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Sorry. I'm going to go ahead and stay out of this. I don't mind if a GM tells everyone he doesn't have time to continue, or if he just disappears without a word. Either way, I've seen games survive. I'm not happy with the way this game has stalled. I've gone ahead and posted an in-game farewell. I'd rather Raven not be DMPC'd.
"Whoo..." Raven leans against the bars of one of the cells. "Whatever they drugged us with is hitting me harder than the rest of you, it seems. I feel like I was out for two months! I barely remember what we're doing here, and I don't really care anymore. Here's my idea: Telp and I will take this kid out through the courtyard and see him to safety. Then we'll head back to Kassen and retire to our respective studies. The rest of you can have fun storming the castle."
As easy as it is for me to check for updates regularly, to be honest, I'm starting to feel like maybe we should officially call it. Zeb, it's clear there's a lot going on for you, and this shouldn't feel like a burden that you need to check in and apologize for every couple weeks. I totally understand lifus interruptus. I've enjoyed the game. I appreciate you running it. Don't feel like you've let me down at all. I'm proud of Raven, and I'm glad I got to play her a while (though I feel like I haven't kept as good a grasp on her personality as I'd have liked).
Shoot... sorry to see Telperion go. Not that I'm a particularly experienced gamer, but he's probably been my favorite character in any game I've played - such an original take on a rogue. And funny, to boot. Wasn't sure if this game was/is going to resume. I've got all my games on a wishlist, so it's never any trouble for me to keep an eye out for updates. I'd probably look for other games to supplement, but I just haven't had time to create a new character. Loved the idea of stringing together adventures instead of trying to tackle a whole path.
Raven calls out a response: "Hello? Can you help? He just passed out! I don't know what's wrong with him!" She shrugs to the others with a grin and keeps out of the way of their anticipated ambush.
"He didn't seem any happier than us to be treated this way. But then, his motivation to join was purely mercenary, so he may try to warn the cult in an attempt to gain favor early." "Since we've got this one, we could have someone don his robes and mask as a disguise, but I'm not sure if it would get us far enough to get what we need here, and it's only one disguise. Was there anyone else out there that we could lure in here to get another disguise or two? I wonder if it would be worth it to revive this one and question him?"
Raven takes the spear with a shrug, hoping she won't have to use it. She sticks with her plan to use her laughing touch. "When they come in, I'm going to touch him with a laughter hex. It'll keep him from attacking anyone for a moment. He can still run, though, so we need to make sure he doesn't get away."
Raven hides next to the entrance, hoping to give the cult member her laughing touch after he walks into the room.
It seems like the party composition is better qualified for a fight than for subtlety.
Raven returns the wave to Telperion, and looks past him to see that Evlar is also in one of the cells. "Well, they threw the other two guys (with a nod toward Bolkin) in here, too, so I guess this is how they treat all their new recruits. We could play 'I spy.' I spy with my little eye something... grey!'" She laughs quickly, but begins thinking about the kind of people that would be running this cult.
Sorry to hear it, Zeb. Hang in there, with the family and the tests. We'll be here when you're ready.
As Raven's consciousness crosses the threshold, she sits up quickly. She sees the bars, and then checks on her own person to make sure everything is intact, and verify that their gear had been taken. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea..." she says to no one in particular, then she realizes herself, and checks around to take roll that everyone else was still here.
Will level Raven some time (Friday, maybe). She'll probably wake up Thursday. (Busy day today.)
"Ooh, I'm not feeling too good." Raven tries to keep her head up, but all she can do is push her food out of the way and lay her head on her arms before she passes out.
I'm still around. I've got all my games assigned to a wishlist that shows when new posts have shown up. Though for some reason, neither of these threads showed that they had new posts, but maybe it takes a while to update sometimes.
Raven didn't pay much attention to what the cultists said or ate. She figured the cultists weren't going to share any secrets to brand new recruits. She started eating heartily, and only drank enough ale to wash down the food (she had never taken to the bitter taste of alcohol).
Raven slid her bracers off under the table when the Razmirites came in, since they might be as standard issue as the masks. She slid them into the bag of holding when Evlar drew their attention. Though initially horrified when Garik stood up, she realized that his and Evlar's words were probably exactly the kind of reaction they were looking for. Drosk's words, on the other hand, were probably not. She hoped she could save the deception. As she stands, Raven looks at Evlar with a look of sympathy and understanding, trying to act as if she's gained some new enlightenment, before returning her gaze to the cultists. "I guess it's hard to make the world a better place without the power and resources. I will join. How about you, Telp...erion?" She realized at the last second that she didn't want to invite the cultists or Evlar to use her taunting nickname for her friend. She looked to Telperion with wide eyes, and nodded her head slowly and subtly. Just say, "yes," just say, "yes"...
