itmeJP Community


itmeJP Community

[E29 Q&A] Brumpo Trunkus

RollPlay®: Court of Swords
,
#25

I think something to consider re: suiciding familiar is that Baldur isn’t exactly a normal animal even by those standards. Even if it’s manifesting as an owl now, we’re talking about A) The personification of a vaguely magical sword, or B) Something conjured wholly from the mind of a delusional aasimar paladin. Either way, if it still considers itself a weapon to be used in battle, I think there’s a case to be made that Baldur still sees the poisoning idea as the kind of thing he’s meant to be doing.

Or I’m reading way too much into it, but that’s nothing new .

1 Like
#26

Sending in the owl is really not much different from sending in any soldier for a behind enemy lines operation.

You could even say it’s less cruel and it’s definitely not evil at all, in respect to the spirit, as the owl is just a magical spirit which can’t really die by this.

Also, consider that Dan is playing a vengeance paladin and, I believe, scourge aasimar.
By that alone he’s more akin to the fountains hit squad than a noble knight.

He’s still not exactly good, but if he assumes this town is more or less completely criminals then he’s just delivering justice. To call him evil we’d need to see what he’d do if the enemies would, for example, surrender

The wyvern venom wasn’t likely to actually kill anyone either, just “poison” them and creating a combat advantage like that doesn’t conflict with vengeance pala at all.

1 Like
#27

  1. Paladins in 5e no longer have to be Lawful Good, throw that misconception out of your mind. In Fact, Paladins can be evil now if you want.

  2. I’m an “Oath of Vengeance” I made an oath to defeat the Mara that murdered my family. This Oath allows me to do terrible things in order to achieve the ultimate goal of fulfilling my oath. I can make pacts with demons, Become a criminal, etc. all as a means to an end.

  3. Baldur (and a familiar in general) is an Immortal Spirit that can’t die and doesn’t feel pain as mortals do, when it “dies” it just pops back into another plane.

  4. Azriel is a good character, everything he does has been for the greater good, even the most “evil” things he’s done are actually things a good character would want. (Murdering Bandits, Killing a Drug Trade, Befriending a Crimelord to eventually take him and the entire organization down) Think of him as Batman not a noble Knight, he is not above taking the law into his own hands.

  5. Paladin Powers are only lost in 5e if you break the tenets of your Oath, not by being “Evil” Everything I’ve done is very cleverly within the tenets.

11 Likes
#28

Exactly! I’ve never liked the old idea of requiring Paladin’s to be lawful good. That usually makes them one dimensional and much less interesting in most cases. Plus, ‘Good’ is all dependent on your point of view and beliefs. In his eyes, Azriel is doing what he believes he must to fulfill his Oaths. That makes him an incredibly complex and interesting character.

Thoroughly enjoying your RP Dan! Keep up the awesome work :itmejpbro:

3 Likes
#29

Gotta get Nak’ana Ino up close and use Mage Hand to grab Chuckles. Can’t lose him to those villains.

#30

I am not saying anything you did is technically wrong by the rules or at the end of the day outside of your characters scope, I am saying it was awkward to breeze over this pretty telling moment. It says a lot about your character that you are willing to suicide Baldur (who may or may not be more then a simple familiar) over and over to achieve a goal. Also based on your previous actions this is a moral area we really haven’t explored with Azriel. So it ended up feeling somewhat strange to just “breeze” over this entire scene as if it was an every day thing.

Really up until this moment I thought you were trying to play a fairly “good” paladin who wanted to destroy the mara (potentially at a cost), but were drifting since the deaths of your other 2 angelic brethren as you were consorting with criminals etc etc. Maybe everyone else realized a while ago you are far from a “good” guy, but I don’t remember you doing anything so clearly outright “evil” until this moment. I mean if bird man or snake lady were doing this I wouldn’t even bat an eye as both seem pretty shady, but it seemed quite out of the character you have shown.

#31

Eh. It’s kind of moot in general since CoS uses a custom alignment system, but don’t think there’s a single group that’s entirely immune to the siren song of :adammrdr::adamhobo: decisions, and even if this instance seems a bit extreme it seems fairly in keeping with someone in the Lawful Neutral range, if we’re gonna draw comparisons to the default scale. Maybe the notion of deliberately using his familiar as part of his arsenal rather than a truly living thing could have warranted a bit more of an in-character beat, but planning fatigue is a thing at any table.

As far as comparing to the default alignment spectrum though, I’m jumping on the bandwagon of saying the plan was Lawful Neutral as balls. The Red Scarlet Banner has already been proven to be up to some illegal shit, and that means anyone working for them (who doesn’t rebel if given the opportunity) is guilty by association. Ignore what Star Wars tells you, the real dealers in absolutes are Lawful Neutral paladins. There is whatever greater good they serve, and everyone else tends to fall into three categories: help, hindrance, or sworn enemy.

The RSBC might not directly relate to Azriel’s vow to destroy the Mara, but as a “favor” he’s being made to carry out they definitely fall under the category of hindrance. And if they find out along the way that there’s Mara influence somewhere in the mix, that just proves he was in the right all along.

#32

I’m still good and still following the same path I think you’re assuming way to much about my character lol.

This venom (as adam said many times) was very unlikely to kill anyone just sicken them to make them easier to fight if it came to that. My plan was to put on a show, get our information and get out. But the peaceful option failed and we knew there wouldn’t be a second chance so we chose to kill all the evil scum working in this place.

Everything is still in character and remember, I’m being forced to do evil deeds to accomplish a much greater goal that’s way beyond the scope of some mortals. Grasping Hands will get his for making me do all this, once I get what i need from him. Every action i do is very deliberate and thought out, don’t worry. I think about all this for hours outside of each show.

Azriel smells something darker than the drugs in this operation and he’ll figure out what it is.

9 Likes
#33

I can’t get the image out of my mind of Gale with a top hat on and a lightning strike in the background, maybe a little lightning effect in his eye, saying “Caw, chaps.”.

#34

I need to draw an owl bathed in poison now. :smiley: