Because every game has one.

In keeping with the partially established them of polling the audience Precious needs a master to serve, or have served, as their Shubbet companion (Position Filled).  That works better if it is one of the PCs with an approximately human lifespan.

There is also some question about what the Shubbet actually look like as the race is highly variable, so anyone who is interested in having such a companion, or inspiring how they look, should submit picture suggestions either here or by private message.  I won't be doing anything nearly as egalitarian as voting as I will just pick the best one, so only submit pictures you think are worth using.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:55, Fri 30 Oct 2020.

Oh I am interested! I will PM you my pitch.

Just FYI, the GM asked me as part of entry into the game to be “Master” of the Shubbert. That is why it is in my bio.

Whoops, disregard then :)

I don’t care. If you want it, please do.

No worries, we just didn't have confirmation from you yet, what I really need is the picture suggestions.

I have no clue

Just finished up my character sheet and its pending review by the DM.

Hello my fair friends. I'll be your some what loveable leader. lol I'm geared to be a party face. My whole build revolves around the social skills and as such I have all of them. But dont let my charming personality fool you. I can hold my own on the front lines, though not as well as a meat shield. I'm still a bit squishy. I also make a fairly good sneak when called for and have those skills as well.

I'll be getting a character description up soon as well.

Sounds like we have a ranged fighter, a melee fighter, a melee warlock, a social rogue, and whatever type of spellcaster Precious is. Sound right?

Mechanic wise right now I’m a rouge/hexblade. Though I’ll be going full on bard once we hit level 5

Yeah I'm a dyed in the wool front-line fighter. Decently tanky and going forward with my ever trustworthy sword and board.

Is there a preferred character sheet version?

There was not, I just used an old one, I can send you a blank of it if you like.

Yes, Please and Thank you muchly

I believe I am ready.

Same here

As am I

Been ready for a bit. Looking forward to getting started.

Hopefully nobody is waiting on me, I was done with everything but finding a good picture when I reached out for help doing that.  It has proven surprisingly tricky but I might be on to something.

Ok

I'm opening an IC thread soon.

So any word on if this game is dead or not?

no clue. GM last logged in today, so I assume they are working on things.

Well start Wednesday. Sorry, I had a couple of emergency red alert days this weekend. This game is still around. I just need to compose the opening post.

Ok, so -because I'm a bit slow it seems- we are moving the action to where?

Also, it seems we've lost Sage, so should we wait a bit more for her, or do I invite the next person in the waiting list?

Dealers choice on what to do with Sage. As for moving the action I think at least Vinnick and I have resolved to go press the flesh with the watchmen in some bar or another (the name escapes me at the moment; assuming it was ever given.)

My character is light on skills. Her only social is intimidation. She lacks the investigation skill and the Int for unskilled attempt. The only thing she might contribute at this point is going to a Confidential Informant and scaring the info out of him. I yield to my fellow players.

That is remarkably convenient, Intimidation is the one personal interaction skill I didn't take, so I could take investigation instead.

@Alison you and I are in a very similar boat. My charisma is 10 and my social skill is intimidation. I'm really just going forward with what makes the most sense for my character. Skill wise I'm likely to fail but hopefully I'll fail forward.

And thats why I'm here. I'm built to be a social god. And it will only get better as we advance.

Definitely hoping we get to cut somethings up lol. Fighters aren't known for their social interactions. Vinnick can't carry us through it all.

In reply to Titus Gray (msg # 31):

Just keep a watch on my back and I'll charm the princess out of her dress for you as payment.

Cutting is okay. Really I have this crossbow...

I'm updating tomorrow in the evening, I swear.

11 days are we still playing here?

Yes
Yes

I was waiting for Vinnick and Titus to continue.

Vinnick gave his performance. I've just updated. Really just trying to get a lay of the place. Need to identify a mark.

In reply to Titus Gray (msg # 38):

Was waiting for a reaction to the song and dance before making my next move. Looks like an interesting group at the pub.

