Yearning to rejoin his pack, Roedd waits until late in the night when everyone has retired and sets out alone for his homeland.
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All, I'm bowing out of this game. This being my first play-by-post, I think my expectations were unreasonably high. The pace is not consistent enough to stave off the sense of frustration that inevitably builds waiting for the group to participate. I think I'll stick to in-the-flesh games from now on. Best wishes to all.
"We should set out just before dawn, one at a time and as quiet as a mouse. We don't know if everyone here is friendly or if the fort is being watched. No sense in tipping off any scouts."
Roedd stares at Booj, confounded and disgusted.
Roedd visibly relaxes and lowers his javelin, standing straighter than before.
So I had planned for my Spartacus moment to happen somewhere farther down the line, but irritations at work bled into my typing and I got on a roll. Reading a few posts back, I thinking I'm giving the appearance that Roedd is a little more than neurotic. Oh well, he is just this side of wild.
Becoming visibly agitated..."Don't raise your eyebrows at me you mwnci di-flew! I've no idea what we're doing, trapsing around out here, other than endangering the lives of those we meet. IF you wereN'T SO HelLBeNt on KeepING secrets, YOu might've IMPartED to US WHo we are LOoking for aND WHY. BUT I GUESS YOU CAN'T SPARE ANY MEASURE OF CIVILITY FOR ANYONE YOU SEE AS LESS THAN YOURSELF. WELL THAT'S IT. I WILL SUBMIT TO YOU AND YOUR PRECIOUS LEGIOS NO LONGER." With that, Roedd springs back to a defensive crouch, javelin at the ready, and with his free hand, yanks the slave collar from his neck. " ANYONE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT!!!?"
Generally speaking, I don't think it's necessary to follow a strict turn-based response system for anything but combat and skill challenges. I understand that you want to give people a chance to react, but if there is a 12-24 hr lull, assume everyone has said their peace or is waiting to see what you're going to do before adding to the mix.
Are we on a break or something? We seemed to keep falling into a lull, posting-wise. Everybody posts, wait four/five days. Somebody posts, wait two days. While my attention span is that of a donkey chasing a carrot, it does have its limits.
Roedd mumbles something about a fool's errand. Quickly turning to face both Jacen and Gerus, Roedd looks Jacen square in the eyes, "Damn good question. And one that deserves a damn good answer." Addressing Jacen and Armand..."It's clear, Gerus and his pack have been ravaged by Naltanic greed. By the looks of things, most of the males old enough to fight or serve have been pressed into service or killed. My kith and kin have likely met the same fate."
chirp, chirp... chirp, chirp...
Eyeing the cook fire lustfully, Roedd speaks his mind...
"The Naltanos hunt my kind in the goedwig ar y ffin far to the north. Only when they out number us 4 to 1, do they take us for slaves, to fetch them wine and dispose of their waste."
Roedd acknowledges Armand with a long look."It's alright. I've not seen other brawd i blaidd for some time... certainly none around these parts. The longtooth only speaks from ignorance." Turing his attention to Gerus and pointing to his badge, "Your symbol... I have not seen it among the Naltanos...
Creature they want, creature they'll get. Roedd barks and jerks very quickly toward whomever relieves him of the rabbits just before they take hold of the game. "You didn't say the magic words. Ha, ha, ha!"
"These rabbits aren't going to cook themselves. Any questions you have would be best answered between mouth-fulls of stew."
Roedd looks at the nearest armed man. "ehmm, Is the Longtooth, um... touched? I am here, so how can I be lost?" Roedd speaks so that all can hear. "I've rabbit to share, if there is room at your fire."
Hey, all. Still here and trying to keep up, but just out of the hospital yesterday and pretty doped up (I'm fine, just have my happy pills). I'll write as I come up with time and energy together. Booj can just go with the flow for now. Roger Waters did some of his best writing doped up. Take advantage of the chemistry and post. ;)
Roedd wanders into the camp with a few rabbits slung over his shoulder, and heads for a cook fire. "I hope no one here will object to a little rabbit stew for sup this evening?" Dropping his kit on the ground, Roedd draws a ring in the dirt, hoping someone from this group will breaks its line, revealing Qui Obuius.
Realizing the futility of his endeavor, Roedd takes a reverse grip on his javelin, placing the tip just under his sternum, and violently thrusts it up into his heart.
This is both a short and long term goal, which is to say that Roedd is obsessing over it. With each passing day away from the Legio, his convictions grow. To Roedd they are one and the same. His only real contact with the Empire has been the Legio.
Roedd is looking for justice. Someway in which to discredit, dishonor, and embarrass the Legios for enslaving him and his people.
Roedd rejoins the party at the tavern and quietly whispers to Jacen. Jacen - DM: Alfa, a stable boy spoke of a soldier riding a war trained beast. Likely the one we have been tracking. He left this morning. If we are to catch him up, we will need to leave soon. With any luck, we may be able to overtake him in the dark. But we must move now.
