In any case—it seems like we have *something* to work with, when part two hits. Harron's men may have a way to revive him (if nobody else does), and Runcible will devote his forces to finding a way to bring Verix back out of some sort of duty/honor, which should help reduce the tension between characters in the future. Worst case scenario, I figure it's definitely backstory-based world hacking, but Runcible blows a hole into the netherworld and drags Verix back out kicking and screaming (paying 5k gp in explosives instead of the typical 5k in diamonds, or something like that).
Harron's men are the masters of bringing people back to unlife in this setting.
Also, there are a few other children of the Emperor still alive, just the ones that were like, "Yeah... I've got no bloody chance in the tournament." or the ones that were like "Pssh, I'm going to become emperor on my own terms" or both.
Keeping room for new recruits, you know.
Hmm... is part 2 going to be an "Independence Day" scenario? o.O
I wonder.
Are we going to level up for future stuff, or continue hanging out here? XD I can work either way, of course - I'm just curious.
These statblocks are a pain. I don't wanna have to level unless I have to. :P
Maybe 1 level? So I can cast some stuff?
Hmm. I could go either way—level 6 means Runcible gets a whole bunch more attacks per round, but nothing else.
We went from a breakneck pace to a normalish PbP
We went from a breakneck pace to a normalish PbP
To be fair, some of our characters broke their necks in the process... o.O
But weekends are always slow, so, eh. I assume we'll see something new and interesting in a few days.
I have nothing to post in Gameplay, since Lucielle's basically resolved what she was there for. Just waiting on Part 2 to start, I guess. XD
So, who is Lucielle making Emperor?
Also, I'm feeling that you're all playing very passively. That post near the end of the last page by Runcible was the only post that has been throwing any ideas around of things they themselves could make happen. And unless you've pmed Runcible with your response, none of you have done him the courtesy of replying.
Harron has a decent excuse, given that he's already conferred with me how he intends to make a reappearance in PM, but I'm a bit disappointed other than that. Is Runcible the only person who has some self motive and direction? The only one with vision to see what could lie ahead of us? If so, I'm quite willing to re-do recruitment. I asked for co-creators, and right now, most of you are sitting here waiting for me to dangle another plot hook to bite down on.
She's... putting the rock back. XD
(Out of four combatants, I believe two were most emphatically not intended to succeed, and Lucielle doesn't want to become Empress herself. By default, that leaves just one person... who just got an offer to do something else. So nobody's becoming Emperor, apparently. XD)
Not sitting here waiting for a plot hook, sitting here dead. Runcible can bring Verix back, if he likes. But I am not trying to influence the story line any more, not while I am dead. Verix was pro-active throughout the first part, made his own moves, did his own thing and didn't just sit around or let Runcible dictate what he would do, with his weapon. Verix leveled a Golem, decided to treat with Lucielle, got lucky with Runcible then got beaten by Harron. Then got god hammered. Pretty sure that Verix had a key role in every major thing that happened in the last part, right up until his death. Then I stopped. My character is dead, how he comes back is not up to me.
If people want to bring me back, I would be glad. Whatever way it happens. If you want to bring me back, great. If people don't I wont be bitter. I'll just move on. I had fun, I liked the character, but I really have no input right now, till I have either been brought back or banished to the abyss.
Well, yes, the character doesn't, but you can collaborate on ideas on how your character comes back. Otherwise Runcible's going to be waiting going "I don't want to do this to someone without permission.".
Fair enough. I do not mind how Verix is brought back. He will come back happy to deal with Runcible and work together to some end. If he comes back by Resurrection it would be hilarious but I'd prefer to stay human so I do not lose my stats to a different race. If Runcible would be open to a trip through hell to buddy cop it back out, that would also be awesome.
I did mean to reply with my intent to be cool with whatever, but I am kinda having a pretty s+%% time at the moment and got side tracked when my part of the action died. So sorry about that. I'll keep up with the OOC stuff better.
No problem, this is what communicating what we think is wrong is for. :P
I mean if you ever wanted to become undead, I got you covered. Harron's lieutenant is quite good and doing undead stuff.
Now that I think about it, I should have used my army because if a few dudes died they could have just be resurrected with animate dead. But hey, hindsight 20/20
The Emperor is an almost unbeatable duelist, but is the WORST of all of you when it comes to fighting an army.
Yeah—Verix, you also have a lieutenant and men who can express opinions.
@Lucielle—Runcible would still *prefer* being emperor to leaving it with Ol' Murderface Chreos. This "build a spaceship" plan for him is more a contingency in case he doesn't get picked (which is totally fine), sorry if I wasn't clear about that.
I'm pretty sure the rock itself is nothing particularly special. What she was asking was basically "Do you want to be Emperor, or do you want to help with the current Emperor's idea?" You seemed to lean towards the latter, so she put the rock back.
(That said, if he decided he wanted the throne after the Emperor leaves, she'd probably support his claim...)
Err, yeah. His position was "I'm really really injured now, leave me alone old man"
But if you put the rock back, it leaves the country without an emperor, which is pretty problematic.
Sorry, busy few days.
I think coming back but not reincarnated is what Verix and his men would want.
Yeah, but let's make this special. If you're just gonna get raise deaded... myeeeh.
Options I like-
Fight through hell to bring you back... Well, that's an adventure worth in itself for normal folks.
And, among ideas I wasn't the one who proposed, I think that the only one. Seeing the only other option is "we cast a spell".
