Search Posts
With five of us, the 25gp can be split easily. With my 5 I will get a shortbow (3gp) with twenty arrows (2sp) and pocket 1.8. So part of the fun of the current group, for Variel, will totally have to be Brennus. Soooooooooo with regards to the quoted post ... where does Brennus keep money? I will own that I have been fascinated by the Awakened Animal thing since it was announced (and if you saw my Insta, you would see almost as many birds of prey pictures as you would kittens). Love it.
"Well I don't exactly have anything to pack..." Brennus says, "Nor do I need a horse, so... I suppose I'll just keep you company while you prepare. I don't suppose any of you want to talk theory of arcana?" "Perhaps I can offer you the pommel of my saddle once we are mounted, I am always happy for a good chat. I can share some of the secrets of the Sky Sages with you."
Stay safe SB. Batton down the hatches!
"... and I'm pretty good at Divine Magic. Happy to hold the scrolls until needed."
Caks whispers to her allies, "Sounds like a good deal to me. We rid this Stoneheart Mountain Dungeon of baddies for the priest, he holds onto the fiddle in a safe place while we do it, we take all -- and I mean *all* the treasure that's been accumulating there, and then he fixes the fiddle."
to Caks: "I am fairly sure there is a message here from Darach-Albith, about the transformative power of good faith. Truth be told, I think "within the Demonbane chest on Sublevel 4" may be a perfect final resting place for the fiddle. Let's focus on helping the church and finding its lost leader." "Brother Jameson was it? The smallest of gifts, and this could be for you, or shared with your brethren, or whomever lends you inspiration ..." Variel opens his shirt and takes the silver holy symbol of Darach-Albith from his neck. "This belongs to you now, and it should fetch a fair price too, as there are not so many workings of silver in tribute to our Father here in the city. Please?"
I think it was in the presentation: so in our real world examples, I think if you went to the FBI and asked them what to do about the armed nuclear device on your lawn, they would not think you were "asking them a favor" - taking care of this fiddle thing seems like the right thing to do, it seems heroic, so when I see it referred to as "asking the church for a favor" I will admit, as I said, I am baffled. The party is the brave heroes of Raven who are still looking out for humanity ... is met with ... so I guess you need a favor. Sorry, that just doesn't sit right to me. Frodo didn't arrive at Rivendell "needing a favor" - it was recognized that he had already served all of the people of Middle Earth and he was helped because it was the right thing to do.
I also just re-read everything, AGAIN, and some of this is interpretive.
So while I can see that there might have been some barging-in-ness, I also feel like the Tue, Sep 24, 2024, 06:43 am post has a lot of amplification in it. Yes, Caks & Telurion were impatient, I see that, but there was also no indication that we should not enter the church either. Telurion's post just prior said IF the door wasn't unlocked, he would open it and ask if anyone was there. Not entirely sure that's offensive, but again, I guess that's just me. Sorry to have missed this. Even in the moment though, Variel tried to smooth things over when it seemed like just a misunderstanding.
AND More to the problem is like, ALL of this.
So this is the heart of the issue I guess: this world feels the PCs owe them this somehow. I am baffled. Talk about the demise of player agency, lol, you save a town and you're stuck with fixing a curse? WOW.
