Ary Bishop |
She opened her heart to the darkness! :0
Isilme |
BTW, pretty much feeling inadequate( like Markus I think?) in that the group here rocks and that I often do not feel up to the challenge. So, if anyone has any suggestion on how to improve my gameplay, please feel free to PM me.
Gameplay or RP? I mean, gameplay wise you pretty much destroyed Deradnu and have contributed pretty effectively in all the fights.
I don't think RP-wise you've any reason to feel inadequate either. Hina's a bit detached for sure, but she's also brand new still. Would've had a lot more opportunities for RP if the wedding hadn't popped up :)
Ary Bishop |
Good call! I had missed your post :p
You're fine. Honestly. Like I said, I feel the same way. Just stick to it, keep swimming, that sort of thing.
As for the sexuality thing... Ary's definitely a virgin. She talks a big game, but that's all it is. It'd be kind of hard to be co-ed, military, and not wind up with a bit of sailor in you. :P To each their own, I think.
One way to make the character more reactive, maybe, is to simply have them grow in that direction. With her master, it was easy to stay detached. A constant reminder. Maybe as she continues to meditate, she'll come to the conclusion that perhaps shutting out all feelings isn't the correct answer. :)
Another way to help with detachment is to avoid 'autopilot' style posts. I use them pretty often in the games where I already feel detached. Rather than 'Hinagiku introduces herself the way she usually does' actually acting it out can add a lot more to the scene. It's cool, when you're pressed for time, or when you really want to just move to important things (I do a lot of this on the 'Ary goes to town' stuff), but it adds a lot of depth to a post when you take the time to fully interact, and one thing I forget pretty often, is that people can't see what's in my head. Things that I know always happen for Ary, a lot of people won't even notice if I don't say them. Other things are pretty much always there (like her little smirk :p)
Valaria Alazario |
Val... a virgin... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
As for how to get into the group a bit more, I'd say give it a little time. It's only been a few days in game. Otherwise, Ary gave some nice suggestions.
GM Kiora |
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Awww, thanks for the kind words guys =)
Though I assure you I will continue to overthink and overanalyze how often you post, when you post, your post lengths, the things you say in discussion and oh god you guys I promise I don’t come across as this neurotic in person….
Anyway replies:
@Markus
Good! I’m glad you’re not uncomfortable. I worry. Especially since Markus gets the brunt of the NPCs, haha!
…I intend to escalate things as he gets more charismatic too ;) I mean. He will be hitting 30 charisma, someday, yes? That’s more CHA than a succubus!
I dunno why you’d ever feel inadequate, silly! I mean. You’ve got a great, unique concept. You saw the competition in recruitment, no? I got way more “traditionally evil race with something to prove!” submissions than I ever expected. But Markus still managed to be unique amongst that. And that’s before seeing him in action.
Part of what I like about Markus is that he has room to grow. I’m excited to see what sort of person he ultimately becomes.
@Valaria
Good! I’m glad. I think she feels strongly anchored to the setting, for sure.
I’m not like… big on keeping things super serious? Like I’ll totally run this game with the dinosaur shaman from recruitment, or a gunslinger, or a ninja. Hell yeah! That sounds awesome.
But it is important to me that your PCs feel like they should be here at the Worldwound. And Valaria has that in spades… and the other PCs don’t even know the half of it really :P
@Ehren
Aw, don’t say that. Ehren has a lot of personality, he’s just not super… personable? :D
The lady is very…. boisterous. More so than Anevia, even. I think it’s because she’s a 16 year old level 10 arcane spellcaster, so she’s a bit cocky ;) So it might be that her personality will be too loud for them even get along. But she’s Sarkorian, and a believer of the old ways, and I think they’ll have more in common than most other NPCs Ehren encounters.
Something I wanted to play up for Ehren is that… the area where you live was Sarkoris, before it fell. It’s your culture’s land. But because of this war, Sarkorians have become a minority in their own home. That’s alienating and isolating. Kinda sad. But in play, it means that Ehren doesn’t meet a lot of people he has much in common with. Especially since his upbringing was rather insular, no?
Also… I’m not going anywhere. Haha! Sorry. Y’all are stuck.
