Did the barkeep decline the invitation?

Did Otis decline his drink?

Not expressly. I left it on the countertop should he wish to partake. Or it can still be in your hands. If in his next post, he had wanted to accept it, then I would have edited my last one to reflect that. Standard RPOL adjustments.

Did you get tired of waiting for Ornwin to make a toast?

No. Orwin can always add his toast to his next post. I can always add the barkeep's reaction (or non-reaction) to it in my next post. Not everything is perfectly chronological in this format.

I really don't know what to do in the Village thread at this point since it seems a non sequitur has occured.

I don't follow. You can stay at the bar or go somewhere else. You can ask the barkeep questions or not. You can drink or not drink. It's RP. I don't know know what the non sequitur was.

But I appreciate Brant's effort to plow on through.

Not sure what he's plowing through. I'm not sure if you think I think that you should try to talk to the NPCs in the village. I earlier said that I would alternate manor trips with NPC trips. Emperor of Curd -- Mayor -- Manor -- NPC -- Manor -- NPC and so on. I would do that for an enjoyable back and forth. But it's up to you. I'm enjoying writing this scene.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:40, Thu 26 May 2022.

Other than the possibility of getting bounties, I’m not sure any NPC has given us any reason to go to The Manor.  At this point, for all we know, the Rumps may be a lawful good family and the wacky villagers, including the Mayor, are possessed evil people under the sway of a Frog God that wants the Rump family off’d so the cultists can take over the Rump family home.

As a good party, so far, the only evil we have seen seems to be the people in the Village.  And, absent more info, the Rumps may just be the innocent targets of these evil Villagers.

Lotti’s thoughts about taking on the Village idiots seems to make more and more sense.

Is there some vital piece of information (other than reading the module for a purpose for the party) that is missing?

I don’t understand how we should be alternating between Village encounters and trips to The Manor when no one has given us a reason to go to The Manor.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:08, Thu 26 May 2022.

In reply to The Host (msg # 476):

I admit I am still fairly new to RPoL, but the other four campaigns I've participated in all observe chronological posting in non-combat scenes. Players are expected to read and react to prior posts by other players, and the DM helps maintain a logical, orderly sequence of events.

The rules in this campaign seem to be very different. Not saying one approach is right and the other is wrong. Or that one is better than the other. It's just going to take me time to get used to this. Thanks for your patience.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:20, Thu 26 May 2022.

In reply to Cassandra (msg # 477):

Reasons to go to the Manor:

1) Bounties.
2) Curiosity.
3) No one in town is friendly or helpful.
4) The DM seems to want us to.

So let's just go... if someone can figure out how to extricate us from the dwarven he-she's bar.

That’s all fine.  But I’m not sure bounties are an acceptable reason, yet.  We may have been hired by the evil party (Mayor and his handlers) to do their foul bidding.  But I’m willing to go find out what’s actually going on at The Manor, if that is even an objective that is attainable, since no one in town seems to know what is going on or is willing to let us in on their secret,

Fair enough.

Maintaining that ... order of events is not my highest priority. It absolutely has some value but more so during combat encounters. To a degree, it's a question of style and personality. I did start the narrative with the train having already left the station -- figuratively and literally.


The game is called Tegel Manor.



Now, that's not entirely fair. Chester was friendly. This barkeep just gave you a round of nips on the house. There are other people in the town you haven't met. As for the mayor, well, yes...


Cass, it's not a should/should not sort of thing. It's just the a rhythm I like for RPGs. If you want to hit every spot Chester pointed out, please do. I'll write them up.

As for why you should go to the manor from a character's POV. Well, there did seem to be a bit of a geas ... the song ... the coach ride ... perhaps it would help to know it's still playing ever so faintly in the back of your minds. You know what would make it go away? A few more drinks.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:54, Thu 26 May 2022.

I appreciate you taking the time to respond, but honestly none of it really addresses the points I've tried (and apparently failed) to make. But no worries. I'm ready to go to Tegel Manor whenever the rest of the party decides to go.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:27, Thu 26 May 2022.

Unless there are any timely objections, once Brant gets an answer (of any kind) from the barkeep to his valid questions, the party needs to leave this silly village behind and head on to the peril and evil that awaits us at Tegel Manor.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:46, Thu 26 May 2022.

This is the first time in a while that I've some space and energy to try and delve back into this.
So to catch up, I've got 5 pages to read in the wilderness, 6 pages in the village and 20 pages in the OOC.

To speed me up, is there a list (thread and msg #) of location in the inn?
And a corresponding list of which ones have been investigated?

Also a list of places (thread and msg #) in the village?
And a corresponding list of which ones have been investigated?
This message was last edited by the player at 16:11, Thu 26 May 2022.

Otis!  Welcome back!

You haven’t missed much.  Here’s the quick summary.;

We left the Inn after a peaceful night sleep.
Lotti wigged out and decided to stay at the inn and investigate things there.
Brant, human fighter, joined us.
We went to the Mayor and were told we will get bounties for each Rump head we bring back from the Manor.
We confirmed that everyone in the village is crazy or absurd, so no point in engaging further.
We are currently at the local tavern (Bark & Byte), the Dwarven barkeep offered us sexual services and a few drinks.  We experienced these drinks since we did not do so back at the Inn to our detriment.
We are now ALMOST ready to head to the Manor.
The Manor and the Rumps are evil and the adventure dangerous,
But we are about to head on.  It is midday of the first full day in Tegel Village.

