The Darkest Day (Inactive)

Game Master JCServant

Can we all put money towards an item for one player. For example if Jark wanted to donate 100gp so Angus could get the sleep wand, is that ok??

hey JC, would you like me to post a background on my character so that other players with knowledge(planes) can roleplay as understanding her situation a bit better and possibly even what plane she is from?

Jark - Yes.

Navuda - Great idea. I will set up a separate folder in our drop box where you all can write backgrounds and character info that you would like the other players to know. Initially, the info will be 'meta', but it will be presumed that over the course of your travels (it takes weeks to walk to Silverfall) that you all share stories and get to know each other better.

sounds awesome.
Uploading mine shortly!

GM, just so you know, and can fix, Shallya did not steal Toriel's scroll or anything, but it is on her character sheet..

Chances are I will not be posting for the rest of the week...feel free to discuss items here between each other and post your reactions to my last post. I'll post this weekend as soon as I can.

indeed our DM is doing loot like Living greyhawk / PFs style.

We just get cash value then we can do what ever we want with it :)

But my suggestion instead of a wand of sleep is a wand of CLW. I have no problem waiting for a while until my sorcerer gets some powers. After all arcan caster are late boomers :)

Welp, here is my backstory.
I hope it's not too over the top, I really wanted to make a world where a repenting sinner would makes sense, while also making that world seem like a believable, if not totally messed up, ecosystem.

Nevuda's backstory

I'm back...at least until next Sunday. I expect to be out of commission next Sunday, Nov 10 through the following Tuesday and perhaps beyond. I'll keep you posted. My job has decided that I don't need to have a life :P

Anywho, to play devil's advocate regarding the wand, Angus, a properly place sleep spell (with a few unlucky saves by the bad guys) can prevent a lot of hit point damage (and, by extention, CLW charges on a wand which cost 15gp a pop). But, ultimately, the decision is up to you all. If you all want to pitch in to buy him the wand, the price is on the loot sheet. Once we have enough 'collected', we can consider it 'bought.'

Nevuda, read your intro. Very nice! I encourage the rest of you to read that, as well as write your own. Nevuda, you earn 2 power points by doing a good job with that :)

well i do agree and that too DM ;)

so if everyone else is quiet, how far along should two people's dialogue go?

I am aware of how certain people do not favor reading a whole lot posts before doing their own.

Oh, I can count the number of times, on one hand, that I felt that way. Much more often, its not enough.

During business hours, I feel once very hour or two is quite appropriate..more often if they are short. I mean, if you're posting a whole book in one post, it may be overwhelming.

A full day of work kept me away from the computer...as it usually does during the day...I usually post first thing in the morning and in the evening...and I try to get something in around lunch as well

I may have forgot to post this, but I'm out for the next two days.

Considering no one has convinced my character to reveal her identity yet, the most she would share about her background is: how her people behaved back home, but not what they where or that is was another plane. How a grave injury and divine intervention lead her to these lands and into the care of a priestess. (or priest? I'm leaving all the details about this mysterious helper up to you in case you want to go somewhere with it) She spent couple of weeks in recovery, gaining meager knowledge about the land and the people's behavior here. She then decided to dedicate her life to slaying evil and set off on her own. It is clear she's seeking redemption for the things she's done, but the exact extent of her past atrocities are never explicitly stated, only hinted at.

Other tidbits of info people might ask:
-She always hides her face because no good person should suffer to look upon her (implying she's incredibly ugly or disfigured in some way without actually lying)

-Her bad arm has been that way since birth. (again not quite a lie)

Angus, I'm struggling with what you're doing in combat here. You're lighting people with evil auras...and that can lead to group conflict which I generally frown upon. I understand you can try to bluff people, but since you're doing this often, its only a matter of time before a party member connects the dots and figures out your spells are making them evil, albeit for short periods of time. There's an argument to be made that the Paladin should lose his powers while covered in an evil aura, as well...which will only frustrate him as a player and as a character.

I'm not exactly sure how you expect Jark or anyone else to respond, in character, once they figure things out. In my mind's eye, they would be within their right to ask you to leave the group, as you clearly have different values than they do.

At the same time, you're ignoring other viable tactics that can completely turn the tide of this battle. Sorcerers/wizards normally shine in combat against hordes of small, weak creatures. Yet, I'm not seeing it here.

