Kaer Esopus

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Daniel - when Valsera trains to first circle is he going to break out into "Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles"?

Hey folks, I'm still out in WV for training until tomorrow, so I'll post something up for Eriene on Saturday. Haven't forgotten about all of this!

Alisa - You'll need to figure out how to do the formatting before you have to roll dice. The stuff under "how to format your text" at the bottom is pretty good.

Anyone else have any questions on how things are working so far?

I'm holding off on the next "event" post until I hear from at least Rachel and Meg.

Our flight to London tomorrow got canceled, so we are hoping to catch a late flight tonight (@ airport now).

I *should* be able to check in via mobile (how I play anyway), but will miss any in person sessions for a bit.

In the event you need to choose how Xyanna would react, ask yourself "what would Elan (order of the stick) do?"

Spongebob is equally valid.

=-D

Just looked at the calendar and realized that we had put this Friday as a potential start date. I've got family coming in for my niece's baby shower (YEAH BABY!!!) so we'll wait until the 22nd.

I'll do a plot move again on Saturday morning.

Today's a writing day for me, day off work and all. So I'll actually get caught up.

Congrats on the baby! Do they have a name yet?

They aren't sharing the name. We do know it's a girl (I know, given my family, that's a HUGE shock).

Yay Halisa!

And when Karen's ready to play Maizi in person, I hope its clear that she's shy and nervous about this whole thing. But eventually will be talked into going of course.

Not Karen - Debbie. Karen is Xyanna.

Not Karen - Debbie. Karen is Xyanna.

Oops, sorry Debbie! I tried to find our email exchange, but couldn't.

Guess, what Lynne turns 13 tomorrow! And boy has she grown since you've seen her last. He's just above my height! Time has flown by.

There are a few new files in the "Kaer Esopus Game Files" in dropbox - the most important being the map that shows the area near the valley.

Also - I realized that I didn't put the kaer entrance on the map - it is in the cliffs north of the Freer farm.

Oh, and I realized I've been putting files up in .docx format - if you need .pdfs instead let me know and I'll try to remember to convert before I put them up.

Ghost Master Ritual in a nutshell: Most of the time, people are trained by an actual Adept of a higher level. Sometimes, however, that's not possible and a Ghost Master is used. A Ghost Master is an actual ghost of an Adept. The tricky bit is that you have to know the name of an Adept of a higher level than you who died in the area. Fortunately, you had Delamater to do the research (and pull from his memory) and figure out how to get around the whole "paying" bit. When you hit higher Circles you will presumably be somewhere that you can use person, rather than a ghost.

Post any last actions for the kaer - you leave the valley on Saturday morning.

Also - look at the map of the area around the valley in dropbox and figure out which direction you want to head.

Ghost ritual master's name is for the "angel on the shoulder." I'm trying to role play!

Won't be able to get maps until on real computer, I think, so will go with what the group chooses.

Amongst the prepared weapons, is a battle axe available?

Alisa: No one left the kaer to go back to town after training.

Kiranov: Yup, you can have a battle axe.

Xyanna: Your ghost master was Terwilliger, an ancestor of the baker.

Everyone should update their character sheet so that they've used all their Circle one slots. Additionally, you have another 600 Legend Points you can spend.

As in my old game, you can generally take 10% of that and put it directly into knowledge skills that relate to what you have been doing. In this case, however, you don't have a choice - giving you a bonus of a rank 1 in "History of the Scourge".

Since you have trained, you now have access to your karma - you all start at full.

Woo-hoo, I get a battle axe. Was Dwee able to do anything special with it?

This part is still new for me, when you say full, is that our full base or at our max?

Can I get a set of throwing knives. I can learn to juggle them too.

Kiranov: Yes, it is Forged - Delamater helped. It has a +1 damage step for the next 5 months.

Grayson: You can get a set, and you can juggle them, but you don't have throwing weapons as a talent or skill, so you can't use them for throwing.

MAXIMUM KARMA, not standard starting karma!

Once you update your character sheets to reflect spending the LP, upload it back to dropbox, please.

