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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DrSpunj" data-source="post: 1309999" data-attributes="member: 994">Ah ha! For Nail and the group, the above phrase is how I arrived at possibly facing 18 tests! "...the nine mysteries of beginning, each a pair of principles..." So that's 9 mysteries and 18 principles total. We've now passed two mysteries, but what 4 principles did they entail?  Between sessions I had a chance to go back to the Book of the Righteous (BotR, which I read pretty thoroughly when I started playing Garret, but had not cracked open for months except for leveling mechanics! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":o" title="Eek!    :o"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":o" />) and reread/study the general sections in the front, Morwyn's sections, and the Holy Warrior section. The BotR was pretty clear that Morwynites believed any race of the tree could be redeemed, and if they asked for mercy it would be given where possible. So if the party was battling Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes or Halflings, things would have been very different for Garret. OTOH, the book (and therefore Garret's teachings, I confirmed that with Nail) is pretty clear that most other races (like Goblins & Kobolds) are inherently evil (or at least, not inherently good and/or deserving of the same considerations), and Holy Warriors of all faiths exist to help protect the races of the tree from them. Now, Nail stated from the beginning that he was following most of the BotR but not everything word for word, and our first adventures led us to a group of (what we believe to be) non-evil Kobolds, which challenged our religious teachings right off the bat. Taking all that into account, Garret did a LOT of thinking as the party was assailing the goblins of Alder's Look, and came to some decisions.<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Goblins are not races of the tree.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Everything Garret (and Thaile) have been taught about goblins says they are Evil (note capital 'E').</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">As a Holy Warrior of Morwyn part of Garret's duty is to protect the races of the tree.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Kytum-Up & his tribes are Kobolds, also believed to be Evil, but have proven themselves to our party to be exceptions (which one of them admitted to at some point). Kytum-Up seems to be a Holy Warrior as well, though we're still not sure (are we?) of which god he and his tribe worship, though it may be Korak.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Goblins may, as Rowan believes, be redeemable, however this tribe has done nothing but pillage, loot & burn communities and individuals in the area surrounding Alder's Look, and repeatedly attacked us and sought to do us harm. (Now admittedly, we're invading their home right now <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />, but I'm thinking of when we were on the road headed south to Scanlon and were attacked, before we officially started invading their home! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />) Calabbleed may have been pushing the tribe to do atrocities they were not comfortable with, however they did not rise up to remove him from leadership either, and always seemed to be enjoying it (if Nail's facial expressions can be translated to the goblins, anyway! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Garret DID give his word in the middle of the battle that no harm would come to the leader, Glebesh, if he surrendered, and Garret would have defended him against the rest of the party as long as Glebesh was acting honorably to fulfill his part. (To set the record straight from Rowan's accounting, Garret was never interested in killing Glebesh after Garret gave his word that Glebesh would be granted mercy, as long as Glebesh didn't act up.) This is the same thing he did with the goblins they captured at the intersection of death, and THOSE were killed very quickly by Thaile before she and Lissia followed the rest of us down. It was then that Garret really started to do some soul searching about his options down in the bowels of Alder's Look.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Garret had no moral/ethical or religious problems killing the remaining goblins as they tried to flee to the surface, even when they asked for mercy and tried to surrender. He felt it was what was required of him, in line with his religious teachings, his faith, and himself (his alignment) as these goblins would likely continue to harm the races of the tree if they fled Alder's Look in such large numbers (though they might be quiet for a few years).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">When Glebesh, the three females and one infant were all that was left of the tribe, Garret felt they didn't pose a significant enough threat, now or in the future, to necessitate killing them, so he was willing to follow Rowan's wishes and release them into the Alder's Mere. Though he has no knowledge of their life in the swamp, he suspects they may perish anyway, just trying to survive and rebuild their tribe.</li> </ol>Having said all that, Garret didn't feel any immediate repercussions from his choices as he rode off with Lissia and the refugees. Because he left at that point, I have no idea what happened with him. My plan for him was to return to Eaglesford, make a report to both the Captain and the kobold tribe at the farm, and if not immediately needed in the town's defense then proceed to Three Oaks and give another report to the Holy Mother of his order there, probably joining her as most Holy Warriors of Morwyn do (they don't really adventure much, he's quite the exception <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />).As to why I retired him? It wasn't something I did lightly. When I created him with the 3.0 rules set I was looking to try the Mounted Combat feat chain and had never played a Paladin before. Because of the difficulties in keeping your mount in typical dungeons, I specifically chose a Small race and dealt with all the dis/ads that came with. He's a fun character to roleplay, but honestly, I didn't have much fun with him while roll-playing in combat. It's not just him, but the whole Mounted Combat feat chain. Starting out at 1st level with Mounted Combat was alright, as it helped protect Bavic, and the mobility was great. By 3rd level I was looking to actually DO something, though, and was really looking forward to Ride-by Attack. When I got it, I was...less than thrilled. By that time 3.5 had come out, and although we made a couple House Rules to actually make Ride-by Attack possible, more often than not it wasn't something I could get to work. I don't fault Nail, but due to the positioning of my allies, or my enemies, or the terrain, I just couldn't set up a charge to use the feat nearly as often as I wanted to. When things did work out for me to make a charge, I would, of course, sometimes miss on the attack roll. When I did connect, because Garret wasn't all that strong (because of having to spread his Point Buy around to quite a few stats), was using Small weapons and until the END of his career didn't have a magical weapon, he would do very little damage. It was often painfully frustrating. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> By this time Mounted Combat wasn't all that nifty either, as Nail was forced into choosing between attacking Garret or Bavic. If the former, Mounted Combat wasn't used at all. If the latter, there was a very real chance that Bavic might die outright with as few hit points as he had. From the beginning I wanted a Celestial Riding Dog as Garret's Special Mount, which would have made survivability a bit easier for Bavic, but that wasn't going to happen until 6th level, and that's when Garret would get Spirited Charge. Since charging wasn't working out all that often (see above problems with Ride-by Attack) I couldn't see Spirited Charge making things any better. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> Sooooo, while I very much enjoyed the non-combat side of Garret, in combat he was not what I was looking for, and I swapped him for Mor'Elandi during the session above. I'd been interested in playing somebody like Mor'Elandi for quite some time and many of the 3.5 changes made him not only viable, IMO, but better. Any other questions? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Thanks! And keep the posts coming, Nail. I'm looking forward to them! All of them! Especially last week's session! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> DrSpunj</blockquote>

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