Feel free to continue on this thread or start another. I'll be happy if this game thrives even when I'm out of it for the time being. Apologies for the trouble. As stated I'll PM you each when I return with a stable posting schedule, also I can just post whenever the heck I finally get blocks of time here or there if you guys are down.
In the meantime I believe V.K. will do a good job, no need to put it in sleep mode if folks still want to play.
All right, yeah, I guess I'll put it to sleep until I can run it consistently, apologies for the inconvenience. I'll PM everyone when I get back and see if folks feel like rejoining.
While that's unfortunate, both Vulture King and I were willing to keep running this. But, I suppose that would require the other PCs to still be active and interested in the game...
I'm down with letting you guys run what you like, I'm just personally in a place were I can't consistently contribute right now. If you or Vulture want keep things going that's cool, I'm still learning about Pbp and even if this game dies in sleep mode at least I've learned a ton and can do a much better job next time, but I definitely prefer for it to be successful and staying active increases the chance of that a lot I think.
So yeah, we can do what we want, one way or another.
Ok, yeah, I'm putting the game into sleep mode as I simply don't have the time at the moment, I'll PM everyone when I'm ready and prepared to awaken the game again to see if people would like to come back.
Yasss, if it's possible I would like to go and meet with Thoth even if Alyssa doesn't come back, as I have plans that could drastically change based on if that meeting takes place and what we learn(or don't).
Kamii's voice was far less human then Gorden remembered it, it sounded now like it was coming from a huge mouth filled with too many long fangs.
"Gorden, I'm in need of a great deal of power, immediately." Kamii's slavering growl informed him, through the old black phone.
Straight to business then, and it sounded like a big order, Gorden felt an anticipatory thrill.
"Alright, I can accommodate you Mister Kamii. I'll need the specifics of course."
Kamii was silent for a moment. Then he explained the situation.
Gorden felt his anticipation fall a bit. He didn't have the vast resources of his previous employer and while he could get Kamii the god like power he needed he could only deliver it in a rather shoddy, impermanent and self destructive form. He told Kamii so.
"I don't care at all, I just need it quick." Kamii snarled.
Gorden, still holding the receiver a safe-ish distance from his face, took a deep breathe and thought quickly. While he had the sale in hand he still considered telling Kamii the true horror of what this particular product would do to him. It wasn't a matter of ethics, per se, simply that at this early stage of his business he really didn't need a bad reputation on the Other Side.
He decided to tell Kamii exactly what would happen to him.
"I said it doesn't matter!" Kamii said irritably. "If I get the Key back I can retrieve the God Force, I'll ascend to a new existence and leave this worthless body behind! Look Gorden, I've got six million dollars in a Bank of America account, I will literally give you all of it if you make this happen and make it happen fast!"
Gorden, whom had fallen back into his traditional hunch while talking to his client, straighten in shock.
"D-done!" He said in bewilderment.
"Good, now get it to me!" Kamii demanded.
As the line disconnected Gorden held the phone for a bit longer before putting the dangerous object back in its cradle.
A wide smile crossed his face and he peaked out of his office to talk to Helen.
"You are getting replaced as secretary soon." He said.
Her mouth stretched in a bitter line at the news.
"Because I just closed a big one, and you're getting a proper promotion!"
"Helen; is the eleven twenty filled out yet? I'm still not feeling great about Mark doing our taxes." Gorden asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee and idlely looked over a case file.
Helen was his secretary but she made him pour his own damn coffee, that was fine, the old b&~@@ had a talent for organization that he absolutely needed in his start up. He was considering keeping her even once the money really started pouring in, while a pretty young thing who would fetch him coffee without attitude and impress clients with a flashy smile would be a nice touch Helen honestly did the work of five different people doing five different jobs and did it well.
"It's done and filed, I checked it over when Mark finished, it's fine." Helen said, adjusting her hornrimmed glasses to better sit on her wide face, her grey hair and wrinkles making her look like an archetype of a happy grandmother, despite her stern demeanor.
Gorden ran his right hand through his red curls as he considered, his pale freckled face relaxing at his secretary's assurance.
Their office space was small, entered through an easily missable door around the corner from a Mongolian grill in downtown Ann Arbor, a large college town in one of the parts of Michigan the bad economy hadn't managed to completely ruin. The furniture looked like it was from the eighties while the yellow shag carpeting reminded Gorden of the times before even that, though not in a good way. He would replace it all once the money started flowing.
