Character discussion

[Anastasia]

As the games goes on, NPCs and villains fade away by defeat or death.  It can be fun to talk about them and review after the fact, so let's start this. Right now I'm only talking about people I feel comfortable to and that won't come back up in the plot overly much. This is a surprisingly small field since NPCs beyond one scene fodder tend to stick about. Finally, I'm doing these now so I get to the finished ones before they become too hazy in my mind.

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Febras

Inspirations: Hellsing, vampire stereotypes, odds and ends.

I'll get the most important factoid out of the way first. Yeah, he was named after Febreeze. When I chargenned him I had a bottle by my computer. So when I went 'What's a good name...?', I glanced over and so it was inspired.

Early in Balmuria's development I decided I wanted a bad guy who could be presented as a good guy or at least as an ally. This is harder than you think; anyone evil runs afoul of detect evils sooner or later. While a N opposition is entirely viable and something I toyed with, I found this idea merging with another of my ideas. I wanted a non traditional vampire in the game, both as something fun and a bit of a parody/homage to Hellsing's Alucard. This merged nicely with my basic notes on various artifacts in the game world, as the Ring of Eternal Celerity negated his glaring weaknesses. I ran with this idea - a vampire stereotype, yet seen in sunlight and not showing up to detection spells. This concept worked, as it lets me have him around and help without triggering PC alarms.

His personality needed a lot of work. Like any higher powered opposition in a lower power game, it does beg the question: Why not just wipe out the PCs? So I made him bored. He'd lived for a long time now and almost nothing could oppose a vampire with a few class levels and some intellect in early Balmuria. There simply wasn't the depth of heroes to do anything about him. A potential disdain for living life had twisted in his long boredom. Instead, he began to be intrigued by it again. The curse of the vampire, a fascination of with living human life, came to the forefront. To fight that he took to the roads. Sometime during this he came onto the Ring of Eternal Celerity. He was essentially a form of loophole and was able to use it, thus gaining immense power. Immunity to his weaknesses, detections and a bunch of other boosts gave him superb variety. With that in hand his boredom found a relief - there was no barrier to him going back to human civilization. He needed no blood, feared no sun, had no disdain of garlic or any of that now. From there his design was simple. The Ring came into his possession not long before he came to Balmuria. This lead to Donald following and thus the games began. I mostly enjoyed the duality of hinting at what he was while seemingly giving ample evidence that he couldn't be anything like that.

When he came to Balmuria he found it a lively place starting to grow. He had lived long enough to identify the signs, as well as potential. The fledging Crimson Guard interested him from day one. They were capable for mortals of this era, budding heroes in the making. Plus, to be honest, he rather liked some of them. Sure, he could have massacred the town and probably gotten away with it if he did it intelligently, but that wouldn't relieve his boredom for long. So he befriended the guard and established a small base of power in the city. With the Ring his powers over spawning and controlling undead had grown and diversified, so it was perfect on two levels. Use the city as a testing  jar as he gained more control over his powers and used these to see how the guard did. They invariably lived up to his expectations.  How fascinating! They really were capable, and further, it was like so many interesting things were concentrating in this town!

It was perfect. All he had to do is to earn a little more trust and worm a little closer and he'd have all the entertainment he could ask for. Going to Malmuth made sense and also let him put Seira in his debt. This is where his overconfidence bit him in the ass, as he couldn't resist leaving a final present. It was sloppy of him, but he had grown a little too confident. Thanks to the swift intervention of the Crimson Guard Biggs wasn't turned into a rotting bag of undead guard lusting after Shamal. Yay! (Oh God, I imagined after the fact of a zombie Biggs going after Shamal's body to turn her into a zombie or something. Urk.)

From there he was offscreen for a long ass time. I had him send missives back to give you peeks into the Malmuthian situation, since you guys hadn't really gone on paths to give you that much illumination on those matters. He crossed swords with the party in Valandia; his encounter with Alicia amused him greatly. He found her like Seira - pretty, powerful and interesting. Perhaps she would even make good spawn!  But this didn't go much farther at the time, as both parties were heading back to Balmuria.

