This is where we talk about the non-character items!
This message was last updated by the GM at 20:16, Thu 09 June 2016.

Everyone welcome Filimena the Gentle! to the game

In reply to DM5 (msg # 2):

Welcome Filimena! Pleased to meet you :D
This message was last edited by the player at 14:33, Tue 14 June 2016.

In reply to Marik (msg # 3):

Hi! Nice to meet you too! =D

Forgot to put this in teh standards/info thread (will do so shortly) but I'm a HUGE fan of colo(u)red speech text ... I reserve blue for you PC and most anything else for me :)

Also any rolls/OCC comments put in orange so I can see them quickly.

In reply to DM5 (msg # 5):

Gotcha. Thanks for the info.

In reply to DM5 (msg # 5):

Right. Will do that from now on.

I'm not trying to be antisocial with my character. I just don't feel like she would approach the two of you at this point. I promise I will be completely active as a player I'm just biding y time and waiting for the right moment to strike as it were. Rest assured I am still here and watching I just can only say that she's laying there being dry so any times. Anyway when I see the moment, which I'm guessing will be soon, I'll be on it.

I seem to have found myself fallen into a similar rut.  I'm sure that our esteemed DM will find a way to swiftly bring us together.  Probably in a way involving violence.

Have faith in the party tavern meet up!

I have no worries we'll find a way. I think you're playing your characters just fine because it makes sense they wouldn't be too inclined to social interactions at the moment. Especially, Rianna, who I gather is in quite unfriendly territory in Haldrim considering the relations between the Northern Sanction and the Ban'Thuur.


Keep up the good work!

Question: Now that I (the player) know that the notice concerns an escort mission and not a bounty, is it alright to go back and retcon Filimena saying "An escort mission" instead of "A bounty" in msg #28? Because she would have known then, even if I didn't.

So.Much.Sass.OMG XD Filimena is one tough cookie.


Concerning the retcon, I'm not the DM, but I see no problem with it.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:03, Fri 17 June 2016.

I find it more interesting that Filimena thought it was a bounty poster rather than a work ad ;)

BUT if you want to swap your older post then you are more then welcome to.

Okay, somehow didn't occur to me there were multiple notices on the board :p Edited the post to say jobs and bounties. Haha.

Hey guys I broke my right hand today. So I'm hunting and pecking at the moment. T'm gonna try and stay active, but my posts might be shorter until I get this cast off.

Ouch! Hope it's not too bad and that you get well soon. How did you do that?


No worries for me. Actually, I might slow down the posts a bit too during the week-end too. I'm helping somebody move out one day and making another visit the city the other.

I'm a correctional officer so getting bumps and bruises is kinda an occupational hazard. It does hurt like a b*tch though.

In reply to Anastrianna (msg # 16):

Ack! Get better soon!

Hey guys!



I do not like going meta, but I feel a small break from protocol is in order here to keep things interesting for everyone and keep the story rolling at a good pace. As you have probably seen by now, we have a choice of very interesting potential adventures before us: An escort mission, the Guardians of the Wilds, Bounties for criminals and the mystery of childrens disappearance.


By the way I built Marik, and the way events have unfolded until now, I feel the adventure that make the most sense for him would be to find the lost childrens. He's a good nature character, he loves a trilling hunt and he doesn't need money in the short term to survive. However, I would perfectly understand that the adventure that makes the most sense for Marcus and Rianna is the escort mission. I don't know yet about Filimena.

Since I'm eager for some party-based adventure and I don't want to burden our DM with running two parallel adventures, I'm asking you as a player which kind of adventure you would prefer? I will gladly adapt to the decision of the group. The escort mission, the lost children, the criminal bounties or another? If it is the escort mission, then just tell me and I'll find a RP way to have Marik change his mind from going on his own find the missing childrens and give him a solid reason to go on the escort mission instead. :)



I'm asking this now because 1) I don't want to waste anyone time with a absurdly long retconning process and 2) because I'm travelling out of country for the next 10 days and will probably be a less frequent poster than usual, hence my double interest to not waste anyone time. :)

Keep up the good work. Really enjoying the characters development until now.

Cheers!
This message was last edited by the player at 21:59, Tue 21 June 2016.

Dang! Do have SOME faith Marik ... I' have definitely put out several plot threads which I don't mind running with but at the end of the day I don't think there will be any problem bringing this motley crew together .

This is not what I meant by my post, DM. I have faith in the party meet up and getting together, I just didn't want to make it too long and work intensive for you just because I have a character with different motivations than the others. I totally have faith in your ability to bring people together, but at the end of the day, I know we're all busy people and I don't want to make it extra work for you to do the retconning work for me, while I'm on travel and a less frequent poster.


I posted that because I just wanted to make sure to not waste anyone time. If there is no problem, well, let's just carry on. :)
This message was last edited by the player at 13:55, Wed 22 June 2016.

Main map - aka Collabris map - has been updated to latest version from the stream

Group 1 map - aka Titan's Gate - has been loaded

Wow! It looks awesome. :D Thanks!

I have no problem going to help the kids. it makes sense for rianna to want to help them just as much as the next person. just still got this broke hand so while I check every day I old post when I feel it's necessary. I am still here however. the doc said I should be good in like 3 weeks.

Yay! One of the exchange I was the most eager for. Game on!^^


Best wishes for a speedy recovery of the hand! Don't worry about us, we'll be patient should you need it. :)

Hey guys, I discovered this channel and wanted to spread the news. The guy makes AMAZING Fantasy music and it provides me with a lot on inspiration when writing. I started with Voice of the Forest and Wolfborn and now I just want to listen to them all.^^ https://www.youtube.com/channe...2-TZBGrwRbuettVf10uw



BTW, Loved that exchange, Anastrianna. Wasn't expecting such high philosophical exchanges that early in the campaign. Good job!



On a related note, I just spent a good part of my afternoon trying to come up with horse-related insults when I should be working. D&D is awesome.^^

I have a feeling we are going to get into a fist fight at some point. Still, I am enjoying myself as well. Hand is doing better daily and I'm hoping it won't take three weeks to heal up all the way.

And NEW NEW Collabris map has been uploaded - check out the new PDF of the setting info found here  - www.squaremans.com/Collabris.pdf

yeah I've been following pretty steadily and though I am only half way through the video I am loving his stream.

To me it sounded like you sat down next to us and was listening. I did not think I was meta gaming or anything as she seemed like she was listening so I made that remark to Marik.

Oops. Sorry, should have been clearer. I mean I was metagaming by commenting OOC in the game thread, in order to clarify that Filimena wasn't aware of Anastrianna and Marik's interest in the orphanage.

