Maze of the Blue Medusa 5E (Inactive)

Game Master TPJ

Y'know, when I started this character, I didn't intend to go this direction. I mean, I was leaning this way, but...I'm just...having so much fun like this. Of course I can stop anytime I wanna.

...
I just don't wanna. ^_^

Victory needs no explanation, defeat allows none.

Success is commemorated; Failure merely remembered.

Faith without deeds is worthless.

Pain is temporary; pride is forever? That's all I've got.

A man who has nothing can still have Faith.
A man who has nothing can still offer his life.

Who are we waiting on in the combat?

Probably the DM. I'm having one of those weeks.

And Vehemence.

When you were born, the world laughed and you cried.
Live so that when you die, the world cries and you laugh.

I have a poster of sayings like that in my bathroom.

So I know that saying...and I've never understood what it means.

Like, when I die, I doubt I'll be laughing. I will probably be saying, "Huh. I guess I should've reloaded when I was behind my third giant stack of dollar bills and fan letters."

I like to think of it as "When I was born, I needed everyone around me for everything, yet the world did not need me. When I die, I want to have lived so that I need nothing from the world, and everyone around me needed me for everything."

Checking in.

Haven't paid as much attention due to fixing up the house and getting ready to put it on the market.

Did you guys see all the news about Oroville dam? That's about an hour north of me. My old d&d group was in Marysville, and they were part of those evacuated.

Glad your improving Thratch. Hope real life dies down and you come back soon.

I think I need to bow out. My life is just speeding up and I'm finding I don't have the time anymore. I really enjoyed the time I spent with you all. Maybe in another season things will change.

Please use Vehemence however is most useful for plot events.

If you want to stay in contact, I love making friends and talking about nerd theory and all things, please PM me for my social media info. LOOKING AT YOU THRATCH

I have only love for all of you. Slay Psathyrella for me.

It's been a genuine pleasure, Vehemence.

Good luck with everything and drop in if things lighten up. There's always room. :)

Sad to see you go man.

Thank you so much. If things get better I'll let you know.

Sad to see you go. It was a pleasure.

Aterroooooooooo!

ARTAX, NOOOOO!

Sooooo...whats up folks? *Pours everyone tea from a compartment in his chest.*

What are you, a bending unit?

Nah I would drink beer then.

Level 5

Gain 6 HP.
HD becomes 5d8
Proficiency Bonus is +3
Sneak Attack is 3d6
Gain Uncanny Dodge (Starting at 5th level, when an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the attack’s damage against you.)

I'll take my 4th level of Barbarian and take +2 Strength.

Level 5

Gain 8 hp.
HD now 5d10
Prof bonus +3
Swap Cantrip Dancing Lights for Fire Bolt.
Gain Extra Attack.

+6 hit points (new total 32)
Proficiency bonus +3
+1 sorcery points (new total 5)
+1 spell known (counterspell)
+2 3rd level spell slots

Wand of magic missile recharge: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Are we resting right this second? It seems like it and I want to spend some HD.

I kind of moved the story forward to be able to tell Thratch's tale. But we haven't actually found a place to rest. That's up to the DM.

Based on your moving ahead I assumed we took Riven's suggestion and went back into room 33.

No, sorry. I was just trying to type it all out while it was still fresh in my head.

I'm happy to do that, but it wasn't my plan.

What was Thratch's plan? We can still move before long resting.

Thratch doesn't make plans.

As a player, my plan was for us to short or long rest some where; I just didn't know where.

Thratch isn't a leader and won't make decisions for the party. But he is loyal to his "guild" (aka the current party) and will do whatever he can to ensure their safety and that their goals are met.

Also, as a player, I'm trying very hard to not be a party leader. I've been the party leader in almost every PBP game I've ever played, and I'm kind of tired of it. Plus, I'm DMing several games.

Even still, as of right now, I'm the party leader in 4 other games. My plan for this game, from the very beginning, was to be a support PC for the party. Not a leader.

Here is my level up stuff. I missed that we should have:

Taking my last level in Mystic. I gain +7 hp, my Proficiency bonus goes up to +3, I gave 10 pp and my max pp/round goes up to 5, and I gain the Adaptive Body Greater Immortal Talent. I'll get it named with my naming convention later.

We took a long rest already?

Updating my sheet.

It is my understanding that we are taking the time to roleplay out a long rest knowing it will be uninterrupted.

Super busy day at work for me. Training someone.

I just want to say, I really appreciate how great this game is and how good of players (and DM!) you all are.

I'm in another game on a different forum right now where we got super railroaded, and one of the players is hella pissed at everyone else because we didn't meta-game our PCs and instead went with what we all thought was the most appropriate for our characters.

And damn does that make me feel good about how great of people and players all of you are.

#ThrathMatch Imma weigh in an this because I have strong feelings about it. =)

1st choice: "We were captured, and you want to side with the capturerers. You're obviously suffering from extreme Stockholm Syndrome. We'll need to take you back to civilization and re-integrate you into peaceful society."

2nd choice: "No, YOU'RE stupid!"

3rd choice: "The third general order states that I must not assist the enemy if captured, and will use every available means to escape and return to friendly lines, where I will debrief my commanding officer on intel gathered in the enemy's camp. Since you are arguing against this, I'm going to have to write you up for a courts martial."

4th choice: "No, YOU'RE stupid!!1!"

