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Grand Prize Winner posted:Anyone else have a campaign derail because the DM ended up in jail? My regular DM got wasted and did some crime and is now looking at felony charges. Nope, I'd say that's pretty high up there in campaign stoppers. 
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Mar 2, 2018 07:33
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GM, no. But if I'm remembering correctly the reason one of the players in a game I was in years ago vanished was because they had to serve some jail time.
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Mar 2, 2018 07:36
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Grand Prize Winner posted:Anyone else have a campaign derail because the DM ended up in jail? My regular DM got wasted and did some crime and is now looking at felony charges. Perfect opportunity for him to run a play by mail campaign. As much time as he could ever possibly need for campaign prep, and lots of firsthand sources at hand to make sure he gets the violent bits right.
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Mar 2, 2018 08:33
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from my understanding, tabletop games is actually fairly popular in prison, but I can't recall where I read that from.
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Mar 2, 2018 17:29
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Robindaybird posted:from my understanding, tabletop games is actually fairly popular in prison, but I can't recall where I read that from. I worked at one jail where it was popular but unfortunately only with the chesters because nobody else wanted to play with the one guy who knew how to DM (because he was in for 3tb of CP)
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Mar 2, 2018 17:49
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Waypoint did a couple of excellent stories about playing roleplaying games while incarcerated. I sadly don't have the links on hand and I'm phone posting but it was part of Gaming in the Carceral State.
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Mar 2, 2018 18:15
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Robindaybird posted:from my understanding, tabletop games is actually fairly popular in prison, but I can't recall where I read that from. Vice had a series of articles about it. It was a good read.
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Mar 2, 2018 18:20
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Maybe he’s just prepping a life-action jail break session?
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Mar 4, 2018 16:49
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Noir Orleans Session 4 This was a long session where a lot happened, so I'm splitting this into two parts. The PCs: -Doctor Delphi, the leader, with the powers of local precognition and short-range telepathy (though he dislikes using the latter power.) -Click, a hacker extraordinaire whose skills are enhanced by cyberkinesis. He can speak to machines, and they generally do what he asks them – though for some reason, his powers don’t work when he’s outside of structures. He can also induce what he calls his “ice cream headache attack” – basically a very minor psychic blast. -Snarl, the muscle. Born and trained on Mars, she’s blessed with super-strength and invincibility. She has has some pretty serious anger issues. -Baskerville, the ghost. A G2 (second-tier engineered life form – in his case, a human-dog hybrid) with ability to phase himself and other objects/people through non-moving objects. (Gateway was absent this game) Session one Session Two: part one, and part two Session three * * * Click was getting frustrated; while in the Frobozz facility, he’d managed to nab a bunch of tasty-looking research files on the Crimson Claw phenomenon... But the encryption was next-level, and he just couldn’t crack it. Even with the help of his power, brute forcing it just wasn’t an option – not unless he had a few centuries to waste. Unfortunately, longevity wasn’t part of his power set. “Boss says we need you on-site for the op,” Baskerville said as he came into Click’s computer room – really just a windowless suite on the Motley Cruise, but one of the few that still had working power. “We don’t want to keep the Cowboys waiting.” Click sighed as he sent the file off to some hacker hang-outs on the DarkNet. While he was a brilliant hacker, even he had his limits, and information needed to be free. If he wasn’t going to be able to crack the files himself, he’d have to settle for crowd-sourcing the effort and hoping for the best... Click was dreading the joint op. He understood machines pretty well, but people? They were a lot more difficult. It had taken him months to get to the point where he felt comfortable around other members of his team, so going on a mission with a group of strangers – enemies not so long ago – was a daunting concept. That might have been why he and Baskerville got along so well. Baskerville wasn’t technically people. * * * With the efforts of Click and Gateway, with a little aid from the Cache Cowboys leader Scrawl, they’d determined that the vigilante hero Nightclaw mostly operated in select sections of the Mid-City district. They’d also figured out a pattern to his sightings, so they had a pretty decent idea of when he was most likely to show himself. The teams had agreed on the Eugenix Inc offices/research centre as the site of the sting. It was a straight-forward enough idea – Baskerville would rush in, wreak havok in the complex, and in doing so hopefully draw Nightclaw’s attention before any other heroes arrived. Then, when Nightclaw showed himself, the teams would swoop in from hiding, take him down, and escape into the night. Maybe a bit too simple, but best not to overcomplicate this sort of thing. In addition to the Crimson Key, most of the Cache Cowboy leadership was there... Scrawl, the gang’s boss. A baseline who manages to hold his own against low-powered metahumans by virtue of his bleeding-tech cybernetics and his creative approach to leadership.  Ram, the Cowboys’ brick. Dedicated and hard-working, he almost single-handedly keeps their day-to-day operations going when he’s not working as their top-level enforcer.  Ladybird, the most powerful member of the gang and Ram’s girlfriend. She has a type of clairvoyance power that lets her know of the position, trajectory, and some other information of any grounded, moving objects near her.  Baskerville hefts a duffelbag and phases into the building. He begins tripping as many alarms as he can, smashing whatever valuable-looking equipment and supplies he can find – since Eugenix Inc is the world’s leader in cloning technology, that means mostly medical tech – while using his phasing to stay ahead of the baseline security in the building. Meanwhile, Click uses the distraction to sneak into the building and begin searching for information on Eugenix’s former employee, the missing biochemist Dr. Caroline Vandever. (Who says you can’t multi-task?) The teams almost give up and called an end to the op, when Nightclaw finally appears.  Baskerville is smashing up a data entry room when Nightclaw appears from out of nowhere, and levels one of his tinker-tech guns at him point-blank. Nightclaw has him dead to rights... But then the Thing from Another World bursts out from the duffelbag in all his slimy glory, and begins wrestling with the vigilante.  The two teams move in, leaping or gliding from the rooftops of nearby buildings to join the battle. The Thing does his best, but Nightclaw is able to blast out the floor beneath him and send him onto a lower floor; Baskerville tries to fight back with his own guns, but he has regular bullets versus Nightclaw’s tinker-tech, black-hole-creating ammunition, and the more experienced, deadly cape was able to get the upper hand – Baskerville was pinned down by the time reinforcements arrive. Doctor Delphi and Snarl were the first on the scene. Snarl is able to give Nightclaw a run for his money for a while – deceptively fast despite her big, bulky form, at first Nightclaw has to put all his effort into just keeping out of her bone-crushing grasp. This gives Doctor Delphi a chance to rummage through the vigilante’s mind for any kind of emotional leverage... But that proves less than useful when the Doctor discovers a man who thinks he’s out walking his dog in some kind of dream-fugue state. Snarl crashes through the nearby window as his glider-membranes retract, and Ladybird and Ram arrive a moment later. Nightclaw is surrounded and the battle pauses as he begins to figure out that this was a set up. “A trap,” he scoffs. “You criminal scum think that’s going to make a difference? You think YOU have ME surrounded?” He looks down at his pistols for a moment. “Guns – full auto mode.” There’s a whirring and a click as his pistols respond to his verbal command. quote:Baskerville: “Oh, shiiit... How come nobody told us his guns can do that?” The fight continues over several floors and Nightclaw begins to seize the advantage; his attacks are deadlier than anything that the villains can (or are willing to) bring against him, and whenever they’re just about to catch him he drops a smoke bomb or flash-bang and disappears – teleporting away in the wake of the distraction. The fact that the villains are also intruders and have to do what they can to either stay ahead of or fend off the baseline security of the building doesn’t help matters at all, either. Click eventually decides that it’s time to call for reinforcements. He sends out a ping for other villain teams that are part of the truce, hoping some will respond. The Pack do, and are willing to help, but are unfortunately ten minutes away and this needs to be wrapped up by then. But the good news is there’s another villain team that’s closer and responds that they’re en route. The bad news is that it’s the Knights of the Storm – the neo-nazi group from the Noir Orleans East district, and the one group they were hoping wouldn’t show up... The fight moves up to the top floor to an opulent penthouse office, and by now Nightclaw is fighting more conservatively – taking more careful aim, and relying more on his distraction-teleportation technique to keep ahead of everyone rather than just keeping them at bay with auto-fire – which makes several PCs speculate that he’s getting low on ammo... Though he never seems to reload so that’s just a guess. By the time the Knights of the Storm arrive (Ironclad, Blizkrieg, and Hookwolf), Ram is badly injured, Snarl is riddled with singularity-created pock-marks, and Doctor Delphi has had his hand removed just below the elbow (“You know, I knew this would happen, that’s the worst part about this...”) Once again, they have Nightclaw cornered. quote:Nightclaw: “The streets will run with your blood!” Coming up from the floor below, Baskerville catches Nightclaw by the ankles and pulls him down a foot into the floor, then leaves him there. While he’s stuck in the floor, Ladybird knocks him out just as a security force catches up to the fight and is about to open fire on the villains. Nightclaw’s guns hit the floor and begin emitting a series of ever-accelerating beeps – going self-destruct, a fact that seems lost on the baselines there. Blitzkrieg puts up some forcefields around Click long enough for him to talk one of the guns down; Snarl tosses the other one out the window, which creates a strangely silent yet violent mid-air implosion. The