I think it was a timing thing, because Filimena sat down only after Anastrianna mentioned the orphanage. She only heard Marcus say he wasn't interested. But I guess Marcus did say that "Looking for lost children is the responsibility of the local constabulary". She might have been able to deduce from that that Anastrianna at least was looking into the missing orphans. I guess Filimena was so badly affected by her dream that she isn't thinking straight this morning. =P Anyway, she'll be heading to the orphanage and will see you there. Alternatively, one of your characters could approach her while she's still in the inn?
This message was last edited by the player at 04:03, Wed 06 July 2016.

No worries. I'll do it.  It makes sense for Marik, since he's probably passing by the bar at this moment.

Saved! Haha. =P

I hate to have to do this but I think i'm going to have to bow out. My hand seems to be getting worse and I think they are going to have to re-break it on the 12th. I'll be in a cast for a while and as I DM a game on here I already have a lot on my plate. The game I DM has to take priority as I have twelve people there counting on me for regular daily updates so I have to bow out of a few games that I play in. Sadly this is one of them. Feel free to do whatever with Rianna. I did enjoy playing her hand liked how the game was going. Sorry again.

In reply to Anastrianna (msg # 35):

Ah crap, very sad to hear that :( Well it was a real pleasure to play with you. I found the interactions challenging and very fun to roleplay. Good luck on your game and don't hesitate to visit us again!

Rianna I totally understand and am sorry to have you go.

Sorry for dropping the ball folks I'll be back in action soon - life has been ... complicated let's say.

In reply to DM5 (msg # 37):

No worries, DM. Hope it gets better for you soon. I have no problem waiting should things get too hectic for you.


Till next time, Anastrianna and hoping it is sooner than later!

In reply to Anastrianna (msg # 35):

Sorry to see you go, Rianna. I would have loved to see how our characters got along. The situation with your hand sounds quite nasty, though. Hope it gets better soon.

Everyone welcome Raszire Toumash out latest addition - who's coming over from my CoS Death House game.

Welcome!  Did you bring nachos?  We love nachos.*




*Marcus Bournstride is not currently authorized to speak on behalf of the rest of the party as concerns consumption preferences.

Thanks, and greetings all. Sorry, no nachos but I do have donuts.

Greetings Raszire! Donuts will be great. And beer. We love beer*.

*Marik is totally authorized to speak on behalf of the party on consumption matters because beer is awesome, especially elven one

Meanwhile, Filimena stands in a corner, leaning against a wall, and nods a gruff welcome at the newcomer Raszire, refraining from commenting on the provision or non-provision of snacks or liquid refreshment.

if you've not seen the Heraldry of The Spinelands take a few minutes to go give it a look - the guy who made it, Dan Connolly,  did some amazing work!

https://imgur.com/a/hIPe3

http://www.danconnolly.co.uk/tag/collabris/

Wow, did not see that coming XD. Now, I'm really curious to know what happened in "Guard duty or bust". Nice work!


And yeah, Dan Connolly work is next level. Love looking at his work on Twitter. Really feels like Collabris is a living, breathing world now, with a lot of history behind it.

Bust.  ;)

Like I said - have some faith ;)

Whoa. Really? That quick? Even more curious now. :p

I can neither confirm nor deny the involvement of an orange-bellied basilisk and a one-legged leprechaun, as I've been subjected to a sworn oath of secrecy.

It appears that someone may or may not have been having a really exciting time while Marik and Filimena struggle to converse with an elderly halfling. :p

Does Marik carry a bow or ranged weapon of some sort?  It's not otherwise mentioned in the character description.

Yes, sorry, I forgot. He carries a short hunting bow on his shoulder.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:52, Wed 20 July 2016.

Just a little advanced warning I will be AFK between Aug. 3 and Aug. 7

Incidentally, which time zones are you all on? Seems like most of the action is taking place when I'm asleep. Haha. GMT+8 here.

I'm East coast USoA so ... GMT+5 (I think)

Likewise.

I am also Eastern Time Zone US.

Haha, Eastern Time US & Canada too. I live in Montreal.

Excellent. So we're 13 hours apart. Well, that's not so bad. Your mornings are my evenings, and your evenings are my mornings.

Seems we've slammed into a stand still. Anything info I've not given to y'all?

Speaking for me,  I still have a plan for when we meet the other members of the staff. But I can't post often this week, since I have my own 40 pages Paper Dragon to slay for Monday in order to pass my Ph.D exam. Hence my slower pace this week.

I just had Filimena ask a couple of questions I could roll for, if necessary. Otherwise, yeah. Meet other members of the staff, and Raszire's idea about who supplied the locks. Also sort of waiting to see if anyone is able to do a detect magic spell. I suppose if nobody's tried that already, that means nobody can.

All the best, Marik, on your PhD exam. Not too longer ago I finished my MA.

Okay I am back from Indiana and should be back to a regular schedule.

FRIGGIN FINALLY! The Beast is dead! :D I can also return to a more frequent posting.  Thank you for your patience.

Giving Filimena / Marik / Marcus / Raszire time to respond/interact before pushing on
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:57, Wed 10 Aug 2016.

So FYI I'm going to be in jury duty starting tomorrow and will have little access to the interwebs during the day so expect slow replies this week

No worries dear DM. Good luck!

Unfortunate news - Marcus has decided to drop the game so he'll be vanishing from the scene shortly.

Hope to get an update posted today between the trial
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:28, Wed 24 Aug 2016.

Aw damn...It was nice playing with you Marcus. Good luck in your next endeavors!

Done with jury duty!

Good job, DM!

Anyone have issue w/ how I'm posting the NPC replies? I don't want to create various NPCs who MIGHT talk once or twice if I don't have to but if folks would prefer that I can.

No, it's perfectly fine for me. I find it easy to read and understand.

On a unrelated note, I think #FiliNeva is a pretty awesome name for a ship. Just leaving that out there...

I'm fine with the way NPC dialogue works now too.

Yeeeaahh... I think Filimena think Neva is being friendly :p

Haha, Yeah. I think Neva thinks otherwise.^^

(Just to be sure, is everyone comfortable about shipping in this quest? I like to joke about it and I'm pretty open about the possibilities of romantic stories in any form, but I know it can unnerve some people. Better be sure than sorry!)

No problem with the way you are posting for NPC's and Marik no problem here with jokes or romantics.

Haha. I don't do shipping myself, but I generally don't mind it.

Allright. Good to know!

Quick questions for the group

• Do y'all want Ruphus to continue on with you? If so y'all MIGHT wanna say something to him as he has said that he is only at the orphanage to help the group find info but otherwise he intends to head back to the Church.
  
