Into the Haunted Forest (Inactive)

Game Master Storycrafter

A short adventure intended for a new-to-PBP DM and new(ish) players.


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Male Human Wizard (Air Elementalist) 5; AC 14, 12 touch, 12 flatfooted; HP 43/43; Fort 4, Ref 3, Will 4; Initiative +8; Perception +16

Okay so we have owl prints, and urine on the door. That farmer said he was looking for the privy right? Grelm was seen loitering about outside the Sheriff's room as was a farmer and Horfil was seen entering the Inn at night covered in blood, which there is now no sign of, carrying the glowing dagger.

Where are the rest of Grelm's cronies again?


Heh, is this a bad sign? The prospect of roleplaying bowling is more exciting than the story? :) Have I truly run things so far off track?

<Hanging head in shame>

Lantern Lodge

Male Halfling Ranger/1

Ha ha no, I must admit I was curious as to how Ken lets off steam, but I think we're just easily side tracked. If you would like us to take on the tasks mentioned though you might want to consider another approach. I can't speak for everyone but Leo's not likely to go along with something because he's forced, or blackmailed. He's much more likely to be on board if someone were to appeal to his good nature; something along the lines of please I'm in a real bind here, you're the only ones that can help me, rather than do this or we'll put you in jail. Especially since he considers any of this their fault.


Male Human Wizard (Air Elementalist) 5; AC 14, 12 touch, 12 flatfooted; HP 43/43; Fort 4, Ref 3, Will 4; Initiative +8; Perception +16

I'm not sure, I'm feeling frustrated with the situation - I'm inclined to think its the way the module is set up, though obviously I cannot be wholly sure. Its a very irksome situation and feels unfair to me both in an out of character. Honestly if Colwin was neutral instead of good he'd be suggesting that a dead Sheriff would not tell any tales. I'm with Leotian, the quest sounds interesting, but Colwin's not prepared to help blackmailers and pay a debt he does not feel he owes. I've engineered situationms like this as a DM, but when I do I try to make it clear to the players that they will have a chance at revenge, its okay to kill the evil King holding the Princess to ransom and forcing you to do a mission to save her, not so much for the disgruntled showman.

I think Kensington is more annoyed with me/Colwin than you. Is that fair Kensington? Its always best to discuss things ooc IMO if there is in character strife - or even out of character annoyance. My position remains that you don't claim items by simply being first to pick them up, the party risks their lives together and should earn rewards together. I don't want to be in a position where everyone leaps on slain foes to claim their gear first. I'd seen Kensington claim the dagger was hers a number of times, but that was the first post that prompted me to say anything since it clearly showed she felt it was hers to do with as she pleased without consulting the party. I'm not necessarily saying giving the dagger over is a bad idea, but it should be a party decision.

My overall impression - which may well be wholly incorrect - is that we are not reacting the way the module wants us to. As a fairly experienced DM, my experience is that players rarely do. On the other hand its sometimes the stories that get frustrating which prove the most satisfying to resolve, PBP probably exacerbates things though because it takes so much longer to do so.

Silver Crusade

F Half-Orc Sorcerer/1

Kensington is also unwilling to be a part of blackmail, but being L/N, she would rather find another solution than have her integrity be compromised. Unfortunately, as a Lawful/Neutral, (not to mention her race) she would never condone murdering the Sherriff. Murder is against the law and thus, she cannot be part of it.

Don't worry about Kensington, Colwin. She is angriest with the Sherriff, whom she doesn't feel to be a true lawman in any sense.
The game will calm her emotions when it is complete. As for the dagger, she has decided that she wants no part of it anymore. She did feel it hers, but has come to the conclusion she doesn't want it after all, and her opinion won't change.

DM, you don't have to feel bad. This is just part of character development. Sports is the way the Bre-ayne have been taught to handle the hostile emotions.


Male Elf Dervish Dancer Bard/2 | HP 12/12 (5NL) | AC: 13, Touch: 13, FF: 10 | Fort: -1, Ref: +5, Will: +2 | Init +5 | Perception +2

This is off topic I know but still I can't resist the urge to say this.

