|
Yes, it was good. As you know we went to France, concentrating on two areas - the Loire valley and Burgundy. Coming from a (relatively) small country, it was surprising how much driving was involved to get from place to place. We effectively did a tour from hotel to hotel, not staying anywhere for more than two nights. I was a bit concerned it would be gruelling but it worked out fine.
Most of the time we were in fairly rurul France with detours to various cities and towns. Everywhere seems to have a gothic cathedral in it, some of them truly spectacular (we went to Chartres, which was pretty amazing, but also Tours, Orleans and Dijon). These massive medieval monuments are just awesome to stand inside, especially the quieter ones, with the high vaults and pillars. I'm not religious but you have to admire the ingenuity and graft that went into bulinding these absolutely massive things as an expression of faith (and a bit of showing off and one-upmanship too). We also went to Mont St Michel, which was pretty damn cool (and we got there early, as it is seriously touristy) - it's an abbey/fortress built on an island just off the north coast of Normandy, and it runs on several levels with massive subterranean vaults to hold up the upper ones with the church, cloisters and so on. As you might imagine, as a gamer, it was food for thought.
We also caught a lot of chateaux, which were mostly rennaissance palaces but a few medieval fortresses. Of the former type, Chenonceau (sp?) was the best, as it is effectively built on a bridge across a river (but it was heaving with tourists) and of the latter, Fourgeres was cool.
The French were generally very nice everywhere we went - Paris gives the French a bad rep, overall, I think. Saw some amusing road signs, one to a place called Saucy and another to Orgy (sadly, my wife would not let me visit either of these villages). And we ate some absolutley amazing meals (and some really weird ones - I had some sardines artfully placed on a cheese cracker and immersed in strawberry foam one night, which didn't really impress) - the ingredients are normally very fresh and the meals beautifully presented - and drank lots of wine. And driving, though some of it was quite a long way, was pretty easy, even swapping over on the other side of the road, as most of the roads were deserted.
Negatives - it can be difficult to get lunch, as the bread shops and patisseries all close at midday. So, just as you might fancy a snack, the shops selling them close. It is also hard to, you know, grab a Snickers or something - they don't really sell stuff like that much - nor do they really do much fast food, at least in town centres. It's a cafe culture and the bistros are open, but sometimes you don't want to faff about like that.
And most places are shut when you get there. It doesn't matter when you get there, it will probably be shut. Either because it is a Tuesday, or a Monday, or (most likely) for a two hour lunch break. Many sites we went to turned out to be randomly shut when we got there, so often we only saw them from the outside. Part of the reason we saw so many cathedrals was because they were always open.
But, on balance, a superb holiday. Especially as I am entering a total shitstorm when I get back to work due to a highly controversial report I wrote before leaving. Still, who knows - I might get loads of time to post D&D afterwards!
|
Always courting controversy, you. Hopefully you don’t get fired!
Yeah, admittedly my experience of continental Europe is fairly brief, but it seems the French get a fairly bad rep that perhaps isn’t entirely deserved. Even in Paris I didn’t experience much hostility or snobbery; most people I talked to where willing to humour my laughable attempts at French and happy enough to switch to English in most cases when it was clear I was out of my depth.
By contrast I found Rome a much more hostile city in a lot of respects than Paris, and found people generally less willing or able to speak English.
|
You were only missing rain in London, but we had a good time anyways. It's still mostly 90's in Greece so running around in the 50's was a big change that left us anticipating fall... (though it may not be here till late Oct or Nov). We had all foods we can't get in Athens which turned out to be all various Asian and Indian places on this trip. Your curry row blows Manhattan's away (it's only 2 blocks long in the Lower East Side) and the Dim Sum was better than what I've had in Chinatown too. Delicious treats every day.
One thing I didn't expect... on Friday night we walked for ages trying to find a bar open at 3am. Nothing. Once we gave up and caught a cab we saw a few of course, but it was close to 4 by then.
Welcome back. Enjoy the shitstorm ;)
|
|
Gotcha. We'll be here. Good luck dealing at working.
In other news we went to see Steve Aoki last night (if anyone is into dance music- electro mainly) and god am I deaf today! The place was basically one big square of a room- terrible acoustics for something like that so they just compensated with sheer volume. I didn't realize how bad it was until we left.
|
|
Yeah, admittedly my experience of continental Europe is fairly brief, but it seems the French get a fairly bad rep that perhaps isn’t entirely deserved. Even in Paris I didn’t experience much hostility or snobbery; most people I talked to where willing to humour my laughable attempts at French and happy enough to switch to English in most cases when it was clear I was out of my depth.
Same with me. In the three weeks I spent in France, I didn't encounter a single unfriendly person in either Paris or Marseilles.
