Wamblee, hope all is well -- any chance at all you get for an update (even if its "I have no idea when I will be back") would be much appreciated!
Samen, here is the efreeti template:
1) You gain resist 5 (fire)
2) You gain "Fire in the Blood"
3) You get a +2 to Strength
4) You also gain the Spell Like Ability: enlarge person, self only (which works on outsiders like efreeti and sylphs, ifrits, etc in this setting)
Efreeti curse - you are fatigued after Infuse Self ends. It takes 1 hour of rest to recover.
It's been 2 months since Wamblee has posted -- I hope everything is ok, and as far as I'm concerned Wamblee is still in the group (botted for now) and welcome back as soon as you are willing/able to do so. Again, hope all is well with you.
But if Wamblee is going to be gone longer, I vastly prefer 3 PCs to 2 -- so I'd like to recruit another player (and even if we end up with 4 after Wamblee comes back, that's 100% fine with me)
I thought I would ask first - do either of you have a player in mind to try our table? It would be amazing if they could take Marianne or Samoon (I could find a way to bring him back narratively), but it isn't necessary.
If not, I'll put the call out at Recruitment.
I don't have anyone to recommend, but a 3rd (or maybe 4th) player would be better. My bigger concern at the moment is the narrative drift. Samen and Iniga have vastly different interests at the moment and see eye to eye on precious little. Samen is busy being self-indulgent learning about elementals and Iniga is busy trying to uncover a conspiracy. I'm not even sure what's driving Wamblee or Marianne at the moment. Adding a new agent into the mix with 4000+ posts of history seems likely to lead to a pull in a another direction.
I think we hit a natural end to this campaign when we got out of Light. Our initial problems, "why are we being chased by darkspawn", and "what's so special about these tokens" have been largely resolved. The themes of "what holds a family together?", and "fulfil your legacy" have been covered.
The issue at the moment seems to be "how do you prepare for the coming elemental apocalypse?" and "What will you do to help others when you don't need to?".
You frequently divide narrative beats into "books", but I think it might be time for another "volume". A fresh start, even with the same characters, would go a long way to making it more inviting to fresh players.
I would imagine it as some sort of major event in Hearth that Samen, Iniga, perhaps Wamblee, and the new folks come together to deal with, and then we go from there. We would just have very well fleshed out back stories :D.
That's a very insightful comment. Thinking more on it.
I agree with a lot of Samen's points. Even when we were in Light though Iniga wasn't really doing anything of note - it was more of a narrative drive for Samen & Wamblee - Iniga just drifted for most of the Light storyline.
Right now, Iniga is concerned with the coming apocalypse thats being driven by Moon / Dark and is trying to form alliances to prepare for whatever happens next - the Efreeti Tango thread she is chasing is connected to this. There was also the Fey corrupting Oreads via Gem Magic action point she planned to get to after she had tidied up. I agree with Samen though that it does feel that an elemental apocalypse is on the way.
Question - what is Samen's drive right now? Finding knowledge as it comes, and trying new forms? Still looking for some common ancestor of language and elen alike?
Are you following your family just out of habit?
I think the more I know about what each character wants to do, the better I can ponder what direction(s) to go in next.
And thanks for the clear statement of Iniga's purpose -- I think Wamblee would be the only character that would clearly stand by you in that endeavor, and if I bot him I would play up the aspect of him wanting a "better way for oreads to live", which would be the Tribe of Peace, so the two of you would have nicely aligned goals.
Marianne isn't likely to stick around for building alliances and hope. She's just too bitter about all her losses. Not sure where she will go, but she won't be in the party any more.
His overarching goal is having a unifying theory about what is "elen" and what is "elemental".
He's still interested in the history and language angles, but there haven't been a lot of leads there that didn't require binding his soul. Having access to Abby and the others, the ability to interview elementals, and his practical trans-elenism, coupled with the rough couple of months he's had, has led him to indulge in some experimental hedonism.
When things get serious again, he'll grumble about it, but ultimately be willing to use whatever he's learned for the wellbeing of elenity in general.
