Mothman's Age of Worms Redux

Game Master Mothman

I'm generally useless at this stuff, but that sounds good to me.

I'm working out the details, but I hadn't realized in advance that Mrs Ith was taking the laptop with her on this trip to NYC. So it has been slow going trying to do this through an iPad and phone. Nearly there though.

Question for the gang, do you think the Herald Caller cleric archetype is worth it?
None of Obad-Hai's domains are the "must have" tier, but they are fine. I was looking at Animal (for an eventual AC) and Earth (for some area control spells). If I took the Herald Caller archetype I would lose one of those domains and the medium armor and shield proficiency, but double the skill ranks, summon sponataneously (as well as cure spontaneously), can heal all summoned creatures with channel even if out of range, and get some bonus feats over time (augment summoning, superior summoning, and treated as if he had SF Conjuration for pre reqs.)

The creatures have to be thematically appropriate for Obad-Hai which would mean animals and elementals.

The archetype looks quite good. Losing a domain is a bit of a blow that you'll need to assess, but I don't think the armour and shield proficiency losses are the end of the world, unless you had wanted to make a particularly combat oriented cleric (which I don't think is the case). Lighter armour sort of fits an image of a cleric of Obad Hai, and if you wanted to use his favoured weapon of quarterstaff you wouldn't generally be using a shield anyway.

Ith, have you had a chance to think about your character's possible links to others in the group? Is growing up in the same cohort as Stanley and/or Verrik an option for you, and/or do you see a link to another member of the group?

I'll have it detailed today. I have the skeleton of the background done, but haven't fleshed it out yet and when I do I'll find places to link to the others. The site hasn't been very cooperative these days. No idea why, but I keep getting time outs and 'no stores'. I lost the character sheet 3 times due to that.

*Why is your character in Diamond Lake?
Sheer stubbornness. The priesthood granted it as his parish once he finished training, and despite his best efforts it becomes worse year by year. There is no formal hierarchy to the church of Obad Hai, and Tyvall is free to come or go our found a new parish as he pleases, but thus far he is unwilling to admit defeat.

*Why have they not left yet?
Aside from that, he is pursuing Moiryn, the daughter of Ragnolin Dourstone.

*What would be your character’s motivation to explore an ancient cairn?
Putting together a comfortable nest egg to start a family, preferably somewhere else.

*Why would your character be chosen to be on the team?
As a priest with no formal church, he might be more willing or have the freedom to trek out into the wilds.

*What would motivate your character to leave Diamond Lake?
- The mines move to more ethical management or are shut down, allowing the lake to recover and support life again.
- Tyvall and Moiryn are married and move to a more suitable place to start a family.
- Frustration with an inability to create any change for the better.

*What would motivate your character to adventure in general?
- A desire to effect some meaningful change in the world and his own life.

*How would your character respond if they found out it may be up to them to save the world?
Perhaps a little too eagerly. His experience in Diamond Lake where he could control nothing, has left him craving an ability to reshape things the way he feels they should be.

*Who/what does your character love?
- Community able to live in balance with the natural world.
- Moiryn

*Who/what does your character hate?
- Caerdon of the Bronzewood Lodge, for provoking the barbarians into an ultimately suicidal confrontation with the mine managers of Diamond Lake after it was clear where that path would lead. To some degree, himself for having initially been part of the same plan.
- Bullies. Due to childhood experience, he has a visceral reaction to bullies. It has been better for him to keep a distance from the town, considering how it runs.

*Who/what does your character fear?
- That whether he stays or goes failure in Diamond Lake will lead to an expansion by the Lords of Greyhawk, spreading out like a blight through the area back to his homeland spewing toxins and dehumanizing the people caught in their webs. If the mines run dry, maybe they log their way through the forests leaving a barren, poisoned wasteland in their wake.

OK, signing off for a week.

I like cleric archetype a lot. You'll need Augment Summoning in the worst way, and soon. :)

Also, my apologies for being quiet lately - it's been busy both at work and on the baby front. I'll get my act together this weekend.

I'll be in tomorrow. We had a busy 6th birthday weekend.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday for your 6 year old ithuriel.

Thanks. Gonna take days to build all these legos. And he got a bmx guaranteed to terrify his mother ;)

Ah, Lego... It's so much more complicated than when I was a nipper. James has a fairly hefty Lego City collection, which gets built, then partially dismantled and scattered over the floor to catch the unwary foot, then from time to time smashed to pieces in a rage (then his mother forces him to rebuild, normally with my forced assistance). Still, they get a lot out of building them - they do genuinely seem to spur problem solving and cognitive development and all that good stuff. It just bloody hurts when you step on it.

"Lego" or "lego bricks" never "legos" ;)

Aubs is right, they are a lot more complex now, mostly because they have moved from generic bricks to "companion" sets mostly. But they are still good quality stuff.... I can't see my kids having problems with Ikea furniture with the way they can follow the Lego instruction booklets!

Or "Lego caltrops".

The one toy my parents would not purchase. Those were reserved for my grandparents' house; when we went there, that's what we did. My grandfather must have gotten a kick out how much we liked them, but I don't recall him ever playing with us. Memories.

