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Yeah, I think it's been a bit of a general struggle to keep this game going for everyone. As such, I tend to think it would be best if we called it here.

Rani's comment about "original intent" makes me feel like there's some misunderstanding about what's going on.

My understanding of Rani's intent was that she wanted the Hatters to leave. She rolled a mixed success on Convince and I chose to have them "give in a little, but protect their own agenda." In this case, their agenda is to not get in trouble with their boss by saving face. So if she wanted them to leave, she would need to make it look like they "won" the confrontation. Since she rolled Convince, I assumed her intent was more about them leaving than making them afraid but saying she's sticking with her original intent makes me think it was more about the fear than getting them to leave.

In contrast, Ahmad's focus seemed to be more on making them afraid than making them leave, hence the Hit With All You've Got. That will give them a fear status but they won't run away until the fear status is high enough to reach some threshold (what the threshold is will depend on the threat). But then the fact that they're afraid could give you a bonus to doing something else if it makes sense that other action would be affected by them being afraid. So Ahmad giving them some kind of Afraid-1 status could be used to give Rani's Convince a +1 (in this case, it's still a mixed success, so it doesn't make much of a difference).

So is Rani's "original intent" to make them leave (in which case the cost is letting them appear to win the confrontation) or is it to make them afraid, in which case we can make it a Hit With All You've Got and she needs to pick an option like Ahmad did from this list:

On a 7-9, choose 1:

- You take cover or secure a superior position. If you don’t choose this, they can impose a status on you. If they are a PC, its tier=their Power.
- You get them good or get many of them (+1 tier).
- You control the collateral damage.
- You hold the target’s attention, if possible.
- You gain the upper hand. Take 1 Juice.

Since no one's making a decision, I'm assigning the responsibility to Rani since she rolled the Convince. Either write a scene where you're publicly backing down to the Hatters so they can save face or declare that you're not going to do that. I need to know what the choice is before I can move anything forward.

Currently, Ahmad is only scaring one thug off. If he wanted to scare them all, he’d need to pick the multiple targets option. Though If he does that, there will probably be collateral damage, since any option he doesn’t pick is fair game for me to make happen. So with Rani’s roll, you need to decide if you’re going to make a show of giving into the thugs, in which case they’d all leave, probably with one breaking and fleeing per Ahmad’s roll (or maybe with Ahmad taking the 1 Juice option since that might be more beneficial). Or you could not give in, in which case what happens will be the result of just Oscar and Ahmad’s rolls.

I don't particularly mind who picks or if y'all want to discuss OOC, but a decision will need to be reached one way or the other.

Forgot to respond yesterday, but I still need to know which way y'all want to go with Rani's Convince before I can resolve the scene.

Yes, you can decide the name of statuses yourself if you want. Mainly what the label is should give you an idea of what inflicted it/what sort of situations it might affect. So Be On the Lookout is just mean to represent a kind of wanted level for Ahmad as Afraid of Death would represent the NPC's fear. Here are some of the examples they give in the book:
1 - Mild (bruised-1, melancholic-1, distracted-1, partial-cover-1)
2 - Minor (prone-2, good-aim-2, loosing-the-match-2)
3 - Major (broken-arm-3, flat-tire-3, in-the-zone-3, playing-with-my-prey-3)
4 - Dramatic (suffocating-4, gravely-injured-4, the-life-of-the-party-4, collapsing-walls-4)
5 - Incapacitating (defeated-5, passed-out-5, overcharged-5, excom- municated-5, oblivious-5)
6 - Lethal or permanently transformative (dead-6, turned-into-stone-6, a-soul-without-a-body-6)

Your target can choose either to take the status or...

So if you're convincing an NPC, I pick. If you're convincing another PC, they pick.

For Rani's I'm going to assume she's trying to get the thugs to leave or something similar.
"Yeah, it's called our boss." The thug Rani was talking to sneered. But despite the bravado he put into his voice, his eyes kept darting around from his tats to exit to the civilians, or rather witnesses in the pizza joint. The guy was starting to get spooked, but given Rani had made sure only they had seen that thing, which had clearly just been a trick of the dim light, it would look pretty bad if three armed gang members backed down to some unarmed civilians. Especially bad if word got back to the gang's leader. If Rani wanted the gang to leave, most likely she and her companions would have to make a show of backing down first so they could save face.

