So back when I posted about the Lawful Evil Monk idea I had a little while back found here. I hadn't quite thought of a backstory for the guy, just basic personality traits. As it is 6 AM, I can't sleep, and at this point have no real intention of sleeping, I would like you to rate how well I did.
Please excuse any lore inconsistencies (but feel free to point 'em out, correct lore is always nice) I'm very new to this setting.
[WARNING! Long post is long. You have been warned.]
At the age of 8 he was sent to the monastery (though he spent every other day at home, also being groomed to take over his family's estate), where his parents hoped he would learn discipline and self-control from the monks there. And so he did, learning combat techniques and meditation forms from the masters for the next 8 years of his life. He revered Irori's strength of will and conviction along with his perfection of form, and made it his goal to strive his hardest in any endeavor he so chose, which at that point was likely to be the merchant trade. At age 16 he left the monastery as a full time student, the masters judging him capable of continuing his training alone if he chose to do so.
A happy year was spent at home, and though he still kept up a strict (by most people's standards, if not the monastery's) training regimen, he mostly devoted his time to managing one of the shipping warehouses his parents utilized, and to furthering his knowledge of history and religious texts (especially Irori's) in his spare time. Over this year a few life-changing events occurred. Firstly, Sun Xiao for the first time felt he had a sense of purpose, and he reveled in it. Secondly, and not as cheerfully, his parents' business came under attack. Shipments started mysteriously disappearing when brought over the ocean, and warehouses spontaneously caught fire. Sun Xiao's parents were forced to ship everything overland and post guards 24/7 over their major warehouses, and so started to hemorrhage money. They were far from destitute, but money started to become tight.
Unbeknownst to any of them, their business had started to step on the toes of an old and well established merchant family whose routes had been taken over a couple of years back by the Xiao family. They had finally had enough and resorted to sabotaging the Xiao business, in the hopes that they would be forced to start letting go of control of those routes. Unfortunately for them, the Xiao family were excellent at managing funds, and while money was tight and their standard of living dropped from "extremely comfortable" to "very well off" they were in no danger of losing any of their trade routes any time soon.
Unfortunately for the Xiao family, the rival merchants were not above taking a more direct approach since the indirect one had failed. The family attempted to hire a group of 5 Red Mantis assassins to take care of the Xiao family permanently. The Red Mantis representative shook his head and laughed, saying "You want to hire five of our elite to eliminate a simple family of merchants?"
"It will only take one."
He left, carrying a message to a master assassin to eliminate the Xiao family in the night, and to leave no witnesses.
Sun Xiao awoke to the sound of a guard who managed to begin to sound an alarm. And rushed out to meet the threat.
The sight that greeted him in the main courtyard were the corpses of his parents, laid out neatly among the bodies of all the guards and every full time servant at the estate, and a figure in red armor.
The assassin turned to finish the job, and a fight ensued. Sun Xiao was strong, and had natural ability and 8 years of training in hand to hand combat on his side. The assassin, however, had not been softened by over a year doing light exercise and poring over ledgers and tomes, and had experience and equipment on his side.
The fight was short and bloody, and left Sun Xiao with a gaping slash across his throat and three more across his chest. He fell unconscious and was assumed dead by the Mantis.
He was found and revived by a healer monk, who was coming to deliver a message from another of their order. She had had a vision of the slaughter, but it came hours late for it to make any sort of difference, if it would have in the first place. Sun Xiao was patched up and spent nearly 4 months recovering, which he spent secluded in the monastery. Whenever he could he turned to drink, finding solace in the dark depths of dreamless sleep drunks enjoy. When he could not, he contemplated how easily the Mantis had bested him and all 10 of their guards, and grew envious of that power.
Upon recovering from his wounds, Sun Xiao fled from Ilizmagorti in the dead of night, to Sargava, where none were likely to know his name. He spent the next two years modeling himself after what he considered to be Irori's prime aspects. Strength. Perfection. Discipline. Honor. He determined that they were not enough. He had held by those teachings most of his life, and they had not been enough to protect him from the Mantis. He still revered them, but did not consider them to be the whole picture. He contemplated what separated the Mantis from him.
In a flash, it came to him. The Mantis embodied other virtues. Ruthlessness. Fear. Justice. And a twisted form of honor. Sun Xiao took these virtues into himself and fused them into a cohesive whole, and he lives by that code.
