Okay, we made it 15 minutes into the movie without needing alcohol.
And vampire capes...
Vampire Dentist was our 4th movie of the day, so 15 minutes in, I believe I was screaming obscenities at it.
Well Lio has Sangiria. I have gin with lemon juice.
Lio is highly offended by the german landlord... really...
Wait WHERE is the vampire's cape, but he does have a cravat...
"The I can shake harder than you can"-Lio
...probably take me heroin to get through that movie again.
I hope you guys are enjoying the couple of scenes you've seen, since the entire movie is basically the same ones, over and over. Like the director keeps trying to get them right.
Lio: (although filtered through me) the black vampire is totally tryng to be Teal'c. And the asian vampire should be wearing a kimono. No respecting Kindred of the East would be in a cape.
Lio: Boobies. What? (this is what i have to deal with... - Mel)
It has been requested that I explain the boobies. I was asking a series of questions. There was a long pause. Apparently due to boobies on the screen. Followed by the previous quote.
Because Lio, OOC at least, is an equal opportunity body admirer.
"CAPES"
Wait ~ how did he get the necklace from the aunt?
It's a fang off, with hissing.
Vampire Dentist is what happens when stupid meets incompetence head on.
So far, I think the transvestite has been the best actor in the movie.
Mel: Collecting priceless family jewels in plastic box...
Lio: That's classy.
I'm convinced all the performances were achieved by putting peanut butter in the mouths of mental patients and then getting the local theater for the deaf to loop the dialogue.
Lio: The front grill on the hearse is a spider web. That is so cute.
Later,
Lio: You know it's a bad movie when you notice those things.
Mel: Bad noise. Bad noise! (while starting to curl up with hands over ears)
in regards to scrapy teeth noise
Moral: Even vampires need dental hygenie.
Lio: I still don't know what the point of this movie is. Another glass of Sangria will help me figure it out. Aww.. two full glasses and the bottle is empty.
Mel - Hmmm... vote: more gin or honey jack?
To Lio: The little bottle still has stuff in it. You don't need to open the costco-sized bottle of gin. (And now I have to add that it may be from Costco, but it is still Bombay Sapphire. NOT because I am a snob as Lio suggests, but because more gin bleeds to much straight.)
Lio: Look they are doing little growly stuff with their hands.
The point? Maybe some kind of tax scam?
Do we get to kill the strobe-light vampire by the end of the movie?
Throat-candy...
Okay, at 1 hour. The dialogue has become lacking... when drunk. Do we fast forward?
Lio: And we are more wasted, what the?
Presentation of the magic amulet (which apparently scares other vamps):
Lio: I bought this at the dollar store for you son,
mel: And it only cost me 50 cents.
Fast forward? Blasphemy.
Enough booze (and the right company) make the movie watchable.
And not the worse one I've seen.
And she apparently forgot how to dress herself when she died...
I still feel the blind chick should have been sacrificed in the mum scene.
Lio: We aren't at the end yet, it could happen.
Lio: Apparently vampirism cures blindness. What? This movie isn't done yet.
Please, please say that there is no "Vampire Dentist 2: The Bloody Vial".
And Lio is laughing her something off. Bwahaha.
And now... It is no longer in my house. I think I will sleep better for that simple fact.
Mel, i have to tell you that technically it's still here... it's just ready to be sent out :P
also, i have drank nearly an entire bottle of sangria by myself, and am still not terribly drunk, though i might be a bit fuzzy around the edges.
and i have likely seen worse movies, like the slow motion zombie flick, for example. or the cannibal musical, that was pretty painful. though i guess i wasn't sloshed for either of those, so maybe my sense of perception is off. also, i have no standards when it comes to movies, apparently.
and for the 2nd time in my life, i rolled poorly on my cooking roll. the portabello mushrooms and the salad were good, the steak, too salty. and i'm a salt fiend, and i thought it was too salty. sorry Mel.
ok, and no more posting for me tonight, because Mel has already posted enough for me. and i probably shouldn't be posting in character right now, though i will post in the morning... ;)
i stand corrected, it is outside, literally ;)
This is the best way to watch a movie like Vampire Dentist: vicariously on a message board, via the postings of two possibly drunk women five time zones away. I'm safe from the evil, yet somehow I still feel dirty for the experience.
