Min/Max Boards

The cliff face slowly melts away under Hans' touch. As the wall gets thinner, you can hear the voices of Agape and an unknown woman conversing in Sylvan.


The cliff wall gives view to a room that continues the mix of natural rock and a Lilituan ruin.
On the far eastern wall, about 10 feet above the ground, a floating skull with an ice blue glow in its sockets looks down on you.
On the steps leading up into the room, Agape sits down with another lampad, leaning against her with her head resting on her shoulder while the unknown lampad strokes her hair comfortingly. Startled and surprised, they look at you with big eyes.

You wait for another minute. Then another minute. Then yet another minute. And another. And yet, nothing happens.

Maybe Agape has ditched you the minute she has escaped your clutches. Or maybe she is diligently asking for an audience for you on the other side of the wall.
Regardless, it looks as if your only company for a long while will be the mindless zombies she has left behind.

Without further comment, Agape simply slips inside the cliff surface and vanishes. Time passes.

Nadja grabs Niko's arm and looks worried. "I don't know what that was, but I don't like this..."

For a sneaky character, small size is very good as it means direct boni to hide and move silently.
Don't worry about weapon die size, as a swordsage your damage mostly comes from maneuvers, with weapons as a rounding error. Strongheart Halfling (Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting) with its bonus feat is like a fun-sized human. If you don't want to waste a book on it, Whisper Gnome (Races of Stone) is also extremely good for a sneaky character.

Shadow Blade feat is very nice but not strictly necessary, as said above most damage comes from maneuvers. It is especially interesting as prereq for Gloom Razor. Turning invisible for free after a missed attack is just amazing for a sneaky character.

Only take Fighter levels if you need to for bonus feats. The Warblade from ToB is like the Fighter but comically better (but for delayed access to actual bonus feats), and also provides full BAB. You get to learn other maneuvers from a separate list of disciplines, with a better recovery method.

What do you want to get out of Rogue? Trapfinding? More skillpoints? There may be better ways to achieve either. Psychic Rogue is noteworthy if WotC web articles don't count against the book limit. Expert (DMG) is also surprisingly interesting under your limitations for a character who wants to hit hard from hiding, for the custom skill list with its access to the defunct 3.0 Iaijutsu Focus skill.

You follow Agape and the zombies - with plenty of pauses, as the latter shuffle rather slowly. The lampad keeps complaining about leaving the bodies behind, and how mad her mistress will be.

You eventually arrive at a cliff face in the middle of the woods, overgrown with vines. On a second look, there are fragments of columns and statuary, done in Lilituan style. Chalice bearers and bell ringers are repeated themes, as are busts of probably long dead Lilituans. It's as if someone had found a ruined mausoleum in the woods, added stones and rocks and warped into a solid cliff.

Agape steps forward and gropes the cliff face, as if looking for a mechanism.

Fuyuko speaks up. "This is Nadja, who owes me a life debt and has to enter my service. I can simply order her not to report anything she sees."

The lampad's eyes light up, or rather the closest thing to lighting up that is possible for a creature of sadness that is constantly weeping. "Oh, you mean, you are taking away one of Devania's prize wifes? My mistress would be very interested into that."

Agape saunters over to Nadja and begins pinching her, much to her discomfort.

"Hm, that's a pretty and healthy one. My mistress would definitively like to see and study her."

"An audience can be arranged, but you will have to leave that one behind."

The lampad points at Nadja.

"This one is a servant of Queen Devania, even one of her valued and loyal prize wifes at that. She would fly to tell her mistress where to find us, so that the Queen can send out her army."

"The others didn't so much attack, as release them from a life of toil, hardship and pain. But that's not my mission. My mission is to once that's done take them to my mistress, where they will be treated well and have a much better new life.

You can do nothing good for them, not anymore. I can. So please let me go."

The last of the redcaps goes down under Hans' blade, shrivelling up until nothing but an iron tooth remains.

You are left alone with nothing but a cowering lampad, human zombies still loading carts, and a lot of bodies.

As you take inventory, Nadja and Hank close up to you again, looking exhausted.

The offending skeleton bursts into bone shrapnels under Kasumi's blows. As the monk approaches the lampad, there is something incredibly... saddening about that sight, but the feeling is only fleeting.



The lampad, cornered, slowed, blind and hearing approaching heavy footsteps, gets on her knees, drops her torch and raises her hands, still weeping, and speaks to Kasumi in a pleading tone.