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="pemerton" data-source="post: 6223644" data-attributes="member: 42582">Sorry all, I've been (and still am) marking exams, and when I get online I've been sucked into the vortex of damage-on-a-miss.Ouch! I think it's good that Thurgon didn't see this.I haven't read the rest of your combat yet, but will do so once I post this.Blaine is not a companion character. At best he gives a +2 bonus to Diplomacy in courtly circles, and to History checks involving my order and its noble affiliates. (Like the valets and scribes from the back of Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium.) My plan is that he not get killed. (Which means, given my skill challenge rolling to date, I hope he's paid for his funeral plan!)This battle isn't a real battle. It's a battle of the heart. (Like when Lancelot stabs himself while sleeping in John Boorman's Excalibur. Or when Jean Grey "timeslips" under Mastermind's influence.)This dark fey is trying to change our hopes and memories. Instead of remembering the king's successful charge against the armies of chaos (can they be gnoll armies? I like the idea of this king as a version of Elidyr of Nerath) - which kept the city and its homeland free even though Adir and other marchertowns had fallen - the enemies now want us to remember the Battle of Nine Sons as a defeat. To believe that there never was a time when righteous strength had triumphed.Luckily my memory is sound. I have the advantage of having heard the old men of the court - who rode alongside the then-young king, and his 8 brothers - speak of the battle when I was a boy. And later I read the chronicles that were preserved in the Iron Tower. I still remember the description of the the bold knights forming a wedge and riding their magnificent chargers through the unruly ranks, driving deep to reach its monstrous heart. [Thanks Robert J Schwalb, Dragon Magazine Annual p 11.]If I now am living the experience of one of those old men, and facing a great demon before me as I lead my cohort of knights and sergeants in the charge towards the heart of the gnoll army, I will recall those accounts I heard and read and live the truth, not some lie. (History check: +13 skill, +16  on the d20, for 29 vs Easy (? for advantage) DC.) With Honour and Glory (+2 power bonus to attack rolls of adj allies) my men and I will defeat this demon, who was not there when this battle really happened (NB those who flank it with me also gain a +1 power bonus to attack it as I Draw the Eye of Friend and Foe). And having defeated it, we will take our places next to the king and continue on to victory.Assuming that my History check is successsful, I then want to use my Religion check from earlier, if it's still "alive", to try and cut off the Night Hag's access to these chaotic phantasms, and force her to confront us in the flesh. The Lord of Battles favours open confrontation and scorns those who rely upon subterfuge.At which point I believe that Theren and I will have the advantage - do you agree [MENTION=27570]sheadunne[/MENTION]?</blockquote>

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