Yup, that's Oios's original plan. But Hamfatten has thrown a wrench into the plan. Oios can say that, if the wasps are willing to wait a few days, then he will personally interrogate The Three Peoples to see if any of them are dreamers and bring them with him as tribute. Should give us time to find out what happened to Hamfatten and not have to wait another tribute cycle to get the infiltration going on.
A few clarifications. Writing without an editor is hard!
I thought no tribute just meant no temporary clean rains for the beast people.
Yes, which also furthers their crop issues. They can forage and use the tainted water in the interim, but that has long-term consequences as well; pestilence and disease. I say this now because I'm not sure how clear I've made that.
However Drazan hates these wasps because they are either enslaving the people they get or eating them, and anyone that aids or cooperates with slavers is no better than a slaver themselves.
To be clear, because I think I haven't been - the wasps are just the muscle. They were sent to the beach ahead of Orleva's arrival as an advance guard, and their duty is to protect the Seer. The leaders of the group are Orleva and the other Stormbringers. This would probably be pretty clear to your PCs, even though I haven't made it easy for y'all players to realize.
Whether or not the Stormreaders are up to something nefarious is for you to discover. Drazan's mind has certainly gone there, though, and that warms my cold GM heart.
Oios found out the wasps have spies in the beastling city.
Something else I should clear up. Oios's mysterious beastling friend was trying to convey that the beastling politics are complicated. There are some senators that are afraid of the Stormreaders and are worried that the Flight's arrival will complicate and sour that relationship. And thus they are wanting you all gone.
But, they are for now in the minority. The beastling was trying to point out that there are forces that are opposed to your presence, and to be careful because of that. They're the types that operate from the shadows.
Whether or not the Stormreaders are involved, it wouldn't have occurred to Oios's mystery friend. That doesn't mean that they are not, however!
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I'll update the game now, but at some point y'all need to come to a consensus. There seems to be two lines of thinking: d8 diplomacy or giving of tribute.
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Oios is a suspicious type and would have jumped to the worst possible conclusion in any case even if the beastling was just talking about cowardice.
Here's Oios' plan.
1. Tell wasps/Orleva that he will find out if there are dreamers among his peoples but it will take say five days.
2. Hustle back to the city and find out what happened to Hamfatten.
3. Actually find out if there are dreamers (which he doesn't know)
4. When he finds out that everyone but him is having dreams then discuss the plan with everyone of the four of them going with the wasps/Orleva.
5. Start operation boiling water in a wasp's nest. With us being the boiling water.
5. Start operation boiling water in a wasp's nest. With us being the boiling water.
Hell yeah. I'm all in on this plan.
I'm also fine with giving them some tribute so it rains some at least.
So we've stalled out - apologies. Orleva is OK with giving you all some information, if she has any to offer, but wants to know what you're looking for.
I'm conferencing this week, and finding time tight. Let me know what you're interested in, and I'll update when I have a few.
Well if she's being forthcoming Oios will want to know the following
how long the trek will be for the dreamers, is it a hard march?
when the dreamers can expect to come back?
how long does it usually take for the rains to come back after the tribute?
Have the wasps noticed anything unusual happening in their region in the last few months?
And then to put the plan in motion
Are they okay with waiting a few days for him to interview his people to see if there are any dreamers... and what exact kind of dreams should they be asking for?
Istiel is leaving this whole negociating thing to Imix and Oios, so feel free to propose whatever in gameplay, Oios. If Istiel has a problem with something she will say it.
Sorry by the way. I just now noticed the post back on the 18th that gave Oios a prompt that I completely missed!
Imix'd like to know how these divinations work.
Still traveling and conferencing and having little time. Aplogies! I'll be back on Wedensday.
Ok, so Oios knows the wasp is lying about some things since he made a sense motive check earlier so he's not particularly willing to take anything she says at face value.
Oios's hope to get some time to deal with Hamfatten hasn't worked. Seems like we either go d6 now or give up our trinkets or just take our balls (dreamers and trinkets) and go home.
Going d6 might have the benefit of forcing the beastlings to take a stand because it'll pretty much ruin their hope of placating the wasps but it won't allow us to infiltrate.
Giving up our trinkets will buy us time to figure out Hamfatten and give us the ability to prepare for the next tribute time and infiltrte.