To me, a "fresh" start could be achieved by doing a time jump (just narratively, not magic or anything).
Since we have been talking about goals, I think it would be interesting to do something like this:
--It is currently Emberday, Snowrites the 21st.
--1 month (rite) has passed. Snowrites are over. It's spring now . An annual Army-centered holiday called "Wargames" or Guerragioco is coming up soon, and the city of Hearth is preparing to welcome the three great Comandantes of the Forge Army and their elite retinues. This is an especially important year, because the plans to go after the city of Light (and thus after the mad god Moon) are to be drawn up as well.
--Samen and Iniga, what is one minor goal you want to succeed in this month? Gaining an ally on the Council ; Researching/Learning a new elemental form ; becoming a literal boulder ; etc. As long as it is reasonable, I'm going to say you succeed, and that's roughly where we will pick up when we start posting again after recruitment. (this will be in 2021 I think, to give time for recruitment etc)
I don't know really.
Iniga right now is on the hunt for the Efreeti Tango. Spending a month in the city without success is undoubtedly a failure on her part - especially when they seem to only be active within the city.
On the other hand, handwaving it kind of ruins her personal quest. So I cannot really think what to do.
Unraveling a grand conspiracy within a month, basically on your own, seems like an unrealistic expectation. I would expect you to be a lot closer than you are today, but not to have rooted it out. For example, with a month, Samen would've been willing to help you create a device that can test for the presence of efreet, like a paladin can detect evil.
As for what Samen would want, the immediate threat, or at least the greatest instability, is Moon. He would spend a good bit of time physically in Moon form, summoning and interviewing Moon elementals, learning Moon writing and language, figuring out what Moon's aspects are, other than madness.
Samen: Heh, ok. I can work with that.
And Iniga, thanks for the honest thoughts. If you want to RP a breakthrough (not completely unraveling Efreeti Tango, but finding a significant clue), I know just where you would go and where you will start.
Since I am planning on starting up our "new volume" sometime in January, you and I could RP for a few weeks and you could see the results on your quest, and then we would fast forward a month to see how successful you've been in leveraging your advantage. (since we'll be rolling and RPing, there's also the chance you might fail!)
And heck, this will give Samen a chance to choose a new avatar I suppose -- you and Abby spend a month doing deep research into the secrets of the Moon elen form -- Samen becomes a dull gray, with a few scars and pockmarks on his face and arms ; Abby is a sickly gray-yellow, with her teeth the same color. The coloring makes them both seem unhinged, or unreal.
When you infuse (Moon):
1) You gain resist 5 (force) ; (I'm hijacking force as Moon's damage type)
2) You gain "Ice in the Blood" (so this is different, COLD heals)
3) You get a +2 CON
4) You also gain the Spell Like Ability: disguise self once per day. Lasts 24 hours.
5) Temporarily learn Doppish, the language of the Dopplegangers.
You are both free to do some RP in Gameplay, and at this point it will basically be two separative narratives during this month.
(Wamblee you are still welcome too!)
Wamblee will be doing guard duty or watch duty, likely with Iniga.
I'll respond to Karoff and then move on in a bit. I moved house this week so I was a little stressed and didnt have much time to post. Working on getting my internet set up tomorrow and see what I can do about my posting then.
Thanks for the update. We can go whatever pace we want in this thread to tie up the current "day". I'll be starting a recruiting thread soonish.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Still not clear here. I'm hoping to catch up in the new year.
So happy to hear from you Wamblee! Catch up at your leisure, and we will talk more in the new year.
All right, I'm not doing anything special for New Year's, so I am basically back to posting normally now.
1) Remember this thread is ending soon -- once recruitment is done, Iniga, Samen, and Wamblee will move to the "Mercury Morn" table.
2) I've decided to revise the time skip -- one has passed, and Iniga has only come up with dead ends so far (including the Confessional Arch that was decorated with efreets, and the address that Crosso gave. It seems they are an elusive organization.)
a) Samen has started to understand more of his Moon form.
b) Iniga has courted a contact on the Council, and thus has more influence in the city (Karoff?)
c) Wamblee has ____ ?