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IBHEA watches as the vendor, as if in slow motion, lifts a finger to point in their direction, the eyes of the Imperial Sentries just lagging the raised appendage. Frantically, he scans the throng of stalls and milling people. His eyes fixate on a large pack drake, eyes closed, resting in the...

This is it, in part. That is to say, Arunny will certainly press upon Ibhea that enough time has been squandered in his obsession with ancient relics and possibly heretical mysteries, time that should be dedicated to an immediate search for her brother, whom she had believed dead before Qamra's...

Tucked momentarily in a dark aisle, IBHEA pulls the cork from the bottle of wine and swigs deeply from the bottle, his adam's apple bobbing like a lure tugged down and up by some frantic fish on a placid lake surface. "My, uh, reputation precedes me in this, Arunny. But in this it makes our ruse...

As the Dragonborn hoplite's arm descends, steel helm promising Xin Mae a world of pain for his class transgression, Ibhea reaches out, grasping the towering dragonman's wrist and halting its descent. "Soldier, I thank you for your aid, but you forget yourself. As we are clergy of Omthala, this...

The genial smile fades from IBHEA's face, replaced by a cold stare. He pulls back the basleq from his head, exposing his short-cropped hair, receding hairline, and the leather phylactery strapped across the top of his brow. "We are no hucksters, no snakeoil salesmen, Scrivener. Behold, the mark...

The renowned scrivener, distinct in the wide-sleeved embroidered red silk robe and matching futou hat of his homeland, far across the Sea of Silt and Sand to the south, grasps desperately at the scrolls of parchment and writing implements as his drawing up short at the near-collision sends them...

Qamra, former slave girl, once and present acolyte of Omthala (modeled very loosely on River Tam of  Firefly). Per @Nephis: Minor quest for Arunny: find her brother Ahaan. Major quest for Arunny: rescue/free her father. Ibhea: Minor Quest: Have copied the hererodox (heretical?) text The...

IBHEA ejaculates, "Qamra, sweet child, you are mistaken! What you say now makes all the sense in the mortal world ... and beyond! A nearly-forgotten holy book of our faith, The Shadowed Sun, contains a long section, the Decateuch, describing ten cosmic vessels who serve as a bulwark against the...

4E D&D. The tiers of play definitely provide a sense of power progression. Themes, Paragon Paths, and Epic Destinies are specifically tailored to character identity. Player-authored Quests, granular build process, and the game's amenability towards player-facing mechanics and GM advice lend...

IBHEA groans as the crowd gathers and the new parents step forward to intervene. Then, fully registering the heckling, he casts his eyes to Arunny, perched close by, on the first step to the Sanctuary of Light. "You are right, the girl does need a healer," he begins. "She is sick unto madness...

I don't have time for a more detailed response, but I'm not disputing the historical role of GM across all games and all time. I'm saying that now, in 2023, in games that I play (including a recent version of D&D), shared/distributed authority is the norm and that the human beings I play with...

IBHEA begins to wilt under the possessing entity's threat, the power of its suggestion. Must he proclaim his devotion to Delban, the Shadowed Sun, dark son to Omthala, here before a gathering crowd, a populace unprepared for these truths unearthed from ancient coffers of the east? If speak he...

Comments like this make it seem like you approach interactions here like some battle to be won rather than attempts at communication, understanding, elucidation, etc.

I'm unclear if your response means that a rules dispute etc automatically leads to the GM wanting to stop running the game? That seems alien to me, and indicative of childish behavior. In the case of the games I play, the statement of the game being the players' implies that it's a shared...

That's pretty clear from your posting history. However, more common to my experience, for example, is the refrain the GM of our current game uses when we have some rules dispute or question about character design and so on: "it's your [ie, the players'] game; whatever you want to do is cool with...

Arunny recoils at the splash and stench of the black sick, then is overwhelmed by a pulsating sensation of purple in the odor, a bizarre aspect of the synesthesia that often accompanies her visions. But this violet sensation has a recent antecedent—her assault and brief possession by the agents...

The slave girl warily steps over the fallen form of the merchant's goon and towards IBHEA. Then when she sees Arunny through the doorway, her form swathed in lily white robes and wimple, steel scales of her armor shining in the lamplight, the girl rushes past him and wraps her arms around...

After Chanvati's moving speech, the Goliaths pledge their fealty and spend the remainder of the day and evening in celebration of their freedom from the depredations against their autonomy by the alien presence and the prospect of facing a hated ancient foe in physical combat. All take their...

Shaken to his senses by the grounding voice of his sahtree, CHANVATI observes sanity return to the world. No lava pours forth from the old woman's orifices. His skin does not writhe with cilia, alive and wriggling their own volition. The strong hands of Pa'avu grasp his shoulders, releasing only...

CHANVATI motions for Pa’avu to step back and let him handle this situation. He picks up the hammer—almost too heavy for him to wield effectively—and selects the smallest, most slender chisel he can find. Father had said he was wasting his time with that semester of sculpture and engraving at...