A Grim Moon Looms ; A Young Pantheon Grows (Inactive)

Game Master leinathan

I guess TLDR there are lower-risk, lower-reward plays and risky, high-reward plays. Informing the local authorities, assuming we can teleport there, won't deal with either threat directly but it is probably the safest play if we can get back in a short amount of time. Not informing the authorities opens up the town to counterattacks from wherever we don't go, but it is a lot faster.

Going for Eldran doesn't handle the presumably larger threat of the dragon, but we do have a better idea of where he is and what he is capable off, and we can capture or prevent whatever he is making. Going for the dragon is very risky as it gives Eldran full reign over the village and gives him time to finish what he's making, plus we don't have as much of an idea where he is. Also, we are potientially opening ourselves up to a knife in the back from him. But if it works, and we kill the dragon, it might also immediately end Eldran if his existence is tied to his hate for the dragon.

My vote would be inform the authorities and assuming we have help, go for the dragon afterwards, and let the help defend the village vs Eldran. That is probably the second safest plan, after getting help and then going for Eldran.

Alithea was only interested in going to Oppara to learn about Talamir's location and to go there to gather more information through magic. It seems Maika's already picked up a lot of that information through Legend Lore, a spell I wasn't really familiar with.

With that out of the way, and Alithea's suspicions all but confirmed that the dragon is in fact the object of Eldran's hatred, she is now much more interested in the dragon. The part I'm having a hard time with is how to find said dragon. Locate Creature is quite limited in range, as it turns out. Scrying has a low chance of success given the dragon's saves. If we could just acquire something of his, it would be much easier.

Probably would have been great for Calaxti to ask for some kind of hint on Horronath's location.

Well... assuming the party gets reliable flight, I can probably use find the path to find the ruins of Talamir in a decent amount of time. But from there... I'm not sure how to actually find the dragon either. It seems to me the only way to get something belonging to the dragon is setting an ambush and intercepting the dragon as it is about to strike the village. But that would risk literally everyone inside.

Does anyone know of a way to track a hugely powerful necrotic gem, as Maika saw in the vision? If we can't find the dragon, maybe we can find something it would probably keep on him or in his lair.

Ulliaza is still definitely thinking of finding and murdering the dragon. She thinks that it's lair can't be that hard to spot, after all, we're not talking about a young dragon here. This thing is massive, so it'd need a massive entrance to even get into its lair. Right?

It might be easier if we start with a vote on what do we want to do next?

Ulliaza is still definitely thinking of finding and murdering the dragon. She thinks that it's lair can't be that hard to spot, after all, we're not talking about a young dragon here. This thing is massive, so it'd need a massive entrance to even get into its lair. Right?

Well, I've fought dragons before with exotic types of movement. Earthglide, for instance. And assuming this old dragon also has caster levels, it could just dimension door/teleport. The entire lair could be underground with no obvious entrance or exit. Anyway, my vote is on teleporting to Oppara and gaining more allies/more information.

My vote is for the Dragon; if Eldran is linked to it, we end two enemies with one battle- if not; we may have procured ourselves a bargaining chip for Eldran.

Maika thinks the dragon is the biggest threat, and other problems will either fall into place or be more manageable for locals afterwards. XD So I'd vote for going to deal with that directly as well, albeit after getting some proper preparation and defenses ready.

Ulliaza's vote will go with Alithea, head to Oppara to dig up some more information on Talamir.

So it seems we have at least three people (Adol, Uliaza, Maika) who wish to go to Oppara right away. Anyone who wishes to stay behind should voice that in the Gameplay thread, and those who are going should post the "and now we go" post in Gameplay.

Meanwhile, here in Discussion I'd like to see your thoughts on finding the dragon.

Though Cal thinks it's a better idea to stay an engage the dragon when it returns, he wants to stay and face it on his own even less.

There are a few unsaid assumptions in that post, and it still doesn't communicate your thoughts with much clarity, so I'd like to ask more from you, Calxakti.

Your post seems to indicate that you want to wait for the dragon to return and fight it then. Is that true? If it is, how long are you willing to wait, and what would you like to do with your time while you do?

It also seems to indicate (but does not explicitly say) that you want to go with the others to Oppara. Is that true?

Thirdly, it seems to indicate that you believe that the dragon will return while the party is gone. Is there anything you believe should be done about that?

I suppose I hadn’t taken teleportation into consideration. I had also thought that the party would be gone longer than the three days that the dragon would return within. I will go to Oppara with the rest of the party, as I don’t want to split up the party. Given that the dragon will in all likelihoods return within the next three days, I’d rather not be own when it does.

