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Laori: Oh hi! It's been a while!
Fighter, Cleric, and Sorcerer: Oh......hi.....
Shoanti Barbarian/Druid-who-joined-after-Escape-from-Old-Korvosa: Who is this outlander?
Laori: I'm Laori! Here's some souvenirs!
Fighter, Cleric, and Sorcerer: .....
Shoanti Barbarian/Druid: This outlander is alright. She has killed many orcs.
Laori: I haven't killed any orcs.
Shoanti Barbarian/Druid: ?
Shoanti Barbarian/Druid:
Laori: Hey! Have you reconsidered your decision on whether or not to accept Zo-
Sorcerer: Gotta go get the others.
Laori: :(
Sorcerer:
Laori: Oh hi!
Shoanti Alchemist: These are awesome!
Shoanti Barbarian/Druid:
Shoanti Alchemist: I'm sending one home to my kid brother!
Shoanti Barbarian/Druid:
Thank you so much for this character, Paizo.
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My party fed her the elixir of love they found in Devargo Barvasi's den and she's been in love with the half-orc cleric of Norgorber since.
She's got Cha 8 and wears spiked armor and loves to hug, so he's not at all enthused.
My party fed her the elixir of love they found in Devargo Barvasi's den and she's been in love with the half-orc cleric of Norgorber since.
She's got Cha 8 and wears spiked armor and loves to hug, so he's not at all enthused.
How exactly would one play CHA 8 with a hot anime babe? ^^ BO, passes gas and talks rude? :p
How exactly would one play CHA 8 with a hot anime babe? ^^ BO, passes gas and talks rude? :p
I'm sure her extreme bubbly cheerfulness for inflicting pain would be enough to put off most good--heck, most sane-- PCs.
Oh, and Mikaze: That was great! Comedy gold!
How exactly would one play CHA 8 with a hot anime babe? ^^ BO, passes gas and talks rude? :pMy party fed her the elixir of love they found in Devargo Barvasi's den and she's been in love with the half-orc cleric of Norgorber since.
She's got Cha 8 and wears spiked armor and loves to hug, so he's not at all enthused.
She talks about flaying the flesh from people's bodies regardless of company and with all the bubbly enthusiasm of a high school cheerleader. That sounds like a Cha of 8 to me.
She talks about flaying the flesh from people's bodies regardless of company and with all the bubbly enthusiasm of a high school cheerleader. That sounds like a Cha of 8 to me.How exactly would one play CHA 8 with a hot anime babe? ^^ BO, passes gas and talks rude? :pMy party fed her the elixir of love they found in Devargo Barvasi's den and she's been in love with the half-orc cleric of Norgorber since.
She's got Cha 8 and wears spiked armor and loves to hug, so he's not at all enthused.
The semi-famous japanese movie Audition might help.
She talks about flaying the flesh from people's bodies regardless of company and with all the bubbly enthusiasm of a high school cheerleader. That sounds like a Cha of 8 to me.
Yeah, at one point in that campaign I had her ask if anyone had ever skinned a person alive before. When they said no, she burst out with "Oh, but the sound the skin makes when you're stripping it off is...*shiver* oh it just gives me goosebumps. And the screaming! *girlish squeal*"
I'm getting some great suggestions here, since my group will go into Escape starting either this or next week. Keep them coming. :D
I turned her into an Inquister for my group which worked out prety well. other than that my group thought she was a little too creepy to keep around.
This description had me curious, so I Googled her to see what info/pictures I could get. One site had two images of her posted (likely accidentally at the same time) followed by this comment:
There are not allowed to be two Laoris. That is against the rules. Kill yourself now before they start playing jumprope.
I think that's the hardest I've laughed all month.
I just did my own google search and came across some Laori S&M fanfiction. Aagh, my brain. Someone pass the bleach.
Oh, that's why. I read "fanfic" when, in fact, it was actually labeled "fapfic." I think I need to take Skill Focus(Perception) next time I get a feat.
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Here's what I'm curious about now. Have any PCs actually sided with Sial over Laori? Any at all?
She talks about flaying the flesh from people's bodies regardless of company and with all the bubbly enthusiasm of a high school cheerleader. That sounds like a Cha of 8 to me.
How exactly would one play CHA 8 with a hot anime babe? ^^ BO, passes gas and talks rude? :p
That's how I've been running her too. She's just so cheerful and eager to talk about what she loves, and is so perversely innocent about it too, as if nothing were wrong with any of it at all.
I just did my own google search and came across some Laori S&M fanfiction. Aagh, my brain. Someone pass the bleach.
Oh, that's why. I read "fanfic" when, in fact, it was actually labeled "fapfic." I think I need to take Skill Focus(Perception) next time I get a feat.
Oh, that Internet!
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Ahh! My avatar will never be the same!!
On a sidenote, I'm not sure what to do when my PCs encounter Laori in CotCT. She was already introduced as a recurring character in a different adventure when I thought I wouldn't have the opportunity to run CotCT and needed to come up with an NPC on the spot that was serving an evil elf crimelord =P
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Ahh! My avatar will never be the same!!
On a sidenote, I'm not sure what to do when my PCs encounter Laori in CotCT. She was already introduced as a recurring character in a different adventure when I thought I wouldn't have the opportunity to run CotCT and needed to come up with an NPC on the spot that was serving an evil elf crimelord =P
Depending on how she was played in that game, she could have been reassigned from keeping an eye/manipulating the crimelord to take care of her church's business in Korvosa, or she might have even found her calling in the Brotherhood of Bones after she left the crimelord's employ.
Provided the previous game was set in Golarion, otherwise....
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First: Found this fan art on an internet. Anyone know the artist?
Second:
MY PLAYERS, DON'T READ
So, update.
They've done gone and gotten attached to her.
As expected, they can't stand Sial, while to varying degrees they were at least cooperative and hesitantly accepting of Laori's aid.
That was how it started.
The PCs:
Bogs, NG Chelish fighter with Kirielle, half-orc LG paladin of Iomedae
Dorinvil, NG Half-elf, half-Varisian rogue and Blackjack candidate
Voharius, NG elven cleric of Sarenrae
Sarzleket, CG gnomish sorcerer
From the Storval Plateau
Sashka, CG Shoanti (Hawk Clan) Alchemist, met in Old Korvosa
Tarouk, N Shoanti (Sun Clan) Druid/Barbarian, met in Harse
A number of the party kept their distance. Bogs in particular, who seemed convinced that she wasn't being entirely upfront with them and was certain they were going to have to fight it out in the end. That his sidekick Kirielle was ill at ease around her only seemed to reinforce that. Dorinvil, for his part, kept both Sial and Laori at arm's length.
Laori tried to chat things up with Sarz just as she had back in Old Korvosa, but the gnome, who rode the "curious" trait of his race hard, was too spooked to take.
She had much more luck, and interest, in Voharius and the two Shoanti who she had not met in Old Korvosa. Voharius had died during a chaotic melee while confronting the Emperor of Old Korvosa. Laori was the one who raised him. General unpleasantness of that raising experience aside(Vo wound up coming face to face with servitors of both Sarenrae and Zon-Kuthon, the former giving him a warning vision, the latter dragging him back to the land of the living), it sparked a bit of odd trust between the two. To the point that after one close call in Scarwall, Laori entrusted her "res deposit", a bag of diamonds, to Voharius just in case the worst happened to her. It went without saying that she trusted the priest of Sarenrae with it more than Sial. The fact that they were both Forlorn helped them relate as well.
