TheFred

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.

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?

On 2/8/2024 at 9:19 PM, TheFred said:

Molgrug will shift his essentia back to his Mage's Spectacles, then roll whatever might give him a hint.

On 2/9/2024 at 3:37 AM, Michael said:

Molgrug thinks it might well be one of these Eberron or Khyber or Sybaris shards that their hosts mentioned, though given its colour it's unlikely to be the special dark shard you were sent here for.

This one, it would appear, empowers magical constructs.

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:

2 hours ago, Roughtrade said:

You got head pats.

By not protesting In Character, it happened.

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:

Quote

The players involved should ENTIRELY agree beforehand, and also agree to a quick choreograph of what happens. Do it in PM or private thread.

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?

@evedgebah - 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."

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:

10 hours ago, Roughtrade said:

Making long posts saying you have a plan is not the same as having a plan.

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.

10 hours ago, Roughtrade said:

Making long posts saying you have a plan is not the same as having a plan.

Purposefully dragging your heels when PCs are in combat and nearly dying, to the point where the GM comments on it in his posts while you fiddle with not doing anything with the stone anyways until combat was completed is not contributing to the success of our group.

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.

10 hours ago, Roughtrade said:

Petty grabbing things out of players hands which might be clues or part of something which could assist us is not contributing to the success of our group.

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.

1 hour ago, Roughtrade said:

Seriously, @fred I am just tired. Constantly having to exchange insults and dealing with Molly is sucking all of the fun out of the game for me. Could you please find some way to cooperate and actually help with moving the plot forward instead of whatever it is you are doing? I know this is a 'fiend' game, but evil doesn't mean being an asshat all of the time.

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!"

9 hours ago, Michael said:

somone's gonna have to do something actionable!

Let's bank that. I don't want us to paint ourselves into a corner by getting too down in the weeds right now.

Therapy? I know someone who can help with that!

As I recall, Jezira tumbled back to in front of both the wolves before, so they'll be kind of next to each other on the other side. The mines are low and cramped and the wolves Large but I figured we could probably just about fit two next to each other (even if I'm maybe bending the rules on their space slightly) - this is the main tunnel, after all, it's probably wider. That does mean that it'd be hard to get past them, if that's what you wanted to do - you'd have to Tumble through one of their spaces.

Aeos, Psychosurgeon
DUR: 0/30, LUC: 0/30, Wounds: 0, Traumas: 0
Pools: Insight 4/4, Moxie 6/6, Vigour 1/1, Flex 2/2

Aeos nod and allow themselves to be connected to the portable server.

Does my Kinesics give me any hint as to what the (not-so-good) Doctor is thinking or up to?

Bianca Pohlo

Bianca looks at Neskas awkwardly, wanting to console him but not really sure how. At least Snappy seems not to be injured so badly that he can't be healed, which is a big relief.

I've got my copy of BG/Tales of the Sword Coast sat here in my spare room, and I'm thinking at some point I'll plug in the external CD drive and install it. I might try Trilogy, but I also want to give GemRB another whirl as it looks like it's come on a long way since last time I checked it out.

Confusingly, whilst invisibility confers total concealment, total concealment is not invisibility and I don't think Shadow Blend counts. Essentially I'd assume it lets you hide "in plain sight" almost... at any rate, I'd only be applying a penalty for attacking or similar, which I do think ought to be harder than just sneaking about sneakily.

It probably doesn't matter here anyway, because Malar has +whatever-I-want to Spot. And probably, like, True Seeing++ too. 🙂

Molgrug sighs.

"I appreciate that one so used to the straightforward might conflate two very different occurrences due to a superficial similarity, but please do not mistake my longer-term strategic planning approach for "cowering", simply because I was wise enough not to rush head-first into a new and unexplored part of this complex with little plan for the actual accomplishment of our objectives." He exclaims.

He eyes each of the other fiends in turn.

"Now, you may all be content to roam aimlessly around this place with no thought to our "raison d'etre" on this plane, our unique selling point, as it were, but I rather think we should take this opportunity to pause and consider our immediate and longer-term deliverables! We now find ourselves with three separate requirements which must be prioritise accordingly and allocated he suitable requisite resources - therefore, whilst you have been fooling around with these corpses, I have been drawing up a short strategy and corresponding implementation plan which, if you an all settle down for a moment, I shall now share with you."

