Investigating the local chapter of the Order is certainly a possibility, as you really haven't looked into the allegations and such against them. Though given recent events it may be best for Zelpuz to avoid direct contact.

The Blood Runners and another, though far more difficult option. It's highly unlikely such an organization just disbanded due to such events, but they are experts at disappearing and may have completely left Ossylia for the time being.

Chasing the chlornetherium is really part of either of the two above items, and is the one thing possibly tying them together.

The Freelancers are another option, and depending on where you go with them you gain intel on any of the above items given their extensive reach and power in the world.

Lastly, just because you go somewhere else doesn't mean you can't keep tabs on events in Ossylia. There are some advanced communication technologies in the world, not as ubiquitous as today, but there are some. Plus passage on airships means you can get places in relatively short time if you need to.

Probably a good idea to hash out where exactly you guys want to go next. I've got some ideas based on what's already occurred, but if you pull a crazy Ivan I'll need some prep time.

Zelpuz would quite like to investigate the Order some more.
Possible options:
- Yuu could try to figure out if anyone of the Order showed up in political circles recently, although it's unlikely that they are that open about it
- We could try following the chapter master around whenever he leaves the Order buildings and keep our eyes out for thepotential contact that brought gifts.

And that's really all I can come up with at the moment. Unless I forget something from the images that Zelpuz saw from Lasrane. He'd follow up on those things.

options 1: yeah, that would be strange, because the Order aren't supposed to be involved in anything like politics. If it is, then it would be hidden within layers. What would be the objective, do you think?

option 2: a good stakeout never hurt anyone.

Regarding options, just from a character point of view, Yuu has little emotional interest in the Blood Runners or the Chlornetherium stockpile. He would be okay with following an investigation into the Order, but motivated purely to support Zelpuz' interests.

His parents kind of forced him to join the Freelancers as way to get some experience under his belt, where he was more comfortable locking himself in a room and tinkering.

With the surveillance you could keep an eye on the local Order people, the chapter master in particular, and check in with the local Freelancers about jobs and operations. There are likely some local jobs that you could tackle while conducting some surveillance.

Sounds like a plan.
Are there cameras available? Taking a photo of people potentially coming and going to the Order (non-Mespah, and potential new Mespah, just to know who could be hired to look for Zelpuz) would be much easier to share, while Zelpuz may see the guys, Yuu might actually know them (or at least know someone who does).
Also, it's Mespah, not Mepsah, right?

So since Zelpuz is mostly interested in the Order and trying to figure out if what he saw makes sense, he'll continue the stakeout. Also going to the pub at the potential meeting times with Lasrane, although it seems that either he didn't get the message or that he is not capable of coming.

Other than that, he'll stay mostly hidden.

Alternative approach, go to the Order to say Hi and that he'd be leaving. If he manages to come out again, that's a good sign :)

Yuu is a designer of nether devices so he can probably make a camera if you need one.

Yes, but we live in an era where lots of technology exits, somehow, so if we can just get a nice zoom camera in the next shop, that may be easier (and faster). But I am not fully sure how advanced the technology is here, I keep picturing everything in a classical fantasy world.

It's not classical fantasy, it more like Final Fantasy style fantasy. So I would say it's like a steampunk+ style society but with advanced magic.

It's further complicated in that some places are much further advanced in certain areas than others. Most places have more 'magic' tech than they do conventional tech. Much of that can be attributed to how the Zhen Halan empire was organized, and once it disintegrated pockets of civilization become more isolated and lost access to many technologies.

Example, there are regular sea ships powered by various means, but also air ships which use nether engines to fly.

Short answer is that you're unlikely to find the equivalent of a simple digital camera in Ossylia except in a specialty shop and it will likely be comparatively expensive. So you'd need a wealth check or you could use an Equipment Point to acquire it permanently.

So sounds like you guys more or less have a plan forward; do you want to add a few lines in IC and then I'll close out this chapter and start the new one.

Can I actually use mind reading to share images as well? Then I could just show Yuu how the guys looked like already.

I actually believe you can only communicate with words/thoughts rather than sensory memories (sights, sounds, etc). There is a modifier to Telepathy you can add that gives it an illusory power, so you can actually project mental illusions to people that would be the best way to communicate full memories/sights/sounds.

By the way I'm going to give everyone 15 character points, and bump the max power level up to 8. So everyone will have a total of 120 points. Figured I'd let everyone know.

Jan, I'll send you a private message about options for Zelpuz's telepathy power; better than taking up a lot of space here.

