That sounds pretty rough. Take however much time and so you need - don't worry about us - and let's hope everything works out as well as it can : )
Yes, take all the time you need, and don't fret about us lunatics. (OK, maybe that's the royal we, there. I'm sure the others are perfectly sane.) Take care of yourself first, and I hope things stop being awful and turn out for the best as soon as you could hope.
Thirded. Multi-agree. Take the time you need, post when you can. Real Life always comes first...one reason I no longer manage to properly do daily updates for my games :(
One more game taking it a bit easy for a while is actually welcome :)
So, best of luck, I also hope everything turns out for the best.
Hello, everyone,
Just a quick update: this month coming up is going to be brutal on my end, between the regular end of term, a couple of editing jobs that are proving nastier than normal, and then really nasty stuff going on at work. (Ugly, and political, so I won’t trouble you with the details.) I’ll try to keep up as best I can, but if Chaïa fades into the background for a couple of days here and there while things keep moving, that’s OK by me.
I hope things continue to get better for you, Samnell.
Och that sounds rough! Hope things work out for you too :-)
Would adventurers of our calibre (*cough*) know of the DR on the skeletons or is that just there for correct bookkeeping?
I'm thinking if Lu would know to switch to her Flail or not : )
Would adventurers of our calibre (*cough*) know of the DR on the skeletons or is that just there for correct bookkeeping?
I'm thinking if Lu would know to switch to her Flail or not : )
She would. I figured they're so common, and ordinary skeletons are hardly weird science stuff, that we could just assume it.
That's nice, grabbing Flail.
Now - more questions!
1) Would you allow us to sheathe weapons with the same type of action as drawing them?
More specifically, would you allow Lu to put away her sword as part of a move action?
Always feels a bit neglectful to drop it on the ground :P
2) How much damage has Lu suffered since rest?
I counted 11 damage from the bolts. (Plus some Dex of course!) But she only has 13 hp on the map. Now I suspect that is simply because the map still has her 2nd level stats (24 hp - 11 = 13) but I just wanted to double check!
Hello, everyone,
This is just a quick post to let folks know that the rest of May is going to be busy on my end. Most immediately, I’ll be traveling for a conference most of this week coming up, and then leap-frogging into a visit to family in that part of the world over the weekend, so I may not be able to post all that frequently. There’ll be more of the same around the last week of the month, too. I’ll try my best to keep up, but by all means feel free to step in to keep things moving.
1) Would you allow us to sheathe weapons with the same type of action as drawing them?
More specifically, would you allow Lu to put away her sword as part of a move action?
Always feels a bit neglectful to drop it on the ground :P
Sheathing is a little more complicated than drawing so I'm inclined to say no. But it also provokes an AoO so I guess there's adequate risk anyway. Sure, go for it.
2) How much damage has Lu suffered since rest?I counted 11 damage from the bolts. (Plus some Dex of course!) But she only has 13 hp on the map. Now I suspect that is simply because the map still has her 2nd level stats (24 hp - 11 = 13) but I just wanted to double check!
It's definitely that I forgot to update hp. I'm bad at that.
[ooc]Do I remember rightly that there are rules for mastering spellbooks, so one doesn’t have to keep making Spellcraft checks from, um, “borrowed” spellbooks? Mind, with what’s in this one, Chaïa would likely be happy to just copy out a few things from it and let Saeri hold on to the original, if she likes.[/ooc
There were in a supplement for 3e, but basically it's in a list of new uses for skills that isn't at all elaborated on. So let's elaborate, riffing Magic of Faerun from 2001:
Mastering a foreign spellbook's notations allows you to use the spellbook as thought you wrote it yourself. You learn the individual shorthand of that particular text well enough that it becomes natural for you. This does not convey benefits for other texts by the same author; each spellbook must be mastered independently.
Mastering a book is a Spellcraft check, DC 25+highest spell level in the book. This process takes one day, plus two days per spell level of the highest level of spell in the book. You can take 20, but in that case the action requires twenty days.
