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Yawgmoth posted:You might think that walking in on a guy performing a ritual sacrifice would be cause for an initiative roll, but if you're in my game you would be very much incorrect. Given who we work for, I think letting the boss deal with whether or not Mr. I-Make-Really-Cheap-Magic-Items-With-Ritual-Sacrifice-And-Demon-Binding is useful was the appropriate response.
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Mar 20, 2017 20:44
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senrath posted:Given who we work for, I think letting the boss deal with whether or not Mr. I-Make-Really-Cheap-Magic-Items-With-Ritual-Sacrifice-And-Demon-Binding is useful was the appropriate response. You may also now have a means of disappearing inconvenient people. I mean, who among us has not soul trapped an annoying NPC and bound them to our pants in an Elder Scrolls game?
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Mar 20, 2017 20:52
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Dareon posted:You may also now have a means of disappearing inconvenient people. We work for a major crime family and have ties to two others. We already had ways of disappearing inconvenient people.
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Mar 20, 2017 20:59
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I just work at the library. Also, you guys wanna go back to Xoriat with me?
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Mar 20, 2017 21:05
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Dareon posted:You may also now have a means of disappearing inconvenient people. According to the DM, we may not use the Portable Hole or the Tome of Devouring for corpse disposal.
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Mar 20, 2017 21:11
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CobiWann posted:According to the DM, we may not use the Portable Hole or the Tome of Devouring for corpse disposal.
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Mar 20, 2017 21:16
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Today in our D&D 4th edition campaign we realized that in ingame time there's been like 15 days, and in less than two weeks we decided that our best course of action would be to blow up a sun. We have also burned down a village, bullied a time mage, robbed more than one ancient tomb, beaten the best monks a fantasy monastery could offer, talked with dracoliches, been to some quicksilver filled pocket dimension and ruined the day of a fantasy Resident Evil villain. Quite a bit has happened in such a short time.
SpiritOfLenin fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Mar 20, 2017 |
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Mar 20, 2017 22:41
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I started a game of Blades In The Dark now that the full version is out, and one of the changes is that now your crew of scoundrels need not just be thieves, but they can also be a group of assassins, smugglers, ruffians, drug dealers, or a cult. My first thought was "man, a cult would be pretty cool. Too bad they'd probably never go for it." So against my expectations they unanimously decided to be a cult. Go figure. In a couple weeks we'll be starting the tale of 'The Lighthouse,' a Daring cult of the forgotten god "The Queen in Tattered Sails," whose defining characteristics are Alluring and Cruel. I'm excited.
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Mar 21, 2017 05:07
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ellbent posted:I started a game of Blades In The Dark now that the full version is out, and one of the changes is that now your crew of scoundrels need not just be thieves, but they can also be a group of assassins, smugglers, ruffians, drug dealers, or a cult. I am picturing a more maritime version of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgVfjXA_QY0 So, rad as hell.
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Mar 21, 2017 12:10
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ellbent posted:I started a game of Blades In The Dark now that the full version is out, and one of the changes is that now your crew of scoundrels need not just be thieves, but they can also be a group of assassins, smugglers, ruffians, drug dealers, or a cult. I can't wait to hear about this.
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Mar 21, 2017 17:46
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Tales from a Japanese TRPG club 1: I never thought I'd have to make a houserule saying 'your characters must all be old enough to hold conversations' but the first time I ran Golden Sky Stories 3 of the 5 Japanese guys in the group took 'the point of this game is to be cute' too much to heart and played very young children. It was left to one guy playing a slightly older kid and another playing a bird (he never shifted to human for the whole campaign) to resolve the plot. I kept expecting the other guys to get involved somehow but instead they spent the whole game trying to out-adorable each other to score huge amounts of bonus points. Yes. They were attempting to powergame in GSS. On the flip side the other two guys were awesome and used their characters and magic creatively to solve all the puzzles in clever and cinematic ways so it was all good.
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Mar 21, 2017 19:17
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Getsuya posted:Tales from a Japanese TRPG club 1: Now I've seen everything.
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Mar 21, 2017 19:22
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Getsuya posted:Tales from a Japanese TRPG club 1: Not gonna lie, I was expecting that to get real creepy real quick, so I'm glad it didn't.
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Mar 21, 2017 20:10
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ellbent posted:I started a game of Blades In The Dark now that the full version is out, and one of the changes is that now your crew of scoundrels need not just be thieves, but they can also be a group of assassins, smugglers, ruffians, drug dealers, or a cult. I have a copy of Blades, but I've yet to play it, so I'm looking forward to hearing how things go.
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Mar 21, 2017 20:12
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The guy who ran the club was very strict about creepy stuff because he wanted people of all ages and backgrounds to feel comfortable there so yeah everyone was very cool and well-adjusted. I have lots of silly stories about them but no creepy ones.
