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I don't think I'd have a problem.
Does that mean I'd have to leave?
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Oh don't be silly.
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Welcome back, I'm sure we're all happy to hear that you're (starting to be) doing okay!
== Initiating Dulae silence interpreter ==
Return: Dulae didn't read the discussion this morning
Certainty: 99.9%
=============
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Henri! You're alive! Yay!
Sorry to hear that things got crazy. Many internet hugs!
I would be absolutely fine with you returning any time you wanted.
Also, snarky GM is correct (and snarky) I did not read the discussion this morning.
Also, snarky GM is correct (and snarky)...
(Is this not why we're friends?)
Seconded on both welcoming and also many internet hugs for Henri.
Assuming we have consensus: I’m leaning towards a glitch in the matrix transporting Henri to the cave. Conveniently, there was just a large-scale botched spell that twisted time and space in unexpected ways; Henri could very well have been affected if she was nearby.
This would mean we’d need to get her from leaving town the night before to near the Altiendel side of the pass at about daybreak. (I’ll need your help here - maybe she made almost all the way to Abbhen then had a change of heart and turned around, or a hired family goon caught up with her and was hauling her back.)
If that sounds like a good starting point, let me know when you’re ready to tag in. I plan to give you a write-up of what Henri has seen and heard since she left so you can jump back in pretty seamlessly. Once we’ve pinned down why she was near the mountain at dawn I should be able to turn that around in a few days (barring super-long conference hours, which happens).
Yay Henri isn't dead! Sorry to hear about all that, but I'd have zero problems with having you back.
=D =D =D
It is decided then. Welcome back, Henri.
Sounds like Henri =)
It would be very helpful to me if you could write the story of what happened to her that night from the time she left the Wolf and Bear to ending up near the base of Mount Oranis at daybreak.
Environment stuff: clear night sky (it had stopped snowing), dim moonlight, she would've had to pass through mist on the mountain and in the pass for about a mile to travel toward Abbhen, and occasional loud eerie howls that pierce the night that she thinks are Oranis.
One other stipulation: she should not be physically shackled to her captor when she reaches the mountain base (otherwise restraints will work with the botched spell for our purposes).
Then we'll switch the world settings from probabilistic to deterministic for a fraction of a second and she'll be back on the mountain with the team.
Things I'd be curious for you to explore for curiosity's sake (but you're free to write whatever you'd like): Which member of her family hired this person/people and does Henri think the others know/approve? Does Henri know her captor(s) from her previous life in Altiendel? What happens to Sally in the scuffle/ambush?
@Alaina: In case it doesn't go without saying - Dara is magic, especially as a foil to Alaina, and I'd strongly prefer to keep her around if you're willing to continue playing two PCs.
=D =D =D
It is decided then. Welcome back, Henri.
** spoiler omitted **
You got it, boss! I'll work on it tonight and should have something tonight or tomorrow.
yeesh, this thing may have gotten a little overlong, and in a more prose-y format... but here it is. There's a TL;DR at the bottom, too. It's been a bit since I've written in this world so lemme know if there's any inconsistencies.
Henri’s nervous smile disappeared the moment she stepped out into the cold night air. She had only read the letter once, but the words were burned into her mind, sending fear trembling through her body. She could hear her mother’s voice in her head, and the raging shout kept her moving at a near sprint to the stables.
She reached Sally in a matter of moments, quickly placing the saddle on her and climbing on. “We need to get out of here, girl,” she said softly, guiding the bay horse forward, down the quiet town streets. Henri pulled the horse to a stop at the threshold of the town, leading out into Abbhen. She turned her head to stare at the Wolf and Bear behind her. The warm light spilled out of the windows, but were cut short by the cold darkness of the clear night sky. It had only been a couple of days since she had arrived, but it felt like months had passed in the time that she had stayed here. The Rabbit, Sarge, Doc, Red… each of them felt like friends already. Was she really about to abandon them?
The moment stretched on into a full minute of standing at the border of the town and wilderness, Henri’s breath stretching and forming into large, opaque clouds before her. She growled at herself. If she was going to go, then she needed to go. They could take care of themselves. She pulled her hat down low so that it cut off her vision of the tavern. A three soft words fell from her lips, so quiet that Henri herself could barely hear them. “I’m sorry. Goodbye.” Then, she snapped Sally’s reigns, and she was gone.
Sally moved swiftly through the fog that had already creeped around Southtown. The horse seemed to be just as eager as Henri to escape this place, though it may have had more to do with the distant howls shrieking through the night air. She was fine with that. The more distance between her and that town, the better. It was several minutes before she burst through the fog, and she smirked. She doubted that anything was protecting her this time, and accounted it to luck that she had made it through unscathed. She hoped this trend would continue.