As the trio seemed momentarily distracted, the bystanders started edging away. Basically the precursor to them making a run for it since I still have some other moves to resolve. Speaking of, in order to do that, I'll need to know which way y'all are going on Rani's Convince as well as Ahmad's 7-9 choice for Hit with All You've Got in order to finish resolving the dice rolls made thus far.

On a 7-9, choose 1:

- You take cover or secure a superior position. If you don’t choose this, they can impose a status on you. If they are a PC, its tier=their Power.
- You get them good or get many of them (+1 tier).
- You control the collateral damage.
- You hold the target’s attention, if possible.
- You gain the upper hand. Take 1 Juice.

Also, Ahmad, can you update your status line with the Be On The Lookout 2 status you got earlier?

Can you clarify what Rani is attempting to Convince the thugs to do?

Definitely seems like some moves are being triggered. For Oscar probably a Convince to have the bystanders think following your directions is more likely to get them out of this alive than following what the thugs want. Ahmad could go a couple of ways:
- Change the Game as kind of an aid to Oscar's Convince with what he's saying
- Change the Game to create a tag that might be useful in combat (by turning off the lights)
- Maybe a Hit With All You've Got to try to inflict some kind of scared/confused tag with the comments about the thug's future?

The trio gave Oscar a blank look before bursting out laughing. "Oh man, you really are wet behind the ears, ain't ya?"

"Yeah, you really think those pigs are gonna risk a turf war with us over some nobodies? Hell, it was already probably one of ours that one in." These guys believe the cops are generally corrupt/don't have the power to possibly get on the bad side of their gang. If you can make an argument for how the cops could give them trouble in spite of this, feel free to roll to see how convincing it is.

"Or if it ain't, the Boss'll be wanting to know who was operating on her territory without her say so."

As Rani put in her two cents, the male cronie's face flashed annoyance. "Maybe I give you a closer look at my piece, eh? Then you show me some respect." I'm guessing the intent was to de-escalate with that comment, but if it was actually to give them some kind of angry status or provoke them into an angry action, you can roll for that.

The woman shook her head at him and stood up, smiling. "Or maybe we tell those cops over there it was you who killed that stiff. Hand you in. Maybe get a nice reward. I mean, we all saw you rush over here right before the pigs showed up, right?" She looked at the table next to them, who gave her a puzzled look. She rolled her eyes and turned to point her gun meaningfully at them. "Right?" They quickly started nodding. The group had arrived before this trio of thugs had shown up, so it was unclear if the woman knew her words were technically true. What was clear was that she didn't much care one way or the other about the truth of the matter.

The leader stood up. "Now, are you going to be nice little boys and girls and apologize? Or are we going to have to do this the hard way?"

The one remaining gang member quickly stood up as well, cracking his neck. "Please choose the hard way. I could use the exercise."

The shift as all attention in the place moves to Oscar was practically palpable. "Who are you? One of the Hearts?" The woman scowled.

The man whose feet had been so rudely disturbed squinted up at Oscar, responding for him. "Nah, Boss said she straightened out with them whose territory this is. So what? You some grandpa tryin' ta show his kiddies he's still relevant even with his bum knee?" He kicked at the cane Oscar was holding for emphasis as his two cronies chuckled.

"Well, gramps I suggest you try to find something a bit softer to chew yer gums on." He lifted the front on his shirt slightly to show off the pistol he had tucked into his waistband. As if on cue, the two others drew their own handguns. They weren't pointing them at anyone and from their cocky grins, it was obvious they assumed this show of power would be enough to get Oscar and any other would-be heroes to back down.

A closer look at the trio revealed that all of them had some variation of a tophat tattoo on their personage, an image very similar to one graffiti'd on the wall of the alleyway the group had found themselves on. Though Bryce had been far from naked, no tattoos had been visible where his custodial uniform had revealed skin.

