And, new thread open!

To get the conversation going, the last post in the old thread was about deciding who should go met the local wizard first. Adrika said that she was fine with letting Ashaia go first, since narrative wise she would have gotten there before Adrika could anyway; I pointed out that, if you all as a team would rather have Adrika take the risk rather than have Ashaia take it, you can vote for that and I can engineer things so it'd make sense in character.

So, I guess the question is who you all would feel safer with having this particular meeting, and taking the according risks. I'd like to have everybody else opinion - I'm not overly surprised that Adrika would rather not take the risk herself, after all, and I really feel like this needs to be a group decision, rather than the result of a single player taking charge, although if nobody answer within the usual timeframe, I will move forward assuming the silent majority agrees with Adrika.

Thus, as always, let me know what you think! ^_^

Honestly I think Carmen would be the best for the wizard just because I thhiinkk I have the most languages known? But in-character Carmen doesn't KNOW what the test is.

But hey, Im open to ideas on what our group should do!

To be fair, that's actually the reason Adrika wanted to have the interview. Scribing isn't her forte, but by going through the interview herself she can pass on the details to someone like Carmen so she can step in fully prepared.

If Carmen or Adrika wants to go first, that's fine by me.

Eh, it's fine. Like i said (and posted), i've still got the blacksmith to go to, so i'll just do that first.

Do we have to roll to decide who goes, lol?

Considering the current positions expressed by you three, who are half the team, I'm inclined to let Ashaia go meet the wizard first. I'll write the post up, but wait until tomorrow morning (that'd be... about eight-to-ten hours from now) before I make the post itself, in case any of the other three wants to disagree.

Oh, wonderful.  Twitch was hacked.  Changed my stuff and got verification set up, and not ten minutes later someone tries to get into my account.

Might want to do the same if you have one!

It feels like things have slowed down a bit lately, so I wanted to check how everybody is doing, and if everything is fine. I know that a few people have had health problems recently, which makes it perfectly ok to be unable to post; that's why I'm making this an open post instead of targeted PM, because I don't want anybody to feel singled out, and so that those who've already spoken me about their personal problem know I'm aware and am not trying to put pressure on them in particular.

I just want to make sure that everybody is still around and interested in playing - a one-line post or PM would help a lot in reassuring me nobody is considering dropping the game.

Let me know if any of you is having problems keeping up with the game, ok?

Nope! Just been a bit flummoxed on what to do exactly--info gathering is rather open-ended, a little too much so at times. Right now I just wanna make sure I don't dictate what Carver and Nothing are doing (as I bulldoze too often), but I have zero intentions of dropping the game.

Well, as for me, my Perception roll for the day's work is in, and i'm just waiting for my lunch break so i can have a chat with the wizard, but that's a couple of hours from now so that won't be until after Ashaia left again.

I guessed, but it's nice to have confirmation.

Carmen, on your note about waiting for the others, since it seems like we already have a plan of action for your trio right now, you can go ahead and make your rolls and a post with your IC approach to information gathering, since Carver and Nothing's actions won't be affecting your own in this particular instance.

I am not going to go too deep here into my health issues or other things in the public. I have expressed that I already am unhappy that a lot of the posts I give I feel are subpar and lately with a lot of them getting private messages questioning about the accuracy of things, actions and thoughts just make me feel every post I make on top of it is just going to be a mistake.

I wish I could somehow muster the same enthusiasm I had in the beginning, but sadly I can't seem to find it. I just feel timid and suffer from a lot of anxiety every time I try to post these past few weeks. This is not because of anyone's actions, just a combination of things on my side. I am throwing this into the open because I do not know how to fix this.

On the brighter note, my project work is done and I am on break from school till the end of this month so I can try to be more active.

As I said, I'm aware that some people have health concerns, and I didn't want to make anybody feel pressured. I won't say more on the matter, but you should know, Ashaia, that my sentiments haven't changed, and I keep wishing you the best with your situation.

I'm also not sure why you would think that any of your posts lately would have been subpar - I found they worked pretty well, and I send private line OC comments to everybody, as I'm sure Adrika and Carmen can confirm - that's just a result of my own compulsive need to be sure I'm not misinterpreting your intended actions, not a critique of any player's post or anything of the sort.

As for fixing a lack of enthusiasm... my default question would be to ask why you were enthusiastic at the beginning, and whether anything changed in the game since then in a way you found unpleasant; I hope I've always been upfront about being willing to correct course if people are unhappy with the way I'm running things, but I need people to let me know what needs correcting.

As far as I'm concerned, you're in the more active half of the group (I hope the three less active players won't resent the comment - I'm just stating facts that can be easily proven by the number of posts people have made, not making a value judgment on anybody), so the idea that you could be feeling timid hadn't even touched my mind. Anything you have problems with, I'm more than willing to discuss (in PM if you'd rather keep it private, here if you want a group discussion), I'm just surprised you of all people would say that you feel like you're feeling anxious, because I'd never have suspected it on my own. I believe your words, don't misunderstand, I'm just surprised by them, is all.

Additionally, speaking of being more free, the job I got for this summer will end this month, so until I manage to find something new (probably until spring), I too will have a lot more free time, meaning more time to be active here and thus handle any problem people might have or adapt to changed schedules, if necessary.

I'm aware I've been somewhat quiet lately - I'm sort of lacking in ideas right now. There are a lot of names and such being thrown about, of all the important people in this town/the fort and how they're all connected to each other and such. That kind of gameplay that gets into, like, factions and political connections and stuff has never really been my thing once you get past a couple of NPCs or so, plus Nothing is soemwhat lacking in a true understanding of how these weird mortals work as well as in any desire to associate too closely with them in case someone notices anything weird. This character is sort of better at sneaky-stealth than social stealth, so I'm sort of holding back until we get into the whole "creeping around in the dark and trying to distract/murder the guards" aspect of things, at which point it will become much more fun for me again >:).

In reply to Nothing (msg # 15):

I'm aware of your preferences, Nothing - that's why I have set up things for you so that you're currently alone and in the perfect position to do some spying on your own. As I said before to Ashaia, I try my best to keep the game interesting to everybody, as far as I'm able - and if anybody isn't having fun, telling me and explaining why will see me try to solve whatever the issue is.

Chiming in here, but i can understand SF's desire to double check they're not misinterpreting something as i have that tendency myself as well. Of course, as a PC it's easier since you can simply 'canonize' your mistakes (especially playing a relative outsider like Adrika is), but GMs need to dance to a different tune ;)

That said, your posts are fine. Your posts would also have been fine if they'd be nothing but two-liners as long as it's clear you're having fun in the game, since that last part is the whole point of an RP, to have a group of people have fun together as they overcome problems together.

So rest assured, you're not holding us back, you're not dragging the quality level and pace of the RP down, and you're CERTAINLY not being a bother when i say i need to wait for your interaction to finish in this one specific instance. No rush. The game's still here next week, and it will be here next month. And if it takes you a little more time to reply, then i'm sure SF will find something for me to do by having one of Von Kraig's kids come over with a mug of tea or something, don't worry.

You just be you (or as close to a purple-skinned Tiefling as you can be, anyway), that's all that's asked of you. :)

I guess--one more thing.

Real life is more important than a game, and everyone understands if illness/stress/events prevent anyone from posting. We aren't mad, or annoyed, or whatever; we just look forward to when the person can post more freely.

And short posts are fine! If you have nothing to say thats ok, but if you wanna do something and just dont have a good post in you, just do the shoddy but workable version. Trust me, no one will gripe about it! Sometimes when writing you just need to get the stupid short version on paper to advance the plot, and just work from there.

Also Nothing, not to play your character, but could you not just slip away and wander around town? Or heck just stay in the inn next day and Carmen will make excuses, so you can explore?

I dunno. I think we also need to remember our rings can do any illusion--who says we have to ALWAYS been in our main disguse?

If anything it would be easier for me to do the "slipping away and exploring" during the night, when there are far more shadows >:).

A list of all the NPCs of any significance the group has either met or heard of in the town of Balentyne so far has been added to the Common Knowledge Thread; feel free to check it out and, above all, use it as a reference to keep track of what's going on and who all the NPCs you learned about are.

More information (either about the characters already on the list or about characters not yet there) will be added as the group finds out more. And if you think I've forgotten something, let me know and I'll make sure to add it in.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:01, Wed 20 Oct 2021.

While we're waiting for the main thread to continue, I wanted to ask if everybody found the new addition to the Common Knowledge Thread useful, and if anybody has comments to make about it. Through the last few months, several people remarked that keeping all the town's NPC in mind was a trouble to your planning, so I wanted to make sure you had a better idea of the options available to you, and I'd like to know if this approach works or if you would prefer me to do something different.

Hmm... Yes and no.

It's great to have that information all in one place, makes it easy to know who we're dealing with, though on the other hand it does need some occasional context. Information requiring a DC 25 roll is currently listed next to common knowledge with no way to distinguish one from the other, so adding the DCs as markers would be helpful in letting us know why the NPC in question is acting so guarded when we just casually brought up their darkest secret in casual conversation.

That's a fair point, but almost all of this information you got out of rumors and gossip; it's not like any of it is a secret you coaxed from somebody with deep investigation (in fact, you haven't really investigated anybody in any serious depth). When actual secrets pop up, I'll make it clear which information is not something you could overhear in the street. Do you think that will help?

Oh, definitely.

And yeah, i wanted to bring that up early for that reason. There's the occasional roll of "This requires this specific Knowledge at that DC to know about" that might still cause some scrutiny even brought up as rumors, but by and large it should prevent most problems :P
This message was last edited by the player at 13:48, Mon 25 Oct 2021.

Well, it's not like the NPCs can check your character sheet, is it? So long as you don't try to show off in a field where you lack the skill to back it up, I don't think it's something worth worrying about.

In any case, does having all the information in one place helps any in coming up with a strategy? Remember, your ultimate goal is to open the fortress northern door and keep them open for the few hours that will be required for the horde to reach them and get inside, so while accessing the Tower is obviously a necessary step, it's not, by far, your winning condition. I just thought you might want to keep that in mind.

For reference, while Carmen went to sleep, the timing of the shift is such that Adrika's visit to the wizard would take place before it, so that it would be possible for the rest of the team to "listen in" and maybe help to the interview. And I imagine that, whatever Ashaia decides to do next, at least the beginning of that would take place with the "telepathic group chat" still active.

Just trying to keep things easier on your all. Also, as I said, I'm currently (as of today) out of a job and will likely remain so until February, so I'll have more time for the game if any of you needs something from me that requires more dedicated attention. Just let me know if any of you needs help! ^_^

Oh no--SF, Im so sorry to hear that! I hope you will be alright in the intermediate. And I hope you find another job soon!


But as for the game--ya, just as a note, due to elastic timing right now, Carmen is going to bed whenever her shift ended and she walked back, which is probably late afternoon. Realistically, I only have 8 hours anyways--and I think she's near the end. So, if this takes place before end-of-workday-time, its still going on!

It's fine, seasonal work is like that; I knew when I took the job in May that it'd last only until November. It's not like I'm in love with being a dishwasher or anything; it's not too hard a job because the restaurant I work with is one of the good ones (I've also done it on bad ones, and there it's terrible, although still better than telemarketing), but I'd like to find something less mind-numbing to do. And if I don't, they'll take me back next year for the summer season again, anyway; honestly, having a small break is not that bad, I'll use it to go see my family in Italy.

But I thank you for the kind words, Carmen; the thought is very kind and appreciated. :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:19, Sun 31 Oct 2021.

Posting here because I don't have much to add to the main thread right now and don't want to make too many OOC posts where there should be IC postings.

I did want to mention that I think it's very interesting that Adrika would have such a spirited defense of greed to offer on that point, and that I'm now quite curious to see what Ashaia will make of that.

Also, as a general check to see if it's just me, did anybody else feel like Adrika was scolding Scaramian there? Or am I reading too much into it?
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:16, Sun 07 Nov 2021.