I'm not quite sure what happened when Febras and Seira met. I hadn't really planned out how I expected it to go and it was largely reactive to how the two bounced off each other. For lack of a better explanation in retrospect, I'd say that both had taken in information and changed in the interim time, making their goals even less compatible. His power had grown as had his fascinations. He had begun to slip into obsession, thinking about Seira and Alicia as his special spawn, his best work yet. Afterwards he baited Alicia and...well, that was that. This was a battle a few CR above her own, but things went her way at all the right times. She managed to get the Ring off of him(As shown, it tends not to like being hit, regardless if it's in any danger of destruction) and he failed his save. Only a 1-3 or so would've failed it, and he rolled a 3.  D'oh. This wasn't his planned end, as I wanted a few more scenes with Seira and at least one with Demedais beforehand. Oh well, shit happens. I can't fault Alicia here, but I do feel bad for Seira not getting a dramatic showdown.

I was overall rather happy with his performance until the end. He felt internally consistent, albeit almost never showing the PCs what he really was or what was really going on. There were hints aplenty and I had fun dropping them, but they were massively scattered about.  I'm sure OOC you guys had it figured out early, but that was part of the attraction. If he'd survived, he would've began to involve himself in the going affairs of the party, regardless of if they wanted it. Hell, he was one of the few who could've traveled in the wastes without problem. I was going to play him as a side story and thorn, but seldom the main issue.

His relations with the PCs were decent. He genuinely liked Seira - she said the right things at the right time and her energy fascinated him. He slightly liked Shamal, but it wasn't returned. Shamal's one really good read in game was on him, versus Mihail and the Gith later on. He never had much with Lyselle beyond surface chatter, nor was there much connection. Berlioz? He had one good scene with him at the ball. He was rolling his eyes at his disinterest in things - the irony of the undead thinking a living being was wasting their life wasn't lost on him, either.  I think that said a whole lot about Berlioz.  Alicia had a good 'DIE MONSTER!' vibe with him, but it only went two encounters.

His hat was inspired by Alucard's. This isn't terribly obscure. His mannerisms were largely a hodge podge of sources. I did choose the rapier as his weapon on purpose, as I thought a more noble weapon would help people think of him as somewhat upper crust in mindset, along with his clothing. Also, it was going to be loot for Berli one of those days in the planning phases. D'oh.

[Anastasia]

Beth Reynes

Beth died in the waters of Stygia. I don't believe this can be contested in any practical terms as Jessica is a far different person. Since most of her story is done I'll do her now.

Beth started off as a one-two shot villain idea. I wanted someone new as an assassin and someone just strong enough not to be threatened by the PCs short of bad luck. Her goal was to sneak in, poison the Archduke and escape. This could lead to chasing her or tracking her down later, so her situation was tailored to that. Murphy's law then took the liberty of shooting all that into the shitheap, eh? I had notes on her describing her personality - crude, gruff, taunting, unpleasant. So I took those and had her contingency plan in place. There was fun to be had playing her like that, as she had no qualms about resisting the pressure and trying to spare her own mangy skin.

This worked out pretty well. I liked the dilemma it offered the PCs and I think they made the right choice ultimately.  I'm not sure it was quite the -good- choice, but it was the best choice to make, if you understand what I'm getting at.  No one was quite sure if she should be executed in spite of all of this, so she was put on ice and left to sit in a cell. This curious limbo continued until Alicia came along.

Alicia changed the situation radically. I mentioned a few things from Beth's backstory in passing - Kelara and the rough area. Eb ran with this  and Beth suddenly had a do gooder sister. This was awesome, it doesn't take a brain to see that this is prime RPing territory.  Her bitterness had something of a root, she had someone to put all that hatred towards. What better than a sister that was her polar opposite? When Alicia and Beth met this was justified, as they didn't understand each other in the least. They brought out the worst in each other like any good, dysfunctional family does. Alicia turned into a patronizing bitch, while  Beth turned into a hateful, vile shrew of a bitch.  This wasn't planned out at all, the escalation surprised me each time the two chatted.

After the last, horrible fight? Beth spent the entire time trying to hurt Alicia, while Alicia tried to drill into Beth. Neither succeeded in the least, so Alicia washed her hands of her. With that final motion, Beth Reynes had nothing to lose.  In good devilish nature, that's when a devil snuck in. Who better to hook in than the sister of someone that a superior in Hell wants dead? As I thought over the idea, I realized that this was true. Beth hated Alicia so much and had no illusions anymore, so why not sell her soul? A sweet sounding bill of goods and a very specific, loophole filled contract was all that was needed. Thus, the bitter harvest came home to Alicia. If not for Antenora and good fortune, Alicia may have died that night. Instead she lived and found out the horrid, endless truth.

