Oliphaunts, Mr. Frodo!

Jackie ran her prelim module to the Necropolis mini-campaign we’ll be playing in the coming weeks/months. Much fun was had, despite it being a pretty crappy little module per se. Jackie still managed to keep us entertained, and showed considerable patience in the face of frequent lookups of info.

We’re running 12th level characters, which makes for some interesting power levels. Randy’s doing a pretty straight-up thief. Doyce is running the lawful-cleric-from-hell, an enforcer for the Pharaoh (it’s an Egypt-themed campaign), and all-around bastard; he has a Ranger sidekick, no mean slouch either, which makes for a lot of shuffling of papers and lookups in the manuals.

Jackie opened things up to using the Savage Species book, so some of us took advantage of that. After all, what fun is there in just playing a 12th level human?

So Justin is playing a half-dragon sorceress (with a cute little viper familiar). Margie is playing a young Astral Deva, out on her wanderjahr to learn how the mortals live. I’m her bodyguard — Hanthor the H’Flahmp.

The H’Flahmp are Anthropomorphic African Elephants, per Savage Species. A base H’Flahmp is an ECL 5 character; Hanthor also has two levels of Fighter and five more of Barbarian on top of that (maximizing feats, while still getting Improved Uncanny Dodge — critical for a Large combatant!). H’Flahmp get big bonuses to Strength and Constitution, and have 7 pts of Natural Armor, among other miscellaneous abilities.

Since there’s no campaign site for this game, I’ll have to record here the backstory and racial description I worked up. Just for my own records, you understand. (The drawings below are from Rags Morales’ fine work on Hawkman, photoshopped a bit by me to turn the elephant warriors from four-armed to two.)

The H’Flahmp are a powerful and feared race in the southern plains and jungles. Large and mighty warriors, few cross them willingly, let alone dare war on them.

H’Flahmp culture is nomadic. Family groups consisting of multiple females with their male mate/warrior and assorted children are the centers of the society, seeking out fresh food supplies for themselves and their herds. H’Flahmp are omnivores; while vegetation makes up much of their food, they do eat meat and dairy, and most family groups herd animals along with them, as well as hunt.

The male is the “head of state” and the chief protector of the group. Older male juveniles provide combat support, until they are turned out of the family to fend for themselves. The family group is actually managed, however, by the women folk — who are, if cornered, dire combatants on their own.

Non-mated (“rogue”) males have a relatively solitary existence. Some search for family groups whose male has weakened with age and can be supplanted. Others seek out adventure or other means of demonstrating their combat prowess and abilities, so that females will be attracted to them; most H’Flahmp in foreign lands are of this sort.

In temperment, H’Flahmp are somewhat bipolar. They are ordinarily genial, easy-going people, generous and friendly to outsiders, proud of their crafts and hobbies, devoted to their families and children. Those who know little of them, once they get over their size, underestimate them as slow and exploitable. But they are actually quite intelligent creatures. And when aroused to war or battle, the H’Flahmp are strong, savage, ruthless fighters, showing no mercy to their enemies.

Both rogue males and the family groups all eventually come together at the watering holes. These marketplaces are crossroads of H’Flahmp culture — semi-permanent buildings and pasture land, water, food, and centers of H’Flahmp learning and art. While largely illiterate, they have a rich culture of oral traditions; the H’Flahmp, it is said, never forget, and the watering holes are places where these traditions mingle and converge, enriching the entire race. Most family groups visit a watering hole at least once a year; rarely do they visit more than three or four times, nor stay for over a week.

One of the most famous, and permanent, of the watering holes is the H’Flahmp city of N’Rohbee. This city was the center of the one and only H’Flahmp empire in recorded history, an effort that fell apart due to internal pressures and the famous “Revolt of the Women” only two years after it had begun. Still, it was enough for several institutions to become a permanent part of H’Flahmp culture, including the famous N’Rohbee War College, where some H’Flahmp males are privileged to learn greater fighting skills and knowledge from the outside world. Most of the best H’Flahmp warriors are graduates of the school, a distinction marked by an engraved silver band about the left tusk.

Their nomadic ways means that the H’Flahmp do not do much manufacture. But they do trade quite a bit, and so worked metal and other trinkets of civilization are available to them. Their own trade goods consist of raw materials from their own lands — gemstones, ore, exotic wood — as well as what they bring from other neighbors. Many are also expert ivory carvers, H’Flahmp theology finding the use (by family and friends) of the tusks of those who have passed on to be a great tribute.

Though mighty individual warriors, the H’Flahmp have cultural weaknesses that have been exploited in the past. They tend to be insular, focused on the needs and affairs of their family groups; it takes a pronounced and major threat, and much discussion, to draw them together. H’Flahmp males tend to be highly competitive amongst themselves, further hindering cooperation. This has let enemies, on occasion, move against H’Flahmp lands and people (hunting them for their tusks, or enslaving them for their strength) with great effectiveness — for a time.

Secondly, the H’Flahmp as a race are not major magic users. Most sorcery is used by the women, and tends to be of the hedge magic variety, common low-level spells to support and protect the family group. There have been H’Flahmp wizards, even some of fame reaching the outside world, but they are exceedingly rare in a society that appreciates first and foremost martial prowess and family devotion. Even the founding of the N’Rohbee Mage College has not significantly changed this. H’Flahmp are not frightened of magic, they are just not impressed by it on a personal level.

Hanthor’s an unattached male, obviously, seeking fame and fortune in the outside world, so as to attract some females to him when he returns. (He’s also heard rumors about one of their missing gods, far off to the east; bringing him back might be quite a coup as well.)

He came to the attention of some Astral Devas looking for a good bodyguard for their daughter while she was on the Mortal Plane; a divination for the “greatest warrior of good” in the land brought Hanthor to their attention, “greatest” being, perhaps, erroneously related to size in this case. He hired on, both honored and intrigued, and though he’s more than once regretted it, he’s actually storing up a grand stock of tales to thrill the ladies with back home.

Hanthor is actually quite culture and polite (he is, after all, a graduate of the War College), though any sense of politeness goes by the wayside when he swings into battle.

Had a lot of fun playing Hanthor. He is, indeed, a kick-ass fighter — I did 100 hp of damage in one round to the dragon that was molesting us. (The dragon then knocked me on my ass, but that’s something I need to do some tweaking on.) And he’s got enough little mannerisms and the like to have a fun time role-playing between battles — always an important criterion, in my book, to a good gaming experience.