I'll post this evening. Have to sleep now, working overnights.
Best handling of charm on a player ever!
As he mounts into view, his staff shimmers in his hand.
I don't think you ever picked up the staff, Gristav? Phillip carried it in as far as K13, I believe, but you haven't been back to pick it up.
As he mounts into view, his staff shimmers in his hand.I don't think you ever picked up the staff, Gristav? Phillip carried it in as far as K13, I believe, but you haven't been back to pick it up.
Sorry. Move to J13, pick up staff in adjacent hex?
Merry Christmas, folks!
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'Twas the fight paused for Christmas,
And all through the scene,
With the grease patch betwixt us...
How to reach the b!**@-queen?
Phillip was crouched with his blade to one side,
On which edge not the few had been given last ride.
Braddon was finally right in his head, thanks to Tendal's clutch spell, he too wanted her dead.
And Snake with his curses and Gris with his staff have to dither and wonder who will have the last laugh.
Merry Christmas all!
Apologies for persona incognito - was an epic last couple of weeks of work right up to Christmas with a big contract being negotiated, etc. Didn't have the mental space to do much outside of work and holiday prep. Back online now.
Merry of the Christmas and Happy of the impending New Year to one and all.
Merry Christmas all and Happy New Year.
Hope you have as much fun as Braddon with a months pay in a temple of Callistria.
:-D
As it might be relevant to Gristav's turn, I'll point out that Lil offered her wand up to Phillip on her last turn, though I'm not sure he's taken it.
Blind Mark missed that offer - I'll update in thread.
Warily regarding Lil's offer, Phillip shakes his head and doesn't take thebaitwand.
Man, it's like you people don't trust her or something! *shakes head*
It's probably a good idea to capture her and find out all the schemes, motives and machinations she has going. Unless she's got one of those awesome diaries like in the Kingmaker CRPG which you find on the bodies to let you know their entire backstory.
At the risk of being a hypocrite, I won't be putting in that work. Braddon's just going to keep flailing until she dies, but can be talked down.
You'll have plenty of time the way I'm rolling. :-)
'Twas the fight paused for Christmas,
And all through the scene,
With the grease patch betwixt us...
How to reach the b@@~~-queen?Phillip was crouched with his blade to one side,
On which edge not the few had been given last ride.
Braddon was finally right in his head, thanks to Tendal's clutch spell, he too wanted her dead.
And Snake with his curses and Gris with his staff have to dither and wonder who will have the last laugh.Merry Christmas all!
Props on the rhyme, Gristav. Pretty dang well done. :)
Merry Christmas (day 6), Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
As an aside, I got my vaccine a week ago and now shoot lasers from my eyes. I can warm my children's chicken nuggets in about 2 seconds. I recommend vaccination for everyone.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Drunken Braddon hugs to you all. :-)
Happy New Year! Still got a few hours left here in the states but Happy New Year anyway! :)
I'm all for listening and not killing.
Why? Honestly? Because that's more fun than kill, kill, kill. Metagamey? Yep. It's still more fun though. And interesting. 90% of adventures are kill, kill, kill anyway. That's easy enough to do. (Or be killed). The real challenge is the "role" part. :)
Plus, Snake's just not out to kill to be killing anyway. It's not his style.
I'm all for listening and not killing.
Why? Honestly? Because that's more fun than kill, kill, kill. Metagamey? Yep. It's still more fun though. And interesting. 90% of adventures are kill, kill, kill anyway. That's easy enough to do. (Or be killed). The real challenge is the "role" part. :)
Plus, Snake's just not out to kill to be killing anyway. It's not his style.
Agreed!
If y'all our having problems signing in, I went to my History and cleared out ALL my cookies from the "beginning of time". That worked for me.
Me too... eventually. :-)
thirded
Braddon isn't buying the money thing. While greedy, he did fail as a bounty hunter because of a pretty face. He is vicious and vindictive as well as stupid. And he is nominally working for General Mescher too. If it's vital for the plot, or everyone agrees, he can chaotically change his mind and we can ally with Lil. Otherwise, he's for a killin'! Or at least hand her over tp Mescher.
That said, it'll be a moot point for him in a few minutes anyways. :-)
Strolling back into the thread like...
Apologies for the inaction, my access did indeed get chewed up in the site update apparently and I've been unable to log in for a wee while. I shall return to functional status now...
And, y'know, we can do both! Kill her and take the treasure. :-)
(Surely Saul's favoured option :-)
Well, after multiple days, several calls and tons of emails, I finally have access back to my account. That sucked. I had the cookie problem and the paizo account had gotten blocked somehow on my browser. I will post today sometime. Sorry all.
For clarity's sake, Phil could be convinced to go in any direction... as long as we don't either:
1) end up working de-facto as Lil's operatives. If that's the way the party wants to float... we'll need to figure out a way where we still have control and aren't just now working for Lil.
2) hand over Lil to Shorafa. Phil would probably want to work out some way where we can screw over Shorafa and not... you know... end up dead.
Figured I'd go OOC to say it clear as it can be hard to express those feelings in Phil's IC voice.