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Mar 21, 2017 20:14
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If you're going to include incentive structures in your game you should design them with power-gaming in mind. The whole justification for incentive structures is that you can't trust your players to do <non-beneficial thing> without in-game prompting, so it makes no sense to include them and then take your players to task for being exactly the goal-oriented machines you expect them to be. It's so bizarre to me that storygames are so often the games pushing and developing incentive structures in more sophisticated games while crunchy games implement them haphazardly or, increasingly, not at all. It's completely the opposite of how it should work! 
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Mar 21, 2017 20:15
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I just had my Night caste Solar, an Icewalker who is stated mostly for Stealth and Archery, get talked through an experimental invasive stomach surgery by the group's Twilight because she has the highest Dexterity rating in the group and just happens to have Medicine as a favored skill. (Which I made such because I had no other place to put it that would've made sense.) Imagine a glowing silhouette doing surgery and you've got a good mental image of the aftermath. The patient survived. Next session may see the group's Eclipse starting his own barbecue franchise to deal with the demonic plague that led to the experimental stomach surgery. Exalted! 
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Mar 22, 2017 03:34
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Adnachiel posted:I just had my Night caste Solar, an Icewalker who is stated mostly for Stealth and Archery, get talked through an experimental invasive stomach surgery by the group's Twilight because she has the highest Dexterity rating in the group and just happens to have Medicine as a favored skill. (Which I made such because I had no other place to put it that would've made sense.) Imagine a glowing silhouette doing surgery and you've got a good mental image of the aftermath. The patient survived. What's that dude thinking? There's no meat on a sesselja.
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Mar 22, 2017 04:05
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Antivehicular posted:What's that dude thinking? There's no meat on a sesselja. That's the Twilight's possible plan for getting extra hands (so to speak) for the surgery. (There's like a thousand people infected at this point and we're on a strict time limit to do something about it before poo poo really hits the fan.) The plague in question gives anyone it infects an intense craving for human flesh that can be sated with regular meat, and the demon that's causing it can be warded off by blessed charcoal. Our thought process went from charcoal pills, to crops grown on soil blessed with the charcoal, to meat cooked with it.
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Mar 22, 2017 04:27
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Adnachiel posted:That's the Twilight's possible plan for getting extra hands (so to speak) for the surgery. (There's like a thousand people infected at this point and we're on a strict time limit to do something about it before poo poo really hits the fan.) The plague in question gives anyone it infects an intense craving for human flesh that can be sated with regular meat, and the demon that's causing it can be warded off by blessed charcoal. Our thought process went from charcoal pills, to crops grown on soil blessed with the charcoal, to meat cooked with it. This is an A+ plan and your GM had better let it work.
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Mar 22, 2017 05:43
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Adnachiel posted:That's the Twilight's possible plan for getting extra hands (so to speak) for the surgery. (There's like a thousand people infected at this point and we're on a strict time limit to do something about it before poo poo really hits the fan.) The plague in question gives anyone it infects an intense craving for human flesh that can be sated with regular meat, and the demon that's causing it can be warded off by blessed charcoal. Our thought process went from charcoal pills, to crops grown on soil blessed with the charcoal, to meat cooked with it. The Chaotic Evil solution is to force everyone to eat their steaks well-done.
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Mar 22, 2017 09:46
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Adnachiel posted:That's the Twilight's possible plan for getting extra hands (so to speak) for the surgery. (There's like a thousand people infected at this point and we're on a strict time limit to do something about it before poo poo really hits the fan.) The plague in question gives anyone it infects an intense craving for human flesh that can be sated with regular meat, and the demon that's causing it can be warded off by blessed charcoal. Our thought process went from charcoal pills, to crops grown on soil blessed with the charcoal, to meat cooked with it.