Adrika isn't scolding Scaramian, just stating her own opinion as a retort to him calling greed the worst sin.

He's preserving books, allowing everyone that wants to to read them and teaching people, so from her point of view what Scaramian is doing isn't that different from what her Elders are doing. So, she's trying to nudge him towards what she feels is the 'correct' mindset for her tribe.

I mean, he'd probably still die, but that is not the point.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:11, Sun 07 Nov 2021.

That makes sense from Adrika's point of view, but I'm pretty sure an old man who's confident he has more knowledge than nearly anybody else around him would have a different read of the situation. Especially since he doesn't know Adrika's background.

But then, as I said, that's just my opinion - I really am curious about the opinion of our other players.

By the way, I hope the fact that the rune was in Sylvan wasn't too annoying? I made you all work for the identification because that's a pretty big clue to something else that's going on in town (and in fact, a bit of thought should help you figure out what that is), so I didn't want to make it too easy to figure it out.

Oh no, of course not. The whole point of having different languages in the game is to actually make use of them. Sometimes the PCs understand what's being said, other times they do not. C'est la vie.

As for Adrika, she's planning to come over to the bookstore to do some reading every evening after her shift ends at Von Kraig, so she'd be giving him plenty of opportunity to talk to her rather than about her.

I personally love the rune thing (tho I cant take advantage of it, as Carmen is elsewhere, multiple languages or not XD)

Oh also to clarify myself, for some reason when I wrote the post, it was multiple posts higher than where it ended up being XD I think I hit submit without refreshing that day . . .

It's no problem; it was a perfectly legitimate question to ask, which is why I provided an answer. I agree that having it been asked earlier could have helped, but then again, even if Adrika was able to use group knowledge to fake knowing the word, she would have unavoidably failed the follow-up test anyway, so it's not too big a loss. As Adrika herself pointed out, she just wouldn't have been able to do the work Scaramian wants done in any case.

Also, now that you've taken the test once, I would suggest doing a round to ask other NPCs who took it what theirs was like; I think the findings from that would be instructive.

Just poking in for a moment, but i'm still heading to Von Kraig to finish my shift as per my last post, right?

Yes, that was the idea; I was under the impression that once you were done with that you would head to the Inn, hence I was waiting to conclude Ashaia's meeting with Carwen before updating, but if you'd rather do something else in the one-two hours Adrika has between finishing to work and having to go back to the shelter for dinner and sleep, say so and we can play that out separately, on your own thread if necessary.

Hmm... Yeah, i'd like to check out the graveyard, provided i can get to it without being spotted.

That very much depend on when you want to do it. Am I to understand you mean to do it after Adrika is done with work, but before going to dinner, which would mean before sunset? Or have I misunderstood you?

Ah, right. Misunderstood when night's setting in with it being (close to) winter and all.

I'll check it out after dinner then. In the two hours, i'd probably drop by the bookstore and take a look at what kind of books Scaramian's peddling :)

Feel free to drop me a perception roll, let's see what you find that interests you.

Also, for reference, in character it's the beginning of spring, hence why the attack is being launched at this particular time. Just thought that might be useful knowledge to keep in mind.

Done, only got a 15 but for the first day i suppose it'll do :)

You're planning to keep going to the library often then?

I'll put up something for you in a few hours in your private thread to deal with your nightly excursion - I think that running the nightly events in private threads will help a lot in keeping the main thread moving and focused on the primary goal.

Yeah, and chatting with Scaramian, basically working to learn some more stuff about whatever i find a good book on, most likely.

So, while Ashaia's bounty hasn't been revealed yet, the rest of the team's have been, alongside those of a few NPCs; I'd be curious to hear what everybody's OOC reaction to them in general is like, particularly the various differences and what they might mean.

My reaction is basically, "goddamnit they know about Lilah, Nothing, and myself" because that'll make it HARDER to do our damn jobs.

Im flattered that Carmen got center spot however, it fits her grand thief image :D Tho her uncle is gunna be a pppaaaiiinnnn

Otherwise, its amusing how only some of us have any accuracy in portrait, I mean, ya think Brandescar would bother to do that to ALL their prisoners, but guess not! :P


edit: Carmen has examined it more thoroughly in my private thread that we've been running concurrently; right now she's in the future tho so I cant say what she knows :P
This message was last edited by the player at 14:57, Fri 26 Nov 2021.

You'll remember that no portraits of your were taken when you were put in the prisons, and you escaped within the span of five hours, so it'd be really hard for them to have anything, since they can't take photos. :)

Oh I forgot we escaped the same day XD Whoops. Well, that was like, what, 2 years ago?

Oh, i know of several things i could say ICly, and i don't want to spoil it, so if anyone could share them over the mental link that'd be great :P

Something like that, yeah; it's fine, reminding things for the team is what I'm here for! ^_^

Sorry Adrika, I sort of missed your comment. I should point out that, due to Carmen being currently asleep, nobody will be able to share the info until it's morning IC, at which point I'm sure Carmen will bring the link back up and help everybody get back on the same page.

Yeah, no rush. Plenty of opportunity :)

if it helps, Im bursting at the seams to explain what I found as well XD but the thread must reach dawn! Then. THEN. Info dumps abound!

Investigated the graveyard as well, figured i'd get that done before Ekkard would clean the place out tomorrow. :P

I'm noting that I added the leader of the dwarf crew, Barnabus Eisenbauch, to the list of NPCs in the common knowledge.

I also want to note that I specifically didn't add to the list the new details about Ashaia that were revealed when she read her own bounty poster; since she's the only one to have actually read it, she could easily choose to keep some of those details secret in character, so the rest of the team wouldn't be aware of them, which makes them not common knowledge. I hope that's clear enough!

Sorry for not being able to post. On top of my current issues, I have gotten to a legal situation where I am a victim of a crime. I have not been harmed and I am alright but very distressed. I hoped to convey the seriousness of the matter without going into TMI territory.

Hopefully, I will get some of this off my shoulders tomorrow when I go to the police station to make a report.

I'll be back when I can, and I want to apologize for the ongoing issues I have and thank you for the overwhelming patience you have given me, especially DM.

No need to apologize, take the time you need to recover and settle a bit. I perfectly understand the need for giving other things precedence from time to time.

As far as the game is concerned, the situation is such that I think I can push things forward to the next morning, so Carmen should be able to take point; you had the heavier load for a while now, getting it off your shoulder for a bit would be only fair anyway. So, you won't need to feel guilty about putting your full focus on getting better and dealing with your real life issues, and I'm sure everybody will be happy to have you back once you can go back to giving the game your attention.

In the meanwhile, absolutely worry about yourself first, and know that you have my best wishes for a good resolution of whichever situation you're currently into!

Just eorry about real life Ashai, we can wait! I really hope youre ok or will be ok and that this all resolves soon!

Ill get a post up soon btw

Yeah, don't worry about having the others wait on you for a day or two, just focus on your own mental health right now.

Had a (somewhat) game related dream a few nights back.

We were supposed to take out this powerful vampire, and we were playing nice to get close to him. I managed to land a pretty big curse on him that took away his immortality, making him mortal again, but that required me to not be in the combat so i was in the basement two floors down looking for some celestial artifact he was hiding, and the reason we were there in the first place.

When i came back there was the vampire, no trace of the rest of the party (though a TPK was implied as there was blood on his lips and i may have caught a glimpse of him holding Carmen up by the throat) so i started improvising and pretending i was still on his side.

Did manage to get the artifact though, so there's that.

That's interesting. I don't know that the rest of the team could be taken down that easily - Ashaia is an extremely tough cookie and Carmen is even more slippery than the rest of you has seen so far - but it's certainly an amusing image.

Of course, you won't be meeting any vampires until you begin your third big mission, and even then, since you're playing villains, you'll have a much better chance of negotiating things with them than a good party would have. So, you know, you'll only get into a vampire fight if you mess up. :)

By the way, for reference, breaking Balentyne is your first big mission, while I would consider the stroll through Tiadora's dungeon, the delivery of the weapons to the Malebolgians, and the killing of Odenkirk as small side missions. The game is supposed to be composed of four big missions (each of which corresponds to one of the AP's first four books), plus an "Ending" section that is covered by the last two books but which I will likely be combining and tightening a bit - assuming you all have interest enough to get there, since, considering how long this first book has taken, that's a lot of game to go through.

Yeah, i remember thinking in the dream that it was odd for them to be beaten that quickly, since the general consensus seemed to be that with it no longer being immortal we were considering it an easy fight.

Me searching for the artifact was basically us deciding to save time and have me look for it (being able to phase through solid walls helps) while the others wrap up the fight.

Oh, I could definitely see something like that happening, don't get me wrong, it just would need to be the result of some combination of spectacularly bad luck and incredible recklessness. It's not impossible, just unlikely.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Regardless of what you believe/celebrate, I hope you have a joy filled day. December is cold and dark, let us fill it with some light :)

I can agree to that; best wishes of a fun end of the year for everybody, and happy holidays to all! ^_^

Yes, merry happy present-and-chocolate-stuffing mid-winter-ish day and all that :D.

Not sure if i've linked to something showing the type of shelter Adrika would have helped Lilah build, but i'm thinking something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skcqFTi3s_A

Grumble wouldn't fit (and making it large enough for him would make it hard to have it remain unnoticed) but he can change into a bear so that should give him plenty of winter insulation. Maybe there's a natural cave in the area he can be a bear in?

There might be, but Lilah hasn't found any so far. On the other hand, fallen logs of the type shown in that video wouldn't be easily found around, since the forest is regularly checked over by lumberjacks for logging, and cutting down three branches properly without the necessary tools and without the rumor attracting attention would be extremely hard. I feel confident that using the tents she already has with her would be a better way for Lilah to hide.

I'm popping in just to let you guys know I am alive and fine, just mentally exhausted about everything. Sadly the situation did not resolve itself ASAP so I will have to wait for the justice system instead to find the situation rectified, which I would have hoped to avoid.

I do plan on coming back ASAP, I just don't know when. Hopefully by early next year when the holidays are over and I've had time to process things.

Thanks for the update; feel free to take the time you need to fix what you need to. I hope you get the quickest possible positive resolution with whatever the problem you have is; you have my best wishes of things settling as best as they possibly can!

You all have been extremely kind and patient with me, and I want to also thank you for it. I also have been extremely pessimistic and at times not as kind as I hope to be so I want to apologize for that also. As rough as things are, I have no plans on giving up.

I'll see you guys soon. If there is something immediate you need of me, I will try to keep eye on PMs here.

I'm happy to hear you say that, because my honest opinion is that losing you as a player would make this game lesser; you bring a lot to it that I would really like to see explored and developed going forward. Of course, I'd understand if you needed to leave due to real life issues, but I really hope that doesn't happen, and that everything resolves without troubles, both for your own good and so that you can come back to posting with the enthusiasm you have often shown. :)

In any case, I'm just happy to know that whatever happened didn't let you hurt, and I really hope things get better for you as soon as they can!

Its ok Ashaia, we get it. You're having a really rough time it sounds like, and I can't imagine how much doing legal stuff makes it worse. Just take your time, we'll be here, k? So don't worry.

And let us know if we can help, even though we're just internet strangers. Sometimes you just need someone to vent to who isn't in daily life, ya know? But just take care of yourself.

Ashaia is an amazing character, and you are an amazing person, and I really hope things get better for you :)

Hi! I just wanted to wish everybody a happy new year, with my best wishes it will be better than the last one - it shouldn't be too hard for that to happen, right? :)

Also, I'll be making a post of my own tomorrow to push things along, in case anybody wants to get their posts in before I do that. I've been waiting for some things and double checking stuff, plus I also wanted to make sure that everybody had the time and chance to participate in the discussion of Carmen's revelation without me interfering with the first reactions, but I think I gave it enough time now.

Anyway, again I really hope that things will get better for everybody as we go on, and looking forward to another year of playing with you all! ^_^

Yeah, i think there's still the bounty posters to tackle, but Ashaia can bring them up later.