You all do realize she'll just Charm us all one by one?
The restraints we might put on that require keeping her from sleeping too many hours en bloc, and stressing her between. Gristav, for one, would not favor that duty.
He can, however, bring himself to kill her.
Killing her once we figure out where to track down the source of the skymetal is what Tendal would like.
No way Snake will take part in cold blooded murder. He just won't do it.
As far as he remembers about himself, anyway, he wouldn't take part in such.
No if she betrays us then all bets are off.
Technically, this is the end of the module: the escape/capture/death/what-have-you of Lil. At this point, you're just getting answers to questions you may still have about the plot.
The party has the information it needs to move on to book 2 -- if that's what we do. We just said we'd finish Shadow in the Sky, which we have now done.
If we decide to go ahead to book 2, we'd have some choices to make. Second Darkness is often criticized, not entirely unfairly, for a bait-and-switch moving out of book 1. The players have built PCs geared toward running a casino in Riddleport and then find themselves hunting skymetal on an uninhabited island.
So, we have some options: We can just stop here and congratulate ourselves on finishing what we said we'd do. We finished a PbP! Yay, us!
If we wanted to keep going, some or all of you might want to create new characters, who would serve as the agents or employees of the original party, while they stay behind in Riddleport. That would allow you to build characters suited for a more wilderness-y adventure rather than playing fish-out-of-water PCs.
So the first question is: do we want to keep going or call it a game here? For my party, on the one hand, Children of the Void is probably my favorite single book of a Paizo AP, but on the other hand, I have a full dance card and am barely keeping up with my PbPs right now. I won't be disappointed either way.
Everyone in Riddleport seems to have a motive; you probably will too by the time you've known him a few days. But right now he's offering you a job and a place to stay, two things that can be hard to come by for a newcomer to the City of Cyphers, and all he asks in return is that you find out who's trying to put him out of business and keep them from succeeding.
See, look at that; you figured it out. :)
Man that is cool. It only took 9 years but hey! Victory bay-bee! In the words of a famous Doctor(who's name I don't know): "Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once, everybody lives!" :)
Well, except for a dwarf and other npc's nobody cares about. But the pc's survived! Heck yeah! Score! Isn't that what really matters? ;)
My gosh 9 years?! Seriously?! That is wild.
As far as continuing... I'm good with whatever the rest of you folks want to do. I can go either way.
I would have to bring a new pc in though. I've played SD in real life and he's not fit for that. I'm just not seeing it. Not Snake. He's definitely more of an "in town" type pc.
Oh man Snake was so close to 1000 posts. He was only 13 off. Pretty cool.
You know, overall it's a pretty interesting AP. I believe we only made it to the beginning of Book 4 before my RL group faded away.
Now if she betrays us then all bets are off.
Should've been 'Now' as you see how I've corrected it. Dangit.
Oh man Snake was so close to 1000 posts. He was only 13 off. Pretty cool.
He could still make it. We'll wrap up the story in gameplay one way or another.
It is pretty amazing that we did finish. I am super duper sad though if we don't keep on in some capacity. I really have enjoyed playing with everyone.
I got out of the military, got divorced, went to medical school, graduated, got married, have 2 kids, graduated residency and have my first post-military job in the course of this game.
And I love the characters and our amazing DM!
And yes, if we have the opportunity to continue, based on Joana's schedule, then I would love to continue the AP.
I would ride with you lot, under Joana's banner, gladly. But things do come to ends, and that would be a different shade of glory, I suppose.
I don't want anyone who has to say no, to feel they've failed me. I would understand. And stop or ride on, we've had a good run.
I've been busy, too. Lost the IT gig I had for 13 years when the new owner moved my function to Colombia. Mid-50s in Covid season not a good time in either cycle to look for work, and that was depressing. But I'm currently somehow still 'Holiday' seasonal help with the USPS, and while that's not the same money, it's been great every other way. It's nights, though, which makes days sort of lost. And still doing the single parent thing. So yeah, I would understand busy.
My biggest issue is that Gristav would have to be and stay charmed to let Lil walk. Profit is not going to get her forgiven, not by Gristav, not for Larur. But ThornRune will perhaps neglect to use Bolbo's second saving throw against the incoming charm. It's a bit meta, but in service to the sim.
If you lot all want a reverse-harem sim with Lil at the center, I'd say Braddon's enchantment and the indulgence of Lil are some good first steps. Calling it role-play is a poor trump card when it requires _not_ role-playing to make it work.
But I'll fall in, and march off that cliff with you all, visions of the Tarot's Fool in my head.
Or if Gris isn't charmed, expect more drama. It'll at least be role-play. :)
Congratulations are indeed in order for all! (but most especially our most gracious and accommodating DM) It has indeed been a blast and a half to get through the first AP volume, and chiming in a similar vein to Tendal I think I started this PbP inbetween my 2 kids, moved country, completely changed my profession and steadily increased in both grey hair and bald spots.
I would be happy to continue on as well - though I don't think Phillip is well suited to either my capacity to roleplay at the moment, or the island jaunt. He's definitely a city brat... and unfortunately I get my head tied into knots trying to figure out how to be true to a shadowed image of my recollection of what he is... while also making him work in a party setting.
