Sounds like a good plan, but perhaps it would be good to think of a way of confirming sludge buddies can be killed by fire? It would be a Definitely Not Nice situation if they survived and attacked us.
Not sure how to go about that, though: Ahmad could try to go all empath on them, but that's a bit unlikely to give us any useful information. Perhaps Alfie can consult the spirits?
Ahmad and Rani have 'experienced' the sludge in ways the rest of us haven't. Maybe that justifies an "Investigate a Mystery/What can hurt it?" check?
Hmmm…that might make sense…? What do you say, GM?
I'm going to be inactive for 1-2 weeks.
For what it's worth, in-game Alfie had been anxious to try to use the sludge to find out the monster's weakness (as Oscar notes, this might be unnecessary now that Ahmad and Rania are back), and anyway I won't be able to play it out right now.
Assuming Rani can no longer see Woof Friend, that sounds like a plan. Unless someone wants to take it up on the magical power and knowledge boost it's offering.
Yes, as Oscar already noticed, the wolf guy is no longer in sight from the window.
Hmm, I'm not sure the contact Rani and Ahmad have had makes sense to retroactively Investigate to find out a weakness since you're basically just talking to it. It would be kind of like a normal human saying they know Charles Xavier's weaknesses because they heard his voice in their head. Though Alfie and Ahmad have established psychic-like powers, so I could see them touching the ooze to form the initial connection and then trying to use those to try to glean information about weaknesses.
Or alternatively, use science. You have some specimens. Expose them to different things and see what they react to to justify rolling Investigate to find out a weakness.
Things have been slow/distracting with the holidays, but I'm still around. Just waiting to see if you want to try Rani's location spell in-game-tonight or if you want to wait until in-game-morning.
Was Rani's spell trying to locate the monster or Deputy Richardson? Becuase I thought it was the former, but the spoiler says the latter.
Would it still be within ~30 minutes since Oscar trapped the monster in the warehouse?
Sorry for the delay on my part; I was having trouble logging into my Paizo account. Hopefully that has now been resolved.
As to the spell, I asked Rani if she was using the deputy's radio, so I assume she was trying to locate the deputy. She needs something that belonged/belongs to the person she was trying to locate, so I'm not sure why she'd be using the deputy's radio to try to find the monster. And yes, it's still within the time frame where the monster is trapped in the outer gates of the warehouse compound, but you don't have an excess of time left before that runs out.
Not that it changes much now, but I had understood the trap spell had worn out before we got out of the warehouse.
In any case, perhaps someone can stay outside in order to follow the werewolf in case we can't deal with it before the spells runs out?
So…hate to ask this, but where is everyone else? Are people just busy with the beginning of the new year?
Just waiting on Alfie, in case they have some idea where we should go before going clue hunting.
I've been at that level of busy where I can monitor and post my actions when I need to do something, but not to the point where I can prod a game along when it's stalling.
I've sent Alfie a PM. Unfortunately, the spoiler is information that only Alfie would have. You could go clue-hunting if you wanted. I will say that if you do, there's a decent chance you'll be lead along a different path than if you follow Alfie's information, so it's not like you'd be overlapping if you decided to move forward in that direction. Up to y'all though.
I'm going to a house in the country from Friday through Monday that will have spotty internet access. Please bot me if I'm holding anything up.
I'll leave one question for discussion, though: Do we have any leads if tracking this creature (or this guard?) that's still at the warehouse doesn't pan out?
Sorry about the disappearance. I have my campaign page bookmarked, but I didn't notice that I had gotten signed out of my account, so I assumed there were no new posts in the past two weeks. I'll try to catch up on the game soon.
Busy day today, will post tomorrow morning. Sorry!
Just a quick note that's not behind a spoiler since there's been some confusion. Manipulate is not the same as Diplomacy/Intimidate in Pathfinder; it can't be used to change someone's attitude towards you or what they believe. To do that, you have to actually say/do things that will change their mind. Manipulate is to specifically get someone to do something they otherwise would not want to do and it requires you to give them a reason to do what you want.
Say you were outside of a club and there's a bouncer in your way who won't let you in. In Pathfinder, you might influence the bouncer's attitude to either like or dislike you to let you in, which is kind of an indirect way to get what you want. In MotW, you roll Manipulate to give you what you want directly and I say how it happens. Maybe you roll a 7-9 on your manipulate and a monster attacks, thus scaring the bouncer off; you've still accomplished your goal (get access to the club) but you haven't necessarily influenced the bouncer's attitude towards you. Though yes, influencing the bouncer's attitude is another way that could play out.
So tl;dr, roll Manipulate when you want to get an NPC to take some specific action you think they wouldn't otherwise want to do.
I have a busy couple of days coming up, so I won't be able to post until later in the weekend. But here's my intentions for Oscar in case it matters to anyone else's actions: First, he wants to pass off Daniel Applebaum to law enforcement, and then... probably try and investigate the gunfire, seeing as he thinks Taryn has the murder scene covered. If there's nothing to be discovered there, he'll then investigate the murder scene if he can. If anyone requests help, he'll immediately move to help them.