Carmen could as well, and in fact she probably should, since she had the time to read them in depth and thus can share information that Ashaia wasn't able to collect.

Also, it's not like I'm going to force you into action without giving you time to agree on a plan or something; for one thing, Lilah said she should be able to post something within the next week, once the business of the winter holidays goes away, and for another, my primary goal is more to provide a bit of out-of-context information you all missed and to prod you into finalizing things and get going; I know I keep repeating it, but in the end the choice of what to do lays in your PC hands. I just help you along when it seems like choice paralysis is holding you back. :)

Hi guys. Feeling much better and I would like to try to make an effort to slowly get back into things soon, though I dunno how things will mesh with school also starting again for me. Still, I do not wish to get too behind even if I may not be able to commit to the regular pace.

Is there something Ashaia could do or say at this point to help you guys out at least? I have been trying to catch up with the current posting, but with my dyslexia reading is fatiguing.

To summarize what happened, Carmen found a secret passage that leads to the Tower, so you can use that to sneak in; the plan is currently to hide Grumblejack and probably Nothing in there. Carver (now under my control as the player left the game) suggested a plan to replace two of the laborers to have a secondary access to the tower. Carmen also shared some details about the other bounties (although, she did not share Ashaia's surname, leaving that up to you to decide), although nothing overly important. That's about it for a summary, so even if it takes you time to catch up the details, that should give you a picture of what's going on.

Ekkhard will be in the town today and hold the church service, and I imagine the big question here is if you want to talk with him (Ashaia would be expected to go the church for a matter of image) or not. If not, then you're more or less free to do what you want until it's time for your meeting with the alchemist. So you don't need to be in a rush, although if you have suggestions to make on how best to use the secret passage (it connects the tower to the inn's cellar), that'd likely be the bigger talking point at the moment.

And Adrika said she's spending her lunch breaks with Scaramian, and helping teach the kids on Peaceday morning (two days from now) which Scaramian would likely also be present for, so she can keep an eye on him as long as she has a means of keeping in touch with the group since, with Carmen in the tunnel, she would no longer be able to renew the mental link every day.

Hi everybody! It's been three days since the last IC post, and nobody has reacted. I'd like to know why?

If the game has become boring enough that none of you is interested in posting in it, letting me know would be much better than leaving me hanging like that.

And if that's not the problem, then what is? Because, if you're enjoying the game, I would have expected that finally moving along would have prompted some sort of reaction, instead of three days of silence. So... let me know, ok?

I'm not bored of the game, I just don't have a whole lot to do right now, being a character who not only has just recently learned of the concept of body language (as well as having a "proper" body of sorts and therefore needing to use it themselves to some extent) but also doesn't want to do anything to attract attention to themselves being as they are currently in a highly dangerous location, surrounded by enemies, where the slightest touch from one could spell disaster if said mortal happens to notice anything off about it ;). For now I'm mostly just sort of reacting/responding to what the rest of the group say/do.

That's fine, but not wanting to attract attention applies to everybody currently in the church. When the last post specifically stated "make a reaction post on what you think of the new NPC", I assumed it was a given that I was looking for reactions that you had in your communal telepathic chatroom, not open display of contempt that the other characters would notice. In fact, posts that made a show of the contrast between what your characters are trying to look like and what they're actually thinking would be more interesting than a mere reaction shot. So... I don't think that justification really works here.

I have a good idea of what my reply would be, but in my case i was waiting for the people that are actually physically there to post first.

If no one else has by tonight, i'll toss my post in. Just got out of church myself, ironically :)
This message was last edited by the player at 12:04, Sun 16 Jan 2022.

sorry, last few days have been hard, havent even looked at the reply yet. . .

Well, I don't post what my character is thinking because how would anyone know? Transmitting telepathically, sure, but Nothing is currently a bit more reactive than active, responding to what other people (in the group) say rather than being the first to volunteer their opinion. They probably think there's not much to say right now since their opinion on the whole Mythra thing is liekly pretty similar to the rest of the group and therefore doesn't need sharing, because everyone already agrees :D.

Ah, i see.

Nothing, you don't HAVE to share your thoughts. People tend to think far more than they could ever say, and if the mental link transmitted every unfiltered thought we had the link would have Adrika going "Iron ore... iron ore... copper ore... iron ore again..." for literal hours on end during most of the week.

It could be a post of Nothing reflecting on what he has heard, maybe comparing Ekkhard preaching for (social) unity as a much weaker version of the unity of being a single being in their home Plane, but it could still be a moment of self-reflection that you don't necessarily feel the need to broadcast to the group as a whole if your character does not see the point in doing so.

See what i mean? :)
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 13:38, Mon 17 Jan 2022.

Yes, exactly - if the character is having thoughts that are private to themselves, there's no way anyone in the group would know about it, and therefore no reason for me as a player to post it, since there'd be nothing anyone could do with that information since their characters wouldn't have it.

This is a very amusing discussion to me, for a lot of different reasons; it's interesting to see you two having it. I'm looking forward to see what the end result of it will be.

In other news, I suspect that Lilah and Ashaia's lack of response is more a result of their more intense RL situations than lack of interest, since that's generally the case with them - they're both very committed and dedicated players who I know would like to post more if they could, but just aren't able to due to no fault of their own - so I'm going to give them about ten more hours, after which I'll assume they weren't able to react, and move things ahead by making a post of my own to initiate Ekkhard's meeting with the pilgrim group. Carmen, Nothing, I hope you'll be ready! ^_^

In reply to Nothing (msg # 86):

True, but as a reader it would give people a little more insight into your character. While they cannot react to what you think, it can help them understand how you think, which they would be somewhat familiar with over the course of a month of traveling together.

Think of it like this: If we, through previous experience, knew of a topic (for example) Ashaia would find upsetting, she wouldn't need to broadcast 'i find this upsetting' for us to understand this is a topic she would rather avoid. She could think it, and the rest of us would be familiar enough with the little tells from her body langauge that we could pick up on her discomfort even if we would be unaware of the exact reason why.

Similarly, Adrika's taunting. Going by her words alone, it would sound like she's trying to pick a fight, but through her body language and the others' previous experiences with her, the rest of the group would (hopefully) know the difference between her riling up an enemy, and playfully baiting for a reaction.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:35, Tue 18 Jan 2022.

The issue there is that your characters are all familiar with the concept of body language because you've always had bodies (and faces) and therefore the need to use them to communicate with each other. Nothing was part of a plane that is basically comprised of a sentient void/shadow thing, within which bits sometimes sort of semi-detach into their own awarenesses, but which can still freely merge with and travel through the shadows at will, with no true form of their own. Being yanked suddenly to the Material Plane has left Nothing stuck in a humanoid-ish shape (with No-One along for the ride as an unfinished "splinter") but still formed entirely of shadow-stuff. They have no capacity for facical expressions because they don't have a face, nor have they been stuck in one form till now so didn't need a body, and being an entity of psychic shadow-stuff didn't need any of that anyway since they communicate via telepathy. Literally every time they show a facial expression or any form of body language while in their current illusory "cloak", they are acting. They've had to very quickly try and learn how to do all this weird physical/visual communication stuff since they've been here and there's so much that just outright makes no sense to them. So they're taking a minimalist approach, just doing enough to not raise suspicion but otherwise trying to avoid notice so they don't have to go into any detailed communication. At least they have the intelligence to have devised their own sign language, it's just no-one else knows it yet (would require people taking it as a language when levelling up).

My post will be up this afternoon, I just need to grab a nap.  Been wrestling with a busted water heater and shifting stuff round the storage room so it could get changed out.

Not a fun day, and I have waaay too much stuff...

Nothing, the issue is is that you're hardly here as a character at all--in fact there are times I forget your character is even apart of the game. I get that the character has no need for communication and only reacts to people, but its very difficult to find a way to initiate ANY form of communication when they never respond. How are we supposed to work with them as a member of the team when they refuse to talk to anyone or do anything?

Carmen tried repeatedly to get Nothing to speak in the last little bit to pretty much no use--she wants the shadow-creatures help, but its not like I can force you to talk . . . .

In reply to Nothing (msg # 89):

Oh trust me, despite being fairly certain i've been born with a face and body, i can't read body language irl at all. :D

But yeah, body language could also be stuff like NOT moving an inch, hinting that you may be listening intently, or looking to the sides to inspect your surroundings (assuming you don't have 360 degree vision) or see whether the exits are unobstructed. All these things are a part of body language as well and can help the others interpret what you're thinking. Or at least, have certain habits emerge to give them a frame of reference to work with.

For example, your current illusory form is expected to show body language. You're mimicking that. If you see someone that is angry cross their arms and talk louder, you could interpret that as being the signs of being angry -- something that happened in the group as well. So, if Nothing interprets (based on his own feelings) that he should be angry, then his illusory form would cross their arms to show this. That is how habits form, and that is how people can read the body language of the people they know well enough to recognize the tells, since not everyone crossing their arms happens to be angry.

A reminder - Nothing is not a "he". Or a "she". They have no sex nor gender, nor any concept of either, and their physical illusion (and regular mental voice) reflects that, being something that can't quite be pinned down as either.

And I have contributed to discussions - Nothing has made comments. They don't really seem to get responded to, but they're there. Nothing just doesn't really have too much to offer when it comes to bluffing their way around a town full of aliens, so is largely waiting until they can get away from that and into "let's creep around the shadowy place where I can do cool shit with the shadows without worrying that some random mortal will notice it" stuff :D.

Humans aren't non-gendered tho, so Carmen needs to refer to Nothing as a he to not alert everyone around about Nothing's nature. Sorry if I misgender them in our OOC talks tho, I try to keep that in mind, but Im not so good at they/them as a singular (cursed English grammar teachings!)

I guess my frustration is, its hard to tell what Nothing wants or can do without flat-out metagaming? They're. . . it feels like a background character at times, not one to really draw into conversation.

Then again, we are in the literal worst part for you. Thats why I was wondering if Nothing wanted to join Carmen in nighttime scouting and general trickery in the Tower, since they would be well suited for it! And Raj would be glad to have his 'these humans are weird' friend back.

Oh yeah, that's what I figured was happening - we go into the cool tunnels of sneaky darkness and see what we can achieve in there (even if it's only scouting for an actual attack at a later point), while other people do the talky stuff. You're right, this is not a great part of the game for my character. Or for me, really - I've never been much of a fan of the bits where it goes all political and suddenly there's loads of NPCs/factions to keep track of who all have different views and agendas and stuff. At least I can get away with it since bascially it's a "Do not touch" situation for Nothing, too, seeing how they need to stay away from all these people surrounding them. Did Carmen deliberately ignore their "born mute" mortal backstory (which isn't even a lie, really - after all, it's a bit difficult to not be mute when you have no face, mouth, throat, vocal cords, etc :D), or was that just a case of player forgetfulness? Not that it matters much, I suppose - it's not like Nothing can openly correct her in front of the hostile alien mortals :D.

Incidentally, the singular "they" isn't a new thing - it's a century or two old, at least ;).

I literally forgot, apologies. My memory is. . . uh, a goldfish has better XD

And I know, its just I was taught to do grammar by an old-fashioned grammar nazi so I. Have a hard time doing 'incorrect' grammar even when it IS correct--its dumb, but I just have trouble with it.

Consider that if you had been told stuff about a person but didn't know their gender, you'd have to call them "they", wouldn't you? So it's like that with Nothing (and No-One) - they have no visible features that would distinguish them as either sex. I mean, they have no visible features at [i[all[/i], really, except that you can see their shape and size when it's light enough to see them at all :D.

Theoretically, yes, but along those same lines there would also be people that simply pick a gender and expect to be corrected when they guessed wrong. :P

I mean, gender neutral really is a new concept, something that really only became prominent in the 21st century? And given that the game is somewhat similar to Middle Ages Europe, the idea would be foreign--at least in my mind, not my campaign obviously, but given the general Christian-esc culture I'd assume they don't have a concept of gender-neutral?

