Name: Lucy Race: Human
Class: Aristocrat 1 HP: 11
Str: 16 AC: 15
Dex: 9
Con: 13
Int: 13
Wis: 12
Cha: 14
Feats: Mounted Combat, Ride-By Attack
Skills: Ride 4, others undecided
Equipment:
Heavy Warhorse {party chipped in}
Lance
Scimitar
Banded Mail
260 {approximately} flasks of oil
Rags
_______________________________________
I'm aware that Lucy is, at the moment, failing to be a Paladin of Tyranny, but I simply chose to start her as an Aristocrat for the money. She's going to start taking the levels beginning at level 2. At level five I'll retrain her into Paladin of Tyranny 5 and grab my special mount. I've convinced the DM to let me have a Nightmare if I can explain, reasonably, how I got it. I'm planning on using Planar Binding to summon one and then use Special Mount. It never says the mount has to be an animal (in fact it can't be since it automatically becomes a magical creature) or even that the mount has to be willing.
She's headed the supermount route, level six will be Beastmaster and a grab at Devoted Tracker, I'm hoping to sell the DM on creating a varient of Halfling Outrider. (I think he'll go for it, :angelhide)
I may be able to get the DM to let me change my stats if anyone has any suggestions. We haven't played long enough to make it a set-in-stone thing yet.
The Elf Wizard (Who I will call "Elf" from now on) decided to dig a hole for no reason. While he was doing that, the Ranger heard sounds from down the mountain. Upon hearing this, the Cleric decided to climb further up the mountain. He failed his climb check and slid back down, screaming and yelling. As you may have guessed, the Paladins suddenly were a lot more alert in hunting for us.
Lucy and the more clever Human Wizard started to throw flasks of oil down the mountain, unlit. Since it was nighttime, we aimed near the torches. The Elf tried to through the campfire and fell to the ground, on fire and unconsious
The Hexblade put out the fire by kicking him and nearly killed the guy. :D Sometime before Lucy's next turn, the sounds from the Paladins indicated that a couple of them had found the oil and slipped down the mountain, nearly killing themselves. On Lucy's turn she got a critical miss with her flask of oil and splashed the back of the cave. The rest of the round was dull, mostly the Elf was complaining that no one had healed him.
Finally it was my turn again. Lucy threw two bottles, lit this time. The first one critical-missed and exploded at the back of the cave, setting the previous oil on fire. The second got a critical hit and exploded on one of the torches, instantly immolating most of the Paladins' party. The falling, burning bodies hit the two at the base of the mountain and killed them. The only one still alive was the Paladin Captain who took the round to pat out the fire. Lucy hopped on her horse and rode down the mountain (thankfully passing her ride check) and impaled the Paladin.
When we left off for the weekend, the Human Wizard with whom Lucy may end up striking a deal (he's the smarter one, though chaotic evil) was sorting the loot for the party with her watching over to ensure fair devision of wealth. The two of them might split the majority of the loot and give the party the scraps. Hey, there have to be some perks to being evil :D
The whole first day sounds like an epic fumble on almost everyone's part. Interesting to see how this all turns out.
I remember you! We worked on the no magic optimization last year
Anyhow, on to today's adventure!
We opened with me and the Wizard doing the looting splitting most of the valuables between ourselves. The rest of the group was handed the non-masterwork items and we said that they were very poor Paladins. ;) But then things got tricky...
We decided to raid the caravan that makes its way around the base of the mountain that was the site of our last adventure. It took us, by which I mean the rest of the party, to come up with a good trap. Eventually I conveyed the idea that we dig a trench along the road and fill it with oil. We'd set it on fire when the horses came, nothing like a wall of flames to deter the equine family.
You can, of course, gather that things went horribly wrong. While digging the trench, the Elf
decided to use his dagger to turn his club into a shovel (all the while, the second Human Wizard was nearly shouting that he should use his newly aquired heavy steel shield) (speaking of new stuff, Lucy got a slightly burnt, yucky smelling set of Full-Plate. She's very happy with her new armor :D) When he made his Craft check he failed and dulled his dagger while turning his club into a piece of rubbish.Then the time for the attack arrived.
