TheFred

DUR: 0/30, LUC: 0/30, Wounds: 0, Traumas: 0 Pools: Insight 4/4, Moxie 6/6, Vigour 1/1, Flex 2/2 Aeos eye the doctor, trying to gauge what he's getting at. Has Null compromised them? But if so, this seems an unusual way to go about dealing with it. If they know for sure, why the charade? "Hardly," they say. "We met on the way here and explored the complex a little yesterday... but Null was reserved, quite introverted. They gave no sign of this condition, however. If you had asked us to make a diagnosis then we would have been hard pressed to find anything wrong. Their willingness to spend time with roommates points away from any form of social anxiety, though it's possible that they were suffering from some form of emotional detachment, perhaps memory loss?" Despite whatever is going on with the doctor, Aeos cannot help but be genuinely intrigued by Null's condition. Dr Sion makes up a good part of their memories and they recall being fascinated by any case which was more unusual than the norm. "Presumably something triggered this dissociation after we parted ways yesterday," they muse. The obvious answer is whatever Null discovered in those old shafts, but they don't really want to draw the doctor's attention to that. "Such things rarely happen all at once, though. There must have been some prior trauma - do you have access to their medical records?"

If I'm honest I'm a little busy with life and my existing games at the moment but I'd potentially be interested in a solo trade, maybe even the kind you're talking about (I'd prefer 3.5 but I'm good with high-ish power PF1e or similar). I've had limited success with them myself but I think a solo lets you do a lot of stuff that you wouldn't normally in a party game, with maybe much more character-focused plots or things like being the villain (or the old "chosen one" trope). I'll check out your hub thing , though I'm not so much looking for anything right now, myself, as just open to the possibility. 🙂

We had coal before the industrial revolution; what we didn't have was the agricultural revolution. But in a fantasy world, we've got magic. In D&D, Plant Growth is a L3 spell. However, why would you need a coal-powered engine when you have magical means of travelling. Phantom Steeds probably beat early mechanised transport, undead horses never tire, and anyway we have actual teleportation.

Bianca Pohlo "Is that her?" Bianca asks, peering into the room ahead but worried about going any further. She keeps her voice low, as if frightened that something might hear her. "The woman we're looking for? How did she get past the doors, and the arrow trap?" She gulps. Does this mean that some kind of scary undead person really did cart her off, somehow bypassing the Pyre's defences or resetting them afterwards? Simple skeletons are mindless creations; they couldn't have done this. Statblock [URL=/sheets/?id=1797520][B]Bianca Pohlo[/B][/URL] [B]Initiative:[/B] +2, [B]Senses:[/B] Low-Light Vision, Perception +3 [B]HP:[/B] 9/9 [B]AC:[/B] 12, [B]Touch:[/B] 12, [B]Flat-Footed:[/B] 10, [B]CMD:[/B] 11 [B]Saves:[/B] Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +2 [B]Spells L1:[/B] Enlarge Person, Expeditious Excavation, Grease [B]Spells L0:[/B] Daze, Detect Magic, Acid Splash [B]Arcane Reservoir:[/B] 2/4 [B]Condition:[/B] None Initiative: +2, Senses: Low-Light Vision, Perception +3 HP: 9/9 AC: 12, Touch: 12, Flat-Footed: 10, CMD: 11 Saves: Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +2 Spells L1: Enlarge Person, Expeditious Excavation, Grease Spells L0: Daze, Detect Magic, Acid Splash Arcane Reservoir: 2/4 Condition: None

I have a concept for a setting that I keep meaning to try out sometime that's essentially medieval in terms of technology but modern in terms of sensibilities. It annoys me a bit in game that are meant to be quasi-medieval when people don't act medievally or use modern slang or whatever (I'm not expecting proper Old English, but there's a level at which it just breaks immersion for me)... but this would be embracing that. We might, for example, have some democracies or human rights, and we'd be able to quit with fantasy racism (or at least have it be an acknowledged point of contention). However my concept was that magic takes the role of technology so we wouldn't actually have TVs and cars and electricity, but we might have scrying dishes on people's walls that can be tuned to different channels, self-driving horse-skeletons or devices that conjure up magical food and go "ding!" when they're done. An obvious comparison is a more "magitech" setting like Eberron with which I'm envisaging some similarities, but quite a different overall vibe.

