Here's where you can have your OOC discussions.

Thanks guys for your answers on the weapons you use and the suggestions. I am actually going to go with single-weapon style specialization. It fits his character and gives him a +1 to his AC. That being said I now need to learn a non-weap. Anyone have any they would be willing to *train* my character in while we travel?

Technically, training is not going to be necessary, if that's your holdback.  If it's for roleplaying purposes, then that's great.  But I don't want him to think it's mandatory to learn a skill.  I prefer a variety of skills in the group...or at least ones that you really want to have.

LOL ok, I was always under the impression you had to learn the skills. Might have been another game I used to be in. I should have checked.....off to think of what he would want to know....thanks, as always.

Technically, that's probably right and more realistic.  But I consider it more that you are "honing" skills for our purposes.

Well these are my basic NWPS

Musical Instrument
Reading/Writing
Singing
Spellcraft
Cooking
Etiquete
Dancing

I know others but those are a secret...

<---starts humming burlesque song for Kahan's stripping out of his platemail. LOL

Sorry for the delays.  We are actually going to probably be adding 3 more to the group, and I'm trying to get them ready to jump in before you guys get too far down the line.  One of them will be played by the former player of Draaz.

sounds like a good plan. We need more ingredients for our Giant soup. LOL

Hey gang, mal returns. Sorry for the delay but I'm back and ready for action!

welcome back.

hi mal :)

 Hey now.   It it's I,  the aforementioned former player of Draaz.   Just finishing up my new ranger and waiting to be dropped in somehow.   Good to be back.

welcome back the Ranger formerly known as Drazz. LOL

Welcome Donovan, former player for Drazz.  I am Tahldar, former player of Grung.  :)

good to have you back draaz/Donovan :)

I hope not literally as that would be kinda gross.  :)

well so far I have found no Tied bodies to the body. LOL

Because we have a new campaign starting, I am in the process of cleaning up the game.  I have started by cleaning up the characters.  You will now only see those who are presently (or soon joining) the group in the cast of characters.

I will also be updating a more concise rules/setting and other threads to make it more manageable, all depending on my time.

I just want you to know that I'm trying to get the game up to speed and understand the reasons for any delays.  We will have three new PCs joining the group, and I'm trying to determine whether to have them part of the group with the dead man you just found or completely separate, since it may affect the story arc (particularly in what they do or do not know).

if Mal is gonna scout stealthy I will join him to be sure one of us comes back alive. LOL

Just as an FYI I'm out this upcoming week due to GenCon.

Heath, how do you want to continue the scouting with only one of us still able to post this week? Do we want to maybe change it up to me along going forward to scout and not both of us?

Sorry, guys.  I forgot to tell you I'm on vacation.  I'll be posting again come Monday.

It is all good. Was a bit worried about you and your health. As you are normally good about posting. Hope the vacation goes/went well. See you monday.

Hey GM what do we plan on doing with the scouting posts? Also hope you had a good vacation. :)

The scouting thread (which is private to Leo and Malissin) got left where you were waiting for Mal, but he has apparently disappeared.  So I'd suggest Leo not wait for him and just tread forward with his moves.  Then Mal can jump in if he wants.

Gotcha. I thought as Much.

FYI, your picture always makes me laugh because it's a little kid and Leo's a hobbit....

LOL well he is a halfling with human characteristics. I am planning on using disguise to look like a human child at times.

On another note, sorry GM. I was waiting on your post to my last post to post. Ok did I just confuse it more? LOL

That's always a concern with the "wait and see" approach.  Sometimes the waiting goes on and on...

just to confirm you are not waiting on me right? I inquired to the humanoid friend or foe.

Heath, I am not letting him behind me, he is between me and Mal, just an FYI, that is why I posted what I did. He might at the very least be beside me, ok.

That's fine.  See my new post.  The group is reunited.  The man has made no suspicious moves.

LOL I didn't figure a new player would as a player, but the character was what I was more concerned about. ;)

I'll be out of town until Wednesday, so I'll post again then.

be safe.

16000th post!  That's a lot!  Kudos Heath!

I have been traveling and will continue to do so for the next week or so, so I may not post much, if at all, but for sure we'll be back into the action by November.

sounds good, be safe

Okay, I'm back in town.  Give me some time to run the next combat round and post anything else you want regarding it today.

I apologize to all of you for my apparent absence.  Our billing year ends in October, which means October (and bleeding into early November) is my busiest time of year, much like tax accountants just before April 15th.  I should be back in shape again and running everything smoothly by the end of this week.  In the meantime, please post any remaining moves, clarifications, or dialogue you want your characters to make.

I didn't want to give your moves short shrift by just a lackluster handling of the current battle, but that's cause an unacceptable delay by me.

You all may have noticed a "Lukas Rimshaw" among the characters in the group.  Well, that player never posted a single time, and I NPC'd him for a few moves.  We will have a new player joining us who is taking over the character.

Since Lukas never posted, you probably won't notice anything, but he will make changes to the character based on his preferences, which may include the race of the character (and maybe the name if he wants).  Just an FYI...

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday.

Note that I will be on vacation Wednesday night through Sunday, so I will not be posting during that time period.

Here is the new Lukas' description.  Note that he is a gnome, not human:

Lukas is not your typical gnome, he is oddly enough quite tall and lanky for his kind standing five foot tall.  His larger size does not seem to hinder him as he is wiry quick on his feet and his hands can be a blur of motion at times.  Most of the time he wears a pair of goggles, claims they help him see better.   

Well hello everyone, glad to be joining up with the group.  I'll do my best to ease into the group, and learn the flow of the game.

Look forward to playing with y'all.

Lukas Rimshank (2.0)
This message was last edited by the player at 20:54, Mon 02 Dec 2013.

welcome :)

After seeing how you guys deftly get out of my traps and conundrums with magic and advanced fighting skills, I sometimes long for the days of 1st level characters who panic at the sight of a fat kobold.  :)

LOL.  It does make it harder on a gm when players can pull forth powerful magics.  As a caveat though, the Reduce spell is temporary so keep that in mind if we have to come back this way.

(btw Reduce is only a first level spell.  With it's potential effectiveness one would think it should be higher...)
This message was last edited by the player at 18:46, Fri 20 Dec 2013.

Sorry about being away, had a work issue that consumed all of my time recently.

No problem.  I hope everyone had nice holidays.  I'm back, for good or ill.

Just an FYI, I edited my turn a little. Should heat things up a tad. ;)

As your characters escape the caves, I will be setting up more campaign level issues and missions (secondary or primary).  Therefore, if there are any particular storylines or character strengths (or weaknesses) you want me to capitalize on for the upcoming adventures, please send me a private message, and I will see what I can do.

I want all characters to feel like they have equal time, but I tend to give a little bit of special preference to those who have been here a long time, not only to reward their longevity with the game, but also because I'm more confident they will be here as the storyline continues to develop.

Heath, I spoke to Shapfren in Elvish which I assume she knows.  I'm not sure how you have the languages setup, but if anyone else knows Elvish they should be able to hear and comprehend me.

Just figured I'd give you heads up as Tahldar knows a lot of different languages.  He may even speak to the Gnome in Gnomish if the opportunity arrives.  By happenstance or luck he knows that language too.

speaking of that, my languages aren't set up, just noticed that

That should be fixed now. Let me know if there are any more issues.

Sorry...big review with the customer at work has kept me busy.

No problem.  His arrows have been flying.

Sorry for the delays.  Life's been just that crazy.

NP.  Same here.  I live in Mass and we've been getting hammered with snow.

FYI, I will be out of town until Wednesday and probably won't post again until then.

Wow, I got pulled out of town on Wednesday last minute, but I'm back in town now.  Thanks for the patience.

Here's for a weekend laugh for you all.  We've probably all had sessions like this:

lol I enjoyed that, especially Aragorn's expressions

Who is active right now?

I have Borimer, Kahan, Shae, and probably Hatchman and Shapfren as fairly active.  Donovan's player has mentioned he was busy, so I have him as guarding the stairs going up.  I think we might have lost Leogold.  Lukas' player mentioned he got busy, but it's been a couple of months, so maybe we lost him too.

If I have to start knocking off some characters for inactivity, I have a couple waiting to join from the sidelines.

Don't forget about Talhdar!  He is small and gets lost in a crowd easily so I can see why he may be missed.  :)

Oops.  Yeah, I have him on my active list.  I was concentrating in my mind more on the inactive folks.

Hatchman is here.

