The Shining Hosts - Way of the Wicked Gameplay (Inactive)

Game Master Dennis Harry

I'm fine with us finding a new ally after we finish Book 1. I know some people who might be interested in joining.

I'm fine with us finding a new ally after we finish Book 1. I know some people who might be interested in joining.

OK!

I've been nursing a headache since the weekend. I has totally killed my creativity. So I hope morana can come up with a plan.

How many are in the kitchen and are they paying attention to us?

I could summon my phantom and he could try to scare everyone in the kitchen. If that works we could lose them in the running. Or I could try and burning hands as many of them as possible. 5d4 should kill a few. Especially is we can get them to group up though I could rather save that.

That is what i have right now. Sorry for the delay. The drama from my life and my best friends life has me a little depressed. And my live table completely fell apart so that isn't helping.

Seems like a lot of people are having some big life upheavals lately. Hope things sort themselves out soon.

I'm not sure what scaring the kitchen crew would accomplish. What's the end goal with that? Is it just to sew chaos? Do we still need to serve the stew, or did that already happen?

Well if they get away they could rat us out or they could get in our way. That was what the GM mentioned.

I must have missed the part where they learned you're bad guys. Did they catch you in the act somehow?

Just got caught up. My understanding is that you two are looking to start a fire as a distraction, but there are a bunch of kitchen staff around who would see it. Do I have that right?

I think so?

How many doors out of the kitchen are there?

We thought about setting a big fire, to further distract the troops. The stew has been served, so hopefully that will work its magic.

I figured that making excuses to leave would be just as suspicious as staying. Especially since Mama Guiseppe is staying for now.

But trying to sow as much chaos would be to our advantage. And nothing gets people running around in a panic then a good olfashioned fire. (except maybe a dragon, but alice is unaware of that)

Nate and Aurex would definitely tell the others of their plan. Even though they have one in the party, the sudden arrival of a dragon would be unnerving even for them until they recognized it haha

I think this is the first time Alice and Morana have seen Aurex out of his human suit.

Yeah. I've only seen Aurex in human form.

I'm getting a root canal on monday. Yay! While not fun in itself, it will hopefully fix the underlying problem and also rid me of my headaches so I can think again more clearly.

Nope Morana knows. She had the big dragon fly out to her while she was one her way to meet with you all.

Oh.

Oh my.

Once you reach him then I will give you a lovely description :)

Wait you guys were AWARE he is a dragon, right?

I am but I do not know for sure who else does.

But I do have a ghost in my head that recently showed up without me explaining that in game cause Morana never bothered to explain her dead husband in her head.

I've been looking forward to that revelation for a while. Having a ghost on the team will round us out nicely.

I knew I was here for a reason. Dead husband in her head and the dead kid in her pocket. This is a really strange group and I like it.

I was having real life drama the two times I had planed on having her try to explain it. Which sucked all around. But now he has come out with no explanation during the fight at the inn where it was too hectic to really question anything. So I am kinda excited about how Morana will have to explain things.

I'm a little confused about why we are in the forest. Maybe I'm confused about where things are.

I thought we were at Ballentyne's courtyard where the soldiers had gathered, and were about to head inside? Is that not the case?

I'm a little confused about why we are in the forest. Maybe I'm confused about where things are.

I thought we were at Ballentyne's courtyard where the soldiers had gathered, and were about to head inside? Is that not the case?

Sorry for the confusion, as you were trying to exit Aldencross, the soldiers entered.

Ok, so why did we go to the forest instead of to the fortress? That's really where my confusion is from.

Ok, so why did we go to the forest instead of to the fortress? That's really where my confusion is from.

Because Tynan asked you to investigate the fires emanating from the Forest and ignoring his request for help would have been a bit suspicious. :-)

I also need to put a post up for Raaven I have not forgotten just been to busy to get to that particular wrinkle.

Grumble Jack wrote:

Ok, so why did we go to the forest instead of to the fortress? That's really where my confusion is from.

Because Tynan asked you to investigate the fires emanating from the Forest and ignoring his request for help would have been a bit suspicious. :-)

Oh. Alright. I did try to tell Tynan that the fires were "distractions" that we didn't have time to care about, but I'm going to take this as a GM nudge and go with the flow.

So how do we want to play this out? How much time should Aurex be buying?

Storyteller Shadow wrote:

Grumble Jack wrote:

Ok, so why did we go to the forest instead of to the fortress? That's really where my confusion is from.

Because Tynan asked you to investigate the fires emanating from the Forest and ignoring his request for help would have been a bit suspicious. :-)

Oh. Alright. I did try to tell Tynan that the fires were "distractions" that we didn't have time to care about, but I'm going to take this as a GM nudge and go with the flow.

