Clunk turns to Astraden, aghast. "Would you give up your own thread to shatter the gears of--"
Astraden answers with a blithe expression. "Nah, who are we to say whether the phylactery is supposed to stay here in this time or disappear to the future? You're freaking me out, Clunk, why does a little time travel have you so on edge? Like Eben said, this is a stable time hoop. Viruinne knows us, and I could swear Lashonna knew us in Alhaster, too."
Astraden nods understandingly. She goes and picks up a charred, misshapen bone that might have once belonged to Darl Qethos or Zerces the Packlord. "This if for Lowri too. She would love this."
She puts the rapidly disintegrating bone into her backpack.
"Ms. Sinfire, think very carefully about your choices," he says as he starts to weave magic around him and yoink an eyelash out of his face.
[dice=Cast on the defensive, DC 23]1d20+20
"You're losing. Even your daughter said so. Knowing Carina, she'd be really upset about us killing you and Rin. But you can still just stop fighting, and then your family line won't just... disappear."
Astraden looks in the direction of Eben's vaguely inspiring voice. "Wait, you want to spare Evil Carina and evil Alessia? Then I want to spare one of the tentacle dogs. They seem harmless enough." She points to the one picking up Zyrxog's body. "Look, they can play fetch!"
Her finger slowly lowers as Carina (presumably) reduces the creature to a pile of charred bones.
Happy anniversary, everyone! Amazing job of GMing you've been doing KC. Thank you to all my co-players for good roleplay and wonderfully cheesy tactics throughout the years.
Tomorrow, my partner and I celebrate ten years together :) Funny that it is just two days apart!
Realized it might be good to post a duration list.
Wind walk lasts like 10 hours on Astraden, Carina, Cuetzpalli, Eben, Farrukh, Tanith, Clunk and Krekie. Also, oops. Wind walk only covers 5 people plus Astraden, which means Clunk and Krekie would've been left in the lurch. OK to retcon in that she spent an action point to cast it twice? [10/12]
Freedom of movement lasts like two hours on Cuetzpalli.
Veil on Krathanos lasts a bunch of hours.
Magic circle against evil centered on Farrukh lasts about 149 minutes.
Magic circle against evil centered on Carina lasts about 149 minutes.
Magic circle against law centered on Eben lasts about 149 minutes.
Copycat on Astraden lasts 1 round.
Magic vestment +3 lasts just under 15 hours on Clunk's cloak
Invisibility on Astraden lasts 146 rounds.
Owl's wisdom on Cuetzpalli lasts 147 rounds.
Shield of faith +4 on Tanith lasts 148 rounds.
Shield of faith +4 on Krekie lasts 149 rounds.
Communal air walk on everyone but Krathanos lasts just under 20 minutes for everyone but Astraden (for whom it lasts 10).
Spellscar lasts 1500 rounds.
Just realized Astraden exposed her lack of knowledge of dinosaur species. She and Cuetzpalli are going to have to have a long talk next time they're alone.
Astraden points her gaseous hand towards the beach and sails off on a gust of wind.
Do we want to land and transform back to physical bodies before we meet them? Otherwise we'll have to wait 5 rounds to be able to cast spells and such.
"Funny how those stories all happened at some point before Zagyg failed to imprison Olidammara. Seems like someone on the cosmic scale is sore about rogues."
Clunk jukes to the side, using the enhanced speed provided by Eben, and jogs over to a flanking position with the human meathead part of the party. He attempts a cursory slash at Harrowdroth's left hamstring, testing its defenses.
At this point I should probably record the greatest death of our campaign.
Name: Fish's Serpent's Skull's Campaign
Classes/levels: Precariat-bourgeoisie/6
Adventure: City of Seven Spears
Location: online
Catalyst: Serpent's Skull
The Gory Details: We played from spring 2015 to spring 2021, starting with four players and ending with four players. Book 1 (session 1-24, 19 Arodus-8 Rova, 4710 AR) lasted from March 2015 to August 2016, while book 2 (session 25-66, 8 Rova-21 Neth) was completed around December 2018. We never got through book 3 (session 67-121, 26 Neth-28 Kuthona), but we played our last session somewhere around May 2021.