security team is calling in for reinforcements, so the three teams briefly debate who should actually take the unconscious Nightclaw as a prisoner. The Cowboys don’t truly trust either of the other teams, so they volunteer – the Crimson Key vote for this option, and the nazis don’t really feel like arguing against two votes to their one. The Cowboys pull Nightclaw out of the floor, and the villain teams escape. The mission was successful... * * * ...though not without cost. Only moments after fleeing the Eugenix Inc building, Doctor Delphi is on the verge of losing consciousness. None of his teammates have any medical skills, and he’s lost a lot of blood. Obviously, a hospital is out of the question, so the team is given little choice but to take him to the street doc Zoe. She’s not too happy to see them at first, but changes her tune once she gets a good look at Doctor Delphi’s wounds. quote:Zoe: “I told you guys, I’m not interested in having anything to do with... Holy hell, he’s in bad shape. Quick, get him up here.” It’s a rush job, and there’s no saving his hand. Doctor Delphi has to make due with an older cyber-hand model – perfectly functional, but not very fancy – but his life is saved. In the aftermath, the Crimson Key attempts once again to befriend the street doc. She reluctantly agrees to give them a shot, if they can get her enough meds – but not like the stuff they got her before, she needs whatever she uses to either be legal, or else scrubbed so clean that it’s impossible that she’d be nailed for using stolen meds. She explains that what she does is already legally dodgy, and she’s not interested in drawing more heat on her than is necessary. With that, the team returns to the Motley Cruise. * * * A day later, Click is talking with some DarkNet hackers, trying to find out if the hacker community has made any headway in cracking the Frobozz files when Scrawl contacts him over chat. quote:Scrawl: “We’ve got an issue. I need you to pass something on to your boss...” Scrawl explains that once they got the guy back to their turf, they’d been planning to interrogate him before handing him over to the Watchguard for trial... But Scrawl noticed that the guy had a strange implant in his data jack, visible once his mask was removed. When he took out the implant, it fried itself – and the guy came to with no memory of where he was or how he got there. The Cowboys tried to scare the truth out of him, but he didn’t change his story – he’s just some non-cape metahuman trying to make ends meet as a corporate peon, with the power to teleport as long as no one is looking at his origin or destination points. Scrawl shares his theory that the real Nightclaw – the tinker who made the black hole ammo and the datajack implant – was using the implant to put this guy under and puppet him in his vigilante exploits. The theory meshes with the very strange images Doctor Delphi got when he used his telepathy... Nightclaw, it seems, is still at large. Next Time: Doctor Delphi and Baskerville unwind at a disco, they try to steal from some ten-year-olds, and Baskerville betrays the team.
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Mar 4, 2018 19:02
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Delphi needs to get a cat to start stroking menacingly with his robo hand.
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Mar 5, 2018 02:02
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I'll definitely pass the suggestion along.
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Mar 5, 2018 02:19
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quote:Nightclaw, it seems, is still at large. Motherfucker you're giving me a serious case of blue balls here. You and your group are doing fantastic things, keep it up.
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Mar 5, 2018 03:48
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So as promised 2 weeks ago: The Continued Adventures of Brodie: 12 Year Old Homicidal Maniac Part 4: I'm White Trash And I'm In Trouble In the last episode... Brodie and his "friends" had just finished picking over the remains of a PMC base that they had kited the big scary nigh un-killable genetically modified chimera into. While the Medic looked for high quality MilSpec meds, and the other two looked for a jeep, and the two GMPCs looked for some armour and guns; Brodie decided to smuggle an SMG of his own into his bag and then cut open the monsters still twitching carcass to take a big tasty bite of it's heart. Brodie is now both high on the super cocaine from earlier AND has ingested combat drugs that were part of that monsters blood. I have now gotten some undisclosed bonus's and MANY negatives, but I don't give a poo poo cause now I'm even MORE insane. So we're in this stolen PMC branded jeep burning rubber into the night towards LA. As we approach we're trying to come up with a plan to get past the check points that are around the city. Shard is able to immensely help with this because her wi-fi-to-eye implant is now getting signals again so she happily hacks (GM fiats) her way to finding the least guarded way into the city. We come up with this great plan where the two GMPCs will pose as our parents and us the kids back from a survivalist romp to "toughen the brats up". As we approached the check point we realized that this would not fly, as the PC's nemesis Agent Anderson was there talking to the guards. I had never encountered Agent Anderson but from what I can recall he was a bit of an insert of a favorite cool agent character from some webcomic that the GM and the Medic were big on. He was cool and great but also, as befitted the happy go lucky (till I came along) setting, a bit incompetent. The party would gently caress with him but never hurt the guy, and he would hinder them but never do anything outright evil. Anyway after much discussion as time froze and we decided what to do, we settled on the plan of simply dropping some flash-bangs (disguised as kids toys obviously) out the windows and ramming the check point, and everyone running like crazy. I fudged some roles (because Brodie was high as a loving kite with NO5 boosters) and got tackled down by Anderson while everyone else made it past in the confusion. I tried to escape his grip, FAIL! I tried to punch him in the teeth, FAIL! I tried to bite his throat, FAIL! I came to the conclusion I just had to let Brodie get captured, so I did. So now the GM took me aside (to the sitting room, away from the dining room where everyone else was playing) and declared I'd now be playing Brodies solo adventure to jail in isolation. Don't worry though folks, he wasn't doing anything bad here because he did explain his plan was to let me solo RP for a bit then merge me back into the group with all this info away from their slightly metagaming ears. So while the group high tailed it, I RP'd my 12 year old monster sitting in the back seat of the Secret Agents car while he was driving me back to his HQ. All the while receiving the lecture on how I'm clearly "a good kid who needs to learn to go straight." and "you're probably caught up in drugs aren't you?" (gently caress yes I was poo poo man how could you NOT see that, I'm pretty sure blood was leaking from my nose and being slightly blue in colour). The deal was the Agent will help me clean up, get me off these mind altering drugs that are obviously affecting my health and send me back to my friends. Hey maybe I'm such a smart lad I could say, work for him while I'm at it? Be the spy, help stop the revolution. After all my "beloved" parents are part of the establishment, why am I trying to tear them down to? So here the GM was appealing to my general go-to RPG character nature of being loving evil (I like evil) but Brodie, he wasn't evil he was just insane. So all this time I'm trying to find ways out, looking at my sheet till I notice something left over from back when we were doing the prison break out (like a month and a half ago at this point IRL) Quotes are GM: Hey do I have my backpack with me? "Yes but you can't use the lightning gun, you have handcuffs on and it's out of charge remember?" Yeah nah mate that's fine, how am I handcuffed? Like this? (I held my hands together out in front of me) "Yeah like that in the back seat with the seat belt on, your bag is at your feet. You're like a kid being driven home from school, the whole situation feels very Dad-Isn't-Mad-Just-Disappointed." Whats the car like, police car with the bulletproof plastic separating the front from the back with air holes? "Yeah like a modern police car but more cyberpunky." Ok cool. So my power, it lets me manipulate my whole eyes-throat-nose set up right? "Yes?" Ok so I can seal them shut if I want to like totally shut? "Why would you do that though?" I have a tear gas grenade left from earlier, I want to open my back pack and pull the pin on it. "You what?" Pull the pin on the tear gas grenade. "You better come back to the group." So back I went and announced my plan much to the displeasure of many players (except one other, a good bloke who missed the first 3 sessions and only just got back for this one. His character was a driver-kid who we pretend couldn't come in the raid because he had to stay at home and convince his parents he wasn't a child-terrorist on the side). Brodie seals his ears-throat-nose after taking a big gulp of air, shuts his eyes and pulls the pin on the tear gas. The car is flooded with the gas and Anderson, well he gets a face full as his car becomes a hot-box of stinging choking gas. We spin out of control and hit a lamp post. I bust out of the back seat with my backpack clutched in my still handcuffed hands and make a run for it. I did discuss trying to shoot Anderson while he was down, sitting stuck and unconcious in the car with tear gas wafting out of it; but the group talked me down. "There are witnesses." "That's REALLY insane no." "C'mon dude he's a cool charater don't murder him." Also I got told I lost my SMG (it apparently got left in the Jeep, the GM didn't want me having it anyway) and I wasn't allowed to steal Anderson's pistol (how would you know where it is on him? Also stop trying to get lethal fire arms!) Brodie ran off into the night, escaping through the crowd that was the people of LA; some trying to get away from the crash least they be talked to by police and some running towards it to see what was going on. It was around this point the GM declared the night finished, and droped a small but heavy payload bombshell that I am sure Cybergen and Cyberpunk players will get instantly. It was a pretty big deal and I LOVED it. The GM announced in light of Brodies actions: his willingness to kill, his total disregard for the safety of others and the team, his insane choices and the fact that those choices may not have resulted in him killing anyone but the fact he has to his name a body count that in theory could consist of some security guards, a military chopper and it's special cybernetically modified pilot, a few bus loads of political prisoners and kids who got shot because of the previous death, the second military chopper because of my convincing words, more political prisoners and kids who stood still and got shot because of the process involved in getting the previous death, a base full of PMC soldiers, a loving cyber monster and now maybe the beloved bumbling nemesis that is Anderson in a car crash (he was fine). I'd lost a point in Empathy And on that bomb shell I shall leave it till Part 5, Brodies Final Tale.
