If Marren seeks atonement he likely will be asked to perform some task or quest, and it wouldn't surprise me if (by design) he must seek companions to assist him. Before this most jarring of circumstance he was pleased to rush headlong into battle against any evil that manifested, without thought of how best to use the strengths of his companions to his advantage. Many paladins let humility fall by the wayside as they gleefully fulfill their destiny as avengers of all wrongdoing. If Solaris wishes Marren to learn that he is not an island, Vilarneseh, for all his protestations about Marren's behavior, will stand (albeit in the shadows) at his side.
Ravensong also has noticed this change, as Marren no longer flies to the fore, challenging her and being a bodily shield for our druid. As she's a barbarian she knows nothing about the ways of a paladin, only her own tribes ways, but point this out to her and you can bet she'll be all for beating the crap out of whatever Marren needs to in order to reclaim his might.
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Yes, silence is golden, but I prefer my gold in coin form!
Well, the choice of whether to redeem himself is ultimately Marren's. He could take a new class - leaving his calling instead. I doubt his atonement quest would necessarily involve a great deal of combat since that's not where he fell from grace.
Caela too ICly has suspected something went wrong since Marren's failed attempt to heal her, but not knowing much of religion other than that of Gaea is in a similar situation to Ravensong.
As to what to do, this is how Caela sees it: It's still not been long since we returned to the mine, and seem to be near the source. Caela'd prefer to press on to finish this before leaving though will go along with the majority, or Vil's, decision.
Marren would not turn to run from evil in order to ask his God for forgiveness. He would consider this an act of cowardice and contradiction, he would rather die in the mines and face Solaris in the afterlife. Marren is zealous in his belief of his purpose, and even with the knowledge that Solaris has left him he would fight to his end to avenge the innocent that have been preyed upon and to sooth the fear of his fellow man. Marren's entire existence has been devoted to service to his Deity, the absence of that presence, in his being ,is a vast,gaping hole. It is to be expected that his behavior would be altered in some shape or form. As a player, I take it as a compliment that Marren's change in behavior has been noted. Marren would seek to be nothing else but a vassel Of Solaris, although he would not seek atonement in the middle of a percieved test of character.
I think your characters have a lot to think about, as well as you the players who use them.
Regardless of the campaignette that you have a character running in, it may be time to assess what your character wants and needs, and in doing so, make decisions which will effect their lives.
The heroes, for example, are currently motivated by a promise to the King. That's a strong motivation, as it touches upon honor, loyalty, desire to do what is right and even perhaps thoughts of self betterment through rewards, ranks, titles, lands and the fame that goes along with them. Their current quest has the momentm to drive them forward, with a perceived end in sight, and a knowledge that they will all be rewarded on many levels for doing what they are doing, even if that reward is nothing more than the valuables you have been collecting along the way.
The adventurers are not quite so focused. You know thre is evil in these mountains, and that by killing it, you gain valuable experience in your chosen trades, will find loot along the way and are doing good to Tindale. You have been killing kobolds left and right, along with a few other things, and are clearly nearing their "lair" (we'll use that word for now, since you really don't know what's in store). You have begun to suspect that the conflicts are not merely between the kobolds and the miners, but that there are goblins and perhaps others involved too.
But where do you go from here? Should you return to the twon to report your findings? Abandon this trail to seek out some of the other curiosities you have heard regarding these mountains? Plunge right in and wipe out every last kobold before they can regroup or grow? Or pursue more personal goals.
Sometimes there comes a time in which the party must look to its own and fulfill goals that are of a more personal nature.
Over time, I have tried to make it clear that characters have free will, to do as they choose. Unlike other DM's, I do not simply say, "Today you are going to do this". Even when cat was spinning her tales, and that was pretty much exactly what I had to do for things to work, the characters always hd the choice of not going. The choice to take the risk and listen, was theirs.
But as the game becomes more like a table top adventure, you all must choose what is best to do, and hints and facts are scattered about you at all times about many different things. My hints are often subtle, so much so that you all miss them. Other times they are so blatant as to appear as a mandate. Not all clues relate to the adventure at hand, and some are even red herrings. Certainly you should have all figured out by now that there is a metaplot, and things stir in this world that are beyond the ken of your adventurers. An incident occuring during an adventure may seem a clue to solve your adventure, but may indeed be a symptom of a larger disease, an anomaly, a coincidence or merely a random happening.
Regardless of this, characters should still be formulating their own goals, and should not hesitate to let their fellow adventurers know when a change of tack is needed.