So, Julie's final plan is to let the Empire slide into anarchy, or give it to a guy who isn't currently here because he's fighting through hell, thus achieving the same result, yes?
Hmm, that is a good point. If bringing Verix back means the Empire falls into chaos (because fighting through Hell is the only way), that's not a good solution.
However, I see two alternatives...
1. Lucielle becomes Empress, just temporarily (because Runcible needs to recover, and then shoot some demons), with Runcible or someone else swearing to take the power from her after a certain amount of time, so that she's only saddled with Interim Empress (which she might be okay with).
2. Runcible becomes Emperor. His lieutenant, Sir Rosencreuz, is the only one of his men who escaped Hell with him last time, and will remember the way.
In either case, the party could consist of:
-Runcible OR Lucielle
-Runcible, Verix, and Lucielle's lieutenants
-Possibly everyone's soldiers, or some small fraction thereof (say, the five bravest soldiers per person, chosen as they please, because cavalry might be useless in Hell)
If Harron's men need some component from the underworld to bring him back, they could send a lieutenant along as well.
This would give the whole party a mission to work on together (although hopefully we wouldn't come up against any Pit Fiends etc.)
Lucielle might be willing to accept stewardship of the Empire, with the very clear note that it is not permanent, and she is actively looking/waiting to get someone else on the seat. XD
Well, goood, goood, it looks like everyone has set up their plans for the Emperor to mess with....
And I know he is going to mess with my plans. Also Harron does not need anything from Hell. And he will send some assistance to get Verix back, if you need it. Free skeletons for everyone!!!!
So... do we have a story to move forward on, then? (It could be a weird one, and we could do something else instead)
I'm currently debating with myself whether I want to do the hell adventure, and if I do, how I want to roll that.
I basically need to come up with a new campaign. None of my prepared material or plotlines works with this.
Either that, or I have to buff up everything I had planned for the final chapter to adapt to "Not just one or two people teamed up, but EVERYBODY is a team."
I mean we don't *need* to team up; but yeah Runcible wants to bring Verix back to life to repay his debt if he gets a chance.
You could also just have us fight through a few waves of low-level fiends/undead as a very low-GM-investment mission.
If we were to do that, I might as well simply ask each of you to come up with a nice narrative post of how you adventure through hell.
Whichever you prefer. Just figured it could be a fun way to use the soldiers, since nobody's actually used theirs yet, unless they'll be doing something later.
If there's one thing you can count on players doing, it's completely destroying any plans you come up with. XD Often completely by accident.
Yeah... don't know if Harron or Verix have actually joined us lawful folk over here, just figured Harron might want to sightsee in hell.
You guys don't seem to have any interest in killing/thwarting each other.
Eh... have no idea what Harron's plans are, and Verix might not be too friendly about the whole "Emperor and Lucielle working to kill him" thing.
Lucielle didn't help the Emperor. Didn't stop him either, but didn't help either.
He had plans that were not shared with her. XD Cool fight, though.
Er... He did share those plans with you. You just ignored him.
Not ALL of his plans. XD
Harron might join you guys in a venture to Hell, for certain reasons. But he is not the kind of person who would work with others, unless necessary.
And yet he wants to rule an Empire that has a bureaucracy.
...Or at least inherit an Empire with one. No particular reason to KEEP it that way if he wants to change it...
It looks like this came to a grinding halt after going at a breakneck pace.
And I suspect the reverse shall swiftly happen once I've set up the next area.
I've decided to take the general plot of an old module I have hanging around, though all the badguys will need some rebalancing.
I'm just wondering if this game will continue or are you still sorting out the story?
We're certainly on hiatus until I find the will to buckle down and get to work.
A major issue is that everything went exactly according to the bad guys plan. At this point, the players backed off, would refocus onto other goals, Emperor Chreos' escape would take place, and given that the players have established they don't want to fight each other and will go so far as to resurrect each other when they die, the secondary bad guy would evaporate in a puff of triple gestalt advanced.
I expected someone to go off the rails, someone to do something surprising, or someone to attempt to claim power for themselves, but the end result was pretty much, "All of us are more or less honorable and play by the rules."
And so, I really don't expect anything interesting to happen even if we continue. I don't have any inspiration on making anything interesting happen. I can finish the fight, sure, but it will probably be rather dull now that you all know Chreos' trick.
If you guys don't mind me phoning it in, I can throw some demons/devils at you for you to test the mass combat, get your buddy back, and then adventure your party to Emperor Chreos to lodge a formal complaint, I can, but, that's about all I got.
At this point, if I told you all, "Alright, you beat the demons, get your buddy back, and find out Chreos left," I'd half expect you to have a civil conversation of "I want to be emperor," "I don't want to be emperor." "I want to be emperor" "I want to be Emperor." "Well, I'm really fine if I have enough room to practice evil stuff." "Me too." "I don't care, I want science." "Well, they all work together, and a world is a super big place for one empire to manage logistically, let's split the empire into three." "Cool with me."
I expected someone to go off the rails, someone to do something surprising, or someone to attempt to claim power for themselves, but the end result was pretty much, "All of us are more or less honorable and play by the rules."
I didn't play by the rules (catapults!), but I got one-shotted by a ridiculous crit, and then Harron and Verix got pretty murdered by Chreos. I'm not sure what plans you had for the campaign going forward, or if it was originally supposed to end with the new empire being chosen. Given Chreos's goals, I was assuming the next stage of the campaign might be "stop an alien invasion"