Handwave it shall be, then.

I told you to talk 7 times and you never did.

I say let’s handwave and just start on the next day, long rest, we are already friends.
Oh and level 2 Dammit.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:23, Sat 08 May 2021.

We can have the Spirit Guardians do nonlethal damage when it suits the story, so she's effectively removed from combat but still conscious and able to talk. Hitting hard and fast and then healing one so they could talk was our plan from the start.

Did I know there were only 2 thieves and forget? I expected more, which is part of why I cast it in the first place (aoe slow being the second). We could push rewind and have me not cast it, or the kajit could cheap shot me on his way out the door and I lose concentration on it before I could turn it back around onto Sabah.

But again, a sign from Sabah that she's deescalating can put us in talking mode. Lower the weapon, tell us the gig's up and you're willing to talk, something we can react to.

despite everything in character, I'm willing to do whatever to get us to form a party: including killing the clerk.
Someone just decide.

You saw the corpses of at least three other people upon entering the room, all with their throats neatly slit. The cat didn't leave you much time to think about it, though.

WHile I agree that subduing Sabah first might make sense from an investigation point of view (though it would drag on things a bit, but that's kinda my fault), I have the feeling Kraelix has so far not mentioned or signalled that this was his intention. There was a lot of lethal action and very few words. How is Sabah supposed to react?

I suggest the following: After a lot of blindly stumbling about in the darkness hitting at shadows, the spell ends, and all protagonists find themselves in a Mexican stand-off ready to exhange words before anything definitive happens. If that works for you, I'll move on.

If Kraelix's attack still goes off this round - the spirit thing? - it does 14 dmg... which KOs me hard either way. So it might be up to the darkness lingering / death saves at this point?

How was this exchange intended to go down? Did she have incentive to join us rather than fight us, besides the kajit killing the rest of them?

SG is only 5 ft smaller than Darkness, and I'd have to miss getting in contact with her for 58 more rounds. That particular scenario is almost impossible.

If we want to not have the timing slowed, then I suggest the woman down here wasn't Sabah at all, she's either a shapechanger or someone using illusion magic to look and sound like her so that they could pin it on her if they got caught. I KO this imposter, we drag her out of the darkness and see the illusion magic fade and look up just in time to see our new backup from the guild arriving, the real Sabah along with a guild rep who can vouch for her being the real one. [Edit] She can still have access to all of the info she otherwise would have had, the only difference is she turned the job down instead of taking it, and that's why they tried to pin it on her.

---

[added]
We lost our social members before we had this exchange, leaving us with 2 act-first-talk-later characters, one of whom has a death wish who was willing to blow himself up to reroll his character, and the other who took a feature that makes him prefer physical solutions over diplomatic ones. Without Sabah doing RP to indicate that she wanted to join us, this scenario was doomed to fail from the start because of the circumstances and the parties involved.

Which makes me question the purpose of choices like The Warrior. The fact that such a choice exists make me think that it's supposed to be a guiding feature of the setting for how I play the character. That's why I've played him the way that I have so far; that I can't chose Diplomacy until I can pass that check. One mistake on my part with that was that I read it on my sheet and had a moment of dyslexia because I thought the DC was 21+, not 12+, so definitely my bad there. Are the traits like this intended to guide your character's RP, or are they more for you to spring on us as extra challenges sometimes? *finger-wiggle* "No, no, no. No trying to be diplomatic in this situation unless you can pass that Wis save."

This isn't a "but that is (not) what my character would do" situation so much as a, "I'm trying to be true to the setting because these things exist here" situation.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:20, Sun 09 May 2021.

Rule Zero of DND: The DM is always right.

Rule 1 of DND: The players will never follow the plan.

lol. I won't add any further suggestions, just to keep what's already on the table in the spotlight, but I'm fine with whatever we decide. I'll also start being less "kick names and take ass" and a bit more contemplative. When we began we had 6 "Smart" players, so I didn't want to be #7. But now we're kinda in need of Winnk to stop being a dumbass, so I'll have a come to Jesus moment.

Starting with not killing the clerk.

Yes, I had incentive to join you instead of fight. Literally the plan was 'you lot talk and don't look like as big of assholes as my team so I 'accidentally' let you in and merc my team.

Either way, it is how it is. Honestly, I shoulda really read the RP backlog and made a character that was more... smart-slash-social to balance this group out instead of firmly smash the round peg in the square hole. ...I'm just a girl who likes big, buff orcs, sue me.

Seriously, since I'm the newb here, I'll offer a last time just to reroll - I just want us all to play and have fun here...

Are we out of initiative?

I'd say we're out of combat all together unless you're wanting to keep up the fight, we just zipped through 98 rounds of combat to be able to move past it.

All fine by me.

I asked the clerk a question.

Sorry for the delay, it has been a busy time even without having to think of a way to fix the situation.

I must admit I underestimated the Warrior's effect. I don't intend to prevent you from playing things the way you want to play them, and I certainly didn't mean it to be a "no diplomacy" hammer. I'll think of an alternative drawback that doesn't prevent you from making RP choices.

Also Winnk, I missed what you asked the clerk exactly.

I’m mad at them for not explaining there is a way out. We could have put guards at the other end but they essentially lied and said this is the only exit.

So I view him as a threat and he has one chance to say the right thing before I arrest him

Slightly delusional??? I’m the only one I can trust. You’d do the same thing if you were as smart as I am.

Don’t worry. Clark and I are gonna be best friends.

Hi folks, everything alright for you? I'll move on with the story if Sabah doesn't want to post. But given that this is a 3-players game (newest new guy is a no-show and doesn't answer messages), I'd appreciate a bit more reactivity.

we good.

tryna walk the line between being an idiot and not ruinin the campaign. :)

DM and I are talking about changing Winnk up. A character that actually does what they're supposed to.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:28, Wed 26 May 2021.

What shall I roll to see what I know about these things that player-me has no idea what he just talked about?

Galerion the Mystic was an Altmer wizard and a historical figure of the Three-Banner-War, which ended about 250 years ago (the events of Elder Scrolls Online). He founded the Mage's Guild with the idea of providing an orderly learning place for all practitioners of magic, not just the Altmer, and strictly regulating the practice of necromancy and Daedra-summoning.

The area between Pelletine and Black Marsh is more or less today's Leyawiin duchy. Pelletine is the northern half of the Khajit lands, Black Marsh is the Argonian homeland.

What else do you want to know?
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:43, Thu 27 May 2021.

Just whatever may be relevant to the current discussion.

Well, as a cleric and a Dunmer you know that Daedra summoning isn't as easy as folk tales picture it to be. Not only is there often some sort of bargain involved, which can end up badly for the summoner if one's not careful, but the ritual itself is difficult and very specific. It almost always requires specific conditions (such as nighttime, a specific weather, a certain time of the year, a certain state of mind etc.), offerings of rare materials, sacrifices, and/or elaborate procedures.

Also, you all may roll a DC 13 INT check.

17:32, Today: Kraelix rolled 13 using 1d20.  Int check.

On the money

And I will happily share all of the information that I have, if that saves us the time of you posting and me re-posting it.

TADAAAAAAA
I’m a wizard Harry!

You and Merard might not be able to recognize the symbol, but that altar depicted in the book was really unique. Perhaps somebody else can locate it?
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:09, Fri 04 June 2021.