This feels like something that should've been addressed in Ultimate Magic... XD Those rules seem reasonable, though. Feels like 1-in-4, maybe 1-in-5-ish odds for a high-Spellcraft character at lower levels, but quite a bit easier for anyone who's a few levels higher and really knows their way around spellbooks.
This feels like something that should've been addressed in Ultimate Magic... XD Those rules seem reasonable, though. Feels like 1-in-4, maybe 1-in-5-ish odds for a high-Spellcraft character at lower levels, but quite a bit easier for anyone who's a few levels higher and really knows their way around spellbooks.
Yeah. The real cost is intended to be the time. It's reasonable that wizards can't just cast every spell trivially, but the standard rules of doing it all spell by spell and copying take a lot of the fun out of captured spellbooks. Particularly since the real limit is slots anyway. Sure having more spells adds flexibility and lets you tailor your load to what you expect more, but most parties most of the time don't have the kind of advance knowledge of what foes are coming they'd need to really leverage it.
Hmm. Magic of Faerun, of all things. I knew I had seen it somewhere! I could have sworn it was the Complete Arcane or Complete Mage, which shows how much I know, and of course I’m away from my 3.X books.
On a completely unrelated note, my conference went quite well, if busily, and in a couple of days I’ll have a bit of a break from this round of travelling.
Hello, everyone!
Just a quick update about stuff that will affect my posting for the next little while. I’ve got some medical folderol to deal with tomorrow: if all goes well, it will only really take me out of the loop for a few days, and hopefully my doctor won’t need to prescribe anything that will make my characters’ tactics even wackier than usual. If I do end up post something jaw-droppingly unwise in the next few days, blame the painkillers. :) When I’ll be able to get around to posting regularly is uncertain (probably around the end of the month), so in the meantime please do whatever it takes to keep things moving.
if all goes well
We really hope it all goes well!
Good luck and take care (well let's hope the doctor takes care too!) : )
For what it's worth, I like wacky tactics, but I also hope you don't need medicine that's too strong. ^^ Here's hoping for a quick recovery!
Turns out I'm sick again. Resolution may be slow for a bit.
Hello, everyone! I'm sort of back: I've been home for a few days, but the doctors tell me to expect a long recovery process, and I've got a rather obnoxious schedule of physical therapy to get used to, hacking my day up into inconveniently small chunks of time to get anything serious done. I'll try to see about posting regularly as soon as I can: possibly once I get happier with doing so from my phone.
I hope you feel better soon, Samnell! (Sorry for the belatedness of that: I guess I was really out of the loop for the past few weeks.)
Oh I hope all medical stuff works out once again (for both of you!)
Oh I hope all medical stuff works out once again (for both of you!)
I'm managing ok. The main part of the cold was a two day affair. Just now edging out from under the intermittent nasal funtimes.
I was hit by some pretty bad allergies a bit ago. XD; I know what nasal funtimes can be like.
I've been absent these past few days for medical reasons.
Apologies for any inconveniences that may have caused.
I am still recovering, but hope to catch up and get back to posting again soon.
I've been absent these past few days for medical reasons.
Apologies for any inconveniences that may have caused.
I am still recovering, but hope to catch up and get back to posting again soon.
Feel better!
I agree with our GM's command. Get better :P
---
I hope it wasn't/isn't anything too bad. Best wishes!
I hope things calm down soon - and no worries. ^^ Things happen.
Aye, I finally started regular updating again yesterday, but with some games having moved 100+ posts since I was away, I am quite busy catching up...so no worries, your timeout comes at an opportune moment - still: best of luck regarding no new calamities.
No worries. Let's hope nothing else explodes in the meanwhile : )
Bwaaaaaaahahahahahahahaha.
