All,
As the DM in question many things have not been made known nor will be made know by the 2 players in question to each other as I keep it strictly confidential and making sure what goes on out of the game is not known in game. Yes it's tough, but I know my players can and will try hard to not do it.
The worshiper of hextor (hextor can be worshiped by LE,LN,NE people) has been influenced by a priest of hextor who is a firm believer in stamping out chaos wherever present. Doesn't matter what it is or how nice or naughty it is, anarchy must be destroyed and justice and order must be reigned in, and if need be, forced upon people for their betterment of society and his god.
Template questions: Noone knows, noone will tell, reasons for everything abound and are sorted out here and there. I allow PC's to take templates in lieu of PC classes if there is a reason for it. But noone knows for sure what happened beyond "His skin is now black as coal, his eyes were melted out by black candles and replaced by undulating pools of reddend magma and his teeth are filed to sharklike points." That and his armor is all black and red with symbols of hextor on it. ::Shrug:: such is the way my players are..
Mystery and intrigue and motivations run rampant, and I like to see people think on all sorts of issues. Is he fiendish? Does he radiant evil? Will he eat your babies? Everytime he has been asked this he fevervently denies this and the paladin in question has YET to do a detect evil to clarify and confirm this suspicion.
Communal with his god is allowed but it has yet to happen. I don't do gods unless asked and there is a reason for everything, gods (honestly) could care less unless there is something in it for them or the people that venerate them. Evil gods are more willing to talk while good gods will show signs of things to come. Compare it to the devils and angels in books and it is more common for a devil to speak to you rather than an angel.
He (and therby the entire party) is ASSUMING he is evil and going against him in a hateful "kill him!" manner. I have not stated the alignments of people in anywhere in the game, people know what is going on, just takes some digging to sort it out. The only people that have been vocal to kill him are (suprisingly) the good PC's who just want to slaughter him for no apparent reason irregardless of all the acts of selfless acts bravery, the defense of the party in battle, and the destruction of their enemies and giving up of treasure to see that others remain on this plain. Their only reason is "Well we THINK he's evil and he has an 'evil' gods symbol on his armor so kill him!!!" which is funny as that is the way evil thinks, interesting is it not?
Paladins: Ah god bless 'em, the most difficult (IMHO) to play class as it deals with allot of morality and intritgue on how to play and what to deal with. There is a very strict line I make paladins walk for it is very very easy to sway from grace and lose your abilities. Wheter they associate with Evil people or Chaotic people is up to them, i take it on a god by god basis. If the paladin where a worsiper of heronius then i would have seen much bloodshed occur already. But seeing as how it's a pair of dwarves, both serving gods of battle and war (hextor has knowledge AND war as domains) I don't see there being a big problem with this. As long as both serve their gods in the manner befiting their code of conduct (both PC's are lawful) and follow the dogma of their god (the paladin is good so it's a tad tougher) then what harm is there being done?
Paladins are the shining knights, the templars that sally forth and slay enemies of the church and their god and are examples of purity and holiness but they are only mortal as well. Take sepulchvre's story hour using Edric and see how a paladin behaves. Sure he has faults, sure he isn't the awe-inspring uber solider of his god but he has faith and belief, and follows it with his heart and is in his beliefs in his god and his regard for the people. To me that has to count for something and it does. The paladin in question is seeking a blade and a gauntlet to help the other dwarf reclaim the ancient dwarven kingdom of old. As long as both sides are striving for that selfsame goal and don't sway from their dogma of what their gods decreed for them to do then there is no conflict. Only conflict involved is by other players assuming evil is present and wishing to destroy it without thinking otherwise about the benefits and ignoring everything else.
I follow the rules up until a point where it supress the creative thoughts that need to be expanded and explored. The books are only guides, i don't need them to play really, i can just use a pair of coins to solve everything, but use dice instead. I want morality, purity, religon, self-sacrifice, and other thought provoking notions to go through my players heads. To me that's the whole reason to play is to make you THINK. Sure we can roll dice and play but there is more to this game than that and that's what i strive for in my games.
Damned if ya do, and damned if you don't...such is the way it goes...
