Got my second shot last Sunday, perfectly fine. But then again, i've got a high Con score irl so...

Yeah had mine on Monday. Arm's a bit sore but that's it - same as I had with the first jab :).

Apparently a good way to deal with soreness is to keep moving with it and use the muscles.

Wasn't much of a problem for me since i did the 90 min. walk back home, but YMMV :3

Yeah I noticed it hurt a bit less after I'd been using it during the day. I'd been wondering if it was better to use it or let it rest, but it doesn't really hurt much now anyway so I suppose it doesn't matter :).

Well that's oddly specific... :P

It is, isn't it? Now, keep in mind that nobody in the town has an evil alignment outside of you lot, and try to figure out what the most innocent possible reason to give such a specific description would be! ^_^

Why, i didn't know the place had a Cult of Sune. Or wasn't that what you meant? :P

It might not have been what I had in mind, but it's certainly an interesting point of view to consider, I'll give you that. :)

Yeah I thought that about her use of the word "scream"...it just sounded a bit more sort of...extreme than I'd've thought. I wonder what she thinks we plan on doing in here together? :O :P

Unless, of course, she's secretly some kind of serial killer who goes around bumping off anyone she doesn't like as they sleep in their rooms with the thick walls and soft, dark-coloured, highly-absorbent carpets :D.

Ppffff if murder is out my first guess would be sex. Lots of sex in a nicely sound-proofed area to prevent noisy neighbors spying.

That's certainly a possible reading.

It also brings to mind something that all of you should probably be made aware of, so that you can tailor your characters' reactions appropriately, since all of them (except obviously Nothing and possibly Adrika) would know all of this.

So, in terms of love, in general in Talingarde any possible pairing is considered acceptable, on the ground that, as long as the involved people are happy with their choice, a couple being made of two women or two men, rather than a man and a woman, is only their business.

However, due to how strongly lawful the society is, people of importance are expected to make sacrifices and have obligation, and due to them transitioning from a previously Asmodean society that was very keen on blood purity for various reason (including of magical nature), having "an heir of the body" is considered important enough that titled nobles are pressured to marry with somebody they can have biological children with. So, while having same-sex relationship is considered fine in general and is relatively normal among commoners, it's a bit rarer among nobles, since many of them have to accept a marriage even if it is with somebody who doesn't suit their tastes.

Speaking of marriage, polygamy is actually considered a sin; a marriage is a promise in front of Mythra to keep loyalty to one singular spouse, so multiples are not allowed and breaking a marriage can made somebody an outcast. Being the lover of a married person is considered even worse, since divorce (while carrying a very heavy social stigma and requiring serious penance to the church to be granted) is actually possible and legal. Thus, somebody who set out to seduce a married person would be very much a sinner, since they're both trying to get a person to break their own promise while at the same time not being willing to publicly make a legal commitment to that person.

This is also why prostitution is illegal, which is one of a few serious points of contention between the political authorities and the church in Talingarde. The former believe that everybody should be allowed to earn a living in every way they want and that punishing those who want to make use of their body to do it because they have nothing else to offer is not merciful, while the church states that other ways to provide for themselves should be offered to these people instead, because a prostitute has no way to ascertain that their clients are innocent unmarried people only looking for some relief, rather than married people seeking to secretly break their vows, which might make the prostitutes unwillingly complicit in a sin and thus unknowingly damning their souls. The church is currently winning this debate, but political authorities tend to be reluctant to enforce this particular rule, which naturally affects things to a certain extent.

Also, to go back to the matter of Nobles being generally demanded by their families to marry, there are socially accepted way to avoid it. Usually, members of noble families who aren't keen on dynastic marriage due to preference are encouraged to take roles that make a vow of having no children, such as in the church. In theory, members of the church taker vows of absolute chastity, but since nobody is perfect, it is considered fine for members of the church with no aspiration to leadership roles to have relationships so long as they don't have children, making it a more respectable way out for members of the nobility who aren't keen on marriage to somebody they don't like. Note that, given we're in a fantasy setting where the actual god can interact with their priesthood, Mythra is perfectly capable of stopping somebody in his clergy from advancing to higher office if they're not properly pious, so people of higher standing in the priesthood (such as the Cardinals, or the head of the Inquisition) are usually actually zealously vow-abiding people in a way that would have been hard in real life.

