by Kevin Culp
The Trials of
a Modern Paladin
By: Kevin Culp
Prologue
We were walking down the corridor as silently as possible. The air was dry. As we descended further into the cave, the temperature slowly rose. The stone beneath our feet was covered in jagged grooves, the marks of enormous claws that had been tracking back and forth across it for many years.
Somewhere behind me, I heard a whisper, “Can you walk any quieter Archaeus?”
“I’m sorry, but it’s difficult to stealth in full plate, and I only rolled a 3.”
Of course, our rogue was complaining. I’m sure that I would be as silent as a mouse too if I had a +37 stealth modifier. One of the downsides of being a Paladin in full plate armor was that it made stealth missions almost impossible. Even with how high my initial attribute rolls were and the fact that I had bought lightsteel full plate armor, stealth isn’t a high priority for paladins, and I had no training in it, so my modifier was only +2.
“I see light up ahead. It looks like we are almost to the dragon’s nest. Kreego, check for traps,” Archaeus said.
Kreego sighed. “Someone’s feeling bossy today, wait here while I scout it out. Hey Dan do you need me to re-roll my stealth or can I just use the roll I had.”
“You can use the roll you had. Where are you checking for traps?” Dan asked.
“Well, I will take my time checking the whole area as close to where the cave opens up as I can get while still being hidden.”
Dan made an exaggerated display of looking at his map. “Okay, so why don’t you go ahead and roll me a Perception check.”
“Let’s see, I rolled a 14 on the dice, plus 25 for perception, and I get a plus 10 when looking for traps, for a total of 49.”
“You didn’t see any traps.”
“I walk back to the group then and tell them the coast is clear.”
I could just imagine Kreego walking back to us. John always wanted to play silly races, so he was a goblin rogue that just loved hoarding everything. He carried multiple extra-dimensional backpacks, and all his equipment was a hodgepodge of random knick-knacks. He had made it a point to make several of his front teeth gold during our adventure, so I always pictured him running around with a mischievous little smile glittered in gold.
“Nothing seems out of place to me, big chief, so what’s the plan?” Kreego said.
“Did you see the dragon?” Archaeus asked
“Nope no dragon, though I guess I didn’t roll perception for that. Hey Dan, did I see a dragon when I ran up there?”
“I don’t know. Were you looking for a dragon?” Dan asked.
“Well, I guess I wasn’t. Do you think I should go back and look for it Archaeus?”
“Na, don’t worry about it. The thing is supposed to be big enough that I doubt it’s hiding.”
Kara groaned. “Gah this is boring. When are we getting to combat?”
I rolled my eyes. “Calm down there, Kara, I know you love combat, but some of us like all the roleplaying and attention to detail.”
I kind of enjoyed having Kara around, she was the token gamer girl of our group, but she really didn’t like to do anything in-game that wasn’t just blowing stuff up. At the end of the day, I guess I was just happy that she knew her character well and showed up consistently.
“Let’s approach the open cavern cautiously and put this dragon down, I’ll lead, Kraxis stay next to me, Kreego behind us, and Lyra in the back.”
We slowly approached the cavern, and the darkness of the cave faded away. Before us was an enormous pile of treasure filled with silver, gold, platinum, scrolls, weapons, and armor. It was an astonishing sight, a treasure that could easily fund a small kingdom. Throughout the room, there were small puddles of molten lava even though this mountain was not volcanic. There were also large braziers scattered throughout freshly lit as if the dragon was expecting company. Clearly, it had made itself at home and knew we were coming.
As we stood there in awe, Kreego likely thinking of how to spend the treasure, a huge whoosh followed by a gust of wind broke the silence. It was followed by several more. As we looked around, we saw an enormous red dragon flying down off a ledge in the back of the room.
The dragon landed on the pile of treasure with a heavy crash, and several coins and gems bounced from the pile many landing in the molten lava. He shook his enormous form and a spray of coins emanated from his body breaking loose from his scales. It was clear this pile was his bed.