No strength without fear. No justice without discipline. No perfection without ruthlessness. He ingrained these words into his memory as he honed his body again to its physical peak so that he might conquer whatever challenges the world threw at him. Eventually he ended up as a mercenary, mostly hired to protect others from dangers he saw as a welcome chance to hone his skills and gain experience in true battle. And so he continues to do today.
Backstory (short term, i.e. why is he with this party? Warning, minor Serpent's Skull spoilers ahead):
On the surface he is traveling with the Aspis merchant caravan for the benefits it provides. He respects the Aspis Consortium's ruthlessness and efficiency in their business dealings and wishes to protect their interests, especially since this particular caravan is on its way to somewhere he would like to be, namely [Insert City Name I Forgot Here] (and he also surreptitiously tests if the mercenaries are as ruthless and efficient as their masters. With few notable exceptions, they are not.). He travels with the caravan in exchange for 2 meals a day and full funding for his next venture once he leaves the caravan to pursue other goals. The caravan has never been safer from assorted bandits and creatures, so they see him as more than fulfilling his end of the bargain.
And on a basic level, this is true. However the deeper reason for traveling with this particular caravan is that it was the first caravan leaving Egorian. Sun Xiao had had a "minor dispute" with a pushy lesser son of House Jeggare, which ended with the arrogant weakling left with a distinct case of critical existence failure, and Xiao in desperate need of a bath. While Jeggare likely cares little for this minor twig from the family tree, family honor must be upheld, which means hired thugs were dispatched to eliminate Xiao.
Fortunately for these thugs, Xiao was long gone before they ever found him. Unfortunately for Xiao, he can never return to Egorian as long as he lives (not openly in any case), and Jeggare has dispatched trackers to find him and put out a general bounty on his head. It is doubtful that many of such trackers will be able to find him in the untracked wastes, but the persistence granted by the promise of a reward from the richest family in Cheliax will likely spur many young bounty hunters to their doom in the near future.
Basic Personality:
Sun Xiao (just Xiao to his companions) is obsessed with excellence, or perfection as well as martial might and strength. If you can't fight your way out of a wet paper sack, that's okay, so long as you're damn good at something else useful like gathering information or forming plans. He'll go out of his way to protect those types of characters above all others in fact; the other warriors/combat specialists on the team he expects to be able to take care of themselves, but these guys' talents lie in another direction, and he can respect that.
And he's not going to go out of his way to kick puppies or eat babies. He doesn't hate someone for being weak, he's just utterly indifferent towards them. If you are of no use to him, or you don't even have the ambition to better yourself you don't register on his radar. He won't leave you to die in a burning building out of spite, he'll leave you to die in a burning building because you don't have the will to fight your way out of there.
That's not to say he doesn't have his soft spots. He likes children, seeing them as being little balls of untapped potential. Weaklings who realize that they're weak and wish to better themselves earn a bit of respect in his eyes as well. He may even decide to take such people under his wing as pupils in order to allow them to achieve their ambitions. The training won't be pleasant, but it will be thorough, and he's never unfair, even if he is a bit harsh. Hell, he might even stop to pull a man out of said burning building if he's the kind of guy who carried his unconscious family outside and collapsed on his last trip out or something.
He isn't needlessly cruel, but his worldview is warped enough that he registers as evil when compared to most people. He's definitely not good, and he might be closer to neutral than evil over all, but anything that doesn't fit within his moral code in some way or another is just a distraction to be ignored or pushed aside. Eliminated (not necessarily killed, though he's definitely not above it) if it becomes persistent.
Seems like an interesting character with a neat backstory, and I recall you mentioning him before.
My first thought was wondering how compatible he'd be with my own characters if they were in the same party.
What's his opinion on magic? I somehow imagined he'd respect a Wizard for taking the time to master the arcane arts.
Yes he does. He appreciates anyone, so long as they're at least one of a few things.
A.) Useful
B.) Proficient in some skill
C.) Self-Disciplined (really only in combination with one of the other three, unless it is someone who gains power FROM discipline, a la a Paladin)
D.) Willing to improve (as well as recognizing shortcomings and flaws they need to shore up)
He respects them if they exhibit at least two of the above traits. Magic users (especially Wizards) he appreciates because they're useful, proficient in a skill (magic, as well as things like Crafting possibly), self-disciplined (mostly Wizards, they have to be to learn that much) AND willing to improve (as exhibited by them constantly researching or trying to find new ways to use their powers).
