Aubrey's Other Eberron Campaign - The Unbinding (Inactive)

Game Master Aubrey the Malformed

HA! It works. I'll try to post something appropriate tomorrow.

Still here!

Man, I get back from holiday poised to post... And the site is down for over a day.

Man, I get back from holiday poised to post... And the site is down for over a day.

It was down for over a week plus part of today. Between tomorrow and Wednesday I'll catch up. Ugh what a mess.

I noticed not a lot of posting was going on. I really like Paizo but their website management is absolutely terrible. On the plus side, at least it coincided with when I basically couldn't post anyway.

The killer is that it was up for a short window late Saturday. Just long enough for me to make my last post and go to bed. Sunday morning it was down again.

Arrgh.

Anyway I'm tempting fate by going to dinner before posting tonight.

OK, I am getting increasingly pissed off the with the intermittent nature of the messageboard here. The games are grinding to a halt. Do we have any views about alternative venues to host the games? Have people played at other sites and what were their experiences like using other PbP sites?

Should not have tempted fate. I crashed after dinner, but when I woke up the next morning the boards were down again. I've got to change my pattern of looking at discussion threads first.

Nothing on pbp here(outside of sites for spesific rpgs and I am pretty sure those are long dead by now anyway.) But if it comes down to it, could just create a discord server.

Also yes this is getting really annoying.

OK, so there's been tow suggestions acorss the various threads:

- using the site RPOL.com
- using a discord server

Anyone got any experience in using either of these?

Taking a weekend away. May be Tues before I'm back. But I've played on a couple other sites. Nicer map functions, but text was pushed to the side, so it seemed to reduce RP.

I'll try to dig up the games and look them over to refresh my memory.

I like discord quite a bit. I have a server and it has a dice roller on it. It also has a nice mobile app. You can post files, pin messages, and all that sort of stuff. If you want, I can create a server for the game and post an invite.

I thought about it a bit and tried to figure out what features of discord matter.

1) You can easily just use a browser to access it but if you want to use the actual app I belive you need at least windows 7 or newer. With phones I don't know since I don't have a smartphone myself.
2) It is a private server, so only invited people.
3) You can create as many rooms as you need(not sure if there is some limit but I am on servers with like 20 rooms so I think if there is one it won't be reached)
4) If you want all games in the same server you could use roles for people to distuingish what game they are a part of.
5) There is voice channel option there if needed.
6) As far as I know you need a bot for dice rolling.(or use external site for it)
7) Images can be used conveniently.
8) The biggest issue I see with using discord is that the log system isn't terribly user friendly to go back long ways. Like alright for the last couple of hundred, but let's say you wanted to check what was that npcs name that the group met a year ago, you better have made your own notes cause you ain't scrolling back there in any sort of reasonable fashion.
9) You can't preview messages before posting. At least myself find it rather nifty that I can see what the roll was for description purposes just as an example.

All in all, my opinion is that it is very convenient to use but for that simplicity you do lose some of the depth.

So I heard from someone who has some connections that Paizo's server basically ran out of capacity and they had to do an emergency server migration. Too many people hitting it up for the 2e playtest stuff.

I thought about it a bit and tried to figure out what features of discord matter.

1) You can easily just use a browser to access it but if you want to use the actual app I belive you need at least windows 7 or newer. With phones I don't know since I don't have a smartphone myself.
2) It is a private server, so only invited people.
3) You can create as many rooms as you need(not sure if there is some limit but I am on servers with like 20 rooms so I think if there is one it won't be reached)
4) If you want all games in the same server you could use roles for people to distuingish what game they are a part of.
5) There is voice channel option there if needed.
6) As far as I know you need a bot for dice rolling.(or use external site for it)
7) Images can be used conveniently.
8) The biggest issue I see with using discord is that the log system isn't terribly user friendly to go back long ways. Like alright for the last couple of hundred, but let's say you wanted to check what was that npcs name that the group met a year ago, you better have made your own notes cause you ain't scrolling back there in any sort of reasonable fashion.
9) You can't preview messages before posting. At least myself find it rather nifty that I can see what the roll was for description purposes just as an example.

All in all, my opinion is that it is very convenient to use but for that simplicity you do lose some of the depth.

