Ralts Bloodthorne
First Post
OK, little back story...
Our PC's were on the side of a nation that was losing a war. By the time we were 5th level it was obvious our side was losing. I'm playing a human wizard that specializes in fire spells, who went crazy early in the beginning.
He's cruel, vindictive, fast to react with violence.
Saduul Cortez is what I named him. Tall, emaciated looking, long fingers, totally bald with a huge eagle-beak nose, who dresses in scorched black robes.
I'm 11th level now, and we've been playing for just over a year. The rest of the party is 12-13 (I blow a lot of XP making magical items when I have the chance) but it's no big deal, I've got some bonuses (Like my twisted undead henchmen who do my bidding) and the ability to put out some serious damage, spell-wise.
So, I started neutral good, but insanity drove me to neutral evil.
We were told that we'd be escorting some ships to "the New World" to start a refugee colonization effort. (Which got a lot of "Oh hell, look at Tim's character's last name. This isn't going to go well!!!) On the way there, we run into some bandits that hope to take our ID's and board the ship.
We kill everyone but one guy, who gets knocked out by my non-lethal magic missiles that use fire instead of force. I throw the guy on my horse, and we go to the ship. A little bit of insane havoc later, and I'm on board the ship with this guy. I hijack a room (well, I walk into a stateroom, throw the crap in there I don't want out in the hallway, and when someone starts banging on the door screaming, I open it with a fire version of shocking grasp up, grab the guy by the face, and shut the door again. This only takes twice before the guy goes away.
Anyway, I strip the guy to a loincloth, and basically abuse him. He's got two choices: Be my apprentice, or die.
This made for interesting interactions, as the NPC tried to convince the party to help him against me, and the party would refuse. Some on the: "Hey, the only reason you are alive is because he stopped us from killing you." Some on the: "You want me to take on SADUUL? Are you daft, man!"
Everyone was having a good time, nobody seemed to mind that this guy was outhouse rat insane who had spells like "Saduul's Breath of Flaming Bees" and the ever popular "Saduul's Firedust Motes" routinely memorized.
So, we make landfall, and even though the GM knows my plan, he lets it go forward. See, Saduul has decided that only HIS group gets to be at the "New World" and everyone else gets to die.
We row in, and I ask the distance. "About 2000 feet out to sea."
Any more rowboats? "Yes, two more, they both contain the women and children."
Did the settlement supplies get offloaded and the cattle? "Yes, the stevedores are heading back to the ships."
"Good. I unroll the scroll." Everyone turns to stare at me. (The GM lets me write meta-magic equipped scrolls.) I start whipping fireballs into the three ships, hitting the rigging. Everyone is just staring. The GM rules that everyone is in shock. I manage to bake off a dozen fireballs from the scrolls (Fireball, enlarge spell, empower spell) and the ships are in flames. I bake two off into the water to "encourage" the rowboats to hurry back our way, then drop a fireball into the rowboat full of guards and high ranking military personnel.
(All of this was cleared with the GM the night prior. To HIM this wasn't a surprise)
"I CLAIM THIS LAND IN THE NAME OF SADUUL CORTEZ AND THE HEROES OF DEAD LAMB PASS!" my character screams, then begins dancing a jig and shooting magic missiles off into the jungle, busting a few coconuts, killing a monkey, and blowing a parrot into a puff of feathers.
Everyone is still staring at me. There's dead silence for about 5 minutes, the whole time I'm just laughing, the GM is laughing.
The rest of the group is just staring.
So we set up the settlement, now lacking about 1,500 people. Oh, and the bay had sharks in it. Well, it might not have before, but by the time the ships sank, and Saduul took childish pleasure in fireballing the ships sinking spots just to "finish off any of those losers."
One of the ships wizards survives, and the party tells him: "You want him dead, YOU kill him!"
Wizard duel, and Saduul is now wearing cool waterproof robes that grant some nifty spell effects 1x a day. Saduul gives his bracers of AC +3 to the monk.
After the game, everyone is still kinda shocked that they just witnessed something out of a book. A mad wizard killing over a 1,000 people. They're starting to come to grips with the fact that the whole game has changed.
Next weekend, we get a new player. He's played since 3E came out, and he wants to play a Paladin. He's warned that everyone sometimes does evil acts, and that there is a mad wizard in the party. The GM tells him that he came to this new land to represent the Church, which is under siege by heresy and schisms. He survived a wizard fireballing the bay the day prior, and has arrived with six elderly nuns, four elderly vicars, and a blind bishop.
So what does the Paladin do? Make landfall (Where Saduul tp's in with a puff of flames rather than walk 200 feet, because, well, he's a jackass) and challenge the wizard.
