The Fall of the Mindjacker

 This entry, and thus this blog, was inspired as I read another blog about someone else's campaign of horror...

http://irolledazero.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-sue-system-rise-of-marty.html

Go ahead and read it, it's scary, and it reminded me of this story.

Events in this, like in all things I post are true to the limit of my point of view. Some of it, particularly the things the "Cheater" was doing off on his solo sessions I only know about second hand from the DM. Of course I admit bias in my own view as I have no real idea what was going on through his head and could only look on in horror through my own eyes as he did these things.



The Fall of the Mindjacker

Whole thing with the "blood donor" reminded me of a similar sort of person I had the displeasure to play with. Not only blatantly cheating with badly baked dice to make almost his every roll a crit (We were playing a homebrewed setting for Anima: Beyond Fantasy, which if you don't know is d100 based and has exploding crits, roll a 90+, roll again and add to it, 91+ on that? Roll again and add again, 92+ on that... you see how it goes. He routinely had roll results of like 800-1000... also why he grabbed the "I can get godlike results" right from the start, as normally you're limited in how hard you can succeed as a "mere mortal", needing to get Inhumanity and Zen first to get a higher cap on your ability).

Well our DM had told me, a newbie to the system about Sheeles and how you gain power from it, minor effects, etc (Before they actually released the book revealing all of what Sheeles really were and we were kind of running them like some sort of soul bonded super familiar that rode around inside your body most of the time giving us access to unique powers/effects). My character was a Dark Paladin being played as kind of an adventuring Bard from the frozen north, a distant vaguely undefined land the DM hadn't really fleshed out, and gave me free reign to make up cultural details. We were in the Fantasy Egypt version of the Desert, and looked like we weren't leaving anytime soon. I got tired of having to make checks against sunstroke, etc.

So one night while we're camping and I'm "on watch" I use my Summoning powers to summon a very minor "Spirit of the Desert" to sheele with in hopes it'd give me some acclimatization of some sort. I had to convince it that it was worth Sheeling with me... which I failed to the point where I had to impress it in some random encounter with Evil Sand Spirit Zombie things that came after us (And really began my streak of realizing I had terrible luck in this game and had to depend on good RPing and sound planning to overcome bad dice). But I did, it agreed, I got my power.

Now this cheating asshat... I never did figure out what "Class" he was supposed to be until after the campaign and I asked the DM. Supposedly he was the Jack of All Trades class, Novelist or something they call it, I can't quite remember anything about it except that has completely average stats all around. I had figured him as a Paladin type or Warrior-Summoner since literally all I ever saw him do was make AoE attack with his Halbred (Since he had a martial art that gave him those AoE sweeps) and like twice summon up a monster to just one shot a guy (Not that he did this all that often, twice at the start of the campaign, and twice more later on to summon things he wanted to negotiate with, but honestly his response to combat 99% of the time was "I make an AoE attack with my Halbred"). Oh, also, his behavior to the introduction of any female NPC:

"What's her appearance score?" *DM looks up, we're running on 1d20 for an appearance basis* "Oh it's 16." "SEDUCTION ROLL!" No attempt to RP any sort of seduction, not even cheesy lines or something, just picks up the dice, throws it, and asks what his 900 result on his Persuasion check does. That sort of play always irked me, but generally I accept it because sometimes people don't want to put down the effort to RP some masterful bit of dialogue, or at least dialogue seems like it at the time, just to crit fail the dice and have the effort go to naught.