Funny, considering he sounds like the guy who'd judge one by their merits instead of their race or background.
That said, I think my Tiefling Wizard would get along with him. Problem is, she's got her flaws and it would take her a while to overcome them.
But so as not to derail this thread toward such a thing, is there potential of him becoming Lawful Neutral time to the line via Character Development?
Probably. He's already pretty close to it. I'm not sure how it would come about, beyond that he might realize he doesn't need to kill or make others fear him to be strong.
In the meantime, however, he'll be played as an insightful (Sense Motive is currently through the roof, especially for a level 4 character) Drunken Master of Many Qinggong Styles who reverts to a more upbeat/less restrained (doesn't really change his methods, just his attitude) personality when drunk, who is more than willing to murder someone who gets in his way (so long as there's no easier option).
I foresee Sun Xiao and our Sorcerer, Arkanis (Neutral Evil, Infernal Bloodline. Likes to hit on women. Is terrible at it because even a 21 Cha won't make most women want to sleep with a Gnome) being slightly at odds. But I'm not the kind of person who strictly RPs to the exclusion of common sense, so it won't go beyond some back and forth sniping and/or the occasional non-lethal smack upside the head.
What's the whole party composition?
Are you running an AP or a home campaign?
We have a Half-Elf Bard (Chaotic Neutral), Half-Orc Druid (Chaotic Neutral also), Half-Elf Cleric (Sarenrae, True Neutral) and Half-Elf Barbarian (Neutral Good), who are brothers (Cleric is a GM PC, Barbarian is a sorta NPC type deal. He's new.), and a Human Rogue (Another Chaotic Neutral) as well as the previously mentioned Neutral Evil Gnome Sorcerer.
Every one of us are friends with each other, and all of us but the GM are playing Pathfinder for the first time, and most of us Tabletop RPGs in general, though the Rogue has experience playing WH40K. We're playing online through Roll20.
Going through Serpent's Skull, and I was able to retire my Half-Orc Monk in favor of Sun Xiao (was allowed to swap characters, but didn't want to switch classes) once we
So that's six players? I'm only worried by the amount of Chaotic Neutral there. Hope they don't go Chaotic Stupid on you.
Hopefully not. We're kinda goofy, and very light on the RP so long as we're not actually talking to an NPC if something dramatic is going on.
Also, the GM is pretty good about saying "No. That's retarded." if someone tries to do something monumentally stupid. He'll let you set off a trap you KNOW is there because you weren't careful, but he won't let you screw another party member or anything.
I like IcyShadow and all but my pride demands that at least one more person see this.
I don't really mean to bump this again, but I was just wondering why this was moved from General Discussion to Advice?
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You know , I have watched you for a long time Rynjin , I have to say i like your style and character concepts quite a bit and thus give this thread my awesome seal of approval. Sun Xiao seems very captivating as far as story and has a strong goal to accomplish without being a Mary Sue.. and Thats a good thing. I grow curious how he will develop
Well thank you very much. =)
I hope I can progress him in a neat way as we progress through here. We'll see how the first session with this new char goes tomorrow (due to time constraints last week his introduction was pushed to the very start of the next session. Funnily enough leaving me completely character-less for like 2 hours, though the party did nothing but shop and hash out a decision for which group we were going to affiliate ourselves with).
I tried to write at least his short term backstory in such a way that it left a plot thread that requires little effort for my GM to pull it.
I saw your last thread Rynjin and I gotta say I like where this character is heading. I'd like to stay updated on how he is developing, not least of all because his party seems like they may test his limits a bit. Have fun with this one.
I will. After tomorrow's session I'll start updating this thread with any interesting tidbits that occur. I'll try to pretty them up and stay in character when I do so.
Some Serpent's Skull Spoilers follow:
The first few days were fairly uneventful. Two young men who soon identified themselves as Ulfgar and Caine approached me with a proposition to join them in their expedition to find the lost city of Saventh-Yi. As my obligations to the Aspis Consortium were done, I happily agreed. Though as it turns out I'm not free of them since they're funding this little explanation. Ah well. They introduced me to the rest of their party, and explained their roles. Ulfgar is a Barbarian, and a damned strong one at that. I imagine I could beat him in one on one combat if it came to it but I'd rather it not ever have to come with that.
