After a year and a half of playing we have now learned that our true enemy is the mad god Tharizdun. Our heroes now in the second incarnation of For Justice fight to stop Tharizdun and his minions not only to save Anætheron but also the entire Multiverse. We even have our own Wiki.
Character Sheets:
Current Player Character Members of For Justice
- Class: Wizard 13
Elf, daughter of Drusilia and Thamior Liaden, who trained at Dalmasca school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, trained by Basch Fon Ronsenburg of Dalmasca. She's a wizard. Her charisma is on the low side, leading to some interesting character traits. She was turned into a drow by an über-elf god increasing her Charisma and Intelligence. She is currently the most senior member of For Justice
- Back from the Dead: Frankie carries a lot of gems for revivify.
- Braids of Action
- Break the Haughty: Darla as one of the bigger egos in the party, she's also on the receiveing end of most of the slapstick.
- On a meta level Darla has started to shy away from spells that show off grand arcane power to more useful crowd controlling spells.
- Brick Joke: She still had the a stolen tent a year and half real time later.
- Combat Tentacles: Was a victim of this.
- Cool Old Lady: By human standards anyway. She's still called "A young one" when compared to other elves though.
- Cool Shades: Plus they negate her Light Blindness.
- Dark Is Not Evil: It's neutral.
- The Dark Side: She hasn't fallen to the Dark side, but her morality has been compromised enough times to trigger her change from Lawful Good to Lawful Neutral.
- Deadpan Snarker: She tries, but her timing isn’t that great.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Maybe. She recently admitted that just because she acted like a bitch, didn't mean she wanted to hurt anyone.
- During a battle with a Dwarven Eldritch Abomination she got beat around pretty badly, even falling into negatives twice. In the end though, she was able to overcome the monster by disintegrating its head. As she did so she screamed "Burn in Hell, asshole!". This is quite unlike her usual cold and detached demeanor.
- Disintegrator Ray: Has a cast of Disintegrate ready at will.
- She got the dwarven abomination with it too.
- Does Not Like Men: A minor example, in session she stated "I don't understand the stupidity of you men"
- [[Though she does like Frankie]]
- Don't Look At Me: Hates being a drow.
- Dump Stat: Strength
- Evil Makeover: She was turned into a Drow shortly after becoming felling from Lawful Good to Lawful Neutral.
- Familiar: An unnamed raven
- Final Fantasy: We don't know if Darla actually learned from Captain Basch or Van.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Increasingly this.
- Insufferable Genius: Has a raw intelligence of 23, but her lack of wisdom and charisma cause her to be gruff and irritating towards her companions.
- Kill It with Fire: Darla's favorite tactic.
- Knight Templar: Verges on this, especially when dealing with Cymoril and the Erinyes
- The Lancer: She's this for Frankie. She's effectively second in command of the party, has the intelligence that he doesn't, though lacks his pragmatism. She's also more willing to jump into combat and kill her enemies, even if they aren't especially evil.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Sometimes. Blame it on the broom.
- Now or Never Kiss: She gets kissed by Frankie before he walked into a Prismatic sphere.
- Older Than They Look: As an elven wizard Darla has a minimum age of 116.
- Considering she was already a pretty powerful wizard when she joined the party, she could be far older than that.
- Pietà Plagiarism: Frankie catches Darla Bridal Carry style after she was spit out by a Dwarven Eldritch Abomination.
- Pointy Ears
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "Burn in hell, asshole!" to the Dwarven Abomination.
- Rainbow Motif: The Seven Veils
- The Red Mage: Darla is a generalist, but favors evocation in selection.
- Slowly Slipping Into Evil: The DM's plan for her
- Spell Book: "Huh? Basch never told me about that..."
- Squishy Wizard: Averted with her 16 con.
- Tsundere: Type A.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: More like "Preventing the Apocalypse Justifies the Means"
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: She was willing to destroy an entire nation to save Anætheron and stop Tharizdun,
- Will They or Won't They?: With Frankie. Eventually they will, but who knows how long the world will last.
- Class: Cleric 5/Radiant Servant 5/Contemplative 3
- 24-Hour Armor
- Artifact of Doom: Owns the "End table of the Apocalypse". Notably it doesn't match anything.
- Back from the Dead: Died during the Ogre Mage battle, but was revived by the Church of Three.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Glamored Armor to look like a Nice Suit anyway.
- Badass Preacher: Took out an Druid Ogre Mage with class features stronger than his entire class in one round.
- Bash Brothers: with Gromnom
- Blessed with Suck: Every so often.
- His Belt of Battle is powerful, but he can't say "Kay".
- The Katana of Yizen Da'zon sapped his strength and diplomacy, before he threw it away.
- Bridal Carry: Carries Darla like this.
- Brooklyn Rage
- Buy Them Off: Frankie would rather schmooze devils than fight them.
- Character Development: Both on and off camera. He starts as a Lovable Rogue, then he gets discovered by his father he's sent into the military becoming a Glory Seeker and Knight in Shining Armor, after getting defeated by an Ogdren and receiving a healthy dose of Survivor's Guilt he loses his nerve and becomes The So-Called Coward and a Dangerous Deserter. When he meets up with the party he eventually turns into a Reluctant Hero eventually blossoming into a hero proper by the game's end.
- Church Militant: Radiant Servants are this in spades.
- Combat Pragmatist: Weaponized Planeshift.
- The Conscience
- Cool Sword: He has quite a number. He started with a +1 Adamantine Greatsword
- Plus the oft-passed around +1 Cold Iron Sword of Humanbane
- Now uses a +2 Fiery Burst Claymore.
- He used the legendary +3 Eager Black Scale Katana of Yizen Da'zon for a time as well.
- His final sword was the +5 Vampiric Life Drinking Bastard Sword of the Barbarian King. Unfortunately it did not make him the Barbarian King.
- Deadpan Snarker:Blue Vizier (angry) "How much time do you think we have?"Frankie "Not enough time to satisfy your ego"
- Death Seeker: At first.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: To the Blue Vizier, Red Vizier, and at times the {DM}.
- Dump Stat: Dexterity
- Expy: of Frank Sinatra, in appearance anyway.
- The Face:
- Flying Brick: Biggest tank in the party.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: When investigating the dwarves. He was the good cop.
- Guilt Complex: He begins the story with major Survivors Guilt.
- He starts getting over it after the Ogre Mage battle.
- Healing Hands: As a cleric.
- Holy Hand Grenade: His Fire Seeds spell.
- Idol Singer: He became this for Dwarves, after scoring a 71 on a perform check.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Averted. His Katana was the penultimate sword in his arsenal.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Literally as a Radiant Servant of Pelor.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Yup. Though it's warranted given the world he lives in.