• Also any thoughts on opening the game up to another couple of players? I can put out an ad or ping PCs in my Ravenloft games.

I wouldn't mind Ruphus joining us. I might even prefer it. But as someone who has never worked with a party before, I don't think it would occur to Filimena to ask.

And I don't mind more players joining, although hopefully they'd be joining to stay.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:16, Fri 09 Sept 2016.

Well Raszire knows that Ruphus was only coming to the orphanage so he won't ask him to accompany them. And as for new players that is fine by me.

As a player, I would have no problem with Ruphus going with us, although Marik, from my point of view, don't entirely trust him and has yet to see a usefulness in him beyond repeating the group consensus. ;) The young priest has offered little up to this point beyond repeating what other NPC like Gretchin have told us (Which is perfectly fine for me as a player, but not very useful from Marik standpoint). Beyond the investigation, I think Marik could see some use of him as a local and someone who know his way around, as they couldn't have entered the Orphanage without him.


And yes to opening the game to new players. ^^

If you want to help another character do something there's a "Help" action (applies in combat and out) which you use your actions/turn to aid the other person and it gives them advantage

Good to know. Is it a option on the dice roller or do we simply write that we "Help"in our post?

You simply say that's what your doing in your post - I'm a fan of describing what your character is doing but it isn't required ...

Alrighty!

Made a lot of rolls in my last post. I guess with a game like this it helps to speed things up to anticipate potential checks and contests and roll for them first, rather than wait to be asked?

Incidentally, has everyone else played a game in this format before? This is my first time.

I'm 100% cool if you want to throw out a roll or three if you feel that's what need to do - as it often speeds up the game.

I've been on RPOL for a while - my home gaming group broke up when 3/4 of the group went to Tennessee for work and the new group just couldn't manage to do a weekly game

It's my first time with the play by post format too, so I'm slowly learning it up as we go.  I enjoy it so far, mainly for the ongoing RP and the temporal flexibility it allows. I'm also growing fond of our band of misfits, even if they don't know each other very well at this point. I find myself thinking often about the game and I like it. It's been a while since I could flex those RP muscles a bit. It's also good practice for me, as I am a French speaker and it's been a while since I wrote that much text in English (even if I read a lot in English each day).

Good to know for the rolls!

Ah cool. I'm rather enjoying myself too. It takes a bit of getting used, though, I think. It's very different from playing at the table. You're forced to think a lot more about what your character is thinking, saying, doing. Simply telling the DM "I break open the lock" is an option, but somehow doesn't feel as appropriate. Really helps you develop the character. I play another PBP game too, on GamersPlane, but that one is going reeeeaaaally slowly, because some of the other players take forever to respond.

Yeah, Combat!


Just a few questions and precision. I interpreted the Natural Explorer skill as allowing me to ignore difficult terrain, as it makes no mention of specific environments. I interpret it as a general capacity for the ranger to adapt to all kind of environments when moving around.

http://dnd.wizards.com/article...rcana-ranger-revised


Also, when Marik is on (wooden) foot, I see him as unable to do better than half movement because of his crippled condition. So instead of 35 feets, I see his maximum movement as more like 15 feets. Should I take into account other impairment to my combat capacity when I'm not on Rani? Like do I have disadvantage on attack rolls or something?

Natural Explore would work you were at a camp site or out in the wilderness but currently you're in a rather large city so no dice !

As for your movement I'd say round up for that .. so 20ft of movement.

All right, thank you for the precision! I'll make a note on my sheet and I will know it for the next time.

The new Natural Explorer basically removed the Favored Terrain flavor in the previous NE and made it a blanket ability

OLD Natural Explorer

NEW Natural Explorer

This message was last edited by the GM at 15:48, Thu 22 Sept 2016.

Hey Marik you don't have a healer's kit in your equipment list - no biggie but might be good to go back through your equipment to include all the stuff you want to have in it.

Also a healers kit means you don't have to actually make a medicine roll to revive someone who's unconscious. Now I MIGHT be misunderstanding your post so just yell at me if I am :)

Ah yes...indeed, it would make sense for Marik to have one of those kit on himself, as well as some basic cooking, brewing and woodcarving tools kit he would leave on Rani back .

I thought even with a kit you needed to make a Medecine check to see if it work. It made sense for me, as doctors can have the best equipment in the world and still fail their operations sometimes. Maybe we could keep it that way, and homebrew it so that having a kit allow you advantage on your Medecine rolls, what do you think?
This message was lightly edited by the player at 18:26, Thu 22 Sept 2016.

Your equipment comes from background and class so give the PHB a looking over to see what you're supposed to have. I think you can skip getting some of the "starting" equipment and pick your own.

I think it has more to do with speeding up the game w/o killing your fellow player

Alright, I'll submit to you by PM a small list of equipment using the standard starting gold and you'll tell me if I can go with it.


Thanks for the reference for the Healing kit. I agree it's a good time saver. Let's keep it working as intended.

Poor Filimena... Stabbed, Unconcious, bleeding out and (let's hope so) healed while she was probably sleeping on the other part of the globe. Gonna be a rough morning.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:50, Thu 22 Sept 2016.

I'm HOPING she doesn't fail + crit fail the death saves ... would feel pretty bad to one shot her

I'm lighting candles and sacrificing a goat in front of a statue of Percy for her right now.

GOOD MORNING! Wow. What a night. Haha. And just my luck to miss our first bit of combat! Granted I would have missed it anyway. Didn't roll horribly, fortunately. With halfling luck I would have had to critically fail twice, which lowers the chances a bit.

Does make me wonder how we're going to do combat in the future, though. Might slow things down a bit if we have to wait for me to post every time it gets to my turn. And we can't count on Filimena being unconscious all the time :P. Maybe, when the time comes, I'll just post a string a prepared actions? Or a strategy to take?

Rise up and shine! Phew, was afraid we might attract the attention of the Wheaton. :P
  I actually don't mind at all if future combat goes a bit slower. This time was exceptional as we were all connected at the same time, but I would have no problem waiting a couple more days to see the resolution. I think we can go at the same rate we used when out of combat.

Alright I'm going to level every one up to 2 - some good RP and investigation plus a bit of combat for a 3 person party pushed y'all up to level 2.

Take sometime this weekend to level up and tell me when you're done so I can give it all a once over.

Will do. And I agree with Marik, we may need to slow a bit but we will see how it goes.

Yeah level 2!


Now, I'm really curious to know what those %?&? things are.

Then I've done my job as a DM to engage you ... yay!

Going to give Filimena a chance to reply before I do anything more.

Me too. The first image that comes to mind is Mr. Tumnus from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, for some reason.

