My group is halfway through HTBM now, and in both HTBM and SWW Urol Forol came across to my group as both demanding and useless.
His assurances in Tamoachan that he had plenty of stone salve followed by refusing to pass them out led to an hour long in-character argument.
His demand that the pc's aid the young Longneck being chased by Terror Birds didn't go over too well, either.
I'm worried that when he gets taken by the Bar-Lgura, the party will offer a hearty "Good Riddance!"
I just finished BG and start SWW tomorrow with my group. On their trip to Blood Bay they needed a healer as the party cleric was helping Lavinia translating the journal. They hired "Happy" Jak Teirel from Dungeon 139. The prankster with a gray bag of tricks was awfully pesky. They headed back to Sasserine in fear of Lavinias safety, but a drunken gnome stumbled in their was. Well you know the story. But the situation escalated and two raging barbarians performed a bloody brwal in deed resulting in a half-orc head rolling down Hook Street. The city watch wasn't that happy about it and so they were arrested later that evening. All about a gnome!
I doubt they will love Urol the way I already do!
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You better believe I'll be laughing when he's gone! Now if only we could get rid of Avner, then I think our group would be truly happy with the surviviors we have. By the way, maybe if Urol wasn't sooooo demanding or sooooo useless to us we may have liked him more... Still, at least the tension between us and Urol and Avner have provided us with interesting role-playing encounters.
My guys loved Urol; he somewhow ended up becoming party mascot, with poor Tavey mostly relegated to the background (mostly because Tavey was terrified of the darfellan character, due to a number of out-of-context misunderstandings I won't repeat here in light of this being a family-friendly message board).
I will be very glad when I can get him out of the group, he is a thorn in the side, insistant and a pain in the backside, though I grit my teeth and cope. No one in our group likes him. *lol*
I like Urol, too, but my players don't. I think they tolerate him, but they find his enthusiasm a little too much. They tend to be like the previous poster mentioned "lone wolves" or wannabe "evil characters." I have him defer to them all the time, though maybe not as passively as they might like, but they just aren't taking to him. I will be sad if they don't try to rescue him from the bar-lguras.
I think he would avoid giving out the stone salves so that they wouldn't know he only had two. Fortunately, my players just trusted that he brought the several he said he did -- good thing they only needed one ;) -- poor, unsuspecting players.... heh
so what if the party doesn't want to rescue him? they have to go to the temple of demogorgon anyway, and that's where he is. they wander around the area for days in circles if they don't go there and take care of that problem. if they don't go for him, they have to go for themselves at least.
and my party HATES avner, can't wait to get rid of him. one even said, "if he takes collateral damage, oh well. sorry for him."
...They tend to be like the previous poster mentioned "lone wolves" or wannabe "evil characters." .... I will be sad if they don't try to rescue him from the bar-lguras...
Are they prepared to become evil characters, instead of wannabes?
None of my players are playing "lone wolves" or "evil wannabes," they just roll their eyes whenever Urol starts talking.
Urol lied about how many stone salves he had, then got really obstanent to cover up his lie.
Oh, and two pc's died in Tamoachan, and the only reason they had to go ashore there in the first place was his darned curiosity.
Why is not saving the diplodicus evil? I ask why is saving the diplodicus good? It's nature, baby. Predators hunt prey. Nature documentary filmmakers don't starve the lions to death by rescuing every zebra the lion pack chases down. The only reason the party stepped in to help is because the party is composed of creatures smaller and weaker than a diplodicus, and the party figured the terror birds would turn on them once the dumb birds figured that out.
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My party does nt like Urol. He did not have enough salve and his expeditionto Tamoachan got a party member killed. Not to mention they really like the 2 girl npc s Amelia(who hates gnomes) and the runaway. My only hope is to capture the girls and have them rescue some damsels in destress.They hate Avner he has cause them some seriuos problems. In the last village before the open sea he tried to buy a native girl and a party memeber tried to smooth things over but a duel with Avner with the 6th lvl swordsage to first blood over the honor of the native girl and her tribe to place. With Aver winning ???? Hitting the swordsage first . Boy was the swordsage mad about loseing to some guy with no pc lvls.hahahaha!!!They were then told to leave and could not get all the supplies they needed.So if Avner gets captured my Pc s will thank Demogorgon himself...
Urol (and all NPC's) are how you play them. If the party hates him, it's because the DM played him so.
I've kept Urol useful and occasionally amusing - just enough for the party to (just barely) consider him "one of theirs".
I've also made sure Avner is a major PITA but not quite enough for the PC's to kill/abandon him.
I haven't run this segment yet, but I intend to play Urol as more of a doddering but likeable nature freak with no concept of the danger around him.
For instance, when the party awakens with a dozen eviserated & crucified seagulls strewn about their camp, he tried to calm everyone down by saying, "These gulls have been dead for days, no worries."
Whether he's liked or not, the party should still try to rescue him, as he's pretty much the only one who know's where he's going on the Isle of Dread.