- Light Is Good: In reverence to his patron Pelor.
- The McCoy: Transitions to The Kirk after Kaiden leaves the party.
- The Medic:
- Mighty Glacier: Frankie's got the best armor class in the party by a mile, his damage output is super high, and he has very potent spells. Just don't expect him to get anywhere quickly.
- He's tough enough to survive walking through a prismatic sphere.
- Naked People Are Funny: Frankie was naked for some reason after being planeshifted during the failed elves subplot.
- Now or Never Kiss: Kisses Darla before he walks through a prismatic sphere.
- Only Sane Men: The team other than him can be rather...eccentric.
- Power Tattoo: Has his holy symbol of Pelor tattooed on his chest, after being brought back by the Church of Three.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:Advanced Belker "Are you the new victims?"Frankie "Nope, that'd be you." (Blasts the Belkar)
- Precision F-Strike" After Sinfjotle fell drained magic missile Gromnom, Frankie said "Don't. Fucking. Do. That."
- Prestige Class: Radiant Servant and Contemplative.
- Psychic Nosebleed: He get's one when he absorbs all of the knowledge from a Dwarven Ledger.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something:
- Sexy Priest
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Done by an Ogdren no less.
- Shirtless Scene: Has had two.
- During the Failed Elf Subplot
- When he was revived by the Church of Three.
- Sizeshifter: RIGHTEOUS MIGHT!
- Sloth: Too afraid to act.
- Tuxedo and Martini: Basically Macgregor family traits.
- Character Alignment: Unknown. Not Good.Class: Ranger 2/Fighter 8/ Peerless Archer 3
- Badass Normal
- Multishot: Fires off eight arrows per round
- No Sense of Direction
- Prestige Class: Peerless Archer
- You, Get Me Coffee: Not entirely meant demeaningly, but when Frankie gets floored by "Scholar's Touch" he asks Aqua to get him booze and cigarettes.
- Class: Warblade 13
- Fish out of Temporal Water
- Flight
- In a Single Bound: Has a lot of ranks in jump.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse
- Trade Mark Favorite Food: Fish
- Class: Factotum 13
- Blatant Lies: Prone to this.Dwarven Suspect "Why are you following me?"Tshrolo "I'm not, I'm just admiring the architecture"
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Everyone was calling him "Factotum" for a while.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: He was the bad cop while investigating the dwarves.
- Iaijutsu Practitioner
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: His first line of dialogue on cameraMr. Coalescence "Are you prepared to go into Oblivion?"Tshrolo "I don't play these types of games."
- Lighter and Softer: Sort of, at least not as serous as several earlier Player Characters
Current NPC Members of For Justice
- Class: Barbarian 12
- 10-Minute Retirement:
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Took to wearing a glamoured Tux after becoming Frankie's cohort.
- Barbarian Hero
- Bash Brothers: With Frankie
- The Big Guy
- Blood Knight
- Book Dumb: But still acts as the team tactician.
- Breath Weapon: Can breath fire like a Hellfire Wyrm, but it almost kills him every time.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center
- The Bus Came Back: One of the few characters to reenter the story.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: He once invented tetherball with a dwarven general.
- Cool Hammer: The Hammer of Torrid Dulge
- Dumb Muscle: Usually subverted
- Dump Stat: Intelligence
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: He likes to mention Mama-Grom a lot, though he's not much of a bad man anymore.
- Half-Human Hybrid: His mother was an orc and his father was a human.
- Happily Married: Well, sorta.
- Hulk Speak
- Lactose Intolerant: Why isn't this a trope?
- Lightning Bruiser: With our enemies as tough as they are, Gromnom's 144 hit points quickly demote him to a Glass Cannon.
- Morality Chain: Before joining the team Gromnom mentioned being mostly a hired gun and murderer. After hanging around with Frankie his actions are much closer to Chaotic Good.
- Never Learned to Read: Until Frankie taught him.
- Psycho for Hire: During his time as a mercenary.
- Special Person, Normal Name: Gromnom Jones
- Strength Equals Worthiness: How he made friends with the Ettins.
- Took a Level in Badass: He was pretty badass before, but now he's a badass that can breath fire!
- Class: Cragtop Archer 7
- Alliterative Name: Not Chew-Alor, but she belongs to the group of Enlightened Ettins.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Ettins are weird.
- Can't Catch Up
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Like everyone of her species.
- Glass Cannon: Strikes from afar and has the worst hit points in the party.
- Happily Married
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Averted. She was talking shots at Vlad, not taking shots of Vlad
- Hulk Speak
- Multiple Head Case: As all Ettins, she has two heads.
- Prestige Class: Cragtop Archer
- Strength Equals Worthiness: Why she's so happy being married to Gromnom
- Class: Factotum 8
- Bling of War
- Brick Joke: His entire creation.
- Can't Catch Up: Stuck at level 8.
- Cyborg: Dino is a warforged.
- Expy: Dean Martin and Goldar
- Glass Cannon: Mostly. He can deal an 11d6 sneak attack once per battle, but he has very few hit points compared to the rest of the party.
- Humble Hero: He knows his limitations
- This quality won him Darla's respect
- Iaijutsu Practitioner: oh those factotums.
- Instant Armor: He has adamantine skin!
- Morality Chip: Frankie is trying to install one the old fashioned way.
- Mundane Made Awesome
- Organic Technology: He is armor based around a black gel-like core.
- Support Party Member: The only party member who an unlock a door.
This party contains examples of:
- Badass Crew
- Body-Count Competition: Inverted. As a high level party death isn't too much of an issue.Sinfjotle: Three. Once against the Hellcats. Twice against the BonetreesDarla: Two. Once against the Storm Elemental, once against the Hellcats.Gromnom: Two. Against the Hellcats and the Storm Elemental.Frankie: One. Against the Ogre Mage TrioKaiden: Two on camera. One against an Unspeakable horror and once against the Storm Elemental
- Death Is Not Permanent: See above.
- Freudian Trio:The Id: TshroloThe Ego: FrankieThe Superego: Darla
- Greater Need Than Mine
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Played straight. Aqua, Cher-Alore, and even Darla carry bows. Ar'kis, Frankie, and Gromnom are all melee.
- Hit Points: Given that this is Dungeons and Dragons all the main characters have them.
- Gromnom>Tshrolo>Frankie>Darla>Dino>Chew-Alore
- Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Most of the group's mentality by this point.
- Not That Kind of Mage: Nobody has Mage Hand!
- Ranked by I.Q.: Found by starting with 100, adding 4 for every Int point above 10, and 2 for every Wis point over 10.
