Olive's not here & trying to describe Olive in character was causing me a headache. The avatar confusion added to it & I figured I can at least keep you from hanging while I worked it out. :)
No problem using the same one, unless it means I have to change my name to Jacob :)
No worries, Curaigh. I changed Rizu's avatar. So one less headache/bit of confusion. :)
Not necessary, I just need sleep. :)
Rest/sleep well. :)
Sorry; was all set to update today and I just did SOMETHING to my back. Just sitting here is killing me, so I think I'm going to give myself another day (or two)... Just took some aspirin and hopefully that will help.
Sorry to hear. Hope your back heals soon, motteditor.
That sucks Mott. Sorry you aren't feeling well.
On the way to the visit Proum at the Arwyll estate Lyra recounts the heroism of Vegazi. When we first met...
Unfortunately, your fears seem to be realized as the clang of metal on metal and the shrill whinnies of frightened horses can be heard from up ahead. As the dusty road curves around the hills, a scene of battle comes into view some hundred feet away. Panicked horses bolt past, and corpses litter the ground around the road—some are recognizable as human guards or fallen horses, but others are are twisted, winged, horned monstrosities with fiendish features. All of the combatants have fallen, except for two of the flying yellow monsters attacking a lone, wounded half-orc woman wielding a bow.
The strong-looking half-orc woman, blood streaking down her face, shows her teeth, possibly a smile, possibly a threat.
"I called Vegazi," she says in poor Common. "Devils attack so I kill them. But they are strong. You are thanks for helping."
Behind her, five human bodies lie on the ground, along with a half-dozen quickly disintegrating gaav devils and a green-skinned woman with thin horns curling from her brow, a mane of crimson hair, and knobby, undeveloped wing stumps on her shoulders.
"You are thanks," she says, watching you warily. "I am not calling these companions. I live in the hills for many and many years, when I long leave my forebears' tribe. I see the devils, so I try and help. We should help them more, and bring them back to their home."
The half-elf also accounts the various sister's Vegazi has fought against. "She helped prevent the tombs from being plundered (or worse), fought off an attack on the inn, and helped us escort the outlying steaders to the safety of the town." Upon seeing Grev she recounts some earlier parts of her history, recently discovered.
The man shakes his head as Lyra begins telling the story -- interrupting that he's far too busy writing his book to go gallivanting off with just anyone -- but his entire demeanor changes when Philgor and Lyra finally enter.
His eyes shift to the half-orc and a moment later a flicker of recognition crosses his face.
"YOU!" he cries, as the young woman looks astonished at the reaction.
"HER!" he cries again, to the rest of you, gesturing at Vegazi.
He begins scrambling through his paperwork and finally pulls out several pieces of paper which he shoves toward you, with drawings of a man that looks a bit like Wate Arwyll and a young Vegazi.
“She rescued Captain Adil and myself many years ago from the Hell’s Fury prison camp!”
He grins at Vegazi as a look of confusion crosses her face.
The old man grins as you express interest in his writing, but snatches his papers away before Shackleton can see them.
At Philgor's comment, Ort grins ruefully. "I'm afraid I do the cooking in the family, but I'm happy to see if there's something we can eat. Come along, children," he says, retreating to Grev's kitchen.
As they leave, Grev begins to read from his tale. It's sadly clear right away that writing was not a natural skill for the man:
“And then I pulled my sword out of the orc, and the blade made a terrible smacking noise as the orc cried, ‘Raaarggh!’ If my sword had a voice, it would have screamed right back at the orc, spitting the monster’s blood in his face,” he begins.
He looks up to see your reaction, but then quickly returns to his papers.
“The stench was terrible. It was a battlefield stench, the kind you never forget: the wretched stink of blood and battle.”
"No, no," he says, "that part's not quite as good. Let me ... wait ... here it is!
“The battle was over, but even as my brothers and I whooped for victory, I noticed my bloody stump of an arm flopping about. Like a lumberjack apprentice’s first attempt at chopping down a fine cherry tree in its youthful bloom, the orcs had whittled my limb so badly it weren’t worth saving."
Eventually, you get him to tell you the story of his meeting with Vegazi. He had been captured, along with Adil Arwyll, a young nobleman, and several other soldiers from Arwyll Stead. They were being kept as slaves by a tribe of orcs. But then a battle broke out among the orcs. In the chaos, a girl -- Vegazi, it turns out -- freed all the slaves, who fled. Adil gave the girl his ring (which Vegazi still has, and shows you) in gratitude but they never saw her again as she slipped into the woods. Until now, obviously.