Sorry for my quietude - work a bit busier than usual.
Well, I reckon you're an accountant, and the markets are going to hell, so...
Oh yeah...
|
|
No, I pointed out what was actually fairly obvious, but which due to the politics of the company I work for could not be uttered, regarding some failures of our risk management processes. And it still would have been unutterable except (1) we have a new CFO who, having taken over responsibility for risk management, agrees with me and wants to change things, and (2) the fallout in the markets pointed out that what I was saying was true and it was a problem. But some very powerful people have a vested interest in leaving things the way they are - issuing my report in its current form would have been politically impossible six months ago.
For me, it has been a good war - the CFO likes me and it makes my department look good and so, as a result, my bosses are happy with me. And the CFO can use the report to persuade his fellow directors of what needs to be done. But there have also been casualties - the Head of Group Risk effectively got fired (I bet he is now regretting giving me that funny look when I went to see him at the start of the audit). And some guys used to running their own show will get their wings clipped a bit.
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
*catches up on all the stuff that's happened while he's been so busy at work*
I'll be posting my Magnimar shopping list here shortly. Vethran didn't really have much to do with the whole court scene. He pretty much stayed at the inn and went to the market for supplies every couple days. Mostly scribing new spells... more to come.
BTW, how long were we there? Like a week?
EDIT: Just noticed that I never said what I was doing during "study time" in Sandpoint with Elisile and the captured wizard's spellbook. I spent 400gp to scribe locate object and shatter from the other wizard's book. I can take 10 on the Spellcraft checks and beat the DC by 9, so I do that. :)
EDIT #2: In Magnimar, I will be buying spectral hand, fireburst (from the Spell Compendium), protection from energy (3rd level), false life, and blindness/deafness. That's 926gp total after our 5% discount from Illes' Gather Info check. I take 10 on all of them while in Magnimar and easily beat the DC to research them. This process takes 5 days. If we have more than that, I'll begin adding them to my book as I can.
|
|
Did all the victims so far have the rune carved into them, or just the one at the mill? If all, I’d say it marks them as some sort of sacrifice. As for a link between the victims, maybe nothing much except they were all people the ghouls or the skinsaw man could lure or catch on their own.
Or given that we know the Thassolonians were into sin, maybe they’re all people who had sinned. The guys outside town had a note with them saying they would all get rich, so maybe they were guilty of the sin of greed. When I started typing this I was going to suggest that the guy at the mill was done in for being lustful, given that I think he was meeting his girl for a tryst (probably a bit of hardcore bondage action given the nice industrial setting), but the more I think about it, it fits that his sin was greed too – he was stealing money from his boss and was possibly only with the girl for her fathers money. Which means … if there was a clue in Magnimar, the missing guy from the prison, he was there for stealing money too, wasn’t he? Greedy bastard. I wonder if the other missing prisoners were greedy too?
So unless I’m reading too much into this someone at the prison is a member of the skinsaw cult in magnimar that was mentioned in Nualia’s journal. Probably Ironbriar (unless he’s too obvious a target – a red herring) or maybe that other guy we bumped into on the way to the prison who was looking all shifty and surprised to see us.
|
|
No, but I got a pastry job again which has me getting up 5-5:30am. Took some adjusting and one completely sleepless day. It's a really nice boutique place though. Like Madison / 5th Ave style of Athens.
One problem- no one speaks English and my Greek is about on par with a retarded caveman. There is a lot of pointing and hand gestures involved. I will be forced to develop my language skills though- so in the long run it will be good.
|
|
Guys - I'm getting married next Saturday, and my family is slowly seeping into town from tomorrow onwards. Thus, I won't be online much over the next week and a half; I'll swing by once in a while, but don't wait up for me. Alwyn is a simple creature - charge, power attack, smash something, then heal up the wounded.
|
|
I picked up the Rules Compendium the other day and have been flipping through it a little. Here's a couple of things that are new to me:
-Bite attacks are bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
-You can't diagonally move around a corner to cut movement costs.
Anyone else found anything you had no idea about before in this book?
|
|
Seems good - I've got this book but obviously never bothered to read it properly.
On the diagonal movement thing, I was saying that it seemed wrong that you could move diagonally through a door. It effectively means that you need three people to block a doorway, which is actually pretty stupid as a notion.
Also, you are moving through a solid object - a wall. The diagonal means that you are moving diagonally and not passing through the only square which actually has the gap (a doorway) in it. With a pit, you can jump a couple feet to get over the bit with the hole.
|
|
I'll be kicking off a 4e campaign with my real world crew in a few months. Had a quiet afternoon, so here is some background what I wrote for my players, here posted solely for your amusement. Nothing original, but hopefully it will give the players an idea of where they are.