Congrats, Zeb! My wife is a computer programmer, and she started out majoring in CS, and then switched to MIS (Management Information Systems?) because she found the CS requirements too hard. She managed to find a good-paying job right out of college (in fact, some of her old CS classmates had more trouble finding a job). If you did any programming on your first go-around and liked that aspect of the major, I'd recommend switching to MIS. It seems like that'll be enough to get your foot in the door somewhere, and after that, it's all a matter of experience and talent. As for the game, Raven was waiting for Bolkin to speak up. I'll think about stepping forward today. I've been out sick for a couple days, and I've got a lot to catch up on.
Raven tries to channel Amadea's optimistic naivete. She opens her bag, and digs into it briefly as she answers: "Well, we're not sure if we're joining them yet. But we've heard they do good works for the community, and that appeals to us." Discreetly, she lays her hand flat on the table, and lifts from her chair as she slides her hand across the table to a place in front of the apparently impoverished man. She lifts her hand to reveal a gold piece beneath, and sits back down on her chair. "I don't want to discourage you from staying and hearing about the church - the more people doing good, the better - but I can help you get a roof, at least for a few days." She explains their generosity with a nearly apologetic tone: "We were fortunate enough to get the better of some assailants recently, and apparently there was a sizable reward from the Marshall's office for their arrest." Her voice regains a chipper tone as she finishes, "The Marshall is the one who recommended the church to us!"
Raven nods toward a couple tables in the back, thinking it wouldn't help to seem too eager, and would be more in character for the party to seem a little aloof. She recalled a rare piece of advice her father gave her: "Men don't like women who seem too eager... well, we like them, but we don't respect them..." At which point, he seemed to forget about her, which was more in his character, as he got lost in his thoughts, or maybe fond memories of eager women. Though Raven was far too young to hear such advice, it had stuck with her. She presented no reaction to the surly elf or half-elf.
Raven considers the caution from Reginar of not making assumptions, and thinks she gets the gist of Telperion's reference. Or, at least to her, it makes her think that whether lying is necessarily right or wrong depends on who you're lying to. Raven had never been beholden to honesty, but she had always figured the rightness or wrongness depended on what you're lying about. Maybe she'd have to talk to Telp about it later. But it gave her a different idea when Drosk voiced his concern. "You're not really joining the cult, though, Drosk. Does Torag have anything against lying, in itself? He'll know you weren't honestly joining the cult, just as we all would." She turns to Amadea, suspecting she has a similar objection. "And Erastil's the patron of hunters. I see hunters all the time using camouflage to stay hidden from their prey, so I know he doesn't object to using deceit. Think of 'joining' the cult as your camouflage."
"I do not like lying. And what if they ask us to do something evil to prove our loyalty?" "Well, they're pretending to be a positive influence in the community, so I'd think it'd be a while before they show off their evil colors to new recruits. If we do try to join, we'd be claiming that we'd like to find out more about the Living God because we admire the church's good works. You can be honest about wanting to 'work with an organization that does good works in the community', right?" "But maybe we don't all have to join. Those of us who are more... flexible can join first. Especially if they're actively recruiting... maybe the way to advance early is to bring in more new recruits. The first recruits can 'introduce' the others as their recruits later to gain some more trust and maybe more access to the real workings."
"Um, yeah...", Raven glances over at Telperion. "I'm not sure we can pull off something so deceptive..." She answers Morthos, "... and if they've got the guard, which seems to be the case," she looks to Drosk to back her up, considering the glowing endorsement that the Marshall had given the cult the night before, "we'll just end up in jail, and probably executed, if we assault them." She turns back to Reginar: "Do you have any guess where the blue-robed woman was headed? Do they have any temples or churches in any towns in that direction?"
No worries, Zeb. Sorry about the cat. Hope everything else smooths over. Thanks for the heads-up.
Raven smiled when they walked into the Forest Bounty, taking it all in. This is the kind of tavern Margus and them talk about! With stories and feasts late into the night... the dwarves will like this! Her eyes lit up as they were invited to enjoy their host's lunch selection. She looked at her mates to see if they were as relieved to get some decent food as she was, and caught Telperion's consternation. "Hope you didn't fill up on that awful soup, Telp!" She takes a seat on the opposite side of Reginar and starts loading a plate with small samples of each vegetable, waiting her turn to get a slice of the boar.
Raven took a couple spoonfuls of the soup, to be polite, but pushed it away as soon as the others started to make noise of moving on. "Let me go grab my things." She jogs up the steps and returns a moment later with her weapons in tow.
