Due to several past threads, many of you already know who Hama is and some of the past adventures/encounters she has been through. For those of you who are new to the scene however, Hama is a venerable human sorcerer (download PDF character sheet here) that is a member of an evil adventuring party. Collectively, the group (for their own reasons) works for Lord Vandameer, the brother to the King of Dundith. Hoping to undermine his brother's power and build up his own, Vandameer often sends our party out into the world as conquers or emissaries. Whatever our mission, it is always meant to get things set up for the eventual coup against his brother. Naturally, our party intends to take advantage of the situation ourselves: We strive to make new allies loyal to Vandameer, but more loyal to us. Therefore, when the time comes, it will be us who will rule Dundith. Seeing as we have already brought several nations and monstrous tribes into the fold, our eventual taking of Dundith will effectively cut the world of Uldvar in half, making world conquest a real possibility.
In the present, however, we have recently been tasked with wiping out OR recruiting the stubborn and dangerous nomads of the campaign world's version of the Sahara desert. It would prove to be a difficult task, for the nomads were known to be distrustful of outsiders (they had turned down many political arrangements offered by various parties already) and were powerful enough to have maintained an ongoing war for resources against a family of dragons with some success--and that's if you can even find them in the vast sands.
While journeying through the desert, we encountered a great many things (giant scorpions, a blue dragon, a sphinx, etc.). Among them was a nomad patrol, which we quickly slaughtered before concealing our involvement by making it appear as though the King's men had done it (a suggestion made by Hama). Another was a lone traveler on a camel. Though he was still far off in the distance and hard to see, Hama nevertheless took the initiative, teleported to his location, and incapacitated the stranger and his steed with a powerful sleep charm. Meaning to interrogate the man, Hama's plan was suddenly interrupted when he was promptly murdered by Brother Maynard and the other party members as they caught up.
While searching through his possessions it was discovered that the traveler was a royal messenger for the King of Dundith and that he carried an important trade agreement for the nomads complete with the King's royal seal. As we read the document for anything else of import, a falcon arrived and landed upon its former master's corpse. It carried with it an empty message case tied to its leg. Lia, our elf ranger, questioned the animal via a minor translation spell. It was soon discovered that a larger force of the King's men, lead by a "shiny man" were only a few days behind the murdered messenger. They were headed for the nomad's primary encampment to support the messenger in his task.
It was then that Hama started formulating a grand scheme:
With the help of Brother Maynard, a man educated in the finer points of the written word, Hama and the others forged two new documents from the messenger's supplies: the first was a letter from the king to the nomads proclaiming the end of his patience with the failing trade talks, and making a declaration of war against the nomads (complete with the king's own seal, whose magical wards were defeated by Hama). The second fake letter was from "Lord Vandameer," and it detailed his disagreement with his brother to start a war, and served as an advanced warning of the king's "approaching army."
We took great time and care to see to it that the documents were done right. The task was made easier as we had ample amounts of both the king's and Vandameer's handwriting, the former in the form of his trade agreement, and the latter in the form of a magical two-way message book that we used to communicate to Vandameer directly. Magically transferring the king's personal seal flawlessly was a nice touch too.
Hama, being the most charismatic member of the party by far, split from the group along with Grummish, a burly orc who often served to protect the party from threats large and small. We were to travel ahead and meet with the nomads under a banner of truce. Then we would hand over the "warning" message along with an offering of a rare melon sacred to the nomads (literally worth tens of thousands of gold in their culture) as a sign of peace and goodwill.
Brother Maynard bestowed upon Hama mighty wards of magic to protect her frail body should the negotiations go badly. Lia, the elf ranger, would later send the captured messenger falcon to the nomads, carrying with it the false declaration of war.
If everything went according to plan, by the time the king's men arrived, the nomads would be rallied and set up in ambush. One way or another, there was going to be a slaughter. If the nomads won, they would be indebted to us and our party benefactor for having brought them advanced warning, and alliance talks could then be initiated. If the king's men won, the nomads would be wiped out and our mission would be a success. If both sides survived, but were greatly weakened, then our band stood a real chance of wiping both parties out.
Everything went to spit from there. Hama and Grummish were greeted outside the nomad's encampment by no less than seven of their greatest warriors, master archers all. Hama had barely finished speaking words of peace when she suddenly felt her protective wards fail as the archers cut her and the orc down with a volley of arrows. Grummish, suffering from no less than four mortal wounds, nevertheless managed to sprint away in a surprising show of stamina and speed. The archers, having defended their border, did not pursue. Before Hama slipped into unconsciousness she glimpsed an increasingly fuzzy Brother Maynard hiding behind a small dune nearby. In her last moments, as her life blood fled her body to feed the desert sand, she could just barely make out the sound of bat-like wings fluttering overhead.
***
Hama returned to the cave that had become their base camp. She was furious. Had it not been for her invisible consular imp familiar and the healing potions he carried, she would surely have died during that fiasco. Luckily, when she had regained consciousness, she was able to slip through a dimensional door to safety (leaving behind the letter of warning) before the archers could pepper her with more of their deadly arrows.
The bastard cleric was going to suffer dearly for his treachery.
As she rounded the corner of the cave mouth and the target of her wrath came into view, she spoke not a word, but instead focused all of her rage into a magical charm spell designed to batter Maynard's will and break his mind.
