^ That was fun and actually much less dangerous than I thought.
But THIS!!!
First off, I have to say that this thread has been really neglected I miss DnE's stories.
I also miss DnE.
But it is very obvious I myself have been totally neglecting it, because I theoretically have a huge amount to tell.
13 months ago, when I was still in my university town (and two months before I even found out I'd be going to Spain), one player from my old group there organized a new gathering of heroes... Two highly experienced players and one newbie (at my system DSA - he's a Shadowrun player). One of the two old hands would be GM, and he'd run a relatively recent, monstrously large campaign called "Splitterdämmerung" (Twilight of the Shards) I mentioned somewhere a loong time ago that the world was shaken by the return of the greatest dark wizard of all time, and in the final battle, his seven-rayed demon crown was smashed, each demonic shard fell into the hands of powerful underlings who established their own dark kingdoms. This campaign deals with the Reconquista.
We started the first adventure, I think, early May last year. We are now FORTY sessions in and likely 15-20 away from finishing the FIRST adventure...
There's tons I could tell but I'll start with introducing the characters:
Me: Xavier de Sato. Generally a "warrior" but not of the heavy blade (and definitely not the Conan type). He wields a slim sword (Degen in German, the term is also used for épées), more elegance, less damage. Also an excellent martial artist. Black as cool and looks like Snoop Dogg. From the
Horasiat. Highly arrogant.
Old Friend: Same character from the campaign I played back in 2011. Heimtreu von Hundsgrab (literally "Homefaithful from Dog's Grave" - the latter the name of his village), a young cleric of Travia, Goddess of home, hearth and marriage. Wonderful character for roleplaying, terrible character for going on adventures... Heimtreu just wants to find a wife and return to his home temple.
Experienced player: Groffelmosh, [son of (Father) and (Mother)]: Dwarven mage (VERY rare), very theoretically oriented, can do cool stuff if you order it a week before, almost useless in dire situations, socially inept, think a Mini-Me version of Drax the Destroyer.
Newbie: Moriatio Nocturnus Galandi, a young merchant, also reasonable swordsman, secretly on the path to becoming a cleric of Phex, god of thieves, trade, the moon etc. (which we do not know) Very gay and not shy about it. Upsets Heimtreu a lot.
GM: NPC 1: Juan, a nigromancer who is actually a quite nice guy if you get to know him. This is a player character of the GM from other adventures, added to give us a bit of a magical Swiss army knife. Also a passable swordsman.
NPC 2: Jalbin, second cleric of Travia, a character from Heimtreu's past, not to be left behind. Mostly harmless/useless.
So, right at the beginning, we save a temple from arson, and as a reward, we get a villa!
Of course, turns out there's a catch, like a basement with a demonic ritual room and shit like that. Plot ensues.
Several sessions later: Our Travia clerics decide our house is way too big for us. Decide to get about 20 refugees into the house to get them out of the camps in front of the city gates (Groffelmosh is aghast). One of these is a young follower (we never figured out if he is an actual cleric or was still in training) of Boron, god of death, sleep, dreams... Guy is a serious nut job.
Insomnia, sleepwalks, mumbles things about "We killed them all... And didn't bury them..."
About 30 or so sessions later: We somehow - don't remember the details right now - get into contact with a special cleric of the church of Praios (Boss God, Zeus/Jupiter analog, stands for Light, Truth, Antimagic). This old man (but tough as nails, was a warrior for a long time) is a Penitent (think Paul Bettany's assassin, Silas, from The Da Vinci Code), and it's thought this harsh regime will break the young man out of his shell. "My analyst whips his back bloody, but it's helping." Indeed, progress is made.
Last week: We get called to the temple and the Penitent is dead!! Strangled by someone extremely strong. The young acolyte is gone - main suspect! We quickly come to the conclusion, it has to be demonic possession. The we hear of a new prophet in town who is preaching about a new pact with death, and seems to be able to brainwash people. We figure out he is staying at a certain inn...
Last night: After we all get there, it becomes clear the proprietor is also under the prophet's spell, who is upstairs with a bunch of lackeys. After some discussion, Groffelmosch goes up. The prophet invites him and tries to dominate him. But dwarves are exceptionally resistant to being magically influenced, and this really weird discussion develops - it becomes clear the prophet is indeed serving an almost archdemonic entity. The magical attacks become stronger and finally the dwarf has to withdraw.
Further discussion ensues. Moriatio hires a vagabond outside to go to the temple of Praios and get some high-level clerics to support us. Jalbin fails a courage roll and is happy to get sent to the temple of Boron on a similar mission.
Now, I've mentioned my character is arrogant. He actually has arrogance 10, which means rolls succeed 50% of the time, which can be really dangerous. He also has wrath (or rage?) 6. So after a while, this discussion is just taking too long for him. He's usually an experienced guy with a cool head, but I decided to see what the dice say. Arrogance? 7. "Oh, I can take him, if I'm just fast enough so he can't start talking and get me under my spell." Wrath? 6 - right on. He complains loudly and states he'll go up there and take the prophet out. "No, no, no!" shouts Heimtreu. "Sir de Sato, you can't do that!" Wrath again...
1!!!! CRIT!!! "NO ONE TELLS ME WHAT TO DO!!!"
I actually completely forget that this would be the perfect moment for a "Let's do this!!! LEEEEERRRRROOOOYYYY JEEENNNNKKKIIIINNNNSSSS!!!"
But that is actually exactly what happens. The other are basically "Did he just run up the stairs?"
I get in. I'm fast. The prophet just starts speaking when I ram my sword toward his heart. Roll for Initiative, Monkey Boy! Success. Attack roll? Success! And then the dude just GRABS my sword and stops it!!! o_O This was the moment when I realized I had completely forgotten about the stories we had heard last session, that this guy was inhumanly strong and shit. I managed to get my sword away but then the magical domination comes... My resistance to magic is literally 0!!!
I suddenly decide to sit down and listen to what this friendly young man has to say. The others arrive upstairs and the first thing Juan does is blast ME with a spell named "Hellish Agony". It takes me out but I regain my senses and the domination drops.
The following battle takes less than a MINUTE within the game, and three hours to play out. End result:
- the young Boron acolyte is dead, neck brocken by a kick that Xavier critted, fucking 20 damage!!!
- the demon that had indeed been possessing him was obliterated by a combination of multiple attacks, a brute-force magic destruction spell from the dwarf, and an exorcism by Heimtreu, all within just five seconds
- Juan had animated his shadow as a battle companion, the demon had easily snuffed it out. Juan now doesn't have a shadow anymore, a crime punishable by immediate burning at the stake, no trial needed. He managed to flee before anyone noticed and will now have to hide in his room for like two months until it grows back. Then he'll probably kill me.
Oh, also, he has no magical powers during this time so the character is basically out of action. Which means we will have to survive without him.
- Xavier got his arm broken and fainted dead away right after the demon was vanquished. About 2/3 HP lost.
- Heimtreu was severly beaten up (again, about 2/3 HP lost) by the other brainwashed guys. Oh, two of those were killed by Juan and his shadow...
- Groffelmosch lost all of his astral energy in the final attack, two of them permanently (he can buy them back but that costs muchas XP).
- Moriatio also had to endure multiple attacks and lost about 2/3 HP. He had also fallen under the prophet's spell as well, likely a very disturbing memory.
So we actually all managed to survive, but it was a pretty close call. If even one or two of us had gone down, it likely would have been a TPK.
The GM was really flabbergasted: "I thought you would have approached this in a more systematic manner, planned ahead, waited for backup..." Yeah no, Xavier is an honorary Kzin: SCREAM AND LEAP!!!