DM Fang Dragon's: War for the Crown

Game Master FangDragon

I don't mind. Seems like that storyline would be clunky for an entire party to make work.

I like Cyrene's side-questing, it is uncommon to have the chance to play a real shadow agent. I am not concerned about combat, though I hope you are around on the heavier sections. My only concern is we do not burn out the GM with having to maintain multiple lines of actions and the extra time is not too much for him.

I appreciate the good words Lope, Valeria is quite different for builds and, yes, not the most efficient. If we had not had a bard at game start my spell selection would be more of a mix between buff/debuff than they currently are. Losing said bard was an issue.

As far as subpar actions a part of that is from getting botted, I realize that is my own fault though on a few occasions it has happened right before I got my post ready, the curse of limited posting time during most weekdays. I also simply did not catch that the baddy had come down into range as he was originally where I couldn't reach him without getting too close for when he did come down.

I certainly don't mind having it pointed out if I make a post and miss something serious (like Triphylla being nearly down from HP loss). I usually check that by looking at the HP in the characters stat line so please do keep it up if I miss things like that.

As far as Cyrene goes, I have no issue with the side events you've been involved in, though I do miss having Cyrene around as she is the only PC left that Valeria has a solid background connection with now. Having said that what you're doing makes perfect sense IC and you go girl!

P.S. Oh, and no, I have not been an actor (outside of the tabletop anyway) or writer (other than one published Legends of the Shining Jewel Module that is supposed to be a trilogy multiple years behind schedule). I am an exceptionally avid reader of fantasy and sci-fi novels with an astoundingly good imagination and crap IRL social skills (it is the reason I am 42 and have never been able to get a date).

Try the Costanza method: whatever you would normally do, do the opposite. And be fearless, because what do you have to lose if it doesn't work out?

I share everyone's views on Cyrene's side quest - it makes perfect sense for her, and I don't think it would work as well any other way. And I've enjoyed reading your exploits with the Night Swan =).

My main two concerns are the ones Lope and Valeria raised - having it place too much burden on the GM's shoulders, and limiting the interactions Cyrene can have with the party.

I'll post an update later Cyrene. Would be good to get the party to link up for the next bit, I suspect your counter espionage skills will be needed.

Well I think I tied up the side-quest with my post so happy to team up with the rest of the group again. ;)

And again Fang Dragon, thanks very much for all the extra time and work you've put in for my plot line. I do very much appreciate it! :D

If there's anything I can do to help/make it easier do let me know.

The AP provides a nice sandbox, so how you want to deal with the threat of assassins is up to you. Looking forward to see if you'll take a reactive or proactive approach!

A big part of that will be whatever the Swan says as I leave. If she's willing to play along we'll construct something fancy - if not then it'll be a bit different.

Thinking about her response, will post later!

I'll wait for the party to get back from Jambis. It'd be odd if Cyrene appeared right now.

Unless she was disguised as a spider all along!

That would do for an extraordinary web of lies :D

Oh what a tangled web she weaves!

(Because she's not actually a spider, and is very bad at weaving! ;))

Traveling for work this week. Pbp will be limited.

I'll move us forward tomorrow, it got a bit late tonight.

Ok, thanks for your time DM Fang Dragon! :)

It looks like the time to put the Palace of Birdsong into freedom is coming.

I cannot see the time to put Lope's new tool to use :D

Lope so your archetype is built around an intelligent sword... How do you want to deal with that?

I think I mentioned everything that matters. Fang Dragon - can you pipe up if there's anything else Cyrene should have passed on? Thanks!

Lope so your archetype is built around an intelligent sword... How do you want to deal with that?

I prefer to stick to Third Person Limited Point of View when writing posts, so the narrative is not affected by what the character feels or thinks unless he states it out loud.

Hence, I prefer for the telepathy with the sword to be kept behind the curtain. I will try to convey something is going on from time to time though.

Also, I prefer to adhere to single character per player, to avoid clogging the thread with a single player interacting with herself, and to lessen the amount of work.