I'd say your best bet is the rookies. While I have the harder group with he bearler

Hello

I know we are like seven months in the future. Sorry for everything. I think I'll remove the game.

Unfortunate but understandable. Thanks for the notice. Glad to know that you made it through the pandemic.

Well unless there's enough interest?

I'm always up to play again if the others return.

This isn't the first game to take a break for a few months this year, probably won't be the last.

Ok, time to advertise for new people. I'll add some requirements to join, but be assured that all of you are grandfathered in.

Ive lost interest. Please remove me.

Well shoot.  Apparently you are going to need to make one of the requirements 'needs a fluffy pet' at least for one person.

In reply to Precious (msg # 47):

Alison left me keep the character around. She'll be around. We can have a replacement player or you could control her with sidekick rules.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:15, Fri 25 June 2021.

Lets see if someone wants to play it as a full PC, that is always better than trying to use the RPOL method of dual character control.

Well, the game is open now. Let's get back on track.

Awesome. Hopefully we get someone soon.

If I recall correctly Vinnick and me are drumming up some leads at a bar?

Let's hope he wants to come back

New-Alison here, Looking forward to a fresh new start with you all. :)

Welcome to the game.

And with Lia now on board, I think we have a party again. I'll write a send off for Vinnie that leaves the door open for him coming back and we'll restart.

Tomorrow is the day

yay

This message was deleted by the player at 17:07, Wed 30 June 2021.

Hi folks!
Here's the new girl on the block

Hoping you can bring me up to date..
This message was last edited by the player at 17:07, Wed 30 June 2021.

I suspect that at this point we could all use some kind of refresher to bring us up to speed.

So after a quick read through of the posts up to this point the situation is thus: there has been a tragic series of murders, three in total and all of them women killed within the poor districts of Ondinium. We collectively have been called in General Commander Luzitanne to perform a parallel investigation into the murders since she is suspicious over if the City Watch, those normally in charge of such things, is involved somehow. We only just got out assignment and are now tracking down leads at the Stone Sword, a known gathering place for City Watchmen.

Other pertinent details are in the OOC text of msg #13 in Hunting by gaslight.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:43, Wed 30 June 2021.

This message was deleted by the player at 07:24, Sat 03 July 2021.

Giving a chance to Precious and Allison to post

I swear I posted this morning, but it's not there. I'll get something out there as soon as I get back home.

Sorry. I'll update tomorrow

SO what do you need from me to post? Did I miss something?

I guess personally Titus doesn't have the skills to be of much more use her. The blood gives us a broad lead that we can follow up on if people don't have any more questions.

We've got some info, but I think most of us are pretty new to the game, so what we do with that information now is a little...uncertain. Are we supposed to take it to superiors, or investigate it on our own? Since these are repeated murders, does this information match up with previous information enough to give us something to go off of and know how to act on it?

I think it's good info, I'm just not entirely sure what to do with it.

The instructions were to investigate on your own, away from headquarters and with no paper trail.

Facts known.

- There is a potential witness in Dhur the orphan who is missing, but likely wasn't abducted going by the MO of the attacker. He is likely to be hiding around the City or in the sewers.
- The last killing happened at night.
- There is blood in the scene that doesn't match the victim and isn't human. It is possibly of a Gubelim. Likely it belonged to the attacker as the victim seems to have hurt the attacker with the broken bottle.
- Apart from the attacker's blood, the scene isn't fundamentally different from previous ones.
- The attacker manages to constantly evade the Watch. Might have inside information.
- One of the secretaries is worried about Dave one of the newer recruits.
- Dave is also in the scene. It is up to you to decide if he is trusworthy or not.
- Dave attempted to take away the other child in the scene, the one that is a witness by proxy.

Does Lia know about fact #6 (the secretary's suspicions)?

In reply to Lia (msg # 69):

That was revealed to Precious when she read the room back in the tavern. Speaking of Precious, where is she?

Ok, so Lia can't act on that until Precious shares. However, that doesn't stop her having the beginnings of a dislike for Dave.

Hey folks!

Are we all still ehre?
   Shout out if you would, please..

