A Tale of Two Characters

Journal 130: 6-13 October 2024

Ok, this journal is going to be more character talk, including some in-game commentary and talk. So, if you’re not into all the roleplaying stuff, I’m telling you up front.

To me, gaming is all about story. Character interactions, speeches, plot twists, backstory, problem solving, and group improvisation. Most writers work alone. Hell, go back through my previous posts and you will see where I complain that my biggest problem is finding people to read my work and give feedback.

Gaming is all about group interaction and shared storytelling. It’s a relief to the loneliness of writing.

Not that I’m trying to start this journal crying. It’s all a balance between eternal solitude and socializing.

This journal will touch on character 3 and I’ll tell you all some stories.

Character 3 Setting/World Talk

I don’t have a name yet, and I have at least another week to think it through.

That all said, I have the basic ground work worked out in my head. I’ll probably start putting the notes on paper as soon as I finish this journal.

I have to start with the world. This game is a homebrew heavy world; meaning that it has alternate rules to the base game and that the DM (Dungeon Master, person who runs the game) fully crafted the world.

This DM has created a world where magic is rarer, and most casters only ever learning the lower-level abilities. To compensate for this, he’s created a bunch of martial powers that are based on the old 3^rd Edition Book of Nine Swords. He’s also converted the three classes from that book into 5e classes (mostly, sort of).

Since the DM put so much work into converting an entire book into his game world, I feel like I must play one of the classes from it. I won’t bore you with all the mechanical details on this one. And instead, now talk about the character concept.

Character Concept

I based the character off the T’lan Imass from Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen. Short version, they are a race of ancient “cavemen” who all used an ancient ritual to become an immortal, undead people. The entire race is bound to whoever controls a throne that they bound their ritual too.

Now, I don’t plan on playing an ancient undead creature. But I will be playing a badass caveman. Armed with a giant flint great sword, magically unbreakable (if I can manage to get that approved).

Now, I do feel like this character will be a little similar to Graza, my bugbear fighter also armed with a great sword. Perhaps I will change it up to a massive axe?

While the characters might look similar, they should operate differently based on the class and mechanics. The power maneuvers alone will make a huge difference.

We’ll see how things firm up when I get to creation night.

Game Stories

In my previous posts we discussed my other two characters: Graza and Chamber. I got to play Graza twice and Chamber once in the last two weeks. And both have been interesting and fun experiences.

Graza

This game has been straight forward.

We’ve been given a mission to travel into a haunted forest and then down into a temple that a sinkhole uncovered. The first game was just basic travel with a single fight. Nothing much to report on.

But the second game had us navigate through the cursed woods and into the temple/ sinkhole. At the edge of the sinkhole, we discover a rope anchored on a large rock. Someone has arrived before us, worse, two other parties come out of the woods on the far side of the pit.

Diplomacy

We try to be diplomatic. Why fight on the way into the place when another party is already ahead of us. Plus, we don’t know if anything will inside. What if it is an empty ruin?

The other groups are elves and a holy order of knights. The holy knights are willing to listen to reason, and agree that we can have a truce, but the Elves demand everyone else leave.

While talking with them I realize that the elves are led by the sister of my own company captain. We were told we might run into her and asked not to harm her. It doesn’t look like it will be easy not to harm her.

I call her bluff, and say if they want to fight, they can fight each other, after all, the rope is on our side of the pit and I start to climb down.

Long story short, a massive fight erupts as the knights who originally sided with us, also attack because one of my group is a necromancer. We end up hurting the sister and throwing her down into the pit, but we also save her during the fall.

The Temple

We healed the sister and told her it would be better if we joined forces. Now that most of her friends were gone, and citing that I worked for her sister. She agreed, surprised at us. And we started searching through the fallen temple. Finding a bunch of weird mysteries and tons of undead creatures.

It was a blast and we have a LOT more ground to cover.

So far, my character has been able to shrug off almost every attack. Add in his great strength, and I’ve literally been splitting most creatures in two with just a single chop.

Besides that, with the sister joining us and our necromancer having a skeletal servant, we’re practically a small army. Every room we enter is so small, that sometimes we all can’t get into them. I’m certain that this streak of luck won’t last forever. Sooner or later, we’ll encounter tougher creatures.

Chamber

This game has been crazy. We’re using the updated rules and the newer versions of the character classes are just really good.

I spent an entire post talking about Chamber and his background. I multi-classed in order to stack a few abilities but I wasn’t certain if they would actually work out. Well, I can report it was AMAZING!

Using my lowest damage attacks, I stacked my abilities and managed to have a stunning series of attacks as we chained two encounters into one. I must talk mechanics, but I’ll try to keep it all in story.

First Contract

We were sent to retrieve a warlock who had run out his contract with hell, and using rejuvenation potions had extended his life past mortal limits. He was over 130 years old, as a human, and working to extend it even further.

Skipping the hunting part we discovered his cabin in the woods, and the three guardians that patrolled the grounds. We confirmed he was in the house, by having one of my group sneak up to the window of the cabin. The target was involved in a ritual, with others in the house, so we decided on a frontal assault.

Two guards were in the front of the house, while a third patrolled the back lot. We jumped the guys to the front.

Surprise Attack

Chamber cast a curse on one man, weakening his will, drawing knives from my hips I slashed him a bunch of times. As the fight progressed the third man arrived to the front and it was an even three on three fight. There was a spectacular moment where Chamber managed to cut down one man with two knife strikes and then turn and throw one of the blades into another target.

With the guards dispatched we smashed through the front door and discovered that our target had bound Imps as his servants. The fight inside the house was a repeat of the one outside, three vs three, and I transferred my curse to a target, then cut them down with a series of knife strikes. Repeat.

It was a great first fight, chaining two encounters together and playing to all of our strengths. Great way to start the game. Just sad that we have two weeks off before I can get back to it… actually it might be three weeks. Sad.

Autumn

This is my favorite time of year, between the temperature changes, the leaves, and all the holidays. But it is also the time of year when my games get harder to have between birthdays and those same holidays.

Hopefully I’ll have more stories to tell you all shortly, and if not… well I have solo RPGs and I also need to get my ass working on the novel. So… yeah, it’s time I did that.

I think this is a good place to call it. It’s super late for me to post.