Seriously. My life actually IS getting really freaking busy right now, and I had to drop my two other pbp games. But y’all are still here ;D
I’m looking at 50-60 hr workweeks for the foreseeable future @_@; My life is basically husband + pharmacy + pathfinder.
Besides, even if I did quit like… ALL OF YOU GM. Someone would take the torch, I’m sure.
@Ary
Okay! Noted on the shield thing. I honestly just forget about how noticeable it is sometimes. She always wears it. And I’ve had NPCs call it out before, but not so many by name.
But – I haven’t forgotten about the name thing – I just haven’t gotten into much of that yet. The “big boss” of the crusades that you’ve interacted in within the game itself has been mostly Irabeth. And Irabeth herself is not a long-time crusader, so she’s actually not likely to bring up the Bishop line much.
That was something I was trying to subtly do with the wardstone flashbacks. The idea was, it would quickly become clear that each hero gets a vision that basically explains why each one is mythic. And I wanted Ary to feel like “her” vision was seeing her ancestors… to reinforce that she’s a Bishop – and to lead Ary to believe that the wardstone was telling her that she’s special because she is a Bishop.
But then, one of the very last visions would be of her childhood, and would focus not on the fact that she is a Bishop, but on the fact that despite having to face some horrible adversity in her life, her faith was ultimately a choice.
I dunno if it worked but that was the point.
@Isilme
Okay! I mean. I do intend for this to be an overall dark game. It’s the nature of the enemy, and the situation that the region is in. But when it comes to your actual PCs, I don’t want too much bad crap to happen to them. The point is they’re coming to make things better, right?
As for like… romance in f2f stuff, I mean, I would never expect or even want a PC/PC romance in f2f. Just the truth of having a limited amount of time to get the same things done. A PC/NPC romance would happen mostly “off-screen”.
What I’m saying is that…. Hmmm. I have a player, a male, who plays a female PC. If I ever, ever, had like.. a male bartender kinda flirt with her the player would probably freak out. My husband has personally said that he could never play a female PC, it’d be too weird. Stuff like that.
Obviously, I am not that way. But if one of you are uncomfortable with like romance… or even flirting in this game, then PM me. I won’t be offended.
@Hinagiku –
No you were waiting on me. I’ve been out all evening. I can post on discussion from my phone pretty easily but I generally avoid trying to roll dice on my phone. I get… irrationally frustrated with it. I think I need to just suck it up and buy a keyboard for my tablet.
I think with some time Hinagiku will better meld into the group. But you will need to push that along, and not expect others to approach Hinagiku. She’s very… otherworldly, which makes her hard to approach. But is also really cool. I think it’s interesting that in a group that is 50% nonhuman, Hinagiku ultimately feels the least human out of all of you.
I think something you'll ultimately have to decide is if in the end you want Hinagiku to be almost like... a nature spirit, something that transcends humanity (and therefore will be kind of distant with normal humans) or if you want to focus on Hinagiku as a human formed of the ley with some very human wants and needs. And that should come down to whatever is more fun for you.
I've been really enjoying her in roleplay! She's fantastic.
Ary Bishop |
Mmhmm. I totally got that. And in the end, I really appreciated it not being 'Oh god, the building's on fire, I'm living through the worst day of my life all over again, oh god, oh god...' and just having Ary run into a burning building that she can't do a thing about, while little Ary is being shoved on a horse and the horse is getting swatted by a sword. That would have been irrationally cruel, I think. Like way more cruel than any other vision you showed. I think what got to Ary worse than the fact she already hated Liotr was because of the choice of execution. Also, why the hell was she naked!?
Also, I'm not really complaining. :) I was just providing critique. I'm happy with how everything has worked out so far. :)
Re: Tablet: I get irrationally angry at having to jump through something like 10 button presses (or more) to type [/b]. :|
The Jeslyn thing is hard though. I don't think a scroll of reincarnation would have been available in town, had I even checked... and it makes sense that it wouldn't be, as I can't possibly get leadership til 7. But it's also hard because it's really scary. If Ary is wrong, if Jeslyn is another Garil... it has amazingly dire consequences. It isn't a large house worth of gold taken from a friend who shouldn't have left their vault open!, it's possibly hundreds of lives or more.