- Darla: 172
- Frankie: 134
- Sinfjotle: 164
- Gromnom: 84
- Aqua: 100
- Dino: 148
- Tshrolo: 176
- Shorter Means Smarter: Sort of. Darla and Sinfjotle are shorter and have higher intelligence than Gromnom and Frankie.
- averted with Tshrolo who is described as tall and thin.
- Vitriolic Best Buds
A Typical Exchange:
- Connery's Character "Alright guys, do we have any plans of attack here"
- Connery's Character "Ugh, We'll I guess were running in"
- DM "Do a will save, your still drunk from before"
- DM "He's not here, you can't"
- DM "So as you approach the cave you see three huge elephants guarding the entrance"
- Doc Spire's Character "No we'd just have to go past them again afterward when we might be injured"
- Loki's Character "Run in with no regard for our lives?"
- Loki's Character "We could run in with no regard for our lives?"
- Matt "I read something just like this on TV Tropes!!! Also, you should kill the party."
- Meina's "Never Mind then I'm just going to try to puke on Connery"
- Meina's Character "Wait I've got it! I'll play a song!"
- Meina's Character "Well we could try to just get around them"
- Mononoke's Character "Abuse Kaiden's Breathweapon?"
Songs and Stories told around the Campfire
By Meina
(note: most of it was written down when she was drunk ^-^ )
Pathetic we are, our group of freaks
For Justice is our name
Dying against monsters so weak
We’re still alive, I’m amazed (x2)
We’ve faced legendary elephants
And defeated huge worm-like things
Yet we can’t kill some fire bats
We’re quite skilled indeed (x2)
Our leader doesn’t think to pray
To his deity
Because he is an idiot
Oh woe, oh woe is me (x2)
Our leader is pretty stupid
So we charge in recklessly
Death is as good as done for us
We’re good as dead indeed (x2)
Kaiden is a flamer
A half-gold dragon pyro
So if our opponents immune to fire
Then he’s kind of doomed (x2)
Loki, also known as Kitty
Knows only seven words
Corpse, corpse, corpse, corpse, corpse, corpse, corpse
Oh, did I mention corpse? (x2)
Sam, our phasm, has been sketchy
Cause he hasn’t been around
Our rogue that speaks dwarven would’ve been useful
In this rigged dwarven dungeon
Leroy took some levels in awesome
There’s nothing bad to say about him
Why we deserve such an awesome companion
I’ve no actual idea
Oh yeah, and then there’s me, Meina
Who’s very awesome indeed
Though just bard, I’m quite useful—
Oh look! A SHINY!!!!!! (x2)
Shiny, shiny, shiny, shiny
Shiny, shiny, shiny
Shiny, shiny, shiny, shiny
Shiny, shiny, shiny (x2)
First he was afraid
He was petrified
Kept thinking he could never live
without his party by his side
But he spent so many nights
thinking how things went so wrong
He grew strong
He learned how to carry on
and so he's back
from the outer planes
He just 'ported in with us here
To feel the sun upon his face
He should have never come with us
He's under Vampire's lock and key
If he had known for just one second
he would have stayed in the dwarf quarry
Go on now go sprint out the door
don't turn around now
'cause you've seen an Atropol
wasn't he the one who tried to kill you with his eyes?
Did he think you'd crumble?
Did he think you'd fall down and die?
Oh no, not you
You will survive
as long as your not Loki
I know you'll stay alive
You've got a long life to live
You've almost made it back to civ
and you survived
You did survive
It took all the strength he had
not to fall apart
kept trying hard to mend his sanity
down in the unending dark
and he spent oh so many nights
deep down in that dungeon
He used to cry
But now he can hold his head up high
and we see him
somebody new
He's not chained up underground
still waiting to be rescued
and so he left that horrid place
and he can finally walk free
now he's taking off his pants
to pledge into new group mysteriously
Go on now go sprint out the door
don't turn around now
'cause you've seen an Atropol
wasn't he the one who tried to kill you with his eyes?
Did he think you'd crumble?
Did he think you'd fall down and die?
Oh no, not you
You will survive
as long as your not Loki
I know you'll stay alive
You've got a long life to live
You've almost made it back to civ
and you survived
You did survive
Gather round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the evil
Around has grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be flayed to the bone
If your soul to you
Is worth fixin'
Then you better convert
Or you'll end up a gnome
For the times they are a ending
Come doom and sooth sayers
Who prophesize for your kin
Drink the black liquid
The chance won't come again
Convert now or soon
For the wheel of fate spins
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin
For the father will come
And the perfect will win
For the times they are a-ending
Come nobles and kings
Please heed the call
Don't sit in your castles
Don't wait in on your balls
For he that's imperfect
Will be he that has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it's ragin'
It'll soon shake your lives
And devour you all
For the times they are a-endin'
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
Convert now
So you may understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly fadin'
Please get out of the new one
If you won't lend a hand
For your times they are a-ending
The line it is drawn
And the curses are cast
The ranks right now
Will later be vast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly coming
And the perfect now
Will be the only to last
For the times they are a-ending
- I was eleven years old. My brother Brando had just returned from his first year at the Military Academy and we had all gone to my Uncle’s house to celebrate the holidays. He lived above a coastal town in a grand mansion that overlooked the ocean. It was all very beautiful, but behind the estate was a rugged wilderness, yet untouched by Anætheron. This forest had unnerved me since I was a young child and Brando had grown sick of my attitude. Now that he had become a Warblade he said that he would take me out behind the mansion and show me that there was nothing to be afraid of. He had no sooner switched from “White Raven” to the “Tiger Claw” stance and we were off. Though I should mention that he was only in the “White Raven” stance in the first place because he liked to steal away any of the local girls I took a liking too.He took me into the wilderness. The Forest floor was completely black. Great and gnarled trees blotted out the sun with their looming eldritch branches. I barely knew how much time passed as we walked, it could have been minutes or hours for all I knew. I was already more than nervous when we came upon an old burned out reliquary. A blasted heath sacred to some long forgotten god I’m sure. I wanted to go back, but Brando pushed me onward, stating that I must see the inside to finally get over my fear.He shoved me onward and I climbed up the rotted-out stairs into the temple. Inside it was dank and murky. Brando struck a tindertwig. Its shadowy light did nothing to ease my nerves. The way the shadows flickered and dances was not of this earth, they seemed to reach out for us and then slink away. The walls were covered in runes, one’s that I would make no attempt to research later at the seminary, and the floor where it wasn’t covered in soot and detritus seemed to be completely covered in intersecting eight sided tiles.Brando ventured further inside and I stayed close by his side. The wind’s moans got louder as we went deeper. Once I had nearly forgotten about the sun outside we came upon a worn down rock pile. At first I thought it was a gravestone, but as I grew closer I felt a sickly warm and wet draft emanating from down below.“It’s only a well. An old well” Brando tried to reassure me. I wanted to run as fast as I could back to the mansion, back to the sunlight, but I couldn’t, I wouldn't, not with my brother right there.