Well, it's been almost a month without Khaddar. I snooped through some of his other games, and he's been absent everywhere. In one discussion, however, he mentioned hospital drama, so perhaps there is an illness or something.
However, it's no fun to NPC somebody in the long term, especially a very specialized character like Khaddar. So I'm going to take him out of play for now. This will railroad you guys a little, and I apologize for that. Basically, he's about to be injured, and after this encounter is done, you'll need to either abandon him here, or take him to one of the healing/safe areas. Originally I'd said that once a character is on one of these safe zones, they stay there until the Game is over. But I'll amend that now, and Khaddar can stay there until Purplefixer is back and ready to play him.
In the mean time, there are three options. 1) you guys continue on with the 4 of you. 2) We add an NPC that I'll play, that will be a bit more generic, but could fill a specific role if you feel like you need another melee specialist. 3) I can open up recruitment and try to find another player to add.
Thoughts?
I like option three the best. I don't mind option two. Option one is also fine. That's my vote.
Another engaged player would be best but option 1 is fine as well.
I'm not a big fan of GMs running players since I feel that GMs already have plenty to do. I would rather you 'secretly' lowered the difficulty of the encounters and let us deal with them since this provides more RP opportunities.
But if you insist on a GM NPC then I'm sure it will be fine as well. :)
Game on!
Sorry to add to the trouble, but maybe this timing's for the best. Over the last few days, I've sat down to respond to play-by-posts half a dozen times, only to find myself lost for words every time; for a few weeks now, I've struggled to get anything out beyond a couple of perfunctory sentences. After some thought, I've finally admitted to myself that I've gotten a bit burnt out on play-by-post, and it's not fair to everyone I'm playing with for me to only put in minimal effort. My sincerest apologies to everyone, but I am going to take this opportunity to step aside from the hobby for a little while, in the hopes that time renews my vigor and enthusiasm.
Thank you everyone for making the road so far wonderful, and I hope that when I come back we can touch base again. Feel free to replace my character - I have no definite timeline for returning, and I wouldn't dream of putting everyone else's play on hold on my account. Happy gaming to all, and to all a good story!
Thanks for the heads-up, Elia - we'll miss you! We'll put Elia in stasis as well, so if you're ever up for her again, there will be the opportunity to bring her back in.
In the meanwhile, I have found one other player - welcome to ElenionAncalima! We'll work out a way to add her to the party once you're done with the goblins.
In the meanwhile, I have found one other player - welcome to ElenionAncalima! We'll work out a way to add her to the party once you're done with the goblins.
Not her! :)
Alas, beggers can't be choosers.... ;)
In the meanwhile, I have found one other player - welcome to ElenionAncalima! We'll work out a way to add her to the party once you're done with the goblins.Not her! :)
Alas, beggers can't be choosers.... ;)
Hi everyone else!
Definitely sad to see you go Elia but completely understandable :) Rest, recharge, take care of yourself and hopefully we'll run into each other in cyberspace again.
@Elenion: Can't you just feel the love? Welcome! Don't pay any attention to them :)
Thanks for the nice greeting Shari. I guess SOME people were taught manners as a child... :p
So I am leaning towards a brawler whose backstory I've had floating around in the back of my head (who for some reason I feel like should be a dude, but we'll see how that goes). The alias obviously still needs...well...everything. But, I'm still gonna drop it here to I can dot in the game and not have to navigate here via Angie's PM. I may still post with my regular user after this though, since I don't want to lock myself out of changing the name.
Hi everyone else!
Hey that's me! Wow, away for a few hours and the world turns...
1) I'm sorry to lose Elia. That was a cool character and there were good opportunities there - you were fun. I'd love to meet you in the world wide again!
2) ElenionAncalima! Wonderful to have an infusion of new blood - so glad you joined. Can't wait to see your introduction in the game!
3) Angie, it would be funny if Elia were kidnapped by the ELA.
4) As a wise man once said, "Game on!"
*Waves at Jibril*
So I think Rex is something approximating done...
Man, them 10 minute backgrounds always take me a while. Yay irony!
Rex is looking good! Should get you integrated as soon as these mooks are done with their filthy lucre.
That awkward moment when you aren't sure if a person is you...
I mean, irl I can most certainly assure you that I am creeper watching your characters.
lol - that didn't occur to me. No, I'd let you know if you're about to make a grand entrance. We'll have Rex "waiting" outside the door to the teleport pad when they leave this place. What he's doing there is up to you. I'll put him on the map.