That was his mantra these days, get the money flowing and everything would be all right.
"You have a client waiting for you on the phone." Helen told him in an off handed way. "It's you know who."
Gorden instinctively straighten up then straightened his tie. He quickly entered his office and closed the door.
His personal office was a bit more impressive than the rest of his off-putting office space, showing off a bit of the wealth that had once been his when he worked for his old company. Though honestly the desk was too big for the space and he had to keep the room's single window open when the weather was at all fine to prevent claustrophobia.
It was open now, and the lazy sounds of life in the city drifted in, as well as a cooling breeze he found quite pleasant.
He took a deep breath and stared for a long moment at the big black rotary phone sitting on his desk, an ancient antique in the age of iphones, but it could send and receive calls to places typical phones could never reach.
Everything faded into the background for Gorden, his framed degrees on the walls, his bookshelves filled with huge and dry legal and scientific texts. He squirted some hand sanitizer into his palm from a pump bottle on his desk, rubbing it in with his hands as his eyes stayed locked onto the heavy black phone. He then put on a heavy red oven mitt incongruously lying next to the bottle.
His hand so protected, he lifted the receiver of the phone and held it a good two inches away from his face.
There was a voice on the other end.
"Mister Kamii." Gorden said with his best sales mien. "What can I do for you today?"
The village's hot burn had been reduced to embers through time and lack of fuel. Patches of blue glass interspersed the sandy ground, a side effect of the searing light that had been a byproduct of Kammella's focused beam; a shimmering, fulgurite-akin substance that glittered brightly in the sun.
A small figure in red robes entered the village and looked around. She was a young human girl of around the age of eight, or at least appeared to be, with curly blond locks and a relatively flat affect.
She wandered slowly through the devastation, noting that Kammii's demonic aura was now absent as well, the village was empty. Reaching a point near the epicenter of battle she looks at the ground and says;
"There you are little one." Her voice is soft, dreamy. "Don't run away now, do you know how valuable you are to Kammella? She can use you for all sorts of grand things! I'm going to take care of you now and pet you while we extract your power and I promise it won't hurt."
The little girl picks a long object off the ground and cradles it.
"You're going to do such great things with us!" She declares.
Kanzen's severed arm twitches slightly in the girls cradling hug, a bit of life still in it.
I think I might be ready to introduce Trompe as well. So we could theoretically get that out of the way.
I can do this for you if it turns out Monkeygod is too busy or alternatively you can write your own intro if you like. Given present circumstances in game do you have a way you would like to come in?
Sorry for the delay, still here, just slow. I want to assure everyone that I believe I am healthy enough to continue this game till the end and am dedicated to doing so but the pace may fluctuate a lot, going really fast or really slow depending.
I hope you are all still here, I'm working on posts, more to come soon.
I'll wait to post about the Thoth journey as Alyssa's adventure sounded cool so I want to see if she wants to still run it when she gets back and I don't want to interrupt that.
Sorry for being out of touch, been planning medical care stuff, of which I must leave tomorrow for an as long as ten day trip. However Alyssa has offered to run an Osirin themed adventure in the process of heading(or searching) for Thoth so I think that sounds grand!
Sorry for the delayed response guys, thanks for waiting. I think at this point the ideal solution for me, aside from fully GMing, which I think I need to step away from at present, is to run the main story line as a series of encounters and side stories while the bulk of events are GMed by others.
I'm totally down for switching GMing off between whichever player has a story to tell, with me dealing with player origins, the triple Ks and the Wicked Man's stuff, along with certain past things like the Apogee Society and the Seer and such.
Otherwise I'm not entirely sure what to do, as I said I don't want this game to crash, but I have some pressing issues to attend to currently.
Thanks guys! I'm realizing I should probably take a break but it seems to me like all I have been doing is taking breaks for awhile. Monkeygod is willing to take back over for awhile if you guys are down. Otherwise I could just put the game into sleeper mode, but I am still learning about Pbps and I am not sure a game will survive a suspension of any length.
I'm not entirely sure what to do, I would prefer not to shut the game down completely, I'd rather my first Pbp outing not be a failure, even if I have learned alot overall, so I need some advice, how do you guys think I should handle this?