Her interest in the Shoanti lay mostly in their culture. She was big on "pain, suffering, and loss serve to make you stronger", and Shoanti culture seemed to feature all three in surplus. She mostly just listened to them talk about their daily lives, what it meant to be Shoanti, etc. Sometimes she would ask questions that would seem morbid to most, but they tended to be frank in their answers. Tarouk, for his part, wound up eventually taking an almost fatherly tone with her as days and conversations went by. When Laori was visibly shaken up by soul-trapping things like the Danse Macabre and Scarwall itself, Tarouk was the one to step forward and tell her to take heart.
And still no one has told Sashka how those tusk necklaces were actually made....
Days went on. Bogs' stance began to lighten up. He and Dorinvil only began to resent Sial more, to the point that Laori's distaste for him nearly became a point of comradery. At that point, only Tarouk and Voharius seemed willing to deal with Sial if it could be avoided, and the latter may not have if he had known that the priest had been taking his frustrations out on his kyton servant via nightly vivisections. As it was, Tarouk was only willing to put up with the man out of neccessity.
Laori listened to Tarouk and Sashka talk more about their lives and culture, talked religion with Voharius quite a bit, and finally began to open up about her past, revealing her youth in Riddleport and how Zon-Kuthon was the only one she knew to accept her for who she was, sadomasochistic urges and all. She elaborated on some things as well when the others pointed out that "SHE TORTURES PEOPLE!" that she has a code when it comes to torture: she only visits upon those that have it coming(as in anyone that crosses her or hers for example) or those who willingly ask for it, a code that seems perfectly reasonable to her but insane to the party, but a code nonetheless. She also began to try and curb her comments, refraining from mentioning things bluntly that she had learned made the others uncomfortable over the past few days.
By this point it was clear to everyone that she's a deeply warped, disturbed, and lonely individual. Her completely non-ironic use of "We're friends, right?" both put them ill at ease and got them to thinking about just what they were going to have to do about her once Serithiel was in their hands. She stayed in the thick of things during trips into Scarwall, never stealing their thunder but always doing what she could to keep everyone up(giving up spells useless in Scarwall for restorations really helped). Things kept progressing gradually. They learned some details about how the Chained Spirit worked, and how it could ensnare evil corporeal beings. Laori tried to hide her fear of that scenario, but the party could see through it. Voharius came up with a solution by way of dispel evil, which he assured her he would keep memorized. That seemed to help, and only served to make her even more loyal to the group.
Then came the day they started off by busting into the Danse Macabre's room. After that fiasco, they set off to attack Nihil's tower in what I'm going to have to cover in another thread due to the sheer ridiculous nature of how they went about it. It's probably going to be titled Operation: Dumbo Drop. There's a reason for that.
Anyway, a TPK nearly happened there thanks to a well place blasphemy spell. Bogs and Laori were literally the only people left able to move in that instance, and it was mostly due to their quick reactions(and one low LOW coup-de-grace roll) that everyone pulled through that round. Where Laori had been shaken up by the Danse Macabre, she was riding high on the approval of Tarouk and Sashka, whose life she had saved. The battle cost Voharius his use of dispel evil though...
They go through Nihil's things, Laori doesn't quite get the horror expressed by the party at the throne/chains/pokers layout of one side of the room, and politely asks if anyone minded if she took one of the more morbid art objects kept in the alcoves of the tower.
Then, as they're leaving, the chained spirit finally tries to grab her(it had been running on a timer in this session).
The moment Laori seized up and began to freak out, without a word Sashka and Tarouk grabbed her and flew out of there. The players treated that round-by-round breakdown as deadly serious as their near-TPK back at Nihil's. They barely manage to clear Scarwall's reach before Laori is fully enchained. She was one CHA point away from it in fact.
The rest of the party is hurrying out of Scarwall on foot, their flyers having left the building. In the meantime Tarouk and Sashka have flown Laori to land in front of Sial's tower. Laori's having seizures and foaming at the mouth, Tarouk is yelling for Sial to hurry out and help her. Sashka is rummaging through her stuff to try and find anything that can help.
When Sial finally makes it down, Tarouk quickly explains what had happened. Sial cooly suggests that, as Scarwall itself has reached into her, it would perhaps be best to put her down so that A. she won't be fully enchained and B. she won't be a potential threat to their mission.
Tarouk @#$%ing RAGES, booming that if Sial suggested such a course of action towards a comrade again, he would break the priest in half.
Sial is realizing that he just said the wrong thing to the wrong person at the worst possible time, and is trying to rectify the potential loss of the one party member that would suffer his presense willingly, when Sashka fixes up a restoration potion herself and forces it down Laori's throat.
When the party finally arrives, Sial has gone back into his tower with his tail between his legs, and Laori is rocking back and forth with her knees pulled up, trembling and fully traumatized.
Damn near the entire party is trying to comfort her at this point.
That day continues. They're done with Scarwall for the day, and it seems that they'll be lucky if they can get Laori to go back in at that point. They keep near her, checking on her and making sure she's alright, even keeping her in sight when she excuses herself to pray for guidance.
They get to discussing things. The whole party wants to help redeem her at that point, Voharius(Sarenrae FTW) in particular. They know about the forbidance on the temple area of the castle. They sadly note that they need someone with an evil heart to enter it safely.
Then Sarz remembers a detail. The forbidance wasn't set to allow evil people in. Just followers of Zon-Kuthon.
OOC, they hash out that ZK can have LN clerics.
Dorinvil suggests that, since Sarz has all of his teleportation spells still fresh and ready to go(as they're useless inside Scarwall), they should all pop back to Kaer Maga for the night, where all of Bog's followers have set up shop after the exodus from Korvosa.
He suggests they live it up tonight. Party in fact.
And that they take Laori.
Dorinvil being the same man who four days earlier cautioned the group that they may have to kill her before this mess is over.
Bogs and Kirielle discuss the matter, and agree. And it looks like Operation: Group Therapy and party night at Kaer Maga is what the next session is going to revolve around.
They aren't even telling Sial where they're going.
Man. These players. :D
At this point, it's almost certain who's going to be forced into the Curate position. What's not certain anymore is whether or not Laori is going to take up Ildervok's offer to go meet ZK in person.
The players are shooting for pulling her towards LN, but a number of them want to go all the way into LG if possible.
With freaking Laori Vaus.
Hot damn.
I'm still don't know where this is going to wind up. It all rides on what they do next session, I guess. Shooting to LG in the course of a night is lolno of course, but as far as bumping her towards LN?
Going to have to see what they have in store. They are clever ones, these players.
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Hot damn, I only wish that my players would do something this cool.
Well, I'll have to see if by pushing Laoris "good" personality traits I can interest then in getting to know her better. Eh, maybe the player of the arrogant N Elf with CHA 7 will do something unexpectedly kind. ^^
ditto to magnuskn
My party sided with Sial, but decided to stab both of the clerics in the back in the end. Laori was down on her knees, ready to accept her fate when the CG wizard lightning bolted her from behind, turning her to a charred corpse. Sial fled, but they managed to convince the guardian-thingy to give them a few minutes to hunt him down and bring him back. They were debating killing the guardian, but Sial refused to help (becoming the curate is better than pissing off my god by killing his servant) and they weren't sure just how powerful it was. They want to come back and destroy the Star Tower/Sial in the future, since they don't realize how important it is.
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Hot damn, I only wish that my players would do something this cool.
