Baxter is one of our newest members, having joined just in time for the fiasco with the Geist Stan. He thus betrays a lamentable timing in joining the group, all things considered, except that since he can heal and our other cleric was lost in the course of this adventure, we're very happy to have him around.
Baxter has got to be the most secretive member of the group, bar none. I believe he's a cleric/mage, but maybe he's some bizarre new class which combines the ability to heal with the ability to cast a few nifty spells of more sorcerous origins. What we do know is that like the late lamented Haley, Baxter has a fixation with the undead. We meet far too many of these types, if you ask me...
Anyway, we're all glad to have him, as I said, since healers are in short supply around here and sane mages are in even shorter supply!
Jen's Commentary: Hmmm... What can I say about Baxter? I don't know him very well yet, because he's pretty quiet and he keeps to himself, except where nasty things which ought to be dead but aren't are involved. He seems nice enough, and he can heal me, but unlike most of the other priestly types we've had, he's not preachy. This is a really really good thing! Now, if only he'd open up, I think he and I might even be able to be good buds!
Blaze is another of our newest members (we've quite a few of them, having had a truly horrid attrition rate for a while now). Unlike Baxter, he's not quiet and mysterious. Also unlike Baxter, he's not quite all there, as it were. To put it plainer, he's a pyromaniac fire mage who seems to feel that confining himself to one form of insanity is a waste of a perfectly good mind.
He's actually proven himself to be quite the useful companion, since mages who toss around lots and lots of fire everywhere are always welcome and he has a few other nifty little spells up his sleeve. This makes a big change for us, since we're used to mages who cast a couple of magic missiles and then pull out the trusty staff, and it's quite welcome. I just hope he never learns to cast a fireball, since it'd probably be the death of us all!
Jen's Commentary: Blaze is... ummm... interesting. Yeah, that's the word! Nice enough guy when he's not ogling me, but a few arrows short of a full quiver, as it were. No, make that a lot of arrows short of a full quiver. As long as he keeps his hands and his fire spells to himself, we should be fine!
My own contribution to the group. Jen is an elven "bard" of dubious ethical fiber. She's not entirely honest, a bit on the greedy side, rather self-centered, somewhat sarcastic, and always talkative, but the others put up with her anyway. This most likely has to do with her unfailing good humor and innate goodness of heart, though the fact that she's the group clown may also have something to do with it. Personally, I'm amazed that the others haven't tried to wring her neck yet, but it takes all kinds, I guess.
Rather than droning on at endless lengths about my own character, I'll merely offer the shameless plug and suggest that you read her journal if you want to get a better handle on her personality; hopefully, it's adequately reflected there, since personality is probably the biggest thing that Jen has going for her.
Jen's Commentary: What can I say? It's me! Without meaning to sound immodest, I'm pretty great! I mean, I keep things lively for the party and keep spirits up, just like a bard is supposed to do. I lend them all the knowledge and wisdom and skill that I, as an elf, have accumulated over the decades, and I'm firmly convinced they'd be lost without me. Sometimes the others might say they disagree, and sometimes they're pretty mean to me (especially Al!), but I know that they're just jealous (after all, they're only human), so I forgive them. That's just another reason why I'm moderately terrific! I hope the others never read this; they'd no doubt accuse me of being egotistical or something, and I'm not. I'm just honest, but they'd never understand the difference. Humans. Puh!
Jess has been with us for rather a while now. Actually, now that I think on it, she's the most senior of us aside from Jen and Prihelm, which would be frightening if it weren't such an amusing commentary on the lifespan of our average character.
Jess is a swashbuckler of some sort, and fancies herself a lady. I don't know about this... anyone who has a thing for Prihelm isn't much of a lady, as far as I'm concerned. And given that his previous love interests have included a dolphin-woman and an evil high priestess, I probably ought to be worried about Jess as well; Prihelm does not have a spectacular record of attracting reasonably normal women.
I think we pretty much all like Jess, except when she's being a pain in the butt about needing nail polish or lipstick or the like. Fortunately, she has the strange tendency to score multiple critical hits in the same combat whenever her hair gets mussed, or her perfume bottle gets smashed, and whatnot, so we like keeping her around. All you have to do is point her in the general direction of the enemy, drop some mud in her hair, and sit back and enjoy the results!
Not, of course, that she has any hair to speak of at the moment, but that's another story entirely.
