GM Kate's Ruins of Azlant (closed) (Inactive)

Game Master Kate Baker

Oh yeah, me too!

On this site, on 3rd Neth 4717 AR, Mitzi returned to the plane from whence she came.
She was so mad.

I think Silt should get the darkwood buckler, he's our beefiest frontline! It's useful for me, but I've already got a shield 'n stuff.

No thanks on the Buckler. I believe with a 2-handed weapon (or using a weapon 2-handed) Silt would take a -1 penalty on attacks and lose the AC bonus for the turn whenever he attacks.

Go for it (or, I think, Cedar might have wanted it).

OK Cedar will take it.

The rod and chalice at the church do have a value attached, but the book also specifies that those items belong to the church and aren't included in the allotted treasure. Also, fyi, once you meet back up with the ship, you can not only send stuff back to sell, you could also send stuff back to people's next of kin, if you'd like.

Purpose Creche definitely would've left the rod and chalice in the chapel. And I like that they put the next of kin detail in the book! I think so far the only item we know the previous owner of is the spellbook, for Hendrake. We'll see what shakes out with that, I'm not sure how Purpose Creche'd approach that sentimentality.

Also, the wedding ring.

Given that a goodberry is not only one hit point of damage cured, but also a full meal, I assume the limit of 8 per day is to avoid extreme stomach distress.

Yeah, I'm surprised you can even eat 8 goodberries a day!

Silt just hates raspberries anyway, he inks they are disgusting. He also thought the roaches were cute, if you missed it :) He will probably want to save the baby bug too.

Hahaha, I'd never thought of that!

By the way, Silt can only wild empathy with creatures large size or larger. If mama Ankheg comes along, he needs a minute to make the check and a nat 20.

Making sure we're all on the same page -Cedar lures it out with the meatbait, Silt throws a net on it, we then try to wrangle it into the Llyu-Llyu bottle?
Toby and Purpose stand by in case things start going south?
Or alternately, if we're doing grapple checks or something, Toby/Purpose could use Aid Another to help.

Aid Another might be the better choice—does that all sound good?

I think we just net it and release it somewhere?

Well, probably less dangerous to carry it around if it's in the bottle. At least, I'm hoping its acid won't burn through glass :D

Didn't we learn something about them being territorial creatures? Do we have any reason to think it won't just come right back here if we release it in the wild?

I assume we're also going to give it a stern talking to, and if it comes back we catch and release it again. Or we kill it.

Hopefully it stays away when the colonists return; it's still small and more vulnerable than an adult. It will probably going to avoid a barracks full of people.

Silt wants to give it a talking to.

I like the character moments that could come up in Sil'tchaak's approach—and if those character moments involve people being like "what the heck were you thinking!?" I think we're a mature enough group to have that be fun instead of stressful!

Doesn't seem like our characters know enough about their behavior to figure it out but yeah, I'm worried the ankhegs'll just be territorial and aggressive, and a threat we'll have to deal with in the future. I'm assuming the wholes up north are a whooooooole bunch of 'em. If that ends up being the case, though, then I assume Sil'tchaak will understand the merits of reducing threats to the colony.

I mean, right now Silt's looking at it like humane pest control; to a druid, reducing threats might mean "keeping stuff away" as opposed to "killing."

What we suspect is North of the colony seems out of the purview of character knowledge, and may alter his perspective later. We'll have to find out more!

I just want everyone to know that I posted on the GM thread about this and Adam Daigle responded "Yay for bug buddies!"

Awesome!

Waaaaait a second... if the holes up north are all ankhegs, and if we're able to make full on bug buddies with 'em... extra layer of colony defense!

And if we can milk them for their spit, an endless supply of acid for acid flasks! We've got a whole industry just waiting to be set up!

Truly I tell thee, Ancorato is a land of milk and honey.

our group is Da Best

I wish I could extra-favorite comments… I spit some dinner out laughing at "Talmandor's Bounty Waste Disposal Officer" — we totally have to do that!

I can take 20 for 27 on cracking open that clockwork spy if Kate will allow that and if that's what the group wants to do. I'm not 100%
sure that will get it open. It probably would, but who knows?

This is as much a trap as a device, so take 10 is okay, but not take 20.

I say don't risk it then!