Well, I'll have to see if by pushing Laoris "good" personality traits I can interest then in getting to know her better. Eh, maybe the player of the arrogant N Elf with CHA 7 will do something unexpectedly kind. ^^
I'm not sure if this was the big help in our game, or if it was just her personality, but what I did early on was have her be entirely honest and upfront about everything, just eager to be helpful.
(it helped that her superiors withheld a bit of info in our campaign as well!)
Maybe if you can play up her social ineptness a bit and make it visible that she's really trying to do it right, it might earn some empathy points from the players too. ;) My players were alternating between D'AWWWW and recoiling in horror for a bit.
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ditto to magnuskn
My party sided with Sial,
Wow. This is the first time I've heard of any group siding with Sial, ever!
but decided to stab both of the clerics in the back in the end. Laori was down on her knees, ready to accept her fate when the CG wizard lightning bolted her from behind, turning her to a charred corpse. Sial fled, but they managed to convince the guardian-thingy to give them a few minutes to hunt him down and bring him back. They were debating killing the guardian, but Sial refused to help (becoming the curate is better than pissing off my god by killing his servant) and they weren't sure just how powerful it was. They want to come back and destroy the Star Tower/Sial in the future, since they don't realize how important it is.
Ouch!
I kind of have the opposite problem, I'm afraid. Laori told the party what legends she knew about Scarwall while they were camping outside the castle one night. She touched on the Star Tower and what they did, as well as Zon-Kuthon's ancient alliance with Sarenrae and the other gods to seal Rovagug, as a way of further selling the importance of their current cooperation.
Now the party has half convinced themselves that they need to stay away from the Star Tower lest they knock something over and unleash Rovagug or one of his spawn upon Varisia. There's a reason they've been putting off exploring the temple area around the tower. ;D
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ditto to magnuskn
My party sided with Sial,
Wow. This is the first time I've heard of any group siding with Sial, ever!
I think the party had such a bad taste in their mouths from their first encounter with Laori that they immediately bonded with Sial over their mutual dislike of her. They seemed to agree with him that servants of the god of pain shouldn't be so bubbly. Since they took an immediate shine to him (well, as much as a group of CG heroes can take to a LE cleric), I followed the AP advice and had him open up more and Laori become more estranged and hostile. By midway through the adventure the players, speaking OOC, outright said they liked Sial more than Laori. So I had him offer to let them stay in his castle (they weren't interested, but appreciated the gesture) and take risks for them, while Laori did things like channel negative energy near them and hoard healing spells for herself.
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I think the party had such a bad taste in their mouths from their first encounter with Laori that they immediately bonded with Sial over their mutual dislike of her. They seemed to agree with him that servants of the god of pain shouldn't be so bubbly. Since they took an immediate shine to him (well, as much as a group of CG heroes can take to a LE cleric), I followed the AP advice and had him open up more and Laori become more estranged and hostile. By midway through the adventure the players, speaking OOC, outright said they liked Sial more than Laori. So I had him offer to let them stay in his castle (they weren't interested, but appreciated the gesture) and take risks for them, while Laori did things like channel negative energy near them and hoard healing spells for herself.
Ah. That Ally-Enemy behavior'll do it!
Sial tried to get in good with my PCs, and actually did prove helpful at points, but the former street urchins in the group just always thought he was being smarmy and condescending, even when he wasn't. :D
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So wow.
Tonight one of the players wanted to get a jump start on the redemption process right after we finished our weekly Kingmaker session. I had to fight to put it off until the next session when everyone is back on board.
I haven't seen them quite this stoked about the game in quite some time. Maybe ever. This seems to have become their white whale. :D
Will update on how it goes, for better or worse.
edit-Said players also expressed disbelief at first that a group sided with Sial. They hate him that much now. ;)
So wow.
Tonight one of the players wanted to get a jump start on the redemption process right after we finished our weekly Kingmaker session. I had to fight to put it off until the next session when everyone is back on board.
I haven't seen them quite this stoked about the game in quite some time. Maybe ever. This seems to have become their white whale. :D
Will update on how it goes, for better or worse.
edit-Said players also expressed disbelief at first that a group sided with Sial. They hate him that much now. ;)
I hope it works out well. Please report back what happened. :p
It looks like a lot of folks simultaneously love that perky Goth S&M elf Laori and are totally creeped out by her. I have to admit, even if I never use CotCT I'd like to use her as an NPC anyway. How many cheery, bubbly villains do you run into, after all?
The lesbian half-orc barbarian in my campaign is currently sweet on Trinia, but is unfortunately doomed to lose her to the Paladin of Saerenrae. I'm hoping Rarya will find some consolation for that loss when Laori turns up!
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I hope it works out well. Please report back what happened. :p
Can do. It might be a bit longer than earlier expected though. Some of the players are getting slammed via workload, but the moment things clear up we'll have Crimson Throne back on track.
It looks like a lot of folks simultaneously love that perky Goth S&M elf Laori and are totally creeped out by her. I have to admit, even if I never use CotCT I'd like to use her as an NPC anyway. How many cheery, bubbly villains do you run into, after all?
You know, I kind of suspect the bolded part might be a big part of it.
Nearly everyone at our table has read Sandman after all, so maybe....
The lesbian half-orc barbarian in my campaign is currently sweet on Trinia, but is unfortunately doomed to lose her to the Paladin of Saerenrae. I'm hoping Rarya will find some consolation for that loss when Laori turns up!
IIRC, that fic that scarred Shadowborn's mind upthread kind of sort of dealt with that kind of pairing....
Having Laori be cheerfully helpful right out the gate might help sell her to your party more easily. When my group first met her, they were tangling with Otyughs right outside the house she was staying at(Salvatore's).
Crazy spiky woman practically going "squee" at the chance for bloodletting and jumping into the fray certainly sparked their curiosity at least. ;)
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Mikaze, your group (including you) sounds really fun!
I'm about to start DM'ing this campaign, and I really hope when my players meet Laori and Sial they're not just going to go:
"They're evil, we kill them."
"Yes but maybe there's more to them than meets the..."
"We kill them."
"But you're not even giving them a chance to..."
"We kill them."
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Mikaze, your group (including you) sounds really fun!
I'm about to start DM'ing this campaign, and I really hope when my players meet Laori and Sial they're not just going to go:
"They're evil, we kill them."
"Yes but maybe there's more to them than meets the..."
"We kill them."
"But you're not even giving them a chance to..."
"We kill them."
Thanks!
Those quotes never being spoken at the table are a part of why I love this group. I count myself blessed to have 'em. :D
Other stuff they've done:
Voharius takes one of Lamm's orphans under his wing.
He recruited his sidekick Kirielle at the same time. When it turned out she was homeless, he handed his house over to her and started living in Three Rings Inn.
Bogs later invites Tiora, Rolth's former prisoner, to live in his old abode along with Kirielle(forming the odd couple leadership of his merc band to be)
Bogs LATER invites Eries Yelloweyes to live in his old house as well on account of her living in a sewer at the moment. She declines.
Voharius taught Kirielle how to read.
They go back after Devargo at Eel's End out of sheer moral outrage and to save Majenko.
Dorinvil became bros for life with Majenko.
Voharius talked Verik Vancaskerkin into turning himself in.
The party gave testimony in Verik's defense that wound up saving his life.
Dorinvil takes to Vencarlo's tutelage like a fish to water.
They believed in Trinia's innocence, and actually convinced her to let herself be placed in Kroft's custody for her own protection. They get a promise from Kroft to let them be present during the interrogation.