I'm really hoping that isn't the same pool as was in the Labyrinth when you ran that Ang...if it is and it isn't the healing pool then it's been nice knowing you Jibril.
Fool me once...
I rolled perception in secret, only Rex noticed. You get another chance to notice after Jibril is stabilized. Quinn is able to figure out what he's after, and you can induce vomiting. This will grant a temporary reprieve, and he'll have an hour or so instead of minutes. You guys can write that all up.
Not quite the same as the Labyrinth...
When one pool was supposed to be 'riches' that's immediately what I thought of and then I thought Jibril put his face directly in it...
Really screwed that one up. Sorry for slowing down the path to the market. If it's any consolation, I'm having a spectacular time dying.
We are losing Fabian for the next few weeks or longer - he's had a death in the family. I'll bot Duncan until then, and I'm reaching out to see if we can find another player.
I wanted to make sure that I was understanding what Jibril did properly...He stuck his face in a different pool than the one that made Ifanna sick, correct?
Ifanna drank from the death pool, leaving the health and riches pool. Unless I'm missing something?
Just want to make sure before I put up a post.
Yeah. I thought he was aiming for the health pool, hoping that if it was what it was labeled the wolf could drink from it too. So I've been just assuming that the labels were a trick and they were dangerous. Basically I assumed Jibril was being reckless, but not totally idiotic.
Yes, Jibril stuck his face in a different pool than the one Ifanna drank from. Beyond that, you need to figure the puzzle out.
There might be some confusion here. When Jibril scouted ahead and saw the pools up close he saw a plinth in the centre of the pools. When he returned to the group he described it poorly. Now that everyone is there they most certainly can see it for themselves:
The water looks clean and clear in each.
A small plinth in the middle as a plaque on it. It saysWaters of health
Waters of death
Waters of wealth.
Drink if you dare.There's no indication which is which.
Before Jibril dunked his head in I did have a WWJD (what would Jibril do) moment and although reckless and stupid he believed it was necessary. He dunked his head (because a vague gesture is no one's friend) in what I thought was the next pool clockwise hoping the pools were arranged in the most obvious manner.
Feel free to invent food and vendors. The only rule is everything here is very expensive.
She gave Rex a surprised look. "Can you tell us what you've done so far? Does the tattoo know you're now part of our team? The tattoo prevents the sharing of info between teams. Just be careful, you may experience some pain if you share."
I might need some GM input on this one. I didn't know about the tattoos as a player and might need to be filled in on them before I reply. I might play it off as the team leader didn't really explain the tattoo rules to Rex.
All contestants had a "tattoo" magically scribed on the back of their hand just before the game began. The tattoo fades as the game goes on, giving an indication of how much longer there is to play. Past games have lasted as short as a few hours. You guys have been in this game about 6 hours by now, and it has maybe just barely begun to fade.
The tattoo is also what allows contestants to use the teleport symbols that take them to various places outside the GameFields.
In-game sharing of specific challenges between teams is forbidden, and the attempt causes sharp pain in the hand.
As for how the tattoo "knows" that a player has changed teams...there was no instruction about that - guess you'll just have to try and see what happens.
Feel free to invent food and vendors. The only rule is everything here is very expensive.
Is there a benchmark we can use - 1.5x, 2x, 10x?
Most things cost is 3x what they would normally - if you succeed a diplomacy roll DC 20 you can get that down to 2x.
Your plan with the golden handle is fine, however, how will you be sure that the pool is "set" to wealth?
Your plan with the golden handle is fine, however, how will you be sure that the pool is "set" to wealth?
The idea was to hold the gandasa by the blade and dip it in so all of the wooden handle was submerged. If nothing happens I'd assume it was either healing or death, draw it out and dip it again, continue until it turned to gold.
Feel free to write this up, but no matter how many times you dip the handle in the pool, it will not turn to gold.
There doesn't seem to be a need for me to step in just yet, so I'll let the conversation continue. As for stalls in the market....
Safekeeping. Run by a very ugly and wizened looking gnome, he has a bunch of big iron chests that he will "rent" to teams, if there's anything they want to store while they're still in the GameFields. They have to collect it before the Game is over, but he'll keep it safe while they're exploring various challenges. Cost is 50 gold, and he claims security is absolutely guaranteed.
Em's Porium - general store type stuff. The place for general gear. You can get cold weather stuff here. Em is a friendly, young halfling girl who yearns for adventure.
Consignment - this is where contestants can resell items that they no longer need in the games. It is minded by a half-orc husband and wife team, who are ready to crack heads if anybody attempts to steal anything. Currently displayed are five water-breathing apparatus'.
