The background you suggest is fine with me. So too the group division.
Here is the Summoner's Eidolon.
Loki isn't actually evil in the original legends. He's mostly just self-serving and something of an outcast, and has issues with his father (how is a pretty overbearing jerk a lot of the time), but in many cases he and Thor teamed up and had adventures.
The weird thing about Norse myths is that everyone knows the end of the world is coming. Everyone is preparing for it. Loki is the guy that is supposed to kick it off, and a lot of people have a grudge against him for that. But, at no point does anyone ever say "hey, how about we just don't do the ragnarok thing?"
For some reason only the gods can fathom, ragnarok is extremely important, and it's Loki's job to cause it. It's a bit of a "sympathy for the devil" thing. Loki isn't evil by choice. He's mostly just a free spirit with a terrible fate he can't escape from. That would be enough to make anyone cranky.
In many ways Loki is more relatable than most of the old Celtic gods, who were almost all inhuman monsters who demanded blood sacrifice and did really awful things to each other.
Can I get some information on Nar?
I think Eidolons should all be very specific, rather than cut-and-paste outsiders. I want to know where he came from, why he follows Dorian, and what his personality and goals are.
Spirits of all kinds in old-world myths were difficult to fathom, and usually dangerous to the ignorant.
Hallvarðr I'm putting you in Group 2. That way both groups have a trap smith.
One of the dungeons is light on traps, so I guess it will be luck of the draw which one of you actually has to do that job.
Celtic, Roman, Pagan, Druidic and Early Christian. There are other exotic pantheons, like Egyptian, but no one in this group has reason to follow those.
Looking forward to the kickoff
I'm waiting on gameplay posts from Lyla and Brak. I'm going to give them just a bit longer. Expect to hit Base Camp by this evening whether they post or not.
As a quick note to Hallvarðr and Bladud, as the two scouts of the group, you two are the de facto party leaders.
This does not mean the party will do what you say. It just means they will follow you. You will set the pace of the game, and the final decision for which way to go next is yours. Ideally, there will not need to be consensus on this unless there is something important to discuss. You'll just pick a direction and go, and everyone else will know how and where to fall in line behind you. I expect a great deal of the non-combat posting to come from you two as you search for traps and secret doors and try to figure out how to approach non-combat challenges.
Because of that, the two of you need to be very reliable and able to post often. If either of you go missing without warning, the gameplay will grind to a quick halt. I've seen it in other dungeon crawl games before. It's a problem I'd like to avoid.
If either of you are going to be unable to post for a whole, even if it's just for a day, please let us know.
As a quick note to Hallvarðr and Bladud, as the two scouts of the group, you two are the de facto party leaders.
Just kidding. Message received. You know me, DH... I have no problem taking the reins when necessary... for good or ill.
Can I get some information on Nar?
I think Eidolons should all be very specific, rather than cut-and-paste outsiders. I want to know where he came from, why he follows Dorian, and what his personality and goals are.
Spirits of all kinds in old-world myths were difficult to fathom, and usually dangerous to the ignorant.
Yeah, working on that. But the many options keep me shifting it. Should solidify soon.
Caderyn, what all does Bludad know about you? Have you always covered yourself? is it clan knowledge what you look like under your mask/clothes? Do you want that to have made you historically an outsider even within the clan?
okies
Well, most of the clan elders know. Everyone else has their own version of what's wrong with him and some of those are more outrageous than others.
What everyone in the clan does know is that he keeps his body bandaged up underneath the clothing and armor.
The fact that he's obviously hiding something and that nobody really knows what's wrong has made him an outsider in the clan.
You should normally also know that several years ago he was made to leave and is not allowed to return until he's "fixed" (whatever that may be).
Depending on how many people Bladud asked about Cadeyrn, he might know a thing or 2 more about the exact reasons for why he had to leave and also how his life had been before he had to leave.
But you'll be hard pressed to get any of this info from Cadeyrn himself.
Right, so...
1) He's a weird clan outsider.
2) No one knows why he is the way he is, or why he goes around covered up
3) The elders kicked him out of the village with only vague reasonings to anyone else.
Gotcha. :D
Brak, i think there's a typo in your last post. The human female is Lyla. She has yet to post in gameplay. Torgan is a male half-orc.
Sorry was caught in snowstorm and stranded 5 hrs with dead phone on tail end of 24hrs awake
That would do it. I'll give you an hour or so. If life still has you bogged down I'll just assume Lyla was asleep in the wagon or something.
Oof. sorry to hear about your troubles, Lyla. Hope you get some rest... somewhere warm.
Ok, lets kick this off. Gameplay update incoming.
There we go. Feel free to jump in.
I'm going to try to fast-track this to the dungeon, so I won't be waiting for everyone to respond to the noise and the bell. I'll push things forward as it seems appropriate.
So should we be responding to all this set-up? Or are we waiting for the dungeon-post from you?
Go ahead and respond. I'll move things along once I have a few reaction posts from the group.
Doom - am I going to get anything from my knowledge/survival rolls by chance?
The food chain in this area is seriously damaged.
The history check is good enough to know that this forest used to be a private hunting ground for the former lord back before the Crown Unification. Trespassing on it was punishable by death, even though the lord never came here. It had been in his family for generations, but he wasn't much of a hunter, so it was largely ignored. The blight in the area went undiscovered until after the Crown lifted those restrictions.
That's about all you know of the area.
So I guess Loki is CN. In that case Torgan stayes N.
Thank you all for the input.
Brak, I hope you're wearing gloves. Rope burn's a b!tch!