Sorry for slipping past (again). Can anybody put me up to date?

You are entering the room to the west, where the giants put up a sign that said to keep out, and which they locked with a bar so that whatever is in cannot escape.  You are hoping to find the key in there to open the jail cells to free the gnomes before the giants come down the stairs and get you first.

Meanwhile, Etag the Drow has found a strange incontinuity in the space/time continuum and has a spell that will get you all out, but you all wanted to be the good guys and free the gnomes to come with you before he activates it.

I have started to put together a Game Wiki, with a link at the top.  I've just started, so don't expect much so far, but I'm hoping to make it a place where all the most important game details are kept.

FYI, I will be traveling on business and then on vacation for most of the rest of the two weeks.  Therefore, if I don't get to post much, don't panic.  But I'll try to keep it moving.  I have some interesting things going on in this section of the adventure.

In reply to DM Heath (msg # 72):

I'm going to be afk for the weekend

I will be afk until next Monday or Tuesday.  I'll be on vacation.  But feel free to post amongst yourselves conversations or updates to your character or reviewing what has happened so far, etc.

If you go to the game wiki, you will find that I am in the process of updating it.

Please note the Party Inventory link.  The Party Inventory page is editable by all players.  This is where I expect you would insert party inventory items (i.e., items owned by the party in general, not by individuals, including treasure found but not individually claimed).

I will also update this as needed, but I wanted to let you know it is there in case anyone feels the desire to start putting together a party inventory list.  The portable hole in particular has many items, and I think you have forgotten about some items in your possession (like the light device taken off the medusa, for example).

Sorry for the delays.  Work has been hectic and I got recruited to lecture at Stanford next week, which has resulted in prep time.

On another note, have any of you noticed that they rereleased "premium" 2nd Edition Rules?  I just saw them for the first time at Barnes & Noble recently:  http://www.amazon.com/Premium-...s=ad%26d+2nd+edition

i did see that back when they came out, a friend had a copy but i didnt crack it open (no time). i may get one soon to replace my copy, or whats left of it.  then again, may get the other package you mentioned a while back that has all of the books on disk.

The disk ones are really good due to the ease of copying and pasting (not to mention searching), especially as a GM.  They also include all the options books, whereas I think the reprints were just the three core books.

Sorry for the delays.  I should be pushing this thing forward a little faster, but real life has been beyond hectic.  Let's try to put some activity into moving this.

To give you a sense of this adventure, it consists of essentially two parts:  The first part is this upper abandoned temple section which has a puzzle component and some other components.  The second is the lower levels where you will find the dragon (assuming Fingas doesn't kill it first).

Then you will exit and go to the gnome village at the base of the mountain.  In the meantime, some pieces of lore regarding this new world will come to light, as well as an explanation related to the foundation/origin of magic in this campaign.

I have a technical request for someone.  Can someone who does not speak the Giantish language please copy and post what they see below?  I am experimenting with a "force word" coding and want to see if it works, but as GM, I can't see what you see on this:

 [Language unknown: Ilisilho e Borimer pe ou orc thaughmen mehat lat atiughternte blere.]

i can't read it, but am concerned the only two words i can make out are 'borimer' and 'orc'...

Yes!  Those are the two words I put into a force read.

Can you copy and paste what you actually see?  I've heard that there can be some stray brackets or something that pop up.

So you are not concerned, here is what it actually reads:

Language Giantish:  Reference to {Borimer} and the {orc} races for test purposes here

So to do a force word, you put these brackets {  } around the words you want everyone to understand.  You can do that as a GM (naturally) or even as a player (I think).

it won't let me quote that part of your post, presumably so i cant do that ingame and read what you try to hide from me via language.

[Language unknown: theproesttinica k force ev u e evplth]
when i preview the above with the forced word, it underlines the word that has been forced, im guessing to show me that it will be revealed
This message was last edited by the player at 22:19, Wed 13 Aug 2014.

Interesting.  Does it display the brackets -- {  }  ?

yes it does

Thanks.  Jase is fixing the brackets issue, since they are showing.  Also, if you use this tool in your own games, each word that you want to force needs to be in the brackets, not a phrase or multiple words.

So you must type {john} {smith} not {john smith}

thank you, good to know.  unrelated question, im hoping you know some about the dice roll history.  if I roll a secret roll on behalf of a character, does it show up in their history, and if so, can they then see it?  or can they see it already in the dice roller if I roll a secret roll for them?

I ask because I will be rolling results for characters that they don't know about, and I want a historical record of those rolls. it seems that the dice roll history may work, but only if it records my secret rolls on their behalf without letting them see it when they review their own dice history.

*by dice roll history im referring to the "rolls" link
This message was last edited by the player at 18:12, Mon 18 Aug 2014.

Just roll it yourself and put a note of who it was for.

im not sure i understand. the "rolls" link is cool because then i have a running collection of that player's rolls, independent of the dice roller or any other player's dice rolls. i think it would be useful if the secret rolls i make on their behalf that the player doesn't see in the dice roller are right there with the other rolls that they have made in their "rolls" link (and still without the player being able to read the secret rolls, just me for future reference). but perhaps what you're suggesting works as well and i've missed it.

I mean don't put their name in for the character slot, just right it in the notes thing. It won't show up on their thing because they won't be tagged in it.

I think you just check the square for secret roll and then roll for the character.  But...I'm not sure if they can see the secret roll if you do that.  Good question.

I just did a secret roll on behalf of Borimer.  Do you see this:

08:58, Today: Secret Roll: DM Heath, on behalf of Borimer, rolled 6 using 1d6. secret roll test.

I realized that the House Rules for Level 0 spells and Read Magic spell were not clear.  They were scattered around and not well referenced.  I therefore updated that thread for the sake of clarity.  Let me know if there are any questions and I will further clarify as needed.

I had no idea about the 0 level spells rule.  That really helps!

I updated my character sheet with the new rules.

That was my fault.  I've been playing this game for so long (almost 35 years now), and this edition since it came out in 1989 or so, and I've had various online incarnations-- first on a play by email site, then two games on playbyweb.com, and then 3 different incarnations here on RPoL, plus a website-- that my organization of the massive amounts of posts and information has become less than stellar.  That info was probably on the now defunct website.

Thanks.  I'm sure the overhead for a large game must be exhausting.

One quick question, is Identify a 0 level spell?  It's not in the 0 level spell list but is referenced here in House rules Magic as if it is:

2) Mages can use one Identify and one Read Magic Level 0 spell per day as a "freebie" in addition to any other spells.

I'm sorry.  I meant that "Detect Magic" and "Read Magic" are level 0 spells.  Identify is a 1st level spell, but you get a freebie.  Let me correct that.

yes i can see it in my rolls space, thats too bad. i was hoping it was going to be a little easier :)

In reply to Borimer (msg # 90):

I saw your post in RPoL Development, and the response.  I would suggest the next level is to rephrase it as a "suggestion" for a change and articulate why it would be useful.  If enough people vote for it, they might add a feature.

I think stating as somnething that needs to be fixed wouldn't be the way to go, but rather to "adding a feature" or a check box or something, and the reason why it would be useful to GMs.

I'm telling you, just don't select who it is for and write it in the comments instead. If it isn't on someone's behalf then there's no way they could see it.

thx heath, i think there may have been a better forum to post in, perhaps the technical forums?  i wasn't looking for a serious debate about changing any rpol stuff, just a conversation about something i thought i could use if i figured out how.

i didn't know that secret rolls could always be seen by the character, i've only used them in my campaign as a gm so i've never seen one in the dice roller from a character's perspective.



ya i know :)
im always looking for a way to condense the time it takes to run a game and thought i had found a possible way to keep from having to record them myself.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:46, Wed 20 Aug 2014.

I posted a requested feature on your behalf.  The first reason I present is what you mentioned.  The second reason I posted there is a reason that I think would be emotionally desirable to many players.

To anyone:  Go add a +1 if you like the feature.  The link is here: link to a message in another game

thx again heath, good words to express the idea. it looks like big ron is saying no way still, is it a moot point now?
This message was last edited by the player at 18:26, Wed 20 Aug 2014.

I don't know.  He naysays a lot of ideas. The question is whether there is a workaround.  I'd think jase would have a better sense of how the code would work it in.

His idea would probably solve your problem--i.e., a new NPC for each character just for secret rolls.  But I tried doing that once and it was burdensome considering the desired result, so you'd have to want it pretty badly.

yes I didn't want to explain it to him but it wouldn't save any time, and would perhaps be a bit burdensome.