He had a wide snout like that of a crocodile with jagged teeth jutting from the sides, and the crown of his head erupted in a plume of horns. His scales looked thick and ranged from bright red to fiery orange with a yellow underbelly. His wings were leathery like that of a bat and each claw on his foot was the size of a long sword but probably much more deadly. He had yellow eyes only broken by a reddish-black catlike pupil.
The dragon spoke, “You dare enter my lair ants. I will devour you all and pick my teeth with your bones. It looks as though you were at least kind enough though to bring more treasures to add to my collection.”
Kreego looked up at me. “What’s this guy saying, chief?”
The dragon was speaking in draconic, but I had an amulet of the linguist that let me understand and speak any language. Lyra our sorceress also spoke draconic, but she probably wasn’t paying attention.
“He’s just saying normal bad guy stuff you know blah, blah, blah die now pathetic mortals all that stuff.”
“That doesn’t sound like the paladin explanation Will,” Dan commented.
“I know Dan, but even a paladin knows it’s pointless to explain more to Kreego.”
“Fair enough.”
Kara put down her phone and sat up. “Ooh yay combat, I’m rolling initiative.”
I glared at her. “Wait just a second Kara, I know we are gonna end up fighting it, but we can at least do the role-play of talking to it.”
“Na, I’m going to shoot a fireball at it.”
I sighed, “Okay... Soooo, bad enough that you are attacking it, but it’s a red dragon which we all know is immune to fire, and you are shooting a fireball at it?”
“Um, I’m a pyrokinetic sorceress that loves fire and has no training in arcane knowledge, so I don’t know it’s immune to fire. Metagame much Will?”
“While that is true, the town told us it was a red dragon, and we found out from my gather information check that red dragons are immune to fire.”
“Yeah and I’m a Kitsune with a 6 wisdom that forgets everything and ignores you all the time, so since you like role play you should respect that my character wants to shoot a fireball at it.”
“Fair enough.”
Dan laughed. “Okay, I guess everyone roll initiative.”
“Archaeus has an 18”
“Kreego got 27”
“Kraxis has a total of 11”
“Dang, Lyra rolled a 2, but my total is still 8. Can I get to shoot my fireball first since I said I was doing it before combat officially started?”
“Sure I’ll give you that as a surprise round since the dragon wasn’t really paying attention to you in the back, and you kind of started combat with it. I assume you know the dragon is actually immune to fire though, so I’m not going to roll his save.”
“Yeah, I know it is, but I just wanted to do it hee hee.” Kara giggled.
“Well, Kreego, you are up first.” Dan Said
“Okay, I’m just going to activate my ring of invisibility. I know he can sense me with blind sense, but I should be able to get my sneak damage on him once I get to him.”
Dan marked something on his map. “Archaeus, it’s your turn.”
“Is there anything on the floor that would keep me from charging the dragon?”
“No, there isn’t. You will be right next to a pool of lava once you get on him, but you can make it.”
“I assume that he’s evil. You know I just keep my evil detection up continuously since it’s usable at-will.”
“Yeah, he’s evil.”
“Okay, so I’m going to expend a use of smite evil, take my long sword in two hands, and charge him while using mighty blow.”
“Well, because of his size he’s going to get a free attack as you charge in. Does a 41 hit your armor with the penalty for charging?”
“Nope, sure doesn’t.”
“Roll to hit”
“OH MY GOD!!! I rolled a 1!”
“Ha, that’s hilarious. Heh heh heh.” Kara laughed.
“Shut up, Kara.”
“Well, roll again to determine how bad you fumble.” Dan said.
“OH MY GOD!!! Another 1!”
“WOW. You throw your sword towards the dragon drop 1d6.”
“3”
“Okay, it’s 15 feet away from you.”
“Gah, that sucks.”
“It’s the dragon’s turn now. He opens his mouth and roars and a torrent of fire engulfs all of you. Roll dodge save.”
“Do I have to since I’m immune to fire?” Kara asked.
“No, Kara, you don’t.”
“35 and I have superior dodging so no damage on a successful save.” John said.
I looked at Dan. “I rolled a total of 33 and have resistance 10 to fire.”