Otis: just read from IC/Village post #72 on.  It’s a little confusing but it will get you to where we are now.  But the basic summary above covers most of the main plot points.

Sure, there are some licentious overtones to their palaver, but no services have been offered. It's all about the alcohol. Remember my line of work.

Here is the back cover from campaign module:

Is that #72 in OOC? Or in the village thread?

And is is acceptable for Otis to refer to you as 'Cass'? Or is that too familiar?

Also, am thinking of visiting everywhere not visited.
Happy to do this as a side thread (might explain where Otis has 'been' for the last dozen hours or so.) DM's call! Solo I can cover a lot of ground.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:29, Thu 26 May 2022.

@ Otis

Just to add to Cass's comments.

1. No additional map info has been provided to the party.

2. The wilderness thread is mostly the frog encounter which you participated in. Your last post was msg#88 on page 5 (the last page of the thread), so you could just pick up there.

3. Your last substantive post on the OOC thread was msg#382 on page 16, so if you want to get caught up there, it's only 4 pages or so. But as Cass implied, none of that is "essential" reading. If it helps, highlights include msg#412 (Host appoints Cass as caller for the party), msg#430 (Cass's update), msg#445 (Host update), msg#457 (Cass's reply to your post), and msg#468 (Brant's RL personal background).

Hope that helps. Glad to have you back.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:34, Thu 26 May 2022.

TY, Ereth, that's a very nice and pretty much perfect reply. I appreciate the effort (and intent).

Sorry we got at cross-purposes before (if not just "cross". ha!)
While happy to talk about things out of game in OOC e.g. "Whats has Otis missed and what msg #?" etc, I much prefer to do the IG "I'm grumpy and will growl at you" thru the char in the game thread. That's just me though. You folks can cut the cloth anyways you want.
OK, all good. Off to do some reading/catch up.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:00, Thu 26 May 2022.

Thx Host and Ereth!  Those posts were helpful.  I do most of my posts and reading via phone, so it’s hard to go back and cross reference a lot of specifics and msg # info.  But I’ve read everything, multiple times, made my own interpretations, correct and incorrect, and can generally boil it down when necessary.  That’s my day job - reading PhD level technical engineering treatises and white papers, then rewriting them to be read and understood by 6th grade level, non-technical readers.

Welcome back, Otis! Glad you’re still with us!

Right, the Guest thread needs to be updated. I'll see to that and the next update on Friday.

Thanks!

Ok, I've read eveything twice.

Updates:

1) Yes, Otis would accept and consume the drink.

2) I was going to have otis get up early, have a conversation with Chester and then make lightning visits to Brinna (Martial trainer), Shrine of Molna  (Divine trainer) & Temple of Thor (Divine trainer).

3) Also read that GM won't split / dual thread and doesn't post on Thursdays due to stuff and a games evening, which is fair enough.

4) As the inn is now effectively dead to us (which is peculiar narratively and in game design, but moving on..), I'll dicard my couple of pages of notes "things to do", kill the conversation with Chester and the intent to wander round using copious Dtect Madic spells, but instead ask "What was x4251 about? And is it 100% certain it's not a code for something going forwards?"

5) I will formally request that we make lightning visits to those 3 locations (bullet 2 above) before going to the House. (When envisaging doing those as a retrospective solo run at those 3 locations I estimated 4 exchanges each way). Two reasons for this, in case anyone needs to know, are firstly to gain a feel for each (flavour, encounter depth, resource/service availability, costs) and secondly to allow me to re-engage before we become immersed in the presumably more deadly house.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:30, Thu 26 May 2022.

I wasn't aware of that. What made you think that? You can stay there any time you like.

I don't know about lightning visits to those three places. Maybe I could write up a line or two for each place if you just want to peek at them?
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:40, Fri 27 May 2022.

Apropos of nothing, but while we're in a holding pattern, I just thought I'd mention that bartenders, as a rule, *never* turn down a shot when it's offered by a patron. It's bad form. And the risk of inebriation is a non factor. Not sure if the Host was intentionally trying to signal something to us, but it's a huge red flag suggesting that we should have no more drinks with the dwarf freak.

I would suggest that we head to TM at this point...

But Otis has made his own requests, which are understandable (or would be in a normal campaign). So I don't know where that leaves us. I'm going to follow the rest of the party's lead in the Village thread.

Amen to Brant and Ornwin's questions. Press the issue. Let's see where this goes...

I meant it felt that we'd been signaled that the inn was completed game-wise; no more mystery to solve nor xp gained.

That sounds super. Information being looked for would in each location would be:
 a) who's present,
 b) what's on sale (hardware, potions, services) at what prices,
 c) Restrictions (e.g. alignment) and cost of training,
 d) Rumours or jobs list.

Something like that would give a feel of a holistic environment in lieu of a dungoen (ok huge house) floating in a metaphorical isolated bubble. And then good to go to TM.

***
Back with you guys now. Otis tends to be (very) quiet in social situations. Very much not quiet in conflict zones.