Ascension of Eight (Inactive)

Game Master Arkwright

Fellows, could you PM me your thoughts on our applicants?

Won't killing the evil tax-collecting gangsters that have them all under extortion win their hearts and minds?

If you think you're hard enough; the tax-collecting gang is government-backed and obviously has a great deal of $$$.

Wait, they are separate from Kore's gang? If so we can work our way up the chain of assh*les. We'll just have to be careful.

Yeah sorry, someone made this mistake before, I didn't explain properly. There are two separate gangs- the Tail Takers, and the extortion gang. They are unconnected and separate.

Ah, my mistake. I guess we should deal with the Tail Takers first and then consider our options.

Subtlety is called for here. If we cut off the government's tax flow, too soon, it will draw attention, we are just not ready for. We need to subvert the organization and get rid of the graft. Lighten the peoples tax burden, without reducing the monetary flow to the ruler. Until the time is right, of course. Then because we control the money, we can cut it off, all at once. At that point we should have an army, though.

So, we need to find out, who decides what money is spent where. Then we either extort them into spending the government's money on projects of our choosing, or we discredit them and replace them with people we have selected.

To me, recruiting people seems like the greatest need. There used to be a spell, that would determine a person's alignment. Not detect evil, the limitations of that spell have already been covered.

Off to see if I can find it...

It might work to set the tax gang after the tail takers, at some point. But much of our ability to stage things so one gang hunts another are blocked by our moral compasses. We can't set out to kill tailtakers, then kill some tax gangers, and leave them together. We've got to be gentler than that.

Unless we don't. Feel free, you gentle types, to tell me how ungentle we can be without stressing you.

If we're really going to tear down a country, we'll have to build something in its place. So yeah, recruiting of some kind. But for now I'd be happy just to get us all in the same room again. My old-school is seriously tingling. :)

Thing is, I'd prefer to keep Taurven on his NG alignment. Like Mellany said, we don't want to turn into the monsters we are fighting.

...clearly I have spent far too much time as Chaotic Neutral as doing what Gunser describes sounds perfectly reasonable and good to me.

A lot of guidance might be had from the history of the Eight. And in this setting, killing in combat seems 'normal', but I still don't think setting yourself up to find lethal combat is 'good', although not 'evil', either.

I'm OK with you saying the pit is too deep for the spell to work. I'm OK with you asking about precautions we're taking about getting up after we're down. I'm not OK with you describing the pit as easy enough to step across but too hard to climb out of if you're uninjured. I'm not OK with "Ha, ha! Now you've got a difficult roll to get out" without any warning of the difficulty. That's too much like the GM playing against the players.

Hitting us with the pit stuff after the encounter with the gnome which smelled of "Here's an encounter you can't think or fight your way out of because I'm exploiting the control of information," I think our play styles just aren't meshing.

-Sorry about the 'ha ha'- difficulties involved in getting out actually only occurred to me after you guys talked about getting out of the hole.

-Also sorry if it seems like I'm 'exploiting the control of information'; when outlining the difficult roll I was just trying to set out the difficulty in trying to get out by rolling, implying you might want to think creatively for another way; grappling hook maybe? I don't know. Not intending to play 'against' you guys. If you'd like I can explain why I decided to have that 5ft gap between the rungs and the trap door.

All of the trap construction seems reasonable to me. If I felt we had more time, we'd go over it more thoroughly. The rungs stopping at 5' ensure you need help to get to the house from the sewers, and cannot get up against resistance. The bodies and skeletons conceal that you might have gone from the house to the sewers, especially if you drag one in after you.

As for the timing of the revelation of save and test DCs and such, I think there's a disconnect between a sense on the one hand of glossing-over for speed and being trapped as incautious for having glossed over, on the other. Should we take the time to catalogue eye colours against Insmouth taint? That, of course, is no. But I do see Mel's point.

And of course, as a player, I know what it means when the GM rolls out the sewers battlemat. :)

Arkwright, just let me know when Taurven finally arrives at the house.

I was sort of waiting for Taurven and Valerios to regroup. I'd be up for some quick sewer exploration. Turning it into a prolonged, detailed dungeon crawl would probably strain the narrative.

Mellany has a magic light source, but it's only usable once a day and has a ten minute duration. Other than that, what's the matter with you people, can't you see in the dark? ;P

As for new characters: I don't see the rush to add them. Furthermore, I'd rather we avoid rewriting the story so any new character escaped with us. I don't know how we integrate new characters, but it's too jarring to go with "Oh, this is the person I never noticed during our harrowing escape."

Hmm how about we proceed through the sewers and you fellows decide when you've had enough and want to jump to the home base?

Integrating seemed to work fairly well with Valerio, Gunser and Jelani; it's just that its only two days since you all left the sewers and I don't want to have you add new members to the Eight already.

Anyone have any more ideas about what to name the hideout? I'd even be fine with 'The Hideout' as long as I can put capitals on it and avoid confusion.

The star? The rooms? (with caps?) "Aboard the Defiance" might be usefully similar to what's already been said to other folk. That has the advantage of being unambiguous and misleading.