“Give me a coin” Brando smiled.I had only one gold piece to my name at the time, and I wasn’t about to give it up, but Brando was bigger than me, and wrestled it out of my grasp. He dropped the coin into the well, after what seemed like an age. I heard a tiny splash and my heart began beating again.There’s nothing to be afraid of here, it’s just an old well”No more than a second had gone by when a gust surged from out of the well and dousing the Tindertwig. I was blind without the light of the match but I felt dark shadows reaching from the well. I cried out in terror and looked for Brando. But he was already running away faster than I had ever seen. I felt a formless tendril reach out for me. It brushed my neck but I darted away following Brando before it could grip me. I trailed Brando praying to see an exit when I heard an awful voice ring out from inside my head I am Bob-Shaggoth what fools dare disturb me? The horror spoke out in some unspeakable tongue. I knew not the language but I understood all the same. Its voice, if you could call it that, writhed and twisted through my brain.I could feel abomination getting closer to use, I knew it was only a half step behind when I saw a sparkling light out before us. It looked like the moon shining through the door of the exit! I dived for it, falling onto the temple stairs. That's when saw her. In the full moon stood a glowing female form, she was more beautiful than anything I have ever seen. She was holding the hand of my sister Emily, whose eyes were glowing with the same intensity as the radiant beauty besides her.Emily outstretched her hand and I heard the horror’s scream ring out in my head. I turned to look back and saw only ash. The woman set my sister down, and fled, agile and more graceful than any mortal could. Brando and I grabbed Emily and we didn’t stop running until we were in our Uncle’s mansion with the doors bolted behind us.Emily woke the next morning with no memory of this event. Brando told me to never speak of it, he said it was better left as a half remembered nightmare. I knew though that is was Artemis who saved us. For the next year I mailed letter after letter hoping to join her seminary and serve as her priest. Cleric’s of Artemis though cannot be men, an no exceptions can be made. My solution was to become a servant of Artemis’s twin Apollo. Six months after I had been saved, I went to study the Sols Sapientum.
- Back when I was a young half-dragon, I lived with my mother back on the old continent in a small village called Larell. Despite the fact that I typically disguised myself when being with my friends in town, there were many people who had theories on my true parentage, which generally made life difficult for my mother. My father, disguised as an elven cleric, came when I was twelve and asked my mother if it would be easier for him to take care of me. As soon as he arrived, I already knew I’d be leaving, so I quickly went to say goodbye to my best friend Emily, a local half-elf girl.I spent a majority of my time learning wizardry with the help of my father. When I wasn’t studying I was reading everything I could find in my father’s extensive library. After years of training, I decided I should leave my father’s lair and find an adventuring group. My father gave me a ring of transformation, so I could change my shape as I saw fit to better disguise myself amongst the population. I took the form of a half-elf, reflecting my father’s typical humanoid shape of an elf.I travelled to the nearest town to look for a group of adventurers to join up with. No longer than an hour after I had arrived, a party that had recently lost their sorcerer passed through town. I quickly offered my services to them, and we all set off in the morning. We ventured for many years, growing powerful as we went. At one point I learned of the way of the nine swords, and started training as a swordsage, and eventually discovered my heritage as a Mage of the Order of the Jade Phoenix.In a large city, our fighter heard rumors of an old dragon to the north that was bound to have many treasures for our taking. We ventured to the north, and entered the mouth of a large cave. As we moved through the cave, I slowly realized that I had been here before. It wasn’t long before we reached a large cavern with an ornate castle adorned with gold—the lair of a gold dragon.I ambivalently entered, discovering what I had feared to be truth. I had adventured into my father’s lair with a party of evil adventurer’s set to kill him. My father was sitting at his desk writing spells, just as I had left him, and was certainly planning to talk my party out of attacking him. I quickly slipped off my ring of transformation and shadow jaunted to my father’s side.The party was enraged at my betrayal. There was no talking them out of attacking my father, but before they killed him, they would kill me. I managed to take the cleric out before they killed me, but I quickly perished thereafter. My father swiftly changed into his true form, an impressive and fearful sight that stunned the remaining adventurers. They tried to run, but their feet failed them as they stumbled to the ground to meet their demise.I was soon after revived by my father, who handed me a silvery potion that restored my memories. Despite this, I no longer controlled the powerful wizardry that I had employed mere hours ago. I expected anger from my father, but he was calm and understanding—almost proud that I lead the evil adventurers to him. With that, I soon began training again with high hopes of seeking out evil and destroying it.
Gautama Buddha, the historical Buddha, lived between 563 and 483 BC in the area known now as the Indo-Nepalese region. As a bodhisattva, he had passed through thousands of existences before coming to Earth for his ultimate transmigration.
This last lifetime he began as a son of the King of the realm Sakya, Sudhodana, who ruled at Kapilavastu, in Ancient India on the border of present-day Nepal, and was born in a village called Lumbini into the warrior tribe called the Sakyas (from where he derived the title Sakyamuni, meaning "Sage of the Sakyas").
According to ancient tradition, Queen Maya, his mother, first had a dream of a beautiful white elephant coming down into her womb, and this was interpreted as a sign that the Buddha, or a universal emperor, was about to be born. When her time came, Queen Maya went into the garden and gave painless birth to the bodhisattva. He immediately walked, spoke, and was received by Brahma.
Five days after his birth, the young prince received the name of Siddhartha. When his parents took him to the temple, the statues of the gods prostrated themselves before him, great were the rejoicings of the people over the birth of this illustrious prince. Also at this time a devout old man named Asita came down from the Himalayas to meet the newborn prince. An ascetic of high spiritual attainments, Asita was particularly pleased to hear this happy news. Having been a tutor to the King, he visited the palace to see the royal baby. The king, who felt honoured by his unexpected visit, carried the child up to him in order to make the child pay him due reverence. To the surprise of all, the child's legs turned and rested on the matted locks of the ascetic.
Instantly, the ascetic rose from his seat and recognizing in the young child the 80 signs that are pledges to a highly religious vocation, and foreseeing with his supernormal vision the child's future greatness, saluted him with clasped hands. The Royal father did likewise. The great ascetic smiled at first and then was sad. Questioned regarding his mingled feelings, he answered that he smiled because the prince would eventually become a Buddha, an Enlightened One, and he was sad because he would not be able to benefit from the superior wisdom of the Enlightened One owing to his prior death and rebirth in a Formless Plane.