Levelled up Filimena. How does HP work, though. Filimena is on 1 HP before levelling. Does she gain the 8 that comes with her total now that's she's levelled up?

You gain half +1 or roll (plus con modifier).

You also were healed by Raszire

In reply to DM5 (msg # 111):

Yup yup. Got that. That's how I arrived at 19. 11 + (8/2+1) + 3 = 19. But I was wondering whether Filimena should regain all her HP after levelling up, or if she should only have 1+8, or even just 1. Raszire only healed her for a 1, unfortunately =P

Well yea the roll was 1 but he gets +6 due to wisdom and it being a domain spell, so 7 total was healed. The roll still stunk though.

How many hit points is Filimena down, I know Raszire is down 6, and I don't remember Marik taking any damage. May need to cast another healing spell or two then take a long rest.

Ah cool! Well, I'll say Filimena has 15/19 HP first then. 7 from Raszire's healing, and 8 from levelling up. Doesn't seem like Marik was hurt.

yeah Raszire is a healing beast!

Nope! Marik is fine....for the moment at least...


Full-plated Tank, damage dealer and healing beast...as Pike would say, Raszire is a MONSTAAH!



Looking at the forum this morning, I saw that Filimena post was really long and I was like "Yeah, Voices time! :)" I really like those moments in Filimena head ^^

Marik probably understand this stuff better than me, but I'd like a bit of clarification on what Ghelve just said about the doors and the keys. I'm a bit confused. The doors all need a specific key with the corresponding runes to open (which we do not have right now) and the rod allow us to get through the portal, right? Or is it that they can all be opened with the same rod, but by doing a specific geometric combination with the rod representing the runes (Like the boss doors in Zelda Skyward sword)? (For example, see at about 3:30    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bT2Bn_yRB0)

In reply to Marik (msg # 118):

It is the former - various doors have rune(s) on them which correspond to a given key.

Thanks!


Also, another question for when you have the time. How does initiative work in play by post? I noticed in the last combat, you roll the initiative of skulk vs the party. Do we need to roll initiative individually also or do we all act at the same time? ( either one is fine with me, I'm just curious to know how it works)

Different DMs do it differently. The way I prefer is a single roll for baddies and a single roll for the party - to me doing it this way helps speed things up versus traditional where initiative. Had someone taken the Alert feat I would give the PCs are +5 to their roll


Bold works fine for telepathy
Italics is (traditionally) internal monologue
and of course "Just a color" is used for talking

I thought Bold was mainly used for shouting or talking really loud. We could use a special color like purple or Pink to easily differenciate from normal speech.

Purple might work, since it's a variation on blue. Haha. I agree that bolded text does look shouted.

Either or works for me, just be consistent


Sounds like a long rest to regain spells then off to Jzadirune you go?

Sounds like it indeed!


Personally, I'd like to fit in a small RP conversation with each of you in the meantime, as it appears to me that 8 hours could be a good occasion for the characters to know themselves a bit more, but I don't want to slog down the adventure. If a bit of RP interest you, we could do the content of these conversation by private message while we go to explore Jzadirune.  What do you guys think?

I'll be opening a new thread for Jzadirune so you could just post in Chpt 1.3 - Ghelves Locks if you like

Yep, good for me!

Sorry I missed the RPing opportunity! I've been out and about morning till night last couple of days, today included. Just too tired to think and to write. Will reply to main thread tomorrow morning. In the meantime, for future reference, how do character histories work in the context of Collabris? Am I constrained to places already established within the world? Or can I make a place up?

In reply to Filimena the Gentle (msg # 128):

Adding new places based on PC backstory is more of a DM thing than a setting thing,I've little problem with you filling in gaps in the world but please don't create a new civilization. ;)
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:27, Tue 04 Oct 2016.

You didn't miss anything Filimena. While the adventure continues in Jzadirune, It would be fun to use the premisse of a eight hours conversation in the Gelves locks thread to make our character interact a bit and make some character development. I am taking time to work on my answer to Raszire right now, and it would be fun to have Filimena join the exchange. In fact, it's almost for the better, because right now we can work on fleshing out our answers to the Ghelves Locks conversation without fear of slowing the adventure in Jzadirune down ^^

Phew. Had to rewrite that Raszire answer at least three times before finding a somewhat satisfying version. I have always found the elves to be the most challenging race to RP for me.

I do actually play Filimena's brother as a PC in another game, and he's a bard who works as a freelance journalist, and therefore does in fact "travel the kingdoms... collecting and spreading news", as the bards of Ardenia apparently do, according to the Collabris PDF. Quite a cool coincidence!

That is very cool! Yeah, I find the bards very cool in Matt Colville settings as guardians of the law and main source of news in the kingdoms. Maybe we'll be able to meet him someday. :D

OH S&*T!!!!O_o

Anyone have issue viewing the map?

I can open it up so you can move yourselves if that's easier

Well, it doesn't pose issues for the moment, but maybe it would be useful in the future to be able to move our character ourselves for complex maneuvers. Otherwise, I don't know if it would be feasible to have a chess like system with letters on one side and numbers on the other, so that we could go something like "I'm moving to F3" or "I crouch behind the rock at E5"



On a totally unrelated note, I JUST realized that everytime I have spoken in Elvish thus far, you could see nothing as I just took the content and put it as  privates lines for Group:elf, falsely thinking it would translate it in some kind of gibberish or show something, but redacted. I just now realized all my conversation in Elvish were not even gibberish but INVISIBLE to you guys, except the DM. Sorry about that! *Facepalm

Haha. Well I don't know about Raszire, but Filimena could see all of it, because she speaks Elvish.

The language groups act like you describe. If two people have a common language thenot the text looks fine but if you don't have the language group it says unknown language and has gibberish

They are not private ...
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:06, Wed 12 Oct 2016.

Ah, Good to know! I could never tell, since I haven't encountered yet a language Marik don't understand. Thanks!



Also, what's the difference between sending post to "Private to group:Elf" and "The language group:Elf" in the "Insert a private line" option?

SO!

[Language unknown: Nteprelesver ] 


[Language unknown: Thlofiwa] 

Language and Private - all look the same to me, but they probably look different to you as a player.

Secret is ONLY seen by people in that group - I hardly see a use for it, save perhaps for something to do with passive perception but then I'd rather use a PM so the player KNOWS others don't know the info.

Thank you! I'll address my post to Language group from now on (though it probably won't do much of a difference in a small group like ours).

