Volcano's Land - Mercury Morn

Game Master Miner Cotren

Thanks all! As always, I appreciate the effort in your characters and your posts.

sorry got distracted watching things unfold. Curiosity has me wanting to read the early parts of this campaign. Bunch pf stuff I have not encountered. Anyways..

Kalliks goals are mostly about Krz in the short term. She does want to speak to Umik but there is some dread about doing so

Qizz's super short term goal is to get Kallik out of their head near Umik. Slightly longer to long term is just to encounter new things. They are super simple in their wants. Just see new things and do good by the world. Their plan was to get phantom and help the lingering dead elen. So far that is their goal.

Conversation there can be the rambling about the Mycos culture. And then there is finding Umik on his own and pushing the grumpy phantom out.

Feel free to read what you like - I trust all of us to separate OOC knowledge from IC :) You might want to start with the campaign diary first to see which parts interest you - there's quite a bit!

I think the reasoning behind going directly to the plane of Great Forest makes sense - the knowledge check was high enough to confirm it would help with Obdurate, as well as the mountainous elemental rampage to the north, and possibly weaken the Gems to the south.

So please sound off - are you immediately going to try and hop to this plane, or are you going to do some prep first? We can RP some shopping or info gathering as you please, or rip open a tear in reality and go forth. Let me know!

I will plan on updating tomorrow morning. Any thoughts, crew?

Is Hearth safe? We've been gone for a while, it'd be good to get our own affairs in order rather than immediately galivant off to another plane. Although I suppose the element of surprise might be on our side then.

Hearth is safe. Inam's sacrifice and the new Phoenix symbol hanging above Hearth pretty much guarantee that attacks/invasions are protected against (at least until Moon makes another MAJOR move, but that is unpredictable, to say the least).

Going to another plane is risky, but it's an actionable task we can accomplish from here. I wish there was more by way of preparation that we could do, but I figure we don't have much at our disposal that would help us along our way anyway.

If someone seconds the motion, I will set up a skill challenge to get us to Uknukhiphidwala.

Abnaki is more spontaneous than he used to be, I'll second it.

Qizz would love to visit another plane.

here, sorry im quiet dealig with a lot of real life stress atm.

Understood - thanks for the update.

We'll be rolling survival checks over the weekend. It looks like:

Qizzlvutz is trained, especially when phantom is in your head

Gabe is trained

Abnaki could do weird bard stuff to become trained?

Let me know if this is accurate. We'll have some fun trying to get you to the heart of Feyhome.

Alrighty, as we proceed to the next scene, everyone please roll a survival check with disadvantage (that is, roll twice and we take the WORSE of the two rolls)

This is one thing Samen is still very bad at.

Survival: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (3) - 1 = 2
Survival: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (12) - 1 = 11

I will plan on rolling the rest of the survival checks tomorrow morning.

Abnaki, what spell/ability are you referencing in Gameplay? Just want to hear more about your idea.

Spirit ridden, one of my new feats. I could use it to pick up survival, knowledge geography, or even possibly Lore(where the hell are we) depending on what's needed.

I've been saying it QUIZZ-UHL-FUTS but they do not take offence either way.

Abnaki, I actually really like the idea of you being able to access Lore through Spirit-ridden (and your other suggestions, too)

The difference between knowledge and lore (I know this isn't exactly what is written) ---

Knowledge is the domain of facts and recorded consensus (so knowledge of how planar energies interact, or a spell, or a religious rite, etc. )

Lore, at least my interpretation, would be the stories and rumors of much more specific things (like Fey lore would be the intrigues of the four Courts of the Fey for the last few decades, or the conflicts of the family of dragons that live on the plane of fire)

I'm having trouble making posts on the main thread. It appears as though it's treating the submit post button as the preview button. I tried to make a perception check several times, but nothing ever stuck to the thread.

Posting in the discussion tab seems to be successful, though. I rolled a 28.

Is picking the mushroom to on the nose? I think Qizz would pick the flower cause its not something they have encountered except very recently.

But my, the player, wants the mushroom and the skull.

apologies, only Abnaki is really seeing those 4 things. Once the pumpkin was chosen I will be updating the scene.

Enjoy what is about to happen to the rest of you, too! :)

Battle map is up!

ROLL INIT PLEASE! Abnaki too.

MAP LINK

It is also linked at the top of each page, under the heading
Darkness surrounds the land where the peoples of Volcano, River, and Forest live under a Fallen Sky.

The battle map link is right below that.

baddies: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21

The description you've given for these guys makes me think of the ghost from The Ring. Is that an accurate understanding of what we're facing here? Are they corporeal or incorporeal?

Is this something Samen is somehow familiar with?
Knowledge Planes: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (5) + 22 = 27

They are dead dreams. In other words, they are undead, and so close to Fey influence, they are corporeal.

You will need to use your phrenic amplification if you wish to affect them directly with mind-affecting stuff.

The descriptions of your psychic manifestations are wonderful, Samen. I like how it feels a separate thing from arcane an divine magic.

I will plan on updating Monday evening. Please get your post in sometime tomorrow if you can :)

I will plan on updating Wednesday morning -- I want to keep combat moving if possible.

This is a good thing to talk out in Discussion!

I think that, despite us not leveling, most of us are pretty powerful at this point.

--Samen can shut down encounters with control spells

--Abnaki can nearly mind control people

--Invisible Gabriel is nearly undetectable

--Qizzl is versatile, and a summoner can be quite good. I'm interested to see your combat ability.