I really, really hate to critique how someone chooses to play their character. I like players to make their own decisions, and live with how they turn out. That's a core value of the RPG experience. At the same time, when those decisions clearly and consistently put the party at risk and/or open the way for PvP style conflict, I have to throw a flag on the field and open a discussions, lest it causes challenges that are not easily fixed.

Well for Jark, the casting of that particular spell will have him turn on Angus. I am sorry, but as I see my character, he will not take kindly to being subjected to a spell that alters his fundamental alignment. Even for a short time, and even with a spell that, in the long run, might benefit him. That is just how, as the player, I see it for my character. I can understand if your character is simply playing how he would react, but just keep in mind that I will have to respond in character as well. I am sure the DM will lets us retcon the last turn and allow you another avenue to act, and we can just chalk this up to a learning experience! :-)

Indeed...but it does open up a deeper discussion that i believe needs to take play. Angus, as a sorcerer, has few tools as his disposal at this low level. And infernal healing is one of them....so if he's not using that, I'm not sure what he is doing in combat? Charm person doesn't usually have much impact in combat either.

Grrr...site was down most of the day. Angus, anyway, not meaning to talk about you in the third person, par se...but I am questioning the logical extension / end goal of your character, and whether its truly going to be compatible with the game as whole in the long run.

Here is my reasoning.

The healer is about 180ft away from the party. There are 11 enemies in front of us. they don't seem to have a good chance to hit the party front line (1 in 4) with if i take into account the number of attacks they will be trowing per round, the fighter types will get wounded. They also appear to be doing some reasonable damage when they hit.

So not wanting to fight to go down for us i am throwing healing with this only thing i can.

(as a point of rule you don't feel the evil aura unless you use a move action to activate your Detect evil (sp) and look at yourself.

But you are right i am just going to retire this character as obviously the concept of a sorcerer doesn't fit the party.

Honestly, Angus, it is not the concept of the sorcerer that concerns me. There's little issue with a typical sorcerer fitting a party in Forzega, and the few issues I can come up with (such as a hard core member of the mage's guild or military/Royale Guard in the same party with a sorcerer) can be RP'd out to a common understanding. Indeed, part of the story of this campaign is struggling with some of the legitimate issues and prejudices that have developed over the centuries.

To be as clear as I can...I see two issues that concern me. First, you seem very ineffective in combat... you have two spells that really don't do much of anything in battle. You turned down a wand of sleep, which could help you be VERY useful in most battles...and I still don't understand why. I don't even think I've seen you use weapons all that much. Forzega is a land full of conflict, and a wondering sorcerer has to be ready to defend themselves.

Second, and a little more concerning... Why did you choose, as one of the few spells you get, a spell that makes people show up evil? You need a drop of demon blood or unholy water just to make that spell work, lol. (Which is probably a material cost of 25gp per cast we should be tracking). I mean, I get that you're trying to pass yourself as a druid to the general public because you don't want them to know you're a sorcerer. The challenge here is two fold. First, you've now opened yourself up to a new form of scruitny...not only were you worried about people detecting that you're casting sorcerer type spells, but now you have to worry about holy types detecting the evilness caused by your casting and material components (You would need to be carrying vials of unholy water and/or blood which would make YOU radiate a wee bit of evil...or at least those items on you, I imagine).

2nd, and more important, as soon as a party member figures it out, and rest assured, they will.... there will be some hard questions and unhappy campers from the LG side of the group.

I hope I'm being clear, here. Playing a sorcerer in my campaign does have its challenges. That's spelled out in the campaign description, and I've gone a little more into detail here. However, it is do-able. Heck, you've got a tiefling in the party now...and they have more to fear from the guards than sorcerers do, as they cannot hide their heritage as easily (sorcerers just have to refrain from casting in public areas to avoid most detection...tieflings have to stay constantly hidden). However, playing a sorcerer, while challenging, can fit and ultimately be very rewarding, especially given some of the things that happen in the story.

It's the aspects mention above... you effectiveness in combat because you have chosen two spells that are best used out of combat (Fast healing 1 usually doesn't add up fast enough in combat to be too effective) and have turned down something that could help.... and the fact that one of them dings people evil... that eventually, one way or another, WILL be detected by a party member at some point...and then I'm kinda scratching my head wondering how you expected that to RP out. If the party founds our you're a sorcerer, hey...adventurers are generally a tolerable lot and if you've proven yourself, they'll probably work with you. You were born that way, after all. But if you CHOOSE to turn them evil with your spells...well, that's a lot harder for any character to rationalize. Thoughts?