"What? You challenge me? Do you not know who I am?" (silent spell, magic missile) "I AM SADUUL CORTEZ!" and the magic missiles hit the 8th level Paladin in the face. Saduul runs up the side of the tree and perches in the branches (slippers of spider-climbing, 30' move. 10 to trees, 10 verticle)
"Dude, are you SURE you want to do this? You were warned that your God was dying and your church defunct..."
"My Paladin can't abide someone who would do what your character did staying alive!" Jeez, what the hell, he's taking this pretty personally.
So, Saduul swaps his ring of counterspells for his ring of brachiation and moves 30 feet through the branches, laughing and singing, as the Paladin runs back and forth on the ground.
Magic missile. Magic missile. LIGHTNING BOLT!
Yeah, it went badly.
So, the Paladin gets raised as a skeleton, has the Paladin's holy symbol rivited on it's breastbone, and still wears the Paladin's old war gear. Saduul orders the skeleton to chop down trees so that shelters for the clergy can be built. The player starts making up a new PC. Once again 8th level (3 levels lower than the lowest party member) and this time a fighter. Jeez, we have 2 fighters in the party, why do we need another?
So, my former apprentice, whom I got tired of snivelling all the time and threw him out in the greased hallway and kicked him in the butt with a modified shocking grasp, electrocuting him and sending him sliding to the stairwell that led down to the cargo hold.
Anyway, I tell him: "Get the horses."
"Get them yourself!"
"GET THE HORSES!" ZZZAAAAPPP! Silenced magic missile, turned non-lethal.
Just then, wading out of the surf, comes a member of the ship's guard (You guessed it) who shouts: "SADUUL CORTEZ! I CHALLENGE YOU!"
"CHALLENGE DENIED!" Screams Cortez, and fireballs the guy from 1500 feet away.
Twice.
Still not dead? Magic missile. Magic missile. OK, now you're dead.
Ahhhh, thank god for scrolls and wands.
So, he starts writing AGAIN, whining to other players that I have it out for him.
The night ends with Saduul ordering his undead to stand watch so that everyone can get some rest, and him studying his spellbook. New guy has made a wizard, and the GM approves it. The next morning, in comes a wizard flying 500 feet in the air who promptly fireballs me, killing two nuns and a vicar.
"Dispel Magic!" BOOM! Away goes his flying. Saduul guages the impact and steps back.
BAM! Wizard takes 20d6 damage. He didn't memorize Fly, levitate or feather fall for a mage duel. Silly silly wizard.
"Dude, get off my wizard." I tell him.
"You killed three of my PC's! You guys didn't even help me!"
He gets his stuff and stomps off.
What was his problem?
Our PC's were on the side of a nation that was losing a war. By the time we were 5th level it was obvious our side was losing. I'm playing a human wizard that specializes in fire spells, who went crazy early in the beginning.
He's cruel, vindictive, fast to react with violence.
Saduul Cortez is what I named him. Tall, emaciated looking, long fingers, totally bald with a huge eagle-beak nose, who dresses in scorched black robes.
I'm 11th level now, and we've been playing for just over a year. The rest of the party is 12-13 (I blow a lot of XP making magical items when I have the chance) but it's no big deal, I've got some bonuses (Like my twisted undead henchmen who do my bidding) and the ability to put out some serious damage, spell-wise.
So, I started neutral good, but insanity drove me to neutral evil.
We were told that we'd be escorting some ships to "the New World" to start a refugee colonization effort. (Which got a lot of "Oh hell, look at Tim's character's last name. This isn't going to go well!!!) On the way there, we run into some bandits that hope to take our ID's and board the ship.
We kill everyone but one guy, who gets knocked out by my non-lethal magic missiles that use fire instead of force. I throw the guy on my horse, and we go to the ship. A little bit of insane havoc later, and I'm on board the ship with this guy. I hijack a room (well, I walk into a stateroom, throw the crap in there I don't want out in the hallway, and when someone starts banging on the door screaming, I open it with a fire version of shocking grasp up, grab the guy by the face, and shut the door again. This only takes twice before the guy goes away.
Anyway, I strip the guy to a loincloth, and basically abuse him. He's got two choices: Be my apprentice, or die.
This made for interesting interactions, as the NPC tried to convince the party to help him against me, and the party would refuse. Some on the: "Hey, the only reason you are alive is because he stopped us from killing you." Some on the: "You want me to take on SADUUL? Are you daft, man!"
Everyone was having a good time, nobody seemed to mind that this guy was outhouse rat insane who had spells like "Saduul's Breath of Flaming Bees" and the ever popular "Saduul's Firedust Motes" routinely memorized.
So, we make landfall, and even though the GM knows my plan, he lets it go forward. See, Saduul has decided that only HIS group gets to be at the "New World" and everyone else gets to die.
We row in, and I ask the distance. "About 2000 feet out to sea."
Any more rowboats? "Yes, two more, they both contain the women and children."
Did the settlement supplies get offloaded and the cattle? "Yes, the stevedores are heading back to the ships."