A moment of appreciation for all the characters who've passed through this campaign, and those who stayed until the end:
Thornton Poer, cabin boy, halfling ghoulblooded sorcerer, joined a pirate crew after being raised from the dead
Athelstan Twice-Dropped, token rich kid, dwarve skald from the Five Kings Mountains, left the party to manage the family mine in Sargava
Dovret Wyvernmane, bodyguard for Athelstan, dwarve slayer who left the party to keep watch over Athelstan
Chester A. Arthur, cartographer, dwarve cleric of Keltheald who left the party on various occasions but usually returned to save the day. Had a horse named Applestan, who was killed by Itombu, and a horse named Carty.
Gleep, empathically bonded to Chester, gelatinous cube, killed by Dovret while he was dominated by Yarzoth
The Grisgol, exile who seeks to reach the stars, duergar wizard, left the party without explaining why in Absalom. Had an unseen servant named Fellstroke.
Ilisa Khazdar, adventurer from the newly started Eleder Explorer's Guild, dwarve cleric of Cayden Cailean
Bhekithemba Phila, hellknight converted to LG worship of Irori, Kalabuta human fighter/brawler. Had an ox named Tulip who was stolen (to safety?) by Chester when the rest of the party got captured.
Thunderchild Thrice-Locks-the-Heart, self-taught polymath, Osiriani human celestial sorcerer. Had a tortoise familiar named Runeshell, replaced with an ibis named Khenti after his death.
Healer Siren, wendifa, painterlily bard, joined the party to help defeat Itombu and left when the demon was dead
Sasha Nevah, ex-Red Mantis, Chelish human ranger/rogue, left the party to help the Pathfinders with less dangerous tasks. Had a pet dimorphodon named Beaky.
Rebeca, Arcadian conquistador seeking to claim "Cheliax" for civilization, wyrwood summoner, fled the party when they all got captured by the Aspis Consortium in Tazion. Had a pet boat that they used to fly away with.
Pros of this AP:
- Sandboxes are fun if you have a clear goal
- Lots of gaps for homebrewed material
- A setting that is not medieval Europe can be very engaging and perspective-widening
- All of the entries we played were fun; much of this comes down to having good players, but the skeleton for building fun and interesting stories is there (sandbox in book 1, travelogue in book 2, sandbox again in book 3)
- Initial castaways are good fun
- Yarzoth, Itombu and Issilar are very fun villains. Honorable mention to succubus in book 2.
Cons of this AP:
- Shortage of fun/interesting treasure
- Random encounters are only fun if they are woven into the scenery
- ... which means LOTS of prep work for GMs
- CoSS was not a complete adventure path entry
- Historical and racial politics are not handled appropriately in the AP or in supporting PF1 materials
- Swingy, mostly very weak combats with a few high power level monsters that can wipe parties in 3 rounds (aka normal PF1 fare)
- RtR dropped the ball on the journey feeling like either a travelogue or a race
- Faction interactions generally clunky
- Eleder is a poorly fleshed out town, Kalabuto is worse
- Scale of Saventh-Yhi too small
I think in the end we just got tired of this AP. In the beginning of 2021, the group teleported to Absalom to do some side adventures there, and no one truly wanted to go back to Saventh-Yhi and keep up the discovery points grind. After a summer break, we decided to start Strength of Thousands instead.
"Yeah, Eben, why do you think people try to stab knights in the armpits? It's the part of the body with the least natural callus. But not for us, any more."
Eben MacTeague wrote:
I don't have the wand on my character sheet, I think Gark is managing the charges, so deduct 4 + however many other people want to be barky.
Does anyone remember if we had a wand of CLW still?
Whoops, yeah we do, though it only has 22 charges left. In spite of Astraden's wishes in this moment, self-inflicted injuries due to meatheadedness are covered by her plan.
Astraden pulls out a weathered healing stick and directs it at Tanith's still-raw scars, pulling fresh skin back over the dark spots left by Eben's spell.
*erases the sign that says "2 years since last death"*
The Stats wrote:
9 TPKs have been reported here, with Nyilathi, Itombu, and the spirit dancers each contributing 2 and Klorak, the Treasure Pit, and the Creeper Clearing each contributing 1.
