Howling Dan, the One-Man Band's page

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25

Dan saddled and rode his cat down the road, after instructing it to stay relatively quiet.

"And I'm Dan'drik, once-Chieftain of the Redmaw," adds the man in armor. "Howling Dan, Ninth Singing Sword of the Battleglens, Second-Circle Shaman of the Storm Stones, Maestro of Rock. Concerts by surprise, birthdays by request, royalty only by exception."

He shrugs. "I do loud things, with steel and stone. And this is my majestic lion, the Tom-Tom Tomcat."

Dan pulls a potato-sized rock out of his pocket, and begins poking it—after about a minute, it begins to expand, until a horse-sized stone housecat stands before him, complete with a saddle and two marching drums. "Anything up there?" he shouts at the sky.

(I can give some flight to a few party members, but I don't think it's worth it)

donion rings.

Ask not for whom the onion rings—it rings for thee.

Yeah I'm not going to have a horse-drum-cat to ride on either.

Dan puts both hands on his head, then wipes them across his face in a gesture of concentration.

"Tactical layouts would be helpful," he volunteers. "World map, major cities, important resources. If you know any of that, or have maps you can give us—or just words to memorize. Any rules that might not be obvious, unless this is just no-holds-barred find-and-killing. Wouldn't mind some magical loot, guessing that's off the table though."

At the revelation of the wizard's identity, Dan'drik simply puts a hand on his forehead and sighs.

"Didn't say it was what I wanted. Just establishing a baseline for how much 'my heart desire' is worth—I've seen wizards promise 'the world' and follow up, cackling, with payment in the form of a wooden globe. So, no tricky hoodwinks, just a powerful conspiracy realigning the world's government. Got it."

"Just... as an estimate, how big usually are the rewards for doing well in this thing?" Dan asks, as a final question. "Because if the answer is 'more gold than I can carry,' well, there's a lot I could do with that, and I'm in."

"Sounds a bit like 'slavery,'" Dan grumbles, "But whoever called me here probably knows what they're getting into. Very well, then."

"Well, I just learned more than I ever wanted to about how the world works, and I can't say this gives me a lot of faith in the government," Dan mutters.

To the wizards, he asks, "So... do we pick our wizard from the nine, or have they already been selected? And are we expected to fight in teams?"

Dan sheathes his sword. But he looks skeptical as he walks to the circle, and tries to find a part of it without any other people.

Dan'drik leaps to his feat, rolling into a defensive crouch and drawing his sword from the corner of the room. After a few moments, he relaxes, telling his instincts to quiet themselves.

Waking up in a strange place—not good. This could be something dangerous. Or it could be harmless. Cautiously, he dons his breastplate and boots, and fishes around in his pack for a small stone idol of a winged serpent. Poking his finger on an armor spike, he draws a single drop of blood, which he traces in a circle around the stone before closing up his finger with a tiny drop of fire.

The stone wriggles and comes to life, stretching out into a snake-bird hybrid the size of a goose. From his pack, Dan hands the bird its trumpet, and it silently perches on the bed as he reads the note.

Sighing, he grabs his saddlebags himself. Without the cat around, he can carry them, but it's rather cumbersome between the large accordion and massive drums.

And so, sword drawn in one hand, Trumpeter Swan flapping behind him, bags rattling as they hang from his elbows and shoulders, he opens the door and steps through it.

Sounds fine—I put it in my character profile anyway.

I use Google Maps for my IRL 5e game, but that's because it's 5e modern. (It was supposed to be a superhero campaign where PC classes/levels represented super powers, but it's turned into a suicide squad campaign because the party is made of inept squabbling murderhobos)

Haha what, I meant google docs, not google maps, oops.

I usually just use google maps. Just go with whatever's easiest for you for mapping, is my advice.

Hey guys! Sorry, missed this earlier, I'm back from a busy weekend (in which I prioritized my existing games over checking recruitment threads).

Dan's full-caster side is focused on conjuration, but he'll move into creation at higher levels—slow, out-of-combat spells that give him utility and utility summons that will fill missing party niches as we level up. (One summon is heal-focused, giving fast healing instead of cures for healing that's mostly useful out of battle; one is buff-focused, boosting saves and party abilities in combat via war trumpeting; and one is basically a big riding cat that can play the drums) This side is also basically totem-themed.