I was raised and taught that the proper termination for gender-neutral is 'he', and I've seen that ALOOOOOTTT in Christian/European/English circles, and I've heard many an argument about how in English, gender-neutral pronouns are he/him, not they/them; and that tradition is how I learned grammar.


THAT BENG SAID. If it bothers you, I'll have Carmen refer to Nothing as they/them! I don't want to cause discomfort at all, I was just trying to RP in the style of what era I thought the game emulated.

If somebody already said that they'd prefer a certain pronoun to be used to refer to them, either IC or OOC, please just use that - this goes for everyone. Making a mistake can happen, I'm sure nobody here is going to make a big deal out of it, but I would like everybody to respect everybody else's choices and preferences. I'd also like it if this is the last time this point is raised, and extend my thanks to everybody in advance for understanding.

Sincere apologies to all for this, I'll do my damnest to remember in future and not cause problems.

Actually, they would have a concept of gender neutrality, as there are quite a few monogendered races in Pathfinder. Admittedly, most of them are female seductresses, but still...

Dryads, Harpies, Azatas, Satyrs, Lamias, Sirens and others like the Erinyes and the classic Succubus and Incubus are all monogendered races, so gender-neutral words like it and they (and 'fashion pronouns' like zim and zis) wouldn't have the negative connotations of feeling like you aren't treating the person you're referring to as a person instead of (and pardon the words) 'something else'.

In reality though? Yeah, i'm going to get that wrong a lot. Not because i'm trying to get on Nothing's nerves or anything, but 'they' is in my mind something exclusively plural, and it's hard to get out of that habit. Same reason i never capitalize my I's in mid-sentence, with me not being a native English speaker it just looks and feels wrong, like i'm making a deliberate typo, since my own native language (Dutch, for those curious) doesn't do that.

I'll try to, don't get me wrong, but it's going to take a while. :/
This message was last edited by the player at 18:11, Sat 22 Jan 2022.

As I said, so long as everybody is trying their best to be understanding and respectful of each other and follow everybody else's expressed wishes, I'm sure nobody is going to get angry about honest, unwilling mistakes. We're all humans, understanding each other is what distinguishes us as a species, so exercising some of that understanding should be easy enough, right? :)

I'm also sure that we can find a different argument of conversation, rather than rehashing what's already been said, which would likely lead to unnecessary conflict. For example, considering the current IC situation, maybe somebody has suggestions for Carmen over whether they think she should take the big risk of accepting Ekkhard's offer or not? That seems like it might lead to an interesting discussion.

Ya actually I really do want peoles help on deciding what to do there?

Cause option stay means Nothing having to hide for longer, with increased risk; also us earning money somehow, and general more acting. Also, not being able to scout the Tower at night.

Option leave takes away the free access to the Tower's interior, but allows for nightly scouting of Carmen and Nothing--and I'm sure they would prefer being in the darkness more.

Also, the link would stay up if Carmen stays in town, and go down if she leaves.

I'm utterly torn, and I'd love to know your opinion, Nothing. We can do this in character if you'd prefer, but I want to know what Nothing themself wants in this case.

Yeah, about the mental link...

...I was wondering, since the tunnel starts at the Inn, wouldn't that mean that you could just head to the start of the tunnel, and we'd all still be in range for establishing the mental link even with you being underground?
This message was last edited by the player at 18:51, Sat 22 Jan 2022.

The issue is more I need to be awake to do it, and if Carmen is up all night, she'd need to sleep during the day

In reply to Carmen Gorgon (msg # 106):

So? If you sleep in the morning, wouldn't that still leave the afternoon for us to mentally communicate? Assuming the link turns off and you can't have Raj keep it up for you, of course.

. . . great point, and great question! GM, since Raj is my symbiot, can he maintain the mental link sink that is specifically a Symbiant class feature?

I think that you're forgetting an important detail: you need to pay with your use/day of psyonics to keep the mindlink going, and you only have eight of those. Each use last one hour, but that's still a maximum of eight hours; that can't cover the entire day, and since the use/day are recovered when you sleep, I don't think it'd be fair to let you use them during that time, since they're recharging.

Does that makes sense?

So that's... Sleep from 4 to 12, establish the link, we can talk mentally from 12 to 8 pm and then you go off to explore while the rest of us are getting ready to turn in for the night?

Genderfluid/non-binary people exist IRL and some like to be referred to as "they", just so you know :P.

Anyway, the mental link is useful, for sure, but consider that if we'd made different character choices, we wouldn't have one at all and would still need to figure this stuff out. So it's more like an extra bonus handy thing that we have and otherwise we'll just have to co-ordinate ourselves the way boring old non-telepathic people do :D. With regard to Carmen sleeping to refresh her link, Nothing won't really care when that happens, but in general if given the choice between acting nocturnally or diurnally, they'd choose to have the nights to act whilst hiding out the days - I can't imagine why that would be ;). Mechanically they do need "sleep" (though I don't narratively describe it that way), but they don't need as much as they otherwise might thanks to a Feat I took, so they can be active for more hours in the day if needed.

It makes more sense to me to discuss any specific plans IC, though - it's our characters who are going into this, after all, not us ;).

Oh, i know. It's just that in all my time with RPoL, i've encountered it a grand total of once, and they preferred 'hir' if memory serves. Not saying genderfluid people don't exist, just that i haven't exactly gotten a lot of practice so it needs to be a conscious effort to do so on my part, which usually means i need to remember doing it when i proofread my posts ^^;

As i said before, i was trying to be accurate to the culture i assumed in game, i apologize for my assumtions. IRL, i always try to use the proper pronouns, and i apologize if i havent.

And ill post an in character thing in a moment

To be fair, it's mainly the OOC thing where it's more of an issue - as players, you all know that Nothing and No-One have neither sex nor gender, and I've alwaysed described them with the singular "they". As characters, I consider it a bit more allowable for IC speech to describe them with a specific gender if such things really are so strange within the setting. Just be aware that at no point has Nothing borne any signs of possessing either a sex or a gender so it is the characters making an assumption if they assign one to them. Nothing, after all, doesn't really understand the whole pronouns/sex/gender thing in the first place so is unlikely to call anyone out on it.

People are allowed to carry weapons in normal circumstances without any real restriction, other than the fact that weapons cost a lot; keep in mind, your characters have trouble gathering up 2 gp for a night at the inn, while a longsword costs 15 gp.

That being said, the procedures for what the security would be in a high-security area like the fortress you can't be sure about. In some rare cases, handing over all weapons or even submitting to a search would be expected, such as when meeting the king, but in most instances, you would expect to be allowed to carry weapons, and thus not asked to hand them over, but be immediately attacked if you were to draw those weapons on your person. If you'll be under heavy guards, that likely means surrounded by people with a readied action to attack you the moment you attempt to draw a weapon.

So... you wouldn't expect to be searched or asked to offer weapons, but you can't be certain.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:33, Mon 24 Jan 2022.

Ok, another question. Would fasting for a few days be seen as odd?

Not really, but neither would leaving; right now, the people don't really know you that well. Faking some enthusiasm at being allowed to visit would be enough to justify staying in the eyes of the locals, whereas showing eagerness to make it to more interesting places further along the pilgrimage would justify leaving to the same degree. Emotionally, neither of the two things would seem particularly strange, the only big thing would be the people who know you don't really have the money for staying and you'd need to either find a way to justify them or move to the shelter, which would make your movements much easier for people to keep track of.

I basically had second thoughts about the "free tour" thing halfway through writing my reply about it - having the bad guys freely show us around their own fortress (or at least a part of it) sounds very cool, but on the other hand having me risk even more close contact with them (especially if they need to search us before letting us in) could potentially be highly dangerous. Maybe you guys could go in while I'm "too nervous" and bugger off to hide in the nice safe dark tunnels instead :D.

Yeah, but you likely be in the shelter with communal sleeping arrangements, Adrika's there as well.

That is something you need to coordinate, as not staying the extra days to join the tour of the fortress would mean you be (for appearances) moving on to the next pilgrimage site on your own, which might be somewhat questionable.

Alright, I have an idea

What if Nothing goes 'into the woods' to pray and fast (aka the tunnels) while Carmen and Carver go? It might seem suspicious, but better than the alternative. . .

I'm not necessarily sure it's better than the alternative - it'll certainly raise eyebrows that one of the pilgrims doesn't want to take the chance to see an holy place they've been invited to see - but it's certainly something you could try.

Although, that brings up a point that I should raise in character.

Hadn't even thought about the shelter, I was just thinking of the possibility of us being searched on entry to the fort, or at least of a guard accidentally brushing up against my "clothing" while we're there or something. The dinner invitation in the most recent post brings up its own issues too, of course. Can't really pass off my food to someone else when we're all around a table together with the bad guys :(.

Technically you are the bad guys, but I understand your point. You might need to figure a workaround to that, but I'm sure you can figure something out, there's plenty of options. :)

Yeah, and there's also the option of bringing up why you chose to decline at the dinner table -- i'm sure Vera Roth wouldn't need much prodding to want to hear why you chose to turn down an option for her son to show off how amazing he is :P

But yeah, like i said, if we can manage to get Ekkhard to pay a couple of extra nights at the Inn there's no harm in reconsidering the offer ;)

Found where it was!

"It would be a joy to meet him! We wouldn't want to intrude on your family time however." Carmen


Yep decent excuse. . . I hope. I do wanna take the offer and just say Nothing is fasting today or something, but Nothing would that be ok?

As long as excuses can be made for me not to interact, I don't mind too much. Really Nothing wants to get away from all these people ASAP, but without it looking suspicious. And yeah, they are the "bad guys" from our perspective. We are the protagonists, which makes them the antagonists >:).

In reply to Nothing (msg # 126):

Indeed, we ARE the protagonists.



Whereas the antagonists is simply what the protagonists must overcome:



Good or Evil, we are the heroes of this story ;)
This message was last edited by the player at 14:00, Tue 08 Feb 2022.

Yep, exactly :). No-one says protagonists have to be decent people. It just means they're they main character. If two people share the role of protagonist (ie are both as important to the story as each other but not antagonistic toward each other) then they are deuteragonists.

I did say I understood the point; however, I would also say that "protagonist" and "hero" are not, in fact, synonymous. Which was my point.

Well...



While the term has gotten linked to the 'good guys' over time (likely due to Christian influences -- God is good, therefore those blessed by him are good also) strictly by definition it doesn't have to be. Especially in polytheistic settings such as this one where the existence of evil gods not necessarily weaker than the good ones is commonly accepted as fact.

The "hero" of those old Greek myths and such was generally kind of an arsehole anyway. their heroic deeds tended to revolve around stuff like slaying monsters and shagging women, and then making some stupid mistake like telling a god to sod off and being horribly cursed for doing so, or whatever :D. "Classical heroes", I believe they're known as, a different thing from what is generally thought of as a more "modern" hero today, who is more likely to be morally upstanding and less of a selfish arsehole. The ones who retain such qualities are generally referred to as "anti-heroes", which are a sliding scale all of their own (from "generally decent but perhaps somewhat sarcastic or selfish", to "is only really fighting the bad guys because they've been forced into it by whatever cicumstances").

Counter-point: modern interpretations of the word has 'hero' as someone righteous and just, 'villain' as someone selfish and evil, 'protagonist' as whoever the story is following and 'antagonist' as whoever is opposing the protagonst.

Excellent example: Light from Death Note is a villain protagonist, as he is evil yet the main character, while L is a hero antagonist, as he is good (to a degree) and opposes Light.

Unfortunately all I know of Death Note is that it's a Manga series, and I only know that much because we used to sell it at the bookshop I used to work at. I think it's something about some kid having a book he can write names in to kill people, or something, but that's about it :D.

In reply to Nothing (msg # 133):

Pretty much. Light vs. L was basically Sherlock and Moriarty trying to outwit each other, with Light having the advantage that L. doesn't know about the Death Note and how it works.

It's pretty exciting, but then starts going downhill around the halfway point.

