Before I go into the kudos, I just want to give some background on Caddy, for anyone who might have been confused by the character or the seemingly inconsistent way I was playing him. Mostly because this is possibly the shortest-lived character I've played to the end, and I really loved playing him, but I don't feel like there was enough time to show all the facets of him. You can skip past all this to the Kudos part, if you don't care.
Caddy was born out of my combined desires to play a more confrontational character and to try out more of the new Paths. I've played a Druid character with a Totem Path before, but she started out as a regular Druid and gained the Path in game, so I never really thought of her as "a Totem Druid." Caddy had his Totem from the beginning, and it was much more integral to his character. Basically his only redeeming features as a person were that he genuinely cared about the ultimate fate of all rats, and that he considered it his duty to maintain a balance between humanoids and ratkind, to the point of selfless sacrifice.
For the confrontational side of things, I got the sense that a lot of characters and possibly players thought that Caddy was Evil or Chaotic in alignment, or possibly both, but actually he was supposed to be True Neutral. He just genuinely hated pretty much everyone because he was always being treated like trash for being shifted as a Rat or for having his Rats around, which fit the way I imagined him quite well. He was also very rude and disgusting by human standards because of his 6 CHA, and I tried to make that come across as often as possible. Meanwhile his 20 INT made him feel justified in talking down to people, since he was genuinely knowledgeable able a lot of topics - he was just terrible at sharing that information in ways that didn't make him come off as a pompous
Another major part of Caddy was that he was transgender - female-assigned but male-identified - and suffering from body dysphoria, hence all of the "don't call call me a girl!" and "I'm not a woman" and "don't ever talk about my chest!" outbursts from him. This was also why he preferred to remain in his Rat form whenever possible (aside from the fact that he was mechanically crippled with 3 STR and 3 CON) - he felt more comfortable identifying as an animal than as a human because of his self-loathing for his human body. I didn't intend to highlight this as much as I did while playing Caddy, but he ended up in a lot of situations involving crowds of people jeering at him and calling him a woman or a little girl, so it kind of became a constant part of the experience.
The last part of Caddy that I really want to highlight is how important death was to his character. Caddy was MoD, of course, and I decided from the beginning that he would become increasingly emotionally unstable with each death. The major reason for this was because of his love of rats, the only creatures that he felt had ever fully understood him. Since Caddy nearly always had his rats with him, every death for him meant the deaths of his companions as well, and sometimes he would even see them die before falling himself. Because his ultimate goal was to protect all rats from suffering, this was intensely devastating to his psyche - the realization that he was leading his only friends and family to their deaths because he was too weak to protect them was slowly destroying his mind. Which also meant that he would be especially emotionally volatile immediately after being raised, which I really tried to highlight.
But because of his hatred of other people and his low self-esteem due to his dysphoria, he would also try to hide this pain as much as possible, to avoid looking weak. This meant that he was constantly swinging between acting like a sarcastic know-it-all or a sniveling child, but I tried to highlight that his child-like moments were when he was at his most real. For the players who were around last night to witness it, Layla Rashmi was probably the only person Caddy actually completely broke down in front of, mostly by pure chance - she was simply the first recognizable person he ran into immediately after his escape from the Underdark. But the appearance of Alex Sterling and everything that happened afterwards forced his breakdown to continue to a degree, hence why Caddy kept crying and screaming at everyone. I just want to highlight that all of that rage and frustration was coming at from Caddy himself, and in no way reflected my feelings toward the players of the other characters involved. You folks were all awesome.
Which seems like a perfect way to segue into the kudos! So without further ado, here they are!
KUDOS TO:
(Unfortunately, I can almost never remember player names, so I won't include any of them, sorry!)
Alex Sterling AKA Metalpants: Clearly a character with a lot going on in his own life, and even though their interactions were usually brief, it was interesting to see so many different sides to him. From the moment he fatally "arrested" Caddy, to the moment that Caddy killed him in Nomad, and even afterwards, Alex was a curse on Caddy's life. He humiliated Caddy to a degree that made him even more unstable that usual, causing his horrible little quest to get Alex executed. Too bad Caddy will never get his revenge in life. OTN - One True Nemesis. <3
Horhog AKA The Duergar Orog (I honestly thought he was a Duergar when they first met, whoops!): A character who was alternately funny and genuinely threatening, and Caddy's apparent only hope saving his skin and getting out of his reenforced exile. I'm sad that we never got to do the deal to bring Horhog to the surface to testify for Caddy (I was hoping for a double-cross sometime during it), but oh well. Horhog was the first semi-helpful person Caddy was able to find down in Andunor after talking to everyone he could find, so thanks for playing along!
Amadeo Pneuma AKA "Batman": Seriously. Amadeo just swooped in when Caddy was facing certain doom yet again, and saved the day (mostly). I hope the Cordor Guard actually gets around to questioning Amadeo, because it was incredibly infuriating for Caddy (and incredibly hilarious to me) to find out that they still didn't believe him after the second time he was kidnapped. Sadly, Caddy didn't get to talk to Amadeo much, but he was definitely important in Caddy's eyes - one orog-shaped door closes, another monk-shaped door opens.
