Volcano's Land - Home and Hearth (Inactive)

Game Master Miner Cotren

Given the brutbreve tickets the ifrit had on him, I think we all may be winding up there tonight anyway.

Sorry about not mentioning a time for the match - it's in the evening. Let's say that v'Manco expects to pick you up at fifth candle for some pre-game wine tasting. Plenty of time yet.

Whups; Initiative: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 1 = 15

Probably no longer needed but just in case somethign breaks out Initiative: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 1 = 19

So I've been thinking about how to do a "chase/evasion" type thing in play-by-post, and I want to give the following a try: roughly speaking, a skill challenge (but hopefully this won't suck)

--DC for a success is 11.

--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:

Acrobatics, to take tight corners
Bluff, to throw off pursuit
Perception, to evade arrows and keep your footing
Stealth, to avoid detection

--Other skills CAN be applicable, but only with a reasonable in-game explanation. A shaky explanation may add +2 to the DC.

--Successes will get you closer to getting out of the Steams. For this first time, I'm not revealing the number of successes needed, but that may change in future iterations.

--Failures will NOT lead to inevitable death; instead, you may have an attack roll or two (arrows) come your way, or a few of you may have to do attack rolls on your "turn" to fend on an attacker instead of rolling a skill check.

Sounds interesting. Should we go ahead and start posting checks and what we're doing?

Well, I think Fi's skillset will struggle to work for her in this situation, unless we can find some mounts or something. Still, fairly good attribute spread to fall back on, the only thing she sucks at is Wisdom.

Yep, go ahead and post.

Fi, you can Aid Another instead of making your own roll, if you wish.

Hmmm... I don't suppose tossing a bomb at some pursuers would be helpful at some point?

Byron's skillset is mostly focused around knowing things and making things, so he's right there with you, Fiordelise.

Yes, I could definitely see a bomb helping if things get bad with a few failed rolls.

Getting creative and trying to use perform, if not should work as a bluff check at least.

You are all now Level 2! Let me know when you have updated your info.

Oh, right, Fort Save: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (11) + 4 = 15

Oh, should we retain how injured we are while leveling?

Okay, I think I'm leveled now. Highlights:

*Byron took the Infusion discovery, so he can now hand out his extracts to others to use
*He got Perfect Recall from his archetype, which means his Knowledge checks are crazy now
*Another bomb per day

Oh, should we retain how injured we are while leveling?

Yes, keep injuries for now, just in case more misfortunes arise before you can rest.

Aight, leveled.

Three months and almost 7 full pages later...hope you guys are enjoying the ride too!

For those who have leveled, could you make sure your level in your tagline is increased? That's an easy way for me to tell who has leveled so far.

Sorry, should be updated now.

This Friday will be three weeks since Osric has posted - if I haven't heard from him in that time, I will be dropping him from the game.

Since this is a shared story, I thought I would get your opinions on the following options:

1) Bot Osric permanently, no new players
2) Remove Osric from the main narrative (NPC), no new players
3) Remove Osric from the main narrative (NPC), recruit a new player

Osric started off as the way you were all kind of connected, but I could see him becoming a useful NPC and retaining the integrity of the story. Let me know what you think.

I'm happy with your decision/group consensus. Probably better erring towards option 3.

Same.

I'd actually go more for number 2, but I'm already outvoted.

I'm leaning toward option 3 as well. 4 PCs is a good number to distribute the narrative load. I'll keep you guys posted as to when I make the official decision, or if Osric gets back to me.

I'll be starting up the recruitment later tonight. I'll also be updating the gameplay tonight

I'm going to be on vacation starting tomorrow - I'll still be posting but it'll be irregular. Feel free to bot me if I'm slowing things down.

Given his earlier comment, what sport does Odebie favor, out of curiosity? Classic Orean Wrestling?

Yes, but I had in my head an idea for something a bit different.

Think soccer, if the ball was a herd of earth elementals and the field was several square acres (depending on the size of the herd). Basically, each team tries to drive the herd towards the other team's 'side', if the herd crosses Team A's boundary Team B wins. Of course, this involves running with, around, and even under herds of earth elementals, and large games (think buffalo herds) can have entire tribes on one team and last days. Made even harder by the 'bull' earth elementals not appreciating the intrusion. Tends to get played at random, as it's kind of hard to set up an arena around a herd. I figure that if Odebie ever played, he was the 'goalie' - he's not agile enough to run inside a herd.