I had hoped to catch back up last weekend (or even the week before) but, best laid plans and all that, it turned out to be a pretty busy one, slightly unexpectedly. The next post is up now though, sorry for the delay.

For Clem's bit - correct me if I'm wrong, but Shadow Blend allows her to make Hide checks pretty much any time, which is very powerful, but she does still need to make a Hide check and probably at a penalty after taking an offensive action - the rules don't actually explicitly call out things like powers but moving (slowly) is at -5 and attacking at -20. I'm willing to grant that powers are stealthier than spells as you don't need any verbal or somatic components mind you.

Those outside the mines hurry in. The mines stretch onwards, deeper into the darkness, with many side passages looming link inky pools, not quite illuminated by Kassandra's light. The main passage runs straight ahead, sloping gently downwards. As you rush closer, you hear the sounds of fighting!

It's interesting because, you are right, there's a whole trope around ancient artifacts and relics of the past that's common in the fantasy genre. It's possibly derived from all the mythological stuff we see in the real world which kind of gives rise to the idea that perhaps there did used to be magic in medieval times or Ancient Egypt or whatever and it's just been forgotten. It's also I think reinforced by the trope of older things just being more powerful, perhaps because they've had longer to grow over time.

However, it strikes me that it's not really that realistic. In our world, technology has definitely taken a bit of a circuitous route now and then but mostly trends upwards. Perhaps the construction of the pyramids was ahead of its time and later civilisations didn't quite have that capability. Certainly post-Roman Britain felt like a bit of a step back; even if "the Dark Ages" is a slightly unfair term, they did lack things like Roman construction. However, we don't live in a world where there are loads of lost and forgotten secrets that we no longer have understanding of; history is patchy, but for the most part it's not like we can't do anything that our ancestors could do.

A post-apocalyptic setting is probably the one where this makes the most sense. If all of civilisation got destroyed it's quite likely that a lot would be lost; people would be forced to focus on their immediate survival rather than the preservation of knowledge. This is actually not that uncommon in fantasy settings; the "ancients" kinda ruined their own civilisation or blew themselves up with their hubris, and the civilisations that have followed after just don't have the kind of power that they had.

Note that dodging this trope doesn't mean that your world has to be technologically early - that's kind of my point. A more modern-feeling world might just have surpassed all the civilisations of its past in terms of technology (which could be magic, too, of course). Perhaps all the ancient relics people find are just trinkets by modern-day standards and only really fit for museums?

Sorry for the radio silence, I'd planned to get everything caught up last weekend but I unexpected had rather a lot on.

Buzz takes a tumble so I cancelled his Magic Missile, though I suppose technically he could cast it whilst face-down in the dirt. I noted a +4 to his AC for being prone but actually assuming he doesn't cast MM and stands back up, he doesn't get that - but it doesn't matter, the bandit has a large range penalty and Buzz's touch AC is OK (note: thanks for including AC in your posts, but with guns all over the place, touch AC is more useful!).

Guns crack, and another of the bandits falls to the floor. The firefight isn't over yet, though, as two more come running in from the north, looking around in confusion for the source of the attack.

"They're up there, you idiots!" Their leader yells. "Up on the ridge, in the trees!"

As the newcomers take cover, Buzz decides to leave it, lowering himself down the ridge in an attempt to reach Jen. Unfortunately, cliffs aren't his thing; his foot slips and he tumbles to the ground, the wind knocked out of him.

Buzz takes 6 nonlethal damage and is knocked prone (but I assume he uses his remaining action to stand back up? Technically he could still cast Magic Missile from a prone position I suppose)

The bandit leader takes the opportunity to shoot at the daring but unfortunate gunslinger... luckily for Buzz, tumbling into the bushes makes him a hard target to hit, and the bullets bury themselves in the ridge nearby.

There have been a few things like this before. I think there was once a thread where people could say what they were interested in playing/running in the hopes of organising a swap. I've also been involved in an AP swap where a load of us each ran games for the rest but only two(?) of those are still running.

I've done a few solo swaps myself... none of them have ever really worked out, for various reasons, but I still kinda like the idea, certainly for certain types of games.