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You're very kind, and please, feel free to NPC her. I'll have to check back in one day and see your idea for myself.
Hey everyone, I'm going to drop from this game. Thanks very much to The Declarative for having me and for all of you for being great players. I've never quite gotten my head around this game and then on top of that I built a character without any concrete goals or real motivations of her own. This is entirely my fault of course and no reflection on the game or the world but I'm finding it really hard to sit down and post as River because I don't have any handle on her. Again, thank you all for a great time. I don't want to hold the game up so better that I bow out now and leave you to it. Have a great time and make sure to save the world! @The Declarative If you could remove me from the campaign when you get a chance I'd appreciate it. Thanks again for running a great game.
If that's an option then me too! These ones even have 10 hit dice!
Not in the US, so no Thanksgiving.
Assuming that restoring River's mind is out (and that's probably a good thing anyway!) the only thing I can think of would be a bonus wild talent or two. I like the idea of using kinetic whip so that River can actually hit people with streams of water as well as defending herself but that requires two wild talents (Kinetic Blade then Kinetic Whip). I could retrain one of my talents to get KB and then have some sort of 'Pure Snow' or 'Elemental Water' which River could study for a bonus talent? If that's too busted then she'll be fine with permission to go swimming in whatever river/lakes are around and not full of fire!
River doesn't even know what she'd ask for. So she looks at Gull to see if he has any ideas. The only thing that she misses is... home. But she can't go back. And where is home anyway? Not here, was it Light? But Light is gone too. Back to the mother source? "Do you..." Her voice is soft and uncertain. "Could I... water? Snow? Make me more... me?"
River seems utterly shocked by what is going on. It takes a few moments for her to react and even when she does her response is to throw up a large, curved shield of water between Gull and the rampaging dragon.
Gull points at River. "She's River and she's great!" He goes back to quietly holding her hand. Having been introduced River just waves and tries to remember to smile.
River provides water as directed and then sits back with a small smile of pure contentment on her face as she sips. For whatever reason she seems absolutely delighted by a well brewed cup of tea. She even snuggles up against the dragon...
"Yes! We should go and have tea!" River says, bouncing in excitement. She skips a few steps ahead and then comes back to offer one pale hand to the dragon. "Let's go!" She doesn't have any idea where to find tea, but she can provide water, he can provide heat and someone somewhere must have tea leaves and a kettle! And enthusiasm has a magic all of its own.
"Excuse me, why are you shouting so loudly?" River asks, cocking her head to one side. "I think everyone can hear you. Unless they're deaf. Oh, are you deaf? Sorry that won't work. ?" She adds at a much greater volume before retreating to her normal volume. "I like tea as well. But the water has to be just the right temperature. That's very important. Tea is the perfect balance of elements. Fire to heat Water. Flavour of earth rising on air. We should make tea together!" The idea seems to excite the strange elen and she bounces from foot to foot in obvious, childlike excitement.
Gull asks, "Why did yellow light make blue water in the air?" "I don't know." River replies, responding as is her wont with the unvarnished truth.
River watches the whole thing without comment, seemingly utterly non-plussed by the whole situation. As a child of Mother River she doesn't seem overly concerned about Sky - perhaps because there is no sky beneath the surface.
River is content to simply listen as Gull uses the strange language that he uses and Aisling says something back that sounds very... stilted. She has no idea what either of them are talking about but that isn't important. As long as Gull is happy she can let her attention wander. "Temple better now?" She asks, mostly aiming the question at Benedetto.
River, you dream of Gull's giant hands pulling your strings from atop a stage, and you are holding a Gull doll that holds a you doll. It is confusing, but comforting. You sleep well through the night. River isn't used to such vivid dreams - she barely sleeps by most elen's standards and usually her thoughts are as peaceful as a still lake but something about the last day has her mind riled, waves of thought and winds of emotion lashing at the usually calm waters of her mind. Still, it isn't all bad. Gull is important to her - there's no harm in that and even his spouting the strange language called Maker Speak doesn't cause her much upset. She eventually rises when Gull's stomach rumbles loud enough to wake the boy and the pair head downstairs to quell the monster in his belly.