Looking around, Rani did not see magical circles on the foreheads of any of the people around them, not the other customers, not the woman who looked suspiciously like Christina Provost guarding the alleyway -- though in a beat cop's uniform rather than that of a lieutenant's. Not even the rabbit-man Shiro had had one. And while there were a few more odd people hurrying for shelter from the rain -- a woman dressed in medieval armor as well as a man who seemed to be turning the rain into steam as soon as it touched him -- the mark seemed to remain exclusive to the three monster hunters.

Whistling cheerily, the Hatter who had been pocketing cash sauntered up to his companions to settle their argument. "Pineapple, no pineapple, who cares? Get'em both! After all, Hatters eat free here. Least they can do seeing as we takes such good care of 'em." He gave the waitress a less-than-nice smile as he flopped into a seat and propped his dirty shoes up on the chair across from him. The waitress gave a quick nod, pointedly avoiding looking at the furniture she would no doubt have to wipe down later as she hurried off to put their order in. "Oh, and bring us some beers while you're at it!" he called at her retreating back.

Through the window Oscar could see figures moving in the alleyway, vaguely lit by an odd combination of the neon lights from the bar and the flashing blue of police lights. A couple of uniformed officers were stationed at the near-end of the alleyway to keep away any curious bystanders. It seems a little as if this might have been an unnecessary precaution; if anything the few passerbys seemed to hurry a little faster on their way, avoiding making eye contact or doing anything to draw attention to themselves.

As the first few drops of rain started to fall from the sky, the beat up old tv in the corner of the pizza joint playing the news switched to a scene press conference with a woman dressed in a sharp business suit. The scrolling text at the bottom of the screen read 'CEO Sarah Queen announces breakthrough in clean energy technology. Queen Consolidated stock skyrockets.' Even though she seemed to be using her maiden name, Rani and Ahmad easily recognized the woman as Sarah Campbell, Alice's mother. Though the professional confidently addressing the crowd of reporters seemed a far cry from the distraught housewife the two had been talking to earlier.

Just then, there was a whoop from the entrance of the joint as three figures took refuge from the now pouring rain.

"Damnnnn, those pigs're lucky this jacket's new or I'd teach 'em ta show proper respect, coming in ta Hatter territory." The speaker pulled off his leather jacket and dramatically shook rain water off of it and all over the patrons at the table next to him.

"You think that stiff's one of ours?" Another, a woman, asked, casually picking up a slice of pizza from a different table and munching thoughtfully on it.

"Well, if it ain't, I'm sure we'll be hearing soon who we have ta teach some manners to." The third made a 'scoot' gesture to an occupied table, which quickly cleared out for the trio.

A few of the customers near the back of the place hurriedly threw a few bills on the table before exiting through the back door as the sole waitress of the place put on a fake smile and moved to take the newcomer's orders. She waited as two of them started to argue about pineapple on pizzas while the third casually strolled to some of the back tables and began pocketing the bills that had been thrown down.

Ignoring the blood and singe marks across his body, Zassrion roared his triumph to the sky, unleashing a mighty blast of electricity up in the air. Through the wall separating the aetherium from the courtyard, one of the shadows moved to take cover in the lingering fog cloud.

Breaking the necks of his conquests to ensure they would not come back to vex him, Zassrion growled at his minion. "Excellent work, Bishop Ezrael. Your intel about the intruders was most useful. Fetch my courtesans from the Sanguine Playhouse. Then remove their hides and add them to my suit. Perhaps between them and that other mortal I will finally be able to leave this accursed realm."

As the souls of the adventurers drifted away to join the other unfortunate mortals who had perished in this world in the Demon's Fen. With the one being who had cared for these souls, the Barrow King, killed and sent back to the Manmolds to be reformed and the votive candles knocked over, the souls could find no rest. Even when they saw the dragon lord flying overhead, their hides added to his quilt of skin but still trapped in the Harrowed Realm, they felt no peace.

As the years passed, yet more joined their ranks as the All-Seeing Hajeck was still compelled by Zassrion through her Harrow Deck to lure more mortals to their doom. But no matter how many mortals he killed, Zassrion came no closer to reaching his goal. He, and the rest of the Harrowed Realm, remained stuck in their never-ending story loops.