Risk what? I don't know what you're talking about. Anyway, did you see all the neat food and interesting smells there are around here? And that weird bug-pet Silt is leading around? :D

I think by "risk" Doug means that failing at the disable device could trigger the device's self destruct. That might also ruin whatever evidence it holds. Real life me likes the risk.... Silt, probably not :)

I think by "risk" Doug means that failing at the disable device could trigger the device's self destruct. That might also ruin whatever evidence it holds. Real life me likes the risk.... Silt, probably not :)

That last post was meant to be in character, as in Toby has forgotten all about the dingus in all the excitement. I shoulda put it in quotes.

Haha, I got it Dennis!

Ahh, that makes sense. Sorry for the confusion, I always assume discussion-side posts are out of character, even if they're on the character's avatar.

Yeah, we seem to have gotten our streams crossed a bit between the two threads.

Yeah. Maybe we should stay out of character here.

It's not a big deal by any means, but speculation on plot and stuff might be nice to keep in the Discussion thread—that way it's easier to get a "clean" narrative when reading through the Gameplay part.

And yeah, I use Purpose Creche in here just to keep my main alias's post history a little cleaner!

!!!!!

Exciting Cedar character moment!

Haha, is it? Thanks!

I'm sort of going off of this description from Blood of the Coven about Sea Hag Changelings:

Born restless, brine mays cannot abide a sedentary life and yearn to travel and see new sights. Curiosity and wonder grip them, but a disposition that changes like the winds means they find it difficult to permanently bond with places, possessions, or people. They are vivacious and lively, but also temperamental, prone to quick shifts between emotional highs and lows.

Also, I've been reading A LOT of Monsterhearts 2 lately, so that may be having an influence lol.

I think you're doin' great! I like the juxtaposition between Purpose and Cedar's emotional state, too.

Yeah, I like that juxtaposition too!

I'll have to dwell on that a little bit. I wonder how Cedar feels about it. He must have noticed their differences.

Waiting to see what Silt's rockfishing brings up—I imagine Purpose Creche and Cedar are busy having a civil discussion while this stuff's going on.

Woah! Silt hurled that rock!

Also, Derek* gave me a pbp tip last night that I wanted to share. He suggested putting coordinates on the map, like numbers down one side and letters down the other, so that we can easily talk about specific squares. It could get a little mechanical, but I think this would help us in certain situations, like in the case of a target square. It would be easy to say "I'm aiming for D5" or something like that. And I'm sure there are other situations as well.

*A popular 5 star GM in our area.

Woah! Silt hurled that rock!

Also, Derek* gave me a pbp tip last night that I wanted to share. He suggested putting coordinates on the map, like numbers down one side and letters down the other, so that we can easily talk about specific squares. It could get a little mechanical, but I think this would help us in certain situations, like in the case of a target square. It would be easy to say "I'm aiming for D5" or something like that. And I'm sure there are other situations as well.

*A popular 5 star GM in our area.

Good call from Derek!

Woah! Silt hurled that rock!

Yes, I imagined the rock is baseball sized and Silt has 18 strength (for context, a little leaguer throws 46 feet to home plate; the target square was 40' and the rock had probably rolled).

Anyway, that was my out-of-character thought process here. It can help sometimes, because I'd probably go through some of that at an in-person table.

So, Purpose Creche's fingers bend like green wood instead of having joints. What's a word that evokes that other than "sinuous," since he doesn't have sinews? Or something to evoke that image of bending and curving rather than articulating. I haven't been able to think of one.

Pliable/Pliant, maybe? Or supple?

Hmm, that's a good angle. They feel a bit more "receptive" than "active," if that makes sense, but I hadn't branched out in that direction!

RE: Talmandor's Bounty investigation, if possible we could just hand-wave hitting up the chapel. Assuming there's no actionable developments with regards to the knocking sound, at least!

So, Purpose Creche's fingers bend like green wood instead of having joints. What's a word that evokes that other than "sinuous," since he doesn't have sinews? Or something to evoke that image of bending and curving rather than articulating. I haven't been able to think of one.

Not sure how helpful this is, but I imagine Purpose's fingers to be like thin strips of veneer.

One thing that resonates with me about the character is how/why he creates shadow stencil art. Perhaps his fingers could be compared to some kind of flexible artist's tool, or even used like watercolor knives when he creates his stencils. Such a metaphor might even become a dramatic embodiment of his internal conflicts, or hint at something deeper about his character.

Anyway, just having fun brainstorming :)

I want to keep the gameplay threads clean but I dont think you can activate items unless theyre identified. If it's identified later as a Quick Runner's shirt, Silk would take it. His poor movement is probably the most frustrating thing about the character thus far.

Up to you all on the chapel. I can narrate it, if you like, or we can play it out if there's anything you'd like to try doing there.