Happy Halloween Everyone!


Horfil wrote:

This is off topic I know but still I can't resist the urge to say this.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Same to you!

Our neighborhood tricked or treated last Sunday. Right smack in the middle of the Bears game. Grrrrrr. And it was bitter cold. Brrrrrr.


Male Human Wizard (Air Elementalist) 5; AC 14, 12 touch, 12 flatfooted; HP 43/43; Fort 4, Ref 3, Will 4; Initiative +8; Perception +16

Bit of a damp squib over here in jolly old England. But happy halloween all!

Silver Crusade

Female Human Paladin 1

Happy Hallow's Eve. Probably the last person in this game to see it. :P


OK, after giving it some thought, I'm thinking that if you want, collectively, we can make a major change here.

Here's what I'm thinking we can do:

a) Stay with this module, or at least the premise, and see where it leads. You can go wherever you like, find the panalopy or not. Kill the sheriff or not. Who knows what trouble you may create, or what may happen as a consequence of not paying back the Doctor, as he claims you must do?
b) Head north, as on your original mission, to the Darkmoon Vale. Who knows what trouble you can find there?
c) Head to Sandpoint -- there's a festival about to begin there (Rise of the Runelords)
d) Head to a city named Cauldron (Shackled City)
e) Head to the River Kingdoms, to an infamous village named "Thornkeep" (Thornkeep Kickstarter prize, released yesterday)
f) Call it a day and wrap this up somehow?

3 or 4 of those will probably require finding one more player (rogue?).

Silver Crusade

F Half-Orc Sorcerer/1

We should finish our job in the Darkmoon Vale. After all, it could be fun having the sherrif chase us, and the place is bound to have a legal system that could help us.

Lantern Lodge

Male Halfling Ranger/1

I'm late, but Happy Halloween to everyone. I think continuing our original mission might be good, we do have a job to do. It doesn't really seem like we're heading in the 'do what the sheriff tells us' direction so we could easily flee north towards Darkmoon Vale without breaking out of character.

I'd rather not go to Sandpoint, as I have another character who just started a Rise of the Runelords campaign


Male Human Wizard (Air Elementalist) 5; AC 14, 12 touch, 12 flatfooted; HP 43/43; Fort 4, Ref 3, Will 4; Initiative +8; Perception +16

I'm in a Rise of the Runelords campaign to, but I'd be very interested in both Shackled City and Thornkeep. Its a fun group, and I've had no issues with the DMing, just the scenario. I should disclose that I've play the first three or so levels of Shackled City, but it was a long time ago and I'd like to finish it someday :) That would of course mean that Colwin would sit back on the decision making a bit so I can avoid meta gaming.


Male Elf Dervish Dancer Bard/2 | HP 12/12 (5NL) | AC: 13, Touch: 13, FF: 10 | Fort: -1, Ref: +5, Will: +2 | Init +5 | Perception +2

I'm Good with either B or E (I haven't done Rise of the Runlords however it looks like we have someone who has already done it (at least a little bit of it) before and I also haven't done Shackled City but same reasons as Rise of the Runelords).

Silver Crusade

Female Human Paladin 1

I'm GMing RotRL so that won't work. Shackled City sounds like it could be a lot of fun. However my character would very much want to finish the mission that she has started. Perhaps afterwards?

Silver Crusade

F Half-Orc Sorcerer/1

So what are we going to do?


If you have the patience, gimme another day or so. I've been trying to put together a plausible connection in the Dark Moon Vale. I'll see if I can get some dangling threads for you guys to pull on by the end of day.


One thought occurs to me. Assuming we continue on to adventuring in the Vale for a while, you may (or may not) want to supplement the party's skillset. I'm not advising that you do or don't, but if you wanted to, say, add a member of the party through the guise of picking up an additional adventurer at one of the major towns in the Vale, we might want to start that recruitment now (and then RP it when it comes up). If the party heads north to Falcon's Hollow, there are a few places where fellow adventurers might hang out.