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And all of that is ok! It just means we're playing at the next "tier" of the game (more or less)

So it's cool with me that Samen shut this down -- you will likely have a few more encounters --- finish questioning mr pumpkin, getting up above the fog, exploring whatever is up there, maybe fighting a growing horde of bad guys!

And I think that's the point and hopefully the fun! :) I'll likely be throwing small mobs of baddies at you, BECAUSE you are taking on entire threats on your own now.

Finally, I think I was miscommunicating in the combat -- I totally agree you have this basically shut down, and I think that Wamblee is fast enough to meet up with the earth elementals and do some damage to the tree and end the encounter. I was using the will save as a way of having them do one final narrative thing (possibly giving you some psychic damage as they fail their saves and simply die)

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Let me know your thoughts everyone --- I really like the campaign and the characters, and I'm always open to discussing what kind of campaign, challenges, tone, etc we are facing together. I think we are headed for more 'epic' challenges, and perhaps a final showdown with Moon!

The next time that we level up, Abnaki will be able to fully mind control people, and can target it through fortitude saves if he thinks that would be a good idea, because words of power is janky like that.

We are very strong. Strong enough that we don't really need a bard anymore. If I didn't like my skillpoints so much, I would have tried to be a sorcerer instead. We can leverage a lot of different avenues to become situationally stronger. That is the mark of a well made party. I look forward to seeing what sorts of epic encounters you throw at us GM!

Higher level play is some of my favorite. Combat can potentially be ended in a round and the players get to feel powerful which is fun. And so different from the threats of lower level combat. Fights get to be more creative.

Mob fights are a good way around that. A battle of attrition a good way to wear down a higher level party as they have to ration their resources in a different way that fighting one powerful monster. Its a way to make any level party feel fear with the right mob.

Also combat in PbP is the slowest part most often and cutting some of that time is nice. I have no issue handwaving the rest of a fight when it makes sense.

I have always enjoyed the sense of wonder you can capture. And the few battles that happen have an impact. It never feels like rolling for random encounters. Sometimes a battle grind can be fun but your games favor the fluffy flavor over mechanical crunch, at least from my perspective, and I like that style. Its what I try to do in my games

Thanks for the kind words! I definitely try to keep the "best" parts of PbP combat, which means either short and sweet with a few interesting bits (like this current one), or a long epic fight (like Moonfall).

I'm always looking to improve, and always happy to hear suggestions.

Whew! I hope you like my pumpkin story, sorry that it's a bit long for 1rd of combat.

I hate to be this guy. But I'm gonna have to drop for now. I have a lot going on. Again sorry

:(

We'll miss you Gabriel. I hope life gets simpler for you.

Same - hope all is well in the long run.

Sorry to see you go. Hope things settle down for you

I have unchecked you as an active player Gabriel, but you are welcome back anytime - again, hope all well be well with you.

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So PCs, 3 players seems a little light - I've found PbP works best when you are playing off of each other and having discussions.

With that in mind, do any of you know any players (like from another game on site) that might be interested in joining? I'd prefer to do that rather than a general recruitment.

I think I'll be botting Gabe for the time being. He was a quiet character anyway, and I think every party needs a good stealth el.

Hi All - I think I'm going to open this to recruit 1 or 2 more PCs. I think with PbP, the critical mass for smooth play is around 4 or 5 PCs. This seems to work nicely for having continuing/flowing conversations, especially if one or two of us are having a busy week (I think you are all fantastic playerss, this is more of a general observation I've found to be true for PbP)

I'll likely tinker with the recruitment tonight and post it tomorrow--- let me know in the meantime if you have any players in mind for the position.

Along those lines, I'm going to be away on vacation between 3/31 and 4/7, so please bot me during that timespan.

As much as I'd like to see this story continue, and everyone just went through the process of creating/revamping their characters, might not bringing a new person in require them to not only learn an entire homebrewed setting, but a lot of campaign story baggage? It can be a bit overwhelming. This could be a good point to transfer to different characters, and let Abnaki, Qlzzluvtz, and Samen become legends, not unlike the blessed of Hearth were when I joined?

Feel free to shoot me down on that, I love playing Abnaki, and I really enjoy Hubristic as a GM, and playing with both my companion players! I'm just concerned about throwing another player into the deep end like this. For long-term sustainability, a party should be built around each other, both story-wise, and mechanics-wise

i've been playing Kallik for years now so I'm fairly attached to the character and story. If the group votes to want fresh and new characters I will go along with it cause I really enjoy this world.

But yeah 4 to 5 players seems to be the sweet spot.

Hmm, I definitely don't want to stop midstream -- I'd like to see where these characters go.

We'll see what the recruitment holds, Abnaki :) I might be able to work something out where someone who "makes sense" narratively comes in (maybe they will take over Wamblee, or be the "shadow-possessed" Gabe, etc)

On a positive note, Abnaki (the character) joined this game when it already had a fair amount of history and lore, and you've been an absolute perfect fit. For now, I'm optimistic, and rest assured I won't add anyone if it doesn't seems like a good fit.

Abnaki - I feel your pain over the lost post. I've gotten in the habit of copy/pasting my current iteration into notepad (low tech, but it does the job) when I'm about to preview or post.

Take your time - I understand that losing an awesome post can damage motivation for a bit.

Oof. I've done that before too. Whenever I hit the "submit post" button and the server takes a second to respond, I panic-copy my post, just in case.

I've had that happen before. It sucks. I'm sorry that happened.

Given proper time I assume Abnaki could carve kingdom in any land he wondered into.