Anyway, this guy, he's been basically been collecting every Female NPC we've come across as his Harem Slaves due to his cheated Persuasion checks. But after I sheele up with the Desert Spirit, finally getting my desert immunity (And a few minor powers I abused later like sand manipulation and some sand attacks/barriers), with him having slept through it, decides he has to one up me. I sheeled with a minor desert spirit? He's going to sheele with the "Queen of the Succubi". Which he summons up with his cheaty roll. And then 'seduces' with his cheaty roll. Finds out the Queen there (Who ends up becoming a major plot NPC later on due to our actions rather than DM will) has to power to effectively mindjack people. Immediately uses it to "seduce" the two women he was already traveling with into an orgy with him and the queen. Granted I was there too, but he couldn't have another guy involved, that might be gay after all... -_- But clearly I was in the AoE of this Mindjacking so he had to do something with it. Decided that he wanted my character to jack off to the sight of him with three women... -_- Remember this being while I was supposed to be sleeping after having been on watch for half the night, bone tired, and instead of getting the rest I needed I ended up forced to play into his ego stroking (In character, out of character I didn't really care beyond the mild annoyance that always comes with mental manipulation basically rewriting my character for me, as nothing about the proud, stubborn, business minded bardic veteran adventurer suggested he was just into that).

Course, it goes on from there. Keep in mind this is the character as the guy described it to me in the beginning:

He is the Rightful Heir of some kingdom that got taken over by rebels. His kingdom worshiped the "Goddess of Seduction" as this jolly happy love, peace, and joy place.

Fine by me. Standard stuff, bit sexual but standard "Place was ruled by happy good divine law, then people came and took away his fancy hat" thing. I don't really have a problem with the sex in RPGs myself, I tend not to make it the focus, but I don't punish players for wanting to play the guy who hooks up with random townies or who wants to have some grand romance with the princess he saved from the evil wizard, whatever. Good to go. He said he was "Completely Lawful Good", and sought to return himself to his rightful throne and free the land of the tyranny of the rebel faction.

Now... when we get to the next town he literally splits off to "do his shopping"... which ends up being him using his new Sheele Mindjacking Powers to "seduce" (Since you know, their minds were hijacked and thus didn't have a choice but to give into their lust for him that he programmed into them) every single woman of acceptable appearance score into some massive days long orgy while we were in town with him as the only guy. Made slightly more offensive on top of that to my sensibilities as his Sheele, the Queen of the Succubi, literally said "If I do not have male essences regularly, I'll die". So he was effectively starving her to death, someone who was basically the equivalent of Michael, Archangel and right hand of his Goddess, merely because he didn't want to deal with the "Am I gay?" question for doing right by his soul partner. As a side note I treated my Sheele the same way I treated all my NPCs. Tools, yes, but useful ones I wanted to be actually beholden to me out of respect and loyalty, and if helping them with their goals/desires not only makes them more powerful, but more likely to want to help me? Go for it. Which is why by the end of the campaign my level 1 Sand Spirit had ranked up to be a respectable spirit of Nature that was magnitudes more powerful than it ever was to start with. 

Meanwhile my character is off actually getting plot accomplished, he's becoming something of "The Leader" as the various NPCs that the other guy has attracted to our team (And abandoned, as soon as he found a girl NPC he found more attractive than his last one, he basically abandoned and forgot about the last one except for 'orgy' scenes) are being trained, equipped, and treated like actual human beings who might be able to help us put down the Orkoid invasions, the sand demons, and stop the end of the world. Including the Bloodline Princess of the kingdom we're in, as I've taken what was kind of a prissy but good aligned, mostly useless character and turned her into the White Mage of healing, water magic, and ass kicking with a sense of greater responsibility as a noble, the need to set an example and take a lead in shaping her fate rather than just doing things because she's supposed to/told to.

This also includes me summoning up (Through ritual and a lot of help and prep work, and a bit of luck, as I wasn't stupidly brazen enough to just depend on the dice), basically the Arch Spirit of the Desert, Nature, Goodness, etc, to help me out with finding out the Secret Weakness of the evil artifact causing all of the stuff we're dealing with. Managed to get her help, key information, etc, after quite a bit of hard RPing. Only to have my 'teammate' suddenly show up and just Mindjack "seduce" her... yes, lets rape the one being who has both the power and inclination to actually help us win. -_-

(Also this is part of another irksome pattern that developed. He had a lighter version of what one RPGer and I used to call in our youthful ignorance "RP Quantum Superpositioning". It spawned due to this player wanting to always be "where the action was", where the shiniest loot was, where all the cool things were happening, that to the point where people split up in a town to get downtime stuff done, or for whatever reason they split up here was the standard conversation we'd have with him:

DM: Okay, where are you all going?
Player 1: To the bar, score some wenches!
Player 2: To the Temple to pray and research new spells.
Player 3: To the market to sell our loot.
Player 4: To the local lord to volunteer my time helping train with the guard/knights, keep the peace, etc. 
Quantum RPer: I go with the party.
DM: ... they party is splitting up in 4 different direction. Who are you going with?
Quantum RPer: Them.
DM: The market?
Quantum RPer: Sure.
*stuff happens*
DM: And now there's a bar fight at the tavern with Player 1!
Quantum RPer: I draw my blade and attack these drunken hobos!
DM: Aren't you at the market?
Quantum RPer: No, I told you I was with the party, I was always there!
DM: Pretty sure you said the market.
Quantum RPer throws out some complaints until finally you let him just always have been at the Bar because the fight is the most exciting thing and he'll sulk if he's denied it. So he's in combat.
*After that*
DM: Okay Player 3, while selling your loot you manage to find what you think could be a magic weapon more powerful than the merchant realizes among his "minor magical items" rack, mistakenly thought of as a +2 Longsword when it's really as near as you can figure a +2 Holy Flaming Demonbane Protection from Evil Longsword.
Quantum RPer: I take the sword and I kill the merchant if he won't let me haggle down the price to an 'acceptable' level beyond his already mistaking it for a +2 Longsword.
DM: Aren't you in the bar beating up guys? 
Quantum RPer: No, I told you I'm with the party!

Similarly this guy had a related problem. Anything I did, as he saw me as "His sidekick" rather than "Fellow Adventurer" had to be less cool than what he did. If I summoned up a beast, he had to summon up a better beast. If I solo'd an Ogre, he had to solo 3 ogres and kill them with a single blow. In this case, along with the sheele thing, and a couple of others, his character was basically trying to "out do" me and one up my actions on things that he had no idea I had even done. He was sleeping when I conducted my ritual, summoned up this great spirit (Who just happened to be Female looking), got answers from it, and basically helped solve the plot. Well, he couldn't out solve the plot on me, I solved it. There's not a higher value of solving it. So he decides he'll one up me by having sex with this spirit because that's what female things are for. Not that it's one upping me as I had no interest in "defiling" a holy spirit.

So as it looked to me ICily... he was sleeping, I did something important, and got answers. I woke him up for his shift on watch. He basically said "watch this" and for no reason what so ever, he had never been around when we discussed this spirit before, made plans, wasn't part of the ritual or the preparation, had no way at all to even know it existed, etc. He just summons up the being I worked for days to call up with a snap of his fingers. Makes a roll and due to his lack of Roleplay I can presume only came down to him basically pointing at his genitals and screaming out "SERVICE ME!!!" to what is effectively a demi god, gets away with it, and is getting off on having me watch it happen and realizing I'm just never going to be as cool as he is.)

Now, we knew from my work that this artifact effectively Ate Souls and Spat Out Demons that we were after. That the only way to defeat it for good was to go into the artifact on some sort of mystical ritual and defeat the arch daemon who was bound inside it, etc, etc, etc. But yeah. ATE SOULS. Also that it was weak to "light" and "earth", considering it was a spirit of darkness evil and necromancy.

So my esteemed adventuring buddy decided when we faced the wizard villain using this artifact (I still can't remember his name, just that I called him the Purple Armored Douchebag), he decided that he would take what was his best "ally" and accomplice, the Queen of the Succubi, a pure spirit and thus exactly what the artifact eats up, and tell her to "Grapple and sex him" him "as a distraction". Basically feeding one of our most powerful allies (Or could have been if he had been using it for anything other than Rape) to her death just so he could get a free turn to show off how hardcore he was and solo the boss wizard.

My character being actually Lawful Evil (Not that anyone remembered he was evil... because I mean come on, who expects the one NOT mindjacking people and raping them in a team is the evil one?), knew the value of good minions, and that loyalty was built on the bonds of teamwork, law, order, etc. So he risked the AoE Doom Field around the wizard to drag the Queen of the Succubi to safety before she totally died off. Used a bit of his precious Zeon (MP effectively in Anima, but it regens SUPER slow, like you need weeks to recover it if you burn it off... and I needed ever bit for the upcoming fight) to heal her so she wouldn't die from the wounds inflicted so far. Then entered the artifact to actually get shit done while the other guy showed off against the wizard.