I will say that Alaric's long distance commentary did add something to the amusement value.
This is true.
I told a couple friends (who were over to watch Drive Angry and Country Strong, so... grain of salt) that I had unleashed Vampire Dentist some folks. The way they reacted it was like I had just said: "So, listen guys, the cops are closing in, and I really have to move these girl scouts to a new dumpsite."
I told a couple friends (who were over to watch Drive Angry and Country Strong, so... grain of salt) that I had unleashed Vampire Dentist some folks. The way they reacted it was like I had just said: "So, listen guys, the cops are closing in, and I really have to move these girl scouts to a new dumpsite."
well, i did used to be a girlscout...
The Plan Going Forward --
My current plan is to make the final "Journey" post before going to bed tonight. Then, when I wake up in the morning, I will make the first Exploration of Brinewall post, assuming nothing unexpected happens like a party decision that you're going to forget about this whole Brinewall thing after all.
With that first Brinewall Exploration post, flexible time will restart at zero (Liothonae, that will happen in the evening Hawaii time, so ideally you'll have time to get done what you need to.)
For the Brinewall segment of this adventure, I don't think I'm giving too much away by revealing that some of it will be a bit of a Dungeon Crawl. This represents some unique problems for a PBP game, e.g.:
GM: There are three doors. You can go north, west, or south.
(17 days of discussion follow regarding this choice)
SPOKESPLAYER: We will go west.
GM: It's a broom closet.
(9 days of discussion follow regarding the choice between the remaining two doors)
So, with your permission, I'd like to handle it this way --
Unless told otherwise, I will simply assume that you are proceeding ahead in an orderly manner, with a preference towards thoroughly exploring one level before venturing to the next if there are multiple levels. I will stop for any NPC, Monster, or incident, and also for anything of obvious importance.
If I breeze past a room and there is something in it you decide you want to explore more thoroughly, please feel free to use Flexible Time to Have Checked It Out. If you cast any buff spells or healing outside of combat rounds, give me a good idea when it occurred so that I can keep track of the time.
If you have any preferences in terms of your character's place in the Marching Order, please let me know on the OOC thread and I will try to see that it works that way.
As a side note, I feel it is fair to warn you that I am of the school of GMing that believes that (1) setting up camp to sleep in a dungeon filled with homicidal enemies, if there are any alternatives, is Terminally Stupid, and (2) leaving a dungeon halfway through and coming back the next day likely means, in many cases, that you are coming back to face a single organized army of alert monsters rather than individual encounters.
Now, obviously, there are times when it is still smarter to sleep or to leave and come back, but if it gets to that point I suggest you at least spend the night in the Caravan and not in the Dungeon itself. And if it's not Genuinely At That Point, my recommendation would be to keep going forward.
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Due to drunken shenanigans, i will not be able to post the rest of our conversation until after work tomorrow. i plan on doing a long post, that you can interrupt, comment on, add to, ask questions or answer questions etc... I'm thinking a long post is best since I can only post a couple of times a day during a weekday, and we don't get to interact that much. And a long post would work, so that the rest of the journey to Brinewall can continue on, since I am sure we are on a timeline occ.
I've had to do similar when posting with Mel. I can only toss off short things on very short breaks at work, so I usually end up dropping big posts at odd hours, with permission to interrupt.
Hope that's ok with you. :)
Other than the crying myself to sleep each night for the lack of a rapid response, that is fine. :-)
Hope the Vampiric Dentistry was ... well, not good, but at least rewarding.