So I just rolled 3 times.  If I am correct, Borimer should be able to see 2 of those and everyone else should see just 1.  The one I think you do not see is where I typed "Borimer" in the "roll for NPC" box.  That shows up for me as "NPC Borimer."  Anyway, if you are a GM, I suppose that's an optional way to roll secretly for players.

yes I see two of them:

15:09, Today: Secret Roll: DM Heath, on behalf of Borimer, rolled 16 using 1d20.
15:08, Today: DM Heath, for the NPC Borimer, rolled 13 using 1d20.

Okay, so that means if you type the character name in the "on behalf of NPC" box, and click "secret," then the character won't see the roll.  They will still see the roll if you do not click the secret box.

Here's what I see as GM:

14:09, Yesterday: Secret Roll: DM Heath, on behalf of Borimer, rolled 16 using 1d20.
14:08, Yesterday: Secret Roll: DM Heath, for the NPC Borimer, rolled 3 using 1d20.
14:08, Yesterday: DM Heath, for the NPC Borimer, rolled 13 using 1d20.

This message was deleted by the player at 00:40, Sat 23 Aug 2014.

If there is anyone who can open a lock or detect a trap can you let me know?  We aren't going to make it far if we have to rely on magic to open locks and manually trip any trap we find.

Leogold is a fighter/thief split class.

Lukas is a rogue.

Donovan is a ranger.  (He was played by the player who formerly played Draaz.)

Lukas mentioned back around March that he got busy.  We might have lost him.
Leogold also hasn't posted in a long time.  I have two potential new players to take over a character or two.

I have private messages out to all three of the above to see if they want to continue playing.  If not, or if I don't get a response soon, their characters will be handed over to new players.

Thank you Heath for the response.  We're going to need all three of them I think if we are to make it through the mountain.

Speaking of response, nobody has responded to me yet.

FYI, I wanted to explain the recent delays.  I was contacting old players to see if they are still playing if they haven't posted in awhile, and I have been very busy with a case that went nuclear (figuratively speaking).

So Lukas is back with us, but Leogold will be taken over by a new player who is brand new to our game.

So please welcome the new Leogold to the game.

welcome new folk(s) :)

Hello everyone, I will be playing Leogold. Excited to play with you all!

Quick update:  I got sent out of town for two emergencies in the past two weeks that have taken up all my time. Sorry for the delays, and I hope to get back on track by the end of the week.  As always, feel free to communicate amongst yourselves IC.

sorry for my sudden silence, I had personal business that came up.

Hey all! Long time no chat :)

Welcome back...?  Back from the dead, that is.  Malissin died (See here at msg 6: link to a message in this game ).  Are you looking to come back to the game?

Not right now. I'm swamped getting my own games back up and running plus NaNoWriMo is whipping my butt (started a week late so that's 10,000 words I've got to catch up on :P)

HOWEVER at the next logical break in the adventure or if another player goes AWOL PM me and I'll look at fitting it into my schedule.

howdy mal :)

Hey Borimer! Looks like I died :(

Merry Christmas everyone.  I can't wait for the holidays as I really need some time away from work.  I'm out for about a week and a half.  I hope you all too get a good dose of down time to enjoy this holiday season!

merry Christmas to you too, and everyone else as well (or non-specific happy day if no celebration for this particular holiday) :)

Hey, everyone.  Sorry for my delays.  Family emergency over the holidays, and I had to go off grid for awhile to take care of things.

No worries.  Take your time.

I suppose none of you celebrates epiphany, right?

No, but I have one occasionally.  :)

FYI, I am starting a new player on Leogold's character.  He is currently in the process of getting caught up and will join when ready.

Assuming anyone's left after this beholder fight...

Hello everyone :) I just made my first post so hopefully I can be a positive addition to the group.  I read through a lot of stuff, but honestly this is my first try at this gaming format so while I did read the posting rules, if I make some breach of etiquette, don't hesitate to get me back in line.  :)
This message was last edited by the player at 22:12, Mon 23 Feb 2015.

howdy and welcome :)

Welcome,

sorry for the lack of posting, I just happened to lose my voice and still am in the process of recovering it.

In reply to Borimer (msg # 134):

Thanks!

Hello Leogold.  How well do you know 2cd edition dnd?

As far as the game goes it's a good time to jump in.  The group has teleported to a new world and we're basically just starting out.  We are on a quest to get some berries to bring to a group of gnomes.  These gnomes can enchant the berries, that when eaten will stave off a sickness we've encountered in our short time here.  This sickness is deadly.

Unfortunately the berries we seek are near a dragon that sits in a pool of healing.  Once we find him we'll have to either hold him off long enough while we collect the berries or kill him.  Though it's unclear to me how you kill something that is sitting in a pool of healing and is smart enough not to leave it.

In reply to Tahldar of Tyrannia (msg # 137):

I grew up on 1st/2nd edition.  Thanks for the overview :)

Cool!  I grew up on 1st/2cd edition as well.  In my opinion 2cd edition is the best.  I played 3.0/3.5 but it's not as good.

Yeah, I don't really see huge differences between 1 and 2.  I have never played 3 or 4 unless you count DDO, but I got rather bored with that so I don't login much anymore.  I don't own any of the materials, but I have played two sessions of 5 and it's not bad.

If all your exposure to 3rd is through DDO, then I guess you don't have a very representative sample. Anyway if you have played 5th you have a kind of idea of how it can play. Basically you can play it as a hacked 2e -the standard setup- or as a high powered game just with more math and a lot of granularity. It is an extreme toolkit that lets you model with great accuracy almost any character concept you want. The bad thing is it can very easy implode under its own weight and when played the wrong way leads to extreme LFQW.

4e is an entertaining game, very balanced and relatively easy to run. The only edition where a zero magic is possible. The problem is it runs on a single setup -very high magic fantasy-  and it lacks many out of combat options, and it limits the kind of PCs that can be built -with a couple of exceptions everybody must be a killing machine- on later levels combat tends to drag.

I have been traveling a lot the last week or so, working very long days.  So I apologize for the delays, but things should get back to normal on Monday.

I just finished the last test of the last class I needed to get my bachelors in information technology.  I get my diploma next month!

I've been going part time for the past 9 years.  Work has been paying for everything which has been awesome.  But it's been tough to do with a family, job and house to take care of.  Totally worth it though!  I've actually been (slightly) mocked by others in years past when I told them how long it was going to take for me to graduate.  Nine years is a long time, but I knew at some point this journey would end.  Who's laughing now!  :)

I plan on enrolling for my masters this september.  I figure why not as it's only 10 more classes and they are all software related instead of the all the junk I've had to slog through to get my bachelors (I just finished a class in human resources - joy).  I'll take my usual one class in fall and spring and get it when I get it.

Congratulations!  That's quite an accomplishment.  :)

yes congratulations are in order, that's definitely a great accomplishment :)

congrats.  hopefully there is a promotion in your near future
This message was last edited by the player at 20:08, Sat 04 Apr 2015.

On a side note I just realized this game is quickly approaching more posts then all of W-P and has already sped past W-GM

That's a good sign, though it may seem overwhelming to newcomers.  Also, jase deletes posts periodically from the main forums.  It only goes back a certain number of months.

Vacations are fun, even if they aren't paid. I just recently bought Temple of Elemental Evil. I'm well aware of the Circle of Eight patch, but I want to beat the unpatched game first. So I needed a way to survive long enough, thus I made a very potent party(not that potent) and started to grind before taking quests (All of them named after a player archetype or phrase)

-Grieffer, a fighter  with high stats. I was going to make him a chain fighter, but forgot about it. True Neutral
-BadWrong Fun, a paladin with good stats. Uses a reach weapon for high efficiency. LG (obvious).
-Muchkin, a wizard with high Int, high Con and Dex, poor Cha. Specializes in conjuration, so far he has endangered the group as often as helped them.
-Powergamer, a cleric focussed on combat, not Codzilla yet, but evntually. NG.
-Scrub, the only PC using point buy instead of a huge number of rerolls, as her names indicates she is the anti-optimized one in the party. Elven Sorceress, as of 3rd level she has 4 HP. She is like the pet of the party, if she falls early it mark a TPK.

The party had recruited the thief NPC to use as a crutch, but once they hit 3rd level I decided it was time to betray him and loot the body, and starting from there I said "forget this, let's go into a rampage". After I killed the grumpy old man with his sheep, I noticed the paladin had fallen. So I went to atone and the cleric went out and slaughtered the party. Lots of fun.  I really love this game, I'm thinking I should treat it as a sandbox instead of trying to beat it.

WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR GAME!?!?

Not sure I follow...?

I am a little confused so I am looking for a clarification.  It's very possible I missed something, but in the original description of the exits it doesn't say anything about a door or doorway, but then Shae mentions one later and that line was continued in the next DM post and now Leo and Shae are apparently at one.

Could you please clarify how things are laid out?  Specifically, did we go toward the stairs or the dark passage?  Is there an actual door that can close or just an open passage, and where exactly is that gas coming from in relation to all this?

Sorry if I have missed something obvious but I figured I better ask and be clear.  :^)

I was interpreting door as the doorway to the dark passage.  There is no physical door, so that shouldn't be read into it.

There is a doorway sized rectangular exit carved into the rock on one end of the room.  On the other end of the room is an open area ascending in stairs hewn out of the rock.

ok, so to clarify - the gas is coming down the passage with the stairs (I assume this because we can see it) and we - meaning Leo and Shae - are between the gas and the quicksand room in an opening to that passage.

No.  IT is like this but more round:

doorway
   __| |__
  /       \
 /         \
/           \
\           /
 \         /
  \       /
     __
     __
     __
   natural stairs

So the doorway (north) is narrow.  Shae and Leo are there, and the mist is coming down the corridor from the north.

The natural stairs is a wide area (south) that is cut naturally out of the rock.  Borimer is there pulling the others out of the sand.  Nothing is coming down the stairs...yet.  :-)

Sorry for delays.  Every time I think my schedule will get lighter, it gets worse.

No worries, it happens.

Fridays are strange, everybody is so ready to rest for the weekend while I'm getting ready to start working.... I think its odd.

Thought this was interesting:
https://np.reddit.com/r/DnD/co..._fighter_with_int18/

Nah, Gandalf was a 3.5 Stalwarth Battle Sorcerer, and was stunted on his spell learning, also learned only utility spells, that is why he almost never uses flashy spells

I always found it odd that he couldn't save himself from falling off the ledge in the mines of moria.  1st lvl feather fall, 2nd lvl levitate, 3rd lvl fly, etc...

The odd thing about the discussion is that Lord of the Rings was written decades before D&D came out.  Trying to retroactively apply it to D&D is absurd; what they should do is complain about D&D not properly representing its source material by making wizards too powerful.  Or am I wrong?  ;)

If LOTR was the only inspiration ;)

http://www.digital-eel.com/blog/ADnD_reading_list.htm

Good article!  Yeah, Lord of the Rings was part of the development of at least the races and abilities, though.  For example, they had to go with "Halfling" because they couldn't get the rights to use "hobbit."  But true, if LOTR were the only inspiration, the game would be pretty dull.  It's just funny to see backwards engineering of LOTR characters against a standard that didn't exist when they were created.

yeah, that is rather amusing.

In case any of you were wondering why I haven't been using those nice homemade maps lately, it's because my firm revamped the computer systems and now I can't download the maptools program at work, and have very little time at home to do this kind of stuff.  Hopefully, that will change soon.  I wanted to put in a nice map of the room you are currently in but haven't been able to do it on maptools yet.

What a moment for everything to go quite.  It's poised like the end of an Adam West batman show.

I just thought I would check in and make sure everyone is still following.

I haven't left for many years :)

Still here.  Heath gets busy sometimes.  He's a nuclear scientist as I recall.  Which, in addition to being the hardest engineering discipline, must be pretty time consuming as well.

All I know about nuclear science I learned it from the Simpsons.

If it's par for the course I shall not worry then. Completely get having to put real life first. It pays for the Internet after all.

No, not a nuclear scientist.  That would be interesting, though.

I am actually changing employers and the last week or so has been hectic, as will this week.

Also, sometimes when we jump into a major fight, I want to make sure all rolls and logistics are carefully accounted for.  This takes a little more time on my part to carefully choreograph than a simple post, which may require me to have up to an hour or so of free time to carefully check everything and make sure that the rest of the fight will be accurately calculated.

This is especially true where, like here, I am adapting later edition monsters to an earlier edition of D&D.

And sometimes battle fights can take a little longer if people don't post their moves fast enough, but this time the delay is 100% my doing.

Just a warning I am away from home until the 2nd I will have my phone so will post when I can but expect typos and auto-correct snafus.

No problem.  I appreciate everyone's patience.  I am having my own RL issues with starting a new job and getting situated.  I'm still trying to settle and unpack, and am way behind on everything, including this game.

good luck with the move and the new job, I'm sure its hectic to say the least

Here's the much awaited update. SOrry for the delays. Hopefully, things are getting back to normal again.

Sorry for all the delays.  Between the new job, the holidays and all the other crap of real life, things got very hectic.  Hopefully, we can keep it moving now.

This is the bit of RP that gets me, I know the best thing to do is us all to run for the door (as they seem to reset when you mood beyond them) bug I only know that because I know what an invisible person did. How do we resolve this kind of thing in this group? If only Kahan could let us know (nudge nudge wink wink) so the characters had the info too.

I was thinking that you knew where he was at because of the location of his voice calling out to you.

And remember that they only stopped moving when he was invisible and silent.

FYI, my new firm blocks out photobucket, where my pictures are stored.  I'm going to need to find a picture/map repository that's not blocked by the system...

Try imgur.  It's pretty easy to use and upload pictures.

i cant help but ask why they would block photobucket...?

As someone who works for a content filtering company (although education so far more harsh than most) we have it in the adult.art category as it can and will host images of 'art' you would not want young kids to see (same with imgur, although in just adult)
Depending on the company it may also be bandwidth or espionage (upload a photo of the blueprint so you don't have to smuggle it out)

ah ha, good point

I think it's a bandwidth issue.  We use company laptops and it's only blocked when using their Wifi.  Besides, since we do a lot of sexual harassment and other issues, it would hurt our ability to do our jobs to block sex related material.

Imgur is also blocked.  It says the reason is because it's a file sharing and storing site.

Makes it sound like you harass for a living ;)
Would Google Drive work for this? They are a right bitch to block with out an explicit proxy especially if you can turn sslv3 on in IEs settings (yes ie has a use)

Interesting. I'll have to look into it.  The other ones say blocked for security reasons, so maybe it's for fear of our confidential things getting put on a public server.  I'm not sure.

I guess some people can say that lawyers harass for a living...   :)

Just don't fall foul of the AUP, we tell school to write it so an attempt to bypass is enough for punishment, there it may be detention but in an office...

AUP = acceptable use policy
This message was last edited by the player at 22:43, Thu 17 Dec 2015.

LOL. I'm pretty senior (i.e., a boss), so I doubt that anything would happen, so long as it's legal.

Took my daughter to see Star Wars this morning.  It did not disappoint.  Definitely a 3D worthy movie.

great to hear, I plan on seeing it in imax

Just got back from iMAX with my 11 year old and wow.

Hope you are all having a great holiday season.  I've been out of it for the last week or so because my wife had to have surgery and I've been roleplaying Clara Barton (not as fun as it sounds).

I have been in hospital over Christmas, it's no fun but means a lot to have someone there with you so it was more than worth your time.

Hope all is well now.

I hope the surgery went well for your wife.

Good luck I'm still in. Sorry for vanishing, it is kind of a custom for me but I odn't mean it each time. I just had to turn off for a while, end of semester and the better part of December left me drained.

Just so everyone knows I am on holiday now until the 11th, I will try to post but from Tuesday I may not have Internet where I am staying. Feel free to npc/skip me.

Sorry for the delays, everyone. My life has been crazy busy.  I hope you are all still around.

of course.

Anyone know how to post a picture from flickr to the

[img src="   "]

format?  It seems to be the only storage site not blocked by my server, and I wanted to give you a map of this room, but I can't figure it out.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:12, Tue 31 May 2016.

You should be able to right click the image or somehow view it in its own tab (i.e., without any other html or website), then link it from there. That img src tag works the way you have it laid out right there.

<img src="url" close the bracket

I tried that, but didn't seem to work.  Did you see the picture when I briefly had it up?

I think getting the right url is the problem with flickr

slap it on imgur or google draw maybe?

Let me see what I can do.  I've had a problem because at my new job, photobucket and other such image storing sites are blocked, so I'm trying to find one that actually works.  I've used photobucket for about 10 years.

This message was last edited by the GM at 00:10, Wed 01 June 2016.

