TJ

TJ played Dew Gooder, the cleric of Demmazon, in the Under the Bus campaign.

TJ had a tendency toward plans that were sometimes clever, sometimes questionable, and occasionally memorable enough that the campaign recaps specifically called them out as his ideas. Dew's access to divination magic also gave TJ opportunities to pursue information and schemes that sometimes drove the party's decisions.

Memorable Moments

Rolling Down the Pyramid

During the destruction of the wolf pyramid, the party was desperately trying to escape as the structure collapsed beneath them. The stairs down the side of the pyramid consisted of ten-foot drops.

Dew fell prone while jumping down one of the steps. Rather than waste time standing back up, TJ decided Dew would simply roll off the next ledge.

And then the next one.

And the next one.

Dew proceeded to roll off the successive ten-foot drops until he finally reached the bottom of the pyramid.

Fortunately, he had already cast Water Walk on most of the party, allowing everyone to regroup on the water and escape to the raft while the pyramid collapsed behind them.

TJ's Hairbrained Interrogation

After Dew used Commune to question Demmazon, TJ confirmed something the party had suspected for some time: there really was a traitor aboard the Sunchaser.

The revelation prompted a lengthy argument over how to handle the situation. Some wanted to interrogate the crew openly, while others wanted to quietly watch for suspicious behavior. Eventually the party voted, and the majority decided to do nothing for the moment.

TJ, Jones, and Tammy decided to conduct the interrogations anyway.

Since TJ was the strongest advocate for concealing what they were doing for as long as possible, they followed his plan. Dew cast Zone of Truth during the interviews while Smah Tepants used Detect Thoughts. TJ was determined to be thorough and decided that Dew should question essentially everyone he had not grown up with—including longtime allies such as Marcus and Demetrius.

Marcus and Demetrius were understandably insulted that after everything they had been through with the party, they were suddenly being treated as potential traitors. Other members of the crew were upset as well.

The interrogations ultimately failed to identify the traitor.

The contemporary campaign recap summed up the aftermath succinctly: the party chalked the whole thing up to “one of TJ's hairbrained ideas” and moved on.

Lying to the Traitor

TJ's response to discovering there was a traitor aboard the ship was not entirely hairbrained.

Dew's Commune had also provided important information about The Aegisstaff and the party's journey to the End of the World. Knowing that the unknown traitor could be listening, TJ deliberately announced false information in front of the crew, claiming that the Aegisstaff might still be on Godsmount and that they were going to the End of the World because it might be there as well.

Only afterward did he privately tell the party what he had actually learned from Demmazon.

The idea was simple: if the traitor passed information to the party's enemies, TJ wanted some of that information to be wrong.

Arguing With Samos in Front of Samos

When the party met Samos, they found themselves in an extremely difficult position. They did not trust him, but after discussing their options at length, most of the party concluded that they effectively had no choice but to pretend to join him if they wanted to continue pursuing their objectives.

They returned to Samos prepared to accept his offer.

TJ chose this moment to argue vehemently that they should not join Samos.

In front of Samos.

The rest of the party ended up extensively arguing with TJ until they finally convinced him that they had little practical choice. Several party members then made equally unconvincing declarations that they were joining Samos only because they had to.

Samos was not impressed by the display of loyalty.

The Ceremony of Preparation

During the party's dealings with the kuo-toa, they were required to participate in a strange Ceremony of Preparation before confronting the Great Turtle.

Aquatic elf slaves entered carrying food, oils, unguents, and perfumes. The original campaign recap specifically records that TJ asked whether the slave girls were hot.

The answer was yes.

Later in the ceremony, when the slaves offered the party sex, Bo Duke declined, claiming that his body was a temple.

TJ had a rather different reaction.

The recap describes Dew as throwing himself “enthusiastically” into the proceedings. TJ and Noel even both offered to take Bo's slave girl as well if Ray wasn't going to use her.

The following morning provided a less pleasant conclusion to Dew's evening. The ceremonial food had indeed been poisoned, and although nearly everyone had eaten it, TJ was the only player to fail the Fortitude save. Dew consequently suffered Wisdom damage.

Three Failed Castings

During the battle against Deskin, TJ repeatedly needed to cast healing spells defensively while threatened.

The required roll was not particularly intimidating: TJ needed only a 6 or better on a d20.

He failed.

Then he tried again.

He failed again.

Then he tried a third time.

He failed again.

TJ managed to fail three consecutive defensive casting checks despite needing only a 6 or better each time.

The Healing Fight

During another battle with the werewolves, TJ and Jones—who were the party's two primary healers—somehow ended up separated from everyone else and engaged in what the contemporary recap described as a “healing fight.”

Thus, while the rest of the party was busy fighting the actual enemy, both of their healers were off by themselves healing each other and leaving everyone else to fend for themselves.

The surviving recap doesn't provide enough detail to reconstruct exactly how the situation developed, but apparently the sight of the party's two healers occupied with one another while everyone else fought was memorable enough to make the session's battle highlights.