Party Kill

Tonight was the first time, as far as I can recall, that I've ever killed a fellow party member.

I'm playing Gok, a half-orc barbarian charger. Jesse's usual character was killed two weeks ago; his replacement character, named Nit Bitsim, was a psychic--and, unbeknown to us, a changeling pretending to be a human.

We had finished a tough fight in a cave at the bottom of a sea cliff, and the party was divided over whether to keep exploring the cave, or go back to town. Nit wanted us to leave, so he told Gok, "Let's go climb back up the cliff--your mother is waiting !" Gok's INT score is significantly below average, so he bought Nit's claim and rushed back up the cliff, only to find that his mother was not, in fact, anywhere around. Gok's mother is the human half of his ancestry, and he is quite devoted to her. When Gok realized that Nit was lying about Gok's mother, he was Not Amused. As Nit started climbing the rope up the 25ft cliff, Gok grabbed the line and started banging it--and Nit-- against the rocks.

Nit, somewhat battered, kept climbing--unaccountably, trying to get closer to the angry barbarian. He tried to scramble away, but Gok bull rushed him and knocked him back off the edge of the cliff. Nit barely managed to catch hold of the edge, and found himself dangling with twenty five feet of air below him and a barbarian above. Meanwhile, the rest of the party watched, but no one tried to stop Gok. Ooga eventually roused himself to persuade Nit to apologize to Gok, whereupon the barbarian hauled him up the cliff and growled "Don't lie to Gok again. Make Gok mad".

As Gok stalks off, Boraheen confronts the "human" and demands that he not lie to party members.Nit promises to comply, but his insincerity is transparent. So Boraheen throws him off the cliff. Moments later, Nit is dangling over the edge, Boraheen gripping him by one wrist. And then Nit starts turning pasty white. Boraheen doesn't know what Nit is, but recognizes a transformation; he slams Nit to the ground and demands "What are you?" Gok turns around, sees that Nit shapechanging, and remembers that Malicia, who lied to him, was a shape shifting demon. Gok yells "Demon!" and charges. Mirra recognizes a changling and yells "Gok, stop!"; the barbarian skids to a halt with his blade inches from Nit's face. At that point Nit made one final mistake. Instead of surrendering and mending his ways, he tried a psychic attack against Gok. Gok associates psychic powers with demons, and Gok has lightning reflexes; he jams his spear him, and in a single stroke, Nit is dead.