Hmm, no. 8 would be a big issue as I frequently can't remember the details of what happened in the past. Also, how accessible would it be from a work computer, since that's where I do the majority of my posting. I appreciate that it will vary from employer to employer but, for example, Paizo is always very accessible (when it works) whereas some 'games' sites (and Discord could be considered one of those) will be blocked by the firewall.

So I heard from someone who has some connections that Paizo's server basically ran out of capacity and they had to do an emergency server migration. Too many people hitting it up for the 2e playtest stuff.

Yes, they used to have a similar problem with RPG Superstar. Which I why I have little sympathy with the company - it was entirely foreseeable.

How are people finding it right now? I haven't had it fail on me for a couple of days (yay...).

Being able to search the history of game play is huge. On the other hand being able to post images would be sweet.

I suspect a work firewall will get discord and rpol.net. You should check that on Monday because it may effectively end some options. Neither specifically appeals to me over these boards, but discord is more actively being developed. When I flip through discord it looks too much like a messy chat room for pbp gaming but that is what it is. If we were using it for a different purpose I guess the IC rooms would look ok. I don't know if it is convention or site necessity but the rpol.net games I looked at break game threads into a series of smaller scenes. I don't know if I like that or not.

As terrible as this site has been recently, I imagine they will get it together and it might not be worth migrating. That said they have another planned outage coming up in the next couple weeks to continue dealing with this one. It is infuriating that for years every time they have some grand announcement that will draw traffic it crashes the site. But they aren't going anywhere and hopefully they can improve.

I'll be looking to update tonight.

For me I dont want to migrate anywhere else, all PbP in one spot or I cant be bothered.

Yeah at the moment I am not looking into moving. But I think the discussion is worth coming if this sort of stuff comes even more common than in the past. Basicly whoever is responsible for paizos website sucks at their job or they aren't given enough resources to do it properly.

But yeah the discord is anything but ideal, just something that I am familiar with. Due to pretty much every roll20 group I have seen has migrated there, but that is for voice stuff.

Still pbp is sort of dying breed(well maybe waning is better word.) So not sure what the status is with dedicated sites.

I can make a discord server.

I dont really do voice stuff, though i would if that is what people wanted. but given the time zone differences, it isn't likely.

That said, I have a dicebot on there to handle rolls.

I, like ST Shadow, don't necessarily like the idea of migration for the very same reason, however discord is already something i am pretty much always on so it doesnt cause me any additional bother if this moves there.

i hate roll20 with a passion

There IS a search function, but you'd have to get a term correct for it to hit. so spelling the NPC's name correctly would be required. That said, it would be easy enough to make a text file with notes and a server admin could pin it to the channel for easier reference.

I'm not sure how easy it would be to access at work.

OK, the website seems a bit more stable, and people seem to be able to post in the discussion threads, which is encouraging. Like most of you, I'm not keen to move from Paizo as it has considerable advantages (when it works). Since it seems to be working again, let's stick with it but keep an eye out. If it becomes intolerable again, we can consider our options.

Cole's player has disappeared (again). Assuming it is fine with you guys, I'll advertise for a new player.

Fine by me. I can run Cole in the meantime if you like DM.

Let's see it anyone wants to play him.

Let's see it anyone wants to play him.

If you cannot find anyone (which I doubt :-) ) I'll continue to run him, no big deal, I had a few games close the last week or so.

Hello! I'll be your replacement for your warforged barbarian.
I'm getting a refresher on Eberron and the Mythic rules, as well as getting an idea of the setting and the characters.
If it's OK with you, I also think I'll change the build a bit, dipping Fighter and going Warforged Juggernaut, a class I've always adored, but keeping the flavor as similar as possible.
Looking forward to playing with you!

Welcome to the meat grinder!

Welcome aboard.

Fighter HP: 2d10 ⇒ (9, 4) = 13

With this, the mechanics should be in place. Tomorrow I'll get down on the circumstances, though I'd appreciate a short summary (5-years-old games can have a lot of detail)

I am heading to bed but do I recall correctly what are the main events before starting to think of how to summarize them.

1) Jungle adventure in Lizardmen lands and the mess with said inhabitants.
2) The whole messed up ritual.
3) Krezent and the current party split.
4) Whatever the group that Cole is in atm is up to

Does that sound about right for the main chapters of the campaign so far?

Yep, that's a reasonable, if high level, summary.

Welcome aboard, Sapiens. Warforged juggernaut will be well in line with historic Cole. He's been a monster in combat. Nice choice.

