Volcano's Land - Mercury Morn

Game Master Miner Cotren

Understood - appreciate the update.

Working at Target's been killing me! Dropped a can of beans on the ol' foot, and now I can't walk so good. It is what it is I suppose, but I'm not thrilled about it. Might have to take another day off tomorrow, and I'd really rather not do that if at all possible...

That sucks - feet / walking injuries are a hassle. Take the time you need to recover, game will be here when you are ready.

I think Gabe is more the terror that flaps in the night (Darkwing Duck anyone?) than the reassuring presence to calm people down. All I can think of is dancing but that doesn't seem like a long term solution.

Can we shoot for Monday for an update on what Abnaki and Samen are doing prior to going to sleep (or entering the dream realm at any rate)?

I'm back. Sorry this week has been a misture of being ill, overtime, and bad news. I have done very little.

So Qizz is gonna stay out and play guard while Kallik goes in? I assume she can use any of her phantom abilities while in the shared dream?

Yep, that's the idea! :)

That totally works for me :)

Homework asssignment for the weekend - have a post ready about your character's greatest fear (basically an introduction to a new scene). I think we'll roll randomly for the order.

I'll narrate it from there. You are going to have to get through four characters' worth of fears before you can find the Carrion.

Not sure if you need fears for Qizz. But I think theirs would be along the lines of silence and solitude. Death is sad but isnt scary to Qizz nor is the dangers of battle. But they have always been around others and having a phantom, even a grumpy one, is a form of constant company. And losing that. Being alone is horrifying.

Kallik's is a bit more cliché. She fears failure. For some examples as she would see them. Faling to control her temper and slipping back into that bloodlust. Never seeing Egret or her grandfather again. Continuing to get distracted and not helping Krz like she promised and that just makes her a failure to another family member, and she likes this one. Failing to protect Qizz, who is becoming less of a sand in for Egret and more of someone she genuinely cares for. Falling even more as one of the Blessed than she has already done. She is supposed to he a Hero, one of the Blessed. And now she is a sullen ghost to scared to move on and clinging to a world she fears she cannot influence anymore.

Samen is probably most afraid of existential futility. He's seen gods rise and fall. He's witnessed civilizations collapse and be rebuilt. He's died, had his soul spliced and torn asunder, then stitched back together again. He's faced monsters and created monsters. He's killed in cold blood and shown mercy. He's watched family die and friends mutate. He's experienced more of elenity and humanity than any other living being. All of this in, what, 1 to 2 years?

Sure, he thinks, there could be worse things to come, but he's relatively numb to terror at this point. No, the thing that nibbles at the back of his neck is the growing dread that none of this matters.

Thank you! I will commence with some nightmares with a post tomorrow.

Hey! Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. I've had the flu these past few weeks, and things have been a bit... rough. I'm still hopped up on Dayquil most days, and the really lucid moments have been few and far between, but I'm starting to feel a bit better now. I'll see what I can do to catch up, and I'm so sorry about my absence!

Abnaki's greatest fear at this point? Probably something inane. That or being forgotten.

I feel like being hopped up on flu medicine would lend itself to some wild nightmare writing...

Anyway, Gabe's worst fear. He's back in the depths of the temple. The experiments of the crazed inquisitors never stopped, only grown more intense. The dark overwhelms his senses, it's all around him. Calling out to him? Pressing on his mind. His shadow speaks to him, but it's not the shadow he knows. He's being puppeted like a doll on strings made to dance for the otherworldly presence. Then there is laughing from nowhere as his strings are cut by he can't move, lost in the dark.

Tldr: The experiments of the inquisitors still have a hold on him and his actions aren't his own.

Added a will save just to determine how he reacts. Does he remember his preparations or is the shock too much? I'm kinda glad I rolled low... haha

Those were some truly wretched rolls. Would certainly make for some fun drama in the movie version of the campaign!

Kallik continues her habit of failing will saves and doing something dumb. But I do like portals :)

Happy ~3600 posts everyone! This is a great campaign. Here's to another 3600 :)

I'm going to be on business travel until Friday. Bot me if necessary. I expect, unless circumstances change, Samen would use his last round of sunbeam again.

Sorry for the radio silence. I go some bad news with family and just didn't do much the last few days. Im gonna try catching back up today

The updates are appreciated - hope things are ok.

So it turns out there's no actual continuation from "Once, Twice, Thrice".

As seen here though, there are multiple words that try to claim that spot.

By most accounts, there is nothing following thrice on the sequence. It just ends there. According to the Oxford Dictionary, nothing comes after thrice. However, several terms have popped up claiming to be the continuation of the sequence. Some of these include quince, frice, fourice, quarce, and quadrice all of which have been claimed to mean four times.

Hi All,

So it's been over a month since Abnaki has posted, and no replies through PM either. In addition, his SO posts at my other table, and they stopped posting about 3 weeks ago.

I'm pretty worried, and I honestly have no idea how to continue this presently without Abnaki. We have a great chemistry between all the characters, and losing one of three consistent posters is a big loss. In addition, we're in Abnaki's very domain, which makes his absence all the more palpable.