Basically everyone begins to move down the mountain. I had to wake the first Wizard by kicking him and we had to heal him from negative HP... The Elf decided to light the fire by throwing his former club into the air and lighting it with Burning Hands. 
He missed and set the ceiling on fire. The Cleric used True Strike and pitched the flaming stick into the oil. Our wall of fire stopped the caravan.The Ranger fired his Longbow from cover and hit one of the guards who, judging from the language he used, failed to die. The Elf fired his Heavy Crossbow and his shot flew wide. Figures. So the second Human Wizard fired his Light Crossbow and, whamo! The guard took it in the eye and down he went. The Wizard (with whom I split my wealth) kept sneaking down and was almost on top of the caravan when he got a natural one on his hide check. While auto-fail didn't apply, getting about a six on your hide check from twenty feet does cause trouble.
Thankfully the guards got distracted as the Ranger and the second Human (the other Wizard) fired on another guard. They missed, but it was enough to keep them busy. The Wizard used Hypnotism and put the four remaining, low-level guards into their happy trance. The Cleric's Suggestion failed and the two guard sergeants beat the Wizard to negative nine.
I rode down from the mountain and, ignoring my comrade, more importantly avoiding the pointy swords for a moment, lanced one of the daze guards for fifty-four damage. (x2 on the charge, helpless for a x3 crit) He was splattered all over the landscape.
Tomorrow I'll see how badly I get beat up by the sergeants...
Wow! I mean really! We continued our attack on the caravan. It went absolutely wrong.The Cleric ran in and healed the Wizard before the Wizard could tap out for good. (Good thing too, otherwise we'd be dead, you'll see) While he did, the two fighters turned and engaged me. They did damage, but I was still fine. For some reason when I returned my attacks, I managed to roll so many ones (on three seperate dice, no less) that it was decided that I'd ignore ones because it was getting rediculous, not to mention that at least one other person was having this problem. Anyhow, I failed to do any damage.
The Hexblade continued to cirlce around, avoiding doing anything that might be useful. The Ranger fired at the fighter attacking me and wounded him. The Elf fired at one of the two remaining mooks who was stunned and did a very small amount of damage. The second Wizard (Human) fired his light crossbow and also hit the guard wounded by the Ranger. The Wizard lay on the ground, happy to be at zero hp and pretended to be dead.
One of the Fighters turned and beat the Cleric into unconciousness. The other missed me and I, and my horse, returned the favor with a set of colorful words. The Hexblade moved again, trying to get into sight. The Cleric continued to drop into further negatives. The Ranger shot and killed the undazed guard who was searching for something to wound. The Elf reloaded. The Human missed his shot. The Wizard rose to his feet and started to move away.
One Fighter broke off and charged the Wizard. He missed. The other Fighter knocked me to negative six. My horse missed. The Hexblade charged the last dazed guard and killed him. The Cleric continued to fall into deeper negatives. The Ranger missed with his arrow, but he drew attention away from my horse at least. The Elf missed. The Human missed. The Wizard fired Magic Missile and fell to the ground at negative one.
The Fighter remained bewildered. His companion charged into the underbrush and began to search for the missile-firing party members. My horse (who turned out to be the star of the combat) charged the fighter near the Wizard and got a couple hits that did solid damage. The Hexblade charged into the combat to support my horse. The Cleric continued to fall into negative hit points. The Ranger missed the nearby Fighter. The Elf reloaded. The Human stepped out to try and confront the Fighter. The Wizard stabilized.
The Fighter in combat with my horse beat the Hexblade into the ground. My horse managed a single hit that did minor damage. The Hexblade failed to stabilize. The Cleric continued to drop into negative hit points. The Ranger hit the Fighter near him and did almost nothing. The Elf reloaded.The Human entered combat with the Fighter.The Wizard remained where he was.
