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That sounds like a cool and potentially life changing experience. It's probably a good idea to focus on what's important. Thanks so much for the update, I'm certainly very glad to hear that you're doing well. Currently I myself am not looking to add a new game on the boards, in case anyone was interested in players or anything.
Working on a small farm is very fulfilling, or so says my spouse. Hope you meet some awesome people.
Happy spring break to any school people!
No problem. I did not post for a bit when it seems like I should have.
Yup, still here. I posted a couple of days ago, though I was slow to do that, my apologies. We're just hanging out and waiting for the guy to leave before we do our thing, right? Thanks for the life updates/general considerations about pacing and gameflow. I'm ready to push into the next phase.
Melira's drowsiness quickly disappears as the violence unfolds before her. Watching Bez mime out silently, she cocks her head to one side. Does he want to set the whole place on fire right now? Figuring that he would prefer to wait, Melira does as well, hoping that the dark elf will leave soon so they can get to work.
Melira scurries up into the hay loft after Bez, moving fast and quiet.
As she climbed the ladder, Melira's mind went to work. What now? If we steal his horse and make off in the night, we might slow him down enough that he can't catch us. On the other hand, we might get caught stealing his horse, and he could probably just buy one of these other ones. Melira settles in behind a bale of hay, near Bez. What if we can sabotage his carriage. Maybe cut an axle or something. Ideally we could saw it partway so it broke the moment he went over a stiff bump. Then he'd be stuck a little way out on the road and have to walk back to town if he wanted to get it fixed. She checked her weapons idly, trying not to make the slightest noise. But we'd have to saw it just right. Leave it too thick and it wouldn't break, cut it too thin and it might snap while he's still in town. And we'd have no way of knowing if we cut it just right. She glanced around the barn for anything serrated. It would be so much easier to just kill him again. Do I even want to run off into the night right now? Melira's feet didn't hurt from walking anymore, but she was exhausted. The combat at the manor had taken one of her spells, and she desperately needed to sleep and process everything that had happened. I want to walk right back inside, order myself a hot meal and a pleasant drink, and settle into sheets in a bed someone else made for me. I suppose he might be a stronger fighter, now that he's dead. And he might have some surprises in that carriage of his. Maybe we can hide up here until they head out, eat some of those foods from that leaf thing, and take a nap. That idea didn't sound so bad. It didn't involve moving anywhere or doing anything right away. It's not so uncomfortable up here. Then we can sneak up to the carriage and see what's inside before making any decisions that might get us killed.
Sounds like a harrowing time. Glad you made it through ok.
Melira frowns sternly, trying to help make Bez's case seem more logical.
"Friend of a friend? No. He is our friend. Or rather, he isn't." Melira's lips turn downwards into a frown. So they are chasing me after all. Or just following the prophecy. "You know, darling, this friend of ours..." she leans in to whisper in his ear, "Has a habit of showing up at my room uninvited. Mayhaps we can be the ones to do the surprising, perhaps a little something in his carriage?" Melira hangs back, away from the boarding house, planning to circle around to the stables unobtrusively.
Yes on planning to leave. A loot sheet also seems quicker and easier than utilizing the amazing and wonderful paizo interface.
"A full pack often attracts unwanted attention." Melira smirks lightly, though her face is relatively blank. She waits for Bez to go first.
Melira observes the twinkling in the log carefully. Covered with leaves, and it has been so, and undisturbed, long enough for them to frost in place.
Considering the circumstance just one moment longer, Melira steps forward quickly and collects the treasure. "Let's hurry, before those guards at the gate start moving again." "And I'm definitely keeping the scroll case for myself." She gulps, wondering what it will cost her.
"I'm impressed," says Melira, looking Bez up and down. "But there's something else here worth seeing." Glancing around the clearing once more, Melira edges uneasily towards the log.
"Just what I was thinking," says Melira, surveying the ground before them. "I'd much prefer to move in the direction we came from."
"Satisfying? I always thought the satisfying part was when you get away clean." Melira is right behind Bez, following him to the other exit.
Melira is thankful for the brief reprive as Bez moves forward to scout. She has known he is no knight in shining armor, but to hear him talk about killing the way that he does is jarring. By the time he gets back, it's almost like he never said anything.
"Right, in that case I'd say it's now or never. From the look of the monster's wounds, something else must have hit it over the head. It wasn't strangled by the vines. So we should hurry." This was quickly turning into a dangerous situation. "How many did you see? If the odds of us winning a fight are very low, I think we should try our luck at the other exit."
Spouse returning to work this week. Only a couple months to go until they're functioning normally again.
Melira meditates on the words silently. It's strange for her, the way her life has changed so much in so little time. "That's true enough, I could be worse. Many are." The ogre lolls dead before her. Such a monstrous creature, with so much capacity to harm and so little in the way of love. She ponders the situation while her nerves cool and her hands steady, glad that Bez is there to keep an eye out. "Perhaps the world belongs not to those who are born lucky or strong, but to those who are willing to hurt others. I'm ready to leave too." Though she cleaned her sword at Bez's direction, she leaves it drawn.