To the GM and all ... my only two concerns with rapid-crawl would be these:
- It would be nice to have to option to scout the perimeter of the town/fort/ruin/whatever and return to the Caravan afterward without immediately facing a united army upon return (unless, of course, they really are just a united army and even scouting their perimeter would line them up). It would be appreciated if we could size up any actual specifics of the situation and have our characters prep specific resources and spells/extracts before committing ourselves to a massive Crawl we can't easily extricate ourselves from. The sorceror and physical combat team are fine either way, I know, and the Alchemist can prep pretty rapidly on the fly, but the Uncleric, Druid, (and late-joining Oracle) might do better if they weren't storming a ruin blind.
- Hrithik would plan on using detect secret doors at some point when we are in an actual occupied building. If those only lead to secret caches of treasure, that's not a problem to retcon, but if they lead to shortcuts or ways to ambush enemies, they may change the "obvious way forward" ... I don't know how you would like to handle that (perhaps just "please never use detect secret doors, pick another formula in its place" :-) ).
As for preferred character placement, Hrithik would like to be well behind Rhost, in relation to the monsters, thanks kindly :)
Scouting the perimeter is always an option. However, since it may have been before you joined, I will repeat and extend an important cautionary post made early on:
As a quick note, I would strongly suggest that you guys not over-plan.
A general plan, in this game, could in some cases be extremely useful (e.g., approach from this direction, with intent to do X, and ready to do Y if it fails.)
A detailed plan involving multiple contingencies and carefully thought out detailed strategies will in almost all cases be completely pointless.
This has primarily to do with the way that the AP is set up, along with certain other factors.
On a related note, a bit of scouting -- such as saying your characters look generally over an area to hunt for any obvious traps, guards on duty, or hidden ways in -- can certainly sometimes be useful.
Overscouting, however, is in general pointless and a waste of time. The only situations I could think that might call for the group coming back the next day with a new set of spells prepared would be if you encountered something so obvious that no or minimal scouting is called for anyway (e.g.: "OK, the castle is under water, it turns out. We'll come back the next day with Water Breathing prepared.") Trying to painstakingly gather enough information to cover every possible contingency is profoundly unuseful in this campaign.
In terms of Detect Secret Doors, just let me know when you Had Cast It when it comes up for you. I am confident that I'll be able to handle it.
Two things, crap I forgot about this thread. I've only been looking at the game one. So much happens here :)
Second, I am both gladdened and saddened that I chose to do school work instead of watching the vamp movie. It would have been fun to see Lio and Mel a bit messed up, always a good time.
Just to be clear. Were there neked boobies in the movie?
No neked bobbies. But many shots of not great boobies. One shot of a great pair.
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Scouting the perimeter is always an option [...]
a bit of scouting -- such as saying your characters look generally over an area to hunt for any obvious traps, guards on duty, or hidden ways in -- can certainly sometimes be useful.
Overscouting, however, is in general pointless and a waste of time. The only situations I could think that might call for the group coming back the next day with a new set of spells prepared would be if you encountered something so obvious that no or minimal scouting is called for anyway.
The other option that came up, for me, based on the clues so far, was "an actual "flightless bird" army occupying actual town/fort/ruin, led by "cuckoo" of some sort". In that case, "scouting" might mean skirmishing and running ourselves down during the course of a perimeter sweep. If we've tangled with multiple perimeter pickets and are pretty drained, that could be a very bad time to go storm the Castle Crawl. Tactical retreat to the caravan to entrench, recharge, and re-engage might end up being advisable.
The ogre bandits wiped a lot of our resources out, for example. While we are bigger and buffer now, we will be lacking some and maybe all of the NPCs. It wouldn't take more than a couple of equally-rough encounters on the way into Brinewall to make pressing onward into the castle very dangerous.
I do not deny that situations can occur in which it is advisable to regroup and return the next day.
I will state flatly, however, that:
(1) If you use your resources in even a moderately sensible way in general (e.g. Hrithik, for example, does not throw all his bombs at the first let's-pick-a-random-example-and-say pair of kobold guards encountered in the first room of a given dungeon, but saves some for potential Big Fights Later On), I do not really expect such a situation to come up in this module or, given what I have seen of the design so far, this AP.
