Messages

Our interactions were short but extremely violent. :)

Glory, glory unto Him! We have the temple complex.

Have a look, if you're considering concepts. PMs will spill some of the Exciting Beans, but not all of them. :)

I'm sorry putting Ramelvik on hold put a damper on things. :(

[Reserved]

Did the Wayfinders forget that this still exists? Shame on you all!

Everything I've seen of the Wayfinders recently has been fantastic. I can but continue to suggest playing a concept with them!

Loved encountering her as Zsigmond. :)

Pure rogues are not underpowered. Not at all, in no way shape or form. Especially not with the level 8 rogue perks. :)

They do, however, require an extremely careful, prudent playstyle if they are to be effective. Good CON is also a must, for survivability. They may take some time to mature, but Zsigmond was a pure rogue for a very long time, having little-to-no survivability issues (Harper Scout, even, being arguably worse than rogue levels). The most dangerous things he encountered on a semi-regular basis turned out to be defense obelisks and Vilstrak Tunnel Hunters.

Some of the loot is wonky though, as Panama points out!

I can only echo that which has already been expressed. :)

Never trust fate!

Nice work. :)

Jeb! :(

He was a lot of fun. Well done!

With Zsigmond retired, I think I'm going to take a bit of a break. Won't be gone too long, though! Thanks, EFU, and keep going strong. :)

Normally I'd object to posting again in a thread half dedicated to Zsigmond, BUT, I have more screenshots. Also, apparently, I broke all the old ones for awhile. They're functional again!

Also, LOOT screenshots were added to the first post.

Sadly I have but a few screenshots from the period when Zsigmond was blind - he did his absolute best, not realizing the full gravity of what had happened to him, to operate at the level he had prior. This, he found, tumbling down a set of stairs, did not work well. Still, I had fun overhearing conversations from a distance (with superb hearing, blindfight helps) and surprising the PCs involved with seemingly-supernatural knowledge of who they were. :)

What follows is a miscellaneous collection from throughout the character's history:

[hide="Misc. Screenshots"]

Abala, you better not be talking about his wife. No, you're not, good. A private rebuke, which was too funny not to share. :)




Charlene was once killed by

Hide

and somehow expelled. Found her along the Old Canal, which was rather distressing for poor Zsigmond. Never was this mentioned to another PC.




Fighting a horrible frost giant! We had it so close - so close - to death, so many times.




Negotiations!




A better view of an earlier screenshot, so that you can see the Wayfinder guard provided to the negotiators.




Exploring in the machine during a rough, uneasy truce with the 'Barons'. That truce would not last.




Zsigmond explored everywhere - secrets upon secrets, to be found in dark recesses.




Melanie Coppertop deserves special mention as a Wayfinder, one of Zsigmond's pupils and an excellent character to boot. Here is some instruction on the dangers of facing down psionically-potent creatures.




Zsigmond campaigned with some vitriol against the infamous Safety Cloak, stating that its red-orange moving glow would do nothing but alert foes to the presence of the wearer beyond the shield. An Agent once saw fit to chastise him for this policy.




Aww. Zsigmond somehow won over the cat burglar. Another bit of that scavenger hunt. :)




D'aww. I'm a hopeless romantic.





Last screenshot that I think is worth posting. Delving deep, with friends and comrades, to see what might be found. Thanks again, EFU!


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Before I'm divorced entirely from the faction, I wish to simply recommend it for anyone currently looking for a concept.

A grand thank you once again to everyone to date who brought them to this point. :)

By some miracle, I got all the screenshots organized into one grand post. I hope you all enjoy, thank you for making the character something special. :)


EDIT:

This, I think, was one of my favorite screenshots out of them all. It is really important, for the continuity of a faction, to remember those characters who have come and gone.

Brogum Saarduum, dead on the ground.

Zsigmond had EFUSS Entertainment at good levels, so that he could sing.  In the style of Fafhrd of Fritz Leiber, he sang in a mid-to-high tenor,  well above his speaking voice at a baritone.

[From the beginning]

Here follow Zsigmond's screenshots! I hope you enjoy, they're filed carefully so that this thread does not become an impossible mess.

[hide="Early Screenshots"]

From the beginning, he would lead men into the underdark. "Lead" being a strong word, as in those days none of us had much of a clue in which direction we were going! Look, he doesn't even have a cloak!




Come on, fellows, let's go exploring!




Some of the Early Wayfinders, with a gaggle of souls accompanying us into the depths. How deep we delved, looking upon horrors innumerable:



He knew all of the major-faces from the early days, including the wonderful Renée Greystarred and her Paperwork Elemental, Inkfingers.




