First, I was talking business with Lou, of Tivem's Antiquities (I know I mispelled that), when up comes Duke Rowan looking for his Labyrinth Stone. Man, I tell you, for an old guy, the Duke can sure swing those swords! Needless to say, I took my business elsewhere in a hurry.
Second, a good friend of mine named Darken (a half cat stout worshipper of Bast) found out that ole what's his name over at Part's n Pieces was capturing alley cats, killing them and selling them as components. Personally, I think it caught the DM of guard when Darken stormed the place and utterly slaughtered the poor sod. What was meant as a little side-adventure turned out to be the end of a major NPC. After that, Darken turned Parts n Pieces into a place where bards could find work. Get it? Parts and Pieces?
Lastly, we had to bind Shameska. Nasty little bit of business that, and I admit it was all our fault. See, we had to get to this place called Nowhere, a secret hiding place in Sigil you go if you got no where else to go and people are looking to put you in the dead book. Problem is, you can't get there without an invitation and a reason for running from someone. So, we had to think of a way to make enemies with a real Sigilian Nasty and we only had a couple of days to do it. Well, a couple of years ago, we came accross a copy of The Book of Keeping (a text on the summoning and binding or archanoloths). We just had the thing sitting in our Library (we're followers of Thoth, the god of Knowledge). We got to reading it and discovered it featured the true names of a number of prominent archanoloths including Shameska's. So, we figured the best way of ******* her off was to just head over to the Fortune's wheel, where she is a regular and call her by her true name in front of the whole place. Well, we got our invitation to Nowhere to say the very least. Problem was, when we got back, she was still ******. We tried to apologize, but she wouldn't have it. After a couple of nasty 'presents' she sent us, we debated and realized that she was just far to nasty to leave roaming around. Thus we used the Book of Keeping to finally bind her. The whole thing cost us our High Priest, who died of exasaustion after the whole matter. Now, we've got her but we are not quite sure what to do with her. Only way to kill her for sure is take her to her home plane and kill her there, and that's no laughing matter. Personally, I'd rather throw the ring into Mount Doom.
Well, anyway, those are my war stories. What are yours, berk?
One of my players also ended up abducting, torturing, and killing my namesake near the end of the campaign.
The last session we played ended with my character impaled (but still alive thankfully) on one of her more devious devices. I tell you, you do a lot of thinking on what's important in life when you are impaled in the house of an Archanoloth.
Unfortunately for us, our DM plays that Shameska is the cleverest trap-maker known in the planes. She has been utterly wicked. My favorite thus far have been the hollow acid-filled doors. The locks are near impossible to pick, so when a berk gets tired and decides just to kick them open, the hollow doors crumble and leave a cutter with acid all over his leg. Nasty, and nearly non-detectable.
Oh... that's a clever little trick. I'll have to remember that one :D
At one point my PCs were chasing after the arch-'loth Taba (it was toying with them at that point). They watched him/her/it activate a portal and dart through, so they followed. Well, sadly for them, the portal was one way and dumped them into a 200 ft diameter demiplane composed of a mazework of crystalline walls... completely filled with acid. So, round one they're taking damage from full submersion in acid, plus the two of them immune to it are suffocating. Four rounds later the walls begin to glow with previously unseen symbols, are the acid begins to boil...
They did not like Taba. Not a bit. Not at all. And despite their attempts to kill him/her/it on one occasion, they never quite managed it, and ended up having to reluctantly accept its help much later on because of common goals and common enemies.
is Akeen really friendly, or do you think its all a show. I know he likes to write in his off time... but what else is he up to. How do you play this old blood?
I think A'kin is best played like Elim Garak from from Deep Space 9. A character whose past is never truely known. Up front, he seems quite friendly and helpful. However, there is something about him that you just can't put your finger on, something other than being an Arcanoloth. Perhaps he is a traitor that has made too many enemies. Or is he really a spy?
Now that I think of it, you could draw a lot of analogies between Sigil and DS9.
I ended up playing A'kin right on that line of plausibility that he might be truly risen, perhaps evil but on the outs with the yugoloth heirarchy, or perhaps the good cop to the bad cop of his preening counterpart in the Fortunes Wheel.
It took the PCs and players alike three years to fully find out what the case was. And it got a table full of slack jawed stares. They know the full story now, but they're still learning about him even with one of the PCs in the sequel campaign being his kid.
But that's just my own interpretation. In canon he's blatantly evil of course, but evil with a smile on his face and a wink and a nod. It's open enough to interpretation though as to who, if anyone, he works for, and what his relationship with his own race's heirarchy happens to be. Personally I like to think that of the two resident arcanaloths in Sigil, he's the oldest and more connected.
It took the PCs and players alike three years to fully find out what the case was. And it got a table full of slack jawed stares.
Aww, c'mon. Don't let us wonder about it. Tell the story, please.
Aww, c'mon. Don't let us wonder about it. Tell the story, please.
I am, in my storyhour. It's just going to take another two years at this rate of 12-15 pages a week. :D
But it won't take that long since the 2nd storyhour will eventually have to spill the beans, even if I've tried my best to hold my cards close to my chest. In the next half dozen updates to that one I'll have to revisit A'kin, and I can only tip-toe around the issue for so long.
Now, I'm just a player so I am not allowed to read all the source material, but how is A'kin evil? I know that he is an Archanoloth, but I thought he converted or something. Is there somehthing I don't know?
That's the rumor, that he might be a risen fiend, or perhaps just on the outs with someone high up in the 'loth heirarchy. But it's just rumor, and A'kin never confirms or denies any of it. He just smiles and inevitably moves conversation back towards another topic, always with a smile on his face. Everyone just knows that he has to be up to no good, but there's no proof of it, and while it keeps everyone off guard, everyone tends to leave A'kin's presence either befuddled and confused, or smiling as well.
But, be that as it may, he's pretty solidly evil in the source material. He's listed as NE in his writeups, and Ray Vallese came out and openly said 'A'kin is evil' at one point on the PS mailing list.
He acts very friendly, and gives people gifts for nothing. Privately, he rages and rages. People hear him sometimes in his office from the streets below, screaming and breaking things to release the tension he builds up being so sickeningly good all day long. Or maybe he just drinks too much coffee.
Some consider him to be more frightening than Shemeshka. At least people know what the King of the Cross-Trade wants. What's A'kin's angle, though? What's he playing at?