Happy Holidays Everyone!
Amandine, you continue to knock it out of the park. Your last post reminded me very much of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, specifically this bit toward the end:
History admits no rules; only outcomes.
What precipitates outcomes? Vicious acts and virtuous acts.
What precipitates acts? Belief.
Belief is both prize & battlefield, within the mind & in the mind’s mirror, the world. If we believe humanity is a ladder of tribes, a colosseum of confrontation, exploitation & bestiality, such a humanity is surely brought into being, & history's Horroxes, Boerhaaves & Gooses shall prevail. You & I, the moneyed, the privileged, the fortunate, shall not fare so badly in this world, provided our luck holds. What of it if our consciences itch? Why undermine the dominance of our race, our gunships, our heritage & our legacy? Why fight the "natural" (oh, weaselly word!) order of things?
Why? Because of this:—one fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself. Yes, the devil shall take the hindmost until the foremost is the hindmost. In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul. For the human species, selfishness is extinction.
Sorry for the slow posting lately, RL has been hectic for the past couple of weeks. I'll work on speeding things up.
Aw shucks Meraki, thanks. Like I already mentioned, I've had a long time to figure out this scene while a waited for the the right time to launch it.
I've never read Cloud Atlas but I did see the film way back. As best I recall I liked but didn't love it. Maybe I was expecting too much since I really like Tom Tykwer as a writer/director.
There is an odd connection though. Tykwer is one of the directors for the series Babylon Berlin, which is one of my all-time favorites. Amandine is in part based on one of the show's main characters.
I liked the movie, but I was already a fan of the novel and am also one of the five people in Wachowskis' target audience. Even so, I'm still skeptical as to how intelligible the movie might be to someone who isn't familiar with the novel. I recommend giving it a shot sometime, it's a very interesting book, being six different stories (all written in different genres!) nested within each other. The first story is literally interrupted mid sentence by the beginning of the next one. It sounds very gimmicky, and kind of is, but I've never read anything else like it.
If you like audiobooks, that version is also very good, and each part has a different narrator (returning for when the story resumes).
Love the Wachowski sisters. In my opinion, Bound is one of the best crime thriller of the 90's. Contrariwise, I liked Cloud Atlas but found very little of it to be memorable. Sold on the audiobook tho, that sounds fantastic.
Hej, just to let you know: My most recent(and likely final) little one arrived a few days ago - been spending most of the last few days either in the hospital or taking care of the other young-ones.
Everybody is healthy and well, and today brought him home from the hospital. There's a few more errands to run with bureaucracy(registration of birth, naming, etc) and with work (for time off etc), but overall, I should be able to return to normal posting soon. I'll try and get caught up asap and get a post up where I'm up.
Congratulations Mira! Take care, get some rest, and we'll see you when you're ready!
Oh, wow! ¡Felicidades!
That was a nice little moment. Thank you, Greenly! I enjoyed that a lot. :)
Congrats!
=)
Congrats Mira! And thank you, Meraki, for initiating, :), Greenly's available for more modeling sessions if you need her to firm up her pose or just to talk :)
Hej, just to let you know: My most recent(and likely final) little one arrived a few days ago - been spending most of the last few days either in the hospital or taking care of the other young-ones.
Everybody is healthy and well, and today brought him home from the hospital. There's a few more errands to run with bureaucracy(registration of birth, naming, etc) and with work (for time off etc), but overall, I should be able to return to normal posting soon. I'll try and get caught up asap and get a post up where I'm up.
Congratulations! I hope you, the new arrival, and the rest of your family are all doing well.
Thank you all, yes, we are all doing well.
Grandparents, aunts, uncles and the like are all parading our home now, checking in on the little one (and celebrating the birthdays of the other 3 which are also clustered around this time of year).
So things remain quite busy, for now :)
But in general, all is good.
So what’s next? Back to the manor house?
Are we waiting on something?
I think we're ready to go back to Betony Manor, at least as far as I know.
Yeah, I think we're all waiting on something to happen but aren't sure what that is.
I thought the next step was the party you guys were going to organize in order to assemble your potential allies as you get ready to move against Count Lotheed. I can fast forward to that if you would like, but I was waiting to learn who you were going to invite.
*Entering Party-Planning mode!*
Oh! We'll get right on that!
Oh, but wait. Weren't we going to go see Baroness Voinum before the party?
Even if we weren't we probably should, I don't think we made a favorable impression on her
And this time you have me! Hopefully, my awkwardness and bizarre appearance will make everyone else seem normal and well-mannered.
Will you contact Baroness Voinum via letter or pay her a visit in person?
In person was the idea. Have to let her know Count Lotheed offered to shove any heirs she has out the window.
Oh, and it seems we should make sure Selli doesn't tag along :D
Seems like a fun kid though.
Intimidate, Be Visibly Protecting Amandine
my heart
Sorry that Greenly's being catty, Mira, she's just like that.
I do greatly enjoy the discussion :)
But just want to say, as written, Mira has no eggs in this basket. Just telling her "but we do things this way" can swiftly shut her up. Shes happy to be close to non-assassins and will not risk that.
So if she's too insistent, just tell her to shut it -
Just pointing that out in discussion because written form lacks reactive body language, facial expressions, etc...minor indicators of when you reach a limit, or are about to push too far.
So here's a run down of what I'd like the trial to look like and why.
1. We have to have one at all, rather than dismissing the charges, so there will be some reasoned closure to the process. We know enough to simply proclaim "the donkey did it and Mayne is free", but that will lead to rumor an speculation about why we know this. Everything we know needs to be carefully laid out and considered in the presence of anyone who cares to show up.