Would everybody be ok with signing your character name/real name on this post? I'm getting confused about who is who.
Do we need to tell you what stuff we have in our packs? I'm having a hard time following when I'm supposed to make a roll for something, or rather what I'm making rolls for? Anybody else or is this just me?
Roni/Dwee

Well, at least I can increase the danger a bit with my juggling. That's half the fun.

This is Daniel. I'm still the furry one (at least here). And the PbP thing is a little confusing at times. A little player patience, a lot of GM patience and cat-herding, and it works out OK.

This is Daniel. I'm still the furry one (at least here). And the PbP thing is a little confusing at times. A little player patience, a lot of GM patience and cat-herding, and it works out OK.

Clearly, you are the easiest to remember, next to my husband and Lori. --Not just for the fuzziness, but also because of the style of writing. Thanx!

Roni, I'm Karen. We've met at least a few times, but always in passing I think.

My character, Xyanna, is hopefully gonna be a lovable doof. Just remember, she's way more likable than me.

First time with play by post here too. Lori and Daniel make me feel way out of my league! (everyone does, probably Daniel the most)

Everyone should update their character sheet so that they've used all their Circle one slots. Additionally, you have another 600 Legend Points you can spend.

As in my old game, you can generally take 10% of that and put it directly into knowledge skills that relate to what you have been doing. In this case, however, you don't have a choice - giving you a bonus of a rank 1 in "History of the Scourge".

BTW, I was just updating, and noticed that the 1 rank in History: scourge actually costs 200 points (not 60). Unless you steer otherwise, i'm going to assume that the intention was one full rank for free.

can you confirm or deny?

Also note - after spending 600, I can advance to circle 2. FYI

Yes, I meant a free rank.

I knew it would be close - but, well, this time around you've got to find someone to train with and a way to pay them.

I'm a little confused. Can we spend the 600 legend points now or do we need to wait until someone can train us since you gave us the free rank in History of the Scourge?

You can spend the LP on increasing your rank in any 1st circle talent or current skills. You cannot train to 2nd circle.

Roni, I'm Karen. We've met at least a few times, but always in passing I think.

My character, Xyanna, is hopefully gonna be a lovable doof. Just remember, she's way more likable than me.

First time with play by post here too. Lori and Daniel make me feel way out of my league! (everyone does, probably Daniel the most)

:) -I'm sure I've met everyone here, I just couldn't match names with, uh, names- heh. Thanks! I figure Dwee is the protective older sister in tiny dwarf form who is also pretty naive about how the real world works, which will work out great since I haven't finished reading up on how this world works.

For those of you unfamiliar with Earthdawn, Karma is used to augment rolls on a certain set of Talents. In Second Step, if you go to the Discipline tab, choose yours and look at the list of Talent, you'll see some with (D) next to them. For any of those, you can spend a Karma point and roll your Karma die in addition to your regular roll. When you perform a Karma Ritual, you get back your rank in Karma Points. There are, in fact, a few Talents that require the use of Karma. Therefore, you want to ensure that you do not keep your Karma Ritual Talent at zero.

Kevin: If you want to swap out of your Knowledge Skills for nature, you can, but the three you have also make sense.

Roni: I forgot that your Karma Ritual required them - Delamater had a set among the supplies - as well as two dozen small strips of an unusual metal, which he says to be careful with as they will melt in a very hot campfire.

I won't be able to update Xy until Monday (at the latest, I hope). If you need it done sooner (for tomorrow's update maybe), I'm planning to update all talents to rank 2, legend points permitting.

Beyond that, I'll put rank 3 in melee weapons.

Back on the grid soon!

When you perform a Karma Ritual, you get back your rank in Karma Points. There are, in fact, a few Talents that require the use of Karma. Therefore, you want to ensure that you do not keep your Karma Ritual Talent at zero.

Just a quick note - Karma Ritual actually affords you an opportunity to spend you Legend Points on new Karma. The new Karma costs a small amount per point, depending on your race.

Since I seem to have exploded one of dice (natural 6) I know I should role that six dice again, but I don't know how I should do that here. Do I simply do a separate dice expression for that single six die?

