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Description
An attempt at some more dynamic posturing. Yaaaay, I... didn't suck!

So a month and a half ago, my D&D 4E group came very close to experiencing a Total Party Kill. But we managed to stabilize against death, heal each other, and spend our Second Winds. The boss had shifted into a ghostly form and was in full retreat, unable to summon more minions.

In an act that was so risky, it would have been called stupid if it didn't work, I had a single-digit-HP Shivra chase the boss down.

Her thrown dagger's aim was true. Sly Flourish hit for max damage.

The boss dropped.

Only for the DM to reveal to us that the boss had unused action points and could have killed the party if he wanted to be mean. Fortunately for us, ~Zemro-Shivic , while clever, is not one of those DMs.

Still, the experience revealed to us that, after the exit of Kortas the Warforged and the entrance of Cray the Barbarian, the makeup of our party was left with a gaping hole. We were good at killing... Too good, in fact... But we were dropping too fast and spending too many healing surges. >.> Velandra alone couldn't absorb enough hits to keep the big nasties off of us. So let me fill you in on what's happened since then...

***

Shivra, being less capable at the art of crazy-awesome killing than Cray, left the party. After so many runs of bad luck, she felt Lolth was trying to tell her something. Her experiences in the overworld had changed her. She wasn't as prejudiced as she used to be, and she no longer had a profound bloodlust to satisfy. This felt wrong to her, so she wandered off to do some soul-searching.

Then came the crash of the Arcanica, a prestigious magic school in the southern desert that once hovered above the ground. The crash sent a mighty shockwave of mana across the landscape, transforming the weak-willed into fearsome monsters who lashed out and attacked the innocent.

Enter Jenn, a Paladin of Bahamut. Jenn once served for a paramilitary unit known as the Crystal Guild, whose duty was to purge the world of goblins, vampires, undead, and all other manners of pests, provided the cause was just and the money was right.

Three years ago, Jenn's division was hired to dispatch of a horde of zombies terrorizing a farm community and plaguing its crops. But it was a trap. The man who hired them was the necromancer who summoned those very corpses. He turned on the warriors and had his minions infect them with a disease that made them susceptible to his mind-controlling charms, forcing the guild to fight its own troops as well as the zombies. Only two of the Crystal Guild soldiers survived the ordeal unscathed: A Warforged named Pax, and Jenn.

Jenn spent the next two weeks in a near-catatonic state. Traumatized by the experience, she refused to speak during that time.

Even when the wicked necromancer was finally brought to justice, things didn't improve. His undead army had managed to infiltrate the Crystal Guild's headquarters and kill their leader, as well as the majority of their ranking officers. With the necromancer's grudge against them having spelled certain doom for their hierarchy, the Crystal Guild dissolved.

Pax, like many of his colleagues, enlisted in another army.

But the universe had something much different in store for Jenn. After spending months in the wilderness, utilizing the survival skills that her superiors in the Crystal Guild taught her, she re-emerged in the city of Cyntal. To locals wondering what she was doing in the city, she spoke of her visions of the great Platinum Dragon, and how he told her of a higher purpose waiting for her there.

Jenn became a devout worshiper of Bahamut and trained daily to become his Paladin. She learned to speak Draconic and gained a small but effective number of divine powers. She swore that no innocent being would ever encounter the tragedies that she had. The Crystal Guild insignia chiseled into the lower torso area of her plate was a haunting reminder of the horror that brought the militia to its knees.

How fortunate for her, then, that she was wearing it on the day the Arcanica crashed. She had stopped by a tavern for a drink after completing her training for the day, when suddenly, all but four of the tavern's other patrons changed into monsters and attacked. The quartet - an Elvish Bard, a Human Barbarian, a Genasi Swordmage, and a Minotaur Druid - put on a graceful display of skill and teamwork as they and Jenn defended themselves against the unexpected assault.

The foursome turned out to be an adventuring party.

At last, Jenn had found her calling that Bahamut foreshadowed.

***

Oh, yeah, and we were also joined by a Revenant Assassin named Mask right after that... >.> But this isn't about him.

Overall, I'm pretty proud of the action I put into this piece. ^^ It was a lot harder to color than I thought it would be, but I guess that happens when you've got so many shapes and you're trying to make them all look shiny.

Jenn is (C)
Bahamut, Dungeons & Dragons, and all related concepts are (C) Wizards of the Coast

EDIT 12/5: Minor fixes here and there, most notably to the non-sword arm.