Raven takes a taste of the soup and manages to hide her disappointment. She waves a few fingers clumsily, tries some mystical words, "Hud Mân", and dips a finger into the soup. She takes another taste, and can't hide her disappointment this time in the failure of her spell. I'll have to work on that... Fixing the flavor of a dish had never been a necessity in the Vargidan household.
At the Marshal's office, Raven nodded her head thoughtfully as Drosk recovered from his misstep with the marshal. Good one, Drosk, she thought to herself. She managed to turn her impressed grin into a grimace more appropriate for a group seeking a friend in danger.
At the marshall's office, Raven stays near the door while Drosk and Amadea satisfy themselves that the pirates have been properly imprisoned, or whatever. She does move closer when she hears Drosk begin talking to the clerk, interested in any information he might have.
"I'd rather get our money now." She turns to the thirsty dwarves, "You guys really want to have to get up earlier tomorrow to go to the marshall's office? Possibly with a hangover? I say we get this out of the way now, so we can sleep in tomorrow, and resume our trip at a decent hour tomorrow."
Raven keeps guard for about 1 minute after Amadea begins preaching to the pirates before she turns to the rest of the group for help. "Can somebody else guard them for me? I've never pillaged anyone; I shouldn't have to suffer this. Drosk?" She looks to Drosk with her best puppy-dog eyes. If someone does take over for Raven: Relieved of guard duty, Raven stands and uncocks her crossbow. She looks around for the salvaged strongbox. "They have anything interesting, besides the papers?" She holds up the feather in one hand. "Dangos i mi y hud!" "It's a single-use token that anchors a boat in place for a day. I wonder if you could tie it to an arrow so you can stop a boat that's retreating from distance?" She shrugs dismissively and gives it back to whoever was keeping the booty.
"I wouldn't waste spells on these two," Raven responds with a grin.
"But remember, Cap'n Walgren said there's a bounty fer pirates. So ye should see some coin fer bringin' 'em in," the dwarf priest adds pragmatically. "Or their papers," Raven corrects him, not taking her guard from the pirates. She continues to watch them with what she hopes is a steely gaze, as the others investigate the pirates' ship.
"Pfft! I don't see why it's our responsibility to think about all the reasons they might want to kill us! Why isn't it their responsibility to think of all the reasons we might not want to be killed?" After a little more thought, Raven continues, "And if they do kill for their own survival, then that makes them just like wolves. That's just nature. But you better believe the deer would fight back if it could. And there wouldn't be any trials! Trial's not natural..." "Bother! Now we have to keep watch on these jerks till we get to town!" She kneels down 10 feet away from the prisoners, with her loaded crossbow pointed towards them, but angled down toward the deck.
Raven was dumbfounded by the reactions of Amadea and Drosk. "Why are we trying to save them? They were trying to kill us!"
Raven drops her longspear and retrieves her crossbow and bolts from where Bolkin dropped them.
Raven watches the boat come closer, trying to get a feel for where she can help. She wonders if it'll be harder to board the barge if their ship's deck is covered with grease. "arwyneb llithrig"
After helping her with her armor, Raven picks up her longspear and follows Amadea out. She finds cover from which she can still see the approaching boat, and then casts a spell that illuminates their deck. "goleuadau sy'n symud" Four lantern-sized lights appear over the heads of the sailors on the approaching ship and follow them as they come closer.
Raven tries following Telperion's gaze, but she only saw fog. When Amadea asks for help with her armor, Raven answers distractedly, "Yeah, sure." She snaps out of it after a second, and looks around at her party before following Amadea. Seeing Bolkin without a range weapon, she hands him her light crossbow and quiver. "Here. So you can start dropping them as soon as you see them." She then follows Amadea into the cabin, and follows her lead in helping her equip.
Raven left her spear at home and got a longspear and dagger. She'll take the sacks from Garik and toss them in the bag of holding.
Bolkin's the only other one who might want the chainmail. It looks like a free hand fighter can wear all armors, but they lose bonuses in medium or heavy, so he still may not want it.