It was an oddly anticlimatic fight for a final boss. I didn't have the zeon remaining to actually summon up our trump card, the Desert Spirit of Holy and Nature to slap down the demon. So I just tried to pray to it and hope that prayer would give my weapons some sort of blessing that would make them more effective against the demon... instead it popped her into the artifact where she just owned the demon and transformed the evil Relic into what my character ended up calling the "Hammer of Elizisha" (The spirit I called), a great holy weapon/relic of power that became one of my best tools and plot devices through the game.

But I came out of the artifact basically drained. I was tending to the wounds of the Succubus (And the Princess NPC who had been my chief ally and protege, also former 'lover' of the other NPC), basically making sure we don't all bleed out, while he tries to claim the hammer and gloat about how he now has unlimited power, once he unlocks its secrets, and how he might "finally free his homeland" with this power... I think he wanted the demon summoning that we saw it using before for reasons revealed later.

We also had one other player joining our group for that session, who wanted to join permanently. I didn't mention his contributions because they were kind of minor. We were all second level at that point, and due to the guy's cheaty rolls the Wizard was OP as hell to make it a "Fair" fight. So the guy who was an Archer Assassin and not cheating basically was entirely useless. Between my Getting Shit Done using all the leg work I had put in (That he didn't know about or wanted a part of) the obvious cheating, and the fact that said cheater also tried to claim all the loot (I was too weak to really fight him on it, and the assassin was helpless before the cheating power, as when the Assassin told him "No, I don't want to give up the hammer to you!", the player in question pulled out his dice and said he rolled Intimidate until he gave him the hammer... which annoys me even more because yeah, cheating either way and social skills against PCs are one of my peeves as is, but the IC implication is he didn't even try to ask nicely with Persuasion but just threatened and browbeat this man into cowing before his obvious superiority and desires), the Assassin's Player basically said "Fuck it, I'm done" and never came back.

Why didn't I clock out? The DM was a great guy, a good friend. When I wasn't having to deal directly with the cheater, it was a great game. It was also the reason I found as much excuse as possible to split the party.

In the end I realized that the DM's plot aside, the Real Villain was my fellow player. It was a classic story. He's cruel, he sees people as objects for his amusements, he has powers that cannot be rivaled (By cheating, which ICily I had even started to comment on about how the stars clearly had marked him, etc), he was willing to do whatever he could to accomplish his goals, and what were his goals? To get power. To make himself as powerful and as worshiped as possible.

But I knew I couldn't just take him in a fight. He'd just cheat the rolls and squash me like a bug (Though I did find out later that there was a hilarious power in the Free Magics that I could have eventually gained that would let me redirect his own attacks at his head, making his Cheaty Rolls work against him... Against non-cheaters it would be an insignificant and random power, against his "I roll 1000 attack" and the fact that his attack stat was slightly higher than his defense, it meant that after he rolled his attack it was an auto hit against him, making it a power that seemed to exist only for the express purpose of being a magic bullet to kill him, eventually I got the power just for that reason and never used it, holding it for the final showdown against him so it would totally be a surprise). So I went about the plan to just destroy him by the power of Good Roleplaying.