Caine is a Cleric of Sarenrae, and coincidentally happens to be Ulfgar's brother (other than their shared half-elven heritage I would never have been able to tell. Ulfgar has almost a foot and a half on Caine and his boisterous attitude makes a stark contrast to Caine's introverted manner).
Arkanis is the party's resident dedicated magic user, a Sorcerer. He irks me, and I can't figure out why. Maybe it's the fact that he continues to hit on everything that moves and is extremely familiar towards me.
Evelon is a Bard, though she plays no instruments. She has a fine singing voice, however. Another half-elf (quite a high concentration of them), and is very quiet...most of the time.
Geralt is a rogueish sort, and he also keeps to himself during the workday. At night or when resting, however, he is an amiable fellow and will often chat up the other members of our group.
And finally, Nesteruk, our Druid. He rarely speaks, or does anything really. Kind of an odd duck.
We did run into a mite of trouble on the third day however. While shopping for supplies we heard a disturbance. We went to investigate and found a crowd of civilians fleeing the are. Ulfgar grabbed one of them and asked them what was going on. The civilian told us someone had released wild dogs into the streets and that we should run. I was incredulous that this many people were running from a pack of dogs, and voiced this sentiment as we walked along. In doing so I missed the 9 of them coming around a corner.
Our hyperactive Sorcerer, Arkanis, excitedly yelled a magical phrase and a ton of gravel and rock fell from the sky to crush the canine foes. I almost felt sorry for them.
As we were turning to return to our business (and ask around if anyone had seen where the dogs had come from) we started to smell smoke coming from a warehouse a few blocks away. We ran to investigate, knowing the Aspis warehouse where our supplies were kept was near this area. Sure enough, it had been set ablaze, with a group of armed men lobbing vials of Alchemist's Fire at the building. I voiced a concern to my new companions; My travel bags were in that warehouse and within them were contained five fuse grenades.
They looked at me oddly for some reason and I stared back. Of course, this didn't last long as there were more pressing matters to attend to. Combat was engaged, with Ulfgar immediately moving forward to chop down an arsonist, with me shortly behind. I did not manage to finish off my target, but the vial of fire that he dropped at his own feet gave me the opening I needed to hit him while he was overextended and finish him off, only slightly singed. Combat ended swiftly after that.
As it turns out, these things were connected. Apparently a man named Umagro, believing we were a group of slavers had been trying to sabotage our departure. We managed to talk him down and get him to release his hostage (a man that the rest of my companions new, they had been trapped on Smuggler's Shiv together), though he would not believe our intentions. We offered to fight him in one on one combat, and Ulfgar jumped at the chance to commit more violence. A short and bloody fight ensued (Ulfgar narrowly avoiding all of Umagro's attacks) and Umagro was left alive (if barely) to leave in peace. Before he left he mentioned that a man wearing a Wayfinder had set him on us, and I deduced that an agent of the Pathfinder Society was trying to sabotage our journey.
The next few days passed uneventfully, as we got our gear in order. Our contacts in the Aspis Consortium mentioned that we would likely need a guide, and pointed us in the direction of a hermit named Tempest who could lead us to Tazion, and beyond. We took the overland route, as many party members were reluctant to set foot on a boat again after what had happened the last time they had done so. Along the way we encountered a pair of giant crabs which were summarily slaughtered by my companions with zeal. Most of them muttering "Damned crabs, I never want to see another one as long as I live" or something similar under their breath.
When we reached Tempest's home and summoned him, he was less than pleased that we had killed his pets. *Sigh*
We did manage to convince him to help us, with the caveat that we complete two trials to prove our worth. The Trials of Wind and Water. We decided to go after the Trial of Wind first, and we made our way to Gozreh's Crest to take a whole feather from a bird named Chirrock. Upon arriving there were were annoye dtaht he had failed to mention the bird resided at the top of a 500 foot tall plateau. As I was the only one capable of making the treacherous and slippery climb in the rain I ascended alone (Ulfgar tried valiantly to follow, but never made it more than 10 feet up before falling). Upon reaching the top I scoured the nest and surrounding area in the dark in the hopes of finding a feather there, but to no avail. After a fruitless few minutes searching I straightened up and looked over my shoulder, just in time to see the bird swooping in to defend its nest.