I'd like to call a 3 week hiatus. This will help me get through the end of the school year (school's done June 19th, and teachers stick around until the 21st). I think it will be more obvious at that point whether Abnaki is back or gone for the long-term.

Wishing Abnaki all the best, and I shall see you all on June 19th. I'll stil be checking this thread to see if Abnaki returns.

With cautious optimism,
H.E.

Sounds good, no worries! Have fun navigating the last bits of the school year.

Hopefully things are ok. A break is fine by me. That will be after my families visit so things will, hopefully be, less hectic on my end.

Ok, I think Abnaki won't be coming back in the near future. I wish him all the best, and hope this is just a busy time, and nothing more serious.

Going forward, our current exploration of the dream realm would be rather difficult to continue without Abnaki, so my plan is to eject you somewhere rather different, where you'll meet up with the other table for a while. Ultimate goal would still be to storm the city of Light and bring an end to all aspects of Moon.

I wanted to hear from all of you --- do you want to transfer your characters/ narrative to a new table? Or would you prefer to find an appropriate "coda" for an unofficial ending?

I know I've had issues but your games have always been fun so I'd like to try to keep.it going and see how it ends.

I kinda figured meeting up with the other group would be the backup strategy in case Abnaki was MIA. I'm game to keep going. The dream realm stuff is a handy way to move us around as needed too. Our sleeping bodies could fade away only to reappear or we could be dream manifestations for the duration.

Cool, sounds like we're on the same page. I have a good idea of what kind of pit you'll have to pull yourselves out of to escape the dream realm without Abnaki's direct help. Look for an update next weekend (we'll talk timing, probably do a bit more posting here before we move into Gameplay at the other table)

works for e :)

I'm good with moving to the other table too.

That said, I'm going to be on vacation between 6/30 and 7/8, so you may need to bot me or come up with some other explanation for me.

Ok, this will be a long-term goal (maybe end of summer?) to get you in the same place as the other group. We'll be taking the long way :)

I know Samen is on vacation right now (perfectly bad timing on my part)

I'm just going to let the post sit until 7/8 and see what we get. I'm happy to respond to posts. When Samen is back, we can start advancing our story again.

**

Let me know any updates on availability throughout the summer.

With Samen's vacation over soon, (if the last post was a good estimate) I'm looking forward to seeing some posts! I know a direction we can head that will eventually intersect with the other table.

I would have named this chapter "The Temple Below", except I didn't want to spoil the fact you were in a place "underneath" the Temple. It took Samen one post to figure it out :)

Sorry for the silence i had a heat related issue at work. Missed a few days of work and I've been living in my room where the AC is and mostly sleeping. Should be back Sunday. Sorry again.

Totally ok - appreciate the update. Keep resting as much as you need, and feel better :)

I think Gabe is more the terror that flaps in the night (Darkwing Duck anyone?) than the reassuring presence to calm people down. All I can think of is dancing but that doesn't seem like a long term solution.

Just scrolled past this, now Darkwing Duck theme is stuck in my head.

Happy to trigger nostalgic memories :)

How to spin using acrobatics... "Gabe jumps for joy as Samen traces a portal!" haha

"Does a sweet ninja flip and saves everyone"

I've got one for you, and here's the start of it-

No more echoes - the snarl is unmistakably close now. There is a stench of hot breath and rotten meat in the air. Padded footsteps...

Gabriel, you could give a distraction so the hound doesn't interrupt the rift-making, and you could use acrobatics to dodge out of the way of the attack so you actually survive being a distraction.

Be warned...if you fail and zig when you should have zagged, you are getting a big chomp from a capital H Hellhound. :)

I'm imagining a hierarchy of evil doggos now.

heckhound < Heckhound < hellhound < Hellhound.

That sounds pretty good. I didn't want to have the hounds be closer than planned for my rp stuff. It sounds like the next thing after that acrobatics check would be combat. Or at least a bit of damage immediately prior to combat.

Sounds like Kallik won't be posting for the rest of the summer (at least) . I am fine with botting - I know how to RP Kallik and Qizz well enough.

Just be aware that PCs are usually weaker in combat under my hand (I simply don't have the interest in figuring out the complexities of a character I didn't make), so you are down a controller ((Abnaki)), and to my eye it looks like Kallik is a decent (but not powerful) bruiser and Qizz is a decent (but not powerful) summoner/ debuffer.

It will be interesting to see the new party composition once you meet up with the other table. I request you don't look at the other table so the 'surprise' of meeting each other can stay intact :)

Ha, it's been 2 years IRL since the Happy Swords took off. Had to look up what the heck the mission was :0

And thanks for the concise summary, Samen!

Man, it's been a real trip skimming the pages since you guys died on the Owlbone Road, just to make sure I picked up on all the things that have changed in the meantime. I can't choose between this campaign and New Beginnings (my other very long-running campaign, retired now), but these are easily my favorite DMing experiences of all time.

although I guess I consider "Forged in Blood" to kind of be the prequel to this campaign, and I'm counting them together (and cheating, because I can't choose)

Happy to be a small part of it! The dedication to making and maintaining your own setting is an impressive feat.

My power is out at home, so I will likely be posting tomorrow. Eat some food and RP a bit, and I'll be back tomorrow.