@Saeri...maybe I missed it, but WHO did you attack? On the map, you are still at the lower end of the stairs...the skeleton provides un-accounted soft cover(unless you negate that somehow?) to Filge(but you would probably still hit(since high ground only gives +1 melee attack, but no AC)) - the skeleton was thundercloud-targetted by Chaia. I could see all as potential targets...finish off the skeleton, alpha strike the zombie, or attempt to focus down the necro...
Filge. I got her movement reflected on the map, now. Fortunately, I have ranged attacks, so it's a little easier to focus on my targets.
Hi.
Some of you have probably noticed this across multiple games and I'm sure everyone has marked the generally slower pace in the past while. The short version is that my mental health and RL have not been the best. Dealing with that has consumed a good portion of the energy that was going to keeping more on top of things here. So for about a week, I've been doing a trial of tending half the six every day, alternating. Day 1 is Against the Necromancers, Iron Gods, and Dragonlance. Day 2 is Wrath, Ziggurat, and Writhing Coast. (I split them up based on display order on my Campaigns tab.) It's Day 2 as I'm writing this.
That's proved a lot more compatible with my life at present. It's not what I promised going in and I'm sorry, but it was this or close down at least two of the games. Probably three. If RL interferes or there's too much to manage -simultaneous combats is the main suspect here- on a game's day, I'll do my best to get it done in the following day. I'll also try to peek in to answer quick questions and things like that on off days, but can't make any promises about it.
Besides that, normal practice applies. I might occasionally go missing, but if I can't swing updates when they're due I'll try to say something.
I'm sad to hear that things aren't going so well right now. But you shouldn't worry about us, I think you have more important things on your mind. Know that no matter how this turns out we are rooting for you! And if you want it is of course okay if you need to vent a little or something :-)
(That said this game is fun and I'd love to continue it, at any pace. Just don't neglect the more important stuff!)
Cheers and best wishes!
My little one is currently aquiring more teeth.
The nights have been...not very restful.
And work is not much better.
I'm actually, right now, thankful myself for a 2-day cycle rather than the daily :)
(I know some parts of that are fluctuating in intensity, but it's easier to find something to do if there is nothing to post - such as the long overdue rewrite of Janus's backstory, or some cleanup on other aliases... the other way round, needing to post and having no time or energy, is much worse :) )
Anyway, I hope things turn out ok for you and don't you worry about us. Take care of yourself!
I’m sorry I haven’t posted sooner: my convalescence continues to be annoying, and I now have a gloomily more realistic view of how the next few months are likely to go. Nothing too drastic, just frightfully inconvenient for someone who multitasks as poorly as I do. And, on top of that, since the end of last week I got sucked into work that I couldn’t put off, medical leave or no. I think I’m more or less back to slacking off for the rest of the summer, though.
Anyway, more importantly, I wanted belatedly to join the others, Samnell, in wishing you all the best and asking you not to worry about us. It’s wonderful to have you GMing for us, and we want you to have fun too, whatever pace that means. Take care of yourself first!
Now I'm not sure if a sheet blocking line of sight is enough to let Janus simply cover or something, but worth a shot!
Otherwise I feel that we can afford to wait a little.
And I tried to get some more questioning going. Feel free to toss in your own, I just thought it's easier to start with the simple ones.
---
Note! I'm going on a week long vacation trip tomorrow. There should be wifi and plenty of spare time in the evenings but just in case I disappear (or is even more lazy then usual :P).
Hello, everyone! Yay for the forums being up again! Just a quick update on my end as well: on top of the technical issues, a couple of other people’s medical emergencies in the past week and other accidents have left me the only person able to help my mother in a move from the big city to the boonies for a new job, even though I’m still recovering from my own business earlier this summer. That’s going to take up most of my time between now and Wednesday, though hopefully after that things will settle in to closer to normal, and I’ll be able to post regularly again. It’s shaping up to be a strange year, when going back to school for a new semester is a relaxing prospect in comparison!