It wouldn’t.
She had been cantering out of the fog for less than an hour before it happened. Henri’s breath was shuddering from the hard riding, but still she pushed Sally forward. Soon, she could get somewhere. Deep south, Pirate’s Bay, maybe. Anywhere she could hide out until- WHAP! Suddenly her horse disappeared from beneath her. Sally tripped forward, sending Henri suddenly and painfully to the ground, rolling and skidding to a hard stop a few meters away from Sally. She felt something snap in her arm and cried out a curse of pain. “ اللعنة!”
She gasped and grimaced in pain, reaching for her blunderbuss, looking back at her whinnying horse to see what had happened. The creature was writhing on the ground, trying to regain it’s composure, at the foot of what appeared to be a tripwire of some sort. The strong wire had tripped the horse and sent Henri flying. She heard something between a grunt and a chuckle coming from behind a nearby bush.
“Didn’t think I’d catch ya’ this easy, girlie.” The voice was gruff and drawn out, and sounded exactly the way Henri remembered it. It’s low rumble grew closer, and she could feel her blood run cold. A calloused hand reached down and easily grabbed her shotgun and drew it away from her reach. She looked up, into the half-elf’s old, grey eyes. It was Ezikiel.
She spun around and delivered a kick towards his shins, which he easily dodged out of the way of, before taking a step back forward and delivering the heel of his boot onto her already injured arm. Henri screamed out involuntarily in pain, her tortured voice echoing along the empty road. She saw Ezikiel draw a wicked dagger from his belt, filled with dozens of painful-looking weapons, and slowly put it against her leg, driving it gently through the flesh. Henri felt each inch of the cold dagger carve into her shin. “Now, I don’t relish the thought of carrying you all the way back to Altiendel, but if ye don’t behave, I’m gonna cut off this leg. Follow me?”
Henri silently nodded in between sobs of pain. “Good girl. I ain’t gonna kill you, but I can make these next few days of yours very uncomfortable.” He gestured to Sally, still struggling to get back to her feet. “Aw, damn. I didn’t think you’d fall for that trap, see? Now this ol’ girl’s got her leg all broke to high hell.” He raised her blunderbuss to Sally’s head. “Damned shame.”[b] Henri clamped her eyes shut as she heard the fatal gunshot ring out, unable to stop the tears from streaming down her face. Sally, who had carried her for so many miles… dead at the hands of this bastard.
She heard the distant call of a bird, and Ezikiel put out his hand to catch the falcon as it came to rest on his arm. [b]“Redghut caught you coming from a mile away. Surprised ye didn’t keep yer eyes on the sky.” He laughed. “Guess ye heard warning of yer mum. Still such a scared little girl after all this time.” He began to gather Henri’s belongings from Sally, slinging them over his broad shoulders. The man was tall, taller than he had any right to be - when he was a kid, he had always insisted to Henri that his mom was actually a giant. Henri never believed him. His clothes were rough and leather, colored in dull greens and browns to blend in with the landscape around him. His hair was black, and had grown long and wild during his time spent in the woods, and it seemed as though he had never cared to bring it into socially accepted levels of cleanliness. The same went for the rest of his body - every inch of him seemed to be covered in grime - mud, grass, dirt, blood, and gods knew what else.
But is was still Ezikiel. “Didja not think yer mum’d send me, sis?” Henri spat at her half-brother’s feet.
“I didn’t think she’d want to ever associate with you, you قطعة من القرف أوندد.” Ezikiel laughed as Henri glowered from the ground. He delivered a swift kick to her face, and she coughed in pain as blood gushed from her nose and mouth.
“You still got such a dirty damn mouth, ya know that?” Ezikiel gestured with the still-steaming barrel of Henri’s blunderbuss. “Go on, then. Get all those weapons off and toss em over.”
The next few minutes were spent in silence, with only the occasional instruction from Ezikiel about what to remove, as Henri slowly shunted her entire arsenal from her body. A bastard from an affair Henri’s father had from before he even met her mother, Ezikiel was always a black sheep of the family. His existence was kept under tight wraps by both her mother and father, as it would have been seen as scandalous and hugely affected their standing to know about Samuel’s illegitimate son.
It had gotten even worse when he started bringing dead animals to their doorstep, like a cat that could speak. His violent tendencies became too much for the family to hide, so they shipped him down to Abbhen, where his lifestyle could run free, unable to tarnish the Coy name. Last Henri had heard, he had become a ranger and assassin for hire - her mother occasionally tossed him some gold or a reference to keep him from coming back into Altiendel. “Up,” he said simply, and Henri staggered to her feet, battered and bruised. “Alright, girlie, let’s go. We’ve got a long walk ahead of us. Better put these on so you don’t try anything.” He tossed her a pair of manacles. She knew better than to refuse.
