Orius
Legend
Orlando Bloom would like a word with you...
To which I can only reply:
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=645
Orlando Bloom would like a word with you...
I agree with the first sentence. And disagree with the second one.
V's player shafted him by obsessing and not resting. I can even see a situation where the DM maybe even took him aside and tried to have a talk, and V's player basically saying "I'll play him how I want."
Sometimes, I love piling on extra drama in my head.
I am a bit confused...You know, if the dragon had pulled hit-and-runs on the hulls of the Azure City Fleet, then the end result would be the same, only with V and those of his companions he couldn't Overland Flight or Water Walk in time alive. Cast AMF, dive-bomb the survivors into the ocean, swim down until they have no chance of survival, and repeat until only V is alive. Hammer up a nice raft for him, then have the lecture.
Basically, once the GM decides that there is an ancient black dragon with sorcerer levels (CR 21 minimally, don't forget) who has the strategic initiative, the party's actions or preparations are simply moot. There is simply nothing that any of the party can reasonably do against it while they're at sea.
A thought (nothing I think will actually happen in the comic, but it struck me as a disturbing "what if"):
What if the dragon succeeded, V was never able to find that dragon, and eventually decades or centuries in the future V becomes Epic level?
I don't think V barred necromancy.
Imagine an epic spell to extinguish the nacent life in every unhatched Black Dragon egg. . .on the entire planet.
Or, if V had been able to deal with his guilt like an adult instead of moping off like some emo adolescent, he wouldn't be in this situation.
I am a bit confused...
It sounds like you are implying that the game world doesn't continue to exist outside of the PCs stage time. And that ancient black dragons don't feel revenge, nor do they exact it. And that the encounters, regardless of what crazy BS the players pull off, will always be CR appropriate and not harder than "challenging".
OK... maybe CR appropriate monsters are allowed to feel revenge and attempt to exact it...
Let's reverse it. If a PC had a child killed, then stalked the killer, and found that they were much lower level, then would the PCs be allowed to use their abilities to punish the killer?
V brought all this on him(her)self. Knowing put him(her)self at risk.
It is exactly the idea of the independent game world that is being strained. There are an infinite number of powers and forces that might choose to involve themselves; stopping at the dragon and not at the dragonslayers eager to avenge the wrongs inflicted in the black dragon's centuries-long life of evil, for example, seems rather arbitrary.
The point is not that it's bad that arbitrary things happen, though. Sometimes the highest power involving themselves in a situation is evil. My objection is to the claim that there is some form of logic or justice in the events presented. The dragon's frankly-unjustifiable paranoia about the ability of the Azure Fleet to respond to boat-smashy is the reason that said fleet is still intact; if the dragon had decided "Screw waiting." and made with even the most basic, conservative, low-risk repeated attack plan, we'd have the exact same situation. V's choices (other than his choice to become an adventurer and follow Roy) simply don't lead to the current situation by any standard other than that of blatant metagaming.