Ærde: Lost and Found in the City of Wonders

Game Master Jibril Johan Sameh

Oh, I thought we were supposed to pick new ones, particularly as that part of the post was bolded :-)

I'm happy to stay with Earnest.

Oh, I thought we were supposed to pick new ones, particularly as that part of the post was bolded :-)

Very understandably assumption- poor formatting me. But of course we are game testing an idea so please take on another role.

Zahra is a one-trick pony with her skills but I will try to be creative :)

I'm not going to say with certainty right now but Tymythy is pretty sure that the time it took to travel between the edge of Oernierian Plains just outside his own country and arriving in the desert was instantaneous. He is certain that he was only in the desert for a few days. It is the same year as the year he left which I believe I set at Bishop's Chronicle 997 (997bc).

So Tymythy left with a Haytham Arnaout sometime in the last year, and the plaque here says Haytham Arnaout died 8 years ago. Creepy! Maybe the one Tymythy knew was a son or father to this one? Or maybe something super strange is going on.

Fingers crossed for super strange!

Plenty of possible theories... he might have wandered off during some trying times in this here city and people took his absence as proof of his death. Or he left in a hurry and arranged for people to think he died so he'd not be chased. Or it could be something more mysterious than that ;^) Perhaps we'll find out at some point!

What season were you born in? Spring, summer, winter or fall? Pick a number between 1 and 91 inclusive.

Winter, 13.

I'll let the dice decide :)

Season (1=winter, 2=spring, 3=summer, 4=autumn)
season: 1d4 ⇒ 3
I guess it's summer

Pick a number
1d91 ⇒ 22

Spring, 23.

Season (1=winter, 2=spring, 3=summer, 4=autumn): 1d4 ⇒ 2 Spring
Number: 1d91 ⇒ 91

I'll be camping from Saturday to Tuesday and may not be able to post. Bot Zahra as needed.

Anyway, this performance combat concept of yours might be something Tymythy could really get into, but I believe he’s not been subjected to enough culture just yet to really understand what was going, except that the performance got even more ritualistic and less practical that before. And, with the orchestral music (another first for Tymythy, no doubt) and smoke and everything… too much for him to take in one go.

Yes, I can see there are connections between the Hlewmylani cultural fighting that you've been developing. I like this High-elf troupe for a very rigid form. I also like the way you've been writing - everyone has been doing great at being 1st-2nd level. But, also, this is a shot across the bow indicating there may be need to study up on 'Performance Combat' used in other ways in the future - far less rigid ways.

The problem for Tymythy here is that all of this is just too much... the way I see it, entertainment in a Hlewmylani clan would be stories told around campfire, possibly in song form, some music (performed mostly by enthusiastic amateurs, and any “band” with more than a handful of people who can actually tell the business end of a fiddle from the other would be a rare event), boasting and competing for the Hero’s Portion, dueling (not necessarily only to first blood either), some puppet theater for the little kiddies, perhaps… This, on the other hand... it’s the kind of upscaling from what he’s used to that skips a dozen vital steps along the way, which means Tymythy just won’t get this, and can’t do so without months and months of exposure to it. He’ll just see it as weird, strange, unnecessary, wasteful… but with a few little enjoyable bits thrown in at some points.

Dounia and Cairee - please copy your character onto the roll 20 map for room 313. The small grid is 1' sqr so please make your charachters 3sqrs big. Only 1 character per 5' sqr please.

Ahhh...that makes way more sense. I wondered why our ghost looked like Haseena, and why it had so many chairs.

There are new markers on the city map ;)

Glad I'm not you guys :) Zahra would be shrieking and running...

Super creepy

Next time Cairee gets to follow Zahra and Tymythy can guard Dounia :)

I have dumped the 'glossary' and 'everyone so far ' pages from the main game page. I have replaced the long winded narrative with the beginning of a bullet point narrative that includes the glossary and all the people you've met or heard mentioned.

It is a work in progress so please don't be worried if you don't see your story there.

Apparently only I can resize the tokens - all should be right. I found that if I place the tokens myself, occasionally, the players can't move them.

I did some figuring and it it the 4th day of the month/season of Karru (autumn).

Dounia - as far as your drawback goes I think luting should count, as long as your share is enough to satisfy the drawback. The bandits in the alley should have satisfied this for today.

Surprise round first:
Dounia 19, snake 12, Cairee 7.

Round 1
Zahra 22, Dounia 19, snake 12, Tymythy 9, Cairee 7.