I think that should help with getting a better sense for how people would handle this matter IC. To summarize:

- preference is considered a personal thing that anybody is free to handle as they wish
- noble families have a thing for requiring biological heirs from their members
- nobles with no taste for accepting that will generally join the church
- monogamy is among the most important tenants of the Mythran faith
- divorce is allowed but carries heavy social stygma
- poligamy is considered one of the worst possible sins and a direct affront to Mythra
- prostitution is illegal, but it is a contentious issue

I hope this can be an useful primer that could help make sense of a number of situation going forward - and probably also shed new lights or add more meanings to past events.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:51, Sun 08 Aug 2021.

Well, I wasn't exactly planning on any kind of sex-related tactics (IC or OOC) but I'm sure Nothing will consider all those rules to be a big ol' bunch of wtf for various reasons :D. I mean, I think they're silly too but at least I am familiar with the concepts of things like sex/gender, marriage, and reproduction already. You'd think these people would be okay with maybe the nobles being able to get with two people if they wanted to - one that was their romantic partner, the other for the provision of an heir if they didn't want to do that with the other partner or something. Oh well, good job we're here to screw up all their stupid laws :D.

Well, that first rule is one Adrika's tribe can agree with, everything else on that list though...

...Yeaah.

Right, I expect the polygamy rule especially would be particularly annoying for Adrika, wouldn't it? :)

Technically it isn't, because marriage isn't a thing.

Members of her tribe wanting to be a family just do so out of a sense of mutual agreement. In her eyes, getting a deity involved and using peer pressure to remain bonded to another basically just sounds like a voluntary prison sentence. It turns it into an obligation. Like taxes.

So it's not annoying per se, just causes a sense of "Why would people do that to themselves?" wonder. :P
This message was last edited by the player at 15:56, Sun 08 Aug 2021.

Was hoping to hear some feedback from the rest of the crew before making another post since our pilgrim lot have been taking up so much of the posting lately...

In reply to Carver Merling (msg # 964):

Same here - this seemed like an excellent chance for the rest of the team to chime in, to me, hence why I was a bit surprised at the lack of involvement.

As a check, is everybody still interested in playing the game? If any of you isn't anymore, you don't have to stay in against you will - you can say so and leave; it'd be sad, but my last game died right before the final confrontation could take place because one of the players wouldn't post after saying they wanted to, and the rest refused to contribute anything because "my character wouldn't do anything in this situation", which led to the game having no posts for a whole year, after which I canceled it.

The point being, having players who pretend they're in the game but don't post because of "my character is not going to contribute for IC reasons", rather than saying "I'm a player in this game, I'm going to invent an IC reason why my character will do something, as is my obligation to the other players" is a waste of time for both myself and those players. And this also applies to those who can't keep up with the posting speed - the reasons matter little, people joined the game under the agreement they'd be able to keep up, and if somebody isn't, it's their responsibility to realize that and politely step out.

So, if you're interested in the game, everyone, it'd be nice to have more posts in the main thread, and if you're not, please don't make people think you are by remaining in the game while failing to keep up the proper posting speed. Either you want to play (in which case, you'll be playing, not finding IC reasons not to play), or you don't, in which case, again, just say so. I always says that nobody should ever do something they do not want to, so if you're not having fun (and failing to post would suggest a lack of enjoyment correlated to not having fun), why waste both our times?

...today was a hard day, so this might have come out less polite than I usually am, and if so, I apologize. I hope nobody felt attacked; I know some players have motives for reduced activity, and this isn't aimed at any person in particular, so if you feel you're involved and contributing constantly, this isn't addressed to you. I don't want anybody to feel rejected or anything like that.