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Mar 22, 2017 12:16
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After leaving the Bra'Tel camp under cover of Sana's storm, it takes a few more days before we arrive at Fiddlecrest. As we disembark, a dockhand warns us of two things: One, there are Bra’Tel press gangs in the area, so we should watch ourselves (wait, Bra’Tel press gangs? Have they just conquered Aecofin and nobody noticed?). Two, that we should stay away from the courthouse because a giant lizard person is jailed there. Of course, Arzhul, Sir Durnik, and Sera immediately depart to find this lizardfolk. Convincing the Sheriff (who is a secret follower of the druidic religion, despite being outlawed by the authorities of Aecofin) to release the lizardfolk into Arzhul’s custody, the lizardfolk introduces himself as Grills-More-Fish. It turns out that Grills-More-Fish was the muscle part of a trio of druidic operatives sent to recover the Fragment of Harz before the rumoured Bra’Tel operatives could manage to do so. Unfortunately, his two companions died shortly after sabotaging a Bra’Tel munitions tent they came across on their way here. Big on brawn but not much in the planning department, he decided to just take the straight-forward approach and try to fight his way through the Knight encampment. It didn’t go very well – frankly, he’s lucky to be alive, since the Knights tend to fight for keeps around their holy sites, particularly with non-human enemies. Arzhul tells Grills to rest below deck and assures him that he’ll complete Grills’ mission for him. Arzhul goes off to scout out the Knight encampment from afar and plan a strategy to slip past their defences. Meanwhile, Sir Durnik looks up Kamilla, who decided to go for a walk through the village despite sporting some new Bra’Tel prosthetics – a new techno-magic arm and jaw. She’s acting very strange and asks him to escort her back to the Dauntless Star. Sir Durnik refuses until she tells him what she’s been up to – eventually, Kamilla admits that she stole jewellery from Lady Halgin, the local lord, with the intention of handing it over to the ship’s captain as payment for the safe passage she's been provided with so far. It seems Kamilla is one of those young, rebellious noble girl types who are always getting into trouble. Sir Durnik takes the stolen jewellery from Kamilla and heads to Lady Halgin’s estate, intent on making things right. When he arrives she’s already organizing a band of locals in preparation to hunt down the thief. Unfortunately she turns out to be far less interested in the jewellery itself than making someone pay for the affront to her dignity; when Sir Durnik returns the jewellery and explains what happened, Lady Halgin demands that Sir Durnik hand over Kamilla for proper punishment. “My lady, I am sorry; I cannot do that, as I have sworn to protect her. Is there nothing else I can do? Something that you want more than a pound of flesh from the girl?” Lady Halgin ponders the idea for a moment. "Perhaps we can come to an arrangement. There was once a scroll in possession of my family generations ago. It was lost in the Burrows, and the Knights of the Sheathed Sword refuse to allow its retrieval. If you can recover this for me, through whatever means you find necessary, I'll consider the girl's crime water under the bridge." "Well. If that's my only other option, I swear that I will recover the scroll or else die trying." But Lady Halgin doesn't trust his oath. "And don't get any smart ideas of sneaking off without fulfilling this task! I'll be setting my retainers to watch your boat, and if you try to flee before I have the scroll I'll send my men-at-arms after you. Oh, and one more thing: I want the scroll in my hand before nightfall tomorrow, else I'll have your boat stormed and take the girl by force." Sir Durnik sets his jaw, but bows to her. "I agree to your terms, m'lady." Meanwhile, while scouting out the burrows, Arzhul notes that the fortifications the Knights set up seem rather impenetrable. But Arzhul remembers an old nursery rhyme relating to the burrows he heard as a child – something about a hidden entrance at the bottom of a well? Sure enough, he finds an ancient, long since dried-up well a short distance away from the burrows. Arzhul returns to the Dauntless Star and gathers the party together, explaining to them what he found. They all gear up and prepare to descend. Despite his side mission for Lady Halgin, Sir Durnik expresses discomfort with the idea of sneaking into the burrows and breaking the law of the land. quote:“Surely we could talk things through with the knightly order and gain access that way?” Sir Durnik asks. We tie a rope to Sir Durnik’s horse (no conveniently-placed trees, unfortunately), and we descend, one-by-one. At the bottom of the well, the stone sides are covered in ancient writing – a combination of druidic sigils and kobold runes. We can’t see a door, but we see a pictograph-like depiction of a man hanging upside-down from a hook, bleeding into a small basin, which suggests some ritual bloodletting will make the entrance appear. After a short search, we find the basin and what looks like it could be the remains of a hook carved from stone. Hmm. Nobody’s too fond of the idea of bleeding out, but on the other hand we’re also not really capable of fighting our way through the knights guarding the main entrance to the Burrows. As we’re debating what to do, something spooks Sir Durnik’s horse and it runs off... Leaving us stranded. No way but forward, now.
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Mar 24, 2017 17:38
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So THIS is what it feels like to follow an awesome campaign...
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Mar 25, 2017 03:17
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That's high praise, coming from you. 