Your work sounds fun Grimmy! My spouse recently had surgery and I've been busy these past few days. I felt like Bez's last post was really good and I've been struggling to figure out how Melira would respond.
Melira's hands only shake a little as she draws steel across flesh.
Back legs of frog? Melira can't get over the mental image of a lion with two frog legs. The leopard did have green blood. Grabbing the club and dagger, she moves them into the bushes some distance away, hiding them behind some roots. This monster has the mental faculties of a small child. Maybe I should heal him. Finding Bez nearby, Melira taps her sword hilt. "Let's kill him and get out of here. I can introduce you if you need help getting close without alerting him." She waits for approval from Bez. Melira has never killed anyone, and this is a big moment for her.
Melira eyes Bez briefly, happy to see that he's still nearby. She continues speaking to the monster, though. "Those vines would make a good splint for his broken arm. I saw them coming in, they're strong enough to destroy a fountain. They could just latch onto his arm and never let go." Latch onto his throat and never let go, more like. That means we have time, since no one is coming back to save this unfortunate creature. "But a leg needs magic, unless you mind lying on your back a few days. Or weeks." She moves into the bushes and begins to mime gathering specific leaves. "The water from this fountain looks magical to me. It might be a good ingredient. Have you ever drunk it?" While the monster is talking, she pushes her way into the bushes a little bit, towards Bez but still close enough to talk to the monster. "I disagree." She says to the rogue in response to his earlier comment. "I think they just want to make a splint for their broken limbs. That vine seemed like some kind of strangling creature to me when we came in. Would you mind sneaking over to see if that's the case, and if the already injured brother is has had the life squeezed out of him? I would very much like to know if he's about to return at any moment." She waits for a response. "And if you do go, please come back quickly."
"Do you live here or are you one of those great travelers I hear stories about?" "Do you know those puny weaklings by the gate? They were in my way so I had to sing them a sleeping song. If I'm going to come back here, I'd like to know who they are so I don't have to do that again." "Have you ever seen a big cat around here, not quite as strong as you, but with fur and huge teeth? There might be one wandering the grounds, and a little girl like myself would be a tasty snack for such a monster if I didn't have the help of some great warrior." "Have you ever been inside the house? It seems like a nice place to live." "Would you mind passing me your club? I need it to dig these roots. Once I have those I should have everything I need. Oh blast, I've just dulled my dagger. Do you have one of those too, or any other sharp tools?"
Melira chuckles gently. "Of course it's his fault you're hurt, my new friend." She uncrosses her arms and rests her hands on her hips. "Would you have hit your own leg, if you were alone here? I think not." Hoping that very true argument is convincing, Melira begins to advance a ploy. "As for myself, it is true that I am puny and weak, certainly no match for you in any contest of strength." She taps a hand on her arm to indicate its small size. "But that only means you have nothing to fear from me." She pauses for a moment, trying not to talk too quickly. "No, a witch of the woods like myself would never challenge a great warrior like you. I just come to places like these for rare herbs and flowers, which I could use to make a potion for your wound." She smiles and nods slowly, looking for signs of comprehension. "Then you could get even with your brother - where is he going, by the way?" Melira is terrified that the monster brother will come back at any moment, and the fear makes her voice waver. Perhaps too much.
Ok cool. Also not expecting anything in particular from this monster interaction, Melira is just assuming it wants certain things and acting on those assumptions, if she's wrong, she will flee.
Neither would I!
Melira angles the points of her sword and dagger towards the huge lump of flesh instinctively, eyes naturally drawn to the club. Panic begins to rise. Eyes closed, deep breath.
Sheathing her weapons, she folds her arms sternly. "If your brother is coming back, you're the one who needs to watch out," she says casually. I hope Bez can hear me talking, wherever he is. She strolls around the monster, moving towards the exit that leads out to the vinyards. "Lucky for you, I can help. What kind of revenge are you going to get, when you can walk again?"
After one of the creatures leaves, Melira inches out of cover, towards the other one. If I can get the jump on it, I might be able to kill it before it has a chance to pound me. Swords drawn, she tries to find an angle where she can see it while still staying as far away as possible.
Melira quickly reverses, moving back towards the first fountain they encountered. Maybe I could pose as one of the mermaids. Instead, she dives for the freezing earth under a bush, rolling to try to hide.
Melira keeps her eyes up, ready to dash out the moment she's spotted. A moment later and she realizes she has absolutely no idea where Bez is.
Melira is taken aback. "I suppose it...could be." She furrows her brow. Her voice is slightly too loud. "But why this fountain, when there are so many others?" She is quiet again. "It could just be that there's something worth stealing in it." She shrugs. She doesn't have any phials to fill anyway, except her inkpot.
Melira thinks for a moment. "I can't remember."
