#paladin swearing their oaths to other people make me so sad

[t-dubber]

You know what??

Samwise Gamgee this, Samwise Gamgee that.

A man with that level of dedication to another human despite his own fears and shortcomings has got to be a Paladin at the end of the day. He swore an Oath to stick by Frodo and followed it till the very end.

No question in my goddamn ever-loving mind. I’ll die on this hill.

[weareladyknight]

Lady Knight's Drow Arcane Archer Is Taking Some Paladin Levels!

Thought you guys would be interested and excited to hear this! It got long so everything is under the cut. Also, playing in 5e so following those rules.

So we’re playing in the Forgotten Realms. My character, Aryana, isn’t aimless but she’s not super emotionally invested in the story rn. She has A Quest and she doesn’t want Acererak (very powerful undead wizard) to destroy Faerun for the very Peter Quill reason that she’s one of the assholes that lives there. And so does her entire Drow House and her whole thing is that she will do anything for the benefit of her House to the detriment of herself and people not in her House (she is def Lawful Evil). But you know, she could go off on her own and do those things. 

So Aryana walks into the Yawning Portal Tavern with the party while investigating the disappearance of the uncle of the party’s Druid (the uncle is a former PC btw). This human woman glares at Aryana. And she’s like “what? I’ve never seen you in my life” and the woman’s companion is like “oh, she just hates you because you’re a drow.” And Ayrana finds bigotry hilarious (it’s just been a few assholes weaker than her being mean so she can laugh at it). She starts antagonizing the human woman like “come on, let’s fight, you got beef, let’s take this outside, come on, I wanna fight you, let’s do this.” And this makes the human real mad. She stands up and her form changes... 

It’s Ayrana’s commanding officer, her mentor and she’s pointing an automatic crossbow at Ayrana’s heart and yelling “YOU FUCKING TRAITOR!!! YOU DESTROYED OUR HOUSE!!! YOU ARE GOING TO DIE RIGHT NOW RIGHT HERE!!!” 

And Aryana is just like “What the fucccckkkkkk?!?” She doesn’t have gaps in her memory and she hasn’t been back home for ten years or so. But this is her CO, her captain, so she’s open to the fact that she might have. Fight breaks out. The captain’s companion teleports out. Ayrana runs outside because she def does not want to be on Durnan the Bartender’s bad side and this really can be settled outdoors. One of the spellcasters knocks the captain out (bad saving throw on her part). 

The Druid wants to take her to the party base for further interrogation because the captain is a Drow and there was drow poison found in her uncle’s house. Ayrana wants to take her captain to the guards because while she is evil, she is lawful and she wants this done properly. But practically speaking, she wants her captain under watch so she can do other shit. 

A five minute argument ensues because out-of-character I was having connection issues and didn’t know about the Druid’s Uncle (we were playing over Discord) and in-character Aryana is so worked up she forgot why they were at the Yawning Portal in the first place. She’s not really... Emotionally invested in her party members and their problems. But that may change as things go on. She eventually decides that going along with what the other party member wants is best. 

They go back to their base, which is in a cliffside cave outside of Waterdeep. And fucking Acererak is there and he wants to talk. But he wants to see how this will go down first and even though the party is pretty eager to know why he’s here, they don’t want to fight him atm so they’re all just like “whatever.” 

They tie up Aryana’s captain, cast zone of truth (she fails the saving throw, Aryana chooses to pass). Aryana kneels in front of her captain and says “I don’t know what I did, but please tell me. If I did do what you say, I will fling myself off this cliff, I swear.”

 And so much shit is revealed. 

1. The captain claims that “Aryana” came back home, asked for some help with her quest and she got a squad of 400 soldiers. As they’re making their march “Aryana” leads them into an ambush. Seventy-five of Ayrana’s comrades die including her best friend. The captain loses an eye in the fight. The only reason they’re not all slaughtered is that their Drow Mother is able to intervene. 

2. Aryana’s like “I do not remember any of that. Also, we live in Faerun, that was probably a doppelganger, or I was mind controlled or any other thing.” Her captain is not hearing it though and they keep arguing and the druid is really eager to get back to the matter of her uncle. 

Tired of this, Acererak is like “omg, fine, it was me. I disguised myself as Aryana and tricked the soldiers into the ambush.” (The lowest INT character in the party guessed this btw BUT the player is in med school and a real smart cookie). Aryana stands up, gets in the lich’s face and is like “I will destroy your phylactery, and then I will kill you. I will not rest until you are gone from this universe.” He’s not impressed. 

3. Anyways, the druid is still pretty keyed up about her uncle and Aryana’s captain admits that it was her and her partner (the guy who peaced out at the Yawning Portal) who kidnapped the Druid’s uncle for the Red Wizards ( some more seriously bad dudes working for Acererack) and he’s probably in Thay (the city the Red Wizard’s control) right now. I s2g if our princess is in another motherfucking castle...  

4. Acererack “threatens” to leave and the party is like “whatever, we don’t actually want to talk to you or for you to be here.” But before he teleports out, Aryana puts down her weapons and unties her captain and starts beating the shit out of her screaming, “You thought it was me!!! You fucking thought it was me!!! How could you!! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!” and Acererack’s like “WORLDSTAR!!!” 

5. When Aryana is done (she stops before her captain is killed or even permanently injured). Acerack finally says what he wants. He wants to trade his phylactery (the thing he keeps his soul in) for The Black Opel Crown, an artifact that’s key in a ritual to destroy the world. And the party for so many reasons says “no way in hell, fuck off!” And before they can fight him and take the probably-fake phylactery just in case (the guy we’re talking to is definitely a clone not the real deal and the party is level 14 so they can probably take him) he teleports out, counterspells the warlock’s counterspell so he’s gone. Bummer. 