Valaria Alazario |
I like the think Val's not too serious of a character. She can be serious at times, but she's also the character that gets roaring drunk and tries to ship party members with the main NPCs.
GM Kiora |
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Also, why the hell was she naked!?
A reference to the fact that back when they actually accused people of witchcraft, one of the practices was to strip women naked in public to find the Witches' Mark
I hope you found the scene unnerving. I was going for horror - because witch hunts horrify me.
Also, a reflection of what happens when you let fear and paranoia consume you. The kind of s~!& that can consume your soul for living in a city constantly besieged by demonic hordes. :P
Ary Bishop |
I'm not sure about how serious Ary is. I do know that she's easily in the top three most human characters I've ever played. And that's saying a very, very great deal. :)
Valaria Alazario |
Congratulation, you succeeded beautifully.
You also made me despise Loitr with all my heart and soul. I don't care if he turns out to take care of abandoned puppies, he will still be on my sh*t list forever.
GM Kiora |
The Jeslyn thing is hard though. I don't think a scroll of reincarnation would have been available in town, had I even checked... and it makes sense that it wouldn't be, as I can't possibly get leadership til 7. But it's also hard because it's really scary. If Ary is wrong, if Jeslyn is another Garil... it has amazingly dire consequences. It isn't a large house worth of gold taken from a friend who shouldn't have left their vault open!, it's possibly hundreds of lives or more.
I'm loving your ethical angst. :)
It's a tricky situation. Irabeth's disinterest was basically because... she's a Commander and she is always focused on what is best for the people who are depending on her. She was in the middle of some intense stuff where for all she knew all her men were killed by a demonic horde while they were destroying the wardstone. Then Ary brings up trying to redeem a single cultist - when for all Irabeth knows, 200 crusaders just died... so she was just kind of pushed it aside. It wasn't worth the time to think about it.
But of course, she didn't live what happened to that poor girl. So Ary shouldn't really expect anyone to ever empathize with Jeslyn but her fellow mythic heroes.
Ary Bishop |
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:( Yes, feast on my suffering.
And yeah, I knew about the stripping and what have you, but it just doesn't fit in my headcanon. And it really doesn't fit Ary's. Thus the completely abashed (that's like unabashed but without the un-) reaction. It's... so very, very, very complicated, because here's Ary's thought process.
"What the hell? That's not what my goddess stands for."
*Casts spell*
"What the hell? My goddess stands for that?"
*Goes to bed*
"Oh god, yes. My Goddess stands for a lot of things!"
Isilme |
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Okay! I mean. I do intend for this to be an overall dark game. It’s the nature of the enemy, and the situation that the region is in. But when it comes to your actual PCs, I don’t want too much bad crap to happen to them. The point is they’re coming to make things better, right?
Yup, we are here to make things better. Doesn't mean we're not going to have to overcome a few nightmares between here and there.
I like the think Val's not too serious of a character. She can be serious at times, but she's also the character that gets roaring drunk and tries to ship party members with the main NPCs.
Which is why she gets along so rip-roaringly well with Anevia :)
I was disappointed she didn't bring up Jeslyn to Iomedae. :P
She was too busy crushing on Iomedae to remember that ;)
Ary Bishop |
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Mmhmm. All matter of business was kind of forgotten. We'll save it for the second date, perhaps. She was also gonna check with the Phylactery, had it been more available, once she'd realized she'd let her hormones overtake her rationality. :P
It was absolutely intended out of character for it to not come up. It's pretty readily on my mind. It was also pretty ingrained in Ary's... but goodness.
Ary Bishop |
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Man. Annabelle doesn't even get inspired by beautiful oration anymore. :o
Valaria Alazario |
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Oh dear. Annabelle's going to start angsting again when she realize that song and poetry can't inspire her anymore, isn't she? Damn, I'm going to run out of inspiring speeches if this keeps up.
Valaria Alazario |
I'm just not going to do anything this fight it seems. Remind me to pick up immunity to mind-effecting effects from the Universal Mythic Powers if I have room.