"Enough fun for one day, perhaps, but not nearly enough for tonight." Melira smiles, perfect white teeth glowing in the fading light. She turns towards the fountain that she had detected as magical before, walking towards it while staying away from the red bush at the edge of the yard. Now that they've decided to turn back, Melira is more relaxed, as though they're already back home safe. It's a mistake, and part of her knows it is. But she can't help but feel relief creeping into her limbs, making her stupid and noisy.
"Not only that, but whoever has been living here since then must also have been willing to feed it. That, or it's long dead, and we have nothing to fear." She keeps her weapons drawn, pointing them at the pool.
"I don't see any tiger tracks." She looks at Bez's wound again, more closely this time. "If there is one loose on the grounds, I say we check out the magic fountain and then get out of here. What say you to that?"
Melira glances from Bez's wound to his eyes. Is he just acting tough? "Ok, glad you're alright." She follows behind him, casually slipping into the lead so that she's closer to any danger they might encounter. ----- Melira looks around, from one piece of this mad garden to the next. "There's heavy breathing coming from inside the first door. Male; hard of breathing, perhaps like the sentries we snuck past; and doing something that requires exertion." She gulps. At least whatever is behind the door isn't some undead monster, if it needs to breath. "After we finish circling the house, before we try entering, let's check out that fountain." Melira points to the western fountain which had sparkled with magic.
Post incoming. Happy new year all! Glad to hear that you are mostly recovered DMG.
Glad to hear that you are recovering. Happy holidays. This discussion makes sense to me, and fits into the broader theme of rewarding player skill in addition to adjucating character skill. I also feel that you're touching on sentiments about player expectations, such as by signposting a good opportunity to rest with stairs. I think that in any context where you might have something potentially unsatisfying, such as player death, it's good for players to look back at all the information they had access to and think 'yeah, that thing I did was stupid and I deserved to die.' And some of that information should be metaknowledge. My own experience has also been that it really depends on the player group how obvious you should be about specific pieces of information. For example, imagine your players chased some boss guy to their lair last week, and this week you're preparing a scenario where they have to kill the boss guy before he runs away. With some players, it might be enough to describe minions packing up when the PCs arrive, with others, you might need to put a blinking yellow light in the middle of the dungeon that warns them they need to hurry up or they might fail their objective. I think the reason why so many modules have moved towards the super straightforward, follow the guidelines structures is because they are written for a general audience, where half the audience will just be confused if they actually have to think and put stuff together. Anyway, those are some vaguely related thoughts I had while reading your post.
Hope you don't end up with lasting damage.
Oof. I got COVID this fall and was quite sick for several days despite being young and vaccinated. Good luck.
Melira doesn't continue hacking at her downed foe as she did last time she fought for her life, but she does make sure to stab it one more time for good measure. Then the sight of green blood on a fuzzy creature makes her retch and nearly throw up. "How deep is your wound?"
Melira doesn't register the green blood. All she can see is the very red blood that blossoms from Bez's chest.
Her sword flashes red in the light of the torch. Two fresh wounds open on the leopard's flesh. "You are doing fine, Bez. Finish it now!" She locks eyes with the rogue for a moment, and he feels the wild energy in her eyes.
"What, you would hurt those who have always provided you with a bowl of milk and a warm bed?" Melira's voice warps and buckles with magical energy.
She circles around the leopard, keeping ten feet away and moving so that she's on the opposite side as Bez.
Melira's sword has been out since the pair got close. It quivers now. Her vision starts to tunnel again, just as it did last time she fought.
She takes a long, slow breath. In and out. With a wink in her voice, Melira whispers sly and slow right in Bez's ear. "Don't worry, what could go wrong?" Her words bend and twist, steaming in the frozen air.
Melira looks closely at the gargoyles, wondering if they're about to bite her new friend. "We should circle around the house and look for other entrances."
"Let's avoid those vines, they seem dangerous." Melira indicated the fountain off to the right where the strangling vine has killed someone. "That pale blue marble is interesting. However, I think we should go straight for the mansion instead. Sound good to you, Bez?" Melira's voice is as quiet as her footsteps. She shivers slightly in the cold, the metal of her sword hilt making her fingers ache where it touched them.
The house itself has a flight of large marble stairs leading up to it's front doors. Between you and those large steps lies a labyrinth of overgrown gardens, replete with statuary. Based on this quote it sounds like the carriage path which splits around a fountain does not lead right up to the mansion. Is that right? A map might help.
Melira follows his pointers, watching carefully. Once she works it out, she hefts her sword and moves towards their would be ambushers, only to be stopped by Bez. Silently, she nods. These are the same creatures from the note. We must get out of here before they wake up, or else take a different road out. She briefly looks for a lock on the gate, but decides it would be better to leave it unlocked in any case. She looks over the mansion again more carefully. Is it also in good repair? She then considers the garden as they enter past the gate.
"Wasn't planning on it." Melira shivers, wondering what would have happened to her if she'd been grabbed by the plant. "We should circle the mansion and look for a good entry point." She watches Bez examine the dwarves handiwork curiously, sword still drawn. I wonder if I should wear that ring. I should find out what it is first, though.
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