Sorry for the delay folks, just got back from the hospital after an incident. I'm okay, but it turns out I have juvenile diabetes that somehow has gone undiagnosed into adulthood. Two things that have been a mystery to me for a while, my recent overblown anxiety and depression first, apparently might not be cause by life circumstances at all but by sugar overloading my brain and causing anxiety, confusion etc. and the other thing; my ability to always stay skinny no matter what, that some people in my life have expressed envy over, turns out to be because my system isn't digesting carbs right, just flushing them. Which for some reason finding that out struck me as hilarious, as it's like, oh ok it's not a "gift" there is just something horrible wrong with my body, lol.
Any way just trying to keep you guys updated, bad timing to be sick as I just became GM again. Also if the above paragraph doesn't make much sense, it's because I am on pain meds for the injury I took when collapsing, so apologies for the loopiness.
Anyway, I'll try to update the game and answer PMs soon, apologies for the inconvenience.
So getting organized; the Vulture King and Lucas will be off to visit Thoth soon, along with any whom would like to go along, Joseph is leaving with Ashley to find a way to increase his strength (?)
Looking around, Zaidel tells his comrades, Well, I'm gonna go help with the clean up. You know, lift debris out of the way. Hopefully find some people alive out there."
Alyssa's wish brought everyone within the fortress, so Al'Lamar is currently empty and the people safe, the ones still living anyway.
Thinking it over, Lir realizes that Sir Roderick would be the best person to lead the restoration efforts of Al'Lamar.
He goes over to where the young paladin is tending the wounded "While helping the injured is a necessity, I believe you could do more good taking charge of the people of this city, and helping rebuild it."
"I hear you sir, the Order will bring in reclamation and rebuilding teams as soon as they receive word that the Prince has fallen and his mage disappeared." Roderick replies. "I won't worry, the city well be handled well."
Yeah, the crowds are mostly quiet and dealing with the aftermath, some worshipping the Vulture King, some looking for lost or dead loved ones. At the moment things are peaceful.
After he returns the baker to life, Lir begins to look for somebody who might be able to take charge of all of these people. As the former prince tyrant was dead, somebody new needed to be found to help rebuild and restore life to this decimated city.
Uh, not sure if I should roll something here or not, but considering my skills, I'm sure I would succeed, lol
Roderick would probably be the best choice, The Prince cut down most of the competent individuals in the government and even within his own guard.
I'd think that V.K. would know of the Egyptian pantheon, both being ancient faiths, and Thoth more specifically. How could I go about trying to track down Thoth? He seems like the most benevolent of the knowledge gods, and plus, he and V.K. can be bird bros.
Yeah, logically you would know of him and be able to simply plane shift to the entrance of his Divine Domain. Would you like to do so?
Dang. I don't have kn(religion). What about [dice=Diplomacy]1d20+30 for assistance in finding the relevant documents?
I did figure that ones like Tzeentch, Thoth, Norgorber, Mask/Shar, Dirthamen, etc would all be available, but Lucas wasn't a gamer or religious in his 'Earthly' life, and I didn't read anything which would indicate that we know anything from beforehand (which I figured would include knowledge of a multiverse's worth of deities, or at least the possibility of their existence), so didn't think he'd know of any of them.
Yeah he wouldn't, Off the top of my head though I think Zaidel has Know(religion) and someone else does too I think, but the Vulture King can wish for things at will as well so he could learn the basic list quick if you bring up that. No fun using Alter Reality for everything but it can give story hints if he is willing. Diplomacy is an easy fix as well if you'd like to say you happened to find a scholarly type in the crowd that tells you what's up as thinking about it there were foreigners from the outside camp teleported in here as well, didn't occur to me before.
"Dammit." He grunts to himself, while loading his weapons in preparation for hunting the Vulture King. "Did she have to open the portal so far away? I think people forget I can't fly..."
He rubs his aching back with a free hand when finished with his weapons.
The man in black trekked across the desert, and his back pain followed.
There are also gods of secrets that exist "further out" in the Omniverse from where you are currently located like Thoth and Tzeentch. You can seek them out if you like but the basic list is decently helpful.
Well, you weren't here for this I don't think but Al'Lamar has been under the reign of tyrants for a bit so books have been outlawed for awhile and most priests went likewise. However books have been stockpiled by the nobility and there actually is a giant library right here in this fortress, which can be discovered with a bit of exploration.