At 9:30 on a Saturday morning, which is god awful early to me sometimes, possibly less caffeinated than is optimal, on the back of the similarity to the situation I cited from another campaign, I would hope that the situation being somewhat to more than somewhat triggering could be understood. Please also note, that I have not opposed, in principle, to being even handed with, as GM has shared, predominantly neutral predominantly non-antagonistic NPCs. This is not that. This guy was RUDE when they arrived ... and I reserve the right, on Variel's behalf, to play to that. They were banished from the church because of their little ritual being interrupted, and then upon their return, the toady at the door put the squeeze on them as if they were just people coming in to the building ... and I reserve the right, on Variel's behalf, to play to that as well. When we add to that, as I stated Saturday, Telurion rolling over and asking the guy to scratch his tummy, once again I will say: I reserve the right, on Variel's behalf, to play to that. Sorry, I don't think that's unreasonable. ALSO - sequence of events wise - in real life and in "game life" - asking "Can we talk about how we're going to approach NPCs before PCs start yelling at them ..." and then not waiting for that conversation to happen? COMPLETELY disingenuous. Sorry. It just is. If that post has been posted, and if there had been a dialog, and if we had engaged the disconnect like a party, that would have been awesome. Telurian's response was close to that. Rail's was not. Rail decided on their own without the dialog requested above, to simply move forward with their own agenda and not concern themselves with continuity or outcome. Sorry, not cool. If there needed to be a conversation than there should have been a conversation, between PLAYERS, HERE, in discussion. There wasn't. Part of that problem could be the difference in perspective represented in Rail's last statement: " ... it seems like a perfectly ok scene for one PC to be mad and another to try to smooth things out. I've got no problem with how this is playing out." Afraid I cannot agree with that either. Not to say that GM can't smooth it over using the NPC, but I don't agree. Sorry. Rail is the new guy; Rail's role as the new guy should have been to ask what's up, not try to superceded the characters he just met. Sorry, the world works the way the world works. This "quest giver" thing also appears to be a thing which I don't quite get or agree with either; this is an obnoxious priest who needs a favor. There are any number of things that the party can undertake at this point, and being fleeced tby the church of Thyr doesn't need to be one of them. It was FINE for this "gentleman" to be called out on his rudeness, especially after asking a favor from the party he was rude to. In the universe of people interacting, I don't think it was all that out of line at all for someone who has been bullied to tell the bully, hey, um, you're a bully asking for a favor, want to realign yourself maybe. As a point of order, also, there was no "yelling" - there was an exclamation point at the end of the word ENOUGH to add emphasis to the fact that Variel had had it with these people. No yelling, emphasis, that's all. No caps, no other indicators, just ONE exclamation point, that's it. I would always be open to a discussion, and I wish that one had happened. Absolutely it felt like an attack, look at the sequence of events here: I don't understand VARIEL YELLING ... at the "QUEST GIVER" ... so I will post a response completely in opposition to what Variel expressed. Yep, feels like an attack. I can accept that maybe it wasn't meant as one, but my perception is still valid. Had Variel's reaction simply been called into question, great, I would have clarified. Had the courtesy of a DM or other contact been extended, great, I would have welcomed that. Those did not happen. So while I would agree to begin with there wasn't any friction; the party had just kind of said "yeah, go ahead and tag along" I'm not entirely sure what there is now.
With love, sure, we could do that ... and that would have needed to come BEFORE the "alrighty that's just great, that sure works for me!!!" post. Also, yeah, Rail wasn't there. Go back and read the post about this guy, he's a d**k. So the dude throws a fit that someone came into a church, the toadie puts the squeeze on them when they come back, and you think that Variel responding to Telurian is some kind of problem!? It isn't. Tellurian assumed it was all fine AND assumed the church would just "take care" of stuff. Variel corrected him. Variel has had enough. Variel paid the "toll" - and Rail just got there. In full transparency also, I just went through this in another campaign.
Rail's obsequious response is out of line and totally not in keeping with anything that the party has experienced. Like I said, go back and read. There is nothing about this operation that says it's remotely good or beneficial to anyone let alone impoverished or short on resources. This isn't a diplomatic situation, it's the 3rd time this church has tried to squeeze the party and Variel called them on it. The one other clergyperson in the room called the corrupt jerk on his bul$$hit; I'm okay with that. HAPPY to depart if that's what we need too, because the priest needed to be attacked ... I didn't.