When confronted with what had happened...I think they both finally realized that there wasn't any hope. However, in this strange, forsaken peace, Alicia's words and a bit of aide from Antenora was just enough to change her path. The desire for absolution was born, even if it was of simple self preservation. Quest hook go! I had a lot of fun designing that and the situation, as well as RPing Beth during that last adventure. A glimpse of what could have been in a better world? Yet, despite all she did, she managed one noble thing in her life. She died to save the sister she hated, her very existence melting away in the waters of the Styx. There's a sister left behind for Alicia, but as she knew on meeting Jessica, Beth had already been lost.

I was mainly happy to have such an epic end for the character. She tied into the ongoing story lines superbly, as what happened in Stygia lead to one of the key factors in changing Antenora. All of what Alicia did before that was just enough to make her understand what Hell does and what it does to those who aren't part of it. Seeing Alicia cry over her sister did more to convert Antenora than anything else, I think. For someone so horrible, she managed real good in her last few days.

I hope Jessica has a long, happy life now. She earned her respite, may it last long.

[Anastasia]

Pollyanna's friends and family, the adventuring group!

It's been so long that I don't remember their names without looking them up. Deal.

Moderately early in plot planning I had made a few contingency plans in case certain things happen. Pollyanna's group was for a contingency of the PCs washing out of the Guard or otherwise becoming disentangled from Balmuria. They came in with the idea of meeting the PCs and setting the seeds for other adventures if this path was taken. This was kind of a tutoring group if that did happen.

So I had plans to have them around town, occasionally netting attention and becoming part of the landscape for a time. If things didn't work out, they'd leave and cameo later in the game as the PCs range increased. Now, I'd intended to use them more, like during the ghoul attacks. Pollyanna had a small scene there, but none of it really worked out. They managed a few cameos but even my modest plans weren't quite clicking.

Then Kondrux killed 'em all. This was a conscious idea for a little while and I decided to go with it.  Pollyanna was the only one I had even a dim attachment to, so I spared her and used the rest for dramatic grist for Kondrux. I think it worked decently enough if you don't mind the carnage. Pollyanna became a solid NPC aide and soon had her own motivations.

There was a fighter, a sneak fighter and a wizard. It was a pretty standard group besides having an arcane caster; lucky them. I had plans to do 'rival group' sort of adventures and their last trip was a reference to his. Shame that never worked out, since that's an easy and fun wrinkle to add to any scenario. The wizard could've been a possible friend or aide for Seira and/or Shamal. Uh...that was it.

This is proof that only women survive Dune games. Yes. <_< >_> <_< >_>

[Ebiris]

I hated Febras right from the start. He was just so irritatingly smug about his aura of mystery and uncanny ability to show up at just the right place and time whenever shit went down. Even not having much to genuinely be suspicious about, I wanted him to be a villain just so I could stab him and then stomp on his stupid hat.

For a while I thought he might be a werewolf and all the vampire hints were just red herrings, but I never got around to buying a scroll of Detect Shapeshifter - not that it would've done any good with his ring of nondetection.

Shamal just felt vaguely uneasy about him, but after his timely appearance as we chased down Beth after her assassination attempt, her suspicions became a lot more solid, and then when we ran into him at the butcher's shop after all that went down there, there was a definite feeling of "Go ahead... make my day," when it looked like he might blow us off as he came close to being arrested.

As for Alicia, she only showed up after the whole sordid truth about Febras came out, so the extent of her interaction with Febras was quoting Castlevania lines at him - he was a monster that had to be exterminated, simple as that. Really, baiting her by peeking in her window was a pretty stupid move on his part - Alicia may be extremely kind and generous to anyone who surrenders to her, but besides that she's like a pitbull when battling evil, and won't ever allow a foe to retreat if she has any power to stop it, so Febras wasn't going to be able to blow her off easily at all once she got started, there.

***

Firstly, regarding Beth, I don't see that there was anything morally wrong about how we dealt with her after her capture. She made a plea bargain to offer a cure for Lord Salman in exchange for leniency, and Shamal sincerely promised to speak on her behalf when it came to trial, but was entirely up front in telling her that there were no guarantees. It was entirely civilised with no threats or torture, or even mindrape (though not for lack of trying on the last part), so I think we handled it in a fairly 'Good' manner. As for the Law side of things, I'm sure arrangements such as she tried to make are not uncommon, and likely considered by the justice system.

Anyway, there wasn't that much to Beth until Alicia appeared. As I've said before, I wanted a realistic way to bring a new character in without resorting to something lame like just showing up as a 'wandering adventurer' who'd been struck with an inexplicable urge to swear herself to Balmuria's service for 15gp a month. Beth offered a perfect opportunity, and she formed the core of Alicia's background as I built her up at the start, before she got fleshed out with other issues in her past later on.

