"I'm telling you, I don't know!" Hyve insists.
"All I know is, every time it drains one of us, it gets stronger. Crove said something about the transfer weakening it. So, it's not indestructible. At least, not yet. But it's not a quick stabby stab to drop it, either. But if someone doesn't stop it, I expect it'll start calling friends when it's done with us, and Heth will have yet another regime change; this time to ... things from the abyss."
[sblock=ooc] 1 request left if you guys want it.
Also, I've a bit of bad news. After some private discussion, perrinmiller has decided to withdraw Tyrien from the game. I don't think the whys need public discussion, but I wish him the best; I've enjoyed watching the young half-elf's bubbly naivite bumping up against the harsh nastiness of Kostry Kopec. I'm currently messaging him to figure out an exit strategy that's viable for him.
That leaves three of you guys in this adventure, and I wanted to start some discussion on party viability and options going forward.
[sblock=Options]
There are two primary categories I wanted to discuss:
1: Party Make Up
While I don't think you guys have been super hard pressed to survive the encounters thus far, I will say things get harder going forward, and Mowgli definitely agreed that the final encounter / set of encounters are likely to be a bear. I'm not sure 3 characters will be able to tackle it on their own. There are no viable replacement characters in the wings that I was able to see perusing the adventures page, however.
So, the options on the 'small party' solution as I see them are
A) Heck with it, three is plenty! Let's go!
B) Heck with it, three's too few. Let's wrap this sad puppy up and move on.
C) We'll gladly give some XP share to an NPC tomorrow for some tagging along today.
In the case of (C), I think Rylidak is probably a story-viable option. As a paladin, she covers more fighting and provides some minor healing (and, possibly more important for this adventure, Mercies). I'd be inclined to 'run' her out of combat, but I'd very, very much prefer if one of you guys would be willing to run her for combat encounters. It's really hard to run a fight when I'm playing both sides.
2: Adventure Length
You're only about at the halfway mark on the adventure as proposed, but with a truncated party, I figured since we might be reconfiguring anyway, I thought I'd offer to do some further editing if that helped nudge folks into finishing things out. I don't think I'm spoiling or surprising anyone to say that as designed, after Hyve you'd be expected to tackle each of the remaining two Keepers leading into The Grand Guignol.
I have an idea that can chop out one of those two tracks if you'd like, moving you to the climax a bit sooner. The biggest downside to this is that your next level is no longer guaranteed (depending on party makeup / TBX), whereas if you face it all, you're for sure all level 7 for the final battle. Mind you, it looks like you all have at least a little unspent DMC, too, which could probably make up for that if you decided you wanted to burn it.
Okay, so we have a little time yet to make decisions, since you haven't even finished talking to Hyve, let alone taken a look down the hall
. So, think on it and we can discuss your preferences.[/sblock][/sblock]