Sorry, guys. I'm still here. Just having a hard time keeping up with my games currently.
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Hmmm. That's unfortunate, man. Hope it's at least a good job move. :) And now the other shoe drops. In mid June to early July, my wife is having our second child. I can tell you from experience that's going to mean somewhat of an absence from my perspective from the birth until ... well... whenever we get our feet back under us. So with JIvaji's absence and mine (whenever that happens), you're looking to be down two crew-members in a game where Shano said he wasn't interested in recruiting any more. Sorry, guys.
Silent looks skeptical. :: Maybe, if they don't finish the job of eating us that she started. I don't get the impression they want their presence known around here. Do we think the caravan leader is simply in on the knowledge of the vampires? Or is he himself one? ::
Silent regards the strange girl... well... silently for a few minutes before his yellow eyes flash over to the others. :: So what's the play here? I don't trust her to be with us, so I guess we head back to town? Present her to the leader guy? Do we tell the rest of the village? ::
Silent shrugs at Tam. :: I did my best to lose it. :: He can't help but smile at Jivaji, though. :: I think it was just a matter of proper motivation. ::
Silent shakes his head at Eltumal. :: Don't worry about it. You need to recover before you get into any more dangerous situations. Speaking of which, we should try to get as much sleep as the night still offers. We can plan our next steps in the morning. ::
Silent drags his furry butt back into the firelight, completing his transformation to human as he gulps huge breaths of air. He looks like a horse run half to death. His hands are a bit shaky as he tries to sign. :: BIG. BIG. DINOSAUR! :: He continues gasping as his yellow eyes roll around the group. :: Jivaji make it back?! :: When he sees the bird man, Silent gives him a rare rueful grin as he sinks to his knees. :: New rule. We stick together. Also, dinosaurs suck! ::
:: I say we wait til morning. Jivaji, we go hunting? ::
Silent stands, wiping his hands off. :: Whatever we do, we should rest up some more. Eltumal will need to recover a bit before we risk anything more dangerous than a round of drinks. :: He motions over to Javaji. :: You up for some hunting? Try to get some live game for the girl. Probably be safest for all of us if she had some blood in her system that wasn't ours. ::
Silent continues to think on all the revelations. So we have one daughter. A second one at large, and we don't know where the father is. Also don't know about these other vampires. He looks around the group, hands flashing.
:: So have you seen your sister or father recently? And how about these other vampires? Is any of the townsfolk aware of their presence and roll with the village? ::
Silent watches the exchange, but his eyes never stray far from the girl. :: I think it's foolish to let her out. Javi's right. She nearly killed Eltumal. And we don't know what she's truly capable of. Maybe she's in control, but there's no harm in being careful. I say keep her bound until she's proven that she's more than a blood-thirsty monster. ::
Keeping his hand on the girl's wrist, Silent's hands flash in the dim light. :: She's a vampire. Let's take her back to camp. And she does nothing without being watched... NOTHING. And she CERTAINLY doesn't get released. :: He looks around in the dark jungle, hand flashing once more. :: Hold on... I dropped my blade. :: He shifts back to human form, using his nose to back-track to where he first grabbed her, making sure to recover his blade before they head back to the camp. :: Someone convince this girl we don't mean any harm to those who don't mean harm to us. :: A wicked gleam enters his yellow eyes. :: Maybe Eltumal can deliver that particular message. ::
Silent raises his hand. :: I'm in. ::
Sorry for my absence. Life got crazy on me, and now i'm stepping away on vacation for a while. Not 100% when i'll be back to a regular-posting schedule. Sorry, all.
This is all the info I see… Shano, Jivaji, and Eltumal:
So other than us having foodstuffs equivalent to 7 days rations, i'm not sure what new we learned. Silent already knew the trail was there, but we didn't learn anything new about where it went? The only thing I can see that we've revealed is that there are in fact dinos and undead here, and the people of the village say there haven't been any of either inside the village. Did I miss something?
"If you won't be ready to do the trading until tomorrow, why don't you come with us into the forest or help Tam and Mac with the village-work?"
Shano:
Yes, very helpful. Thanks.
