paula36

Nadia follows him without problem, and she enters the Grey House like it was a regular home, happily and peacefully. She settles down on her bed and the few patients who notice anything just don't seem to care. As Cyrus wanders around pretending not doing anything, he manages to leave a window unlocked but closed, looking like it was properly shut. While he deals with the window he can't help but notice that patients are somewhat disinterested in him compared to his first entry, especially after returning the girl unharmed. No juicy news on the horizon of the stranger who stole Nadia from under the nose of the caretakers.

As he concentrates on the unseen energies of the psychic world around Nadia, Cyrus can feel the presence of a faint aura of enchantment affecting her. She is still smiling happily as this happens, mostly oblivious to the world going on. OOC He can sense magic on her, but it's up to you to decide whether he does something about it.

If I understand it correctly, detect magic should still sense psychic stuff going on, is that right? Yeah, I think so. If so, do you mind if I swap one of my other cantrips for it? I thought the detect psychic did that. Go ahead, swap it. No sense in getting stuck with something you don't like.

I don't know what 'Cyrus will focus his sixth sense' means specifically. I looked through the sheet you linked, and I didn't find a Sixth Sense. Is it a class feature? Feat? Occult skill unlock?

"Traveling far away. Far away where the herons fly and walk. The butterflies are the most beautiful of all animals, and they are kind." Nadia responds, with an angelic smile spread wide on her face. Soon after she finishes the last sentence, she starts slowly rocking back and forth, but staying in place. Then she slowly closes her eyes and just sways gently, still wrapped in the blanket. A few passers-by look at the weird duo with a slight disdain, then walk on without interfering.

Cyrus feels a shiver running down his spine and his hair stands up after searching the place with his sixth sense. Noting specific stands out, though. The girl slides off the bed, her eyes darting around as if expecting an attack from any direction. She pulls the blanket around herself tight, looking like a tiny withered old woman and scurries outside as fast and undetectable as she can manage. She continues without stopping outside the door and slows to a halt when the two of them are a hundred yards away from the building. "I'm Nadia, sir." she turns towards Cyrus, then looks back at the building, her expression suddenly changing to carefree happiness, "The plague is ... just sickness. It goes away. My friends had it, Perre in the neighboring house, old Janpar who is just a beggar. And nobody got really hurt. Only people in the hospital ... change, or die. People with the plague in the hospital. Why does the hospital hurt people?"

"The plague is not ..." she stops in mid-sentence with fear, "I ... those who speak get punished here. The ..." she looks around, including the ceiling, with an agitated expression, "place gets angry at those who talk about it. I don't want to get punished. I don't want to talk here." She looks much more afraid of the place than being sick. This shows not only in her words, but also the way she is comfortable with looking at sick patients, or doctors, compared to how she looks around and up, scanning the building for danger.

I've had only a short trip into 4e, but I liked it very much. I wasn't the GM, so I had the easy part, but for me 4e is the only consistent and logical D&D version. For a while, I entertained the idea of running a game, but my primary reason for not doing that is my inability to do make cool/nice tactical maps. Somehow I feel that it is very important, since tactical maps are unavoidable in 4e. About the quote from leons: How about using just the 3 PHBs? I haven't delved into character balance and such, but are the basics so bad that they need serious corrections for enjoyable play?

The girl shivers, and 'shrinks' as much as she can when Cyrus addresses her. She looks at him like a beaten dog expecting more beating. "Why do you want to talk to me?"

"Ummm," he muses for a few seconds, "Dena? Lenna? Denni? or something similar. You might ask others about it, my memory is truly awful. She just disappeared one day. Sleeping there when evening comes," he points to a bed, "and nowhere the next morning. ... You are a good person, sir." he adds with sudden seriousness, before turning away to continue his task.

That spoiler-button you use is perfect.

Is it ok if I make all 'sense rolls' for Cyrus? That would include people sense as well as the physical senses. For me it feels in synergy with the occult mystery mood we're aiming for, with the player not knowing the rolls only the narrative part.

Taking a break seems like the best strategy here, as others suggested. If you really want to not completely fall out of gaming, maybe try to keep a single game, and see if posting in just one helps to put more meat on your posts. If that works, it might even be the long-term solution: to reduce the number of games you're in. I've been there a few times: too many games and then all participation suffers for lack of energy and momentum.