The Fighter got a critical against my horse, which wasn't enough to put it down. The Fighter near the Ranger killed the Human. My horse got a critical against the Fighter and stomped his head in. I died. The Hexblade died. The Cleric continued to fall into negative hit points. The Ranger fired and missed. The Elf fired. The Human stabilized.
The Fighter began to look around for someone to attack. My horse charged him from behind and missed. The Cleric continued to fall into negative hit points. The Ranger missed. The Elf summoned a Fiendish Medium Centipede that did a couple damage.
The Fighter attacked the centipede and missed. My horse missed. The Cleric died. The Ranger missed.
The Fighter attacked my horse and finally killed it. The Ranger hit. The Elf reloaded.
The Fighter charged the Ranger and dropped him. The Elf fired.
The Fighter charged the Elf and missed. The Elf missed with his shield.
The Fighter attacked the Elf and missed. The Elf smacked the Fighter in the face.
The Fighter attacked and missed. The Elf missed.
The Fighter got a critical and killed the Elf outright.
Thankfully, the Fighter was badly injured by this point and was forty feet up a mountain while wearing Full-Plate. Two days later the Ranger had died of his wounds and the Wizard was at one hp. He got up and raced over to the caravan which was now opperated by the fighter some forty feet away. The DM did some quick calculations and told the Wizard to press the big gold thing on the side of the caravan. The Fighter tried to charge the Wizard, failed his climb check with a one and fell to the ground. He took enough damage to negate his healing from the previous two days and take a couple extra damage besides.
The Wizard hit the gold thing which turned out to cost most of our treasure for the encounter, but was an item that had enough True Ressurection charges to res everyone. Me and my horse and the Hexblade are getting ready to charge the Fighter tomorrow.
I remember you! We worked on the no magic optimization last year
The one and same.
If the first day was an epic fumble, the second and third just went down the drain. Let's see how long your DM keeps giving you scrolls of True Resurrection.
The one and same.
If the first day was an epic fumble, the second and third just went down the drain. Let's see how long your DM keeps giving you scrolls of True Resurrection.
*glomp* I hope we have a chance to work on a project again, it was fun :D
Anyhow, today things went better, if only because we spent most of the day leveling up. First level of Paladin of Tyranny! I'm planning on moving from a Nightmare to a Dragon as soon as I get high enough level.
When we opened most of us were up and about. We were also angry and had a target to take it out on. Bear in mind that the poor fighter was wearing Full-Plate. He was lying there cursing until the Hexblade put him out of his misery. Then we looted and sorted through only a small portion of the caravan.
Instead of looting it, we (I) came up with the idea of cutting up the dead caravan guards. We (I) figured that since the people driving it had clearly run off during the fight, they'd be back with reinforcements from the next town. Based on that, we mixed the new meat with the fresh meat in the caravan. Since the guardsmen had been out in the sun a couple days they probably weren't enxactly fresh anymore.
We ducked into the cave and waited as we heard someone come along and take the caravan towards the town. We followed for two days. At nightfall the Wizard approached the town with a scroll of Sleep he'd made on the trip. Unfortunately he failed his move silently check and the guards started to approach. He used the scroll, but only one of the two succumbed. As such I rode up and lanced the other one lethaly. We left off as the Cleric used his backup weapon (the scythe I had him purchase for this purpose) to kill the slumbering guard. We're about to make our way in to get rid of the Clerics in the town, we don't want anyone casting Remove Disease!
Our party has descended to a deeper level of evil. The rest of the party was considering selling the meat, I thought this was a more effecient use.
We entered the town without incident. That was about the only thing that went right with the plan. The Elf, wearing his newly acquired Banded Mail, made such a racket that a patrol came over to find out what was going on. They approached the Wizard who tried, and failed, to bluff the Captain into believing that we were good people.
Here's where things got good. He thought fast and said, "I'm only pretending to be evil, I'm really a double agent."