"oh, on behalf of good clergy everywhere friend, I will counsel you to make NO such assumption. We were already shaken down at the front door, remember; we shall do the same now. We are not going ANYWHERE for ANYONE without upfront remuneration for dangers & risks encumbered. Enough! This man knows full well what he is sending us into, and hasn't even had the decency to offer us anything for the time and for doing him the favor of bringing back his life of leisure. I worship a benevolent god, not a foolish one!"
Variel very very carfully and very slowly withdraws one, then two, then four pieces of silver for a total of 6. He extends his hand with the coins to the obnoxious rector, pursing his lips. "I trust that will help."
"Well I'm the cleric so I guess if we are passing out indulgences, that would be my job. I'm not sure I set out to be an adventurer either; I feel for myself that the adventures seem to happen, one hopes by making good choices, and then the label comes with them. Goodness, am I an adventurer now!? Praise the Father!"
Sadly, I don't think I'll have time for this right now. That is absolutely a sad thing PP, it would be great to have you in the team :(
"Some bread, some cheese, some coffee. Just the basics if you would be so kind."
I will check, thank you.
I am unclear at the moment if Barb's Gate has a drag community, but Variel is happy to make his stage name Alorea if that will help.
"Let's go across the street; I have some experience with both churches and clergy, waiting there will make us seem more compliant. Rest assured whoever forgot the "do not disturb" sign will be receiving a hearty flogging."
"Your Grace might imagine we meant absolutely no harm whatsoever, arriving only as supplicants sent from Raven after it was ravaged by a foul and unholy relic." Team Raven can feel that the bow which follows is difficult for Variel, suffering insufferable humans was not so much his thing. "I am Elder Variel Quinn, sworn to the service of Darach-Albith since my childhood; please take no offense at our interruption, in fact, let us withdraw and stand watch over your doorway until your ceremony is complete. The artefact is dormant for now, all our gods be praised."
I would absolutely say that the resolution is part of the issue. The map on Discord is great
"I think that whether or not it's Bard's Gate's finest inn, Nightgate at least isn't discriminating about where its silver comes from. Let's stay here."
Variel glances about, clearly getting that Caks was on about something, just not quite sure what.
PERC:
"You know, it could be lovely, but it does say 'Private' on that sign as well."
"There's a place between Prayer and Presitigation that can make almost anything okay; we'll get there."
”Thanks, and enjoy the evening.” Telurion says as he steps out the door. On the street he turns to his friends, ”What do you think? Nightgate, at least for this evening?” "Not sure that sounded like a strong referral, but sure."
Telurion writes his name and town of Raven. ”Nothing to declare unless busted fiddle parts count.” he says and opens the box to show the pieces or piece if it has stitche its parts back together. "Maybe these gentlemen know where we can get it fixed Telurion. We could set out straight away in the morning."
Telurion stops and turns, "Should we not try the cheap route first? Then if they do not let us in we can try your drunk gate." "Not opposed in the least. In fact, we could stash whatever is left of that mandolin here in Tent City too. Like, why not. Bury it, store it, something? Get into the city, get chill, maybe make contact with the Frat Boys from the inside. All good. Your call."
"Gents, I think we should go up to the West gate and try the postern. I don't like the idea of sleeping out here with this. Besides, I'd rather have a good bed to sleep in." Without waiting for discussion Telurion moves off in that direction unless stopped. "Hold now, let's talk this through. There are options to be sure. I seem to recall during college there was a secret way in just north of here. You throw a small bag of coin with the code word on it and they give instructions on how to enter. One of the college fraternitys runs this, called The Drunk Gate ... most often used by students who stay out too late partying here in Tent City. We could give that a shot."
"I don't think we are expecting trouble. I was going to suggest we ask the gate guards for directions to the nearest inn, get a room, a decent meal, and then see if we can find Father Grimble's old friend to offload this piece of fiddle." Telurion says. "I'm afraid if you're caught sneaking it would make our arrival more difficult than we would care for." Variel's face has a rather bemused look on it, "Quite right, and I didn't even think of that. You might not get caught, but you might. What do we think? Try to keep it with you anyway? Pay a fine? Pretend it's not that bad ... ?"
