To Those of Faith (Inactive)

Game Master JDPhipps

Good to have you!

Hey guys, it's finals week for me here, so I'll be updating probably tomorrow evening. I turn in my writing portfolio at 5 PM EST, so after that I'll be back in the swing of things. Thanks for being so patient with me over the past month or two.

Hey all! I'm just posting this into each of my active games to let you all know that starting this Thursday, I'm going to be going on a trip to France for my university. While we're spending the first few days in Paris and the last few in Bordeaux, the majority of the trip will be renovating a chateau in the south of the country, where the Internet will probably be spotty and I won't have much time to post. I'll do my best to keep up with games, and I imagine I should be able to get up a post every few days at least, but it will probably be less active than usual. Please feel free to take control of my character for the time being! I'll be back home come June, so it's just for a few weeks.

Hey everyone, I have some more bad news; I had to put down my dog today, and my posting might slow a little bit for the next couple of days. As always, rest assured I'm not going anywhere for good, but if you don't see the updates as regular as I've been trying to get them out, there's a good chance I just don't really have the energy to do it right now. I'll try to get back to full speed as soon as possible.

Condolences and sympathies Jon. It goes without saying, take all the time you need.

I'm very sorry to hear that Jon.

Roll20 will be updated shortly, if you want to post before then, three of the guards are now blinded and one is in the process of fleeing, out of six total.

Sorry to hear that. Losing a furry friend is hard. :/

It is; I ended up calling out of work today. After what I've been through the last few months, I didn't have the resolve left to power through today.

Pyrrha, you still with us? I'm just waiting on your post.

Sorry for the delay, is the map going to be updated?

Did I not... okay, looks like I didn't update the map. I'll do that right now, give me maybe fifteen minutes and it'll be up.

I don't think I have access to the map now that I check.

Here you go, Darius. Azulth said he'd be back stateside tomorrow, and I expect he'll be posting by the day after that, so he can join in too.

I'll be travelling over the next 7 days or so. My posting may limited and I won't have easy access to battlemap. Please assume Pyrrha doesn't want to be flanked and bot as necessary.

Will do, thanks for letting me know!

Hey all, finally back. Sorry for the delay and break lasting longer than expected, it's been hectic settling back in at home and I'm just today catching up with my games. I'll read up on gameplay and post shortly!

Wow, I'm impressed. No rolls above a ten in the entire fight so far. Maybe Zephyrion should have gotten the touch attack blast.

I am so sorry, Zeph.

I guess talking so big at Torch jinxed myself!

The die-roller gets that way sometimes.

I have a character (fighter) in another play-by-post who went for a long stretch always rolling a 1 for his damage. The other party members called it the "rubber sword syndrome".

While it wasn't here on the forums, the only character I ever played in 4E DnD was a Ranger who was a dual-wielder. For several straight session, I would roll at least an 18 on one attack, and unquestionably I would roll no better than a 4 on the other.

Perhaps my best story is my friend's cleric in that same game, though. See, he had a sling that he carried, but he almost never hit anything. One day we got attacked by pirates, and I was trying to shoot this halfling that was attacking us from one of the masts. My friend picks up his dice, looks the GM in the eyes, and proclaims "I go woodle, woodle, woodle, and I hit him." He rolls a Natural 20, and for the rest of the campaign proceeds to hit only when he says that same phrase.

No need to mess with a good thing. Daze for days!

Until we run into something not humanoid. Then I hide behind Ahto and Azulth.

That pun hurt me. Like, physically.

For shame, Darius.

Yeah, you should really, uh, take action against him?

I hate you.

Okay guys, so I've got a question for you. Don't feel as though you need to answer this question immediately, because I won't be jumping right into the decision we reach either way. However, there are two issues right now I'd like you guys to give me some input on.

1. Obviously, we lost a total of three players right before Azulth and Darius came in. Technically speaking, they ARE still here with you in the Siphons. The way I see it I can either control them until you get out of the sewers, and then we can go from there having them be NPCs in some fashion. Alternately, I can retcon some things and we'll be rolling with some significantly changed prior events.

I am torn on this, as I both want to keep the story consistent, but also don't want to assume TOO many characters traveling with you at any given time. Hence, I'll leave it up to you.

2. This game started with six players, and now has five. Do we want to go looking for another player? I do have someone in mind I might invite, as I really enjoyed playing with them in a game I was running that died out previously. If they aren't interested, you guys could recommend people or I could open recruitment.

We don't necessarily need a sixth, although I won't object if we open recruitment.

