So let me tell you about my campaign...

... a little like "let me tell you about my character." Only, in this case, instead of me telling you about my badass paladin, everyone in my game is a badass paladin. (This is Pathfinder, which means paladins are more viable characters than they ever were in 3.5.)

Here's how it happened; my housemate and four people we both know are in the same WoW guild and hang out a lot in general, and one day they were talking about peoples' habits and decided that it'd be fun to play a group of paladins on crusade. This doesn't mean however that they were all the same type of paladin. Our cast of characters includes;

Dakaz, dwarf cleric/paladin of Torag who hopes some day to create works of lasting, legendary worth. A dwarf's dwarf, Dakaz usually goes last in combat, and has an armor class of Look, You're Never Going to Get Through That Armor.

Flowerbell, gnome singer, healer, cook, and teller of tales. Flowerbell devoted herself to the service of Desna as part of her role aiding caravans.

Paiva appears as a human in the peak of physical health, dedicated to the faith of Serenrae as a child on account of the golden apparent sunburst mark on her shoulder. Paiva's grandmother was a lilend, an angelic creature devoted to creating works of incredible artistry, and what Paiva doesn't know is that her grandmother intended for her to be part of a living epic.

Yland, a larcenous half-elf from Cheliax, recently turned from petty thievery to the service of Shelyn. Enjoys fine alcohol, tobacco, female companionship. Nobody's entirely certain what gender Yland is.

Yukiko, a young archer of apparently Tien descent, dedicated to Shaelyn after being orphaned by a snowstorm. Agile and almost too pretty to pass as human, Yukiko is actually a kitsune.

Our heros joined forces in Katapesh, and were sent by their superiors to the dusty town of Baltwell, between the mountains and the desert.

Baltwell existed for centuries as Taala, a sleepy desert village perched close to a river. A rich deposit of diamonds was discovered just outside town in the last century and the end of the town's wild frontier days involved the "respectable" citizens petitioning Katapesh's mysterious rulers for entry and protection. Katapesh's Pactmasters sent the human general for whom the town is now named, and who imposed a sort of rough order. While those boomtown days are somewhat faded now, the next conflict has started up. Individual miners couldn't afford impressive pumps and engineering and as small claims were squeezed out or bought up, the new rulers of Baltwell became a coalition of wealthy mine-owners who could afford to run bigger, deeper mines. They promptly imposed a brutal order and their resentful, poverty-stricken workforce started organizing in response.

Into this ugly mess came a young and enthusiastic halfling priest. Baltwell's one temple of the good deities had been maintained by a rather standoffish old priest of Aladar named Edrigar; when Edrigar passed of heart failure, Fr. Trantis took over, dynamically mixing with the populace, restoring the temple to its prior architectural beauty. The halfling's last telepathic sending to his superiors was that he'd just discovered something big and was going to explore it further and then... there was nothing. For several weeks. Trantis' superiors assumed that he'd gotten involved in the labor disputes, knifed and dumped in the river or desert by one side or the other, and they decided that the appropriate reaction was a disproportionate show of force, sending five armed, trained paladins to hold down the mission station.

Next time, our heros face down slavers and weird constructs and find out more about the ground right under their feet.