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Mar 6, 2018 11:49
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Had a player get arrested for DUI after he drove his car into a light pole and the light pol fell on the car almost killing him. This is after the last thing he rememebers is pumping gas after buying a six pack already poo poo hammered and pounding them and tossing them until the attendant came out and complained. He also has issues with opiates and sometimes nods off during games if he didnt get enough sleep or if he is still high or w/e. Hell of a player though.
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Mar 6, 2018 15:13
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hope the player got help because yikes
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Mar 6, 2018 18:46
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nope he is pretty much on a downward spiral we spoke to him about it and offered support but its just what he enjoys so  it doesnt really effect his game playing though even when he is nodding off he is still better than 80% of the players i have played with
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Mar 6, 2018 19:00
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I hope he gets help with his substance issues. Failing that, I hope he consistently plays a super straight-laced LG paladin
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Mar 6, 2018 19:09
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He actually does tend to play the moral high ground character ironically enough. One of his last characters was a LG(ish) dragonborn paladin. Right now in my campaign he is playing a more personal character a by-any-means-neccessary rogue mastermind that is convinced that dark magic exists and looks at everything through that lens ( its low fantasy )
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Mar 6, 2018 19:44
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Played a one-shot of 5e to get away from the 5e campaign I run, and let me play as a PC. It was a hell-grind (time limit to save some abducted children) and by the time we got to the final boss (red dragon wyrmling), the party was low on everything. We lost the gnome barbarian completely, getting absolutely annihilated while on the last few HP, and then the monk and fighter were knocked out. Myself, a halfling ranger, and the elven sorcerer were all that were left, and the dragon broke line of sight through a choke point, with our compatriots stuck on it's side. I had not a lot of HP left, but decent AC, and the sorcerer only had 1 HP less than me but terrible AC, but it was all or nothing. I dropped my shortbow and snuck in with rapier in hand. Between the two of us we ground it down, playing clutch in the face of almost certain death, ending on very low single digit hit points left, before I finally dropped the dragon. The only thing that saved us was a series of whiffs by the dragon. We decided we'd keep the characters if the opportunity by the same GM came up to one shot anything in future, as we'd grown attached to them after the climactic battle proving our worth. tl;dr i love elfgames.
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Mar 11, 2018 10:32
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crowtribe posted:We decided we'd keep the characters if the opportunity by the same GM came up to one shot anything in future, as we'd grown attached to them after the climactic battle proving our worth. This is why I can't play one-shots. I always get attached to my dude and want to know what comes next, but I've never had a one-shot turn into something more extended. Sounds like you had a good time!
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Mar 11, 2018 22:39
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Noir Orleans Session Four (part 2) The cast: -Doctor Delphi, the leader, with the powers of local precognition and short-range telepathy (though he dislikes using the latter power.) -Click, a hacker extraordinaire whose skills are enhanced by cyberkinesis. He can speak to machines, and they generally do what he asks them – though for some reason, his powers don’t work when he’s outside of structures. He can also induce what he calls his “ice cream headache attack” – basically a very minor psychic blast. -Snarl, the muscle. Born and trained on Mars, she’s blessed with super-strength and invincibility. She has has some pretty serious anger issues. -Baskerville, the ghost. A G2 (second-tier engineered life form – in his case, a human-dog hybrid) with ability to phase himself and other objects/people through non-moving objects. -Gateway, the rookie. Also from Mars, she has the power to create two-way teleportation portals. She’s also a skilled investigator. (Absent this session.) Previous sessions: Session one Session Two: part one, and part two Session three Session Four: part one Boudicca the Disco Warrior. She’s an underground DJ with a nuDisco focus and a flair for celtic-themed costumes; she also runs a vlog on vegan cooking and swordfighting. Despite her moniker, she’s a baseline, but she’s also a friend of Doctor Delphi’s from his middle management days at the Aeon Society Inc – even stodgy middle managers need to let down their hair and party now and again. He’s always been supportive of the younger woman’s career, and she helped him cope when his powers emerged, so their friendship has only grown over the years. In some ways, she’s like the daughter he never had. (Her real name is Sascha.) Some might say three days is too soon after losing a hand to go to an underground nightclub (set up in a ruined warehouse in the Bywater District), but Doctor Delphi goes to Boudicca’s latest show and takes Baskerville with him. The outing has a practical purpose, though: Ever since their clash with Nightclaw, something’s been bothering Baskerville, and the Doctor wants to give Baskerville a chance to vent. quote:Baskerville: “He nearly had me. Not just once, but several times over the fight. I used to be a cop, you know? And don’t make any K-9 unit jokes...” The venting helps, but it’s also not the only thing bothering Baskerville... quote:Baskerville: “I’m also worried about the team. I don’t know if we’re really meshing well...” With that, Boudicca – having just finished her set – joins the villains and lets them know some guy has been asking her to introduce them... Something about a big opportunity. The Doctor nods, and in comes Lincoln, a skinny, fast-talking street criminal and Otto-style Buddhist. He tells them that he has an extremely valuable score that he lacks the powers to take advantage of – a contact of a contact let something slip, and it ended up in his lap. Some very, VERY valuable tech is ripe for the stealing, and all he wants is a finder’s fee: Forty thousand and the info’s theirs. They negotiate with him for a bit, but Lincoln won’t divulge any details without getting the money up front. Doctor Delphi uses his telepathy to peer into Lincoln’s mind and determines three things: The tech is real, the opportunity is (in Lincoln’s opinion) a very good one... And he’s already sold the information to another group, specifically the villain pair Shadowdancer and Shooting Star. Doctor Delphi is pissed at this attempt by Lincoln to double-dip. He and Baskerville threaten him, and Lincoln starts sweating... quote:Lincoln: “It’s okay! Really! Yeah, I sold the info to Shadowdancer and Shooting Star, they need the money this thing is going to get them to keep their operations going... But you’re hungry, right? New villain group in town, looking for opportunities?” Baskerville doesn’t like the idea, but the truth is Lincoln is right – as team leader, Doctor Delphi IS hungry. They beat down Lincoln’s price by half, and once the payment is made Lincoln divulges the details: In six hours, a high-speed maglev train is going to be arriving in Noir Orleans from New Avalon – the Tomorrow City. It’ll be carrying a large-scale force field generator formerly held by the now-disbanding hero team the Directive, and upon arrival will be delivered to its new owners in the Watchguard, who have bought it to help secure their headquarters and its grounds. It cost a pretty penny, and the Watchguard’s administrators have decided to alleviate the sticker shock by saving money on transportation – using speed and secrecy in lieu of the type of expensive security a high-ticket item like that would normally call for. Once it arrives, it’ll be pretty well-guarded within the Watchguard HQ, but if they intercept the train The team reconvenes to discuss the matter. Shadowdancer and Shooting Star are, indeed, a pair of very young villains who operate out of the Lower 9th Ward. They carved out a small piece of that district about a year ago,, fighting off other gangs in doing so – including the Cache Cowboys and the Nuclear hellhounds. They run a gang of outcasts – including some runaway clones and prefrontals – and they operate the Orphanage... an abandoned strip mall where they provide food and shelter for any of the city’s least privileged children who make their way there. Shadowdancer can control a shape of darkness, whose solidity she can control – utilizing it as both defence and as a weapon – while her sister Shooting Star has superhuman strength sufficient to lift at least eight tons, and can fire what she calls a “star blast,” a kinetic burst of blinding light with an apparent range of about thirty feet. Needless to say, many of the Crimson Key become very uncomfortable with the idea of stealing the force field generator. As Baskerville puts it: “What, we’ll call a truce with nazis, but we’re not willing to play nice with a couple of ten-year-old girls who feed and clothe orphans?” Snarl also objects, though on different grounds. quote:Snarl: “They’re ten-year-old girls. That makes them objectively terrifying.” It also grows heated at one point... quote:Baskerville: “Snarl, did you grow up on Mars?” Some options are discussed, including contacting the girls and teaming up, or buying out their share of the spoils. In the end, despite the objections of just about every other member of the team, Doctor Delphi makes an executive decision... They’re going ahead with the theft, and they’re not going to be sharing. quote:Doctor Delphi: “Do I need to remind you all of what’s coming? A titan is going to attack this city, and we need to prepare for it. Think about how useful a force field generator is going to be at that time – something that can protect not just this ship, but entire neighbourhoods. It’s better for us to take it and put it to use than for these prepubescent villains to steal it just to sell it to the highest bidder.” * * * Baskerville steals a gravsled – a high-speed antigravity flatbed transport truck, essentially – and takes the team to intercept the train. Sure enough, the train is small and lightly guarded: Five cares, plus the engine, with an auto-turret on each of the non-engine cares. Everyone leaps onto the train while Baskerville kicks the gravsled into high gear, barely managing to keep pace with the train, though he’s not sure how long he can keep that speed up. Snarl begins destroying the auto-turrets, while Click busts into the engine and knocks out the conductor and the single security guard assigned to the train, then takes control of the train. One of the auto-turrets gets a direct hit on the gravsled before Snarl can disable it... It’s still functional, but another hit like that and they’ll need to find another way back. Doctor Delphi walks along the train roofs and uses precognition to search each of the cars, one-by-one, without actually searching them. Eventually, he runs into a snag – his power stops working. There are a few things that can make a precog’s powers stop working, and the most common is another precog in the area using their power at the same time – signals get crossed and the powers usually cancel each other out. So that bodes ill... Click hacks into the security feeds in the train, and sees that it was not quite as lightly guarded as they were expecting. Two members of the Sentries – the teen sidekick team adjacent to the Watchguard – are guarding the contents of the only train care with actual contents to speak of, second from the back. Psyte and Paragon. Psyte is a former villain reformed after her capture by the Watchguard; she’s able to see through the eyes of every person nearby.  