Description
An attempt at some more dynamic posturing. Yaaaay, I... didn't suck!

So a month and a half ago, my D&D 4E group came very close to experiencing a Total Party Kill. But we managed to stabilize against death, heal each other, and spend our Second Winds. The boss had shifted into a ghostly form and was in full retreat, unable to summon more minions.

In an act that was so risky, it would have been called stupid if it didn't work, I had a single-digit-HP Shivra chase the boss down.

Her thrown dagger's aim was true. Sly Flourish hit for max damage.

The boss dropped.

Only for the DM to reveal to us that the boss had unused action points and could have killed the party if he wanted to be mean. Fortunately for us, ~Zemro-Shivic , while clever, is not one of those DMs.

Still, the experience revealed to us that, after the exit of Kortas the Warforged and the entrance of Cray the Barbarian, the makeup of our party was left with a gaping hole. We were good at killing... Too good, in fact... But we were dropping too fast and spending too many healing surges. >.> Velandra alone couldn't absorb enough hits to keep the big nasties off of us. So let me fill you in on what's happened since then...

***

Shivra, being less capable at the art of crazy-awesome killing than Cray, left the party. After so many runs of bad luck, she felt Lolth was trying to tell her something. Her experiences in the overworld had changed her. She wasn't as prejudiced as she used to be, and she no longer had a profound bloodlust to satisfy. This felt wrong to her, so she wandered off to do some soul-searching.

Then came the crash of the Arcanica, a prestigious magic school in the southern desert that once hovered above the ground. The crash sent a mighty shockwave of mana across the landscape, transforming the weak-willed into fearsome monsters who lashed out and attacked the innocent.

Enter Jenn, a Paladin of Bahamut. Jenn once served for a paramilitary unit known as the Crystal Guild, whose duty was to purge the world of goblins, vampires, undead, and all other manners of pests, provided the cause was just and the money was right.

Three years ago, Jenn's division was hired to dispatch of a horde of zombies terrorizing a farm community and plaguing its crops. But it was a trap. The man who hired them was the necromancer who summoned those very corpses. He turned on the warriors and had his minions infect them with a disease that made them susceptible to his mind-controlling charms, forcing the guild to fight its own troops as well as the zombies. Only two of the Crystal Guild soldiers survived the ordeal unscathed: A Warforged named Pax, and Jenn.

Jenn spent the next two weeks in a near-catatonic state. Traumatized by the experience, she refused to speak during that time.

Even when the wicked necromancer was finally brought to justice, things didn't improve. His undead army had managed to infiltrate the Crystal Guild's headquarters and kill their leader, as well as the majority of their ranking officers. With the necromancer's grudge against them having spelled certain doom for their hierarchy, the Crystal Guild dissolved.

Pax, like many of his colleagues, enlisted in another army.

But the universe had something much different in store for Jenn. After spending months in the wilderness, utilizing the survival skills that her superiors in the Crystal Guild taught her, she re-emerged in the city of Cyntal. To locals wondering what she was doing in the city, she spoke of her visions of the great Platinum Dragon, and how he told her of a higher purpose waiting for her there.

Jenn became a devout worshiper of Bahamut and trained daily to become his Paladin. She learned to speak Draconic and gained a small but effective number of divine powers. She swore that no innocent being would ever encounter the tragedies that she had. The Crystal Guild insignia chiseled into the lower torso area of her plate was a haunting reminder of the horror that brought the militia to its knees.

How fortunate for her, then, that she was wearing it on the day the Arcanica crashed. She had stopped by a tavern for a drink after completing her training for the day, when suddenly, all but four of the tavern's other patrons changed into monsters and attacked. The quartet - an Elvish Bard, a Human Barbarian, a Genasi Swordmage, and a Minotaur Druid - put on a graceful display of skill and teamwork as they and Jenn defended themselves against the unexpected assault.

The foursome turned out to be an adventuring party.

At last, Jenn had found her calling that Bahamut foreshadowed.

***

Oh, yeah, and we were also joined by a Revenant Assassin named Mask right after that... >.> But this isn't about him.

Overall, I'm pretty proud of the action I put into this piece. ^^ It was a lot harder to color than I thought it would be, but I guess that happens when you've got so many shapes and you're trying to make them all look shiny.

Jenn is (C)
Bahamut, Dungeons & Dragons, and all related concepts are (C) Wizards of the Coast

EDIT 12/5: Minor fixes here and there, most notably to the non-sword arm.