I got imgur to work. Awesome!  But I have to post the map tomorrow. Ran out of time.

yep I'm still here (I remember that picture from my old campaign, cool aboleth) :)

I've been off the grid hiking in the mountains for the past couple weeks.  Thanks for your patience.  I always fear I will lose people if I'm not always on top of things every day here, but I'm glad to come back and find people still around.  We have hiccups and delays every now and again, but I'm hoping it will pick up now and that I keep your attention.

is there a difference (other than location) between the two pedestals? its been a while and without poring over past threads I remember the mechanic as taking a gem from one pedestal placing it in another to stop the 'trap' and that giving us the gem to take up to the main room for the prizes?

i also think the others probably need to know if Borimer is still attacking the drow or has switched to the tree, as this may impact their choice of action

There is only one pedestal this time.  The gem was on the chain around the drow's neck.  Previously, you put one gem on the pedestal and received another gem to put in the main room.  Here, both gems are visible.  You just don't know which one goes on the pedestal to open an exit...or perhaps to release the gem from the hand of the statue.

Sorry for the late posting.  For some reason, I thought I had already posted it.

I'm not sure what internet connectivity I will have in the upcoming week.  My postings might be spotty.

It's been a few weeks since the last update...Is the game still going?

admittedly this is the second longest time I can remember heath not posting, but he wouldn't let the game die without at least saying so to us. im guessing he's swamped at work/home and will post an update soon.

Sorry.  I've had long hours with many days working 8 a.m. to midnight, plus my daughter's graduation with family in town.  Thanks for your patience.  Be assured, the game is still going.  The DM just needs a vacation.

glad to hear it, Borimer isn't even started/finished with killin gods yet..

Okay, I'm back.  I do have an actual vacation scheduled next Tuesday through Monday.  I'll post if I can during that time period, but don't worry if I don't.

Something really screwy just happened with my character sheet.  I was updating my spells used for the day, I saved the sheet then realized it got cut off.

Heath, can you get my character back!  I'm missing virtually all of it and I don't have a back up!  Grrrr....

I can't.  I see the same thing you are seeing.  Perhaps you can PM the mods and ask them if there's a way to recover it.

If you didn't close out of it yet, you might try an undo (Ctrl-z).  If you already saved or exited it, you might not be able to.

I tried hitting back to see if I can retrieve it but no luck.  I posted in general rpol to see if they might have a backup.  This sucks.

If you didn't save it outside of your character sheet, you might have to recreate it.  Unfortunately, I didn't make copies outside the character sheets either.  I used to but just haven't had the time lately.

I would like to request that everyone waits to post further until I get off work tonight.  Kahan has some very important information that he needs to get out quickly.

I will post soon.  I am in the midst of piecing my character sheet back.  I found a rough draft of Tahldar from 2013.  From this plus my memory I should have the sheet back as it was soon.

Do you have a copy in PMs with Heath? The one you applied with should be there for approval, assuming he did yours like mine that is.

Sadly no.  I looked.  But I did find some bits and pieces there that helped.

Let me check.  I didn't think about that.  GOod idea.

Oh, I forgot that you used to play Grung.  I copied and posted all the old PM messages for you, so you should be able to at least somewhat reconstruct him and you will have the original character sheet.

FYI, I am in the middle of a trial right now, working day and night.  That's the reason for the delays.  I hope to get back to posting at the end of next week.  Thanks for your patience.

so the dragon can live another week before we slay it, good enough ;)

Trial lasted forever.  Finally getting my feet back on the ground and back to this game.

good to hear, after all that I hope you won

Doesn't matter.  It'll all go through multiple appeals for years.  This is just phase one.

Doesn't it get tiring dealing with all the problems that are inherent in the judicial system? I know I'd get tired of it... :P

I get more tired of dealing with the bureaucrats and people who mess up the system or keep it from working properly.

Sorry again about the delays.  Totally my fault.  But coming up for air and hopefully things will all be back to normal.

FYI, this dragon chamber is not going exactly as I pictured it.  I guess we'll see where it takes us...

How exactly did you expect it to go? Just curious...

im thinking he (like myself) didn't expect us to fight the dragon, instead finding a way to give it back the head of its child (if I remember correctly, I cant look it up at the moment)

Nope.  I was thinking step one is to get it away from water that instantly heals it...

At least, that's the idea the now miniaturized guy in white hair had as he ran down the corridor.

Donovan died almost immediately upon our arrival here as I recall.

Was it the bridge with the giants?

It was at a pool where we rested.  He got the "sickness" and died.

Oh yeah, that was Marcus the Paladin who got it on the bridge. My bad.

Borimer, it's about time that the two of us died. Everyone else has... haha.

Borimer already died once...and came back.  So I guess it's Kahan's turn.  :)

and the death knight's still looking for him. he power word killed Borimer when Borimer was winning with the sword (my humble opinion) ;)

Not to mention this demon that followed him from the other side:

And I think the paladin you are thinking of was Hatchman the Paladin, not Marcus.  Marcus was the Chevalier Paladin.

Marcus was killed by the Purple Worm when you were escaping the island with the erupting volcano.  (See Temple of Ashmere 32)  But good memory since that was 6 years ago!

6 years and we've barely went anywhere. Gotta love PbP... Haha

6 years and we've barely went anywhere. Gotta love PbP... Haha

6 years and we've barely went anywhere. Gotta love PbP... Haha

6 years and we've barely went anywhere. Gotta love PbP... Haha

Is it just me or did that post like 4 times?

ah yes, borimer's other buddy...

and for kahan and Borimer its been a couple of months..? it's pbp alright :)

"I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away"

Doing your research, eh?

Although I should say that I really got the name from the Watchmen, and found the poem second.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:31, Tue 29 Aug 2017.

I knew it from Watchmen too (please tell me you read the graphic novel...), and thought the coincidence was too much.

I'll work on a post... eventually?

Sorry for the delay.  Our firm just rolled out new internet security that blocks tons of websites, including RPOL.  It also blocks many of our client's secure access sites so we can't do our work.  Even my local IT guys can't get onto the sites they  need.  Great job, IT department.  Great job.

Anyway, it looks like I will be posting using my personal hotspot from now on.

Sorry again about delays.  Wouldn't you know it that just after all these security things rolled out at work, my hard drive went out.  Luckily, almost all my data is backed up on a flash drive.

I went to update my sheet, and I always put the date of when I change stuff, and I noticed something... It has been almost exactly a year since the last time we got experience points... 11/19/16 is the last date I updated my sheet. That damn mountain took forever.

That did take forever.  And after all that I'm still not up a new level.  Mage's advancement screech to a halt at 9th level.  I am still likely two adventures away from getting to 10th.

Well if this rate keeps up, I won't be level 10 for... about three more years lol.

yup it sure takes a while on rpol :)
ive got 381,725 of 500,000 now. the last time we got experience was 11/14/16. once a year at 12k+ a year with over 120k to go = 10 more years until level 10!  I gave up on leveling fast on rpol many years ago and decided to enjoy it regardless. its been good to have a game last this long, even if sometimes it disappears and it takes a long time to level.
don't even get me started on magic armor, last time I was asked for a Christmas list and I said armor, I had take it off and encounter a dragon. before that I only got the scale mail by trading a magic item for it from another character (and that was after I was asked about Christmas again). which can only mean heath has finally decided to grant Borimer the godslayer armor supreme+, im sure of it...alternatively its like Charlie brown and lucy van pelt, where she says to kick the ball and of course Charlie obliges, only to have her cruelly yank it away so he come crashing down with his broken dreams and...

Thanks for bringing all of that to my attention.  I will keep an eye on XP and make sure I start doling it out better.

I also am finishing up the last of several major projects/litigations this week.  Hopefully, last night was  my last night to work until 1:30 a.m. for awhile.  Hopefully...

In any case, I really want to get back to this campaign, so I am trying to work it in my schedule to make sure we really do make quick progress.  I have a lot of weird sadistic unique ideas that will come into play now.

I hope you all had some great holidays.  Pardon my delays--it went something like this:  I went on vacation, came home to the flu over the holidays, and then this last week the managing partner of our office passed away unexpectedly.  Having worked with him for 11 years, we are all in a state of shock, but I'm looking forward to getting back to the game.

sorry to hear that, rough start for the new year

Sorry for your loss.  My aunt passed away recently from cancer.  She had been fighting it for about 5 years so we knew it was coming.