Paragon, meanwhile, is your standard flying brick with a few extras – enhanced strength, durability, flight, and he can emit energy blasts from his fists with a sixty-meter range.  Paragon punches holes into the roof of the train, grabbing Snarl’s ankles and holding her immobile – or so he thinks. Snarl is much stronger than he is, though, and she leaps into the air, dragging him through the train roof after her. The two begin tangling. Baskerville considers trying to help Snarl somehow – maybe by winging Paragon with the gravsled – but then he notices something trailing behind the train... A snake-like shape of darkness weaving along the tracks, flying through the air as though it were swimming through water. Atop this shadow-snake ride Shadowdancer and Shooting Star.  The girls leap onto the back of the train as the snake-shadow dissipates, and Shooting Star rips the rearmost door open - crumpling the steel siding as though it were so much tinfoil. Thinking quickly, Baskerville opens up a floodlight onto the girls to get their attention, then calls out via the gravsled’s loudspeaker, “Hey, girls! Lincoln sent us, we’re here to help – get the goods on the gravsled and we’ll get out of here!” He can’t make out what Shadowdancer says in reply, but Shooting Star gives him a thumbs up before they make their way into the train. Meanwhile, on top of the train Snarl continues to struggle with Paragon. She’s stronger and more durable than him, but he can fly and has more distance – and he focuses on trying to knock her off the train. Doctor Delphi orders her to focus on the generator, tells her to leave Paragon to him, and he begins pushing his way into Paragon’s mind looking for some kind of guilty past he might be able to leverage. No good, at least not in the time he has before Paragon blasts him and nearly knocks him off the train... The kid’s just too much of a boy scout. The closest Delphi is able to discover is that Paragon is at least partly here to impress his “boyfriend,” Eldritch (and yes, the scare quotes were in Paragon’s thoughts, too.) quote:Paragon: “Sorry, villain, but you’ve already lost. I’ve been TRAINING for this all day!” Snarl leaps into the car with the valuables and finds Shadowdancer and Shooting Star tangling with Psyte. Psyte is able to keep them all at bay, using her power to avoid their attacks and launching surgical counter-attacks with fighting batons and boomerangs. Much like S&SS, Snarl can’t quite tag Psyte... But then she realizes she doesn’t have to. Snarl just focuses on keeping Psyte pinned down in one corner of the train car, rather than actually getting her hands on the hero, and that seems to do the trick – it gives Shadowdancer an opening where she covers that corner in darkness, then launches herself into it. When the darkness lifts, Psyte is stunned. But Paragon is still up, and he’s beaten Doctor Delphi nearly unconscious with his energy blasts. He’s about to turn his attention to the train interior, when Snarl rips open a hole in the side of the train. Snarl, Shadowdancer, and Shooting Star leap off the train and onto the back of the gravsled, carrying the crate containing the force field generator. Paragon starts to give chase, so Baskerville phases everything – the gravsled, the generator, himself and the others on the gravsled – and flies it all into a nearby hill to lose the determined teen hero. quote:Snarl: “You’re leaving them behind?” It works. Paragon returns to the train. And Click and Doctor Delphi are left nonplussed. quote:Click: “Did Baskerville just fly off without us?” Thinking quickly, Click waits for the Doctor to join him in the engine room, then uncouples the engine from the rest of the train and pushes it as fast as it can go... Paragon is speedy, but he isn’t quite able to keep up. Once he’s relatively certain they’re far enough away, Click brings the train to a stop and they sneak off... Beginning the long walk back to their turf in Noir Orleans, where the Doctor resolves to have some very harsh words with Baskerville. Meanwhile, Baskerville and Snarl come clean with Shadowdancer and Shooting Star. quote:Baskerville: “So... Are we going to finish the mission, Snarl?” While Shadowdancer is keen to fight them, Shooting Star is able to talk her sister down and they come to an agreement: They’ll let the Crimson Key take the generator, but they’ll need to be paid for their half of what they were expecting to get for selling it: Approximately five million, at the low end. Complicating matters is that they don’t have the money on them right now, but Baskerville is able to convince the girls of the Crimson Key’s good intentions, and promises that they’ll be in touch. The villains part ways, and Baskerville and Snarl return to the Motley Cruise with the spoils, though neither of them feel very good about it. Next Time: Baskerville! I would have words with thee! And the Sentries get their revenge.
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Mar 11, 2018 22:40
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So uh this isn't mine, but it probably deserves to be remembered.... somehow....? http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?624090-So-am-I-evil quote:Tonight was traumatic for my son. He has been a hardcore 4e player and DM. I've gotten tired of 4e.
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Mar 12, 2018 20:45
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dwarf74 posted:So uh this isn't mine, but it probably deserves to be remembered.... somehow....? 
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Mar 12, 2018 21:10
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I mean, if your kid was playing 4E, wouldn't you be tempted to stage an intervention? I think any good parent would. 
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Mar 12, 2018 21:31
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Ilor posted:I mean, if your kid was playing 4E, wouldn't you be tempted to stage an intervention? I think any good parent would. Also, I don't think it matters which games or editions for this to be crazy lovely? I mean Pathfinder is hot garbage, and it'd still be lovely.
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Mar 12, 2018 21:35
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Reading further into that nightmare the son in question has played AD&D so the dad is either an ubergrog who has been foisting elfgames on his kids for years or the kid is in his thirties and the dad is in his fifties minimum. The OP is incredibly scant on sharing contextual details outside of "our gaming group has been drifting away from 4e and I've been running 5e for them and I'm the only one who plays 4e with him anymore so like I would like him to stop focusing on 4e and come join the rest of the group" but like. The details I get from reading this nightmare thread just open a shrieking vortex of further questions.
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Mar 12, 2018 21:47
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Hostile V posted:Reading further into that nightmare the son in question has played AD&D so the dad is either an ubergrog who has been foisting elfgames on his kids for years or the kid is in his thirties and the dad is in his fifties minimum. The OP is incredibly scant on sharing contextual details outside of "our gaming group has been drifting away from 4e and I've been running 5e for them and I'm the only one who plays 4e with him anymore so like I would like him to stop focusing on 4e and come join the rest of the group" but like. The details I get from reading this nightmare thread just open a shrieking vortex of further questions. I read part of the thread, and the read I get is "employed (but probably not a good job) post-college son who moved back home". The guy is vague on details, but mentions the financial situation a bit and the fact that the son has his own storage unit. I played AD&D with my dad since I was about 8, and am in my mid-20s so early-mid 20s is a reasonable age range for the son given that he is described as having played together nearly the son's whole life. He also reads as a guy who has no grasp of boundaries, since this was his reaction to his "hints" that the son should move on to 5e were ignored. Also weird how much the guy seems fixated on the son being the DM.
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Mar 12, 2018 22:17
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Kaza42 posted:I read part of the thread, and the read I get is "employed (but probably not a good job) post-college son who moved back home". The guy is vague on details, but mentions the financial situation a bit and the fact that the son has his own storage unit. I played AD&D with my dad since I was about 8, and am in my mid-20s so early-mid 20s is a reasonable age range for the son given that he is described as having played together nearly the son's whole life. He also reads as a guy who has no grasp of boundaries, since this was his reaction to his "hints" that the son should move on to 5e were ignored. Also weird how much the guy seems fixated on the son being the DM. So he's learned all the correct lessons from monte cook, who believes that buying games for your DM is the best way to get them to run them for you.
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Mar 12, 2018 22:21
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Kurieg posted:So he's learned all the correct lessons from monte cook, who believes that buying games for your DM is the best way to get them to run them for you. Honestly, that isn't even bad advice. Telling someone "Hey, you're a great DM and I'd like to try out this new system. Would you run it for me if I bought you the books?" has had great results from what I've seen. However, the important part is having that conversation (and by extension, accepting a "no" answer), and not hiding their other books and replacing them with your new system.