I'll admi, Ive only seen as far as when the second Death Note was introduced, but the beginning at least is a massive cat-and-mouse game.

Light, a megalomaniac genius, has a notebook that can kill anyone who he has the name of; he wants to use it to kill all prisoners and reform the world.

L, a mysterious detective, all but knows Light is the Kira (killer), but can't prove it in a court of law.

So the game starts when L takes Light onto the Kira investigation, and they try to reveal the other. . .

Yeah, let's just say if they kept it at that, it would have ended up for the better. Instead, after __ dies, they introduce someone who's nowhere near as interesting as him for the sake of keeping the story going and... yeah. It's mostly trying to recreate the dynamic without actually having a good grasp on what made it work to begin with.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:54, Fri 11 Feb 2022.

From what I remember of seeing it on the shelf, it did seem to have a lot of books to it (wasn't the only manga series that did), so maybe the writers just ran out of ideas for the original characters/dynamic and tried to change things around a bit to try and keep it going forever, or whatever :D. Wouldn't be the first or the last time such a thing has happened, after all.

Not that long actually, 13 volumes. It's about middle of the road for most series i suppose, the more popular ones like Berserk (41 volumes) and Bleach (74) are way bigger. Though those 74 volumes were released over the span of 15 years, so the release dates are much farther apart.

But as for Death Note, yeah. At some point the plot got needlessly convoluted (a second and third Kira playing hot potato with two Death Notes, some memory shenanigans etc.) and it just slid away from its original premise, which was that all the rules for the use of the Death Note fit on a single page.

First half was awesome. L and Light are close, L needs conclusive proof that Light is Kira, and Light needs L's name in order to write it down and kill him. L gives Light his name, but Light has no way of knowing if he's speaking the truth etc.

And then, it just develops into scenes like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw8EjksDTd4

That's halfway into the first part i believe. Then at the end of the first part, he dies, and is replaced by two people out of nowhere that combined have less character quirks than him.

Carmen: trying to have a proper conversation, thinking about this more academically

Me, after two seconds: shit this guy is our main enemy WHY AM I GIVING HIM TIPS

Because you're a friendly pilgrim who has nothing to hide? ;)

And here you were afraid of the Northern savage messing it up :D

In reply to Carmen Gorgon (msg # 139):

Hi guys sorry I’ve been away for so long I hurt my elbow last night and I can’t type and I’m looking at two months of downtime so I don’t know how active I’m gonna be



Surgery is Thursday morning keep me in your thoughts

Good luck and I hope to play with you again soon

I'm very sorry to hear that! I wish you the best of luck with your surgery and to get better soon; don't worry about the game, take care of yourself first! We'll be here when you come back and I'll do my best to keep your spot for you. You have my best hopes of everything resolving itself safely, and many hugs!

In reply to Lilah (msg # 142):

Sorry to hear that.

May not help much, but when i broke my clavicle i had my bed pillow on my knees and my elbow resting on that, so i could operate my mouse using just my wrist and fingertips.

This would be something like 20 years ago though, there wasn't much for me to do but play PC games on WASD plus mouse. But it's worth a try, i recall being able to do that without any pain whatsoever, and i still barely move my upper arms and rest my lower arms on the desk when i type.

YMMV.

I'm so sorry to hear that Lilah! I hope you heal up soon--and just worry about taking care of yourself, you'll always have a spot when you're ready to come back :)

Hey guys everything went fine today I’m resting at home just wanna let you know everything is doing well so far

Glad to hear it went ok!! Now rest on up :)

Really happy to hear that!

Great to hear it, Lilah!

Now, be sure not to overexert yourself -- you'd be surprised how many people mess up in the final stretch :)

Yeah, take it easy even if it doesn't hurt - don't want to accidentally strain something that wasn't quite fully fixed yet :D.

Hello, Again! ^^' I decided the best course for me instead of coming here to apologize and/or whine about things periodically was to deal with things till I was sure I was ready to come back for both my sake and your sake.

While I am not 100% (and quite honestly I do not know if I will be for a long time) I think I am well enough to make an earnest attempt at making a return before it starts to feel like an embarrassing amount of time I have been gone and just get too anxious to even try to come back.

I do miss playing Ashaia and more importantly, playing with you guys. As it has been a while I would need a bit help catching up to you guys where I could start posting again :)

Hi Ashaia! I'm very glad to hear that things on your end have gotten a little bit better, and of course I'm very happy to have you back in the game, since you're awesome. :)

You're lucky, in that not much has happened - Carmen has been having a conversation with Ekkhard and Vera Roth about the possibilities of offering mercy to murderers in the main thread which you should definitely give a read to, but other than that, nothing especially notable has otherwise happened.

I think we could definitely get you back into things at a slower pace by having you run through a shortened version of what you think Ashaia would have been doing through the day while Carmen was occupied with the Roth, which you and I can run in your private thread, so that, once Carmen is done trying to milk the Roth for information, we can have the group come together for a planning session to decide what you want to do with the various options that you now have at your disposal.

Yup. We already said not to rush back into this too early, so we're not going to be upset with you for actually following our advice, so don't worry :P

Welcome back!

Sadly my situation will not be fully resolved before four or so months. And by then as I stated I'll just feel too embarrassed or unmotivated to return. Plus I do need something positive to occupy my mind :)



Sounds good to me!

In reply to Ashaia (msg # 154):

Glad to hear it!

Also, make sure to read the main thread at your own pace when you have the time - I'm sure it'll get a few laughs out of you seeing what Ekkhard and Vera act like, and figure out how Ashaia's actions affects them. :)

Also, feel free to post in your private thread, taking up from the church ceremony (that would be post #515 on page 22 of the main thread, which is also more or less the post you should start your reading of the thread from) with however Ashaia would have reacted to it.

Welcome back Ashaia--we are glad to have you, if only for your lovely company. Take your time getting adjusted--not much has really happened, just a lunch between Carmen (and a silent Carver), Ekkhard, and Vera; with much religious talk and not so veiled references to someone who committed a murder who is close to the Roths. Wonder who that could be? ;)

Aside from snarking/enlightening the party, you don't have tooo much to do right away, Carmen's still finishing up talking before the party will be pulled together again.

Must be Carmen because Roth means red and Carmen is the only red hair at our party ;)

I'm sure everybody has been following the main thread as they should, but just in case, I want to make a notice that Carmen is done with her chat with the Roth, so if you want to strategize and plan your next move, now's the time. :)

Guess who wrote a post and forgot to press Post Message?

TT

Ouch.

Maybe it's still there though, have you tried pressing 'Back' on your browser until you're in the post message screen again?

In reply to Adrika (msg # 160):

Sadly that was a few days back and I just noticed ^^'

Uhh... Carver?

I'm the one meeting the children's class, not Nothing?

Unless i've missed something, of course ^^;

In reply to Adrika (msg # 162):

Yep, you probably did; you might want to re-read the end of Carmen's conversation with the Roth, but to summarize:

Back when she first met the group, Vera Roth said that it'd be lovely to have "mr. Flicker" meet with Scaramian for the art lesson, which she thought "mr. Flicker" would appreciate due to being mute. With her typical obnoxiousness, she said that, and then assumed it was so decided, her will imposed on the world - of course, the lack of protestation on Nothing's part helped her to solidify this plan in her mind.

Then, at the end of the dinner, when Carmen mentioned that they wanted to leave early, Vera Roth said "but what about mr. Flicker making a presence at the art class?" as, naturally, she expected that to happen. Nothing didn't offer any objections or comment, despite being in character following on to the discussion, so Carmen had to improvise and said "Flicker will be there and then join us on the road later". So, that's now the plan, as Roth devised it and Carmen confirmed.

Also, your meeting isn't the same day as Nothing; theirs will be on Moonday, while I believe yours was scheduled for one or two days later- as indicated by the fact you'll be visiting the history class, not the Art class.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:54, Mon 14 Mar 2022.

Ah!

Yeah, for a moment i thought he was referring to Nothing being there for Story Time, which -- as a mute -- would not have made much sense.

But it's good to have the overview here regardless, since it's been a while for everyone. :)

Huh? I thought I was supposed to be sneaking off to hide in that tunnel thing that someone found? I vaguely remember Mrs Roth mentioning some gathering thing aaaages ago, back when we first met her but didn't think that was confirmed. Well, she can just be disappointed, then :D. I wasn't exactly at the meeting Carmen just had in order to pitch in and offer any comments, after all.

In reply to Nothing (msg # 165):

You should have been able to participate via mind-link if you wanted Carmen to provide an excuse on your behalf though.

Don't get me wrong, if you don't want to take part, you can decide that Nothing won't go, but now that she's been given confirmation you'll be there, Roth will be annoyed at your rudeness of cancelling without informing her, and that'll mean she'd be complaining about you a lot in the following days, and thus, when things start happening, you'll not be a group that just passed through, you'll be something everybody will be thinking about.

Basically, this is a consequence of choosing not to be active in the game; being silent and refusing to interact with NPCs isn't a way to avoid consequences, it just has a different set of consequences. We've had this conversation before, I'm sure of it.

Eh, I never agreed to it. If that old busybody wants to kick up a fuss because someone didn't do what she wanted, I doubt it will be the first time. And it's not like my character has done anything to suggest they want to be near other people - they've literally done the exact opposite of that the entire time they've been here.

In reply to Nothing (msg # 167):

Oh, absolutely; the point was that you might want to prefer her not kicking up the fuss. If you're fine with it, as I said, you're free to ignore her. I imagine Ashaia might even get a kick out of it. :)

She seems like the kind of person to kick up a fuss at the most trivial things anyway, I don't think it'll be the end of the world if she gets annoyed that some random stranger didn't do a thing she said they'd do and that they didn't actually agree to - if she asks around, maybe someone can just point out that I never actually said yes to it and that there's no real reason why I would, given how I am so "shy and timid" and don't like being near people :D. Why, she might even end up "scaring me off" entirely, such that she can't seem to find me again >:).

Well, considering you'll be leaving and never coming back (not as "Mr. Flicker", at least), it's going to be hard for people to hear your side of that story, but I understand what you mean.

Anyway, I think that's confirmation enough from Nothing that they won't be spending time interacting with the wizard, which changes my original plans for what should go in the main thread over the side threads.

So, since you don't seem to want to come up with any specific plans, I'd like players to confirm that the best path forward now is for me to have everybody running things in their own individual thread? Ashaia and Adrika in Balentyne town on separate paths, Carmen and Nothing working out how to make use of the tunnel on their own and figuring what to do next without help? I've no problem going forward with that, just making sure that's what everybody wants.

Carmen, Nothing, and it was going to be Lilah, Grumblejack, and Raj too IIRC?

Lilah is actually supposed to go with Carver to pretend to be one of the two Iverson. Of course, with Lilah being unable to post until her RL situation is resolved, you might want to reconsider that, and decide if you want to go for a different course of action.

I know there was some plan involving me (and Carmen, I think?) going into some tunnels that linked between the inn(?) and the fort and which don't seem to have been used in a long time, or something. Seemed like a good place to hide out, nice and dark and with no random humans to find us :D. As long as they're not airtight I can survive indefinitely.

That is still the plan; it's one arm of the multi-pronged approaches you're taking - with also Carver pretending to be one of the Iverson (with somebody else taking the role of the other woman), and Ashaia trying to get access as an invited guest, and... I'm not sure what Adrika's plan is in full, actually?

Anyway, as far as you're concerned, the idea is that you'd somehow use the ability to hide in the tunnel to add another approach; you (as a team, I mean) have yet to tell me the exact way you're planning to take advantage of this, how it's gonna contribute to the plan other than giving Nothing and Grumblejack a place to hide into.

Carmen was going to use the tunnel as a way to enter the Tower on the regular to scout and stuff, which I suppose Nothing could do if they wanted?

Since Lilah's away though, and for sake of having a PC in the scenario, Carmen is going to take Lilah's place for now in the disguise--I am well open to swapping plans if the player comes back before we're done.

