Nicely done!
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That's an awesome account for Laori and your Wife. I personally changed Laori to LN and has her preaching the idea that pain is the greatest teacher. The root of her following Zon-Kuthon is that, "Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". She wants to make the people of the world stronger, by inflicting pain on them, helping them overcome their own fears and mortal limits. She will kill in combat, but once the fighting is over, she doesn't torture people to death, like other Kuthonites would.
For your LN church, you might have the church perform a 'Trial of Pain' ceremony. People that undergo, and withstand the entire ceremony, are rewarded by the church, while those that quite early, leave only with the experience. All are made stronger, but those that withstand the full torment, may be granted some sort of boon by the church.
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Feel free to put my name in a box titled "People who want to see how this story ends."
I just reread the last story and YES WE NEED THE ENDING PLEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAASE
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That's an awesome account for Laori and your Wife. I personally changed Laori to LN and has her preaching the idea that pain is the greatest teacher. The root of her following Zon-Kuthon is that, "Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". She wants to make the people of the world stronger, by inflicting pain on them, helping them overcome their own fears and mortal limits. She will kill in combat, but once the fighting is over, she doesn't torture people to death, like other Kuthonites would.
For your LN church, you might have the church perform a 'Trial of Pain' ceremony. People that undergo, and withstand the entire ceremony, are rewarded by the church, while those that quite early, leave only with the experience. All are made stronger, but those that withstand the full torment, may be granted some sort of boon by the church.
How did your Laori cope with the fact that she is serving an evil organization who's ultimate goal is to resurrect a nasty dragon? I mean, she IS actively trying to do so in the AP as written...
I'm going to introduce Laori to the PCs during the next session, which would probably happen this weekend, and I'm not 10000% sure what to do with her yet. I'm thinking that she will be evil, but a very borderline case. For example, I gave her a merciful spiked chain, which works great falvorwise (the weapon is extremely painful - thus the extra 1d6 damage - but she doesn't intend to use it to kill). I'm going to make sure that it's obvious she is suffering from some kind of insanity or trauma and that the potential to redeem he is there, and make her extra friendly to anyone she doesn't have to oppose.
I also rebuilt her as a shadow dancer/fighter to avoid her directly worshiping Zon Kuthon.
That's an awesome account for Laori and your Wife. I personally changed Laori to LN and has her preaching the idea that pain is the greatest teacher. The root of her following Zon-Kuthon is that, "Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". She wants to make the people of the world stronger, by inflicting pain on them, helping them overcome their own fears and mortal limits. She will kill in combat, but once the fighting is over, she doesn't torture people to death, like other Kuthonites would.
For your LN church, you might have the church perform a 'Trial of Pain' ceremony. People that undergo, and withstand the entire ceremony, are rewarded by the church, while those that quite early, leave only with the experience. All are made stronger, but those that withstand the full torment, may be granted some sort of boon by the church.
How did your Laori cope with the fact that she is serving an evil organization who's ultimate goal is to resurrect a nasty dragon? I mean, she IS actively trying to do so in the AP as written...
I'm going to introduce Laori to the PCs during the next session, which would probably happen this weekend, and I'm not 10000% sure what to do with her yet. I'm thinking that she will be evil, but a very borderline case. For example, I gave her a merciful spiked chain, which works great falvorwise (the weapon is extremely painful - thus the extra 1d6 damage - but she doesn't intend to use it to kill). I'm going to make sure that it's obvious she is suffering from some kind of insanity or trauma and that the potential to redeem he is there, and make her extra friendly to anyone she doesn't have to oppose.
I also rebuilt her as a shadow dancer/fighter to avoid her directly worshiping Zon Kuthon.
She honestly doesn't believe that the church will ever truly succeed. If resurrecting Kazavon were a true priority, there would be far more clerics dedicated to doing so.
As it stands, his resurrection is more of a 'side-quest' for the church. Great if it succeeds, but ultimately, not very important.
It doesn't help that out of all the lawful gods, Kuthonites are arguably the most chaotic. I would wager that Kuthonites priests are typically Neutral Evil, rather than Lawful Evil.