I thought we were so ing toast. He beat the Sense Motive
The guard nodded and asked about our visitor's pass. While this was happening, by the way, Lucy (on her trusty horse) stepped a little back to avoid being in the torchlight.The Wizard told a tale about how the people who attacked the caravan were after us and we'd rushed into town. When asked why we didn't have the visitor's pass, he said that the guards had been killed when we arrived. (Interestingly, if you read that sentence carefully, it turns out to be true) At this point Lucy turned around and made for the gate, she decided that she'd get out of the way just in case this all went to $%^&
When she didn't hear the sound of fighting after a couple minutes she turned back and pulled the Ranger into an alley. It turns out that the party was being taken by the patrol to go look at the bodies. She told the Ranger to have the Wizard do something about them so we could get rid of the guards before they made much more of a fuss.
During the very suprise round, the Wizard Color Sprayed the Captain, who was holding him by the neck. The guy was stunned and Lucy road up to miss him completely with her lance.
The first round of combat was mostly dull, the party did very little, but the Wizard used Color Spray again. This time he hit the three guards and most of the party, sans himself and Lucy. Most of the party, except for the Hexblade and the Cleric, went down along with two of the guards. The one who was standing got treated to the point of Lucy's lance.
In the second round, the Hexblade and Cleric killed off one of the guards and Lucy wheeled around to charge the Captain. She and the horse landed a pair of blows. The Wizard stunned the Captain with Daze.
The Cleric used the third round to kill the last guard while Lucy missed the Captain. The Horse scored three hits and sent the man to an early grave.
Since the Wizard was out of spells, Lucy had the party drag the bodies to the well and dump them in. We figure that the Clerics in the town won't be able to cure all of the disease. On our way out we stole a cart and tied up the Elf, who was still unconcious. He's been too much of a liability so we killed him (the Cleric did twenty damage with his coup de grace...the Wizard rolled a 20 for his Fort save.
but it was okay because it knocked him to negative nineteen anyway. We got the XP for killing him, too.As for this campaign, uhhuh... First really dead party member. That can't be any good. At least you dealt with the soldiers with relatively little trouble. Are you trying to...kill the town or something? Is that what the disease is meant to induce?
Heh yea, it was actually one of the few longterm projects I've participated in. It was quite fun indeed.
I'm glad, it gave me such a fondness for hirelings though...
As for this campaign, uhhuh... First really dead party member. That can't be any good. At least you dealt with the soldiers with relatively little trouble. Are you trying to...kill the town or something? Is that what the disease is meant to induce?
Yes, we probably won't get XP for it, but I think that there's a good chance that there'll be plenty of loot for us.
Anyhow, on Friday (yes, I'm running late) things were rather strange. We legged it (or in Lucy's case, rode it) away from the town in the hopes that the people won't have enough Remove Disease and Purify Food and Drink to keep them all alive. Besides, I think we'll look into hiring a band of either Lizardmen or Hobgoblins to give us a serious force to use. And Lucy plans on using the party funds to get a Lance of Charging.
Moving on, we were out in the plains when a Gargoyle flapped overhead. Lucy detached from the wagon and rode off about seventy feet. The Wizard pulled the canvas down so the Gargoyle wouldn't damage it. The Ranger spent a couple turns shooting at it while it moved into range to divebomb. It swooped in and hit the...Cleric I think for a couple damage. The next turn or so was basically dull...nothing happened while Lucy menouvered. Then she came in and killed the thing with her lance.
About this time, the former Elf finished rolling up a new character. It was a Barbarian named Hi. Here's how the exchange went:
Lucy: Hello, what's your name?
Hi: Hi.
Lucy: Yes, what's your name?
Hi: Hi.
Lucy: getting really annoyed Yes, but what is your name?!
Hi: Hi.
Lucy: furious Arrrhg! That's it! takes out lance (OOC: charging :D){rolled him down to negative four, the horse finished him off}
A few moments, and several changes to character name later, we had a Barbarian named Harry (though "Bob" was suggested and Lucy's growl helped it along to the door.)