Round 2+
duplicates round 1

So for posting it will be:
Dounia
Snake
Cairee, Zahra, Dounia (in any order)
Snake
everyone up
Snake
etc.

I am back in cell service, and should be the rest of the trip. Very exciting scene! I love that Dounia is snacking on cake half way through this fight. I'll post tomorrow.

Dounia - as far as your drawback goes I think luting should count, as long as your share is enough to satisfy the drawback. The bandits in the alley should have satisfied this for today.

Cool, noted.

Still might try to find those dwarves after. ...

Still might try to find those dwarves after. ...

Cool!

Tymythy -
The snake is 3' long and can leap above that so no AC bonus for wearing boots or having greaves, etc.

The bottle being easy to grab, I am using the same rules for drawing a weapon - you may pick up the bottle by the neck as part of a move action. This leves a standard action for Tymythy this round.

If it were a rare creature of this land then I would introduce a penalty but this nature roll is not that kind of roll.

Even as difficult terrain you have the movement to get between Haseena and Dounia.

Thank ye, will try to find a few moments to write an attack post in a bit...

The character status sheet should be updated.

Not sure if she just gets only one attack for her AoO but she would continue attacking it for her turn as well unless someone stops her so I'll give you one more attack...

Zahra - The description of the 'Claws' special ability says that two claw attacks if a full round action. An AoO is for quick reactions only, so one claw attack for an AoO.

Please everyone - I'm trying to create some atmosphere here. You're fighting a snake in a Theatre box during an opera performance. Make stealth checks or tell me you aren't trying to be stealthy. The consequences for not being quiet may be severe.

Sorry! (hangs head in shame)

Will do for her nest AoO roll but she’s happy to let it escape so she won’t be fighting it for her actual turn.

Tymythy's priorities are clear. He's not going out of his way to make noise but dealing with the serpent (and the killer who let it loose here) is infinitely more important than worrying if our survival might prevent our neighbors from properly enjoying the play in peace and quiet.

If I request stealth rolls and you don't want to make them please make your intention clear.I can't tell if you are doing it 'in character' or forgetting. Especially as some were forgetting and some doing it on purpose.

I promise, if I'm taking the game in one direction and you want to go in another I will follow you.

Zahra and Tymythy - Cairee posted first and I was busy and didn't respond. She succeeded in her grapple roll (even with the -4 improvised weapon penalty). I am going to have you follow through with your attacks - we'll call it 'fog of war'.

TBH, I thought the first "don't disturb the opera" post a joke when you threw a poisoned snake at us at the same time :-)

Ahhh - the confusion of PBP - something exciting will happen either way. I like what you're doing. I love the clash of cultures but everything has consequences and I wasn't understanding.

It is a difficult thing to get set the scene and give everyone a sense of the consequences. It looks like I've done a poor job of this one. You are at something that is familiar to all of us - the threatre - but those next to you might be demi-gods or monsters.

I thought the 'be silent' while fighting a minor threat would add new spice to an old fight.

I didn't sell it very well.

It's a nice twist, I'm not complaining, but someone's gotta use a pretty large hammer to get the need through Tymythy's skull.

A raid requires silence, sure, but for defending oneself against an assassination attempt, a war cry would be more appropriate, to show Tymythy saw the challenger and thought it cowardly, rather than tiptoeing around while defending oneself ;^)

I felt bad for Dounia that she had the heimlich done to her...for about a picosecond, then I laughed. Definitely taking one for the team :)

You are about to interact with a very high-level NPC. This is the head of the sorcerer group The Servants of the Great Red Dragon. You know that they don't seem to know anything about Zahra (or any of you for that matter) except that Zahra is wanted by the secret organization called the Fida Hurras or Templars of the Moon. Please formulate any questions you have whether they are: questions you have as players, questions your characters have but would never ask, questions your characters have and would like to ask if the opportunity arrives.

Is there a timeline that you'd want questions by? I'm sure that I will have questions but my brain is being melted by a combination of my workday and the heat...

Is there a timeline that you'd want questions by? I'm sure that I will have questions but my brain is being melted by a combination of my workday and the heat...

I'm thinking that as you're meeting a cornerstone being that it might be helpful to you to formulate some questions. It would help to make a few things clear, a chance for me to deliver some exposition, and an opportunity for me to learn how many of the hints I've dropped were picked up. I'm asking to know where your heads are at so I can make this next encounter as rich as I can.