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Mar 25, 2017 04:26
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When last we left our heroes, they were stranded at the bottom of a well, in front of a secret entrance to the Burrows... In attendance: -Sir Durnik, a hedge knight from the Freelands in service to House Vastrid. -Grumblin Flamehammer, a dwarven cobbler from the Hammerfist Mountains. -Gwlitharyddeilen Serenaryngweilgïoedd (aka Sera), an elven etharch-in-training. -Arzhul Dustroof, newly trained member of the Druidic Order of the Freelands. -Sana el-Amin, the spooky weather witch, first mate of the pirate junk the Dauntless Star, and Bra’Tel rebel. -Master Lydia, the lonely, reluctant roden cultist. With ritual bloodletting being the only way to open the door forward, Arzhul attempts to reassure his companions by stating his reasonable confidence that the bloodletting shouldn’t be fatal – his druid forebears weren’t really big on sentient sacrifice in general, much less for something as minor as door-opening. This does little to set anyone at ease. Ever chivalrous, Sir Durnik volunteers to be cut, but Sera refuses to let him shed his blood – he is, after all, merely a frail human. As a superior elf, she feels a responsibility to shoulder this burden herself. Arzhul and Sir Durnik hang her off the the remains of the hook with some rope, attemping to re-enact the pictogram to the best of our ability, and then Arzhul makes a very careful cut along her neck with his jambiya. Blood fills the basin, and moments later a section of the stone wall fades away, revealing a dark passage beyond. We get Sera back down again, light our torches, and venture forth into an ancient-looking hallway. The dungeon consists of worked tunnels connecting natural (or mostly-natural) caverns. We are constantly beset by kobold-built mechanical traps as we traverse, so it’s slow going. Eventually, we come across a chamber with a strange, octogonal pillar in the centre – each pillar face has a stone, human-like arm reaching out from it, palms upward, and in each palm is an ash-filled urn. This, Arzhul recognizes, is a druidic cenotaph, where the ashes of great champions of the ancient druidic orders are stored until such a time as the orders would deem they were needed once again, at which point they would be reincarnated into new bodies. That magic has long since been lost, but just in case Arzhul collects as much of one set of ashes (chosen pretty much at random) as he can in his alchemical flasks before the group continues onward. He reasons that things relating to the Apocalypse could progress poorly, in which case it can’t hurt to have an ancient druidic champion or two in your back pocket should they ever discover a means of resurrection. More hallways and maze-like tunnels, and Grumblin Flamehammer's "dwarf senses" detect fresh air coming from one passage. We get closer and find a strange, "underground" forest. Looking up we can see the noon sky, although it should still be nighttime outside. There are plenty of majestic animals frolicking throughout the area. We know little of kobolds, but given that the entire dungeon has been filled with traps so far, we suspect another one – Sana uses her sorcery to blind herself to the illusion here, revealing to her a very ordinary-looking, though mushroom-filled, cavern. Sana guides us through the chamber, though Master Lydia tarries behind a bit in order to collect some of the mushrooms before catching up with the rest of us, as she identifies them as highly hallucinogenic. We find ourselves in a crossroads of sorts – a large iron-shod door to the west, a hallway north, south, and the tunnel we came from in the east. Arzhul opens the doors, revealing a set of stairs leading upward, and several Knight sentries stationed at the top... He very carefully closes the door, and informs the party to head north. There, we come across a meditation room with a strange doorway that leads to nowhere. There’s an archway, but then completely smooth, natural stone, like someone just didn't bother putting a passage on the other side of the arch. Examination of the symbols on the archway determines that it a terrible beast is sealed in the next room, and woe to any who disturb it. We decide to follow the advice and leave whatever's there alone for now, then turn around and head south. There, we find a locked ironwood door. Grumblin manages to unlock it and is immediately struck with greed as his eyes fall upon the glittering treasures contained within the room – before the party can react, he declares ownership over the gold, gemstones, and the strange ebony gauntlet sitting on the pedestal at the centre of the room. Knowing better than to attempt to argue with a dwarf’s greed, but fearing yet another trap should Grumblin simply rush into the room and muck about with things, Sana cows Grumblin by warning him of offending “the gods” by desecrating these ancient treasures. We approach cautiously. Arzhul reads a plaque on the gauntlet's pedestal: "From the eyes of Rebius, forever hidden." Rebius, we know, is the one wizard who is allowed to operate in Aecofin today, so that's puzzling given that the dungeon has been sealed for a few centuries now. Arzhul attempts to take the gauntlet, but his hand burns when he touches it and he feels corruption attempting to enter his body. Arzhul warns the rest of the group against taking the gauntlet, though it's only through Sana’s efforts that Grumblin is convinced to follow suit. The rest of the treasures seem safe, so we take them – and Sir Durnik finds the scroll he was told to acquire for Lady Halgin. This is a pretty major windfall for most of us. Still no Fragment, though. That only leaves the sealed door in the meditation room. We return there and Grumblin and Sana use their collective construction knowledge (and an architectural spell of unsealing) to open the passage. Unfortunately the spell goes wrong – the door explodes. No one is hurt, but we realize there's no way the guards didn't hear that! Alarms ring from somewhere closer to the surface and we rush through to the next chamber. We find a natural cave with a pool, a pedestal, and a floating tablet fragment. Between us and the fragment we see a peculiar small figure sitting on a wooden throne – an emerald-eyed kobold (as in, his eyes are literally emeralds) whose flesh is made of wood and moss. “I am the arch-druid Garzin," it says. "Tell me, what year is it?”