First off, neutralizing his Trump Card at the time, his go to weapon of Mindjacking, the Queen of the Succubi. This was... incredibly easy. On our way back from the adventure, victorious, the Queen found reasons to remain "Manifested" as much as possible and hang on me. It SEEMS that keeping someone from being destroyed forever by a soul devouring demon makes them like you... Keep in mind in this setting as well that the Goddess of Seduction was a Good Aligned Goddess, and as such Succubi aren't evil. Least aren't supposed to be. With her help I stole back the "Hammer of Elizisha" from my new Villain and made plans with her. She was starving to death effectively after all (Like 2 weeks without 'food' at this point). So I could feed her, which I did. I used the powers of RPing rather than Dicerolling (Because I rolled like shit for the most part) to 'seduce' her by not being an ass and actually helping her out to the point where she ended up effectively breaking her bond with my teammate (Not that she told him, and he didn't really notice because he was too engrossed in his newest conquests), and giving me a direct line to the Goddess of Seduction, etc, to the point where I started Gaining Elan (Basically in Anima the power to pop miracles off in someone's ass just because a Divine Force likes the cut of your jib and may or may not have bumped uglies with one of your distant ancestors). And since my entire long term goal involved making peace (Under my rule of course, because Evil), etc, that was in line with her goals, I kept gaining Elan and Elan related powers (Which I liked as they avoided me having to roll dice for effects, and using Elan Powers didn't use up any resources. I did my damnedest to get the most mileage I could out of it).... I think by the end of the Campaign I was ranked in her like top 50 people of all time with Elan 80+ or something, effective High Priest of her "Cult", and preaching his brand of her Faith (More peace, less rapey) to the world. I had aligned a "Nexus Point" to the Goddess of Seduction where we had accidentally cause a huge font of Zeon by simultaneously having the Queen of the Succubi, the Prince of the Incubi, the Holy Spirit of Nature and Beauty, and the Demon Prince of Slaughter all in the same place as the same time and unleashed some truly titanic magics to banish said Demon Prince, found her lost favored artifact, preached the Peace that she always wanted but hadn't gotten, etc.

Similarly I took all of his old conquests that he tossed aside, helped them remember that, yes, he raped them. And yes, he's a terrible person, and started gathering a huge network of contacts. Because he had a weird thing where he wanted powerful women. So the women he seduced were all queens, princesses, high priestesses, generals, etc. (Said DM who's more expert in these matters said he was doing something normally frowned upon by "the scene" in "Domming from the Bottom" where he wanted the trappings of these powerful women tying him down and other bondage stuff... but that their wills were basically broken, entirely beholden to him and he was in fact the "Master" who's every word they hung on. Doesn't surprise me.)

At this point we've basically been splitting the DM's time. We're all off on separate adventures in the same setting, meeting at different times to run our adventures, pretty much unaware of what the other was doing (excepting the broad strokes I was gettign from my spy contacts and information network). What I was doing:

Gathering up all the people he's pissed off. Using my "Bardic" nature (Yes I literally was a wandering storyteller and performer) to spread propaganda throughout the land about how he's this grand villain who traffics with demons and defiles holy spirits, mindjacks people, etc, etc, etc. Working as an ambassador of sorts. I'm the "puppetmaster", as I attribute all of MY heroics to the Princess I'm traveling with, making her out to be this god like figure who actually knows it isn't her. But the Princess has dreams of peace and unity, and realizes that I'm helping her do it, people wouldn't trust an "outsider" from this far off land covered in snow, etc. Plus Romance subplot where our relation slowly bloomed over months and there was an implicit trust and love between us. We're uniting all the warring tribes in our Alliance, and I'm giving them an enemy to focus on. The other Player.

... now during this time the other player (After I destroyed the second evil artifact before he could claim its power as his own, yes, I'm missing an adventure arc or two before this with its own bullshit here)... decided his level 4 ass, who always gets "Godlike Results", now has enough power to achieve his true goal. What was it? He's going to invade the realm of the Goddess of Seduction, the Goddess he's supposed to venerate and worship by the way... and try to Mindjack her. Of course my Succubus Ally does let him into the realm... but doesn't mindjack a goddess... not that she could anyway, but she doesn't want to. Nor do I want her to. So he tries to rely on his Persuasion check. Those that know Anima know that beings like a Goddess have something called "Gnosis" where basically they can (in limited fashion) rewrite reality. So she just laughed in his face and said No, returning him back to the mortal world as the mere human goes all "Be my sex slave and give me all your power!".

So thrown back to reality he decides he has to settle for MERELY reclaiming his throne at the head of one of the largest empires of the setting... But there's a problem, there are rebels in control. And people actually LIKE the rebels in control. He can't just kill a couple and claim dominion and have everyone cheer for him as he found out. I like to think people liked the Rebels in command as their women were no longer being kidnapped and dragged off to the castle to be sexed then executed when he's done with them...

