John Finlay

During Under the Bus, John Finlay played Clowe. John was an intermittent player, so Clowe was not consistently present throughout the campaign. When he was there, his rogue abilities filled a useful role that the regular party otherwise often lacked.

Campaign Anecdotes

The Dragon-Hoard Lock

After killing the red dragons, the party discovered what appeared to be the entrance to their hoard: a dragon carving with a large keyhole.

Naturally, they sent Clowe to open it.

John failed to locate the needle trap hidden inside the lock and was poisoned on his first attempt. He made the initial saving throw, but after an unsuccessful attempt by Malachi to help treat the poison, John rolled a natural 1 on his second save and took 10 points of Strength damage.

He shook it off and went right back to picking the lock.

The lock proved extremely difficult. Tashiro loaned Clowe his Gloves of Dexterity, Dugan assisted him, and John eventually succeeded by taking 20 to reach the necessary DC 40.

Having learned something from the experience, Clowe and Dugan searched for traps again before proceeding. This time they found another trap in the dragon carving's mouth. Clowe disabled it, and the party finally opened the passage into the dragon's enormous treasure hoard.

Scouting the War Between Cain and Filtiarn

After a disastrous battle with Cain's vampires, the party found themselves cut off from the Sunchaser by a massive battle taking place outside.

Because Clowe was a rogue and had darkvision from his Chosen abilities, the party sent John ahead to scout.

Clowe successfully sneaked close enough to discover an enormous battle between an undead army and a force of werewolves numbering at least around a thousand, with still more werewolves pouring through a glowing purple portal. He even spotted Cain personally fighting among the undead.

John decided he had seen enough and returned to the party.

His report convinced everyone that attempting to cross the battlefield at that point would be a very bad idea.

John vs. the Mother Dragon

During the battle against the mother red dragon, Clowe positioned himself between the dragon and Bo Duke.

Unfortunately, the dragon wanted Bo.

She used Awesome Blow to knock Clowe out of her way so she could get past him and attack Bo.

Later, when the dragon needed to escape the party's flanking position, John was in her way again.

So she knocked him out of the way again.

Clowe thus spent part of the battle functioning as an obstacle the dragon repeatedly had to move.

Joining the Lich Fight

John missed the beginning of the party's disastrous battle against the lich but joined the next session with the fight already well underway. By that point, Dew and Malachi had been turned to stone, Kamal had been driven insane, and Bo was trapped by a Bigby's Grasping Hand.

Unfortunately, the lich's damage reduction made Clowe essentially ineffective against the creature itself.

Instead, John helped Bo attack the Hand. Together they finally destroyed it and freed Bo.

The lich promptly responded by casting Evard's Black Tentacles.

John and Bo were immediately grappled again.

Attendance

John played intermittently rather than as a regular member of the group, which accounts for Clowe's uneven appearances in the surviving campaign record. In a July 2011 email, John noted that he had missed pretty much the entire year and hoped to resume playing after Renaissance ended in October.