With you on that, Fink'. Entirely possible Nabu's just ducked out until the official close date was over and done with.
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Sorry, folks, I'm not too terribly interested in a rotating GM game. PBP's are random enough without throwing that in the mix. Have fun, though - should be epic!
As far as I've seen it's basically Maptools turned up to 11 (and a lot easier to use...). But I'm not sure if it is a good idea to hijack this recruitment thread for such a discussion. Truth.
Agh, I just discovered it this morning after the drive closed. I was pretty irritated that I couldn't donate, actually.
Drizzt - since we're both probably including canon events/personages, let's start working together a bit. I don't have it all pretty yet, but this is the gist of what I've put together for Pwent; I've included a few vague first attempts to mesh your story with mine. Let me know what you think, and if I need to alter anything to fit what you have in mind for Drizzt. Pwent's story:
In the summer of 1374, Pwent is getting too old to keep up the fight, and considering hanging up his legendary spiked armor. But then, the demon invasion begins, and Mithral Hall is attacked for the first time while Drizzt is away trying to aid Guenhwyvar. He tries to take up the battle, but his growing infirmity lets him down, and Bruenor's old friend and Companion of the Hall Regis Rumblebelly is cut down in front of him.
Feeling he's failed his King, Pwent leaves Mithral Hall to find somewhere he won't be so useless. While wandering Icewind Dale, he nearly falls to rogue demons, but is saved by Wulfgar, who convinces the old dwarf that he may yet be able to find some way to help the Hall. The two travel together for some time, and eventually come across a high mountain village, still hidden from the demonic forces, that is being menaced by a nearby evil wizard. The wizard, once a good man and guardian of the area, became obsessed with finding a way to thwart his own mortality. He has acquired many varieties of immortality-inducing artifacts, but has not yet made the discovery of halting the aging process in truth. Rumors in the village indicate that the wizard is about to make a deal with the demons, trading the lives of the villagers in exchange for further longevity, and Wulfgar and Pwent set out to stop him. Being the heroes they are, they succeed, and acquire the wizard's Mantle of Immortality as well as a nacreous gray ioun stone, and a few other trinkets. Pwent puts on the Mantle, restoring his youth and strength, and Wulfgar takes the ioun stone. The two fight their way back across the Realms and return first to Icewind Dale, and then Mithral Hall, where they find it under siege. Breaking through the lines, they make their way to where King Bruenor is planning a last stand to allow the young and the wounded to escape deep into the mountain while he mounts a doomed rescue attempt for the captured Drizzt. Pwent insists that the King's place is with his people, and that he must let Pwent take his place. Several former members of the Gutbuster Brigade volunteer to stand beside Pwent, and Bruenor, reluctantly, agrees. Before the rescue attempt can be mounted, though, the devils launch a full-scale assault, catching the dwarves unprepared. The rejuvenated Pwent, along with the Gutbuster Brigade and mighty Wulfgar, fight a desperate bloody battle to push the devils back, so that the King might escape with what remains of his people. It's a spectacular, bloody mess to be sung of for ages to come, Pwent and his Gutbusters surrounded by the shredded remains of the demons fool enough to get within his reach. Just before being completely buried beneath the swarms of hellspawn, Pwent sees Drizzt Do'urden fighting to get to Bruenor. With a roar and a shake that practically blows apart the demons covering him, Pwent charges forward and clears the path for Drizzt to get to Bruenor before going down for the last time. His last sight is of Drizzt's flashing swords cutting down the demons attacking the Battlehammer ruler. He awakens in Clangeddin's hall, content that he died the best death a warrior could, fighting for his King and friend, although he regrets not living to know the ultimate fate of Bruenor or the rest of his people. But the Wyrmslayer, impressed at Thibbledorf's ferocity, tenacity, and above all, his supreme loyalty, offers him one more chance - to return to Toril as his Chosen and help restore balance to the plane. Pwent leaps at the chance, literally, and the God of Battles makes good on his word. Naturally, the actual telling of this story will involve a lot more comedy (this is Pwent, after all), not to mention actual storytelling instead of just bare bones facts. But that should let you know what I have in mind, in case it doesn't come to terms with your ideas for what Drizzt was up to. Edit: Good Gods, that's just the gist? That's like a page and a half of text. Yeesh, when I start writing, I totally lose track of how much detail I'm throwing in. Let's do a condensed version in case you don't want to sift through that giant thing for references to Drizzt. Nutshell:
Pwent, getting old, fails to protect Regis during the first demon raid on Mithral Hall while Drizzt is away fixing Guenhwyvar. Shamed, he leaves, and meets Wulfgar in Icewind Dale. They adventure together for a while, and eventually defeat a wizard from whom they loot a Mantle of Immortality.