Yup, I'll definitely add in a concluding post a little later tonight/after work. I just want to give people a little more time before I do in case someone has some last minute, "But wait, you forgot this thing that makes Yattle not-unconscious"

So unless I missed something when attacking Yattle, I believe we just TPK'd. It was a really close fight though; the dragon had 15 HP left, so failing either of those last two Reflex saves probably would have done enough to kill it. If anyone would like to write an epilogue/last dying words for your character, feel free to do so, though I will also understand if you're ready to just call it a day. Thanks for everybody who stuck around to the end! Let me know if you have any questions about the behind-the-scenes for what was going on, like if you want to know about what the unused Harrow cards related to.

Reflex DC 22: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29

Roaring at what was clearly about to be his victory, the Patchwork Lord Zassrion shook off the majority of Yattle's damage and stepped closer to unleash his fury on the small fey.

Definitely check my math, but even with DR 7, I believe Yattle just took enough damage that the NLD they had been accumulating knocked them unconscious.

Edit: Updated the above to take into account a 50% miss chance, but it looks like Yattle is still knocked out.

Reflex DC 22: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29

Simultaneously edging closer to both death and victory, Zassirion roared his defiance to the skies. Tired of his foes constantly popping up after he knocked them down, he concentrated on the old man first, taking him out with one claw and then another. Then with bite and wing and tail, he knocked the elf back down. Having only one opponent left, he turned his remaining attention to Yattle...

Eirnar is at -8, Lokhir is at -13

Yattle is up

AoO Eirnar: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (1) + 23 = 24

By some miracle, the dragon missed Eirnar when he rushed to Lokhir's side, giving the elf just enough health to stand up. I'll just take Lokhir's first roll from above for his attack after standing.

Yattle is up

HP was 18 with 18 blocked by abjuration

I believe I took both the healing and the abjuration into account. You were at -4, Eirnar healed you for 18 (which put you at 14, not 18), and then you used abjuration for another 18. You then got hit for 17 and 18 putting you at -3 again or 1 higher than you were at before.

Reflex DC 22: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

Yattle manages another blast as electricity continues to arc around the dragon. Looking very hurt but seeing victory within his grasps, he fells Lokhir once more with a bite and claw before moving into Eirnar's space and unleashing wings and tails on shaman. Lokhir is unconscious again with -3 HP and Eirnar is down to 26 HP

Party is up again

As Kaldwell stood up, Zassrion lashed out once more at his form, once more knocking him unconscious. Lokhir seems to be able to get up unnoticed though.

AoO vs Kaldwell, prone: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (18) + 23 = 41
Damage: 2d8 + 12 ⇒ (8, 6) + 12 = 26

Just waiting on Yattle's action. Kaldwell is now at -3 + 18 - 26 = -11 HP

Given that I'll be leaving for a couple of weeks in a few days, I probably won't make something happen to push things forward right now. If y'all want your characters to do something before I leave, feel free to do so. Otherwise, I'll push things forward once I'm back.

It would be great if Yattle and Kaldwell could take their actions before I leave on vacation so there'll at least be a new round that people can respond to while I'm gone.

FYI, I'll be going be on vacation starting on Wednesday Sept 22nd and I'll be out for about 2 weeks during which I don't plan to be checking games.

I've been keeping a running spoiler of all of Eirnar's remaining resources. Dragging would use normal encumbrance rules depending on the weight of the creature being dragged and the movement of the person dragging would be subject to normal AoO rules.

The rabbit have a half-shrug that looked more like a caffeine-induced twitch. "Oh that. I mean, not really? I don't think anyone really knows what causes someone to Awaken or what force it is that keeps the Sleepers from noticing. It just sort of...happens and life goes on. I'll tell you though, mine gave me a beast of an appitite. Sure, I can run like the wind, but man oh man, the calories I gotta consume. I thought for sure this'd make me top of the delivery game, but I seem to run through every dollar I earn as quickly as I make it."