Secondly, for everyone, what basic direction do you guys want to move in now? Basically you've been circling one tiny area of the game world for the last 6+ years (real life), so  there are a lot of options.

Basically you've been in one country in the world of Kahluyn, but as you can see from the game map there are many other places. Beyond that Kahluyn is just one world of many that are interlinked through the nether world gates; the one on Kahluyn is in Arghos.

The Freelancers have a presence everywhere, so options abound. Once we clear up some items locally do you guys want to a) do more investigative type missions, b) exploration type missions, c) combat type missions, etc?

This won't change the plot lines you guys have uncovered here, but it will give me a direction to take with the new adventure hooks.

Lastly, with the holidays coming up I'm going to running about after the 18th, so I'm not sure how much posting I'll get too. Would be nice to setup the new chapter though and get that rolling during that time. Likely the first part will be somewhat like a prologue that passes some amount of time until we get into the actual scenario. During that time you should let me know what your character was doing, which may help account for how your character spent the new character points.

I like the idea of exploring type missions, spiced with combat. The world is pretty huge, and I think it would be fun to get out a bit.

I do like exploring and investigations. The combat is fun, too, but it takes a long time via forum. Not sure if we can manage to throw in a Skype session at some point with all our travel and time zones.

Vanyra is probably starting to feel cooped up in this city.  She doesn't enjoy the complicated politics - not really her thing.  And when the local Order might be bad guys, that's a little nerve-racking too.

She, of course, would love to get out on the road (and off the road).

Skype or Discord would be nice for sure. I think I'm the furthest West of everyone here, so could possibly make it work.

Just for clarification, Myyria and Zelpuz were not sent to deal with Lasrane originally. They were just stopping through Ossylia on they travels and were asked to deal with him from the local Chapter Master. Before that they had not knowledge of Lasrane.

In any case Myyria should certainly have reached Arghos and made contact with the Order HQ by now.

I've got an idea for the next chapters if we're wanting to do some exploration. We'll wrap up Chapter 8, and then I'll construct a time-lapsed intro to the new one over the holidays.

So you can assume it'll be a few weeks between the current time in the game and when we'll actually commence the action for Chapter 9. Therefore, let me know of any particular character development stuff you're doing in that time and any point expenditures.

Yuu will just spend this time getting back into the routine of life. I can imagine Qwe returning at some soonish point as well, who he'd be happy to see (though don't expect him to admit it). He'll meet with his royalty friend as well, for a fun chat and gossip catch up. If Yuu can determine some further info into what happened, he'll try. Plus he has his other friends to catch up with.

Other than this, he'll mostly be fiddling with new gizmo and gadget ideas during quiet time.

I'm back in Houston now, so will be back to checking this regularly now.

I'll finish off the current chapter and then lead into the next with a prologue that skips over some time.

Oh, and also let me know if/how you want to advanced your character with the additional points you received. Everyone now has a total of 120 character points with a max power level of 8.

That's pretty much 30 points more than you built your character with and 23 points more than we started the actual game with.

Remember power level 8 means max attack and defense values and toughness of +8, and max ability and skill ranks of +13 (PL+5).
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:55, Thu 03 Jan 2019.

Jan and Erik have their advances pretty much sorted, so just waiting on Brett.

I'll start the prologue of the next chapter with a single post for each character and what they did in that time.

I'm not sure yet where to advance my character, so I'll just give pause for now.

Regarding the wine, is the bottle still sealed?

Yes, it is. It's an untouched bottle.Don't worry about that though, I'm still going through the prologue stuff so I'll explain more shortly. I just stopped there because it was convenient and was waiting to see if Yuu was going to advance his character at all.

Please note mid-chapter advancement will not be permitted save in certain, logical circumstances. Any major advancements, new abilities or skills will have to be taken between Chapters.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:41, Sun 13 Jan 2019.

Where is Daedalum?

Also, were we able to extract the contents of the bottle without the bottle seeming to be disturbed? It would be handy if we could swap with another of the bottles, and check its contents against this first one.

Daedalum is on a continent to the south; it's a relatively small city state that is the most technically advanced on the planet surface. You'd have to travel by air or sea to get there.

You were able to extract the contents of the bottle without disturbing it, but there is a small puncture hole on the top and it's missing 100ml of liquid. You could replace the liquid though.

Yuu would like to ask Zelpuz on their next encounter, if it's possible to insert himself back into the office, and swap this bottle with another. If so, to also plant one of his listening bugs.