Just turning around and walking away might be a good negotiating tactic.
Just packing up and continuing the Flight is also an option.
Yeah, this is quite the crossroads and I'm going to have to think about it a bit.
I just don't know if we can win this fight. We might be able to take the Seer and the wasps, especially if Istiel and Drazan blitz her before she gets off any nasty spells, but they have a really, really big bird... and I'm not sure if Drazan can fly (air elemental form?) but the rest of us can't.
I'm leaning towards giving up only some tribute and telling the Seer to f+!@ off if she realizes we have more. She can come back and get it next time or fight us for it.
Then next time when we have everything square we all admit to dreaming- whether or not we did, and infiltrate.
Another option is Istiel could admit to dreaming and go solo to witness this ritual- she is uniquely suited to make it out alive if she needs to escape and return, but I have this feeling the "none want to return" business is bullshit and she'd end up dead either during/after the ritual or trying to survive the way back.
Well, if the Seers are up to no good, and you're worried about Istiel making it out of this fight alive, and if the Seers are all together and Istiel has to fight/flee, it stands to reason that your chances would less so in that case as there would be more Seers and perhaps more wasplings as well.
Only the best GM would endorse the wholesale slaughter of their lovingly crafted NPCS!
All right, I though about ti and Istiel would not want to leave the beastlings hanging out to dry because they worship Damballah, so I think we should hand over some tribute[/i] so it can rain, but tell the Seer to stuff it when she wants the rest.
The other thing is that if we start admitting our dreams to each othert, we may be able to use the method they use to find an answer.
How much tribute do we have actually?
^Uhhhhhh...
I can gather this info this afternoon.
OK, I think this is the total of Eldeleth-related things that you found by location. Not all of this may be accepted as tribute:
Library: no tribute found
Planetarium: kukri, spyglass, silver badges, stargazing instruments
Manor: orrery, painting, telescope
That matches my records except I also have "148 elegant gold discs" written down. Do those count as GP or can we try to use them as tribute?
I say we give them the painting, badges, and stargazing instruments. They probably want magical things though.
Cut her hand off and feed it to her. Drazan can fly.
Ok, Oios is going to go with Isitel's suggestion over Drazan unless Imix objects! :)
Imix does not.
I think the painting was magic, wasn't it?
I thought everything was magical. Did we have time to figure out the magical properties of all these things? Feels like something we would have wanted to do as soon as possible.
The painting is magical and resistant to decay.
The kukri is magical and shoots lightning or something, forget if Drazan wanted it.
The orrey is magical and emits light/aligns itself to the current planetary configuration, which now that I think about it would be really useful for some rituals I'd assume.
Everything else was non- magical.
Of note the spyglass is made of gold and mithril. Though our backwater bumpkins have no idea how valuable that really is in the grand scheme of things, they at least know metal is very valuable so it probably gets treated the same regardless.
That matches my records except I also have "148 elegant gold discs" written down. Do those count as GP or can we try to use them as tribute?
I say we give them the painting, badges, and stargazing instruments. They probably want magical things though.
You can offer the gold discs as tribute. They are ancient coinage.
Might be safer to offer up anything with a magical aura that we have with us, given they may well have some form of magical detection up?
If the items are in Oios' haversack, detection magic should not be able to penetrate it.
The Seer probably has high enough social skills to tell we're holding back, though. We're not exactly bluff masters.
We didn't call it out, but it makes the most sense to carry the tribute in the sack I think.
I'm also relying on the beastlings having been pretty unimpressive to make our own offering look adequate.
^Ha! The impressive beastlings are either dead or they're the ones sending the unimpressive ones out to gather tribute.
To clarify, the beastlings had gathered plenty of tribute in the past, but from much safer areas than you went into. The beastling salvage team was attempting to visit those three areas as well, but never made it out of the library, which they attempted first.
I'm really sick, like lost 3 pounds in two days sick. Be back soon.
I'll get us moving on with search for Hamfatten soon.
Take your time, no need to push yourself!
Something must be going around BP, another player in another group here on the forums had the same thing, lol. Get well soon. ;)
For anyone that hasn't already seen this, I've been playing a lot of Conan Survivors which came out on PS4 prime this month, or was it last month? The game is hitting all the right solo adventuring buttons for me and Ive been putting more hours than would be considered reasonable into playing it. None of this matters so far as to say if anyone else here has said game too, let me know cause it would be fun to play online with people that aren't trying to kill me. That is all.