Sounds like you have an interesting year. Best of luck with that :P
A Gratuitous Recap
Just to make sure I'm not confusing the two games, and because we've had this lag with the site problems and all, here's what has recently happened:
The party went into The Whispering Cairn because they had news from Yellowknife that it was untouched by an adventuring gold rush that tore through the area forty years back. He basically wants it recorded and studied. However, there are adventurers out of Waterdeep in town who might get there first, so he asked you to be discreet.
You went to do that, solved a big puzzle, and got to what looks to be an actual tomb with good stuff. But said tomb was guarded by the ghost of a child. He agreed to let you by and pop the locks if you would bury his bones with his long-dead family.
After your first sojourn in the cairn, you came back and found flying swords newly guarding a sarcophagus. Weird. You also you also found a necrophidius with the flayed face of the local cleric of Lathander stapled to its skull. Said cleric is also the guy who witnessed an oath between your group and the Waterdhavians to share information if you found anything good, but with up to a tenday of exclusivity before disclosure. He asked for some blood with that oath which was weird but everyone went along except Janus, who quietly absented himself.
The ghost, Alastor, gave you directions to his family farm. There you found all his family neatly buried...except that actually their graves were freshly dug up. There were also cart tracks, so apparently they didn't walk off on their own. You knocked about the ruined farm a bit and fought an owlbear that had been nibbling on a reasonably fresh arm with a distinctive tattoo which was the mark of a now-dead mine owner forced out by Guildmaster Smenk.
Given all the evidence, the party was starting to suspect necromancy afoot. Crude stereotyping, really. They should be ashamed.
Anyway, you pitched Alastor in the grave, said a few prayers, and presumably didn't also use it as a latrine but I didn't ask at the time. Then you went back to the cairn and he told you that he could not move on yet. He was displeased, but you talked him into letting you into the tomb anyway in exchange for an oath to track down his family's bodies and put them to rest. In there, you found two sort of floaty suits of armor with swords who damned near killed you before you killed them right back. Then you found some cool loot in the tomb that you took to Yellowknife, who had knowledge to drop. That included that any grave robbing was probably done by Guildmaster Smenk's goon squad, who hang out at the Happy Cow.
So you checked out the Happy Cow, Daggerford's finest restaurant. They have all the best parasites. Sure enough, a group came in that all bore tattoos matching the one arm you found at the gravesite. You watched them for a bit but did not interact.
The next morning, you went and told the priest who still has a face that you'd found the tomb, per your oath. While there you asked him about undead activity but oddly did not mention face skinning. Very rude of you. He sold you some holy water and you moved on, at this point with three open questions:
1) Someone else got into the cairn between your first arrival and your second, because they put the blades there.
2) Something flayed off Liam Sunmist's face and taped it to the skull of a necrophidius. But Liam Sunmist is still up in Daggerford doing fine and he's got his face on him. What?
3) Someone is digging up corpses and picked Alastor's family, which seems to be why he can't get to rest.
On the Sunmist front, you know that his faith has a rivalry that sometimes erupts into brawling with the local Tempus worshipers. So you go to feel out the Foehammer’s local priest, Baergon Bluesword. Lu thought he was pretty cool, but he had heard nothing of grave robbings or undead roaming lately. He also thinks it’s weird that Lathander’s church is doing blood rites. He’s pretty sure that’s all on Sunmist’s initiative and it seems unlike the Sunmist he used to know. They just started in the past few years, he thinks. What he had seen that seemed unusual was lights in the old, abandoned observatory on a hill outside town.
In the observatory you found skeletons. Some shot poisoned arrows. Some sat around a table ready for a banquet, as most normal people keep their skeletons. Decapitating one -rude!- propted them to start up and admiring talk for whoever was at the head of the table, which was then no one. Interesting dialog, though. You cruelly beheaded the lot despite all that.