As much as I think Shadowcount Sial is a douche and was basically written in as evil for the sake of being evil, he's also one of the best examples of lawful evil Kuthonite.
So while Laori may worship Zon-Kuthon, she realizes that until the church really pulls together, and stops stabbing each other in the back (as evil churchs are known to do), they will have a hard time accomplishing their goals.
She's a faithful follower of Zon-Kuthon, but she's also practical.
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Yeah, I always envisioned that membership in the brotherhood of bones is kind of a dead end job, that no one with any sort of ambition will purposefully chose for themselves. You walk around the world, spending your years searching for something that was lost for too long for anyone to have any hope of finding it again.
Which is why it makes sense that each member is either a political outcast or is serving some kind of punishment (/enforced exile without actually stripping away the rank of priesthood). In my case, I'm going to make Laori an outcast and the Count I'm swapping for the PoV character from "Nightglass", who's story I changed a bit to get him punished and sent to look for Kazavon.
I anticipate those two NPCs to be the most interesting in the campaign.
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Yeah, I always envisioned that membership in the brotherhood of bones is kind of a dead end job, that no one with any sort of ambition will purposefully chose for themselves. You walk around the world, spending your years searching for something that was lost for too long for anyone to have any hope of finding it again.
Which is why it makes sense that each member is either a political outcast or is serving some kind of punishment (/enforced exile without actually stripping away the rank of priesthood). In my case, I'm going to make Laori an outcast and the Count I'm swapping for the PoV character from "Nightglass", who's story I changed a bit to get him punished and sent to look for Kazavon.
I anticipate those two NPCs to be the most interesting in the campaign.
<Insert well thought out and articulated comparison of the Brotherhood of Bones to the quest to find the avatar Prince Zuko is undertaking at the beginning of Avatar: The Last Air Bender, here>
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<Insert well thought out and articulated comparison of the Brotherhood of Bones to the quest to find the avatar Prince Zuko is undertaking at the beginning of Avatar: The Last Air Bender, here>Yeah, I always envisioned that membership in the brotherhood of bones is kind of a dead end job, that no one with any sort of ambition will purposefully chose for themselves. You walk around the world, spending your years searching for something that was lost for too long for anyone to have any hope of finding it again.
Which is why it makes sense that each member is either a political outcast or is serving some kind of punishment (/enforced exile without actually stripping away the rank of priesthood). In my case, I'm going to make Laori an outcast and the Count I'm swapping for the PoV character from "Nightglass", who's story I changed a bit to get him punished and sent to look for Kazavon.
I anticipate those two NPCs to be the most interesting in the campaign.
Interesting! I never thought about it but yes, this appears to be the same story pattern. Thanks for pointing that out.
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Hey Mikaze, on the off chance you still check this thread - do you still happen to have the stats for Rolth's crazy bone-mecha thing?
Given I'm setting my version of COTCT in the future of the Clockworks-n-Magitek kingdom my Kingmaker players are making, I can't see him NOT having a Necro-Jaeger.
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I love the desperate for friendship angle. I'm very very inclined to play her as a violent Pinkie Pie.
♪This is your singing telegram, I hope it finds you well
You're invited to a party, where we'll send you all to hell...
I love the desperate for friendship angle. I'm very very inclined to play her as a violent Pinkie Pie.
♪This is your singing telegram, I hope it finds you well
You're invited to a party, where we'll send you all to hell...
Pinkie Pie = MLP:FiM?
That's kind of how I'm playing her off. I'm looking forward to the Danse Macabre when I can restart my group, as I intend mimic the Once Upon a December scene from Anastasia. In my game, I changed her backstory a little in that her whole family was originally wealthy merchants, but they were murdered in a blood bath when she was young (kind of like Anastasia). After that, she was raised by Humans, but she became very disconnected from people as she watched her adopted parents, siblings and her siblings' offspring all grow old and die before she was even an 'adult' by Elven standards. She's desperate for real companionship in any form as, up until now, her only real companion has been Zon-Kuthon. I intend to have Laori 'fail' her save against the Danse Macabre and see her "father" dancing and rush off to dance with him.
She's already in a 'relationship' of sorts with the Elven Mystic Theurge in the party, but he's working on redeeming her and teacher her the ways of being an Elf.