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Take care of yourself GM. Hope all is going well.
So it has been over a month since we heard from BP. What has anyone tried for getting in touch with him? I'm legit worried seeing as he was feeling ill last time he posted.
I also am worried.
I'm not sure how to get in contact outside of Paizo. If anyone has news, I would love to know.
I'm hopeful moving so far in March, a new job, and then getting ill means this is just a case of putting real life first.
I was going to give it two months, but I'm worried too, Drazan. Unfortunately I have no other way to contact BP besides the Paizo messaging system.
I also choose to believe that after recovering from his illness BP decided there were more important things in life than PbP Pathfinder, and is prioritizing that. If we see a book one day with the plot of this game, we'll know that to be the case.
I don't know of any way to get in touch with BP either. All we can do is hope things are going well I think.
Hi All,
I'm very sorry that I dropped off the face of the earth (and even moreso now that I realize my last post was about being sick - ugh). I've had a hell of a last couple of months.
I kept intending to get back to Paizo, but things kept snowballing, and it became harder and harder to do so, and I felt worse and worse about ghosting, which in turn made it harder and harder to come back the more I felt worse about it. I've come to realize that people who ghost on things - commitments, jobs, whatever - may often feel like they're drowning in stress and responsibility. At least I did.
So I'm back to apologize to everyone I've gamed with, because it has crystallized that I really miss some of my relationships that I've formed here.
Regarding this game:
I also felt like I was drowning with FoW. I think the situation is a little like with GoT, where GRRM spent so much time with gardening - growing the world, adding situations, characters - that he doesn't know how to finish things. I have been thinking quite a lot about that, and I do have ideas on how to wrap things up, and give your awesome PCs some closure, if y'all players are still interested in playing. It would also leave things open-ended enough that they could be picked up later if that was a direction folks wanted to go in.
Right now, my chapter due date has been moved back to 8/4 and I'm not in a position to pick things up again before then, but if everyone is on board with continuing, we could pick up again in August.
Again, my sincere apologies for ghosting.
All this is for fun and honestly you've allowed our characters to do some ridiculously awesome stuff. The journey you've created has been incredibly kickass and wondrous so you don't need to feel any obligation to continue on.
So for me I for one am more than happy to continue on with the game if you feel like it's something that will be fun for you!
Welcome back :)
August is good - I have to get a paper in, and my master's starts soon.
Really glad to see you back, BP. I was worried about you, and it seems rightfully so. You've had a hell of a month.
Really, seriously, you don't have to conintue this game. As Oios has said, we've had a blast, and this is the best homebrew campaign I've ever played, period. You are a skilled world builder and the fact you have a book chapter in the works is clear proof the rest of the world thinks it, too.
So if you want to continue this game, Istiel will still be here to get angry and punch shit, but I would be just as happy if you focused on your book and your family as well.
Thanks for the kind words all. I'm interested in continuing the game for a couple of reasons:
1. I like gaming with you all
2. I like the PCs you all have built and would like to bring the story to some closure
@ Imix, what are you studying?
Re: book chapter, I'm afraid it isn't all that interesting. Less world building and more infrastructure building and project management. Blech.
I was so sure you hadn't recovered from being sick... Regardless, I'm good for whatever everyone else wants to do. Fun group. Hope things are looking up quickly and exponentially.
^ Ugh, I'm so sorry. What an awful post to leave on.
Things are calming down and looking up.
So, we'll aim for getting back on a roll 8/5. Thanks all - I'm glad you're still here!
Masters of IT, with a specialisation in machine learning.
I waited 16 years for this, so I hope I like it :)
^ Nice! I hope you like it too! If the IT market there is anything like it is here, you'll be eminently employable no matter whether you like it or not!
I'm in IT now. AI has always been a bit of a dream of mine. I realised about 2003 it'd be 20 years before computers got fast enough to make it really useful.
Now I've got 4 years to do a masters part time...
Must be exciting times for you with all the stuff going on with it Imix.
If Quantum computing becomes a thing then would it accelerate the 'training' that machine learning is built on? I only have a passing familiarity with all this stuff.