In reply to Security Feature (msg # 170):

Sounds good to me :)

Yeah, I figured "secret way into the fort" equals "secret way to scout ahead and check out the patrols and whatever else". I can do all the Sneaky Bastard creepy-shadow stuff to get around and learn what I can, working with Carmen if she's there and we have some way to synergise our various cool shit that we can do :D.

Alright, so it seems to me we have a consensus. Nothing, if you could communicate your intention in character as well, so that we can move things on?

I thought I did? I said it would be better for me to get away from people sooner rather than later - the specifics of going into the tunnels was someone else's idea originally (Carmen, possibly), so I thought we had already sort of agreed before that I would be going along with that?

In reply to Nothing (msg # 179):

The last post ended with Carver asking you a direct question, so I'd like an answer to that; it's nice that we've reached a consensus out of character, but IC, your decision hasn't been discussed at all. If it had, if Nothing had said anything of what they wanted to do, Carmen would have had an answer ready for Roth instead of having to improvise. So, I'd like your character to actually communicate their intentions to the others in the main thread, which they haven't done yet.

Sorry, not sure whose up on the RP?

Well, you're talking to each other right now, so anybody could go, but if you think you don't have anything else to discuss, I can simply move things forwards - just say so.

So, as it happens, tomorrow (tonight, really, but who's counting) I'll be flying back to my homeland for the Easter holidays. Assuming the plane manages to get there in one piece (you never know with these things), I don't know how much time I actually will have for posting; I haven't been able to see my family in three years, so I might not have the time to post. Most importantly, I won't have full access to all of my reference material for the big part of the game (exploring the fortress).

As a result, I'd like to call for a one-month pause in posting, until the 15 of May, at least where the main thread is concerned; I might still be able to keep up with side threads (such as Ashaia's) if the players want me to, since those only require NPC information, not the full reference stuff. I'll still answer any PM sent my way, and hopefully when we restart in full in mid-May, the situation might have gotten better for everybody as well - I'm aware that nearly everybody here has had some problems with keeping up posting speed, so hopefully this pause will help people to straighten up their situation without having the pressure of needing to post.

Sure thing, best to pause the game than try to carry it on when you can't really post properly :).

Ooh nice, spending time with the family!

Have fun. If you can post, you can post, if you can't, you can't, no pressure.

Oh -- and if you're staying away for a month, you had better come back with stories of how you ran a one-shot or two, otherwise we're going to be disappointed :P

That would be highly unlikely, seeing as not a single person of the 5k inhabitants of the town I was born in (to my knowledge) plays RPG. In fact, I'd be surprised if anybody older than twenty even knows what an RPG is; no member of my family plays, most certainly, and the place I grew up into is the Italian equivalent of Texas, or perhaps Kansas - one of those backwaters of a backwater. Which, when you consider that Italy already is more of a 2nd world Nation than a 1st world one, says a lot.

At least I'll still have internet, so I'll be perfectly capable of answering private messages and perhaps the private threads; as I said, the primary obstacle is that I can't bring along all of my reference material with me. I had limited storage space and couldn't afford to buy a bigger external HD at this time - honestly I'm not sure I can really afford the journey itself, but I just decided to worry about that at some point in the future.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:39, Thu 14 Apr 2022.

Yup, sounds like the south to me...

Kidding aside though, the important thing is to spend time and catch up, so have some focaccia and be sure to read up on everything going on with Italian soccer, because you're going to need it :P

Eh, I was never that much of a Soccer person, my Mom is the one who cares more; if I'd been interested, living in Germany wouldn't have stopped me from finding out. It's just not something I care too much about. I will absolutely enjoy the food, however. :)

And 2nd world isn't 3rd world, of course - I'm aware there's plenty of people who are in a much worse situations than me. I was just making the point that, living in Hamburg, the difference in conditions is quite palpable. You'll just need to trust me on that one.

Having been to Romania which probably falls in that category, I getcha. Some advancements, not really the sleek tech or buildings of first world outside a few cities, and generally more laid-back, pastorial feel without going to the huts and poverty of third world. Close?

In any case, I hope you enjoy the trip! I think a lot of us could use a bit of time anyways, so it works out :)

Very close indeed! A lot of my town's population works in animal rising, and the town, which has 5000 people as I said, has no High School, no movie theater/cinema, no shop that isn't clothing or alimentary, no real hospital - only a small emergency clinic - and something like 30 bars. For those kind of things, we need to go the provincial capital, one of about six actual cities in the entire region.

And, as it happen, about two thirds of the towns in the region are actually smaller than the one I grew up in. So, make of that as you will. :)

Yeah, same with my dad. :D

No High School, so the average age in the village is like 40 as all the young adults have jobs and families and apartments in the city they spent several years studying in.

Have a nice trip, Chief! Sounds kinda like home to me, though my hometown has a population of only 2k who mostly work in agrarian-related fields like farming, livestock, etc. Our town center has one grocery store and two bars, which tells about priorities x)

And sorry for the spotty activity. School's been busy as I am wrapping up my studies and getting ready for the final apprenticeship period set to start late next month. I should be graduating around late august or early September. My health situation is ok, we had a small setback last month, but we are back on track again.

As always, your patience with me has been greatly appreciated. I'll try to be more active in the coming week. You've yet to get rid of me ;)

I hope everyone has a wonderful easter weekend.

It's fine, you can use this small pause to focus on your studies if you need to, Ashaia! I certainly don't want to get rid of you, so it's a good thing that I'm not in danger of that happening. :)

and back in the books of the living!

I am not too sure how I can contribute to the main thread?

In reply to Ashaia (msg # 194):

That one's in pause right now anyway, but if you feel like offering suggestions or comments on how to handle things, that could help - although I believe that, with having been unable to sleep, Carmen might not have full access to her telepathy right now.

Yup. Using Nothing as a hub would be an alternative, though one that would require their permission obviously :)

I also don't have the range Carmen does - I can't actually remember what my range is but I think I have to at least know a person is there or something (I'm pretty sure it works through walls and stuff). With my telepathy it's not so much "group chat" as "private telephones with me as the hub receiving and choosing to pass on all the messages, and also people have to wait for me to call them first so they can reply to me (unless they have their own telepathy)" :D. But I suppose it would still be better than no telepathy at all. Maybe we're spoilt by having it in the first place - after all, it's hardly a guaranteed thing in any given group.

The mission can absolutely be completed without telepathy, teleportation, the ability to swim through rock, or any of a number of other abilities that you have. Of course, using them makes your life simpler, but you should still be able to manage without, when the situation interferes with their use.

Lol well of course, I would expect that to be the case - if an NPC gives us a "Complete this or you're screwed" mission it would be horribly unfair for it to require some kind of resource we have no way of accessing :D. It's nice that this "Spheres" system does allow us to fine-tune our abilities, though, so we can anticipate what we might be needing and develop ourselves accordingly. In my case I've ended up leaning pretty much completely into what I originally thought was gonna be my "secondary" ability set, but there you go - serves it right for looking really cool :D.

Hi everyone! If you're not keeping track, it's the 15 of May, meaning that the pause I suggested we take from the game is mostly over. This is just me checking in, making sure that everybody is feeling well. If anybody has problems or isn't feeling good, make sure to mention it, ok?

That said, I hope that you're all ready, so we can finally get this mission of "break the fortress" underway, assuming you all still want to. I, for one, am very much looking forward to it! ^_^

Yup, just need to go through the scheduled Story Time first :P

Im ready~! Ill go edit my reply asap so you guys have good stuff, and everyone, while I do not have telepathy RAJ DOES as does Nothing so please please just use them to ask me stuff to ask others.

Sure, I'm still here :). I think I was hiding in the tunnel place intending to try and explore the fort once it's dark or something.

On the telepathy front, I'm not sure the range on mine, and I think it only works through walls if I know where the person is, but remember you can't initiate telepathy with me unless you have the ability yourself - otherwise you have to wait for me to call you, as it were (at which point you can answer if I choose to allow it, because it's like I've popped inside your head for a chat an may elect to stick around and wait for the reply).

hey just an update, I've been on vacation but boyfriend got sick and now I'm sick, I'll get a post up in a day, but I wanted you guys to know what was up

That's really sad to hear, I wish you both to get better soon!

Hey! I am back in the book of the living again. Things should settle down soon with the school part of my education coming to an end.

Happy to hear you're fine Ashaia! You have my best wish that things for you go well. :)

Wlecome back Ashaia! Glad to gave ya :D

Update on update boyfriend has Covid and I am showing signs sooooooo if Im loopy thats why

I really wish you a quick and prompt recovery Carmen, make sure not to overstress and to take care of yourself!

Hi everybody.

I'm getting a growing sense that this game is pretty much dead at this point - is there even any interest in any of you continuing this? And yes, I'm aware that some of you have good reasons for not posting anything in-character, and good real life reasons not to be very active, but I feel like there's no point keeping a game up that isn't bringing fun and entertainment to any of the player in it, and is instead just a chore for people, that they have to force themselves to log in and post into despite not wanting to, just not to disappoint me.

So, I'm stating clearly and publicly that I won't be disappointed or annoyed or anything like that if people feel like there's no entertainment left in the game for them, I'd just like to know. Can people tell me what their opinion is? Again, just be honest and say so if you feel like the game's become a chore for you - I won't be offended, these things just happen sometimes.

I need to speak up on this.

I love this game. I love playing villains, I love Carmen, I constantly praise this game to my friends because I just want to play it.

But not as a single-player campaign.


This game has become a chore to me because I feel like I am alone on making sure this game doesn't end in a TPK. As it stands, I have zero ideas on how to coordinate the takedown of the Tower by myself, and I haven't been posting because I dread the next post where I fuck up, and the game ends because of my actions. It feels like I have no backup, no help, no friends.

I get everyone is busy. But I can't do 5 people's work. Maybe if this was three years ago when I had nothing to do, sure, but I have to juggle a full school load, work, a boyfriend, regular friends, and everything else that pops up.

I love this game. I want to play. But it has become a chore because this game is not made to be single-player, and its been months since anyone really helped.

Im sorry if this sounds accusatory--Im just exhausted.

In reply to Carmen Gorgon (msg # 211):

Thank you for saying that, Carmen; it's excellent to know. It already gives me ideas on how I could work to fix the problem, although obviously this isn't a thing I can fix by myself, so I'll wait for everybody else to post what they think, both about my question and the point you've raised - the usual two days - so we all can figure something out together.

Well, Adrika's mostly silent because that's the tactic we agreed on, one that she herself suggested: She's the backup plan, the safety net for the others. If all else fails, she can tunnel people under the wall to get them inside, and in case anyone gets captured the three groups we have have little to no apparent contact with one another.

Currently, what we need is intel and that was what you and Ashaia would be in charge of, with Ashaia getting a noble tour of the place and you getting the worker's tour. Adrika's going to help teach a bunch of kids tomorrow, and we all know how social she tends to be so that would pose a challenge for her also.

Moral of the story is you're worrying too much. I think Adrika said before that if anyone gets captured, she can bust them out overnight by tunneling into their cell (or climbing the wall if need be) and busting them out, and then they'd be camping in the forest with Lilah and Grumblejack to stay out of view.

I love this game and everyone in it as well, but yeah, right now, i can't get to you and even if i did any help i would give is detrimental with me having a -4 to Disguise so it wouldn't make sense to. Just know that the entire plan isn't riding on your shoulders here with no failsafes to fall back on -- the whole objective with what you're doing is just to understand the layout better, no need to kill anyone just yet ;)

Yeah I figured we were just kind of waiting for you to scout the place and report back, meanwhile once it's night I can do the same in the shadows and get the lie of how the fort inhabitants move around when it's dark. And then we can figure out an appropriate strtegy from there. Or something.

Okay its been two days, so Imma respond.


Adrika: I wish Adrika would communicate this in-game? If she has and I forgot I apologize, but I can't recall her saying as much nor planning on how that would do given the ravine. There are ways to plan it, but Carmen can help scout better if she knows to look for tunnel areas in particular.

