Esther Dawnbloom, Gardener, Strider, Druid, Changeling?

[Electrohydra]

Well, it's been quite an adventure, and more then deserving of my first Obit, so here goes. Warning : Rambly.

Esther started out because I wanted to make a herbalist, and I hadn't played a druid since the new systems where put in and figured I might as well check it out. But there was an issue : I don't like polymorph mechanics in nwn, so I came up with the idea of a druid that doesn't polymorph, because she was all about plants, which worked into the herbalist theme. She used plants as her weapon. She used plant-like spells (Sorry to the people who got stuck in my Entangle spams sometimes!). A friendly DM who I unfortunately do not remember the name of gave her plant summons. And she never, ever used animal companion or wild shape (A bit ironically, as she was branded a Changeling by many people at many different times) because those where animals, not plants.

She was meant to be a simple gardener, laying low and protecting her garden and exchanging it's fruits to those who needed them (She tried to sell some of her harvest to Luke Danebluff before he was a bigshot Duke of Deals and he called it all worthless, very ticker-like). That however, failed miserably when she ended up fighting side by side with then-Inquisitor Albert Grim to put down an undead menace, and the inquisitor took offense at her use of plant-powers. As he attacked the plants, she defended them, and after a close fight had to flee. The conflict flared up and eventually led to another Ponds Massacre.

With almost all her friends now dead, she was thrown a lifeline, meeting Horatio Fynn just before the Striders where meant to leave and cross ring 95. And they'd just lost their druid. Seeking to flee the place that had only bad memories for her at the moment, she signed on with the crew. For what I assumed at the time would be just a few rings, because there was no way there was no way they would make it very far before something inevitably made the crew fall apart and stumble, like so many before them. Right?

The rest of the story is mostly houndbait, and so will have to be left unwritten, but in general I very much enjoyed the ringrunning experience, much more then I expected. A big part of that was most certainly the great group I had, so many PCs with varying personalities, which led to interesting character clashes, but with enough loyalty to come together when it mattered and beat the odds and make it all the way to the (current) end despite being -vastly- under-optimized. You guys where amazing. Also special thanks to Abala who was with us most of the way, for better and for worst but certainly for more interesting, and to Arc who handled most of my druid stuff. Missing out on continuing those plots is the big thing that made me hesitate to take the retirement.

The loot and build, for those who are curious :
https://imgur.com/gallery/qItzEZn

[Richørd]

Hey there, I used to play Adelbert Grim.

Happy to see that the little PvP shuffle and my glorious (and totally real, you guys) solo-massacre of the Ponds led to Esther having to run off and get into ringrunning so successfully.

Good work on that PC.

[SunrypeSlim]

After more than a year of persecution, a Druid reached previously-untouched content.

Bloom was vitality incarnate. She probably outdid Fynn in terms of how many times she single-handedly saved our asses. She was sweet, but what I appreciated the most was the sourness; you portrayed the damage of her origins well. I will miss you, o stingy buffbot.

[Blue41]

Bloom was the perfect fit for our group of rebels and misfits, and the fact that we ended up meeting because you picked the wrong fight at just the right time (and then nearly again, in 95) astounds me, because otherwise we likely would have passed each other in the night.  Thanks for keeping us upright when the world stomped us down--you could call us the flowers struggling to stay alive in the harshness of the inner rings. Or something.

[Aethereal]

Hardly a rambly post at all! In fact I enjoy reading the little stories about a character through the player's experience. It's part of what these obituary threads are for - indeed the forum was renamed from Screenshots to Screenshots & Obituaries quite some time back to encourage sharing them!

Congratulations on securing a minor victory on Esther. I had meant to follow up on the letter she sent Aethelwine but alas, Bloom and all the Striders earned their retirement and perhaps the unambiguous certainty of that is better than continuing her plots; gardens and otherwise.

[Quarterdragon]

I was so glad to see you guys made it through.  The incredible struggle of the Striders reminded of my very favorite moments from EFU, and the way your crew persevered is what ringrunning was made for.