We Hardly Knew Ye: Siron Ellysanea

(One in a series about adventurers who were better off staying at home.)

Who was he? Siron Ellysanea was a 6th level Elf Ranger/ 2nd level Catlord. A skittish fellow he grew up alone on a swampy chain of islands called The Elder’s Heart. Eventually he found companionship in one of the few creatures that he could relate to, a lion named Lionel Ritchie. Siron came into the game mid-campaign as a replacement for a Halfling paladin that had perished the week before. He was actually a pretty good character with scores of 20 in both Dexterity and Strength (thanks to some Gloves from the aforementioned departed Halfling) and could move silently like nobody’s business (+20). Plus, he was the only Catlord I had ever seen in action so I was excited to see how he was going to develop. I always felt that the Catlord was one of those bizarre prestige classes that no one would ever want to play, but I clearly was wrong. Between the high strength and two weapon fighting he was a pretty solid combatant and Lionel Ritchie brought a lot to the table thanks to Natural Bond. Siron was sort of catlike in appearance, though not to the extent that that weird catwoman is, and slinked around like a feline. He had whiskers.

I think that he had the potential to be a very fun character. Keeping in the spirit of being a cat, his favored enemies were vermin and birds. His only dream in life was to get off the island that he was born on and in the group of adventurers he had just met he saw that opportunity. Seeing him in civilization would have been very amusing.

What happened? Siron was a little too good at moving silently. He decided to sneak away from the party when entering into an abandoned manor rumored to be inhabited by some sort of necromancer. His moving silently got him in with no problem, unfortunately neither his spot nor his hide were all that great. Two skills that are pretty essential to both locating and staying hidden from the type of evil assassins that lurk in the shadows of abandoned manor houses. Siron fell victim to the much maligned Death Attack ability of the class. I thought that his chances of living were pretty good. The DC was 17 and he had a +8 Fort save, but the dice were not on his side and the assassin’s blade slid into his heart, killing him instantly. Lionel Ritchie followed suit moments later. Poor Siron lasted all of an adventure and a half.

Normally I don’t feel bad when characters die, however this one got me a little bit. Mainly because it was the second character that died for this player in three sessions. But as one of the other players said afterwards, “It keeps us on our toes.”