Yeah, a lot of salt being flung on the forums there, some of it justified as the guy running things made no database backups for well over 6 months prior to the crash (which he apparently caused while messing about with something). And then there are the brutal flame fests between people calling him on that f%!!up and any number of others holding various viewpoints--it was an accident, why didn't these people make their own backups, it's a free service run by one guy and stop b&%!&ing, etc.
Shit, it's getting so bitter over there, that people are calling out each other's post counts, or their lack, as a reason why their opinion matters or doesn't.
I'm just sitting here, sipping my tea, reading the drama...
Makes me glad I'm not over there.
I mean, everybody is responsible for having their own backups. Of course.
But seriously, If I mock about with a database in a way that I am not confident about, I do a frigging backup.
I carelessly act like that in my work environment, I can go look for a new job...
So both sides have a point. He fu*cked up really bad, but it's a free service. He could shut it down from one day to the other without giving them a notice. If they don't pay for it, they don't get to complain.
Not that shifting guilt will do anything to remedy the situation.
Alas, I'll go make me some backups from my character sheets here on paizo ^_^ - re-doing them all by hand would be a massive undertaking...
Apparently there was a backup program running, but not actually working, but I'm not sure if that makes things better :P
Random thought of the day!
Let's assume this Varus is indeed the demoniac. CE is just as far away from LE as LG is - he would (assuming his alignment and interests actually match his rituals) certainly not be a fan of the typical Chelaxian ways.
Furthermore his room seems maintained, which I assume the servants are taking care of, but unused which seems to indicate that he himself haven't been here for a while. And while I'm sure this place values the privacy of its inhabitants I'm guessing they would notice if he had been gone for *years* or something. So it would sorta make sense if he had only been gone for a handful of weeks or something?
Which would mean that he might have left/disappeared oh say around when this new Thrune fella rumbled into town?
Now - he *could* just have packed up and left for greener pastures - but why leave all this stuff behind?
Or maybe he is among those that tried to toss Thrune out by force? I mean a plot to murder seems like a very CE way to solve things! That in turn means he is probably either dead or rotting in the warehouse dungeon - if my wild guess makes sense.
But!
The thing I'd really like to highlight here is that not everyone in that warehouse may be nice people that we would be better off releasing onto the streets. Not sure what to do about that though - that's why this is a random thought after all and not a helpful insight :P
Yeah, releasing demonic summoner types into the streets sounds like a bad idea...
Yeah, releasing demonic summoner types into the streets sounds like abadfun idea...
Fixed that for you ^_^
Alas, Brownie points for thinking ahead. So, yes...not everybody you can liberate will share your alignment on the good/evil axis.
Some may even be powerful allies, albeit at a terrible price.
Or eventually become enemies, if not stopped preventively. (Now there's a moral conundrum...if you murder a murderer before he mass-murders, are you a murderer yourself or a savior? And how certain can you be about what will happen?)
...
..
.
@Chill Touch - The anti-undead utility is quite nice! I mean Eyebite basically does the same (almost!) and that's a 6th level spell : )
Much better then Frostbite in this case too :P
Regeneration huh.
Hmm...
Anyone know how picky our lizard friend is about his food? :P
Also on a related note; I smell 3pp/homebrew/ported from elsewhere! Miranda will give you a shiny piece of silver if anyone can guess how I know that : )
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Another note: Aaaah! These zombies and their will saves!
... but at least the spell is using up some of their okay-good rolls :P
^ We can hope!
If they regenerate properly, unlimited food for lizard!
Yes exactly!
And we can fund our entire rebellion by setting up vaguely unspecific street-meat vendors* :D
*Probably a really bad idea though :P
"Noooo, noooo!"
*Overly dramatic hand gestures*
"A splendid idea, truly!"
*twirls mustache*
"By chance, I got the license papers for a street-vendor franchise right here! Just sign on the dotted line"
*pulls out an impossible large paper with fineprint on a nanometer-level, with a pen materializing in a puff of sulphur and brimstone out of thin air in second hand*
Hmm, a quick question. Can Nissim use his Precise Bomb discovery to exclude Varuzhan from splash damage if he's grappled by the target of the bomb? Sounds like his dragging it around by his leg rather than being in a full body grapple so maybe? :)
I...I have to think on that one -_-
With his lower half ripped off when he started moving, this guy is all arms and head. Now, I'm not saying you can't be THAT good, but when he's grappling someone, he's "all over" that someone.
That is, by my understanding, he would actually need to enter the targets square, which would negate your plan.
But I have not actually stated that and it would seem deliberate to add the fact after.