Having learned my lesson from killing the crabs, I set about attempting only non-lethal and stunning blows on the bird, until eventually I had beaten it unconscious. I took a tail feather for Tempest and another for my trouble, and climbed down, where we were greeted by a group of tribesmen who lived nearby. They were angry that I had stolen from Chirrock, but softened a bit on hearing that I had left the bird mostly unharmed. Nevertheless, they demanded that one of us fight their strongest member in unarmed combat, first to pin the other being the winner. Ulfgar stepped up to do so, but I reminded him that I had quite a bit more experience in unarmed combat than he did. I stepped up to fight their "strongest member" and summarily pinned him in just a few seconds. Hmph. I had expected him to at least give me a struggle. I made my displeasure known by dropping his head in the dirt but otherwise left him unharmed. No point starting a fight now that they had no quarrel with me, nor I with them.
Upon returning to Tempest we were given the Trial of Water to complete and were immediately sent on our way. We needed to retrieve a black pearl from the reefs around a small fishing town. The locals were friendly and traded us supplies that would be helpful, and gave us handy advice. Ulfgar and I dove beneath the surface (the man is an incredibly strong swimmer, though I'm no slouch myself) and within a few moments I had found a pearl (he may swim better than me on a good day but his eyes are not nearly as sharp) and we ascended. Thanking the villagers for their help, we left to return once again to Tempest.
He made sure our offerings were real, and being satisfied that they were he took us into his home, where he painted on our faces and chanted a strange chant. Upon completion of this ritual he handed us a piece of root, which all but Nesteruk (being absent) consumed. Evelon grew sick from the root, but the rest of us entered a dream-like state where we floated above the world and could see it almost as if it were a map.
Within a few moments, everything shifted and we each transformed into an animal that I assume has some significance to each of us personally. Ulfgar became a mighty lion, while Caine became a lithe leopard. Geralt became an eagle, while I, of course, assumed the form of a giant Mantis.
Tempest became a giant crab. Thankfully, in my insectoid form I was able to avoid showing a visible wince.
A snake appeared, with marking on it Caine identified as being similar to those on the body of a serpentfolk woman they had fought on Smuggler's Shiv. A battle ensued, and the snake was defeated with little trouble. We all returned to our natural forms in Tempest's hut, and the dream was interpreted as being symbolic of the death and beheading of the god Ydersius. As we camp here for the night and I pen this chronicle I have to wonder exactly what I've signed up for.
Sorry if it sucks, I'm not very good at writing chronicles of stuff that have happened in such a linear manner very well.
Nice man. That's something I've never done with my characters before but it seems (based on the small evidence I've seen so far) like you've managed to stay true to your character concept. I really enjoy evil characters who are a bit more subtle, so that they aren't just cackling maniacally to show off that they are evil.
This week's session:
Moving on, soon after hitting the road we came across a woman and her pet dinosaur (our Druid identified it as a Deinonychus) who ordered us to halt. We soon determined that she had mistaken us for dinosaur hunters, and once the misunderstanding was cleared up she gave us a little info about the salt mine we had been contemplating entering. It had been overrun years back by salt wights, who had killed everyone in the mine and camp. She urged us to look for her parent's corpses (we would know them by a silver locket with her picture in it) and we agreed to look for it.
We fought three wights almost immediately upon entering, and everyone escaped miraculously unscathed. I myself was lucky enough to take advantage of three missed attacks against me by the Wights, which finished off those three in one fell swoop.
I was not so fortunate in the second room of the mine. Failed blow after failed blow I missed my targets and failed to avoid being hit by one of the wights who should by all rights never have touched me. I could feel my skin wither and thought that I might be in trouble, but mighty Ulfgar clove the wight in two with a single blow mere seconds later, and the Cleric healed my wounds and restored my health, for which I am grateful.