After seven days Queen Maya died, and her place as mother was taken by her sister, whose devotion and love became legendary.
When the young prince was in his twelfth year, the king called the wise Brahmans in council. They revealed that Siddhartha would devote himself to asceticism if he cast his eyes on age, sickness, or death ~ and, if he were to meet a hermit.
Wanting his son to be a universal monarch instead, the king surrounded the palace with a triple enclosure and guard and proclaimed that the use of the words death and grief were forbidden. The most beautiful princess in the land, Yasodhara, was found for his bride, and after Siddhartha proved himself in many tournaments calling for strength and prowess, when he was 16, the two were wed.
Siddhartha was kept amused and entertained for some time by this privileged life behind the palace walls until one day his divine vocation awoke in him, and he decided to visit the nearby town. The king called for everything to be swept and decorated, and any ugly or sad sight to be removed. But these precautions were in vain for while Siddhartha was travelling through the streets, an old wrinkled man appeared before him. In astonishment the young prince learned that decrepitude is the fate of those who live life through. Still later he met an incurable invalid and then a funeral procession. Finally heaven placed in his path an ascetic, a beggar, who told Siddhartha that he had left the world to pass beyond suffering and joy, to attain peace at heart.
Confirmed in his meditation, all these experiences awakened in Siddhartha the idea of abandoning his present life and embracing asceticism. He opened his heart to his father and said, "Everything in the world is changing and transitory. Let me go off alone like the religious beggar."
Grief-stricken at the idea of losing his son, the king doubled the guard around the walls and increased the pleasures and distractions within. And at this point, Yasodhara bore him a son whom he called Rahula (meaning "chain" or "fetter"), a name that indicated Gautama's sense of dissatisfaction with his life of luxury, while the birth of his son evoked in him much tenderness. His apparent sense of dissatisfaction turned to disillusion when he saw three things from the window of his palace, each of which represented different forms human suffering: a decrepit old man, a diseased man, and a corpse.Yet even this could not stop the troubling thoughts in his heart or close his eyes to the realizations of the impermanence of all life, and of the vanity and instability of all objects of desire.
His mind made up, he awoke one night and, casting one last look at his wife and child, mounted his horse Kataka and rode off accompanied by his equerry Chandaka. At the city gates Siddhartha turned over his horse to Chandaka, then he cut off his hair, gave up his sumptuous robes, and entered a hermitage where the Brahmans accepted him as a disciple. Siddhartha had now and forever disappeared. He became the monk Gautama, or as he is still called, Sakyamuni, the ascetic of the Sakyas.
For many years Gautama studied the doctrines until, having felt the need to learn more elsewhere, he traveled and fasted. His two teachers had showed him how to reach very deep states of meditation (samadhi). This did not, however, lead to a sense of true knowledge or peace, and the practice of deep meditation was abandoned in favour of a life of extreme asceticism which he shared with five companions. But again, after five or six years of self-mortification, Siddhartha felt he had failed to achieve true insight and rejected such practices as dangerous and useless.
Resolved to continue his quest, Siddharta made his way to a deer park at Isipatana, near present day Benares. Here he sat beneath a tree meditating on death and rebirth. Discovering that excessive fasts destroy strength, he learned that as he had transcended earthly life, so must he next transcend asceticism. Alone and weak, he sat beneath the sacred Bodhi tree of wisdom, and swore to die before arising without the wisdom he sought.
Mara, the demon, fearful of Gautama's power, sent his three beautiful daughters to distract him. When that failed, Mara sent an army of devils to destroy him. Finally Mara attacked Gautama with a terrible weapon capable of cleaving a mountain. But all this was useless, and the motionless monk sat in meditation.
It was here that Siddharta attained a knowledge of the way things really are; it was through this knowledge that he acquired the title Buddha (meaning "awakened one"). This awakening was achieved during a night of meditation, which passed through various stages as the illumination that Gautama had sought slowly welled up in his heart. He knew the exact condition of all beings and the causes of their rebirths. He saw beings live, die and transmigrate. In meditating on human pain, he was enlightened about both its genesis and the means of destroying it.
In this first stage he saw each of his previous existences, and then understood the chain of cause and effect. In the second he surveyed the death and rebirth of all living beings and understood the law that governs the cycle of birth and death. In the third he identified the Four Noble Truths: the universality of suffering, the cause of suffering through selfish desire, the solution to suffering and the way to overcome suffering. This final point is called the Noble Eightfold Path, this being eight steps consisting of wisdom (right views, right intention) ethics (right speech, right action, right livelihood), mental discipline (right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration), which ultimately lead to liberation from the source of suffering.
When day came, Gautama had attained perfect illumination, and had become a Buddha. The rays emanating from his body shone to the boundaries of space. He stayed in meditation for seven more days, and then for four more weeks he stayed by the tree. Through his process of enlightenment he discovered that all sentient beings in this universal life possess buddhahold, and all are future potential buddhas.
From that time he had two alternate paths: he could enter Nirvana immediately, or else he could stay and spread enlightenment. After Brahma came in person to beg him to preach the law, Buddha yielded and stayed on the earth. For many years he traveled and taught his wisdom about the force of love and the destruction of all desire.
Although initially hesitant to share his insight on the grounds that humanity might not be ready for such a teaching, the Buddha decided to communicate his discovery to those willing to listen. His first converts were the five ascetics with whom he had lived when he himself followed the lifestyle of the ascetic. To these he preached his first sermon in the Deer Park at Benares, outlining to them the Four Noble Truths. Out of this small group the community of monks (or Sangha) grew to about 60 in size and came to include Buddha's cousin, Ananda, and his son, Rahula. Later the Buddha was persuaded by his stepmother and cousin to accept women into the sangha.
The remaining 45 years of the Buddha's life were spent journeying around the plain of the Ganges, teaching and receiving visitors.
"There are two extremes which are to be avoided: a life of pleasure ~ this is low and ignoble, unworthy and useless, and runs counter to the affairs of the spirit; and a life of fasting ~ this is sad, unworthy and useless. Perfection has kept its distance from these two extremes, and has found the middle way which leads to repose, knowledge, illumination, and Nirvana. So here is the sacred truth about pain: birth, old age, sickness, death, and separation from that which one loves, are pain. And this is the origin of pain: it is thirst for pleasure, thirst for existence, thirst for impermanence. And here is the truth about the suppression of pain: it is the extinction of that thirst by the destruction of desire.
"Charity, knowledge and virtue are possessions that cannot be lost. To do a little good is worth more than accomplishing works of a difficult nature. The perfect man is nothing unless he pours out kindness on his fellow creatures, unless he consoles the abandoned. My doctrine is a doctrine of mercy. The way of salvation is open to all. Destroy your passions as the elephant would trample down a reed hut. But I would have you know that it is a mistaken idea to believe that one can escape from one's passions by taking shelter in hermitages. The only remedy against evil is healthy reality."