Hope Filimena's backstory isn't coming across as being too dramatic and overbearing so far. Don't mean it that way. Just having so much fun coming up with it =P

 Nothing strikes me as overly melodramatic so far. I think the idea of a entire city yearning to break free is a nice spin on the "patron" trope, especially with Filimena apparent nonchalance toward it. I'm eager to see where it lead :)



Oh, and for those who wondered. Yes, my last post in the Jzadirune thread is a shameless recuperation of a whole paragraph I had written yesterday without knowing what would happen XD (But it was still fitting, so why not!)
This message was last edited by the player at 14:34, Thu 13 Oct 2016.

Does the music help/work for y'all?

I have been trying to find a few different pieces to give the feel of what's around and hopefully have been successful. I dig through a couple or three sites and after I find what I think works will have the music in the background as I write the post.

I like it! I listen to each mood music while writing my post, especially when Marik get a first impression of something. When writing for discussion or combat I usually listen to some inspirational tracks.



Really enjoying all the discussions in the Ghelves locks thread so far. I think the last post took me a good four days of thinking (The difficulty of writing a inexperienced young adult from a race of know-it-all who still has a century of knowledge and refinement over me). Lots of conversation between Marik and Filimena so far, but don't worry Raszire, we'll get back to you!

Mmmm... I have to be honest, I don't often listen to the music, because the app needs Flash to work, and I have that blocked by default on my current browser. When there are major scene changes, though, or when it seems like atmosphere is going to be particularly relevant, I do switch browsers to listen.

In reply to Filimena the Gentle (msg # 146):

That's fair. Sadly I've not found a good nonflash site with music

Just FYI we are now entering the dungeon crawl phase of this adventure - I'm not going to put up a map as I'll be tracking that behind the screen, but I WILL wait for you to tell me where you're going ... so if you split the party then well that's on you.

Er. I'm kind of stuck wondering what to do next, because Filimena doesn't have anything on her to light the torches with =/ I was hoping Raszire would have something, but do we want to care about that level of detail?

per msg #64 - Raszire and Filimena have found managed to make a couple of torches so post away

I guess that means you have also found stuff to light the torches while searching the corpses. If not, Raszire (having brass dragon ancestry) could probably light the torches by sneezing on them.

Anyway, just so you know, I'm going on a short holiday this weekend to Hong Kong. Friday to Monday. We don't post very much weekends anyway, so I doubt it'll be an issue, but ah well...

Nice! Hope you have a great trip. I've never been to Hong Kong, but I'd like to see it eventually :D


Enjoy!

Yes, enjoy and have fun.

Going to give everyone Inspiration for the RP in the good Ghelves Locks thread
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:17, Wed 09 Nov 2016.

Oh thanks DM! Those conversations are a lot of fun (also, in the process of writing my next reply)

Haha. I have this image of Filimena and Marik intently investigating the creatures, and Raszire standing beside them, tapping his toes, trying very hard to look patient, saying, "Er, guys... They're eating the spiders? Duh."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:51, Fri 11 Nov 2016.

That does make for a funny cartoon panel, now if only I had any talent for drawing.

Hahaha! XD I admit the image is even more funny now that I'm reading it again.

Phew! Sorry it's been so long before I was able to update the Ghelve's lock post. Haven't been home a lot in the last few weeks. Hopefully the wall of text will interest you in some way (Gourmet Marik FTW). I can also neither confirm or deny that one of the characters described in Marik travel is my backup PC in case things goes pear-shaped for him. ;)

I don't think RPOL allows players to post links or images

< a href="url" > description </a>

< img src="imageurl" >

In reply to DM5 (msg # 161):



<a href="https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1H56WWkQiKDcX9u-n1ymYtyNbGJQEE00oQktTY6-IwhU/edit"> Test </a>

EDIT: Humm...test doesn't seem to work. Have I done something wrong in the link?
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:50, Tue 15 Nov 2016.

Yep looks like Players can't post links or images ... sorry folks :(

I'm amused that the Urchin says this.

Raszire doesn't quite think of his skills as being anywhere near the level he thinks the group needs. But it is sorta funny.

Haha! Apparently I wasn't the only one who found that line funny (didn't read the OOC thread before finishing my post) XD.


I find it quite interesting though that Raszire has so little self confidence, if that's the case. Eager to see where that leads.

Marik right now:

"HEY GUYS, I FOUND THE TRAP!"


Also Marik:

"Owwwwwwwww"


Is there a way to dice-shame a dice-roller? ^^

Well, I'll be damned...trollin Dwarves be trollin...Good Job Filimena! You may have just save Marik from embarrassing himself as I was ready to move from plan A to B and C.^^

Plan A was trying to detect magic on the keys

Plan B was going back to the masks, where I had prepared a lovely (shitty) limerick to ask for their help finding the keys.

Plan C: Well, down into the tunnels it was!

Something just struck me as I posted, so question for the DM. Marik passive perception is 15, so does that mean I'm shooting myself in the foot by trowing perception checks everytime I'm moving? I imagine making a manual perception check replace whatever you have as passive perception.In this case, since I only have a 50% chance of having 15 or higher with the dice, it probably would be more useful to use my passive perception most of the time to spot enemies and trap rather than make it manually (I would have seen the last trap in any case using only my passive, am I right?)

... so if one relies on PP to check for traps then they're going to more likely spring all the traps...
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:48, Fri 25 Nov 2016.

As for the plans - I leave that for the other PCs to talk with you about

Sorry I haven't replied to the Ghelve's lock post yet. It's quite intriguing, and I want to get around to it soon, but I've been quite tired with work lately. Replying to the main thread is one thing, trying to come up with a story is another =/

Don't worry, I know the feeling. I think I spent around 5 to 6 hours each on the last two posts of  Ghelve's locks, writing, scratching ideas, rewriting, not accounting the time spent thinking about it on the subway. It's a lot of fun, but also quite hard to find the time and energy to do all this in one sitting with work in the way.

So, on a related note, kudos to the DM for putting that time for us each week.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:42, Mon 28 Nov 2016.

Here's the shitty version of the poem.^^

"Rotten Guardians of this stronghold
Thankful we are, for advice told
Alas, again we sleek count smells
To clean the evil staining thy hold

Gilded gardens, We ask guidance
To savor youth from cruel chance
We sleek the keys of Jzadirune
So that no door shows attendance""

Sorry for my posting delay.

No worries, mate!

So where y'all going?

Have y'all see this!?

https://www.reddit.com/r/mattc...map_scan_here_it_is/

Woah! O_o That's amazing!

Sorry DM, I'm not quite sure what this refer to. :/ You mean the openings created by the secret passage? Or something we see in the gear door in front of us?

In reply to Marik (msg # 180):

The secret passage

In reply to DM5 (msg # 181):

Ok, thank you!

Happy Holidays all!

