(Adventure) Duel between Calamar the Dark vs. the Rogue Cain (Pbartender)

[DM-Rocco]

Seeing Cain advance for his attack, Calamar the Dark let's loose his spell.

"What is the matter with you," he said to Cain, "has some malody inflicted your heart with such misguided purpose that you have become too jaded to find any other way out of a situation other than anger and rage?"

OOC, seeing that Cain is advancing for an attack without saying "Please shake my hand" Calamar's readied action is triggered and he casts Ray of Enfeeblement at Cain. You figure out the details of whether or not I get a free poke at him for unarmed combat.

Cain, you are driving me nuts, if I didn't have a character in another adventure, I swear, oh, forget it, it's hopeless.

 

[orsal]

OOC: No, you don't. Otherwise, you'd both be out of the room by now.

So let me make this very clear. I (through the guards of Orussus, as they would undoubtedly have the same point of view) am treating the two of you in the very same manner as I would my 4-year-old daughter and my 6-year-old son if I caught them fighting with each other...

Let me say that again, just to make sure you understand. You are both acting like very small, poorly behaved children, and I am treating you accordingly.

I don't care who started the fight. I don't care why you were fighting. You were both fighting, so you're both in trouble. Your toys have been taken away. You've been sent to sit in the virtual corners of your virtual bedrooms. You'll stay there until you make up, say your sorry, and play nice.

This is the precise reason why so many DMs prohibit evil and chaotic neutral PCs. We made no such restriction for LEW, because we had assumed that everyone here was an adult, and could act responsibly as such. I know full well that neither of your characters are listed as evil or chaotic by alignment... But they are certainly not acting that way.

I'm not sure who this diatribe is directed at -- the duelling characters, or the players who play them. In form it seems to be directed at the players: it is made as an OOC comment, and at one point you refer to "your characters". But in content it seems to be directed at the characters. After all, DM-Rocco and crueldespot have not been locked in a room together, and if they were, I see no reason to assume they would not become the best of friends. Their characters are the ones behaving very immaturely.

I point this out because I think one of the players (only one that I've seen so far) does seem, in his OOC remarks, to be taking his character's treatment a little to personally. This is not to be encouraged, and I would hope that a DM would be more careful about distinguishing between player and character.

 

[Pbartender]

You are angry because we have both refused to play along with your trite afterschool-special ending, and you are throwing a temper tantrum.

OOC: Look, I got angry, blew my cool a little bit, and I spouted off. A few things I posted were ill-considered. I'm sorry for that. But...

I was getting angry because I'm trying to judge this as impartially as possible, and it was getting difficult to stay that way. As much as I fight it, I find it difficult to not consider PC vs. PC conflict (especially if it involves combat) a failure of the DM. My usual solution is normally to give the PCs one good lecture, then bite my tongue and let them work it out between themselves how ever they see fit. I hadn't really given my lecture yet, it threw me off my stride, and when it came out, it came out a little more harsh and stupid than I'd expected. Again, sorry about that.

The rant is just my means to a little to blow off steam, and stay neutral for the rest of the encounter. I was trying to avoid a temper tantrum, which probably would have involved abusing my DM/Judge powers and simply killing off both characters out of hand. I would have felt REALLY guilty about that. At any rate, It's over, it's done, and don't worry about it too much. There's really no hard feelings.

So, the point of the cell is not to ensure an after-school-special ending, but to put the two of you in a place where you can beat the hell out of each other all you want without endangering the town or its citizens and to give you guys an incentive to settle peacably. If you guys make up your differences, you get out. If not, one dies, the other is obviously guilty of murder, and he never gets out. Seems fair to me.

To address your specific complaint, Crueldespot, I very purposefully never specified which OCC comments were embarrassing. I know precisely which ones I was referring to. The person who posted them knows which ones I refer to. Anyone following along should know which ones I am referring to. If you feel you did not make any embarrassing comments, then you have no reason to take offense.

Orsal... The post was directed at the players very specifically. I understand very precisely the difference between the PCs and the players and I know who was acting childish... Everyone involved has to one degree or another at one point or another, and some us far more than others. It is the nature of the conflict.

Eh... whatever... I'll shut up now. I've appended my rant without deleting it. Back to judge-mode. If anyone feels the need to discuss it further, they can email me at MWDomeier(at)hotmail(dot)com.

The next round will go up momentarily.

GAME ON.

 

[Pbartender]

Due to previous order (and another readied action), Calamar gets to go first again.

Calamar tries to back pedal and cast another spell as Cain continues his assault. He bumps up against the stone wall, however, and his curse flys wide ineffectually draining the strength of the stone bench lining the opposite wall.

Cain retaliates by throwing a series of punches, but to no avail. His punches are too slow and too weak to connect with the wizard's flailing body.

Camalar cannot take a 5' step back, since he is already against the wall, with Cain in front of him. He attempts to cast Ray of Enfeeblement, but Cain gets an AoO. Attack: 7 +0 = 7. A miss.

Calamar casts Ray of Enfeeblement. Ranged Touch Attack: 8 +1 = 9. A miss.

Cain moves up to Calamar and makes an unarmed attack. Attack: 8 +0 = 8. A miss.

Cain has a -2 Str penalty for 9 more rounds.
Calamar has only 2 hit points and 1 point of non-lethal damage.

 

[crueldespot]

Cain continues to attack.

OOC:
PBryant: I was a little annoyed, but I am now in a better mood due to your latest OOC post, plus I just scored 275 on a PT test. Yay for Me. Plus I just saved a load of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico. OK, not really on the last one.