The first six deadliest encounters, by % of their adventure, are Gbala and rawbones (40%), Nyilathi and lacedons (37%), Avatar of the Serpent God (33%), Itombu (28%), the vagabond spiders (18%), and the Green God (17%).
Nyilathi and the lacedons constitute a seventh of all deaths in this thread. Souls for Smuggler's Shiv accounts for over a third of all deaths in this thread.
The top encounters for each adventure are: Nyilathi (31), Itombu (14), the Green God (8), Gbala (8), the vagabond spiders (2), and the Avatar of the Serpent God (4).
"Slaves to worlds of words and gears, slaves to gods who revel in distant halls and care nothing for what is green save for what can be brewed from it."
"Oh my god guys, I think he's talking about you," Astraden whispers to Tanith and Cuetzpalli.
"So you all die when the fountain spills the beans, then? Seems like you should try to get out of here while we're working on killing the living feather and stuff." Astraden looks at the light-eyed being. "Anyway, you wanna tell us where the doomshroud is?"
Astraden looks down at the paint set. "Oh, just thought I would -"
The half-orc child picks up the paint set, at first ginger, as if about to offer it to Carina, but then continuing the motion into a violent heave towards the pastel lilac ceiling. The glass cups shatter on impact, spraying paint and glass all over the room. A large dollop of red paint splashes over Carina's hands and face.
"- help clean up." Astraden grins at her small not-yet-friend.
She points a shorter-than-usual finger towards the next room. "Is that your mom in the other room? You know she's not real, right?"
She yells towards the kitchen. "Hey Ms. Viera! We finished painting! By Fharlanghn, how do you afford a place like this but not afford to paint your child's room?"
"Haha, it's fine! We're gonna eat these, and then when we're full we're gonna throw the moldy ones at Svenser. You'll love it!" Astraden pants as she reaches the bottom of the hill, splashing through the gully at the bottom and, trousers muddy and prickly with last year's grass seeds, clambering up onto the rocky outcrop on the other side. "What do you mean, why are we here? Wait . . ."
The bluish vision flickers again. "Why are you here? You're from later. This doesn't make sense." Astraden frowns, crinkling up a freshly washed forehead still clear from sun spots and battle scars. "This time is important to me, but it isn't real any more. Or, I don't want it to be real any more. Clunk, what's happening?"
She sees dark-haired Rindi clambering up after her, Svenser lagging behind Clunk. Her voice takes on the rougher tones of an adolescent, almost breaking. "But Rindi . . . Rindi, it's killin' me to see you again. You deserved longer than you got."
Ten years later, still scratching my head as to why midnight spores are not a poison or a disease in this book. Adventure designers seem to like to make things that can affect even the monk with perfect body or the druid with venom immunity, but I don't see the point. If you take those abilities you should get to use them.
They're specifically a psychotropic substance, so my first inclination is to make them a poison.
Astraden also furrows her brow and scrunches up her nose, thinking intently at Forzamele. That's fine by me. I don't like the whole undead hand thing, of course, but the Hand is probably in better hand with Krekie than the Hierophant.
"Yeah, I mean the eye for the portal. Or if you've got any other spare eyes? Can be a fun conversation piece."
Knowledge (religion) for Fish Out of Water bonus against Krekie:1d20 + 21 ⇒ (8) + 21 = 29 Diplomacy aid to Eben (Fish Out of Water):1d20 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 4 + 2 = 15
91. Custard puffs: Delicate yeast-based cakes fried in oil so that they expand to over twice their size, cut in half and filled with flavored egg custard. Popular in Absalom, where variants in the shapes of some of the city's most popular beasts of burden are common.
I don't think serpentfolk are particularly centralized in Mwangi Expanse(their capital is in darklands vault), but latter "world war with snake invaders from underground" would happen yeah.
