No worries. My mom semi-expectantly passed in the middle of the night last night so I may be a bit slower than usual as well.
'Semi-expectantly' because she was nearly 80 (a month to go), and last week it was a particularly tough one on her (she had dementia, terrible memory issues, and reoccurring problems relating to her childhood polio).
I'm sorry for everyone's loss.
My condolences.
Not that it means much from a random person online, but I do feel sorry for you.
No reason to hurry, do take all the time you need, this is a great group and I'm taking the liberty of stating that we're all capable of waiting for as long as it takes.
Sorry for your loss.
Ninja'd on the rest of Alia's words.
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No worries. My mom semi-expectantly passed in the middle of the night last night so I may be a bit slower than usual as well.
'Semi-expectantly' because she was nearly 80 (a month to go), and last week it was a particularly tough one on her (she had dementia, terrible memory issues, and reoccurring problems relating to her childhood polio).
Very sorry to hear that. Take your time.
Did something happen? Take your time. I hope you'll feel better soon!
Perhaps Celyne is talking about a certain election?
@Numalar: I considered that shortly, but the reaction seemed too extreme - so I wanted to ask if she was alright.
If it's just about Donald, then I withdraw the question.
Damn, this has been a rough week.
I know I'm a relative stranger to you, but please accept my condolences.
So sorry for your loss RPGGGM.
So sorry for your loss too Mordred.
Tough week for us all, for the country too.
Well, if it's any consolation just remember that the country made it through Presidents Jackson, Grant, and Dubbya AND this development goes toward proving that old story that absolutely anyone in America has the chance to grow up and become President--well, at least become President.
As for me. Thanks for all the kind thoughts. I'm more or less back now. A week from this Saturday though will be busy.
All-game post:
Today the veterinarian told me, unexpectedly, that I will have to euthanize my companion of almost 13 years, my housecat Nikita.
She would not survive the weekend, and I will go to the doctor tomorrow to prevent her from suffering.
I am feeling both like crying all night and hitting walls with bare fists.
I will take a while off.
I have no idea. I may need a couple days to come to term with this loss, or I may be back soon hoping to put my mind somewhere else.Please bot as needed. Apologies.
That's tough, my lad Roo had to be put to sleep due to cancer a few years back. He was the smartest, most stubborn, and suspicious dog I ever owned. It was a tough couple of days immediately following. His slightly older adopted sis, Allie, is 16 this month.
Hi all. Very sorry I've not been back in sooooo long. After getting my new computer together, re-installing all my programs, games (still haven't reinstalled Herolab nor Open Office yet.) and still in the process of rebuilding various files from what's in my head but on Friday I pulled my back out and have been in an incredible amount of pain. Sitting down has been a struggle so I've been unable to even write for the past week let alone leave my house due to the pain. It's still a struggle to walk around the house and travel to the bathroom.
I even ended up spending over half-an-hour stuck in the bath because I didn't want to admit that I didn't have the strength to get myself out of the bath due to this pain and stiffness.
I've managed to stretch it well now and even though I'm still in pain, I'm going to try and catch up and read through all the pages.
Doh! I just botted you!
Sorry but I won'the be able to post for a few (like 9) hours more.
Just got back from Doctor. It's Sciatica so that's fun...this'll be lasting for a few more weeks it appears...great...
Ouch.
Ugh, that does not sound fun.
Sent Posh a quick PM.
sciatica sucks.. my dad had it and the pain was intense... Hope yours gets resolved quickly and without undue pain, posh... best to you.
Numalar, sorry about your hard drive... that sucks too, but in a different way..
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Numalar, sorry about your hard drive... that sucks too, but in a different way..
Thanks.
I have installed a new hard drive and am now going through the process of reinstalling everything. It will take a few days to be back to 100%, and I did lose some data, but I am back in the saddle, more or less.
Posh, don't forget to level up when you get a chance.
Numalar, glad to hear the computer is quasi-up and running. I know the hassle I had to upgrade my system to a windows 10 system earlier this year when my power supply started failing, and now I find a bunch of my older stuff doesn't run on it.
Bah! And I burned my Enlarge Person on nothing...
Oh well, good job prepping, team.
Let's take a few minutes searching this floor to make sure it's as clean as it can be of evil.
One group (with embiggened Alia) goes East and stays south, exploring the torture chamber, the last stand of the dust mephits and the entrance. Numular and Zokon can head with her.
Another group follows Big Scarlet north, towards the zombie jail cells and looks at the spike pits. Posh, Celyne and Luna can come with.
Sounds good to everyone?
Lets go with that.
Let's take a few minutes searching this floor to make sure it's as clean as it can be of evil.
One group (with embiggened Alia) goes East and stays south, exploring the torture chamber, the last stand of the dust mephits and the entrance. Numular and Zokon can head with her.