As if to prove his point, two extra large pizzas arrive at the table. As he immediately begins stuffiing the contents of one down his throat he starts checking the other against a greasy receipt he pulled out of his jeans pocket. Through a half-full mouth, he mumbles, " 'm Shiro Nakamura 'v 'ite Rabbit 'elivery." From another pocket he tossesd a business card in Oscar's general direction. The card was fairly barebones, simply showing an icon of a running hare with a phone number printed below it in a slightly crooked font. Swallowing his mouthful he added, "Fastest delivery in the city. We can get you just about anything if you're willing to pay for it."

Shiro started to rise and get his gear in order. He still had 3/4ths of the pizza he had been working on left, but it was clear once he had finished that, he planned get to delivering the second one.

FYI, I'll be going be busy starting around Wednesday Sept 22nd, possibly a bit earlier depending on how much last minute packing/arrangements I need to do. I'll be out for 2 weeks during which I don't plan to be checking games.

Leg still thumping a mile a minute, the rabbit pulled out a pocket watch and checked it. When he spoke, it was a stream of words all tumbling to get out as quickly as possible. "What's to know? This place has the best pizza even if they take forever." The waitress gave an exaggerated eye-roll before topping up the man's almost empty mug of coffee. "Antionio's has the best subs. People swear by Doug's Deli but Katz is the real star. Never go to Simon's Fish Shop unless you need to empty your bowels quick. Moonlight Latttes is an overpriced scam. And if you believe anybody who says Mama Ling's Noodles are anything more than styrofoam drowning in sauce, I have a timeshare to sell you." He paused just long enough to gulp down his fresh cup of joe before starting to twist and turn in his seat, apparently looking for either his food or for the waitress to top him up again.

Kaldwell, "Eirnar", and Yattle still all have their actions.

I've decided I'm going to bank that failure for use later.

The first thing Rani noticed was that the magic here seemed...different. More potent perhaps? Definitely more omnipresent. While she had seen many types of magic in her travels, and even the odd ley line, this magic seemed quite different. Almost like a tune that had been transposed into a different key. At the very least, they probably weren't on the same plane of existence as before.

The second thing Rani noticed was the distinct tang of death that hung around not only herself, but her companions as well. Looking at both Oscar and Ahmad, she noticed both seemed to have a slightly glowing circle in the middle of their foreheads about the size of a bullet. Which is only visible to Rani.

A third oddity apparent to all the group was that at one of the tables near the back corner seemed to be a human-sized white rabbit, impatiently thumping his foot while he waited for his food to come. As experienced monster hunters, the existence of such a creature wasn't odd so much as the fact that no one else seemed to be giving the fellow a second look.

Right, but how were you trying to figure out what happened? Just thinking isn't going to do anything since you don't have their memories.

@Rani: What were you attempting to do with the roll? I need to figure out if a roll was relevant and therefore you have to deal with the consequences of a fail or if there wouldn't be a roll like with Ahmad's one and I should just ignore it.

Tired from a weekend full of traveling. Tl;dr either the bar or pizza place can have back doors if you want. It’s unclear to me that a back door is really any better than the front door

Yattled played the Tyrant, the tattoo fading in a familiar sparkle of gold. It takes 1d8 rounds for his breath weapon to recharge instead of the normal 1d4

Reflex DC22: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29

Yattle sent another blast at the huge dragon, who, despite his size, managed to avoid the brunt of the damage. In addition, Yattle noticed while he did get a bit singed, the fire did not seem as effective as it normally did.

Eirnar, managing to throw off the terror of the creature, moves closer to Lokhir, casting a spell on the elf while also taking a terrible bite.
Unfortunately for Eirnar, I do not see a way he could have gotten to Lokhir without provoking an AoO.
AoO: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (8) + 23 = 31
Damage: 2d8 + 12 ⇒ (7, 8) + 12 = 27

Lokhir, not sure why you're rolling sneak attack? You're not flanking and Zassrion, to my knowledge, isn't flat-footed, so let me know if I'm missing something. I also moved you 5ft closer as you weren't within melee range of the dragon.
Lokhir lets out a flurry of strikes. The first lands true while the second bounces harmlessly off the creature's thick hide. The third seems to be deflected by some kind of extra protection (even with the +2 from Heroism, this would have still missed).