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Mar 12, 2018 22:26
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Kaza42 posted:Also weird how much the guy seems fixated on the son being the DM.
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Mar 12, 2018 22:33
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Yawgmoth posted:It's a pretty hectic fight, and it's only going to get more so once they get to phase 3. The fight continued on in phase 2, with Follow & Mevil launching sonic attacks at the anti-reality shard and Skurrg & Jimmy attacking the elder evil as hard as they could. Unfortunately, each attack also spawned an animate blood, making a crowded battlefield even more crowded. Killing them only helped slightly, since each blood spawned a storm of chaotic weather that lasted only a couple rounds, but when you have 20 of them covering everywhere you need to be? The short duration is of small comfort. Similarly, using its weakness to light-based magic to strip away its passive damage aura and stun it for its next initiative is nice... but not as much when it produces a terror of rust and hate. A combination of Mevil creating a wall of stone to slow their return to their body and Follow straight up vaporizing them took care of most of the older bloods and bought them enough time from the new spawns for Follow to fire off some energy missiles, but not before a shard managed to land, detonating and leaving a huge ooze made of Xoriat-goo behind. Skurrg nearly died, but thanks to Follow using Anticipatory Strike to pop the last of their macguffins to heal the party, he managed to survive and deal the necessary damage to push us into Phase 3. Our lovely god-thing gains yet another turn, and the portal above it begins to drip something onto and through it. Unfortunately, Skurrg ate a nasty chaos strike soon after, taking 4 damage to each of his ability scores. Combined with the damage of the hit, this kills the From here, Mevil lets loose with a chained searing light, harming or killing most of the bloods that were gathering and climbing his wall. Jimmy becomes infected with rage which despite causing him increasing damage only helps him do what he wants most, which is to beat this monstrosity to death. He's sick, and staggered, and on fire with flames that keep changing damage types... and pulls off a crit that tops the damage of both the psion and dragon-warblade. Follow follows it up with a single missile made of sunlight, piercing its chest and causing the great old one to melt/burn/crumble into a horrid mess that burns away in the sunrise; a sight no one has seen in over a year. With it dead, the magical weather and horrible plagues subside and the few who remain that would worship such a thing are forced underground once more. A sense of normalcy can once again return to Khorvaire, but it'll be a hard road with the capital and several cities in ruin, forests destroyed, and fields devastated. But thanks to the PCs there's a few newly trained Gatekeeper druids who are more than willing to help with regrowing the country.
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Mar 13, 2018 19:10
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Sounds like it was pretty tense! I love a proper climactic ending to a campaign, well done.
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Mar 13, 2018 23:17
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Trying my hand at writing a replay of my new 13th Age campaign because I need to clear a writer's block. The game thus far: A handful of adventurers were conscripted to investigate a strange structure on the isle of Omen. Denizens of Vigil had noted a thunderstorm that formed over the island's nearest point and stayed there for a month. Furthermore fishers and sailors were reporting increased sightings of large sea creatures and odd lights coming from the island in the middle of the night or before dawn. Upon arriving at the island the party discovered that in fact the strange new structure was an academy hosted by the Lich Queen, Three, Orc Lord and High Druid. After being invited(with the promise of riches and power) to join the school the party entered the "Audition Hall" a dungeon filled with other prospective students as well as traps, chimera, golems, and other hazards designed by the upper class students. After some OOC player shuffles(your standard flakes and incompatible players) the party became the following: Aethis, High Elf Wizard: A student of the Archmage's academy in Horizon, Aethis was sent to the Necromancer's Academy to spy on the place and report if any threats to the Archmage's supremacy were present. Alberic, Halfling Paladin: A mercenary by trade, Alberic actually hates being a Paladin. As a prank the Prince of Shadows ripped the divine spark from a Knight of the Great Gold Wyrm. Alberic doesn't mind his newfound power. Unfortunately it comes with a Paladin's natural magnetism and Algberic is a grumpy little cuss that hates everyone. Asteron, Minotaur Barbarian: Last surviving heir of his tribe, Asteron is a party animal that lives every moment to the fullest. This often results in trouble for the party. Is highly susceptible to being convinced into bad ideas by... Barner, Halfling Rogue Known as The Ratmaster, which becomes a problem since several adventurers have similar names, usually because of some supernatural power over or related to rats. Barner is simply a thief who is obsessed with rats and knows everything about them. Because of his confusing title the Necromancer school recruited the party rather than killing them. Saeryn, Dragonborn Ranger: A rare golden Dragonborn, Saeryn is the heir of a fallen Noble House. He's spent the last several years in Glitterhaegen, working as a bounty hunter. His exploits drew a direct invitation to the academy. Old Clim, Halfling Commander: The NPC that was supposed to be a one shot. Clim is a fisherman that brought the party to the island initially. He's an ex-Paladin who had his power stolen. Barner talked Clim into escorting him up the beach and since then the party has resisted every attempt to kick Clim out of the party. The last time Clim was supposed to die Asteron threw Barner through a crowd of hostile students in order to save him. So after some smooth talking, invitations, and various intros the party was invited to apply for the Omen Academy. They were led to a block of modified holding cells. Once they were settled an attendant wearing a red hood made of sack cloth told the party to take the next few days to prepare for their examination and to take advantage of the recruit market to get their hands on any potions or other supplies. The man in the red hood then walked through a blue and purple mirror on the back wall of the cell. The party tries to follow but finds that there is some kind of lock on the mirror's portal magic. They do some light shopping and get to know their neighbors.  The first is a Dark Elf woman accompanied by a Lich Hound and a Shadow Hound. She introduces herself as Anamaria Houndcross but is short with the party. An insight check reveals that she seems to be on edge around the competition. Observation over the next few days lead Aethis to believe that Ana is a Gray Necromancer, a mage that views life and death as a pattern of motion rather than a divide between good and evil. After some less intrusive introductions Ana seems a little haughty, but mostly friendly. The next cell is occupied by a pair of brothers arguing in Gnomish, the Cogsworth twins.  Otto Cogsworth is a talented archer, his natural skill is augmented by the experimental crossbows that he builds, which allow him to shoot heavier bolts at unheard of speeds. Of the two brothers, he is the only one that speaks Common. he tends to be friendly and boisterous.  Manuel Cogsworth pilots a tiny battle wagon and speaks exclusively in Gnomish. While they can't communicate the party gets the feeling that Manuel doesn't trust or like them very much. After a day or two a Half-Orc wearing a hood of red wyvernskin steps through the mirror with more of the sack cloth hoods. The "sacks" distribute similar undyed hoods to everyone but Aethis, who receives a cloak. Once they put on the hoods and cloaks they feel a connection "behind" the mirrors open up. They walk into the mirror and emerge in a crowded stone hall with a 3 tiered floor. The party is on the bottom tier, furthest from the exits when a miniature thunderstorm appears in the middle of the room and becomes a floating image of the Lich Queen, who informs the room that the trials have begun, with the last surviving team in the dungeon being offered free admittance to the academy as well as a bonus pile of treasure. The room devolves into a melee as more than 100 adventurers all open fire on each other. Barner grabs Clim and disappears into the crowd, Aethis grabs control of the thunderstorm illusion to scare the other students into clearing a path, and Asteron straight up charges through the remaining crowd. The party receives some bumps and bruises but the party arrives at the door and escapes into the hallway. The resulting highway eventually gave way to a 3 way fork. While looking for a clue as to where to go Barner follows a rat into a Halfling-sized grate and triggers a trap. All four doors out of the room seal off and the party feels the room rotates for some time. In the confusion Aethis, Alberic and Clim are swept down another grate and lost for the rest of the session. During their side mission Aethis and Alberic discover a Gnomish Wizard and a gigantic clockwork mole. After battling with the Gnome's Forge Magic(basically throwing forms of molten metal around) and the Moledozer Aethis and Alberic discover three things. First, when they land the killing blow the Gnome is teleported away but the Moledozer stays behind, leading Aethis to believe the Tryout Dungeon teleports students out before they die. Second they find a small unstable portal next to a font of lava in the room. Finally they discover a small pile of gold and gems next to the portal. They sweep up the treasure and we cut back to the rest of the party. Back in the intersection Barner and Asteron come out of their dizziness spell to see a Golden Dragonborn standing in a doorway. Behind him the telltale frost streaks of Ice Magic crisscross the masonry, small tinges of frost cover the Dragonborn's horns. After a brief introduction the three agree to a temporary alliance to increase their respective rankings. After learning each other's names and talking about their skillsets the trio chooses a door. After a few yards the curving tunnel starts to become lined by creeping vines and vibrant flowers. The party stops immediately and very carefully inspects the vines. Barner notices rat bites on the flowers and berries but no corpses. Asteron