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I know it costs you some casting power, but I'd just consider taking a level of something like Rogue. It gives you all the class skills you need, more skill points to spend and sneak attack to boot. I was going to say dis. Ev'rybody should take level of rogue - is good for you! Is perfect ingredient that goes in ev'rything. Sneak attack, skills, is wonderful. Now, if only you could be taking levels of half-orc, then you would be perfect. Stay classy, comrades.
Just what I was going to say. Earthbreaker is great weapon. Recently, my party was attacked by thieving 5-year-olds in Korvosa. Friend Gallatin and I defended ourselves, he with Earthbreaker, me with greataxe. Both of us had what you call "critical hits". Was prepubescent blood and grey matter all over the alleyways. Was beautiful.
Session 10
Adventurers Present:
Kuldak Niska, half-orc male 1st level rogue/ 1st level Barbarian. Kuldak carries a great axe and sports a kilt, and is extremely classy. This entry is from his point of view. Glorianna, Human Female 3rd level Cleric of Shelyn. Glorianna is "Little Girl" to Kuldak; is too trusting for her own good. Gallatin Yellowstone, Human male 2nd level Fighter. He is a quiet but friendly warrior, and can be counted on to watch your back in a fight Tale, Gnome Male 2nd level Sorcerer. He has bright green hair and electric blue eyes, and tends to shoot off sparks at random intervals. Ford Prefect, Human male, 2nd level Rogue. While I admire his skills in the roguish arts, Ford is often a little foolhardy. He easily gets in to trouble while attempting to be impressively daring. He is headstrong and cocksure...I, on the other hand, am the other way around. Kari Goldenhair, Human Female, 45, 1st level Druid. She had left the group while following up a lead on her son's disappearance, but it amounted to naught. We caught her up while returning from our escorting job with Trinia. Sindra Blueleaf, half-elf female 1st level Ranger. Formerly known as Felosial Deldon and/or Ivo Corbierre. He/she seems to delight in changing his/her identity, always reappearing wearing a new disguise and insisting on being called a new name. I am not sure what the real identity of this chaotic person is... The Session:
The temple was a very impressive thing. Huge columns supporting arched ceilings, with sunlight and golden caryatids everywhere. My gut instincts noticed many valuable things that could potentially be "borrowed." We did not spend much time sight-seeing, though, as the health of our friend was the most important thing. The clergy quickly set about healing Gabriel. I gathered that he was getting preferential treatment on account of his position in the church. Once he was feeling better, we were approached by on of the head priests. I am afraid I cannot remember his name...I am better with faces than names. Perhaps Gabriel can help my telling of the tale? Anyway, the head priest told us of a vision he had had (apparently a side effect of being religious is that one is prone to hallucinations). He was told by his goddess of a magical artifact called the Chalice of St. Raphael. It was said to have great powers of healing, and it would certainly be a boon to Korvosa, overrun as the city was with disease. The priest's vision had said that the Chalice was locked away in an ancient burial chamber under the Grey District. He asked us to recover the Chalice for the sake of the people of Korvosa. Yes, all well and good, but more importantly, he offered to pay us. Besides, everybody knows that grave-robbing is an extremely entertaining way to spend one's weekend. We set off across the city, and shortly arrived at the Grey District. We were stopped by clerics of Pharasma, but Little Girl showed them a parchment that the priest of Sarenrae had given her, and they let us right in. I asked Little Girl if we could get more of those pieces of parchment; it would be nice to have people let you in every door you came to, and not have to pick the locks all the time. We easily found the mausoleum the priest had mentioned - hallucination or not, his vision was certainly accurate. The tomb was very, very old - the inscriptions were illegible with age, and it had apparently been made without any sort of mortar, yet I would be hard-pressed to even slide a dagger between the granite blocks that formed its walls. Tale, who has an interest in such things, posited that perhaps it had been built by dwarves. He started a lively discussion on the subject with Kari, but the rest of us were mostly bored by the talk. Who cares what kind of winch was used a thousand years ago to lift the blocks? Not me, I can assure you. While Tale and Kari were talking, they lost track of their pets (Kari has an adolescent tiger with her, and Tale is still followed by the pseudodragon Majenko that we met several days ago). After some frantic searching, we found them napping together behind a tombstone, Majenko idly scratching behind the cat's ears with his tail. Once the pets had been reunited with their humanoid companions, we started into the tomb, which was unlocked. Little Girl insisted on casting light-giving cantrips on pebbles every few steps, and throwing them around the tomb. The rest of the party seemed to delight in scattering the glowing rocks every which way, but the practice bothered me on many levels. For one, I can see in the dark