Thus, I will keep the internal dealings with the sword to myself.

I would love if you want the sword to confront Lope's actions, or to add information and help move the campaign, that you feel free to use the sword as an NPC. But don't feel pressed for the sword to do stuff or tell Lope things, just use it as a resource at your disposal, not something more you have to take care of, please!

Ok cool. I think we'll play the sword by ear, sometimes it'll have things to add, and it has its own agenda.

Gonna give you all another day to plot before moving us forward.

Darn it. Lope, you ninja'd me! No chance you'd be willing to let my post stand for entertainment value?

I think we can have both easily enough (and I assumed so in my post): Have Triphylla answer the door, and have Lope step in as she is turning them away.

Yeah that's my headcanon for what happened here.

Works for me. Slight retcon then, as she does not close the door or run to give warning or drink any of her extracts.

@Triphylla: Just to make sure it's absolutely clear: I have no problem with Triphylla's actions here - it's quite the opposite, really! I've enjoyed the posts and laughed as I picture the scenes. And I feel they're exactly in line with the nature of her character. It does put her somewhat at odds with Diana's aims for these talks, though, which is why I went with that secret message. But feel free to ignore it if you want! The important part is to play this in a way that makes sense to us both! Just want to make sure you know it's absolutely fine by me.

This is the inherent problem with these kinds of pbp exchanges where everyone wants to participant but it doesn't make a lot of sense that we would all be battering them with dialog. Anyway, she's not at all worried about the lie. Anything could have happened to that payment. Perhaps we'll need to go "find" it later. It's not terribly important. She will likely interpret Diana's secret message as an unnecessary scolding. Kudos on the use of secret message; that's basically a free feat at that high of a bluff score. We should use that more often.

@Diana. Yes with a decent Kn: Local roll (DC 18 I'd say).

@Diana, I am awestruck at how you put all that together. Bravo!

Thanks! I think this situation was perfect for me, and had a lot of fun working on my posts. But I'm sorry if I ended up taking most of the spotlight here.

It was a good interaction Diana, in fact you helped a lot to find a good cause here :)

What does the rest of the party think about attacking Guisarme in this instance? I see Diana is on for it, but I worry it might make difficult to sum the Count to our side. Though probably it will be difficult anyway after this.

If it helps, my idea is to then try and convince Bartleby that taking Guisarne was in his best interest as well - by making use of my nice Bluff skill, of course :)

The important lie is this: we've been visiting the other lords (which he probably knows is true), and the taxes have led some of them to seek legal counsel in this matter - which means it was only a matter of time before this whole thing blew up anyway.

This way we're giving him a way to shape the narrative and do some damage control. He can even claim that this was his plan all along: have Diana accompany Lope so she could catch Guisarne in the act, and come out as part of the solution rather than part of tbe problem.

And it gives Bartleby a good reason to let us go over Guisarne's records as well - let us see what might be used as evidence to ensure there is enough to convict Guisarne (silencing him), without exposing any involvement Bartleby might have had in this.

If all goes well, we'd be getting rid of Guisarne (who is already actively acting against us), get Bartleby on our side (instead of having to face them both at the same time), and get enough dirt on him as well for if and when we need to take him down.

Things probably won't go as smoothly, but that's my plan. Letting Guisarne go now is probably much worse if we want Bartleby on our side: Guisarne will go straight to him and start turning him against us.

I fully intend to tell you all this in character, but don't think there's a way to do it before a decision is made, and it is an important one, so I'm glad Lope brought the question forward.

I have no issue with the plan.

This is quite a plan. Do you believe it will work? What are the risks?

I'm not there right now so no opinion. :)

Besides we can always stab him later, right?

When all you have is a dagger, every problem starts looking like a body ready to be stabbed? =P

On a more serious note, addressing Trip's question: I think the most obvious risk is that, if we fail to get him on our side, we end up forcing the confrontation before were supposed to. But like Lope said, doing nothing else might lead us there anyway.

