Character Creation

After dealing with my initial disappointment at not receiving a caster champ (attempts to integrate magic into my champ through lore felt both like a risky ‘jack of all trades’ plan and subverting the intent of the already excessively-versatile Warrior), I decided to go with Éowyn from Lord of the Rings. von felt it would be too hard to create cool abilities for Éowyn (myth makes it way easier), and suggested instead the Viking shieldmaiden Hervor. Éowyn was based off the shieldmaidens anyways, so it was all cool. I was apprehensive about having a cursed sword, but the curse was minor and the payoff awesome (though I was not able to comprehend at first how much difference there is between a +8 enhancement bonus [base Tyrfing] and a +10... or +15...). Plus the ghosts were just the coolest thing. I did a lot of research on Pathfinder and D&D, but of course it’s an incredibly complex system and I overthink things, so I bothered von a lot throughout the game (sorry!). And still ended up with sorta messy stats (I made them all even then scattered the bonus points, min/max fail...). I did not build my wizard to synergise with my champion, because I built my wizard before deciding on my champion. Expecting a lot of summoner vs. summoner warfare, I went with Abjuration for a defensive buffing strategy and to ‘Be Prepared’ due to the Dispel Magic buff. I later regretted my opposition to Necromancy, most of my feats, and Clara’s stat spread, but it only really would’ve mattered if I’d instead taken a million WIS and Improved Iron Will, I think...

I’ve alluded to this before, but I borrowed heavily from my own life story when imagining Clara... I’m obviously not much like her at all in terms of demeanour, but I used to be. In the future I would play a character less like myself for fun, but yeah. I deliberately made the backstory unremarkable so I wouldn’t stick out too much for having a really weird overdramatic past life, but then later I found out we had ex-assassins and transformed dogs running around in Amesbury... oops!

Day 1

Decided to roleplay a bit with my ghosts to get some information on how they could be used, and for fun. After that enjoyable session, Clara headed out into Amesbury to either get into fights or make an ally. The basic plan was to visit a few different places I believed I would meet people in, then if I hadn’t, camp out in the forest. I’d been joking I’d fight AG and Raikage D1, but when my first encounter was with them, my heart was seriously pounding... I ran into them chatting outside the Abbey. Too much for me, so I backed away while using my Divination ghost (who had informed me he was very good at watching things) to eavesdrop. I got quite a bit of information about them out of it considering it was D1 and I hadn’t fought them for it, though some of it was misleadingly phrased.

I had a couple of users I particularly wanted to ally with and was thus happy to run into ginganinja. Both of us wanted to ally pretty badly! I’d made a lot of fun of Agape and AG’s true love in PSW1, but I believed that their very open partnership was the best model due to the ability to coordinate, so I shared almost everything short of my character sheet with ginga. Due to knowing vaguely about Renaissance Man, I also knew I couldn’t hide anything from him with certainty, so I wanted it to be a two-way street. I sent the ghost to spy on AG and Raikage but had not factored him being caught; they sent him back with an offer to ally. I decided to keep it in mind but knew a three-way alliance would be super risky and dangerous, and I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t a trap, so I didn’t send back a response. We then played around with the ghosts a bit and then Douglas Druce (the ghost of PSW past that von invented for the Divination school) scried Agape. Watched him vs. LW and was pretty fucking terrified since I couldn’t tell what was going on except that the Archer was having his way with the Monk and that Agape was fucked up afterwards, hiding in a cave somewhere healing Thomas Aquinas... At least at this stage I knew everyone’s classes but those of icb’s and ipl’s, which was more than I thought I’d know, but ginga had information and I had information, so...

Day 2

Went out and picked up a mobile phone. Today gn was going to craft while I went to the bank and Geased the manager to try to get him to foreclose Raikage’s house to fuck up the crafting I had heard about in their Abbey chat, or at least keep them a bit busy, anyway. This started ginga’s and my rivalry with them, the other dominant earlygame alliance (I consider LW and ipl to be midgame!). We knew more about them and wanted to mess them up since a team of two is a considerable threat, so yeah... Unfortunately my plan was destroyed by Evan (Raikage) giving out an alias, Kamijou Touma, and the bank didn’t have any records. Foiled :(

Then ginga and I met back up again. We went to the Abbey so ginga could raise some undead and ran into ipl. ipl claimed AG and Raikage were pursuing him and that he had managed to take an Order Spell from AG already due to AG’s ‘positioning error’, and beseeched us to help him. ginga then got a phone call from AG – Agape had given him his number, which made us pretty mad; ginga had a truce with Agape, but we decided around this point that we would probably go try to finish him off sometime soon (and meanwhile I’d snag +2 for Tyrfing!). AG wanted to go there and we would all beat up ipl. So it was agreed. However, ginga and I were biased against AG and Raikage, who were more of a threat because they were together. But we knew ipl would probs run off. So we decided to buff and do passive things for a few rounds, then attack AG and Raikage if ipl remained, otherwise we’d all go hunt him down.