Going upstairs you found a bedroom with a spellbook and such, notes on building better undead. A taxidermied halfling. Normal stuff. There was also A Note. It mentions a worm that Filge, Our Necromancer Friend, is in Daggeford to study. There are also unkillable zombies referenced, though alas not present.
Since you tripped an alarm (a screaming head that you still have in a sack somewhere) you tried to wait out Filge’s buff timer before confronting him. He tried that game too and finally called down asking what you wanted. Instead of fighting he offered to join up with you on the anti-necromancer quest, if he got a double share. The party was not into that, so they charged him like good home invaders, killed his undead pets, and forced him to surrender.
Once he was surrendered, he told you he doesn’t do his own grave robbing and pinned that on Smenk’s goons. Smenk, per Filge, would really dig having this cult with the worms over in the Ironeater mines taken care of. He pleaded ignorance of the necrophidius and suggested maybe Yellowknife did it, but admitted he was just guessing based on that being the one wizard he knew about. The party collected his green worm and basically told him to scram.
Chaia googled the worm and IDed it as part of a Spawn of Kyuss and you chatted amongst yourselves until the site imploded. The party left Filge behind and went about their business, as if they had not just invaded an innocent man’s home and killed all his friends.
And that brings us up to here. So far as plot threads outstanding, you have:
Flayed Face Liam Sunmist
The cult with the worms in the Ironeater Mines
The matter of Alastor’s family’s missing bodies you promised him you would do something about.
And now I’m back to IC to ask a question. :)
Going to be helping my mother move for the next few days so posting will be sporadic. Normal schedule (which is back up pretty close to every game, every day again) should resume Thursday.
Gotcha. I know how beat I was after the last time we moved, so I completely understand. XD
@Moving - Good luck : )
I know it can be hard work, so don't stress it.
---
Hmhm. There's more them one mine(ing company)?
I thought they were just one monolithic mining group. Hmm. Need more info on this I think!
And that deck-shaped solution might be a good one.
Let's try it at least on the gravedigger-goons. That the cards can tell/hint to their big wrongdoing and get them to properly believe. And maybe spill some info?
Just also checking in here.
After Paizo Downtimes, I was on vacation(and unable to announce it beforehand) - I am back but still catching up. I had planned to do that until yesterday but both kids are a bit ill(just a cold/runny noses etc, but they are cranky all the same and don't sleep well) after the big one started kindergarten beginning of month.
I am, however, trying hard to get back to regular posting rates again across all games. I'll make sure to catch up and post here as soon as possible.
(first thing tomorrow is the game I run though *glances at Lu* wouldn't want to get stabbed in the back or something)
Survived the worst of the move.
Hmhm. There's more them one mine(ing company)?I thought they were just one monolithic mining group. Hmm. Need more info on this I think!
There's a guild of miners, of which Smenk is guildmaster, but there are actually six separate mine operations.
Mhm. That makes sense.
Hello, everyone,
So much for the start of semester being relaxing. I’m so sorry to have imposed on your patience as I have these past weeks. I’m still recovering, and it turns out (who knew?) going from medical leave back to full-time when one still has two and half hours of physical therapy to deal with every day, split over two inconvenient sessions, requires some adjustments. Basically, on top of everything else, my ideal daily rhythm is impossible at the moment, and I’ve finally realized that I’ve got to bite the bullet and take my opportunities when I can to do absolutely everything, including things that are fun.
On that note, I hope I can finally start posting again, if more slowly and less exuberantly than I would like for the next little while. We’ll see how it goes?
*Grumble, grumble.* Life-changing events and all that. I’m getting a better appreciation for the problem of qualia than I would like. What registers cognitively when one’s doctors say, “This is what we’re going to need to do…” and what that actually means can be two alarmingly different things. Fingers crossed, I’ll at least get my nine-to-five back in eight weeks, and start getting used to more or less living it again. In the meantime, it's grabbing each moment as it races by.
Consider my fingers duly crossed. Feel better!
Yeah let's hope all the health issues work out for everyone involved : )