Another group follows Big Scarlet north, towards the zombie jail cells and looks at the spike pits. Posh, Celyne and Luna can come with.
Sounds good to everyone?
Sounds good. Go team SPCL! or maybe...CLPS? PLCS? hmm...gonna need more thought on an proper anagrahm...
FYI: I'm back on the boards. I'm still digging through all the posts in all my games, so may take a day or two before I get to actually post in gameplay again, but I'm here again.
Thanks for the kind words and understanding.
Glad to have you back. And happy nearly-belated Thanksgiving to everyone else in the States.
"Echo!"
Good, now that I'm alone, I can engage in some serious man-splaying.
What is man-splaying?
Alia sneaks close to the GM, watching silently.
Basically this.
I'm guessing where ever the Crypt Thing is, we're not gonna find it.
I'm not good at piecing together lore. Evil cult likes to corrupt places like this temple to a good god. The Crypt Thing was meant to guard something, but I don't know what.
If we ever get back to town we should tell the priest there about it.
Anyway, I'm ready to move on unless someone stumbles upon a brilliant lead.
To Scarlet's point you have pretty much beat the dungeon. 100% completion the first time through is not a necessity. And while the place still stinks of evil it is one you will need a more powerful divine caster than Celyne currently is to solve.
The cult of Gyronna is all about insane spite, but while they undoubtedly created the place under the formally defiled temple to Erastil, they do not seem to be in attendance--(the core membership are all misogynistic man-haters--probably all the splaying and are not particularly know for trucking with angsty mephits, kobolds, or patriarchal skeletons (though bones, death, and torture all fit their M.O.)--they tend to hang out with hags.
Most of this stuff are just parts of later and greater mysteries, if you solve them now--great, if you don't--you'll get another chance to.
Right now the priorities should be to the Brevic Crown: to steal a line, Explore, report, cooperate. You have to map the countryside.
Oh, and figure out what's up with the kobold's missing idol, find some fangberries For Bokken, recover Svetlana's tatzlwyrm wedding ring, heck--find a tatzlwyrm!, secure some moon radishes for Svetlana's stew, find and return Vekkel's oldest boy and put down the Stag Lord and his bandits once and for all.
There are a lot of different paths. You get to choose your own adventure, but don't let the number of choices stop you from making one.
I thought we already found the mooonradishes... maybe I'm misremembering, it's been a long time.
You found the patch, but the Sootscale kobolds had taken/eaten them all.
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Okay, just reviewing the 'clues' we have.
* Apparently "Szam" is "rolling in his mausoleum laughing." But Numalar blew that Knowledge roll. Whoever Szam is, this statement may mean that Szam is responsible, or merely that he has an indirect connection and would have an opinion on the matter.
* Ed mentioned that his entrance into the catacombs was somehow premature (though he went anyway).
* Ed may have six brothers or comrades, judging by the remark to Alia asking her if she had six sisters. He also said he has allies that are "now mustering."
* Ed knew the names of Zokon and Scarlet without being told. So he knows who we are. Since he is able to disguise himself, he may have met us in another form.
* From the Thing's remarks, it has been here a very long time. Apparently the place was once more dangerous than it used to be.
* The Thing has heard of Lung Wa, at least well enough to make jokes about it, though that doesn't really mean much.
* It may have moved in after the place was abandoned by the cult of Gyronna. But usually a crypt thing guards something else.
* In draconic it asked if we met "the maiden" and "the troll." The maiden probably was the animated iron maiden. No idea about the troll.
I don't feel this is a lot to go on, but it does imply that there is something else deeper in the complex, or something we haven't found.
* Apparently "Szam" is "rolling in his mausoleum laughing." But Numalar blew that Knowledge roll. Whoever Szam is, this statement may mean that Szam is responsible, or merely that he has an indirect connection and would have an opinion on the matter.
That he's in a mausoleum and capable of laughing could also mean that "Szam" is undead, himself. Someone must still create Crypt Things, right? Could be some ancient lich or vampire who is, for practical purposes, the Crypt Things Boss.
* Ed mentioned that his entrance into the catacombs was somehow premature (though he went anyway).
If they are in contact with said boss, then Ed moving against said 'Szam' would be revealed early if he gets ID'd by one of the servants-
* Ed may have six brothers or comrades, judging by the remark to Alia asking her if she had six sisters. He also said he has allies that are "now mustering."
Or he may be a pervert. "Ed" was a womanizer, was he not? I doubt he'd made the remark with an intent to share, but the fact he has allies preparing something bigger would support the theory of some overfiend he is acting against.
* Ed knew the names of Zokon and Scarlet without being told. So he knows who we are. Since he is able to disguise himself, he may have met us in another form.