Ehren Ferron |
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Is there one that does mind-affecting immunity? It would only apply to non-mythic sources at any rate, so we'd still be good with the inspire courage and whatnot.
Ary Bishop |
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Ary will one day have:
Unswerving Loyalty (Su)
You are a bastion of strength and resolve, and you possess the ability to protect your mind from even the most powerful charms and compulsions. You gain immunity to non-mythic mind-affecting effects, though you can choose to be affected by them if you wish. When subject to a mind-affecting effect from a mythic source, you can expend one use of mythic power as an immediate action to gain immunity to that effect.
From the Mythic path. :) 'No. I think I won't be killing all my friends, thanks. Keep talking, Isilme, I wanna show him the power of friendship.'
Markus Coffinborn |
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Good! I’m glad you’re not uncomfortable. I worry. Especially since Markus gets the brunt of the NPCs, haha!
…I intend to escalate things as he gets more charismatic too ;) I mean. He will be hitting 30 charisma, someday, yes? That’s more CHA than a succubus!
I dunno why you’d ever feel inadequate, silly! I mean. You’ve got a great, unique concept. You saw the competition in recruitment, no? I got way more “traditionally evil race with something to prove!” submissions than I ever expected. But Markus still managed to be unique amongst that. And that’s before seeing him in action.
Part of what I like about Markus is that he has room to grow. I’m excited to see what sort of person he ultimately becomes.
Yes, I think 30 is where I'll get...
+4 extra enhancement, plus boni from tier 4, 6, 8 and 10, and then levels 8, 12, 16 and 20. That's an extra 12 Charisma on top of what I already have. For a total of 34 Charisma.
That makes my level 20 Diplomacy score +35 ;) and my 9th-level spells DC 35 (10 base + 9 level + 12 Charisma + 4 Spell Focus)
Yeah, I was going through concepts in my head. I knew at the beginning of recruitment that I wanted to play an archmage, and I knew that I didn't want to play anything... classic. I didn't want to play a hero. The very first thing that started Markus was his motivation - he wanted to die. Because why would anyone want to go to the Worldwound if they're not a hero?
Interestingly, I was extremely confident during recruitment that I would be accepted, knowing the other Archmage profiles, but... now that I'm in the game, I feel more self-conscious about my character because of how amazing each of the other concepts are. Mostly, it becomes a motivation to keep up and to compete.
- - - - -
As for Liotr and Iomedae... I actually sympathize with him. Hulrun was probably a hero figure for him when he was a teenager. He's lived through the worst parts of the Crusades. And honestly, he's just trying his best. Redeeming Liotr seems like a more achievable goal than redeeming Jeslyn was. Ary - do you wanna try that if we're back in Kenabres? Taking him as a cohort could be a cool choice for you, right? ;)
Situations like the one we're in right now make me sympathize with him. It would be so much easier to hit this with just brute force, but in hindsight, after discovering all of the relevant information... we'd be monsters.
- - - - -
As for conditions.... Markus can alleviate more and more conditions as we level up. Partially because of spells but mostly because of soothing touch.
Markus Coffinborn |
You mean with the "legendary ability" legendary gift?
No, I just saw that. I suppose I can get up to 38 Charisma. Which I will be doing, because that's f+@~in awesome.
I'll probably be spending my 3 from level 19 on Legendary Body 1 & 2.
Ary Bishop |
But... but... but... Liotr is so... icky! Icky and Gross. And an inquisitor. Ewwwwwwwwwww.
Valaria Alazario |
I don't think he was actually evil. Or even in need of redemption (though he could use a good kick in the ass). He's just a colossal d*ck. Nothing wrong with hating someone who's a giant ass if he deserves it.
Ary Bishop |
Hey, I'm still holding out for him using some fancy 'Misdirection' ability. :P
It's most likely he's lawful neutral. Or maybe lawful stupid. 'If you burn down an orphanage that's full of goblins, is it okay? Of course it is, they're goblins.'
Markus Coffinborn |
Hey, I'm still holding out for him using some fancy 'Misdirection' ability. :P
Oh, you mean this?
Nah, probably not.