2. "Gandro" (sorry I totally forgot about the name) will plead Mayne's case. Someone needs to explain why he is charged with murder, to represent the state as it were. Meraki will be explaining why we can be assured he's innocent since she discovered the crucial evidence so she won't do. Greenly's heart clearly wouldn't be in it. I can't do it because I will be delivering the verdict. That leaves Mira to take on the prosecutor role.
3. There may not be much Mira can say, but before we knew the donkey did it, there were reasons why everyone thought Mayne did it. Those might not stand up, but a weak to practically non-existent case is fine. We don't have an interest in making it a difficult case to decide.
4. There is also a second question. Is Mayne culpable in some way for attempting to hide the killing and not reporting it? This will also be handled by Gandro and Mira respectively. Mayne can also speak in his own defense of course.
5. Amandine will consider the arguments and render verdicts on both questions, explaining why she decided as she did.
6. Again, this is really more a ritual than a true fact-finding and evidence weighing trial. Amandine already knows everything she needs to in order to decide, it presenting the reasons why, so dissent can be queled and everyone can move on that matters.
7. No, the donkey isn't getting executed instead or anything of that sort. No, I won't divulge what Amandine has decided about Mayne's culpability otherwise until the trial. We have to maintain some suspense after all. :)
Works for me.
=)
Sounds good to me!
All good there
Do we need to just start, or does the GM want to begin it?
Mostly fine, too, just to chime in. But are you sure we can't execute the mule?
I got all curious how they taste - I know horse and donkey, but not mule...
I wasn't sure if the party was still deliberating. I'll set the stage, then.
Apologies, this week is my first week returning to work after parental leave for the newborn - and it's rather stressful. I mean to post daily but never quite find sufficient time to sit down and compose a proper post.
I'll make sure to get something done by tomorrow - at worst a shorter post than I'd like, but just to not stall things.
@Drogan: Not sure the busker stunt works the way you intend to use it here:
A busker can engage in brisk conversation that seems innocuous, but actually encourages creatures to reveal secrets to the busker. Each round while maintaining this stunt, the busker can force one creature within 30 feet that is able to see and hear the busker and has an attitude of indifferent or better towards him to attempt a Will save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the busker’s bard level + the busker’s Charisma modifier). On a failed save, the target must answer one yes/no question the busker asks to the best of its ability. Anyone observing this (including the creature asked, even if it succeeds at its save) must succeed at a Sense Motive check (opposed by the busker’s Bluff check) to realize the question was asked or answered.
So basically you are chatting her up and getting her to answer your question without anybody even realizing what you just did unless they succeed at beating the bluff check with a sense motive.
You seem to try and intentionally not do the bluff check to force everybody to succeed at the Sense Motive check - but I'm not sure you actually can get the "forced" answer part from her then, as it seems the intent is that you fast-talk her into revealing that yes/no thing.
Also: Hurray for different legal systems. As a european, I had not even considered the possibility of some "Stand your Ground"-Laws of being able to "defend" your ground against trespassers. I'm fine with that being the case, it'll help us not get Mayne into too much trouble, but it would be interesting to what extent it goes? Can you outright kill a stranger for wandering on your lands by accident? Just in self defense? Do you have to warn people beforehand, or tell them to get off your land? Would have been interesting to determine beforehand, but I suspect Amandine can work something out there :)
I don't think I will ever do another one of these legal proceedings in any RPG again.
They get too serious and too in-depth far too easily.
You have my sympathies, Vayelan!
I blame ‘Law and Order’!
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I don't think I will ever do another one of these legal proceedings in any RPG again.
They get too serious and too in-depth far too easily.
Ha, apologies. I just figured I will do my best to make a believable persecution, then tried to work with that natural 20. Apologies if it got too serious along the way-
I am in a few games with Drogan and believed he would not hold it against me- :-)
=)
Hey y'all I'll be out of town for a week; I'll probably be able to post but with just my phone won't be able to edit my statbar
Back from Cali
Welcome back!
I'd meant to have this taken care of much sooner, but the new year has turned out to be just crazy so far. Both work and outside have had too much going on to give me adequate free time. When I've posted it's always been when I've held things up, and it seemed like a choice between moving things forward or taking time out for yet another side scene where most everyone has to wait.
Anyway, I'll be posting to start that tête-à-tête with Mira this evening.
Truth be told, I was quite thankful - I had little time on my hands at times, as well, so could possible have been holding things up.
Also, a question@GM:
I would not use such spells with party members without first bringing it up in discussion, but generally, how would you handle spells like
Sow Thought or to a lesser extent things like Innocence?
The later, I can see having to cast it beforehand, and then simply benefitting from the effect during the duration - which can be hard if you have no idea WHEN you would need the effect, and in PBP it's even harder to "interrupt" an action when you think you may need it in the near future...(usually you are in a scene where you already get to make the roll, so would need to excuse oneself to be alone somewhere, cast, then return, which seems fishy).
But with Sow-Thought you basically plant the thought in someones head while they are there, and they see you casting? They may not know what exactly but they'll know you just cast something...which kind of seems to go against the intent to planting thoughts in someone's mind without them figuring out it's you doing it...I understand that could be easier if you make it a Silent Spell and simply gesture from some distance away, but as written it still seems...not easy to use, except maybe on sleeping targets.
Just figured I'd ask about your interpretation.
If you're talking about using those spells on PCs, for the sake of simplicity and party harmony, I'd have to say "no," flat out.