To be honest, things did not go close to what I expected. I'd figured on Alicia and Beth having a sarcastic and antagonistic relationship, but with a hidden (and vigorously denied) affection and respect buried beneath the surface. This didn't come forth at all, so I rolled with it as best I could, rationalising it as Alicia having a somewhat rose-tinted view of how her sister used to be, and leaving somewhat open whether Beth really did used to be a bit more pleasant in the past, or whether it was all fantasy on Alicia's part. But honestly, the amount of abuse heaped on Alicia would try anyone's patience, and I was getting sick of RPing such vicious personal encounters, so eventually I had Alicia face up to the fact that she and her sister were from different worlds, and she should just cut her losses.

Had I been more optimistic, I might have even deliberately engineered such as some sort of reverse psychology to make Beth come crawling back, but I honestly just wanted to let the bitch die so I could move on. Funnily enough, it did help them get closer, even if not in any way I could have forseen - I had a few visions for how things could have played out as Alicia settled into Beth's cell after the first assassination attempt, and rather liked the thought of further assassins showing up there and then, so Beth could see firsthand as Alicia fought for her life (and likely would have a hard time in such close quarters, already drained from the first battle) against the fate she had wrought, steadily growing weaker and weaker from progressive attacks but stubbornly ignoring the simple solution of killing Beth to bring an end to them. Thankfully it didn't take something quite so brutal, and Alicia's exposition of her past (which I'd been steadily hinting at and working out in the background for a while, but this finally let me get it all in order) helped them reach an understanding.

The atonement quest was pretty awesome, and it really struck during it just how well Alicia and Beth could mesh together if they gave each other a chance, as their skills complemented each other perfectly on such a difficult and risky mission. Alas it was merely a taste of what could have been.

***

I don't think I had any interaction at all with Polly's group, so I haven't much to say there. I do recall that Shamal disapproved of adventurers, though - she once gave Febras a lecture about how Balmuria wasn't some podunk frontier town where vigilante adventurers could do as they pleased. I imagine she'd have treated Polly's group much the same way had they ever dealt with each other.

I'd comment on Polly herself, but she deserves her own post, which hopefully won't come for some time.

[Anastasia]

I hated Febras right from the start. He was just so irritatingly smug about his aura of mystery and uncanny ability to show up at just the right place and time whenever shit went down. Even not having much to genuinely be suspicious about, I wanted him to be a villain just so I could stab him and then stomp on his stupid hat.

For a while I thought he might be a werewolf and all the vampire hints were just red herrings, but I never got around to buying a scroll of Detect Shapeshifter - not that it would've done any good with his ring of nondetection.

Shamal just felt vaguely uneasy about him, but after his timely appearance as we chased down Beth after her assassination attempt, her suspicions became a lot more solid, and then when we ran into him at the butcher's shop after all that went down there, there was a definite feeling of "Go ahead... make my day," when it looked like he might blow us off as he came close to being arrested.

To the first, yeah, that was on purpose. That was part of the ol' rub with him. I don't think you ever got to hat stomp, though. I rather suspect things would've come to the same rough head with Shamal in place. She might've been more likely and messier to get vamped up if she failed. I'm sure the nature loving part of her wouldn't be thrilled with her existence being unnatural.

Febras didn't bank on such a harsh reception at the butcher's. Faced with a situation deteriorating at the speed of light, he had to try and bluff his way out of that mess. It worked - he couldn't afford to be arrested, just in case someone tries to do something really stupid.  He did panic there.

As for Alicia, she only showed up after the whole sordid truth about Febras came out, so the extent of her interaction with Febras was quoting Castlevania lines at him - he was a monster that had to be exterminated, simple as that. Really, baiting her by peeking in her window was a pretty stupid move on his part - Alicia may be extremely kind and generous to anyone who surrenders to her, but besides that she's like a pitbull when battling evil, and won't ever allow a foe to retreat if she has any power to stop it, so Febras wasn't going to be able to blow her off easily at all once she got started, there.

The window baiting was a mistake in retrospect. Oh sure, this is largely because Alicia helped lead to his demise that night. His plan was to feel her out and mindgame her a bit, and perhaps even get a chance to turn her.

More later.