When the queen's servants went over Kroft's head to get Trinia, Dorinvil immediately goes to Vencarlo to plan a rescue. Vencarlo is barely able to talk him out of doing anything rash.
The party escorts the body of Thousand Bones' grandson to be given to his father, to try and defuse what expected Korvosan/Shoanti tensions had flared. They conduct themselves honorably.
They went to the opera.
Dorinvil opened a brewery. Sarz opened a nightclub. Bogs starts a mercenary company taking in all manner of misfits and professionals alike, providing care for each and every one of them on an individual basis.
When the plague hit, they went into full triage mode without hesitation.
Dorinvil brings his mother in from Old Korvosa, refusing to let her stay alone during the plague. He gives up his happening bachelor pad to keep her safe.
Voharius has a polite, friendly debate on ethics and religion with a Hellknight while the two had to work together during the quarantine.
The party captures Jolistina alive and arranges with Cressida Kroft to have her locked away and given what care can be given to the criminally insane in lieu of proper insane asylums.
Voharius talks his fellow priest and friend through her crisis of faith after her brother's horrific murder at Jolistina's hands.
They prevent the wererat uprising with a minimum of bloodshed and for no reward, preventing a retaliatory pogrom against the wererats being reward enough to them.
They go above and beyond during the plague outbreak, like crazy.
After the plague, the party is invited to a ball on House Jeggare's dime as guests of honor. Bogs tries hard to get Cressida Kroft to go with him. She's too busy. Bogs plays every pity card he can. No dice. Bogs finally goes home, gets Kirielle, who has harbored an innocent crush on him for weeks, buys her the finest dress a half-orc in Korvosa has ever had, tells her it's time to get her acclimated and introduced into "hoigh socoiety loike a proper lady of her calling" and takes her to the ball. Cressida manages to show up after all. Bogs finally gets his wish and Kroft's hand on the ball room floor. Dorinvil immediately steps in to take Kirielle's hand in dance. Dude is class.
They prevent Jolistina's kidnapping/rescue by Rolth's minions, retaking her alive once more.
They held onto the "For Emmah" ring all the way until they found who it belonged to.
The party only allows Salvatore to go with Laori after she promises, cross her heart and hope to die, that she won't cut any bits off of him.
The party rescues a bunch of slave monks from the Arkona House, all of whom are sworn to kill themselves if their rightful masters were slain. They manage to trick them into thinking their ownership was passed to Bogs via fasttalk and illusions, all the while being treated as seriously as defusing a bomb. They then have the most motherly follower out of Bog's company keep watch over them and ease their culture shock.
The party and Rolth's hatorade for each other only ferments further into something beautiful.
The party and Bog's followers fortify a village with no promise of reward against an incoming horde of ogres and goblins.
Bogs and Voharius adopt the one goblin they managed to capture, Geep. His long, troubled journey into Sarenrae's service continues.
Tarouk, Sashka, and the rest of the party put a stop to the trade of Shaonti hands and swear to bring the Cinderlander to justice.
Bogs continues to take in charity cases in Kaer Maga just as he did in Korvosa.
Sashka, whose mother died years ago, went through some crazy heartache and drama after finally being reunited with her remarried father(and elf) who hooked up with a woman from the Moon Clan, not knowing what happened to his earlier love. She had him on the outs, spurning him up until surviving the Cindermaw where both of them wound up nearly throwing their lives away. Then when she finally warmed up to him, she was introduced to her kid brother. Player managed tears.
They climbed, flew, or clawed their way into Cindermaw.
Repeat, they fought their way into Cindermaw.
Tarouk took on two pillars by himself during the test at Bolt Rock, in the name of proving himself after his self-imposed exile from his clan. He pulls it off.
Sarz gives heartfelt gnome-halfling romance advice to one of Bogs' followers.
The players flesh out Bog's followers further when they play some of them chosen at random during a fill-in game.
Players originally posited the crackpot theory that the Cinderlander was Sashka's father. I rolled with it. Dorinvil and Sashka find out their elven fathers were brothers, with the Cinderlander being the third brother and their uncle. Players became downright bloodthirsty in the name of cleansing their family tree.
Bogs sets himself to the task of improving relations between Korvosans and the displaced Shoanti natives.
Tarouk sets himself to the task of uniting all the Quahs and making peace with the lowlanders.
Even at this point, they wonder if the queen is a victim in all this, and they hope to free her from the crown's control.
an' other stuffs
It's been a real trip!
I hope things go well for your group as well! As long as they buy into the setting on don't see alignment as The Absolute, it may work out awesomely. :)
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That's awesome. I love the amount of work and love you have put into this campaign. I'm trying to do something like that as well.
I think what really makes a huge difference for a DM is if the players appreciate his NPC's. I find that, as a DM, if no matter how much effort I put into fleshing them out, the players see every NPC as either an enemy that must be killed, or a benevolent but useless weakling who needs to be protected/rescued, running the game becomes much less enjoyable.
Btw, is there by any chance a journal of your campaign we can read somewhere?
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That's awesome. I love the amount of work and love you have put into this campaign. I'm trying to do something like that as well.
I think what really makes a huge difference for a DM is if the players appreciate his NPC's. I find that, as a DM, if no matter how much effort I put into fleshing them out, the players see every NPC as either an enemy that must be killed, or a benevolent but useless weakling who needs to be protected/rescued, running the game becomes much less enjoyable.
Btw, is there by any chance a journal of your campaign we can read somewhere?
Thanks! And good luck on yours as well!
Oh yeah, player buy-in definitely makes everything gravy. As soon as they start rolling with it, it just become reciprical and starts building and feeding on itself.
About a journal...sadly we don't have one. Some of the crew talked about it for a bit when I started keeping one for Kingmaker, but by that point so much of the campaign had passed that no one was certain they could get the details down right. Basically all they would be able to go off of would be their memory and my notes, and I can't really give them my notes without a lot of editing. ;)
I'm afraid at this point, if we started the best we could hope for is a broad strokes rendition of what actually happened. That and I have my hands full with running CotCT and our Atah-Ouahe games as is(part of why the Kingmaker journal fell behind!). It may be worth a shot though. I'll throw that out to 'em this weekend. :)
Aw, man, my players did maybe one fifth amount of amazing things, compared to yours. I fear most of them don't show that kind of initiative yours have. Well, the neutral elf Wizard spirited Jolistina away to Kyonin, which was fun.
I guess it is a bit of my fault, too. I sprung the campaign on them on too short a notice, when I ran out of ideas for my Star Wars Saga campaign after seven levels. They didn't have much time to prepare their characters. I have higher hopes for Kingmaker, since I announced the campaign now four months ago and explicitly told them that they'd have to make things happen, instead of the story coming to them.
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Well, the neutral elf Wizard spirited Jolistina away to Kyonin, which was fun.
Now there's a story there waiting to be told! :D
I guess it is a bit of my fault, too. I sprung the campaign on them on too short a notice, when I ran out of ideas for my Star Wars Saga campaign after seven levels. They didn't have much time to prepare their characters. I have higher hopes for Kingmaker, since I announced the campaign now four months ago and explicitly told them that they'd have to make things happen, instead of the story coming to them.
I can't say too much about Kingmaker since I'm playing in it, but yeah, prep period can definitely help in CotCT.