And so Buddha travelled and preached. He performed many miracles, and converted his family and many followers. During his life the Buddha had taught that no one was to succeed him as leader of the Sangha. Instead, his followers were to take his teaching and rule as their sole guides. By the time he reached the age of 80, Sakyamuni began to feel old. He visited all of the monasteries he had founded and prepared to meet his end.
Before the Buddha's death, he became severely sick. He journeyed northwest to the banks of the river Hiranyavati, walking with his disciples, and ate the food offered by a blacksmith. His illness had progresses, and at the end, he came to the river and took a bath. Then he made a rope bed among eight sal trees, with each direction having two. He lay down on his side, right hand supporting his head, the other resting on his body. All later reclining Buddhas (called Buddha's Nirvana) are in the same posture.
The Buddha's disciples kept watch on him after they were told the Buddha was going to nirvana. At night, a scholar of Brahman went to see the Buddha, but was stopped by the Buddha's disciple Ananda. Hearing this, the Buddha called the scholar Subhadda to his bed and spoke him. Thus the scholar became the Buddha's last disciple. The final exhortation of the Buddha to his disciples was that they should not be sorry for losing their tutor. (See the last sermon of the Buddha for further elaboration.)
Growing weaker, he spoke one last time: "Do not say we have no master now. The doctrine I have preached will be your master when I have disappeared. Listen, I beg you: ALL CREATIONS ARE IMPERMANENT; work diligently for your liberation."
Having pronounced these final words, Buddha went into the jhana stages, or meditative absorptions. Going from level to level, one after the other, ever deeper and deeper, he reached ecstacy. Then he came out of the meditative absorption for the last time and passed into nirvana, leaving nothing whatever behind that can cause rebirth again in this or any other world.and finally passed into Nirvana.
After his death, Buddha's remains were cremated, as became the Buddhist tradition. The passing away, or the final nirvana, of the Buddha occurred in 483 BC on a full moon day in the month of May, known in the Indian calendar as Wesak.
We turned the stone to slabs of smeat.
Gromnom thought the smeat was neat.
The smeat, he thought, looked good to eat.
But eating smeat's a frightening feat.
A frightening, ghastly, nastly feat.
... ah, fuck it. I'm not Dr. Seuss. Shouldn't Sinfjotli be the one trying to write this?
This game contains examples of:
- Aborted Arc: The Team's journey into the Plane of Elemental Air to rescue Ron.
- Trying to help Oldren find his daughter.
- Saving Cyrene and saving the Fey
- Kaiden and Darla in the new elf plane.
- Stopping Tharizdun
- Above Good and Evil: The Viziers think of themselves as this.
- Ancient Keeper: The brothers inside Dalmosh
- Anyone Can Die: Lots of characters!
- Mikileia, Kogu, Melody, Loki, Connery, Doc Spire, and Kaiden a few times.
- Apocalypse How: Tharizdun is after a Class Z though considering the elves back up plan it might only be a Class X-5
- Armor Is Useless: Armor Class doesn't amount to much in this game. In the words of the DM, "The Higher your AC gets, the harder things will hit you."
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Mostly because we suck at making plans.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Darla and Frankie
- Ax-Crazy: Formerly Loki, especially when he was lopping off the digits of Goblins.
- Seen again when Kogu was reincarnated as a gnome.
- Back from the Dead: It’s not so hard in this game.
- In the current game Frankie can provide this for a mere 1000 gold pieces.
- Badass Family: The Macgregors are known for this.
- The Eterali's even more so! Given that they're mostly Physical Gods
- The Jenkins!
- Big Bad: Tharizdun actually it's not
- Some sort of Time Dragon.
- Big Damn Heroes: Kaiden and Connery get a shred of this when they save Meina from the Red Capp subverted with Kaiden in that he immediately got dropped to -9 upon arrival
- ʡə'ɗa attempts and fails at this when she ran through the prismatic sphere.
- Black Player's Character Dies First
- Second and third too.
- Bloody Bowels of Hell: Avernus appeared like this.
- Born Lucky: The DM, especially when he's using his blue "PC-Killer" d20
- Brain Bleach: Apparently Meina's character's plan for April Fools Day.
- Breather Episode: The group actually decided to put off the climatic battle of the Dwarven Dungeon to sit around a campfire, feast, get drunk, and tell stories.
- for Massive Role Playing Experience!
- Brick Joke: When the Church of Three asks For Justice if they wanted any minions Frankie offhandedly asks for a "Dean Martin Goldar"
- Dino mentions his hatred of gnomes in his introduction song.
- Darla is still carrying that stolen tent.
- Cannon Fodder: The squad sent with the party, seemingly only to die.
- Lee, Murphy, Green, Johnson, Brown, Atra'k'ti, Chang, Kowalski, and JENKINS!
- Character Development: A few of the long-running characters experience this:
- Connery: Grows jaded, world-weary, and grim.
- Loki: Goes from a psychopathic serial killer who's primary goal is the murder of children to misinformed religious zealot convinced about the emptiness of the world.
- Darla: Loses her idealism and superiority complex throughout the campaign.
- Frankie: Grows from gutless and broken to a seasoned battle commander.
- Sinfjotle: The Book of Vile Darkness turned him from a quiet librarian to an insane paranoid shell of his former self.
- Though he did get a hot wife.
- Grommnom: Grew from dumb muscle to a true knight.
- Characterization Marches On: The Macgregor clan grew from a minor stereotypical noble house, to a grand family full of good aligned adventurers and distant heirs to the throne of Anætheron.
- Church Militant: Connery forged an alliance between all the good aligned gods of the realm...plus Kurtulmak and Vecna.
- The Church of the Three as well
- This likely was a very bad move.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Seraco the captain of the guards of the Dwarf Kingdom.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Viziers
- The Seven Veils
- Conservation of Competence: Frankie's player can play Frankie pretty well. Frankie's player playing Frankie, Gromnom, Dino, and Chew-Alore is significantly more jumbled.
- Cool Sword: The Cold Iron Sword of Humanbane.
- The Radiant Energy Orcish Double Axe counts too.
- Cousin Oliver: Connery has his cousin Frankie.
- Cymoril, Kaiden's sister.
- Crutch Character: The original Kaiden and his 6d10 breathweapon at level one.
- Curbstomp Battle: Mononoke vs the Dire Wolf
- Connery vs the Evil Cleric
- Mikileia vs. the Xill
- Connery vs the Frost Giant / Phasm
- For Justice Second Gig vs The Blackrock Triskelion
- Meina and Kaiden vs. the Red Cap.