with no problem, due to my superior orcish eyesight. Secondly, I was concerned that the light and the sound of the pebbles might attract unwanted attention from any sentinels that may be guarding the tomb. Lastly, and most importantly, they kept hitting me in the back of the head with the blasted things. The first large room of the tomb seemed deserted. Investigating the dust layered thickly on the floor, we realized that the clerics of Pharasma must come in on a regular basis to check for intruders, but they rarely ventured into the far end of this room, where there was a set of double doors. Ford, Gallatin and I, having had experience in these areas, moved along the edges of the room and approached the doors from the sides, fearing some sort of trap in front of the doors. Unfortunately, Tale decided to run up in front of us, and before we could stop him, he confirmed our suspicions by triggering a spiked pit trap. After we fished the gnome out of the pit, we jury-rigged a series of ropes that Gallatin was able to balance across and open the doors. When he opened the door, he lost his balance, and in order to avoid falling over, he had to throw himself through the door. He ended up landing on a trip wire, and took a glancing blow from a scything blade trap set into the ceiling. He wasn't badly injured, and I took the discovery of another trap as a good sign - there was certainly someone trying to keep intruders out of this place. We all quickly crossed over the pit, except for Ford, who made an incredible display of acrobatic ineptitude, with limbs windmilling every which way, before plummeting into the pit and skewering himself on a spike. We hid our smirks and helped him out. Beyond the doors was a long, wide hallway, perhaps 100 feet long or more. We made our way carefully down, and were rewarded for our caution - we discovered another blade trap, and were able to disable it without harm. We also found 3 large doors hidden in the wall, but they appeared to be openable only from the other side. Little Girl was intent on trying to bash down one of the doors - she was concerned about being ambushed from behind. However, I pointed out that spending several minutes bashing on stone with Gallatin's big metal earthbreaker would only serve to attract the attention of whatever might ambush us. At the end of the hallway was another set of double doors. We were immediately fearful that these doors would also have a pit trap in front of them, so we thoroughly searched the area. Finding no trap, Gallatin and Ford opened the door and walked through...only to realize that the pit trap was on the other side of the door! Gallatin's armor protected him, but Ford was skewered once again. Before we could put any effort into rescuing them, though, there was a scraping sound, and we turned to see the 3 one-way doors opening, revealing small rooms full of the walking dead. The room that Gallatin and Ford were stuck in also had zombies in it. Little Girl made some sarcastic comment about being ambushed from behind, but I was already in the midst of battle and wasn't listening. Although the number of undead was overwhelming (at least two dozen), they were slow and unintelligent, and fell quickly before our blades and spells. Once Little Girl had used her powers to cause the lest of them to flee, we investigated the room Gallatin and Ford were in. It seemed to be exactly like the first room of the tomb - large, square, with the double doors and pit trap. However, even spending many minutes searching, we could find no hidden doors or hiding places. Was this a dead end? We decided to head back towards the entrance of the tomb, checking for anything we might have missed. This was a good strategy, and we found a secret door back in the first room of the mausoleum. Let this be a lesson to you, young tomb raiders: always check the corners of the room! The door led to a much narrower hallway, and we could hear crazed babbling coming from around a corner. I motioned for the rest of the party to be silent, and Little Girl threw glowing pebbles at me in response. I think she was still upset about the doors. When I peeked around the corner, I saw a shadowy cloud of moving faces and wailing mouths - obviously some sort of undead. I turned to tell our clerics about it, but it spotted us and moved to attack. Unfortunately, our weapons were little use against it. Tale, Glorianna, and Gabriel were able to bring it down, but its babbling and screaming took a toll on Gallatin and Kari. It took a minute or two for us snap them out of their stupor. After the turn, this new hallway continued down for longer than the first hallway had. I guessed that this hallway was running parallel to the first. At the end of the hallway, we came into a large room. On the right wall was a large stone door. Directly in front of us there was a horseshoe-shaped pit of inky blackness, with shadowy tentacles slowly emerging and then retreating back into the pit. To either side of the pit was a human skeleton, well armored and armed, with glints of malice in their eye sockets. Standing on a dais surrounded on three sides by the pit were two more undead creatures. One was hunched and twisted, and the other one stood tall, with ragged priestly garments draping its dessicated frame. These two were obviously intelligent, and malevolent. The tall one spoke to us: "Intruders! What are you doing here?"