Should I be waiting for other people to post? Or—since we never rolled initiative—is it more free-form than that, and I can just keep on posting as my availability demands?
It is free form at the moment. I'm trying to move quickly right now, so things are little more cinematic. I didn't expect your little stunt there. It definitely upped the drama and the stakes, so well done.
I'm going to give everyone else a while to respond before I resolve your latest action. Everyone else is still responding to you falling in, so I'll get to your strength check once a few more people have chimed in.
Works for me. Glad I could up the drama.
And just for everyone's peace-of-mind, it's not my plan for Bladud to be constantly reckless. This was just kind of one of those situations where taking the "smart" approach meant possibly leaving a couple of dudes to become spider-food... at least in Bladud's mind, that's the case.
Well I'm still waiting till some planks are put down for stability and then I'm probably jumping in too.
About that, how long (rounds/minutes/...) will it take to have a somewhat stable footing towards the hole?
Just want to make sure I can actually wait for it. I do not want to make the hole any bigger, but if necessary I will do so :)
And about your recklessness. I thought it was actually very fitting for your character :) Even though I got the vibe he's not the sort to go headlong into danger every moment he gets.
Cool. I just don't want people concerned that being in a party with Bladud as the scout would be one reckless, pell-mell dash from one ill-considered combat to the next. I love me some fun antics, but I also try to be considered in my approach to encounters.
Bladud, what you did was fine by me. You went to help but went too far. Like trying to save someone who fell through an icy pond.
I think we're all a bit uncoordinated in this free-form situation. It'll clear up when Doom summarizes everyone's actions and focuses on the hole with initiative.
I'll have a summery up in a few hours.
Moving the planks is going to take a while. Those moving them are Encumbered, so it will take about 2 rounds to get them up the hill and into place. (I know we aren't in actual rounds, but I'm still using that as a time frame reference)
Then they have to be placed from the outside in. Working quickly, the group could probably place two a round (knowledge engineering or dungeoneering required).
You're essentially trying to create a hasty platform over an area at risk of cave-in. The faster you move, the riskier the whole process.
Keep in mind that other than Bladud, nobody can actually see down the hole because the ground is too unstable to get close to the edge.
A way of speeding up the process (for you smart characters with the relevant skills) night be to grab a plank or two from the top of the stack and run it up ahead of the main stack. Then, after placing them, tying off to an anchor point like the tree and waiting so that the moment you have a path, you can move.
Spells like Levitate or Feather Fall would also help here.
I didn't expect Bladud's action to trigger the first "cave in trap" so quickly, so time sensitivity has definitely gone up.
I understand that the slowness of the situation is a little frustrating. I'm trying to approach the situation fairly realistically and set a tone. Hope it's working.
Question, once we get into the dungeon, do you want us to go with present or past tense?
The tone setting is working very well for me :) And not frustrated about the slowness of the situation. More about the slowness of those planks ;)
My character has none of the relevant knowledges, but his idea from the get-go was to get a few planks to start the platform building (not to get a whole stack at once). And his increased speed can help a lot in this situation.
I'm not certain if I'll be online this evening, so my characters actions would normally be as follows :
- get a few planks fast.
- start putting them in place for the rest to come.
- when he has a stable path in (or if there have been so many cave-ins that everyone's going down) then he'll take his chances and go into the hole, greataxe in hand.
Then you don't have to wait for me if things go into a faster speed later today :)
Question, once we get into the dungeon, do you want us to go with present or past tense?
I'm not going to harp on it for this game, but I generally prefer past-tense. Feels more like a novel to me. Makes the story flow nicely. I know I don't always remember to keep my tenses straight, so don't worry too much about it.
If only that trick with Light still worked.
Unfortunately the FAQ cleared it up. You make a light equivilant to a torch. That means an area glows up to about the size of a torch. Basically, you aren't going to get a light source much bigger than your fist with a cantrip.
If you want a glowing rope, I'd allow it, but it would have to be a custom magic item.
Was out of the country for a day. Back and posting. And hoping my absence in posting didn't just cost a man his life.
Ow, and regarding the IC. Bladud is pushed back 15ft. 31 is 2x5 over 19.
And regarding the injured man at the bottom. Shouldn't there be a small augmented earth ele standing between the spider and the man? 3 minute duration. And I don't think such time has passed. And if it did I'll have you know I would have summoned more back-up for down there before the fightertypes arrived.
Was why I was asking about how the light thing works. Thought it would indeed be to powerful that way. But can I channel the energy to the part of the rope that I want to light up, or would it only light up the part that I touch. Because if only the part that I touch, I will not have cast that spell again (due to the other light going out then.)
You'd need to touch the part that you want to light up, but I'm not going to make you waste your action because you as a player didn't know something that your character would.
I'll just assume you touched the part of the rope you wanted to. Just say where it is as part of your next action post.
Bladud, it doesn't look like your armor check penalty has been factored into your skill totals.
It hasn't, but it's listed at the top, with astricks by the appropriate skills. Did I miscalculate somewhere?
Nope, I just looked at the value next to Acrobatics and thought it seemed high. I didn't see the ACP note above it. My mistake.
You're on the ground now, feel free to take your action.
Note that this thing does has reach, and the terrain down here is rough with wet dirt and webs. No Acro to avoid AoOs possible.
Because I don't want to start the game off too cruelly, I'm going to highly recommend you let the elemental move in first.
So no charges, then, eh? :)
Nope.
The MAP linked above my profile picture has been updated. If you (or your minions) can see what's going on down below, please take a look.
Earth ele's are a beefy bunch. This little guy is rocking a 20 strength right now.