Regarding history:

Bokehn ... our initial House Tharashk employer, and Gatekeeper
Pooma ... chief of the friendly lizardfolk tribe
Portforged ... 137ben's first PC psionic warforged PC. Died at waterfall ambush.
Will and James_ex-companions. Cavalier-cleric and his dog.
Tal

Oula ... the nasty little Poisondusk shaman, croc rider
Jageela . another P-dusk shaman, rides a green-eyed blackscale (dead by party's hand)

Ygza .... Jag's 'black horse' blackscale (dead by party's hand)

Irret ... female Finback champion warrior (Dead by Zzej's hand)
Koouri ... Otto's Finback shaman (Dead by Zzej's hand)
Eshsheth . Otto's Finback jailer (Koouri's factotum)
Chief Ylyeshshi Ex-Finback chief (dead by party's hand)

Chief Zzej of the Skinwings and united tribes

Lizard Folk:
Blackscales -- the big bruisers
Poisondusk -- small archers
Cold Suns -- 'normal' lizardfolk

Cold Sun Tribes
River Serpents: Pooma's crew
Finbacks:
Skinwings:

First Finback Conference

Just after Portforged dies

dearthaireacha armais = comrades in arms, or some such, in elven

Da'Sheth -- the volcano holy site of lizardfolk where we failed to stop the despoiling troopers.

The vision in the Silver Flame
Back at Poomba's village after speaking to the Silver Flame.

The vision in Kalaktua's lair.

Our current mission is to infiltrate the mercenary band that beat us in Da' Sheth. We hope to find out who's behind them, and driving the apocalypse of the visions. They're based in Regalport.

Since the Kalaktua vision we've visited Krezent, where Wultram split the party. Tal and I tagged along with him to keep him safe in the wilds of his exile. (Pretty amusing considering how useful Rehil's been.)

So while you fly directly to Regalport, we're strolling across the plains to Gatherhold where we hope to pick up a lightning train to Karrn and catch an airship to Regalport from there.

Well now I feel like I don't even need to but short versions untill you get the time to read Rehils links. Everthing is from pure memory so mistakes are likely. For now I am just handling the 1st chapter of the campaingn, I would consider it the most important to know plot wise, where as Krezent is important for getting to know the characters.

Jungle adventure:
-the party members(at this point we weren't a group) were hired by House Tharashk as sellsword for a trip into Q'barra along a river to see why shards aren't coming as usual. The settlement was thrashed when we got there, during investigation lizardfolk attacked. They decided to wake up a Dragon turtle(later turned out to be mythic one) to f~~~ s$@& up, our boat is sank.
- Trek through the jungle, Bokehn(our direct employer in charge) gets badly sick, he knows of a tribe that should be friendly so we start heading there. The tribe(this is where the PC lizardfolk come from) did indeed turn out to be friendly.
- The tribes leader tells us that the other tribes are riled up because humans(though later found out that most lizardfolk don't really distinguish say human from an elf. So we can't be sure if it was literally humans) have been messing with their holy sites. Party decides to investigate.
- At some point the party is forced to surrender due to downed people essentially being held hostage. So the party is taken to the leaders. The party tries to convince them that we are a seperate group and that we haven't been messing with their holy sites. Some political parties are just itching to start a war so to them it doesn't really matter if we are responsible or not. We try diplomancy, but the dice apparently hate diplomancy as the rolls iirc were 1 and 2. Result is that we are being 'sacrificed' to some sort of beast of religious significance. Due to beating said beast the leaders can't just outright kill us, from what I recall because it is a holy beast and we would not have succeeded if the gods/spirits/whatevers didn't want it so.
- The party makes some alliances among the leaders there and essentially arrange that if the current leadership is taken care of it is replaced with more favorable one to us. Party proceeds to sneak in and fight to achieve so.
- Party goes to Da'Sheth, large mercenary group is there. The partys sneaking and attack fail miserably and have to retreat. Once the party returns the mercenaries have left via airship. The party finds an obelisk of some kind with a dragon strapped into it. The party tries it's best to investigate what the hell it is, but doesn't get far. Soon enough there is an explosion followed by visions of supposedly silver flame.
- The party wakes back up in the friendly tribes village. The dragon turtle from before is causing issues so the party and the village set up an ambush. Victorious the party heads towards the beasts lair where they find some loot and another vision.