(2) The situation you have described is actually a textbook example of what I would consider a choice of that kind best made only in a situation of relative desperation. Skirmishing with guards and then retreating rather than moving on invites situations such as a locked-tight castle prepped for a seige when you return, a counter-assault on you in the night when your resources are still low anyway, or the denizens of the castle realizing they can't beat you and fleeing in the night with the McGuffin you require.
So, in a nutshell --
Is it theoretically possible you might need to do such a thing? Yes.
Do I seriously expect it to be something needed for handsome and intelligent players such as yourselves? No.
If you decide you absolutely must, would I forbid it? Of course not.
Is it a dangerous tactic? In my games, yes. Stopping in the middle of something is simply a risky move.
Is it ever worthwhile? Possibly. But not often, if so.
As for preferred character placement, Hrithik would like to be well behind Rhost
Rhost probably should be on or near point. Low-light vision (although not darkvision), and maybe the highest Perception score....
If asked, Myriana would be happy to do a quick perimeter scout, possibly with Attatoq and/or Lio.
My guess is Myri is one of the better members at finding/disabling traps and possibly tracking as well.
If she needs to be in or near the front searching for traps, she is more than willing, but she absolutely will be trying to move into a non-melee capacity asap in any combat situation.
Alaric should probably be near the middle.
...And within 20' of the melee combatants :).
Mel should be... Honestly where ever it is useful for her to be. She has darkvision, but I think the worst perception score in the party.
If there is room to maneuver, Kalimac and Attatoq have the speed to be anywhere in the line up and still get to the action. Having 50' to charge is useful for them. But if we're all bunched up, they should be near the front.
Tollin is close ranged fighter, Not melee though. He is best within 20' of his target. So middle front would be best for him. He has no stealth skill but he does have a high perception +7, he does not have any special senses though. If the group does split to allow others to scout ahead he should probably hang back a bit.
My guess is the way Ry will work this...unless we insist for some reason, the ingoing party will not split, except maybe initially to do a quick reconnoiter/evaluation type thing. I expect other than that, we will always be together...unless we specifically say other wise.
Let me clarify. If you're after Perception and melee, Rhost is a good choice for being on or near point. If you're after Stealth, not so much.
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Splitting the party seems a bad, bad, bad idea. Our Stealth, collectively, is horrible -barring some secret entrance, we are not sneaking up on the castle. Our Perception, collectively, is kind of amazing for a 3rd level party. Splitting up just gives us more chances to be seen, and fewer eyes to catch any particular detail.
If the entire location is not an armed camp, I am in favor of just sweeping through any peripheral areas and liberally throwing our Perceptive selves at any and all ruins and battlefields to see if we can get some answers to "what happened here?", "who did this?", and "who is still hanging around?".
Splitting the party seems a bad, bad, bad idea. Our Stealth, collectively, is horrible -barring some secret entrance, we are not sneaking up on the castle. Our Perception, collectively, is kind of amazing for a 3rd level party. Splitting up just gives us more chances to be seen, and fewer eyes to catch any particular detail.
If the entire location is not an armed camp, I am in favor of just sweeping through any peripheral areas and liberally throwing our Perceptive selves at any and all ruins and battlefields to see if we can get some answers to "what happened here?", "who did this?", and "who is still hanging around?".
I totally agree. Besides this is more along the lines of what Tollin would do. Although he would try to just brazenly walk in and try and talk to who ever was in the place first to get information that way. Then, if it seemed appropriate kill them all.
Mel has no problem with the brazen walking in and talking plan. It has worked before. :)
Mel has no problem with the brazen walking in and talking plan. It has worked before. :)
Ditto for Kalimac. Running in and getting a sword to the belly is kind of his thing.
And Mel got the 1000th post in the OOC thread. W00t for Mel!