Bards Gate ... at last!
For the sake of discussion, I am going to own the wandering. Like not really wandering, maybe wondering. Maybe GM had to wonder where Variel was when Variel's player didn't post. In any case, more clarity is better, and that's a fair ask. I will be more clear, and I will wander less. With regards to drama, I don't know that there was drama either. I don't know that Variel wandered, or didn't wander, but I very much DO know that his palyer didn't post for a minute. That is on me. I didn't post. If I don't post, the gray area is deservedly frustrating for the GM. That is on me. I didn't post about real-life either, and maybe I should have. Maybe we all should. Maybe we should be crafting more opportunities to understand where each other is coming from versus "wandering off" in terms of empathy. In principle, I generally want to be understood. SB, I believe, probably, is a moderately normal human being and may ALSO want to be understood. I don't think those are bad things, and I am certainly willing to do a better job communicating my needs to understanding and latitude with posting. Half of the time I am moving through my "real" day praying that I will find an Elixer of Life, so I will always be ready to understand anyone who is feeling similarly.
I am, as the new guy, going to go ahead and respectfully disagree, at least partially. I do not think that stopping the game is the only answer. This is like relationship counseling, and tbh, if someone isn't having fun, and that could be anyone, then the team should press Pause and look at why that is. Doesn't mean the outcome will be different, but as a team, it seems like a courtesy that everyone owes each other. Not long ago. I reached out to some people and asked if this campaign had ever been fun. Those people were Wolf & GM-SB. They were valuable conversations for me, and, I am still here because of them. Seems like it might be time to expand those conversations a little ...
Please just start us on our way to Bard's Gate.
The first quest, cited as original, takes us to Bard's Gate.
Just my thinking but there is a lot pointing to Bard's Gate.
For me, I would have to say: RP
I want to, kindly & gently, take issue with Telurion/IP's suggestion tht dungeon crawling is just exploration underground. While I might want that to be the case, and in practice I love it when it turns out to be the case, classically it is rarely the case. Dungeons, again at least classically, rarely follow any intelligable structure or eco-system. Monster after monster, room after room, with no way in or out or to sustain themselves ... I can admit that I totally LOVED this as a kid when we saved up to buy the original blue box set of D&Dand all we wanted to do was hack & slash & collect, but at this point, I want the world to make at least a little sense for the characters, and I want the dice to be confirming or augmenting, not determining. Yep, I am that guy. If I type an awesome speech, the GM/DM should be able to simply say, wow that was good, of course the NPCs do what you want. and yeah it's great if there's also a Nat20 and a wandering choir of angels happen to make the clouds part at the dramatically appropriate moment, and yeah, it blows when a Nat 1 means you probably had a bugger hanging from your nose during your noble death speech. Having brought that up though, I will also say that RP is the single most super positive aspect of PbP, second only maybe to PbP being non-sequential and not (mostly) time constrained. Not saying I don't like RP in person at the actual TT, and I'm not saying that I mind RPing in VTT/Discord either, but I do like being able to craft thoughtful dialog, which can be presented without the Comic Book Guy in the group jumping in and interrupting.
“Friends … and I am happy to use any term which suits any member of the assembled more closely … but I open with the word friends and I will claim it as a personal goal. I would like each of us to be the other’s friend, and I would like all of us to be a friend to those in need. The young lady is in need, I saw that the moment I found all of you. Each of you has needs, I saw that from the most basic need for warmth & dryness to the need for freedom, and now apparently, for justice. We all have one thing in common though, and I mean specifically: that would be me.”
“I say that because, while the staff here in addressing our arrival might not have recognized me, they know me; I used my brother’s name while I was here these past weeks. They know me as Chase, Chase Quinn. They do not, yet, know me as Variel Quinn-Dasseril nor do they know me as a follower of Darach-Albith. They know that now. I cannot properly serve the Father and not at least reach across all the lines in this room to ask that we unite; all things Elven are served by us cooperating, all things Human are served by us cooperating, and personally, I am certain that each of us could at least make an attempt to perceive the multitude of benefits we all receive by cooperating. If your need for contention is greater than this small thing I would ask, I understand.”
