Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="atom crash" data-source="post: 2407658" data-attributes="member: 22162">Another update, but first a few words about my group:We used to have 5 players and a GM. One player moved to a city about 3 hours away last year and returns infrequently to play. His character is the one that attacked the Sea Lord and started the whole ball rolling. Another player recently moved about 4 hours away and hasn't had an opportunity to return and resolve what happened to his PC and cohort.The three players left in my core group (plus myself as DM) haven't been able to play in a while because I've been moving in with my girlfriend -- who is one of the players as well -- and we're starting a second campaign with one of the other players as GM.Anyway, last week the player of the PC who initiated the attack was back in town. He's been told that the other three characters were hanged. Now he's got to stand trial for the same crimes before a tougher judge. Here's the kicker: he's a dwarven paladin of Tyr. So he is "interviewed" by the Captain of the Guard and admits his guilt. I've decided that he is not in danger of losing his paladinhood as long as he tells the truth, accepts responsibility for what happened -- especially to his friends and the innocent guests at the ball he endangered -- and accepts the punishment given him. During the attack, his only target was the Sea Lord, so the blood of the innocent is not on his hands, though he feels partly -- and rightly -- responsible for what became of the others because he started the whole thing. He never told them to attack, but they followed his lead. But for now Tyr is taking a wait and see attitude. He justifies his attack on the Sea Lord -- "The man is evil!" -- but can offer no proof other than his own detect evil ability, though the Captain of the Guard also tried that on the Sea Lord and got nothing, thanks to the undetectable alignment spell. So all he has are accusations and no proof. The Captain tells him, "So a man with evil in his heart deserves to die? Can he not be redeemed then? I say he can. I say a man must pay for the evil he has done rather than the evil he hides in his heart but has not acted upon."In the end the PC is also found guilty and sentenced to death by the judge. At that moment, the Sea Lord -- bandaged and obviously greivously wounded -- sweeps into the courtroom and begs leniency for the PC. He asks that his life be spared but demands the weapon used to attack him. And the hand that wielded it. So the PC has his hand and forearm cut off, then he's paraded before the people at the ball, who feels justice has been served. The Sea Lord keeps the hand and the weapon as a trophy. He also comes off as a compassionate man and scores loads of public opinion points. The PC can't argue about his fate because it is more merciful than death, and it is the same injury suffered by his god! The Sea Lord has maimed the PC in the same way Tyr was maimed when he gave up his arm so that Fenris Wolf could be chained by the other gods. Tyr would see this as a worthy badge in the fight against a great evil and would definitely be upset if his servant complained about such a punishment. And the PC -- and the player as well -- still thinks his comrades are dead, so he has to live with the guilt of surviving the ordeal that resulted in the deaths of his friends.</blockquote>

Verification