Tymythy's out of his depth here and knows it... so far, very few people here have acted or reacted the way he'd have assumed they might, and he doesn't exactly have a reason to assume some mage cabal leader would be any different... he'll prefer to keep his mouth shut as much as possible - these would be the kind of people who would gain more informaiton from Tymythy's questions than he would from their answers, he'd think.

My questions are more about the Fida Hurras. Did they kidnap all of them, or were they just involved with Zahra? If they did, was it random selection, or were they all targeted? Will they be looking for us (or Zahra) since we escaped? Are they endanger walking around the city?

I don't really know what to ask of The Servants of the Great Red Dragon as you say they don't seem to know much about Zahra. But Cairee would want to make sure Zahra and her family were safe, or know how to help protect them. I don't think she'd talk in this meeting unless addressed directly.

Oh, she'd like to know who put the snake in their box!

Cairee if very interested in the day/night city. How it works, why it's like that, who did it, etc.

And Tymythy's friend who they found the grave marker for - Tymythy saw him a few weeks ago, but the marker said he's been dead for years?

Oh, and what's going on with the ghost in box 313!

That's perfect Cairee.

I want to know where your heads are at and if I'm losing you on details. It isn't just about this encounter. Though, this encounter is a great time for me to get out some exposition and answer a few questions - if it makes sense to do so.

And the smoke, the smoke in the air also seems good at sapping my brain power. I think I've formulated some questions but I also feel like the rest of this is me rambling.

Zahra does have questions but because she's not that smart, she takes most things at face value. She assumes that smarter people will tell her what she needs to know :)

A lot of my questions as a player were brought up by Cairee.

Zahra also wants to make sure that her family is safe. But she'll also have some questions for her mother when she sees her again - like how she knew how to get rid of dead bodies and also about their neighbour.

Zahra would like to know why the Fida Hurras were interested in her and why they took her. She has been very careful to keep her abilities secret so is it because of that or another reason? She assumes it's because of her abilities and that someone found out meaning she screwed up somehow.

Zahra also would like to know what will happen if this meeting doesn't go well. If the meeting does go well, will she be indebted to these people somehow? If the meeting doesn't go well, can she stay in Zhayalammar without constantly looking over her shoulder? If she has to leave, where will she go? How will she survive?

Whose snake did they kill and who was it after when it snuck into their box? Zahra assumes that it was a trap to catch her using magic and that she's made a mess of things. But if it was an assassination attempt, who was it after?

Zahra would like to know more about the Servants of the Great Red Dragon and what Haseena's connection to this whole world. Their night at the opera is making Zahra realize that she knows very little of Haseena's past life. She would like to ask Haseena more about how she has all these connections and why her using her magic doesn't get her into trouble. The clown seemed to know that Haseena had made herself look younger so others must as well. And why did she make herself look young? Why not go to the opera as she appears now?

Zahra also hopes that she'll be able to meet with Samreen. She realizes that she doesn't know much about the young woman and the way she talked of her family was curious.

I'm sure there will be more questions once we actually meet the head of the Servants of the Great Red Dragon, depending on what they look like, how old they appear to be, etc. But she would never voice these questions out loud because that would be disrespectful.

Considering she already feels like she's made a mess of things by drawing a lot of negative attention towards Haseena, she will do her best to show she isn't important without making things worse.

And Tymythy's friend who they found the grave marker for - Tymythy saw him a few weeks ago, but the marker said he's been dead for years?

Unless we discuss this ahead of time Tymythy can't stop Cairee from asking this, but he'd never want to draw some mage cabal's attention to his friend by mentioning his name to them... nothing has been said yet that'd make him think these people are trustworthy enough to be given a single hint about us that we can avoid.

Cairee Featherfriend wrote:

And Tymythy's friend who they found the grave marker for - Tymythy saw him a few weeks ago, but the marker said he's been dead for years?

Unless we discuss this ahead of time Tymythy can't stop Cairee from asking this, but he'd never want to draw some mage cabal's attention to his friend by mentioning his name to them... nothing has been said yet that'd make him think these people are trustworthy enough to be given a single hint about us that we can avoid.

Of course, but these aren't just questions your characters intend to ask, these are also questions, plot holes, and clarifications from player to GM. I assume Cairee will not ask questions about Haytham if this segment goes beyond boring exposition.

We shall all be careful boring into each others secrets.

Careful = staying in character without invading someone else's sub-plots.

I would like to add, you've all been really great players and I feel very spoiled being able to tell this story with you.