I don't know whether we can go back the way we came once we have the crystal. Even if we did, it wouldn't preclude us then murderising the mortals and keeping it for ourselves, or trying to bargain somehow (though admittedly at L2 our odds are probably not that great). If we can find an alternative exit though that's probably a lot better. Either way, I reckon we should grab both the crystal and the sceptre because they appear to be powerful and/or valuable magic items, but no reason that we can't just keep them for ourselves. If the sceptre is powerful enough to free the lich dude and make him strong again, presumably we could just use it ourselves for whatever purpose and cut out the middleman. IC, I would actually expect our characters to have been arrogant and violent enough to have tried to kill the mortals already, though by now it's obvious that they're not up to anywhere near their full strength. Personally, I think killing them is probably as you say premature, both from a metagaming story point of view (as in, there's clearly meant to be more plot to do with them - not that that's ever stopped us in a Fiends game before... 😲) and from the point of view that we can probably still make use of them.

"Ghaxrah ak t'kal!", Nancy exclaims, seeing that the skum seem to be on their last legs. She tries to find a gap in the melee in front of her, then looses a crossbow bolt at the skum furthest away from her allies. Actions Crossbow attack - if I attack the skum at O9, I shouldn't get a penalty for shooting into melee? He will still get +4 from soft cover, though. Then reload. I've lost track of how many bolts I've used honestly, but it's at least two. Statblock [URL=/sheets/?id=2079966][B]Nancy Netherwater[/B][/URL] [B]Senses:[/B] Darkvision 60ft, Perception +6, [B]Init:[/B] +3 [B]HP:[/B] 16/16, [B]Resist:[/B] Cold 5, Elec 5, Fire 5 [B]AC:[/B] 18, [B]Touch:[/B] 13, [B]Flat-footed:[/B] 15, [B]CMD:[/B] 12 [B]Saves:[/B] Fort +0, Ref +3, Will +5 (+2 vs divination/fear) [B]Mythic Power:[/B] 2/5, [B]Spells:[/B] L1: 3/5, [B]Other:[/B] Unearthly Terrain 6/7, War Blessing 2/2 [B]Special:[/B] Spell Resistance 7 [B]Active:[/B] None Senses: Darkvision 60ft, Perception +6, Init: +3 HP: 16/16, Resist: Cold 5, Elec 5, Fire 5 AC: 18, Touch: 13, Flat-footed: 15, CMD: 12 Saves: Fort +0, Ref +3, Will +5 (+2 vs divination/fear) Mythic Power: 2/5, Spells: L1: 3/5, Other: Unearthly Terrain 6/7, War Blessing 2/2 Special: Spell Resistance 7 Active: None

Sorry, Clem needs an update. As for the distance, I assumed far away, or at least far enough that you can't see them (the tunnel isn't twisty probably bends or slopes down enough but, at any rate, it's dark and your light doesn't extend that far). You all stood outside for a while as Jezira and Clem progressed in so even if you're moving faster you've got a round or two's catching up to do I reckon. Also, don't forget the houserules on Tumble checks! The DCs will be higher than 15.

We're talking about the crystal that Carmine already cast Detect Magic on, right? This one? The only gaslighting here is trying to say someone is gaslighting when they're not. Regardless, this seems like a very odd thing to get hung up on. We've gone from "I am finding these arguments between our characters quite draining actually, can we stop?" to you nitpicking every single one of my character's actions. I find it rude, and very frustrating. As I've said, I'm happy to try and dial back the arguments - and thank you for acknowledging that it takes two to do that. Honestly, this happens a lot in PbP games; a little IC banter can escalate, and as players we are invested in our characters and often find it hard to separate ourselves from them. An attack on them often feels like an attack on us. Personally, I'm more than happy for Molgrug to be embarrassed or mocked from time to time where appropriate and have deliberately put him in such situations myself a couple of times - but even so I think I got a bit sucked in there. That's natural, but OK, let's step back a bit. He's admittedly a bit of a contrary character. His whole concept is appearing as this slightly bumbling bureaucrat, so I don't intend for him not to prevaricate and wax lyrical a lot of the time - but he's not meant to stop anyone from doing anything (and for the most part I don't think he has). I don't think it helps that we've had some slightly odd talking at cross-purposes particularly around this dark crystal and things but hopefully we can move on from that. I do want to pick up on this though: In all seriousness, and with all snark set aside, this is not right. Responding IC is not the correct way to do this, and head pats shouldn't strictly have happened in the first place. In order for Molgrug to zap Carmine, you need to agree. In order for Carmine to head pat Molgrug in the first place, really, I need to agree. Head pats themselves are minor enough that I didn't bother over it but I was annoyed and ultimately this is essentially PvP, on which we have a policy: Going forward I think we really should stick to that - that's why I asked before snatching from Brandisher, as mentioned. Like I said, I don't really want to make a big deal about it over head pats, but it absolutely isn't something that should be resolved IC (I was tempted, honestly, to write a post saying that Molgrug zaps Carmine and he cries like a baby or something, but that would just have been needlessly provocative and unhelpful). All I'm asking is if we can just not do this sort of thing again.