AG and Raikage eventually showed up and we engaged them. While their flying made things very inconvenient for Hervor (played by von very amusingly and creatively), even though Sarah Westerfield the Transmutation ghost cast Fly on her, ginga was able to dish out some damage with Leonardo’s bombs and his Orb of Storms. AG and Raikage were outnumbered and thus bailed. However, at this point I already had Tyrfing out, so von decided to attack ipl instead. ipl used his first Order Spell to escape. That was it for Day 2, it made for a pretty epic update!

Day 3

Okay, so today was ginga’s and my masterpiece. When brainstorming I’d hit upon the idea of declaring a state of war in Amesbury. We wanted to go hide for awhile while ginga crafted golems and some other nifty wondrous items. We also thought of a bunch of other cool things we could do to fuck with the town (like I’ve said before, I’m pretty sure ginga and I mostly thought of amusing plans first and then justified why they solved our problems after...), like poisoning the water supply, hijacking the radio station to control some information flow, etc. ginga’s special touch was impersonating AG and Raikage, and it turned out to be a very good one.

ginga used his Orb of Storms to make it very foggy for cover. Disguised as AG and Raikage and their champs, we headed to the Government District and loitered about to be caught on camera. We then went invisible and assassinated the mayor. Then we returned to ginga’s house and he strapped some bombs to Leo’s flying machines, which we sent at some important buildings like the hospital. ginga then filed an anonymous police report about AG and Raikage’s suspicious behaviour in the Government District. Then we headed to the police and I Geased the police chief. We were impersonating MI6 / SIS agents, and I instructed them very specifically about the nature of a safe house we would want. We then headed there and stashed the zombies there at night.

ginga then set about crafting stuff. Unfortunately he apparently needed ingredients for his poisons and wandered alone into the forest without even telling me, which resulted in ginga getting ganged up on by AG and Raikage... Panicked, ginga alerted me by phone. After considering my and his situation, I decided to Teleport into his Instant Fortress, use my Abjuration ghost to Dispel Magic the Dimensional Anchor on him, then have Peeta Teleport us out. Too bad that when I rocked up, Evan Counterspelled Peeta’s Teleport and cast Icy Prison on him... This forced ginga to use an Order Spell to escape, leaving me in a terrible situation.

ginga decided to use up his 1/game spell Form of the Dragon to come back and ruin AG and Raikage, since he was pretty mad at them and all. Knowing this, I decided to first try to get out of my situation without bloodshed. I had some irl issues at the time (heart problems), so I had to submit a battle plan to von eventually, sorry... This included a long speech on how I had obviously not tried to kill AG and Raikage (this is true, I had my spear out, not Tyrfing – I just wanted to get ginga out of there), but since he had deserted me, I would be willing to ally with them and go crush people in the game. I didn’t expect them to buy it, but I had to try. AG and Raikage were merciful and let me leave. ginga then showed up as a Dragon and stripped them both of an Order Spell, using one of his own to do so and leaving both ginga and AG without them. I didn’t lose any, which was pretty boss. AG felt that I must have Bluffed about wanting to ally with them, but tbh I never lied, I would’ve gone with them if they had accepted (and probably stabbed them and reunited with ginga soon after); I just had a Plan B involving a giant brass dragon, that was all.

Day 4

The turning point. We couldn’t risk ginga getting into any more fights so soon, being weakened, but I was relatively unscathed, so ginga crafted in our safe house for a bit. We would then move towards a better location in the evening, closer to the location of Evan and Dionysios, in order to conduct a night raid on them. ginga getting a text from the chief of police telling them a SWAT team had been dispatched and Evan and Dionysios arrested was just too funny, although I had no idea until after that they were actually a legitimate thread. I expected Dionysios to just Detonate them all and be on his merry way – the most we could hope for was that it’d keep them distracted for a bit and thus not coming after us.