Worry not, the next post for Grumble and Soren will bring them to the Tower proper.

So how do we want to play this out? How much time should Aurex be buying?

That I would leave up to your discretion, I believe the group still needs to launch the fireworks to alert the Bugbears to begin moving forward though my memory is a bit hazy as to whether that is the signal or Raaven's communication was sufficient...

That's still the attack signal. Raaven was just getting them prepared. Now when the fireworks go off the bugbears should be very close already.

But before we do that we need to break the siege weapons and take the gatehouse. And maybe kill the magister.

Sorry. Busy weekend and last night work wore me out. Not used working 7 to 5 with all that humidity.

Heat + Humidity = Nope.

I spent a while in Georgia during the late summer once. I also spent some time in Korea during monsoon season. Georgia is worse.

Sorry for my absence, I forgot to post here. I was away for a little over a week visiting my girlfriend in Memphis, and then my connecting flight got canceled and screwed everything up, including me getting back to being nocturnal for work. So, I haven't really been up to posting for the past few days since I got back. I'm back in the swing of things now, though.

As for humidity, can't disagree that it sucks. I live in it 24/7; I live right next to the ocean meaning it hovers around 99% humidity at all times around here. I love feeling like I'm swimming through the air all year round. When my girlfriend was down in Panama as a research assistant she found it hilarious that the humidity was lower in an actual rain forest than where I live.

I have discovered first hand how our poison tactic is effective. I've come down with food poisoning and I'm an utter mess.

I have discovered first hand how our poison tactic is effective. I've come down with food poisoning and I'm an utter mess.

Sorry to hear that, I had a cold this weekend (which you would know if you followed my status thread!) updates Wednesday night :-)

Clearly you are about to be attacked by cultists. Feel better soon.

I'll try to update by tomorrow, sorry for the delay there folks.

OK, update is up. This will be a fun one! I'll try to get us moving faster now, my apologies for the delays. Despite my busy schedule this week, I will force myself to post here at least once a day if I have updates to do as we are LONG overdue for the siege of this Keep!

My elderboy has taken a bad turn, he may have days or weeks to live at this point, if I get sketchy it's cause he passed. I thought I had more time with him so it's a bit of a shock, just a few weeks ago he was at doggie day care zooming around leaping over dogs and furniture now he struggles to breathe laying down.

I'll need to sketch out the Keep and what not for the final confrontation and this will either be a great distraction or a non-starter soon. I see the plan coming together though so hopefully we can get to the end and Book II (finally) relatively soon.

I'm very sorry to hear that and take whatever time to you with him while you can. And if he passes take whatever time you need to grieve.

Take all the time you need. We'll be here when you feel like you're ready for a distraction.

Ow no poor doggie :( Give him all my love and care and take your time.

Thanks guys, I got my s!~& together to go for the final push here.

I need a bit more time to work out numbers of soldiers down, dead, or able bodied but I think I can get to that this weekend.

At least 15% of the Tower is dead, at least 25% is in Aldencross dead or alive, and some percentage within the Tower are ill. Exact numbers you won't know but I will of course! Nate and Aurex could give a solid accounting having served here but not exact.

OK, one more thing, I am dropping Lothrian in next to Nate on the Aldencross map, whoever wants to control him, feel free.

I'm very glad no one is bothered by the reluctant evil I somehow ended up with. I think I was planning on a slightly more insane and violent kind of evil but apparently that didn't happen. Though I have time to get there or at least make things a little weirder. So I was thinking once I can take the phantom as a cohort though leadership that I would eventually give him levels in cleric. Naderi seems like a really good fit for him. Also a ghost in the party should be fun!

And the various levels of evil in this game are delightful. The fact that everyone is a team player and not a rabid murderhobo is wonderful. Amazingly in an evil game I have seen some of the best team work.

I'm last in the imitative so I will wait a bit.

here's a little blurb I wrote about how evil games can be great roleplaying exercises.

Evil parties work together, and tend to be very proactive.

I am procrastinating getting the soldier information together, sorry guys. Will have it all settled by Sunday night as I plan to sit down after work that day and just do it already! I'll update further that night once I am 100% ready to roll. Sorry for the delay :-(

OK, I'll get this one going again tomorrow night, big day tomorrow and I need to get more sleep!

Damn kids, update tomorrow morning :-(

First off, super cool first time intro on Morana's phantom.

I kinda feel like Grumble's reaction to bloody guy popping up next to him would be to slug it, but I don't want to actually do a bunch of damage to Morana's phantom as soon as it finally gets some stage time.

Morana/GM, would either of you mind if I took a little poetic licence to have Grumble react naturally, but not actually damage the phantom? I'm thinking something like hitting it as it's forming, but having the Phantom pull itself back together T-1000 style. Thoughts?