I'll be online sporadically between now and the New Year, thanks to the holiday and moving cross country soon, but will post as often as possible

Happy holidays to you all! I'll try to keep checking for updates everyday and post as often as possible, between the food-induced comas ;)

Should be back tomorrow with an update! Found a place and am now in the process of plotting the real move!

Great! Courage to you for the move!

Sorry for the delay on my part, hope everyone had a great New Year.

Hope the move goes well.

Okay ... so the map you have show a HUGE opening between the hall and the next area but the reality it is just a door sized opening ... it is NOT a gear door that's open rather just an case opening.

Ah! Ok, thanks for the clarification! I will edit my message in that case.

FYI I've opened the game up for a few new/replacement PCs (Anastrianna and Marcus Bournstride)

hopefully we'll get a few hits and help bluster the PC ranks

Cool!

Welcome our newest PC Kaizen Kost !

Hello Kaizen! Glad to meet you!:D

And new player Jor'en has joined the game!

Good day and welcome to the new players.

Hey all,

Excited to get started. I'm just working out a few back story things with the DM and I'll be up and running.

Character description and pic are uploaded.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:36, Tue 10 Jan 2017.

Hello to you too Jo'ren! Curious to see what you've cooked up for us.

Also, dat dashing swashbuckler!

Hey! Welcome, new people!!! =P

Ah, Filimena. Have you seen my private message?

One more new PC - every say hi to Omaron Stonehammer

Howdy, all. Glad to be here, and looking forward to adventuring with all of you.

Greetings everyone! I look forward to adventuring with you all.

Welcome. Really cool full character pic.

Looking sharp indeed! Welcome among us. :D

Awww... Reminds me of Aang from the Last Airbender. I miss that show :(

Little behind - birthday and movin' day today - but I'll get going asap

Ah, hello to all the new faces.

So, I just purchases Sesame Street Live tickets for myself, my mother, and my nephew, and it's crazy how much Ticketmaster nickels and dimes you. I usually do Stubhub for hockey tickets, so I've never really dealt with Ticketmaster, but spending more than $150 for medium seats for two adults and a two-year-old is just insane. I spend less on hockey tickets and get better value to boot! :/

I assume that's 150 US dollars? I dunno... I feel like that's just the price you pay for keeping a kid entertained =P

Yeah, USD. I don't know. At two, he's still entertained by farts, the tickle monster, and unexpected noises. :)

I'm 34 and still entertained by those things XD

Right?

Right! XD

I will be forever amused by the fates of dice-rolling XD



In battle Marik: *don't miss a single shot in a tunnel shrouded in darkness and kill two dark beings in a matter of seconds with bow and sword.

After-battle Marik: OMG, WHAT ARE EYES?!?
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:22, Wed 18 Jan 2017.

The Dice Roller is a fickle mistress

It has begun! :)

Indeed it has.

I apologize for a slow posting rate. I am on vacation with family for the next 3-4 days.

Post incoming tomorrow morning. Very busy day today. Entertaining two-year-olds.... I pretty much took a nap whenever he did. XD

Sadly we have lost Kaizen Kost.

I will let him fade out as the trio just got somewhere to push the game on and trying to figure out how tllet the kiddo go in a narrative driven way would take way too long.

So, do the footsteps appear to cross the chain, or head towards the ruins on our side of the chain?

They appear to cross the chain.

This makes me sad ... poor illusion! :(

Discrimination! Jzadirune is FAKE DWARVES! SAD!;)

The pleasures of travelling with warlocks. Feeling kinda stressed, Marik forgot for a moment Filimena could pull off some weird sh*t. XD

Apparently the dice roller likes both parties ... can't hit a barn with my baddies today :(

Tell me about it...In the game last week, my beautiful vampire boss spent a whole battle (3 turns) torn like a pretzel in a submission position on the dungeon floor because I couldn't roll higher than a 1 to escape the monk grapple. Then the druid turned into a horse and trampled him while the bard mocked him to death. T_T

Do Jor'en and I gain advantage if I move so that we are opposite sides of the hobgoblin? Can't find my book at the moment, and am wondering if drawing the opportunity attack is worth it.

I'm not doing flanking - so no advantage ... save for him not being able to run away...

Also check the map link, should be shared to edit now.

It is indeed.

Ah Good to know that flanking is not a thing. Was wondering about that too.


Come on, guys! Tear that gobbo a new one.

Flanking is optional in 5E but if you use it then you take away all the "flanking" like abilities that various monsters have ... wolves for example have pact tactics which is  flanking by another name.

The /r/west_marches reddit had a good write up on flanking

The difference being that pack tactics just needs an ally within 5' of the target as opposed to being on opposite flanks.

Sure but flanking is BASICALLY the same thing - they just make it easier for wolves ;)

FYI : I'm going on vacation starting next Tuesday 4/11 ... the wife and I are heading to Greece so while I will have interwebs I most likely won't be online much...

Back from vacation and catching up!

Welcome back. How was the ancient home of democracy?

It was nice - though we went to Santorini/Thira so less democracy and more peace & quiet

Very nice.

What hall with a trap, though? There was a trap in the hall we entered through?

Check msg 100 for description and 119 for map

Welcome back! Hope you had a great holiday in any case. Haha.

Ah, ok. My brain translated the area with the pit as a room, not a hallway.

Hey! Nice to finally meet you Omaron and Jo'ren! :D

So we going for a short rest? Sadly poor Raszire gains back no spells for a short rest but HP never hurts

Yep, I think there's consensus for a short rest. Which reminds me I should throw a hit dice too.

Er. Is there any benefit to a short rest though? Omaron's spell already allowed us to spend hit dice as if on a short rest. I could potentially regain spell slots, but I never spent any. Unless there are any once-per-short-rest abilities I'm not taking into consideration, really we should have a long rest or none at all?

None that I can recall based on classes in the group.

Yeah, so... I'm not sure we want to take a long rest either. Is that even an option?

A long rest (8 hours) would be possible, but appear too long for my (and Marik taste). Now, that you mention it, you're quite right that the benefits of a short rest are pretty marginal now that Omaron has cast that spell (We would only regain a Hit Dice). Since the RP has been done, we could either go with it or maybe Filimena could suggest to press on?

So shall we sally forth?

I'm down a spell slot, but I can manage without it until we absolutely need to make the long rest.

Well RP-wise Filimena already said she was okay to do a rest. Maybe somebody else should say something? But I'll wait 24h and if nobody says anything and DM doesn't intervene Filimena might change her mind I guess. Haha.

Perception rolled edited into my last post, boss.

FYI

The Arcana skill is NOT a substitute for Detect Magic/Identify spells.

If you are NOT proficient in a skill I do limit the knowledge you can obtain ...