Unfortunately, several hours before ginga finished his golem, we were sitting in a Rope Trick (a very, very stupid idea of mine as a cheap out from scrying...) when LightWolfy and ipl showed up, killed all our undead, and dispelled it, thus causing Clara and Hervor to fall prone and gaining them a surprise round. Though I had previously been willing to sacrifice an Order Spell to preserve my alliance (an exchange von later indicated he wouldn’t allow), ginga was nearly dead and meanwhile I could finish him off myself and get that crucial boost for Tyrfing. I felt really terrible about this because I had fully intended to take ginga all the way and because he had been such a loyal partner. I also arrogantly presumed LW would rather partner with me than the notorious ipl; when LW stuck to his word, I looked pretty fucking stupid. von and LW generously allowed me to kill Peeta after Leonardo died... but I was now partnerless and fucked.

ipl started whaling on me for revenge, but LightWolfy wasn’t inclined to attack me, and he used his held turn when I Teleported to say ‘bye’. Yep, cute IMO! So I was partnerless and fucked, but still holding onto two Order Spells. I believed LW and ipl would finish off AG next, meaning Raikage would be running around by himself too. ipl and Raikage had one Order Spell, LW and I two (I only count usable Order Spells), and I believed that the mysterious icb (whom ginga and I wanted to go chase down D5) would also be holding onto two. So that wasn’t a terrible situation, even though I felt I was likely to be hunted down by any of the four parties. I Teleported into the forest and slept fitfully there.

Day 5

This day was a mess. At one point I had one of the best shots to win, at the end of it I had the slimmest...

I decided to scry Raikage and Heal up a bit today. I thought it was possible that Raikage might want to ally with me, but I prepared my spell list for all of them, believing it equally likely that they would all attack me. Off went Douglas, but he quickly came back to tell me Evan Black wanted to have a tea party with me at the market. (The actual words were ‘he’s waiting in the market and seems to be expecting to you’, but we can always dream...) This freaked me the fuck out, I thought for sure he wanted to trap me, but I couldn’t risk it being legit, so I had to go. I Sense Motived on the off-chance my ghost was magically hijacked (my paranoia seemed to either perplex or amuse von), cast Invisibility on us both, and had the Conjuration ghost Teleport me there. This was around the time von cracked down on my ghosts, as I had started asking for actual spells, high-level ones and liberally... good decision from von lol

He might’ve cracked down on my ghosts, but I got a ‘midgame’ buff at this point. He decided to give me retroactive credit for the Order Spells I had assisted in taking. +3 +2 +8 = +13 Tyrfing O_O He sensibly capped it at +2 from one person, otherwise I would’ve been at +17 after killing ipl...

Raikage was legit, it seemed, and we were a bit more cautious than ginga and I, but we exchanged information nonetheless. So many weird things that had been happening throughout the game, most notably ginga’s ingredients thing D3 (which I had attributed to my fucking up the day plans ._.), were explained by Mogh Ruith’s prophecy powers... Raikage had escaped with one Order Spell too. I expected Raikage to stab me, but not until we’d gone and deprived icb and LW of at least one spell, as well as killing off ipl. We decided to be a bit proactive and go battle LW on our terms, not his. They were hanging in the market so we figured we’d buff then Teleport and destroy, but von was basically like ‘those NPCs will kick your ass’ when I asked him about them, so instead we drove to the entrance and ambushed with help from Douglas. Black Tentacles (failed to grapple, but made difficult terrain) + Crippling Critical made things very hard for Don Quixote, who had gotten caught outside the market while Yu Ji remained inside it. Really, just read the logs of the battle, but that was the most fun encounter I had all game, even if Raikage and I made a million mistakes. I should’ve used Deafening Critical on DQ too, I had Critical Mastery... sigh.

Afterwards we realised it was all the little things that resulted in our loss. Calling icb, not using DQ’s Windmill + Basin turns to thrash LW, not sticking the poison eel on Bellerophon (even though we didn’t know about the Teleport innate...), etc. That, and all the big things, like Phantasmal Killer and Feeblemind... but the little misplays somehow infuriate me more than the SoDs, those are just straight up gay, ‘oh, well’. It was fun seeing Hervor deal 185 damage in a turn (Mighty Rage, Bull’s Strength, Haste, a crit [I took feats for this, good decision], good rolls) to Don Quixote...

I don’t want to summarise the battle vs. icb, but basically I felt that running away would be a waste of an Order Spell. Basically, I could try to make him run away by instead using it to grapple, taking out an Order Spell, then capping off rage... which had put Hervor on a timer. Unfortunately I planned for him using Ride-By Attack, but he broke out of the grapple with ease (I sorta figured if you use an Order Spell to grapple it’s hard to get out of, as I wouldn’t’ve tried it otherwise, but my bad... not much I could’ve done though short of insisted on running away regardless, but then he might’ve tracked me down) and flew out of reach, so eventually I was forced to retreat while still healthy. Sigh... I ended up in the forest again. In fact, I never returned to my house in the whole game – I woke up D1 and was out of there forever after.

