Stanley

Status: Alive — resurrected by Scroll of Stanley's Resurrection (Session 16); traveling with the party at the Wizard of Wines Winery

A saber-toothed tiger. Large. Intelligence 3. Not a construct, not an illusion, not a druid. Just a real saber-toothed tiger who was living in a cage in Rictavio's wagon at the Vallaki Stockyards and broke out in the night.

Acquisition

The party was woken by a crash and screaming and found a saber-toothed tiger prowling down the main road of eastern Vallaki at approximately 2am. Merich lay on his back and made cat noises. Stanley walked over and began aggressively grooming him on the grounds that he was an underfed kitten. Merich won a contested strength check (22 with guidance) to get back on his feet. Stanley did not leave. He has been named Stanley. He did not have a name before this.

Merich named him Stanley because he couldn't tell in the dark if the tiger was male or female. It remains unclear if this matters to Stanley.

Training

Sable Burrowbane cast Speak with Animals (Stealth 23 to avoid detection). Stanley confirmed in whatever terms a tiger with intelligence 3 uses that he had been trained with treats and Vistani-dressed dolls as targets. He does not hate Vistani as a concept. He just learned that attacking dolls dressed like that produces rewards. He immediately destroyed a Vistani-dressed doll found in the wagon wreckage, then looked up for approval.

Combat

He killed one man (missing most of the neck) and badly injured another (large chunk of leg removed) when he broke out of the wagon before the party arrived. He ignored the party entirely once they were not being aggressive — except for Merich, whom he has adopted.

Session 14

Traveled with the party in the night march out of Vallaki. Sable maintained Speak with Animals throughout and used it primarily for coordination and to ask him to stop batting at her tail. He tried to bat at her tail four times. At the Svalich Crossroads, he confirmed that the woods smelled like magic. He stayed well back from the fire during both the druid fight and the wagon explosion, having sound opinions about fire.

Session 15 — Death

The young blue dragon summoned by the party's incorrect first attempt at the tower door puzzle targeted Stanley with its lightning breath attack (60-foot line, 5 feet wide). Stanley failed his DC 16 Dexterity save with his Initiative score of 52 — fast, but not fast enough against a line attack. The dragon rolled average damage: 55 lightning. Stanley did not survive. Merich subsequently avenged him by punching the dragon in the eye and saying "for Stanley," at which point the dragon died.

Esmeralda confirmed that the dragon belonged to Kazan's tower, not to her. The party accepted this in the spirit in which it was offered.

Session 16 — Resurrection and Spike Growth

Merich received a birthday gift: a resurrection scroll specific enough to raise exactly one saber-toothed tiger killed by exactly one kind of lightning dragon. Merich used it. Stanley came back. Eyes included, full hit points, no penalties.

He was then present for the battle at the Wizard of Wines Winery, where Sable cast Spike Growth. Stanley was inside the winery walls. He did not walk through it. The wings Merich sprouted were largely for his own benefit.

Session 19

Van Richten was in the tower when the party arrived. Stanley saw him and immediately experienced a severe loyalty conflict, looking back and forth between Merich and his original owner with what can only be described as airplane ears. The party ran a contested Animal Handling check (Merich: 10, Van Richten: 6, with outside assistance getting Merich to 15). Stanley went over to Van Richten, rubbed against his legs, and then bounded back and showed Merich his stomach. Van Richten graciously declined to pursue custody.

Merich leveled up to level 8 and gained the ability to speak with animals. He immediately communicated with Stanley, who expressed thoughts consistent with someone who has been adequately scratched and would like to continue being scratched. The content was described as having a traumatizing quality.

Traveled with the party to Argenvostholt. Did not participate in the bat fight (not stationed in the foyer). Current status: excellent.

Threads

• Van Richten now knows about Stanley — reunited at Session 19; the question of ownership was resolved in Merich's favor by Animal Handling contest
• Stanley is now a party member whose interior experience is accessible via Merich's Speak with Animals

Session 18

Stayed back with Esmeralda while the party went squatching. Did not participate in the fight. This was beneath his dignity and he did it anyway.

Session 17 — The Vine Blight Incident

Stanley was assigned to post up downstairs on cat-surveillance duty while the party cleared the upper floors. This was perhaps beneath his dignity, but he did it.

In the upper-level room, he attempted to bite a vine blight. He rolled 9 (did not hit). Later, when the second vine blight was nearly dead, Merich said "Stanley, devour." Stanley ran 20 feet and pounced (23 hit, crit threshold not met; double ones for damage plus five — 7 points). The vine blight died. Merich described what this looked like. It involved Stanley's claws going through the eye socket and ripping the head off. Stanley then played with the head like a cat toy. Merich pet his belly. Very good boy.

Stanley also survived two Thunderwave attacks in the cellar fight (both halved, 7 damage each). He made his Strength save against the vine blight's entangling plants.

Threads

• Van Richten does not yet know he had a tiger, or that it is dead. Esmeralda has not seen him in two years and also did not know about Stanley.

First Seen

Session 13