 "But the worst thing is what happens if you are caught down there when the mist dissipates.  If you are not on solid rock, the poisoned earth will transform living flesh so that it is--they called it transformed or morphed--into some sort of inhuman creature without the soul that once inhabited it."

sounds like the wounded land (s. donanldson) :)

yes, that is likely the source of inspiration--but it is controlled by the mist rather than the sun.

Anyone know a backdoor into rpol so that my work server won't block it as "games."  That's causing me problems with trying to post in my usual downtime at work.

Try the suggestions in this link.

link to a message in another game

This works
http://new.rpol.net/

This works too:
https://beta.rpol.net/

This no longer works:
http://rpol.hyphenit.com.au/

Sorry for the delays, everyone.  I have been traveling in Europe.

I spent some time in the Catacombs under Paris, which gave me a good idea for a future adventure.

I'm hoping things will get back to the normal routine and that I don't delay the game further.  It's hard not being able to log on at work and do quick posts to advance the game.

Tahldar: Unfortunately, none of those tricks worked for me...

Sorry again for the delays.  I've got to get my schedule manageable again.  I hope I haven't lost anyone.

Not a huge deal, but it would be nice if we could do at least weekly updates.  It's hard to keep track of what's going on with long gaps in posts.

That being said, if you could give a short synopsis of where we are that would help.

sorry for the delay on posting, my board never showed a red tag for unread posts until today :/

It's been more than a month since the last in game post.  Should this game be retired?  Generally a game should be at least a post or two per week.  Or you will lose any sense of immersion.

I get there's a lot of history here, but I would either put it on hiatus, kill it, or find some way to resume on a more normal post schedule.

yep it looks like it may have died :/

Hi guys!! I've been dying to try to rejoin you, but it's been a while and I wasn't sure of it.

Sorry for the shameless plug, but in case you want to keep yourself entertained with a slow paced game, I'm starting an AD&D game set in Greyhawk. We are going to start before normal in the timeline, so nothing is set in stone.

link to another game

sounds cool, ill check it out :)

So everyone who may still be with me here, sorry for the absence. I changed jobs and moved halfway across the world. Between a dozen trips across the world and getting up to speed on a new job, things have been hectic. If any of you are interested in starting this up again, please let me know.

glad to hear you're still on planet earth :)
i'm still here

I'm still here.

Sure, why not? ;)

That's great to hear. I've been so out of touch with a completely new job situation that's taken so much of my time to adjust to that I haven't had time for almost anything. I kept wanting to get back to this but time and stress have not been on my side.

I'm still here.

My only request going forward is to incorporate down time.  Rather than a constant stream of adventure.  Having some time in game to research spells would be much appreciated.  Tahldar's spell book is pretty bare for a 9th level mage.

Yeah I'm really glad Kahan doesn't have to deal with that. Lol

Tahldar does have Shapfren's spell book, but he hasn't had the time to learn any of the spells therein.

Heath,

Any thought on what you would want to run?  Would you want to continue the current adventure, or wrap things up and do something else?

A little more info. So I moved back to Japan, and have been back and forth to the States and traveling constantly since last May. Finally settling down now, so it should be easier for me to run this game again.

Here is what I plan to do, but I'm open to suggestions.

I will give a short recap of the important stuff and continue this adventure to put the final pieces in place. I will likely veer off slightly for the next adventure so it will feel fresh. This game has so much history that it is hard to remember, much less digest, everything that has happened. So the fresh start should begin probably when you discover the "Source of Magic" that Borimer had a vision about.

As for mage spells, I try to be generous given then nature of PBP. So if you want a certain spell, just let me know.  We can add them as "bursts of inspiration" by the mage like a scientific breakthrough. As long as he only gets the limit per day/memorization period, I'm pretty good with anything that makes you feel like your character is fun to play yet not overpowering.

That's awesome!  I hope you love living there.  I heard Japan can be tough for foreigners, but I think if you keep an open mind you should enjoy it.

An overview would really help.  I remember being on a quest to find someone to help us with healing berries.  And being harassed by the crystal dragon.  Also some aggressive terrain which comes out at night.  That was an interesting twist.

As for spells I sent you a PM.  Mostly what I want are the real nuts and bolts type spells that I think all mages should have.

I lived in Japan for many years, so it's nothing new to me. It's just been awhile.

See PM re the spells. No problem adding them.

I will work on a summary and maybe simplify a few things.

I have put you all through many dungeon crawls, but I think everyone may be growing weary of them--myself included.

We are nearing the end of this adventure--still have a little bit to go, but it will probably go fast. (Famous last words, I know.)

I am thinking of moving this more overland after this and introducing more political/cultural qualities instead of monsterfests. We tend to have powerhouses who do their thing but not as much roleplaying the character building sense. Borimer is more than just a strong hand. Kahan is more than just a cleric. Leo is more than just a rogue. Etc.

What are your thoughts?

I wouldn't be against more of an urban swing, not that I don't enjoy a good dungeon crawl, even though we've been doing it for literal years at this point. Kahan would definitely enjoy spending some time in the sun, to be able to actually commune at a church, and perhaps not have the threat of impending doom cause him to suffer from what is likely debilitating insomnia, or, it should be, in a more realistic setting. Or at least be able to sleep in a bed for once. ;)

I like a mix of fighting/puzzles/roleplay.  This game has heavily veered toward the first two.

Maybe plop us down in one place and let us explore a little.

I think an overall slower pace would be good.  Down time is needed for mages to be able to research new spells, make scrolls and copy spells into their books.  But rarely if ever has there been time to do any of that stuff.

More roleplaying would help us flesh out our character bio's too.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:47, Tue 21 Apr 2020.

I agree, the pacing is definitely in need of a slowing down. Kahan got this cool new rod and he hasn't even been able to play with it correctly yet. Given the chance, I feel like he would be able to figure out new ways to use it, and he would definitely have put in more spells.

And some conversations would be nice too I guess. Lol

I agree. After all Bards can survive in the wild, but they need civilization to thrive. All I want is for my character to have a chat with everybody else, but we are still in the middle of a riddle.

In thinking about this I was never really able to get 'in' to this character.  It was one I took over and I was just trying out rpol at the time so I took anything. So, I imagine I would just retire him or send him on journeys unknown when this is over.

Leo: You can start a new character if you want. I don't want people to feel stuck with a character they don't like.

My concern is that when there has been some down time, even just for resting overnight, there's not really any character discussions or roleplaying. I feel that I have to push from one encounter to the next to avoid the game slowing to a slog.

The other concern I have is that when you start to build lore and information, it is hard to remember as time goes on, especially because RPoL goes at a snail's pace. And if I try to compile it into an info dump, it is laborious and people won't want to read it. (Especially newcomers to the game.)

For example, two ongoing clues that were given out a long, long time ago, were Borimer's vision about the "Source of Magic" and whispering about beware of the "man with the white hair." No one probably remembers those. Also, do you remember offhand what you need to create the cure for the "Black Death?" Do you remember that each of you woke up in the morning with symptoms of it? That's the downside of this game taking so long. It's easy to forget.

But I have some ideas for more lighthearted adventures ahead. Let's finish up this one. I think it will take you someplace...unexpected. Literally and figuratively.

When I used to run a game based on the Matrix, I would do goals recaps (optional goals) and important info in a thread. Would that be helpful here?

Here is an example: link to a message in another game

What are your opinions about actually finishing the campaign? I mean, on one hand, we could go on forever like this, with me throwing challenges and so forth...I have plenty of ideas. But on the other hand, we could have a giant finale (which would be about 2-3 adventures from here in total), and then let it play out.

Of course, we could start with something fresh after that. Your characters could even be in the lore or make appearances or whatever, depending on what works out.

Just polling you all...

I'm down for whatever. I like Kahan and don't need to change him out for a newer model, but if the others want to try something else out, I have plenty of ideas to pull from for new characters. One of my favorite classes to play is a Transmuter, so if Tahldar is tired of playing the team Mage I could take that role over... ;)

But regardless, I'm cool with continuing, or changing it up, whichever the consensus seems to be.

I would like to finish what we've started, one way or the other.  But we could use a replacement player for Borimer since it looks like he won't return.  Which is a pity.

Our characters are getting pretty high level.  If you want to start over I'm ok with that.  If we do I wouldn't play a mage again so Kahan can make his transmuter.  Though it would be nice to have two mages...

But I'm fine with continuing with the characters we have.  I haven't had much of a chance to play dnd characters 10+ in level.

I've always wanted to try the multi-class side of 2nd edition, never really got an opportunity to figure it out. Maybe we could do something with that? That way we could have two Mages that weren't strictly Mages.