He had a steel-trap for a mind, piecing together bits of lore from disparate parts of the server. The Wayfinder archives might just be one of the best repositories for server history outside the Library!




Building the Wayfinders up to resemble the association they would become was a process of trial and error - mostly error. They were split during the Workmill Revolution. Beforehand, we over-estimated, dramatically, the willingness of a Black Directorate to consider adding a scouting corps to the retinue of formalized organizations. Still, Patrice Vermand (Garem) in his prime:




Scrapper-con, Mk. I :




He taught literally hundreds of characters the lay of the land, as best I could envision it. Maps exist in the library and Wayfinder archives detailing the very areas Zsigmond describes here:




Sometimes, people had to die. He put a bolt through this halfling's head not a second later.




A good friend in Aethereal's Arantras; here he is calling upon a hurricane. What is your little shortbow going to do, Zsigmond? Can you even hit that behemoth?




A Lado gas-gauntlet, one of two very similar hellscapes that Zsigmond plowed through, at the helm of the company. Most of our fighters abandoned us. You know things are going badly when a rogue with 12 strength is taking the fore against chosen with a non-finessable weapon. That was the whole damn event:




Mysariel, pre-Agent Grayson Epps, Zsigmond's good friend Ordinant Abelard, and many other souls of note, visible here fighting for their lives:




Perhaps the most important event from the early-days, where Zsigmond, Patrice, Gwyneth, and the others you see here ventured unto the surface at the bidding of the Spellguard and Chandry Sembrash, Scout First Class of Causril Commune. The very expedition which would solidify their goals in Sanctuary:




Another shot of the same. Alas, the fighting was too hectic above for me to get screenshots, but I do have a view to the result. Here, they're still preparing to leave:




Eat your heart out, Artorix. Look what we brought to the depths:




Before Revolution and Treason approached, Zsigmond was a part of the Cult of the Ascention's rebirth, through Sigvar Fjordmund. He was still, then, the wide-eyed idealist, unprepared for the bloodshed that breaking the chains of men would require. A ritual:




As all of this progressed, Zsigmond and the Wayfinders were roped into the doings of the Archaeological Society - aiding an old man named Djalbo in recovering his old laboratory. We needed to find Drow Azure Wine, so we ambushed and slew a group of four. Turns out we missed the fifth. He didn't forget. At least you tried some gambit, Zsigmond. Gods, you're dense sometimes:




Zsigmond believed himself to be a traitor, for what happened here. Knowing or not, under (prior) threat of others being murdered in his stead, or not, he gave up the secret! It tore him apart, in the aftermath, and he resolved to kill the Drow and end the shame, or die in the attempt. Here he is walking back, contemplating all that was said, what he had done:




Djalbo, sending us into hell. Who knew, he would betray us? Vrathruil, actually:




We passed a hellscape of obelisks, obtained a terrible coded stream of numbers, solved and decoded said terrible stream of numbers, and passed through a vast and ancient illithid laboratory:




Djalbo, you son of a bitch. Take Gwyenth's magnificent brain and put it into your grand-daughter so that she can 'live' a normal life, putting her brain into the stunted child? Monstrous. As it turns out, however, Vrathruil intervened. He killed Zsigmond and half the party, dragged him toward a cliff to end it all - and Drake Pierre Ridelle stepped in to save him. He got cut down too, so it fell to Gwyenth and Patrice - they pulled it off. Screenshots, alas, from the fugue, so this one will have to do:



Not a casualty of this particular fight, but of a prior encounter. Mouse the Wayfinder, you are remembered, as many of his friends and comrades got proper funerals:




Dark times ahead. Thomas Blanqui, addressing the adventurers. Can you hear the people sing? Zsigmond couldn't, for all the blood that demagogue spilled:




The Workmill Revolution tore the Wayfinders apart. The Ascention went one way, Zsigmond went another; its membership was gutted, leaving Kadar as one of the few loyal to the powers-that-be. The idealist, you see, was witness to the first riot, where men of Blanqui killed dozens in the streets. No, that was not a man to be followed:


A run-in with Mad-Marge. Another individual who Zsigmond had sympathies for, until she started cutting people up:




Preparing to put down the Revolution, once and for all. The Manor:




Hacking our way through the Manor:




Thomas Blanqui, laid to rest:



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With the end of the Revolution, what I would call the first part of Zsigmond's story was ended, with the Wayfinders shattered and Kadar standing atop the mess. He would in the darks to come help bring down and carry in many of his former compatriots in the Ascention, hunting former-friends in the outlands for what he saw as their betrayal - putting aside notions of his own, which he had bled for against Vrathruil. No screenshots of Drake Ridelle's capture, for example, but what followed was Kadar trying (unsuccessfully) to rebuild by aiding the factions of Sanctuary wherever he could.

