The Sirensong Traveling Carnival (Inactive)

Game Master Whosawhatsis?

I'm just writing to say that I'm still around, it's just that it isn't my turn and I've nothing to say.

Running your first play by post is a learning experience, I'm running my first right now and I'm always doing things wrong. And I've got an AP to fall back on, I can't imagine homebrewing a setting with NPCs and plot. It seems monstrosly difficult, and so far I'm nothing so much as impressed and eager to explore it.

Eventually. :/

Elimination-style events are really tedious by post. But at length we'll be free to wander around a setting I've never played in before, so it'll be worth it then! I'm fine with delays and difficulties as you figure out what works and what doesn't, but the silence has been deafening, so I just thought I'd write this short missive of encouragement to make sure you know that too.

Still here as well! The competition's dragged on a bit, but now that it's done for the night we can jump back into the swing of things.

And on a slightly different note, I think by tomorrow night's attempt we'll finally be justified in pulling out an aether elemental.

So, now that night 2's game is over, and you've finished the side mission for Doc, how would you like to spend the following day? There's nothing you really need to do until the following night, so we could skip straight to that (after giving you time to plan, of course). You could visit Basil Arcto again, if you wanted, or otherwise explore Vliasport. You could also get a rematch with the champions, or otherwise interact with members of the carnival. Any preferences?

Sorry about my part in the game slowing down.

I think exploring the carnival a bit and keeping track of who there is and where they were the night before. Might give us a better Idea of everyone's layout. Some more reduce person wands would be good. If Ashak, Erin, and Pogug are all reduced then I think we have a pretty good shot. Also if he is small Ashak can climb up the ropes on the outside instead of trying to make it through the tent without darkvision.

Fun fact - tiny creatures, like a reduced Pogug, use dex rather than str for climb and swim. Pogug could try climbing the ropes as well.

I'm still around, as well. Juggling in perpetuity. :p

Sorry I haven't posted these last few days, I've been a bit under the weather.

Haven't heard from anyone for a while. Do you guys have a plan?

Yes!

...

Do better?

The wands did pretty well, but we will have to buy more for the next attempt. Erin also being tiny is a valid option, giving a larger stealth bonus.

Let me know when you decide what you want to do first.

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't mind being reduced. I don't think an aerial assault is going to work - if there's something flying that can see in the dark, there's just no way to stay hidden. But now that we know tiny creatures can fit under the tent, Pogug, Erin, and Chi can all try to sneak in that way, maybe with blurred movement and/or expeditious retreat to smooth things along. Meanwhile Ashak could go for an entrance or the ropes, and when things inevitably go wrong someone else could come charging in with a horse or two to draw away the defenders?

Though that at all sounds way too much like our last two plans for me to be happy about it. Maybe we'd be better off just sending an aether elemental to invisibly fly up and grab it, and then Semsephiel can put his Bluff skill to use saying he did it with his demon magics.

Honestly, it might actually be worth it to try getting people from the town involved, if only to waste the guard's time. Being outnumbered like this is pretty rough.

Anyway, we should probably head into town in the morning and stop by the magic shop, assuming it hasn't been replaced overnight. Then we can figure out where to go from there.

They're spread out, and we know their positions. Perhaps just cast mount several times before breaking the treeline, and then go with a calvary charge? Those who are tiny or can become so slip under, Ashak goes over the top, and Semsephiel tries to trip anyone who provokes an AoO.

First step is get more reduce person wands.

Clyde sits in the stands, munching popcorn. Bravo! Bravo! Excellent performance all around.

I am still here but I most likely wont be able to post until the end of the week. bot as needed.

Work has been hectic for me, and will probably continue to be for the next two weeks. I'll try to get something up in a little bit, but just so you guys know, it will probably continue to be slow on my end for at least that long. After that, I'll have the current work project finished, and will ONLY have the two books I'm currently on-contract to write to worry about :P

Btw, I should probably address the fact that my recent posts haven't been as narratively deep as my earlier ones. Part of that it that we're just in a less narrative-heavy part of the story (especially since most of the RP hooks I've been leaving out seem to be too subtle for anyone to bite on). Part is that, with all the writing projects I'm getting paid to work on, some days coming home and writing a significant chunk of D&D story feels like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0ZxdLD9xeQ. Rest assured that there is plenty of story to come.

Yes, we have hit a lull in posting which as I'm sure most of you are aware is common in PbP. I know I am invested enough to get through some slow posting and it seems like others are as well. If everyone just keeps posting when we can then we can push through, I don't want to see this game die, especially so close to getting that damn flag!

A heads up for all my games. I work as a wilderness educator and through the summer their are a few weeks when I will be out in the forest for a week with little access to the internet. I will post letting you know before hand but the next one will be the week of june 25th-29th.

Erin, you want to walk me through what you're hoping to accomplish with Blurred Movement? It gives AoOs a 20% miss (if that AoO is triggered by a movement of 10ft or more). I'm not sure it actually helps at all with stealth, though. The blurring only persists when you're not moving if you move your maximum double-move distance, and I think you can't technically do that while stealthing without the Fast Stealth rogue talent because of this language from the stealth skill: "When moving at a speed greater than half but less than your normal speed, you take a –5 penalty."

Huh, I always interpreted that as 'up to your normal speed,' and a quick search suggests that James "Not a Rules Source" Jacobs agrees, but I guess you're right that strictly speaking it doesn't seem to work.

Anyway, my main thought was for situations like this where Pogug gets caught out of the open, since blurred movement would give him concealment after moving ten feet so he could make a Stealth check to stop the guards from seeing where he hid. Does that make sense? Situational, but it lasts ten rounds for only 7.5 gp, and it could be crucial if they get those dancing lights on him.