Has anyone heard from our GM ?

GM logged in 3 days ago, but hasn't posted in 5 weeks.

I'm here. Sorry. My summer ended early.  The start of the semester is ultra busy. Now things have stabilized, it seems.

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 74):

Welcome back!!  :)

It's all good. Just glad to have you back!
This is such an interesting story and the folks involved are great!

Hi folks!
I think our GM intends to come back but is a bit buried in RL stuff at the moment.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:11, Mon 20 Sept 2021.

Hello

Being buried under RL stuff is an understatement. You have no idea how bad things got. I think its better now. I however don't know if it is best to continue from where we left of, or to do a reboot.

Why not both?  Take the story element you have left, and pull it forward into where you add more?

I'm here and delighted that you're back!
(Welcome back!!)

Ok, while awaiting on more people to rejoin -if any, in which case, while we recruit new players- how about we try to continue?

Works fine for me. But a recap, if possible, would be super-useful

I took over an existing character, so I would lean a bit more toward reboot (new characters, keep if you want to) rather than picking up where we left off, or Precious's idea of restarting with a reboot.

But either way - 10000% this


I remember this was a crossbow expert character, and Precious was my semi-familiar player-friend, and there were...interviews for...murder, maybe? That's all I got.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:21, Fri 09 Dec 2022.

And Lia had spotted something at a murder scene that we were going to investigate..

Ok, just let me reread, because I need a recap too.

Well, the story so far:

There have been a series of strange killings of young women. After the third victim the General Commander recruited Titus and Allison from the guard to investigate a possible connection to the city guard, as the killer seems to have inside information. She also recruited Vinnie as someone who could hang around the guard without having the same loyalty to peers. Precious follows Allison and is a package deal.

The group made their way to the stone sword pub and got a reading of the situation until they got interrupted by news of a fourth victim. Vinnie had to stay behind because a Bearaler in the pub liked him too much.

Lia the rookie was the first on site and found evidence that the killer isn't human and that the time of death was in late at night. Dave,  another rookie, was also on the scene and got to interrogate one witness -an urchin-, but didn't press for much information. Precious and Allison got to get more information from the child. The child has a missing friend -Dhur, a fellow urchin- who might have seen something. The urchin left with Dave who was going to feed them.

Other facts.

* The stone pub is frequented by the members of the guard. Lannie, the bartender is a fixture in the community.
* One of the secretaries was at the pub talking to Lannie. No details could be obtained beyond the talk being related to Dave the rookie.
* There was a cloaked stranger in the pub who was restraining anger the guard members around.
* Mark -a guard member- was getting very drunk and was consumed by guilt and grief.
* Only the commander, the captain Virgil and the secretaries know all of the people working on each shift and the watch routes.


We can get away with losing Vinnie for good, but we might need a replacement player for Titus if he doesn't comeback.

People don't generally care for taking over existing characters. Since we're starting it back up after a huge break, I would just have them start fresh with their own characters, scrap whatever unnecessary ties there were to those characters, and anything that's actually important you can give to a new character as their hook.

New characters are generally better, but they can also be new capabilities with the same name, or even new names with the same 'role' in the story.  Keeping Alison as she started is completely irrelevant except in the strength of her relationship with Precious, even that can be changed into something different if that helps.

I would suggest giving them the option..

Ok. Lets get restarted then.

Good to see you've resurfaced GM. Glad RL stuff resolved

<Waves> at Titus.

Hello Lia. Seems we will be playing together again.

Yeeeeaa!
Good times

Ok, what do you need form me for the IC posting to resume?

Nothing for me at current. You posted as Titus recently so I'm just waiting for others to respond.

I think some sort of IC summery of the previous/current scene and starting us off into the next one so we all have the same fresh start would be best.

I know there was some kind of information gathering we were doing, some goal we had in mind, but no idea what that was or why.  Skipping past that will get us out of the quagmire of memory and put us in the present tense.

And there was this, where Lia discovered peculiar blood at the crime scene:

Can somebody post IC? plz?