So his brilliant plan to defeat the rebels? Summon up a legion of demons to be his army against the Paladins of the Rebels. He's surprised when a legion of demons basically look at his level 5 ass, who supposedly worships a god opposed to them, and goes "Yeah, thanks for the ticket to the mortal world, now fuck off, we're rampaging!!!"

So now he has not only rebels to deal with, who are fighting demons, but the demons as well if he ever wants to reclaim his empire. After thinking, plotting, and planning, what is his solution? Track down this Ancient Dragon, wake it up, say, "Serve me bitch and kill my enemies!"

Level 5 character, Ancient Dragon. One the DM warned him every step of the way not to mess with because Ancient Dragons were badass, hardcore, not to be fucked with. But he wakes it up and makes a demand. The Dragon who has been slumbering for centuries just laughs at him, and is kind of grumpy and hungry so he decides to attack. Cheater is like "Well screw the dragon, I'll just kill it with my godlike results!" He swings his halbred, his standard solution to everything he can't/doesn't want to mindjack and seduce at this point, and it shatters.

... cue the session grinding to a halt and him whining about it for 45 minutes and begging the DM to "reset" the game to before waking it up because this wasn't fair and he was going to die. Not like he had any hints, like the DM telling him "... this thing will eat you, and you won't be able to fight back against it at all..." point blank for a few hours.

In the end it's decided to let the Cheater escape Dragony Death by running away. So now this "Empire" he wants to claim is: In the hands of Rebels with popular support and holy paladins (How he never figured that him, looking to demons for answers and power, to use against Holy Paladins that the people like, is actually an Evil Villain I won't ever really understand). Is being invaded by a legion of demons on a rampage. Is also being snacked on by an Ancient Dragon who is hungry as hell that no one can stop.

His solution? Well this time he's going to summon up something we BARELY put down as a team. With Artifact help, and NPC help. The "Demon Prince Zanarack" or something, the Demon Prince of Indiscriminate Slaughter and Bloodshed basically. Because it clearly will follow his orders. Despite trying to kill us all last time we saw it, and the fact that he helped banish it last time and it might not like him.

.... suffice to say it doesn't listen to him. So now there's Rebel Paladin Orders, Demons, Ancient Dragon, and Fully Manifested Demon Prince gaining even more power off of all the killing rampaging through what is quickly becoming the ruins of his birthright empire.

In the end I lead my army of the Willing to free the Empire of, well... everything trying to kill it. Culminating in a showdown with the Player in question. The DM was kind of burnt out at this point so we didn't get the full conflict, nor did I get to use my full plan of Screwing him. It ended up in the first session that everyone gathered for in about 6 months, including a player who had quit due to the Cheater Bullshit earlier (Not the Assassin Archer, a later one). It got abstracted out as a couple of dice rolls and him telling us the result (I'm convinced if I had more narrative control I probably would have done better than losing 40% of my army, but not that much better as the dice hated me). In the end his latest Harem Minion got killed, and he got badly damaged, and was given a choice, Death or Exile (I probably wouldn't have given him the choice, just gimped him as hard as I could, Anti-Magic everything, and throw him in the equivalent of Fantasy Supermax Prison where he'd live the rest of his life unable to seduction roll anyone or possibly pass onto some neat afterlife until long after he had withered, maybe gone insane, or had a chance to even repent and ask his Goddess for forgiveness...then again I was playing an evil character and was in an Evil Righteous Rage at the time). He chose exile. It was revealed to him that basically he was the "Villain" at least as everyone thought of it. And that I had successfully united a continent that had known almost nothing but constant strife and warfare between the various kingdoms at one point or another into a peaceful coalition... with the Princess (And myself as her husband) at the head of, making them unite to fight the great Evil that was his character, and learn to cooperate and understand each other a bit better by having people of different creeds, nationalities, etc, working side by side for a common goal. 