Nothing: I wasn't aware you were waiting on me, I apologize. However, making this clearer in chat would be nice? As well, Nothing can communicate with Carmen, so you really can be commenting on anything that happens and I'd love extra input. I can't initiate in this situation, so I would like you to take the lead with this.

Considering Ashaia hasn't logged into the game since almost two months ago, I think it's fine to assume she's unable to; I'll leave her in as a player, to allow for her to come back if she can, but until then I'll be running her as an NPC. That'll probably help, but does mean that, right now, the team is only the three of you.

So, here is my first proposal for making things work better when a player has the spotlight and the others don't: even if a character isn't there, each one of you can post a question OOC about what's going on, to get other character's input on what to do, and I'll wait to update until the other people have answered - and I mean proper answers, I'd be quite cross with anybody who answered to their fellow player's request of help with "I don't know, do what you want". The player could already do what they wanted, if they're asking for help that means they need it, so give it. Just throw off whatever idea you have, so that a discussion can be had.

That might slow down the game's progression slightly, but I feel like it would make it much easier for any player to get past roadblocks, and make the idea of teamwork that the game is actually built around become far more central.

What's everybody's opinion on this idea?

In reply to Carmen Gorgon (msg # 215):

I don't need tunnels, i can burrow through solid rock. I showed you this when i helped stash the loot from the Frosthamar inside a cliff wall :P

You are correct in that i can't use it to get people past the ravine (or my clan would have taken Balentyne decades ago), but the ravine's on the north side of the Keep, not the south where we currently are so there shouldn't be any issues. The tunnel is useful though as it's essentially a point where she can emerge without anyone seeing her.

As for asking for help, sure. Would it be OOC lines in the IC threads though, or here in the OOC? I'd need to point out though that the telepathy thing has the benefit of being able to do this ICly, correct? It's just that its hours are limited, and (i think) it's currently unavailable because we're switching from renewing the network in the morning to renewing in the afternoon?

I was also under the impression we don't have Carmen's "group chat" available right now, and I keep forgetting exactly what the limitations are on my telepathy with regard to its range and stuff but I think I at least vaguely need to know where someone is in order to initiate it. Plus also that last point - it needs to be me initiating it, at least on a non-telepath. If Adrika wanted to engage Nothing in a telepathic conversation, for example, she'd need some way to indicate it to them so they can "start the call", as it were. And right now I'm pretty sure I'm in the tunnel that links from that cellar in the town to the underbelly of the fort.
That's a thought - if the overground route from the town to the fort is blocked off by a (presumably very deep and wide) ravine, how does the tunnel get there? :D

Anyway, didn't realise we were down to just three players already - seems so recent that there was a huge group of like, seven of us. Three is at least much more manageable. I suppose it's the nature of our current in-game task that has led to the silence, what with us having decided to split the party in multiple different directions and therefore no longer being able to all communicate with each other. Since I had assumed we don't have the benefit of Carmen's link right now, I was kind of waiting for her to get back and tell us what happened so we can act on it. Can't do much without that information but Nothing isn't exactly going to starve to death waiting so they have no issue with sitting around in a nice dark tunnel for however long it takes :D.

In reply to Nothing (msg # 218):

The tunnel doesn't go through the ravine. We're currently on the south side, where the village, tunnel and majority of Balentyne is. On the Frozen North side it's just a massive wall and a gatehouse, the river actually flows through the ravine on the map, which is why swimming across isn't an option for us Northeners -- inherent problem with non-isometric topdown view i suppose. :)
This message was last edited by the player at 20:43, Thu 23 June 2022.

Oh, for some reason in my head I had this image of the ravine (with a bridge across it) with the fort over on the other side, hence the reason it was so well-defended and needing us to sabotage it somehow because an army would have great difficulty thanks to said ravine and bridge bottlenecking any potential invasion attempt from that direction. If the fort is over the same side of the ravine we are, why haven't we already just teleported in through a window at night or something?

In reply to Nothing (msg # 220):

The fort is on BOTH sides of the ravine. The larger castle is on your side, the smaller castle is on the northern side, the bridge is INSIDE the fortress. So, an army would very much need to take the fort to go through, as would anybody trying to cross. Aside from how large the ravine is, actually trying to fly or teleport across would very much expose people to a ton of attacks from the soldiers safely protected by the fortress. Who'd also raise alarms and warn people of any approaching enemy group.

As for why you didn't yet try to approach the forth openly, such as by trying to teleport in the middle of the courtyard or try to phase through the walls, first of all, you don't actually KNOW that you'll be able to do this - you haven't tested the defenses. Secondarily, I imagined you were being prudent and trying to avoid being discovered, which a direct assault very much would cause you to be.

But you can certainly try to get within line of sight of the fortress' walls and try to cast magic at it, if you feel confident that you'll manage to do it undetected; just keep in mind that I will make the NPC react as they should to anything they notice.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:32, Fri 24 June 2022.

Yep, the goal we were given is to take Balentyne and very specifically not have them raise the alarm before the Northern Army can get there. Thorn's agents can delay the mass mustering of troops for a short while (long enough for the army to make it across the ravine) but if we're discovered early... yeah, forces getting caught out while crossing is a bad thing.

Thorns agents meaning. . . us?

Correct me if Im wrong"

1) The ravine basically means passing through the fortress is the only option realistically
2) The fortress is literally designed to defend the bridge with bottlenecks, archers nests, etc etc
3) To tunnel from one side means tunneling THROUGH the bridge itself
4) Aint no one got the teleport range to go across that ravine
5) The Tower has a raven messenger that can get the army here before our army can get here


soooooooooooo how are we going this again?

In reply to Carmen Gorgon (msg # 223):

You're not wrong about anything that I can see, although of course the bridge isn't actually big enough to tunnel through it, nor would it help if you somehow did. So, your analysis of the situation is perfectly correct, and I think you, Carmen, have the best understanding of the local geography out of the three of you.

As for how you solve the problem, that's what I'm most interested into as well. :)

In reply to Carmen Gorgon (msg # 223):

Thorn's agents being those not us that have been tasked with ensuring the Northern Army doesn't break its teeth against massed cavalry charges less than a few weeks in :P

I think we need to figure out the bridge tbh

sorry if Im coming off harsh Ive just been wracking my brains for months now and Im a littttllee frustrated.


Tunneling through the bridge is a no, there a big fat ravine to deal with (unless we go UNDER it but Adrike can you tunnel that far?) so we either need to fly (no one has the ability to) or go ON the bridge.

So the main issue is: we have a fort of 100+ people to beat up who can and will bottleneck us.

So to defeat THAT we need to take out ALL archery points FIRST, get people over the bridge, then get through the fort specifically made for 2 people to defend against an army at several points.



. . . idea? Adrika, do you think you could melt through the interior walls so those chokepoints are much lessened? Nothing, do you think your darkness could take out the tower so no ravens and no snipers?


Then we just need to figure out the bridge. . . <tr></tr>

We're coming in from the south, the fortress side, which has the messenger raven towers and the troops and the Captains and the archers and all that fun. It's built to protect against anything the North can throw at it, but what works in our advantage is that it's built to withstand attacks from that specific direction. From 'our' side of the ravine, it's a fairly normal Keep.

From the North, taking the Keep wouldn't be impossible, but they'd take massive losses. There's a wall that's kept magically slick, a portcullis with more magical enchantments than the Royal Throne Room and several machines at the top designed to lob boulders hundreds of feet onto attacking armies.

Beyond that there's a bridge where you can only walk a few people abreast, with murderholes on both sides, and another thick gate at the end designed to hold invaders long enough so that the gate will eventually be unreachable because of the dead bodies stacked up in front of it. And of course archers everywhere.

The raven messenger towers (that transport messages of an attack to the hinterlands so they can have an army up should Balentyne fall), the Captains commanding the troops, the armory and such are all on our side of the ravine, and we're essentially tasked with taking out the commanders and keeping the doors open so the Northern Army can run in without delay. Key points are the ravens (so that the Northern Army has more time to push south before meeting resistance), the Commanders keeping morale high and of course opening both gates and clearing the murderholes on the bridge and the siege crews on the wall on the other side of enemies so they take little to no losses in their initial advance.

We can signal for the attack to begin, so we won't have to fight every single person ourselves, but those goals will need to be achieved so they can actually help us when it's time to fight everyone else in the fortress.

That's my understanding of it.

This is my Burrow:



With movement bonuses applied that comes down to 20 ft/round through solid rock, so 40 ft/round when double moving, and since i have high CON i can hold my breath long enough to essentially swim a lap around Balentyne without suffocating. I'd move the 20 ft. when 'grappling' someone to take them along with me, but they would need to hold their breath as well. Still, i should be able to go back and forth from the Balentyne basement to the tunnel, but i'd need to know what a safe place to emerge in is, as opposed to a mess hall filled with guards watching me phase out of a wall. ;)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:29, Fri 24 June 2022.

With regard to dealing with all the dudes in the fort, I'd lean heavily toward just poisoning their water supply or something, or otherwise employing some subtle, non-openly-violent means to screw them up without needing to be there and/or be noticed. I dunno if they have a well within the fort or if all their supplies are brought in, but I suppose that's exactly why Carmen is busy scouting the place out right now :D.

I can basically teleport people through the tiniest of gaps now, thanks to a synergy of some of my skills, though it costs mana to do it so I'd have to pick and choose whom I used it on, if someone needed to be on the other side of a locked door or something.

Also, if I can get within range of these raven towers I can deal with them just as easily as I conked those two old people that Carmen and Carver are now impersonating, even if it would make me feel bad as a player because ravens are cool. Any humans up there might be trickier but the birds themselves...well, they're hardly gonna have hundreds of hitpoints, are they? And they're probably gonna be enclosed in a big ol' aviary or individual cages or something, so they won't be able to flee the darkness...which they won't even notice if I do it at night (which I think we all know is when I'm gonna be doing pretty much anything :D).

If we can't subtly kill a bunch of people, we could also just attempt to sow discord somehow, so they start arguing/fighting amongst themselves and making themselves easier targets to whatever other shit we want to throw at them. I'm not sure what we could do to enact that, but it's one possible tactic, at least. Nothing is never going to be one to suggest open violence (or whatever) or anything else that would draw attention when it comes to dealing with enemies, not as a first (or even likely second, third...) option anyway.

In reply to Nothing (msg # 228):

You can certainly discuss possibilities with each other. One of the last few posts in the main thread had Carmen learning the eating patterns of the soldiers, which would be relevant for trying to poison them.

Speaking of Carmen and the main thread, it'll likely take no more than six posts before her castle exploration is over and she can have a pause from being the lone main character, which I think she both needs and deserves, and that'll likely mean that you'll be up next, Nothing, even if only after your team can discuss what Ashaia mostly discovered in her thread - I'll be delivering it to you on her behalf, since she's not around.

It would be nice to not be the main player, its a little exhausting XD

I have an idea, but Id need more info--I think this performance might be a weak point. The place is gunna be in chaos with the performers and if we can take advantage of the change in routine we might get people taken out en-masse by being sneaky.

In reply to Carmen Gorgon (msg # 230):

Somebody would need to investigate things in town to get a sense for how the performers will affect things. I would suggest that Ashaia takes the task up, but since she's not currently around, Adrika is probably the best suited to investigate this aspect of things - it'd certainly be a good way for her to help contribute to the plan.

Lay it on me, Keanu :P

In reply to Adrika (msg # 232):

...that's not really the case though? It just seemed like something useful for you to do, since otherwise you'd be stuck doing nothing for who knows how long. It's not like Carmen isn't going to be doing something, and Nothing will be up with exploring the fortress next, at night, which should give them some spotlight time.

Also not sure I get what the reference is to in your comment there. If feels like I should, but I don't.

Sword Art Online Abridged: https://youtu.be/Ak8cY6Cd63k?t=174

Nothing really relevant to the game, just had that in my head at the time, don't worry.