Sorry, got me reminiscing again.

I'll be off grid over the weekend. Should be back Monday.

I'll be away this weekend, back on Sunday night.

Lol, it's nice to see that Ellantera takes this pupil/teacher thing seriously. She predicted what init her master would get, and acted accordingly. :P

Mind and body moving in harmony. And synch.

Precisely.

I have stalled on this a bit, will aim to get going again soon.

Just to let everyone know, I will be on holiday for one week starting Saturday with no wifi access.

OK, that's me done for a week.

Have fun Aubrey.

Does anyone have a particular preference between me handing out xp as we go, or simply telling you guys to level up when the adventure calls for it?

I don't think I've ever really tried the second way.....

I have gotten in the habit of letting someone else do the tracking because I invariably miss something. I'm good with you telling us what our xp reward is; I'm good with you telling us it's time to level up. Makes no difference to me.

I have no preference, but I do tend to forget to record it on PbP for some reason.

Yeah, as a player I sometimes forget to record xp in pbp, and as GM I am sometimes lax in giving it out.

I'm happy to forgo xp rewards and just let you know when to level up, but as a player I do like getting xp rewards, so just wanted to get people's take on this before I implemented.

Guys, work is about to get mental, so I might not surface for a day or two.

I just want to apologize for my inactivity these last two days, as it appears that the site itself is completely unreachable only during the entire 8-12 hour chunk of time that I was available to post, while they deal with whatever issues they are having.

Yeah, I haven't been able to get on at home for the past few days. I can access at work, but work has been hella busy.

In the USA, it is Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to any of you that have achieved that distinction and to the men in your life that have earned it, as well.

Peace.

Hi everyone, just to let you know I will be on holiday for two weeks (and a bit) from Friday 30th June until the 16th July. During that time I will have no access to the internet (to speak of).

OK, I'm gone.

Yay 1st level, where a caster can take out a monster with a melee weapon!

Welcome back Aubs!

Thanks!

Had a very good holiday, first half in the Dordogne and the second half by the seaside in Arcachon. Don't know about you guys when you are on holiday, but I had a few moments where I was thinking, "This would be cool in a D&D game".

First off, saw some cave art in Lascaux IV (which is a mock-up) and Rouffignac (which were real, and reached by an underground train about 1km long). This was cool, not just for the art but also for the caves themselves (very old school D&D). We also visited La Roque-Gageac and Rocamadour. Both of these are towns built into valley sides, some with troglodyte dwellings, and Rocamadour is also a site of religious pilgrimage with multiple shrines and a processional way with two hundred steps. All got the imagination going.

Awesome.

Welcome back man. The holiday sounds very cool.

Just to let you guys know, I am going to be pretty busy for the next several days, I'm not sure how much chance I'll get to update (this game or others) before the end of the week. I'll see how I go, but if I go quiet, that's why.

See, suggesting the rotating of the sarcophagus was what I was trying to reconcile before I posted Stanley's evaluation. I realized when entering the chamber, that I had played that part before somewhere, but I don't feel like Stanley has found adequate enough clues to make him think it would spin for any reason (no concentric rings around it, or it resting at an imperfect angle, or even a circular base). However, by trying to NOT come right to that conclusion, I'm torn on whether I would have reached it anyways had I not previously experienced this chamber.

Therefore, I tried to stick with the most obvious answer, which is that the arrow shape points toward orange.

Stanley is a scientist with a regimented way of approaching a problem. Ellantera is limited in her available solutions - if she can't smash it or move it, she's out of ideas. Ergo, she looks at its similarities to a compass and wonders if it turns.

I'm not trying to jump ahead - does it actually turn?

Seems reasonable that it would turn, and the the torches would have different effects...either on the dungeon, or in creating a teleport effect.

I'm just guessing tho......

Guys, apologies for the gaps in posting recently. Somewhat busy and stressed with life stuff.

It happens, especially this time of year. I was starting to get a little worried though!

Let us know if there's anything we can do to help.

Thanks man, but its mainly work stuff.

Hi chaps, we are looking for two PCs to replace those lost to attrition in my Rise of the Runelords game. We need a divine type and a melee type primarily. Giving first refusal to existing players in games I either play in or DM, otherwise I'll go to general recruitment. Cheers!

Or I guess possibly one character who can carry both roles?

Ok, so things have gotten a little quiet here; I appreciate everyone is busy (me especially) – but let me know if that is it or if there’s anything else. This room has a lot going on and is a bit of a puzzle – if you haven’t played the scenario before it can be a bit confusing / daunting, and if you have played it you probably don’t want to say too much and give it away!

I don’t think everyone needs to wait for Stanley to investigate everything before poking about (much as he might like you to!). Also, we seem to have lost Vatters at least for now, so please feel free to NPC his character, who is probably an ideal sort for investigating these sort of things.

I was intentionally holding back from the puzzle because I have been through this part before, but should really have been posting reactions etc. Sorry, got lazy with all the other games on hold at the same time. I'll chime in this afternoon.