Lyra, thanks so much for locating those sections of the story for us. I will have Qiola note what's been told her, like it was played in on the main game thread. :)
I'm in another game with Mott and he posted this up today, so I am relaying the info here just as a FYI:
I'm going to be away from my computer -- visiting my wife in St. Martin -- from Sunday through Thursday. I'll be back to posting on Friday, I expect.
I am indeed going to be away. Was still planning to get one more post in for this game, which is why I'd not yet announced it here, but thanks! :)
Please feel free to role-play, obviously, though I won't be able to respond. That said, if you want to decide your next course of action -- the mayor and scoutmaster have made pretty much conflicting requests -- we can pick up quickly when I get back.
The half-elf wants to know each person's preference. How many of you want to search for the scouts?
How many wish to stay and guard Vergazi? She includes herself in the latter.
Argus wants to be proactive. Take the Scountmaster's key, sneak out and lay an ambush for the orcs, preferably with Vegazi's help as bait/archer.
The scouts know what they're doing in the woods - they'll be safe if the party can attract and disable the orcish forces.
As far as the ambush is concerned, Argus has a stockpile of grenades we could probably do something dramatic with.
Busy week for me. My posting may (though may not) be spotty.
Good luck with your busy week ahead, mott.
Another busy period; will do my best but posting may be a bit spotty over the next few days.
With the DNC and a few people off work, this is likely to be a long week for me. I still plan to try to update every day (probably starting tomorrow), but if I miss a day, that's why.
I'm going to be travelling through the 4th. I will have internet access, but don't let me hold anything up.
Since Qiola has durable arrows, after combat is over, can she go in search of the arrows that went astray to see if she can locate them and add them back to her quiver? I can make a roll to see how many she finds.
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You're firing in a small, enclosed area -- if you're willing to take 5-10 minutes, you can find them all. If not, give me a Perception check -- we'll say you find half of them at DC 20 (i.e. you can take 10), plus 10 percent for every 2 points you exceed that by (round up).
My schedule gets a little crazy the next few weeks.
I'm off to NYC tomorrow, though may have time to update if I'm not too tired when I get home.
Then I'm working day shifts all next week; I'm hoping I have energy to update when I get home Monday and Tuesday.
Wednesday, the ol' ball and chain gets home from med school for 10 days, so I don't expect to update at all Wednesday-Friday nights (Aug. 17-19).
After that, I'm on vacation until Aug. 28. Usually we take a little time to ourselves each day so I'd say there's a 50/50 chance of me updating during that time Aug. 20-28.
Then I have to go to Hartford for training Aug. 29-31. I think I'll have time to update those days but I'll be using a work laptop, so am not 100 percent sure.
I expect to resume normal posting behavior Sept. 1, and don't think I'll have anything to disrupt it again until mid-October.
Orcs have the advantage in the dark, so we should probably approach during the day...and it's more ethical to at least try to parley than attempt to murder them all in their sleep.
I was thinking the same thing.
Hey all, I can't reach internet from my phone without it opening to a page saying 'click to win an I-phone'. Since I won't click OK (its a trap!) I am unable to lurk. It is also the time of year where I spend ALL day at my day job..
I will be back to posting normally next Tuesday, but it will be sporadic until then. Thank you for your patience.
Argus's proposed plan - March up as close as we can, lob a grenade (at a threatening but not actually dangerous distance), wait for the loud boom and demand surrender of the hostages. If the orcs won't give up the hostages, then it is time for weapons used at a more dangerous distance.
Hey guys,
I think I'm going to pull the plug on this game. One of our players PM'd me to say it just wasn't working out and she wanted to drop out, and there's no real way to write anyone out of the game at this point.
It just occurs to me that I've never been able to get us going -- we had someone disappear before the first encounter and I think our total now reaches 4.
We routinely seem to have only half of us posting at a time, which leads to me not having a lot of fun and posting slowly, which leads to more slow posting and it's just a vicious cycle.
I apologize for it not working out -- especially to Philgor, since I know this was your first PBP experience and I wish it had been a bit better.
I will survive. If you need a player is another game let me know. I have a friend in my Friday night table top game that played in your Reign of Winter campaign.
Oh yeah, who's that? That's easily been my most successful campaign.
Sometimes it works. Sometimes not. Even with good GMs :)
Thanks for the time :)
Thank you to the GM and the players. Wishing you all well on the boards and in RL. :)
Really sorry as one of the people that hasn't been posting. I'm sorry that you're closing it down.
Thanks Motteditor.
I appreciate the effort to breath life into it more than once, but I do agree it is time to let it go.