FYI, the stats and abilities for Zuggtmoy, as well as her history, were detailed in Dragon Magazine #337. I muted/decreased some of her damages to give you a fighting chance, which we will attribute to her being out of her realm, in a magical place that decreased her power, and from surprise.

Well maybe when we fight her again we won't all be suffering from massive blood loss penalties in a disease-ridden state while running low on spells. :P

Hi everybody. How are you?

Working from home, which isn't ideal.  But at least I have that option so I count my blessings.

I miss not being able to play billiards.  I was playing in a wednesday night league, but it's been shuttered for months now.

I also miss not being able to get a haircut, but I have an appointment for this saturday so that's good.

Just to point out in case it was overlooked by anyone: the three rooms you just went through progressed from the themes of illusion (falsity, deception), chaos and undead (no order, unnatural), and alignment (order, categorical).

Since you opened the main thread, I had been musing about why you called it what you did, knowing that wherefore is Olde English for why, and it's starting to come together...

I was hoping that would get you guys thinking and wondering.

What all do we know about Tarimar? Does he have any brothers? I'm getting a slight Ashe vibe from this guy, but I don't remember if him and Tarimar are related.

Tarimar was the student of Ashe who went rogue, turned evil, and became his enemy. Tarimar was trying to create a superhuman model that he would use on himself and experimented with varieties of this, which led to a vast menagerie of monsters that he used for experimentation to try to merge to increase the ubermensch mentality. He also started creating clones of himself. You have met and defeated two of them. Tarimar's student was Alboron, who turned himself into a monster accidentally during one such experiment and which you (Borimer may have been the only one present) defeated long ago.

Tarimar is essentially the villain in this campaign--and perhaps your nemesis.

I remember Tarimar and Ashe were connected, but I wasn't sure how. I knew he was our main enemy, I hadn't forgotten that much about our campaign. ;)


Is there a way I could roll a Wisdom check to see if Kahan believes anything Dalharen is saying? I know you can in other editions of D&D...

Yes. Will do that. There may also be spells, assuming they would pierce the antimagic zone--I think they would in this case.

Maybe I'm just getting worn out here, but it seems like no matter what we do, there's already been a plan set in motion and it's going to happen, come hell or high water... If that's the case, we should just skip the rigmarole and get on with it. ;)

Actually, almost all outcomes are determined by rolls. That last bit was probably my mistake in not clearly stating at the output that the spell from "Geebo" was shocking and paralyzing and that he quickly disappeared into the cave before anyone could respond.

There is actually no set script or anything, just facts meant to surprise you or result in a twist. In fact, that Geebo struck out like that surprised me. It was not planned until I realized that if you give Dalharen what "Geebo" wants, then why would Geebo continue? Why wouldn't he try to stop it now?

You will find out before long the reason why Dalharen and his brother both have specialized immunity to magic and yet can seemingly cast spells from that antimagic zone.

I believe I posted that Leo was chasing as well.

Sorry. I will update in a bit.

Updated. You've now been added to the private message with Shae and Fingas.

Only those three were chasing after the Geebo doppleganger, right?

Some side notes here for fun:

1) As this adventure is original and never run before, I always fear that I have not balanced it well or am railroading you too much. I have particular issues trying to balance the adventures when your characters are as powerful as they are with diverse means of attacking problems (other than just brain and brawn). We are actually getting close to closing this one out, so if it hasn't been a joyride, let's just see it through. There may be a couple more twists soon.

2) I had hoped to get a reaction of some sort over the homonym of "hair" and "hare," but it doesn't seem to have been more than a yawn. Each time the word "hair/hare" was used, it was only in audible format, which you may not have noticed, and that way the ruse could be kept up.

3) The homonym thing reminded me of an encounter I had with the Shannara author and creator Terry Brooks many years ago. My friend and I had long been in a debate about the pronunciation of "Shannara." My friend insisted it was pronounced like Shuh-NAIR-uh. I insisted it was pronounced like Shu-NAH-ruh. I asked Terry if he could settle this debate for us. He said we were both wrong, and it is pronounced SHAN-uh-ruh (like the name "Shannon"), but he doesn't mind if readers have their own pronunciation.

FYI I will try to start updating the Wiki when I have time. For now, I created a new entry for villains to help with the ongoing updates and as a quick reminder:

http://wiki.rpol.net/?id=11516/Villains

Here is a reminder of your portable hole contents. I don't recall exactly when it was updated last, but you do have grappling equipment in it:

PORTABLE HOLE STORAGE - GROUP TREASURE/LOOT
Ancient tome ("A History of the World")
Bone key
Book of the Dead
Dagger, bejeweled
Ethereal Key
1 Eye of the Beholder wrapped in paper
Hand pickaxe with a hammer on one side
Hand shovel, small
High Cleric's robe
Map of tunnels leading to temple's inner sanctum
Miniature bronze sword
Miniature copper sword
Miniature gold sword
Miniature pewter sword
Miniature platinum sword
Miniature silver sword
6 ornate candelabras
Parchment with diagram of inner sanctum's main altar
8 platinum coins from a strange land we don't recognize
10 platinum coins of some foreign place we've never seen before
9 pitons/spikes (10 inches each)
2 purple gems (type unknown)
Scroll with Ancient Allevian writing
Scroll with personal note in Dwarvish
Set of grappling hooks
Set of rappelling tools (including carabiners)
Stone box, large (empty)
Stone key
Temporal Key
Vellum scroll with formal writings in Dwarvish

I have this stuff listed in my inventory since Kahan is carrying the portable hole, just hadn't gotten around to posting yet.

Was there any ever decision made regarding our future? Were we going to continue with these characters or start new ones? Just so I know if I have to plan a new PC out or not.

I don't think we decided.  I would prefer to keep playing Tahldar as he is just getting good.  Mages in 2cd edition don't come into their own till 9th level imho.  And every time I play a mage it seems I get to 9th or 10th level and then have to retire.

We could use new players though.  As I recall when I created Tahldar I got half the average of the group in xp.  Which generally means being one level less which isn't a big deal.

I'm not planning to change course just yet unless everyone overwhelmingly wants to.

And if anyone ever wants a new character (at approximately current level), then we can arrange that when timing is right.

This one is almost done. I think there are 3-4 more general challenges/areas until completion.

FYI looks like RPOL was down much of the weekend. Hopefully you are all back online now.

Not sure if you noticed, but we are now over 20,000 posts.

That is impressive to say the least!

Hey, you're a blast from the past! Hope all is well.

Yeah you're from before my time here so it's been a loooonnggg while.

Sorry about the delayed posting. I actually tried posting a couple days ago but it apparently didn't post, so I lost it and just realized it now.

Sorry for delays. Life got suddenly hectic. Will post again in the next day or so

NP.  Take your time.  I've been busy as well.

Don't worry, it is normal for things ot slow down during December

Had a cancer scare with my son...

Yikes!  I hope he is okay.

Okay, I'm back now. Had to go to the top specialist in Tokyo, but the tumor is benign. Very relieved and all is back to normal now. Sorry for the delays.

In reply to DM Heath (msg # 337):

No worries. You were in my prayers. Thankfully things went well. You don't need to rush back.

That's good news.  Will they treat it with chemo?

No. just monitoring it for growth every 6 months

I hope you are all having a happy and safe Holiday Season!

Sorry for the delays. It has been a long holiday for me and very busy. I hope all of your holidays were great despite the problems in the world right now.

It's all good. I'll be here regardless of how long you need to post, so you don't have to apologize. Real life comes first.

Kahan raised a difficult question regarding what your characters know about psionics. They probably know very little other than rumors. Magic was outlawed as they were growing up, so talk of such things were taboo. Psionics was considered a type of magic emanating from the mind. Those with such abilities were generally considered possessed of evil spirits. They were generally feared, and disinformation is probably as much a part of your understanding as information.

NOTE: I use the 2nd edition Complete Psionics Handbook, but your characters wouldn't know about details.

They might know or believe the following (whether true or not) rumors and beliefs:

PSIONICS:

Psionicists generally are not immune to magic

Psionics may have originally come from a magical or divine creature

Your characters might know a little about the fabled Illithid (Mindflayer) race and their psionic abilities, using Psi forces, and controlling minds and sucking lifeforce, as well as mysterious travel capabilities and great intelligence.

NOTE:
These creatures (dopplegangers) have been experimented on (crosses between dopplegangers, drow elves and other creatures) and do not follow the normal rules as "enhanced" beings immune to magic.

