Volcano's Land - Forged in Blood

Game Master Miner Cotren

I'll answer this question and follow up with the other rolls tomorrow. Some days still manage to be quite busy, even at home.

No problem.

haha, that was just as much effort as I thought it was going to be. But it's good, like a long walk for my lore-writing muscles. The "shared" interests like Fey and darkspawn will come tomorrow.

Also, I saw in Iniga's questions the assumption that the party is going to the Crystal Caves next, which is far to the north. That is where any strong Fey presence would be. Far into Northern Tribe territory.

Just wanted to open up discussion, feel free to come to a new decision, just let me know so I can prepare :)

Choices could include:

--Crystal Caves/ Fey

--Light/Breathless Valley

--Cedarsmoke

--Hearth

By the by, Marianne would blurt out Light, because that is where Samoon said he was going.

Samen would order his preferences as such:

1. Light/Breathless valley
2. Crystal Caves (but only if there's a clear plan, not just "deal with the fey")
3. Cedarsmoke
.
.
.
1006. Hearth

1. Light/Breathless Valley

2. What the volc are Fey exactly?

3. Crystal Caves/ Fey

4. Cedersmoke

6. Hearth

Ye sorry went back and checked - we had Light/Breathless Valley next.

So

1.Light/Breathless Valley

2.Crystal Caves

3.Hearth

I'd need to know what we are going to Cedarsmoke for before I could rank it because it didn't seem to be mentioned in our previous lists (or maybe it was and I missed it).

GM - for the Visions thing for Iniga - could bloodline also have something to do with it as well? Its a bit weird since Iniga doesn't really get much fire magic (Skalds don't get it and Bards need the Flame Dancer archetype) but still has visions.

Iniga, sorry if it wasn't clear from the description, but your entire bard song (the spirits of anger, fire, strength) are the "volcanic" magic that fuels your visions as well. "Side effect" isn't quite the right word, but they are certainly related.

And yes, your bloodline being related as well is an excellent idea!

And thanks for the quick consensus on Light.

I figure once everyone's research bug is satisfied, we can fast forward and move on? There will be some RP of course, but overall I'm happy with moving forward the several days' worth of research this will entail.

I'm fine with glossing over the research unless something truly strange is in store.

Or Darkspawn attacks. Those aren't strange for us these days!

Iniga, when you get a chance could you put the Hand's abilities in your character profile? It's a convenient place for me to look for it if I need to.

Will do GM

I'm ok with fast forwarding research. Once we get that Fey information I think things will come a bit more clear in what locations we go to next.

Will post tomorrow.

I enjoyed looking up the price of a chicken.

Also Samen, I know you already did this in your profile a while back, but could you also update your tagline to have N as alignment? Not sure why that is popping into my head right now :)

I'm not evil, I promise :)

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

;)

Here's the question of the day - you are about a day away from the new year (end of Witchrites the 32nd, and beginning of Giantrites the 1st) in a giant stone library.

Any plans to celebrate? Ignore such arbitrary passings of the calendar?

That is a really good question.

Unless there's obvious signs from the community around them, Samen has probably lost track of the calendar at this point. He's more concerned with studying his new pet at the moment. As always though, he can be dragged along.

We'll do a little celebration / new year thing over the weekend (RP as you please), and then we will be done with Branch.

Just to confirm - did everyone get all the info they wanted (short of dedicating yourself to Branch to get access to the fourth level)?

I'm good to go. I'll probably want to do more experiments along the way, but those are better done far away from civilization.

Speaking of which...

I'm also happy with the book learning.

Everything ok Iniga? Been about a week since your last post.

I'm ok, just been a little busy over the last few days is all

Cool, glad to hear all is well (though busy)

Good to see you, Iniga.

Wamblee now has 95.9g by my reckoning.

Finish up any RP you care to do, and we will say goodbye to Branch tomorrow!

Are you going to find a guide on your way out? Plenty of travelers at the base of the Uluru plateau. Otherwise, you just need to head east to get to the river system known as the Fingers.

I'm game for a guide.

I am laughing so hard right now - Wamblee, did you get autocorrected into calling the guide cankle?

Fudge.

But amusement is good!

Mistyping, one of the many banes of the pbp player!

I am now imagining your guide with cankles, which is fine considering his overall demeanor.

Wait his name isn't cankle?

Thats what *I* read his name as

Chankie, but now I feel like Cankle is so much better.

I'm going to admit, I needed to look up what a cankle was.

So I have an idea for how to make what Samen is looking for work mechanically, but it seems off-intent enough that I felt like I should ask.

Step 1. Upon leveling up to lvl 7, take extra arcana as my feat. Take Spell Blending.

Step 2. Use Spell Blending to get access to the 3rd lvl wizard spell 'planar inquiry'.

Step 3. Use 'planar inquiry' to conjure an elemental and ask it if wants a body.

Step 4. ...

Step 5. Profit.

I think that's fine and interesting, and you are choosing to spend a spell known to be able to do this, but to be clear on the details:

1) Because this is an unusual "question" that is ripe for manipulation, there will be only a 90% chance you get the attention of an elemental of the Hit Dice you actually requested (up to 1/2 your caster level rounded up, no higher)

2) There is a 10% chance you get the attention of an elemental of different Hit Dice than you requested.

3) Unlike "Lesser Planar Binding", the Inquiry has no power beyond asking a question (no service implied) so if the answer is "yes, I will occupy this body" then you will have no control over the new elemental.

You had limited control of Spes and Abby because they were very small, very weak elementals that you basically captured in your staff, but that will NOT be the case for those that you talk to through the Inquiry.

4) If everything goes fine and the elemental decides to work with you, I would say that if you try to talk to more elementals with more Inquiry spells, they will become increasingly difficult to cast as the presence of more elementals interferes with the long-range communication.

OOC, I've no issue with that plan, Samen. It sounds really interesting!

IC, Wamblee might be a tad concerned given the history of elementals inside loved ones.

Everything ok Iniga? It's been a while since you've posted.

Yep everythings fine. Have morning zoom meetings and everything is fine and then the Boss sends through urgent work early afternoon that needs to be done by the following morning. Its just playing a little havoc with my normal posting schedule.

In general though, Iniga doesn't have much though to say / contribute to in regards to Samen's experiments. She is probably a little worried that something will go wrong but is basically too polite to say so. She doesn't really have new opinions or perspectives to add on the topic so she isn't saying much.

Sounds good, thanks for the update :)

I'll be fast forwarding us a bit more tomorrow.

We've got a little over a week of river travel - let me know any plans on how to spend your time or preparations you'd like to make before getting to Light, etc.

Updating on Monday with a fast-forward through a few days of travel.

Wamblee will see about joining watches.

I know that was a lot of links, but Erret has been behind grabbing all those gruesome little trophies and adding them to himself, and I thought it would be useful/fun to see those moments again. Apparently it was a year and a half ago that we were spelunking in caves and slaying twisted draconic abominations.

I thoroughly approve of the links. They form quite the picture when assembled both IC and OOC.

Who the frick is Erret. Looks like Tinkerbell to me.

I'm guessing somewhere along the line one of your cousins shared a few tales of the sylphan blackblood that pursued the family before you started traveling together. He is difficult to kill and arrogant.

(blackblood, a worshipper of the Dark, user of its magic)