If you have thoughts of recruiting, then I would recommend that you/we make a post soon on the boards, and I'd leave it up to you, as a party, to vet the new member. A group interview, if you will. I think that might be kind of fun, but I may be alone in that thought, I know.

Of course, if you guys are happy as you are, then please ignore me and play on! :)

Silver Crusade

Female Human Paladin 1

So the plan for the moment is to finish the mission in Darkmoon Vale, and then go from there? Are we heading for an AP or something in particular?


The general consensus I got was that quite a few people are already running or playing RotRL, and that a sandbox adventure (or set of adventures) was the next best plan. Darkmoon Vale's got a lot of cool stuff:

-- there's plenty of opportunity for intrigue (there's a possibly corrupt lumber consortium and tensions between many factions)
-- adventure (the region has a history of lycanthropy and there are several ancient sites)
-- and danger (there are several evil forces in the region, including an ancient dragon and several organized raiding forces).

Shackled City is still a possibility if there's consensus. That's a commitment, though.


Male Elf Dervish Dancer Bard/2 | HP 12/12 (5NL) | AC: 13, Touch: 13, FF: 10 | Fort: -1, Ref: +5, Will: +2 | Init +5 | Perception +2

I don't mind what we do. Honestly consider me a person with no role playing experience, but with a lot of knowledge making characters and optimizing them for specific tasks (I make characters in my spare time if this one dies I have about seven back up characters ready to go with avg. gold for the class at level one and a feat line to follow as the levels come, for instance I made a character just for the two-bladed sword, yes he is a fighter but that is beside the point).


If it's all right with you guys, then, let's see what adventure awaits us in the Vale.


Male Human Wizard (Air Elementalist) 5; AC 14, 12 touch, 12 flatfooted; HP 43/43; Fort 4, Ref 3, Will 4; Initiative +8; Perception +16

Works for me.


Male Human Wizard (Air Elementalist) 5; AC 14, 12 touch, 12 flatfooted; HP 43/43; Fort 4, Ref 3, Will 4; Initiative +8; Perception +16

I'm beginning to think we have simply lost too much momentum here. I just cannot maintain an interest at this kind of pace. Perhaps we could start out again, a fresh start might reinvigorate things? At the moment we are simply prolonging the inevitable imo :(

I think generally you want to be shooting for one post per person a day, probably a little shy, but we are struggling for one a week here.


I won't disagree -- the pace has slowed. I'll take the blame for that.

What are you thinking of for a fresh start? The group is finally in Falcon's Hollow, which is an interesting place rife with adventure hooks (none need be modules). Are you thinking something different?


Male Human Wizard (Air Elementalist) 5; AC 14, 12 touch, 12 flatfooted; HP 43/43; Fort 4, Ref 3, Will 4; Initiative +8; Perception +16

I think the main thing is you need to post more GM Storycrafter, its a DM that drives the pace of a game and in PBP you need to prod things along frequently. I run a Serpents Skull game which at least has pretensions of one post a day, it started a week after this game and has nearly double the posts, but I post at least twice most days and prod things along in discussion as well. Its certainly not perfect, but it has a good pace for a PBP game.

Things that seem to hold up a game are players being unclear on what is going on, what they need to do and decision making. I tend to handle this by asking in discussion if things need clarifying, making "obvious" decisions for the PCs - usually with a we can always retroact if anyone strongly objects caveat - and setting time limits. For example if the party has a few paths available I might post, I'll wait until tomorrow to move you on either going with the majority vote or randomly rolling for the path you take. That means more active players have more say, but I'm okay with that.

I'm not sure if we would not be better of doing a redux and saying people can create new characters or simply reset their current characters. I think this might reinvigorate interest and get us back on track, but my main priority is getting the game speed upped significantly. Thoughts? Creating a new group of characters as a group together might also enable us to form a more cohesive party, and perhaps have a preexisting connect to one another, etc.

