and they have been at odds with each other for years. Mevlon is also the son of the lord of the town. Because he would testify against her if she didn’t, and because she really didn’t want to go to jail for a week, she reluctantly accepted to make sure that she would not have to go to jail. Well, at the dance, Mevlon had his wizards annoy Ally. While she was sitting down, one made her seat talk. While dancing, one tried to mess her up. While at a drink table, one made a few of the drinks fly at her, getting all over her new dress, and ruining it. Mevlon took her upstairs to get a new dress. Shortly after changing and meeting back with Mevlon she discovered that he had watched her change because he asked her about something that she was wearing under her dress. He offered her some cake and a drink. Not trusting the fact that he got it especially for her from his chef, she gave it to another party member (there were several reasons why she gave it to him and didn’t just drop it on the floor. Suffice to say that she had a good reason to get some revenge on him). The party member passed out. Ally found out the next day that he had drank a love potion and was now madly in love with Mevlon. The party member was a guy. Now Mevlon had a monk chasing after him, quite literally. Ally went to her mother for help, but she was unable to reverse the love potions effects. Ally went to Mevlon to see if he had an anti-love potion to reverse it, but he didn’t. He brought in the wizard in that made the potion, and he said that he could make a cure, but it would cost a lot of gold. Mevlon said that he didn’t have it, and Ally stepped in and offered to pay him for his services. She offered him 1,000 gold. She bluffed him and he believed her. In truth, she only had a total of about 3gp. While walking home, the wizard kept jacking up the price up to 2,500gp. With no where else to go, she went to Mevlon and tried to blackmail him into giving her to gold by threatening to tell his father what he did to her. Mevlon seemed to think that his father wouldn’t help her, and then proceeded to show her a silent image of her changing to show what would go into the town center if he got in trouble. He offered her a position as his personal servant for a week. Not sure what being a servant would entail, and not trusting Mevlon at all, she opted to go to his father. Like Mevlon said, his father didn’t seem to care at all about what Mevlon did. He seemed to believe Ally, he just didn’t care. With no where else to go, she was forced to go back to Mevlon and tell him that he would accept the position of servant for the gold. The wizard made the counter potion, and it worked. It is now the first day of her service to Mevlon, and it is the day of the Festival… That pretty much brings everything up to date. I left a few things out, but in the scheme of things they are minor details. I also probably left a few big things out, but a lot has happened and I can’t remember everything.
Trydan 08-25-03, 04:16 AM	Oh dear. I'm now engrossed in this story. Do keep us up to date. I want to know what happens next.
PhaedrusXY 08-26-03, 06:29 PM	Give in to the Dark Side and become a Black Guard, and feed Mevlon his heart. Raise your fiance as an undead and live in an abandoned manor with him. "Now you know the TRUE power of the Force!" A fallen Aasimar Blackguard would be pretty cool. :behold:
Serric Ral 09-10-03, 03:44 PM	Another Update, Not much has happened this time, actually things weren’t as bad as they could have been. Mevlon kept his humiliation of Ally to a minimum. With the exception of a shirt that said 'Mevlon's Servant' in big letters, he hasn’t done much else. The group bard challenged Mevlon to a duel, Mevlon accepted. The bard then proceeded to get drunk. A little bit into the Festival, Mevlon let Ally go while he went off to do ‘noble business.’ He told her to meet up with him before nightfall at the battle arena. Ally took care of the bard for a while and bought him a new rapier and instrument (his had been stolen by a ’loot boar’). The group monk offered to watch him while Ally went off to have some fun. Ally reluctantly agreed. Ally entered a balance combat tournament in the Festival and managed to win second place with little difficulty. The prize was 50gp. When she met back up with the drunken bard, she took him to a shop where some sort of anti-drunkenness potion was sold. She bought some for him, which he proceeded to chug. Upon asking the shop keep how much he should drink, he told her that he was only supposed to drink a spoonful. The bard was now spazing out and tumbling literally everywhere. The potion he drank made him super hyper. We went to the battle arena so Mevlon and the bard could fight. The bard poked him with his rapier and made Mevlon call him a cheater. The judges decided that he was using an illegal magical weapon and he was disqualified. Several days passed by after this pretty uneventfully. About the worst thing that happened to Ally was when she had to give Mevlon a bath every night…
Miles 09-10-03, 09:04 PM	Ally could brighten up again, if she could only get information on that random townsperson who is held by "Me." See, given a purpose and a way to make things right (by trying everything in her power to save the townsperson), it will give her a purpose, as well. I think that after all those bad things happened, and now everyone is having fun around her would really begin to wear on her nerves. She seems to need some solid direction, or else meet a miserable end. She needs a reason to be heroic. And then maybe along the way, she'll meet someone new and can begin her life again. Miles.
Arilou_skiff 09-11-03, 03:00 PM	I'd say at least a Horror and possibly a Madness check is in order by now :) (See Ravenloft campaign setting for details, I love the Fear, Horro and Madness mechanics)
TheRealInspectorHound 09-12-03, 08:39 PM	Reading over this, before I read about how spiritual she was, my thought was that she would turn against her God(dess)('s), rail at the sky, and so on. Although, since the bad seems to have stopped being poured on, the time to recover should prevent this reaction. :) I can think of characters of mine who have either lost their faith or almost lost it in times when fate itself seems to be against them. Although your faith is strong and this is unlikely to happen, wavering faith might be fun to roleplay.