Henri stepped over Sally’s corpse, taking a last glance at the horse before Ezikiel shoved her in the back with his blunderbuss. “You can cry over the beast as much as ya like later. We’ve gotta get back to Altien by dawn.”
Henri growled. “So, did mother send you, then?” she questioned, the bile in her voice unconstrained.
Ezikiel laughed. “You betcha. Say what ye want about her, the b&~!% is willin’ ta do anything to get what she wants.” Henri grimaced as she stepped wrong on her wounded leg, and stumbled for a moment, before continuing on.
“And what did dad have to say about that?”
Ezikiel let out a loud guffaw. “Ya think she’d tell that cowardly bastard? From what I hear, he doesn’t even know if you’re still alive. He still expects that yer just a sad little kidnapped girl. But yer mum knew better. She apparently hired some guy… figured out that no one actually kidnapped you. Course, she kept that info mostly to herself. Let her keep searching for her daughter while acting like the victim.” He let out a smaller chortle. “Clever b@@@%, yer mum. I’ll give ‘er that at least.”
“Why the hell are you taking me back to her? You hate her almost as much as I do, don’t you?”
“Money. Well, and because you’re a selfish b~~@#.” Henri grimaced. “Ye get to stay there, fit in, and be ‘er daughter? Be Dad’s daughter? And that’s not enough for ya. Little miss Henrietta has ta go out and play rough in taverns, get drunk and have fun. Ye had it all, and you just had to throw it away for… for what, so ye could smoke and drink? Like ye were some kinda badass?” Ezikiel pushed her hard, knocking her suddenly to the ground. “I wish I could kill ya right now, and if’n I didn’t think you’d hate it more if I’d turn you over to yer mum, I probably would. Screw the gold.” He placed the end of the blunderbuss against her kneecap, and his finger gently touched the trigger. “It would be so easy. Pullin tha trigger of this lil’ toy you picked up. Leaving you here for the crows…” He trailed off, and there was a tense moment of silence. Henri held her breath, paying attention to nothing but his finger, and the trigger. But then he pulled the gun away, his unearthly smile growing on his face. “Not yet, Henrietta. But soon. Don’t you worry yer pretty little head.”
It would still be another few hours before they would arrive at the base of the mountain.
Glad to have you back! Unrelated note to everyone, I had a skiing accident yesterday, and I'm without the use of an arm for the next week. This will probably be my longest post until then. I will still be reading every day, but due to busy work schedule plus one-handed typing taking a long time, my posts will probably be like one sentence. Just a heads up as to why they end up short for a bit!
Well, I pre-ordered Starfinder. Let's hope it's up to expectations.
I'm going to wait until i can get a group to commit to playing with me. Which I hope they will because I am very excited about it.
Also, get well soon, Cel!
@Cel Oh no! I hope you get better quick.
Oooh, Starfinder. I hope it is good also. Think it would be good as pbp?
It's funny you say that, when I read the Hive in Horror Adventures, my first thought was, "Huh, I can totally do Alien with these guys."
It's excellent, I really like it! (And yes, very Tarantino.)
I notice Ezikiel ends up with all Henri's stuff at the end of this exchange. My first inclination is to set the deterministic version of the Universe such that he ends up relatively nearby when they get beamed up the mountain. That way she stands some chance of recovering her gear before she needs something to defend herself against other potential threats. (The party might meet friend Ezikiel if that's the case.)
If that sounds agreeable, it would be ideal to post Henri's solo adventure in gameplay to keep the story all in one place (although if re-formatting it all again would be too much of a pain in the ass, don't worry about it).
Questions:
1) If Henri tried to escape (i.e. ran away) would Ezikiel shoot to kill?
2) Is Ezikiel trained to use firearms?
3) I'm getting a level 5-6 ranger kind of vibe from Ezikiel. Accurate?
4) Anything else I should know if I end up treating Ezikiel as an NPC?
5) Does this description of Henri's current appearance match your mental image:
- Dried blood that's run down her neck from her nose and mouth.
- One arm twisted at an unnatural angle
- Bloodied pant leg from her stab wound
- Manacles restraining her at the wrists (in front of her or behind her back?)
- Not armed with her usual weapons
EDIT: 6) I estimate Henri suffered roughly 4 HP worth of damage - do you agree? (I don't expect the party to have any trouble healing her, if so.)
