Gm Aest's Kingmaker: To Forge a Kingdom

Game Master Aest

Sadly, no amount of cleaning seems to remove all my old stains. Though the maps get cleaned pretty soon after games. Our venture-captain always brings a roll of paper towels to game night, along with a bottle of Ajax spray-and-wipe. Of course, the word "Ajax" has since been scribbled out with sharpie and replaced with "Francis"...

-Posted with Wayfinder

I'm wondering if the formulae of the new wet erase pens are more conducive to cleaning? Most of the other GMs in the area have equally battle-stained maps, whereas I, who am somewhat of a newcomer, haven't had a problem getting them cleaned off.

I'm actually considering getting another Chessex map, because sometimes I have trouble fitting all the maps of a scenario in the two mats I have.

Hmm

So Kaz, did you write up that description before or after rolling attack and damage? Cause those rolls fit the fluff rather nicely :)

*Thump*

It was rather beautifully done, but then I love reading all your posts. You're all such good writers!

Hmm

Everybody's off making fancy maps and I'm just sitting here with my MS Paint masterpieces

Kaz is turning into the Hulk. If you get him mad he's going to smash your face in.

Everybody's off making fancy maps and I'm just sitting here with my MS Paint masterpieces

Kaz is turning into the Hulk. If you get him mad he's going to smash your face in.

i remember that map. That was one of the most epic maps of all time, Lali!!! Is this where I mention that Cyanne already prestidigitated us clean? I think that next time I do it I need to write it better, and make a production of the affair!

Ooh, for our imaginary fans... Bathtime with Cyanne and Lali! Imagine the pin-up calendar.

WHOOPS brain fart. Let's just pretend that never happened >.>

That pin-up calendar would be amazing. Cyanne's doing all the traditional pin-up poses while Lali's trying to do laundry, because if you're busting out the soap and water you might as well clean everything right?

Lol, that map! Had me in tears.

So Kaz, did you write up that description before or after rolling attack and damage? Cause those rolls fit the fluff rather nicely :)

I usually figure out what I want to do, preview my rolls, and adjust the last sentence or two accordingly. If I'd rolled a fumble, I would have written something about Kaz's blow being too forceful and not accurate enough, or some such nonsense.

Everybody's off making fancy maps and I'm just sitting here with my MS Paint masterpieces

10/10 map. Best map ever.

Kaz is turning into the Hulk. If you get him mad he's going to smash your face in.

You wouldn't like him when he's angry!... because the wrath of a man with his god at his back and the conviction to die for something he believes in is not something you want to be on the wrong end of.

I just realized I had a brain fart and entirely misread gameplay. Maybe Lali and I should start a club.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Hi, everyone.

This coming week is Spring Break at my school, and it seems like a good time to take a break from pretty much every responsibility I have, so here goes.

I've been feeling very burnt out as far as my games go, so I'm going to take roughly 10 days off, give or take a couple. I've noticed it's had an impact on most of the games I'm in, and I don't want to be a downer or the reason a game isn't successful.

Please expect me back between the 10th and 12th of April. Until then, I *may* read the threads, but will almost certainly not be posting.

Thanks, everyone!

Aest

Have a good break Aest! Spend time on that girlfriend!

Hmm

Have a good one, get some sun or some such. Cheers!

Everybody's off making fancy maps and I'm just sitting here with my MS Paint masterpieces

Kaz is turning into the Hulk. If you get him mad he's going to smash your face in.

Lali, that map is about 8 times better than anything I've ever done. I'm genuinely jealous.

I have to tell you guys, I snickered at the grimple fight, thinking, "If I want to get puked on and infested with lice, I have two kids, TYVM." Well, payback's a b****, because guess what my Hell's Rebels slayer is about to fight...?

Aest, enjoy your break.

Some time off is good, and a specific timeline is comforting. Enjoy your break, I probably could use one as well. I won't go out and join three more campaigns in the interim.

Thanks. I'm trying to take a page from DMRaven and how he handled hiatuses. His method was always the best.

Actually, this is something that I learned for my GMing watching you. I always give my players a specific timeline when I take a break.

I learned all my best GMing habits from you.

Have a good break! Get plenty of rest and recharge your batteries!

Have a good break Aest! Spend time on that girlfriend!

I like this lady. She has good ideas. :P

Something in the way we groove
Attracts me like no other gameplay;
Your words penetrate right through me

Don't want to leave you now
You know I believe and how

Source: "Something" by George Harrison of the Beatles

Just missing all of you. Hope that everyone is doing well. I love you guys!
Hmm

That was a good break. I feel refreshed and ready to tackle gaming again for a while.

Good good, welcome back :)

Welcome back, Aest!

Woooo, it's moving again! :D

Yay for being back! I hope you had a good break Aest :D

So, my trivia team is the best in town! Which is why I didn't post yesterday.

Also, does anyone (and by anyone I mostly mean Cyanne, since she's got a list half a mile long to do in Restov) mind if we skip a few days here to get back to the Stolen Lands? I'm excited to finish out a book!

Cyanne was hoping to introduce her family to Daen and her friends. Cyanne could care less if the slaying of gremlins is hand-waived, but Cyanne would like to finish out the Erastil mission (if only you sum up what we accomplished to pay for Kaz's restoration). Cyanne would be willing to pursue family introductions in flex-time, if that will help everyone else move forward.

Cyanne apparently talks about herself in the third person.

Cyanne apparently talks about herself in the third person.

Zohruk likes his chicken spicy!

