DMDM's Strange Aeons

Game Master Douglas Muir 406

Mrakala vaguely recalls something about yellow-robed cultists who sang (?) from Winter...so he's not about to stop Fritz from interfering.

Quick question: wasn't it one of you guys who posted my Guide to the Diabolist on google docs?

yep. that was me

Okay. I ask because I might want to update it one day.

sure

I really think we should walk away from that door for now. Nothing says we have to walk in and get killed.

I agree

Have we lost baron/Vitae?

I just PMed him. Should have done so earlier -- he's been gone for well over a week now.

Oh, no, another victim of the horrible Ceiling Monster!

My only issue posting these days is I am blocked at work so I have to post from my phone. Doing combat is a bit of a pain.

Oh, no, another victim of the horrible Ceiling Monster!

Everyone failed their Perception checks. RIP.

My only issue posting these days is I am blocked at work so I have to post from my phone. Doing combat is a bit of a pain.

Like, Paizo is a particular site that is blocked? Or it's a more general monitoring? (Am curious.)

It's blocked sites, Paizo being one of them. They are blocking a lot of sites at work now as well as yahoo, gmail...we are approaching near lock down...lol

Okay, then -- yellow robe guy is released but under surveillance, and you're beating a retreat to the Sanctuary?

Oh hm..I forgot Mrakala's archetype has Talisman of Revealing. He can sac a prepared spell to cast Detect Aberrations except it detects "Bhole, colour out of space, deep one, deep one elder, denizen of Leng, elder thing, flying polyp, gug, hound of Tindalos, Leng ghoul, Leng spider, mi-go, nightgaunt, ratling, shantak, shoggoth, spawn of Yog-Sothoth, star-spawn of Cthulhu, voonith, wendigo, and yithian. And similar creatures up to GM’s discretion."

Do you all think he should use that on the cultist?

It's worth a try, but I suspect anything powerful enough to be detected by that spell is likely powerful enough to wipe out everybody here anyway... I don't think Praise Boy is possessed, just driven insane by his encounters.

I do think Mrakala is the sort of person likely to cast that spell, however.

(Hmmm... "Praise Boy" is so Silver Age comic-y. Maybe we should call him Barebones, instead, for Praisegod Barebones of the 17th century?)

Edit: looks like he has a real name after all ;)

Random, but Bundle of Holding has Shadow of the Demon Lord as their RPG at the moment. The dark/mature themes seem like something DMDM might like. I've heard nothing but praise for the system itself although I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. Will likely end up buying it when I get home.

Speaking of which -- how's this going for y'all so far? I haven't run a horror-themed campaign since forever, so I'm still trying to work out the right mix.

its well done, it is harder for me to really find an in on than WOTW was, but I think a large part of that is the I work another 25 hours a week than I was doing then

It's going very well for me. The hard part is trying to remember that Yordan has only been exposed to the situation for 40 hours instead of 40 days, but I try to periodically do something PTSD-ish and/or weird memories surfacing -- hope it's working on the receiving end.

Also, doing his current low CHA as "wait-and-watch" whenever possible, instead of "rude-and-crude", which I think works for the character but makes it a bit more difficult to have notable spotlight time. Very different than Mrakala's take on low-CHA (which is wonderful to behold).

It's going well. I am the same, still trying to find my place in the team as well as the right mix for my fate ability.

It seemed more straight forward in the evil campaign...this is harder. Be good but broken, and don't harm anyone but trust no one.
I am having fun with it though. For me I will be more useful once I get a level or two...right now I can't do much very well which is a chief complaint about rogues.

I am enjoying the campaign. My biggest problem is simply time in RL. I have a lot less than when we were playing WotW. Also, having the Spiritualist tossed at Kyleen was unexpected and I still have not figured out what to do with the Doctor. (Sorry, but I will get it when I have a few more minutes to study up on the class a little more.)

Also, having a character who has no clue who she is is a little odd to play. Not really sure what her personality is, and neither does she.