I don't have your game re-intro post ready yet (apologies - today was a 16-hour kind of day) but I hope to work on it tomorrow.
By the way Henri, things keep occurring to me that would be useful for you to know:
1) We're on a 48-hour combat schedule now (combat rules are up-to-date at the end of the campaign map)
2) Not related to the game: Alaina pointed me to an awesome web series a couple months ago and I remember wanting to ask you your thoughts on it: JourneyQuest
@Cel: Noooooo, very sorry to hear that. (If anyone asks, I'll tell them you won your fight with the mountain and the mountain got way worse from you.) Wishing you a speedy and full recovery! Please keep us updated on how you are.
@Alaina: Yesssss, I'm really eager to hear your review. (Haven't read Horror Adventures, but I'm super into Alien as a premise.)
I can easily post the story in gameplay as I made sure to get a copy/paste of the formatting beforehand!
1) He'd shoot to heavily maim or incapacitate - he doesn't care about hurting her (obviously) but wants to refrain from killing her for as long as possible.
2) It's a bit ambiguous - given his time in Abbhen I wouldn't put it past him, but crunch-wise he has only used it so far vs. helpless opponents. As an assassin he probably tends to use quieter ranged weapons in general.
3) Super accurate, basically what I imagined as well.
4) Don't think so. His character backstory should all be present, Henri's sadistic assassin illegitimate half-brother who Henri knew for a few years before he was shipped off to Abbhen to protect the family name. Mid-level (probably NE/LE) ranger with a penchant for torture.
5) Yep - pretty sure that's all that's happened to her, she's probably got a few other minor cuts and bruises but that is the majority of it. Her arms are in front of her since she put the manacles on herself - to give her at least a small chance (even though her arm is likely entirely broken at this point)
No worries! I completely understand. Thanks again for welcoming me back so readily.
1) Good to know!
2) I've run into that series a couple of times! I like it, it's made by a bunch of people who made probably my favorite D&D movie of all time (The Gamers: Dorkness Rising). It doesn't have quite the same charm that that movie had, but it's definitely a really fun series.
@Alaina I'm actually looking to run Strange Aeons for a group starting soon and the corruptions from horror adventures are so tempting. A lot of the stuff in there as cosmic horror could be easily supplemented to a space adventure as a "We are space pirates and OH SHIT THERE'S SHUB-NIGGURATH"
Very helpful Henri, thanks. I'm thinking I will arm him with a longbow and shortsword of his own, where he has special talent with the former.
Speaking of Shub-Niggurath, today I head to Capitol Hill to see staffers of reps and senators on the Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation and the Committee on Science, Space, & Tech to try to convince them that banning people from primarily Muslim countries (or any other arbitrary metric) is actually pretty terrible for US science and tech interests. Wish me luck.
Good luck.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Yes, all the good luck!
Good luck Mikkel, and get better Cel!
Also, Henri can I hope for an angry Draconic rant? Please ;_;
Very good luck, Mikkel!
And of course, Xizoh :P you know I'm gonna bring the rants.
A fellow physicist and I visited seven offices of senators and members of Congress today. We spoke with three sets of staffers and followed-up with four. (Then did some science, then went to a protest of the travel ban at the Supreme Court building. (Hey Dulae, tell your roommate Bernie Sanders was there.) Pretty much running just on coffee at this point.)
There was a noticeable split between staffers who were really interested in what we had to say and those who were more eager for us to leave than anything else. (Guess along which line.) But hey, we made two contacts who jotted down some notes and actually want to hear from us again. 2/535 is about 0.4%, which is not zero. Difference made.
Also, the ACLU fundraiser I’ve been working on since December gained a lot of traction today (probably related to this effect). So that’s exciting.
People might find it heartening that while we were waiting in a Florida senator's office we heard about 100 people call (non-stop) opposing the travel ban and Sessions' confirmation (which is tomorrow - you can still call before 9:30am Eastern if you haven't; it's dead easy and they do count them. I watched.)
Semi-relatedly, I hereby second the request for Draconic rants by Henri at pretty much any opportunity, in game or not.
Yeesh, that sounds friggin crazy. Thanks for goin' out there and making a difference. It's important shit.
Question: I assume Henri is in initiative at this point? Or is she still doing her own thing?
There was one visit we thought would be our easiest - we were going to talk to a Louisiana congressman on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Tech who has big federally-funded lab near his district that's brought in jobs and positively impacted easily 100,000 Louisiana kids, probably that many visitors per year and some from his district, so surely he would know about it.
Us: Hi, we're here to talk about the impact of the travel ban on the giant 500 million dollar science project in your state and the wonderful things it does for your community.
Him: The what?
