Editing Navero Ep1 (section)

===THE LAST PLAYER CHARACTERS: SERGA TERATIS, LAO TSU===

We had gotten out of the dwarf mines and asked a friendly friar we
met if he knew where the Orb of Spheres was.  He said he had heard it was in
this evil temple to the east (which just happened to be an enemy of his own
religion, as it turned out.)  We went over to investigate, and while we were
camped in the woods outside the temple grounds, a huge hairy hill in banded
mail walked up to our campfire.

'''Hill''': "Hello!"

'''All elves''': "AHHH!" ''(Assorted weapons drawn.)''

'''Dania''': "WHAT IN GODS NAME IS ''THAT'' THING?"

'''Hill''': "Aw, cute little elf-persons.  Can I sit down here?"

'''Navero''': "Uh, who are you?"

'''Hill''': "My name's Serga.  I won't eat you."

'''Dania''': "...uh, sure, fine.  Just stay over there."

Serga was a half-ogre fighter with a huge sword and not much cash.
The player illuminated us on his background.  Once upon a time, there was a
baby.  It was much worse than other babies: for one thing, it was larger.
It came in the wake of an Ogre raid on a human village.  The mother died in
childbirth, and her family left it out to starve.  A kindly and sickeningly
good elven mage who lived nearby took in the repulsive little foundling, and
tried to raise it as best she could, teaching it manners and social graces,
as it was obvious the child was going to have a rough life.  Serga moved out
on coming of age, and tried to open a restaurant; it was a spectacular lack
of success.  Taking some advice shouted at him to heart, he decided to put
his talents to work in a more suitable way, and became an adventurer.  

Serga did not get treated well by the elves, who regarded him with
much distaste (the humans thought he smelled, but were mostly indifferent.)
We went on to the temple, and were attacked by a pair of Slaad.

The Sladd were tough; one got killed after a lengthy battle, and then
the other vanished.  Seconds later, a delayed-blast Fireball went off in the
middle of the party.  Dania, Kortul, Navero, and Kory made their saves and
dived out of the main blast radius for half damage.  Razuli and Meth failed,
and were both killed.  Serga failed his save, took the blast at ground zero,
and lived.  The Sladd reappeared, and Serga jumped it and hacked it bits and
then jumped up and down on the bits until they didn't even go squish any
more.  Pretty good for a 3rd level character.

After it was over, Navero healed Serga's wounds.

'''Serga''': "Hey... you did something ''nice'' for me...  No one's ever done anything
nice for me..."

'''Navero''': "Well, uh.."

'''Serga''': "FRIEND!!  THANK YOU!!" ''(''Big'' hug!)''

'''Navero''': "urkkk!" ''(Ever been hugged by a half-ogre?)''

'''Serga''': "Oh, sorry."

Navero (after a short break to heal a collapsed lung) chipped out
an epitaph for Meth and Razuli in a rock and gave last rites for the bodies.

'''Meth's ghost''': ''Say, dearest dungeon master, what will happen when Navero gets a whiff of the remains of Meth's wonderful lungs?''

'''Game M''': ''(Evil grin) Gee, I don't know.  Make a save vs. poison, Navero.''

'''Navero''': ''(Flubs it, of course.)'' "What's that funny smoke?  Err..."

'''Meth's ghost''': ''I have succeeded in my life's quest to get Navero stoned!''

'''Game M''': ''Yes, all the gods are very impressed.  You are now the new demi-god of illegal pharmaceuticals.''

''(Navero's head gently implodes and he wanders around hallucinating.)''

Inside the temple, we found a monk named Lao Tsu, Ken's replacement
for Meth Crystal.  Lao was from a far eastern land, and had suddenly appeared
in this part of the world, and had no idea why he was here.  Lao and Navero
almost immediately got into an argument.

'''Lao T''': "As Confucius say, 'Grasshopper is to sparrow as falsehood is to zen.'
War and fighting have place."

'''Navero''': "But war is something to be avoided!  No one is happy when people are
getting killed and in pain.  We should help each other."

'''Lao T''': "Help others?  Impediment to the path to true self.  All move towards
their own destinies, as sun to west and smoke to sky."

'''Navero''': "But a person alone cannot succeed at accomplishing anything of great
value.  A society is made up of many people working together."

'''Lao T''': "Why this stress on accomplishment?  What is to be accomplished that
will not be balanced?  No; your karma is your only concern."

'''Navero''': "But we should at least try to do good for people.  If we don't, the
world will be pulled the other way by evil people."

'''Serga''': "You sound right.  But you sound right.  Maybe you're both right!"

'''Navero''': "But we can't both be right."

'''Serga''': "Well, he says he comes from someplace else, far away.  Maybe he's
right over there!"

After all this, we went through a LONG dungeon crawl culminating in a
fight with Dania's old master from Swamp Keep.  He had the orb, so we waxed
sorely pissed and sent it off to the snake lords.