What I did was give everyone a quick rundown on the campaign setting, since this was their introduction to Golarion, then gave them the CotCT player's guide, Guide to Korvosa, and made bits of the Varisian gazeteer, Varisian culture guide, and Shoanti culture guide available to them. A number of them had fallen in love with the Gods and Magic book, so there was a lot of buy in with the cosmology ahead of time.
It's never too late to introduce those materials and details about Korvosa as they continue to work through the campaign though! As they learn more about the setting maybe they'll integrate their characters deeper into it.
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For some sick reason, our GM decided that Laori should immediately begin flirting with my Paladin. I couldn't help it...I played along. It was all kinds of forbidden love.
Scarwall spoiler below:
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For some sick reason, our GM decided that Laori should immediately begin flirting with my Paladin. I couldn't help it...I played along. It was all kinds of forbidden love.
Scarwall spoiler below:
** spoiler omitted **
Oh wow. There's a story waiting to be told there. Bravo man, bravo.
What god does the paladin follow? It could even wind up tying back into that old alliance of gods to stop Rovagug in a weird sort of way. ;)
I totally used Mikaze's necklace idea... it was awesome. :]
Ha! :D How did they react?
Mikaze thank you for being an inspiring GM. I am fully going to run a second CotCT campaign as soon as I am able (old age and Kingmaker have clipped my wings currently :P). My players had a hoot and a holler when we played through it originally but your wit and your players' dedication has made me want more Korvosa.
Thanks!
H
How exactly would one play CHA 8 with a hot anime babe? ^^ BO, passes gas and talks rude? :pMy party fed her the elixir of love they found in Devargo Barvasi's den and she's been in love with the half-orc cleric of Norgorber since.
She's got Cha 8 and wears spiked armor and loves to hug, so he's not at all enthused.
My Party in BOTH groups i have run, and will again in the 3rd game was great. She would take a dagger and peel skin back and show the flesh and bone, then use cure magic to fix it. I get very very descriptive of this and make some of my party members squirm, especially the woman lol.
How exactly would one play CHA 8 with a hot anime babe? ^^ BO, passes gas and talks rude? :pMy party fed her the elixir of love they found in Devargo Barvasi's den and she's been in love with the half-orc cleric of Norgorber since.
She's got Cha 8 and wears spiked armor and loves to hug, so he's not at all enthused.
My Party in BOTH groups i have run, and will again in the 3rd game was great. She would take a dagger and peel skin back and show the flesh and bone, then use cure magic to fix it. I get very very descriptive of this and make some of my party members squirm, especially the woman lol.
Mikaze, your group (including you) sounds really fun!
I'm about to start DM'ing this campaign, and I really hope when my players meet Laori and Sial they're not just going to go:
"They're evil, we kill them."
"Yes but maybe there's more to them than meets the..."
"We kill them."
"But you're not even giving them a chance to..."
"We kill them."
I would take this attitude as a chance to show the players how this mentality can come back and kick them in the behind. Since Laori and Sial aren't there to fight, they should use their abilities to escape. Then they can come back later...again and again...to bring a little of their lord's pain into the PCs life, usually when they can least afford to bear it.
Yes, I admit it: I'm a vengeful DM at times, especially when players play stupid.
I have just finished running this campaign. Laori popped up three times.
The first times was as in the book. The PCs allowed her to live and she kept true to her word and helped them out.
The second time the party spurned her aid and fought her and Count Sial in the depths of castle Scarwall. She escaped. He did not.
The last time I added in. She negotiated with the party rogue (who I made the bastard son of the king at the players request!) saying that the church of Zon-Kuthon would help the party be rid of the church of Asmodeus in Korvosa and all they wanted were the fangs of Kazavon. The player (in true political style) agreed and she gave him a dagger which allowed her to track the party to the Queen. At the end she popped up to dispel a charm on the same rogue (who was atempting to kill the party cleric/sorcerer at the queens orders) and then she snatched the crown from the queens head in the final round of fighting and ran away! Laori ended up with the crown and the queen escaped via dimesion door ready to return again...
This is an excellent campaign. My only gripe was the lack of detail concerning the city (even with the city guide). I had to wing several sections when the PCs took over Eels End and created their own brothel (much to the disgust of the cleric of Sarenrae in the party!), the dwarf fighter decided to adopt the pseudodragons in the city and make it his mission to help them and the insane rogue/sorcerer in the plague book was cured of her insanity and promply fell in love with the bastard king!
Hope you enjoy it as much as I have...
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and the insane rogue/sorcerer in the plague book was cured of her insanity and promply fell in love with the bastard king!
...Jolistina?!
OH GOD WHAT
Man...the Bastard King and his Jester Queen. No shortage of themes and visuals to spin out of that. :D That had to be fun to see play out!
Mikaze thank you for being an inspiring GM. I am fully going to run a second CotCT campaign as soon as I am able (old age and Kingmaker have clipped my wings currently :P). My players had a hoot and a holler when we played through it originally but your wit and your players' dedication has made me want more Korvosa.
Thanks!
H
np! It's the players that really made this special for me though(along with the AP itself!). And I hear ya on Kingmaker. Just being a player in it can be time consuming!
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Update (broad strokes version Part 1 of 2)
After things had settled down relatively, Sarz used all his teleports to take everyone back to their followers' base in Kaer Maga. Everyone except Sial, that is, whom they neglected to invite to the party. Or inform.
Upon their arrival, the followers fill the party in on what's been going on in Kaer Maga, how they've progressed with the missions they were tasked with, and the current developments within the mercenary company(including the goblin they picked up having kickstarted a Sarenraen cult amongst the goblin populace in the city). The entire base is called to join in a morale boosting feast.
Laori was still somewhat rattled, but tried to put on her usual face. Even so, she generally kept quiet and to herself, as damn near every one of the followers was ill at ease around her. Voharius' friend and fellow Sarenraean cleric Quinta found it particularly hard to trust her, but then she was still reeling from losing her brother at the Caromarc Manor massacre.
The feast starts up, everyone toasts everyone and catches up on what they've missed. Two of the Vudrani slave monks the party rescued from Arkona manor meekly approached their "master", Bogs, for permission to marry each other. While Voharius is performing an impromptu wedding, Laori recognizes what order they're from and approaches Bogs about purchasing one. Bogs, while half-drunk, tries to explain exactly what the deal is with the monks, how he doesn't really own them, and how they're not for sale. After he expresses his immediate concern about why she would want one of them, she says it's not to abuse them but because they're calming to have around, since "they know their place in life" and are completely content with it, going back to Laori's need for stability. Bogs catches onto that, but is (1.)too drunk and (2.) too Bogs to explain why slavery was wrong, order and stability aside.
Everyone gets distracted by the reunion with old friends as the night goes on, and eventually everyone retires to their rooms alone or with their respective love interests, except the gnome Sarz, who refuses to leave a party still in motion.
Pretty late into the night, those sleeping on one of the base's floors are awakened by a scream. Those who hear it dash to the source, fully expecting Red Mantis assassins again. They burst through the door to find Laori shaking on the floor. They try to calm her, and she admits that she felt herself falling, referring to what it felt like when Scarwall tried to chain her. Further attempts to calm her are brushed off, as she grows self-concious about showing such weakness. She's escorted back out to the party, where there's still a crowd. She quietly sticks to the background for the duration.