[Anastasia]

Firstly, regarding Beth, I don't see that there was anything morally wrong about how we dealt with her after her capture. She made a plea bargain to offer a cure for Lord Salman in exchange for leniency, and Shamal sincerely promised to speak on her behalf when it came to trial, but was entirely up front in telling her that there were no guarantees. It was entirely civilised with no threats or torture, or even mindrape (though not for lack of trying on the last part), so I think we handled it in a fairly 'Good' manner. As for the Law side of things, I'm sure arrangements such as she tried to make are not uncommon, and likely considered by the justice system.

Well remember, Shamal was NG, Lyselle was LN, Berli was N and Seira was...I forget what she was then. There was a decently large spectrum to hit you guys with there and see how you dealt with it. This worked out well, as all sides went about how I expected they would. I wouldn't have hit you with evil or anything if you'd charmed Beth to save Lord Salman, by the by. There's a clear case of trying to save a life there.

Anyway, there wasn't that much to Beth until Alicia appeared. As I've said before, I wanted a realistic way to bring a new character in without resorting to something lame like just showing up as a 'wandering adventurer' who'd been struck with an inexplicable urge to swear herself to Balmuria's service for 15gp a month. Beth offered a perfect opportunity, and she formed the core of Alicia's background as I built her up at the start, before she got fleshed out with other issues in her past later on.

Yeah. This is something I'm going to insist on if we get any new PCs. Having hooks to what's happened makes integration so, so, so, so much easier. You're also right, it's not the pay that keeps people in the guard. It's the fame and the chance to be on the pulse of something big happening. That or personal attachments, obviously.

To be honest, things did not go close to what I expected. I'd figured on Alicia and Beth having a sarcastic and antagonistic relationship, but with a hidden (and vigorously denied) affection and respect buried beneath the surface. This didn't come forth at all, so I rolled with it as best I could, rationalising it as Alicia having a somewhat rose-tinted view of how her sister used to be, and leaving somewhat open whether Beth really did used to be a bit more pleasant in the past, or whether it was all fantasy on Alicia's part. But honestly, the amount of abuse heaped on Alicia would try anyone's patience, and I was getting sick of RPing such vicious personal encounters, so eventually I had Alicia face up to the fact that she and her sister were from different worlds, and she should just cut her losses.

Had I been more optimistic, I might have even deliberately engineered such as some sort of reverse psychology to make Beth come crawling back, but I honestly just wanted to let the bitch die so I could move on. Funnily enough, it did help them get closer, even if not in any way I could have forseen - I had a few visions for how things could have played out as Alicia settled into Beth's cell after the first assassination attempt, and rather liked the thought of further assassins showing up there and then, so Beth could see firsthand as Alicia fought for her life (and likely would have a hard time in such close quarters, already drained from the first battle) against the fate she had wrought, steadily growing weaker and weaker from progressive attacks but stubbornly ignoring the simple solution of killing Beth to bring an end to them. Thankfully it didn't take something quite so brutal, and Alicia's exposition of her past (which I'd been steadily hinting at and working out in the background for a while, but this finally let me get it all in order) helped them reach an understanding.

Unexpected results! Yep. I kinda thought there might be some affection there somewhere as well, but this never showed it's head. It really was vicious - I'm sure a psychologist would have a field day here with how that relationship turned out. I don't blame Alicia for cutting her losses, those scenes were hard to GM. The raw, vile, corrosive hatred Beth constantly spewed out never ceased to amaze me. I think she really did hate Alicia. Her sister shouldn't be all of what she held in contempt about this world. Looking back on it, I wonder if Beth wasn't hoping to get a little bit of hatred and evil blossoming in Alicia in her own nasty way.

The actual assassination attempt went through about half a dozen revisions. A simple street slashing was considered for boldness but I rejected this for various reasons. It was a little too open for a dogai and possible to be foiled. I toyed with a lure'n'ambush, but those are too hard to do well and likely don't get the target alone. Beth's jail cell was considered as well and nearly won out. I cancelled this due to the difficulties of the situation. Assuming the dogai could hide to SA in there, Alicia probably wipes out of hand unless Antenora's right there or she brought along company. I settled on home since it gave me a few things to play with. If Antenora makes the spot and decides to call out(When it happened the odds were about 90% that she would, so I had her do it.), there's instant meaty plot there if Alicia survives. If not, Alicia wakes up having taken a SA attack from the dogai and in horrible straights.

Aside, I wasn't going to coup Alicia in her sleep via assassin devil. Considering the no resurrection magic clause that permeates the game by and large, this would be an incredible shafting. However, I did have to make you think this was a possibility. I'm not saying Antenora wouldn't if your gambits with her had gone worse - I considered the risk/reward there reasonable and Alicia made a conscious choice to take an extremely risky road there. Aaah, but I digress.