How about a compromise: Shove it into Crawley directly, by coming close and making a Melee Touch Attack with your bomb instead! Doesn't provoke(plus he has no hands free *haha*), and would allow me to make sense of the situation, mentally.
(If you miss the roll, it goes off in Crawleys square as a miss(which by default negates precise bombs)...that is, he takes full damage, but splash for you, V and Miranda)
@Interesting Rules - Technically grappling puts the target in an adjacent space. That means it is very hard for two Sprites to hug; if they try they magically repel eachother :P
@Splashing - Miranda is still decently fireproof, so she wouldn't really mind if you go with the bomb-stuff route. And I think even Varuzhan would have a bit of fire instead of some gnawing thing :)
@Interesting Rules: That technicality becomes much more interesting with smaller creatures, without reach, which have to enter your space to attack, and/or are capable of swarming tactics, sharing spaces.
@Gnawing: Why would he gnaw V? The public relations department of the undead really has a lot of work ahead to get people to put these wild accusations/speculations behind themselves and see them for the free and noble creatures they really are.
@Smaller creatures - Like Sprites :P
@Gnawing - Gnawing your enemies is like a blow bellow the belt or something, totally uncool!
*scurries away to get a toothpick*
Aye, come to think of it, there was a significant lack of biting from you in this combat.
You didn't bite back at the Lizard, either.
That is to say...are you a cannibal, Miranda?
So far, you only tried to eat sentient humanoids if I am not mistaken...
*Gendo Pose*
Makes one think. I mean, theoretically, if one among you was a traitor, that kind of behaviour could be misinterpreted. Totally not saying there IS a traitor or anything, but, you know, IF there was, you could totally be suspected for that kind of thing...
I almost decided "no thanks" on the touch attack option. Nissim's is just miserable. But it worked out!
Biting things found in the sewer seems like an excellent excuse for the GM to ask for some Fort saves :P
Also, without Multiattack, mixing biting with the other stuff makes it do almost nothing so not losing out on much either.
Mostly I choose to view that option as an back-up, not plan A. After I get Sneak Attack and maybe Multiattack and less disgusting enemies we'll see!
As for the accusations Miranda clearly ate both tomatoes and all that delicious food we put on Rexus tab too. Much tastier then some thrune goon (or rotten corpses, for that matter!) ^^
I almost decided "no thanks" on the touch attack option. Nissim's is just miserable. But it worked out!
The Ranged option would have been more miserable. Touch simple meant you would potentially expose yourself :)
@Miranda: Yes, I know you are not a double-agent. *wink* If you were, I'd never expose you like that, I mean, us Cylons have to stick together, right? *wink*
@Miranda: Yes, I know you are not a double-agent. *wink* If you were, I'd never expose you like that, I mean, us Cylons have to stick together, right? *wink*
What? I don't remember saying anything about a double-agent ... :P
I meant not using a bomb at all and doing something else.
Very busy, I'll be able to post tomorrow.
FYI, as you may have noticed the campaign thread update notification tracker thingie on the website isn't working. So... there's that.
And I just thought all my games were crawling along!
Mm yeah I just got a blank page. But using the campaign tab on the alias page still works though : )
Oh my. Over a week. Never been that bad :P
Anyway, as of April the first, I am officially transferred to my new department now. Since workload has not diminished while I had meetings and trainings and stuff, I DO have some backlog to work off/do, but the future is looking a lot brighter.
My work, by it's very nature, will have busier and less busy days in the future, but I do expect to be able to resume regular posting within a week or two. Yay.
*Glances at calendar* Are ... are you sure you ended up in the right department :P? Might be worth to just double check :P
Anyhow! Have fun with all the new things : )
Forging handwriting is usually under Linguistics so I guess our good lawyer might be able to do that (if his ethics allow it :P).
On the wax seal though Miranda might be helpful - conservators are all about making things appear untouched after all! Or just Sleight of Hand for a steady cut?
FYI: While I expected to be able to post during the combined work/private trip over the weekend, life had different plans. I'll be attending a funeral tomorrow and it's kept me busy the past 2 days, too.
I will try and post again as soon as possible, but thought I should keep you informed.
No rush.
On Aldous as bearer of bad news - I don't think he's the right choice. He's got an insane diplomacy mod, but I plan on only using it when he's making an argument, or in some sort of "professional" capacity. Otherwise, the barrister is decidedly not a people person, and this is how his Cha 8 will come in.
Basically, in matters of logic, argument, and expertise, Aldous = high charisma. In matters of etiquette, sympathy, or empathy, Aldous is not the person you want speaking for you. I think Lily, with perhaps a backup from Nissim, who has better grasp of social niceties, is probably the better bet.
Not to say that I wouldn't have fun putting Aldous in that situation!