This confused me when we started the AP. I assumed that Ydersius (the empire) had controlled large swathes of Garund up until Ydersius (the deity) was killed in Saventh-Yhi. But Ilmurea was just a "hidden, fortified enclave from which to strike out and subjugate a mere single continent" (p63 of TTFB). As the Azlanti were not as well established on Garund, "Ilmurea grew into a mighty fortress-city and the serpentfolk were able to move into and conquer the jungle lands above" (p7 of TTFB). Ilmurea is referred to in several places as a "sister city" to Sverenagati. Battles between Azlant and Ydersius apparently took place in ancient Thassilon (at Viperwall) as well as on the surface of the Mwangi Expanse (p7 SotSG).
So yeah, it might not be the Mwangi Expanse that is the center of the war - though it might be preferable to Varisia, being probably closer to Age of Serpents temperatures.
Theres an NPC in one of the middle books who is a lost follower of Shelyn. One of the subplots is that she needs to be healed - if she is, she can give the party a lot of useful information and material aid. Azlant definitely plays a role.
Mention it to your GM and (if theyve read the book) they should know what I'm talking about.
If you don't feel comfortable trying to actually make funny jokes, you can either go the route of non-jokes (my Gelik has made jokes of the caliber, "What do you get if you combine a tree and a bush? A bushtree"), or just make him a grouchy noble guy. I personally had a really hard time making Gelik mean and funny, and eventually settled into something approximating the latter.
Pharasma will pay off long-term, in a roundabout way.
Gozreh is a good option. Shimye-Magallah lacks rules support but would be easy enough to create if you have a flexible GM.
Most evil deities would also work fine, assuming the party is also evil. Worshipers of Achaekek and Angazhan would have friendly NPCs to potentially ally with in multiple books.
Minor spoilers:
Don't play a worshiper of Ydersius, though.
The competition themes are a bit of a bait and switch. Kurgess isn't really any better here than any of the other CG deities (my players have clerics of Cayden Cailean and Keltheald).
Of all the deities, I think you'd probably have the best payoff with Shelyn.
Editing is advisable (for the reasons Phntm888 posted) and also would be necessary if running in 2E, because yeah, the Sargavan Government isn't a faction any more. Several other factions also have a hard time starting out in Eleder (Free Captains not welcome, Aspis Consortium renowned for market imperialism so also probably not welcome, even PFS could be unwelcome due to their history of stealing artefacts from the Mwangi Expanse and their friendship with the racist shadow ruler of Eleder, Daugustana).
The section of RtR about Kalabuto thankfully doesn't involve Kalabuto's 1E governor, Chelish supremacist General Alban, but the pure fact that he's no longer ruling the city would merit some nod to the revolution.
Vidrian is still on bad terms with Mzali, but Mzali might at least have relaxed on the whole "zombie trees" thing, so you could just remove that encounter.
Once you get to the Screaming Jungle you're out of Sargava, and no changes are really necessary until you get to Saventh-Yhi (book 3 and 4) and are supposed to be running political/military intrigue with the factions. You can also easily ignore that, though.
Book 5 and 6 are pretty much free of faction stuff except for elements that you can easily replace with monster groups in the city.
Book 1 can probably still be set in the Book 1 timeline without issue. The later books are more difficult, and the first chapter in Racing to Ruin would have to be severely edited. But that would be advisable in any event.
Some thoughts:
- Vidrian doesn't like collaboration with the pirates any more than Sargava did, so Jask could still be a prisoner (even if his crime was committed before Vidrian's revolution - just say that he fled for Cheliax 10 years ago instead of 5). Doubtful that he'd be in manacles, though - he might have come willingly, hoping for a fairer trial.
- Aerys boarded in the Shackles - are there parts of the Shackles still friendly to Vidrian ships? Bag Island, for example. Is she associated with a friendly faction?
- Are colonialist adventurers still welcome in Vidrian, or should some of the traits in the Player's Guide be rewritten?
My productivity has also gone down to be honest. Some of that is getting called to drive three hours north to take samples once a week, though. Sweden won't get with the program.
Honestly, you can run the whole AP without the factional competition. There's only a few encounters actually based on it (scrap Omagru in Eleder, Rival Faction Agents in Kalabuto, and the intellect devourer subplot in Vaults). Or maybe just include one of the more evil factions as a foil to the party's faction; there's no need for all five, and the "race to ruin" part can be rebranded as a race against time to get to the city in time to find a way to stop Ydersius. Be clear with the party in the second book, ideally even in the first book, that they have stumbled into a situation where they're the only ones who have a chance of finding that information - it's up to them to wheedle a faction into helping them get to Saventh-Yhi and survive while they're there.