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Apr 2, 2017 16:19
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We parlay with the strange creature; as a fellow druid, Arzhul takes point and offers the ancient being great respect and deference. During the introductions, Garzin mentions that he can't actually see Master Lydia; oddly, she looks like a dark shadow to him. Meanwhile, Sir Durnik grows nervous at the noise that we've made, so he heads back to guard the entrance in case the Knights arrive before we’re done, that he might be able to buy us some time. Turns out, Garzin is ancient - he's been here since the height of the power of the Druidic Orders, centuries ago. He's been sealed in this chamber for such a long time to protect the Fragment of Harz from anyone who would seek to restore the tablet, primarily Rebius the archmage. Arzhul pleads with Garzin to hand over the Fragment, but Garzin refuses, saying that it’s safer here under his care than anywhere else – and more importantly, Rebius must never get his hands on it. Arzhul attempts to convince Garzin that there are bigger things at play (including, but not limited to, the end of the world), but unfortunately he is unsuccessful as Garzin dismisses Arzhul as being youthful and lacking in perspective. We hear, briefly, the sounds of a skirmish outside the chamber just as it becomes clear that Garzin isn't going to budge on the matter, so we head out just in time to see Sir Durnik being overwhelmed by the Knights and taken captive. Sana, it should be noted, is a genuinely spooky person. Most of those who meet her for the first time are struck with the urge to avoid her – and that’s when she’s not actually trying to be scary. When she’s trying, though... She points at the Knights and cackles madly, threatening them with a curse as her eyes crackle with arcane energy. It only takes a moment before they make their decision to flee – they don’t feel strong enough to take on an angered witch without more reinforcements. The good news is that Sana’s bought us some time, but the bad news is that when they return they’ll be too numerous for us to even attempt to fight. We regroup and go back to Garzin’s chamber with the intention of subduing him; not being a fool, Garzin had been preparing for a battle by readying an ancient druidic spell. Arzhul manages to drag the archdruid down and pin him to the ground before he can harm anyone, however – though he then has to fight off Grumblin’s attempts to remove Garzin’s eyes after he does so. We're very short on time now, so Sir Durnik snatches the fragment (which begins whispering to Master Lydia). Arzhul is loathe to leave the ancient druid here for the guards to find, so he binds Garzin, hefts him over a shoulder, and we depart. The Knights chase us through the Burrows as we make a fighting retreat back to the well. They seem ill-equipped to deal with the illusory forest, so we’re able to buy ourselves some time there. Unfortunately, that leaves us at bottom of the well with no real way up - the walls are pretty close to sheer and most of us know nothing about climbing. With one exception. "Does anyone have any rope?" asks Master Lydia, her nose twitching nervously her keen hearing picks up the Knights getting closer. Sera hands her some rope, which Master Lydia loops around one arm before she hops up and scales the well walls back to the surface. Once there, she tosses one end of the rope down and braces herself - she's not strong enough to get most of us up, but as an elf Sera's light enough for her to manage, and then together they can brace the rope against even the fully-armoured sir Durnik. It’s close, but we manage to escape just in time, with Grumblin narrowly managing to avoid a crossbow bolt as he tumbles out of the well onto the surface. Of course, we're not out of the woods yet - we rush to reach the relative safety of Sana’s boat, the Dauntless Star. We’ve all just broken some rather serious laws, so we shove off immediately. Sir Durnik is forced to deliver the scroll he recovered for Lady Halgin via falcon as we’re leaving town. He would have preferred to deliver it in person, but circumstances being what they are... Another unintended consequence – Garzin’s wooden body is now no more than a lifeless, moss-covered log with a pair of emeralds lodged into one end. It seems the magic animating him only has power while in the Fragment chamber. Disappointed, Arzhul hands over the emeralds – one to Sana’s sister Leena as thanks for allowing us all passage on her ship, and the other to Grumblin to get him to stop, well, grumblin’. Next stop, Swordhold, a journey of about a week by river. While we were hoping for a quiet trip, this was not to be. After the fourth day, we come across a collection of mixed troops coming from Swordhold – mostly Knights of the Sheathed Sword, but also some Bra’Tel soldiers and engineers. We recognize Dal “Coal-bug” Kalir among their number, though he is now changed – one of his limbs lost, replaced by a prosthetic. Assuming this is the same group he was leading before, we note that their numbers are greatly diminished, and his war cart is nowhere to be found. (We also wonder how he got ahead of us. He was travelling in the other direction, and his group should have been moving more slowly than a weather-witch powered boat...) Dal calls out to us from the riverside when he sees us. “We’ve come to escort you the rest of the way to Swordhold! The envoys from the Freelands are already arriving in the city! They are all very interested in hearing what you have to report about the events in Port Desolation and what you saw there!” We’re all very uncomfortable about this, given that we kind of screwed him over during our last visit, but he doesn't seem to know that. To maintain appearances Arzhul thanks him for the extra security, and the soldiers begin travelling along the river parallel to the boat. * * * * * One day out from Swordhold, Sir Durnik is grazing his steed when he catches sight of a messenger rushing toward the soldiers. He suspects the message being delivered might be related to our prior law-breaking in the last town, so he intercepts the messenger with the intention of claiming the message himself – not to destroy it or prevent its delivery, but to present it in the best possible light in hopes of avoiding the worst consequences. quote:Sir Durnik: “What ho, messenger!” The messenger hands over his message and rides off into the forest, wanting nothing more than to put distance between himself and Sir Durnik. Sir Durnik breaks open the seal and reads the scroll. It turns out, our illegal adventure in the Burrows is merely a footnote. Of much more importance is that the foreign knight known as Sir Durnik is wanted for the murder of a noble, being accused of using foul sorcery to kill Lady Halgin of Fiddlecrest. Sir Durnik returns to the boat, distraught. He shows us the scroll and explains his situation. “I must deliver this message and face this accusation,” he proclaims. “My honour demands it.” “Have you ever considered becoming a druidic knight?” asks Arzhul with a puff on his pipe. “As I understand it, they take a much broader, more flexible approach to the whole ‘honour’ thing.” “Don’t be stupid, Sir Durnik,” Sana adds. “You’re an outsider. You’ll find no justice at their hands, not against a charge like this. Besides, I can’t take any risk that they’ll come onto my ship and search it, not with all these Bra’Tel criminals I’ve just added to my crew.” Sir Durnik shakes his head sadly. “I don’t expect any of you to understand. Without his honour, a knight is nothing...” He makes to leave the boat with the intention of delivering the scroll to the soldiers... But Sana snatches the scroll, tears it up, and lights the pieces on fire while the rest of us wrestle him to the ground. The ship shoves off, and we’ve bought ourselves more time – at least, we hope, long enough to reach Swordhold and delivery our message of the Apocalypse to whatever authorities there might listen. Falstaff fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Apr 4, 2017 |
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Apr 4, 2017 12:51
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This game sounds amazing, please never stop.