Anyhow, i could investigate it no problem, i think i did mention it in post #103:



So basically, yeah. I'm working for the blacksmith, doing something for the librarian on the side and it wouldn't be out of the ordinary to talk to the performers to see if they need a hand, possibly for passage to the next town or village since that's what i claimed my ultimate intent to be anyway.

Oh, it's been a while since I saw that particular episode of SAOA.

You'll also have more time to interact with the villagers, I think; it's not hard for me to contrive a few opportunities for that, and it's necessary to push things along now that Ashaia isn't able to do her part on that front. I think it'll be interesting.

Well, go right ahead. They should be at the very least familiar with me from staying at the shelter, visiting the Inn every morning (so Carmen could renew the link) and helping out the blacksmith.

They could also have heard i'd be telling their kids a story tomorrow :P

hi guess who procrastinated till today on replying okay Adrika plan B doesnt work

Walls are made anti-Earth Glide

Not through the walls, but the tunnel goes under it, so it can be assumed that i can still tunnel under it, correct?

It's what the actual tunnel is doing, right? :P

It's good information though, important for tactics if i can't just walk through a wall and open a latched door.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:27, Fri 01 July 2022.

Ya I finally got around to posting the details but in short, its rebar stone, so its tougher and anti-Adrika.

The tunnel I feel like is made intentionally--it seems to me like either an evacuation point or a way for some of the captains to get their liquor from the inn in secret. Might be forgotten, might not.

In reply to Carmen Gorgon (msg # 239):

Remember how you found the secret passage: Barhold was using it to steal the fortress' wine to sell it to Ashaia. He would not have taken the massive risk of stealing from Lord Havelin himself (as the fortress Lord and ruler), with the potential consequences a rule-abiding Paladin with enormous political power would dish out if he realized, unless he felt very confident nobody would notice the theft.

So, even if the secret passage was almost certainly built intentionally, the likelihood of people in the fortress knowing about it isn't very high... with one very obvious potential exception, given that Barhold's sister is one of the four Captains. You might remember the rumor about her and her brother arguing about wines, that you collected at your arrival, although you weren't able to get any details about the argument other than "it was about wine".

:)

GM, if i climb the wall, can i use the rebar as handholds by phasing my fingers through the stone? :P

In reply to Adrika (msg # 241):

No, because the steel rebar are inside the stone, not outside of it. It's a pretty standard way to create superior construction material than either pure stone blocks or plain metal - the stone is easier to carve into much thicker bricks, while the bars of steel inside of it give it structure and keep it far more solid and resilient, to the point that it takes artillery to actually break through it; on the other hand, being inside the stone protect the steel from corrosion and bending or breaking due to surrounding pressure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforced_concrete

And, in D&D fantasy land, it stops creatures that can move through pure stone with Earthglide, which is why it's a specialty of dwarven constructions; you were informed the fortress was a dwarven building during the conversation with the engineers that have been called to ameliorate the place, as I recall. What this means is that the bars are too thick for your body to make it through - you'd need pure solid stone for Earthglide to work, and you can't both phase through the stone and grab the steel at the same time, doing one stops you from doing the other.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:27, Wed 06 July 2022.

Had a feeling, still needed to ask :D

Nothing, its your turn

Oh, I wasn't aware we were specifically taking turns. Nothing doesn't really have anything much to add - anything that requires direct interaction with any of the locals is obviously out of the question, so we figured that was down to you guys. There are a lot of names and factions and stuff and I prefer to keep things simpler. I'm more of a support character, really, with all the sneaking and the stealth and stuff.

Support character doesn't mean doing nothing.

Look, I'm sorry, but I'm getting a little tired of this? You're a member of the party. Yes, you can't RP talking with normies, I get that, but we're talking about you sneaking around the Tower--which you have said repeatedly you were looking forward to.

So its kinda expected you'll help plan stuff? Right now you act like an NPC, someone to be controlled by another player, not a *player*. Is that what you want?

I'm sorry this sounds harsh, or is antagonistic, but Nothing, do you even want to be in the game? Or do you just want to spectate?

I'm just not really sure right to do right at this point. It seems like we're planning the specifics of our, well, plan. Lots of NPC names are being thrown about, which you guys are presumably gonna be interacting with if at all. I suggested someting like poisoning the food but I don't have any poison on me, so that was more a suggestion in case anyone else can assist (I mean, i can try and apply poison if someone has any they can pass over...). I can sneak around but I'm not really sure what I would be looking for. Sorry if it seems like I'm not interested but a lot of what we seem to be dealing with in this location is a bunch of factions and a whole ton of different NPCs who have various interactions with each other and stuff...it's kind of gone a bit political and that's not really where my interest lies. I prefer things a bit more straightforward than trying to remember whicih NPC has been gossipping about which other ones and who's fallen out with whom while whomever else has been doing a thing, etc. I'm mostly sticking with "They're all bad guys and we need to avoid attracting their attention while we screw up their fort so badly it fails as a defence against the big army we have coming". Hence the suggestions involving sneaking around and very much not interacting with all the hostile mortals cluttering up the place :D.
And my "I can allow you to teleport through the tiniest cracks" thing would require me to be there if you want me to do it on one of you, since while that ability in itself lasts a few hours once I cast it on someone, it only allows them to teleport through my darkness, not just any darkness. Not yet, anyway. Unless I misread something, I don't think anyone volunteered to go along with that but it's also probably not a good idea for too many of us to be moving around together anyway.
I had actually thought that when Carmen and Carver were impersonating the Iversons, that they would be there by day and then I'd be sneaking in at night to do my own exploration - that was why I got dropped off in the tunnel. Otherwise I could've stayed pretty much anyone else. But from the sounds of it you guy picked me up and we're somewhere else now? I think?

In reply to Nothing (msg # 247):

So, I don't want to interfere in this discussion, as currently I feel like this is something you should solve between yourselves as a group - I'll intervene only if things get heated.

That being said, Nothing, my understanding of the in-game situation is that you're still in the tunnel, just on the other end of it, which is what allows you to have the conversation with the rest of the team; the plan is still for you to go into the tower during the night, you're just currently discussing together what sort of exploration that will be, and what you will be doing there.

Now, I don't want to speak for Carmen, and I'm open to any correction she'll make if I somehow misinterpreted her, but to me, her question was along the lines of "so, where do you think you would want to explore, and what of our different targets would you think best to focus on?", to which your answer was, more or less, "I've no idea because I've not been paying attention to what you all learned from your exploration and I neither know nor care what our objectives are". And I can honestly understand why, when you give that type of answer, somebody might just think that you don't want to participate and help with the group effort; hopefully you can see it as well?

As I said though, this is just my opinion and interpretation of what's been said - I'm open to being corrected if I misunderstood either of you, and I'd really prefer if this was solved by you three as a group, rather than interfering in the situation.

Basically I don't have too much of an idea right now - the fort is packed with guards and all sorts of nasties and I just haven't had any helpful thoughts just yet, so I was just throwing out what vague ideas I had and hoping that between us we could put something together. There have been several suggestions involving interaction with specific NPCs, which isn't going to be something Nothing gets involved in, for obvious reasons. This place has so many defences I haven't yet seen or heard about any obvious feature that I feel I can really do anything about.

I mean--okay the the main issue we ALL have is not enough info. Like its not just the factions (though I can empathize with all the names and rumors being confusing, it is), but right now there's just so much we don't KNOW.

There's no straightforward plan because we're planning blind, that's where I had hoped Nothing could help with. As a entity of darkness, they have way more ability to just poke around and find out shit than Carmen does. Right now there are legit whole swaths of the Tower I *cannot* go into, so unless Nothing scouts it, we're going in blind.


It does feel a lot like you haven't been reading because I've said this many times, and the stuff Carmen has explored is pretty well laid out. But if you're behind, ok, here's a simpler ask?

Can you go everywhere on the map thats currently blacked out? Thats all the unknown areas. Just scout, find info, report back; and in the morning we can work on planning how to sabatogue stuff. Sound ok?

Yup, the whole point of scouting is to fill in the blanks so we can form a more comprehensive plan later that does include clearly defined objectives and how to reach them.

Much like Carmen's exploration and my own time in the spotlight back in the North, what's coming up will be Nothing's scene, a part of the story where the focus is entirely on Nothing by virtue of the rest of us being asleep. This is not something you can get past by being passive, you would need to actively make decisions with limited information available in order to gather information for the rest of us to use, and especially Carmen who will most likely be exploring the Keep again the very next day.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:28, Thu 04 Aug 2022.

Yeah I kind of thought that was the point - for me to go and explore extra stuff. But it seemed like you guys were trying to come up with a plan already so I was trying to provide ideas for that. Once it's dark and at least a few of the squishy mortals* have gone to bed, I can try and have a sneak around the place and look for anything resembling a weakness.




*Okay, I'm an even more squishy immortal, but still ;)

Oh I think there was a misunderstanding there, I was just relating what Carmen found and more shooting down plans than anything XD No earth glide, big shield barrier, etc etc. I was presenting issues I found and we were trying to brainstorm how to deal with that, but no plan is being made yet!


As for timing, it is nighttime and you are right at the Tower, so whenever you wanna start your sneaky bastarding, go right ahead~!

Ah okay, must've just got mixed up. Well, in that case I'd better be a-sneaking. I'm not sure why I thought I wasn't in the tunnel any more - I think I remembered seeing a mention of you "picking up Nothing on the way out" or something, but maybe that was a reference to something else, like talking about how to get me out of the tunnel later or something. Oh well, let's see what I can find, then :D.

In reply to Nothing (msg # 254):

As I told you seven posts ago in this very thread, you are at the other end of the tunnel, the one close to the inn, to have the discussion. The tunnel has two ends, you know?

Yes...but prior to that, I had thought I was elsewhere. Back when I said so.

Id like to point out that the Tower is actually NOT at max capacity yet, they are near full since they've heard rumors of Army Gathering but they're not on high-alert.

This place is just REALLY PARANOID and can you blame them? They're one of three defenses against an entire nation, the place is locked up like fucking Briggs from FMA.

Well, think of it this way: the harder of a nut this is to crack, the more satisfying it will be if you actually manage to do it and win! You can see I'm not pulling punches, so if you succeed, that'll be a true achievement you can all be proud of.

I'm afraid I don't know what "Briggs from FMA" is, so the reference has made a faint whoosing noise as it passed over my head :D. Anyway, yeah, I've been thinking about what to do next for a few days now and still not having any flashes of inspiration. And can't ask IC because while I can't remember the range on my telepathy (it's plain "Telepathy", using the mechanics of the ability/spell or whatever it is in the nrmal Pathfinder mechanics), I'm pretty sure it can't reach all the way over to the town from here :D.

So, last times things were set up, the idea was that you were about to meet. I suppose that's not the actual intention of the team, given nobody posted anything?

Nothing posted waiting for a pickup by Carmen, so i assumed we were waiting on her to post. Given my cover i can't set up a meeting myself.

Oh I was waiting on Nothing! Sorry.

*psst* Carmen?



I think you meant to type darkness there, unless you were asking for a blindfold ;)

rghrlgh right editing

Yeah, I suppose immunity to my darkvision would be, like, invisibility? :D

Just for reference, in case you need to know - Clearsight (the thing that makes you immune to the negative effects of my darkness) currently lasts five hours. Step Through Darkness (use a Move Action toteleport up to 16 squares through my darkness) lasts four. Both cost me 1SP and require me to touch you to cast them on you, but then you have them for the full duration. And since my darkness spreads through the tiniest crack now, you can warp through doors or gaps between bricks or whatever, as long as I'm there to put some darkness down for you to do so. Once we level up again I think I can take an ability that means it will work through any darkness, which is even better, but for now, sorry, it's thus limited.
And I also have Shadow Lurk...ooh, that's an idea...I'll have Nothing suggest it IC...

I can teleport anywhere wthin range, no LoS needed, so save that for the non-warpers XD It'd just be nice to not be eaten by your darkness while murdering shitheads :D