I don’t think that’s the order it went down in but i’m trying to make it easy to follow here so. 

So the druid and another PC who also has a missing relative that was in the past campaign’s party are fucking chomping at the bit to go to Thay. But Ayrana’s like “no, we are not going in unprepared this time. We’ve done that too many times and our luck is running out. We need to go... To The Library.” 

More miscommunication ensues. 

Once that clears up, the party hits up our most powerful available contact, Syndra Silvane. She gives us a contract for us to sign basically giving us the authority to do whatever it takes to bring down Acererack. Being trigger happy, vengeance fueled adventurers who really like living in Faerun, we sign it. Don’t worry, there are lines we probably won’t cross. Like torture. Doesn’t work anyways. And if we do commit war crimes, I trust the DM to have it bite us in the ass. 

The warlock tells us everything he knows about Thay (he used to live there but since he was only in the poor/merchant districts and he biffs his History check... we don’t learn much). THEN we go to the library to learn everything we can about Thay and the Red Wizards. We realize that we need to fucking go, so Silvane hooks us up with one of her guys that we know and trust to stay behind and do research and send reports to us. 

Then the DM looks at the clock and is just like “this is going to go on forever, we’re gonna stop here and you guys can think about your next move and start planning properly next week.” I am very sad but very excited. 

So yeah, before she heads out to Thay, Aryana is going to go down into a cave (preferably with running water for the Sheer Purpose of Drama) and swear an oath to Lolth that she will take down Acererack and avenge her House and get the two PCs with kidnapped relatives to witness her promise and bind her to it. Then when the time comes, paladin levels. 

Ngl I was a little hesitant to actually multiclass bc Aryana’s an archer and divine smite is melee-only. But she has sickles (stated as short swords) and the idea of the last thing Acererack sees before he dies is Aryana’s hate filled eyes while she’s smiting the shit out of him with the Divine Wrath of Lolth is too good to pass up. 

So, so much credit to the Dungeon Master @blackbeanswithdice for making a great session. I am thrilled about what’s coming next! 

[graysongraysoff]

Scene Rewrite: The Ruins of Osgiliath (AO3) Fandom: The Lord of the Rings (films) Characters: Samwise Gamgee, Frodo Baggins, Faramir Warnings: You may perhaps experience an emotion Words: 553

so uh hey @paladinical i know your birthday was in october and i know this isn’t much to offer you uh almost five whole months after the fact but please accept this little scene rewrite featuring 1.) a Feisty Hobbit and 2.) a Sad Brother as your extremely belated birthday gift from moi!!!

When Sam turns back to check on Frodo, he notes with distress that he’s gone deathly pale.

“Mr. Frodo?”

“It’s calling to him, Sam.” He sounds fearful as he says this, but even worse, he sounds tired. “His eye is almost on me.”

“Hold on, Mr. Frodo,” Sam says, “it’ll be all right.”

He keeps up a steady murmur of encouragement, holding Frodo’s eyes with his own, hoping he’ll find something in his voice or his face to latch onto. He tries to take one of Frodo’s bound hands in one of his own, but their Gondorian captors hold them too far apart to allow it.

“Take them to my father,” Sam hears Faramir say from further ahead. “Tell him, ‘Faramir sends a mighty gift.’”

There’s a sneer in his voice as he says it. His eyes drift down to Frodo.

“‘A weapon that will change our fortunes in this war.’”

He turns away from them, then, but not before Sam sees the twitch of a smug, bitter grin, and fire roars into his heart. No, he decides. Faramir doesn’t get to just walk away from this.

Not unscathed.

“You want to know what happened to Boromir?” he shouts after the ruddy-haired man, shoving against the soldier that holds him.

Faramir jerks as if caught on something, as if his brother’s name is a hook and he’s been snagged. He does not turn back to face them, not fully, but he does slow to a stop.

“You want to know why your brother died?” Sam presses on.

He watches Faramir’s jaw tighten. Watches him turn around at last, eyes narrowed to murderous slits.

“Do not speak another word about --”

“He tried to take the Ring from Frodo!” Sam bellows, straining against his captor’s hold, doing all he can to close the considerable distance between Faramir’s face and his own. “After swearing an oath to protect him -- he tried to kill him!”

“I said do not speak --!”

“The Ring drove your brother mad!” Sam lingers devilishly on that last word, makes sure Faramir hears every inch of it, and before he can even draw breath to continue Faramir’s sword glints under his chin.

“Sam,” Frodo warns, softly.

“My brother,” Faramir says, his voice very carefully level, “was a noble man.”

“He was,” Sam agrees. “He was, and no mistake. He never spoke of taking the Ring for himself. He wasn’t after power, leastways not unless he could share it. He wanted to protect Gondor. Isn’t that right? He wanted to protect his people. To protect you.”

The wince is barely there, but Sam sees it: the barest tightening at the corners of Faramir’s mouth.

“But you know the stories as well as I do,” Sam continues. “Why, you probably know ‘em better. You know this Ring will betray you as it’s betrayed other Men before. As it betrayed Boromir. It’s lying to you, Faramir. You have to let us go.”

There’s a tense moment in which neither of them says anything -- in which Sam almost lets himself believe that Faramir will be swayed. Then a shout splinters the air, snuffs the hopeful embers from his chest:

“WATCH OUT!”

A boulder tears through one of Osgiliath’s ruined towers with a thunderous crack, and beneath the ensuing tumult, Frodo whispers.

“They’re here,” he says. “They’ve come.”