Alicia got the best outcome and killed the assassin devil. This lead to the redemption arc, which is one of my favorites in Balmuria. The way it worked and interwove Antenora's storyline as well made it interesting on a lot of levels. I'm not terribly big on this tendency for you guys to split up lately for bigger things, but in this case the epic ness of the quest was worthwhile. I also love that the dogai's regeneration elixir was what let Alicia have time to be saved by her sister. Plus hey, you have a Duke of Hell you want to kill someday.

[Anastasia]

Groawr

Groawr is an example of a possibly hook laden NPC that ends up being a one shot boss. In design, I figured his 'communicate/command animals and gather forest evils' would have attracted Shamal's attention a fair bit.  It did, but only after the fact and in a relatively minor way. I could've played with this a lot more, but it wasn't meant to be.

I'd wondered for awhile if the Barbarian Lands might play a bigger role than they have. There are forces that vie for a rough sort of control there, see Yezrut and Groawr for examples. The strong stated dislike of goblins and the mediocre sentiments about the entire area lead to this being ignored. This doesn't bother me at all, since there's enough going on anyway.

His build was a barbarian build with a few GM fiat powers. It was good enough to be a very hard fight at the levels you did it, nearly killing Lyselle off. The entire balance for that quest string was a little too harsh, you guys didn't have the durability and options of higher levels yet. I tossed you guys a break by finding Quapeth. I'll go into this later in the next post.

Adamantine axes.

[Anastasia]

Kondrux

OH FUCK DRAGON FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGON!

Yep. I could end this entry here and it would be 100% accurate. Let's do that!

[Anastasia]

Apologies if this rambles. I tried to tighten it, but my thoughts are all over the place. It's hard to talk about Kondrux since he's so massively tied to the events that happened around the same time. This invites all sorts of digressions.

When I designed the game world around Balmuria I made sure to include dangers of all levels in each area. This was essential considering the lower magic level of the world, doubly so if the PCs never got onto the main plot. Many areas have some level of dominate creature, even if the PCs may never come across it or even get wind of it. The Galkass mountains had Kondrux. The Galkass mountains revolve around the shocker lizards and their scaly master. When I was drawing up Kondrux in my pregame preparations, I noticed the amazing synergy shocker lizards and blue dragons had. Shocker lizards were no danger to a blue dragon yet were a fearsome, persistent, self replenishing defense against any who may come against him. I liked this enough to run with it.

I do regret that they fried Shamal as this wasn't the most heroic death.  By the nature of the game heroic or epic deaths aren't always going to happen, but this one sucked on both ends. Shamal reminds me of JFK now, however, as she's bigger and more idealized in death than she ever was in life. This does provide a certain balance to her demise after the fact.  At least Shamal's role was taken by a worthy successor...but I digress rather far away from Kondrux, don't I? Damn, I'm way ahead of myself. Let's try to refocus.

Kondrux was defined how and when he was woken up. The idea that an adventuring group would turn up clues to Kondrux or even awaken him was one I'd held since his generation. There were a few different paths that could lead to coming across him, this was by far the most likely. Since the party was busy with other things and the last trip to the Galkass moun-oh yes. I should go into that now, shouldn't I?

Do you remember Shamal's trip to the Galkass mountains for the herb to help save Lord Salman's life? This was originally going to be a plot hook towards Kondrux. I'd drop a few hints and lead her on the right way. This didn't develop for various reasons as well as an astute use of a spell. This lead to me looking at the situation there and various loose ends. I had the idea to work with two of the loose ends I had and combined 'em. I had Elle hire some adventurers to get something for her there and they'd come across some hint or another of Kondrux. This may or may not go anywhere, but I figured it might be what finally got both those storylines going. As I said a few posts ago, I had the idea to kill 'em all off a bit beforehand. I let this idea trickle away alongside the basic plan.

I was leaning towards the normal route until 97 came up on the dice. OH SHIT DRAGON. I think I need to stop here and explain something else. Every once in awhile, I get hunches towards one action or another as a GM. Maybe it's subconscious information gathering, maybe it's low grade psychic power(!!! Kooo?), maybe it's just a nagging feeling left over from evolution. Regardless of which, this usually tie breaks me in hard choices. It's usually correct so I went with it. My instinct was to dragon it up so thus I did. DRAGON.

Fuck, I really did get completely off tangent. This is supposed to be about Kondrux. I suppose his situation and what lead to his awakening is vital to understanding him. A dragon is never a one shot, meaningless villain, so learning the defining feel of the era is essential. Let's get back on track and away from the fodder of Pollyanna's friends and family.