In the final room we encountered the people we were searching for. Though people is hardly the word I'd use to describe what they had become. I immediately recognized that the man (later confirmed as Aetherya's father) had become a Cairn Wight who wielded a pick with surprising skill. We nearly ran to our potential doom to attack the creatures, but our Druid summoned an eagle to start off the battle. Immediately upon entering the strange blue pearl surrounding the wights, it dropped to the ground, slain. We decided that it would be best to keep at range and I readied my crossbow while firing a Scorching Ray at the Cairn Wight, and the battle progressed similarly from there, with everyone simply staying out of range, except the Barbarian (who stood at the entrance and waited for a target to present itself) The Barbarian was nearly killed due to the wight's odd draining ability, but he survived to the end of the fight, where he dealt the finishing blow to the creature. Upon inspecting their corpses we found the silver locket and a journal explaining some of what had happened, with which we pieced together the events and deduced the rest.
The miners had found this blue pearl and accidentally cracked it open. Upon entering, Aetherya's father had been killed by its powerful negative energy and arose as a Cairn Wight, quickly slaying the rest of the miners, who arose as wights themselves (though of a lesser caliber).
They swarmed the camp, killing everyone but Aetherya, who grew up alone in the wilderness. Knowing this, we destroyed the pearl (and made short work of it to boot) and made our way back out, where Aetherya was waiting for us. Upon receiving the locket she offered to be an advance scout for our party, and we graciously accepted her offer.
For the next few days, with Aetherya's knowledge of the land, we made good time.
Needing a short rest we stopped in at a roadside attraction, which seemed to be the home of a small cockfighting ring. Having some money to spare and being in no great hurry, we decided to bet on a fight. Half of our party bet on a rooster named Cornugon, while Geralt decided he liked the look of Muddy Lyza better.
Lyza, being made of sterner stuff than she appeared, allowed Cornugon to get in a weak hit, before promptly killing him in one of a flurry of attacks.
I turned to pay the man the 20 gold I owed him, when he suddenly turned on us and demanded more. We refused, and he sent his thugs after us, exclaiming he would beat our golds out of us.
Losing my patience with the arrogant upstarts, I struck a hard blow at the nearest thug's windpipe, killing him. Almost simultaneously, Ulfgar cut down the thug nearest him. Being terrified, the third fled, luckily taking his fresh stench with him.
We turned to the leader of the cockfighting ring, and he gladly handed over his coin purse. Upon later inspection of the purse it contained 500 gold, netting us a solid gain. The man is unlikely to try to cheat the next outsiders so openly, as this slip up cost him dearly.
Less than a day later we encountered a group of villagers offering us hospitality. They seemed friendly enough but I got the sense that they were hiding something, though they meant no harm. We spent a night eating a simple, though filling and tasty, meal and drinking a heady wine that left most of my companions woozy after a mug or two. Upon reaching our lodging for the night, the village shaman came to us. She said that she had always believed outsiders to be cursed ones who would bring misfortune to the village, but that she had no choice. She explained that a Chemosit (a monster our Sorcerer, Arkanis, vaguely remembered as being a half-ape/half-bear monstrosity) had been coming into the village and eating the brains of villagers at night. She begged us for help, and we agreed to spend the night there and try to kill the monsters as they came into the village. To make sure we encountered them, she marked our door in some sigil with goat's blood and then departed.
Most of the night passed uneventfully. I was woken for my watch just before dawn and I sat near the door, meditating. Without warning, the Chemosit burst into the room, awakening all but Arkanis (quite hyperactive when awake, he was a damned heavy sleeper), and we leaped into action. Before we could do anything, however, the beast unleashed a mighty roar that shook the very walls of our hut. Not even Arkanis could sleep through such a racket.
While the others scrambled to find their weapons, I went for a disabling blow to the creature, hoping to buy time. Utilizing the basic Dragon stance, I hoped to maximize the effectiveness of the blow and struck, hitting the creature solidly in a weak spot. Obviously in pain (and bleeding slightly from its ears) it roared again, but was otherwise not debilitated by my attack. Enraged, it swiped blindly around the room, solidly striking Nesteruk, the Druid in the chest and knocking him back down from his half-upright position. Evelon, finding her voice, finally managed to belt out some of her magical songs to bolster our strength, allowed Arkanis to hit it with a pair of magic missiles and Nesteruk to finally gain his feet and swipe at it with a glowing blue energy on his palm,which discharged into the beast's fur with teh crackling sound of breaking ice. Ulfgar gamely charged at the monster, swiping it with his greatsword for the killing blow.