doesn't notice the plants as carnivorous from his travels and Saeryn recognizes that the illusions present are more subtle than a mere snatching vine. After a cautious advance Barner recognizes the flowers as valuable alchemic components and the party works down the tunnel picking flowers and berries, oblivious to their surroundings. The chamber eventually opens into what can best be described as an organic nightclub. Enormous woody mushrooms create tables and stools. Bio luminescent cave lichens provide atmospheric lighting, and woody stemmed flower cups hold some form of sweet smelling liquid. Before I can get done describing the room Asteron grabs a flower and chugs it, gaining a +5 to Charisma checks for the scene but losing a Recovery. He proceeds to loudly make an rear end of himself and draw attention. Meanwhile Barner plants a Whisper Stone(magic walkie talkie) on a Fae creature who looks like a young androgynous supermodel made of purple flowers. Barner then sits in a corner and eavesdrops. Meanwhile Saeryn finds a table of orange flower people who are quite taken with his "sunset' scales. They warn him from drinking the poison wine and offer him a proper drink. Meanwhile Barner has learned through the Whisper Stone that the fae people and majority of the party goers are upper class students who set this party up as a trap. After signalling to the other students to get ready to move he goes to retrieve the Whisper Stone from the ringleader's collar... ... and rolls a 1. The Fae Lord grabs Barner and their tablemate, a blueish half-Orc covered in glowing tattoos, begins to crack his knuckles. Before Trullet can act Barner says, "Can't blame me for trying." and rolls decently. The offended Fae Lord then informs the other "hopefuls" that only one team will receive their support as a new student. After this all but three other people are teleported out of the bar. The remaining three? Anamaria Houndcross, Otto Cogsworth and Manuel Cogsworth. As well as Ana's dogs and a clockwork golem accompanying the Cogsworths. Saeryn opens combat with an arrow into Anamaria's Lich Hound. He puts a solid hit in but the thing doesn't die. Meanwhile Barner is charging directly for Manuel. He takes a flying tackle and spills the Gnome's battle cart over. Meanwhile Asteron runs over to right the cart in order for Barner to take it over. And then Anamaria's Shadowhound melted into the floor. It emerged a second later and sucked the life force out of Barner, leaving him nearly staggered and regenerating Ana's lich hound, which immediately charges Saeryn. Then Otto began raining arrows on the party while the clockwork golem tangled up with Asteron. The escalation die hits 1 and Saeryn goes again. He's dodging around the Lich Hound and taking pot shots at the Cogsworths. Barner jumps in the cart and rams Otto, who is immediately teleported out of the dungeon. To Barner's amazement the cart stays as it's a mechanical entity. Ana's Shadow Hound turns into a swarming mass of shadows that harasses Saeryn along with the Lich Hound. Asteron spends the next round attempting to rip a table out of the floor so he can hit the golem with it. When he screws up the Golem jumps on the table and swings at him. After seeing his brother go down Otto tags Barner and Asteron for another round of attacks. Escalation Die 2 Saeryn finally gets a solid hit on Anamaria. Barner rams his cart into the Lich Hound and Asteron struggles with the table some more. During the enemy's turn Ana focuses the Shadow Hound's attack on Barner while the Lich Hound chews on Saeryn's Face. Otto pincusions Asteron, who is getting increasingly pissed at this point. The Golem also finaly gets a shot on Asteron, who isn't looking to good all of a sudden. Escalation Die 3 Saeryn gets Otto with an arrow to the chest, badly wounding him. Barner drifts around a large booth and rams Anamaria into the wall of the club, eliminating her and dissipating her hounds before they can finish off Saeryn. Asteron finally feels the pillar connecting the tableshroom to the floor crack. He flips the golem off it and throws the whole drat thing at the golem and Otto. The next round is mostly cleanup as Ana was the big gun and without her the group is easy to focus fire. Combat ends and the party takes a Short Rest while relaxing in a bar. While drinking and eating Saeryn notices that the wall of flowers behind the bar corresponds with pins attached to everybody's cloaks and pins. The flowers are steadily deblooming, receding into the wall. Barner guesses that it's happening because people are being eliminated. As they talk there are twelve flowers left, including their team's five plus Saeryn. Then there are tenflowers. Then eight. Then Aethis, Alberic and Clim's flowers disappear. Then the last two flowers not belonging to the party are gone. and the lichens in the bar start going wild with light and color. Things are flashing and growing brighter, throwing the party into another bout of confusion. When they come to the party is in a large amphitheater with a cheering crowd. The Lich Queen appears and congratulates this year's champions of the Trial Dungeon. However, she says, because her dignitaries are not satisfied these challengers will have to face last year's top squad in order to properly evaluate their skills. Furthermore, this is a proper fight to knockout. No teleporting out, teammates can be healed back up. Then the crowd starts a cheer that everybody seems to know, "North! South! East! West!" followed by a reply chant, "Compass Knights are the Best!" suddenly there is an explosion of red, blue, black and green smoke. When it clears the party is faced with a Half Orc, two Half Elves, and a Halfling all wearing matching armor in their respective house colors. The Half Elves conjure a greatsword and sword and shield, the Halfling unslings a bizarre looking "Crossbow" and the Half Orc holds a giant hammer. Combat begins. First Saeryn shoots the Greatsword Elf, prompting Asteron to charge it immediately. As the Minotaur and Half-Elf dueled his sister suddenly slashed the air in front of her. A ripple of energy followed the blade and she disappeared into a rift, teleporting behind Asteron and bashing him with her shield. Barner revs up his battle cart and charges the Half-Orc, winding up between him and the Halfling Archer. The two immediately retaliate. Barner gets knocked unconscious as the party discovers the Compass Knights do more damage if they're engaged with the same enemy. Meanwhile Asteron is getting sliced from both sides. Escalation Die 1 Saeryn continues to focus on the Half-Elves with Asteron. Barner starts to bleed out as the Minotaur starts to become overwhelmed as the Compass Knights reveal a new trick. Every time the E-die reaches an odd number the two Half-Elves unlock a team attack as well as the Half-Orc and Halfling. The bonus damage staggers the remaining two adventurers. Escalation Die 2 Barner crits on a death save and gets up. He charges the Half-Orc in an attempt to find cover from the Halfling's autobow. Asteron holds the Half-Elf twins off and heals himself by Rallying. Meanwhile the Half-Orc lands a hit on Saeryn and reveals an interesting property of his hammer. The massive head is magnetic, meaning that Saeryn's arrows are diverting around it, forcing him to miss his shots so far. Escalation Die 3 Barner knocks one of the Half-Elves out with a cart ram. Saeryn, in a desperate gamble, takes aim at the Halfling and crits. The Black Knight's helmet catches the arrow and dissipates as the Halfling goes down. Asteron, now one on one with the remaining Half-Elf, goes into a Rage and begins gaining ground. The Half-Orc manages to catch up to Saeryn and nearly knocks him unconscious. Escalation Die 4 Barner scores another hit with the cart, even managing to steal the Half-Elf's amulet and dispelling his Compass Knight Armor. At this point the crowd switches from the Compass Knights cheer to simply cheering "Go-Cart! Go-Cart! Go-Cart! Go-Cart!" at Barner. With his armor gone Asteron and Saeryn make short work of the Half-Elf. The Half-Orc narrowly misses Saeryn's head with a mace charge. Esclation Die 5 Barner charges the Half-Orc, but the Green Knight sees it coming this time and catches the cart before it can run through him. The treads squeal as the remaining Compass Knight held off the Rogue's charge. Then when he looks up Asteron bashes him in the face with the haft of his axe and Saeryn puts and arrow into his chest, ending the match. The crowd goes absolutely nuts as the party hams it up and runs around collecting small pouches of coin that sponsors throw in appreciation. After all is said and done the Knights take Compass Red's amulet back from Barner(it was attuned and he didn't kill the bearer so it just kind of disappeared after the battle). However, in the celebrating crowd Otto and Manuel run into Barner ecstatic that one of their machines "won" the finals. For a portion of Barner's treasure they offer to let him keep the cart(which is now being designed as a custom weapon). Meanwhile Anamaria takes off with the Fae students and Clim and the gang reunite with Asteron, Barner and meet Saeryn. As they are catching up on what went down at different parts of the dungeon the Orange Blossom Fae catch up with the party and explain that they've been assigned to show the party around. In a campus tour they explain that students fall into two broad categories. Hoods specialize in weapons and martial skill. Meanwhile Cloaks are the casters of the academy. Furthermore students usually specialize in Tradition and Diplomacy(Green School) Predictive Necromancy and Espionage(Black School) Applied Elemental Magic and Arcane Flow (Blue) or Portals and Planar Magic (Red). Saeryn and Asteron join the Green school as tribal/court nobles. Barner joins the Black to get into Spy/Poison school, and the others opted to choose between sessions. Next time: The team chooses their first mission and picks a town to promote the school in.
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Mar 14, 2018 07:04
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dwarf74 posted:So uh this isn't mine, but it probably deserves to be remembered.... somehow....? At least pretty much everyone that replied to that thread has said. "Yo that was a dick move. Just ask next time. Also return his books." At least later he pretty much revealed that it was less dickish then his opening post seemed. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 07:33 on Mar 14, 2018 |
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Mar 14, 2018 07:18
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Razorwired posted:Next time: The team chooses their first mission and picks a town to promote the school in. This was cool and a good read. Thnak you for posting it.