[hide="Middle-Period Screenshots"]

He followed Abelard of the Society into a horrible madhouse, saving two children who were so dearly happy to be reunited with their 'parents':




Abelard, why, why, why did you demand we take them back? Look what I did to recover your broken corpse. Anything for a friend, however ignominious:




During this period, he cemented friendships which he would keep until the present. Blake Kendon, Abala Quickfeet, Rallick Dess, and many others. Cementing relationships through shared experiences, as we set out to rescue someone at the behest of a Spellguard Agent:




Alright, we've had better ideas before, it's true:




Droggus Munt, in his IRON MUNT suit. Son of a bitch.




Moggus Drunt, before climbing into his adamant DRUNT SUIT. Gods damn it.




It all worked out, we pushed him into lava:




"Laying to rest" an old friend:




Zsigmond, you have terrible ideas sometimes. Look at this. WHY WOULD ANYONE OPEN THAT? 10 Wisdom is why, I suppose.




Thank you for a brief moment of common sense:




We fought our way through a terrifying nest of animatrons, defense obelisks, and gas. Then, we met X-ABY. Whose children and friends, we had killed. To the very. last. animatron.




This really could have gone better, with some planning:




Drow. Drow loathed Zsigmond, for whatever reason. Likely because he kept killing them - upwards of twenty-four slain by his hand, to date. Here is a Noctuvirite who thought to lure travelers into a trap along the Low Road, a road of single coins in a line... we put a stop to that (with a character named Daria's help)!




Even enthralled Drow took an interest in him:




Can't trust druids that might be involved with Tulathek! Zsigmond's competence at remaining hidden in the wilds made him a potent adversary, even if he lacked much in melee until late in his career.



Don't approach that, Zsigmond. DO NOT approach that...




Wretched aberrants. But Kadar knows (via Blake Kendon) to disguise himself with pheromones from their glands!




Charging in to clear out a Moanderite lizardfolk hive along the Scamander! Zsigmond was wearing a gas-mask:




Poor Drogor. We should really be glad the Forge of Legend is under new management:




I wonder who did this painting?




Action shot! That is Jenezeah Tel'Questrimm's helm.




[/hide]

[hide="Amusing Interlude"]

During this period, I decided that enough was enough - having Harper Scout levels was good and all, for leading people, but Zsigmond was still a 10 CHA character. I had him de-leveled from 9 to 2, so that I could re-choose the 4 and 8 stat points to get 12 CHA. Not long after, an application for the Commander rogue perk was approved as well. Dedication pays off, I suppose, but one DM took umbridge with my decision:





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The period of general forays and attempts to keep the Wayfinders afloat with one or two members came to an end with Wayfinder Charlene Carshby, who Zsigmond had known for ages by this point. They would be molded, with her influence into quite the force indeed, as Carshby added a flair of intrigue and information-gathering that was lacking since the days of Gwyenth, improving on the model by having the proven advantage of Being Alive. Not to mention, a far more profound impact on Zsigmond himself, helping the war-weary counter-Revolutionary into a role as not a leader of rabble, but actual disciplined men.


[hide="Late Screenshots/Endlude"]

Here's the moment that things really changed:




They rapidly began to grow...




New Model Wayfinders, on the march, exploring exciting tunnels!




Look, Splints is tanking ALL OF THEM. Move forward, damn it! Wayfinder expeditions often attracted the love of DMs, presumably because we are easy to spice, in the wilds!




A pivotal moment, the trial he faced for treason. It wasn't his fault the Drow got to the gates of Sanctuary, but some people in authority needed a scapegoat. Prefect Quickfeet, presiding...




Thank you so much for that very encouraging tell.




The verdict. In his mind, this was resolution for Vrathruil - he defended Sanctuary to the last then, he did so here, but he had to face charges at some point, even if they were wrongly-placed.




A Wayfinder patrol rescued a trio of slaves from Duergar. Turns out they were working for more Dread masters... fall here, my friend, and you might be in dire peril. We held, driving off the menace, and withdrew successfully through the narrows! See? We learn from treason trials.




Commanding the Wayfinders. Melanie Coppertop and Carys Greycoin both deserve a special mention. Dominic here as well!




Alright, well, we're in a moving tram filling rapidly with water. We've been through worse, right? Right.




The real reason Director Quickfeet stopped going into the outlands so regularly:




During the election, we played host to a meeting to draw down tensions, with Zsigmond fearful of a repeat of the Revolution. It worked, to an extent!




I never liked the name, "Wayfinder Arts and Trades". :P




Giving long, drawn-out speeches was Zsigmond's modus operandi. Here he is after a five-minute discourse, before minting Wayfinder Booker.




Promotions!