When we ended we were facing an Athatch (sp?). Lucy is about sixty feet from it and getting ready to do a Ride-by attack. Unfortunately, the idiot Wizard decided to be in front and is down to negative four (thanks to the Cleric's healing him from negative nine)
Both the DM and I then spent several mintues with our heads banging against the table as the rest of the party worked its way up to looking to see where the crossbow bolts came from.
Apparently they were from a group of skeletons commanded by a somewhat rude, short person dressed in black robes. We never got to find out what it was about. (once again, I was confided in and informed that we'd have been hired as mercenaries.)
It's looking like we may switch DMs because he's getting fed up with a party that almost to a man refuses to even have the most vague goals. I empathize. He's probably going to be fine tomorrow, but he was pretty angry that even when led by the nose they couldn't follow a plot, let alone if left to their own devices. I must admit he has a point. Sometimes I wonder about this whole campaign...it seems like I'm the only one who wants to either roleplay or, for that matter, even actually play the game without being led by the
nose.We killed a few more packs of Gnolls and began our stronghold. It's made of a Barracks. It cost us 2,002 gp and because of the number of monster lairs nearby we have -6% to our costs and get back 100% of the total cost per year. :D
Our DM was kind enough to craft a new form of Gnoll for us to kill. It's much, much higher CR and almost completely useless. Feral, Insectile, Multiheaded, Gelatinous Gnoll. CR 7, with no useful abilities, damage potential and only 50 HP. He made it without most of his books, otherwise he'd have stacked on another dozen templates.
On an interesting note, the Wizard is crafting Horshoes of the Zephyr for me so that I stop falling off my horse each time I charge. It got pretty common for me to charge a Gnoll and fall off.
Speaking of charging, we got beaten to a pulp by a bunch of Worgs so we dug a trench outside our cave. Now we use Dark Way(Path?) to get in and out. In the middle of an attack, the Barbarian tried to push the Cleric into the pit. He failed and Lucy killed him.
His new character was a Rogue. Since Friday was his last day, he asked the DM a question: "If I kill myself, do they get the XP?" The DM said no. The ROgue tried to light himself on fire and failed. While he was doing that (mind you we were under attack at the time) the Human walked up behind him and killed him. We got the XP.
One final thing, a strange old man has set up in the back of our cave. He has a wooden counter and the area is lit without apparent source. He buys loot from us and sells stuff we want. I'm just happy, because it was a real pain to try and find a place to sell all the damn stuff we took off the Gnolls...
Fnnily enough, the gelatinous Gnolls we faced on Friday (they come one at a time, often shortly after each other so we don't recover our spells) both carried 4 pieces of art each. The DM cracked up when he rolled it randomly on the treasure tables.:P
We spent the week killing various gelatinous creatures that turned out to be quite harmless, by our reasoning. That they were CR 10 to our level four was less of an issue. On Monday the best event happened. Three of them attacked and we were only able to take out one before they got close. Lucy rode out of charge range and the Wizard made a mad dash to do the same.
As such, they were left with one target, all the archers (The Cleric, the Human and the Ranger) hiding in the cave. They charged and promptly fell into the pit we'd dug weeks (real time) ago. The Hexblade was dead, but we had enough to get him revived.
The rest of the week we racked up over 800k in gold from looting the town we poisoned. I spent some time working out the logistics of our stronghold while the party killed some more stuff. Since it was the last day, Lucy used the XP she'd gained to go to Aristocrat 1/PoT 2/Warlock 4. She bought an Item of Use Magic Device +15 and smirked at her 45 on the UMD checks. While everyone was busy, she purchased a Scroll of Wail of the Banshee and waited until the party went to sleep. Then she used the scroll to kill the entire rest of the party.
Everyone groaned and laughed (i.e. they weren't too sore about the whole thing) Besides, if the campaign restarts, everyone'll be back so no hard feelings :D