I was thinking mostly of him making the fake letter with his fancy linguistics and all.
But ... hmm. What if Varus left a will or something passing the appartment to some nice friend or something? (Though not sure if it actually makes sense to testament something that you are renting ... maybe?) Then we would have something official for Aldous to deliver :P
@Mordred: My condolences. I hope all is well. Also, is the new job at least more interesting and fun than the old one?
On Aldous as bearer of bad news - I don't think he's the right choice. He's got an insane diplomacy mod, but I plan on only using it when he's making an argument, or in some sort of "professional" capacity. Otherwise, the barrister is decidedly not a people person, and this is how his Cha 8 will come in.
Basically, in matters of logic, argument, and expertise, Aldous = high charisma. In matters of etiquette, sympathy, or empathy, Aldous is not the person you want speaking for you. I think Lily, with perhaps a backup from Nissim, who has better grasp of social niceties, is probably the better bet.
Not to say that I wouldn't have fun putting Aldous in that situation!
Nissim can do it instead sure. But it was the legal expertise that Aldous had that I figured should be the factor that matters most. I don't see his role in it as being about "people person" stuff so much as scaring the crap out of them by telling them how, in loving detail, the authorities and legal system, are going to be a potentially dangerous morass that could entangle and swallow them rather than serve their needs or justice.
Thank you, both.
I will try and update today or tomorrow.
Maybe you want to do a discussion-poll on how to proceed on either the rented room, or the relatives of the dead girls.
IC-Discussion can bog down on these topics, and a quick role-call in Discussion can settle things...(I think you got a good general idea of how to proceed, but unless someone steps up and says they will do this or that, I can't just roll with an idea if someone may object to it.)
Either way, there's only one path left to go, so that'll be simple. In the meanwhile, you MAY want to consider what Level 3 decisions will be relevant. Not quite yet, but soonish.
@Funeral: I lived in a different city than my late grandmother for a long time. The distance, and the fact I only saw her a few times a year made things easier emotionally.
That may sound cruel or insensitive, but it was harder for me to come to terms with the sudden loss of my cat last autumn, simply because she was very present in my everyday life.
What was hard was dealing with family and all the people involved in such events, especially my grandfather.
@Job...mostly it was a shift of department, of priorities, and a few responsibilities. On the grand scale of things, I'm doing mostly the same things, just for someone else, with a different focus, and different priorities.
Hard to explain without going into detail, but in the end, things should be more "steady" with less project-related travelling, which I wanted to be able to spend more time with my 1-year-old.
So I'm good, there. Just still getting settled in with those things that are different from how stuff worked before, but I am confident I can now keep to the more regular schedule I promised(barring events like this weeks funeral).
@Funeral: I lived in a different city than my late grandmother for a long time. The distance, and the fact I only saw her a few times a year made things easier emotionally.
That may sound cruel or insensitive, but it was harder for me to come to terms with the sudden loss of my cat last autumn, simply because she was very present in my everyday life.
What was hard was dealing with family and all the people involved in such events, especially my grandfather.
Not cruel or insensitive at all. There's been studies done on the effect of pets' deaths on people, and they tend to conclude that the death of a long-loved pet is more grief-inducing than anything but an immediate family member. From my personal experiences, the death of my favorite cat was shattering, and I know that when my dog goes, it will be bad.
It is still worth it, though.
Re:poll, I think it is a good idea. I really like Miranda's idea of transferring the lease in a will, if such legal gymnastics can be entertained. Aldous would likely know if it was legally-speaking feasible to do.
I think a will to take over the lease is fine. We'll need some sort of story about who the recipient is and how Varus died.
As for sharing the news about the girls, sounds like that's just a matter of choosing folks who are diplomatic (i.e. not Varuzhan).
You could actually set it up as your legal fee, Aldous. A sort of 'I like this part of town, but unfortunately, it's so difficult to find a decent, rent-controlled property. After working with the man, I opted to reduce his fees in exchange for this minor edit to his will.' :P
I'm... really bad at condolences. Terribly bad. As such, I'm not sure I'll do a very good job with Lily. On the other hand, it's an opportunity for me to maybe get better at condolences, and it's something I think Lily would want to do.
I think Aldous is definitely ideal to bring along in a good-cop, bad-cop fashion. I'd prefer to set the meeting under starlight so she's less hopeless with the wisdom skills at the time. :)
Boros is another poor choice for social interaction. It hasn't had much opportunity to come up yet, but his inner sperg won't stay hidden forever :p. Although, that may be a good reason to send him after all; let him prove quite conclusively that he's not really fit to be in public without a minder for anything other than targeted applications of violence and mayhem :D.
