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Message: <blockquote data-quote="UltimaGabe" data-source="post: 1560182" data-attributes="member: 16019">A while ago, one of my characters (Saethorn Velundar, a Cleric of Wee Jas) was in a little solo adventure apart from the rest of my group where, in his travels, came across a small town called Escrermarsh. Escrermarsh had been tormented by some sort of demon for years, and nobody knew much about it- it would appear, seemingly at random, every few months or so, grab some peasant, then teleport away. The person's body would be found a few days later, horribly and savagely torn to shreds.Being a village of nothing but commoners, they could do nothing but pray to every known god for someone to come and relieve them of this horror. For years, nobody came. More and more people were killed. It seemed there would be no respite from their horrible fate. Then came Saethorn.Not sure what to make of this town, Saethorn agreed to help out this little village in exchange for a place to rest, and he "grudgingly" accepted all of the praise and near-worship of these peasants as they could barely believe a savior had finally come to them. He was shown around Escremarsh by the town's mayor, who dreamed of some day becoming an adventurer, but not having the drive to leave his semi-peaceful town and seek fortune in the world. Saethorn had given him a magical rod he found in a previous adventure- it had a few neat powers, such as a bolt of force 3x/day, or a bolt of negative energy 1x,day, or the ability to summon a beefed-up skeleton that followed the wielder's commands 2x/day. He told the mayor that if he was ever away when the demon came back, he was to use it to protect himself- hoping that it could at least distract the attacker long enough for everyone to get away.Not knowing what he had gotten himself into, Saethorn searched around town for clues, eventually tracking the origin of the beast to a little boy that lived in the town decades before, who had spent his entire life being ridiculed and looked down upon by the rest of the village. It was Saethorn's belief that this boy had, over the course of many years, gained the knowledge and power to bind a demon into his service and use it to exact his revenge on this town. He decided to wait- wait for the monster to come back, so he could put an end to it and rid this town of their fear.Eventually, the demon returned. And Saethorn met it in the town swuare at nighttime, ready to do battle. He was a decent level for the challenge (he was around level 5 or 6, and I believe the demon was around a CR 5 or 6 as well), but it would definitely be challenging. But I hoped he'd be able to take it out eventually.The battle went horribly. I rolled poorly on all of my Caster Level checks to overcome the demon's Spell Resistance, and so half of my most useful spells didn't do anything to it. Not only that, it was constantly dispelling all of my buffs, so there was little I could do to prepare myself. And worse still, it could turn invisible, and did so without much hesitation. But Saethorn had to win- he just had to- all of these people depended on him, and viewed him as some sort of savior.The battle ended with my character being knocked somewhere below -5 hit points. He woke up in a bed a week or so later- and demanded to know what had happened. As it turned out, the mayor, seeing Saethorn had been felled by the horrid beast, stepped forth. While he distracted the demon, the townspeople pulled their "savior" to safety and poured a potion down his throat that they had kept hidden away for some emergency. The mayor stepped forth, wielding the rod Saethorn had given him, and did his best to slay the monster. He missed, and the monster killed him. It left once it had shed innocent blood.Saethorn felt horrible. He had not only failed at doing what he promised he would do for the town, he had caused the death of one of their most respected members. But the town felt otherwise... the demon had not been sighted since, and as far as any of them could tell, it was his fault. Besides, the mayor died the way he would have wanted to- standing tall in the face of danger, like a true adventurer.Then came time to hand out XP for this solo adventure. I told the DM I didn't expect to get full XP, of course, but she said otherwise- and one of the other players, having spent several years training in martial arts, mentioned that just because you don't win doesn't mean you don't learn anything. In fact, some of his best learning experiences were being beaten by someone who was genuinely better than him. It's the same way in D&D.</blockquote>

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