Lily Kenner AKA Commander Glareface: Caddy hated Lily almost as much as he hated Alex, because to his eyes, Lily was just as much a cause of all the horrible things that happened to Caddy for not believing him and for kicking him out of the city (not that he didn't kind of deserve it). Also, it was interesting to see an interaction between Sticks and Lily from the perspective of a character who had no idea of the history there. Hope I wasn't too much of a pain in your butt! Lyra still loves you. <3
Layla Rashmi AKA Whitecoat: Kudos for being the first person in Cordor to actually attempt to understand and help Caddy, though that little bit of sage advice will unfortunately never be acted on now. I will never stop finding it funny how all of my characters end up liking Layla after they first meet her, despite her reputation. The Heart That Breaks has been one of my favorite characters since my return to Arelith, and I'm glad she's stuck around for so long. <3
Achuak'iejir Stormwind AKA Lizardeyes: Sooo close to becoming Caddy's new nemesis, and I'm so sad that it will never get to happen! Stormwind's a real dragon-queen, and all of the backhanded insults and taunts were spectacular. And I'm so sad you'll never get to use any of those rat puns in character! Thanks for being an awesome sport about the outcome of that fight, too. I get into PvP very little (not counting being insta-killed by higher level characters), so when I do, it's always a rush.
Va'sarra Xun'viir AKA Matron Angryface: I'm still a little miffed about that misclick on my part, but oh well, rothe-dung happens! I can only imagine how infuriating it must have been for someone like the Matron to have someone like the "King Rat" burst into her House and start interrogating her. Kudos to Va'sarra for managing to convince someone as stubborn as Caddy that she genuinely had no idea what he was talking about. Kudos to you also for being an awesome sport about the PvP.
Stath Stoutheart AKA Tinhead: The one person Caddy met in the Underdark that actually seemed likeable and then he ended up being just as bad as the rest. Almost broke Caddy's crusty little heart. I've been watching Stath on multiple characters for a while now, and it's been interesting to see how he's changed over time, yet still retains an sense of nobility and honor (at least, to my eyes). Anyway, thanks for the escort home, even if it went a little awry! It's just a pity Caddy won't be able to come back to Andunor and annoy Stath anymore.
Storm AKA The Elf: The most infuriating guard Caddy ever met, so much so that he couldn't even manage to get his thoughts straight enough to come up with a proper nickname for her! A guard who plays by the letter of the law, if not necessarily by the spirit of it. Things were almost calmed down and boring again before you walked into the room! Caddy might have ended up apologizing for all the screaming in the end, but I suppose now we'll never know.
Desmond AKA Blackhead: Yet another guard of Caddy's hate list, rising from simply being "that guy who escorted me out of Cordor after Lily exiled me" to "that rat-murdering, home-invading scumbag." You unfortunately caught Caddy on the tail-end of his most emotional breakdown yet, which is why Caddy went utterly ballistic when Desmond and the other guards came into his home. You all missed the part where Caddy was lying on his couch sobbing his eyes out beforehand, which just made it even funnier to me how it all went down. And way to play the rough, tough, no-nonsense guard officer to the hilt! It gave Caddy a perfect excuse for yet another breakdown, and I finally got to see what Pufferfish of Insanity do! Caddy's interactions with Desmond contributed a lot to Caddy's growing belief that all of the guards were horrible unfeeling monsters.
Lucian AKA Mustachio: The one guard Caddy actually liked enough to end up calling him by his actual name. I was hoping they'd get to interact a little more, but alas! Kudos for being the only guard to actually listen to Caddy's story of woe instead of just telling him to shut up and writing him of as an insane terrorist. The compromise concerning the rat was particularily touching, and in general Lucian felt like a light among all the darkness Caddy saw in the other guards.
Kish'rin AKA Dogbreath: Deserves a mention for her involvement in the second attempted kidnapping and enslavement of Caddy. Things got a little confusing with everyone talking at once down in the Hub, and I actually missed the part where Kish'rintold Caddy to come with her. If I hadn't, he would have come along willingly without the need for big fiery double-axes, since he knew there was no way he could fight his way out. Oh well! Still one of the scariest gnolls I've seen so far!
Azuilah AKA Goldface: Also deserves a mention for her involvement in the second attempt to enslave Caddy. A character who is always threatening and mysterious whenever one of my characters meets her. But she can be helpful or scary, depending on how she is approached - Caddy clearly chose the scary side. I still have no hard feelings about that misfired Implosion. I honestly thought it was intended to hit Caddy at first, as an overkill way to prevent him from escaping again - the fact that it wasn't just makes it even funnier! Fighting someone powerful enough to have already stunned you and one of your allies? Quick, use your powerful death spell on the defenseless, barely conscious person lying on the ground! That'll fix everything!
Windine Sootfall AKA Punchyfists: Deserves a mention for being the catalyst that turned Caddy into an exiled "terrorist." No hard feelings about the death, I hope! I actually didn't expect Caddy to win, but seeing as "winning" the fight caused him to get killed, jailed, exiled, labeled a terrorist and murderer, kidnapped twice, killed several more times, and ultimately driven insane, I would say Windine got the last laugh on that one. But Caddy still had those potions of Antidote to the very end! Totally worth it, right?
Fhibbs Bucklebelly AKA Goggleface: The one person in Cordor that Caddy genuinely liked, mostly because Fhibbs always gave him food and didn't treat him like a pest. A pity they didn't get to interact more than a handful of times. If not for his mission to save all rats everywhere, Caddy would have been content being your "little mouse," I'm sure. <3
I'm sure there are more people I could thank. Those are just the ones who first came to mind. But thank you everyone for sharing this very short experience with me! I can only hope someone less dickish eventually comes along to take Caddy's place as the new King Rat.