OK, now you're just being obtuse. We're in the middle of a dungeon, what am I going to do, pull out my pocket laboratory and start some experiments on a crystal? You literally just complained about not moving forward quickly enough; the crystal can be studied later. This isn't a thing that's worth getting upset about; we were going to pocket that crystal anyway, and Molgrug doing it just makes him look greedy and petty, or at least untrusting. Molgrug (his name is Molgrug by the way, you keep spelling it wrong) did not threaten to zap Carmine, I did. I chose to ignore the head pats thing OoC and just pretend it never happened to avoid OoC drama since I was kind annoyed by it and you didn't seem to realise (plus, the DM has explicitly said no PvP that isn't choreographed; my character is not allowed to zap yours unless we agree it, and by extension yours shouldn't be poking mine). "Contributing to the plot" is really rather subjective. This is a role-playing game, not a shoot-em-up; we're not judging our success based on how rapidly we can run through the tunnels. Nevertheless, I find it a bit ironic for you to be accusing someone else of not contributing to the plot when you all chose to completely ignore our actual plot goal. I would genuinely like not to resolve this somehow. In my last post I've attempted to bridge the gap a bit. I'm not going to replace my character with one with a completely different personality, but I am always happy to try and work things out OoC. At this point though I'm starting to feel like you're just being super-argumentative and unfairly so; you've gone from no indication of any discontent to this whole series of angry and frankly pretty petty attacks. If you want to move forward, please try to start being constructive and maybe a bit more polite. I'll try and be a bit clearer on what Molgrug wants and avoid any big IC arguments; you should avoid those arguments too, then, and quit with the trying to mess with other people's characters without permission, how about that?

- Stone Shape only has a range of touch and affects a pretty small amount of stone. I'd be perfectly happy for you to attempt to ensnare some wolves with it but you'd have to be stood right next to one and right now everyone is still a short ways off where Jezira is fighting them (apologies to you all as there's no meaningful update with you, really, but Jezria is round-by-round now so I can't just advance you all the way in until she's managed to trade a blow or two - the perils of splitting the party!).

"My focus upon retrieving the gem is hardly blind," Molgrug complains. "It is clearly a powerful artefact - the nature of which, admittedly, we do not yet understand, but why else are these mortals so intent upon acquiring it? Seizing it should be a common goal for all of us; my preference is to kill the mortals, because quite frankly I find them annoying, but it may suit our purposes to bargain with them - once we possess the thing that they value. This was, actually, my proposed second-tier objective, though given the ease of realising it one rather considers that it should have been progressed in parallel..." Seeming not to appreciate the irony of him calling anyone else annoying, Molgrug looks at Nizell with disappointment. "For once Carmine makes a valid point," he says, looking almost surprised himself. "This king may once have been a mortal of some power but I am amazed that any once-powerful generals of the Outer Planes would want to go scurrying back to a fellow who can't even move! You lot managed to rip a hole in reality with that portal and send us through to some other universe yet, despite being greatly weakened, yet, we do at least possess some basic functions such as speech and locomotion, and some of you might even be able to manage basic arithmetic. This frozen fellow can't even manage to pick up his own sceptre from a few rooms away! Weakened though we may be, I posit that we can do better on our own than throwing in with either the gelugon-wannabe or the circus of mortal weirdos. Though, we should keep the sceptre." Statblock [URL=/sheets/?id=2794812][B]Molgrug[/B][/URL] [B]Senses:[/B] Darkvision 60ft, Spot/Listen +7, [B]Init:[/B] +2 [B]HP:[/B] 16/16 [B]AC:[/B] 17, [B]Touch:[/B] 12, [B]Flat-footed:[/B] 14 [B]Saves:[/B] Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +6 (+2 vs mind-affecting spells, +4 vs poison) [B]Soulmelds:[/B] Mage's Spectacles (1), Lightning Gauntlets (0) [B]Spells:[/B] Command, Resurgence, Obscuring Mist, Sandblast, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Light, Create Water [B]Special:[/B] None Senses: Darkvision 60ft, Spot/Listen +7, Init: +2 HP: 16/16 AC: 17, Touch: 12, Flat-footed: 14 Saves: Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +6 (+2 vs mind-affecting spells, +4 vs poison) Soulmelds: Mage's Spectacles (1), Lightning Gauntlets (0) Spells: Command, Resurgence, Obscuring Mist, Sandblast, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Light, Create Water Special: None