I thought we were still waiting on the scene restart, or advancement to the next scene?

In reply to Precious (msg # 100):

I thought I had done that. Lia has posted. Titus is awaiting for a chance to post, and I don't know about Allison.

Odd, it looks like RPOL didn't flag those as new, I might not be able to get to anything tonight but I will see if I can figure out what to move along tomorrow if nobody else has.

Come on, folks, please say something?
This setting's too precious not to keep it going..

I think we are going to need some new people to make it go again.

advertise maybe?

Sorry, took a free day yesterday. There is no need to advertise, it seems there is still interest in the game.

We lost Allison, we might need to get a replacement, or we might need to kill off the character.

So let's get back into gear.

Hi folks!  I just joined the game. :)

Hello Calico!
Welcome   :)

I just appllied a Rumiko, when in doubt, just throw another character at the plot.

With the holidays looming I did want to say that I am still interested in resuming play but I may be spotty/totally absent until the New Year. I will try to make some posts but they might be short.

Replacement character, or player is fine by me.  But in either case it should be a retroactive substitution to minimize damage to the story.

If any of the existing players want to use their character to fill the Allison role let me know.

Do you mean as Precious's companion?

I'm happy to try on any role you want me to

I hope everyone had a good holiday, if you celebrate.

@Precious, what would it take for your character to transfer her companionship to one of us?  It might make things flow better (and be some interesting internal conflict) for her to lose Allison.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:56, Mon 26 Dec 2022.

The only real requirement is that the character have been in a situation where their parents or guardian was in a position to both be able to and need to give the chile a living teddy bear slave to their child as a present with an unstated undertone of guardian angel

Well... That should be easy to incorporate... LOL

What happens when/if the child passes away?

Hasn't happened to Precious yet, not before they grow up and pass her on to the next generation.  But in theory she would be shifted to a sibling, or cousin.  But it is probably better you try not to die.

I'm confused.  Allison is her ward right now, right?  Does Allison have any siblings or children?  The DM suggested killing her off.  That's why I'm asking. Is Allison the last of her line as far as Precious is concerned?

I hope you all had a merry Christmas or equivalent holiday n_n. Calico, we hadn't developed that part of Allison's backstory, so it is open to be whatever we need it to be.

We have another interested player in joining, but won't get anything definitive until after the holidays.

Ok.  I was just wondering if there was a way in-game to transfer her "guardianship" to another player's character.

I'm going to assume this game is dead on arrival.  Please remove me.

Goodbye Calico

I am returned although I don't know the status of things. Seems that Calico will be leaving us.

Hey Titus!
Great to have you back!!
:)

@ Calico - Sure you don't want to hang around a bit longer?

Hey Lia. Seems we took a hiatus for the holidays?

yep, looks like. I'm ready, just need a thread to follow..

Quick, someone throw a rope.

Yo! Happy NY all, in case I missed anyone. GM back with us?

Sorry for the lack of posting. I'm here.

I am not all here.

In reply to Anderlin (msg # 130):

I understand RL bites us sometimes.
I'm not going away Nd will be here when you're ready, GM.

Folks, if you can bear with the GM it would be so. Ice..  :)

I am always a bear, especially when I get up at 4 am, which is an everyday thing.  Heck, no alarm, no work, no good reason.

If the game can pick up, I'll stick around.

Ok. Give me a chance to throw a random encounter at you. To shake things up. Hopefully by tonight I'll have it ready.

Hey GM, you ok?

They haven't been online for 14 days.

An attempt was made. I'll not be checking this game again so please remove me as a player even if you all get off the ground. May we meet elsewhere.

Same for me.  It's a shame because I really wanted to play this character, but I'd rather find a more reliable game.

The GM is v good, but presumnably has RL going on. I'm going to hang around for a bit.
Maybe you folks keep an eye on this one?

I will still be here.  No where else to go.

I get that. Still here too

Ok, I'm here. Are you still around?

Yes. Nice to hear from you! How's things?

I am not all here, but I never was.

I am here.  Where is here again?

Still here
:)