Nate

Nate created Tim as a Monty Python wizard joke. Tim subsequently became the party's leader, resident researcher, negotiator, and strategic planner.

Campaign Anecdotes

Bat Moon Wolf Dances at Midnight

At some point during the campaign, the party needed to send a secret message to their allies concerning Cain and Filtiarn. The exact circumstances are no longer remembered, but the resulting coded message was:

"Bat moon wolf dances at midnight to Cain's return on Godsmount."

The Poisoned Combination Lock

After defeating Deskin, the party discovered a locked chest containing his accumulated spoils. Unfortunately, they did not have a rogue with them and spent considerable time trying to figure out how to open it.

Nate attempted to enter a combination into the lock.

He got it wrong and poisoned himself.

He then tried again, got it wrong again, and poisoned himself a second time.

Eventually the party abandoned the more sophisticated approach and opened the chest with a crowbar.

Steal the Whole Chest

Tim and Josh infiltrated a werewolf army by magically disguising themselves as wolves. After discovering that enemy wizards were using scrolls to excavate a tunnel toward The Gap, they snuck into the wizards' tent while two of them were sleeping.

While searching through their belongings, Nate accidentally woke one of the wizards.

Rather than stick around to explain himself, Tim grabbed an entire travel chest belonging to one of the wizards and used Dimension Door to escape.

When they later searched the stolen chest, they discovered that Nate had made off not only with the wizard's clothing and miscellaneous equipment, but also his spellbooks.

That's Thorn

At the End of the World, the party encountered an extremely dirty old dwarf working the ground with a hoe. The dwarf was thoroughly uninterested in the adventurers or their problems and repeatedly told them to leave him alone.

At one point Tim asked what the dwarf knew about Thorn Runehammer, the ancient dwarven king and Gift Bearer. The question earned him a narrowed look and a dismissive response.

As the contemporary campaign recap put it, Nate decided "for no reason whatsoever" that the dwarf was Thorn and began calling him that, much to the dwarf's annoyance.

Nate was right.

Protecting Orinder from Thorn

After Thorn Runehammer finally revealed his identity, he introduced the party to Kelestaria, whom he presented as his daughter. Thorn made it abundantly clear that he was extremely protective of her and warned the party against getting any ideas about the attractive young woman.

Nate then noticed Orinder staring at Kelestaria with a hopelessly lovestruck expression.

Before Thorn could notice where Orinder was looking, Nate quickly changed the subject by asking about the lodge Orinder's exploration party had discovered elsewhere in the forest.

The Dire Bear Stalemate

While trying to gain access to an ancient temple of Demmazon, the party challenged Lunara to a game of Battle Chess. Nate was playing the party's king.

The party eventually maneuvered themselves into a position where Tim and John could attack Lunara, who was serving as the opposing king. The plan went badly. Lunara's abilities neutralized John's sneak attacks, her spell resistance defeated some of Tim's most powerful magic, including Disintegrate, and Nate had already expended most of the spells that might have helped in another attempt.

The party appeared to be headed for defeat.

Nate came up with another solution.

Tim used Polymorph to transform himself into a Dire Bear, grappled Lunara, and then, while still holding onto her, jumped off the side of the Battle Chess board.

Both kings died.

The game ended in a stalemate.

Lunara was sufficiently impressed by the maneuver that she acknowledged it as clever, and the encounter ultimately helped convince her that the party might actually be capable of surviving against the Korvaks.