It'll be a few years before Scint and I can get around to it - we've got to finish Kingmaker and get through Savage Tide before we hit the point where we've scheduled CT =) Sometime in that time we should be able to hammer out sufficient backstory justification for our version of her.
Among the many, many other things we're rewriting, revamping, and reorganizing to fit COTCT into our homebrew world =P
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Very strongly considering using this. It just seems like a Laori thing to sing.
Ahem. Perhaps as a Ring Tone?
[Edit] Oh God... I can't stop listening to it. The more I listen, the more I want to play a character who wants to run around and kick puppies just to see children cry.
I just had a Blood Pig game with Laori as one of the players. Turns out that even without her spiked armour, she was a truly lethal wrestler. *shudders*
Necro bump for Mikaze 8 years later, but I also offer my own story of where an interaction with Laori has gone.
The party first saw her full body when she freely stripped to play Blood Pig, not being allowed her armor as it was a weapon. She collected Salvatore, the paintings to sell and fund Salvatore in Nidal, and disappeared until after the assault on Flameford. Instead of contacting the party on her own, she had learned that Sial was tailing the party with Shadow Walk, and had a bone to pick, opting to make her presence known as she swings her chain with a fierce eye towards Sial, who was about to escort the party to retrieve a captured Krojun from Cinnabar in Kaer Maga. (I put a portal in the sewers there linking to the Deathshead Vault as part of a coup that Togomor leads to finally bring them under Korvosan rule).
After Krojun is rescued and the party hears what the Sun Shaman and Zelara has to say, the party decides it best to take a quick visit to Absalom to prepare, research, and gather supplies for Scarwall. On the first night there, while the Cleric of Shelyn, Dimion, (who has only earlier in the House of the Moon had a mutual confession of feelings with Trinia) meets with and gets Eleena Windsong to agree to host their wedding, Laori meets the party's Elf Solar Oracle, Alessya, and senses a similar forlornness inside of her as there was to Laori's borderline denatsate backstory in Riddleport. Laori all but kidnapped Alessya, blinding her in deeper darkness and deafening her in a entire torturous, sensory deprived night of debauchery.
Before, this Solar Elf met with a long friend of the cleric, a paladin of Shelyn, who, after a short fling with Alyssea told her that she should find someone else, downtrodden and alone and bring the same light to her life. Now they are entwined in a spiraling fight of will and love as Laori, over the course of the week of preparation for the impromptu, nothing but happy wedding between Dimion and Trinia, continues to torment Alessya, always stuck between trying to break Alessya and get her to join in worship of Zon Kuthon and stuck between a real growing love and attachment to the other Elf.
The first turning point comes when Laori lashes out with more than some painful bondage, nearly drowning Alessya in a tub as she rapes her, then gloating over her as she cries atop the bed of the suite they paid for together on a whim the first night before Laori played her initial hand. Alessya lashes out in a furry, (intensified, maximized) Flame Striking Laori for 96 of her 135 hp. Laori's scarred chest is replaced by a blistering sunburst from the strike, but she refuses treatment as she spends an entire day on the floor. After the first day, she is well enough to be lifted off the floor and into a bed, Alessya attempting to apologize with a little gentle cunning linguistics (she's got like 40 languages and recited the alphabet in all of them), but Laori hinted at a wish.
Laori has already made plans to design and create, once she's able enough to move, a secret contraption to eventually push Alessya over the deep end. Unknowingly Alessya makes a promise that Laori can have that wish granted if she can go the remaining three days till the wedding without an orgasm, having just finished pushing her to the brink with all her alphabet reciting. Laori survives the first two days, demanding that Alessya always push her back to the brink whenever she arrives back at the suite from her own preparations, meanwhile Laori is busy making a pair of strap-ons: long, black metal rods that come to sharp tip with rear facing serrations along its length in the shape of dragons scales; on the bottom, there is a set of grooves where a button might nuzzle itself, but in those grooves is a sensor that can detect when the wielder peaks, at which point a barbed needle drives itself up from the groove to skewer any flesh pressed against it and tear it free back into the contraption.