Oh hm..I forgot Mrakala's archetype has Talisman of Revealing. He can sac a prepared spell to cast Detect Aberrations except it detects "Bhole, colour out of space, deep one, deep one elder, denizen of Leng, elder thing, flying polyp, gug, hound of Tindalos, Leng ghoul, Leng spider, mi-go, nightgaunt, ratling, shantak, shoggoth, spawn of Yog-Sothoth, star-spawn of Cthulhu, voonith, wendigo, and yithian. And similar creatures up to GM’s discretion."

Do you all think he should use that on the cultist?

Whoa, that thing has a 400+ foot range! It gets blocked by multiple walls, a thin layer of lead, etc. -- but it's really quite powerful.

It's going very well for me. The hard part is trying to remember that Yordan has only been exposed to the situation for 40 hours instead of 40 days, but I try to periodically do something PTSD-ish and/or weird memories surfacing -- hope it's working on the receiving end.

Also, doing his current low CHA as "wait-and-watch" whenever possible, instead of "rude-and-crude", which I think works for the character but makes it a bit more difficult to have notable spotlight time. Very different than Mrakala's take on low-CHA (which is wonderful to behold).

It's enjoyable just..kinda..bulling head-long into situations.

The campaign is great, no complaints here. Time is becoming more restricted as I'm on the long crunch to d-day (dissertation day), but I'm attempting to get on and post when I can.

Toned down the inner voices shtick as it was going to be laborious to keep up at that pace, and lost the novelty (if there was any); having one of them eaten/tortured by yellow man by the lake was a good excuse to mostly silence them. Spirit guide should still be a fun time when a different spirit manifests itself daily and influences my words and actions instead of being disembodied entities. Similar to Kyleen, I find playing an amnesiac difficult, but a fine challenge. I've basically decided Nameless has repressed the fact that She Can't Remember, and is just in let's-get-out-of-here-alive mode.

@DM_DM: How do you feel about the way things are going?

Healing issues -- anyone but Yordan and the Oracle need healing? Yordan still can do long-term care on four people today, or attempt to treat deadly wounds.

Of course, having someone to assist me in treating deadly wounds would be nice ;)

No help here :)

Yeah, yeah -- all you guys hiding in the front lines from mysterious horrors that attack the rearguard :)

Kyleen will help with the healing, she is +7 on Heal.

Lost a couple of days to work stuff, and posting may be light over the next ~10 days or so, as I'm moving the family out of Dushanbe and back to Germany. (I'll stay on in Central Asia through the end of July.)

Hope the move back is enjoyable. ;)

Sounds like some good time for in-character roleplaying in the refuge, but what will our collection of paranoid amnesiacs have to say to each other?

Mrakala: "You want to socialize? Go talk to that insane one you insisted on bringing back in here. And make sure he doesn't spread his madness."

Long day packing, movers arrive tomorrow. I'll be mostly out of action for another day or two. However, tonight I'm taking a few minutes to go through the last dozen pages or so... and, two things.

1) Please let me know if your current San score is down by 5 or more?

2) I thought you didn't have quite enough... but when I add up the numbers, I'm wrong: [[[ding]]] go ahead and level up.

Nice, here are my changes:

Rogue Talent: Weapon Focus (Shortsword)
+1 lvl Rogue:
+1 BAB
+1 REF
HP: average? 4+1+1=6
Skills (11):
Acrobatics +1
Bluff +1
Climb +1
Disable Device +1
Disguise +1
Escape Artist +1
Perception +1
Profession Gambler +1
Sleight of Hand +1
Stealth +1
Use Magic Device +1

Cool

I'll try to get to that today!

Neat! Another ranger level for Yordan. (How do we handle hit points? Roll, take average, or what?) Will edit profile when I have the time.

I think we did choose average or roll in the Way of the Wicked campaign.

Mrakala will stick to wizard.

+1 Wizard level
+1 BAB
+1 Will
+1 0 level spell per day
+1 1st level spell per day

+2 spells known(So..can these be recorded on like...random pieces of parchment? Mrakala's spellbook already has all pages used and we're not in a place we could purchase another..)

