Volcano's Land - Forged in Blood (Inactive)

Game Master Miner Cotren

Now that everyone is back at camp, here are two quick questions:

--Are you doing anything before rest? (crafting, talking, etc)

--When are you going next? votes might include:

NORTH
(mountainous, then Forest)
then
northwest to Root (fairly close) and West Tribe
or east to Cedar Smoke (farther) and East Tribe
or east to Light and Breathless Valley adjcacent

EAST
(charcoal desert, then Forest)
then
get to Light faster. Samoon has made the desert journey before with caravans.

Doing: if someone addresses Wamblee, he will respond. But now the others are back, he will sleep.

Going: north, and would suggest root then ceder tribe.

Wamblee, for overnight recuperation of your shoulder, roll a fort save to see how fast you are getting along.

Samoon - could you let me know if you are RL busy and want to be botted? No worries, just let me know.

Also, when you get a chance, let me know what extract you are taking instead of Slither.

Wamblee -

how did you envision your departure from your monastery? Did you leave specifically because you heard you father was dying? Were they expecting you to come back? Was the parting amicable?

(as context, I imagine the vast majority of followers of the Root would spend their lives at the monastery, save for visiting other Root locations, or special errands)

I'll reply to this in gameplay, as a thought.

My post got eaten. :( I'll update the extracts tonight.

Invisibility is always useful.

Out of curiosity, which of you has been to Forest?

--Wamblee obviously has, that's where the Root is

--Samoon may or may not have - Light is built 'inside' the border of Forest, but if you follow the temple road into town and never actually step outside the city, you would never technically be 'in Forest', if that makes sense. Samoon seems interested in exploring, so I imagine he likely visited the surrounding area in his time at Light.

--Samen as far as I know only went to Forge with Hotah, but let me know if that's not true.

--I don't think Marianne ever ranged much away from Rokerenge or Forge (though she did roam the surrounding countryside a great deal), so a definite 'no' for her.

Samoon is a wander-y type and would have gone into Forest. He's not great at woodcraft, but he's good at defending himself.

Understood. So a new experience for Marianne and Samen for sure.

Samoon, I think the checks were mostly for flavor, bur I'll always give a reply to rolls just in case:

--Everything is in order. You are pleased with your first batch of clear Invisibility extracts.

--Nothing seems to happen with your father's old staff.

Since many of the party are unfamiliar with the Runts and Forest proper, I'm going to call a skill challenge to see how you fare (predators, natural hazards, etc)

Basic Rules that we saw for the last skill challenge

--DC for a success is 14.
--A given character can only succeed with a given skill once. Gotta find another skill to succeed with after that.
--Each PC will roll with one chosen skill, and, depending on the result, post a short description of what their action looked like. After all four have been posted, I'll put together a "results" post and we'll do it again.
--The following skills are definitely applicable:
Perception, to spot danger
Survival, to find safe trails
Stealth, to avoid detection in general

And in fact, I'll count Samoon's knowledge nature as the team's first success.

--Other skills CAN be applicable, but only with a reasonable in-game explanation. A shaky explanation may add +2 or +4 to the DC.
--Successes will get you closer to getting through Forest safely.
--Failures will NOT lead to inevitable death; instead, you may have dangers in your path.
Note: I have also had players at my other tables do creative things like an attack, or a use of alchemy, spells, abilites, etc that might help, and I'm cool with that too (as long as it makes sense)

Oh, missed this before I posted in the Gameplay thread. In that case, I have rolled! :D

Wamblee, with the high fort save, your shoulder feels just a tiny increment better, but still unusable. You are glad that Root is not to far away.

That's something at least!

To all my games, two pieces of news:

1) I'm currently job hunting, though that is going well. That said, I might have less free time than usual.

2) I'll be at a gaming convention this weekend, so I'll likely be less active online.

Let me know if you have time for once last skill check for the challenge. If I don't see something tonight, I will bot.

The challenge needs either one more success or failure - it's all on Wamblee!

I do aim to pop in and out. Lucky that! :)

quick vote -

are you taking normal travel lanes through Forest (think wide dirt roads for the most part) --- this means you go faster than you normally would through a forest, but you will see other people on these trails (don't know if you are worried about anyone following you these days)

or roughing it through the wilderness - this means basically no one will find you, but slight chance of getting lost, or wild animals, etc

"roads" or "roughing it"

roads would take one more good day of travel to arrive at Root
roughing it would be at least two days

as a side note - most trade going north uses the rivers that flow from the mountains

roads

Hmm. Wamblee is pretty much gone for the weekend, and the character himself would likely be subdued about a decision due to his shoulder and fatigue.

Marianne would agree with Samoon. Her anger at recent events might make her even more reckless than usual, so she is not fleeing from the woods for the sake of avoiding the dangers that might be within. (at least that's how she sees it)

roughing it! 2 v 1

Oh, and now that everyone is down from the thin air of the mountains, Mari and Samoon are no longer fatigued. Wamblee's injury remains, but that is all.

So here's what is happening -

I'll just tell you there's no random encounters or anything for the next 2 days. You stay hidden. (that's why I rolled wamblee's 2 forts just to see if anything was going on there over the next 2 days)

--Any RPing you want to do while traveling, do it this weekend. So maybe first day of Forest travel is today, Saturday, and second day of travel is Sunday. Don't feel pressured to post if you don't have time.

