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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jdrakeh" data-source="post: 4651257" data-attributes="member: 13892">In the first AD&D 1e campaign that I played in, one party member was a high level LE Cleric/Assassin who was always plotting and scheming to resurrect his dark god but, ultimately, ended up being the individual who kept everybody else in line. Socially speaking, he was the refined member of our party. I recall one incident typical of this character quite well. . . After a week of our party behaving like uncivilized hooligans and running afoul of much trouble in a certain city, I recall this individual arranging for the kidnapping and torture of some other PCs to "teach them a lesson about manners" — but what made it so clever was that, as both a character and as a player, he had almost completely hidden his involvement. Basically, we were all drugged while camping and, when the party (including the Cleric/Assassin) awoke, we found ourselves strapped to alters in a wooded grove being threatened with physical torture by a pair of nasty brutes who demanded that we beg forgiveness for offending their unnamed Lord and offer our service to him. Well, everybody was considering their offer, except for the proud (and, often, ill-mannered) Paladin. Who said as much. With curse words. So they smashed his skull like a ripe tomato. Everybody else, of course, gladly swore fealty to this unknown Lord and promised to come to his aid if summoned. Each of us was given a ring with his personal sigil on it. Nobody knew what had transpired until far later in the campaign (actual years worth of play later, IIRC) when we arrived at the Cleric/Assassin's monastery. . . and the animated corpse of the long forgotten murdered Paladin was performing menial labor in the entryway <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" />So, anyhow, this guy was that kind of evil. I don't think he ever did anything that could be perceived as "heroic" if he didn't first ascertain that it benefited the Dark Forces of X (I forget who his worshiped deity was). Until the day that he died. It actually came as quite a shock to everybody else playing. We had been collecting these 'keys' to an extra dimensional prison for about a year of actual play without realizing that they didn't work like traditional mechanical keys but, instead, created a pathway between the holder and an ancient, chaotic, evil that lets said evil inhabit the body of the key holder. The evil Cleric/Assassin makes the connection (somewhat serendipitously) while wrestling with an Astral Deva as part of his ongoing bid to resurrect his own dark deity. Apparently, this god of Chaos is not only aligned directly against the Cleric/Assassin's own dark god but is also out to destroy the whole of creation and has the power to make good on that threat. The Cleric/Assassin immediately realizes what is at stake and runs off to warn the rest of the party about what is happening. The key holder (possessed by Chaotic Evil), meanwhile, has already convinced the party (save for the Thief, my character, who is off running down some ale and whores) that the Cleric/Assassin is trying to subvert the keys for his own evil ends in a bid to resurrect his dark god. So. . . the rest of the party, knowing that the Cleric/Assassin has been off wrestling with near godlike beings, assumes that he is surely weakened and decides to attack him in broad daylight. All Hell breaks loose in the town square when the deceived party members attempt to murder the Cleric/Assassin as he arrives on the scene, who in turn, opens up with both barrels all the while yelling about the keys and the coming of Y (I forget who the big, evil god was) like some manic street preacher. Knowing what is at stake, he refuses to turn and run, instead putting his life on the line in a vain attempt to stop the key holder. My character arrived just in time to witness all of this unfold (I chose to remain hidden). After all my years of gaming, this is still one of the most heroic deaths that I've seen in play. This may be because trying to save anybody was so out of the norm for this particular character but, whatever the reason, it has certainly stuck with me for years. Sadly, this heroic sacrifice was cheapened by the fact that death in D&D is rarely (if ever) permanent, and I was able to have the Cleric/Assassin raised shortly thereafter.</blockquote>

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