Caleb sighed, “I only got a 16 but if you remember I had cast energy resistance (fire) before coming in which will stop 200 fire damage.”
“So, it is a total of… 136 fire damage. Kreego takes none due to dodging, Kraxis you take none but can only absorb another 64 fire damage, and Archaeus you take half minus 10 so 58. Obviously, Lyra takes no damage due to being immune. It’s your turn Kraxis.”
“Hmm, I will cast form of the angel on myself then fly up next to Archaeus but not on the side with the lava.”
“Okay well, the dragon is going to take his free attack on you too. Does a 49 hit your armor?”
“Yes it does, but I assume the dragon’s attacks still aren’t considered evil-aligned to go past the damage resistance from form of the angel?”
“It doesn’t bypass the DR but still does… 22 damage after the DR. It’s your turn Lyra.”
“Well, since everyone knows I only have fire for attack spells, I’m going to use spell acceleration and cast haste as a free action. Then I’m going to cast telekinesis and use it to pick up Archaeus’ sword and hand it to him.”
“Wow, thanks, Lyra, that’s a big help.”
Kara rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah, just kill this thing.”
“Kreego, it’s back to you.”
“I’m going to move up to the side of the dragon and try to attack a weak point in the leg while staying invisible. I got a 39 to hit.”
Dan checked the dragon’s armor rating, “Well that hits, and it is technically flat-footed since it can’t see you, but it doesn’t even need blind-sense to glare at you now.”
“Okay, so with my extra sneak damage I did…… 53 damage, and it can’t take attacks of opportunity until my next turn. I just wish I hadn’t made both my daggers flaming burst.”
“Tell me about it Lyra can’t do anything but support here,” Kara commented.
Dan looked at me. “Back to you, Archaeus.”
“Well, second times the charm. First, I’m going to use healing hands as a free action and heal myself 60, and then, I’m going to attack him since I still have my smite evil up. I got a 19 on the die, which is in my critical threat range, which makes the total 48.”
“Okay well, that would hit so roll to confirm the crit.”
“15 on the dice so 44 to confirm.”
“You critically hit the dragon so roll for damage.”
“Red dragons are chaotic evil right, so I assume this one is?”
“Yes, it’s chaotic evil,” Dan said.
“Okay so 2d8 for the weapon, with an extra 4d6 from my weapon due to it being chaotic and evil, 80 for smite evil against an evil dragon, 36 for crit mighty blow with two hands on my weapon, and double my normal pluses makes it 40, so that’s…. 181 damage.”
Kara had a smug look on her face. “You’re welcome for Lyra giving you your weapon back. Don’t forget the extra attack for haste.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m just going to roll the rest of the attacks. So 44, then a 36, then a 39 on a nat 20 but only a 28 to confirm, and a 27 for the last attack.”
“Man, this poor dragon after that critical. You hit with the 44 and the 39 but no critical.”
“Okay, so all the same modifiers as before except for the all the doubling due to the critical of course. Sooo….. That’s going to be 91 damage for the first attack and 99 for the second.”
“A torrent of blood is pouring out of the front of this dragon, and he roars angrily at you. He goes into a rage and takes a full attack action against you. He gets a 54 with the bite, a 53 and 39 with the claws, a 49 and 41 with the wings, and a 48 with the tail.”
“Well, this is going to hurt. He hit me with the tail, a wing, a claw, and the bite.”
Dan started scooping up dice into his hands. “Okay so I’m just going to add this all together. You have damage resistance 15 versus all but evil right?”
“Yes, I do.”
He rolled the dice. “Okay, so… with all the attacks together, that’s a total of 86 damage.”
“Oh, is that all, man if Archaeus was the goading type he’d be mocking this huge dragon.”
Dan rolled his eyes. “Your turn Kraxis.”
“I’m going to attempt to cast cause harm on the dragon. I got a 23 on my attack roll to touch the dragon.”
“That definitely hits the armor rating to just touch the dragon.”
“Um, it’s a sixth tier spell, so it’s going to be DC 26 fortitude check for half of 150 damage.”