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Apr 4, 2017 20:53
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As a note, at this week’s session we were down two people. Falinrae’s player was in another state for his annual “get together with my old gaming group from high school THIRTY+ YEARS AGO and spend a week playing every type of pen-and-paper and tabletop game we can get our hands on” vacation while Tellisyn (his wife) was busy entertaining her extended family and spending the whole day prepping and cooking for dinner. Falinrae was being played by Ksena’s player. This will be important later. ***** After redeeming the revenant known as Septimus and realize that Korvis and Kaeryn were about to go to war, our party quickly hightailed it out of the border region and headed south on our quest to obtain the first of Az’s relics. This relic was said to lie in a swamp in the tomb of a once powerful G’kota (Tanicus’ answer to lizardfolk) chieftain who carved out an empire before being overthrown and defeated. Fortunately for us, the swamp we were heading to were known to us – early in our adventuring days our party had defeated a black dragon that held a G’kota tribe in thrall, with Skeever fighting and claiming the position of tribal war chief (emeritus) in the process. Ever since then, Skeever had made an effort to send iron and timber back to the tribe, along with a dwarven blacksmith, to help the tribe rebuild after the reign of the black dragon, trading in stone and bone weapons for steel and wood. Along the way, a conversation broke out… quote:Varis: So in your tribe people fight for a position, and the strongest or wisest one wins? Eventually our party arrives in the village of S’kot. As our party walks through the village on the way towards the central hut where Lalani (Skeever’s mate from when he became tribal war chief – hey, position has its perks) awaits, the villagers begin to follow Skeever, looking at him with…not awe, but understanding once they’ve realized that he’s changed from a lizardfolk to a dragonborn. After being announced as “Skeever and the Company of the Lightning Lord,” we’re brought in to see the chief. Lalani and the elders of the tribe are happy to see Skeever, but incredibly formal about it. And the reason for this is because in the next room over are Skeever’s children - Sakoth, the laconic, green-scaled oldest son, Craes, the mischievous, copper-scaled son and middle child, and Atokah, the copper-banded green-scaled daughter and youngest who seemed to have a natural affinity for arcane magic, all roughly equivalent to 3-4 year old human child (lizardfolk mature quickly) – one G’kota, two dragonborn. Ksena quickly volunteers the party to “baby sit” the clutch while Skeever and Lalani tour the village and have some ‘alone time.’ As they walk and see how the village is growing, Skeever makes an off-hand comment about trying not to be seen as some lizard “king.” Lilani immediately flinches at the word. She explains that throughout the centuries, there are some G’kota born who are destined to be Lizard Kings, evil, tyrannical creatures who would enslave the lizardfolk and use them as cannon fodder in campaigns of conquest. The worst of them was a Lizard King named Shakathra, who over seven centuries ago united the swamps in a campaign of pure tyranny under the guise of a horrible Demon Lord. Shakathra was said to possess an artifact that granted him great power and it took a bloody rebellion by the G’kota that cost many lives to defeat him. At the final battle of the rebellion, Shakathra was slain and his priests carried him into a temple dedicated to this Demon Lord and proceed to seal off the temple from within. In response, the surving G’kota placed a huge stone slab over the door and buried the temple under tons of earth and rock. Lilani’s tribe are descended from the survivors who pledged to keep watch on the temple to ensure that Shakathra stayed buried. It is this pledge that has kept the G’kota tribe where it’s been as opposed to migrating north to warmer climes and joining the other friendly G’kota. Only the confirmed death of Shakathra would free the G’kota from their pledge. However… quote:Lalani - Shakathra's tomb is an evil and taboo place. The G’kota are not permitted to go under penalty of permanent exile. We will not risk the resurrection of Shakathra by disturbing his place of rest. It took some convincing of the elders, but it was decided that if Skeever could bring back proof that Shakathra and his demonic cult was forever removed as a threat, the punishment could be waived and the tribe could migrate back north to rejoin the other lizardfolk and unite against Az. The next morning, when the party was getting ready to leave, they discovered that Taliessyn had not come out of her trance nor could they rouse her. Falinrae observed that it seemed that she was in communion with their patron – asleep/entranced, but not in any mortal, mental, or spiritual danger. Our party left her under the guard of the G'kota while they journeyed three-and-a-half days to the buried temple. Another half-day’s ride would have taken our party to the Crimson Tower, a tower built and owned by a player from a previous campaign (that player is in our Ghostbusters campaign – imagine Peter Venkman as played by an early 1980’s Rob Lowe, THAT’S a campaign I should write up sometime) that was built directly over a Hellgate, a permanent portal directly to the Seven Hells that was sealed shut and barred from entry by the magical forces imbued into the stone of the Crimson Tower itself.   