Anyway, Kondrux was awoken early and by a rather rude path. This put him into attack mode and the PCs had to cope. Yeah, an evil dragon demanding tribute is basic GMing 111. I won't deny that, but I feel the storyline was powerful enough to make it worthwhile. The terror, the franticness, the raw panic Kondrux inspired was more than enough to justify the means, as I've never seen you PCs quite so motivated. It admittedly took some minor Deus Ex Machina help to stand a chance, but again, the payoff was more than worth it.

----

What would Kondrux have been if you found him later? If you found him yourselves it would depend on what you did. If you left him be or even barricaded him up better, he probably would have stirred but let it lie. What really pissed him off was that he thought the group(Rightly or wrongly) was after his loot. Such an act goes over poorly even with the most kind hearted of dragon kin. If attacked, he'd do the logical thing and nuke the party back to the stone age. If awoken to parlay or other such thing, he'd at least hear the stupidly bold mortals out. Unlike some dragons in the campaign, Kondrux was true to his default alignment.

---

I find it weird that Shamal comes up the most here. I blame that she died during it, even though her role in these matters was at least equalled by Seira. Deme also chipped in, even if he went after the diplomatic route.  Shamal did a lot of crazy stuff just before she died - Eb, were you getting bored or just trying to mix it up with her?

---

I'm sure you can tell my thoughts here are all over the place. Feel free to ask questions on whatever you'd like more info on, since I went off into a lot of rants and half finished thoughts.

[Ebiris]

Can you give me an example of some of the crazy stuff Shamal apparently did before she died?

I admit, I was growing displeased with how bland Shamal was coming across for a while before her death, but I don't think any of her actions could fairly be described as 'crazy'.

Anyway, not a lot to say to most of the above, really. We'd probably have capitulated to Kondrux if not for that particular deus ex machina. The deathcap mushroom poison plan was likely too risky to put into action by itself, and we didn't really have any other realistic way of beating him, despite all our optimistic preparations.

If we had bought him off, would Valandia have done the same? I almost wonder if killing Kondrux hurt us in the long term, since he may have gone off to fuck over Malmuth, and even if both sides paid the requisite bribes, his presence may have deterred conflict between the two countries for fear of leaving their flanks open to dragon attack while off on an invasion.

Then again, Malmuth probably would've bribed him to help out their war effort.

[Anastasia]

Can you give me an example of some of the crazy stuff Shamal apparently did before she died?

I admit, I was growing displeased with how bland Shamal was coming across for a while before her death, but I don't think any of her actions could fairly be described as 'crazy'.

Eh. I said crazy, but I meant more like pushing it. I dunno. For lack of a better explanation, she took a lot of risks near the end. Willing to deal with the Gith,  Mihail(Purely bad judgment, though. Shit happens.) and even her last bad choice. I don't think I'm really getting across what I quite mean.

Anyway, not a lot to say to most of the above, really. We'd probably have capitulated to Kondrux if not for that particular deus ex machina. The deathcap mushroom poison plan was likely too risky to put into action by itself, and we didn't really have any other realistic way of beating him, despite all our optimistic preparations.

If we had bought him off, would Valandia have done the same? I almost wonder if killing Kondrux hurt us in the long term, since he may have gone off to fuck over Malmuth, and even if both sides paid the requisite bribes, his presence may have deterred conflict between the two countries for fear of leaving their flanks open to dragon attack while off on an invasion.

Then again, Malmuth probably would've bribed him to help out their war effort.

If you had given in to Kondrux? Malmuth would've probably done the same the first time. I imagine both sides would have frantically been working behind the scenes to stop him. How this went would have been quite interesting. It could be as what you say.  I do think he'd have been killed sooner or later, as a dragon is too big a liability and no one likes that sort of money loss.

If the two nations had worked together long term to kill him? This would have gotten into the politics and situation of Malmuth a lot more and probably changed how some things went, or had them happen at different times. If the nations worked apart or even hostilely? The war would've been earlier, perhaps even as Kondrux's body cools.

[Anastasia]

I'm doing a few quickies next.

Nephaneal

Yeah, remember him? You guys never met him alive, as he was the Malmuthian diplomat Yezrut's band caught and defeated. For the record, while he was doomed from day 1, he was a slightly brash man who was an up and comer in the Malmuthian ranks. He had just reached level 4 and was capable of taking care of himself. However, his brash nature occasionally overcame his diplomatic training, especially when he looked down on his foe. Thus he did with Yezrut's band and got killed for his mistakes.

