Something Wicked This Way Comes (Inactive)

Game Master Fanguar

I think that would make things move even slower. Perhaps if there's a climactic group at some point we could consider it, but otherwise I'd avoid it.

Skipping to the point where they trigger the ambush sounds good.

Sure. Sari hasn't been hugely involved in the whole planning stage so this is all window dressing to her until the blood flows!

Yeah, I'm okay with skipping ahead to the ambush as well.

I like the idea of a guest star group of players, but this game already has some pretty serious lag issues. Umurn's right.

I'm up for jumping right to the ambush. Just tell us how may rounds it takes them to get there so I can count it off my durations and keep casting my prep spells.

It takes as many rounds as you need for your prep spells.

To be honest I'm not particularly enjoying this adventure and kinda losing interest.

To be honest I'm not particularly enjoying this adventure and kinda losing interest.

All of Way of the Wicked, or just this particular aspect? This part seems to be incredibly tedious, so that's understandable.

If you're losing interest in WotW itself, that would be most unfortunate, as I'm loving this group and Haruk. If you're not having fun however, there's not much we can do about it.

Can we fast-forward this whole thing and get the ritual done? I know Xanos is having fun designing the fortress, but I think that's a lot more '1 person fun' in Pbp - might work well with everyone around the table together but here its slower than Sari's heartbeat!

Skip to the big ritual? That should be more fun I imagine!

Or perhaps we need a reason to engage the adventurers ourselves in open combat instead of using our array of traps? That might make it more interesting for everyone.

Yeah, it sounds like time to cut to the chase. What needs to happen to make it fun for you again?

I concur.

Albrέkt's a creature of action and I'll readily admit that its been difficult not just to plow into the incoming threats and allow the traps and defences be tested...

Think having an active pursuit of side quests (such as the Abbey) promises decent role-play and villainous mayhem potential...

However I do think that Xanos in particular is doing a standup job with our evil stronghold and just because I'm playing a melee monster shouldn't mean we sacrifice the empire building for open battles.

Worth splitting the party? Or will that just create more headaches GMF??

Sorry for the radio silence folks. I appreciate the patience. Mostly the issue has been with this particular adventure, it's kind of turned into a base management mini-game, which some of you have been enjoying, but it is just killing it for me. Also following this adventure, there no returning to the horn, until maybe the last half of the last module, so it all kind of feels like wasted effort.

What I would like to propose is that we skip the remaining 'defend your position' aspect of this adventure and hop to the shattering of the seal and return of Vetra-Kali. The next adventure in the series has a more traditional pacing, so I'm more enthused about the future. I'll throw up some narrative transition post and figure out treasure and what not before the culmination of the ritual. There maybe so dangling plot threads to tie up between the adventures, but we can cross that bridge when we get there.

As for the evil organization, I don't mind it running in the background, but maybe we keep the posts to the discussion thread or PMs?

Thoughts?

That would be fine with me. It does seem like the base management could be fun in-person when we could argue over the table about it, but isn't as well suited to play-by-post.

That would totally work for me.

Sure, why not

I too am okay with this :)

Vunderbar.

Excellent, onwards movement! :D

Thanks folks.

Bit swamped with life at the moment and time keeps getting away from me, but will try to get a post up in the next few days.

Thanks for your patience.

Umurn would be perfectly happy to perform the sacrifice, even though it's not technically directly to Asmodeus (it's part of Asmodeus's plans, though, so he figures it's about the same).

Should we get anything in the way of wealth or gear for the time skip?

Albrέkt is also more than happy to conduct the sacrifice if necessary.

8th Level Up: 7th Level Anti Paladin (Seal Breaker)/Knight Errant Cavalier 1

+1 ABILITY INCREASE: Charisma increases to 16

+1 LEVEL INCREASE: Anti-Paladin

+8 HP (d10 HD halved +1; +1 Toughness; +1 Favoured Class) - increase in CHA will also improve Hot Point total

BAB: improves to +8/+3

SAVES: No change (although CHA increase does have an knock on effect with Unholy Resilience

CLASS ABILITY: Smite good 3/day

SKILLS (5 Ranks): Intimidate, Knowledge (Religion), Perception, Sense Motive & Stealth

Monk 8
+1 Wis.
+6 (6HD)
+1 BAB
+1 Fort/Ref.

Ki Power: Abundant Step: A monk with this ki power can slip magically between spaces, as if using the spell dimension door. Using this ability is a move action that consumes 2 points from his ki pool. The monk’s caster level for this effect is equal to his monk level. He cannot take other creatures with him when he uses this ability. A monk must be at least 8th level before selecting this ki power.
Unarmed Strike increase to d10.
+1 AC bonus.

Are we definitely leveling up here? If so, I missed Fang saying so.

Its in the gameplay post.

I did level up--got the usual HP/BAB/skills, and a couple more spells, which are currently set to make Umurn more kill-y in combat.

Adding to Umurn's above question about gear, from both this most recent group and any others, how many total adventures have attempted to assault the Horn??

Because I imagine that our necromancer brother would like to have raised several(all) of them as undead.

Also, any chance Haruk could have recruited a few of them to our side? He does enjoy making the good guys fall after all.

Probably not, actually.

I can't raise undead with class levels until 9th level. If I raised the adventurers now they'd all be 1HD skeletons or zombies.

I'm definitely keeping the corpses for later though.

Probably not, actually.

I can't raise undead with class levels until 9th level. If I raised the adventurers now they'd all be 1HD skeletons or zombies.

I'm definitely keeping the corpses for later though.

I never said you would do it right now just that you would likely want to, and thus need accurate numbers, lol

Oh, then yeah. Definitely.