Ford, Gabriel, Tale, and Glorianna moved cautiously towards the stone door, while Gallatin, Kari and I stayed at the door, our eyes flicking back and forth between our allies and the undead creatures (Sindra had left the tomb once we reached the entrance again...not the most reliable of companions, that one). The wood of my bow creaked in my hands. I was waiting for treachery at any moment. Gabriel and Little Girl had gone through the door, while Tale and Ford waited outside, eying the undead with suspicion just as I was. After a handful of very long minutes, the two clerics emerged from the room, and started to move back towards us. I couldn't see that either of them were carrying the Chalice, but the undead were predictably unhappy about us leaving unmolested. The tall undead summoned a pair of undead shadows, and the hunched undead ordered the skeletal warriors to attack. Things devolved fairly quickly from there. I was soon in the midst of a chaotic melee, with the living and dead all around me. Gallatin and I were able to defeat the first skeletal guard handily, but Gallatin was attacked by one of the shadows, and the color drained from his face, and his hands visibly shook on the haft of his hammer. Glorianna was attempting to turn back the undead, but her repeated attempts were only able to drive back one of the shadows. The tall undead apparently still had some vestiges of its former priestly powers, and was summoning the energy of unlife to weaken our entire party, while the hunched undead exchanged a spell or two with Tale before jumping into melee. The battle was vicious and bloody, and I was still standing in large part thanks to pure adrenaline when I finally brought down the final blow on the undead cleric. I collapsed against a wall, and was glad when Gabriel channeled Sarenrae's power to heal some of our wounds. After ensuring that no threats remained, and learning that Glorianna had indeed obtained the Chalice, we collectively limped towards the surface, and emerged into the sunlight, bloody, battered, and covered in several centuries of dust. As I said before: an extremely entertaining way to spend one's weekend. Commentary
Is a moral quandary, I suppose. If you are attacked in alleyway by thugs who mean to kill you, you fight back if you are able. Nobody faults the man who kills in self-defense. But what if your attacker is little child? Is situation different? Though small, child can still kill with well-placed knife...I can speak from experience in this area. I have decided to not feel bad about this. Life on street is kill-or-be-killed. It is shame young boy had such brutal life, but I am losing no sleep over him. I will perhaps say a prayer in his name, or ask comrade Gabriel to do so. Now, we are moving on. We are to escort Miss Trinia to her home, and I gather we are to be leaving city. Is good. City can sometimes be "too much of good thing" as Gabriel often says (although he is usually telling this to me about mead and whores), and will be good to have air that is less smelly for little while.
I see my comrade Gabriel has not made mention of me in his latest report. Nyet, is truth only. I was not there for battle that almost killed all my fellows. During battle with stirges, after accidentally injuring Lialda (yes! Was accident! She always assumes worst), I saw comrade Gabriel laid low by poorly aimed axe. I admit, have been enjoying spending time with priest (nyet, not like that, filthy-minds). Previously, had been working alone with Lialda, and I am thinking that she was...well, "a bad influence on my moral character" as Gabriel would say. However, comrade Gabriel has had opposite effect. When I saw him struck down, was filled with rage had never felt before. I rushed to him, moving faster than had ever moved before, and tried to staunch his wounds, but am having very little training in those matters...I did not help. When we stopped to rest, I retreated to the surface. What was meaning of all this? Not in many years had I cared so much about well-being of other person. I am so accustomed to being alone, except when working with other mercenary or having sex (not usually with other mercenary), and of course is no emotional attachment in either case. But recently, many people are affecting me in ways I had not expected. Senor Ven Carlo Orsini has been a good teacher, and has taught me many apects of fighting, and shown me respect. "Little Girl", Glorianna, reminds me of myself when I was child - trusting and honest. I know how dangerous that is, and I try to protect her. And of course, comrade Gabriel has been a solid companion, in battle and out. He insists that I have a good heart under my scars, and perhaps he is right...
Yes, is big party. Safety in numbers, perhaps, but is less treasure for each. Also, is more people for to be hiding legitimate business dealings from. Friend Gabriel, my thanks being to you for your recounting of tale. Is, how you say? Painting me in good color? Yes. Is good thing not be telling full extent of my near death at hands of puny spiders. Or being taken advantage of by drug addict after being secretly drugged with "shiver". Yes.
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