There's another thing on my mind, though - we have the assassination attempt on baroness Voinum to handle as well, right? Can't really put that on hold, but we should start working on Bartleby as soon as possible as well. Splitting up is an option - I have nothing against going alone to talk with Bartleby, but if things turn south, you might have a rescue mission on your hands afterwards (which is totally fine with me if that's where all this leads).

This all ignores the threat of Panivar Lotheed getting involved, of course. But from what little background knowledge I have, I'd say we're doomed either way in that case (I mean, I can try to talk to him and use the same general excuse for our actions- the goal was to protect Bartleby (and the Lotheed name) from Guisarne's actions, unaware that we were going against his plans. But I'm pretty sure it won't fly and definitely won't end well).

I trust your read on it and I like that it provokes the story.

It sounds like a solid plan.

I am much more simple and cannot weave anything else than a straightforward jump-in plot.

So, please, serve yourself, it is the right adventure! :D

Interested to see how this goes. Diana vs Guisarme. Is this considered a duel without an audience to away?

Interested to see how this goes. Diana vs Guisarme. Is this considered a duel without an audience to away?

I think this could easily end up being a duel in front of Bartelby! He'd be the audience at that point.

There's also precedent (in this AP in fact) for a verbal duel where the opponent is also the audience. So it can work.

The audience is Sir Gusairne and what is left of his retinue. I'm curious to see how this one will end up :)

I am around, just waiting for Diana before throwing my voice to aid her :)

Sorry it took so long. Hope I did everything right with my post - it's my first "Verbal Duel" :)

Putting aside Sir Guisarne's predilections, as a reminder one of Maxillar Pythareus's stated goals is to re-conquer all of Taldor's former colonies. To do that he'll have to conscript a very large army indeed.

Anyway I'll post an update tomorrow.

I knew Guisarne's words made sense if he considered Pythareus would be the one to get the throne - just figured I would try to twist his words to paint him as a power-hungry lunatic to his men. Definitely felt like I was stretching things a bit with the whole "planned to plunge the county into civil war to make Pythareus sweep in all along" - and then he just goes and confirms basically everything I made up!

Sorry, I screwed up the end of my post last night. I blame whiskey.

Good cop, bad cop dynamic?

Again, I've never played this before and have no foreknowledge. It seems to me Guisarme is a beaten man and could easily just go away and be done with. Triphylla is being sincere. If there is some story protocols or plot points that disallow it, then I as a player am not aware of them. If his intention instead is to fight us until his last breath then I'd prefer to kill him now when there's no audience. Either way we should be done with him after this dramatic encounter. Triphylla has no interest in attending to him in the dungeon unless he capitulates. My .02.

I myself also fear letting Guisarme go is call for finding him back again facing us and more raged.

But, maybe I am being dumb, but outright killing a conceding opponent feels wrong here, specially with Lope being Good, and it might cause us a lot of trouble with the rest of the Lords.

This is a situation to be cautious and witty, but I am struggling with a solution that can offer a escape to Sir Guisarme that results in our benefit. It needs to be a strong enough of a reason for him not to dump it once he is not in front of us.

I'm playing blind as well, but I share Lope's worries here. As you can get from my post, I feel comfortable arguing in favor of letting Guisarne go if we agree to it, but it seems the riskier option, unless taking him to court is really not going to work due to his influence. I don't think we have anyway of preventing him from striking back if we let him go.

I have to admit I'm kinda of surprised by the direction this has gone :) You managed to avoid a nasty combat AND turn Sir Gusairn's henchmen away from him which is an achievement. Afterwards I was thinking you'd probably arrange for trial in Oppara or Cassomir given he's likely to get a biased trial in Merrat county. Loosing Sir Gusairne like this will put Count Bartleby in a bind as you'll see later.

A redemption arc could be interesting, although the things Gusairn's done are quite reprehensible. He'd need to seek an atonement at the very least and likely be given a near impossible life quest.

What you do with the count will be interesting. He has much culpability for Gusairne's actions mostly due to willful ignorance. As written the AP expects you'll slaughter him but it it does provide mechanics for a peaceful transfer of power with a verbal duel.