TAB: For Love Of Money
Updated: Sep 30, 2019
Welcome back to a scintillating episode of Delicious Cupcakes! Last week The Cupcakes took their name, and quite a bit of confused looks. We left Vex screaming maniacally at a solicitor, thus gaining quite a bit of personal space in the press of the crowded city. And the rest of the group had been lured from their pressing task for love of money.
/*DM's note: As this is supposed to be a story of the characters I have omitted all the little arguments and disputes that have cropped up between the players and the DM . . . and the players. It happens. And more often than not the group has been able to find the rules they needed (usually after a half hour of searching) to throw monkeys into the wrenches I'd set up for them. It's actually quite annoying when they do that.
But there have been times when no rule could be found and I'd been forced to make a ruling. In those situations I try to do what makes sense. My interpretation of the rules is that they are designed to simulate real life to the best of their ability, but with the inclusion of magic. I personally don't see how any DM could be expected to draw from them for the inevitable unforeseen rulings that are required of them otherwise. This viewpoint has rubbed some of the players the wrong way on occasion. A few times the back and forth has gone on long enough to make both sides a touch irritated. Which is a bit like calling a racist unreasonable.
As Dan was looking at adding an animal companion for his character I told him that he had to take the time listed to teach it tricks. He was certain he didn't. Now I won't summarily rule against any rule in the corpus, however I do insist on reading the rule myself. People sometimes interpret things in their favor. It happens to most of us. In this case I informed the player in question that he needed to show me the rule. This was the last straw for him and he resigned from the campaign. Ironically he was correct. This was pointed out by Christian later on.
But even when so informed Dan was still out. That was his choice, and perfectly fine. I'd already told the group on multiple occasions that I had reasons to insist things make sense. I began working out how to remove his character from the story. When he heard my plans he was very interested in helping. So he agreed to play her for one more session, and to make a few adjustments to the character.*/
On the way back to Tilverton, Vex asked the group for an hour to find an animal companion. They of course agreed.
Exactly one hour later she emerged from the forest with the largest dire wolf they'd ever seen. It seemed quite taken with her, but growled menacingly at the rest.
As they entered the forested foothills of the Desertsmouth Mountains they were forced to leave the horses behind. Vex decided to mount her wolf. The others were jealous.
A few miles into the forest (well before they had to start worrying about finding lookouts) they were set upon by another group of Baphomet cultists. Four of them this time. It still did not go well for them.
While the paladin and anit-paladin squared off, an alchemist fired an explosive missile and damned near killed Velic in the early rounds. This of course drew the attention of the gnome and the healer. Calith squared off with one, and Vex and her shiny new animal companion flanked the fighter. Other than that one hit the fight was very one sided.
Afterwards the group decided to rest for the day before tackling the first lookout camps. Vex then sent her companion out scouting to ensure nothing else would sneak up on them.
That night, as the first watch was taking its turn, they couldn't help commenting on how well Vex and friend had performed. As they talked it occurred to Quagrim that the wolf had used more tricks than it should have learned from the level 8 Inquisitor/Fighter (yes its a weird class combo, but not by far the worst). From there the conversation turned to just how strange she'd been acting of late. Someone else noted that her behavior seemed to have shifted after Neverwinter. Zubat pointed out that that was when she'd begun insisting on second watch, yet always disappeared for the first 15 minutes of the watch for "personal activities".
When she was awakened for her watch the gnome then decided to follow her as she went on said constitutional.