The fact that other people have found their way into Saventh-Yhi is not as jarring as it seems, if you give a better explanation for why people haven't left to report about it. I added a repulsion effect stopping people from leaving the city, which can be lifted by drinking from one of the fountains in the Military District.
I've also noticed the weird gaps in information and struggled to make stuff up. As you might have read elsewhere on this forum, book 3 was actually essentially written by two editors when the original author didn't finish in time. The general issues with a monthly release schedule also apply to the transitions between books.
But yeah you've accurately identified some of the structural problems with the AP. It's also got big thematic problems - forcing the party to fight abolitionists, making the indigenous nation of Mzali out to be more evil than the occupying nationalists of Sargava (the leader of Sargava worships a LG deity and allows slavery to go on right under his nose! They could've contented themselves with making both sides evil so parties at least wouldn't feel obliged to support the Sargavan side), and the whole reptoid antisemitism thing.
Just had a short feast interlude for Winter Week in one of my games:
70. Bleach-bread, also known as winter bread, Absalom bread: Made possible with a process perfected in south-central Vudra in the 5th millennium AR, but only imported to Absalom about 300 years ago, bleach-bread is a fluffy, white bread usually baked in circular loaves about 5 cm high in the center and 20 cm in diameter. The low fat content of the milled and bleached flour used allows storage for up to three years in an ideal climate, but the milling process is also significantly more expensive than for that of regular flour. Bleach-bread is thus primarily eaten during celebrations of Winter Week, though where a mill capable of producing the flour is readily available (such as Absalom), it may be more common in wintertime diets.
71. Plantain pot pies: When the Chelish occupiers of Sargava realized they would never be able to implement large-scale turnip production, they improvised. Plantains, steamed, mashed, and lightly seasoned, now substitute for the starchy root vegetable, and the conversion is done even for foods not originally of Cheliax, like the Varisian pot pie. The filling is supplemented with, ideally, Sargavan pork, but thrush or dove meat is also popular. Some cooks also swear by adding diced pineapple to the meat sauce.
72. Chelish honey pie: A sweet open-shelled pie with a filling made of honey and cream, baked. Usually dusted with ground anise.
73. Sorghum pancakes: Usually made with a sourdough, and sometimes dotted with chopped dates. Common in Mulaa cuisine but bears distinct similarities to a Nexish flatbread.
74. Winter Week smörgåsbord: Pates, cheeses, salted fish, salt pork, pickles, and more, eaten with some sort of bread.
I'd like to know more about the climate in each region, especially those featured prominently in Adventure Paths. Any time there is a gazetteer in an AP volume there should be a few sentences or paragraphs detailing the climate to help GMs run immersive games. One of the characters in my game is a druid, so they will no doubt be knowledgeable about such things. I keep close track of the game's calendar (realizing that not all GMs do), so this information helps me to be prepared.
Big yes! I try to make weather tables for each region/season. Luckily the two games I run are set in areas where the gazetteers define climate fairly ok (even if there are some inconsistencies).
It'd be amazing if someone were to run a weather sim for Golarion but I don't even know how you'd begin to do that.
Going by Earth's timeline, we're essentially like a hundred years from people voraciously reading sensationalist stories about travels to the western continent, and like 400 years from potatoes taking off (especially given that none of the Avistani have even gotten to what we'd consider an Andean equivalent). The one major alteration is that the Linnorm Kings have known about Arcadia for millennia, and could probably have brought over some of the agricultural innovations mentioned in certain books (I'm looking at you, Varisian llamas and Irriseni potato vodka (which could just as easily have come from Earth, though)).
Aside: It occurs to me that one could look to Basque cooking history for inspirations for pre-Taldan Cheliax?