Zassirion simply unleashes yet another terrifying series of blows, first Shattering the shaken elf's Defenses. The warrior now put on his backfoot, the dragon continues his brutal onslaught with claw and wing and tail until with the last blow, Lokhir joins Kaldwell in unconsciousness.
Again, feel free to check my math/assumptions, but I believe Lokhir is now at -4 HP.

Party is up

Reflex save: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28

Yattle sent a blast of rock at the dragon, landing a decent hit but failing to entangle him. Meanwhile, Eirnar carefully made his way out of the foggy area and cast Archon's Aura, though the dragon managed to shake off the effects.

Will Save DC 20: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (17) + 13 = 30

AoO Kaldwell, AC 26 - 2 + 1 = 25: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (8) + 23 = 31
Damage: 2d8 + 12 ⇒ (4, 5) + 12 = 21
Kaldwell HP: 53 + 4 temp HP

Kaldwell charged forward, landing a hit on the dragon but suffering his own blow in the process.

Taking advantage of the half-orcs somewhat reckless charge, the dragon unleashed his own terrifying onslaught on the warrior, completely knocking the man out before shifting slightly closer and hitting Lokhir with his tail for good measure. Feel free to check my math, but I believe Kaldwell is now at -3 HP and Lokhir just took 19 damage; Kaldwell, if you are indeed knocked out, feel free to play Eirnar (as well as Kaldwell if he makes Kaldwell conscious again.

Everybody who's still conscious needs to make a DC 21 Will save vs its Frightful Prescence. On a failure, you're shaken for 5d6 ⇒ (5, 1, 4, 5, 5) = 20 rounds.

Party is up

Oscar gave Bryce's body a quick pat-down, grabbing the man's wallet and a set of keys before heading down the alley. The end opened up into a somewhat grungy-looking street. There were some dozen people on the sidewalks as well as the occasional car. They mostly looked like they were hurrying to get somewhere before the sky decided to unleash its load of water, a few people opting to wait out the oncoming storm in one of the businesses lining the road. In the immediate vicinity seemed to be a hole-in-the-wall pizza joint, a laundromat, a hair salon, a florist, and the dive bar the neon light the group had seen belonged to. One street over could be heard the honking of horns were, at the very least, there would likely be more vehicle traffic.

Yeah, makes sense. And just to be clear, I'm not trying to point fingers or lay blame. I'm just trying to promote understanding and open communication. Most of my knowledge of MotW comes from listening to a podcast rather than extensive experience DMing it and this is certainly the first time I've tried to DM a PbtA system in a PBP, so it's definitely been a learning experience for me.

I would definitely encourage you in the future to ask about unexpected things. I think one downside of PbtA in a PBP format is that it's harder to quickly hash out those kinds of details, but I'm open to trying it. At the very least, I can try to explain my reasoning but you might also end up making me change my mind. Related, my current plan for searching Bryce's pockets is to give you some items he'd likely have on him but if you were hoping to trigger an Investigate roll to get more directed information, I'm also fine with having things go that way. Information-gathering moves can be hard for me to figure out when they should trigger since I don't always know if you literally want more of a description of what you can see/tell just by looking around or if you're trying to trigger a Move and that's just how you're doing it.

*****

As for using the Mist, it depends on what you mean by "using" it. It's its own independent force that can't be directly controlled, but if you use your powers in public it might automatically cause people to coincidentally look away just as you start flying or make people viewing video footage assume it's fake. It won't actually change the affects you have on the world though. The Player's Guide gives this example:

While trying to get answers from a violent gang of cultists, for example, if you beat them up with your ancient bronze staff and you all end up getting arrested, they’ll report “This freak came at me with some weird metal shaft!” If you do so by turning your arm into stone, they’ll say, “That crazy son of a b!~*@ hit me with a brick!” However, they will still be injured, for real, and forensics may be able to tell if they were hurt by bronze or stone. This is to say the consequences of your Mythos powers are very much real. Just because the Mist covers up all perception of the legendary aspects of your actions doesn’t mean you will not be held responsible for them.