However, the sentiment behind it still holds; one cannot be a player in a game if they don't play, and if one doesn't enjoy playing, or doesn't really want to play, they shouldn't say they're players.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:50, Thu 12 Aug 2021.

. . . I put something in here.

I've been spotty at times with this game, either because of RL stress or stress about the game, so I'm the first to understand 'life is a forest fire this game is on the back burner.'

. . . but if thats the case please tell us so we can figure out a solution. I'd imagine a way of back-burning a character is entirely possible if life is just too hard, but we can't help if we don't know.

SF didn't ask me to write this, this is just--look I've been probably one of the most active members, I love this game to pieces and I dun wanna see it die.

I put up the mental link for a reason, and got it to 8 hours a day for a reason. It is there so you guys can contribute freely, wherever we are. Comment, offer suggestion, argue, order us around--the link exists so people can be there in spirit, even if not in person.

I know the info-gathering part of any game is difficult, and I know Carmen is taking over, but I'm only doing that because, well. . . no one else is posting.

I don't want to see this game die. I don't. But I don't know how to help. I've tried to lean heavily on being the info-gatherer to make it easier, but now that its planning, no one wants to talk??? Why?

I just dont know. . .

Well, Adrika's still around, that's for sure.

She just hasn't been as vocal because the mental link is only capable of transmitting limited information. Enough to get a basic impression of the town, certainly, but not enough to tell when the right time to speak up would be, so she focused on listening for trouble and sifting through the information that was made available.

But yeah, now is planning time so she currently has the latest post in the thread. Once she gets there, and has an idea of what it is you're going to do (for example, focus on Roth) she'll know to pick something other than Roth to keep her efforts from overlapping with Carmen's as the teams aren't supposed to know one another. That is what we, as a party, agreed on, so while it's been a while that Adrika's been physically present in the thread, it is not something i'd blame Carmen or SF for. It's been our choice as a party to do this.

I think this is a bad side-effect of the plan we chose- Nothing/Carmen/Carver all went in together, so the majority of the posts are revolving around them because the three of them are the only ones of us really in play at the moment- with Adrika soon to join them.

With Lilah, Ashaia, Cetaen, Dryssa and Grumble all on the sidelines for now, it's not like I can offer more than the occasional insight over what I hear over the link.   We're seeing three characters having to handle the main posting load (soon to be 4) where we're used to 5 or 6 of us, and there's not that much to be gained by simply re-hashing the same thing over and over.

With that, though, I can step up and take on a few posts as needed.  Sorry if I let you guys down with that...

I was hoping to post something yesterday evening but I really did not get anything out of my head, and today I spent all day at school/traveling (and with the health situation I do not like using it as an excuse, but that's a constant for me). I will try to work something out tomorrow.

It's not that I don't want to post, I just don't know what to post. If it was a social situation or something like that I would have something to post in a jiffy and contribute in an instance as that is where I shine. I just don't feel particularly cunning or smart at this moment with the heat, being perpetually tired or sick.

I am sorry if I am being a downer, but I am quite frustrated at myself if anything else.

Alright, that's everybody except Nothing having posted, and given Nothing's general log in time, it's going to be about half a day before they can post an answer of their own. I don't want to leave people waiting that long, so I'm posting now, although I still would like to hear from Nothing as well, since this is a general check and so I want to hear from everybody.

As I said, I didn't intend for anybody to feel bad or anything; that wasn't my intention, and for any of you who, like Ashaia, is feeling frustrated, I want to say that you don't have to. I do understand difficulty and complication, I just wanted to be sure that everybody was still committed to the game and that you all were aware of the need for the group as a whole, not any of you in particular, to step up the posting a bit.

One thing that seems exceedingly clear from these responses is that everybody very much wants to continue playing and isn't unhappy with the game - I don't imagine any of you would feel frustrated of being unable to play if you didn't feel good when you were able to - so that's at least good to know.