Nephaneal was very much a minor character. You've gotten glimpses of him every once in a great moon, but he ultimately failed and became a footnote in the game's world.

Kurlaack

A bone devil that invaded the Barbarian Lands. There's not too much to talk about with him - he was largely a stereotypical devil. He wasn't that great a strategist, he got his chance due to devilish scheming and luck.  While everyone in Hell plots, some are better at it than others. His strageties for attacking were only so-so, allowing the PCs a chance to stop him. Granted, running into the Hammer of the Shard was shitty luck. If he escaped he was going to become a recurring villain - he'd avoid demotion and dedicate himself to revenge on the PCs in true devilish fashion. Killing him was relatively better for your immediate futures, a bit worse for later. With what's gone down afterwards, killing Kurlaack and getting him demoted is by far the least of the reasons for the Hells to have it out for Balmuria.

There's a bearded devil in Hell that hates a few mortals in Balmuria very much.

[Anastasia]

Shad

There are a lot of forces at work around the world Balmuria takes place in. While some of these collide with the PCs or have obvious effects on them, many are never seen or known of. Shad is a glimpse of things you haven't seen much of yet. As one can infer, the events going on around Balmuria have great cosmic significance. Due to the situation the world is in, you only see a handful of gods directly acting.

Freed from the immediate restrictions on the world, the Gods are still quite active. This applies to good and bad deities and their worshippers. When Shamal was tossed into the Astral she ran headfirst into this. Shad himself was quite alien on purpose, to further play up the mysterious plane Shamal found herself in. Past that he worked in fairly obvious strokes, attempting to appeal to Shamal's darker side and stoke up a lust for power. I found the image of dark queen Shamal hilarious, though perhaps Seira would've been more susceptible to it. In fact, in retrospect, she might've gone alone with it. Ah well.

If Shamal had gone along with it, she'd have been taken to Shad's god. (As an aside, you had nothing but his word that he worshipped Cyric. I won't spoil it either way, but with only his word...?) If Shamal was sincerely interested or trying to play along, this would have lead to being changed regardless. I don't wanna go too much into the details of this. But assuming it was some dark god or another, this probably would've seriously changed Shamal.

We may have just seen some shade of Dark Overlord Shamal. Scary. What is it with the blonde girls in Balmuria getting tempted by evil, anyway?

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Shad was designed for a level or two higher than Shamal was when she met him. She pulled off a win with wise spell use and luck, so she got a sword that's still up to date now. (Bastard sword +2 keen, Donald's default weapon.) If you were higher level, I'd have given him a few defensive or miscellaneous items, as well as some direct support.

[Ebiris]

Shad didn't do a very good job of tempting/corrupting Shamal. From what I gather, all he did was stalk her unseen while sending intensely irritating telepathic messages into her head, which really did nothing but piss both player and character off.

Still, though, why would he lie about following Cyric? Surely if you're going to lie about your deity to lure Shamal in, it'd be better to pick a more appealing one? If not an actual good deity, why not at least use an evil nature-themed one like Malar?

He never really had a chance, though. Convincing a divine spellcaster to abandon their deity, and source of power, is no mean feat. From Shamal's perspective it was a choice between Mielikki, who she felt a deep personal connection to, and who provided Shamal with lots of awesome druidic magic... or Mystery God X, who may or may not give her some undefined powers.

[Anastasia]

Shad didn't do a very good job of tempting/corrupting Shamal. From what I gather, all he did was stalk her unseen while sending intensely irritating telepathic messages into her head, which really did nothing but piss both player and character off.

Yeah, I know. He was designed to work with anyone, not to be fully effective versus one person. He would've done a bit better versus Seira and maaaybe way better with Berli if he was still in game then. So it goes.

He never really had a chance, though. Convincing a divine spellcaster to abandon their deity, and source of power, is no mean feat. From Shamal's perspective it was a choice between Mielikki, who she felt a deep personal connection to, and who provided Shamal with lots of awesome druidic magic... or Mystery God X, who may or may not give her some undefined powers.

You're right about that. Converting a cleric to a different god is no mean feat; Shamal had no reason to seek a change either. At heart I didn't want the offer to be too good - this was a sidequest to show certain things, not a fully energized attempt to alter a PCs path. There was enough going on at the time to deep six those plans. While I could've played it up as giving Shamal easy anti dragon wins...nah. I dimly recall considering and rejecting that.