Day 6

Canis used a Sending to deliver his phone number to Clara. I’d wanted to head to Amesbury and have the final battle be there for cool points, but instead we ended up tracking down icb and getting our shit wrecked due to hastiness, failure to strategise appropriately, SoDs, flying ponies, etc. etc. There’s nothing to say that isn’t evident from the log of the final encounter. Clara died in a funny way, but since Raikage and I had already decided on our ending together (Evan would talk Clara into going to Ireland to help him while he helped her not be a crazy, Tyrfing-influenced maniac), with icb’s and von’s generous approval, Clara was able to use her final Order Spell to save herself from Phantasmal Killer, just as Evan had, and join him...

I had fun writing our joint epilogue together. I’d done a lot of in-character writing during the game (if not enough RP... in between my getting caught up in combat and other players’ OOCness *cough*, I just rarely got around to it) but it was enjoyable to get to do, like, a final roleplay. I guess it counts – I wrote all the parts from Clara’s perspective and Raikage wrote all the parts from Evan’s, resulting in us taking turns to write a chain story, and isn’t that kinda what RP is... I’d been very involved with my character, especially the last few days, trying to imagine her and the setting and its effects on her, so I was glad I got to give her a good sending.

Conclusion

I’d like to thank ginga, he was an incredible partner and we had a hell of a lot of fun planning, venting (heh), and coming up wtih ideas. He also came up with the most random hilarious things, like our plan with the Apparatus of the Crab and various nifty spell combinations. I was pretty scared of his creativity since I was worried about preparing for it when it came down to the final two... too bad, though. :(

Raikage ruled too, even though in-game Clara and Evan were only allied for several hours. He was pretty helpful and my partner in the most enjoyable fight I participated in (partly because we wrecked shit until icb showed up...). Plus he invited me to host PSW3, which was really nice of him, thanks again for that and I’m looking forward to it when the day comes – no disrespect intended to PSW2, which was awesome and I won’t forget it. AG and Raikage were very worthy opponents and it’s a shame I never got to see AG’s counter-frame illusion...

Thank you for allowing me to play, von. I expressed interest after reading the PSW1 postgame and realising how fucking awesome PSW is, and he told me he would host PSW2 sometime. There were a lot of signups and I imagine selecting the returning and new users alike would’ve been agonising. The two newbies he let in both had D&D experience, making me the only true green player, and considering PSW is such a commitment, I appreciate von having enough trust in me to make me one of the players. Also, he was super patient with all my stupid questions, and helped me make a really awesome champ. I loved playing Hervor so much. Aaand of course for hosting the game, which takes an immense amount of effort, I’m sure! Guess we’ll find out, though Raikage is doing the hard stuff... *yawns*

Too bad every time I tried to ally with LightWolfy he said no, but after I survived two ‘well-intentioned good guys’, I got to play with a dog, so that was cool too. At least we ended up dying together pretty much, haha :x

Props to icb for breaking the game open. Didn’t get to see much of Agape, but having heard all the stuff that got vetoed, I consider myself as having seen your infamous crazy ideas in action. As Raikage said, ‘it’s like he thinks he can warp reality’ =P Aaaaaand my dear imperfectluck. I never meant to attack you, ipl, but what can I say, it was fate... You definitely had the best champion, Don Quixote so cool. ~The Windmill~

I greatly exceeded the expectations I set for myself (my greatest flaw is likely my lack of self-confidence, and this contributed greatly to mistakes I made throughout the game...), in that I helped take five Order Spells (with assistance from ginga and Raikage, naturally) and killed ipl. :x Tyrfing was +15 at the end = +1 from taking ipl’s Order Spell, +1 from helping with AG’s, +1 from helping with Raikage’s, +2 from killing ginga, +1 from taking another of ipl’s, and +1 from LightWolf. Pretty fucking epic, too bad I couldn’t get to +16 though.

While I had my heart set on casting magic at first, I soon realised having the Warrior was fucking awesome, and I would honestly play it again, except I don’t think it would be as fun and I wouldn’t want to keep comparing to the champ I already had... My champion was really versatile and nifty in every way, especially because von was generous with my ghosts. Looking back I don’t think there would’ve been a better champ for me – Hervor was a good fusion of straightforward damage dealing and flexibility. Also, she was pretty damn badass, having read through the stories in which she features. YAY GIRL CHAMPS

PSW2 was one of the most fun things I’ve participated in on Smogon. gg everyone, I learned a lot and almost always enjoyed myself. Apologies for all the delays my health problems, erratic and uncontrollable sleep cycle, and holiday caused!