I do not mind the idea of putting us in the cell at all. Really, I think it is a very interesting dillemma. No complaint. Just don't be surprised if we elect not leave the cell.

I'm not upset at Rocco personally either. You have to give Rocco credit for playing his character consistently. The "I'm gonna get you sucka" post didn't hurt my feelings-even if it was sincere. I'm sure Rocco would come up with a good IC reason for his other characters to take revenge- maybe they were relatives or friends of Calamar (though the latter seems hard to imagine). What player wouldn't want a colorful archenemy organization?

To address Otakun's question, it is easier to sacrifice a character for the sake of a good story when there is nothing invested, but I would hope that I had the courage to risk my investment in a higher level character rather than have him take abuse (unless that was his personality). No character lasts forever, and how they die is just as important as how they lived. Dying in a PvP battle is better than just getting zapped by some trap, anyway. "A coward dies a thousand deaths" as they say.

 

[Pbartender]

OOC:
PBryant: I was a little annoyed, but I am now in a better mood due to your latest OOC post, plus I just scored 275 on a PT test. Yay for Me. Plus I just saved a load of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico. OK, not really on the last one.

OOC: No problem. To be certain, I'm very interested in seeing how this turns out in the end, but there's just one thing... "PBryant"??

 

[DM-Rocco]

Calamar the Dark, not ucustomed to not being able to talk himself out of situations that his magic cannot deal with, started to panic. Frantically his eyes dart left to right, around the room, in search of a light source.



OOC, As I said, I understand what you are doing and why, and as I stated also, I really hate this player versus player crap too, but he won't back down, and it is not in Calamar's nature to give into demands, requests yes, demands no, and crueldespot, you may not have a relationship with your new character, but I always bond with mine from the start, so losing this one will effect me and I do have a good story in mind for revenge from other characters, if it comes to that.

So, with that said, this is what Calamar does in the next 9 rounds to speed things up a bit, he takes a quick look around to see if he has access to a candle and a bag of some type and/or a weapon as described below, should be a free action but perhaps a move action. If he does, he goes into total defense until he can grap the bag and candle and then tries to move in a position where he can cast Monster Summoning I, but still give Cain a five foot step to say "Please" before he comes into my area, otherwise, see readied actions above for more.

If he doesn't see the components, which he doesn't dwell that much on since he is not expecting them, he quickly searchs for a weapon of some type, chair, broken bed post, even a pillow (it would be considered armed and non lethal damage so I would get AOO on him when he tried to punch me), anything that would do more damage than a fist. If the search takes so much time that Calamar cannot attack, he will go into total defense until his next attack, then he will move to the item and pick it up. He will stay in total defense until he has the item in hand and can attack with it.

If he cannot find the components (if you guys play with them, I don't know, I am, hate to use the word, 'assuming' that you do), or a weapon, he goes into a wild frenzy trying to punch Cain until he either says 'please', falls unconscious (in which case I stop so I don't kill him) or I fall unconscious (in which case I can do nothing because I can't). While I am striking my fist at him or a weapon, I continually say the following in character:

Calamar, losing his grip on sanity, flies into a rage of fists that reach out to attack Cain.
"It takes two men to fight, and what's more...,It takes two men to open this door," he screams louder and louder, "They need not be friend, But neither foes in the end. So they'll have to settle their score." He repeats this constantly at the top of his lungs, adding only on occasion, "Say please," when he strikes a hit on the Rogue, Cain.

 

[Otakkun]

Cain continues to attack.

OOC:
PBryant: I was a little annoyed, but I am now in a better mood due to your latest OOC post, plus I just scored 275 on a PT test. Yay for Me. Plus I just saved a load of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico. OK, not really on the last one.

Had I been a DM I would have awarded you 100Xp for that last line.

To address Otakun's question, it is easier to sacrifice a character for the sake of a good story when there is nothing invested, but I would hope that I had the courage to risk my investment in a higher level character rather than have him take abuse (unless that was his personality). No character lasts forever, and how they die is just as important as how they lived. Dying in a PvP battle is better than just getting zapped by some trap, anyway. "A coward dies a thousand deaths" as they say.

That's as good of a reply as I would've hoped for. Solid argument.

 

[Pbartender]

Calamar frantically scans the room, but finds it just as empty as when he first woke up. None of the spell components or weapons he desperately wishes for have materialized out of thin air as he would have hoped.

For lack of a better medium, the arguement devolves into an all-out fisticuff brawl, with hands, elbows, feet and knees flying in all directions. Calamar gives the halfling a sound beating about the head and shoulders, but Cain retaliates with a kidney punch that sends the wizard reeling.

Calamar makes an unarmed attack. Attack: 18 +1 = 17. Damage: 3 non-lethal.

Cain makes an unarmed attack. Attack: 16 +0 = 16. Damage: 1 non-lethal.

Cain has 8 hitpoints, 3 non-lethal, and a -2 Str penalty for 8 more rounds.
Calamar has 2 hit points, 2 non-lethal, and is staggered.

SRD, "Staggered: A character whose nonlethal damage exactly equals his current hit points is staggered. A staggered character may take a single move action or standard action each round (but not both, nor can she take full-round actions)."

 

[orsal]

and crueldespot, you may not have a relationship with your new character, but I always bond with mine from the start, so losing this one will effect me and I do have a good story in mind for revenge from other characters, if it comes to that.

To have one character carry on a vendetta on behalf of another character who is deceased strikes me as in violation of the "characters of the same player can't interact or collaborate" principle. I'm going to bring this up in the General thread for discussion or rules clarification; note that I am not a Judge, just a busybody, so my interpretation doesn't carry any particular wait. Look for OOC discussion on this issue in General.