Note: Mending targets an object weighting 1 lbs per cl (2 for Miranda) so she'll probably have to cut it into smaller pieces then mend each individual piece and lastly sew them all together again.
Unless GM feels comfortable in letting Mending target partial objects : )
@Swimming - I do agree with Boros that it seems a bit dangerous at the moment, being in murky dark waters and all.
In a few levels though we'll get access to stuff like Aboleth's Lung and summons lasting long enough to both take a look and report back. But that would mean waiting...
But right now I'm thinking we could get some 10' poles, cast Light on the ends, and then at least poke around a bit. Should at least give a preliminary view of how things look - and if it seems reasonable to invest more resources into diving around!
(Or it could just be too murky for this to work. But then we have only spent the cost of a few poles :) )
Just as a heads-up, I'll try, when possible, to utilize time I have to make sure we pick up some pace again.
That means I'll not always wait until I feel reasonable certain nobody else is lacking/considering a contribution to a situation, but that I do write a (possibly short) update the moment I have time.
E.g. both tomorrow evening and the day after, I SHOULD be able to do so if there's anything to answer to.
Either way, it's somewhat of a different approach, but I believe one that will ultimately work better than letting too much time pass between posts because of waiting for the right moment, and THEN waiting for some spare time.
So yeah, the plan of returning to at least 2 updates per week is still relevant :)
I'm all for getting into a quicker rhythm if you can do it!
Oh, a quicker rhythm, by all means. I stand by keeping it to 2 updates a week :P
Only instead of spending time at a luxurious hotel for a training workshop, I got carted off to a mountain cabin for a teambuilding experience. Now, I knew that teambuilding stuff and leadership training kind of was the agenda, but I did not know I'd get locked up somewhere in the wilderness in what felt like a 4 day assessment center crossbred with a bunch of bankers and lab scienties deciding to go camping.
It was, by all means, an interesting experience, but needless to say, I had neither phone nor wi-fi there(nor would I have had time to post, if I would have found a spot with connection).
All my games got delayed this week, but I'll get going here first!
That done, yeah, we have reached a point where the "Rebellion" gets started, in theory.
This is an excellent time to hand the PCs a blank Rebellion sheet (see the Hell’s Rebels Player’s Guide) and have them start filling out their initial scores for the rebellion, then run the first week’s Activity and Event phases before continuing with the rest of the adventure...
That means 3 things.
First: We will set up the Rebellion basics over the next week. There's varying amounts of book-keeping involved here. We did talk about it before, but now we need a decision.
In how much detail do you wish to organize things yourself?
Everybody should answer with a "low detail" - "medium detail" - "high detail" choice. If there's one or two people who want to run with high detail and the others want low, thats simple(with some people taking over responsibility). Same if everybody wants low(auto-pilot) or everybody wants high(shared responsibility).
But things may be complicated if we get a mix. Maybe someone wants to only "run" one team under them, and focus on them? Either way, we need a consensus there, and make something work.
Second: You will get to level up to 3 before the next week/action part.
Congratulations! Do post changes in discussion, please.
Third: While I did say that individual week actions were a pain, we'll still run those in parallel. Basically, while we set up the Rebellion and you guys level, we'll run two things in parallel: The discussion at dinner, unspoilered, where you get to talk and interact, and plan for next week.
And, in spoiler, your actual actions next week. Maybe someone else wants to take a look at the puzzle box, or scout out "the warehouse"(as per the plans earlier. Maybe someone tries to learn more about the girls, or straight out heads to the boarding school to tell about their fate?
We do assume that you get back together before acting and tell each other what happened, so feel free to read along with other people's spoilered actions...it's only a way to separate the whats happening at dinner(now, everybody present) and whats happening during the week(trying to train a lizard, for example) before you act on your next target(The holding area of the Inquisition, if that plan still is the one acted on).
This serves another purpose, of giving me more liberty in updating and freely catering to those already faster in posting, hopefully getting everybody up and running again on a more regular schedule(mostly myself, admittedly :) )
1) I like details and stuff. It's fun to poke at them and so. Besides it us something to play around with if our gm happens to be kidnapped into faraway land again :P
So I vote for maximum stuff!
2) Yay!
3) Mkay : ) I'll get a post up tomorrow I think!
For running the rebellion, I'm all for describing all our activities with high detail, but I don't really want to create too many new rebellion rules beyond the adventure path rules. I don't know if that's a vote for "high detail" or "medium detail."
I also think we should consider selecting a rebellion leader with the authority to make decisions. I remember that in Kingmaker that's pretty easy since there's an actual King/Queen role. There doesn't seem to be a corresponding role in the rebellion. But we could vote for a leader, or let one emerge organically.