Edit: Oh, Health: 1d10 ⇒ 3

Definitely getting a couple of bombs back. I'm planning on getting another effective combat option other than bombs, but for now... they're pretty much my only way to deal damage.

Sorry, what were we supposed to do with hp when we levelled? I left mine on the same total, should I have added the gained hp onto my current total as well, or just left it as it was?

Anybody ever read any of the 'Furies of Calderon' books? This game is giving me a bit of a vibe of that. Particularly when Odebie starts talking about elemental herding.

You did the right thing - since you didn't rest, there was no HP "gained", just your total went up.

Yep, read Furies a while back. Now all we need are some dog people from across the sea...

Once you separate, is Odebie going to tail Byron and Osric, or are you splitting up entirely?

May as well tail them; can't imagine it makes much difference either way and it keeps things simple. Odebie's just keeping his eyes open.

Update on the recruitment:

A couple candidates backed out, and the current ones keep delaying submitting their background, which I don't find very promising.

So, for now, we'll continue with 3. I think it will help the narrative plausibility if Osric stays in the background as a 'party glue' NPC that helps sniff out quests every once in a while, but he won't be active with the party after this adventure.

Sounds reasonable.

It's finals week, so I'll be very slow to update. Feel free to bot me if necessary.

Bit of a cliffhanger for the holidays...

I'm visiting family starting tomorrow. Does picking back up on the 27th sound reasonable?

Perfectly.

I'm... writing a proposal at work for the holidays. So I'll be fairly available.

Works for me

Fair enough. May be spotty posting until around the 3rd Jan, but I'll try and keep up.

Happy New Year everyone! Looking forward to more fun with all of you.

Third oread delayed?

Oh, he moved and opened the door. The other 2 went charged through after that. Silly doors!

Sorry posting has been slower this week - busy time at work plus my 2-yo son's birthday party today...planning on being back to my regular schedule this upcoming week.

Athletics?

Ha! I've got 5th edition on the brain from another campaign I'm in...make that CLIMB or strength.

State of the Game!

With this being the start of Chapter 4 and approximately our 6 month anniversary, I thought it would be a good time to examine the game, make sure everyone's having a good time, all that good stuff.

The two main things I want to cover are: Loose Ends and Player Goals.

1) Loose Ends: Since this format is on the slow side and all the exposition is spread over 600 posts, I thought it would be a handy thing to remind you all of some of the things that have not been fully explained to you yet, since your characters may be interested in these, but it's not particularly easy for you all to remember every single little thing. Note that not all of this stuff is necessarily an earth-shattering secret, but it's stuff that definitely has not been fully explained.

--The fat ifrit that met with Byron: what does he want?

--Corde: how did he get out of jail? What happened on the field?

--Lorenzo: ran away from party at Steams...where is he now?

--v'Manco: where did he go when he left Fi at the arena? what was that safe room?

--Gasp dealers: who is really in charge, or is it a loose affiliation of thugs

--Leoni: still in Fi's basement; fallout from attack on Misters

--The weird sylph: who is he? who were those hulking attacking sylphs?

--Steams: how overrun is the Steams? both the Watering Hole and the whole street surrounding the dead-drop appear to be Gasper territory

Let me know if I've missed anything that you or your character is still curious about!

2) Player Goals: I fully admit that I have not used your excellent backgrounds and goals to the extent that I could be. Now that we've established the basics of tone, setting, characters, and overarching "problem", I will be working harder to incorporate these.

Let me know if there's anything I'm missing, or anything you would like to add. This can be your character's goals or a player goal.

Here are the basics I've got for each of you:

--Fi: restore the Incarna name; find friends and romance

--Byron: make a significant contribution to the War via alchemy; (player) have Byron get into conflict with NPCs based on alchemy vs religion

--Odebie: I recall your goals at the beginning (I can't find them in your profile now) were along the lines of Honor the Gray Father and keep the peace in the Dims. Those goals make 100% sense for Odebie and I can't fault them, but I'd appreciate something more proactive if you have any ideas.

Again, let me know if I've missed something!