63. Cod pate: Still part of the brunch-lunch menu on the rural Arcadian Ocean coastline in Cheliax and its abandoned colonies, cod pate is made from salted cod ground down and mixed with butter and walnuts. The paste is shelf-stable for up to two months after preparation, due to its high salt content, and is traditionally spread over peasant's brown bread with quince jelly. The version marketed to nobles and rich adventurers is mixed with strong, freshly ground black pepper just before serving, and is spread on brown bread with a light dusting of powdered thileu bark.
I've done the hard route of cutting almost all new world foods out of Chelish and Inner Sea cuisine. Considering Cheliax has only been infernal for about 100 years, I've kept almost all of the Taldan-derived ingredients, with the addition of some Spanish chaparral-type plants (and sugarcane, which imo would be pretty accessible and have long been an export of Osirion). I think it really gives a distinct feel to the cuisine to impose these limitations that are basically alien to us today. While also avoiding copying the results of a historical pillaging of the Americas that really hasn't happened in Golarion.
Incidentally, I've always had a "Spanish inquisition" vibe from Cheliax, while I agree that Taldor is sorta based on Byzantium as you mentioned PUtD.
62. Classic fermented pig's feet: This dish is traditionally served whenever a resident of the Lands of the Linnorm Kings becomes an age divisible by 10 (e.g. 10, 20, 30, 40, etc.). Cleaned pigs' feet are placed in a specially formulated brine with a raw salmon in an open oaken barrel and allowed to ferment for five months, during which the meat acquires a very sour, sulfurous flavor and the bones in the feet turn gelatinous. The feet are removed just before serving and sliced. Each slice is then covered in sour cream, sea salt, dill, and fennel (fresh when possible), and served with boiled noodles and beets. The salmon is reserved for the person(s) at the party too squeamish to stomach the main dish.
38. Knifebread, a sweetened cookie cut into ghoulish forms with a sharpened knife before baking. Knifebread is eaten on the Night of the Pale in many towns in the Inner Sea region, but particularly along the northern coast of Garund where molasses is an easily acquired byproduct of sugar refinement.
Astraden laughs, spilling coffee. "You can't eat rats, Eben. That's hilarious. Didn't you learn the poison song? 'Don't eat foxglove, don't eat street doves/Don't eat hemlock, it's not a semla/Don't eat rats, bats and or cats/Don't eat nightshade groundapples, try a regular apple!'" she sings, voice rough but tone-true.
"I always assumed combustion was when food turns rotten after you put it in your combust heap. And then the rats come, and you have to fight them, and then you put their bodies on the heap, but then more rats come to eat the dead rats . . ." Astraden gets a weary look. She gets up to fetch more coffee.
The roles of the other castaways as faction agents are kind of an afterthought, plugged into book 2 but not referenced in book 1. And almost all of the castaways have a reason for animosity towards their prior factions (I think only Aerys doesn't - and she's got the alcoholism problem, which means that if she gets on the sobriety wagon it's dangerous for her to be around other pirates).
I think the roleplaying between official Pathfinders and Gelik the relic thief/hawker (can't remember exactly) would be pretty great :)
The AP is kind of designed for the characters to choose the PFS anyways, what with Nareem, Juliver and Eando being such major characters in the later books.
Edit: Now I see your other point. No, I think the castaways are still necessary. It varies from group to group, but I think players in general like to have somewhat sympathetic NPCs that they can roleplay with (though for the first half of the adventure, when it's most needed, the NPCs aren't that sympathetic! something worth thinking about changing). A sandbox like SfSS can also feel very aimless if the party doesn't have NPC quests to give them a starting point.
Copying over the post I was working on a couple days ago; we don't have to continue this conversation of Astraden grilling Farrukh on his backstory, though.
Farrukh Al`Khatel wrote:
"Believe it or not, this was kind of my GOAL when I left home. I was an apprentice ranger. I kind of liked it, but it was hard work, and I wasn't really keen on doing it for the rest of my life."
"I figured if I got a big haul as an adventurer I could afford to just live off that money forever. Or just go after some big score every few years or so. Take it easy, you know? And what better place to make my fortune than the Free City?"
He shrugs.
"But then we get mixed up in all this prophecy business and suddenly there are actual STAKES beyond just getting a bunch of treasure some dead people weren't going to use anyway."
