Kingmaker

Well, I’m not sure what voice to write this post in. The usual “letters to Michael” won’t really cut it anymore, because Switch has turned to the dark side.

She got a bit of a psyhic note from Zon-Kuthon, a very specific Contact Outer Plane spell, that must be cast on someone who is bleeding out. Now, last session Klael caught a wererat – this week we questioned him, promising him freedom for information.

After we let him go, Switch went invisible, said she was going to check some stuff, and chased him down. The problem is that the spell doesn’t work on someone who is dead – they have to be in the process of. But Switch does have access to one spell that does the job.

Magic Jar.

She cast Improved Invisibility, then possessed the rat. Then it was a bit of comedy, trying to find some way to kill the rat. Switch still had her spells while possessing the rat’s body, so cast Scorching Ray and Acid Splash until the rat was unconscious and bleeding out. Then, back in her own body, cast the spell.

All invisible. Rainor was watching, but there was nothing to see. The conversation went like this:

ZK: What?
S: I am willing to serve.
ZK: I see. And what do you offer?
S: Well, this wererat.
ZK: Yeah, ok (“It Is Sufficient”). What do you want?
S: Um, Arcane Power!
ZK: Orly? And what do you offer in exchange for that?
out of game: Guys? Scott is definitely going to Wollongong in the new year?
out of game: Yeah dude, totally.
S: The life of the paladin with whom I travel.

To general hilarity. Dave was expecting “My full loyalty” or some such, but I was a bit put on the spot and tried to think “What would Zon-Kuthon really like?”. So, yeah – Switch has offered to gakk Klael (who has saved her life dozens of times over) in exchange for cool shit from the God of Pain and Envy. Not to mention murdering a wererat after solemnly promising to let him go.

Yeah. That’s, well, that’s pretty darksided. Murder, betrayal. Definitely, unquestionably evil. A real dick move.

After this, the god conveniently disposed of the body, which was way better than my plan of using Expeditious Excavation to do a grave. There was seriously nothing for Rainor to see (and yeah, he was watching).

Switch has a acquired a level of “Chosen of Zon-Kuthon”. She gets regular spell progression and a bite attack (that does Con damage). Oh, and she has adopted black velvet, lace, choker with a silver skull type outfit. Beats me how long she’ll be able to hide the “biting people FTW” from Rainor. Klael I’m not really worried about, ’cause that sucker is going down. Might have to poison him a bit, first. Fun times 🙂 .

Kingmaker

More war, but I think the last of our big battles. We had dealt with a couple of armies – another one to the north a day or two away, and were resting up to give the centaurs time to recover. But the Pitax army marched and attacked.

It was a major battle, and I think decisive. The Pitaxian giants mounted on mastodons, the wyvern flight, and two hordes of barbarians against our centaurs, kobolds, mercenaries and our regular army. We took down the wyverns first and I sent the mercs to fight the giants. We lost the mercenaries and the kobolds, we scattered the giants and one of the hordes, and finally we down to our centaurs and a few of the regulars.

(I sent the mercs against the giants because I rather thought that the fewer mercenaries left alive at the end, the better. It is usually the case that an army that wins with mercenaries has won nothing, because the mercenaries will then hold the kingdom ransom. But having them wiped out rather fixes that problem. Nasty, but that’s politics for you.)

Finally, we saw that it had all become very iffy, so we seven, the Court of Fredonia – entered the battle as well. His Grace and his bearer, Klael and mount and lance, Rainor with the Bow of Herne and Rainen, and me and my wand of Fireball (a sensible investment, that). The last of the regulars fell, the centaurs scattered, but we seven were able to carry the field. Qui stat uictor est.

It was damn close. Dave permitted us to enter as an army if we all spent an action point to do it. Level 14, a “tiny” army (so, CR 7), but with improved defenses: Stoneskin for everyone, improved weapons and armour, and other relevant buffs. We would have lost otherwise. Dave ruled that we were at 2/3rds hp and with most of the Stoneskin used up.

And finally all that was left was the opposing command. Three trolls – one with a banner – a mounted combaant and a weretiger. The weretiger shot at me (!) and then went invisible. She (and it was a she) was a specialist in hitting the weak spot. Like me, but rather better at it. Even with a See Invisible I couldn’t spot her. And then she attacked me from behind, grappling and clawing. I should have Dimension Doored out, but instead tried to slip out of her grip. Would have died if Klael had not lanced her and Rainor shot her.

But while this was going on, Jope had done for the other combatant (quite the battle, but I was rather too busy to notice. Weretiger.), and so we were just left with the three trolls. I had a second or two to finally cast Improved Invisibility, and then it was just mopping up. Both Jope and Klael had fire weapons, and I could finally be useful.

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So. We were victorious. But I had been rather badly mauled by a lycanthrope. It’s a curse, you know, not a disease. But I am already cursed by Zon-Kuthon – why not be twice-cursed? And in any event the form of a weretiger, if you can manage the bloodlust, has definite advantages. Especially for one in my line of work. Already I am drinking blood at every opportunity, so why the hell not? How much worse could it be?

Try not to judge me, Michael.

Last night was the full of the moon. I felt it in my blood, the affliction, the curse. I felt my senses becoming keener, my bones trying to shift, felt the savagery, the freedom, the urge to hunt and kill. I was ready, Michael. I wanted to contend with the madness, to master the lycanthropy. I was eager for it. Weretiger! What’s not to like?

Then, a blue light. (Blue? Not exactly, but there is no better way to describe it.) And the cold of death. (I’m not just being poetic: it’s quite specific. I’ve been there, you know.) And a forbidding, a prohibition, a refusal, a ban:

Blood may serve only one master.

The god had spoken. I woke in the morning. The lycanthrope’s claw-marks had faded altogether to just an ordinary bruise. The power had gone, the were-taint. I was clean.

Poo.

I have just got to get rid of this thing.

Kingmaker – retaking Tatselford

More war. I took a rather more direct hand in this fight. We were re-taking Tatselford. It has a wall, of course, but I suggested to his dukeness a thing or two that I can do, and he incorporated it into his plan.

First, the kobolds came in from the swamp mounted on crocodiles. By some freak chance we had a fog rolling in, and they were concealed until they were more or less right at the town. They attacked but were not all that effective.

Then I began my phase. Two Walls of Stone forming an assault ramp (more a bridge, really) from the ground to the top of the wall. The defenders moved to where they were anchored to hold off the assault, of course, and after giving them a moment to do that I put a Wall of Fire across the top of the town wall.

It was – it was rather nasty, Michael. They jumped – some the wrong way, they ran looking for water, and while they did the first of our teams climbed the ramps and some more brought up siege ladders. Once our people were in place, I dropped the Wall of Fire and left them to it.

And then flew over to the side of down where the Fredonian militia had assembled and did it again.

Which about tapped me out. From there I followed the centaurs, who put flight after flight of arrows into the keep of the castle. Once the troops has rammed the keep door open, the Pitax troops surrendered.

We questioned the leader – a giant – with Share Language (as I know giantish but Jope doesn’t) and Detect Thoughts. He turned out to be something of a loyalist, rather than a mercenary. And – of course – he knew nothing. He was expecting relief but had no idea when it might arrive.

One or two of our mercenaries were quite complimentary about my magic. Apparently, most casters seem to think that their job at war is to hurl fireballs, which although devastating to a unit really often has little tactical effect on a large battle. (A pity I can’t quite manage passwall, but I have been splitting my attention).

The carnage bothers me less than it used to. I hope it is simply that I ma becoming inured, and not that my affliction is having an effect on how I view life.