River slips away from the conversation. Too many people and too much noise makes her head spin and things are moving all too fast at the moment. Besides, Gull is here and spending time with him always makes her feel better. So away she goes, following the tug from the center of her being and the ghostly sensation of fingers in her hair. When she finds the young elen she folds herself into a sitting posture next to him and wraps him in a hug - as much for her own sake as his. Silence. Peace.
Short term: River needs to get her bearings. Things are strange here and a lot keeps happening unexpectedly. Long term: Maybe get her memory back, help Benedetto free Light.
River actually hisses at Samen's words. It seems she doesn't appreciate the idea of being 'cleansed' and the frown on her face shows that she doesn't like the sound of Sun any more than Moon. "Why always interfering?" She murmurs, "Leave people alone!"
erm... I don't want to get between anyone and their loot, but I was actually hoping to reincarnate him. I figure the world needs at least one living Blessed One, right? And it worked out so well the last time I tried it, right? And you're sure that he'll be free of the Cauldron Lady if you do? All of this stuff is nothing to do with the plot we've followed so far so honestly I have no idea if we could/should do that...
River is in no danger of death or damage - somehow she always seems to come through fights almost untouched, but she is both confused and disoriented by the sudden brutality and the booming voices.
River only has eyes for the nasty cauldron-lady-man as water pools around her in a confusing whirl.
I like the shroud of water a lot - it fits well with the character. I don't mind about being a monk - it seems like it would function just as an extension of your body, rather than something external, like armor and shields. Cool. Ultimate tank I am!
River watches the entire conversation with confusion writ large on her fine-boned features. Lacking any sense of what is going on she shifts from foot to foot behind Benedetto until the strangest elen says something that makes her react. "Cauldron Lady bad!" She declares. "Taking people and hurting them! No bloodshed, no hate! Not the way to make Hearth strong against Moon. You have to stop now."
Her words are unexpected, impassioned and delivered at the exact worst moment possible.
@The Declarative: as promised, a question for you. Can I use the Expanded Defense Wild Talent to get Shroud of Water?
Expanded Defense:
Element universal; Type utility (Su); Level 4; Burn —
Choose an element you selected with expanded element. You gain that element’s defense wild talent. You can take this wild talent multiple times, choosing a different element each time. I don't have expanded element, but I also never got the water defensive wild talent which they assume you will get at level 2, so thought it was worth asking? But before that I should probably check can I even use the talent? Technically monks can't use shields or armor but shroud of water isn't explicitly either of them - it "functions as" instead. Shroud of Water:
Element water; Type defense (Su); Level —; Burn 0
You surround yourself with a shroud of water, ice, or both that protects you from harm. The shroud can either cover your body, functioning as armor, or float around you and block attacks, functioning as a shield. It grants either a +4 armor bonus to AC or a +2 shield bonus to AC, and you can change the type of bonus as a standard action. This bonus increases by 1 for every 4 kineticist levels you possess beyond 2nd. By accepting 1 point of burn, you can increase the bonus by 1 until the next time your burn is removed. You can increase the bonus multiple times in this way, but it can’t be increased by more than 50% of its starting value. When you change the shroud to grant a shield bonus, any bonus in excess of this limit doesn’t apply, but it remains if you change the shroud’s bonus type again. Whenever you accept burn while using a water wild talent, the water coalescing around you allows your shroud to grant both the armor bonus and the shield bonus for 1 round. You can dismiss or restore this effect as an immediate action. Let me know either way. If not can I retrain my 8th level talent into Kinetic Blade so that I can take Kinetic Whip at 10th and hit people with water tendrils?
River shrinks back against the walls as the other elen appear and start discussing in loud voices. If it was an attempt at stealth it fails rather badly - an elen as pale as she is will always be noticeable in the dark. Outside among the snow her white hair would blend in perfectly but down here... Despite her apparent reticence to speak it is easy to see that River is poised for confrontation - her balance perfect as her eyes flit across everyone in the conversation. Once fire is mentioned she twists one slender wrist and water wells up into an orb that floats above her outstretched palm. "River." She says simply. "We help. Cauldron Temple is wrong. We should stop it."