They might be a little gnawed by then, but if your raising them as Skeletal Champions or some such then all that meat and blood is surplus to requirements right ;)

We do have a corpse preservation room in the Horn.

16 enemies with class levels have attacked the horn in total.

Loot of note includes: +2 dagger, +1 Furious falchion, +1 flaming longsword, belt of physical might +2 (Str, Con), +1 greataxe, +1 composite longbow (+1 Str), boots of elvenkind, cloak of elvenkind and a +1 spear

These last groups are legitimate good guys. Baring compulsion magic, they would rather die than join you.

I'll take the Cloak and Boots unless people object. I like a high stealth score ;)

Umurn will argue that he should get the belt. He's not proficient with any of those weapons except for the spear, which he doesn't really want.

Belt only would provide a half boon to us undead, so makes sense for the big, bad wolf to get it :)

Albrέkt will take the +1 Spear as a back-up/throwing weapon unless anyone else wants it?

I'll take the +2 dagger. Haruk doesn't fight much(obviously), but that can be thrown as well as used in melee, so that's a good benefit.

Fellow Knotters - just a heads up that recently got the awful news that our beloved 9 year old rescue staffy, Darby, has an aggressive brain tumour and only 4-6 weeks left with us.

Our red boy is the epicentre of our lives and this has pretty much shocked us to the core. We're brokenhearted and if over the next few days and weeks my posting suffers please bear with and bot me as necessary.

BD

Best wishes Bruder. We'll be here if you need us.

It's sad to hear that. :(

Sympathies. Take all the time you need.

Hey Everyone.

I've been RP-ing here on the forums for a few years now and I've let myself pick up more and more games over time. Recently it's become unsustainable for me so I've decided to cut down quite seriously on the games I'm in.

I've had a great time role-playing with you all. I hope you all have just as much fun from here on out.

GM Fanguar if you could please remove me from the active players list I'd very much appreciate it.

Thanks again everyone.

As per my PM mate - sorry to see you go. Always enjoy our collaborations!

Am sure we'll share a virtual table once again.

Cheers

BD

Sorry to see you go, Sari. It's been fun having you around.

Fang, we kinda have a bit of predicament with Sari leaving when they did.

Since we're about to go on an important mission she was supposed to be a part of, would it be okay if we bot her? Perhaps Black Dow can run her for the mission? Or Doomed Hero, since Xanos isn't coming with?

Also, my suggestion for what to do with her is either leave her in the town after our mission is done or leave her in the Horn after we return.

This way, if Nikolaus is ever able to return, Sari is still around and can be teleported to us. Which I realize may be highly unlikely, but I hate to fully close that door.

The only other real option I see is have Sari be a traitor as well, but that means we'll have to kill her. Which, while isn't necessarily a bad thing means there's zero chance for her to possibly be played again.

Also, with Sari's departure, we're down to 5 PCs, if Molasbar is still with us. If not, we're down to 4.

Do we want to look for a replacement? I might know a few people who can jump in.

I can possibly bot her - will likely just be pretty "vanilla" in my approach tho' as ongoing care for my pup is still leaving us pretty drained.

Agree that getting at least one replacement is a good shout.

Folks - just wanted to share that yesterday we had to say goodbye to my beautiful red staffy Darby. His passing was very peaceful and he's now free from the burdens his tumour inflicted upon him.

To say my wife and i are broken is an understatement - Darbs was, is and always will be, the epicentre of our lives.

Over the coming days, weeks and months we will heal and come to celebrate his life, but right now things are pretty raw. I may throw myself into distractions and my passions, so posting may be up, but likewise things may take a back seat - should that become the case please bot me when/where necessary.

Cheers

BD/Gary

Sorry to hear that :(

That is awful. I am sorry for your loss.

Sorry for your loss, Al. Take your time.

Fang, we kinda have a bit of predicament with Sari leaving when they did.

Since we're about to go on an important mission she was supposed to be a part of, would it be okay if we bot her? Perhaps Black Dow can run her for the mission? Or Doomed Hero, since Xanos isn't coming with?

Also, my suggestion for what to do with her is either leave her in the town after our mission is done or leave her in the Horn after we return.

This way, if Nikolaus is ever able to return, Sari is still around and can be teleported to us. Which I realize may be highly unlikely, but I hate to fully close that door.

The only other real option I see is have Sari be a traitor as well, but that means we'll have to kill her. Which, while isn't necessarily a bad thing means there's zero chance for her to possibly be played again.

Also, with Sari's departure, we're down to 5 PCs, if Molasbar is still with us. If not, we're down to 4.

Do we want to look for a replacement? I might know a few people who can jump in.

Sorry for the tardy reply.

I'm not really concerned about the verisimilitude of dropping in/out players. None of the current PCs were the ones recruited originally by the Cardinal. Our secret society isn't super secret any more. We can just handwave Sari off on some other mission for the Cardinal. Tiadora can just pop in and teleport her away, no need to off her.

I'm fine with carrying on with the current crew, but if you have another player in mind, we can definitely bring in one more.

Just a heads up gang that myself and my better half are heading over to UAE tomorrow for 3 weeks. My sister in law graciously paid for the ticket to allow us some time to relax, process the loss of our beloved boy and maybe heal a little.

I anticipate that by the weekend (and the weeks to come) I'll have plenty of time to post, but first few days I'll likely be off the grid as we catch up and fall into a routine.

If you could bot Albrekt as/where necessary and I'll endeavour to get my head back in the game (literally) come time.

Appreciate the patience and understanding shown by you all.

Cheers

BD/Gary