"I will say, I came kinda late to this whole business, so I didn't quite have the same motives joining as you four. But didn't you hear all the stories about adventurers? Like, nine in ten that you hear about have died in a cave collapse or been eaten by wolves. Our group has been lucky so far, really. Was the possibility of getting a better life if you survived worth the risk of, well, not surviving?"
And now for the fresh new content:
After their day of research, Astraden leaves Farrukh with the task of "infosplaining" everythingthey dug up. When he actually does, so, though, she interrupts almost every sentence with an interesting fact. ("Did you know the white-tailed pseudodragon subsists on primarily a diet of shrubs and beetles?", etc.)
KC, if you wanted the explanations as to uknaut nlos and Faceless One, I put them here. Also, did a 30 Spellcraft get anything on that coffer?
Third, the Harbinger of Worms is mentioned in passing as the "seed of our prophecies".
Fourth, the "Hero of the Pit", whose hubris will ensure the greatest of all gifts to the Dead. Interestingly, the way the pictographs can be read, "the Pit" could also be translated as "the Stone"—as in, peach pit, peach stone—or "the Fall".
"Uhh... s#~@. Did you just say that the Harbinger was the 'seed' of their prophecies? As in, the 'pit' of their prophecies?"
Astraden sticks a hand under her arm, expression grave, and wings downwards with her bicep. A sound like flatulence is produced. "Ahaha. Owned. Well, good work getting that all translated. Too bad we'll never know what in the Hells they meant. What were these Avogadro things, you were saying? Like worm pretzels?"
THE HALLOWING:
Astraden smiles when she sees Rillikandren, then looks perturbed. "Didn't I tell you to keep your head down, bro? We still haven't tracked down that mind flayer." She gives him a hug. "It's great to see you, though. Yes, I'll send Marinn. I assume you haven't heard anything from Svenser, though. Don't know what that guy is doing any more."
She enters the cellar after a few more minutes of hanging out with her brother, and is happy to see Anlathi joining them. She is less happy about the wasps joining them. But all is well in the end. She gives Tanith a thumbs-up when the last laughter of Olidammara rings freely through the chamber. "So, you want this blessed? What kind of blessing? Olidammara can make it so as soon as someone starts playing music, everyone has to start dancing. Or so that all surfaces in the building are magically soft when you lie down on them. Or . . . now this is kind of unpopular for some reason," she whispers, "so that receptacles convert all liquids into alcohol."
WAND TALK:
Astraden holds Nihil. "Uh so . . . you were in that dragon's hoard. Did someone not the dragon make you?"
She runs down the list of the current members of the Circle of Eight with Greyscale. "Any of those sound familiar? Maybe you were made by one of them?" She seems nonplussed by Greyscale's different names for her.
I think our answers are pretty free, apart from revealing that we're working with "Manzorian." Even if we sell these wands, they're not really going to be able to reveal that much about us.
MIDNIGHT RIDE:
Astraden takes at least fifteen minutes picking up all her stuff and shoving it into her bag. She actually runs out of space in her backpack, at which point she puts the remaining scrolls and coins into a pillowcase and slings it over her shoulder. She nods to the night attendant on her way out. "Just taking a nighttime stroll. See you later!"
She climbs up into the carriage and relaxes against the leather seats. When she receives the strange telepathic message from Eben's bow, she sits straight up. "Can you tell Eben to tell you to tell the others, 'what the f!**?' Has someone hijacked our carriage driver? Is he going to take us out to the backwoods and knife us?"
I think for me the issue has been a massive change in lifestyle in the last two years. When I lived in the US, I had to be online to talk to my girlfriend, and it fit pretty well to have other stuff to do online in between messages. I was also going to school or part-time employed, meaning I had a lot more time on my hands than I do now working full-time. Now when I come home I just want to turn off my brain and watch TV. I want to be a good poster, but I don't get much joy out of it any more - not because of the way the game is run, but because of the way I interact with the game now. I have to set aside time to read the posts and make a response, and that kinda makes it into a writing chore similar to what you described, KC.*
Responding to Feral - I didn't actually want this to be an "Astraden-focused" story. I think we had fun in Diamond Lake and the Free City because we were all engaged with roleplay, both with each other and with the NPCs. Sometimes the pace was too fast, but the consequence was people feeling that they didn't get to post, not that they didn't know what to post. I don't fault you guys for focusing on other stuff when you needed to, but I do think we need to recapture that spirit of the first few books. I want to feel like we're all working together to keep things interesting. Then hopefully there's less load on Eben and Astraden (which for me, at least, means more fun).
