Insight's "Isle of Dread" Conversion - OOC

I know! I feel awful trying to slow things down when everyone's excited, but it's like the firing gun went off when I was still tying my shoe here. What else can I do?

Shayuri said:

Could I get a pause or a slowdown or...I dunno! The whole game's racing by without me here!

I'm confused on timeline too. Have we all been adventuring together already?

A story for my character is coming, but it's just not as QUICK as you guys! Creatively, I'm spread kind of thin right now. And so far I haven't seen much from the folks who want to connect backgrounds with other than "our folks know each other."

Admittedly, I haven't produced anything for them to work with either.

I'm just dismayed and frustrated to see all these RP moments blitz past before I've even selected a name for my character!

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Yikes, sorry! I jumped into the conversation with Raef with both feet, expecting that folks would be more interested in the information that came from the conversation than the conversation itself. I'll slow it down if that's what you need.

Knowing everybody's characters has been a little puzzling for me. I sort of wrote Nafije into an awkward situation by making her a slave, before I knew that we were all old friends. It seems like most of us have painted ourselves together under the broad stroke of the Swords of Darokin organization. If you want our characters to share a more personal connection, here's what I have for Nafije.

Originally Nafije was born in Ylaruam, a quasi-Arabian nation that neighbors Darokin, Thyatis, and Karakeikos (where we are now). Her folks were horse breeders, and Nafije was a groom before she trained to become an enchanter. She may have done some studying abroad in Selenica, which is in Darokin and near Alfheim, years ago.

Once she left her tutelage, Nafije became a camp follower of a group of Ylari militants called desert riders, where she tended the horses and continued to learn magic from the band's resident wizard. Nafije followed the desert riders to a border skirmish with Thyatis, and when things went badly she was captured and enslaved.

From that time on Nafije was the slave of a nebulous Thyatian mage. Nafije's master has sent her on errands to pursue interests that he deems too dangerous or too trivial to attend to personally. Among those errands were visiting Cassi and Mikel's shop in Darokin for frequent business, and corresponding with the Swords of Darokin. During this time Nafije also resided in Thyatis, where she and Barook commiserated as second-class citizens.

I have Nafije penned as a warm and polite person, but a habitual manipulator. She can be counted on to fulfill her obligations and takes honor in the fact that she does. She follows the Eternal Truth of al-Kalim, a religion native to Ylaruam that holds the warrior Suleiman al-Kalim as prophet of the gods who guard Mystara. She loves animals and language.

Here are a couple of ideas:

• If your character visited Selenica years ago, she may have been around when Nafije took an interest in the Elven language as a young student. Maybe Shay instructed Nafije, or helped her to remain fluent, as a native speaker. I'm imagining a slow process of frequent conversations where Nafije came to master the nuances of Elven.
• Despite the default flavor for 4E familiars, I like to think of Nafije's macaw Goldie as an enchanted pet. Originally I thought Goldie might have been a gift from Nafije's master, but it would be a lot more relevant if Goldie was a gift from another PC.

Shayuri said:

First of all, thank you Renau...my angst recedes.

Your notions have created notions of my own. Let us see where this leads.

Let us say we share the same mother, an elfmaid of Alfheim. Astrad, my character, is her firstborn, with another elf, a good 85-90 years ago. They were together for a time, then grew apart as elves often do. Our mother then became curious about the outside world and went into the lands of humans. That's where your father comes into the picture.

In my head, their affair was a brief, intense thing, and she left to retun to Alfheim shortly afterwards. She gave birth to her half-elf child...and a very difficult and painful birth it was.

Although my character 'big sissed' you and helped take care of you, we went separate paths as we grew. Astrad was more physically oriented, preferring to 'study' nature by experiencing it directly. Keharn was more thoughtful and philosophical, and studied with druids and shamen. Parallel courses through life; separate but equal.

Now as for what brought them out of Alfheim...what do you think about wanting to meet your father? And Astrad could use the notion of trying out for Elvenguard as an excuse to go with.

Not sure where our elf-raised human fits into this...but there's room for fitting him in if he's interested.

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That works for me. I like it. Perhaps there could even be a bit of rivalry as each of us sees our chosen "study" method as the "better" one? Nothing major of course, just a bit of a different philosophy

Shayuri said:

I know! I feel awful trying to slow things down when everyone's excited, but it's like the firing gun went off when I was still tying my shoe here. What else can I do?

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Also, keep in mind that I'm not requiring your backgrounds to be solidified before you can start contributing to the game. Just get the basics done, your mechanics, name, and so forth.

You guys will have plenty of time to flesh out your common backstory.

I'm gonna try like everything to get Questor the Halfling Sorcerer conjured, made-up and posted tomorrow sometime.

Oh yeah, and he'l likely be the third addition to your list of hp-challenged pcs, renau1g.

Artificers are one of the best leaders for a group with a few low surge members and a few high surge members as the healing from his infusions is recharged after a fight by someone "donating" surges.

So if Questor is hurt, and Cassi uses her healing power it doesn't cost you a surge. Someone after the fight has to donate to have that healing for the next fight. Over in LEB, Thalen has 13 surges and Roswyn (our resident Wizard) was sitting on 7 max. It is very helpful.

Plus, as I mentioned, my Daily Utility power basically will give a low hp member of the party two free surges as it heals a surge+10 on use.

As of this writing, Rhun and Leif are the only ones left who have not posted completed character mechanics to the RG thread.

Insight said:

As of this writing, Rhun and Leif are the only ones left who have not posted completed character mechanics to the RG thread.

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And I probably won't have it done before tomorrow night at the earliest. It is my birthday today, and I've got a busy day/night planned.

Rhun said:

And I probably won't have it done before tomorrow night at the earliest. It is my birthday today, and I've got a busy day/night planned.

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Happy Birthday!

I aged about a week ago.

Rhun said:

And I probably won't have it done before tomorrow night at the earliest. It is my birthday today, and I've got a busy day/night planned.

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Happy Birthday, Matt!

Insight said:

Happy Birthday!
I aged about a week ago.

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Happy Birthday to you, too! (Assuming that's what you meant by your statement.)

Insight said:

As of this writing, Rhun and Leif are the only ones left who have not posted completed character mechanics to the RG thread.

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Working on Questor now. Getting him created will be easy, and then it's just a matter of advancing him to the proper level.