You also won't necessarily have to deal with cameras everywhere. In the case of the alley, whether or not there were cameras was not something I had planned but it seems reasonable enough that there might be cameras if you wanted to check them. Things that aren't described are in a quantum state until they're asked about. I might just give you a flat Yes/No answer about if it's there, but if I don't have a reason to push it one way or the other, I might just let the dice decide. Though if you want to know about a detail, it's better to also mention why you want to know it since that better helps me decide what move if any is applicable.

@Ahmad: You should update your profile with your CoM tags. You also now have the status Be On The Lookout 2 that will affect some of your future rolls.

As Ahmad continued to babble, the sound of the police sirens was getting closer and closer.

Well, again, I'm not looking for everybody to post daily but for the group as a whole to take a more active role in moving things forward. Silence is impossible to interpret, and to me at least, complete silence from four people reads as disinterest which is possibly the one thing I don't know how to engage with. Confusion, decision paralysis, feeling like you're at a dead end, etc, are all things I can try to mitigate if I know they're an issue.

For example, my opening post for CoM- I very explicitly asked for some details for people to respond to but also less obviously referred to the 5th body on the alleyway floor. In my line of reasoning, I was trying to give you an opportunity/prompt for some role play while also giving one detail that I thought people would definitely want to check up on after. We got some role play and then a fair amount of silence. Did that mean I was too subtle in that detail? Should I have been more explicit in some of the conclusions your characters might have come to, like that the neon sign might indicate a shop with either people or security cameras who might know what just happened, the graffiti looks like it might indicate this is part of a gang's territory, or even just going through your pockets might tell you details about the body you're now in (some of which you'd probably want to make up but I would probably also throw in some details for your characters to discover about their alternative universe self). Except that I feel like the more explicit I am with options, the more likely it is that you'll think those are your only options. This game is kind of a sliding scale in terms of how I could present it, and I'm willing to try different approaches if I know something isn't working.

That is a correct way to interpret things. Though unfortunately, you no longer get XP for fails.

The first obvious thing about the body on the ground was that it was dead, clearly via a bullet wound in the middle of its forehead. The next thing Ahmad noticed was that he knew the man. Despite the heavy 5 o'clock shadow and bags under his eyes, it was clearly Bryce Campbell. Unfortunately, it did not seem to be his spirit on the other side of the phone call.

"Well, well, Mr. Elmohtar. Don't tell me you didn't see this coming." whoever was on the other line was clearly using some kind of voice modification software. "Emails setting up a meet, cameras showing you and your 'All Seeing Eyes' entering the alleyway, and now a dead body. I would get running; the police are already on their way and things certainly don't look good for you..." As if on cue, the group started to hear the sound of approaching police sirens. They had a minute, if that before they'd be here.

@Ahmad, roll Face Danger against the incoming status of Be On The Lookout 2 to represent your notoriety with authority. On a 10+ you take no status and should explain what's faulty with this evidence. On a 7-9 you'll reduce it to Suspicious AF 1; explain why this evidence isn't as damning as the caller thinks but what specific piece is going to cause your group problems.

So it sounds like both Ahmad and Rani can pick up their posting, what about Oscar and Taryn? I'm not asking for daily posting, but things definitely need to pick up from what it has been. I think really what I'm looking for is

1) Not having to wait on any one character for more than 2 weekdays, whether this means that character is reacting to things addressed to them or the other characters are moving forward without waiting for that character's opinion/action.

2) Feeling like things are moving forward, which could be either the characters roleplaying with each other without multiple weekdays of silence in gameplay or the characters taking action that I need to respond to (which could also be an OOC comment of 'I have no ideas of what to do next' because then either I can make something happen or give OOC suggestions for possible courses of action).

Technically those could both be accomplished with just two players regularly posting, but it means more work for those two players. The more players who are helping, the less work each individual player has to do.

Either way, I'm fine with continuing for now if y'all can show me more of what I'm looking for in the approximately 3 weeks before my vacation (though I'm also aware this Monday is a holiday in the US). Which could mean continuing to roleplay with each other or maybe doing something like checking out the still-motionless-on-the-floor 5th body in the alleyway with you.