Thought on finding the dragon: if it travels around with a life-sucking gem that we saw in the vision, there might be a visible trail of dead vegetation visible from the air that someone could track with survival? If it exists, Adol is decent at tracking.

On the defense of the village: it is possible t h at it is attacked while we are away. I guess i am hoping that since both the dragon and the undead were fought off earlier today, they won't return mere hours later. If it does happen, we could have a few people stay behind, though i'd imagine the dragon is beyond the power of like half the party. It raises an interesting point though: what is the time of day now? We lost a couple of hours waiting for the count to fall asleep and maika's spell had a 30 minute casting time. I guess it's now around 17:00?-18:00?

Though... thinking about it, according to my paladin code I don't think I can leave the village behind now to do anything else. If something did happen in the time we were away despite knowing there are two major threats nearby, the code of Esitvas states it is essentially my fault. I could write a letter to accompany those who would go to Oppara?

I'd like to ask about a few matters up front for a coming scene. Given that we have a good defense team, Adol will go to Oppara. If he is given the chance to make his case directly to the Crown, or another ruling body that will take emergency cases, given how strict the time limit is but also how incredulous this all might sound, he would request giving his testimony under a magical effect that compels him to tell the truth. This so that it stands a better chance of being taken seriously. One of such possibilities is Abadar's truthtelling. Does the Court have such magical effects readily available? Is it a standard procedure for everyone who speaks to the ruling body to have to subject themselves to this, which I imagine it could well be? DO I need to make special preparations to have this with me?

On the other matter, Eldran is an undead Crown prince from a few centuries ago. Taldor has just gotten out of a succession civil war. Do I know if Eldran's claim to the throne is legitimate enough to warrant a threat to the current ruler? What is the state of the nation? Would there be prople who would rally to his cause? Would mentioning this destabilize the position of the current ruler?

And finally, who is the current ruler? Since I'm unsure, this is why I keep referring to the ruler as 'The Crown'.

Telling under truthtelling effects is standard for court cases in a court of law, and can obviously be requested. It's just a first-level spell, however, that you are telling the truth is not likely to be the biggest obstacle.

Succession in a world with resurrection requires one simple rule, which is that if you die, your heir succeeds the throne. Therefore, Eldran is not in danger of destabilizing Taldan rule. However, as a historical relic, they might demand that his treatment be different than you've done so far.

Personally, I think it's most interesting that after the s%+%ty travesty that is War of the Crown that there was no one left to take the reigns of the country and that Taldor is now ruled by its legislative Senate.

Telling under truthtelling effects is standard for court cases in a court of law, and can obviously be requested. It's just a first-level spell, however, that you are telling the truth is not likely to be the biggest obstacle.

Succession in a world with resurrection requires one simple rule, which is that if you die, your heir succeeds the throne. Therefore, Eldran is not in danger of destabilizing Taldan rule. However, as a historical relic, they might demand that his treatment be different than you've done so far.

Personally, I think it's most interesting that after the s+!#ty travesty that is War of the Crown that there was no one left to take the reigns of the country and that Taldor is now ruled by its legislative Senate.

Well, that complicates things :') It's probably a lot harder to convince a conglomerate of rulers to do something than a single monarch. But I guess we'll have to make do with what we have.

...Well, how high is your Diplomacy score?

(I kid, I kid... mostly. If an idea is genuinely reasonable for a deliberative body to take, I think there's a good chance of talking them into it. But I'm pretty sure no Diplomacy score, however high, will convince the entire senate to give you all of their authority with no strings attached.)

I could definitely see them sending one who could speak with such authorization instead. An Executive Herald of sorts; who'll investigate unbiasedly and inform the Taldaran Senate of its findings.

Well, I don't expect to be able to convince the entire senate, much less to be given absolute authority :') But I hope enough authority to work with the local garrison and a group of guards at least able to slow down Eldran if it gets down to that.

Anyway, the first part of the idea was involving the society and its contact with the crown. That might help out a bit.

So what is the home team going to do?

-Glances at the rest of the team- We could not get killed by the dragon. 8D

That is a good idea. I'll be camping for the next few days, so I won't be able to post.

...We PROBABLY should go about trying to get the town into some semblance of order. After all, the Count did run off and leave the place for dead.

Some ideas from the away team: There's still two notable clerics we haven't talked to. It might also help to ask around for the direction the dragon attacked from. Now that the mayor is gone, the guards might be more willing to cooperate and reestablish order, like Ulliaza proppsed. The mayor did indeed leave them all for dead, while we are still here trying to help them.