- Deal with the Devil: Kaiden and Meina agreed to a deal with the Hellfire Wyrm
- Connery refused but was magically forced into it anyway.
- Death Is Cheap: Meina was killed by Connery (accidentally) and brought back by him the following round. Time spent dead: six seconds.
- Frankie is pretty good with this. He's brought back Darla, Kaiden, and Sinfjotle with no level loss.
- Delinquents: The original group did meet up in jail.
- Depraved Bisexual: The White Vizier
- Doomed Protagonist: The entire cast
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Meina, Aramir, Connery.
- Dropped A Xorn On Him: Kugo suffered this fate.
- Drunken Song: The Tale of For Justice see above
- Dwindling Party: 'For Justice' itself
- Connery: Slain
- Loki: Slain
- Mikileia: Slain
- Epic*Star: Retired
- Kaiden:
SlainBahamut - Meina: Trapped in Ravenloft.
- Eldritch Location: Dreadmire
- Elemental Embodiment: The Four Lieutenants of Tharizdun are this.
- Fire: The Holocaust Disciple
- Air: The Cyclonic Ravager
- Water: The Waterveiled Assassan
- Earth: The Black Rock Triskelion
- The End of the World as We Know It: The goal of Tharizdun
- As well as the Church of the Three
- Everyone Is Related: Kaiden especially. He's a distant cousin to Avalokiteshvara as well as the the father of the deities Bahamut and Tiamat, and the brother-in-law of Connery due to quantum reincarnation.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: Averted. Prismatic Spheres have sucked for the party.
- Played straight with Darla.
- Evil Counterpart: The Red Cap Leprechaun, The Evil-Fire Cleric, The Spike Chain Specialist, and The Half Fire Elemental
- Failed a Spot Check: It happens a lot.
- Fiction 500: The Church of Three
- Filler: Increasingly as the game went on.
- We start the game with Piss off the Cleric Hour followed by Piss off the DM hour then possibly a random encounter (always a bad decision) and by the time the end of the session comes everyone wonders why they didn't level up
- Doc Spire goes to Evil Woman's Beach Convention
- That trip to the new Elven plane
- Possibly the entire campaign.
- Fire and Brimstone Hell: Dis
- Flaming Claymore.
- Flying Firepower: Kaiden and Darla
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Flint and Ron for quite some time.
- Grim Up North: Sinjfotle's homeland
- Guest-Star Party Member: Lales the rogue who happened to be down in the Dwarven Fortress when Doc Spire went missing.
- The Orange Vizier
- Gex and Uncle Jenkins
- Harakaka
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Averted with Connery who was pretty handy with a bow.
- Heel–Face Turn: Zerr Lightbringer, though he didn't know he was a Heel
- Hidden Elf Village: Cyreen is the hidden fey village.
- The titular Hidden Elf Village is actually on another plane And we can never go there again
- High Priest: Zerr Lightbringer of Miroden.
- Frankie is promoted to the High Priest of Pelor by the end of the campaign.
- Hookers and Blow: How Jenkins and Moonspeaker spent their time in Anætheron when not with the party.
- The Horde: The army of Tharizdun.
- Humans Are Diplomats: Played with. Connery tries to be but Loki makes it difficult.
- Humans Are Morons: Seems to be a theme. Bad decisions are made by Connery, Loki, Mononoke, Frankie, ʡə'ɗa, and probably the stupid half of Aramir.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Implied historically. Something bad happened to the Elves of Anætheron.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The Red Vizier
- Implacable Man: Ogdren (the Orcish Half Air Elemental Frenzied Berzerker Eye of Gruumsh, the Harbinger of Grand Empire of the Air Elementals) will continue to fight no matter how many injuries he sustained. If you cut off his head, his body would keep going.
- This is sent up to eleven after Ogdren the Orcish Half Air Elemental Frenzied Berzerker Eye of Gruumsh, the Harbinger of Grand Empire of the Air Elementals finally gets killed only to come back immediately as a Death Knight.
- Jerkass: Almost everyone in Anætheron.
- Killed Off for Real: Loki His death left him unable to be resurrected.
- Connery as well.
- Killer Rabbit: Dwarves seem to be especially concerned with carp.
- Knowledge Broker: Each of the Viziers, except Green.
- Legions of Hell: Encountered at the bottom of the Dwarven Dungeon.
- Light Is Good: Pelor the god of light seems to be.
- Light Is Not Good: Being planeshifted to the Plane of Positive Energy is a pretty bad situation.
- Mage Tower: Oldren had an interlocking one.
- Medieval Stasis: Averted, in this setting civilizations have the tendency to be nuked to nothing every couple hundred years. The perpetual bureaucracy of Anætheron seems to avert this.
- The Migration: The elves are doing this.
- Misfit Mobilization Moment: arguably the first session.
- Monster Clown: The
LeprechaunRed Capp - Morality Chain:
- In theory the Saint should keep everyone on the straight and narrow but he has had noted trouble with this.
- Downplayed with Connery and Loki, in that Connery's knowledge of religions has helped change Loki from Chaotic Evil to something close to Lawful Neutral
- A little with Sinfjotle and Frankie, given that he immediately betrayed the party after being split up.
- Seen again with Frankie and Gromnom
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: signs point to Toggle
- The Multiverse
- Mundane Made Awesome: Frankie bought a warforged that looks like Goldar with the personality and voice of Dean Martin.
- Noble Demon: The DM. He'd probably see it as a compliment
- Noble Wolf: Mononoke herself is a Nice Girl.
- Oblivious Younger Sibling: Signs point to Emily MacGregor, Connery's sister.
- Oddly Small Organization: Kaiden is the only Jade Phoenix Mage we've run into. Although Emily Macgregor is one too.
- The Wizards of Wald: We've only met Toggle, Grig, and Flint.
- Only three people seem to live in the Filler Spire: the wizard Olken, Sir Zephrie, and the wizards's daughter Jessebelle.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Tharizdun
- Our Giants Are Bigger and can turn into Thrim Hounds
- Our Werewolves Are Different:
- The Frost Giant Barbarian King, a were-Thrym Hound
- Thrym Hounds in general
- Overly Long Gag: Our DM isn't a fan of these. However he is a fan of Divine Lightning.
- Power Trio:
- Meina as the Id.
- Connery as the Ego.
- Kaiden as the Superego.