Upon arrival, the party discovered that a massive tree radiating pure evil had grown over the mound, a twisted, blood red monstrosity called a Gulthias tree. Blighted plant creatures sat on the branches and in the hollows of the tree, staring at us with hostile intent as we tried to figure out where the entrance to the temple was… quote:Ksena – “Wait. Falinrae has Locate Object as a spell! Can I use it to figure out where the stone slab it?”  Slowly, doing everything we could not to harm the tree or its roots, dug out the stone slab guarding the temple door. Cullus was able to walk us through the traps in his own unique manner (fail his Find Traps roll, make his Dexterity save not to get hit by the trap). The entrance to the temple was guarded by a number of lizardfolk ghouls and a horde of Skeletal Warriors armed with wooden clubs…    quote:Ksena – “Wait. Falinrae has an aura that makes wooden weapons roll their attack at disadvantage!” …which we easily dispatched.   Further in the temple, the group encountered four lizardfolk hanging from the ceiling who had been turned into vampire spawn. It took a good bit of effort and one of them managed to run away through a pair of massive doors up ahead before we took the other three down. Cullus managed to find a secret door in one wall that took us to an area describe as “The Unholy of Unholies” – a bedroom/study/shrine dedicated to the Demon Lord, a demon price known as Orcus who also served as the right-hand man to none other than Qord, god of the undead. Aeana destroyed a pile of scrolls containing a partially-created ritual to bring Orcus into the prime material plane. Varis took a black cloak from a makeshift training dummy marked with Shakathra’s colors to help serve as proof of the Lizard King’s destruction. Cullus took…  quote:Ksena – “Cullus, why are you taking that painting of Orcus off of the wall?” So after shoving the painting into our portable hole and looting the bodies (where Cullus found a pair of magical gloves with a tiny little hole on top that lets him store items up to one pound total weight in an extraplanar space and instantly call them to his hand as needed, great for stuff like lockpicks and poisons), our party finally enters the main temple chamber, where the vampire spawn from before was warning two other spawn… quote:Spawn #1 – “There are adventurers behind me! They’re come to kill…”   Of course, as soon as Cullus talks smack Shakathra rises out of a deep pond in the middle of the throne room as a vampire lord. Let me tell you, this was a tough fight – 3 vampire spawns and a vampire lord. The swarms he summoned were easily swept aside by Bubbles, but Shakathra kept carving us up with his greatsword while necrotic damage that kept lowering our maximum hit points. And I hate legendary saves. I cranked out MAX damage on my Lightning Bolt (53 points) and the DM goes “he doesn’t save, so he chooses to save.” We got lucky via a few means. Varis had an artifact called a Shatterbone, a one-shot weapon that did radiant damage and stopped Shakathra from regenerating for a round (and led Ksena to ask “Varis, why are you carrying BONES around?” We found out that Ksena’s Water Whip counted as running water, which also stopped him from regenerating. And Skeever simply kept pounding him and pounding him with his Warhammer until he knocked the Lizard King’s head clean off. Once the vampire had reformed in his coffin, Skeever just kept smashing the skull over and over and over again until all that were left were skull fragments and Shakathra’s greatsword – proof that our party had vanquished the ancient vampire and fulfilled the pledge of the G’kota, allowing them to migrate to warmer climes and join the rest of the lizardfolk. As for the artifact of Az’s that we sought, it took Aeana invoking the name of Dyanae, the deity in charge of hiding it, for the Seven-Eyed Circlet to appear.  A powerful artifact…and a cursed one. Check out the last line on the card. Attuning more than one of Az's relics would burn out the attuner, permanently destroying them in a matter of hours...meaning that the five artifacts would require different bearers. As the party was leaving the temple to return to reunite with Taliessyn and let the village know that they were free to return to the North, a terrible explosion to the northeast caused a wave of wild magic to wash across the party. Looking towards the explosion, a cascade of chaotic colors arcing into the air like arcane fireworks could be seen over the horizon in the direction of the Crimson Tower...and the Hell Gate.
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Apr 5, 2017 18:58
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CobiWann posted:fowlocracy More of a bovinegarchy. (I lol'd)
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Apr 5, 2017 21:07
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Falstaff posted:More of a bovinegarchy. Clearly a livestocracy.