This is also why its facelift in Starfinder is TOKEN SPELL, which much more accurately captures its essence. The final descriptor in the spell listing does preclude damage however ... "Prestidigitation can't deal damage or cause adverse conditions. Any actual change to an object (beyond what is noted above) persists only as long as you Sustain the spell."
GM - in the past, I would use Prestidigiation to dry clothing. This campaign is a touch more specific about, well, everything, and I did not want to assume that minor magic could do something that would not carry forward. While I personally feel that the principle of warming clothes enough for them to become dry is not disimilar to warming food, I would rather have the course of action blessed when you have a moment. Thank you.
Shaking the warrior's hand, "The girl appears a bit addled, but I am sure we can set her to rights. Well, I am sure that we can limit how much water she tries to breathe. Well met sir."
Really just poking fun, I love the rules. I have learned more here in a week than in the rest of the boards, it's pretty fascinating tbh. I went to re-read also in case I missed something, and maybe you are right. Maybe I responded to up-to-her-neck like it was more serious than it was, good point.
Spoiler:
"Wasn't even so much trying to be flippant, but odds are, the young lady cannot in fact, breathe water. As a curate of Darach-Albith, I will beg your indulgence while I assist the drowning; I am Variel Quinn-Dasseril, at their service until I can be at yours as well. I came from up the street, there's an asylum not far from here." Variel nods at the lady, and also at the human, who appears to be a warrior, before proceeding to bank of the river to address Aduriel.
Elven: "Well met kin-of-my-kin, I am Variel, Cleric of The Firstborn. May I assist you in saving that girl?"
But also Aduriel, just to level set ... MAYBE NOT. Because this is the only campaign in the Universe whose primary focus is on not having weapons drawn prior to battles AND where the b*ts**t girl who used the Scared Harp of the Undead or whatever can just go drown herself and the party mostly holds a meet & greet to chat with old and new friends. This is like a Dr Who episode, I love it. I mean, thankfully it isn't Firefly because the whole season would have been 1 episode where they let the Alliance get Summer because they were arguing about money. Maybe Variel will go ahead an be the helper ;)
As the scuffle comes to an end, a young aiuvarin rushes down the trail towards everyone. Longsword at the ready, there is a shimmer of magical energy surrounding his rather unusual armor which looks like it is made up of layered sections of ... leaves. His hair is color of roasted chesnuts against his rather fair skin but the bright violet of his eyes catch attention, almost as much attention as the silver inlay on the breast of his armor symbolising Darach-Albith. He is calm as he reviews the situation, until he sees the girl in the river. He sheaths his sword and then there is another shimmer: no more sword, no more armor, just a very sharply dressed young half-elf looking a touched confused. "The woman in the river ... can breath water?"
Variel's extended reverie ends ... he knows there is a fight ahead.
(2 action CAST, 1 action STRIDE)
Normally I try not to go too far down any given rabbit hole, but I can also admit that this intrigued me as I almost always play casters or caster-lite characters ... and I had zero awareness of Scorching Blast from the Kingmaker AP until I looked at this a little bit. Not entirely sure what its RARE designation derives from, but I will look at the KM Comopanion at some point to figure it out. A 1-sction somatic-only fire spell that deals this kind of damage is pretty extraordinary. Tbh, with the base damage increasing by d8 for each Heighten, anyone would want this spell.
... and now it's 31 posts, but I really am about to read them.
Apologies all, real life presented some snags this week.
Visiting family for my Dad's 95th Birthday... so I'll post but it might be delayed at times. and I actually had the day off with my husband, but I will post shortly :)
I think I am going to go in a slightly different direction with Variel, but I will send him to you on Discord shortly
|