Next morning, Sarz wakes up, hung over, and with a start notices that Laori is sitting in the corner of his room, arms wrapped around her knees and looking at him. Understandably worried, Sarz asked what happened. She tells him that after he finally passed out she carried him to his room and sheepishly admits that she didn't want to be alone. Sarz, still somewhat weirded out, gives her a rambling pep talk that only a gnome can and gets her on her feet again to go join the others for the trip back to Scarwall(while also coaxing a restoration out of her for his headache). Voharius also reassured her that he had made spell preparations to counter the chaining effect of Scarwall.
They arrive to the sight of the kyton Asrya and some of Sial's mummies piling up orc bodies and piling them up for a fire. While everyone else was relaxing in Kaer Maga, the campsite and Sial's skull tower was set upon by an orc warband that had scoped out the joint from a distance days earlier when the Ghostspeakers went silent. Most of the party was visibly disgusted by Sial's continued use of the undead and Sial himself was irate, demanding to know where they had gone off to. Bogs and Laori both got a lot of enjoyment out of telling him exactly where they went and why, and Sial could barely contain his fury. He stomped back into his tower and ordered Asrya to follow, sealing it shut and completely neglecting to tell them anything further relating to last night's fracas.
Still the party was able to figure out that one of the survivors of the botched orc raid apparently fled into the castle and got himself chained by the castle. After they took him out(with some cursory apologies that they were consigning him to the castle walls until they could destroy the heart of the place), they soldiered on towards the portions of the castle they still had to explore, namely the donjon. On the way they encountered the animated corpse of Belshallam, leaking black negative energy out of his wounds and toothless jaws and quickly building towards an explosive negative energy meltdown. The party completely rolled that encounter through a mix of quick thinking and reckless abandon, and Laori was seemingly back to her disturbingly gleeful self after that.
Once they made it into the donjon, the party kept Laori on point since this was her area of expertise. She seemed downright reverential of the place, but took note that most of the party was outright disturbed and put off by the place. She had a particularly difficult time explaining the cells set aside for the priests, but the fact that some of their disgust and horror at what the church of Zon-Kuthon got up to was rooted in concern for her really started to sink in.
They continue clearing the place out until they get to the main chapel. After they spot the demilich on the altar and rock out some knowledge rolls, Laori has a small relapse of a freakout once it's clear what the thing can do to souls. Again they reassure her, they all steel their resolve, and they all sneak in as carefully as possible.
They take the thing out within the first round.
They're all riding high in confidence now. They find the Star Tower and an entry point for it, but find it magically sealed. They leave it for the time being and head off towards the heart of the castle, where they had previously been forced to retreat while harried by a storm of spectres thrown at the by Mithrodar.
After the biggest throwdown they've had in Scarwall yet, Mithrodar falls and a spiritual explosion throws everyone to the floor as every soul claimed by Scarwall is finally freed. Zellara is reunited with the party to their relief, though her connection to her deck seems a bit weakened and unstable after her ordeal.
Having destroyed the source of the chaining effect and two representations of her greatest fears, Laori is fully back to her old self again. The party even hands over an enchanted spiked chain from one of the altars out of respect, if not approval, of her religious affiliations. She's playing jumprope with the damn thing while the others turn the remaining rooms in Scarwall upside down.
Once they're convinced they've secured the location, they steel themselves again and go into the Scarwall, its status as one of the things keeping Rovagug sealed away weighing heavy on their minds.
They find their way about the tower, first heading up then downwards into the dark heart of the place. There they meet Ildervok, and the wariness of the party about starting a fight in such an important structure gives him time to welcome the new potential Curate. All of her fears rush back up to the forefront as she's offered the honor of watching over the tower until the end of time, all alone, and she practically panics, stammering lame excuses, looking to the party for support and visibly fearing that they would consider letting her be wrangled into the position.
The party does not, and in fact is almost ready to fight Ildervok in case he forces the issue, but the nightwing continues to explain that a Curate is necessary for the Star Tower to continue functioning properly, and that he is only fitting as a temporary stand-in. Laori desperately nominates Sial. After all, he was the one concerned with status and station.
The party couldn't find much reason not to push Sial into it. Their time was short, and a worshipper of Zon-Kuthon was needed for the job. There was also the matter of them actually liking Laori, and that out of the two, she actually seemed possible to pull out of the dark. Still, it put some of them ill at ease, particularly Voharius. Laori pounced on that hesitation, mentioning that just as Sarenrae and Zon-Kuthon, along with all the other gods, had done their part to seal away Rovagug, Sial should be willing to do his part. Vo turned it around on her, asking her if she would be willing to do it in his place. She had no answer for that question. Still he went along with it, but made it clear that the deed sickened him.
After they they returned to Sial's tower, Laori told the party to wait outside so she could explain the situation to Sial. After she lies to him about what's needed, he exits the skull tower with Asrya and tells the party it's about time they decided to start working with him and that they should be off to see about this issue with the tower. Everyone was ready to go on when Voharius, puzzled by Sial's unfazed usual demeanor, asked, "So she explained the Curate situation to you then?" while Laori silently begged him to shush from behind the elder priest.
Vo was willing to go along with it, but he wanted to call it what it was.
Sial was confused. Voharius explained the situation. Sial immediately reached for the shadow walk potion at his belt and both he and his kyton were tackled by the entire party. After having all his gear stripped away and being bound and gagged, Sial was dragged into the castle and informed that he had a choice: Be the Curate or die. Sial could see the writing on the wall, and he let himself be led to the tower. No one in the party took any pleasure in it.
Once they were all gathered before Ildervok, Sial faltered. He tried one last time to deflect the offer onto Laori, who immediately put a knife to his throat and demanded he accept. When it was clear no one in the party was going to defend him, the man finally relented.
The moment he accepted, the shadows around Ildervok grew deeper. Spiked chains shot out of the black and pierced Sial's wrists and legs, drawing his body taut and dragging him screaming into the darkness. Asrya, who had been struggling against Tarouk's hold the entire time finally went slack and smiled viciously as the druid let her go to follow her master whose bond with her was just about to come to an end. Ildervok informed the party that Sial would be remade into something suitable for the job he had just been pressed into, and that he would be returned in a day's time. He also mentioned that what they sought, Serithtial, lay near the bottom of the tower, that they should retrieve it quickly, and be on their way. The party was all to happy to oblige that.
Then before leaving, the nightwing fixed its eyes on Laori. It made the offer for her to go to Zon-Kuthon's realm and stand before her god, a great honor for one such as her. She looked back and forth between the nightwing and her new friends, looking absolutely lost, filled with genuine want but also more than a tinge of fear. The seeds of doubt had been planted.
She apologized and stammered that she had a great duty in her god's name that she needed to see through to the end. She took a step back towards the only people that had truly been friendly towards her.
Ildervok's eyes never left her, and it said only, "This has been noted." before fading back into the darkness.
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So the party gets in a hurry. Laori, still feeling like she's dodged two big bullets already, reminds the group that it's probably not a good idea for her to go down after Serithtial with them and stays in the chamber while the others descend.
After they fight their way through gugs and a particularly dangerous and disgusting encounter with Kleestad(visualize an earth elemental-shaped druid pushing a giant maggot into a blade barrier) they claim Serithtial. Bogs immediately starts a rapport with it, and one of the first things he says is that they have a "Zon-Konuthonite" upstairs that they do not want to see the sword lashing out at when it meets her. It's only their assurance that they're slowly pulling her away from evil and Zon-Kuthon that manages to calm the sword's outrage.