As for coming up with ideas on what to discuss and not endlessly repeating yourselves, I think trying to think of way the new information you have learned could be put to use is what you should put your primary focus on. Ashaia, since you mentioned being unsure what to say, I would suggest drawing on the various PM material I gave you on the town, try to search for stuff from it that you can use to give people context on what Carmen's team found out? It might not be the same as suggesting plans the way Lilah did in her last posts, but clarifying information and pointing out important facts can be an useful way to help the plans being formed.

Overall, I want to let you all know that I'm happy that everybody at least seems committed to wanting to keep things going. As I've probably said in the past, but bear repeating, this is a very self-directed portion of the adventure: you need to come up with a plan of approach (or multiples, even) on your own, figuring out how to put it into action and what the benefits would be.

The reason I can't really have the NPCs help much is that I don't want to railroad you into anything. I want you to know, the book itself offers something like eight or nine different ways you could get to weaken the fort, then a supplement book added another four or five, and I added at least three or four more on my own to make things more interesting and leave you with more options. Many of these approaches can be used simultaneously, too.

And, of course, if any of you figure out something that wasn't in the plans, probably by relying on something unique to your characters, I'm likely going to let you use that as well - Ashaia's noble idea and Adrika's comment on the potential of Earth Glide are both things that you came up with on your own, based on your characters' background and skills, that could well pay off if directed correctly (of course, as with ALL approaches, they could also crash and burn spectacularly). I'm really open to anything you might think to suggest.

So, what I mean is that, hard as it might seem, the task ahead of you is in no way insurmountable - you have a lot of of options if you manage to find them, and you can make plenty of your own. It's one of the things that makes the climax of this first book of Way of the Wicked so interesting and exciting: despite the setpiece being fixed, the way the game plays out is unique to every group of players, and whatever solution you find to getting past this hurdle, you will know that is was born fully from your own creativity and skill. In fact, if you manage to win it, I'll then happily tell you everything about every option you didn't take advantage of if you want to, so that you can see that it really were your decision to lead you to victory... assuming you can manage it.

However, to get you to experience that sense of having earned your own victory, I need you to be active and cooperate with creating a working approach. That's why I was a bit worried about the relative slow down in activity and why I made this check, and why I'm glad you all responded to it by indicating you are still interested in seeing this through.

And with that said, my only suggestion for any of you who are feeling unsure as to what to do, is be creative and try to think outside the box and be daring. Even if an idea might seem silly, suggest it anyway, and regardless of how silly another player's idea is, or how little it fits your own plans or tastes, try to come up with ways to improve it anyway instead of shooting it down; if you can do that, the planning will be productive rather than repetitive, and you'll all get to enjoy this a lot more, and feel much less frustrated with it.

I've said many times that my creed is that a GM's work is to make the players happy and ensure they're having fun; all I ask of you is to try to enjoy yourselves, and things should flow easily from there! ^_^
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:06, Thu 12 Aug 2021.

I did post - I posted first, before Carmen's recap. I also just posted again just now.

As for the need to come up with a plan, I kind of figured that was the whole point, since even Grumblejack probably isn't stupid enough to just run up to the gates waving a sword at people or whatever :D. And the fun part, surely, as a GM, is watching to see what kind of crazy shit we can come up with that's probably nothing like what you had imagined :D. If this goes anything like when we planned and then acted on said plan to take out Odenkirk and her crew, it should hopefully end up being great fun as everyone pitches in ideas and gets to do something cool and all that :D.

Sorry, but I'm unable to post today and tomorrow most likely will be the same. I'll try attend to you beautiful people on Friday.

Don't worry, as I already said, that big stretch of uninterrupted posts between me and Adrika was a bit too much even for me - it's just the sort of thing that happens when I have a thread with only one of you to work with, but that's not appropriate for the main thread. I'll be watching out for it going forward.

Currently, I'll be waiting for Ashaia's decision over whether she wants to go to the inn directly or not before making my next post, but I don't think we're at risk of another long stretch of solo posting in the main thread any time soon, so you can relax, Carmen.