NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercule" data-source="post: 412341" data-attributes="member: 5100">Great RP, man.  Definitely let that player some leeway with his next character.My best story comes from a solo adventure that I ran.  This may have been a "You had to have been there," but it's the most enthralling adventure I've ever run and has become something of a holy grail of vibrancy that I've chased for 15+ years now.The PC was an uber-potent Ranger who had been played over the course of ~20 game years (about 5 real years).  I'd written Ravenloft, I6 (this is before the campaign setting was published -- or probably even considered) into his back story and the ranger had defeated Strahd and reclaimed his ancestoral estate, so this takes place in and around Barovia.  He'd also had a couple of children; a son and a daughter.  Although when their adventurer mother had died in battle, the kids had been placed in the care of a trusted friend.  They had only recently returned to their father and as young adults.The daughter's badly mangled corpse is found and brought to the castle.  Much chaos ensues.  Later, the ranger's squire comes into the castle escourting the daughter.  More chaos ensues.It is deduced, obviously, that one of the "daughters" is a fake.  A visiting dignitary, who happens to be a paladin detects evil on the living daughter and declares her to be evil.  The squire objects strongly, but acknoledges that she had been briefly out of his sight and could be an imposter.  Paladin calls for a trial/inquiry.  Much debate ensues.  It is revealed that the daughter and squire had been secretly courting.  Squire vouches in no uncertain terms for the validity of the daughter's identity.  Paladin vouches in no uncertain terms for the evilness of the daughter.Ranger freaks out, and leaves.  Following is massive soul searching and uncertainty.  Ranger loses it and actually goes to the spot by the river bank where he dumped Strahd's ashes and begins talking to Strahd about the whole mess (Strahd doesn't talk back, but this outporing of emotion does give me a means to later "resurrect" Strahd for more use).  Much emoting on the part of the player as the character realizes that he never knew his daughter well enough to be able to even guess at whether this is an imposter.When the ranger returns to the castle, he declares that the central participants will go to town to seek the counsil of the local cleric and to bury the body.  Everyone agrees.  The cleric acts a bit odd, but confirms that the daughter is evil.The paladin urges the ranger to strike down the imposter who must also be his daughter's murderer.  The ranger agrees, since all evidence points this way.  Paladin hands his sword over, but the ranger hands it back, saying that he doesn't have the heart.  Paladin moves to strike the daughter, but the squire jumps in the way.  Paladin declares that the squire is an ally of evil and evil himself.Ranger thinks for about two seconds and realizes that the squire should have detected as evil previously if he were evil -- seems an odd detail to have left out.  Ranger commands the Paladin to halt.  Paladin refuses and a fight ensues -- details not really relevant.  Paladin turns out to be a glabrezu who was trying to get the ranger to commit a truly horrid act and bring him low.  Ranger wins, no major casualties, although the daughter is in constant danger as the glabrezu tries for a "parting shot".No single action during the adventure stands out, but the whole was a very emotional session.  The player really took it all a notch about where I'd even thought it'd go.</blockquote>

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