Hello Cole 2.0, I am another late add to the group. I joined in Krezent as my character is from there, so this summary is really helpful to me too. :)

Likewise for me, as I picked up Ashshar after their player couldn't make it anymore.

Ashshar is low on intellect, high on stealth, and can deal a pretty fair hurt, though a bit envious of Cole's facility for destruction. I'm exploring the Lizardfolk's racial memory though the little quotes in the beginnings of my posts, but other than that, they (and I) are along for the ride, generally following Vaard unless something catches their attention.

Ok, thanks a lot for your advice, I think I got a grasp of the character and the situation. Let's get it going!

Sorry, Me'mori and Jesse. I should have posted that stuff for you too. Maybe I was buried with work when you came on board. Anyway, we're wll together now.

And maybe our characters will be also one day.

Time for Krezent(at least up to split.), the rest will have to come from the other group as I am purposfully keeping myself in the dark about what the other group is up to, outside of very big picture.

- After the celebrations of victory was concluded, Bokehn more or less said that there are some people to we should meet. Party more or less assumed this would be the dragonmarked house due to his affiliation. Figuring the airship would be the fastest way out of the jungle anyway we agreed.
- Rehil became VERY upset due us not going to check Da'Shet as promissed. To the point of suggesting we take over the airship. Some were outright against the idea while some were reluctant, in the end that idea was abandoned.
- Everyone refused to answer where we are going. Frustration grew among some in the party. Some started to consider this a soft form of kidnapping.
- Arrival at Krezent. Some of the greeters were rather stuck up, again some people took offense. At the same time the party learned the place is massivly religious towards the silver flame.
- The party was shown to a place to have some rest and eat. There was some discussion and the general sentiment was that lets at least hear their suggestion.
- The talks, here is when things started to get ugly. On the other side of the table were some high officials of the city, Bokhen and two other people(later revealed to be dragons from The chamber). They more or less wanted to know what happened, while being arrogant and disrespectful. Tal left the table first considering the suggestions made dishonorable. Wultram left next, frustrated with the constant disrespect and being talked down to, considering these people absolute morons and as such people who should not be worked with.
- I don't know what discussion happened after Wultrams departure.
- Later rest of the party manages to cool the leaving pairs head somewhat.
- Majority of the party notice local guards keeping an eye on them. I think at least Wultram threw some insults their way. At this time the party is split across town each doing whatever.
- Some of the party visit the local library to get some sense to the ritual that they witnessed but nothing of substance was found out.
- There is part of the draconic prophecy in the caverns near the city so some want to check it out. Soon the party finds out that you need permission to go to the caverns.(by then we had noticed the city is very much LAWFULL one.)
- So the party goes to head of the guard(actual tittle might have been captain) to get said permission. Wultram and I think someone else too do not agree to the term of having an escort(him/they consider them spies.) Talks get heated and the party leaves without permission.
- Some representives come to the partys rest location, essentially making an ultimatum of making an oath of not harming anyone. Wultram declines on the account of it preventing self-defense as well. City basicly says then GTFO. Tal is pretty quick to go with Wultram.(He didn't have much better opinion of them) Rehil offers to go with.(iirc some of this might have been meta reasons as well.)
- The party via some secret messages agrees to meet at Regalport.

Again reading the actual posts will get the complete picture and I am sure my memory messed some of that. Still that should give the big picture. I wish I could remember which character had which opinion on what, I recall some but decided to not write them down in case my memory is false.

Thanks for joining our game, Sapiens. I'll post up tonight or tomorrow morning.

Can we have a quick comparison of the xp levels between the two groups, please?

But my count the Plains group is at 26945.

I've got us at 26,745 XP. (21457 back in April +3688 elves v halflings +1600 trike) . Looking back we had 200 xp in Feb for the stampede. Maybe Wultram and I hadn't added that in?

XP 26,945

Is my count as well, yeah so I would assume Rehil didn't add in the stampede, since I can't think of anything else that would have awarded us 'only' 200xp.

According to the original sheet I'm at 23799 XP.

That sheet hasn't been updated for a while.

According to the original sheet I'm at 23799 XP.

Likewise for Ashshar. Same number.

ive got nalverren at 18,057xp+3822

Hey sorry I had a rough month there. Every day snowball effect going on.

Will update now.

I've got 23,799.

OK, thanks guys.