Nat 20 is NOT critical successes for anything outside combat in 5E, just a 1 isn't a default failure outside of combat. Though 20/1 are often house ruled to apply outside of combat... I haven't said anything to that effect in this game so we play RAW.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:01, Thu 01 June 2017.

Ok, perfectly fair. Thanks for the clarification! :)

OOPS, sorry Marik somehow missed that question you asked Raszire.

Haha! No worries! Gotta keep the RP going. :D

Hey everyone! Off to Brisbane, Australia in a couple of hours, on holiday. I'm staying with a friend there so I'll have access to the internet, but I'll probably not be posting quite as often, if only because posting from a phone really sucks.

Enjoy yourself. We will try to not get Filimena killed.

O_O

Have a good trip Filimena! Raszire is right, I promise we won't take advantage of it to use Filimena as a meat shield during your stay in Australia. And I mean ever. Like really...sure.^^

Have fun!

Hello? Is there anybody in there? Raszire, Jo'ren, Omaron, are you guys ok?

Sorry, sorry, new job and new school term have been kicking my ass. I am back, and there is a reply coming down the pipe.

No worries. Glad to see you and Jo'ren back. :)

Booming blade, eh? Seems our dear rogue hold quite a few tricks in his sleeve.

Hey all,

I write this with great regret but I'm suspending all my RPOL games. I simply don't have time to give the community the attention it deserves. I really appreciate the last year+ of great games.

Thanks (and sorry)

Sam

Oh man. Sorry to hear that :( Thanks for playing and hope to see you again in the near future.

Sometimes we gotta focus on the real world. I hope your travels lead you back.

Totally understand - I'll shift Jor'en to NPC and you are more than welcome to ping me about coming back when you feel like you're ready.

Sorry to see you go, but all the best!

Hate to see you go Jor'en. But real life comes first and time is fleeting. Good luck with all your endeavors.

Sorry for the delay, this week was a little rough. I try to keep up a little better.

It's okay, jump on for round two :)

Will be in Indianapolis from the 16th till the 21st, may not check in much.

Paging Omaron - your assistance is needed with an Investigation check

Back from a much needed vacation ... how we doing folks?

Will post and get things moving along ASAP

Yeah, Welcome back!  Pretty good myself. I've passed the time with a lot of Cities Skyline and Total War Warhammer. Happy to know you're back. :D

I've been a little lax in checking RpOL lately, but I am still here.

Natural 20!!! Woot!!! *Clap for Omaron.

*Deep bow*

Thank you, thank you. I still have misgivings regarding this chase.  lol

So Filimena, are you doing something? Raszire?

Ooh! Minor Illusion. Nice call, Filimena! Anxiously waiting to see if it works too.

And Raszire!!!! :D *Fist pump into the air.

Raszire, are you doing anything this round? You could make another Athletic check to continue the grapple or drop it to do something else.

Sorry for delay. The place where my wife works is in the process of moving and I some how got volunteered to help.

Positive thoughts and Godspeed to you then! I move some of my friends this summer, and I'm not really looking forward to do it again in the near future. Just let us know if things get too overwhelming at times. Maybe the DM could make some rolls for you if you are struggling with time and can't post for a few days in order to keep the momentum going.

Courage to you and hoping the move will go well :D

Omaron, are you doing anything this turn?

Poor guy! I'm busy planning for a game I DM now. Later today Filimena might remember to go back and check. She forgot about him at first but was quickly reminded when Marik mentioned him. Just distracted by the tracks.

It kinda makes sense for Filimena character to forget about it, since she's hearing voices and doesn't always seems to be sure what is real or not.

That's true. But it's also true that Marik mentioned Jor'en moments ago. Filimena doesn't have that short an attention span. =P

I don't suppose our tea time was long enough to be a short rest, was it?   :D

This is how tired I was. I forgot there was an OOC thread and replied in the main one. Haha.

Lookingat the map, I see a tunnel to the north that connects to tunnel where the hobgoblin seems to have fled. Omararon hasn't been in this section of the ruins and wouldn't know about it, but maybe others would?

Been quite occupied. Will reply tonight.

I'll leave you guys some time to respond first, since Marik is at the back of the line.


Quite excited to play the D&D variant of "The floor Lava" though :D

Hey make sure you level up to 3rd!

Haha, and with that level, I actually have a spellthat would, somewhat quietly deal with all that glass. Oh, but I'm still out of spell slots.

Short rest, guys? Hah, heh, ahem.

Before I reply, remind me again what we get levelling up if we don’t take a short/long rest? I’m getting a bit muddleheaded with all the rule variations I’ve encountered in the online/offline games I play.

Technically it is after a short rest

I'm quite okay with the short rest idea. Would be great to have a few spells to fling in the coming battle. :D

Short rest sounds good. Though it won't help regaining ant spells for Raszire.

Was the short rest when Marik was backtracking for Jor'en, or another point that I've forgotten?

We've not had a rest since the group entered the enclave.

Oops. I misread DM’s reply as meaning we have actually had a short rest recently, but looking back now we plainly haven’t.

I wouldn’t mind a short rest. If Filimena is going to attempt her Tenser’s FLoating Disc is wa we’d have to anyway, since that’s something she gets with a Level 3 feature. And the ritual takes 10 minutes to do, so there’s going to be some waiting in any case.

This probably crosses over into meta-gaming, but do we have time?

Btw, could I just say I’m really glad for this game. Work has been a nightmare recently, and it’s been quite nice coming back to this at the end of the day. I’m in one other RPOL game as well, but this one somehow feels a bit more intimate. Maybe because the other one has a party of 7.

Same! I really like this group and the cast of characters. There are slower moments at times, but I'm always happy to see the red marker on the number of posts when entering RPOL and read everyone posts. Glad to hear it provide some comfort from work, Filimena.

Small point. I usually check RPOL several times a day and I was quite happy to see the forum flare up with activity last night. Let's keep it up. :D

Haha, right, Marik? I refresh the page once or twice an hour, and was pretty happy with the roll we were on.

Really! Made for a really nice evening sipping tea while catching up on some Geek and Sundry shows (Madness) and refreshing RPOL every 5 minutes or so :D


Also, While I have you there, just how buff is Omaron? Is he stronger than Rani (14 strengh)?

Omaron is a pretty buff dwarf with that 16 strength. Can't wait for next level and either picking up a Con boosting feat or just using my ASI on Con.

I was refreshing repeatedly too! Maybe not every 5 minutes. Technically I was at work. But every half hour or so. Until I at some point it stopped making sense since I know you guys are half the world away and my day is your night.