Skills: (2+5Int)
+1 Knowledge(Engineering) - Mrakala would rather not have another staircase fall apart under someone.
+1 Knowledge(Nature) - That creepy rain has him slowly recalling his readings on obscure Mwangi animals.
+1 Knowledge(Religion) - The multi-denominatial arch has him recalling studies on religion.
+1 Knowledge(Local)
+1 Linguistics (Language learned: Protean)
+1 Knowledge (Arcana)
+1 Knowledge (Planes)

Favored Class: +1 skill point for Profession(Old Grouch)

Trying to decide whether to go bard, go Spiritualist (which will require somehow getting her Wisdom up), or go a different direction (after all, she has no clue what she was before, so the skies the limit).

I'd say stick to bard and take the free spiritualist level as a bonus. Mainly because you've already allocated your stat points to fit as a bard and bards don't multiclass very well.

Yeh, another Charisma based class would not be bad, but I think staying the Bard route is best.

Will try to get leveled up tomorrow.

+1 Knowledge(Engineering) - Mrakala would rather not have another staircase fall apart under someone.
+1 Knowledge(Nature) - That creepy rain has him slowly recalling his readings on obscure Mwangi animals.
+1 Knowledge(Religion) - The multi-denominatial arch has him recalling studies on religion.

Good, good.

+2 spells known(So..can these be recorded on like...random pieces of parchment? Mrakala's spellbook already has all pages used and we're not in a place we could purchase another..)

Ye-ess, that is a problem.

SAN is up to date on my character sheet...down 3 points.

I'm only down 2 SAN (34/36), much to my surprise.

One notes that linen is a perfectly good writing surface, if not as durable as parchment, and we have plenty of writing materials (ashes and oil to mix to make ink, or blood in a pinch). Maybe some of our rescued laundry has cryptic runes drizzled on it in eldritch patterns by unspeakable forces...

+2 spells known(So..can these be recorded on like...random pieces of parchment? Mrakala's spellbook already has all pages used and we're not in a place we could purchase another..)

Maybe we could have him...put them off? Like they are known but can't be prepared and once he has access to a blank/fresh spellbook he can write them down?

Nameless has 4 points of SAN loss (38/42), currently.

Oracle with No Name:

Oracle 1 -> Oracle 2

HP(1d8 + 1 favclass): 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
+1 BAB
+1 Will Save

Spells:

0th: 4 known -> 5 known
0th gained: *Mending

1st: 4/day -> 5/day
1st gained: *Unseen Servant (Occult Mystery)

* - both unrecalled due to fugue state (DMDM?)

Skills:

(4 Oracle + 1 Human + 1 INT = 6 skill points)
+2 Heal -- taking notes from watching Yordan (after bumbling her way through keeping him from bleeding out)
+1 Knowledge (Dungeoneering) -- creepy abominations all around
+1 Knowledge (Geography) -- has been wracking her brain to recall anything about their current location/country
+1 Knowledge (Religion)
+1 Perception -- paranoia growing? paranoia growing.

Maybe we could have him...put them off? Like they are known but can't be prepared and once he has access to a blank/fresh spellbook he can write them down?

That works.

Ranger (infiltrator) level 1-> 2:

+1 BAB
+1 Fort
+1 Ref
combat style (archery) feat: Rapid Shot

HP (d10, +1 fav class, +2 Con): 1d10 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 2 + 1 = 4
Yordan has been knocked out enough times his scar tissue has scar tissue. Apparently his health will continue to stay not-good.

Skills:

8 ranks (6 class +1 INT +1 human)

Heal (plenty of practice)
Profession (cook) - somebody needs to be a professional here or we'll all die of food poisoning
Knowledge (dungeoneering) - duh
Knowledge (geography) - memories beginning to trickle back
Survival - I'm going to survive this!

Perception
Sense Motive
Stealth - they're going to get me, gotta spot them first and stay out of their way!

ok finally getting to update

1d10 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 2 = 11 HP
+ 1 BAB
+1 fort
+1 Will
Divine Grace+2 to saves
Lay on Hands 3 per day
+1 Sense Motive (religion is the go to, but considering I think this makes more sense)
+1 Diplomacy
+1 Perception