- Prequel: Elemental Dawn
- The Psycho Rangers: Early on we faced a team of evil opposites
- The Red Capp to Meina
- The Half-Fire Elemental Fighter to Kaiden
- The Evil/Fire Cleric to Connery
- The Spiked Chain Master to Loki (roughly)
- Pungeon Master: All the players on occasion
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits:
- Let's see we have
a girl raised by wolves,an amoeba, [[strikethrough: an exiled Queen]],a spoiled noble brat,a Buddhist,an ADHD pixie, and Kaiden. - A failed soldier, a mad scholar, a slutty cat, a bitch elf, some guy with a ukelele and Kaiden.
- Let's see we have
- Ravenloft: Where Meina, Melody, and Mononoke currently reside.
- Red Shirt: The Nine Soldiers who were initially traveling with us.
- Religion of Evil: This being Dungeons and Dragons there's quite a few, but special props to the Church of Tharizdum
- Ret-Gone: The entire point of Coalescence
- Savage Wolves: A wolf that beat the hell out of Mononoke.
- Scaled Up: Toggle has a potion to do this
- Scary Teeth: A few of the members of the Church of the Three.
- Especially Jin-Gitaxias
- Sealed Good in a Can: The brothers in Dalmosh.
- Seven Deadly Sins: The Seven Viziers of Anatharon are all thoroughly and remorselessly evil. The DM likes to describe them as having their own each distinct flavor of evil.
- The Blue Vizier is almost a Reasonable Authority Figure but doesn't mind sending millions to die at war or issuing the genocide of an entire people.
- The Orange Vizier is a Mad Scientist who experiments on everything and anything, living or not. However he has helped the party on two occasions. First against the Black Rock Triskelion and then again during the second Obsidian Spire battle. Both times though he gained immense elemental power
- The White Lady is basically decadence personified. To the degree that the DM said that dealing with her is tantamount to dealing with Satan. She is a "Favorite of the King" and has a tendency to take a shine to the high charisma members of the party.
- The Green Vizier is madness and only knows madness. She is possibly the least evil, but the most unpredictable.
- The Red Vizier is a bloodthirty humanitarian who wants revenge on the White Vizier more than anything else.`
- Shipper on Deck: The DM of all people is one.
- Squishy Wizard: We've had a few, Kaiden in some incarnations, Meina, Sinfjotle, and Darla.
- Strength Equals Worthiness: The Ettins and the Frost Giants believe this.
- Support Party Member: We have a few: Connery, Meina, Frankie, and Wikster can qualify when they're not in the fray themselves.
- Dino and Chew-Alore
- Teaser-Only Character: Aramir and Lily the child sorceress
- Terrible Trio: The Three Ogre Mages
- Token Evil Teammate: Loki started off as this, but had a change of heart for massive role playing experience :)
- For Justice second gig had two in Sinfjotle and Cymoril.
- True Companions: For Justice when it consisted of Kaiden, Connery, Loki, and Meina. Since the death of Loki and Connery, then the betrayal of Meina things haven't quite been the same.
- We even have membership rings.
- The group of Frankie-Sinfjotle-Darla-Gromnom had shades of this too.
- Unstoppable Rage: Ogdren! He was down to about -90 health when he finally keeled over.
- Plus he only keeled over when his rage was quelled.
- Useless Useful Non-Combat Abilities: Diplomacy!!! and increasingly Sense MotiveExample One
- Connery's Character "Alright I roll a diplomacy check on the town guards...does a 34 do it?"
- DM "Was it a natural twenty?"
- Connery's Character "um...no"
- DM "Ah, well then it doesn't work"
- Connery's Character ">_<"
Example Two- Connery's Character "Ok, I roll a diplomacy check on the Gnome Merchant, let's see 28?"
- Loki's Character "Gnomes!?! My guy hates gnomes! I attack! does a 19 hit?"
- DM "It does you kill him, on the upside though Connery's check would have failed anyway"
- Connery's Character "God effing Damn it!"
- Mononoke's Character "Great Piss of the Cleric Hour this week you guys!"
Example Three- Connery's Character "Alright so the rolls on converting the hobgoblins are 35, 36, 40, and 45"
- DM "Your persuasive ways convinces each one completely that everything they have ever believed is wrong. In despair they bite their own tongues committing a bloody suicide"
- Connery's Character: (mouth open in horror) "That...was bad"
- Vancian Magic
- Weirdness Magnet: All the Player Characters to some degree.
- Leroy Jenkins gets a special mention though.
- Jenkins! especially after hearing his back story
- Wide-Open Sandbox: This is probably the worst aspect of the game. Anatheron tries to be this, but with a stringent time table and no plot direction this becomes a major problem.
- Wolfwoman: Mononoke
- Worf Had the Flu: This happens when a player cant show up for some reason, a specific example would be when Kaiden (usually our heaviest hitter), spent an entire battle firing magic missiles. Though they were really big magic missiles
- You All Meet in an Inn: The original party met in jail.
''Looks like this Elemental is about to be Doomed!!!
- Demonic Spiders: So For Justice seems to do alright with boss battles. But we have some kind of problem dealing with random monsters half our CR.
- Bonetrees
- One Shadow!!!
- Hellfire Cats
- Chain Devils
- A Medium Air Elemental
- Fridge Brilliance: Leroy has a great medical plan.
- Genius Bonus: Archivists require a high wisdom to avoid falling into depravity. Sinfjotle had an obscure feat that let him dump Wisdom.
- Jerkass Woobie: Darla. "I know I can be a bitch, you've called me one before, but I do care about this mission."
- Moral Event Horizon: Sinfjotle hits his when he betrays the party to gain untold power and the time to study it.
- Portmanteau Couple Name: Never has existed in game but here's some for the hell of it.
- Kaidonnery
- Conla
- Fromnom
- Jenkorry
- Darkie/Darcis
- Avalokitishmeina
- Mikilaiden
- Kaidoril
- Darfjotle
- Eyronius
- Sinmoril
- Mikileroy
- I should really sleep.
- Grom-Alore Fully Canon!
- Shipping: the [DM] as well as Frankie's player do this.
- Long Live Darkie!
- gotta come up with a better portmanteau
- That One Boss: That fucking Storm Elemental
- We never actually killed it.
- Woobie: Connery towards the end.
- The whale in the Plane of elemental water.
- The Endtable of the Apocalypse.
- Connery's planeshifted Animated Shield.
- We had reached the end of the Dwarven Fortress. Below us stood Ogdren, an Atropol, and an entire army of demons from the depths of hell. With death imminent Connery, Loki, Kaiden, Meina, Doc Spire, Leeroy, and Moonspeaker decided to make a campsite, drink some ale, tell stories, and laugh to their hearts content as friends if only for one more night.
- Gromnom rising from a hired killer to a
Chaotic Good servant of good. As well as Frankie taking an hour every day to teach Gromnom to read. - What the party went though to get Frankie rezzed.