You said "another familiar human smell" is on the trail. Who does it belong to? Someone Silent's met so far? Silent makes his way back towards the wall, but not before marking the trail in the usual wolf manner. Don't want other predators mucking up my trail. Before coming anywhere near the sentries or town entrance, he stands back up onto his human feet, entering in human form. He nods politely at any greetings he receives, but he's only interested in getting back to the shack. Silent walks in through the door, getting straight to business. Sign Language:
"I took a circuit around the town. There are a few gaming trails we can use to bring some food in. Either for us to eat or to help us create a trading relationship in this town. More importantly, though, is that I found a trail that has the same scents this house does. Here's all that i can figure out."
"This shack has the strong scent of a male and two younger females. The older male didn't bathe much by the strength of the smell. I don't smell any blood in here, so I don't think any violence happened in the shack. Strange thing is that there is the smell of… death and decay following one of the female scents around. Something undead? A friendly or malevolent undead.. I'm not sure." "Then I found one trail that had all the same scents. It was hard to spot visually, but the scents don't lie. The 'death-and-decay' smell still followed one of the female scents. The strong male scent and the two female scents were a little old. The smells of dead things seemed to be more common and recent. But nowhere were there signs of blood or corpses." "I didn't' follow the trail too far, so I don't know where it leads. Might also be good to find out if anyone in this village is some kind of necromancer." He shrugs as if to say, 'that's all i can figure out.'
Shano:
Silent continues on his intentional circuit, grabbing odd items, sniffing them, and discarding all but a few. Once finished -- and once the group is alone -- Silent turns back to everyone, holding up some girls' clothes and hovering near one of the beds. Sign langauge:
"I have some scents. What I think is the man's scent is everywhere. And strong. There are a few scents of what I assume are his daughters. There's also the smell of a lot of blood. And death. Mostly around this bed. And on these clothes." He holds up a few small items of clothing to demonstrate. Sign language: "So if the girls were taken here, it might have been done violently. Or the blood is their abductor's. I can try to track the scent out of town unless someone has any immediate ideas."
Silent continues his poking around, and it becomes evident that he's looking for something specific, and he's leading with his nose. Sign Language: "I'm trying to find something that belonged to the dad and the daughters. The tracking will go significantly easier if I can catch their scent on the trail."
And if you can't make the Disable Device DC... there's a crowbar in that loot list, too. :) Though I guess we should hit it with a Detect Magic and Detect Poison first, huh?
Cool. can you do that twice and get both items? I'm not sure what that parchment with a level on it is, either. ARe those unidentified scrolls? As to the rest of the gear, Silent could use that light Crossbow. He's got bolts but no ranged weapon at this point.
Relieved that the group wasn't in fact going to rely on the mute lycanthrope to handle the negotiations, Silent follows them into the house, letting his nose wander a bit. Sign Language:
"I like Jivaji's idea." He pokes around at some of the random stuff in the shack -- pulling back curtains, opening drawers, just general nosing around. The story of the two daughters catches his attention, and his hands fly through a couple of thoughts. Sign Language:
"You think those girls may have gotten caught up with that tribe of women back there? If one of their scouting groups ran across a couple of lost girls, I think they'd be all about helping. Ask this guy what those girls look like. Maybe we saw them and didn't even know it."
Shanosuke: Ha! I think i'd be more concerned if they acted like they DID expect us. :)
Silent gives a half-smile as he nods at Eltumal's observation, his yellow eyes continuing to scan the strange town.
Silent follows the group through the camp , keeping eyes, ears, and nose open for anything strange or threatening. He watches people's faces and body language, gauging their situation.
Sign Language: "These people just live out here? How do they protect themselves?"
As the wad of poisonous spit flies by his head, Silent takes in his packmates' actions. Pack hunting is in Silent's blood, and when he sees the ape move towards their foe, he mirrors his movements, approaching the dinosaur from the other side before lashing out with his blade.
Ready to go
The mention of Mormont gets Silent's attention quickly. Seeing that the group intends to look into the situation, he simply listens along.
sorry to hear about your busy schedule. Believe me, I understand how you're feeling. At least it's busy because we're supposed to have a break soon, right? (at least that's what i keep telling myself) As to the rebuild thing, thanks. I didn't think you'd' mind (since it's not really a rebuild at all at this point... more of a re-visioning). and about the vote. It sounds like everyone else is having a good time with the game as it is, and I don't want to ruin their fun with my rash words. I say we ignore the vote and you keep running the game as-is. (I'm sure you can find a way to punish me for my insolence at some point. :D)
Silent looks perplexed, hands flashing. Sign Language: "Repayment for what? Exactly what has he done for us here? Other than give us some food... which I'm fairly certain we could have found on our own. I'm not big on killing for money, either."