I feel it would be unbecoming of a teammate to leave others out of anything large, so we'll not be long in the sewers. I had thought we might wait for Taurven, even. I do hate to split the party. I suggest we explore at whatever speed until we know someone is waiting, and then fast-forward to all arrived back at the Defiance. :) (See how well that works? :) )

So, what's in the big room?

I thought we had been calling it "the Place." But whatever's good for me. As long as it doesn't sound wimpy. ("Okay everyone, we'll bomb the palace, then meet back up at Happy Wonderland this evening!")

Fluffy Sunshine Rainbow Happy Lollypop Land, is right out then?

Oh, well, it's a bit long anyway.

What was the name of the whore house we're staying under?

We're staying under the White Lilly.

Arkwright, take a look at the description for Detect Magic. You can get some clues about an item just by using Detect Magic long enough. Mellany will Take 20 on her Spellcraft roll for the ring when we get back.

@Mellany- I know, that's why I gave you the take-10 result. I decided that choosing whether you wanted to spend the time to take 20 should be up to you later.

@You all- I've only had two people message me about our two applicants, so I'm assuming that the rest are fine to leave it up to me. Please post here if you have any objections to that.

No objections, but composing PM now.

I'll let you decide, its not my place to influence such decisions.

I've been trying to keep up with the possible recruits, they both seem good. I'm in a game or two with DM Hetero, he's quite dedicated and puts his all into a very homebrew game he's got going on(kinda like you, Arkwright!). I think he'd be a good player.

I also know DM Hetero as a player from other games here. He's a good guy.

Hmm okay it looks like we're about to go dungeon-crawling. Valerio, are you happy to sit this out? I am happy that if your character decides to come back to the house he would arrive shortly after Taurven and see us.

All aboard!

Fellows, please welcome Mirrender to our merry band of anarchists.

"Good to have a fellow 'son of the dark side'!" the tiefling calls happily. "And I've heard the drow appreciate intelligence!"

Glad to have you! It'll be interesting having you along. And anarchist may not be very far off, as I'm starting to wonder about Blast's alignment. Good?....

Aleksandyr visibly twitches at his questionable company for some reason.

Thank you! I'm still not quite used to this board -- didn't know where the character sheet was until Blast pointed it out; still note entirely sure how to fill it out, but I'll figure it out, I'm sure. :D

"Thank you! Yes, we appreciate intellect as well as cunning. Personally, I also appreciate the way surface dwellers are so ... what's the word? Oh, yes - 'tolerant'."

"So, how can I help you? What questions do you have for me?"

"Tolerance is what we're all about, here. Isn't that one of those things we hate about Cheliax?" Blast smiles at the new arrival. "Well, questions... what languages can you speak? Sometimes it's fun to hold conversations that others can't!" The tiefling pauses thoughtfully for a moment, then snaps his fingers. "Teach me the Drow tongue?"

Actually, just realized I do need to grab another language, seeing as Blast's Intelligence went up. Drow could be cool! We could have secret conversations, and gossip about our friends and enemies, and be BEST FRIENDS!!!

Aye, you could braid each other's ears.

And scanning your character sheet, I expect Blast will be wanting to make potions with your Mage Armor spell. I know I would.

Unfortunately, alchemists don't have the mage armor spell on their list, so maybe instead he should make a wand?

Unfortunately, alchemists don't have the mage armor spell on their list, so maybe instead he should make a wand?

It's my understanding that making any item can be done with somebody else providing the required spells. So you can make a potion, and he can provide the spell. And later (4ish?), you can drink that potion without using it up. But a wand would be sweet, all the squishies could get armored that way.

"The Drow tounge is just a dialect of Elven, I'm afraid. I can teach you Drow Sign Language though ... that may come in handy some day."

Yeah, I'm working long days recently, so the rest of my character sheet may have to wait 'till this weekend. Good news is, there ain't much more to go. How does purchasing extra spells for the spellbook work? Someone mentioned that earlier.

I may be reading the rules incorrectly, but I believe there are exceptions to the "someone else can provide the spell" rule. Spell Completion items (Scrolls, Wands, ...) and Potions are the two IIRC.

SRD

Should link you to the rules on adding additional spells.

"Well, that sounds great!" I'll add that to Blast's language list when the group returns to the hideout... the Defiance?

I'll add that to Blast's language list when the group returns to the hideout... the Defiance?

Gunser favors a shipish name. And he also likes that it misdirects any intelligence-gathering against us, toward the docks.

Indeed, that all makes sense and I like it! I was just wondering if we've formally and officially decided to make that the name of our HQ.

'Decide' is hard, with neither king nor council, and quorum uncalled. Call it that, and Gunser will, and others will follow or lead to another path. :)

Well, Blast's fine with the Defiance. Really has a nice ring to it, to him as a tiefling in Cheliax, as well as his personal situation.

For my part, you're dealing with a woman who named her cat Cat. Mellany's mindset is names really aren't all that important, so whatever floats your boat that's not a boat.

The Defiance it is!

Well, Mirrender wouldn't know the difference anyway. :D
BTW -- are we assuming that we've had time to study spell books and so forth?

You prepared your spells for the day before heading out, yes.

Time for a fireball...