The campaign will take place mostly in the Southern Hinterlands. This is an area of mountains, broken foothills and scrub heading further south to desert. The mountains are high and snowy, effectively blocking rainfall from the north, and are covered in thick pine and azalea cloud forests on their upper flanks. Lower still, species adapted to the increasing lack of water predominate – cacti, yuccas and other succulents as the mountains turn into hills and then out into the dry plains.
The area is fairly thinly settled, with most habitation centred around water sources and the few trade routes to the north. There is one main centre of civilisation, the City of the Five, but it seems to have little interest in dominion and most settlements are small self-governing towns and villages. In addition, there is a significant population of nomadic humanoids – in particular, goblins, gnolls and dragonborn – who wander the region. Ruins of unknown provenance dot the desert, and are mostly avoided as cursed.
The areas to the east, west and south are relatively unexplored and unknown. North of the mountains is the wreckage of the Hajputene Empire, which collapsed amid failed military adventurism, civil war and orcish invasion about a century ago. It is a fertile land, but now most comprises warring petty bandit kingdoms and orcish warbands.
The inhabitants
Humans
Most humans are descendants of Hajputene émigrés who headed south following the trade routes while the Empire still stood. They make up most of the population of the towns and villages in the region, and are generally self-sufficient and open-minded individuals, hanging on to a mixture of Hajputene culture mixed with more local customs.
In addition, the inhabitants of the City of the Five form a distinct human culture in the Southern Hinterlands. Worshipping five living deities, they claim that the city has existed “for ever”, certainly predating any other historical empires. City-dwellers tend to be cautious and insular, rarely stray from their homeland, and are dismissive of other cultures as “inferior”.
Dragonborn
The majority of dragonborn are nomadic herders, roaming across the region with their herds of reptilian herbivores, though a few have taken up a settled life in the human towns. The dragonborn split into different bloodlines, which reflects their different breath weapons, though an individual band or tribe will often comprise members from several blood lines. The tribes themselves vary in how they deal with outsiders; some a relatively friendly, while at the opposite end of the spectrum some are actively hostile and attack trespassers in what they regard as their territory.
Every few decades, the aggressive tribes gather together under a charismatic leader and attack the established settlements, particularly the City of the Five. Such assaults are normally rebuffed with such terrible dragonborn casualties that it takes several generations for the nomad populations to recover.
Dwarves
Most dwarves live in small settlements in the hills and mountain passes, eking a living as traders, bandits and miners. Their civilisation was largely destroyed by the orcish hordes that ultimately destroyed the Hajputene Empire, though with their longer lifespans and memories the dwarves cling bitterly to their old ways with greater tenacity that the more adaptable humans.
Only one of their “deep delves”, or underground cities, remains occupied by dwarves, the redoubt of Zarrenkar. While retaining a shadow of the grandeur that once filled the halls with dwarven artifice and industry, it is now an insular and xenophobic kingdom falling into decadence, its cavernous spaces now mostly empty.
Eladrin, elves and half-elves
The fey races inhabit the cool mountain forests. The elves live in their rustic villages and patrol the woods, challenging or waylaying intruders as they see fit. The eladrin form the hereditary nobility, though they lack an interest in oppressing their elven subjects and largely leave them to their own devices. They inhabit mist-cloaked towers and engage in their own inscrutable interests.
Trade or other contact between the fey races and the other inhabitants of the region is rare, as the townsfolk and the nomads have virtually nothing the eladrin or elves want or need. Occasionally, a curious elf ranger or eladrin noble may stray into the lands of their neighbours out of curiosity, and may even stay for a few decades. Half-elves often result from such sojourns, though they are nevertheless extremely rare. Their fey parent almost never takes them back to their homeland, seemingly out of embarrassment, and they are instead brought up in the towns where they are left.
Halflings
Halfling caravans ply the trade routes across the region, from the City of the Five, though the mountain passes and across the wreckage of the Hajputene Empire. Traders, tinkers, irrepressible thieves and bearers of the latest news, the visit of a halfling band to an outlying village is both eagerly anticipated and dreaded. The larger settlements often have shantytowns where halflings live semi-permanently, often despised for their larcenous ways, though few individual halflings will actually reside there for more than a few months.
In addition, a substantial minority of halflings have integrated more fully into the societies in which they live, giving up their itinerant ways and settling down. Most blend in fairly imperceptibly, though some still suffer prejudice due to the activities of their less conventional cousins.