Raven rolled her eyes as Amadea spoke up with righteous fervor. Just what we need! Another dwarf, in orc's clothing... Raven didn't have a problem with Amadea. They'd run into each other in the woods before, so she'd always accepted her as kind of a kindred spirit. But she hadn't realized she was so righteous. Raven was going to have to be vigilant to make sure she and Drosk didn't get them over their heads in commitments to do good. Raven gave Cygar a nod as she left with the rest and spoke to them when she felt they were out of earshot of the pathfinder. "Before we leave, we should ask around to see if anyone knows about Iramine and where she is now. As much as people like stories of Kassen, maybe someone here is familiar with some of his old adventuring team. Try to be discreet, but if anyone asks why you want to know, you can tell them I was asking, and I'll bluff them if they ask me. Oh, and don't tell anyone about the trip! Some of us may need to sneak out to come on the trip." She gave Amadea and Telperion a look as she said her last sentence, feeling they were most likely to share her concern. For her part, Raven found an opportunity to ask her father if he knows about the elven sorceress who used to adventure with Kassen, and later Baker found her in the library. "Anything in particular you're looking for?" Baker asked. He didn't mind the kids borrowing his books - returning them was a lesson they all learned at a young age. He'd collected all his nature and fey books on one shelf for Raven, and he was surprised to find her looking on other shelves. "Do you have any books about Kassen?" she asked. "Not just the kid's stories. The real story. Like how he and Asar used to adventure together?"
It sounded like Cygar knew what he was talking about, but she kept up a front of hostility, regarding him through narrow eyes. "Do you know where the other pieces of the amulet are?" Raven had expected the group to discuss whether or not to go to Tamran first or seek out the elven sorceress, Iramine, first. She hadn't even had a chance to ask her father or any of her family if they knew her.
Raven was still sulking from having to go onstage during the ceremony when Cygar approached them. She was slightly offended by his presumptuous proposal, and horrified as Garik started to commit them to something they didn't know anything about. What is with these dwarves making promises to people!? She gave a dirty sidelong look to Garik as she stepped forward to address Cygar, before anyone else spoke up and had them signing contracts next. "Who said we don't already have plans? I don't know if I want to work for the Pathfinders. But if you tell us what you want, maybe it'll coincide with the plans we might have already been making." She crossed her arms and challenged him with a defiant scowl when she finished speaking.
Depending on how Raven feels on it, it is possible that the two have never seen eye to eye, and have more or less avoided each other for the most part. Alternatively, both being outcasts, it is possible that they were very close friends. What do you think works best Raven? I imagine the Vargidan family as being pretty insular. I don't imagine Raven really has friends or enemies in town. If Amadea has spent much time wandering around the woods outside of town, the two may have run into each other. Any conversation would probably have been awkward and short, but they may have a respect for one another for having that in common. Kind of like how a couple high schoolers might have a respect for each other because they listen to similar music, even though they don't hang out together in the same circle of friends.
"Hey, Telp," Raven greeted Telperion as he came over. "Ah, you're Telperion! Holgast's boy, right? Raven says you distinguished yourself well..." Margus welcomed him to the table. Then, sensing Telperion's discomfort, continued, "No worries, you don't all have to be storytellers." He turned back to the table and rejoined the conversation on buffing and battlefield control magic. Nanny G invited Telperion to take her seat as she got up and took Campbell with her to mingle. As the magic conversation wound down, Raven turned to Telperion and changed the subject. "I was wondering... why do you think Asar didn't kill Dmira? He killed everyone else. What did he want with her?" She turned to her siblings. "Was it just 'cause she's a girl? I mean, he was a skeleton! He didn't even have a-" "Karen!" Margus interrupted her. "Raven!" she corrected him, "and I was just going to say, 'He didn't even have a penis!'" "I know that's what you were going to say!" Margus rolled his eyes, but he smiled at her clowning. Melissa and Kern laughed. Raven looked to Telperion to see if she succeeded in embarrassing him. "I was really wondering why he didn't kill her, though," she assured him, embarrassed or not.
I like the underscore! You don't even notice it! Good call, Zeb!
Raven was welcomed home by the whole family. Even her father was present to tell her he was glad she was safe, before heading back to wherever he spends his time. Nanny G rushed her off to bed. All her siblings' eager questions would have to wait. Over a light breakfast, Raven finally got to share her story with the family, though Kern noted such tales should be shared in the night, over ale and dinner. Even though Raven felt like she didn't contribute as much, her experienced siblings reassured her she'd done pretty well for a young sorceress. But best of all, Merritt was sulking he was so jealous. Poetic justice, considering how much he'd teased her beforehand that he didn't have to go. Raven was accompanied to the celebration by Nanny G and Campbell, Melissa and Kern, and Margus and his wife. They found a relatively secluded table, and though Nanny G and Margus's wife mingled, Melissa, Margus and Kern stayed at the table with Raven. Melissa gave her some tips on how she had helped her mates on their adventures, even though she didn't have the same kind of destructive spells as Karol. Backed up by Margus and Kern, it made a lot of sense, though Raven wondered if Karol's continuing success as an adventure should be considered a stronger argument than the words of a handful of retired adventurers. |
