Ariane Wald's page

About Ariane Wald

You want to know about me? Well, I can't imagine why you'd be interested, but let's see. I was born right here in Bard's Gate, near Turlin's Well. My parents owned a blacksmith's shop. I had one brother - Jossan, who was a couple of years older than me. Oh, I adored Jossan as a child. I was always pestering him, asking him to explain things to me, or wanting to join in with whatever he was doing. I guess I must have been quite annoying, looking back on myself then, and I'm amazed he put up with me as much as he did.

Nowadays, I suppose I've turned that devotion towards Freya.

Anyway, our parents were determined that when we grew up, we'd have the opportunities that they'd never had. I decided I wanted to devote my life to Freya, and they managed to pull some strings and get me a position as an acolyte. Jossan became an apprentice in the Wizards' Guild, and quickly proved himself one of the most skilled young mages the guild took in that year. We were both busy with our respective learning, and rarely had the chance to see each other. If we had, things might have turned out differently. I might have realised he was getting involved with a bad crowd. Maybe he wouldn't have got himself killed.

The guards found his body weeks after he disappeared; far too late for Raise Dead or Reincarnate to work*. The clerics used Speak with Dead to find out what had happened. He'd ended up having dealings with cultists of Orcus. Trying to find out about some sort of ritual or something. Not that he was planning to cast it: he'd apparently been studying lots of different kinds of rituals. He was trying to find the, er, "unifying magical process underlying the diverse rituals", and find a way to turn arcane spells into rituals that anyone could use. The cult murdered him when they had no further use for him.

I nearly lost my faith in Freya after that. In the end I decided I had to get out of the city, and joined a pilgrimage to the Northlands. That's where Freya was first worshipped, you know? I stayed in the Northlands for several years, living in Halfstead when I wasn't out adventuring. I found Hjartaleita during that time. Oh, Hjartaleita's my bow - roughly translated, its name means "heartseeker". It was enchanted by a great cleric of Freya, but was lost centuries ago. I found it while exploring a strange castle made of ice, in the far north.

Another time, while travelling in the wild, I woke up one morning to find a large wolf had curled himself up at my feet. He looked hungry, and wolves are associated with Freya, so I gave him some of my food. When I got up to leave, he started following me - and has travelled with me ever since. I named him Freki after one of Odin's wolves. He's no ordinary wolf - he's stronger, and is very intelligent - he even understands some Common. Don't you, Freki? Freki makes a nodding motion. I think Freya must have sent him to me.

Eventually, I decided I'd spend long enough in the frozen north, and I needed to return to my homeland. The trip was long and eventful, but to cut a long story short, I got here in one piece, spent some time with my parents, and tried to settle down. But I'm afraid I've been spending too much time adventuring, since I found life in the temple was just dull. So now I'm looking for another adventure to embark on. Would you happen to know about any?

*Editor's note: there are no known clerics above level 9 in Bard's Gate, canonically.

Botting Instructions
(See the mythweavers sheet for detailed stats not listed above.

At the start of combat, Ariane may open with a spell or two if the fight is dangerous and she thinks she can spare the spell slots. She'll try to hold back a couple of spells in case of a boss battle. Note that her default spell selection leans towards utility, so there are likely to be several battles a day when she doesn't cast anything.

After she's done casting, she'll try to use her bow whenever possible. She'll use Deadly Shot and target mooks unless there's a good reason not to do so (eg she knows the enemy has AC high enough to be hard to hit, or an enemy has DR that she can beat and other PCs can't). She'll avoid shooting if there's a chance of hitting her allies, but note that the Deadeye Bowman trait lets her completely ignore soft cover provided by one creature so this shouldn't be an issue most of the time. Her bow also has the Seeking property, so ignores all miss chances.

Normally, Ariane will use common arrows, but she has a number of specialised arrows for different situations as listed on her character sheet. She'll use the cheaper special materials - silver and cold iron - whenever she thinks they'll give her an advantage. The adamantine and mithral arrows are more expensive and so she'll only use them if she really needs the advantage or she's confident she'll be able to get them back at the end of the battle. Note that all the special material arrows are durable, so they never break due to firing, but they can still be lost if an enemy runs off with them or they fall into a bottomless pit or something.

If enemies engage her in melee, Ariane will try to get out of melee without provoking AoOs, possibly by using her Grace spell. If this isn't practical, or will just mean the enemy runs up to her again on its next turn, she switches to sword and shield (or morningstar and shield) and fights in melee until she can get away. She's unlikely to use the Withdraw action unless she has reason to suspect that the enemy won't chase after her, or that her move speed is substantially faster than the enemy's.

Freki will engage enemies in melee, flanking whenever he can do so without provoking AoOs. He will normally take a move-action-and-standard-attack when approaching enemies: he will only charge if he couldn't reach the enemy normally and the enemy will be able to attack one of his allies (or cast a spell, etc) on its next turn even if he doesn't charge. If given a choice of enemies, he'll favour enemies he can flank (and which he can either harm or usefully do a combat maneuver against), enemies he can injure with his bite attack, enemies that are a danger to Ariane, injured enemies, enemies who Ariane isn't attacking (he knows that tripping them makes it harder for her to hit them) and mooks, in that order.

If Freki could potentially both injure and trip his target (and tripping the target would be helpful to the group) then he will make a bite attack against the enemy. If he hits, he will then get a free trip attempt, with a +4 flanking bonus due to Dirty Fighting. If he's flanking the enemy and there's another combat maneuver that would be better than this combo (either because DR means the bite isn't going to do anything anyway, or because tripping is impossible or unhelpful) and if he's flanking the enemy, he'll use his dirty fighting feat to do that combat maneuver instead.

Note that Freki has humanoid level intelligence (int 3), and can understand (though not speak) Common. He should act accordingly both in and out of combat.

Outside combat, Ariane will heal the party as needed using her channel energy and wand of Cure Light Wounds, and use her spells for utility as necessary. She normally leaves a couple of spell slots open to fill during the day if any unexpected needs come up.

Ariane will seek out opportunities to do good, especially if they're related to Freya or are likely to involve exciting adventures. She's very loyal to those she considers her friends. She also has a particular hatred for demonic cults, especially cults of Orcus. She will always favour opportunities to work against such cults, and is noticeably more merciless in battle towards their followers.