Rejuvenated, Pwent returns, arriving while Drizzt is captured and Bruenor is plotting a rescue attempt. Before they can mount the rescue, the demons attack all out, and Pwent fights bravely but is about to go down when he sees Drizzt fighting his way through to Bruenor. Pwent surges up with the last of his strength and clears the way for the mighty drow to get to the dwarf king before going down for the last time. He wakes up in Clangeddin's hall, and is offered the chance to be the chosen of the dwarven God of Battles. There we go, way more succinct.
Pwent's story is coming together. I have the outline all set, so a quick question before I start to put it together in story fashion - do you mind if I use Wulfgar, Regis, and Bruenor in said story? I have plans for them (Muahaha).
I'm sure it will. I was paying some pretty close attention to several of the forum discussions on the playtest, and the feat selection came up a lot.
Just got conquered? Fantastic. That is precisely how I wanted that to play out - and oooohh yes, full of rage and willing to dish it out. Speaking of which - I do believe that with the exception of a few pieces of formatting (mostly under skills), and maybe another minor magic item or two, Pwent's crunch is now complete within the profile. If you get a chance, take a look and let me know if something seems wrong, or even just if you have suggestions. One thing I've been toying with is dropping the levels of fighter. I like having the Overrun feats in there (ain't nobody getting between Pwent and his target), but if you'd rather simplify things by making him straight Barbarian, that's understandable. Edit: Whoops, forgot about Mythic Feats. He's already picked up Mythic Power Attack, but I'm totally unsure what to throw his other two choices at. There isn't a single other 'upgraded' feat I'm aware of that he qualifies for, so I'm wondering if you have any suggestions. Some form of Improved or Greater Grapple, or Improved Unarmed Strike maybe?
Okay, according to the timeline research I've done so far, the last Salvatore book before 1374 would be "The Orc King", which supposedly ends towards the end of 1372 (according to this timeline website) with the establishment of the Kingdom of Many-Arrows. After that comes "The Pirate King", which supposedly takes place in the fall of 1376, so presumably, in 1374, both Drizzt and Pwent are still chilling out in Mithral Hall or nearby. With that in mind, my story for Pwent is coming along nicely. I decided he probably was at least old, and over the last thirty-seven years I wouldn't be surprised if he made the transition to venerable (thus his infirmity in "Gauntlgrym"). With that in mind, he pretty much needs some magic boost to keep him in the game, and thus the Mantle of Immortality is totally making an appearance. But! In Salvatore's books (and much of the Realms as I understand them), magic items - especially powerful magic items - are rarely just picked up in a shop. Among other things, that's kinda boring. So, I'm working in the quest for that there Mantle to be a big part of Pwent's story. Cool by you? My first question about story: Does Mithral Hall still stand? I know you said "most civilized lands" were overrun, but how about ancient dwarven fortresses? On a related note, is Bruenor still alive? These are kinda major questions for what Pwent's been up to in all this time. I'd be glad to spin a tale about these things myself, but I thought I'd see if you already had plans before I went too crazy with it.
My regular gaming group has been doing the theme song thing for years. It's always fun, and occasionally it's actually a really good character building tool. For Pwent? I started with "Out of my Way", by Seether. Then I thought, sure, that shows off the angry bits, but it doesn't really capture the kinda silly nature of the battlerager. Then I took a look at "I'm Gonna Kill You", by Wynn Stewart. Heh. Something about the happy, jaunty little way this song cruises through talking about murder reminded me of Pwent. So, some combination of those. Heh.
And now for the first of my magic item questions. Anaconda's Coils - Looking at this, but wondering if it would be possible to jack up the price and pick up one with a greater Strength bonus.
Interestingly, there's some debate as to Pwent's age. Originally, he was portrayed as older than Bruenor, but in a later novel, the narration said he was younger. Also, while he stayed behind from Gauntlegrym at first, supposedly due to advanced age slowing him down, he later showed up anyway, more or less none the worse for wear. I totally already have both Improved and Greater Overrun, by the way, so that's easy.
Yeah, I do it all the time. I figure if I don't use 'em for this game, there'll be another.
It begins! Viscount K here, beginning the descent into madness. I've started work on the story I have planned for Pwent, but I'm waiting to really delve into that until I can speedread some books this weekend. In the meantime, the crunch has begun, and I have a few unorthodox bits I wanted to bounce off of you. First up, a feat.
Second, Pwent at the moment has a super-dumped Charisma (5 after racial penalty, yech!). Not usually something I would do, but...well...it's Pwent! If that's not cool, I'll just jack it back up. Finally, I was toying with aging him. He's pretty old in the books. I'd rather not, since it wouldn't do much for me, but it would be accurate. I was thinking maybe the Ascension restored his youthful vigor as well as all the other funky stuff it pulls, so that wouldn't be necessary, but if not, then I'll make it happen. |