Ok, thanks for the heads up! I'll wait to see what Taryn is doing and describe things appropriately based on both her and your intentions.
So Taryn's not **trying** to leave Oscar behind, which is why she told him what she's up to. That said, neither I nor Taryn assumed he wouldn't be able to join up with her for a half hour. Soo... if Oscar wants to join in, assume a followup text of: "You coming?" was sent.
That make sense?
I appreciate that you're not trying to leave Oscar behind, but I've kind of committed him to not leaving the old, injured man alone in the woods. But let's take DM Puppet Master's offer of having a deputy take Daniel off of Oscar's hands, and then he'll turn right back around and meet up with Taryn.
I honestly have no idea. Can we get a summary of what Rani's portal is about? That might inspire something.
I believe what Rani knows thus far is that she lost Alice's trail in this general vicinity. When she came to investigate, she found an invisible rip in space that seems to be sealed shut. Something about the existence of the seal is interfering with her ability to locate Alice, so she would like to remove it. This post has the description of it.
@Rani: Feel free to add any other details you think is relevant or any hypotheses you might have (also, the @Everyone for coming up with requirements includes you).
These don't necessarily need to be difficult requirements, but they should be flavorful and I'd ideally like there to be some reasoning behind the choice. Some things you can try thinking about that might give you ideas/reasons for doing certain things:
- How do you separate things that have been bonded together?
- Possibly how do opposing magics interact (if you want to establish that the rip wants to be open and is in conflict with the seal holding it closed)?
- Something related to the description I gave (temperature, elasticity, a rip with jagged edges, etc)
The seal itself feels cold to Rani, while the portal feels like warm and home - Rani's describe it as tasting like home made pie. I'm not sure if this perception is Rani's brain processing 'one good, other bad' given her magic is based on light, heat and life or simply that the portal is more akin to her and the seal more foreign.
@Everyone: Give me one thing that is required for Rani's ritual to unseal a portal and why that is a requirement for this spell.
A jewel that conducts the correct type of energy. Her jewelry isn't just for beauty but also to give her access to a wider range of spells. In this case, what would be associated with the warm energy she feels is a fire-red ruby in the best case, or a coal in the worst case. Hopefully she has something like that on her.
@Everyone: Give me one thing that is required for Rani's ritual to unseal a portal and why that is a requirement for this spell.A jewel that conducts the correct type of energy. Her jewelry isn't just for beauty but also to give her access to a wider range of spells. In this case, what would be associated with the warm energy she feels is a fire-red ruby in the best case, or a coal in the worst case. Hopefully she has something like that on her.
She has to tell someone that she loves them. This can be over the phone, but it has to be to a person who understands her. She has to open herself up to be able to get past the seal to the warmth beneath.
She needs something that can hold the bond she is trying to break, then break that thing.
Rani needs to borrow something from someone and promise to safely return it. When the time comes to complete the spell, she must break the thing, thus severing the bond both physically and metaphysically.
Does that make sense?
Thus far for the ritual we have
- A fire-red ruby to conduct energy
- A confession of love to penetrate the cold to the warmth beneath
- A bond broken as represented by a token and a promise of safety
Still waiting on requirements from both Rani and Taryn
Sorry, didn't realize you wanted one from me as well.
A memory that she cherishes sound good?
A needle that's never been threaded
I thought I should probably add in a more mechanical description of the Big Magic ritual. Basically, there's not going to be a Use Magic roll involved. Instead, I must be convinced that all the requirements of the spell have been met and will declare success or failure based on that. The bond broken in particular must convince me that it's meaningful enough to break through the seal. Which is to say something that's not minor enough just to be shrugged off.
I would also suggest at least one of the requirements be done with another PC as that tends to make things more interesting.
Fair enough. The bond one is gonna sting, not sure how I'm gonna do that one yet.
You don't necessarily need to figure that out entirely by yourself. You can always solicit ideas from the rest of the group; either general ideas or if they have ideas about something meaningful to their character if they want to volunteer to be involved in some drama.
This is true. Anyone have something previous that Rani can break along with all trust and hope?
This is true. Anyone have something previous that Rani can break along with all trust and hope?
I forget all of the backstory, but was Rani involved in some way in Taryn's werewolf binding? And if so, does she have anything physical related to that?
I think the idea we went with was Rani using a curse to stop the whole wolf thing, and getting mauled during it. She could still have a focus from it, I suppose?
I like Oscar's idea a lot, but if that doesn't work out Ahmad seems to be easiest target here.
He could have given her a USB stick with loads of "bangers" of which he obviously he doesn't have a backup because Rani promised she'd give him back ASAP.
It doesn't have to be quite as dramatic as "all trust and hope" but it should be important enough to cause friction between the two. I'm trying to get y'all to create drama since all of my previous attempts don't seem to have stuck. :-P Though in order for the binding idea to work, it would need to be an item that belongs to someone else rather than a focus that is Rani's.
Also, the only thing that comes to mind with "bangers" is bangers and mash, which don't really belong on a USB stick.