“Well, he made the fortitude check, but he kind of shrivels up and stops bleeding after the damage and just falls over.”
“Alright, cleric kill steal for the win. I guess I’ll heal up our resident punching bag paladin hah hah.”
“Don’t bother, I have plenty of uses of healing hands remaining. Man, I thought a red dragon that size would pose a lot bigger threat.”
“Well, solo fights are pretty difficult to actually make hard, especially when you’re level 20. We’ve been running this campaign for almost two years, so it might be time to hang up these characters.” Dan said.
“Awwww, but I love Lyra.” Kara wined.
“I didn’t say we were ending just bringing it up.”
“Kreego, jumps into a pile of gold and makes gold angels.”
“Of course he does.”
The rest of the session was pretty uneventful. We divided up the loot and definitely got a bunch of useful magic items and tons of gold. After returning to town via Lyra teleportation and being praised for killing the evil dragon that had been plaguing it, we sat down and thought about what new items we would want Lyra to make for us since she was also our resident magic item crafter.
I looked at the time on my phone. “I’m going to head home guys. I’ve got work early tomorrow, and I don’t even know what I was thinking when I walked here.”
“Okay, Will, I’m sure we will see you next week. It was fun as always.” Dan said.
Chapter 1
My name is William Shawcro. I am a fan of all things nerd. Tabletop games, anime, tcg’s, video games you name it, and I probably do it or have done it. I live in a little town in the middle of nowhere called Wilson, Kansas. I’m 24 years old, and I work in a call center as a customer service representative. I have a degree in computer science but just haven’t really had much luck finding a job.
For the past two years, I’ve been in a tabletop game with four others. Dan has b
een my best friend since elementary school and my gm for almost as long. Kara is Dan’s fiancé. He met her at a gaming store, and they hit it off right away. She does her best to learn all the games he plays, and I definitely like her for that, but she can be annoying. John and Caleb have been friends with me and Dan since high school and have always been consistent players.
My apartment is less than a mile away from Dan’s house where we run the game, and it had been a nice day, so I decided to walk today. Not too hot for early August and surprisingly low humidity makes it feel nice even now that it’s getting dark out.
I’m a little sad to even hear Dan mentioning starting a new game. Don’t get me wrong, I love creating new characters almost as much as playing the game, but I’ve put so much time into Archaeus playing as him is almost an escape. It’s the first time I’ve played a paladin or anything that’s lawful good at all, for that matter, in many years. I tend to make much more cynical characters that often have some kind of neutral alignment.
I still remember building Archaeus and exactly what I was going for with the character, and I think I accomplished that. He really is the true knight in shining armor. He is tall, handsome, strong, and chivalrous pretty much the opposite of me. I mean I’m not trying to call myself a bad guy, I’d actually like to think I’m pretty good to those I care about at least, but that’s the extent of it. Also, I’m not exceptionally tall, built, or handsome.
Archaeus, on the other hand, is a full-on accidental ladies’ man complete with the sandy blonde hair and deep blue eyes. When I say accidental, I mean that ladies love him, but he isn’t out for one-night stands or hook-ups. He’s actually a genuine romantic wanting to find his one true love but hasn’t yet.
His full name is Archaeus Alexander Velnir, but he didn’t have a noble birth. His mother was a slave who died in childbirth and little Archaeus was given to the church. He never truly grabbed on to a single religion but devoted himself to the ideas of justice and dreamed of saving women from circumstances like his mother. He learned to fight at a young age and was granted a title by a local noble after helping to drive back an orc invasion.
After coming of age, Archaeus had decided he needed to see the world, so he might better understand it and what its people need. Protecting one town was great, but he sought the kind of power to protect the world. During a war between the rival kingdoms of Culven and Westport, Archaeus met Lyra, Kreego, and Kraxis where they formed a party. He didn’t entirely agree with all of them, especially Kreego, but he could relate to Kraxis the Dwarven Cleric played by Caleb, which was often his go-to character, and they all had a mutual interest in stopping the war without too much bloodshed.