Well, he WAS moving with Tamris. It's quite likely that Tamris told him stories, and from a positive ID on me, it's probably just a small step to ID'ing the Human Male and the Ifrit Female. Probably even the two male gnomes could be distinguished. So, not certain on that one.
Plus, he may have disguised not because of us, but because of whatever he would meet in here. Maybe he hoped for the lich, but then learned it's only the stunt double(crypt thing).* From the Thing's remarks, it has been here a very long time. Apparently the place was once more dangerous than it used to be.
I concur. The amount of bodies littering his room supports that idea.
* The Thing has heard of Lung Wa, at least well enough to make jokes about it, though that doesn't really mean much.
I think that simply adds to how long it's been around, as it may date from a time when Lung Wa was known more widely.
* It may have moved in after the place was abandoned by the cult of Gyronna. But usually a crypt thing guards something else.
Which begs an interesting question: Was it always here, or was it "stationed" here in the past few centuries, relocated from somewhere else? Say "Szam" is a lich, and powerful enough to actually split his soul and life force into 5 parts, creating guards for each of them and scattering them through the stolen lands...then the assigned guards would move with those parts. And it would explain Ed and his allies striking simultaneously at different locations, hoping to destroy all phylacteries, then confront the lich.
* In draconic it asked if we met "the maiden" and "the troll." The maiden probably was the animated iron maiden. No idea about the troll.
The maiden makes sense. The Troll? Only if it's also some timeless thing not long dead or having left. So there may be another chamber or set of chambers. I had expected them to branch off from the throne room, so that it effectively guards them(and whatever they contain), but the suggestion we may have met the troll already suggests its elsewhere.
Thats just my two cents to the things you brought up, some of them are very theoretical...but maybe it triggers some interesting ideas for someone else. Thanks for the synopsis, Num!
About the 6 sisters, he was possibly referring to the Seven Sisters.. Elminster having been their teacher and all in the Forgotten Realms.
Szam sounds alot like Szass Tam the Lich overlord of Thay in FR.
Good clue work guys.
Busy busy busy. I should have an update (the Hunt for Bony October) up in 12 hours.
Plus, food for thought...Ed did not want to attack the Crypt Thing, for whatever reason.
If we can find out WHAT it is guarding, we may actually WANT to spare it to let it continue it's vigil. Since it is bound to a place, it's not like it will go and harass someone else, even if we restore the temple above.
Plus, so far, we are pretty much the assailants here, raiding it's home...by default, it had no say in the matter - it got created and stationed here, but seems intelligent. It has to guard what it was created to guard - so is forced to try and get us to leave or scatter, but it cannot give pursuit...as such, it is a purely defensive mechanism.
We should at least try and parley if it's willing to do so, rather than blindly smash everything to pieces because undead are always evil. We may unleash something worse by destroying a creature guarding an ancient temple site...
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We should at least try and parley if it's willing to do so, ...
A little late, making this suggestion after the killing blow has already been rolled.
The last thing I wanted was to have him teleport again and have to chase him all over.
But frankly, it is pretty clear that he either didn't have any information to offer or was unwilling to part with any. As an undead creature there's really no way to coerce information out of him. He was clearly afraid of being destroyed, but didn't offer us anything other than wisecracks to avoid it.
And let's not forget this is a sidequest. I for one am glad that this bit is over and we have the chance to move on.
The dungeon is essentially clear (aside from ongoing effects that bolster undead and scare people that is).
I expected not moving away after moving in front of it to threaten it would mean you cannot deal the killing blow.
Whatever.
Killing everything and hope pieces fall into place later is easier. We'll do it your way, then.
As for coercing: As said, could be the thing he was guarding is actually significantly worse, in which case it would have been sensible to let him be, rather than destroy it. With that option, it would have been in his best interest to spill the beans and tell us more.
While you moved closer in text, the map pretty much remained unchanged, and Numalar had a couple of points from which to attack that did not require more than a 5-foot step, so I erred on the side of Michael Bay.
I hate killin' my babies too, but will sacrifice pretty much any one of them for the PC's story. That, and look at all the lovely RP it generated (9 posts!). :)
Moment's like this can be character defining not only for the principle actors but everyone around them.
By the interactive area map it looks as though we need another day to thoroughly explore the area around the cave before swinging back to the blue trail and across the rickety bridge (or the ford to the south) and from there along the Shrike River east, and back across the rough prairie to the spot noted as the Old Sycamore (purported home of the 'Blue Meanies') and then to the Sootscale's Mine.
Does that look about right? Or would you like to alter your path?
Area Map (Not yet updated to Google Slides, so you can look at it on your phone, but might not be able to edit.)
Whoa... I go away for a weekend and 19 posts in gameplay... I've got a lot of catching up to do...