Urol is generally likeable in my campaign. He's very eccentric and extremely exciteable. The dirt odor is a bit off-putting, but my players are fairly amused by him. Everytime some kind of action happens he shows up afterward spouting off about how "Awesome!!" it was. I'm running him as a cooky little thrill seeker that tends to watch the action from a safe distance. He talks to his raven familiar A LOT, which I've renamed "Mr. Crackers".
Think of the little blonde kid from The Incredibles (the one that's really, really fast) - that's the enthusiasm I'm going for.
Avner Meravanchi on the other hand... His days are numbered. He's so hated by my players that I'm surprised he's still alive.
I can't wait til I reach these NPCs - Especially Urol and Avner. I'm tempted to play them both annoying, but Avner more annoying-annoying, and Urol likable-annoying/foolish (stuff like talking to himself a lot, falling over, etc. More slapstick comedy than anything else.)
I haven't run this segment yet, but I intend to play Urol as more of a doddering but likeable nature freak with no concept of the danger around him.
For instance, when the party awakens with a dozen eviserated & crucified seagulls strewn about their camp, he tried to calm everyone down by saying, "These gulls have been dead for days, no worries."
Whether he's liked or not, the party should still try to rescue him, as he's pretty much the only one who know's where he's going on the Isle of Dread.
I too have yet to reach Urol, but I intend to play him similarly to Hagrid from Harry Potter, being likable and lacking any real common sense when it comes to dangerous and mystical beasts. I love the NPCs and the ways they can really be customized to fit the DM's moods, they're a great addition to Sea Wyvern's Wake and Here There Be Monsters.
~ Bryon ~
What was so funny for my group is that everyone loathed Avner so much that frankly I was surprised that they didn't gut him themselves. But they stayed tight to the alignments but I knew they wanted him dead.
After one outburst from Avner, they did gag and tied him and put him on his horse at one point (their rational was that his continued berating of them was endangering the party as it gave away their location).
A very successful Intimidate check (natural 20 with high ranks) convinced Avner that the rogue would 'geld' him if he continued being an a*hole, which kept him in line, somewhat.
After one of the gargoyle attacks knocked Avner unconcious and off a cliff onto a ledge, the following scene played out.
Me: The final gargoyle falls dead and tumbles into the sea below. A quick check reveals that Avner lies unmoving on a ledge 20 feet below the trail you are on.
Player A: Is he alive?
Me: You can't tell from this distance if he is breathing or not but it is apparent from his body position that, if he is alive, he is in critical condition. What are you doing?
Player A. We will discuss how best to get down to him and render aid if necessary.
Me: How long will your discussions take? Time is a factor here.
Player B: 10 rounds....
Me: 10 rounds? **I know exactly what they are doing ....letting him bleed out**
Players: <general agreement> Yep, 10 rounds. We need to determine who is going down for him. We need to inspect the ropes for fraying. We need to harness up the person and make secure. We need a good plan to get Avner up from the ledge. These things take time. Yeah....10 rounds is the minimum amount of time.
Me: Ok. Avner is toast.
Player A: And there was much rejoicing....errrr, sorrow by all.
Me: Are you taking the body back to Farshore?
Player B: Damn, someone might try to rez him...
Players: <in unison> NO!!
While I'm not currently playing in or running ST, I think you're being slightly harsh on the poor fella'.
How is a request to save a baby diplodocus from terror birds demanding? Unless your party is entirely made up of apathetic lone wolves or evil characters, they should probably be doing it anyway.
And since when does he not give out the stone salve?
He got on the bad side of many of the characters, by informing them that they were not doing enough for nature, when he himself seemed to be lax in doing so. In fact he told the party healer. (Playing a Healer from the Minatures Handbook) she should be ashamed of herself for not going out there and helping her friends.
She said if your so nature bound, why don't you, isn't nature about the survival of the fittest ? It was an honest question, he got rude, and the party is protective of there healer, we really do not need that kind of treatment, than the stone salve incident, he was very vainglorious.
Just make sure they don't kill him off after Tamoachan (no matter how annoying you make him), because he's the ONLY one who knows how to get from the wreck of the Sea Wyvern to the villages.
Urol has been a delight to associate with. His enthusiasm has made him very enjoyable to be with and personable to chat. As for Avner. I must confess we, Joe & Denick are trying to figure out how to get rid of him. I was thinking on taking him up on his offer and bring him along to adventure. Mwahahaha (evil laugh). I know, your saying, "now wait a minute your playing a Paladin." And you know what your right.
Our group actually very much liked Urol I turned him into an Archivest as I mentioned in the druid thread. He immediately made an impression on the party. He did not come across as useless or inconciderate, in fact he explained his view on rescuing animals, and archiving new plants, so that it was fun for the PC's, so the group is deffinantly eager to keep him around, despite a near death experience for him, he survived due to combined efforts of the group. So yes <b>my</b> Group likes Urol. <b>LOL</b>