The problem is that unless he has moved his maximum double-move distance (which at least gives him a -5 penalty to stealth and, according to a strict reading of the rules, makes stealth impossible), that concealment ends when he stops moving.

Giving it a bit more thought, I think the RAI of Blurred Movement is that you have to be moving at full speed for it to have an effect, even if you don't go the maximum distance because you stopped moving early. Stealth, on the other hand, clearly intends that you move slower to avoid drawing attention (which is an issue of how much noise you make, as well as one of motion drawing the eye), and you incur a penalty if you don't. Given these two facts, I'm inclined to say that in order to benefit from the effects of Blurred Movement, you have to take the -5 to stealth, regardless of how far you move.

Signing off for the week, good luck while I'm gone. Don't die. I will be back at the beginning of next week.

Thanks for letting us know. Hopefully, this shopping trip will be done when you get back.

Nathaniel, haven't heard from you in a while. You still around?

Just a heads-up: I'll be traveling from tomorrow to Sunday, so my posting will be limited.

Did you guys come up with a list of everything you want to buy?

It's much slower to come up with a budget on the internet than it is face to face.

I say we buy the wands that Erin suggested, and then any reduce person wands that are in stock.

As far as our plan goes, what does everyone, individually, plan to do?
For my part, Semsephiel plans to have disguise self cast on him and try to bluff his way into the tent. (He's a +14 to the skill, so it's certainly worth a try.)

Evalee doesn't have anything in particular that she plans to do. If someone needs her help to make their plan work, she'd be glad to.

Failing that, she's going to summon a mount and just make a mad rush for the flag, using total defense. With luck, even if there's no way she could ever get to the rope, get off the horse, get on the rope, and climb it (noodle arms, so that alone is a near impossibility), with luck she'll distract some of the defenders from someone who has more of a chance.

There are no reduce person wands visibly "in stock", but he's asked you how many charges you want. From the sound of it, he can make them in short order.

Yeah, we're really getting bogged down in this shopping thing, huh? I'd say just assume we ask for a three-charge reduce person wand, plus a single-charge cheetah's sprint for Erin to use on Chi. Then I'd suggest just doing a cutscene to get us back in the carnival. If Pogug wants blurred movement or anyone else has a request, they can chime in for themselves.

If this gets things moving again, Erin's planning on going for under the tent flap, now that we know there's a flying sentry with darkvision. As for Evalee, I think the most useful thing she could provide is probably a well-timed grease at the tent entrance, if the guards try to rush in.

So that's 3 charges of Reduce Person and one of Cheetah's Sprint. If everyone's satisfied with that, I'd just like everyone to post to verify that you're still here before we proceed. If there was anything else anyone wanted to buy, speak up about that now, too.

Yup, that’s cool with me.

I am here and ready to go!

Same!

A while ago I fell into the habit of saying, "ready to rock and roll" ironically, to annoy my friends. But then, because entropy tends towards a maximum, I started saying "ready to roggenrola" because that annoyed them more. Now I tell people "I am prepared to rock type pokemon that is really just a clone of Geodude with better typing but not good enough typing to make for it's shallow move pool, so no one actually uses it" all the time, in front of people who have no idea why I do this thing.

I typed this up after typing, "ready to roggenrolla" and realizing that none of you would know what that means.

I'm ready to roggenrola!

*Gives salute of confirmation*

Still waiting for Nathaniel. I checked, and he has been active in other threads in the last few days. I've PMed him, and if I don't hear back in a couple of days, I'll figure out how to proceed without him.

Aaaaaaaaaand in case anyone is paying attention to THIS thread but NOT gameplay, we're live, and I'm waiting for you guys to begin your attempt.

*Waves GO! GO! GO! sign*

Clyde wonders if he should check out the freakshow. He had heard something about there being a crabperson there.

Crab people, crab people. Look like crab, taste like people?

Anybody out there?

I fear it is just you and me now.

I have never left you. I am always here, waiting for this moment...

C'est moi!

i'm here

Still waiting for an action from Ashak. I hope we don't have to count him out, too. While I originally designed this game with a three-PC group in mind, after losing nathaniel, it would be a shame to lose him, too...

The board crash was brutal all around

I vote we induct Clyde McClod; he’s one of our most consistent posters.

I've actually been trying to think of a good way to write that into the story, and I think I've come up with one that will work almost immediately after this encounter. I don't want to drop him into the middle of it (narratively, that would fowl his chances), but I can make it work afterwards. So Clyde, if you still want to join, I'll bring you in then.

Btw, Clyde, it looks like you've changed the stats associated with that alias to be a different character. If you're using the alias for a different game, you might want to make another one for this one to keep them separate, so that we don't get confused. I'll also need the link to your character sheet again, which hopefully still exists.

This Clyde is involved with a Way of the Wicked game on Discord. I just keep his stats here

There could be two Clydes Like Thing One and Thing Two.

I'll see if I still have him, might be on the recruitment thread.

Edit. Here is the Mythweaver link
Linky

Btw, I'll go ahead and tell you that you're all leveling up at the end of this encounter, so if you haven't started thinking about your level 4 choices, you should do that now. Clyde will re-enter the game at level 4 as well.

Hi folks, I have been struggling with some mental health stuff which has drawn a lot of energy away from things like these games. I hope to be back on the boards more regularly and playing again soon. If you don't mind being kind of patient I do want to continue playing but if it feels a little too disruptive I understand. Let me know.

Hey Billy! Thanks for letting us know what's going on. I'll continue to bot your character for now and keep the spot open for you. Get better, and let us know when you're ready to come back.