Well I'm sorry that you are upset, though this is the first I'm hearing of it. If you didn't enjoy the interactions between Carmine and Molgrug I would have hoped you would have said something sooner before suddenly announcing that I've gone way over the top. As for the rest of it: No, but it's not like you've ever actually asked what the plan is. I don't necessarily expect you to, but it's unreasonable to conclude that there isn't one. You all rushed ahead whilst I wasn't done. It's not my fault if you get yourself killed, I'm not your bodyguard. Please also note that I was actually away for a period of this (which I notified everyone about) so didn't have as much chance as I would have liked to have caught up. This is what you're bringing up? I specifically checked this with the other player OoC before doing so (something which, by the way, you did not do when interacting with my character, despite the DM's policy on "PvP" - noting that I'm using that quite broadly, but both the incidents are pretty comparable in that respect) - my character may be petty, but that was a pre-agreed interaction.

Honestly, I was getting a bit annoyed with Carmine's constant digs, but I assumed you were just enjoying the banter all in good faith. If you want him to be less of a jerk then that's more than fine with me; I don't know that anyone's forcing you to exchange insults at all. I'm a bit surprised at the "moving the plot" bit, though, since everyone has repeatedly refused to engage in any kind of discussion of plans with Molgrug. Admittedly, he's (deliberately) a boring and annoying character and I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to sit through one of his seminars, but it's not like I'm wandering around aimlessly (in fact, it kinda feels like I'm the only one not intent on wandering around aimlessly right now...). For example, he suggested that we nab the powerful magic crystal that we saw before (you know, the one that's whole reason we're here in the first place). You're welcome to have your own idea of a way forward but it's hardly fair to suggest that I don't.

Molgrug looks more than a little put out. "Well, yes, I suppose my capacity for original thought must indeed be more limited than I had imagined, since I cannot fathom the confusion of mind that would leave you to conclude anything so moronic," he reflects. "The fact that you imagine that fetching this crystal for these primitives mortals could be the first of our strategic objectives simply proves that you are sorely lacking in "big picture" thinking. Indeed, if you had read my strategy document, you would have been quickly disabused of such junior-grade thinking!" Statblock [URL=/sheets/?id=2794812][B]Molgrug[/B][/URL] [B]Senses:[/B] Darkvision 60ft, Spot/Listen +7, [B]Init:[/B] +2 [B]HP:[/B] 16/16 [B]AC:[/B] 17, [B]Touch:[/B] 12, [B]Flat-footed:[/B] 14 [B]Saves:[/B] Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +6 (+2 vs mind-affecting spells, +4 vs poison) [B]Soulmelds:[/B] Mage's Spectacles (1), Lightning Gauntlets (0) [B]Spells:[/B] Command, Resurgence, Obscuring Mist, Sandblast, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Light, Create Water [B]Special:[/B] None Senses: Darkvision 60ft, Spot/Listen +7, Init: +2 HP: 16/16 AC: 17, Touch: 12, Flat-footed: 14 Saves: Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +6 (+2 vs mind-affecting spells, +4 vs poison) Soulmelds: Mage's Spectacles (1), Lightning Gauntlets (0) Spells: Command, Resurgence, Obscuring Mist, Sandblast, Detect Magic, Read Magic, Light, Create Water Special: None