Sorry - I was away at the UK Lorcana Championship so I've been off the net all weekend. Hi everyone, I'm River - the monk that isn't a monk, but definitely is a tank! So anyone who wants to flank can just see who comes to attack her and then attack them! @Declarative: may have a build question to toss at you when I get a chance to level up (which won't be till tomorrow). Sorry!
"Keep going." River says softly as the sylph stumbles. "You can do this. Follow me. The wind is close now."
She hurries onwards, keeping his frail hand in her own cold one and setting a pace just short of what she thinks he can manage.
River throws out blasts of water instinctively as the torches turn to threatening shades of black.
River takes the newly rescued elen's hand and leads him up the corridor, leaving the other two to deal with this threat that she's been spectacularly bad at dealing with.
It's a testament to just how horrible River is finding this whole experience that she is caught utterly by surprise and can't do anything better than blast the grasping hands with jet after jet of water.
River frowns at the description. Her usual poise is slowly being replaced by obvious twitches, she's swaying rather hypnotically from foot to foot and once Aisling is finished nods quickly. "Help, yes. Then get out!"
"I don't like this." River says simply. She's obviously getting extremely uncomfortable in these tunnels and Aisling's sniping doesn't seem to be making things better.
River is a. somewhat impulsive, b. very protective of children and c. alarmingly lacking in guile or suspicion. So when she sees Gull her first instinct is to go and get it back. So she runs after him. Fast.
River nods. The presence of ghostly children is making her uneasy and another odd feeling she doesn't recognise. It might be... anger?
I'm fine with gloves of dex + recon. The official rules are probably around somewhere, but let's say just add 500 gp to the overall price. Adding yet another would be an additional 2000, then 4000, 8000, etc. Official rules are full cost of item 1 + 150% of item 2. So 4000 + 2000 ends up being 7000, because you get 4 + (150% of 2 = 3) = 7k. In case you're interested for the future. ;)
River frowns. She takes children seriously, but first, there shouldn't be any children here and second, they shouldn't be happy. Unless something is very different downstairs. So she restrains herself and continues to move cautiously rather than hurrying forwards.
River simply nods. She doesn't understand exactly what Aisling has been doing, or really why he's so upset, but she can see that he is. So she stays quiet and leads the way downstairs. Maybe she can ask later.
River crouches down and retrieves the keys before gently running a hand across the guard's tortured face. "What did this?" She asks, although its not clear if she's musing or really asking.
River seems to favour silence and sneaking, although when she is caught by surprise by a guard elen her smile and apparent lack of guile smooth over any issues she might have caused.
River doesn't seem to object to Aisling's arming himself. He's proved useful now and he seems to use fire, which is an element that doesn't concern her much. Instead she gently leads Amatshe into the newly vacated cell and coaxes him into sitting down. It isn't much, but better than leaving him standing and staring into space. "Down then?" She asks simply, closing the door almost completely behind her. "No time to waste."
Sounds interesting. :)
It's a useful fact that they specifically call out in the rules... but who reads all the rules for kineticists? There's several pages of them! :D
River sends out more thick streams of water.
Just in case, kinetic blasts do full damage to swarms. Even the weakest kinetic blast involves a sizable mass of elemental matter or energy, so kinetic blasts always deal full damage to swarms of any size (though only area blasts deal extra damage to swarms). So I won't do any extra damage but I don't get halved either.
River frowns and two whirling streams of water flow from her hands, before blasting past Amatshe close enough to leave him drenched - but much freer of rats than he was a few seconds before!
River's thoughts have a bad habit of wandering...
"It is water." River says, sounding confused. "You can drink it." She looks around, obviously trying to find something and eventually locates a wooden cup lying forgotten under the jailer's table. She swipes it through the hovering ball and offers the now full cup to Aisling, each movement perfectly graceful and precise. "Water."
River opens her clenched hand and a small globe of water floats towards the other elen. "Water." She says simply. "If you use the knife I will hurt you."
River pauses for a moment and then moves onwards - whatever did this might still be there and finding them is the most important thing right now. |
