Explorer's Guild

You guessed it; it’s back to the wilderness. It may seem boring, but it’s also realistic. Analei scores a 31, big game hunter. She’ll gain a level of ranger and must put points into Survival, Spot, Listen, Hide, and Move Silently. At this level, she gets few other benefits (although her ranger level grants Improved Two-Weapon Fighting), but her Reputation score does increase by +1. Oh, and of course, she improves her link to Drey. It’s only fitting, since she worked closely with Carak last level. For her skills, with 8 points to spend, she puts 1 point into each, with 2 of the extra three points going to Handle Animal and the remaining point going into Listen (to bring it closer to her Spot skill).

Back to the wilderness table. It’s really the only table that makes sense for her to roll on (as it’s the only one that gives her a decent chance of advancing a class that she has been developing. A roll of 21 reveals that Analei has adopted the role of nature guardian, getting another level of druid. She doesn’t get any new feats, contacts, or recognition, though her reputation does increase by 1/2. She also needs to allot points to Concentration, Spot, Survival, Spellcraft, and Knowledge (nature), in that order.

Is anyone even reading these? Anyway, Analei is currently spending time away from civilization as a hermit. I like this idea, as it helps build up her druid levels. With that in mind, the wilderness table has been good to her so far. We’ll stay with it.

Welcome back again! Last week was an exciting time for Analei. She lost her paladinhood and her faith, but found that this event, far from demoralizing her, actually made her stronger. I see no reason not to continue rolling on the wilderness table, as she seems to be growing nicely in her woodlore.

I like where this is going, so I’m going to roll on the wilderness table again, getting a 47, explorer. Apparently Analei has decided that it’s time to move on. She takes another level of ranger and puts the minimum number of points into the required skills, with the remaining three points going into Handle Animal (necessary if she wants to teach her companions a thing or three and to keep some semblance of order when the three are together).

She gets a new favored enemy, and given the area she is moving through, I think gnolls are a good choice. Her reputation increases by +2 (+1 for the background and +1 for her level), and she finally gets her first contact! I don’t have a use for it yet, so she’ll keep it undefined for the moment.

Analei looks like she’s just about to lose faith entirely in Heironeous, which might not be a bad thing. Certainly, serving that deity hasn’t done nearly as much for her as learning the ways of the wild. Let’s see if we can push her over the edge, eh?

We’ll take a roll on the wilderness table, saying that she continues her travels. The result is a 73—nature worshipper—which is the break I’ve been looking for. Analei leaves the flock of Heironeous and takes up the worship of Ehlonna, goddess of nature.

As Analei moves across into the elven territory of Celene, it seems logical that we make a roll on the cross-cultural background table. A racial minority result makes perfect sense, and Analei will spend some time in an elven village. During her time with the elves, she tacks on another level of ranger. It is at this time that her alignment also shifts slightly (which has dire consequences for her paladinhood), becoming neutral good.

This level presented a real challenge. I could see Analei's alignment slowly beginning to turn earlier, but it wasn't until this level that she reached a breaking point. A change of alignment and loss of paladin powers is normally a very traumatic experience, but in Analei's case, it just seems natural, somehow. I remind you that I had no idea what path her life would take, rolling the events for each level as I came to them, but in Analei's case, this just felt right. And it certainly makes for an interesting character!

Given what happened when she returned to her temple, Analei is beginning to see that she isn’t welcome there. Very well, she’ll move on. It’s a long shot to take, but a roll of 38 on the wilderness background table is a result of explorer, which is suitable. Her Reputation increases by +1, but she still doesn’t get a contact, nor any form of recognition. She gets Endurance as a free feat for being a 3rd-level ranger, and puts 2 skill points each into Knowledge (nature) and Knowledge (geography), and 1 point each into the other three skills mandated by this background event. She puts her remaining skill point into Swim, because until now, she never had the chance to learn.

Sorry... again! This time, I came into work this morning to find our entire communications grid down. Apparently, there was an accident outside the entrance to our campus and it knocked out phone and Internet on the entire street. However, we're back up now, so here is the latest chapter for your enjoyment (at least, I hope you're enjoying this; I really have no idea, as only one person has commented).

We go back to the religious background table this time, where the result is a 38; keeper of the dead. It seems that poor Analei just can’t get away from death. She doesn’t get a contact or an increase in Reputation, and though Knowledge (religion) makes the most sense to add to a check for recognition, she can’t meet the DC of 30. However, she does get a new feat this level, and is required to put it into Extra Turning. Of her 4 skill points, 2 go into Concentration, leaving 1 point each for Knowledge (religion) and Spellcraft.

My apologies for the tardiness of this post. It's a day off for me and I completely forgot about putting up the next advancement.

I think I’m going to keep her in the fighting for one more level. A roll of 68 on the military events table indicates a siege. This gives her a level of fighter. She gets a bonus feat for her first fighter level, so I’ll take Power Attack, and she puts at least 1 point into each of the required skills (with the extra point going into Profession (siege engineer)). She doesn’t merit a contact yet, but this event does increase her reputation by 1/2 point. Sadly, with a roll of 5, she still doesn’t manage to get any form of recognition.