Tieflings
In its latter years, the nobility of the Hajputene Empire began to mix its bloodline with extra-dimensional entities, such as fey, demons and devils. This was intended to strengthen lineages which had grown increasingly effete, decadent and inbred and forestall the collapse of the empire they commanded. While the experiments failed to prevent the ultimate collapse, they did result in the creation of a new race: the tieflings.
Reaction to tieflings varies, with some considering them abominations, others treating them as just another exotic race amongst many, and all shades in between. They can vary in appearance from fairly monstrous to barely perceptibly different to their human forebears, though all carry a whiff of otherness about them which causes them to stand out. A few attempt to retain the airs and graces of the nobility from which they are descended, though most are just normal individuals trying to make their way in the world. Few in number, most tieflings live amongst the other races in the larger towns.
Goblins
The desert goblins form small wandering tribes or live in semi-permanent camps near water sources. They are generally peaceful, being small and relatively weak, and live by hunting nocturnal small game and gathering grubs and roots. However, a tribe will often engage in low-level thievery and occasional banditry if they think they can get away with it (and their naturally cautious nature means they will rarely attack a target capable of offering resistance without overwhelming numbers). Consequently, goblins are little trusted, though some trading between them and the other races takes place on an infrequent basis. Desert goblins are between three and four feet tall and have large bat ears, hairless wrinkled skin, pug noses and jet back eyes with long lashes.
Gnolls
Gnolls are generally rapacious hooligans, travelling in bands and attacking outlying villages and nomad encampments for food and booty. Gnolls might trade with a well-armed and numerous party, but more generally they will attack anyone they come across, shooting with their bows from afar and sending their hyena hunting packs to engage in melee. Gnolls are generally unwelcome in civilisation, and are generally attacked on sight.
Orcs
Orcs are creatures of the mountains, and rarely stray into the desert. After defeating the dwarves, and with their numbers swelled by a series of mild winters, they broke over the already ailing Hajputene Empire like a wave, bringing it to an end in a tide of blood. Fortunately, the orcs have spent the remainder of the last century fighting with the human successor states and with each other. This has acted as a check on their numbers and prevented them from eying the Southern Hinterlands for possible conquest. A few orcish chieftains have attempted to establish petty kingdoms for themselves, but these rarely last beyond the death of the founder. Most orc leaders lack such vision, and simply spend their days in a haze of internecine violence and death.
History
The Southern Hinterlands existed at the southern border of the Hajputene Empire. The mountain chains that divided the Empire from the lands beyond acted as a fairly secure barrier, and the dried-out scrub and deserts beyond provided little incentive for conquest. As a consequence, the Empire was content to ignore the area as it concentrated on richer territories further north. The only settlement of any real size was the City of the Five, and as its unfathomable divine rulers showed very little interest in extending their influence beyond their immediate environs the Empire did not initially feel a need to concentrate on its southern borders. Enterprising Hajputene merchants headed through the mountain passes to trade with the City, establishing way stations that turned into towns and villages. However, the status of these new settlements was left fairly vague, and the imperial military presence within them was light.
The status quo changed about one and a half centuries ago. The Empire was suffering from senescence, with its further-flung provinces were becoming restive and the loyalty of its governors suspect. Meanwhile, the Imperial Court was mostly engaged in vicious internal politicking and the quality of the imperial administration suffered as factional loyalty was elevated over competence. In order to stamp his authority and gain prestige in order to wrest more control to himself, the new tiefling Emperor Gajeshnan VI decided he needed a quick show of force.
As a consequence, he decided upon the apparently simple task of annexing the City of the Five to the Empire. Marching south through the mountains at the head of his army, with the royal household in tow, Gajeshnan confronted the tiny army of the Five a few days ride north of the City, hoping that a show of force would cow its rulers. Instead, in a titanic display of magical power, the Five obliterated the imperial legions almost to a man (and leaving a blasted place plagued by undead to this day known as the Bonefields). With the leader of the empire dead along with his key advisors and heirs, the Empire proceeded to distract itself with a series of civil wars over the succession to the imperial throne and breakaway provinces. Unable to properly defend its borders, the rising orc menace in the southern mountains eventually broke what was left of central authority about a century ago. The orc horde of Skrarg Bloodeye killed the last emperor, Gajeshnan XI, in the final battle for the imperial capital, Hajput.
Following the collapse of the empire, refugees from the chaos headed south towards the relatively safe havens of the Southern Hinterlands. The hundred years has been a relatively quiet period of consolidation under the disinterested suzerainty of the Five.
|
|
I like it too. It looks a lot like a setting I'd put together, and like one I'd love to play in.
Were the Five ever human, or are they some sort of weird outsiders (I'm thinking something along the line of the elephant-man Conan faced on top of the tower in Arenjun)? It won't matter much, but someone is bound to ask that question.