Jen's Commentary: I like Jess, I really do. She has absolutely horrid taste, admittedly, and is way too attached to her perfume bottles, but she's a good girl, for a human. I mean, she gives me someone to talk to in this group, which I wouldn't otherwise have now that Sam and Haley and Leighla are all gone. Besides, since she and Morgana both look kinda funny right now, having her around is a huge ego boost!
Morgana joined us within a day or so of Jess, conveniently almost immediately after Haley died, regretted by all except for her player. Haley was a short female mage, and friendly; Morgana is a tall female warrior, and not friendly. I'm not seeing this as a huge improvement...
Actually, it's a darned good thing we have Morgana along, since she's quickly become one of our main warriors, especially now that Tolec is gone. She mostly sits back in the rear of the party somewhere and shoots at things from a nice safe location, which is a wise if not particularly heroic strategy which I would appreciate a lot more if it didn't leave Jen to hold up the front lines.
Morg is half elven, half Vistani, and all attitude. That is to say, she's rather aloof, dislikes elves in general and Jen in particular, and has small patience for idiots. It's rather refreshing, actually, although she's paid for her attitude by losing one of her eyebrows under highly questionable circumstances. This would make her look strange enough as it is, but the fact that one of her eyes has been turned to stone (although it still works) is really rather off-putting, and her eyepatch gives her a rather piratical air. It's quite fascinating, really, but she's picked up in the bad luck department more or less exactly where Haley left off.
Jen's Commentary: Okay, I have to say that I'm not exactly Morgana's biggest fan. She's ornery! And somehow, she fails entirely to like me. This is disturbing; what did I ever do to her? Aside from the eyebrow thing, I mean, but I swear she had it coming. I'm actually glad we have her along, since she's good at beating on things, and if I can ever convince her that she'd catch more flies with honey, I think I might actually even be able to like her.
At last we come to Prihelm. Prihelm has to be the most unlucky person I've ever met. He's a paladin, which doesn't prevent him from missing every horror check he's ever rolled (hence, his glassy stare is rapidly becoming familiar to the rest of the party). Being a paladin also doesn't seem to have helped his skills in battle any, either (I've never met anyone else who could roll so low so consistently!). He has a real problem hitting things (i.e. foes, inanimate objects, and whatnot), and not entirely surprisingly, when he does manage to hit something, it's normally for the minimum possible damage, but he'll take what he can get.
Our resident paladin is always falling in love with some fair maiden or another, and of course, being Prihelm, things never work out. Either they turn out to be evil priestesses, or transformed dolphins, or something else happens to them. Life as Prihelm has to be very trying!
Fortunately, he's very easygoing, and I think the entire party likes the guy. Also, he comes into his own when puzzles and mysteries are involved; he's one of those rare paladins who doesn't think with his biceps. Thus, we're all very pleased to have this itinerant, if largely unsuccessful, do-gooder around. Of course, that doesn't stop us from making fun of him a lot!
Jen's Commentary: What can I say about Prihelm? The gods only know he tries very hard to do the right thing, but he's just so incompetent, even for a human! I think he must have been dropped on his head more than once when he was younger, and I feel kind of protective of him (which is funny, since he's twice my size and obviously feels kind of protective of me, but somehow, I don't find his protectiveness very comforting). He kind of reminds me of an overgrown puppy, always tripping over his own feet and coming back up with a smile on his face. For his sake, I hope he becomes less inept, but if he ever does, he won't be the Prihelm we all know and love anymore!
Tass is our most recent addition, having joined a few sessions after Baxter and Blaze. He's a kender, which as you might expect means that he's a thief, a kleptomaniac, and has a knack for being immensely irritating. Actually, I think he's played quite well, though I could wish otherwise.
There are few mysteries about Tass, really. One might wonder how he's managed not to be offed already by some irate party member or another, but I think the answer to that lies in his ability to teleport. To date, I'm not sure if this is a wild talent or if he's a closet psionicist. Regardless, I'm glad to note that our history of having the psionic party member be the most unusual and the most irritating is holding to form!
Jen's Commentary: I just don't know about Tass. Sometimes I think he thinks of me as a big sister or something like that, since he follows me around a lot and spends a good bit of time insulting me. I just ignore him, which is hard to do, believe me! All I know is that I won't let him touch me, routinely check my pockets and backpack for missing items, and that I shall castrate him if I ever catch him taking anything from me. He has already been in possession of my wand, and wants to know what it does. Well, little fella, take just one more thing and you'll find out!