Stalking through the depths - I wonder how this fight turned out? I'll spoil it - Zsigmond lost. Quaregg the mighty!




Chaathi, a very old friend of Zsigmond's, slain after repeated conflicts which had brought them to blows. She had attacked the Wayfinders, who he regarded as family, and his response was dire. The blade is detailed in the loot section. Much love to Fitzwilliam for an excellent PC.




In contrast to Chaathi, this was a scary goddamn tiefling who deserved to die.




No, you do not get to try and assassinate him and live.




Dark Lake conflict, Zsigmond & Company meeting with the Drow. There is a Drow standing not ten paces in front of you, Kadar, stop looking at Carshby.




The Wayfinders, FORMALLY CHARTERED as an ASSOCIATION!




Negotiations.




A scavenger hunt, through all of Sanctuary. This new character got quite the introduction, courtesy of Golden Rose, who had the stealth to remain hidden and enough paper to put out reams of little notes through the underdark. A fantastic, unnerving way to announce your presence while stealthed.




Zsigmond had EFUSS Entertainment at good levels, so that he could sing. In the style of Fafhrd of Fritz Leiber, he sang in a mid-to-high tenor, well above his speaking voice at a baritone.





Chartered by the Directorate, the Wayfinders had their own Hall, in north-eastern Sanctuary.




Patrolling the Lowerdark.




Patrolling the Low Road.




No happier dark, for the Wayfinder-Captain:




Zsigmond first met Nalrae in the very opening months, when he and Ordinant Horace Walbrooke took to the Spire with a company of other worthy souls. To save Horace (in his mind), Zsigmond offered himself up as the 'hunted' in a little game, racing to the shore of the Dark Lake. Nalrae, it turns out, wanted to play another game...




Kadar had a hell of a vision for the Drow, for Captain D'rul, Nalrae said. Quite the vision indeed. May I take your vision back to my Captain, Zsigmond?




A word of comfort, after reeling from the shock of the loss of his sight. After putting his hand to her face -




After his return, the Herald in the House of Heroes (responding to some vitriol toward a new arrival from Zsigmond) bid him depart, as it was not a 'house for the blind'. You picked a good one, Kadar.




Honored by the Directorate, bestowed the Sanctuary Cross.







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I was able to give him one last speech, before he was retired with his wife, alive and largely whole. It was a good and worthy end, not due in the slightest to the blindness. As for the speech and aftermath - if anyone screenshotted that, I'd be appreciative, as I was ordered to log off.

Thank you again for reading. :)


Loot now included! Hardly all of it, but major/influential/amusing pieces:

[hide="Loot"]

Zsigmond's first quarterstaff was actually DM-made, but more of a flavor-oriented combat weapon that you can see him wielding in the 'early days'. His real quarterstaff, which was actually the no-damage walking stick you see here, was made by BigOrcMan; pried out of the jaws of the horrible laboratory where Djalbo's plot came to naught and old Vrathruil, the Carver of Hearts, was melted by acid.





Droggus Munt, after helping IRON MUNT. Not especially noteworthy to the character itself, but still incredibly amusing. There was more than one 'marital aid' crack from other PCs.




Hero Zsigmond.




Now THIS was an important piece of loot! Recovered after Chosen Hell, in the early days. Almost anyone who accompanied Zsigmond into the outlands likely saw him making notes in this old tome...




Zsigmond raced Nalrae to the Dark Lake's shoreline, to prevent Horace Walbrooke from killing himself trying to do the same. He got these boots as a result, which Nalrae did not claim when he took Zsigmond's eyes.




A bow that Zsigmond received from the short story contest, literally THE DAY he was retired. No less than a half-hour before the ceremony. I hold no animosity, in fact, I thought it was wonderful. Prior to this, he used the 'goblin shortbow' commonly found in the module for virtually his whole career. That thing should be mounted somewhere. :)





Zsigmond's original leathers, which nearly went to Audriel T'Nadril. He eventually got a better set, leading these to actually remain in-game somewhere... sadly I don't have screenshots of the newer set with one arm uncovered, but they were studded leathers with some neat descriptions. :)




Many PCs will recognize the Shield of Sanctuary. The Cross was awarded to him, but there is no in-game medal for it, I think. :)




Befriend the chief scout of a Dragon and it turns out you'll get something nice! Saved them all, got a tinderbox.





Last but not least, the "razor's edge" that Zsigmond would often emote flicking blood off of. This terrifying little blade first struck me as perhaps the most powerful weapon I had seen, but that penalty to saves was actually crippling at times. He feared to draw it, which lead him to avoid sparring matches with it and generally be wary about taking lives. That said, it made quite a few appearances, by necessity.



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More screenshots on page four!