5th choice: "And how did YOU assist (name-of-PC-captured-by-lizards). Since you actively did NOT assist a fellow PC, that makes you a PVPer, by reason of inaction. It's the same as if you cast Doom on a PC who was in solo combat."

6th choice: There is no 6th choice.

7th choice: "No, YOU'RE stupid!!!"

8th choice: "So, if we were Americans British, and got captured by Nazis, you'd insist that we immediately start helping the Nazis with whatever the hell they wanted us to do?? Sooooo...you're a Nazi?"

9th choice: "No, YOU'RE stupid!!!"

10th choice: "You're...you're kidding, right? Which part of I GOT CAPTURED AND HELD AGAINST MY F&#+ING WILL are you just not getting? I got captured by lizardmen, -you're- a lizardman, it's on YOU to do the peacemaking. IF you fail to see that, then see choice 9.

And, a special note from Brother Aterro: If you educate men without Faith, you but make them clever devils.
Case in point. =3

That cracked me up. Especially #8. No, especially all of it.

Right now, everyone is ignoring drama lizardfolk player and working with the DM to find a way to fix it. He's apologized for the massive railroad - he said his intent was to show different PCs different perspectives of the same war, but he messed up by not giving a way for the PCs to empathize with their captures.

So now we're discussing ways to fix it: giant deus ex machina which just happens to unite the three tribes, or a retcon before the attacks happened, or something. Anyways, the DM is doing a fine job in listening to us for advice.

(Meanwhile, the lizardfolk player is saying that a retcon or deus ex machina would have never been needed if we had just listened to him and made it so our PCs sided with the lizards; and this whole thing is all our fault).

Clearly the new player has certain expectations. I would honestly just ask him what he expected to gain by making a character who joined a game where the group had been captured by three different factions in an ongoing war, each of which captured a different member of the group. There's no winning scenario there that doesn't lead to suspicion or hostility.

Additionally, he's breaking one of the major social contracts of gaming: He's expecting you all to play your characters according to out-of-character knowledge, which is fine if everyone agreed to ahead of time, but without that agreement, it should be expected that people will play their characters according to the knowledge that they have, not the knowledge of the deities who control their lives have, because there is no way that they should know that.

Now, had he offered to be helpful and showed up with the solitary PC who was taken by the lizardfolk saying that he freed him because he did not want to war with your tribe and that he wanted your help against the other tribes, then I could see him being made sympathetic, but it seems to me, based on one side of the story, that he has not clearly expressed what his hopes were for joining one side of the combatants.

Also, I would want to find out if he participated in the assault on your camp, cause that would be doubly damning if he did.

If you're interested in some reading, the out of character discussion is taking place here, starting with post 364.

And the relevant section of the game starts here, starting with post 964. That's the beginning of this story arc. The DM is young and somewhat inexperienced, so give him some leeway.

This is the Giants in the Playground forums. You're not allowed to have alts or aliases, so to distinguish different PCs, we use different color texts. On those forums, I'm mgshamster, and I'm playing Zanan the half-orc folk hero barbarian.

If you want to see all the PCs, look for Zengrich to post and look in his signature. You'll see a PNG link for Zuzu. That PNG is a list of all the PCs in the game and what they're abilities are.

Yup. In post 378 he's actually -advocating- for Stockholm Syndrome. (Also, his sex is "male" but his character's pic is wearing a dress and high heals. Not that there's anything wrong with that. ;)

I can't read anymore. The more I read the more options #2, 4, 7 & 9 seem like the only choice. >.<

Aterro, you and I always seem to butt heads in character, in all the games were in together. But we always talk it out out-of-character to see where we want the story to go and to ensure that were aren't taking the game too seriously.

To me, that's how a game should be run, and that's how players treat each other with respect.

That guy, Ramsus, he seems to be pissed if someone doesn't bend over backwards for his character, going as far as insulting* others and then saying, "it's not my fault if you took that as an insult."

Although my "favorite" so far is right after he said that, the other person came back with a long rebuttal and he (Ramsus) said (paraphrased), "I'm going to respond to someone who's determined to make a fight out of what is simple disagreement, as if having a different opinion is wrong."

I broke from giantitp for a reason, and ran a campaign that lasted a full year while there.

Ya, for some reason, people who can't not be jerks is just a think on PbP. It's rare, but boy, when it pops up, man is it ever a thing.

Yeah, that guy fails logic forever.

How is that even a thing to say that there's no difference between someone who is dead, and someone who is *not* dead? That's...that's about as big a difference as there is!

Anyway, yeah, he's just stuck in "I'm better than everyone and you all suck" mode. Nothing can be done. If the GM is smart, he'll kick him. The player will -never- be a positive contributor.

In other news, 5th is a big level for clerics. 3rd level spells for all! Revivify means we fear death even less than before.

And now Riven gets teleported to the wedding area.

You say things like you know this...Riven is just looking at where the child wants them to go.

Tenchi is curious about his as well, since the only mention of him was when I went and got Ashlyn and Aterro.

I'll have a post up sometime this evening. Work has been intense the last couple days. On the plus side, I successfully rolled my first save vs. jury duty today. On the minus side, I have to roll again the next four weekdays. :-/

Ya, Jury Duty is a long-duration hex, from the school of Government Tape (Red).

Fortunately you can get +2 to resist if you Summon Hangman Rope, or Conjure Old-Fashioned Prejudice. They tend to frown on that. =)