So as players, I want you to make a few decisions. Firstly, decide what your character motivations are. Not so you can tell me (I don't need to know anything more than what I can pick up through your role play), but so that YOU know where you are headed. You must also decide which games you prefer to play in and when. I see now that the brief spell of having far too many players has now ended. We are back to normalcy, as at least one new player has dropped off the face of the earth, I am no longer running a character, and many of the players find themselves missing games from time to time (as was always intended to be part of the nature of CF). And while it would be nnice for heroes not to miss any part of that quest they have workes so long and hard on, it may not be fair to leave the others in that group languishing until the entire party can get together. That's a choice I would rather put in your hands.
And then there is a particular crisis going on, which many have noticed but few have addressed. Your Paladin is Fallen. I think the choice to continue to adventure as an ex-paladin in a different class, or to seek atonement may be more than that individual's support, and may require party support or intevention.
These are things I would like you all to think about.
I believe the question was asked with a wider scope here. If anyone thought by my post that I meant we leave in the MIDDLE of the adventure we are currently in to run off to do something else they are mistaken. The DM said think about the future, the future to me does not mean the very next game but the ultimate goals our party has. Wider scope. Finish the mines then look into attonement and of COURSE if that is what Marron wants. It's not our decision to make of course, but this is simply a discussion.
Well, I think we have established that no one wants to stop the current venture so close to what is perceived as the heart of the matter, that the paladin wishes to press on, and that his friends support him. This all makes total sense in character, and it is good to see the players thinking with their characters' motivations.
Not that it should change anyone's mind, but the players should be aware that Marren cannot advance in level until his situation has been modified.
Not to dispute my wife, but I was also looking for short term goals. I know that there will likely be three players missing this week, and that might imply that the adventurers is what we should go with.
I was also curious as to how interested the party is in getting to the heart of all of this regions troubles, or if they wanted to clear the mine of the kobold threat and be on their way to something else. Remember that the more I know about what you want, the better I can plan.
And cash doesn't hurt. Look at the nice Axe Einkil got for sending me that $20... just kidding [img]wink.gif[/img]
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, I had to talk the DM down from the fifty bucks he originally wanted . . . [img]graemlins/shhh.gif[/img]Originally posted by Starshadow:
And cash doesn't hurt. Look at the nice Axe Einkil got for sending me that $20... just kidding [img]wink.gif[/img]
Seriously, Vilarneseh has seen some of the clues that this area's troubles are deeper than a kobold-infestedd mine, and it's dawning on him that Catalinia's tale was an open-ended one for good reason.
It's also not lost to him that Marren was, until quite recently, the most reliable source of healing the party has (and since kobolds have a knack at hurting the rogue, he is very much concerned about how far the party can go without this important source of both damage and health at full strength. Although he'd consider a retreat again from the mines if the party's strength diminished to dangerous levels (and even now, the fallen paladin is down to not much more than half-strength and spells are at a premium); in the broader scheme he'd be reluctant to dig deeper into the troubles of Tindale without first finding out what could be done to bring Marren back to himself - even if that means he gets loud again. A loud paladin is clearly better than a sullen, mediocre fighter.
Caela's motivation, if it's not been clear in how she's played, is the overall natural balance of things: Good and Evil, Law and Chaos - all have their place in the scheme of things. The miner/kobold/goblin conflict is but one sign that the Tinsdale area is out of natural balance, and so is all for digging deeper to find the source of imbalance and correct it once the mine is cleared.
Caela would agree with Vil's assessment concerning Marren being the 'healer' of the party. Although the Paladin Lay on of Hands is limited in the amount of damage it can cure per day.(Based upon level x Cha mod). Druids don't have the option of spontaneously casting cure spells that clerics do, so only has the ones she memorizes to rely upon. That Marren has fallen means he's out of balance with himself, and needs to correct this, whether by leaving the Paladin ranks or atoning.
Tinsdale itself might have some shrines or a temple, but may not have a priest of high enough rank to atone Merrin. We might have to venture to one of the larger cities, perhaps Talagon City itself so that Marren might seek atonement from Solari's High Priest, and the head of the Paladin order of the area.
From an OOC perspective, I believe Tinsdale is in the Falcon Mountain range, which is the neighboring mountains to Caer Falken Inn, so the party could also return to CFI on foot or horseback fairly quickly. There has never been mention of a cleric in residence other than Jaskyn near the Inn though. Also, I'm in favor of continuing the Adventurer campaign if we're going to be short almost half the players again.
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