"Of course, sir, of course," he answers quickly, eying the coins, and cleans his throat, "The plague, well, is more serious than many people think. You're right that very few actually die of it, but many suffer changes in behavior and some suffer bodily ailments. The bad thing is that a few of these, err, effects, never go away, the sick are stuck with them for their lives." He looks around eagerly, straining his eyes and involuntarily jerking his head to the side a little. He points to a patient lying on a bed near the door. "Poor Naffu there has been coughing for weeks now, sometimes accompanied by a little blood. He's past any other signs, but he may have that cough till he dies." "There was a woman here a month ago who just stared at people with unnerving eyes, and only spoke when asked. Nothing by herself. Any ailments she had, we had to ask ourselves to be able to treat." "That child over there," he points to the one Cyrus noticed earlier with a look of desperate hope, "is smiling happily one minute, then looking desperate the next, with no apparent reason for it. She just changes mood suddenly, and both moods are ... strange. She cares about nothing when smiling, not even body functions, but overly sensitive about everything around her when feeling blue." "And Marren, a healthy robust man, just died sitting up like waiting for something in bed one day. A little fever, a little loss of appetite, then one day, just gone."

The old man stares at Cyrus silently for quite a while, trying to comprehend the situation. "Concerning? You said concerning?" He looks around searching for something, then turns back to the strange visitor. "You have family in here? We can take special care of them if you insist." His greedy face and involuntary hand movement tells exactly what he means by insisting, which definitely involves some silver coins. From the corner of his eye, Cyrus registers that his behavior generated a mild but wide interest in the current residents. A hopeful child's look from nearby. A narrow eye full of suspicion in the corner. An expressionless unwavering stare from a sad woman sitting on the bed opposite him. A trio of sickly people leaning towards each other and whispering in the window's otherworldly light shafts at the wall. He is definitely the thing people are going to talk and gossip about for a while.

The block of Shade's End sick house is not just named so, but literally grey. The entrance is not guarded by anyone, as no-one worries people are going to escape. Whoever comes here comes in the hope of getting healed, and if they decide to leave, that's one less mouth to feed and one less task to attend. The Healers' Guild considers it a place of despair, and only the truly altruistic or truly cold come here to work. Of course, the guildmasters appoint someone if necessary, but that's very rarely the case for some reason. A healer or two is almost always present. And this is what Cyrus finds when he arrives at the place in the early afternoon. After entering through the large dilapidated door, he is greeted by an old, dreamy fellow in traditional healer's garment: tattered robes and the green armband tied onto the right sleeve. He is cleaning an empty bed and the adjacent person simultaneously, with rather bored movements and face. Somewhere deeper in the large hall's shadows someone else is busy with talking to a few people standing around a bed, peacefully explaining something. "G'day to you, sir. What brings you here?" the bored healer asks with very little enthusiasm.

I supposed not. I thought it's a local thing Cyrus was going to do some time after arriving back. If you want to, we can consider him a member whenever he has an hour or so in town and spends it to join. Would you like a roleplaying scene for it or just consider it done?

I don't think your opinon is about negativity, it's about a valid concern. With a real-life group, how many potential GM's are there? Probably that one who volunteers, and if they say what The Blue Bard said, then that's what the players have. In a pbp environment, where there's a GM advertising a game, you don't really know them, and there are plenty other games to apply for. So it's just natural that you don't invest into something that's very vague and uncertain. It's logical that you want 'a bit more substance to make an informed decision' as you put it.

Where to start? Mercenary guild hall? A tavern? Some old acquaintance? Town guard headquarters? The Grey House? (= town 'hospital', though that's quite a euphemism)

First question: I think that's an invitation for disaster. And I think it's sad if that's the default. Second question: I don't know. I'm running one game here, a single-player game, which is focused on the PC. You seem to be a veteran compared to me; do you think there's a default assumption? PS: Now that I think about it, I would really love to play in a campaign like the one run by BlueBard. I wouldn't dare to run one, though.

Ok. And I'm happy you told me this, I don't have to guess when to switch. Any idea about the next one? What's Cyrus planning to do now?