The Dying City: DM Norv's "Curse of the Crimson Throne"

Game Master The Norv

Hope we didn't lose everyone else in the outages. :(

I was thinking, the Norv -- should we fast forward through the ball game? If we are still stuck in round-to-round action and there's another outage (and there is I believe at least one more *planned* outage), it'll take us forever to finish.

I am cool with whatever you decide, just a thought.

For some reason the threads weren't showing new messages for me. I'm still here though.

I’m ready to go!

Also ready

Sorry, getting this going now.

Here's my take on the game: we're into a new round now, and I was already planning to make this the last round. So I'm inclined to play this last one out, especially since you guys have been doing so well. BUT if you all are done with this, I'm happy to just assume you win and move on.

I bow to the will of the majority!

I'm good with either decision.

Phew! There we are, Blood Pig over! Thanks for your patience, all. I came to regret that decision slightly, but you got yourselves a decisive win. Nice teamwork in that last round.

I meant to mention this in Gameplay, but I did update the map, if you want to get a sense of where you are. The Emperor, Devargo, and Jabbyr have disappeared through the doorway to the north.

Well done folks!

It's been so long I've forgotten why we're here at all. Rereading through thread...

Something about Korriban's family? Laori is helping...? I should probably reread too.

Haha it’s been a while. Briefly, Cressida Kraft sent y’all in here to track down Vencarlo Orsini, because she’d heard he had a lead on the missing castle seneschal, Neolandus Kalepopolis. When you got to Vencarlo’s place, you were attacked by the Red Mantis and learned that he had been attacked too...but is nowhere to be found. A student of his told you about someone Orsini had been seeing a lot recently, the artist named Salvator Scream. At Scream’s house, you learned that he’d beeen abducted by the Emperor of Old Korvosa from Laori, who volunteered to help out because she also wants to talk to Scream. That led you here!

I think that covers all the bases... :P

IIRC Orsini also turned out to be a masked vigilante...? I haven't read the adventure books I missed so I'm not sure I grasp the significance of that.

I believe the vigilante is mentioned in the Player's Guide for the game. IIRC everyone's supposed to have heard of him.

Vencarlo has turned out to be the vigilante, Blackjack. IIRC it's the first appearance in 100 years. Korriban is now carrying Blackjack's gear in a bag of holding that we found in his house after we defeated some Red Mantis assassins. Also, yes, some of Korriban's family was taken by the Emperor's thugs. Really want to fix that.

Okay, but if Blackjack meets the Queen, I'm pretty sure he's obligated to say "hit me" no matter what.

Correct; Blackjack is a folk hero of Korvosa, who’s appeared at times of strife throughout the centuries (most recently rescuing Trinia Sabor, who was accused of murdering King Eodred II and scheduled to be executed by Queen Ileosa). Everyone but Matoska would be familiar with the legend (up to you if you want to be or not, Matoska, depending on how much time you’ve spent in Korvosa prior to this!).

So when I go to post in the Gameplay thread that bluish footer with the Paizo Golem is blocking the bottom of the text box, so I can't click "submit post". It doesn't happen here on the Discussion page though.

Is anyone else experiencing something like that?

That’s weird. I’m on my phone so I’m guessing the layout’s different, but I don’t have that. :/

It has happened to me from time to time in various games. Copy your post and reload the page.

It happens all the time for me. I don't have any sort of problem on my phone. It's been like that for a couple months for me (I think, anyways).

So Callie is torn between trying to have this conversation politely and just attacking them all now. Thoughts?

Matoska is leaning towards fighting too. The guys in the room with us are the big players, the thugs outside don't seem like they'd have strong personal loyalty, they'll scatter if their bosses are killed.

Let's cut the head off the snake.

Indeed. If they'd left the room and we could have our chat, it'd be one thing--we could at least keep Scream safe (which is the trouble of initiating the fight now) for a bit. But since they're sticking around and we are not going to be able to ask him what we want in front of Devargo and the Emperor...

Well, seems like there's only one option left.

And yes, I know Callie was urging cation a minute ago, but she also only has a Wisdom of 10. I doubt she follows her own advice very much.

Agreed. We're going to have to kick some butt. When Matoska was asking Jabbyr about his strength and made that jab at Devargo, I thought that he was trying to pit Jabbyr and Devargo against each other and lure them into a fight.

More trying to just provoke an argument in general, which would make a whispered conversation with Scream less likely to be overheard.

Hey y'all my posting rate probably won't be stellar the next month or so. We're 32 days from the election so I'm going to be busy busy busy.

I'll still be able to post at my first job, but if I haven't posted by 2pm central I'm probably not going to that day. Thanks for understanding and things should be back to normal after Nov 6.

Good call.

Thanks for the heads-up! The time of day is particularly handy to know.

I forgot you had that friggin' scythe. XD

Moohoohahahahaha! It's too perfect for Teodor! Self-destruction and all!

Korriban, just a heads-up that your rapier does an extra 2d6+2 damage to humans (because it boosts the weapon’s enhancement bonus). I forgot that rule for a long time!

Oh. Sorry about that.

No worries! Just want to make sure you're getting your money's worth.

Also, I am HERE for the great dialogue and one-liners happening in this fight. Advancing the story, all very in character...I'm a happy, happy GM. :D

For f#*#'s sake.

I’ll get a post in tomorrow. Sorry for the holdup.

So, how would flanking work now that I can fly?

You still need to draw a line from yourself to someone directly opposite you, straight through the opponent. So if you're flying over someone's head, your flanking buddy would need to be flying under that person's feet.

Hmm... So with the Emperor huddled in the corner, it doesn't look like I can set up any sort of flanking.

Damn, I thought you could get a diagonal flank. Sorry.

It's no problem, Teodor. It does give me some more locations to attack him from and opens up the space so that we can properly surround him.

True that!

Flanking can be diagonal, but it can't be any old diagonal.

... If the line passes through opposite borders of the opponent’s space (including corners of those borders), then the opponent is flanked.

See the diagrams in the rulebook for examples.

For flying, you just have to "draw the borders" in a 3d rather than 2d space. Picture the two flanking buddies holding a rope and imagine where the rope would need to "cut through" to bisect the monster.

Note my example about head and feet was just an example (and to note you're not uberflanking with everyone if you get overhead).

Noted. I can't seem to flank in this situation, since the opposite spaces of the Emperor are walls. Also, I put my token slightly above the Emperor's token so that Norv can still get to it. Korriban is flying above him.

Dude, I don't want to be a spotlight hog, but for maybe once, could the character with the Perform Oratory training get a chance at giving a speech now and then?

Also, the Emperor's not dead yet. We're taking him to the guillotine.

Oh sorry. I didn’t realize that. I’ll keep that in mind for next time. Again, I really am sorry, Callie. I’m not trying to step on your toes or take that away from you. I just jumped the gun and wanted to make this really big speech and I didn’t stop and think about it.

On the other hand, I now get to giggle over the mental image of these people milling about the "court" when you all burst from the door and Korriban launches into his speech...only to finish, turn around, and see a sweaty Callie and Teodor glaring at him as they try to finish strapping him down to the guillotine. XP

Perhaps someone can calm/redirect the crowd? ;)

Yeah. I had a different image in my mind when I was making that post. Since I’ve had my moment, I’m more than willing to let the others take center stage.

I just lobbed an alley-oop for Callie to slam dunk.

Thanks for understanding. :) Hope this works!

Badass, Callie! Way to roll!

Agreed. That was awesome! Don’t think you need my help.