Knowledge(religion) DC 20; who are the gods of secrets?:
Basic List(specific inquires for more):
Vecna -Destructive and Evil Secrets, Magic, Hidden Knowledge, Intrigue
Ok, well still tired and kinda depressed from events in recent months in my life but I'm going to be GMing for a good long while now myself simply to cut down on the potential for drama, I can handle people being angry at me way better than I can people being angry at each other.
We will put the Hell adventure off for awhile and give you guys some downtime and the chance to do some of your own stories as you like.
I'll continue towards side story completion of the current events too when I have time, as you guys aren't going immediately to Hell so it becomes still relevant to immediate happenings.
Ak'Gak heaved for breath as he followed his mistress toward the next landing of the Hundred Thousand Step mountain. He wasn't sure how many steps there really were but his legs were giving out from the strain.
"Mistress...could...could we take a short rest? These stairs are tall to me and...and not all of us have your endless endurance!" He gasped desperately.
Kanzen didn't reply, simply continuing her leisurely trek up the staircase zig-zagging across the mountain's face.
"Please...at least...tell me what's at the top...why are we heeeeerrree.........." Ak'Gak collapsed forward, exhausted and unable to go on.
For a moment he feared Kanzen would continue without him but upon reaching the end of the landing she turned and sat on the first step of the next flight.
The day was cloudy but warm and a sliver of sunshine still peeked its way through.
Kanzen turned her face into the light, basking in its warmth with her eyes closed.
"I seek Master Lao Tzu whom took residence upon this mountain after riding out of the old empire on a water buffalo ten thousand years ago. The one they call the Old Man of Tao can perhaps answer certain things for me few others know, yes?" Kanzen said softly.
"Uh...I dunno, I dunno who that even is..." Ak'Gak said numbly in reply, truthfully though he was just shocked and happy Kanzen had stopped for him. Was his mistress' ruthless streak fading? Was she learning to have a heart?
"A Demon named Kamii told me that the woman known as Kammella was a transcendental spirit he was created to imprison." Kanzen continued.
"What? I know, I was there!" Ak'Gak proclaimed in confusion.
"How is this possible? She was neither alien and incomprehensible like the physical leavings of Azathoth in the pit of Primal Chaos, nor an enlightened being like the Seer of the Apogee Society, all blazing soul and adamantine will. She was...very human, very flawed. How can she be? Such spirits or their leavings are anything but human!"
Ak'Gak stared at his mistress, wondering if her recent physical trauma had unhinged her mind.
"Do not worry my diminutive friend, she isn't mad." A friendly voice reassures Ak'Gak, emanating from seemingly no where in particular.
The beam of sunlight shining on Kanzen appears to widen and grow brighter, then, as if appearing out of nothing a friendly old man with a long white beard down to his toes appears on the landing and smiles.
The baker stands and looks confused, his rolling pins crumbling to ash in his hands at the movement. He looks to say something but for the moment appears speechless, overcome by all that has happened.
The Vulture King uses his divine powers to heal all the injured still alive, even regrowing limbs and fixing the most heinous wounds.
With a collective cry of delight many, many more in the crowd fall to their knees and cry out in thanks to the Vulture King, feeding him yet more divine energy.
Many of the wounded or those who have lost someone fall to their knees and pray to the Vulture King for deliverance. Others appear too confused, perhaps in shock, to do much but look around with blurry eyes.
A wave of divine energy from their praise fills the Vulture King and empowers him.
The sun shows brightly in the sky now, though as comforting as it is to see the shadows banished, the horror of the dead and injured are now brightly illuminated as well.
In the distance a strange rumbling emits from the city of Shade, above black clouds speed past at the pace of time lapsed footage and reality itself seems seems to suffer under stress.
There is a flash of darklight, so bright/dark it sears the retinas of any directly looking at it, then the city is gone, the Master of Shade having accomplished whatever mysterious task he set out to do.
Roderick nods to Alyssa as she approaches him, having helped many of the people in her path.
He is currently kneeling next to a little girl with a compound fracture in her left arm, she shivers and moans but as Roderick uses one of his last healing abilities she calms.
The bone fragments retreat into her arm, healing smoothly together, and the garish wound seals, leaving only a slight scar.