Laori takes a gamble, offering that if Alessya can survive a mere hour of torment under the same restrictions she has placed on Alessya, then Alessya gets to decide who goes first for her wish (without explaining at all what that would mean). Alessya fails, but when the tables are turned, Laori getting cocky and forcing Alessya to pleasure her in the same tub, for three hours, Laori fails at the very end (I rolled three Fort saves for her, one per hour, and the last two both came up as nat 1's), both failing to show up Alessya, failing to really endure for the sake of her god and her desires, and failing in her ability earn her wish. She's devastated and weeps genuinely, thinking that now both Alessya and ZK will abandon her for her simple failures, which brings Alessya to demand to know what the wish was. After finding the already made rods in the desk drawer and coming to the realization herself, Alessya has her second lovers crisis, but takes pity on Laori. She learns about Laori's introduction to Zon-Kuthon as a hungry orphan, beaten and raped in an alley before having his book shoved in her face and being told she should enjoy her suffering, and that her ears and her sex are the only things that remain unscarred (she had cut off the tip of one of her ears to appear more human, but failed to follow through and cut the other off), that this tool was to her, a way to strip herself of the last pieces of sensitive flesh so she could only feel the intense pain of ZK and the burning pleasure of Alessya.
But Alessya still denied her, and a verbal fight broke out about who was really trying to convert who, Alessya not wanting to be changed by Laori but not wanting to see Laori do terrible things to herself. They silently went to bed, agreeing to put a pin on their argument since they both agreed to meet with Trinia the following day for (normal people's idea of) an afternoon of fun in Absalom. However, after this day of fun, Laori attempts to make a scene, disappearing to slip underneath Alessya's dress during dinner and have a side of beef curtains, then when it's time to leave she drags Alessya into an alley part way back to repeat the endeavor. Alessya, thrown off her feet, asks what has gotten into Laori, and after a quick exchange, the pin in the previous conversation is removed, Laori stating that the idea of love in their relationship is irrelevant as long as one of them has total control over the other. Alessya attempts to jaunt her way back to the suite to escape Laori, but Laori is faster with her Shadow Walk in the middle of the night.
Laori catches Alessya and takes her to their destination, continuing to push the issue and egg on the fire that's brimming in Alessya. Eventually, she snaps, beating Laori in one of her less proud moments before she takes the rod and uses it just as Laori wanted. Alessya uses it until her own miniscule pleasure from the groove builds and she is caught completely unaware. The contraption robs her, literally cutting off her orgasm, as Laori pulls herself up, chains Alessya to the floor with Laori's pool of blood and retrieves the second rod. Laori goes to town on Alessya, who passes out just as Laori has her own final intact piece of herself ripped free.
Alessya wakes up the following morning, to realize what has happened, and even though she is intact, Laori using a regenerate to repair her, Alessya sees Laori has not done so for herself. As Laori wakes up, she tries to say something silly like "that wasn't so bad" but Alessya collapses under a mental break. In her head, the whispered incantation that perpetually gnawed at her whenever Laori was in the dominant position throughout their week together, "Endure. Suffer. Obey." continued to dig into Alessya, despite Laori's initial attempts to comfort her, and then even past her real concern that she had broken Alessya or irreversibly driven her beyond the possibility of love. Ironically, only mention of the wedding being today managed to pull Alessya out of her breakdown, and they quickly got ready. When Laori entered the bath, the coagulated blood clogging her torn nether region dissolved, letting blood run once more. Unable to let Laori go to the wedding like that, and Laori unwilling to "unfix" herself, they agreed to at least cauterize the wound with Alessya's fire magic.
During the wedding, Laori, who tried to regift the used rod (still with some of Alessya's old flesh stuck inside), enters a four way couples dance with Alessya, Dimion, and Trinia. Laori frightens Trinia virtually speechless, and when she gets to Dimion, he can't help but try to put a stop to her and make her realize what she has been doing. He doesn't quite bring her around as much as he would have liked but he does get her to realize that despite Alessya's affections, what Laori is doing is completely unwanted and putting the prospects of a relationship in jeapardy from her actions alone. However, on its face, Laori rejects this, storming out of the dance and telling Dimion to "enjoy the gift or don't" but she doesn't care anymore.