Isilme |
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I'm sure he's lawful neutral, and very likely Iomedae wasn't terribly happy with what was going on during the third crusade, but didn't know what to do about it. Wholesale stripping of access to spells during the third probably would've been catastrophic, and I'm sure there were many people who were pushing it at that point.
GM Kiora |
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It's important to understand that the Third Crusade happened in the shadow of the Red Morning Massacre, and also that many of the witch hunts successfully rooted out infiltrating cultists.
In fact, at least until the opening of the Fifth Crusade, Kenabres had little issue with cultist infiltration within the city, which bolstered its population and economy as it became known as a safe place to live and made it a rather successful border city. The only larger border city is Nerosyan.... the capital :)
Fort Portolmaeus will be a better image of what border towns to the Worldwound look like.
I thought adding something like the Third Crusade took some real courage on the behalf of the setting designers. It makes the whole faction and the war itself a lot more interesting, and also a lot more real. War makes people do horrifying s*+& in real life, and there is no real world comparison to what Mendev has suffered.
Ary Bishop |
:) And Ary's studies are firmly rooted in 'The Crusades never did anything wrong' syndrome. :) Or close to it. There's a very large difference between knowing there were witch hunts and seeing someone who professed to being innocent put to death anyway due to something a under her control as her eye color. :P
Ary Bishop |
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Also, yeah, it fits. Given the situation, her options are 'give not-so-righteous people who pray to me a fighting chance, and save the world... or don't. Hm. Let me just think about that.' Ary's and Markus's are pretty few and far between. :)
Also, I'm glad (at least in theory) that we've moved Markus away from wanting to die. :)
Markus Coffinborn |
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In case Ehren and the GM both show up:
Looking deep within himself, he can feel the... kernel... of the wardstone's power within him, pulsing with energy. While it won't fill him with the same kind of blaze of power that it did fighting the horde of babaus, he knows that he can tap into it... and he can feel the magical knowledge suffusing it. He reaches into that kernel, and can feel the words filling him.
He selects the one he needs and focuses on the battlefield.
'magnus-fragor lacerare'
Markus, for just a moment, burns with a similar aura to the one that overcame him in the wardstone chamber. His eyes light up and energy crackles around his hands as he gestures towards the battlefield, where several waves of energy appear in a large burst. The waves of energy leave marks, skin-deep, that appear to be vicious scars and sear with pain.
Spending two mythic points on wild arcana - gaining the torture effect word. Casting boosted-burst torture. It creates a 20ft radius burst in the square just behind Man #1 - this should hit Man #1, Woman #3, Man #4 and Woman #4. They get to make DC 21 Fortitude saves or become nauseated for 8 rounds. At the end of each of their turns they get to make another DC 21 Fortitude save to overcome it.
Isilme |
It's up to people like Ary and Markus (and Isilme too, she may not be Iomedaean, but she certainly feels the same way about the witch hunts as Ary) to change the crusades and people like Liotr for the better. Whether that's by eventually replacing them with people who aren't a-holes or by getting them to see the error of their ways remains to be seen :)
And I agree. Now Annabelle carries that torch for a while, although I think she really just wants normalcy more than anything.
Ary Bishop |
Speaking of actions! Does wordcasting have any fancy rules for spellcraft DCs? :)
Valaria Alazario |
I've never gotten the hang of word casting, but it sounds kind of cool.
Isilme |
I'd kinda thought about it as well for the runic stuff, but it just seems way too much to pick up. I have a general idea of what spells do and how to use them from many, many years of playing. Going to wordcasting would basically put me at square one, way too daunting :)
I'm pretty interested in seeing how it works out though.
Markus Coffinborn |
Wordcasting makes heighten spell pretty useless. The DC of a spell is calculated by A. the level of the effect word if there's only one or B. the level of the total effect if there's more than one word.
For example, two 1st-level words equal a 3rd-level wordspell.
Ary Bishop |
Wordcasting also lets enterprising druids summon nature's ally as a standard action... If I recall correctly. Though that's always felt like an error.
Ehren Ferron |
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I think I know what I want to do, but since there's three enemies (or are there? ;P) ahead of me, I'll let the GM post first.
Ary Bishop |
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This made me think of Isilme's player. :)