Anyway, sort of messed up. I suggested Tenser’s Floating Disc before remembering/realising that we haven’t done a short rest, so Filimena can’t actually do the spell yet. I’d be happy to write that Filimena tries it, but it doesn’t work, that’s only fair. But I also feel like that might be a bit anticlimactic. Not to mention a bit awkward since Marik and Omaron have moved on in the assumption that it will work. How should we handle this? Handwave it and pretend it just works for this one case? Or maybe as a compromise, say that it works, but just barely, the same way with some activities we could technically do at the end of the day, but would do a lot better the next morning once we’ve had a good night’s rest?

Well, at this point, from a RP perspective, I'd be surprised if Raszire hadn't already tried to cross the glass-littered floor after Omaron, since I don't think he receive instructions to wait and probably can't see Filimena, Marik or Omaron who are standing before the makeshift wall (unless he can see through walls). Correct me if I'm wrong, but the telepathic link created by Awakened Mind target only one person at a time, right? If that is so, I'd say then it probably would make sense to have Raszire appear just as Filimena is starting to plan her ritual since she would only have "talked" to Omaron?

What do you say, Raz? Would Raszire stay behind or go after Omaron after seeing him cross?
This message was last edited by the player at 16:58, Thu 07 Dec 2017.

Well, Raszire would probably attempt to follow fairly soon, glass or no glass. Though packing the human could be problematic. I was gonna have him wait for a bit before he follows, since he isn't sure what happened to the with everyone.

Well, Filimena did relay the situation to both of us before I moved up.

Filimena would have relayed the message to both, but she can only do so one person at a time, and it was rather a long message. We could resolve this little hiccup by saying Raszire started crossing just as Filimena was turning back to cast Floating Disc? Haha.

Any chance I get a bonus or anything to try and take down the wall on account of my Int check?

Mr. Stonehammer, tear down that wall! ;)

And there was much rejoicing...Yay. :D

"Fire arrows"...because not everyone is a epic level half-elven ranger who found a Feywild bow able to shoot oracle arrows...

I wrote the "fire arrow" with Filimena in mind, to help her during her turn last night, but could it help Raszire and/or Omaron wth their own Perception check too? Is it possible to help multiple people at once with their check?

Or maybe just the next person to post who make a Perception check?
This message was last edited by the player at 15:58, Tue 12 Dec 2017.

Omaron, I think it's your turn. Are you doing anything?

Just FYI here - performing a skill check in combat is an Action unless you have an ability to makes it something else (ala Rogue's Cunning action)

Ok, then I'll just move up and use Dodge as my action. Ignore the perception check, I'll just run off the passive.

Is the enemy visible through darkvision at least? Or is he managing to strike and disappear?
This message was last edited by the player at 20:41, Mon 18 Dec 2017.

It is currently visible just fine w/ darkvision

Oh! so Darvision 60ft would allow Marik to see him. Marik rolled a 26 first and then a 12 so the first would hit, right?

Grell isn't hiding in the shadow so no disadvantage

Alrighty. Edited my original post.


Ho....Holy shit. 22 points of damage O_o.

We have spent a lot of time in Chpt 1.4 - Jzadirune ... hopefully we can move along before 1000 posts and RPOL yells at us all.

Merry Christmas everyone! Assuming you celebrate Christmas. Otherwise, have a great day!

Merry Christmas to you too and happy feasting to you all! :D

Just wanted to check that this is a holiday break, and not a case of waiting for one of us to do something? =P

For my part I'm back from the holidays and nearly finished digesting a full week of feasting. Ready to resume whenever you are, guys!

Back from the break - Hope everyone had a Happy Christmas and Merry & Safe New Year

Welcome to 2018 where hopefully we play more games!

Anybody home?

I wasn't yesterday evening. Very busy week. But I'm checking a few times per day for updates.

I actually meant the I in the smaller room that we just opened.

I see R, E, U, N doors in the small room we opened. The I room would be one of the two bigger rooms to the North-West. Are you sure it's not the R ou U room you are refering to?

Oh, yeah, R. I don't know why my brain read that as 'I'.

So I'm confused, y'all are wanting to trip a trap in a hall to a room that's obviously not walked through in many many years ?!

Well, from what I imagine, Marik doesn't really feel at ease in this environment and feel his usual methods of tracking don't apply much here. He thinks these creature may have ways to hide their tracks and trick them into thinking it's abandonned. As players, I think for the moment we're just trying to check up boxes to ensure we're not passing by a hidden hint or object in the dungeon. I may have not understood the DM hint to "NOT GO THERE YOU IDIOTS" XD

If it's obviously a waste of time, maybe we could retcon a bit and change our destination to not waste another week or two on this.

I mean if y'all feel the need to go there - okay but per the narrative the room is obviously empty and both it and the hall are filled with cobwebs. Honestly I can hand wave it in a short post to get things moving along.

Yeah ok, we can do that. For the sake of time saving, I'll write my next post assuming we did the thing, passed the trap, saw the room and found nothing.

To be fair, from the descriptions, nothing here has been walked through in forever, so....

Edited the str check into my last IC post.

I don't have the Help/Aid action in the rules section ... but helping has to be declared BEFORE any roll is made

We should try to get a short rest at least so the magic users amongst us can make use of the spells we’ve learnt over the last two levels. Haha. Also abilities. Or does this not make sense in game? How many hours have passed? Is it time for a rest anyway, lest we roll for exhaustion?

Total amount of time y'all have been look is approximately 6 hours... man y'all have burned through those first few levels!

I think the only person with need of a long rest is Raszire as he needs to regain spells

Yeah. I was just thinking about the cool new spells and abilities we got when we levelled up, which we can't use without a short rest. But that's OOC thinking. Not sure we can justify a short rest if we're pursuing the lost children. Unless enough time has passed sort of have to?

I'm 100% fine if y'all want to take a short rest for IC or OCC reasons

How long is the elevator ride? A half hour or more, eh? Haha!

I can imagine our characters standing at opposite corners of the elevator, elevator music playing, awkwardly staring at one another, Filimena tapping her foot impatiently. Down. Down. Down. Oh short rest!

the elevator ride will be only 1 minute long :)

I think it can be pretty much what you want as far as flavor goes. In my home game, when the Great Old One Warlock use it, we roleplayed it as a long and thin tentacle sprouting out of his wrist to reach what he wants. When the Gnome Pyromancer used it (RIP), it was a very small fire elemental appearing from his hands and disappearing afterwards. For another Pact of the Tome Warlock I DM'ed, it was her own (living) book flying out on his own (The book was destroyed multiple times, but kept regenerating). Maybe that hand belong to a former denizen of the Alganbassadur?

Did you do your history check, Omaron?  I didn't see it in your rolls.