Alessya goes out after Laori, finding her sitting alone on a bench. Laori again accuses Alessya of trying to change her and also not really loving her regardless of whether or not Laori changes, in essence of being a hypocrite. In an effort to test both Alessya and herself, Laori runs off, making for the treeline to where she can Shadow Walk ahead of Alessya who can only jump in short bursts and not all the way to the suite. Alessya comes to the room to find Laori on the bed, curled in a ball and in death throws. In her stomach is the rod that she kept, impaling her and leaking a copious pool of blood. Alessya does what she can, virtually demanding a miracle to save Laori's already cold body. Laori caves, she fails her own test of faith as she is unwilling turn away and to face Zon Kuthon alone and without Alessya, nor able to make Alessya suffer for the loss of Laori, and Alessya's determination to love Laori wins out, bringing her back from the brink.
They enjoy one last night as lovers before they have to go back and face Scarwall. So far, Laori has been doing everything to preserve the starburst Alessya has given her, even when she pierced her chest, she stabbed the rod through the heart of the pattern so as not to disturb the pattern when it heals (part of the hint that her suicide attempt would inevitably fail if Alessya chased after her) but now she has no choice as she must redon her armor. They agreed that after whatever happens in Scarwall, they will decide what to do after. However, Laori did not expect that her faith would be tested again.
As the party meets Ildervok, Sial (who ironically was no more liked this time than any other time) demanded that Laori submit to the position of curate for her blatant disregard for the mission, having "sided, nay bedded these heretics" but Laori can't bear the idea of being ripped away from Alessya now to live an eternity without her. She becomes paralyzed with fear, failing to defend herself as she is almost drug away by Sial into Ildervok's arms. Of course, the party comes to her defense, forcing Sial into the position. As the party retrieves Serethtial, The Spirit of Adoration (which Dimion had called with planar ally to help with the castle) offers a parting gift in having cleansed a sacred site to the brother of Shelyn. Among a couple of other things, she restores Laori to have perfectly intact skin (save for the sunburst, which she leaves unchanged as a work of art), returns her ears to their full Elven form, and shifts her alignment to LN for her rejection of Zon Kuthon.
Over the course of the party's preparations to return to Korvosa, having made friends in liberated Kaer Maga, the Cinderlands, Absalom, and Magnamar, the party needs to chip away at the empire that Ileosa has rapidly built before any ground the resistance in Korvosa can take becomes instantly reclaimed in a massacre. During this time, Laori works with the Church of Shelyn and Abadar (joining the latter) in Absalom to get over her past and focus her life into finding legal ways to prevent the suffering she endured. When she returns at the start of Crown of Fangs, she is ready to help rebuild the Church of Abadar in Korvosa, even take over since Archbanker Tubtle has hung himself in shame at his endorsement of Queen Ileosa.
Laori and Alessya also agreed to have Dimion become the surrogate father for a Half-Elf child for each of them, as a Half-Elf has all the benefits of their Elven ancestry without the long lifecycle leading to the repeated loss that has afflicted them both through their lives.
<sigh> I miss Mikaze. He was awesome.
Anyway, funnily enough I'm GM'ing CotCT again and the party will be getting to Scarwall in a few weeks and of course encounter Laori again. Can't wait to spring the orc tusk necklaces on them. :D
My group is just finishing up finally the castle, after killing the final anchor they are getting ready to fight the chained spirit. They love Laori and hate Sial.but for different reasons, Sial has shown again and again that he is absolutely useless in this adventure as a summoner. He has died once and almost twice more on different occasions. Even though he is trying his best to help the group. They still routinely make fun of him and call him useless. There is no doubt that when it comes to the curate they are going to throw him the the wolve…bats immediately.
The problem is just how poorly the built him in all honesty. Even with a rebuild and a couple extra levels, it's kinda hard to make him be a threat to an entire party, let alone a castle full of spectral horrors. Laori on the other hand has cleric casting, so it's just a matter of being prepared.
I agree, he does not stand a chance, plus I don’t put enough time into which monsters he is summoning either.
seminal vesicles pulled out like big strings
You know, Laori has been a lesbian in every campaign where someone tried to romance her...