... this made him cry. Legit cry, as all of the Crimes he had been accused of were listed off. He whined that I "pulled a Watchmen" on him by uniting the world against a made up villain, that he'd get revenge against me someday (Still hasn't happened), and even told me that he didn't think we could ever play RPGs together again.

... but scariest of all?  He couldn't understand how I could have accused his character of Rape. I explained that if you're using Magic to "Seduce" a women so she can't say no, and has to do what you say, and you use that power to have sex with her... yeah, that'd be rape. Which only got responses of "NO! That was SEDUCTION!"...

...

...

...

It scares me to this day thinking he's still running around in life with that attitude.

To be honest, it was a fun game. Lots of neat little bits. It was of course due to the actions of the Cheater (And me just rolling with the punches, including partnering up with a Succubus Queen) a very sexual game. As long as I wasn't dealing directly with the Cheater, and his later admitted attitude of "... well yeah I'm the hero." "What about everyone else?" "Well you're just my sidekicks." bit that added a lot of unneeded hate and tension, I had a lot of fun with it. A lot of it is still memorable. Great NPCs, good setting with nice details, it wasn't trying too hard to be clever like is often the problem with homebrewed settings. But a great DM who was willing to realize when the assigned plot he had needed to be dropped to deal with the sandbox elements and plotline of dealing with the out of control evil player, etc. Always willing to let us try stuff and derails things to go see what we wanted to see.

... also it was one of my favorite times playing an "Evil" character. In part because when the end came and I revealed I had intended to put down my "teammate" like a Rabid Dog everyone at the last session quite literally had their O_o faces going. I had seemed so "Heroic" up to that point. I risked my life to protect allies. I built a coalition based on peace and cooperation, I actually treated the NPCs with respect and helped them, I was the divine chosen servant of a Good Aligned Goddess... People had forgotten I was Lawful Evil, and thought me Lawful Good. I had told everyone first session when they asked that I was Lawful Evil. And with the caveat of "Well he's a team player, he's lawful. He's not going to backstab anyone just over trinkets or something, he values teamwork, loyalty, and honesty, etc" (Really the Evil part was just a reason for me to indulge in the chance to scheme and possibly seize power, if I was Lawful Good, or even Neutral, that usually means a level of humility that would prevent me from becoming "king by my own hand", more or less, and I wanted that story of the vagabond bard who does things that might be a bit brutal, definitely not "good" all the time, and ends up in that Conan-esque style of a leader.... who then maybe realizes he never wanted it and his grand epilogue is walking off into the sunset to do what he really liked, building up Heroes and Villains, manipulating but not ruling). I had to reveal to them my character sheet, printed off as it was on Level 1 which did say "Alignment: Lawful Evil" just to remind them. I did good things... but I also seized power. I didn't fuck the world over, but I ended up building a titanic, continent spanning empire where I was effectively it's ruler, based on my own "twisted" morality of things like Punishment Fitting the Crime (I abolished in those areas that had it the "All crimes are death" sort of nonsense as he saw it), the idea of bloodline establishing position in society but instead being based on Experience and Aptitude (So yes, screwed my own children so they didn't get to be Emperor when I kicked the bucket, also meant they had no reason to assassinate me, and he didn't have too much concern about what happened to an Empire possibly quibbling after he was gone about who was the best replacement, he had what he wanted in making the memorable story of the Empire's rise to power), and so on. But always with the sticking price of absolute Law and Order, and my character controlling it from the shadows, until he grew tired of it and wanted to move onto the next great adventure story (As technically/legally the true ruler was the Princess I had married, I had no real "power" over her other than the fact that she respected my character and our shared love).

I'm told that the Cheater eventually begged the DM for another campaign sequel where he tries to come back from Exile to "bring [my character] to justice for his crimes". But the DM had enough of his shit and made him use different dice. Considering his entire build was based on him just rolling out 900s or something on the dice, he was wholly ineffective now that his level 5 character had to deal with his only 20 ranks in dodge or something actually mattering. He couldn't even handle NPCs meant for second level characters. And thus quit his "revenge" campaign because his character was "nerfed" into uselessness.