DM: Even the most spirited beasts of burden will usually defer to unfaltering confidence, once they have been broken. They are made to be lead. But as you say it may not be the beast I am in search of. Thanks for your help. I have no coin to repay, but I may be able to treat you to a hare for your evening meal, should you so desire.
DM: No pup. I have no need for a mount of my own, but my master's mount has gone missing. I have been tracking it for a couple of days now. You would not have seen a strong sure-footed horse come in the last day or two, would you? Finding the beast soon will surely limit the crack of my master's whip. On the other hand, not finding it will be the end of me. It may have come in on its own, but it is more likely that another man was riding it. I am not one to leave my master's possessions unsecured. I am sure you can relate.
Forget this!
DM: Roedd is going to sink down to the town and try to merge into the milling townsfolk, looking for the horse with tracks we have been following.
Roedd whispers... "At the very least we should go down in groups. Lets us see how the townsfolk will react, without committing our entire strength. Besides, two or three groups of one or two individuals, is far less threatening than one larger group."
Were my freedom an option, I would play the willing slave. That is to say, a party of four slavers trying to off load two slaves may be a reasonable cover to assume.
Roedd, skillfully moves back out of site of the village, and looks around for any hidden sentrys that may be posted to provide early warning.
Well I can't let these hares go to waste. Grab what you want. I like half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve!
I'm not eating that legion bark if I don't have to. There ought to be a nice fat rabbit 'round here somewhere.
In the words of my venerable Uncle Onslow... Oh, Nice!.
It might be wise to have the old bear and monkey take the first watch. Give'em a chance to dry out and warm up.
I agree with the DMG sidebar, however that is written with the core system of skill challenges in mind. The core system agrees with what I stated above, in that a skill challenge requires collaborative success across the majority of several singular checks for several singular tasks. I'm not saying I like the core system. However, what you have done with the system in play, is reduce the skill challenge to one singular task in which everyone gets to roll vs a skill, vice many skill checks in which only one person rolls per check (understanding that no person can roll again until everyone in the group has gone at least). Is that even a sentence? ;( The other issue I have (which may be entirely predicated on my ignorance of your GM'ing style) is that the core skill challenge, if successful, resulted in a net gain in xp for characters. I think in a side conversation you were not necessarily attributing an xp value for skill challenges, which leads me to ask... What purpose does the skill challenge mechanic serve? If skill challenges have no xp value, then there is no reason to treat a river crossing as a skill challenge. Reason being, since two characters got washed downstream, the remaining party still has to go collect them up if they wish to continue on as a party. So group challenge or individual challenge, there is no game difference that I see.
Sorry, this is long. Ok... I'm having a hard time getting my head around this last "group" challenge. In the previous challenge, it was obvious to me that re-acquiring the trail worked well as a group challenge. Any one person can try and it only takes one success to benefit everyone (rules for skill challenges aside.) I found the trail, I show it to everyone, problem solved. In this case the dc was high enough to require a collaboration of effort from the party members. In this latest group challenge, either a person succeeds in the crossing, or they don't and end up washed downstream. It makes sense that those who failed the challenge should lose a healing surge because they exhausted themselves trying to keep from drowning in the cold river. So, why then do those who did not get washed downstream lose a healing surge? If the rationale is that they had to march late into the night to regroup with the others, then it seems that a separate skill check, perhaps an endurance check should be required of them. I'm not trying to whine about the loss of a healing surge. I recognize that the loss is largely inconsequential since we are likely bedding down for an extended rest. I'm just trying to figure out an abstract method for determining what constitutes a group skill challenge. Thinking about it, I'm having a hard time defining it. Something like... If a task requires everyone to succeed, then it should NOT be a group challenge. If only one person, or portion of the group that is less than 100%, needs to succeed, then it should be a group challenge. In the trail challenge, the signs were so obscure, it took the efforts of several people's findings to make sense of where the trail was. It didn't matter that Seljak was completely useless is helping find the trail. Once found, it's found. In the river crossing, everyone had to make it to the other side. Seljak's failure did not prevent Yuriel or Roedd from making it to the other side. If anything, it presented them with the question of... Do we look for them now, or in the morning? In my mind, this last challenge should have been an individual challenge, where failure means you don't make it across, and possibly end up downstream, cold, exhausted and minus a healing surge.
After hearing Booj's question and shaking his head in dismay, Roedd proceeds to ford across the river at the point which appears to be the most shallow. Once on the other side, Roedd will take up a defensive posture, facing away from the river.
Not sure, but I think you get an extra 5 for rolling a natural 20.
Roedd checks for unnatural positioning of rocks (those that may have been disturbed by passing),missing lichen patches that ought to be present on rocks, and the lack of wild life (to include bugs) whose absence may be due to recent intruders. Nature: EDIT: Whoops, didn't realize that Yuriel already made a nature check. Not sure if that precludes me from doing the same. Your post does not make clear if everyone get's to make a check, or one per skill, etc...
"Brith Un... I could use your help, that I may live one more day. Though it confuses my eyes to see you standing yet." "Peacock! Settle your feathers... I will find our path as soon as the grizzled-one sees to my wounds."
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