"Good. I unroll the scroll." Everyone turns to stare at me. (The GM lets me write meta-magic equipped scrolls.) I start whipping fireballs into the three ships, hitting the rigging. Everyone is just staring. The GM rules that everyone is in shock. I manage to bake off a dozen fireballs from the scrolls (Fireball, enlarge spell, empower spell) and the ships are in flames. I bake two off into the water to "encourage" the rowboats to hurry back our way, then drop a fireball into the rowboat full of guards and high ranking military personnel.
(All of this was cleared with the GM the night prior. To HIM this wasn't a surprise)
"I CLAIM THIS LAND IN THE NAME OF SADUUL CORTEZ AND THE HEROES OF DEAD LAMB PASS!" my character screams, then begins dancing a jig and shooting magic missiles off into the jungle, busting a few coconuts, killing a monkey, and blowing a parrot into a puff of feathers.
Everyone is still staring at me. There's dead silence for about 5 minutes, the whole time I'm just laughing, the GM is laughing.
The rest of the group is just staring.
So we set up the settlement, now lacking about 1,500 people. Oh, and the bay had sharks in it. Well, it might not have before, but by the time the ships sank, and Saduul took childish pleasure in fireballing the ships sinking spots just to "finish off any of those losers."
One of the ships wizards survives, and the party tells him: "You want him dead, YOU kill him!"
Wizard duel, and Saduul is now wearing cool waterproof robes that grant some nifty spell effects 1x a day. Saduul gives his bracers of AC +3 to the monk.
After the game, everyone is still kinda shocked that they just witnessed something out of a book. A mad wizard killing over a 1,000 people. They're starting to come to grips with the fact that the whole game has changed.
Next weekend, we get a new player. He's played since 3E came out, and he wants to play a Paladin. He's warned that everyone sometimes does evil acts, and that there is a mad wizard in the party. The GM tells him that he came to this new land to represent the Church, which is under siege by heresy and schisms. He survived a wizard fireballing the bay the day prior, and has arrived with six elderly nuns, four elderly vicars, and a blind bishop.
So what does the Paladin do? Make landfall (Where Saduul tp's in with a puff of flames rather than walk 200 feet, because, well, he's a jackass) and challenge the wizard.
"What? You challenge me? Do you not know who I am?" (silent spell, magic missile) "I AM SADUUL CORTEZ!" and the magic missiles hit the 8th level Paladin in the face. Saduul runs up the side of the tree and perches in the branches (slippers of spider-climbing, 30' move. 10 to trees, 10 verticle)
"Dude, are you SURE you want to do this? You were warned that your God was dying and your church defunct..."
"My Paladin can't abide someone who would do what your character did staying alive!" Jeez, what the hell, he's taking this pretty personally.
So, Saduul swaps his ring of counterspells for his ring of brachiation and moves 30 feet through the branches, laughing and singing, as the Paladin runs back and forth on the ground.
Magic missile. Magic missile. LIGHTNING BOLT!
Yeah, it went badly.
So, the Paladin gets raised as a skeleton, has the Paladin's holy symbol rivited on it's breastbone, and still wears the Paladin's old war gear. Saduul orders the skeleton to chop down trees so that shelters for the clergy can be built. The player starts making up a new PC. Once again 8th level (3 levels lower than the lowest party member) and this time a fighter. Jeez, we have 2 fighters in the party, why do we need another?
So, my former apprentice, whom I got tired of snivelling all the time and threw him out in the greased hallway and kicked him in the butt with a modified shocking grasp, electrocuting him and sending him sliding to the stairwell that led down to the cargo hold.
Anyway, I tell him: "Get the horses."
"Get them yourself!"
"GET THE HORSES!" ZZZAAAAPPP! Silenced magic missile, turned non-lethal.
Just then, wading out of the surf, comes a member of the ship's guard (You guessed it) who shouts: "SADUUL CORTEZ! I CHALLENGE YOU!"
"CHALLENGE DENIED!" Screams Cortez, and fireballs the guy from 1500 feet away.
Twice.
Still not dead? Magic missile. Magic missile. OK, now you're dead.
Ahhhh, thank god for scrolls and wands.
So, he starts writing AGAIN, whining to other players that I have it out for him.
The night ends with Saduul ordering his undead to stand watch so that everyone can get some rest, and him studying his spellbook. New guy has made a wizard, and the GM approves it. The next morning, in comes a wizard flying 500 feet in the air who promptly fireballs me, killing two nuns and a vicar.
"Dispel Magic!" BOOM! Away goes his flying. Saduul guages the impact and steps back.
BAM! Wizard takes 20d6 damage. He didn't memorize Fly, levitate or feather fall for a mage duel. Silly silly wizard.
"Dude, get off my wizard." I tell him.
"You killed three of my PC's! You guys didn't even help me!"
He gets his stuff and stomps off.
What was his problem?
