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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bloodymage" data-source="post: 214943" data-attributes="member: 4381">This is as much funny as it is pathetic. I'm running a small 2 person side campaign with an elven wizard and a human rogue (thief), both male. The wizard's player is experienced at D&D but not at playing evil (the mage has tendencies). He's having his own problems. The thief's player is completely new to tabletop but experienced at LARP and believe it or not, too anxious to learn and experiment. For instance, he's doing things like inventing 344th level characters, weird race combos like half-celestial/half-dragons, and trying to run a Ftr1/Pal1/Mnk1/Rgr1 (not in my campaigns!). Anyway, I just told him to tear up all his weird character sheets, no more multi-classing and straight classes and races out of the PHB for the forseeable future (I'm his primary DM).So, the mage and the thief have to high-tail it out of Silverymoon after becoming (guilty) suspects in a pair of burglaries. The mage is trying to discover the lost art of "gem magic" and his researches have led him to seek the Dungeon of Death. They travel to the town of Yartar and decide they need to hire some muscle before they travel on. They find a likely warrior watering hole and have a dispute over what they're looking for. The wizard is of the opinion that competent but affordable is their goal. The rogue says only the best will do. They decide to each attempt to recruit a hireling. The wizard finds a decently equipped and seemingly competent warrior-woman for a reasonable price (the PC's are 2nd level and the die said the wizard's hireling was 2nd level also). The rogue spies 2 likely candidates, one a huge hulking human (5th level) and the other, an extremely well equipped and fastidious elf (9th level). Of course, he can afford neither. The human is more interested in eating than the rogue's offer so the thief attempts to convince the elf to join them. He ends up getting caught in a lie and summarily dismissed from the insulted elf's table.The mage spends all day preparing for their morning barge journey north. The thief spends all day trying to "get the goods" on this elf! He fails Gather Info and can't find out anything about his target. He realizes the elf is probably more powerful than he is (duh!) so he goes to the riverfront and tries to hire 4 thugs to walk into the "Rusty & Broke" and pummel his nemesis! The thugs of course, don't want anything to do with suicide so they threaten to roll the thief instead. Our protagonist is getting very frustrated at these dead-ends he's running up against. He wants vengeance! He observes that the elf has visitors in the tavern from time to time (a rare idle day for the elf) and decides to question one of them as he's leaving the tavern. The dead-ends weren't working to discourage this juggarnaut so I allowed another Gather Info roll based on this new technique of questioning known acquaintances. On a wildy successful roll, the 10th level fighter accomodates this earnest but laughable boy. Our rogue finds out that his elf has single-handedly defeated a slaad! Not knowing what that is, it's described as a powerful, hideous demon on the prime material plane. This is our rogue's first tangible indicator of the elf's prowess and, by extension, that of his associates. So the fighter wants to know why this grubby youth is asking so many questions about his friend. The rogue lies. Fighter rolls a very high Sense Motive. Demands the truth. Rogue lies again. Fighter threatens death. Rogue again lies. Fighter draws his sword. Rogue runs for his life...no...rogue 'fesses up...no...rogue steps back and draws his rapier! Initiative goes to the fighter and our rogue is immediately downed (unconscious, hurt bad, bleeding but not dead).That night, when the thief doesn't show up, the wizard goes looking for him. He finds his pawn conscious (1hp) and bound to the throwing board in the "Rusty & Broke" being used as the object of a dagger throwing contest by the tavern's patrons. While he negotiates for his release, the rogue goes under again when a female dwarf misses her throw. The wizard is told he can pick up his companion before dawn in the alley. The thief was definitely going to lose either his tongue or his hearing, but a 99 on my %iles prevented it! The mage found the rogue the next morning stripped, shaved and bound with just the contents of his money pouch strewn on the ground around him.Next session: embarkation for the Dungeon of Death. All put in a prayer to Mask or Tymora, whichever you may incline toward, for our hapless rogue. He'll need all the help he can get to survive the journey, much less the dungeon!PS: There are definitely other stories about our converted LARP player. I'm beginning to have my doubts as to whether this fellow will ever learn how to survive in D&D.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes    :rolleyes:"  data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /></blockquote>

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