Yay! Gwyn's back! :D
I know I just restarted the game, but tomorrow I'm flying out to Los Angeles for a few days. After tonight, I will likely not be posting again until Monday. (I've never been to California before-- I'm really looking forward to this trip!)
Mostly pleasure! My wife is a consultant, and is currently on assignment in Long Beach. This gig is two weeks on-site, one week working remotely from home. My daughter and I are flying out to spend the weekend she's away with her. We're planning to just be tourists and take in a bunch of the iconic LA sights.
While I'm out there, I'm also meeting for lunch with a former colleague who may have a business proposition for me. We'll see.
Cool. I hope you two have fun. Have a safe trip!
Sounds fun, GM. Enjoy LA!
Keep safe! So just so it's known with my latest post, I'm not trying to start anything major in party lol. Orik came around in a point where I was personally still going though one of my many rough patches in the last year, so I really didn't have much of a chance to really play out our initial meeting. I don't think it's really been too much of an issue so I haven't yet had reason to bring it up, but I think this would be a good point to do so. Being as it's been fairly established that Orik is a sword for hire, Kyrian isn't exactly warming up to him very quickly. He's still very unsure about Orik, and isn't quite clear on his intentions. He's kind of, well not exactly paranoid, but it does tie in with his Xenophobic drawback (anyone remember that we have these? Lol). So while he hasn't directly opposed Orik helping out, hearing the statement of "Nobody deserves to die like that" isn't exactly a comforting thought for what this guy has apparently been witness to here, and if that being the case, does kind of make Kyrian a little uneasy with a mercenary he doesn't know in a situation that could go south in a real quick hurry.
Either way, I'm not trying to start an in party fight, it's not my intentions, it's just a statement of how I feel Kyrian is taking this as a character. If you guys want it to go further, I won't complain as long as Haladir is okay with it (providing that it doesn't get out of hand of course). Honestly I think it could be quite fun for a little interparty squabble lol. But that's just me.
Hey, some of the best character growth we've had in the Shattered Star game Haladir, Ronnie, and I are in has been the result of intra-party conflict. The same can be said for the Rise of the Runelords game I am running, and I think both Ronnie and Haladir would agree with me.
No worries, Kyrian - intraparty conflict is always interesting! Just a quick clarification, though. Did you say that loud enough for Orik to hear, or did you just say it quietly enough for Gwyn to hear? I'm cool with either answer. :)
Loud enough for all to hear while trying to keep quiet still lol.
Oh boy, I need to go make some popcorn now.
In other news, I'm spinning up a Jade Regent game. If you're interested, just mosey on over here: DM Salsa Presents: The Jade Regent
I'd be more than happy to have any of y'all playing through this with me. :)
So tempted... but I'm really at my max number of games right now.
Yay! You're back!
It's okay. I have been looking forward to Zee's reaction to Jo's antics. :)
My appologies. Had a busy last few days. I'll be posting tomorrow hopefully!
Yikes! I hadn't realized yeth hounds were so dangerous!
There's a reason a lot of the deaths in Thistletop take place in the Temple.
My apologies for dropping again. Life just does not like me lol.
Sorry for disappearing.
I'd been making my GM posts on my lunch hour, but I haven't been taking a lunch break for a couple of weeks due to deadlines. My personal life has gotten really busy, and I just don't have time to make long GM posts after work.
I think things are quieting down at work, and I hope to be able to get back into a (mostly) daily posting routine.
Thanks for bearing with me!
No worries. I've missed Zee in the shattered star game. Hope to have you back there too.
Glad to hear things are calming down. Hopefully they stay that way!
Hey guys.
It's been kind of a depressing week for me, and I just haven't had it in me to game.
On Tuesday, one of my best friends from college went to the doctor for a sudden rash of severe headaches, and learned he had a stage IV malignant brain tumor the size of a tangerine. He told me on Wednesday, and on Thursday, he underwent a 14-hour brain surgery to remove the cancer. He's now in the ICU and still in an induced coma. His husband has been posting updates to one of those illness blogs. They have two kids, age eight and six.
I will pick this game up again when I need the distraction or get some better news. Thanks for understanding.
Sorry to hear that as well. I hope things go smoothly, and I'll be praying for them. We'll be here when you're ready.
Holy s&%#, that's a quick escalation. Hope your friend recovers soon. Thoughts are with his family. :/
Jesus.
Yeah, I concur with everyone here - take your time and be with your friend and his husband. We'll be here when you need to take your mind of the heaviness.
Hey, folks.
I'm planning to resume the game tonight.
My friend is doing as well as can be expeced in this situation. He's awake and alert, and doesn't seem to have any obvious cognitive impairment due to either the tumor or the surgery.
Plus, I need to take my mind off of this dumpster fire of an election. It's really stressing me out!
No joke. Glad to hear things are going about it as well as can be expected.
That's good to hear, Haladir. Here's hoping his recovery is similarly without incident.
Okay... my friend is still recovering (and is, thankfully, not reliant on Obamacare), and I've had my Big Sad regarding the election, so...
ON WITH THE GAME!!
I'm glad your friend's doing better! Condolences on the election results. Australia is looking on and shaking its head sadly.
Yeah, so is most of the free world. The problem we had was our choices were pretty much a crook and a clown. It's almost like we're back in the late 1800's and early 1900's when corruption and political backroom deals were rampant, but unlike that era of American history, this one lacks the gilding that hides all the warts.
To be honest, I was expecting Hillary to win, but I don't think things would be better off with her. It hasn't a thing to do with her being a woman, but with how she's handled various things, including Benghazi and the whole email issue.
