Those coming from the tavern thread to play the adventure please post a link to your character sheet and if you're an spellcaster, a list of prepared spells. I've disabled signatures, so post the link even if you have it in your sig. Read then the rest of this post to be sure to know the rules we’ll follow in this adventure; it they seem to be discouraginly verbose, that's just because I know that comunication through the net can be difficult and want them to be clear.
Posting rate
At least 4 posts per week. It’ll frequently be more, but that’s the minimum you should expect from me and what I expect from you.
Idle players and number of players in the adventure:
I’ve NPCed player characters in the past and I prefer not to do it again, so characters whose player abandon the adventure will return to he tavern at the first chance they get, and that means as soon they can do it without drawing attacks of opportunity. Idle characters whose player can’t access the boards for whatever reason but are expected to come back will be played by another player.
Also, I’ll stop the adventure if the number of active characters drops to 2; if we can’t get any reinforcement from the Tavern in a reasonable time, I’ll conclude the adventure at that spot.
Posting guidelines
Those will be the usual. Make sure your actions, thoughts and speech can be easily identified; that usually means that speech goes within quotes and optionally colored; thoughts in italics and action as normal texts. Please use sblocks sparsely, and only to hide large blocks of text. Otherwise out of character comments should go unsblocked and preceded by some label, like “ooc:” or “out of character”. Also don’t hesitate to include as many ooc comments as you think are necessary and then some, if you remotely think your actions may be unclear to me.
It’ll be also a good idea to use the post title to display your character’s name, race and class. This helps the other players identify your character.
My combat posts will follow the following format: the first part will be a in character, fluffy description of the current round. This description won’t follow the rules: initiatives can change, single attacks can be described as a flurry of slashes, and in general, whatever I can think to make it more flashy or dramatic, so don’t rely on this part for actual rules.
The second part will include the crunch, with details of distances moved, damage dealt, and a status of hit points and conditions; this style is what most threads use, so ignore the first part if you find it confusing. Have in mind that to save time I won’t be using an online die roller, so I won’t post the links to the actual roll that killed your PC.
You don’t have to post your combat actions in the way described above; you do it the same way you do with your normal posts.
During combat, I may change your PC’s actions in minor ways if it’s advantageous or irrelevant for him and it’s very likely what your character would do anyway, for the sake of pace. For example, if your spellcaster would draw an attack of opportunity from an enemy, I will make him do a 5 foot step instead of stopping the game and ask if you want to change your actions; if a cleric posts that he heals the barbarian but the barbarian’s player later posts that he charges (out of the cleric’s reach) I may make the barbarian character delay a bit if delaying doesn’t have any drawback; if an enemy is killed before you can act your character may attack a similar enemy instead, etc. In the same vein, if combats are but finished and only a bit of cleanup is left (like when you are fighting a paralysed enemy, or you’ve killed al but 2 goblins), I may gloss over it and skip the last rounds.
Rolling
You’re welcome to make your own rolls, using invisible castle or other online roller. The exceptions are perception skills, Sense motive, etc, where the very fact of rolling gives some information, and those that explicitly call for a secret roll in the rules, like Decipher Script; nothing however forbids you from asking for a roll is you think there’s something to discover.
Style and substance
This is subject to your opinion and the judge’s ruling, so if you agree or don’t post so. I intend to play loose with rules for actions as long they are cool, entertaining and/or show ingenuity, specially if the actual, mechanical benefits are low. For example, if you catch your enemies flatfooted and they are outside of the house you’re currently hiding in you could jump through the window or walk through the door. Since they are already flatfooted the sensible, and boring, thing is to walk through the door. In this case, if you jump through the window I’ll assign an artificially low DC for the maneuver.
Suppose also that a friend, wounded and with low hit points, is adjacent to a monster with reach. If he moves away he’ll be subject to an AoO and probably die, while if he stays the monster will attack him anyway. A character may try to throw a flask of alchemist fire to draw the monster’s attention, giving his friend time to flee. In this case I’d make a one time ad-hoc rule, possibly involving an attack roll. The distracting flask of fire isn’t guaranteed to work again though!
And that's all. Once everyone is on board, the in character posts will start to flow!
Last edited by Someone; 13th July 2007 at 03:15 PM..
*Siobhan follows after, interested in hearing more.*
'What are the spirits whispering? Something important is happening...'
