Randen Blake Barber to the Adventurers

[Barber]

A friend from CoA convinced me to give EFU a try.  I knew very little about the server and next to nothing about the campaign setting so I decided to start off a concept which did not need to know much.

Randen Blake.  Waterdavian barber, family man without an adventurous bone in his body.  A true neutral commoner.  The name was not a particularly clever play on words which went unnoticed.  Randen Blake = Random Bloke.  My plan was to let his views and decisions be influenced by the things he saw and the way people tried to influence him.

I had the enormously good luck to join the server when I did.  It gave me enough time to get established in the city JUST before things exploded and thanks to his cowardice, he got to see everything first hand and live to talk about it.

If I was going to try to thank specific people, I'd never finish this post.  So many players and DMs made playing Randen an absolute blast.  I want to thank.... god dammit.  I can't try to list people, there are too many awesome people who made playing Randen so much fun and I just can't make a list and do it justice.

Randen started true neutral and shifted to chaotic good by the time Nebbezdos fell.  A lawful streak during his term in the Muster nearly got him back to Neutral Good and if he lived, he may have made it to Lawful Good, some day.

Most of my screens from before Nebbezdos fell are not that interesting.  Funny little conversations with people, but nothing others would want to see.  Lets start with an event near the end:


This may or may not be Randen's fault.  A few days earlier he sent the bank a threatening letter, allegedly on behalf of many of the cities richest merchants, demanding they abandon the city and go to the Dwarfhold or we would all withdraw our gold.  He panicked anyway and withdrew his gold shortly before they abandoned the city.



It's never too early to early to predict your imminent death!  A screenshot of the mighty army marching forth to fight Hbala.











This was one of my favorite events on EFU, DMs and players both made it loads of fun.  As part of an effort to steal Jergal's temple and convert it into a temple of Waukeen.  He had expected to just cubby hole Lothari downstairs and maybe send some paladins to go deal with the undead when we finished consecrating it to Waukeen.  Randen gave out tons of loot and gold, in a mad dash of grabbing, while preaching about Waukeens generosity.  It went well at first.  Some beggars came after most of the items were gone and also took some loot.  A Jergalite acolyte appeared and chewed us all out, then tried to evict the beggars.  As Randen tried to calm everyone down, the Jergalite tried to push one of the beggars, they pushed back.  The old man tried and died.  Jergal was pissed.





We did it again later, in Mistlocke.  When a priest of Waukeen showed up in town, Randen was so happy he felt he had to do another one immediately.  You can see him in the middle of the screenshot.  In retrospect, it leaves me wondering how much of the coin he was given to lay out, he actually pocketed.





Randen survives a massive slaughter by the Mist Raiders by being tardy to the party.  Er sorry guys, I had a roast in the oven, yeah, that'll work...




The reveal of Father Michael.




Something strange happened to Randen during the fall of Nebbezdos.  The only thing Randen wanted was to survive and go home.  He had initially planned to flee to the dwarf hold with his friends but he changed his mind at the last minute and called them cowards, then tried to rally folks to stay and fight.  He loved his family and wanted to see them again, but he had no way to protect them from Ymph.  Should disaster strike Waterdeep, he would hope the men there would have kept his family safe.  Strange reasoning, but he stayed and he fought.  I have a zillion screenshots of fighting during the fall, trying to sort through them was a nightmare, so I only posted a few.






The (possible?) death of Korgan.  I still have no idea who half the famous NPCs I saw die were.




The Enclave leaves.




Scrivener Kharnimax Grayves leading the faithful in prayer




A LOT of people died during the fall.






Polaris was just an amazing character to interact with during the fall of the city.  Thrown together by utterly crazy circumstances.  A quiet moment between the fighting.



A last, futile trip into the Sunken Enclave during the fall of Nebbezdos, in an attempt to find something to save us.




I wonder what would of happened if we somehow, beat him?  We were so close!



Blowing up a Nightriser siege weapon which was being set up to fire on the temple of Jergal.




Leaving Nebbezdos for the last time.

Randen was so utterly certain of his own impending death that till the day he died, he was certain that their survival was nothing less than the hand of Jergal saving them.  Randen only knew Scrivener Kharnimax Grayves for a short time but he made a rapid convert.  Randen still missed him and talked about him often, till his own death.








Why did an obvious and self confessed coward join the Muster, let alone get promoted?  Randen was tired of being bullied by the Stygians in Nebbezdos.  The corrupt Muster started to harass him and he was afraid if he did not act, it would be impossible for him to run his shop in peace.  He saw some Mustermen bothering some innocent folks and he sort of... snapped.  He joined the Muster, then immediately went to pick a fight with the two worst Mustermen.  I wish I had a screenshot of that, but I do not.  After one of them refused to return stolen property and walked away, Randen  pulled out a bottle of ale and broke it over his head in the middle of the village.  A few days later he went to the Captain to try to get another Musterman promoted, but the Captain chose Randen instead.





The origin of the Mistlocke Muster Muster Mathematic Proficiency Exam.  I don't think anyone noticed, but I always asked the same math problem.




Random screens from cool quest.






Randen held an improvonizational barding contest, each entrant being given a topic to compose a song about on the spot.  He wanted Charles to lose, so he gave him an impossible topic.




Before the final night in Nebbezdos, a group set out, determined to try to escape the city.  We had hoped to clear a path to the mountains for refugees, then come back to guide them.  We got cut off by Hbalas army.




Heavily censored to remove spoilers relevant to any living PC.  Moments before Randen's death.




Randen's biggest fear was that his family would think he abandoned them.  Did they find out the truth?  This kept Randen awake many nights.  As far as his wife and children knew, he simply disappeared.  Randen was terrified that they hated him and thought he simply ran out on them.  Did that letter ever reach them?  We'll never know.

[O Fortuna]

These screenshots are stunning. Nice stuff!

[The_Sacrilegious_Scorn]

Sad to see him go :(

[Dead Man's Chest]

Amazing

[Porkolt]

Excellent.

[Caster13]

Blake was amazing. Just, absolutely, amazing. Going to miss him.

[TTH]

Fun & lively screenshots, good luck with your next random bloke

[lovethesuit]

My favourite character to interact with lately. I never knew there was so much depth to him. I hope you stick around and keep playing with us, even if topping Blake will be hard as hell.

[Blue41]

Goddamn institution. Hidden depths. Nice one, Barber.

[AGOTFANBOI]

*clap, clap, clap*

[The Old Hack]

Awesome character. I find it kind of odd that Camille respected and liked him so much, given that they were polar opposites in a lot of ways, but she did :)

Thanks for the memories.

[Caster13]

Also, I love how Blake is screaming in a panic in every other screenshot.

[Canzah]

A great character, man!

[LiAlH4]

Very well done. I have some screenshots, but I fear they must wait for now. :)

[Bearic]

Now I've got no body to cut my character's hair. =[
 
 Great character!