That works. Alternately, if you preview, you can see that you've exploded it and change the 2d6 to 3d6. The numbers don't change after you preview, so it will just add another d6 roll on.

Good to know. I'll do that before I submit a role.

Also. I don't know if I am remembering this right. You need to use a Talent once to be able to raise that talent up later. I think I remember that being mentioned. Looks like I will have to reread my Earthdawn Companion and Second Edition Player's Manuals. Since I have them, won't hurt to review.

Thanks for the offer, but as you said my current skill set makes sense, too. I am going to use the 600 LP to increase 3 of my current talents to level 2. I should hopefully get that uploaded to drop box later today.

I needed to look back at this, so I thought I'd post it again for y'alls easy access.

If its okay, Maizi will not carry the heavier gear because she's not that strong. She will carry the healer's kit, she has a little proficiency with healing herbs etc-- unless there's someone better qualified. And she will take the following:

Thanks for posting the supply list again! I just looked it up myself. Are we allowed to bring a couple of things 'from home' (not on the list) if they're related to our artistic skill? I'd like to bring 3 cakes of colored ink (similar to Henna), a brush and a few needles for painting/tattoo work. I should have a full list of Dwee's choices from the supply list in the next day or two. She'll also be bringing her short sword 'Nicker', and her hand axe.

Since this is my first initiative situation with this system, I'm not sure how this is supposed to work. Is there a standard way you'd like us to post our actions?

In regards to our impending combat, do we wait for the person ahead of us in the initiative order to post their actions before we post anything?

Also, is it possible to say anything before the action begins or do we have to wait to make comments until our turn in the initiative order?

I realized I didn't specify the plus on the forged weapons. It is a bonus of step 2 (Delamater was helping, so I'm splitting the difference).

You all have a reasonably sized set of supplies for both your karma ritual and your artisan skill.

In answer to Kevin's first question: How about the first three people post their actions, then the next three so that I don't have to do too much backtracking.

So: Maizi, Grayson & Xyanna - post your actions

Meg: on your character sheet it will be on the Talents tab, look at the appropriate Talent and it will give you the Step number and dice you roll for it.

Kevin: I'm going to say that it depends on how low your initiative is compared to other folks - so with both Maizi & Grayson doubling your initiative, you won't be able to say anything until Xyanna goes (which, in this case, is your turn). If your roll had been closer to theirs, I'd probably let you give a quick shout.

So I sort of delayed my attack to see if a short sword (great short sword, mind you for troll) was the most appropriate weapon to select for town guard. Prolly shoulda asked that a long time ago :).

Also, is there a GM Mode in Second Step? I seem to recall something like that. It's charging legend to add the new skill and max karma. Anyone know how to override it?

I'll upload what I have, but I should have 100 Legend points available still (it's showing me -240 [140 to max karma and 100 for Knowledge: History of the Scourge])

By the by, I took Old Wives Tales as my missing starting skill.

I didn't figure out how to override it so I just added legend points to account for the discrepancy to make it balance. If there is a way to adjust that in a GM mode, let me know and I'll correct my and Dwee's sheets. Finally posting Kiranov's sheet now, sorry for the delay. I'm still waiting for Roni to get me Dwee's updated sheet. I didn't account for the group items yet on either sheet since I didn't know how we were dividing those up.

Just uploaded Kiranov to Dropbox. One more question, when I update my character sheet file, do I need to share it again or does it automatically do that?

And just thought of another question, is only our main weapon enhanced by forging or all of our weapons?

Kiranov: You can have a main weapon forged at +2 steps and a second one forged at +1.

Grayson: You didn't say what you wanted for a main weapon, so I'm defaulting to a short sword.

From now on, feel free to roll damage when you roll the attack if you think there's a chance in the world of it hitting - if it doesn't hit, I'll let you know. If you don't roll it and it does hit, I'll roll the damage.

Short sword is fine. He needs maneuvering room anyway with that acrobatic strike. A regular long sword might not work well. He's probably going to be more like a fly in the ointment. Eventually, he'll learn use that strike to his advantage.

Thanks for the clarification. How do you get my name to show up instead of "spoiler" to label the hidden text?