Long accustomed to Hama's secretive spellcasting methods, Brother Maynard was not caught off guard and after a momentary struggle, was able to throw off Hama's dominion of his mind. By then Hama, in her unthinking fury, had stepped within his arm's reach.
Just as Hama was about to make her accusation in front of the rest of the party, her words were suddenly cut off by the crushing steel of Maynard's gauntlet around her throat. Maynard lifted his sword to her throat and, in a gravelly voice filled with unmistakable menace, he intoned "If you ever attempt to enter my mind again, witch, I will remove your foul head from your withered neck!" Maynard then released her from his grasp.
"WHY!?" Hama managed to bark as she crashed to the ground in a coughing fit. Soon, she recovered, and though keenly aware of being at the unholy crusader's mercy, she stood her ground nevertheless:
"Why did you remove your protective enchantments when I needed them the most!? You nearly got me killed! You nearly got Grummish killed! You fool! You jeopardized everything! Do you really think for a moment that Lord Vandameer would spare us should we fail him in this endeavor? You could have cost us everything!"
Maynard merely looked down at the ancient woman who, despite all her arcane might, was so fragile he wondered if he could forever end her annoying raving with a single kick to the face. Instead, he simply said, "The master of destruction, my god Kostchtchie, had me test you. As a powerful servant of discord and ruin you have invited his attention upon yourself. You should be proud. You passed his test and through his blessings you were spared. Kostchtchie does not abide the weak among his faithful. A single arrow fired from a mere commoner can fell a great knight, yet there you sit alive and well, despite having been pierced by three arrows this night. It is no small feat to survive a volley of arrows from the nomads' elite archers without the benefit of magic to protect you. Yes, Ancient Witch, you now have Kostchtchie's attention...and like it or not, he has great plans for you now."
Long familiar with the great power the blackguard before her wielded due to his association with the dark god, Hama's anger and resolve wavered as she imagined having such power for herself by similarly aligning herself with a being as powerful as Kostchtchie. Surely such a tempting opportunity would come to a decisive end if she slit this ungrateful pawn's throat in his sleep.
Hama growled, spat at the ground in frustration, turned, and joined the others, the discussion at its end.
[MORE TO COME LATER AS OUR CAMPAIGN CONTINUES]
Though tensions ran high (in game and out) due to the initial inter-party conflict, we managed to remember that we were all good friends. (At one point I was so livid I tore up my character sheet.) In the end though, we all had a lot of fun and got a great, memorable bit of roleplay out of it.
I just wanted to share that with you all.
No one wishes to comment?
I thought someone would at least share their successful evil campaign experiences (or talk about why it failed).
I really liked it, but yesterday I had such a crappy session from a brat, ridiculous player, trying to spoil everyone's fun, that I'm really kinda taken aback and not even wanting to play for a while to be honest...
No one wishes to comment?
I thought someone would at least share their successful evil campaign experiences (or talk about why it failed).
I have only had a handful of playings willing and mature enough to handle an evil campaign, and never all at the same time. One day I want to do it though.
Some guys can't even play a Neutral character right or inteligently, making bad stuff in the eyes of his God and ridiculous plans to kill those he does not like... ok... I'm Trolling, never mind me.
Awesome Hama story it seems...
I have only had a handful of playings willing and mature enough to handle an evil campaign, and never all at the same time. One day I want to do it though.No one wishes to comment?
I thought someone would at least share their successful evil campaign experiences (or talk about why it failed).
When you and your friends get around to it, be sure to have a detailed alignment discussion beforehand, so that everyone is on the same page.
Part of why there was so much consternation during our game wasn't so much because of the betrayal itself, but because of misunderstandings and disagreements.
Some of the problems we encountered:
- When I joined the evil campaign, it was said that all the PvP stuff would happen at the end of the campaign, where losing one's character wasn't such a big deal. Apparently, that either changed, or I misunderstood. Apparently you are welcome to kill another PC outright provided you speak with the GM about it first and they okay it (you don't have to warn the fellow player out of game it seems).
- My fellow players and I have a very different view of what constitutes as evil. I play what I like to refer to as "smart evil"--that is a scheming plotter who uses pawns (the other PCs) to get closer to her goals. Hama very rarely kills anyone unless it would further her aims (to do so would draw too much attention). One or two of the other players AND the GM, on the other hand, seem to think that if you don't randomly murder one NPC a session for no good reason than you're not really being evil. They honestly believe you can make a CE "kill people at random" player character that can function in a party while remaining internally consistent... As such, alignment debates in our group can get kinda heated.
So the best thing I can give is MAKE SURE YOU ARE ALL ON THE SAME PAGE about what's going on. If their are controls in place make sure everyone knows them. If the GM views one or more alignments a given way, make sure the players understand that view (even if they don't agree with it).
Some guys can't even play a Neutral character right or inteligently, making bad stuff in the eyes of his God and ridiculous plans to kill those he does not like... ok... I'm Trolling, never mind me.
Awesome Hama story it seems...
That was the first time Hama had ever lost consciousness due to battle, the first time she had ever been taken down in a full ten levels of play. Their was much rejoicing amongst the other players and the GM. They had proved that Hama can be killed.
Which I find kinda funny since she had an 8 AC and less than 30 hit points the whole time.