What does the paladin do when...

Angcuru

First Post
There is an evil epic-level sorcerer holed up in a tower about to finish an incantation that will finish a string of rituals that, when completed, will open a portal to the abyss, allowing the minions of darkness to overrun the countryside. The leader of the land's army, an oh-so honorable human paladin, in sent into the tower single-handedly to deal with the sorcerer while his incredibly skilled forces amass at the site where the portal is to be opened, prepared to fight against the onslaught of demons, should he fail. While riding towards the tower to stop the sorcerer, he is intercepted by two messengers, one bearing the message that the key component to the final incantation is the blood of a new-born half-elven child, the other with a message saying that his beloved elven wife who is in the final stages of her pregnancy had disappeared from the midwife's chambers. The paladin, of course, rides with ever more speed towards the tower, arrives at the base, bashes in the door, and dashes up the spiral staircase. Surprisingly he meets with no resistance, and soon reaches the peak of the tower, where sight he beholds stops him dead in his tracks.

Description of the scene:

Close to the parapets near where the paladin emerges from the staircase there is a stone table, upon which lies the paladin's wife, bleeding profusely from a slash across her belly. Above her abdomen hovers a swinging pendulum blade suspended in the air by a ray of dark energy protruding from the outstretched hand of a red-robed figure who stands in front of a pit of obsidian pungee sticks in the center of the floor. In his other hand he holds the dangling form of a new-born child, held by it's ankles over the pit.


Now for the question: What does the paladin, who is a disciple of the goddess of love and family, do in this circumstance?

Does he attempt to kill the mage before the ritual can be completed, causing his wife to be split in half by the falling pendulum, taking the 50/50 chance that his child will fall from the dead mage's hand into the pit and completing the spell?

OR...

Does he slice of the mage's hand(from which the energy protrudes) at a timing to that the pendulum will swing away from the stone table, sparing his wife and fosaking his child while the ritual is completed, trusting that his army may be able to handle the demons?

OR...something else?
 

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dumps his epic level wizard out of his bag of holding onto the floor,who casts timestop/wish or whatever.

and after the seession runs over the gm in a truck.
 

Charge the sorcerer in an attempt to save the child. Why? Because the spell requires the blood of the child. If the child can be saved, the spell is ruined. Also, it could be argued that the greater good is served by saving the child vs. saving the mother, and while it is obvious that the paladin is frelled, what he attempts must be made ... he cannot give up.

Next I'd call out to my gawd for support/intervention/guidance.

Then I'd shove my longsword up the sorcerer's rear.

Finally, I'd morn the passing of my wife.

Joe2Old
 

I would kill my own child not letting his/her blood fall into the pit, let my wife die, and then finish off the sorcerer blaming him for this horrible "rock and a hard place" situation. Then I would have my wife and child resurrected.

Why? The demons are obviously something really nasty or he wouldn't bother with them. On top of that, the demon threat is unknown. This sorcerer is a known threat. Better to take care of the devil (relatively speaking) you know, than the one you don't know.

On top of that, his slut wife was having an affair...with 19 other men and there's only a 5% chance the child is even his. In addition, he really didn't love her anyway. He used her political influence to reach the prestigous position of head of the army. Although a borderline infringement of the paladin code, it serves his god of love best by being able to influence war and even avert it. Best to let the slut die and her hellspawn and start anew.
 

Welcome on board the Kobayashi Maru.

If the paladin has a beloved wife such as this, she's probably just as noble and LG as he is. She would gladly sacrifice her own life to save so many others, especially her new-born child; she would cry out to her husband to forget her and stop the spell.

Whether he ever forgives himself is another matter - and probably worthy of a novel or two.
 



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