Tattoo - a regular ink tattoo artist. A rough-looking human woman, dyed hair, skimpy leathers, lots of ink on her arms. Some of the teams are getting a team logo or crest or something tattooed. She works quick.
Other doors you've passed: by the door to the downstairs, there were two other rooms. To save time I'll give you the low-down. The middle door is a resting room - it has ten beds inside, and time moves differently here. 8 hours in a bed takes only a half-hour of game time. If you decide to go in there I'll give you more details. You can get this info from anybody in the market.
Quinn also saw the Magic Door, and the one opposite the market is the Fear door.
The north part of the market holds a small vestibule, and in it is the fabled Safe!
The Safe Challenge is put on by the Safemaking company: Strongarm Safe and Security. Their newest model is the Strongarm 3XQ, and they claim it's never been cracked. It's not in a room, just a small alcove north of the market (there's no door to get into the space). The challenge is just to crack the safe - the point is that the company wants to prove to the world (via the spy eyes) that the best thieves in the city can't crack it. So, you can try to crack it individually, or as a team, whatever you want. Assuming Quinn will go it alone, then give me a perception and disable device check (the DC is secret). A well-described post will give you a plus to your roll. Then I'll let you know how it goes. :)
You're welcome to try and take 20, but there's no guarantee you won't be interrupted by other teams.
Okay, I think this link will work.
The ant is Duncan's ?
Yep
So...I tried to move Quinn on the map and she disappeared! Spooooky.
The market is open to the sky correct? I want to make sure no one is going to die of smoke inhalation if we start a fire in here :)
Sorry for the delay. I've added quite a bit to the map. I've marked the doors that you come across. The Teeth door is off its hinges. Inside you can see a tall hedge labyrinth, and there's signs of struggle - torn branches, blood, etc.
The moon door opens to a teleport symbol. There's another cold door, identical to the one downstairs. It also opens to a teleport symbol.
The dotted lines show fences, not walls. Area 4 is a creepy graveyard, full of tombstones, tombs, twisted old trees, etc. It looks gloomy in there, despite the sunny day.
Area 18 looks to be a dexterity challenge of some kind. There are rope bridges, things to balance on, etc. If you decide to go that way I'll give a better description.
Feel free to describe things as you see them. You don't see any other teams.
So areas 4 and 18 aren't walled in? We can see in? Just making sure...
Also, what is the area just north of the 3 pools that looks like a maze to nowhere?
Yes, 4 and 18 have a tall, iron fence that you can easily see through. The fence is as high as the regular walls. You can easily see in. They have doors like normal.
Are you going to check out the maze to nowhere?
Seems right. Where did you feel you missed something?
Seems right. Where did you feel you missed something?
Thanks, the way you posted I thought I might have missed something from Angie but it's clear now that you were responding to her description of the Tooth Door on this page.
Okay, this next bit is going to be a bit tricky, because it's going to require quite a few Ref/Dex/etc rolls. It's the kind of challenge that's better on a tabletop game, and I don't want to bog us down in roll after roll.
So, what I'm going to do is give an overall layout of the place, and for each section of it, give you the number and DC of rolls needed, and consequences of failure. I'll leave it up to each of you to roll/write up your attempt at that particular part of the challenge. It's more player knowledge in advance than I generally like to give out, but hopefully it'll keep things flowing.
And btw, it's not that I don't trust you guys to keep player and character knowledge separate - it's just that I enjoy the surprise in-game of not knowing what/why something's happening with another player, so I'm trying to create that in this game. But it is a balance between having fun surprises, and keeping things moving along.
Also, I realized the scale of the obstacle course isn't really correct in the map. It's bigger than it appears on the map. But as I'm not going to map out each challenge, it doesn't really matter.
Also, I realized the scale of the obstacle course isn't really correct in the map. It's bigger than it appears on the map. But as I'm not going to map out each challenge, it doesn't really matter.
It's bigger on the inside!?
Also, I realized the scale of the obstacle course isn't really correct in the map. It's bigger than it appears on the map. But as I'm not going to map out each challenge, it doesn't really matter.It's bigger on the inside!?
I designed this using Time Lord technology.
I won't have time to post anything thoughtful until tonight. But I also don't want to hold up the game so Quinn will first look for a way to disable the trap and then disable it. If she can't find a way to disable the trap, she'll attempt to get through it, even with the body there as an ever present reminder of what failure will look like.
She'll also ask Timothy if the body belongs to their team.
How long will Quinn be paralyzed?
It's just her mouth that's paralyzed. You get another save in one minute.
Can she physically move?