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Mar 14, 2018 07:32
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Jenny Angel posted:I'm seriously incredibly humbled to hear all these kind words, and have passed them on to my players. I'm sure they'll endeavor to be extra wholesome now that they know they have fans Ok I'mma try to be wholesome again for a minute here. If you're looking for Episode 5 or Episode 6 of Funhavers, you're in the wrong place! But if you're looking for Episode 7, which is called Fools! You Will Rue the Day you Stole my Prized Blade! My Wrath Will Know No . . . then you're absolutely reading the right post. For context, this episode marks the first in a short "filler arc" where I center episodic storylines around specific PCs and their individual concerns, to act as a bit of a breather after the comparative emotional intensity of that beach episode. It also gives me an opportunity to pack these episodes to the brim with elements that pay homage to the characters and to the players themselves, because they're all seriously wonderful and I like doing nice things for them. This episode is about The Dread Lord Argothrax, played by TradGames' own Joe Slowboat. Find in the World of Darkness thread, hollering about gnosis 6-8 hours a day and generally being a total peach This episode begins with the party being roused from their sleep by Argothrax's loyal and excitable kobold minions, who bear a frightening message: Argo's prized blade, Anvil Crawler, has been stolen while the party were gently snoozing! Luckily, the kobolds have been working all through the night to solve the mystery for their beloved Dread Lord (which means they're pretty exhausted and letting out big tongue-waggly yawns throughout the episode), and they believe they've found the culprit: a very suspicious-looking scroll that showed up in the night. Argo takes the scroll and reads it aloud dramatically, as he does with all his incoming mail: “Awake to misery, you so-called Dread Lord! What manner of man are you, now that your prized blade has been spirited away from your clutches in the dead of night? Now that I hold Anvil Crawler in my mailed fist, I, the Storm-Crowned King, shall eclipse the terrible splendor of your name tenfold before the day is through! If you still dare to call yourself a Lord of anything at all, venture forth to my sepulchral fortress and challenge me in sorcerous battle. Face me as an honorable foe, O broken one, and you may yet have a chance of reclaiming your glory. But beware - I have remade these long-forgotten halls in my own magnificent image! A perfect lair spanning an entire tomb complex, with twenty-four fielded layers, three mana generators, dozens of ghost and evil spirits roaming the halls, countless traps, and parts of hallways that open out to other worlds! Marshall your forces and descend, Argothrax. I shall await your challenge with mirth.” There's a map attached to the note, leading to a well-known nearby complex of tombs. Xehu recognizes it as a complex that's been cleared out by adventurers long ago and that's now in various states of structural collapse, only really being used in recent years by fledgling Grimdarkers looking to play necro-emperor dressup. Jau is able to inquire with some locals and dig up some interesting recent information, though - for the last few nights, huge unmarked crates have been rolled into the tomb surreptitiously. This must be the Storm-Crowned King, preparing a fiendish gauntlet for the party to traverse! Undaunted by the rumors of huge unmarked crates, Argo fashions himself a temporary blade with little yellowish paper streamers hanging from it to represent Anvil Crawler's lightning bolts, and the party take a pleasant hike through the woodlands for a few hours. Finally, they finally come to a clearing that overlooks a bottomless pit with no obvious way around it. On the near side, three statues of beautiful robed figures in positions of tranquil meditation, each with a large gleaming gem slotted into their chests. On the far side, the doors to the tomb complex, fitted with a runic lock of incredible complexity. Floating over the chasm on the near side, a small mystical bridge. Eager to meet this first challenge, the party saunters forth! Inspecting the statues more closely, Xehu recognizes them as ancient and nameless minor gods of Wisdom, Temperance, and Serenity. Hearing their names intoned so ominously, the statues begin to gently move in response. The one in the center, Wisdom, offers the party his greetings before beginning to explain the challenge at hand. According to him, the King has devised a lock fiendish and inscrutable enough that only the combined power of all three gods can unseal the great doors. In order to bring the gods across, the party must simply place their bodies and soulstones onto the mystic bridge - without a body or soulstone present, it just won't budge. Serenity speaks up at this point to add her own insight: unfortunately, their divine power is so great as to cause the bridge to sink if three or more bodies and/or soulstones are on it at any given time. So if each body and soulstone is counted as a separate "passenger", the bridge will move properly when loaded with one or two passengers Wisdom slowly turns to Serenity and begins to voice his feelings: "Shut up, shut up, shut up, I hate you so much, I was about to get to that part, why do you have to interrupt me, shut up, I hate you!" Serenity's reply is much more thoughtful: "Shut up, shut up, shut up, you're so bad at explaining this, you were taking forever because you're a big stupid idiot and I hate you, you're the worst idiot, shut up!" Realizing that the party is still listening, the two gods turn to them and simultaneously offer their most heartfelt apologies for their fellow god's regrettably impertinent behavior. Wisdom suggests that a more applied example would help illustrate their predicament, suggesting that the party place Serenity's body on the bridge and leave her soulstone in his care. Serenity has some concerns, pleading with the party not to listen to Wisdom because he's always threatening to hurl her soulstone into the chasm. He becomes somewhat wrathful with her, vowing to hurl her soulstone into the chasm as retribution for such wicked lies, to which of course she threatens to hurl his soulstone into the chasm the moment it's separated from his body and her own body is nearby Slightly baffled by these two, Janey seeks the counsel of the silent and composed Temperance. They ask that the party forgive their two fellow gods, saying that the years have not been kind to Wisdom and Serenity's dispositions, but that their hearts are still true. Temperance offers a simple solution to this increasingly fraught problem: simply transport both Wisdom and Serenity's bodies across the bridges, such that neither may harm the other's unattended soulstone. The party has no time to consider this offer, though, as Wisdom and Serenity begin shouting over each other, pointing out that Temperance was literally threatening to throw both their soulstones into the chasm right before the party got in earshot, and also that Temperance is a terrible idiot who needs to shut up. If you're guessing that Temperance's response is to tell the other two to shut up and threaten to throw their soulstones into the chasm, you're starting to get how this challenge works Accordingly, the rules are: 1) Bodies and soulstones can only be transported via the bridge 2) The bridge can only move if it has one or two passengers (a body or a soulstone counts as a passenger, a complete god counts as two), including on return trips 3) Any time a soulstone is on the same side as another god's body but not his/her/their own body, that soulstone will get immediately chucked into the chasm. Can you solve it? It's called the Jealous Husbands Problem. Argo and Janey, being the two chief eggheads in the party, begin excitedly solving the puzzle as I gently move the bridge back and forth across the chasm on a battle map. Soon enough, they've found a solution, and Serenity's final plea of "You know, after we all open the door for you, you could just hand me their soulstones so I can toss them into the chasm..." falls on deaf ears. Triumphant, they open the newly unlocked doors to the tomb complex, dust falling from them as they slowly grind open. But wait, Jau remembers... there were large crates being transported through these very doors just the other night. Did the King... re-apply a bunch of dust to them so they could have that authentic tomb-opening effect? Almost certainly Venturing into the tomb, the party encounters another taunting warning from the King, saying that this next chamber of riddles will test their intellect even more than the previous one. The chamber itself has a few numbered "exhibits" separated by filigreed fencing, with the first numbered riddle consisting of a chest and a plaque. The plaque reads as follows: Ron Paul went to Alaska. Ron Paul went to North Dakota. Ron Paul did not go Idaho. Ron Paul went to North Dakota. Ron Paul did not go to North Dakota. Ron Paul went to Idaho. Ron Paul did not go to Alaska. Ron Paul went to Alaska. Ron Paul went to Idaho. Ron Paul did not go to Alaska. Xehu recognizes "Ron Paul" as the name of a minor and inscrutable trickster god from some World Before or other, whose followers in the World After are few in number but the type to just never shut up eeeeeeever. Argo is less concerned with Ron Paul's identity than with the fact that this isn't even close to possible. The "hint" engraved on the chest offers no real help - "Hint: Ron Paul does not suffer fools gladly". Fed up, Argo declares to the party that this isn't a riddle at all That apparently registers as an answer, because a robed skeleton bursts out of the chest and cackles out a "Incorrect! It is a riddle!" This charming fellow, called the Lost Sovereign, fires off some necrotic bolts at the party before bounding off to the next riddle to solve it incorrectly The main mechanic of this battle is the party trying to stack forced movement and mobility-impairing effects on the Sovereign to prevent him from trying to solve the other riddles, all of which are old chestnuts that the party can solve easily if only they get the opportunity to do so. Unfortunately, all his answers are way off the mark anyway - faced with “Who makes it, has no need of it. Who buys it, has no use for it. Who uses it can neither see nor feel it. What is it?”, he gleefully responds, "Fiat currency!" With each incorrect answer from the Sovereign, another trap is sprung and another monster is added to the fray. Thankfully, the party manage to keep him still long enough that he only manages to spawn two additional monsters, and the battle is won pretty handily The next challenge that awaits the party is called the Hall of Journeys Ended, described in the King's latest note as a place that will truly test the purity of Argo's resolve. Awaiting the party in an ornate hall