As for the lost characters, it would probably be best to agree on a retconned story line, in the interest of keeping things moving. We just need to simplify the story. For example, Ahto is still in the employ of the Costume Shop people, and they still expect him to make reports. Pyrrha is still his on-and-off partner and drinking pal. Zeph's backstory is still tied to them - so no need to reinvent the plot entirely.

Would we want to write them out entirely, do you think? This is a question for anyone who wants to do a rewrite, so to speak, but at this point specifically for Ahto since you posed the idea first. I'd be willing to either say they didn't head into the sewers (opting to keep Korihor safe and squirreled away somewhere, or something else), or potentially write them out entirely and give you guys a new reason to be doing what you're doing.

How about something like:

Korihor was stashed away in a Safe House of some sort (maybe she is laying low in a certain Callistrian Temple/Brothel under the watchful eye of a priestess with a giant wasp pet).

Meanwhile, the rest of the group is on the hunt, gathering clues and trying to fight-off the gangs of living obstacles thrown in their way.

That might be the simplest way to get past the loss of our McGuffin member.

Ahto's idea sounds great to me.

Back from vacation. I'll be catching up and rejoining tomorrow.

Glad to see you're back! Please weigh in on this discussion when you get the chance, I do want this to be a decision we all make together. Azulth and Darius, I know you've just joined, but do feel free to weigh in as well.

Personally I've grown to loathe retcons as a GM, and to some extent as a player as well, although since this one wouldn't affect me personally I don't have too much personal investment. That said, I always find it good to try and rewrite the story of the game as little as possible while maintaining a sensible plot for the current events. I'd need to read through the old Gameplay posts again to fully remember who everyone is and what's been going on, but just squirreling old PCs into safe spots and saying they didn't enter the sewers seems pretty solid to me.

I don't really love them either, which is why I do agree that Ahto's idea seems sensible. I wouldn't want to, say, write them out altogether unless we had to, but I'd be alright with changing minor things like that.

A minor retcon seems like the easiest solution, especially since the sewers are going to get very cramped very quickly if we try to have several former party members following along as NPCs.

Ahto's suggestion that the magic-less mage and the harlot assassin took the out when it presented itself as an option is fine. The remaining few party members continue delving for clues in the meantime until another mcguffin can develop and replace the old one.

Hey guys, I'll get us moving again soon. I just got back from the hospital, because I got in an accident on my way home. I'm (mostly) okay, but I've fallen behind here on Paizo so I'm catching up tonight. Expect something from me tonight or tomorrow.

Jeez man, that sucks. Glad to hear you're more or less okay, though. Take your time recovering.

Sorry to hear that Jon. I look forward to getting back to the game.

After a few doctor's visits and some worries over a possible punctured lung (which was thankfully not the case) I'm back in action. Roll20 has been updated with the paths you guys can take from this point on, so just let me know where we're going and we'll head out. As for retcons, I believe I will go with Ahto's idea and have the rest of the party hide out at a safehouse; you all won't actually be getting a new Macguffin (I have some plans), but your lost team members will stick around as NPCs with varying degrees of importance.

Also, since none of you expressed being upset in any way about picking up a sixth player, I think I'll shop around a bit in my other games (assuming the GMs are okay with it) and see if anyone's interested. If not, I may leave it or I may go into open recruitment.

Sounds good

Hey Guys, I need to give you all a heads up:

My landlord decided to sell the house I am currently renting, so I have been given 30 days to vacate.

My family and I have to locate and secure a new place to live, pack, and move within that time period, and to put it mildly, I’m pretty stressed at the moment.

I have no intention of dropping out of the game, but my post rate may be limited until I can get everything back in order.

I will try to check in and post as much as I can, but if you find yourselves waiting on me to do something, please bot my character, as needed, to keep the story line moving. Hopefully once the storm passes, I will be able to jump back in with full enthusiasm.

Dang, that sucks, man. Hope it all works out.

Oh man, that's awful Ahto. A similar thing happened to my brother last year when his landlord decided that she was going to live in his apartment and sell her office. Don't worry about us, get your life back in order and then we'll be waiting for you when you're done. You and the others certainly did your fair share of waiting for me to do that, so I'm fine with waiting for you to do it as well.

Good luck on your move.

I'll vote on route 1.

Wow, your landlord is an ass. Good luck finding a new place to live.

Thanks for the support, guys. I'm hoping to make it through without having a coronary.

Would it be possible to roll knowledge of some kind to help navigate down here? Also, I just realized that I somehow didn't take Knowledge Local. Mind if I switch around some skill ranks so my character actually fits his concept? Probably going to drop Disable Device since Azulth is better suited for that kind of thing anyway.