As for the dragon, I am trying to think of some plan that minimizes casualties in case it attacks again before we get back. If someone had mythic obscuring mist, that might be able to hide the entire town in fog. If it attacks at night and you have cooperation from the guards, maybe you could set up a few fires away from the town and light then when it is about to attack to confuse it long enough for people to get into cover. Of course, neither of these will work is the dragon brings the gem from maika's vision and lifedrains the entire village at once.

Or, If the dragon is after Eldran and Eldran hates the dragon, you could try somehow leading the Dragon to the mine away from the village and have the two of them kill eachother. I'm not sure how to pull that off; maybe by simply talking to it and offering to lead it to his enemy...? :)

Was reading the discussion between Ulliaza and Rirsa, and all I could think of was: 'Aw, so much love for Adol!' You're making me blush ;)

Jokes aside, in case there is some actual ooc resentment, then that was never the intention. I also don't plan on similar behavior in the immediate future now that we're no longer directly confronted by blatantly obvious and rather extreme evil operating under the guise of the local law.

Nah, nothing OOC. Uliaza just thinks Adol's a bit of a fool.

Hello; is everything ok? (No one has posted in a little bit; or at least that I can see.)

I think Alithea and I are simply waiting on DM Divinity's response, but he hasn't posted in a while. I sent a PM to ask if everything was ok. Without the DM, the adventure can't continue.

Ah; I was thinking that for some reason the site just wasn't updating for me.

I was honestly waiting to see if The others who were left behind were gonna post anything.

Hey guys, I have some sad news for you.

A lot has been going on in my life lately that make it very difficult to have the time or inclination or energy to spend much time writing out posts on a computer. I seem to have been drawn out of the digital world into the real world to deal with a lot of stuff.

To be short, I've started a new job, I'm moving soon, my mother is getting divorced, I'm starting a new relationship, and I'm trying to find time for artistic pursuits in addition to my 2-hour commute. It's simply too exhausting for me to even consider doing this anymore. Not to mention the fact that it's been years and, frankly, it just doesn't satisfy me in the way that it used to.

I've come to the conclusion that it's time for me to quit Paizo.

I want to thank you guys for writing such cool characters on such short notice. Demigods! So good!

Thank you for DMing for us!

I have just two things to say; one: It was nice playing with you all; you're all vastly different from my IRL group. Which was a refreshing change of pace.

And two; something that I wanted to say after the game was over- Rirsa is a tribute to my sister who never had the chance to experience life (Carie is a tribute to my cousin who was taken by Cancer) .

Thank you all for the fun times! It's been enlightening.

Life can always happen. I, for one, appreciate just being honest about when it's tough rather than dragging out something meager. It's tough, and I was looking forward to the game, but sounds like you're prioritizing what's important.

Best to luck with everything going on!

Aw well, it was fun while it lasted. I wish you the best of the luck in your endeavors.

Ah. Well, I understand completely. Real life should always take priority. Truth be told, in my area, it takes me an 8 or so hour journey to play a game of pathfinder. When I somewhat recently became a father, I had to stop such excursions and many other similar things since time no longer allowed it. I was hoping play by post could fill this gap a bit. I can't deny I'm a bit sad to see this end so quickly, but such is life.

Thanks for allowing me to partake in this and experience the PBP format. I'd failed a number of applications in the past and had grown a bit disheartened over it until this one finally worked.

Out of curiosity, if I may ask two closing questions: what was going on in this village and what parts of the plot did we miss?

Plot aside, do you have some advice for me for future PBP's, if any, based on what you experienced as a GM?

Thank you for asking! I appreciate the curiosity.

Hundreds of years ago, Eldran was in a feud with a dragon. He hoped to uee an artifact to defeat it, but Horranath killed him and claimed the artifact, and corrupted it. Talamir was destroyed.

Recently, Eldran was able to free himself from Horranath's belly and escape. He went to the nearest town and came up with a scheme to return his people to life by implanting their souls in the bodies of virgins. Once he had returned them all, he would go attack Horranath.

Horranath discovered the return of his enemy and attacked Dalaston. Unfortunately he did not find Eldran and left.

I think the main problem with Adol is that you didnt leave much room for others to interact with him or the scene or me. Every post seemed to contain three or four different actions and you frequently made posts like "i assume nothing stops me so i can arrive".

Thanks for running! It was fun while it lasted.