full of columns, drapery, and gently flowing fountains is a vampy woman with blunt bangs, wearing a long mermaid dress and operate gloves. “Rejoice, O Dread Lord!” she says, “Your journey has come to an end! Forget that your wretched old sword ever even existed, and embrace one of three magnificent blades that I have prepared especially for you!” She confirms that Argo will no longer be able to proceed with his quest once he chooses a new blade, but that the rest of the party will be free to go, and he himself will be much better off anyway What follows is an extended sequence where she elaborately introduces each potential new sword as ominous orchestral game show music plays faintly. The swords are all based on Argo's greatest sources of temptation: Chrysaoren, the Brand of Prosperity, offers untold riches; Sinda Victariel, the Hand of Conquerors, offers an endless and unquestioningly loyal kingdom, and Black Sun Vindicator, the Vengeant Scar, offers glorious retribution on all those who have ever wronged Argo - especially those who stole his kingdom from him in the first place. As Argo's kobold and skeleton minions plead with him to reject these blades, he looks them over with great hesitation, finally settling on Black Sun Vindicator and grasping it firmly. He admits to the woman that the prospect of revenge on those who have wronged him is a tempting one... but that she too has wronged him by separating him from his beloved blade! He strikes out at her in fury! Her response is to cry out in a mixture of pain and annoyance, dart back, and ask what's wrong with him. Why would he shoot the messenger like that, and moreover why would he make it so confusing as to whether he's picking Black Sun Vindicator or not. When he confirms that he's not picking it by hurling it at her, she gets even more frustrated, noting that his dedication here is admirable but that he literally must pick a new blade to progress as per the rules that the King has laid down. Fortunately, Argo has an ace up his sleeve: an identical copy of him apathetically declares Chrysaoren as his choice. The woman laughs cruelly as she seals the second Argothrax in a cage of force and dispels the illusions over the three new swords, revealing them to be nothing more than broken fragments of a dilapidated sign reading "JIM'S / CRAB / SHACK" However, her mirth is short-lived as she realizes what's just occurred: the second Argo is his surly but loyal lieutenant and body double, a doppleganger named Margot (which, contrary to Argo's belief, is not short for Margothrax). The woman is furious at having been deceived, but her emotional rollercoaster continues as she recognizes Margot and shifts into her own true doppelganger form, introducing herself as Maddie - Margot's old college roommate. She shoos the rest of the party off to the next chamber so she can catch up with her former roomie, and when she asks what it's like to work for Argo, Margot gives a gentle smile and replies, "It's good work if you can get it." Before he leaves, Argo does in fact swap out his temporary sword for the former Black Sun Vindicator, which now simply bears the ominous message of "SHACK" The next chamber is one that bears an even more cryptic warning from the King than the ones that came before it - [REMEMBER TO FILL THIS ONE IN BEFORE THEY ARRIVE. PROBABLY TOMORROW MORNING PROBABLY]. Unfazed, Argo reads it aloud with as much pomp and circumstance as all the others. If the King's note foretold confusion, the chamber itself doesn't disappoint - it's a massive set of criss-crossing hallways with countless closed doors on them, patrolled by dozens of ghosts and spirits that mill around aimlessly. One such ghost is a bluish figure of a young woman in a chic skater dress, dragging a cute handbag behind her eternally. She notices the party, floats nervously over, introduces herself as Claire, and asks the party if they have any idea what she and the rest of the ghosts are supposed to be doing here. Apparently, the King just rounded up a bunch of spirits and plopped them in this set of hallways, but either forgot to give them actual instructions or never came up with instructions to give them in the first place Being the fundamentally kind people they are, the party are glad to help these wayward phantoms out. Jau can notice some faint runes on one of the nearest doors if he squints just right, and Xehu and Argo work together to decode them - apparently this door leads to another world, specifically an endless dark forest! Hearing the phrase "endless dark forest" a nearby wolf spirit bounds towards the door and begins pawing at it excitedly, wagging his tail and begging the party to open it up. They oblige, and while sinister thorns shoot out from beyond the door to grab them, they dissipate into a harmless wall as soon as the wolf spirit leaps through the threshold. At the very end of the main hallways, the faintest outline of a new door is now visible. The party understands what they must do - identify the nature of the other worlds behind each door, match them to the ghost or spirit that wants to go to that world, and in doing so allow the final door to fully materialize. It's pretty much montage from that point on - Jau squints at hidden runes and only occasionally mistakes a doorknob for a particularly large and bulbous glyph, Argo and Xehu decode the runes using their arcane and divine stores of knowledge, and Janey and Claire direct traffic among the spirits. Claire is last to depart to her own world - a vast and wondrous mall. She thanks the party for helping everyone out, says she was glad to meet them, and recommends they hang out with her sometime as she fades away past the threshold - hang out with her at the maaaaaaaaall (read this part in a spooky ghost voice) Only one chamber lies between the party and their final goal now. This one has a massive set of ancient double doors, and Jau's attempts to push them open with his herculean strength are to no avail - he can make good and rapid progress for a bit, but then they just snap shut again. Argo knows exactly what's going on here, though, and demonstrates the proper technique: pushing them open in an extremely slow, laborious, and Dark Souls-assed manner. This of course works like a charm, and Argo's player claims that he should also be able to get some invincibility frames in the upcoming boss fight due to abusing a glitch with the door-opening animation. Is that how Dark Souls works? I have no idea, he's the one that's actually played any From Software games. Accordingly, I defer to his expertise and grant him immunity to damage in the first round of the boss fight Who's the boss, you ask? It's a particularly rowdy hydra, who begins the battle by bounding enthusiastically into the waiting arms of some spinning sawblade traps. The traps lop two of the hydra's heads off, which of course regrow in short order - plus the severed heads are now writhing around on the ground with stubby little snake bodies, where they act as minions for the rest of the fight! The main mechanic here is that dealing damage to the hydra causes more severed head minions to spawn, which - combined with the hydra's tendency to stick its heads directly into arena hazards - means that there's a lot of add management to take care of. At every 25% threshold of the hydra's HP, a Greater Severed Head spawns instead of a normal one - these are full monsters rather than minions, and also have a ripped set of abs on their stubby snake bodies for some reason. As the party whittles the hydra's HP down, its heads continually call out variants of "Cool!", "Neat!", "I'm having a great time!" and the like. Finally, it's subdued, and its head start blearily mumbling those phrases instead His last guardian defeated, the Storm-Crowned King now has no recourse but to face the party directly as they burst into his throne room. An elderly man with a noble bearing, he makes one last demand of Argo before they do battle as he brandishes Anvil Crawler with menace - "Do you see me? Do you know who I am, now that you face me?" Argo pauses briefly, but answers with confidence when he speaks: with all the ingenuity, fiendish cleverness, and deep knowledge of Argo's strengths and weaknesses that the King displayed in putting together this formidable gauntlet on such short notice, he could have only one true identity: the Storm-Crowned King is the blade Anvil Crawler. The King scoffs at this answer... ... and then breaks down bawling, running towards Argo with outstretched arms. Argo runs towards him in return, and as they meet, the "King's" human form fades. Argo is left embracing his beloved blade once more, as Anvil Crawler explains the true meaning behind this dungeon. A few days ago, he spontaneously gained sentience, and was immediately filled with the conviction that Argo was the greatest wielder that he could possibly ask for. Accordingly, he created this gauntlet and the false persona of the Storm-Crowned king... in the hopes that senpai would notice him. Argo did indeed notice him, and affirms that no blade in the world - not JIM'S, not CRAB, not even SHACK - could ever hope to take his place. The session ends with a celebration of Argo's reunion with Anvil Crawler, and a vow between blade and wielder that they're going to keep working on this tomb complex and turn it into a lair truly worthy of an evil overlord of Argo's stature That's the episode! The first two I posted were really heavy on plot and NPCs, so I'm hoping this series gives you guys a little more opportunity to understand this campaign's PCs and what makes them so great. Next up is Episode 8, called Now, I May Be a Simple Country Sheriff, Warrior, and Leader of Great Renown. No points on guessing whose focal episode this one is. Thank you all for reading! You're all great, I would do anything for my fans
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Mar 15, 2018 06:00
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Jenny Angel posted:faced with “Who makes it, has no need of it. Who buys it, has no use for it. Who uses it can neither see nor feel it. What is it?”, he gleefully responds, "Fiat currency!" 
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Mar 15, 2018 06:22
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Jenny Angel posted:no blade in the world - not JIM'S, not CRAB, not even SHACK - could ever hope to take his place oh my god I love this
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Mar 15, 2018 13:02
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Jenny Angel posted:in the hopes that senpai would notice him. This genuinely took me by surprise.
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Mar 15, 2018 14:54
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Anvil Crawler is [tearing up] such a good sword. Argo is so blessed. And I'm having a fantastic time in Funhavers, we have fun here.
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Mar 16, 2018 05:19
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