Lokhir is the first to emerge from the cloud of mist. He immediately sees the dragon simply sitting and waiting for them.

Readied bite attack: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (2) + 23 = 25
Damage: 2d8 + 12 ⇒ (5, 4) + 12 = 21

A moment later Yattle also sees the dragon as his invisibility drops.

Lokhir has used 20ft of his movement for this round and is currently 15ft away from the dragon. Everybody else has their full action.

Yattle was the one that cast the Obscuring Mist, not the dragon. But that means while you can't see the dragon, the dragon can't see you either, which is yet another reason why it hasn't engaged you yet. Either way, I will take that as one vote to have the dragon act more stupidly.

I will admit, I'm a little at a loss about what to do about this game. I've been trying to play the dragon in a reasonably intelligent manner (which is to say, just landing in front of y'all and trading blows is kind of a dumb tactic for a flying creature with a 16 Int) but the result is that nothing has really happened for, like, a month. Y'all are so close to being done and I'd really like to have this game wrapped up before I go on vacation in about 3 weeks.

What are y'all's thoughts? Should I just give up any pretense that Zassrion is smart in the interest of speeding things up? I could bot more aggressively but that's also a bit awkward when there are only 3 players and I'm already botting a fourth. Do you want to handwave the final boss?

I mean, it's not just a question of interest. I'm also asking if people actually have time for this game or at least see themselves getting more free time in, say, the next week. In my experience, games with this kind of post rate are in the process of dying plus I know I'm going to be on vacation for a couple of weeks end of September, which seems like it has the potential to be the nail in this coffin. So is there something that is easily changeable that can help increase engagement? I'm typically on the lookout for if I need to update between Sunday and Wednesday (since Thursday is my IRL game and then it's the weekend). Would it be more useful if I tried to make that more of an every-other-day sequence to avoid that Thursday-Saturday silence block?

Do people still have time/interest for this game? Given the general silence, the vibe I'm getting is "not really". Which is fine, but that's something I'd rather know now rather than later as this is a more natural ending point.

Kaldwell tries to recall what he knew of such creatures, but unfortunately, the suit of humanoid skin the dragon was wearing was throwing him off, making it difficult for him to identify it.

Lokhir buffs the group as Eirnar reaches out, groping blinding at Kaldwell as he attempted to shore up the man's health.

Temp HP: 4d6 + 7 ⇒ (4, 5, 6, 3) + 7 = 25

Party is up

That is a good question. The tags are going to be too much to fit there, so it's probably going to be more temporary things. Any statuses you wind up getting will be useful. If you create any temporary tags via Change the Game and don't immediately use them (or if you roll a 10+ and choose to prolong them). Similarly any Juice or Clues you get and don't immediately use.

Whether they liked it or not, each Hunter found the force they were faced with rush into them with a surge of power and a blinding flash of light. A moment later, as they blinked the after images from their eyes, they found themselves in a place very different from the clearing in the woods where they had first entered the portal.

They each found themselves sprawled in a grungy alleyway near each other. The racid smell of garbage from a nearby dumpster assaulted their noises along with the less concentrated scent of car exhaust. A few blocks away they could hear the honking of horns and cursing of annoyed drivers stuck in gridlock. The air was warm and thick with humidity as the dark sky above grumbled, threatening to unload its heavy burden at any moment.

Neon signs from either end of the dark alleyway hummed as the tall lights of skyscrapers stretched far above. Graffiti animals with large eyes and too wide smiles stared down from the walls at the group as an image of a tophat seemed to wink at them over the phrase "Take your heart". The artwork and the motionless fifth body lying a few dozen paces from where the Hunters new Rifts now found themselves seemed to be their only company for the moment.

In what way do you each look different in this new world than you did before? Bear in mind
1) You can have a noticeably more supernatural appearance now than in MotW; other Rifts will be able to see it but the Mist will prevent complete civilians from noticing.
2) While technology is still modern, the aesthetic of CoM is meant to be more noir. Though that being said, I personally have never see a noir film, so I don't know how well I'll be able to adhere to that.