I think the easiest way for me to sum up my feelings on the matter is by just saying "A pox on both their houses!"
|
I have never been more angry about the results of an election than I was on Wednesday. It has made me resolve to take an active role in dealing with the aftermath of our terrible, terrible mistake. I'll urge you all to do the same, with a level of involvement you're comfortable with.
And those of you who aren't American...I'm so sorry for what we're about to inflict upon the rest of the world. I did what I could. :(
This last month almost feels like it's been rough as hell... I'm alive by the way, sorry... I know, I'm horrible right now...
That's because it has been, Kyrian.
We love you, though. :)
Feel free to hop back in, Kyrian! We'd love to have you back in the game!
I will not be remembering 2016 in my memoirs. It will be known forever after as The Great Forgetting.
Do remember 2016 in your memoirs.
I am really, really hoping such memoirs won't be studied in the future like Victor Klemperer's I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years.
Well, all we can do at this point is hope the system works and we don't have a repeat of the Third Reich. If we do, well, I guess I can take the cold comfort that I didn't vote for any of the clowns in the White House or the House of Representatives. (Senate's another story.)
To be honest, I'm viewing this like I viewed the doomsaying about Obama not leaving the White House, or the whole thing about Hilary taking up every gun in the country (Good luck with that in the Southeast. We'll be in for a second round of the Civil War.) It's a sign of how divisive and toxic politics in the US has become. I think we're living in a second Gilded Age, except without the shiny. Corruption is rampant and politicos are out for themselves instead of what's best for the country. My realistic choices for president this time were a crook and a clown. I didn't vote for either of them.
I don't think anyone's memoirs of the next few years are going to read like those of people from Germany and occupied Europe in the 1930's and 1940's, but more like those of people from the US in the 1880's to 1900's. Maybe things will work out for the better, as unlikely as that sounds, but crazier things have happened. Maybe I'm wrong and we're in for a dark period in US history, but I think that's unlikely too. I just think we're just going to either stagnate until some people take the reins and make the changes that are needed to get things back under control and make the government at all levels accountable to the people or stagnate until the whole thing just collapses. Either way. I feel sorry for the next generation because they are going to have to deal with this mess.
And that's all I'm going to say on that subject. On the subject of what's going on in game, hold on Orik! Gwyn's about to do something dumb to try and help out.
I don't normally plug these things, but there is a Humble Bundle of Pathfinder products, sponsored by Frog God Games, Kobold Press, and Green Ronin. $417 of digital books can be yours for a minimum $15 donation. It includes Rappan Athuk, Freeport: City of Adventure, Deep Magic, and a bunch of other books that are all well-worth their cover prices.
I already owned about 10 of the titles in the bundle, but I bought it anyway!
Hey, folks.
Paizo user Kobold Cleaver started an AMA thread for me in the "Off-Topic Discussions" section, and I have to confess that I used my spare time this afternoon to post there instead of here.
I'm super-busy for the rest of the night, and probably won't be posting an update in the Gameplay thread until tomorrow.
Sorry!
On a related note, I'm heading down to my in-laws Wednesday for the Thanksgiving holiday. I'll try to get a post or two while I'm away, but I can't make any guarantees about it.
I thought about asking whether you'd come back and post another update for us here, but thought better of it. ;)
Sorry, no update today. I spent my lunch hour doing some "Cyber Monday" Christmas shopping. My VTT-based D&D 5e game is meeting tonight, so I am unlikely to be able to post this evening. Hopefully tomorrow!
Apropos of nothing, I thought I'd share a little...
IIRC, finding a prisoner in the jail is briefly mentioned as an option in a sidebar in the OGL version, and that's where I came up with the idea for this prisoner subplot... which I'm also using in this game.
In that game, the PCs had briefly encountered Orik during their initial assault on Thistletop, as a human working with the goblins. He never actually attacked the PCs during the fight, and didn't impede the PCs when they retreated from Thistletop. My intent at the time was to imply that Orik wasn't loyal to the goblins or to Nualia and company, and actually wanted out of the mess he'd gotten himself into.
When the PCs returned the next time, they decided to attack at night (and encountered the same zombie goblins that I ran with you guys). They went into the second level by a different entrance. They found the temple first, then the jail with the prisoner...pretty much like you guys did. They later found Nualia's company's quarters, where they found Orik asleep. (Note: You haven't yet encountered that). I had figured that the PCs wouldn't just kill a man while he was asleep in his bed, and between that and their earlier encounter, I thought they'd take him prisoner and interrogate him.
Nope.
The party barbarian figured that anyone connected to what happened to the prisoners deserved to die, and decided to coup de grace poor Orik on the spot with a greataxe to the neck!
So much for the subplot about Orik that I'd been contemplating!
That would explain why I don't recall that detail!
My local group is in the back half of the final book, ready to take the fight to the BBEG, and they let Orik live, mostly because the party's paladin decided to disarm him in the first round of combat. Ever the pragmatist, Orik decided to surrender to the party once he was weaponless. The paladin actually did some work to set him on the path of redemption, and he's now settling in as a guard in Sandpoint.
He's still crass and rough around the edges, but hey, he got a happy ending. (Which reminds me, I should probably see about getting him a girlfriend...oh, Shayless!)
Oh boy, you're going after Shameless Shayless? Good luck and I hope Ven doesn't kill ya!
I've been running a RotRL game here on the boards and, well...
Let's just leave it at I can do nightmare fuel really well and leave it at that.