So if we do continue - I'd like to retire Phillip to the shadows of the Gold Goblin, and retread into a more direct and simpler character.
Huge thanks to each and every one of you, and especially the amazing Joana for her awesome GMing. It has been fantastic.
I definitely want to keep playing with you all. My preference is to keep Braddon. I made him chaotic nuetral so he could fit wherever at the whims of the players and the story. That said, if everyone else wants to change characters, I'm happy to do so too and let Braddon live happily ever after.
As for cold blooded murder, Braddon is definitely your lackey. His non charmed preference is for Lil to die, horribly and slowly if he gets his way which, hopefully, he never will.
With the charm on, he may well come to not hate Lil and could even serve her if it benefits the story. Braddon is far too easily bought, especially if there's a pretty face.
Let's keep going and see what happens. That's why I love RPGs.
I think Braddon fits perfect in this entire AP. And I believe Tendal and Gristav would work just fine as well. (Even though I still don't know if Gristav said "yes" or "no"). :P
But I'm just not real sold on Snake being the "outdoorsy" type. He's really built for the in-town stuff; just like Mark's take on Phillip.
I know this is metagamey but like I said, I've played this before in RL and we definitely need more firepower. And possibly a healer. It is TOUGH without a healer. And that goes for any game. Ultimately I guess it's not ABSOLUTELY necessary but it does make things quite easier in the healing department.
Fully agree that a bit more 'oomph' in the combat department would be useful as we transition to a more rough and tumble atmosphere.
Okay, if we're going to switch out PCs, we definitely don't want the present party to get on a ship with Lil at this time, so we'll nix that from our list of options right now.
That means we want this book to end with Lil a) dead, b) kept captive by the party, c) willingly sent off by the party to deal with her partner and the skymetal, or d) escaping from the party to do the same. A removes her from the plot; B allows the party to decide which, if any, of the factions that want Lil to give her to (i.e., more Riddleport politics); C leaves the party working with Lil; and D leaves them working against her and could set up a second confrontation with her.
Which premise sounds most fun?
Oh man I PICK "D"! Are you kidding me?! "D" has GOT to be it. I freaking HATE the antagonist. I just hate them. But in a weird sort of way, they are FUN to hate. That's what makes them fun is being fun to hate! And plus they can only die in the end. And I mean THE VERY END. That way you can pump your fist and say: "YEAH! EAT IT! JUST EAT IT! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I WIN, LOSER! YEEEEEEEEAHHHHH!" and then laugh some more. And pump your fist some more. And possibly do a dance and a jig. You know, all that fun stuff. :)
There's a reason the bad guy dies at the very end. Because that's what makes a great story. You're pissed during the entire run because the jerk keeps getting away with crap and you're like: "UGH! Somebody freaking STOP this guy!"
Killing her now is boring and anti-climatic. I mean it just is.
Although, I gotta confess, "C" actually sounds kind of intriguing. I'm sorry, folks, but it just does. If we don't do "D" then I would go for "C". Not interested at all in the other 2. "A" would be a lame decision on our part and as far as "B" goes, Snake doesn't give a rip about any of the other factions. Not interested in dealing with them at all.
That's my take anyway. :)
D. For sure.
I dislike her intensely, but she is much more awful alive than dead. And an intelligent villain is much much better than a strong one.
:)
Braddon obviously votes C... or A when the charm wears off. :-)
As I am invested in Braddon, I lean towards A. We're at the end of the book and it would be nice to feel we've achieved something concrete. But I also like D since we get to kill Lil just later. B causes many more issues unless we hand Lil to Mescher whom Braddon is quite ready to serve. And C is my least favourite since the party has been working against Lil this whole time and none of us are playing very forgiving characters. Especially me with the violent meathead and Phil, the inquistor of the goddess of revenge.
So, assuming D, Braddon is only too happy to help Lil escape for now. Braddon can escape with Lil and become her new charmed lackey and maybe a link into the next book. If we want a whole new party, which may be best if Braddon is the only carry over character, Braddon can be KOed and awaken to be healed and join the rest of the originals at some later point.
I'm happy to leave the dice/GM/story to decide. Please don't kill me just yet though. :-)
Honestly, Braddon, I believe it's only Snake and Phillip that would be replaced.
I don't believe Gristav or Tendal had any plans on bringing in a new pc. At least, not that I'm aware.
And Braddon would fit just fine in Book 2. Heck he'd be fine for the whole AP honestly. I wouldn't replace him if it were me. Now, if you just want to, then, rock on, bud! Roll how you want to roll. But other than that, he suits this AP perfectly.
As Snake says, the whole party doesn't have to be replaced. If any of you want to take your same PC to the island, that's fine, too. I just wanted to give the option of trading out a PC built for urban intrigue to one a bit more combat-friendly if so desired.
Braddon's a strong PC. My one concern might be that he is an urban ranger and would lose access to some of his class features outside of civilization.
There are respec rules, if Braddon were to fall into the bed and tutelage of some passing woodswise wanderer.