On the combat side, he's focused on destruction, but moving into alteration, giving sonic shout attacks and war songs that will transform the party, with more of a traditional skaldic-type magic. Together, there's a bit of a creation/destruction split in the gestalt. But I picture Dan as sort of the closest you can get to a hard rock bard in a fantasy setting.

Thanks! And sorry, was busy-ish over the weekend and forgot to follow up on this thread.

"Whoever set up this system should have expected a night-time victor," Dan agreed. "Perhaps the dwarf would be appropriate collateral until tomorrow?"

Dan'drik decides, at this point, it might be worthwhile to push his way through the crowd—which shouldn't be too hard, although he crosses his arms in front of him, using his elbows to push people aside. A summoned sprite rides on his shoulder, holding onto two of the armor spikes for support.

As he passes the dragon, the two-foot creature hops down, playing a few notes on a string instrument it pulls out of the air that should cure any of Mheral's remaining drunkenness.

"Excuse me," he says to Torrel, attempting to tower over the dwarf. "I saw the dragon man hand you a large bar of platinum five minutes ago. Do you mean to tell me that that's 'gone,' too? Sounds awfully suspicious."

Dan frowns. This is clearly a contest of something—but probably not strength, and certainly not worth such a large wager.

Still—if someone big and dangerous was about to pass out drunk, it would do to be prepared. Noticing no eyes on him, he reached into his coat and pulled out a small, crudely carved figurine of a dancer. Gingerly, he poked his finger on one of the spikes of his armor, and smeared a single drop of blood onto the statue, which grew and twisted into a two-foot fey creature, who sat quietly on his shoulder and waited to see if the dragon would cause any damage.

Dan'drik frowns. With his ornamental armor spikes, shoving through the crowd could get unpleasant, but he's not about to leave his clothing by the stairs.

"A moment of your time!" he shouts out to the basement, in a voice loud enough to move past at least some of the crowd, as he fishes for his coin purse. "I wish to observe your quaint ritual. One silver piece to every man who gets out of my way. Buy yourself a beer, et cetera."

Right, and Dan follows him, then, pausing just a second to see if any of the others follow.

@GM: Sounds good! If it's alright, I've shifted talents around a bit (weakened summons slightly in order to put the +2 talents on the mageknight side) in order to have a bit more to play around with there. (Added Size Change and Mass Alteration, so that Dan's battle shouts can give multiple party members elemental forms at the same time; also it'll be cool to turn into a giant made of stone, but if that's too powerful a use, let me know). Otherwise, I should be done with the mechanics.

* * *

Tavern:

Dan eyes the dwarf with suspicious amusement, noticing the man's extreme intoxication. "If you are the usual victor, not sure I'd be giving it my all. But sure, I'll bite; is it just down the stairs?"

Alright, switching to this alias because it's a character name I like enough to keep anyway.

I found myself trying to munchkin a character with no personality so I built a personality and found a way to make it at least somewhat useful. Will be posting new RP here soon

I personally like to min-max for things useless in combat (here: perform (keyboard) and craft (sculpture)) and then figure out what kind of personality it gives me. Although incanter seems a pretty safe choice for a wizards' tournament game.

* * *
Tavern:

Dan'drik gives the crow at the bar a strange look—but he's seen stranger, and eaten worse, and so he turns back to the small folks. "Has anyone been to the basement yet? It sounds a bit pedestrian, but that might be a way to get a foot in the door."

Yarp.

I believe it was 3rd level wealth—3k gp. Double check the thread, though.

Checking in! Here's our angry pirate organist. Still need to remember to pick spells, but should know his way around an accordion.

I think we're waiting for at least one more?

Hmm. Am I 50 gp over? I just guessed for the "price" of a bellows organ (I'm also estimating it as 300 lb, hence buying a cart)

So... we've got a decent party (some amount of melee, skills, arcane, and divine) as well as a decent band (percussion, voice, and dan/randall can together go keyboard/wind or strings/keyboard etc., depending on the song)

Alright, here's thunderbeard's character! He's a trained opera singer/church organist, just with a literal axe to grind.

Currently at Keyboard +15, Sing +11, String +11, but Magnum Opus feat should kick in a bunch eventually for big bonuses.