Relaxing slightly, we look around. Ulfgar decides to step out of our hut to call the all clear,when he is suddenly pounced upon by a SECOND Chemosit! Thankfully the swipes from its mighty arm-paws miss, but it bites Ulfgar solidly on the shoulder while Arkanis fires a few missiles of force from his fingers at it. I manage to find the flowing rhythm of the Snake and slink out the door to confront the monster, but am unable to deal a solid hit to it. The beast is obviously in pain though, and is even moreso once Geralt's bow nails it in the shoulder and Evelon conjures magical shards of glass from nowhere to bombard it. Nesteruk had had enough by this point, and he shapeshifted into a mirror image of the Deinonychus we had encountered earlier, and with a swift healing from Caine leaped out the door.
His transformation was wasted, however, by Ulfgar's enraged retaliation against the savage bite, which smote the Chemosit's head from its shoulders. Not having much, the shaman could only provide us with a treasure map to a chest filled with gold ingots and and a shriveled monkey's head which I took, once it was revealed to be a device that would banish a summoned creature with a single touch. It could come in handy soon.
Nothing of note happened for a few days, besides some burrowing insects that I and Ulfgar were able to dispatch simply by moving closely with each other and then waiting for the creatures to surface. It was almost boring, really.
Then we came across the tree. Blackened and burned, surrounded by corpses both hanging from the tree and littering the ground around it, it gave off a foul, nauseating stench which took all of my power to overcome. As I wandered closer, motioning to my companions to stay back, the corpses all sprang to life at my presence, lunging at me.
Before they could do much, however, Arkanis called a ton of gravel mere inches from my face, halting them temporarily. Recognizing these zombies as plague carrying monstrosities, I quickly danced out of reach (communicating their oddities to my companions), readied my crossbow, and fired at the nearest zombie, which exploded in a cloud of green smoke and ichor, Apparently Arkanis' spell had been more effective than it first appeared, bringing these creatures to a point of imminent (and dangerous) re-death, as the next two shots fired by my companions also messily felled one of the undead.
Three survived, who lurched forward and all tried to sing at me, though channeling the litheness of the snake I was untouchable. Knowing there was no way around it, I resigned myself to getting my hands dirty and retaliated against all 3 of the zombies, slaying them and being covered by their disease ridden juices. Immediately I knew I had contracted the disease and warned my companions of it. Luckily the disease affected my health not a whit, but I was gravely in need of a washing by the end of the day.
Later that night we arrived in the city, and having met Chiton I write these chronicles for anyone who might be interested in the finer details of the expedition to Saventh-Yi. Shortly after I complete this I intend to go out, drink myself silly, and sleep like the dead for the night. In two days we leave this city and continue towards Tazion.
Sorry if I waxed on a bit about the Chemosit battle, that was really the highlight (and longest stretch of time) of the session.
Thank you and you're welcome Endoralis.
I'm also using this as a sort of chronicles for the other members of our group, since we often have missing members or those who have to leave early/come in late, and it makes me feel good that someone else is enjoying it. Our forum does not have a high enough word limit per post for me to post these there, so I end up posting here and then copy pasting over there.
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I am most humbled by your generosity Rynjin. That you thank me for what I deem common courtesy makes it that much better in knowing how good of a person you are. I will note that I have indeed read this excerpt and must say you bring the characters and story to life even with the small summaries. I am genuinely interested in this game almost saddened I was not one of the players but at the same time gladdened to seem like Im part of the ride through your posts.
Sun Xiao and the party's development in story and teamwork seems to be growing well.
Moved all the current Chronicles to this thread. Thinking I'm going to do something similar every month or so (every four sessions) so they're not spread out among a whole page/multiple pages.
The last part refers to how Nesteruk's player is discontented with his Druid and is replacing him with a Magus soon. He didn't understand the whole casting stat thing when he made his char and he pumped Con since he didn't want to die.
I tried to get the GM to let him multiclass to Scarred Witch Doctor but it was a no go (he's a firm believer that multiclassing needs a teacher/trainer to learn the second class unless your character already has the basic skills for it. I.E. Monk/Unarmed Fighter archetype is okay, Sorcerer/Ninja is not).