__________________ "That's so far over the line between genius and madness, it passed all the way through Cthulhuville and normalcy and all the way back to brilliance!"--MoogleEmpMog
__________________ "That's so far over the line between genius and madness, it passed all the way through Cthulhuville and normalcy and all the way back to brilliance!"--MoogleEmpMog
Niccolo hunts through his pack for a bit before following the others out. When he emerges, he has a neat strip of black cloth tied around his arm and the jaunty feather in his cap has been tucked away. "Much more appropriate funeral attire," he says.
As Orerreth said, or maybe not, the chapel of rest is located way up from the tavern, in one of the upper spires. It’ll take a while to arrive there, but you have nothing else to do, and frankly, the fresh air feels good after the time you’ve spent in the tavern. The breeze blows away the ethylic vapours clouding your brain almost immediately, readying you for the long climb ahead. Orerreth is the last one coming out of the Tavern, and guides you with a gesture of his hand.
Spiral staircases follow ramps and lead to elaborate boxes of forged iron that climb their way up on threads of light, like insects on the backs of an army or stoical colossi. The sheer altitude weight on you as the distant trees out of the city’s boundaries become stains of pale trees, the ships arriving at the port specks of white dust or fireflies of clear light, and the emptiness under your feet become in your subconscious a hungry and insatiable monster screaming your name. And you still climb.
It takes a while to arrive at a clear platform where a group of people wait, sitting under a roof of living climbing plants that protect groups of three carved, wooden benches. The celestial way*, the riches part of the city, built on foundations of air and magic, is clearly visible.
”A transport should arrive soon” says Orerreth, who looks more relaxed that when he was in the tavern. ”By the way, I hope you don’t mind if we make a stop at the Orien post office. There’s a message I’m waiting for and now I remember it may be there already”
Siobhan: You feel that the message he’s talking about isn’t as unimportant as he tries to make. In fact it may be the true reason of why he’s here, but you can’t make what a message has to do with a whole bunch or random adventurers.
*ooc: This is a translation back to english from my copy of the Eberron CS, which may or not be correct. Tell me if I'm wrong.
Raven's eyes keep moving as they walk. She hasn't been to this part of Sharn before and finds it quite interesting. She shakes her head at the idea of stopping at a post office, but makes no further comment.
After a short while your transport to the celestial way arrives. It’s something like a long, decorated rowboat of outlandish design, with carved wooden fins sprouting from the sides and bottom. Orerreth pays the trip and you board the small ship along the other passengers.
The ship leaves the platform and swims among the top of the spires lime many other public and private flying artefacts of all forms and sizes, ferrying passengers up and down, to finally arrive at another platform very similar to the one you left short ago.
”There it is, the Orien post office. The chapel of rest is over there” he points at a place perhaps one hundred yards away, maybe a little more since you have to arrive there through a series of stairs and footbridges. ”It’ll be but a moment.”
The post office is small but several partitions line the walls, so anyone wanting privacy can stand there and privately read a message. Real lamps (not magical ones) provide light, maybe, you reason, in case anyone would want to burn a paper or piece of parchment. Beyond a desk, a gnome attends the clients.
Orerreth doesn’t have the opportunity to speak with him, however. A man wearing the last fashion in Sharn, a bright contrast of read and dull yellow and visibly shows house Cannith crest comes out of one of the partitions and smiles. Orerreth stops dead in his tracks, narrows his eyes and whispers: ”Ceshil”
”Nice to see you again, you treacherous scum.”
Last edited by Someone; 30th March 2007 at 10:04 PM..
'House Cannith...I wonder if this Ceshil is up to some sort of trick like Elaydren...' Siobhan says nothing, merely observing with her keen senses, including her sixth sense, looking for a clue as to the significance.
Niccolo looks back and forth between the two men. "An acquaintance of yours?" he asks. "Someone also come to pay his respects, perhaps?"
”You like to keeps your minions in the dark, don’t you?” says Ceshil. ”You had to be more generous with your money: they won’t be enough. So retrieve the message from the gnome, give me it, and there won’t be any problem.” The man with the Cannith badge nods at some point outside the post office’s door. Outside, you can see how several armed men shift and take position*.
*ooc: They seem to wear light armor and carry swords. A common sight in Sharn, and they weren’t as obvious before as they are now, so you didn’t mind them.
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