His staffer: *asks us to spell the experiment name three times*
Us: ....*facepalm*
Oh good question - that's important. The last act of the temporarily deterministic Universe was to give Henri the initiative advantage - she's made observations but her opponent hasn't actually entered combat rounds yet. She's up first. (I'll clarify in gameplay.)
There's so much happening I hardly know where to begin this week. We didn't even get 24 hours to rest before any progress from our Capitol Hill visits was overshadowed by increasingly big worries (i.e. Bannon on the NSC and the very troubling conflict between the judicial and executive branches).
If you find this scary, you're not alone. Take heart that there are millions of people out there trying to make an impact for the better; trying to listen, sharing resources, and supporting each other.
For anyone who in principle would like to take action and isn't sure how to prioritize much less what to do, 5calls.org is pretty helpful.
Let me know if there's any way I can support anyone, anytime.
I wanted to bring the discussion back to Dorkness Rising, but I can't seem to focus on anything other than how well it'd pass the Bechdel test. Given that it's not a Tuesday, I will restrain myself.
Instead I offer one of my favorite things on the internet: SSSS. (Lovers of world building may want to start with the Prologue and appreciators of horror/adventure/comedy may want to jump in at Chapter 1. For those not into web comics, here are ten puppies.)
Happy SuperbOwl day.
(I mean it's dubious considering that a conversation happens that DOES technically count buut I would consider it a yes)
(but it's still a great movie in my opinion)
Also SSSS looks pretty up my alley, though I don't know how one manages to update four times a week D: especially at that quality.
And SSSS used to update 5 times per week, but she's taking wednesdays off to develop a RPG computer game of it. Including learning programming from scratch.
*cries at the productivity of others*
...
*slinks back to my half-finished second issue and my unproductive job search*
I get the impression Minna Sundberg is pretty well-supported financially (good for her, and hooray more free art for me to appreciate). Having a day job makes a big difference in terms of time and energy to spend; not really a fair comparison in any respect.
Also, gonna throw it out there that I'd (selfishly) much rather have you here playing PbP than publishing 5 comics a week (or doing whatever it is you would do that's not science, Dulae).
I see it’s been about a week - how goes the healing process, Cel?
Just saw the orthopedist yesterday, it's a rupture ulnar collateral ligament, a small radial head fracture, and a minor tear in the anterior capsule of the shoulder. All of that sounds bad, but to be honest, it's about the best possible result (none of it needs fixing)! Typing is still hard, but I can do most of my activities of daily living. Thanks for checking in!
=O
Sh!t, you really did get in a fight with the mountain. Glad you're okay (for some definition of okay). Keep us posted!
This week I was going to talk about how propagating discrimination comes down to doing nothing as much as (if not more than) active hate speech and violence. But… the news has been relentlessly heavy. I’m exhausted. You’re probably exhausted.
Instead, let’s root for good representation in arts and entertainment. Because it makes a difference.
Happy Tuesday!
Well, got new hardware for computer, and the ram won't fit! I'm a little pissed off. I got to talk to the guy who helped me select the components tomorrow about it. AAAAAAAAARRRG!!!!!
-Posted with Wayfinder
The ram won't fit? Is it the wrong type? Thats really bizarre.
Won't fit with the motherboard? F$*+, that's some shit. My knowledge is pretty limited (er, different orientation maybe?) Probably not much use to a practicing wizard. Long distance moral support!
In my experience there is different kinds/sizes of RAM, but that may have just been because I was working with Macs for the most part.
I've built a few computers so if you want me to take a look at the parts maybe I could tell whats going on?
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I got it figured out. The motherboard takes DDR4 and the RAM I bought is DDR3. I just need to exchange it.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Hey cool, I know some of those acronyms.
(Glad you got it sorted - although that's probably still annoying.)
Yes, yes it is.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Injury by graham cracker? That sounds like a story worth hearing. (Also like something I would do.)
Oh, I bit into one, a large piece started to fall and with my cat-like reflexes I darted to catch it, then I remember that my elbow was injured...it wasn't pleasant
Ah no! Did you save the graham cracker?
Sorry for the absence, I've been following what's happening, but it's a little hard to look at the maps via Wayfinder or smartphone.
Right now I'm using my wife's machine. But the replacement parts for mine have been ordered and should be here next week.
Post in a bit.
Fair enough - I use the google drive app on my Android for the maps (not sure how easy it'd be to get on an iOS, if that's what you have). The maps look really nice there, but I haven't tried to do anything outside a simple move (i.e. a cut and paste).
I'm happy to move markers for you in the meantime (with instruction) if that'd be helpful. Thanks for posting.