And yeah, maybe things are dragging a little in this installment, and some of the general motivations for not just fighting Zeech are kinda lacking - but I still think it's an interesting installment, and I like all the touches you've been putting in, KC. The overall adventure just may not fit the group's current situation.
*One thing that I'd like to suggest is for someone to take over running Zalamandra. It has been fun playing her, but I still don't feel like I'm playing true to her character, and I don't have enough time to run both her and Astraden. Having two different relatively socially competent characters active in a roleplaying situation is dragging me down more than if I was just running Astraden.
"Wait, what did he say about Spiny?" Astraden murmurs to Cuetzpalli (and Montague). She at several moments looks ready to break in as Farrukh is talking, but each time realizes he's not done with his wildly misrepresentative monologue. She looks to Smenk at the end of it. "Also, you did kill our parents and take advantage of the people of Diamond Lake for decades. Running you out of town was one of the best things we ever did for folks there, even if it meant some additional violence. Even a foot won't heal if you don't take the thorn out of it. And the whole Ilthane thing? That was on her. And a repercussion of our helping yet another beleaguered community."
Astraden pretends to eat the hideous meat, instead pocketing it into her cheeks like a small rodent. She smiles towards Zeech. "Truly quipfe exfellenpff, your Highneff!"
Zalamandra has been pointedly occupied chatting with a servant since the party arrived, but her eyes flit over to appraise the scene when Mahuudril makes her appearance. A cat's smile curls over her lips as she claps her hand, shooing the servant away after handing her a slip of paper. "Ah, Balabar my dear! What a surprise to see you again!" She strides to intercept the oncoming entourage with the morbid certainty of a seasoned farmhand moving to block a runaway horse from the wheat field. She glances at Tanith and gives a wink. "Balabar Smenk, in the flesh! You know, when I heard you'd 'passed,' I assumed it was a sort of figurative way of saying, like perhaps the old bastard has passed some truly noxious flatulence. But here you are! I hope you don't hold any hard feelings about what happened last time we saw each other. If nothing else, we should remember that old saying: What happens in Diamond Lake, stays in Diamond Lake and slowly leaches out into the Mistmarsh, slowly polluting it with acids and metals until it is no longer safe for humanoid life!" She laughs, a glass-like sound.
"And Mr. Filge! So long since we saw each other. How are the studies going? Are you getting the materials you need?"
After going in to shake Filge's hand and give Smenk a one-shouldered hug, she gives Mahuudril a bow. "Zalamandra of Diamond Lake. Pleasure to be acquainted, m'lady."
Ok this is seriously the second time I am rewriting this post. Forgive the brevity.
Astraden is dressed in a long gray tunic with overlapping layers; each layer towards the feet is lighter than the one above it, with the topmost layer being almost coal-black. She's wearing silver-brocaded white breeches and leather sandal-leggings that lace up around her calfs. Over and falling away from her arms, she has a cape-shawl made of gold thread interwoven with yellow-dyed flax. The overall effect is plainer than the styles worn by the rest of the party, but still leaves the viewer wondering - is the tunic a representation of the dominant winter weather in Alhaster, or a commentary on the corruption of Alhaster's political system and the promise of a better world on the horizon? Is the shawl a co-option of local common dress, or an embrace of it, a nose-thumbing of ostentatiousness? Does Ms. Crumm just really like the colors of the sky? Astraden herself seems completely oblivious to any subtext in her outfit, and is mostly happy that her vargouille ears stand out so well against it.
She flashes a somewhat scary smile at Toris as she trails Cuetzpalli to the servant's entrance. "Hey there. I couldn't help overhearing that you don't know when there'll be food?" She extends a hand. "I'm hungry. How did you get your invite?"