Still, when they surface Laori keeps to the opposite end of the group from Bogs, who is carrying the sword firmly in its sheath. Serithtial pretty much just glowers at her for the duration, as much as a sword can at least. Laori pretty much keeps silent, knowing she's definitely on the outs with the sword and that she's somehow upset Voharius, even moreso when she told him he made the right decision about Sial.
When they exit the cleansed castle of Scarwall, they take stock of the skull tower. Tarouk and Laori head inside and find some barely living orcs strapped to the tables of the top room and wide open, along with the table upon which Sial had been performing nightly vivisections on Asrya as a form of stress relief. Tarouk puts the orcs out of their misery. They exited, shrank and claimed the tower, and told the others what they found, with Laori emphasizing the difference between how she and Sial approached their mutual interests and again that they made the right decision. While the party generally agreed that they made the right choice, she still couldn't win their approval of her faith and deeds.
The party quickly focused tightly on their mission, and set off for Kaer Maga. There they quickly went to work with the fruits of their followers' labors. They had claimed a back door of sorts into the Vaults underneath Korvosa: A massive teleportation circle that had been part of a sort of high-end transit hub during the days of Thassilon. It had recently been used by smugglers selling giant bones to a mysterious buyer in Korvosa(Rolth), and the followers had managed to bust up that racket as part of a side-adventure the players ran through using some of their Level 1 guys.
They go on through and quickly secure the warehouse located above the tunnels that house the Korvosan side of the circle. They set their followers up with a huge underground staging area in the tunnels both in Korvosa and Kaer Maga, focusing on keeping them out of sight while they get their bearings back in Korvosa.
While they are tied up rushing about and dealing with the huge pressures the beginning of Crown of Fangs lays on them, Laori slipped into the background. She was far too conspicuous to go topside in Korvosa given the current scene in the city, and she was of little help in the way of established contacts. So as her friends went on with their tasks, the friends that she seemed to have put off, she began to sink into depression. She was alone in a crowd now.
And then there was the matter of her god's presence being harder and harder to feel. The one being in all the world that had accepted her for all she was, and she turned down the generous offer to stand before him.
When the party returned from making contact with Cressida Kroft and returned to the task of setting everything up in the Vaults underneath the warehouse, Dorinvil caught a whiff of blood. He tracked it to a tent tucked into a dark tunnel corner, away from the rest of the camp, one that the followers had been steering clear of. He raced to the tent, Tarouk close on his heels, and threw the flap aside.
Inside they found Laori laying on the stone floor in a pool of her own blood, unconscious, unarmored, and bleeding out from multiple deep cuts along her limbs, many of them down to the bone. A wet surgical knife was gripped in one hand. Dorinvil and Tarouk also saw for the first time the metal slots implanted into her flesh that the blades anchoring her armor would be inserted(thanks for that cheerful detail /tg/), but now the flesh around them had grown infected and irritated where usually it would have been kept healthy through a mixture of Kuthonite medical expertise and magical healing.
Dorinvil quickly forced a healing potion down her throat and stabilized her, bringing her back to consciousness. She looked up despondantly at a visibly frightened, worried, and upset Dorinvil and a mostly confused and concerned Tarouk. Dorinvil first asked what happened, if she was attacked. (and honestly the way the player voiced it it seemed his character was really hoping it was an attacK)
When Laori sullenly admitted she had done it herself the two men could only stare at her in shock. The "why's" and "what the hell is wrong with you's" came fast from Dorinvil until she finally snapped and shouted, tears streaming, that she couldn't "hear him" any more. That she couldn't feel the pain any more. That she was being punished for spurning his grace and that she was trying to do what she could to feel Zon-Kuthon's presense again, or just to be able to feel a bit of pain once more.
The normally smooth-talking Dorinvil was taken aback and at a loss for words. He tried to assure her that there had to be some other way, that it wasn't worth bleeding herself out and possibly killing herself. Laori bitterly asked if by "some other way" if Dorinvil would be willing to bring her someone to flense and bleed out. Angry silent stares back and forth for what seemed like minutes, and Laori finally held up her hand and quietly asked for her knife back.
Dorinvil stared at her a moment as if she had grown a third eye before answering "no" and telling her flat out that he was not going to let her do this to herself. He stomped out to go inform the others.
Tarouk had stayed mostly silent and watched Dorinvil go. Laori looked up at him sullenly and asked if he was going to lecture her as well. Tarouk simply pulled out one of his own knives and set it at her feet, telling her that while he didn't understand the spirit she revered, it was hers and she was an ally. If she felt she had to make peace with it, she should. If she chose to stand up on her own, she should. Then he left with Laori's curious eyes on his back.
As for Dorinvil telling the others.... Rolth happened.
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Rolth started sending his ghoul scouts to scope out the warehouse whose guards had gone silent a couple of days before. Dorinvil was alerted to the one they spotted and gave chase. He got him, but that one that didn't return essentially confirmed Rolth's supicions, and spite attacks and baiting into traps came soon after. The party was so tied up with putting out all the fires that Dorinvil never had the chance to voice his concerns.
Pretty soon after that, after stumbling into and then defusing one of Rolth's traps, the party had to rush into a situation they left unattended to go chasing after Rolth: A bunch of their followers, Laori, and Blackjack were throwing down with the Sczarni thugs that they had heard about causing trouble in Korvosa along with this phony hero, Trifaccia. They arrive to the sight of all of the obvious thugs down, some of the followers they had gotten attatched to either down or barely standing after being tossed around like rag dolls, Laori staggered and wildeyed, and Blackjack being kicked across the street into a store window by Trifaccia himself.
Huge throwdown went down right there with Dorinvil quickly changing into his Blackjack 2 gear and accepting Trifaccia's challenge to a duel. Voharius ran around stabilizing the followers, Sarz teleported over to Blackjack Sr. and fed him some healing potions, Tarouk wildshaped to a dog to not draw attention so he could sneak by Trifaccia and drag Laori away before she got herself killed, and Bogs soaked up ill-wishes from Sczarni hiding in the crowd since he somehow became Enemy #1 in the eyes of the queen's underlings. Trifaccia gets outed as an efreet in the middle of the fight. Blackjack Sr. joins Blackjack Jr. in the fray. Tarouk heals Laori, and everyone but the Blackjacks goes after the thugs in the crowd, with Bogs shouting at Laori to take them alive. Trifaccia goes down hard with a last second "Wish you would just die"/finger of death spite attack on Blackjack Sr, who barely survives but is hardly in any condition to fight afterwards.
Jr. helps Sr. disappear from the scene and the others round up the thugs. Tarouk and Bogs have to forcibly restrain Laori who just keeps beating the hell of the thug she tackled. One of the followers quietly tells them that she just ran along with them when it was clear there was a fight on, and she seemed to just throw herself at the enemy without any concern for her own safety. Then they all hear the roar of an approaching dragon and the crowd scatters. The followers and Laori are told to get back to the warehouse ASAP with their prisoners, along with adamant instructions to not let Laori handle them.
The party stands where they are to face the dragon in front of all that would see it, in order to send a clear message to Korvosa. Before it arrives a squad of Grey Maidens show up which are summarily taken down, four of which the party manages to take alive.
Then Sabina Merrin shows up for her big scene with the dragon, and that plays out just like predicted in the AP, except with more jumping from window to window and then off of rooftops. Sabina throws herself at the party's mercy, trying to explain herself. The party doesn't have much time, but takes her and the still living Grey Maidens back to the warehouse, with Dorinvil heading to Grey District instead as he had to take a different route.