Don't worry about the rest of Restov. I'll just make up my own head canon for this. I was hoping to see whether Daen would tell Cyanne of his decisions, and see how he'd react, but maybe that is just something that I'll work out with Oterisk, off-screen. The last thing I want to do is stall the game for everyone else. Move us forward, Aest!

I was kinda looking forward to a nice dungeon crawl, as we won't be doing too many of those in this campaign, but if it's just beating up stuff we would not really have a problem with once we have cold iron weapons, then yeah. Let's move on.

I really did enjoy the stuff you did in Restov, Aest. The chase was especially cool, unexpected and fun. If you are excited about the end of the book, we can make that happen. I'm sure it will be awesome.

Well, if you guys are interested in the dungeon crawl, I guess I could make it happen first. It's your game too.

Expect posts tonight. I had a busy week/weekend.

Im interested, though mostly 50/50. I dont need it to happen, but would enjoy if it does.

I'm fine either way, my workload is lightening a bit, so I should be able to keep up now. Also the wife has not had any health problems lately either, so that's also a plus.

I'm happy with whatever we do. :D

Cold Iron Arrows are a must for me. Beyond that, it really depends on what everyone else needs and how we're splitting the money. I could always pick up some of the special arrows like the tanglefoot or smoke ones.

Hey, uh, guys? I have nine hit points after that healing hex, and an AC of 15. I don't want to go dying again, y'know?

Lali can have my cold iron arrows. Luthor, do you have more healing for Kaz? If not, we'll buy a potion or three.

I cannot wait until we all can afford better armor, a CLW wand, and MW weapons. It's odd that the AP didn't drop any.

Yeah, as long as we have a bit of spendy cash, let's get some potions for safety. You always want to have them on hand and, let's be honest, dying with much money is much worse than living with little.

Speaking of healing, does Kaz know how to heal himself yet? I see in your header you still have three uses of Lay on hands, is that right?

Mechanics-wise, that's right, but knowing my luck, I'll heal a total of 3 hit points :P Story-wise, he hasn't clued into it yet, and I'm hoping his eventual familiar will be able to help him figure this stuff out. So far he's only managed to use smite evil and lay on hands when he's already in dire straits and praying for aid.

Well, three potions can get you 6 hp, and we're back in business. :)

Speaking of the AP, we really haven't done half the exploring yet. I'm sure there's a few treasures around that we haven't found. It's just we're into beating up the Stag Lord right now. If we did more exploration, which admittedly is a bit more boring than defeating the bandits, we'd have a fair bit more treasure. Also, the random encounters are mostly animals and magical beasts. You don't get much treasure from those either. I'm sure it will even out eventually.

Regarding the exploration: To be honest, we can explore it out if you'd like. Running in Restov is a lot more stressful than running by the book, since I only have nebulous plans for what's happening (I wasn't even sure it was going to be gremlins until well into Cyanne and Lali's conversation with Erinat.) It's all good, though. Whatever you'd like to do is good with me.

Regarding Kazimir's HP: Go ahead and purchase, or we can retcon to the next day if you'd like.

My vote is for next day. We had a long day of chasing gremlins and getting barfed on. We could flex-time meeting Cyanne's family while we stab more gremlins. :)

Daen was really eager to beat em up some gremlins, but he's willing to push it to the next day as long as they kept watch over the hole.

But if this is more stressful for you Aest, or even if it's stressful for Kaz, I'm fine with hand waiving the whole thing if you want. I think it would be best if we all were having fun, as opposed to just a couple of us. If you want to press on, let's just do it. We can put some family meetings in flex time and head on back to the Stolen Lands. I'm really enjoying the whole of this campaign, and I'm perfectly willing to bend to keep the GM motivated and happy. You put in way more work than the rest of us do, and I want to see you enjoy the fruits of that.

Nah, I'm not burning out, and I have a good idea of what the rest of the Burnt Onion looks like. We're good to go.

Exactly!

Luthors got a Cure Moderate Wounds and a Cure Light Wounds left for healing. Moderate for Kaz?

Yeah, give him the Mod.

We'll buy a cold-iron Dueling Sword, Battle Axe and Rapier then? We have Arrows for Lali, but if she wants a hand axe or something like that, we could probably afford it.

Since Luthor has healing yet, perhaps just two potions of healing, and we'll keep an eye on it at night, keeping watch like our normal watches. Ret-con it for morning, and we'll all heal 3 more hp, and the ones of us with spells will have a full compliment.

Edit: GM, you said you'd take it out of our earnings? I'm cool with that. Daen has like 6gp right now.

Yeah. I've got a rough running total in my head of what you'll have earned from bandit sales, the job for the Erastilites, and whatever else I decide is worth paying for.

Rolling here for Cure Moderate Wounds: 2d8 + 3 ⇒ (1, 3) + 3 = 7

... which helps a bit, I guess. *sigh*

Ahhh, but don't forget that we got to sleep. So we say that yesterday you used all your Lay on Hands charges on yourself plus whatever healing Luthor had left, which ought to heal you up good :D

Kaz doesn't want to do it from an RP stance, which is understandable.

From my research, Kaz has used lay on hands twice. Once he didn't realize it, and the other he prayed for it. Both times, Daen was far from him and embroiled in other things. Cyanne might have seen the one for sure, and with a Knowledge Religion roll, might identify what happened.

We could do a quick RP if someone figures it out, or wants to open with questions about it, but since Daen was distracted, he probably should not start such a thing.