In fairness, I do have some banger and mash recipes on a flash drive, because it has a few hundred recipes on it.
Sounds like breaking Ahmad's would be good, if that's dramatic and enough trust broken to work. I know my friends have broken stuff of mine and I've just gone 'eh'.
I mean, it's kind of up to Ahmad if that's dramatic enough. If he's just going to shrug and immediately forgive Rani, then it's not. It doesn't need to have Indigo Montoya revenge as a result, but it should be enough that it's going to come up somehow and in some way affect Ahmad's behavior towards her.
Just waiting on Ahmad to make the call before I post.
Ah, apologies, I missed some of the posts here and didn't realise I was holding up the line.
Hmmmm…I mean, I'm feeling Ahmad goes a bit out of his way to twist every bad thing as if it were his fault. The flash drive wouldn't de dramatic enough.
Leaving anything short of a five-star rave review about Fatima's Kitchen, though, that would be crossing the line. It can't be his fault Rani has bad taste. If we're still going for something physical, perhaps she can throw the leftovers away because the lentils were overcooked? Feel free to go wild. Get yourself banned from Fatima's Kitchen forever.
Ooof. Yeah, that's gonna sting. Rani liked eating there.
I'll try and assemble a spell later. I'm moving house and working extra all at once so I may be a touch out of it for the next few weeks.
Sorry, running on way too much caffiene, too little sleep and a COVID jab, so I wanna make sure I'm doing the ritual right.
1 - Get needle - Done
2 - Thread needle with a memory - Done
3 - Get a Ruby - Done.
4 - Confess love and establish an emotional connection.
5 - Break something - in this case, Ahmad's trust - near the ruby to charge it.
6 - Break the ruby with the needle while uttering a spell.
7 - Unleash the nightmarish contents of the portal, thus ending the world.
Am I missing a step in my befuddlement?
Close but a few details are off
5) Bind the ruby to the item to be protected via the incantation
6) Use the needle charged with love energy to break the item to be protected near the ruby while saying another incantation
7) Bind the ruby to the seal via a third incantation to let the energy from the ruby flow into the seal to hopefully break it
Also, wound up being very tired, so will update the game tomorrow.
If we can't find anything, I can't think of anything to do in the house. Suggestions are welcome.
I mean, you did find something; when I asked Taryn what sort of concealed information she might be interested in, what I gave you was what made the most sense. You could possibly find more information but you're not going to do it by just "looking around" since as I've said, you've kind of already tapped that avenue of investigation. I don't really just want to tell you how to investigate here, so I'll give you some examples of things you could have done at the first crime scene:
- Gather blood/possible fur samples that may have been left behind to find out about the creature that attacked (this kind of assumes you have a lab, which you can say you have so long as you can explain it. And for example, if a non-local had chem equipment in their car, it's probably going to be either very basic or it's going to take up a lot of the car room/limit what else you could carry there)
- Look at the pattern of foot prints and blood splatter to try to recreate what happened
- Check to see if the construction site had security cameras that caught what happened
One way to try to investigate is to look at the questions under Investigate a Mystery and ask yourself, "How could I find this information?" You'll notice the examples I gave kind of point you in a specific direction in terms of what question you would likely ask. It's also great for me because it narratively tells me what kind of information you're looking for and therefore makes my life easier. This game is mostly improv; this house did not exist until Taryn wanted to follow the trail in the woods and I had to come up with where it would lead as well as a couple of quick thoughts of potential avenues you could look into. That backpack did not exist until I PM'd Taryn to get an idea of what sort of information she might want to find but after that it made sense for it to be a thing that was present.
Anyway, in terms of some non-house related things you could look into
- Checking out the crime scene in the woods
- Trying to figure out what was up with that gunshot Oscar heard in the woods
- Trying to find out who the victims were so you could talk to their family
- Check in on Rani if you want in on her magic scene (or conviently go get food/be at the restaurant when she's going to do whatever it is she's doing to break Ahmad's trust)
- Check in on the security guy Taryn threatened or the company he works for
The key with any of these is to have an idea about what kind of information you'd like to get and then pick something that seems like a possible way to get it. I have a few vague ideas about information you might get at these places, but whether or not that's actually information you want is another matter. It's also admittedly hard to give guidance when I'm unclear on what you've thus far figured out or what your current theories are. For example, you have 3 bodies thus far. What do you believe about them? Were they killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time? If so, is there a reason the killer was in those places? Or were the victims specifically targeted? Or for all I know, you might not care about that at all.
@Rani: so, before I unadvertently post something that messes up everything you've been building up for the past few weeks, what do you mean when you say you need "acceptance"?
Is it more of an acknowledgement("I hear what you're saying," "wow, that's unexpected," etc) or is it reciprocation ("omg, I feel the same way, let's get married")? Or something else entirely?
Uhhhh...I don't know? I think acknowledgement and acceptance, if not reciprocation, would work? It depends on how the DM is ruling it, I'm afraid. Oscar's original suggestion was that she had to be understood, if that helps.