I'll write more later about the whole detect evil thing.

Actually, the target of an Infernal Healing spell knows the magic is evil when it is being cast on them per the last line in the sentence and then can make a Will Saving Throw to not accept it (harmless spell with a Will Save in the spell description). There is no fooling who ever it is being cast on, they know by accepting the spell it is evil.

Thanks Shallya...I had forgotten that I can (and will) resist such a spell.

That's true. Here's the spell, Angus...

You anoint a wounded creature with devil’s blood or unholy water, giving it fast healing 1. This ability cannot repair damage caused by silver weapons, good-aligned weapons, or spells or effects with the good descriptor. The target detects as an evil creature for the duration of the spell and can sense the evil of the magic, though this has no long-term effect on the target’s alignment.

Now one might argue that you don't know about the evil of the magic until you've actually been lit up by the spell...but that's probably a moot point given a 10 saving throw.

Angus has officially left. I'll try to find another arcane type. I'd like to keep the party size to five or less, so I will only be looking for that. Thanks.

Well I dont have arcane magic yet but I plan to go that route after level 3, I know it doesnt help us atm though.

Hmmm.... You may want to let me know what your plans are. My house rules limit certain class combo choices.

I told you from the start I was going for arcane trickster we went through ALL of that because of my trait selection and picking up knowledge arcana and spellcraft right now.

Ah. Yeah, that's fine.

Posting is really quiet, LOL.

Ok. Well, I guess some like to start the holidays a little early. So game is on 'pause' until AM of Monday, Dec 2. Happy Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and all that jazz!

Salutations! I hope you are having an AWESOME holiday weekend.

When you have a chance, please write up a background for your character and save it in the appropriate folder in Dropbox so others can see it. See above for more details and ask questions here.

we are such level 1 badasses

LOL!!!!!

pretty sure this is the third 1 I've rolled and we haven't even gotten past level 1

Hmmm, are we close to leveling yet?

By my calculations, showing 1,400xp/each so far.

...soooo close..lol

FYI, after tonight I will not be able to post until Monday morning; I am flying to St Louis late tonight (midnight) and will be back about 11:00 PM Sunday. Please feel free to bot me if you need to Phil.

We are coming close to when I would normally declare a two week or so break for the holidays...might be a good time to do that now, eh?

When would you normally declare it? I will be back to normal posting Monday for all next week, =)

I was hoping that we would make a level before that...oh well!! :-)

Well, let's see how this rolls... but, I would like go gauge how you all feel as far as busy-ness goes for the next few weeks.

I would really like to hear from everyone today. What are your thoughts for the rest of the year? Do you want to play everyday except the holiday dates themselves? Or do you want to take one week off? Two? Let me know, please. I would like to declare our plans by the end of the day.

I am fine with a week off, but am open to the groups decision. I would start maybe next Friday an come back the 30th, with maybe a day or 2 over New Years.

I don't do much except on the holidays, though my holidays will be at different a different time than yours >_> so I guess a week?

Well nobody said you HAD to put off christmas and make me feel all awkward when I visit :P I can post holidays or not more or less

My apologies for taking so long to post...but I've been tied up.

Its becoming increasing clear to me that I don't have the time to keep up with this as I had hoped. I'm missing a lot of posting times...and even the ones I do hit, I'm often delaying higher priority items to make this happen. Unfortunately, I overestimated my ability to keep up with multiple things at once. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to suspend the game indefinitely :(

I want to thank you all for trying this out with me. In a better situation, I would have had more time to properly explain more and put down a better setting. I can understand why some of you feel lost at times. I just cannot keep up.

If that changes down the road, I'll email you guys first thing.

With that being said, again, thank you. And Merry Christmas/Happy New Year to you and and you family.

Phil

Thanks Phil!! It was great while it lasted and I hope to be able to take Jarkralzak into another game sometime. Please takedown the thread and definately contact me if you decide to setup another game...it was fun!

Thanks Phil,
As my first play by post, it was a fun experience! I hope to hear from you soon! Happy Holidays to you and the fam, =)
Steve