--We'll pick up arriving at Root on Monday, when Wamblee will be more available again.

Tinkering with the setting here and there, fleshing things out. You as PCs have only encountered green pogonas so far, which are dumb beasts of riding and burden which range from pony to horse to ox sized, more or less.

Samoon definitely rode in a caravan to Light across the northern stretch of the Charcoal Desert, so he would have seen these:
Slate pogonas have large, flat feet. They move more slowly, but traverse the slippery, fine ‘sand’ of the Charcoal Desert very well. Can subsist solely on litho-plants found there.

Thinking about it, you have now all seen these in the wild now:
Brown pogonas are wild, unintelligent creatures found in moderate temperatures (closer to Volcano)

And between the group you have enough knowledge nature to know about these:
White pogonas are wild creatures that have adapted to much colder temperatures naturally (far away from Volcano - IceFall and northern Forest) (bigger, hunters that are bear-sized)

More world stuff - this time, the city of Light. I won't be doing individual districts like I did for Hearth or Forge. Light is almost an order of magnitude smaller than Hearth, plus it's too much work to do again.

Light is a city made of colleges and centers of research. Most of a neighborhood or areas's 'feel' will come from the magery, alchemy, or muse that is near by.

Light Map

Light Info Document

Samoon has been to Light of course, and when we eventually get there I will give you more info that he would know.

Woo!

Why anyone would ever leave there is beyond Samoon.

Missing family that lives elsewhere, perhaps?

@#$%@#$% Rokerenge.

Ha, it pretty much is screwed. It's empty and burned. The only things left are a stone temple and an ifrit priest.

Just FYI, I was not planning on you guys capturing an air elemental. Which is one of the many reasons why I love this game, and greatly enjoy this group.

Players, eh? ;)

The Brothers Tráth

The Time Brothers, or the Brothers of the Hour ('hour' is a strictly sylphan term for the amount of time that passes equal to one candle – same concept, just nó fire terms involved),

are a fairly important part of sylphan mythology. My D&D general cosmology is actually fairly terrible, especially when it comes to the evil planes. I think Asmodeous is the "king" of all the devils, kind of? So here are some examples from myths in different cultures in the Land:

Fret, the king of the efreets, is a pretty strong parallel to king of "evil angels, devils, evil servants of Volcano, etc". The efreets don't live on their own plane, by the way - the details of Igsniscoeli (the plane where ALL fire outsiders live) are much, much different than D&D hells.

The Brothers are roughly like demi-gods, sons of one of the aspects of Sky. Also roughly like princes of the genies.

I deleted and reposted my post so it would fall after Samen's. Because that's how I roll.

This is the last day of travel - I didn't think anything would happen on the way the first day, but I was proven wrong by a persistent magus :)

Feel free to discuss anything on the way, including the elemental. The thing seems tired, so to simplify for today you can talk ABOUT it but not TO it.

Just so that I don't wait longer than necessary (no sense in wasting time), put an "All Done" in the discussion and I'll know we can go to Root.

I'll just let the scene sit for the weekend - no point in rushing to Root if one or more of you will be gone for the weekend. Feel free to RP if you so desire.

Update will likely be Sunday night.

Sorry, it's been a hectic few days. I finished in my job. I'll catch up tomorrow.

Thanks for the update!

And of course, the gameplay thread decides not to show updates for me when I do look. ;)

I should (hopefully) be back to a more normal routine.

How much would Wamblee personally know of the Singers, and would he have had much interaction with them previously?

You know of them - the most skilled healers in Root. Song plays very little role in the day to day lives of oreads - dancing and drums is the predominant means of entertainment and expression. Singing is seen as more spiritual and rare.

You were never basly injured enough to require their services, but you learned of them and heard snatches of their song here and there.

Samen is content to merely sit there silently. This is full-circle as far as he's concerned. At the beginning of the story, he isolated himself to study the elements out of a book. Now, he's isolated himself to study the elements in practice. For the first time since the beginning of the campaign, he is once again content and at peace.

Does anyone want to buy or barter for magic items while you are here? I would imagine a center of knowledge that is located on a river would have a fair amount of trade. The monks welcome anyone to stay - the traders are asked to do business in the side-tunnels closest to the main entrances and exits. These would mostly be oread wanderers, roughly peddlers or tinkers. Magic items might include:

--Crowns and armbands made of branches (mental and physical enhancements)

--Magical light wooden armor

--Potions and elixirs made from saps, mainly healing and buffing

--Wooden weapons, including charwood arrows (special material)

Wamblee, since you agreed to take on the penalty of your shoulder, I will leave it up to you in RP what the effects of spending the night in the circle of songs has on Wamblee's health.

That was a shorter job hunt than I expected. In work next Monday. :)

Congrats! I once spent an entire year looking for a job and did just shy of a hundred job interviews - I'm glad yours was less painful.

Thank you. :) It certainly went more smoothly and swiftly than my previous job hunt.

What does Wamblee know of Master Hakkan-dala?

And it sounds like Samen has had an exciting night!

Sorry, had a busy few days at work.

Wamblee - you had a few unpleasant weeks of recitations with him near the beginning of your studentship, and you assiduously avoided him after that. He is exacting and pedantic, though he does show occasional insights as well.

Best use of arcane mark I have seen in a long time. *Applause*