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Apr 6, 2017 01:23
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Yeah, that's obviously the correct answer.
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Apr 6, 2017 02:49
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Lemniscate Blue posted:Clearly a livestocracy. No, that's a government of the living, the opposite of a lichocracy.
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Apr 6, 2017 03:07
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A McMonarchy, ee-ai-ee-ai-oh
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Apr 6, 2017 03:40
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Dropped in to my old D&D group this past weekend & made a Druid. Druid worked as a liaison between magical creatures seeking adventurers, and was working as a translator. PCs had a job offer by a Blink Dog to find his brother. The PCs did not speak Blink Dog. PCs had been given terms & agreed to them when one spoke up: PC: "I ask him what sort of magical items he can give us to help in our quest." The DM shifted uncomfortably and addressed me as translator: "Uh, it's evident to you that this request is impolite and asking for far too much." DM as Blink Dog: "What did he ask?" Me, thinking quickly: "Oh, he asked for a bonus. Equipment and food costs for the expedition." DM as Blink Dog: "Well, I suppose that would be all right. 500 gold pieces should suffice." PC: "What did he say?" Me: "He said no." Druids are fun. I should play them more often.
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Apr 6, 2017 18:21
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Kumo posted:Dropped in to my old D&D group this past weekend & made a Druid. Druid worked as a liaison between magical creatures seeking adventurers, and was working as a translator. PCs had a job offer by a Blink Dog to find his brother. The PCs did not speak Blink Dog. PCs had been given terms & agreed to them when one spoke up: I'm frequently amazed at how PCs will take other PCs at their word like that. I had a Traveler campaign once where they decided to put the con man (openly an on-the-run criminal who shuffled identities like a deck of cards and came on board specifically to evade the authorities) in charge of the ship's finances and cargo, because he knew how to talk to people. Nobody ever bothered to double check the ship's financial logs, they just outright trusted him. It was stunning. In the player's defense he made sure to always keep the ship's trades at a profit so the party benefited; rather than just raw theft, he only skimmed off the top and eventually jumped ship at a port after stealing enough to buy a starship of his own (and rolled up a new character). THEN they decided to check the finances and hired a bounty hunter.
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Apr 6, 2017 19:16
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ellbent posted:I started a game of Blades In The Dark now that the full version is out, and one of the changes is that now your crew of scoundrels need not just be thieves, but they can also be a group of assassins, smugglers, ruffians, drug dealers, or a cult. I too ran a game of Blades and thought that nobody would want to be a cult. Next thing I know The Children Of The Abyssal Father have come up with a racket by which they steal dead bodies before the Spirit Wardens incinerate them, raise the ghosts out of them and then social engineer the ghosts to change their wills so that the cult inherit all their money in exchange for the cult feeding the ghost to their patron deity. Because, you know, the cult say that the Abyssal Father will judge them and if they pass the test then they get to go to the Father's special afterlife. It's not like there's another afterlife to go to in the Blades setting after the Gates of Death slammed shut. So after eight sessions worth of bodysnatching, ghost negotiating, will changing, ghost stealing, spirit essence smuggling and one heist to the University to steal a book on demonology and a power source for the Leech's prototype railgun, the Cult of the Abyssal Father have managed to seize an abandoned metal foundry and daemonically possess it so they they can smelt the essence of ghosts into... other things. Play Blades.
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Apr 6, 2017 21:27
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Tempest_56 posted:I'm frequently amazed at how PCs will take other PCs at their word like that. I had a Traveler campaign once where they decided to put the con man (openly an on-the-run criminal who shuffled identities like a deck of cards and came on board specifically to evade the authorities) in charge of the ship's finances and cargo, because he knew how to talk to people. Nobody ever bothered to double check the ship's financial logs, they just outright trusted him. It was stunning. Eh, it's pretty standard to metagame handwave-away any issues that might interfere with party cohesion. Especially if the game isn't explicitly PVP ok.
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Apr 7, 2017 05:22
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Pretty much, both for a nerd's natural tendency to want to avoid conflict (thus how the majority of our posters ended up in catpiss games), and for the simple fact lot of people don't want to stop story/murderhoboing progress because the Paladin has to arrest the Rogue for example.
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Apr 7, 2017 07:41
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The current game I play in has a ton of party tension that isn't known to the PCs. It's easily the most fun game I've ever played in, but it makes me a bit nervous as the party paladin. The DM does seem to have a huge enemy that we've only just glimpsed for us to center around and continue working against. He's been letting us amass a lot of power- my paladin is the acting duke of a large city, the bard my advisor, the fighter is reinvigorating a drug ring for fat stacks of $$$, the sorceress has a worryingly large orc army under her control, and the rogue has a ton of mercs/spies. He had us all start off with a dark/leveragable secret about our characters, and I'm very excited for how all of this is going to crash down around us- as long as we don't all kill each other first. This group rocks.
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Apr 7, 2017 11:26
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