Silent lets his nose discover the meat trays, testing it for poisons before grabbing a few bites to chew on.
Sorry, I meant to respond to this, but got busy and then forgot. Here are my (slightly late) thoughts.
Checks and Saves
I think you're actually doing it this way already, but let me suggest we put it in terms of 'Proactive' checks vs. 'Reactive' checks. Certain skills are always proactive, like deciding to go into stealth. The player should always roll this. That changes when stealth needs to be kept up because of a change that happens that the player didn't control. LIke if an opponent's movement would give them another perception check against a player… I figure that's a good chance for the DM to keep the flow going by making this Stealth check and just updating everyone on what they know/perceive. Alignments: Awesome. i"m not against them, but I think they can hinder good character creation and development - even though I realize they were put in place to help with just that. Now to the questions
2) I like the campaign so far. It's been interesting to see where it's gone, and i'm curious to see where it goes. I'm curious to know when we'll begin seeing more elements tied to our starting motivation - Mormont. As Silent is pretty dead-set on seeing the man dead, it'd be nice to have that element brought back in every now and then - to keep the motivation alive. 3) I can't think of many details that weren't communicated well enough for me to get what is happening. I realize it's unhelpful when someone doesn't have specific feedback, but I can't think of a situation where I thought you hadn't given us enough information to make informed decisions. 4) This is where I do have a thought. Combat is tricky in PbP's, and I understand why you have us rolling two rounds worth of actions at once, but I just struggle with this concept. I don't want the game to bog down, either, but doing actions this way really limits one's ability to make key decisions in combat and to make the most of every round. Position changes, lucky hits or unlucky incoming strikes usually dictate what I do from round to round. Basically, having to plan two rounds out limits my ability to make clutch decisions should they come up. I mean, if Eltumal drops from an ill-timed spider crit in the first of the two rounds, Silent can't switch tactics and rush to stand over him defensively (or anyone else, for that matter). It's these things that happen in combat that can help people feel like their every action matters. 5) This is gonna sound stupid, but I actually expected a harder go of this adventure. I realize this is join to come back to bite me (probably very literally), but we haven't had anyone drop in combat (other than characters whose players left or went MIA). I was drawn to this campaign because it was touted as a "survive if you can" situation. I'd be happy if the danger was ratcheted up a notch or two, honestly. :) : Puts on his big-boy pants and prepares for the DM to ruin his character sheet : Character tweak/rebuild question
Silent, not especially tuned into social niceties, avoids the questionable-looking foods, but thankfully keeps his face impassive.
Not knowing if there are any courtesy issues, Silent releases the hold on the animal within himself, bones popping back into his six foot human form before he follows the group inside. His blade goes back into its sheath as well as he shrugs to everyone.
Silent shrugs and points to the hermit's house on the map.
So sorry not to be around. Work has turned into a zoo, and my time for pretty much anything outside of it has dropped to zilch. If it requires npc'ing or even dropping Silent for the sake of the group and story, I'll understand. I'm still interested in the game, though.
Silent, already packed up and ready, nods. Sign Language: 'So we're heading for the caravan first to do any trading? Or straight for the source of the undead?"
Silent nods in the direction where the local girl left. Sign Language: "Ask her to look after him. She seems more likely to respect our request."
Silent finishes eating, then nods at Jivaji's suggestion. As everyone prepares to leave, he switches out his bag and pack for the higher quality backpack salvaged from their fallen ally's body. On top of all his old gear, he drops two of the healing potions in as well.
Once his new pack is settled on his broad shoulders, he signs to those that understand.
Sign Language: "Once we are out of visual range of the village, I'm going to... um... change. I can move faster that way, and I tend to be a bit tougher. I can run as scout while we're on the move. Can you all let the others know so they are prepared for my change?"
Silent attacks the food with the same abandon that he fights, eating twice as much as you would have thought possible. When Mac goes on about its tastiness, he lifts his eyes just long enough to nod his agreement before diving back into the plate. Finally he pushes back his plate, bowl, cup, and utensils, using his hands as a napkin… which he then wipes on his pants. Sign Language: "So did we ever get any of the powder that will make our weapons more effective against our prey?"
I'm still here. Work is just keeping me pretty dang busy. I'm struggling with the 1/day post thing, but not so much that i can't keep up. Has Shano posted in any of his games? Or is it just ours that is stalling?
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