"Immune to magic" in their case does NOT mean:
1) immunity to supernatural attacks
2) immunity to attack bonuses (even by magical weapons)
3) immunity to extraordinary abilities

Magic of spell level 5 and above has a 10% chance per spell level of causing 1/2 damage or 1/2 effect (or none if saving throw made). Magic below that works on critical hits only.

Certain magics (unknown to you at this time) will still be effective.

The upper two doppleganger (Haklara and Islaka) creatures also will remove magic from whatever they pass too close to, but only to certain magical items that are considered "mundane," in other words, items that have the magic as their primary purpose. So it would not affect a magic sword but might affect a wand.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:15, Tue 12 Jan 2021.

Reminder about the items. Remember that the Dopplegangers don't care about the formula what they want is different.

Dopplegangers seek: "What I want is this. You took some things from my companions. I want some of them back. I want the ring with the gold band and opal setting. I want the two vials that appear empty but are marked 'Not Air' on them. And I want the bottle with the lead stopper. They do not belong to you. You lose nothing in giving them to me."

You seek the cure, which includes: 1) lathia berries soaked in Earthsilver, 2) Earthgold, 3) the goblet to make the magical mixture, and 4) the formula. All items except Earthgold are now collected and in the portable hole. The Earthgold seems to be falling from the ceiling into the mouth of the giant, and is surrounded by a pillar of falling lava.

Sorry for further delays. Again, my fault.

FYI, I'm not the metagaming sort, but Borimer's player is out for awhile but wants to rejoin when he can. As such, you will likely "stumble" upon him when his player is ready to join up again.

That's good to hear.  Finding Borimer could be an adventure all to itself!  :)

Sorry again for delays on my part.

Given the delays, just a couple reminders on this area:

1) You need to collect the Earthgold, which is falling in the center of the circular lava waterfall where the giant was trapped.
2) Don't forget all the equipment in the rooms. It appears with the piping and so forth that Haklara was trying to develop a way to collect and preserve Earthgold without it (or himself) being injured by the lava.

life got crazy again. I'm going to try to keep up and keep us on track and moving so you can get out of these darned caves in this lifetime.

Sorry for my delays, everyone. Life and work got super crazy.

I've also felt a sort of lack of enthusiasm from myself and you for this adventure. It has turned into something much larger and longer than I anticipated. There are too many moving parts, and we have players who come and go, and I have been too slow throughout, which is entirely my fault.

I've been thinking about how to breathe life into the campaign once more, so here is where I plan on taking us:

1) We are almost done with this adventure. Just this last BBG and then a slight puzzle to escape the caves. Then we'll see what awaits you outside.

2) The next adventure will be a bit of a departure in style and substance. I want to minimize (for awhile, at least) the dungeon crawl aspect of this. I also want you all to rediscover your characters and level up appropriately.

3) I will also need to figure out how to simplify certain aspects and keep important things highlighted over long periods.

4) The next adventure as I envision it will pit you against Tarimar and fix the terrible magic that has encompassed the land at the Source of Magic. My original thoughts in introducing this was that so we could have all sorts of wild magic and things that normally wouldn't make sense, but it may have gone too far into unbelievability--so we will take a step back.

As I plan it, I'm getting more excited about the next two adventures. But I also want to make sure we move along at a good clip and keep everyone's attention. I also want to try to maximize use of everyone's various skills.

I hope you are still with me and ready to jump forward.

Here we go...

Hey everyone! I'm back from vacation this week and trying to get caught up on work...as well as getting us moving here again. Sorry for delays. I seem to be causing a lot of them lately.

Hi... I hope you can take me in again?

In reply to Shapfren Diditlew (msg # 352):

Well, seeing as you're dead now, that might be hard to swing, but I'm sure Heath can come up with some sort of excuse for you to make a new character.

A fresh start could work. I've been revived how many times already?

I'd be happy to do that. I just need regular posting or at least a check in. I saw you hadn't logged in since December, so I figured that meant you had dropped out.

Not as much dropped out as life happening. I I'm not logging in to this game, it means I'm not logging in to RPol at all.

I promise I'll do my best to not slip out again. Or at least not to do it without warning.

Okay. Just send a PM and we'll figure out how to get you back in.

Hi, does anybody know of a magic bow? I'm not sure where to look for one.

Like this?



Sorry, couldn't resist. :)

Just reporting to remain active.

I hope you all are fine and remain safe.

I am on vacation and unlikely to be able post this week.

Not sure if any of you might be interested, but I'm thinking of relaunching my Paranoia game. I just got digital version of many of the rules/supplements for the XP version and am excited to start it up again for a humorous alternative. Here is the game: link to another game

Feel free to drop a PM there if interested.

All: I had a family emergency and have to fly urgently back to the States. I may not be posting much the next week or so, but rest assured, I'm still around and we will pick up again as soon as possible.

(I would suggest figuring out the inventory issue and thinking of plans. How much time you will need to "hold your breath" will be based primarily on ability to make it through certain challenges/puzzles quickly, so it is not set in stone. Also, think of casting spells and the effect of no air on whether you have a verbal component to a spell.)

Take care, hope everything gets well.

All, Sorry for the delays -- all my fault. My wife was in the States, caught the Delta COVID variant, was hospitalized, and they needed someone there who could make medical and potential end of life decisions. So I had to fly back. Luckily, she is on the road to recovery, but it was a close call. I should be back to regular posting now that things are returning to normal and I'm back in Japan.

Good news that she's on the mend. Worrying times though.

Glad to have you back!

Yeah, she's still on oxygen and other long lasting effects. That virus can do some serious damage to lungs and organs!

It sounds brutal. My sympathies.

I'm glad she survived!  And I hope she recovers quickly.

I'm glad things are on the mend.  Take your time and my sympathies also.

It is nice to know she made it. This thing, it isn't a laughing matter. Hope you two can work out a comfortable quality of life for her going forward. Needing oxygen longterm can be a bit debilitating and maddening for very active people.

Good to know from you too.

For the following PCs:

Borimer
Rathyl Dragonbone
Renakaris
Sariel Sylvaranth

I have added you to a private group (Group 5) and will be starting your short adventure soon. The details will not be made known to the rest of the party at this time (but later will be archived and available to all).

I'll try to get a post in tomorrow, I keep forgetting this game since it's so slow sometimes lol

In reply to Kahan Singh (msg # 373):

Thanks, that would be nice. The glacial movement rate isn't great.
Not complaining, just saying.

If you want us to go faster, tell Heath to stop trying to kill us every five steps. Lol

Everyone:
Apologies for my absence. As it turns out, the cyst in my wife's lungs was metastasized after COVID, and I had to fly back to the US. Then, as it turns out, I actually caught COVID. Still trying to recover. I'll jump back on this as soon as things return to normal, probably within the next couple of weeks.

In reply to DM Heath (msg # 376):

Get well soon!
Best wishes for you and your wife.

Yikes! Get well soon.

Yes, don't worry about us, just get better.

Sorry again for delays. I want to jumpstart this again.

(As it turns out, I caught COVID after posting the above, then got stuck in quarantine in Japan, on top of everything else going on with my wife's medical.)

I'm planning on doing a short summary/reminder of the situation since it has fallen off your radar probably and time has passed. Don't worry about trying to overthink the current map too much. The deadliest part is yet to come...

I hope I haven't lost anyone, but if so, it's totally my fault. Hope to see you all back and posting in the next few days. どうぞ宜しくお願い致します

I'm not gonna lie, at this point, I'd almost rather just start off new with the second adventure you wanted to do rather than pick this one back up. I don't see us getting out of here alive, nor do I really remember much of anything that's going on.

If you don't want to do that, perhaps just let us know if there was actually anything useful in that room we were in, instead of making us work to find a bunch of nothing.

Glad to hear things are starting to get better (or at least, back to normal).

I'm still here.
Glad that things are starting to get sorted out for you.

I'll fit in with whatever works for you.

I'm glad you are over covid.  My sister and her family all have it, but they seem to be doing well with it which is good.

I'm still here.

If you want to synopsize the rest of this adventure that would be okay with me.  Start fresh with something else.  Preferably slower paced, less world saving and under severe time crunch...

I hear you all.

You are literally four rooms away from being done with this adventure, so I think it's worth finishing.

Remember that you don't have to fight anything else if you don't want to. That may be your key to getting out alive.

Also, the side rooms are for gaining some special items and some clues and big picture information only. The exit is (if it wasn't obvious) to the west down the corridor.