I'd also suggest a bit of clearly defined adventure, with lots of battles and few decision points to get the pace up.


I'm inclined to agree with Colwin, more frequent DM posts could very well help to move things along and keep our engagement. I'm part of another game as well, and the DM posts usually twice a day for updates, NPC interactions and etc. I don't mean you need to post as often as he does, shorter but more frequent posts might help us to move along quicker.

Also like Colwin said don't be afraid to make some decisions for the PCs as long as they make sense for the character. Situations sometimes change from one player's actions to the next, especially in combat, so you need to take a bit of liberty once in a while, and adjust things so that we're not doing something like attacking an already downed opponent.

I don't think it's necessary to have a pre-existing connection with the rest of the party, but a fairly significant event that can bring us together more very early on would be good, a big battle protecting a town or some other common goal can do this nicely. I'm not opposed to a reset, though I'd prefer to keep my character, if we decide to keep going as we are you'll probably have to throw the adventure at us. At the moment our characters have no real IC reason to stay in Falcon's Hallow we'll need something very clear and concrete to stop us from simply passing through.


Male Demihuman

OK, thanks for the feedback. Having said such truths, we should probably call it a day with that. My original scope was to run a short module -- something long enough to get a good flavor, but not so long as to require a year's commitment from anyone. After I got us off track on the module (yeah, it was too railroady, and I didn't loosen the rails enough or on time), trying to reset back to a sandbox based on the original hooks is a too little too late, methinks. It's apparent that I've lost too much momentum and interest has waned.

I do thank you all heartily for taking the chance and time to play this with me. Although I wouldn't call this a success, I do appreciate the experience. I do regret, though, that we couldn't really finish out any adventure fully. I wish you all luck and much fun on your other campaigns.


Male Human Wizard (Air Elementalist) 5; AC 14, 12 touch, 12 flatfooted; HP 43/43; Fort 4, Ref 3, Will 4; Initiative +8; Perception +16

Probably for the best I'm sad to say, thanks for the game Storycrafter. I hope you don't get turned off DMing though, I think this was much more a case of a bad module than a bad DM. PBP is a very challenging medium, players don't have the same social obligations they do in RL groups and resolving tricky situations takes far longer.

Silver Crusade

F Half-Orc Sorcerer/1

Yes DM, this wasn't your fault. It was simply a module our characters were incompatable with.


Male Elf Dervish Dancer Bard/2 | HP 12/12 (5NL) | AC: 13, Touch: 13, FF: 10 | Fort: -1, Ref: +5, Will: +2 | Init +5 | Perception +2

Happy Thanksgiving from the U.S. (if you are from other places other than the U.S. then good day to you because I have no idea if you celebrate anything on this day or not. I am not trying to be ignorant to other countries holiday's I just simply don't know what you do or don't celebrate).


Male Demihuman

Ours was good, thanks for the well wishes. Hope yours was enjoyable as well.

My pregnant wife con'd me into Black Friday shopping. I got a few deals and a hell of a flu to show for it :)


Male Elf Dervish Dancer Bard/2 | HP 12/12 (5NL) | AC: 13, Touch: 13, FF: 10 | Fort: -1, Ref: +5, Will: +2 | Init +5 | Perception +2

So I'm going to assume that this campaign is more or less dead...


Male Demihuman

Horfil,

Yeah, I realized the sad truth of it back around Nov. 19th. I'll take the blame for it -- I didn't keep the pace moving or give you guys options out at critical times.

I still very much want to play more PbP, but I'm taking this as a lesson that I may not have the skill (yet) for DMing this style, or perhaps it's a question of time (baby due in a few weeks). I would like to have rebooted this campaign into something more "sandboxy" at Falcon's Hollow, but I think the momentum was already dead at that point. Rather than drag you all along further on a failed path, I decided to declare defeat and release you to more rewarding pursuits. :)

At any rate, happy holidays, and thanks for playing as far as you did.

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