Sabina finally gets the chance to come clean about everything, and the party is mighty sympathetic. They make plans to secret her away to Kaer Maga whether she likes it or not, in order to keep her from being used as a Trojan Horse of some sort, but then plans are quickly hatched to spring the imprisoned Grey Maiden recruits out of Longacre. Eventually the only people that actually go to Kaer Maga on a supply run are Tarouk, his girlfriend, and Laori whom Tarouk wanted to give a pep talk "so she doesn't kill herself". Tarouk being a not particularly idealistic N Shoanti druid mainly talks about what he's planning after the situation in Korvosa is settled. He mentions that he would have need of a great warrior at his side, and if this spirit whose favor she had lost reveled in death, surely she would be comfortable with the task of tackling the orc city of Urglin. Laori corrects him that her god isn't so much about death as he is pain. Tarouk admits that he doesn't get the appeal but decides to make lemonade and says he would still have need of someone with no fear of pain. Just throwing that out there for her.
When they finally get back, Voharius tending to the prisoners, both Sczarni thugs and Grey Maidens. While Vo is trying to figure out how best to treat the broken minds of the Maidens, Laori approaches and hopefully asks him if he wants her to interrogate them. Voharius lets out an obviously disapproving "No." Laori looks at him for a bit before finally asking, clearly upset, "Am I doing something wrong? Please, will you just explain it to me?" and so on, asking what it would take to get their approval. Voharius explains that the Grey Maidens are victims in all this, and that they didn't ask for what had been done to them, and that they fell outside those Laori's code allowed for torture, in his interpretation at least. He could see that she was getting some of it, but also that she was still frustrated and genuinely did want to be helpful. With a sigh he said, "You can interrogate the thugs."
Laori's eyes lit up, her old demeanor returned in force, and she cheerfully hugged Voharius and thanked him, that horrible metal on metal scrape making everyone nearby wince. Before she left Voharius stopped her with one last caveat: "Just one condition: There will be no blood spilled." Laori thought on it for only a second before nodding happily and skipping off to do some work.
Voharius' player practically slapped his head soon afterwards with the realization that he had just told her to "be creative".
The day went on, and everyone busied themselves with the preparations for the Longacre raid except Sarz. He went to go check on Laori, and found her in the dark room she had taken the four thugs into.
They were all tied to their seats, two of them unconsious, one sobbing and shaking, and one staring with a mix of fear and hate at one corner of the room. There were mostly black eyes and bruises. The worst injury were broken fingers on one of the unconscious men.
Sarz found Laori sitting on the floor in the corners, her disappointment downright palpable. Sarz hesitantly asked what she did to them. She assured him it wasn't anything too terrible, by her standards.
He asked what she learned. She said they knew practically nothing; they were just hired muscle.
He asked if she was feeling any better. She drew inward a bit and admitted that it wasn't the same. She could feel her god somewhat, but the satisfaction wasn't there entirely. She gestured at the thugs crying and staring at her, and said that it just wasn't feeling right somehow. That it just wasn't any fun with them not being into it.
Sarz ponders this for a bit. His player pretty much says with a laugh, "Y'know, gnome, new eperience... But still...no way. She's way too extreme."
Sarz asks, "You need a hug?"
Laori can only look at him with a bit of confusion before the gnome did so. "Ow." he admitted as the various spikes and hooks pricked him.
A small, genuine heart to heart was had. Sarz mentioned how being a gnome was all about finding new experiences, and that she probably just had to find something new that she would have a passion for. Laori was hesitant to think about leaving her comfort zone, but did curiously ask what gods he held close. It went back and forth like that for a while, until Sarz had finally genuinely lightened Laori's mood.
Sarz: C'mon, let's go meet up with the others.
Laori: Are you sure they'd want me?
Sarz: Sure! Now c'mon! Unless you want to stay here. I guess we could torture these guys some more.
Laori: But they don't know anythi-
Sarz: Gotcha! :D C'mon, we'll just leave 'em here to stew for a bit.
Laori: Oh. Yeah, you're right. We could still cook them later at least.
Sarz: Yea...wait-what?
Laori: Gotcha! :)
Sarz: Ha, yeah, like you'd really do that.
Laori: Nah. We only do that on our holy days with willing supplicants.
Sarz: ....
Laori: What's wrong?
Sarz: Your god really creeps me out Laori.
Wow, things surely are more complicated with your players than with mine. That, of course, may be because my players sadly don't have that much initiative to do stuff on their own and I must lead them more than a bit at many times.
So, is the option for Laori to convert to another faith out, then? Please continue your tale when there is something new to tell! :D
And I am still hoping for you to continue the Six out of Restov campaign journal. Will the UST between Liath Samathran and Kressle ever come to something? :p
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Wow, things surely are more complicated with your players than with mine. That, of course, may be because my players sadly don't have that much initiative to do stuff on their own and I must lead them more than a bit at many times.
So, is the option for Laori to convert to another faith out, then? Please continue your tale when there is something new to tell! :D
And I am still hoping for you to continue the Six out of Restov campaign journal. Will the UST between Liath Samathran and Kressle ever come to something? :p
Heh, yeah, they've got their hands full starting back in Crown of Fangs. They got really invested in Korvosa before having to skip town. This recap doesn't even touch on all the stuff they got into outside the Laori situation, and it was because of that that she was able to slip out of their sights and into that dangerous funk that landed her in a pool of her own blood.
On Laori going into another faith, it's on the table, but it's all going to depend on the players. She's teetering on the razor's edge of LE and LN at least!
Heh, about Kingmaker...I really am going to try and wrap up that journal after this fan project is done. Unfortunately that campaign is going to be on indefinite hiatus for the time being. Poor GM is getting all sorts of slammed at the moment.
Heh, yeah, they've got their hands full starting back in Crown of Fangs. They got really invested in Korvosa before having to skip town. This recap doesn't even touch on all the stuff they got into outside the Laori situation, and it was because of that that she was able to slip out of their sights and into that dangerous funk that landed her in a pool of her own blood.
On Laori going into another faith, it's on the table, but it's all going to depend on the players. She's teetering on the razor's edge of LE and LN at least!
Well, keep us updated. :p Your tale of her ongoing redemption has been a favorite of mine on these boards. :D
Heh, about Kingmaker...I really am going to try and wrap up that journal after this fan project is done. Unfortunately that campaign is going to be on indefinite hiatus for the time being. Poor GM is getting all sorts of slammed at the moment.
Ah, that sucks. I had the luck in the last decade that I always had a game almost every Tuesday ( although the time allocated per session has shrunk from six to four hours... demands of work and travel, as it is ) and another round which, while skipping some weekends, has stayed together for the last four years, too. I hope you get to continue that campaign, soon!
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I have a question for the GM's out there who've gone through that part of the campaign already: I love Jolistina and Laori, but it seems to me that they are very similar characters. By default, I would tend to role-play them in the same way, but I'm afraid that, since Jolistina is to be encountered first, by the time the PC's encounter Laori, they will be a bit jaded and go "all right, here's another crazy elf chick... how many of them are we going to meet?" And since Laori is destined to have a much larger role to play in the campaign, I think that would be a shame. I want her to be really original.
How have you guys handled this?
I'm thinking of playing Jolistina as a more visibly disturbed and creepy person (who hates everything and everyone except Rolth), and Laori more as a "cheerful but with psycho undertones" person. Also, I much prefer the art that was given to Jolistina, so in my campaign, I'm actually using that one for Laori and the Laori art for Jolistina.